September 8th (Morning)

Dang it but it’s getting darker fast… This morning the Juniper street lights were pretty much all on… Uh oh. I need some lights pretty quick I think! The temperature was good, though. I started with my jacket again, but by Frolek’s gate I was ditching it again (meaning I probably shouldn’t have put it on in the first place).

My numbers weren’t very good today. Slow overall time, slow average speed, slow maximum speed… And yet I didn’t feel nearly as bad as these show, nor did I feel slow… Guess that’s not a good thing? Other than not being able to see much, it was a good ride. I finally made the one down-and-up dip in the Frolek’s single-track trail (with the rocks). This is the first time I’ve done it, so I was pretty stoked! This means that if I can do that and the west creek bank both in the same ride I can make it to work with 0 stops! Won’t that be sweet!!!

I thought maybe I was actually going to make the west creek bank this morning, but powered too hard (jeepers, now that’s an issue?) over the first few rocks and cranked myself far too right and into the bushes, rather than being able to pull back left for the final section.

The rest of the way up to Summit was really good, I still don’t think my maximum heart rate was near as high as I’ve been here in the past, so that’s cool.

I saw three deer, but not where I expected. I was on my final climb up Howe Road and they were having their breakfast in some guy’s back yard! So, as I was spinning up the hill by them, I pulled out my phone and snapped some pictures… Not the best shots, but hey, it’s a cell phone, there was bad lighting and I was climbing a hill on my bike!

This maybe was the Mama dear? A bit bigger than the other two and off by herself a bit.

 

These two were a bit smaller, and maybe a bit more skittish so I’m assuming their the fawns but what do I know?

 

Well, taking pictures of deer while riding I have determined to be a good way to not realize the pain my legs might be feeling. While I was taking these pictures, I didn’t even really think about pushing up the hill. But as soon as I put the phone away and started focusing on the ride again, I realized what I was doing and my legs started hurting… Hah!