Early and Dirty: Dirt before Work

With my road bike in the shop I headed out on my weekly #RideBeforeWork on the Cross Check with the intention of riding some dirt roads in and around Newtown.  I had heard through the local velo grapevine that someone had rigged up pallets on the old bridge on Black Bridge Road, thus allowing people to or ride across the Pootatuck River.

The Ride Nosh

Gavin and I headed out on a beautiful Sunday morning for a loop around the Saugatuck Reservoir.  It was in the low 30s so there weren't any Freds out, either.

Elliot wins Gold at the Michael Gray Jr race!

Elliot's first run on the course and he does really well!

Last Uphill Climb at Windham this season

Weekly warm-ups are coming all to frequently now and who knows if I will get another chance to climb with the dwindling conditions.  As it turns out, I didn't think I would be able to skin today because Elliot had a race but since the conditions were less than optimal the organizers pushed back his race time and I had a couple of hours to kill so I headed up.

New Job, New Commute, New Ride Time

The commute to my new job is another 15 minutes over my last commute which means I have to back ride time up 15 more minutes.  I tried to leave at 5 AM but actually rolled at 5:15 AM.  I probably should have done a shorter loop, too, but I was feeling good and decided to push.

The one thing that caught me by surprise was the temperature.  When I left the house it was 37 deg F and by the time I got home, it was 30 deg F!  My legs were freezing, too!  These (cheap) thermal riding tights that I got for Christmas were not as thermal as they were supposed to be.  Despite the cold, I had a great ride and will start doing more of these and leave a little earlier, too.