wednesday night and my mind is rambling around

at risk of sounding a bit cliche...

the heat of city hit me like a sauna when i opened the back door from the newly air conditioned basement tonight, but once i was on the road and in the shade of rock creek park the heat index fell victim to my human powered wind-chill... an hour in the park, legs turning a nice smooth tempo, easy gears, spinning on the climbs with one eye on my heart rate - no reason to work to hard today... wakefield tomorrow, then a nice long ride up at the 'shed this weekend.

might ride out to wakefield on sunday and volunteer at the cranky monkey dirt crit. i figure i can get a ride in, watch some friends race, and help out jim in one... anyone know a good way to get from the w&od to wakefield?

looking back...

this is dc, it's august, this is what the weather is like... but thinking back on my reaction today to weather i'm reminded of the first time i felt washington humidity.

late july or august 1984, dulles airport... we'd just arrived in the US for the first time from england and having spent a hour or two getting through immigration and customs in the frigid terminal walked out into the sea of asphalt outside. i had no frame of reference by which to judge this weather, being used to warm & sunny or cold & drizzly back home... the heat, the humidity, even the intensity of the sun reflecting back off concrete & asphalt was like nothing i'd ever felt before. there's a picture floating around in an album or shoebox at my parents house of my sister flopped down on top of one of our suitcases, a victim of the heat...

just a bit of a sense memory that popped up...

yeah, maybe he doesn't get it, but i think i know why...

there's been a thread in the MORE forums today started by a guy who claimed that he rode wakefield and just didn't get it. where was the challenge? did he miss some hidden trails somewhere? "this" isn't mountain biking?

he might have been referring to the trails, but i think i know what he missed... the people.

wakefield (and accotink) is what it is, a small park right by the beltway with a lot of trails stuffed into land with not a lot of elevation gain. what wakefield is, and what he probably didn't see, is a social gathering place of the mountain bike community. it's a place for beginners to start riding and meet up with other riders, a place for a quick after work ride with your friends, a place for a race against your rivals (and friends), a place for long time riders to get together and hang out.