Finally, FINALLY, we had a weekend above freezing and without torrential winds here in Fort Collins, Colorado. That meant lots of hours in the saddle outside versus the trainer or epic snowshoe adventures. The Oval Ride is the big Saturday ride in town that leaves from "The Oval" on the CSU campus. This is a picture from a chilly ride a few weekends ago, taken by a friend, Jeff Kerkove of the start before leaving the Oval. The ride goes East of town on Vine until it ends, then turns South and eventually through Johnston, up Carter Lake, and then turns North again through the valleys. All-in-all it's about 87 miles round trip and is usually willingly or unwillingly completed in 4.5 hours. The group this weekend was 50-60 riders and I was the only female (Amanda Miller goes when she's in town, otherwise, it's pretty much a guy ride). The nice thing is that the ride is arguably fast than your average women's NRC road race so it's fantastic training. I'm not strong enough to make it up Carter Lake with the guys but you always find good company to ride back with :)
Sunday I went with some of the CSU guys to Carter Lake again but a different route. Sadly our 47 degree sunny day was a lot colder, very windy, and very cloudy. I was optimistically dressed. It still ended up feeling amazing to ride outside in lovely weather...two days in a row. You gotta celebrate the little joys in life sometimes. With an 8-5pm full-time job, I do spend a lot of hours during the week on the trainer so the weekend rides are the joy of the week. Although this winter, I must admit, I've watched some pretty good Netflix... We're looking at another, even warmer, weekend here which means some fun and fast rides on tap.
The itch to race is getting stronger...
SKINourishment p/b Paceline Projects focuses on the National Criterium Calendar and hopes to give aspiring riders the opportunity to gain experience and exposure at the professional level in the US.
No comments:
Post a Comment