Solo Riding

With my normal riding buddy off travelling in Europe I spent both Saturday and Sunday doing solo rides. Saturday was a short mixed dirt and pavement loop on the polka dot 'Traut. My legs were dead so it was just a matter of going through the motions. Sunday I was committed to a long ride and headed up the grade to do the Pozo loop. I thought that if I was feeling monster strong I'd attempt some part of Black Mountain as well. There was a bit of a headwind on the grade so I did that piano. I was feeling pretty good as I rode Las Pilitas Rd. and gave it the stick for 30 minutes or so. Did a good climb and not only got a Strava PR, but entered the top 10 for my age group on the climb - always gratifying. But that was the only really hard effort I had in my legs that day. I rode tempo the last half of the ride, and by the top of the grade on the way home I had little or nothing left. Ended up pretty much nailed to the couch for the remainder of the afternoon. So much of solo riding is mental. You're out there working hard and also having to fight all the negative thoughts that come with going hard - that inner voice that says, "Give it up, this hurts too much." When you're with someone you can both compete against them on the hard parts and take some relief on their wheel on the tedious flats, and the conversation helps quiet the inner voices. In some ways it's good discipline to ride long solo days, but the key is to do it occaisionally.

Wet Weather Riding

Sunday's forecast said a 10% chance of rain. To a cyclist this means a 90% chance of getting wet and coated with road grime. As it had been four days since I was on the bike I was headed out at 1:00 come hell or high water. It turned out to be neither. Karl and I got rained on a bit, but mostly were just riding through puddles for a couple hours. He hit some of the rollers pretty hard, and I kept pace with him mostly once I was warmed up. I added on a climb up Perfumo after he headed home. It was painfully slow, but I'm fit enough that I persevered to the top. The descent was a bit dodgy with both water and mud on the road.

Peanut Mole with Turkey

It was pissing down rain most of the day on Saturday so instead of going out and getting soaked on the bike I thought I'd get creative in the kitchen. After many requests from the family I decided on Mexican. And to make it as difficult as possible I planned on mole. After looking at all the recipes in the Rick Bayliss book I went for the easiest one, which was still far from easy. A few hours later the sauce was done, and in all modesty it was amazingly good. I think that this will be the start of a winter mole series culminating in a black mole, apparently the most difficult.