Weekend Recap.

Friday I worked noon-8. Again I snuck out early to take advantage of all possible available time. Around 5:45 am I was rolling out on the All City Nature Boy. Near the end of the infamous county road 8 I struck a rock with my front tire. A bit later I noticed it was getting soft, then flat. Nothing like changing a flat in the dark and cold. The change went surprisingly smooth, but my fingers were now froze.
I continued south on hwy 24, waiting for the sun to come up some more before I ventured on gravel. For the Dirt Bag next year we tentatively plan on heading more south than previously. So I guess this was somewhat of a recon ride...and man did I find some fun, new gravel roads. It's still funny and exciting to me how stoked I can get when I find a new road (gravel or asphalt) that is out of the ordinary. I definitely found some of those.
This was my first ride of the year that my water bottles froze. Colder than I thought.
Ended with 5+ hours and 90 some miles.

Saturday I waited for the sun the peek over the horizon. Once the light was enough I was out the door, this time with running shoes on. The plan for this day was a LSD (long slow distance) trail run. Headed through Riverside Park, through Talahi trails, behind St. Benedict Center, Baltos Dog Loop, 2.5k of the Orchard Loop, through the culvert (still open!), and on the North Loop mtb trails. Again I felt pretty good on the run. Knees really never hurt. My calves near the end were getting pretty tight however.
Ended with 2 hours. Not sure on mileage, but I run slow.

Sunday I was off from work. I had all kinds of plans or ideas for the day but ended up riding around here. With the crazy wind I knew mountain biking was the way to go but I wanted to ride long and I am somewhat burnt on the trails around here. I could have driven somewhere but that cuts into the ride time. So on the geared gravel bike (Salsa ti La Cruz) I went. With a south wind I headed south. Because of the wind my progress was slow and it seemed to take forever to get anywhere. The plan was to ride 3 hours south (anywhere) then work my way home. Ended up in Cokato, refilled the bottles, and headed east and north.
The wind switched more to the sw/w so I didn't have a direct tail wind the entire way home. In fact heading down cty road 8 it felt pretty much like a head wind.
Ended the day with more asphalt than gravel, 5.5 hours and 90 miles. Despite the wind I never lost my cool (unusual) and had a good time.

Today is the Monday Night MTB ride at the North Loop, 8:30. I'm in.

Out.