Starting off right

I slept late yesterday...up late New Year's Eve and into the morning, so it was around noon when I finally started putting my stuff together for an afternoon ride at Oak Mountain. Unfortunately, most of my important stuff was awol. So I ended up leaving without it.

JB and I met up and started a nice comfortable pace. It didn't take long before we stopped and I pulled my tights and stuffed them in my pocket. Now wearing a short sleeve jersey and shorts, I was still very comfortable. It wasn't hot by any stretch, but it was warm enough that summer wear was working. As I said to JB along the way, let's see you do this on January 1 in Minnesota (from where he moved last summer).

JB's headset loosened up a bit so we stopped to tighten it (one of my "essentials" that I did manage to find was my multi-tool). 30 seconds after stopping for that, he called out that he had a flat. One of my "essentials" that I was unable to find was my pocket pump. Since he didn't have one either (the day just gets better) we were out of luck, although I did have a spare tube. Another rider came along and he let us borrow his to air up the repaired tire and we were off again.

Climbing the jeep road up from the North Trailhead, I noticed that it seemed as though they had taken a bulldozer to the trail and scraped up all the rocks that used to bedevil me on this climb. It was nice and smooth, at least up to the bridge, which made the climbing much easier. I decided to walk through Blood Rock after cracking my elbow trying to ride through it last month. No sense starting out 2009 with a bruise, right?

JB crashed hard on a stair step set of rocks on Johnson's Mountain. He planted his front wheel, it stopped, he kept going, landing square on his forehead, opening a small gash, and taking a large chunk out of the front of his new helmet.

My legs had that first twinge of cramping as I climbed the last hill up the girlfriend trail that leads to Mr. Toad's section. But we had ridden pretty steadily (effort-wise) and I wasn't surprised to have them notice the effort and protest a bit.

It was a beautiful afternoon for riding, and we had a great time. Best of all, I feel like I started off the season right, with a good 2 hour effort. It's raining today, but tomorrow is supposed to be sunny again. I think I'll take the Tarmac out on the road in the morning for a couple of hours.

My resolution for 2009, ride like I'm 35 again.