More Miles, Different Bike

Twas another beautiful day for November.  The temperature had reached 50 by about 10 am, and was supposed to get into the low 60s.  Winds were much stronger today, 20+mph gusts from the SW, so I decided to stay out of the wind and take the mountain bike to Kickapoo. 

The trail system at Kickapoo is about 10 miles total; folks who ride out there generally refer to how many "laps" they do.  I have always been a 1 lap guy, with maybe an optional swing back out along the road that borders the trail system to ride trail 7 (< 1 mile) again since it is easy to get to and one of my favorites.

Today was different.  I became a 2 lap guy today.  What with it being November, I am getting worried that riding days which fall on a weekend (since, you know, I have a job and all) may be numbered.  Plus, we finaly got some rain this week, and the trails were in great shape.

Despite being alone Since I had a full professional medical staff with me (just remembered my mother is one of the few who actually reads this), I decided to try and ride hard.  I am happy to report that there were no major crashes (guess I wasn't riding that hard).  I also discovered that, apparently, I get faster the longer I ride.  My first lap was about 1:10; my second lap was about 5 minutes faster.  Which means that if I rode 5 or 6 laps, my last one would almost be fast enough to actually win some races at Kickapoo.  After all, I am sure the time trend would have continued, even though I felt like puking after lap 2.

Paul Simon should probably get most of the credit for today's performance.  "Cecilia" and "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" are excellent biking songs.  It was fairly busy on the trail today, so hopefully not too many people had to listen to me sing these songs while breathing heavily and attempting to wipe the snot from my nose.  Jack Johnson's newest album was also on today's playlist.  It sounds like his other albums.

I actually lapped a fairly large group of people who probably should not have been out on the trail.  They didn't have the bikes for it, and they certainly didn't look comfortable on technical singletrack. In fact, both times I saw them they were stopped or walking their bikes along the trail.  I am guessing some friends told them how fun Kickapoo is, but failed to mention that many sections of the trail are fairly dangerous. 

Anyway, they decided to stop at the top of a steep climb which came out of a very steep descent.  Not a good place to stop when more people (me) are coming up behind you.  Luckily, I was able to avoid them while also using my momentum from the drop to get up the climb.  After all, my bike handling skills are world class...

I would have been somewhat upset, but then the woman leading their group noticed my jersey and yelled "RAGBRAI!!!!" as loud as she could as I rode by.  So we were all good.