I’m back, taking a break from the mind numbing business of grading. It’s spring here, for the moment. The families in jeans were out riding on the bike path this afternoon, our area’s prodigious yard sales resurfacing for the first time this year.

I had a damn good ride. It certainly confirmed the advice that this is not a ride for a big group. There just isn’t a good way right now to go from Red Tank to the various dirt roads. I spent 15 minutes messing around on cow trails before deciding to not risk the bush bashing epic from seven weeks ago. I turned around and “rode” the Cedar Springs trail to Trail 38. Most of this section, and a good bit of 38 after the juncture, is too rocky, too steep, too overgrown, too sandy or a combination to ride. I made it to Red Tank in a solid hour, and thought I was a shoe-in for a sub-3 ride when that shit happened. I theoretically knew better, but I just blew through it last month while running. A damn bike slows you down a lot. Looking at topos there may be a better way to the west; a project for who knows when.

The good in today was that I was cranking. Going up Eric’s moto trail (nice find E!, works very well) I lost a little snap towards the top when things got steep and loose, all of which was likely caused by not eating soon enough. Excepting those 15 minutes and the aforementioned hike-a-bike, I was a machine. Those two were the only sections I didn’t clean without too much effort, the initial dirt road climb after the gate just flew. My hope with intelligent nutrition and slight route modification is sub-3 hours from Williamson Valley.

The numbers today: 3300′ up, 3100′ down, 3:23. (Time adjusted for the ~5 minutes I forgot to set my log, and the ~15 I spent wandering on cow trails.)

This week the month starts in earnest: M leaves Tuesday night on the car fetching epic, and I begin to keep a lid on work so that the next three weekends won’t re-bury me.

Yeah, I’m psyched.

Fyodor sez “I see pain in your future!”