Meat Raffle

March 19, 2016

I got excited by the idea of the meat raffle but a sign just further along indicated that it's April 2, not today, so I rode on. Who knows what else goes on in the hills of Rutland? I was just passing through.

Rutland blue

Today the sky was BLUE. A blue ride, a blue sky, a blue degree of fly. Sail on. Wanting 30 miles today, colder than it looks. Blue cool, under-dressed; two rides in a row, wardrobe miscalculation. Today's ride proved colder than I dressed for; though it was 44 degrees when I left, it was a chilly 44 with occasional wind activity. Not gusts or bellows, and not steady, but periodic swirls of chilly air blowing right in the face. Winds are always headwinds, no matter in which direction you ride. I sweated, sopped a layer, hit downhills, cooled way down quickly, never quite warmed again. Would have like a thicker middle layer.

Several faces of BLUE:

Woo City Blue

A trio of giant oaks

Atop airport hill

Kettle Brook Reservoir, Number 2

Kettle Brook Reservoir, Number 2

Back at Team Shad HQ after two and a half + hours in the saddle, soak layered & chilled through, head straight to the hot shower. Dried and dressed in clean warm clothes, hungry & thirsty like a Visigoth after a day of rampaging; slake my thirst lust with the Framing Hammer, a Baltic Porter.

Recovery drink

34 miles, 1700+ elevation. On track to notch the 63 mile weekly mark dictated by Crusher. The nor'easter we were all worried about that was supposed to hit tomorrow, has fizzled. Any snow that occurs (a couple inches?) won't start until tomorrow evening. That means The Virginian and I are on for a cross bike adventure, dirt forest roads in southern New Hampshire, cracked pavement out of Orange, Mass.