11:28

I've been traveling the past 2 weeks and have not been able to ride much at all. (By the way, it really sucks to be in the airport and see an email thread from the group arranging times and routes for a ride). And with travel comes poor eating patterns. Now that I am finally home, Rachelle is out of town for 4 days so I have been sitting around the house with the kids. Not exactly a great schedule for riding. I'm pretty sure I've been eating every 10 minutes for the past 10 days. Which means I'm up 10 lbs from my prime riding weight. In fact, as I write this, I have managed to polish off a half sleeve of cookies.


Before Rachelle left on her trip, she had arranged for a babysitter to come over on Sat for a couple of hours so I could get a ride in (Rachelle rules). The problem is, Sage has been sick and has been super grumpy. Almost as grumpy as me. You see, if 3 days go by and I have not gotten a ride in, I am not a very fun person to be around. I've been looking forward to Sat morning all week. Finally a chance to get back on my home turf for some mountain biking.

I knew that if the weather continued to stay mild and dry that I would eventually have to take a crack at the time trial up Clarks and this Sat seemed like my last shot at doing this before the snow comes. I also knew that based on the past 2 weeks, I was not going to be in good form to try for a PR.

After 5 hours of sleep (most of it interupted with Sage crying and wanting to be held), the morning came. Maddie was coming over at 8:15 am and I was going to have 2 hours to ride.

Sage had different plans. She woke up as the devil and there was no way I was going to let Maddie be the outlet of her rath. I sent Dug a text to tell him I was not able to ride and to let Maddie know it was off.

I tried to blow off the fact that my ride had just been sabatoged. Instead, I spent most of the day playing with Seth and holding Sage. At about 2pm, I could tell Sage was wasted. I managed to get her and Seth to take a nap and sent Dug another text saying that if Maddie was still up for babysitting that I was willing to pay her a good rate for being such a short notice.

By 3:15, I was riding. I dropped down Clarks and without any warm up, turned around and started the climb. As I rolled off the bridge I hit start on my watch and went for it. My lungs felt like they were full of battery acid. I was hurting and was only 2 minutes into the climb. I knew it was going to be a painful effort. I passed 4 other riders and 2 stray dogs and rolled through the 2nd sign at 11:28. Not a great time but based on the circumstances, I couldn't be mad. Afterall, I was finally out on the bike again.

I'm hoping I have one more chance to improve my time before the trail closes this winter. Based on the forecast, I don't think it's going to happen.

By the way, Brad K. posted a 10:30 up Clarks on Saturday. Do you realize how fast that is? Do you?