That Felt Good. Not Great... But Good.

I installed the Moose Mitts on the El Mariachi yesterday morning. Today I took them off. Freaking 45+ degrees in January... in Central-ephing-Michigan?? NOT that I am complaining, except that the warm temps turned the road to a quagmire. This time I at least had my fenders on. Not that they helped that much.

Shit was pretty bad. The first dirt road I take is sort of a paved road that the state have apparently just decided to give back to the dirt. It's usually not too muddy, just riddled with man head sized pot holes. Today though it was covered in a tacky mud and some snow patches, not too bad but unusual. I kept rolling.

Then it was on to the real dirt roads. YIKES! They were a gooey mess. I found myself LOOKING for the snow covered parts of the road to get me to the paved roads I know.

But there were many miles of soggy road to roll first...

Then some slush...

Then some packed snow that was actually a blessing to ride on...

Then finally about 10 miles of pavement to get me home...

After months of riding the cX bike on the dirt road, riding a HT 29er felt like I was trying to pedal a tank. I was shocked at how much higher my heart rate was on the mountain bike. A stiff cross wind and head wind for most of the ride didn't help that either. It was sort of like getting DOUBLE the benefits though. And right now I am after calorie burn and burn I did today.

Not sure what was going on with this pic. It somehow managed to make my legs looks skinny, conceal my muffin top AND my turkey gobbler all in one pic. Strange, but I'll take it.

Cold weather is back tomorrow, but not crazy cold. Should be another good day to ride and another good day to burn some calories. About 11 weeks and 23 more pounds to go before my first race of 2012.

Later.