Yes You CAN.

Hi there. What up? Here's what's been going on:

- sad after-work rides squeezed in until the last possible second of daylight vanishes.
- spinning classes, le sigh.
- a final race of the season, can someone please hold me.

If we hit the trails at 5:45pm we have exactly an hour of light, so we've been heading over to Forest Hill to extract the most amount of suffering possible in that hour. It's nice though, because you do it and then you get to go home and eat dinner. I feel like I've nearly conquered Forest Hill this summer and I can ride every inch of it if you don't count that cement bridge, which I don't.

On Tuesday I left work early to join a weekly ride out at Poor Farm Park, where the race this Sunday is being held. I did a fast 45 minutes with my usual group and then reconvened at the parking lot to try and hook up with a medium-paced group. I lost out on that because I suck at paying attention and they left without me. This left me with the beginner group which I was grumpy about at first, but then I made some new friends and began to enjoy myself. We spent some time practicing a few tricky uphill sections and I think I'm pretty comfortable with most of it. Kenny and I are going to go back out on Saturday to ride the actual course, though, so don't quote me on that. Poor Farm holds the record for "Most Decrepit Little Bridges" and I don't know which ones will be included.

In the meantime, I've been back on the spinning bike at the gym a few times a week, just to keep the legs in a pedal-turning kinda mood. I actually, no shit, took a class last Friday at 6:15am. IN THE MORNING. It really wasn't bad at all because I was too out of it to really understand what I was doing until I was doing it. However, for the rest of the day I was both hyper and starving, so it may not be the best plan going forward.

Last night I took a class from a very nice woman who, unfortunately, really wants some class participation. Now, I'm not vocal in spinning class mostly because I'm trying very hard to focus on the music or my cadence or what is on TV that night or what I'm wearing to work the next day. Important deep thoughts, people. I do not "woo!" I do not feel like I need to give the teacher verbal pats on the back every ten seconds. I'm working here, lady! She really wants it but she won't be getting it from me. On top of that, she talks a lot in a very loud voice and likes to bellow things like, "YES YOU CAN. YES YOU CAN!" during sprints. Um, I guess I already am? So, she's right I suppose.

It's gonna be a long winter.