WOW it was cold this weekend. Almost too cold to ride. Almost. This past week we have been crushed with snow. I mean crushed for cincinnati. We had like 6 inches!! Anyways the white death had kept most of us off the bike outside for a couple days and I was beginning to grow tired of my intense trainer work outs. Saturday night I went out to party with the likes of the BSM crew, well maybe only Max. It was a fun night of bowling, beers, and too many beers. I woke up sunday morning around 9 a.m. to max’s whining cats. I could hear it out side of the office couch where I was sleeping. MEOW ME ME MEOOOW. Damn cats… don’t you realize I’m hung over. At this point I am moving around and having coffee with max. I looked outside and it looked like a beautiful sunday. Sun was out snow was white and it was about 8 degrees. At 10:13 a.m. I sent Chewning that motivating text that read “Quick Ride? Out Side?” The only reply I received after that was “K”… oh michael, such enthusiasm. It was on!! We had planned a team trainer ride for about 3 p.m. but i just wasn’t feeling it.
Chewning and i met around 11:30 and we were on our way to scoop up Scott to ride some west side. Scott always wants to ride outside. So this was it. We were really going to ride outside in this 15 degree day. Scott took us on some sketchy, windy, downhill, slushy, decents and some hairy climbs. We had a nice pace until this pretty short but very steep climb. I could tell Mike and Scott were turning it up about half way up the climb. Let me first mention how weak of climber I am to both of these two. The pace seemed to get harder with each foot but very steady. I was on Mikes wheel and I wasn’t moving. Wow!? It’s over? I’m finishing with Scott and Michael?? How could it be?? Congratulations were coming from both parties unfortunately followed by Scott mentioning that we took it pretty easy. G’ Dangit! I’m still slow.
We started the crawl back into Northside from West Fork Road. We came up to another steep climb off of Montana Avenue. I was on the front and had no intentions of riding off the front. I was seated in a nice grove trying to keep my heart rate some what low. I noticed I had put a bit of a gap on those two fools. With out any warning I hear Michael drop like 5 gears and he was in his drops crushing a sprint up the hill. Of course Scott followed after Chewning and I followed Scott. Michael peeled off and I was still trying to hold onto Scott. G’ Dangit! I blew up about 50 feet from the top. I looked at my HR Monitor and i said Oops! New Max HR. 183 BPM. At the top we were all laughing about how dumb that was and michael said… ” I don’t know why I did that… I instantly regretted it.” Yep all smiles and head nods all around. We finished the ride with the cruise through Mt. Airy forest. Michael and I chatted about the ride over burritos from one of my favorite sponsors… The Comet. Michael said we have the best lives. I couldn’t agree more. There is nothing better than that small intimate group on a terrible day to make riding the bike that much better. Followed by that awesome jerk tofu burrito and a nice Bell’s Winter Lager. Here are some pics from the ride.
