Stuff and Stuff

Hey! Last night the weather was beautiful and we were feeling lazy, so we rode over to Powhite where the trails drain well. They were dry as a bone! Nice. The ride started out the way most spring rides do, with both of us whining about our legs hurting. The first twenty minutes always suck - it hurts a lot and it's hard and you wonder why you didn't pick a sport like bowling, where you can play and drink beer at the same time. But, as almost always happens, as soon as we both warmed up we started feeling good and enjoying ourselves.

Kenny had a flat (in which the entire valve of his tube sheared off. Dude, how does that even happen?) and after he fixed it we ran into a couple of guys who'd never ridden there before and were a little lost. I love that about Powhite park - it's not directional and there are no maps or arrows. It's so small that you can't really get lost for long, but it does help to know the good trails to take for a flowing fun ride. Kenny told them to follow us and we had a nice little mini-group ride. They were appreciative of the tour and it felt so nice to relax and not be under any pressure to train. Just riding for fun! So much better.

That's it. No great stories, just a relaxed after-work ride. I did finally upload photos from our downtown ride a few weeks ago. certain parts of the downtown trails empty out at Tredegar and on Belle island, so that's where I took photos.

Here's Tredegar Iron Works:



And what it used to look like:



Here's me looking serious for no reason:


Very pretty view from Tredegar down to the James River:



Some of the group:

Weird new rock formations on Belle Isle:

Cool, huh? This used to be a rather sketchy downhill run, but they rerouted the trail and filled it in with all these big rocks. The best thing about this hill is that Kenny found a photo of what it used to look like from the top way back in the day (by day, I mean 1865):

Same hill! Belle Isle has been, among other things, an Indian fishing village, a Colonial-era race track, and a Civil War prison camp. It's a strange little place.

Sorry, kids.

I'm here! Still alive! I just took a break and it ended up being a lot longer than I thought. I have been riding, but not a lot, as the weather has not been cooperating. God, could it rain more? No really, COULD IT?

I did recently make the decision to not bother with racing until fall, if at all. I've just got too many other things pulling for my attention and I need biking to be a relaxing thing, not another source of stress. As for rides, its mostly been the usual local stuff and I've really enjoyed the last few rides I did. The weight lifting program I'm doing has helped a lot with general strength, though my endurance has suffered over the winter.

I have photos in my camera from a group ride I did a few weeks ago but I've been so busy with craft show stuff that I haven't uploaded them yet. However, Travis was cool enough to take some pictures:

Jay and Kenny both got flats right here:



Headed up the hill from Buttermilk North:



Me at the back trying to catch the pack: