A weekend worthy of the title

Finally, a weekend that felt like a weekend. Friday I was jonesing all day to get on my bike and hit the Quarter Rage. Squirrel didn't disappoint with plenty of people showing up and a case of bud light to share in after putting down a good effort. I'm still out of shape, but put in about all I had to bring it home in a shade over 23 minutes. I reset my max heart rate yet again to 199 with an average of 187 for the effort. Not too shabby, I just wish I was a bit faster. I still avoided two obstacles though,the first log after the entrance into Denman's and then the flat cut angled log about halfway through. I did have some fun playing in the mud as I shot straight through most of the puddles and managed to find one that was really deep. I coated my legs from the knees down and I think was the most coated of all the ragers.

Saturday I got up and headed down to our friend's place in Indianola to help take down the swing set. We just put this thing up two months ago and it was time to pull it back down for their move all ready. Bummer, but at least it came apart pretty easily and I was done and home early in the afternoon. That left us some time to do some more cleaning of the house before our friends came into town for the cross race on Sunday. We opted to order in and I ran to Mezzodi's to pick up some great pasta and salads for dinner. Corley had a ball playing with their boys and was worn out and down for the count relatively early.

Sunday rolled around early with another gorgeous morning to ride. I met the guys at Hy-Vee for breakfast, but was running late so I fueled on donuts in lieu of being able to order something. Of course the reason I was running late is the cones in my front hub were loose and allowing over an inch of wobble at the top of the wheel. I got that fixed up, but they're due for some serious TLC with as gritty as the bearings felt. Lou, Pete, and Pig all rolled out from Hy-Vee and we hit the back end of Denman's until we met up with Squirrel about halfway through. Pig and I were just cruising, but I managed to clear all the log overs going in reverse so it was at least a good start. We lost the other 4 and so we headed over to Hillside figuring that was where the others were off to. Nothing doing as Hillside was completely quiet. Once Pig caught back up, we decided to roll up the to the top and start riding figuring they'd show up eventually and we were right.

We ran Hillside about every way from Sunday and got in a decent amount of climbing before the guys were ready to call it a day and head off to morning services. Knowing it is supposed to rain this week, I figured it might be my last chance this week to get out on the trails so I opted for another loop through Denman's. I hit stride on this loop. Another one of those perfect passes. I finally cleared the last two logs I'd been avoiding and just flew through the course with the ground having about perfect traction.

After a quick shower and brief rest, Corley and I took the cross bike and trailer over to watch our friends run and the rest of the riders as well. Corley had a blast cheering on the riders and even got into it with some cowbell ringing!



She spied a butterfly at one point and was completely entranced by it.


After the cat 4 race we took off and headed home. I even managed to take Corley down a small part of the course in the trailer which she thoroughly enjoyed as well. We said goodbye to a few friends and headed home. Of course she fell asleep on the way home and somehow managed to stay asleep through me carrying her into the house and still took a 2 hour nap. We finished out the afternoon and evening just hanging out and even catching a little football. Now that's a weekend!