Ridin' w/ the boyz...

I've chased away the crickets from the blog & dusted off the cobwebs. Trying not to be a slacker on the blog thing but I sit at a computer all day typing...so the last thing I want to do is sit at a computer at home & do more typing. Yeesh!

Anywho...rode w/ the boyz on Sunday. We were planning a Cove ride but after all of the rain we figured that would be a muddy mess, not to mention the stream crossings being up.

Donnie met hubbie & I at the house. We single speeded it through some streets and alleys over to Wasena where we met up with Ron on his cross bike. Headed down the greenway towards the hospital. I was managing to keep a pretty good pace w/ the boys but was getting really tired quickly. I sat up and adjusted my pace to where I could breathe. We crossed over through River's Edge park, through the tunnel, out the other side and took more streets & alleys to Ferncliff Park. Rode up that trail, then up to Fishburn Parkway to hit Woodthrush on the other side. Woodthrush had a little mud on it but not much. The boys were riding very fast today. It felt like "race pace" to me, but then again, everything always feels like race pace when you can't breathe (asthma sucks sometimes) Donnie was such a good sport & kept slowing down for me. I told him to go on, I was quite used to riding along. As we continued, we passed quite a few hikers. When we got to the gradual, loose rock hill, then the steeper grunt, I noticed Donnie was hiking. I thought to myself...if I can do it, surely he can. As we crested the hill & got to the next downhill, we paused...Donnie's chain was very loose and every time he torqued on it, he was worried it would come off. We took some time to fix it..got passed by a hiker who we had just passed us After we got it fixed, we debated for a minute on our route. We decided to continue down to the Star trail and back up to FB Pkwy

Rode down FB Pkwy, took a left on Sylvan. As we turned, we noticed another mtbkr coming up the road. I told the boys the jersey looked like my fellow chicky rider, Jen, but I wasn't sure. We waited and sure enough it was Jen!...we rode up the road a bit until Monument Trail. I mentioned how the boyz were kicking my butt today. She had a ride planned in her head & was jamming to some tunes so we split off at Monument. Continued up the trail..had to walk one of the short grunts b/c I was getting tired. Let a couple more hikers by the fun zoomy part before you jump the sidewalk. Caught back up to the boys. We proceeded on to Car trail..then climbed back up the old road to do the zoo poo trail. then back down Car trail again, to another side trail which dumped us out at Ferncliff park.

We zoomed back through the neighborhood streets, back through River's Edge Park, through Wasena. When we got to Wasena, we took a different route because we wanted to head to Fishburn Park to see a new bridge being constructed. On the way we took 2 steep alleyways and the steep road which runs past Wasena E.S. Leave it to Ron to find the steepest climbs towards the end of the ride!...Oh well, that's what makes you a stronger rider.

Made it over to Fishburn...the bridge is really ugly. It connects the greenway coming from Patrick Henry HS, crossing Brambleton to Fishburn Park. They could have kept the area natural by cutting in a side trail and looping it around this ditch. It's an eyesore.

Not sure how many miles all that was because I left my Garmin at home. Doh!!!
Good ride...I"ve done more climbing this season than I did all of last year.

1st race is this weekend...Danville......At least it's not in August so the chances will be slim of high temps. Phew...tired of typing....

Moooving

Have been slacker again in the blog dept. We've been a little busy. We just completed moving into our new (old) home. Spent all of last week packing boxes, lifting heavy stuff, loading vehicles, driving to the new home, unloading, unpacking, moving the same box 50 different times. Phew.. It didnt' leave a lot of room to ride.
On Sunday, Chicky Jen and I met up for a nice spin at the Cove. Weather was rather chilly in the low 50's which really isn't all that cold but when we had 80 degree temps just a few days prior, it felt pretty darn cool. We stuck to the lower trails & did our "usual" loop.. Rode the road to the gate, onto the Fireroad, up Songbird, up Arrowhead, across to Little Bell, on to Schoolhouse, Enchanted Forest re-route & road back to the parking lot. Water was up in a lot of places. It was good to see water flowing in the creeks again. Made for a really nice, soothing ride. We stopped to take lots of pics along the way since it seems like forever since there has been water running.. We attempted some of the creek crossings but played it safe on most since the weather was a bit cooler. Had it been 70 degrees, I'm sure we would have blasted through those which we walked.
No real mishaps....although I was pretty kicked through the ride. I guess that's from all of the work I had been doing this week through the move.

It will probably take months to get situated in the new house but at least the kitchen is functional, we have a place to sleep, we have a washer/dryer so I can catch up on laundry and most of the clothes are organized and easy to find. We'll probably work room by room in between training, working, doing trail work, etc. etc.

Off to ride tomorrow at the Cove