Are you ready? Me neither.

After a week of shit like this...

it was nice to get out for some of this....

BMCC's humorous chainsaw wielding trail crew letting you know that you should have a nice day while riding Warrior Creek.

Last week was officially the time to start riding slightly more in the mornings than I have been since October (maybe even September). Monday and Tuesday I spent some extra time out on the Fastest Bike in the World, but on Wednesday when I left the house it was something like 27°. While I do have clothing to get me well below that temperature I didn't want to wear it since it would fill my bag up rather substantially as the day got warmer making it increasingly difficult to do my job... well that, and I'm just getting sick of riding around in sub freezing temps.

I got up on Wednesday and went back to the site of Run Club Part Duh, the naked guy hang out... The Y. This time I left my running shoes back at the house and hopped on a Spin Bike to get my suffering on. Even though the saddle had a slight tilt downward reducing my comfort factor I hopped on the "bike" closest to the fan to reduce the stink factor since I'd be wearing the same clothes all day. I had so much "fun" that I returned on the following 29° Thursday morning and on the next 28° Friday morning. At least on Thursday I figured out that my Jethro Tool fit the clunky seat adjustment bolt, so I was able to make the bike slightly more rideable 55Nine style (who's riding it like this anyways??).

After a week of no fun riding it was nice to get out in the woods again for the second time in the last eight or nine weeks. I headed up to the Kerr Scott trail system with Bill Nye TSG to ride what I feel is one of the funnest non-Pisgah trails in the Southeast, Warrior Creek. I'm sure some folks would think I was going up there to check out the course, but honestly I've been wanting to get up there all winter long. It's been either soaking wet or under snow since last December, at least on the weekends when I can ride, so it was nice to nab it while I had the chance.

I did see this disturbing image while I was waiting for Bill Nye to grind up the worst of the climbs out there:

It looks like this tree could use a little of That Butt Stuff.

I can't wait for the race. I'm not sure that a month will be enough time to get ready for it... I mean really ready, but whatever. I wasn't about to start riding any earlier in the year, and it's only six hours. The really hard racing doesn't start until May. Speaking of PMBAR Eric "PMBAR Honcho Wever recently announced that the race was full and less than a day later he got permission from the US Forest Service to open the race up from 75 teams to an unprecedented 100 teams. Keeping my what seems to be perennial position of second place just got a little harder in 2010. Sign up now or regret it forever.