It was over 50F at 10:30 this morning, so I started making plans to hit the street. The bike has been down in the basement hooked up to a magnetic trainer (a Cyclops Magneto) for just a little more than a month, and I haven’t used it as much as I had intended, mostly due to sickness. I had to change the rear spindle to use the trainer, and I just left it on for the ride - they looked pretty similar, so I don’t see why it could be a problem. It’s been really cold for a long time and there was still snow in shady spots even yesterday, but today’s high temps melted everything so I had decided to stay on the roads.

A windbreaker jacket I got from my mom for Christmas cut the wind completely and I was actually sweating fairly quickly even with a good wind. By the time I got the end of the road I had already changed my mind about the trails and in I went. For about a half mile I thought everything was fine, but it wasn’t till I had gotten down some big hills till I realized how soupy everything was. I was slogging through a good four inches of mud for about a mile and half and actually had to get off the bike and walk it for a bit. The bike was completely caked in mud, and I had to clean it off some just to get the back wheel to spin free again. Once I emerged from the farm and hit the roads again, climbing the hill over the tracks was a cake-walk. I breezed down to Southhaven Park and hung out in the sun for a while. On the way back I realized the wind was against me, but as long as I stuck to the roads it wasn’t a big deal. So, of course - I decided to jump back in the woods. I finally bailed after about a half mile of grueling mud slog, and made the rest of the way back by road. It wasn’t a long trip at all - I know Charlie from work was planning a 32 mile trip for this weekend, mine was a more sedate 11 miles, but since last year my initial ride of the season was a three miler and I was dead at the end of it (it *was* all trail), it’s certainly an improvement over then.