As much as I hate to admit it, Mongo spends more time watching the Weather Channel than a seventy five year old retiree living in Boca..."I loves me some Stephanie Abrams!" The upside to my meteorological fetish is that I have a good idea of how to plan my riding for each particular week. Unfortunately, the weather around here has been wet and cold for a couple of months and my riding has been a lot more specific because of it. Yesterday was a perfect example.
Mongo decided to do the 23/2300 Hammerfest loop on my mountain bike, Li'l Pony Express. I figured hauling a 23 lb hardtail with compact gearing around the course would be a challenge...I was correct. Mongo had about a five to ten minute head start on two of his teammates (who didn't invite me on the super-secret "fast guys only" ride with them), and I was pushing it pretty hard. Add in the fact that it was close to freezing, and sleeting occasionally, and it turned out to be a doozy.
Before the ride, I decided to use the mountain gearing to my advantage and never get out of the saddle when climbing. Even on the steepest inclines, I was in the 32 or 22 ring spinning my big ass off. I really felt it in my hips afterwards, but it turned out to be a great ride and workout. I'll definitely be taking LPE around the course again soon.
Speaking of hips, Mongo ran into his "Arch Nemesis" at the shop before the ride. I hadn't seen him in months, and word on the street was that he wasn't riding at all. After talking with him, he explained that the reason behind his lack of riding was due to an undiagnosed hip problem causing him chronic pain... that, and he also had a broken vagina.
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