Alone Again?

Had a ride scheduled with Troy, Mark and Matt for this past Saturday at 6:15am. I've been getting up at around 6am on Saturday's for a few months now and I finally decided to take a stand. I called Matt up at 11:30pm the night before and cancelled. Good for me!

My plan was to ride Whiting to the Luge and then another Whiting lap after that to avoid having a "weak" Saturday. I wanted to make sure I saw most of the OSU/Michigan game, so that factored in to things as well.

I ended up sleeping in to about 9am and then kept waking up every 20 minutes due mostly to restlessness and guilt for not riding with the guys.

Fast forward to the ride ...

Whiting to the Luge always seems easy in my mind. I've done both routes so many times that they just don't seem so bad, even when they are put together.

It was hot outside and that kept a lot of other people off the trails. I only saw a handful of people on my first pass through Whiting on the way to the Luge. I passed a few riders on the small climb that is halfway between the gate to the truck trail and the flag at the start of the Luge. It was great to ride past them as they could barely even walk their bikes up the hill. When I got to the turn at the top of the climb I realized they were part of a huge group.

Nothing too eventful for the rest of the ride. I wasn't feeling all that confident on the Luge, but made up for it on the second half of Cactus. I'm really starting to enjoy that section.

The second lap through Whiting was a little tiresome, but worth it. I was halfway up Mustard when I passed a shirtless, helmetless rider pushing his bike. He saw me and asked me if I went to church with him a while back. I turned around and realized it was Robbie. He told me Ricky was at the top of the climb and that gave me motivation to climb a bit faster.

I hung out with Ricky and Robbie at Four Corners for a while before taking off to get home for the game.

Hightlight of the ride: Passing 200,000 feet of climbing for the year. Hooray!