Monthly Archives: January 2012

Lunchtime ride on Rockhouse

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Managed to squeeze a ride in at lunch on Rockhouse at Sells Park.  Mac was supposed to go as well, but his meeting ran 45 minutes over.  I rode from Grover out to Sells, with a quick out and back on Rockhouse.  I turned around about 100 yards before my usual gotta-be-back-fast turnaround spot.  I would have loved to ridden longer, but it was still great to get some dirt under the tires.

Temperature was around 37 degrees with full sun.  I was chilly in the wind when starting out, but otherwise comfortable when I got warmed up.  Wore a long sleeve underjersey, a regular jersey, full finger mountain bike gloves (summer weight), shorts, tights, wool socks.  Round trip about 7.5 miles (5.5 miles pavement and 2 miles dirt).

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My buddy and me

First Ride of 2012

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Looking down Ervin Road

Had about an hour, weather was nice, and my wife said “go for a ride.”. So I did.

Rode a warmup lap around the neighborhood loop, then down 50 to Ervin. Turned around at Radford, and rode back to mentally prepare for the climb up Stagecoach. Stagecoach hurt pretty bad, but I managed to muscle over it. Took me a really long time to return to normal breathing. Some folks on Stagecoach have gotten some new dogs since the last time I rode. They came to the road to greet me, but fortunately I had caught my breath enough to give em the old “get back on the porch this is my road” yell. Rode back down 50, with another hurt-so-good climb up Wonder Hills Drive. I arrived at my house out of breath, and a bit disappointed that I didn’t even clear 10 miles. I was tempted to ride two laps around the neighborhood to get the mileage over 10, but figured I had done enough for the day. Considering I have not ridden since August, making it over those two hills were huge victories. I also took the Jamis instead of the Schwinn, which has a 28 versus the Schwinn’s 32.