i like "lore" in cycling. you know, those pithy little things that exist like a mark twain quote, that cover different things that come up. stuff like: " cover yer knees under 60 degrees ", or " in the spring - little ring ". those 2 get bonus points for rhyming. other things like: "install yer saddle level", or "get out of your bike clothes right away after a race", or "it takes 5 years to make a cyclist/racer" or a million others. even if ya don't follow them all the time, they're good to know and i have tried to jam MK's head full of them. ya never go far wrong using them.

so, on sunday i had to dig one out of the musty, jumbled chaos that passes for my mind. it was hovering around 32 degrees outside. after the week and a half of sub-zee-ro nights and barely single-digit days we've had, 32 felt like 62. or 72 !! i could actually smell things outside, instead of frozen nothingness. and, the newly refurbished rivendell fixie needed a shakedown ride. i haven't ridden outside apart from to work and back since i dunno when - the iceman ?? but, i hadn't skiied the nearby park in a while, and with those temps figured it would probably be good, despite the inconsistant grooming usually found there. hmmm - what to do ??

lucky for me, there is indeed a saying for just such an occasion. "ya don't ride yer bike past a perfectly good ski trail". there it is. in our case with 3 ski trails scattered around our dinky little town, and water on 2 sides, it is pretty dang hard to NOT go past a ski trail on bike ride. so, i slapped some toko yellow onto MK and gretchen's skiis and headed out for a couple hours. the was trail hovering perfectly at that point where it is soft, but not yet slushy so it was fast, and the air was warm. after 15 minutes or less, we felt like it was the fourth of july we were so comfy. we stopped and talked with everybody, including the ever-smiling jonah lens, who was harrassing us locals for going backwards on OUR trail ( !!! ?? !!! ). we were outta the wind, and had a perfect day - built an appetite to eat a whole bag of chips for the superbowl - and ha ha !! i got a great reason to show MK why i always jam her poor head with old sayings. sucks for her. :)