Over the hump?

First off, if i were a believer in superstition, I'd be mighty upset at that stupid timid gopher over in Pennsylvania who's afraid of his own shadow. Six more weeks of winter, according to that little fella. We're in Minnesota. We've got another few months. But, I think we're over the hump, as far as the brutality of old man winter goes. I think he's in retreat mode. He's done his damage and is now off to somewhere else to wreak havoc on their bicycling plans.

Broke 100 for the second weekend in a row. Met up with fil and T.C. early on saturday and clipped out about 25 miles through St. Paul and Mendota and back. Little chilly. Temps around 20-25. Noticeably colder at the end of the ride than the beginning. The downhills got a bit much with the cold wind. But hell, we're alive, no one is frostbitten, and we'll all live to ride again. Nothing too exciting to report, except that the trails over by Fort Snelling are basically an ice skating rink. VERY slippery with tons of ice on the ground. Even the stairs were icy. Made it very tough to get back to the road. I almost ate shit on some ice, but managed to keep it upright. Hooray for skinny tires...

Rode out to Bloomington after about a half hour back at home. That added another 10 each way. Those were a little faster miles, as I was running late for an appointment. (I made it. And on time). Twenty minutes off the bike and then back on it to complete the round trip. Got home and cleaned up. Showered and whatnot. Ate some food. Tried to watch some T.V. with Margaret but got a phone call from a CurlyBro demanding that we go out to the Stupor Bowl afterparty. Convinced. Rode down there and hung out for a bit. Congradulated Suzy (and Landon) for her first place OVERALL. I am VERY psyched about that. That was an amazing thing to do. The LGR train rolled into 3rd-5th with the S(t)uper Rookie out in front. Matt Allen rolled in as the first place working messenger, and earned a ticket to Worlds in Toronto. Pretty rad. It was fun. Jeff Frane was wearing a ton of his own Bike Jerks stuff. It's all rad, and he prints it himself, so, basically, you should buy some of it. He also had is new Capricorn Cycles track bike out and about. Very minty. Very nice. Saw Cale and Katy and some other former Teammates (Pegasus) out as well. Very nice to see them. Lyle (madison) as well. Austin from NYC was in town, as well as tall Andrew from Chicago. Lots of kids I've met before. It was fun.

Sunday was a bit different. Met up at the Moose at 10. (ok, 10:15, we were running late). Went through the city out to Cedar Lake Road, as Wirth was closed for a ski race. Again, a bit under 25 degrees on the weather front. Road out to Wayzata. Nothing super interesting happened. It was pretty cold. My man parts tried to freeze. (remedied with a couple clif bar wrappers pretending to be wind stop boxers. Very effective, but not the most comfortable fix). Spencer, Tim, and Margaret were all out for 40, and to be honest, so was I. I had no plans of going 60. That said, as soon as it was suggested, I didn't take much convincing. So we split up and T.C, Jake, and I kept going. Went Around Lake Independence, which is semi-impressive, as only Jake and I had done that route before, and only once. We managed the loop, with ZERO stops to look at the map. Back to the coffee shop. Got warm. Saw another group of cyclists. Real ones, I think...Although I suppose there must be something motivating people at this stage of the year. We went back to town, with a couple wrong turns, but we made it, and it didn't take any longer than the "official" team route. It worked out very well. Pretty tough ride. Got a case of jelly legs on the way back in. It was nice to work on the bike. Don't really feel great quite yet. Still plenty of time. I'm willing to assume that no one else feels to great out there yet, anyhow.

Yeah. Got home. Cleaned up some bikes. Took a shower. Watched a few episodes of the first season of Big Love. (HBO) Very strange. About Polygamist family. Fairly interesting. Margaret made the best chili ever. I am actually excited about taking some for lunch at work today.

That was my weekend. Bike rides, afterpartys, tv and chili. A good one. I like being around the people I hang out with. It works out.

OH, I almost forgot. On the way home on sunday...Some dude was jogging down Portland. Not entirely unusual, I've been seeing A TON of joggers lately. But, this guy was in shorts. No tights on underneath. Nothing. Just shorts. Bare legs! It was fairly nice out yesterday, but definitely not above freezing at all.

Either spring has sprung, or dudes is crazy.