Back in the saddle again...

Whoopi-ty-aye-oh
Rockin' to and fro
Back in the saddle again
Whoopi-ty-aye-yay
I go my way
Back in the saddle again

I'm back in the saddle again
Out where a friend is a friend
Where the longhorn cattle feed
On the lowly gypsum weed
Back in the saddle again

The off season is winding up. Two Sundays ago when I went out for a ride with one of the local bike shops, things hurt bad. Yesterday, with the third ride of the year, things aren't hurting so much anymore. So far, mileage for the season is around 58 miles with two 16 mile rides and one 26 mile ride (Gold Camp on Saturday). It feels good to have multiple rides in before March... and once again, if I lived in Minnesota I wouldn't be riding right now.

Yesterday I got out of work stressed out and angry. I had gone in early hoping to get off so that I could go for a ride before Ang and I headed off to church, but with an afternoon meeting that kept me in the office later than I wanted to and grouchy coworkers I didn't have time or the mood for a regular ride. In any case, I got home, told Ang that I'd see her at church, and packed what I needed so that I could ride downtown. It's not warm here right now, but it's warm enough to ride, and ride I did. Though going through a tunnel under I-25 I made my first biff on the mountain bike. Apparently, the lack of sun kept most of the tunnel underneath the freeway frozen. Riding across it, all of a sudden I felt my wheels slip out from under me and CRASH! I got up, started walking and my feet gave way, crashing my head into the concrete. WHAM! The pain wasn't so bad, but soaking my bike shorts in a cold, icy, slush wasn't what I wanted before I rode 15 miles with admittedly still winter wind. Tuckus Frozenicus I say.

The trails were still a mess, riding like sand on a beach in some places, but it's riding and it's riding in March. I need to clean my cleats up though, all of the sand and mud caked up my clips and made it hard to click in and click out. I might see if I can get a ride in this afternoon, but I should really get a run in and figure out if I'm going to be in good enough form to race a 5K on the 12th.

Anyway, back to work.