The Price You Pay....

Okay, I have to admit that this is something I have not felt in a while... horrible after riding.

This really was a bad day. We have had rain for the past two days and I knew that there would be a little effect upon my riding, but I honestly did not believe that it would make riding the hardpack trail that I recently found THAT difficult. You see, we've been in a bit of a drought, and even though we have had two day of rain, the ground has sucked it all right up. I couldn't find any puddles to splash in. So I figured that there would not be much of a problem riding that trail. Boy was I wrong...

Although the trail was in decent condition, it was still soft. This was only a problem because my tires naturally sunk into the soft earth and formed a clear "U" in which my tires struggled to plow through. I pushed myself harder than I did on Saturday, and it was a hard fought 6.2 miles, but I managed to do it in only 3 minutes more time. Of course those 3 minutes knocked my overall time down 1.2 mph.

I do not know if/when I will try that trail again as there is a lot of rain predicted later on this week. I think I will stick to the roads, which my bike is more suited for anyway.

Fortunately, I think I have found a riding buddy. A friend from church wants to do some more riding and has asked if he can join me. I do not know how much motivation we can give each other. He's even more casual of a cyclist than I am, and he's also riding a crap Wal-Mart "Y" frame mountain bike. Then again... his is MUCH skinnier than I am, which means that his lousy bike may slow him down to my speeds.

I guess we shall see.

All I know is that I have a lot of riding to do to make up for a hot and busy summer.