Playing Hooky

I took the day off from work yesterday to do some Mountain Biking. Then the plan was to relax the rest of the day away with wifey after lunch out with her. I really had no plan for riding, so I just headed to Merrell Trail in Rockford. I hadn't ridden here only but once before with Jeremy and it was "okay". Not completely my style of riding, lots of technical short turns and rocks and roots. There are also lots of narrow bridges and wooden "features" to ride on or through.

I took a chance and (really) without thinking rode up this thing and nearly lost it coming down the other side. And I did have to use my left forearm to brush the tree to keep me balanced. It seems steeper in real life than it looks here, I swear.

(stole this picture off the interwebs)

Like I said, the trail was still just "okay". I bet if I would ride it once a year that would be good enough for me. I prefer Luton or even Cannonsburg State Game area. It was just above 40 degrees, freezing after you started moving. So once I made it back to the car, I loaded up and was outta there fast. There were two dudes also packing up and they must have laughed because I showed up, loaded and was gone before they were even ready to get in and leave themselves. Hey, b!tches, I got another trail to ride!!!

So off to Luton I went. I contemplated riding to and from Luton on the bike, but on the single-speed it would add quite a bit of time and I was afraid it would cut into lunch time. There were maybe 6 other cars in the lot, I spotted only one with a bike rack on it. More and more runners and walkers come out to Luton. It's not usually a problem, everyone is friendly and happy to let you ride by. The only problem is that there are no signs posted to tell walkers and runners which way to go. The safest option would be to walk against the bike traffic, but almost always they're going with traffic.

My legs were pretty gassed and heavy from Merrell. I only skipped one short section of the Yellow Loop though that would have added like 30 seconds of climbing. Glad I made the rest of the trail happen though. I ended up with 18 miles on the morning in less than 2 or so hours.

Fun little map of my day. Love the straight line between trails. ha

I have an official-unofficial new mileage goal on the year of 1,500 miles. I had originally hoped to get 2,000 for Year40, but realize that is not going to happen. My cousin from Illinois, has also been riding. Fifteen-hundred miles is also his goal, so we're going to see who can make it happen first. I just rolled up onto 1,200 miles. With 150 miles of commutes to go yet, I have to fill in another 150 miles at least - that's 50 per month, or else 75 if I don't plan on riding much in December.