Chi-Town Cross Ride (2)

Thanksgiving Break was pretty sweet. Spent the week in Chi-Town and watched entirely too much football. My friend showed me this sweet cross trail that runs all the way up to the border of Wisconsin. Did a sweet ride with a pretty big group on Turkey Day. About a quarter of the way out it started snowing pretty hard which just up'd the sweetest level. It was pretty fuckin sweet to get off the road and onto a sweet trail. Nice way to get the hours in without poundin the road.
Decided to go out again on Saturday. By this time it had warmed up considerably which means the snow melted and the trail was uber sloppy and thus uber sweet. Decided to do a longer ride and up the pace a little bit. This probably wasn't the best idea since the intensity level is still pretty low in my program right now but whatever. When the conditions are as sweet as they were the trail was begging for me to get into it. The bike and myself got pretty dirty...although not as dirty as this guy...
....sorry for the obligatory picture. That is Lars Boom btw, hes a badass mothafucka.
I am thinking about trying my hand at some Cross racing here pretty soon. Would be a good test of fitness and would be fun. Updates on that decision coming soon.

Chi-Town Cross Ride

Well, your drivetrain looks like you could eat off of it!"

-more details later

LOST

LOST


Getting lost is great, especially when it is with friends and teammates on a bike. It was supposed to be a chill 2 hr. ride. Well when you act like you know where you are to save face when you actually have no fucking clue then 9 times out of 10 you will get lost. We headed west and ended up looping and running into the same roads. The ride ended up being 3 hrs. Normally, I would be angry but it was a great time. The whole team was laughing and enjoying it the whole time. It was beyond dark and we were still 30 minutes from home and totally invisible to oncoming cars, which in retrospect was probably pretty dangerous.

The moral of the story is that anything can be fun when you are surrounded by friends. It was one of the best rides I have ever been on. We are some adventurous mothafuckas which is a far cry from my previous team. I am totally enjoying the ride more than I ever thought I would and I know that this journey will culminate in success.

P.S. If only THE beefcake was here!

November Night Ride

Decided to go for a ride as the sun was going down. Just an easy 2 hrs. The sunset was incredible and I only saw 2-3 cars the entire time. At the end it began to rain and it is incredible that I was able to ride in the rain on November 12th and not be absolutely miserable. Who woulda thought?

I think it took a ride like this evening's to remind me why exactly I do it. Obviously the main reason is because I am a competitive son of a bitch who likes to make myself, but more importantly others suffer. However, I liked the reminder of how peaceful a solo ride could be. I love being able to ride away from everything and just chill with nothing but my bike and the open road. I have come to the conclusion that there is absolutely nothing better. Tomorrow, the training continues............always with the ultimate goal in mind!

Here is the brand new machine that carried me........