The Crash and The Journey Back

Today's destination was Mill Mountain.  Not the hardest climb in town, but this needed to be done.  There are two "road" ways up - the new road and the old.  Today I chose the less steep, but longer new road.  There are several off road routes up....  will try those in the future.  The catch with them is the trails are narrow and the cost for going off trail the wrong direction could be high.  I also am very slow and have trouble getting on and off my mountain bike; and the trails have been very busy of late.  I made the climb in 24 minutes and 45 seconds.  I didn't stop though.  3 minutes, 2 seconds slower than the last time I did this route (April 2017). I was thrilled that it was shady for the most part because frankly it was hot in the sun! Getting back down the mountain was a tad unnerving...  I chose the old road because of the vehicular traffic.  There's a lot of tree debris and moss on the old road, so I ba...

Riding in the warmer months is hard enough when you're 100%.  Riding in the warmer months when you're hitting about 75% on a good day is hard too.  But when it's 75-80 degrees and the humidity is between 80-95%, it truly sucks. I'm trying not to complain since last year I never turned a wheel in the summer heat.  I've made an effort to get out of bed early two weekends in a row and get my rides in.  Each time I eclipsed 20 miles.  Today I just couldn't do it.  I think I wound up with 18.3.  I just didn't want to sit on the trainer in the stagnant, warm basement air; so up and at it! I slept 30 minutes longer last night; my dog woke up before I left, so I took him to potty.  As soon as he and I walked out on the deck I questioned my sanity.  It was stifling.  The air thick, hot and humid.  I am bound and determined to get back to where I was on the morning of 5/19/18 before Rocky Branch Road broke me; but I'm also realistic and l...

Time is flying...  the heat and humidity have arrived.  I certainly didn't miss riding in these conditions last year, but I wouldn't want to break a hip again. Let's see - June 23rd, I went for a ride from home and included Old Mountain Rd.  It's a short, "shallow" climb in the direction I rode it this time.  I enjoyed it, made it just fine, but was a bit alarmed at the condition of the road in the right hand sweeping turn at the bottom of the hill.  Having had a good ride that day, two days later, on Tuesday evening, I decided a short ride going as hard as I could was in order.  This was in retrospect a stupid thing to do.  The road I chose, I've ridden dozens of times; but this time trying that hard on the steady climb of it caused me to have some bad hip pain.  It was as if my leg did not want to hold me up when I got up to go to work Wednesday.  A muscle relaxer and some Aleve plus 3 days off the bike helped resolve the issue.  I f...