It was an odd weekend with a little bit of wet weather Thursday and Friday before it cleared up for Saturday morning. I had a cold (got it from my daughter who also gave it to her grandparents) but decided to push through it. Thankfully, with my wife and Mike riding I knew the pace would be easy and fun. The east/west roads were a bit better than the consistency of moist baby $#!+ which always makes for a fun ride The north/south roads were hard-packed and wonderful. The mood was light and there was a lot of laughter. I couldn’t have hoped for a better ride the way I was feeling. I spent the rest of the day sleeping it off.

Sunday was a much better day. I was still feeling the effects but there was marked improvement. We rode over at Chuck’s house – he’d picked a 30-ish mile route and he always manages to pack his rides with lots of “up”. Our 21-mile ride Saturday consisted of an easy, gentle 500′ of climbing – we may have hit four actual “hills” on the whole ride. By contrast, Sunday’s ride was only 12 miles longer but with more than 2-1/2 times the climbing – and we hit some legit hills. The pace was a little faster, too. Nothing terrible, though – and the roads were a lot better after Saturday’s sunshine dried the roads out. It was another morning of talking and laughing… when we weren’t pushing it up a hill.

I put in 55 miles over the two days with temps just over freezing. Not bad for December. I’ll take ’em where I can get them.