Stay out of trees!

Mr Kotter taught me about welcoming back.

And Marcus Sommers taught me about wheelsucking.  Well, Rae Dawn Chong did really, but it was while Marcus was trying to shake one off while training which was captured in the gripping documentary American Flyers which features, among other things, a moustache totally inferior to Mr Kotters.  Its tough to find a decent picture of the stash on the intertubulars so this is what I have.

Both of these concepts came together for me last night when I was finally able to attend one of Iowa City’s most beloved institutions, the A ride. It was a pretty nice day but durned windy and while I was hoping for a nice predictable Sugarbottom – Tiffin loop it was reported that we were going to go long and mosey all the way out to Oxford! Complicating matters I had forgotten all of my food. Crud. Big Jim Cochran gave me a 100 calorie chewy little morsel and off we went. Thanks Jim!The group was good sized, 20+ methinks and I was careful to stay near the front as we crossed town as I did not want to have to waste any of my precious little fitness chasing because I got caught at a red light. Made it out of town and into the wind and rode a nice solid brisk tempo in the double paceline style all the way to Oxford. I felt a bit pooped but it was a nice ride catching up with some people I had not seen in months. The turnaround changed the game as now we were enjoying a 30 mph tail wind so it was into the big rings and off to the races. I wanted to get a good test of where my fitness is so I decided to take all my pulls and see how far I could make it and that is what I did. The group shrunk, some poor guy (found out later it was Adam) hit a really big rock but amazingly did not flat or break his wheel or even crash and we kept on going. There are a couple of wiggles on this road and as we hit a cross wind the always cagey Hopson sat up and confused the paceline, or at least the me. I like an orderly rotation so I pulled through the clumsy front and kept the pace right where it had been but nobody pulled around. I probably kept at it for a quarter mile or so before getting relief. I knew that I was hosed at this point as my legs were turning to jelly but I kept pulling through and finally got popped off on a little bitty hill.The group was down to six or seven at this point and I felt okay about my effort, if not for the 60 mile mountain bike race looming I would feel as if I was right on track. So I guess I am but for one painful day coming. Sniffle… Rode in with team playa Jacobsen and we got caught by more and more people until we had a right proper gruppetto or autobus or whatever you want to call it. I guess Jim, after giving away food and beating us all up went and road around Sugarbottom for good measure. Good grief.  I came in with 2 hours 20 mins on the bike and with my previous commuting miles I am calling it 2.5 hours for the day with some intensity for once.

In other news, I have gotten in two rides on the Salsa now, a nice three point five hour roll on Sunday with the snow coming down and then an hour this morning. I mostly like the bike and feel pretty good about my position on it. I have only ridden a small amount of trail as most of what we have around here is under water but I can definitely feel the extra traction and I must admit it is refreshing to be able to shift.That is all.

Saturday I put in my three hours fixing up old bikes at the BL. Then I went out for a ride. It was cold again and I was planning to ride the singlespeed around with Brian for a couple of hours and enjoy our frozen version of Moab but I got to thinking it would be warmer in street clothes and we decided to do a singlespeed townie instead. We rode a couple of hours, over the Res and into Coralville and along our magnificent river. Pretty nice pedaling, the bigger hills had us huffing and puffing over-geared platform pedal style and we were in the right place at the right time once and got to see a Bald Eagle take flight right over us. I was pretty cold when I got home and did not feel much like riding on Sunday but of course by then I was warm so I met Brian again, along with the Eppen’s

and the Adult who was in town for his bachelor party.

He had reportedly passed out at 3 in the morning after a last minute drunken Step Aerobics workout in the Eppens basement. We rode out to Solon and temps were much warmer than the day before. Hit some gravel which was awfully rutted but not very muddy. From Solon we rode the four or five mile pea gravel path out to McBride. It was not pea gravel but snow and ice that had been driven over by a snowmobile. I biffed it twice just trying to get on the path from the parking lot we cut through. The ride was entertaining as only conditions like this can make it. Nobody hammered, we just kept a good tempo going and watched the show as people tried to take inventive lines and go way off course into deeper snow to avoid gnarlier sections. We made it through after many dabs and a few near-endo situations and lots of laughter. Rolled back to Solon for the Casey’s experience and then home on more gravel. A fine day and I think we ended up with over three hours.

The T/Th group rides start tomorrow night and with temps predicted to be in the 50’s I imagine it will be a big sketchy mess. I am feeling good about my current fitness and have a bit of a sore throat today so if I am not feeling perfect tomorrow I will sit it out. Got the Ouachita in a month and I need to be ready for that, not the last sprint of the Frytown loop.