Thanksgiving Recovery Ride

After a long Thanksgiving weekend with family, friends, pies, yams, Donald Trump, Santa Claus and other nefarious characters, we're getting back into the swing of a regular life. Sometimes we detest it, sometimes we desire it. Right now I'm thinking regular life its pretty great. What I'm going through now is kind of like drug rehab, the simplest things like going to sleep at a reasonable hour, eating from clean dishes, and riding a bike are pretty fantastic. I promised myself I'd start eating better, and I wanted to document this particularly delicious dish of cooked carrots at a post-Thanksgiving potluck on Sunday night. Cooked carrots with cranberries, brown sugar, apple cider and some other seasonal delights! Thanks to AJ and Susan for this wholesome treat.

But seriously, I've been a bit out of it for the last month or so. Just a handful of mtb rides in the last month. Last week Keith and I had our first hill climb session. Today we hit the Fells again. It was rather rough for both of us. Here's a pic of Keith at his high for the morning, really getting this puddle wired, and it only took him three go's. We concluded that our Thanksgiving R&R, which included a lot of sitting on our asses, was a good break for the brain but not the legs. Perhaps most significantly, I noticed my balance and timing were off. Whereas I felt like I was really nailing (=not bailing on) a good portion of the trails even last week, and that was with only regular sessions on the road bike. The point is, riding anything, road or trail, even just a few hours per week goes a long way to keeping up ones basic fitness and muscle memory.

Looking ahead, we're considering shooting for the 50 miler this weekend. Could be snow on the radar for Sunday.... which would make for a good adventure.

It sometimes seems like we'll never get this training program off the ground with so much to do. It's also hard to imagine how the smallest snowball can become a snowman, so here's to perseverance and a good snowfall.