weekend recap

on friday, the weekend wasn't looking promising, rain in the forecast and no concensus on riding... a couple of phone calls friday night and slightly less gloomy weather led me up to the watershed on saturday morning for a ride with matt and possibly marcus and bunky. driving up gambrill park road the weather changed considerably, light drizzle and fog, and most surprisingly a light layer of fresh snow.

miscomunication and last minute changes of plans led to us missing marcus and bunky who ended up starting their ride from a different parking lot. we started from hamburg road and rode north on blue, down to little canaan, back onto blue and climbed up to the sand flats, then off onto the road for a couple of minutes to search for the entrance to salamander/little michaux - which was easier to find than expected thanks to the lack of leaves. quick pit stop at the overlook, but not for long since we were getting cold as soon as we were off our bikes. back south on blue climbing back up to the sand flats, then headed down the climb from earlier in the ride and then we turned onto the roads to drop down below the end of little canaan so we could finish the ride with a steady climb on the road.

felt good for the first watershed ride of the year... my fitness has definately improved from last year, but i can't say the same for my technical skills.

overall the conditions were pretty wet, but it's the shed and it'll dry out. doesn't help that most of the trails are on old roadbeds that become streams when it rains. from the looks of it as we drove back down gambrill park road, the trails at gambrill looked like they were in pretty good shape, then again we got dumped on again last night so who knows what it's like now...

hadn't bothered trying to get a group together for sunday because of the forecasts during the week and looking at the weather forecast on saturday night i was resigned to the fact that a trainer ride was probably in the cards. turned the weather report on as soon as i got up on sunday morning and the prospects for a ride were looking up. i hit the road and headed to the bike paths since it would be easier to get home if the weather got bad. rode down through the park and out the custis trail, then down to shirlington on the w & od and back to the mall on the mt. vernon trail... through georgetown and up to bethesda on the capitol crescent and back into the park... 3 hours, 40 miles at a really easy pace. did some zone 4 riding, as prescribed by my coach, near the end of the ride, but i didn't get as much as i should have because i hit bethesda and could keep up the pace with the pedestrian traffic on the trail... it rained on and off for most of the ride, but light enough that it didn't make any difference.

resting today and dinner with the family tonight... riding chances for this week don't look too good with all the rain we've had in the last few days, even with warmer (yay!) and drier (yay!) weather coming.