Crunchy, drippy, and chewy

Sounds like a sure fire recipe to head to the urologist, doesn't it? Hey doc, I've got this thing, it's crunchy, drippy, and (according to my SO) just a bit chewy... OK, now that I've ruined your mental imagery for the day, how about a true description for each.

Crunchy describes the ride on Saturday. I stopped to pick up my new studs Friday night at the shop. Mine is on the bottom in this photo.

Innova steel studded 26er tires in the center flanked by my Nokians.

At $110/ea suggested retail these things should not only mount themselves (or at least come with their own lube), but pedal the bike, and have the ability to leap tall buildings with a single bound. Alas, they did none of the above. Saturday's ride was not good. I could get plenty of traction, but that really didn't do much for me when I'd break through the top crunchy layer and almost come to a complete stop roughly every 15 feet. The trail to Denman's entrance wasn't ridable so I walked back thinking the singletrack might be in better shape due to runners beating a path down, not to be. I turned back less than 100 yards in and decided to go for black label. Kudos to the City of WDM for plowing their bike paths at the same time as or before their roads. That kicks ass! Clive Greenbelt on the other hand sucked. It had the same crunchy layer, but with the hardpack underneath it was at least semi-passable. I got a mile or two down the trail before a long stretch of breaking through the crust had me turning back. I logged less than 10 miles and all in all about 45 minutes trying to work it out. Not a good day for riding.

Drippy was the name of the game for Sunday AM. With subzero highs for the day and the afore mentioned crappy trail conditions, it was time to break out the trainers for a group sweat at Lou's house of cycling. Lou, Pete, Steve, and myself indulged in some early coffee and then headed over to the garage for a couple hours of suffering and sweating with friends. Actually, not much suffering was done, just a good sweaty drip. I finally got to try out my new trainer and was pretty happy with the performance for the cost ($75 used). Much better and more tolerable than the rollers I tried last year. After logging close to 2 hours, it was time to head back home and work around the house for most of the morning.

Sunday afternoon plans for a fun day with friends fell through as Squirrel was hacking phlegm in about every direction so opted out of bringing the germs to the party(thanks, but you guys were missed), Kent apparently thought being their for his wife to go into labor was more important (you're probably right...), and Hansers were inundated by family coming to town. That left just Corley and I to break in a new tradition of making Santa Cookies. We definitely made the most of it though and had a great time just dad and daughter.




We iced, sprinkled, and even sampled a couple. Great activity. After that it was hanging out for the rest of the day and catching a few ball games on the tube. Definitely a good way to kill off the weekend.