Warm and Windy...

Man, what a great weekend. 85 miles on Saturday. Rode to the Fed Center race yesterday. It hit 64 degrees, with a mighty wind and some hot beating sun. I put in a mountain bike ride this week that was nuts. It was supposed to be in the 50's. So I calculated in the mountain effect and dropped it 10 degrees. Then, when I added in that none of my clothes were clean with the exception of a long sleeve skinsuit, I figured I was golden. Grabbed an undershirt and I was off. I knew I was flirting with daylight from the start. I had about an hour and a half to ride. The weather was still moderately warm. The trail conditions were minimally icy from the spots the sun don't shine. The first 30 minutes were uneventful. Hard -rip you cold legs off- short jeep road climb, some fantastic techincal decending, rocks, the whole nine yards. I get on the back side and it starts to look like snow. It's still in the 40's, I am confortable, and I climb. And climb. And the snow begins. It was spotty, so I wouldn'd call it white out conditions, but it was snowing hard. The climb started to get a bit remote and the wildlife around me increased. At one point, I was approaching a herd (I swear it was atleast 30) of mule dear. As I climbed the rocky, switchback-ridden trail to them, they showed no fear. Perhaps it was my cunning tailless-sloth swiftness as I climbed up the technical terrain which by this time had a nice layer of mud building up in the dust from the snow...

In other news, every cyclist in the world needs an iPod Shuffle. It's small. It's perfect. And I officially think that Apple has most of the population convinced that they in fact NEED an iPod simple for their own survival. What a brilliant company. Back to the Shuffle. It's cool. I highly recommend it. Just don't lose it. It's that small.

In even better news, next weekend is calling for almost-70 degree temperatures. Time for some big miles, as I'll be refreshed coming off my recovery week!

Cheers!