The Postman....

Wow, I saw just about every weather phenomenon today. I started off in the snow at home , rode through high winds, rain, sleet, hail and even a brief moment of sun. Perhaps a career in the Postal Service is in my future.

It's been a really wet week, no outside riding and work in the shop has been wet and cold for the better part of the week. It was a bit of an off week after this ride last weekend:



I had my field test on Friday and killed it, almost a whole mile an hour faster than my last test and 3 beats per minute higher. I averaged 180 bpm over the 20 minutes, that hurts a bunch for an endurance athlete who's used to trying to keep my heart rate at the lowest possible rate for the longest period possible. I woke up Fri morn and was up a bit before I checked my heart rate, 41 bpm after I've been up for 20 minutes is a good sign I'm not overtrained yet.

Today was a bit rough though. I hate riding in the cold and rain and today brought both. I was dressed in all my gear, waterproof pants, jacket, gloves and socks as well as shoe covers and a beanie as I headed out the door. It was pretty apparent that I had not recovered from Fridays effort pretty quick. Heavy legs and not much motivation to ride for 6 hours in the rain were the theme of the day. Luckily the recent rains had all the little creeks flowing and there was water in places I hadn't seen this winter which has been pretty dry by historic standards.

Water coming over the spillway at Camp Far West

I made my way out to Camp Far West and the Spenceville Game Refuge for some dirt road riding, we've had over 12 inches of rain at the house this week so trail riding was most certainly out, at least for me, there were idiots parked at the trailheads.....

 It was quite pretty in the refuge, I forget how nice and quiet it is here and how much wildlife is out and about. I saw many hawks, a coyote, lots of geese, ducks and egrets as well as cows and horses as you get closer to civilization.

Quite the menagerie.....

I made my way up to the pavement on McCourtney Rd and headed up towards Grass Valley and Lime Kiln Rd. I got a little misplaced and missed my turn, the end result was a 10 mile stretch of busy Hwy 49. Everybody was cool, but it was pissing down rain as cars were wizzing by at 55 mph which is a bit unnerving!
At Lake of the Pines I headed out Magnolia Rd and down to the Bear River on Dog Bar Rd, no pictures of the raging Bear River as it was raining pretty good, which was better than the hail and snow I encountered as I crested the hill and headed into Meadow Vista. 

By the time I hit Meadow Vista the "fun" had finally worn off. I made a bee line for the truck in Auburn and called it a day. Final tally was 84 miles and 7500' of climbing in a little under 6 hours on full knobbies on the mountain bike. The 14.1 MPH average was pretty pathetic....

 Man I was really soaked as I peeled off my clothes at the truck, a raw ass and feet were the end result of being wet and sweaty for the better part of 6 hours:(

Made it home just in time!