July 15th (Morning)

Well, I thought maybe today was going to be “one of those days”. My legs felt sore and tired as I pedalled almost aimlessly down Qu’Appelle towards the trailhead. My one consoling factor was that I managed to get moving a few minutes earlier than normal, so if I ended up dragging this out a bit longer, I would still be at work in good time.

Then, to add to the matter, I hit a rock rather hard again (felt the rim through the rear tire) and after that, I noticed the rear seemed very squirmy, with a lot more side-to-side movement than I’m used to it doing. I glanced down and thought for sure I was running flat! I groaned and dismounted, but upon feeling the tire, it seemed to still have a decent amount of air. I put the pump on it and it was just over 20psi, so very low. I pumped it up to somewhere around 35-40 and kept going. I figured if it was a flat, it should be down again by the time I got to Rose Hill, and I might just turn around and get a ride to work instead. However, I got to Rose Hill road and the tire was still fine, so I kept going. I made all the hills at the Rose Hill pipeline section, with some great speeds coming down again (yelling at the birds who just don’t seem to calculate properly the speeds at which I tend to overtake them). Frolek’s land was good, and I considered riding up to the upper road to take the trail I found yesterday on my way home, but figured I had better wait ‘till I knew that area better and maybe even have a few extra minutes.

Going down into Peterson’s Creek was really good and fast, the brakes are so solid this week, I love it! Going up the other side was pretty good too, as I made the first two switchbacks again, and continued on up to the third switchback and dismounted. I walked the normal distance, and then rode again, making it up the two loose sections and a decent distance into the sandy section. I didn’t make it as far as the last two days. Partly because the traction wasn’t good anymore (the sand has dried out now), and partly because I was tired and still feeling a bit lazy I guess!

The rest of the stretch up Springhill and Hugh Allan hills was good. In fact, even though I started off feeling tired and slow, I made a great time of 61.5 minutes again, identical to yesterday’s time! So far, this entire week has been really good, so when will my “slow” rides happen? I’m almost through the week!