Black and White

where did the mountain go??














I'm starting to really like and accept the fact that winter has returned, at least for a little while longer. The monotone look of the valley is really beautiful, especially when you get away from the houses and stores in town, and all you can see is white fog, and snow, and black hibernating aspens and willows poking thru the white.




There are all different shades of light that poke through the clouds. Last night at dusk everything had this odd blue tinge to it. Felt like I was wearing some crappy sunglasses with bluish lenses. The other night it looked purple everywhere.






Since I failed at doing anything outdoorsy yesterday, I forced myself to get out and find some exercise. With winds slightly more mellow, and temps 11 degrees higher to yield a whopping 20 degrees at 2:00, I decided to go for a bike ride. I recently put new tires on my bike, which has made riding even more fun and much much smoother on pavement. I rode through crappy visibility for 9 miles to pass CB South. That ride went so quickly, and lucky for me, I had no watch to neither confirm nor deny the fact that it felt like I rode those 9 miles in about 10 minutes. So 10 minutes it was.

Turned around to try not to overtrain a bit too much, although I wanted to go further, and was immediately facing a headwind. Oh man. 9 miles of it to be precise. I shifted into my granny gear, and didn't feel like I was making any progress. Of course I was moving, but I could have sworn that I could have hopped off the bike and pushed it at the same pace. Even worse, my toes had already started going numb, and now with my mesh-covered trail runners facing the headwind, things were going downhill fast. After cursing the wind for 4 miles, I noticed that I seemed to be bouncing with each pedal stroke. hm. That can't be right. My front suspension was disengaged, so I looked back at the rear tire. Sure enough, it was starting to look a bit flat. I reached back to feel how much air was in the tire, and managed to convince myself that the awesome WTB nanoraptors that I put on there couldn't have possibly allowed glass or anything through to puncture the tube, so I kept riding. Soon enough, I couldn't take it anymore, so I decided to pull over on the side of the road and add some more air to the tire. After taking off the valve cap, I noticed that I had left the presta valve in the 'open' position. Oops. Rookie mistake. Pumped it back up, and the ride became a bit more easier for the second half of the ride.

Lessons learned:
1) always carry bread bags to put over socks in case it gets cold
2) keep carrying the air pump!
3) check to make sure presta valve is shut before putting leaving shrader adapter on it to ride.




Monotone ninja costume for running in temps lower than 10 degrees.



Ain't too much runnin' been goin' down these days, sadly...