A lucky weekend

I had a lot of fun on my bike this past weekend, mainly because the odds were in my favor. On Saturday, I rode trails at Patapsco with 2 other really strong women, Jen and Ginny. We met in Woodstock, MD and previewed most of the Patapsco 100 course. I've never ridden there before. It's always fun exploring new places, and it was especially fun to do so with 2 other women. Most of the trails were frozen and crunchy, but every so often they turned dangerously into sheets of ice which made steering and staying upright nearly impossible. We all took turns sliding out on icy sections but no one got too hurt. At around the 4 hour mark, I broke my chain. I should have been able to pop out the quick link and replace it, but the link was so badly twisted that I couldn't get it off the chain. Luckily, we were only about a mile from the car so I just ran my bike back and finished the workout with a mini-brick. At the parking lot, we found Bob, who had left-over coffee and donuts in his car to share with us. It was a quite delicious way to end.

On Sunday, I set out for a road ride. At the start, it was cold but the sun was peeking through the clouds. Unfortunately, the sun quickly disappeared and was replaced by a biting wind. I was pretty frozen by the time I finished. About 5 mins after walking inside, it started snowing. A half hour later, the roads looked like this. Pretty perfect timing!

Sometimes mechanicals and weather can  leave you frustratingly stranded miles from home. Other times, they make you feel on top of the world and almost invincible. They are constant reminders that things can go wrong, but this weekend at least, they couldn't stop me.

On a side note, I also feel pretty lucky to be part of Joe's Bike Shop racing team. We have a lot of new and awesome people who recently joined the team, and it's been fun having others to ride and train with every weekend. I'm really looking forward to racing with everyone this spring!

Team party at Chad and Becky's church