Blacking Out the Friction

The mornings have recently been tinted with a bit of frost covering most of everything, leaving the rest of the day to recover to a very breezy cool, requiring things such as caps, sweaters, coats, scarves, and/or vests and if your Ben Gibbard from DCFC it might require "long johns under slacks for blustery days". I played Transatlanticism yesterday, which i haven't done in a long time, mostly because i find The Photo Album to be a superior album, but also because i outplayed the CD sometime a while back. Anyway, i found the combo of being dressed in a coat, the cold outdoors, and Transatlanticism to be strangely nostalgic in a very good way.

After being beaten two days in a row by my bike(s), today has started well. I rode the track bike into work today and it went fantastic. I took the short route for the first time in a very long time because i was on a new bike and i don't have a light system hooked up yet. But it was a good time to test the bike on a steep hill, being that there is a nice short steep hill towards the end of the route. I guess my fitness has drastically improved over the past 2 months because i would no longer say that's a nice short steep hill, more like an inconvenient bump. I was also on a single speed bike. So that made my morning a little brighter. There are some bigger hills on the longer route so we'll see how i fair come tomorrow or the next day, should be fun regardless...

Yesterday i decided to review trails for the upcoming MTB race in Richmond after i had received a brutal beating in Fountainhead, which I'm still suffering from. I'm still waiting to see if the thick portion of grease/dirt that is lodged under my skin will give me an infection. Also, my left arm has been rendered useless after landing on it multiple times. Anyway, I looked over the trail maps, Youtube videos, and reviews from www.singletrack.com and Poor Farms seems to pail in comparison to Fountainhead as far as difficulty. While leaving Fountainhead Sunday, Darryl and i figured a more technical course would benefit him and greatly decrease my chances of doing well. But i guess that's what happens when someone who rides road instead of MTB-ing. I would love to do really really well but i would also like to see Darryl do excellent too. Maybe i can improve my handling between now and then...any suggestions?
Anyhow i made this for Darryl...
Maybe I'm a weenie...but I'm no mountain biker.