Unnggh... is it Tuesday?

Four days off takes longer to recover from than it used to.  Thursday was the "typical" Thanksgiving Day thing.  A walk in the parade with the Humane Society of Charlotte and the entire family (Pie, The Boy, Nia, and Sizemore)... although Sizemore might have been carried over some of the route.

Friday was Black Metal Friday Cyclocross.  Despite my back not being 100%, I vowed to do at least one bike cycle cross race in 2014.  Being that this one was free and close to the house?  Good choice.

Rode over, found Big Worm sitting outside the Common Market, he joined, an hour or so of standing around in a public park drinking beer, and then four (or five?) laps around a pretty much unmarked course that was somewhat burned into the grass.

photo cred: Bill Fehr

I got lost a few times, had a fun ride, never drank from the two bottles of water I was carrying, never needed the tube strapped to my saddle...

I could learn a thing or two about cycle bike crossings.

Then over to Birdsong Brewery to drink enough beers that it would take a few hours to regain normalcy for date night with The Pie.

Saturday happened and then Sunday, it was to the mountains.

A ride that started in the parking lot with the following question:

"Did anyone bring a spare water bottle cage?"

I think there were somewhere in the neighborhood of a million of us on the ride.

Buckhorn, Clawhammer, Black, Buckwheat, Bennett...

Not quite a long enough day in the saddle for some...

 photo cred: Eric "PMBAR Honcho" Wever

Even with all the shreddings...

 photo cred: Eric "PMBAR Honcho" Wever

And all the scenery taking-innings....

A decision was reached to do a "quick" ride back up Clawhammer to Maxwell to Lower Black.

Nick ended up winning, which should look nice on his list of 2014 palmares.

I wadded it up on Black Mountain harder than I have in a long while.  Some loss of mojo, a scraped up forearm (and crabon handlebar) and a sore knee are the only things that resulted from the incident.

Never realized how much I use my right forearm to push open doors at work...

Pisgah and leaves, man.