Ferdinand Fix

With a busy weekend in the schedule and the weather way better than I want it to be when I have no time, I figured I needed to figure out a way to get on the bike. Trails have been dry and it was supposed to be windy on Saturday, I figured it was time to get in a Ferdinand ride that I have really needed.

I am still waiting on some new tires, so the Niner still has the small tread shoes. I have currently listed a few of the tires that I do have online and some have sold. This leaves the Misfit currently with out any shoes. I could dig up some old tires to put on the SS, but then I would have to do a lot of work that I just don't feel like doing. So, this leaves me with riding the Niner if I plan on getting off road at all. I was just hoping that it was as dry as everyone was saying.

I packed up my gear the night before since it was going to be an early ride and I was not sure what time I was going to get to bed. It was hard to pack the gear. The time we were going to ride, it was not going to be as warm as the day was supposed to get. still, I wanted to get out and was not going to let a the weather stop me. That morning it was even colder than I thought it would be, but still warmer than a lot of other rides I have done this winter.

This ride had two things going for it that was bound to make it not as good of a ride as it could have been. First it was early in the morning and I am not always a good morning rider. Next the ride was starting at Foxey Hollow. I know that is where most people park, but it sure does not give my legs enough time to warm up especially when it is a morning ride.

I was not surprised when the legs were feeling heavy on the way up Foxey, but I managed to climb good enough. We went for a full lap and didn't do the short cut that I normally do by skipping Kayana. There was a couple of trees down that we needed to climb over. One was in a real bad location for starting the steep climb. I managed to get started fairly close to the tree and climbed the rest of the way up. That hill has always been difficult.

The rest of the loop went as usual and when we got back to the car I still had some time left. We headed out for a half loop but skipped Southridge. This got us back just in time for me to hit the road. I was a few minutes late for the soccer game and got there just in time to see the second goal. Good thing too since we didn't get another one. The did end up winning, so it was a great start of the season.

Even for feeling like I was not riding too strong I did seem to make ok time for the lap. With the extra sectino it was just under a 15 mile ride and over 2000 ft. of elevation gain. I really need to make a lot more trips out there to try and get my climbing legs under me before the Ft. Duffield race at the end of the month. The season is drawing close and I am running out of time to get in the shape that I want to be in before the season starts. I just hope the rain does not mess things up and I can have some time to get out there with all the things going on. I just may have to charge up the lights.