"Rest"

Morning Session

With a freshly risen sun, I decided to ride my bike the 3 miles, downhill, into town for the first time. This is something I've wanted to do for months, but never got around to it due to either extremely low temps, bike woes, or just laziness. A weather report online said the temperature was hovering around 20 degrees, and I worried that it would be COLD flying downhill making my own wind. Put a fleece sock over my right hand and it's cast, THICK glove on left hand, camera in pack, and started walking the bike down the stairs.

This was the first time I'd ridden my bike in weeks, and it was immediately fun. All of the peaks in the valley were capped in gold. I was surprised at how fast I was going, and that I had to constantly ride the rear break since I was afraid of going too fast and having poor control with my immobile left wrist. This steep section confirmed that it was infact steep, not just a figment of my fatigued mind when always climbing this same section at the end of a long training run. After a mile or so, the wind started getting to me. I had packed a neoprene face mask in my pocket, but decided to tough out the stinging in my face. There is a hole in my left glove which eventually made my thumb go numb. Within a half mile from work, I was just ready to be inside. Fun ride though, and I'll definitely do it more in the future instead of nordic skiing or riding the bus to work.

Afternoon Fun
As soon as I realized that the weather was incredible outside, I knew that I needed to hop on my bike again once I was finished working at 2:00. Originally I had planned on running, but not today. My hip had been bothering me all day, as well as my left knee and arch. For once I decided to listen to my body and 'rest'. This means no running, but of course I could 'Cross-train'. Like usual, I felt the need to be active and getting on my newly repaired bike seemed to be the obvious choice. I took off down Hwy 135 toward Gunnison:


Rode for a couple of miles, then decided to turn around. I"d need that energy for the 3 mile climb back up to my apartment in Mt Crested Butte. Before getting back into town, I crossed the bridge over the Slate River:


The climb wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting except for in that one spot which had me flying going downhill earlier in the morning. Those steep parts did have me questioning whether or not I would be able to do the 33 mile return ride from Gunnison I have been planning on doing in the near future...

Passed the valley that Slate River Road runs through and decided riding to the end of this plowed section would be my next bike ride. Maybe: