The regular Tuesday AM rides didn't go off as planned due to the cold rain, so we tried to reschedule 'em to today. Then the opportunity to do hill repeats at 6AM presented itself. Hey, no need to ask twice. Up early and saw this on the tube :

36 degrees with 20-30 mph winds - yeaaaa baby bring it on.

I should be more careful what I ask for...........




Bundled up and headed out at 5:45 for the "hill". Va. Bch. is actually flatter than a pancake, so we are forced to journey out to a "secret" hill and repeatedly thrash ourselves on it's colossal 80 feet of elevation change. The hill is hidden in the back of one of our many military bases so you have to bring an ID and get through the security checkpoint.

I was looking up at some of the high dunes on the way in thinking there should be some good MTB trails back there.

There could be..............but it might not be too good of an idea to try and find 'em ---->

K-Dog thought it better to stay in the cozy warmth of his bed, so it was just Fast Lisa and I. 45 minutes of leg numbing up-downs, then a big loop of the base and it was down to see who'd show up for the rescheduled 7:15er. I was late so it was a 30mph sprint with a nice tail wind to get there. What little my legs had left was used up on the way, so I was hoping for a group of 20 or 30 to ride with. HAH! Then I could just tuck in and hide on the return trip back into the wind. The only stalwart was Art the Dart.

Good thing I brought a bungee cord, 'cause I had to strap it to his seatpost for a tow around the the whole loop. It even broke once or twice, and he was kind enough to slow so I could reattach. Over to the shop by 8AM, no one there. Beat back into the wind to get home by 9AM. 3 hours in the saddle, only one bottle of plain water. First time I'd felt the bonk delerium in a while.

Was having trouble clipping in so I summoned up my vast years of cycling experience, intuition and mechanical expertise to find the problem.

Also had some chain skipping while climbing out of the saddle. Looks like I'll need a new chain before the race on Sunday.







I got this sweet ASSOS jacket almost 2 years ago on sale at the end of winter for 50% off. Problem is, it just never gets cold enough around here to ride in it. I went out today with a long sleeve base layer, a tshirt, a thick winter jersey, a light windblock layer (dam - sounds like too much already, WTF was I thinking?) then the ASSOS on top. Don't know what model it is as it's been discontinued. When I got home every layer (even the outermost one) was soaked through with sweat. Gotta learn how to dress better.

RideOn

JB