I can’t say I was eager to get out for day 1 of sweatember today, with snow on Mt Cargill and Flagstaff and rain squalls coming up from the South all morning. But, come 1:30, it actually cleared up and I didn’t get rained on at all which was nice.
What wasn’t nice was the mud. The rain overnight and during the morning yielded some of the slipperiest riding I’ve had on Signal. Getting back down from the top was simply an exercise in trying to stay upright and slow descents added a lot to the overall time.
Still, all up, I managed 4 ascents over two rides - three at lunchtime and one more on the way home. After three days off the first ride up from Ravensborne felt good. It’s normally a nasty steep pitch but I didn’t find it too bad today.
Climb number 2 up the big easy also went smoothly but for ascent 3 I made the mistake of attempting the 4WD track. Clingy mud and spinning wheels made it hard going, plus my knees were hurting a bit due to the cold.
Once back at work, home time seemed to roll around all too quickly and the last run over the top was hard work. I really could have used some more recovery time. Strava says I took 3 minutes extra up the big easy compared with the lunchtime run.
Not glitter, just sweat catching the flash
Anyway 1221m climb in total so 1000m goal achieved for the day and a total of 1.75l sweated for CF!
Beer of the day - Panhead Ratrod. All Panhead beers are good but Ratrod is particularly delicious.
Song of the day, Cassanova by Floex. This turned up on my discover weekly playlist the other week and it’s been a long time since I’ve heard anything as original. It was only after I shared it with Rachael that I realised Floex did the soundtrack to Machinarium (a mac game we had enjoyed years ago) amongst other game soundtracks. It makes me think about the games in a new light. The quality of the music is amazing. Maybe that’s why it’s so different.