then begin again.
90 minutes thru the
dark stillness, wind
leaving with the sunlight.
rolling silent a handlebar's
width off the starlit sheen
of the country road double
yellow. wrapped in vintage
PearlZoomie lacryl and
NF nylon cacoon, LEDs
and reflective bits keeping
the wolves at bay.
sweat and dark shadow
mystery regulates the
pace for now. keeping it
simple.
18,877 in the bank.
267,144 to go.
hmmm, so here we are again, bottom of the curve.
Turkey Wknd = four splendid days of riding, even out on the road bike for a few hours in the mid-hi 30's on Saturday. Somewhere in this grey hazy spell between late October and the gift giving time, the next season begins. Judging from the dizzy efforts and aborted summertime length routes, I'm gonna say that all of last year's fitness has finally faded, leaving behind the blissful memories and a hunger for more. Calibrated the cool weather roadie kit, the new booties are tits, now just need to sac up, grit the teeth and start turning post work pedals again.
Motivation is the hurdle, what's the mind game to get out the door? Out into that raw darkness with just blinky LEDs for protection..... Right now, it's to simply get ready for ski season, get these old knees ready for a few months of tele rippin'. A few weeks of prep work for what will hopefully be a solid couple months of weeknights spent at the gym and wknds chasing freshy fresh love driftlines around WhiteGrass. Bookend those sessions with a complimentary ride or two and that's the programme thru February.
good times ahead.
ya know, I have a lot of big ideas bouncing around the neurocircuits right now, it's that time of year. dream big, then be realistic come January. today was to be a 5-6hr phatty from the von Gettier estate. we rode very little filler and verified the best direction of flow on the camp trails. got spanked while taking Abby from behind and limped into Jake's backyard with a splendidly chilling shutdown 5 minutes out.
when you know that you're home, when you come down off the edge and think towards recovery, and then suddenly you're chilled, the furnace is shutting down and the bonk monster just tapped you on the shoulder.
lots of idle time lately, kicking a cold to the curb with the help of Messrs Jameson & NyQuilD. Tonight the Arrogant Bastard escorts me into the holidaze season. Haven't ridden shit in over a week, not since superfun groovey ride from the Gutpile week ago last Sunday. Only been out for a quick hour hike up Dead Woman's proper, in Sunday's cold ass rain/snow mix. Busting thru head high laurel & rhodo got old kinda quick, scouting mission aborted.
so many ideas bouncing around. what's next? what's next? First, survive the ski season without tearing up a knee while taking it to the next plateau at the same time....hopefully we'll find some decent turns before mid January this time 'round. And then it'll be spring, time for the Classiques. I saw that Easter is early this year, March-ish, I like early-mid April-ish better for a Meeshoslow Classique, probably do it on a Friday again. And I wanna pop my cherry on the S-D-S uber-Classique for sure, no excuses this year. And there's Harri-Roubaix and some solo efforts and it'll all get tested at the spring Michaux while building for il Giro survival. Possible 100 attempt in that time frame, then it's vacation time at le Tour, been thinking about coasting this year. Then another local 50, then the 101, then maybe the Wild or be a Fool in GA before the Shen100 and finish with a possible trip to Tahoe.
Off the radar, not counting you, my 420 unique visitors, will be a back to back Michaux mission. From Old Forge to Carlisle & back, March-ish. Then, maybe blow off the NUE 'goal' that's infecting my mind, and attempt a Meeshowslow 100 in early-mid June, leave enough recovery buffer for le Tour. I have a route in mind, need more re-con (see 2-day above) to be dialed and wrap the mind around the undertaking. Last year we went from Mt Holly to Caledonia and back, it was 65 miles in 11:05 elapsed. To extend that means some combo of the blue blaze out to a loop thru the Narrows down to Old Forge and back to the blue to hook back into the Classique loop, that'll add about 4-5hours to the watch.....try it with a goal of 14hrs? Start an hour of so before sunrise, it'll have to be a very tight group, lots of intersections to navigate. Time for some GoogleEarth....
Oh, happy Turkey Day everybody! Give thanks, think about how lucky we all really are and I hope ya'll get some saddle time, I'm itchin to pedal after this germ induced spell of 'rest & recovery.'
peace.
WG opened for the season and it looks like VT got some fresh love over the wknd, wonder if it was anything like this?
more pics of old pics:
