Return to Brandywine!

Hit Brandywine with some of the Guy's guys on Sunday. Jay Prudente (on Andrew Hogg's Santa Cruz), Rich Cordero (I need only 1 gear for these hills), Joe Kenas (pimp'n an ol C'dale super V), Mike Flynn (I did 3 hours here yesterday) and Rich's dog Mackie ("he's fine around other dogs, just watch out for kids as he likes to bite their ankles as he thinks they are sheep and will try to herd them").

The trails were superb as they were rocksolid until about noon-thirty when the top 1/2 inch of the sun exposed trails started to get a little slippery. I had totally forgotten how good it felt to mtb when it's ph'ing cold out! I was warm the whole ride, except for the 5 minute ride on the road after leaving the park while I pedaled back to mi padres house. The guys were great as they didn't put the hammer down much at all to Rich and I. We both hadn't been on our mtb's for about a year, though after saying that, Rich was baddas in riding his single speed for a good 2 1/2 hr. mtb ride. It felt weird at first, but pretty soon I was feeling a tad bit fluid, though it's amazing how when you don't ride mtb's, your eyes cannot get more than about a dozen feet in front of you.

I wish I could say the route we took, I have no clue other than the fact that we hit the same rock garden Mr. Ted Logik took us on years ago when I decided my bike was due for a good toss. Luckily (for my bike) it didn't get tossed, nor did it ever fall onto any rocks...though I didn't push it through there as I have about 0.023% mtb bike skill right now. I have to admit that it was a ride for the history books as I think I ate it just once, though of course Brandywine has about 10 feet of single track now compared to years past.

My ride totalled just under 3 hours, which meant my body was totally jacked up when I got back to my dad's house. It amazes me how mtb'ing is a total body workout compared with riding the road. Even tonight (Tuesday) I'm still sore from using some muscles which haven't been used in a long, long time.

On Monday I woke up all sore, though just like I thought when I started riding my road bike, all that soreness had to do with mtb muscles, and not one of my roadie muscles hurt. So off I went to my long way out to VF. It was another damn good ride, for some reason I decided to add another 2 hills I had been eyeing and sure enough they didn't dissapoint. The hills totally cooked me even before the final ascent up to the lookout point in VF, but while climbing the lookout climb, there was a car poking up ahead which looked like I could catch it, and there was a car behind me poking along. I suddenly felt like I was on some mt. pass in the Tour and I put on my game face and pushed it hard until I caught the car ahead of me and then I passed it and made the right turn onto the now close road up to the lookout. I popped bigtime and had to say hi to my 25cog for about 15 seconds before I could get moving again, but damn that effort felt good. The descent down from that lookout is the most baddassest of all baddass descents. You come down off the lookout and have a nice wide right turn onto a one way road. You can carry high 20's mph no problem. Then you head down into a 180 degree super banked switchback (always some pebbles at the apex of the turn too) and then you fly down for about another minute or too easily spinning out the top gear. It's a blast during the summer as cars go so slow down it and cyclists can blow by them like they are standing still.

I was totally cooked leaving The Park, though luckily the ride back on the VF trail had a tailwind and so after about 10 mintues I actually recovered and was able to punch it a few times on the way back to Manyunk. It was there that I witnessed my first Dieter siting of the New Year, damn that dude was pimped out in Fort Gear. He was like "Yo, I be rolling wit' tha FORT posse" as he rolled by. I hope that one day too I'll be blinged out enough to actually have a matching winter wardrobe and bike. And like he said the FORT posse gonna be mad pimp'n this year: http://bubsers.typepad.com/epistemic/

Got back to my house not feeling too bad, but after a few minutes I started a coughing fit and before I knew it, my lungs decided to kind of stop working on me. I guess I had over-done the cold weather riding, especially for having a flu/cold during the week. Even now it feels like someone's standing on my chest as I breathe...it actually feels worse than when I broke a rib back in 2003. I'll give it another day and then see a doc if it doesn't get better. What a bummer after some good riding this weekend.