It was a great week for riding, albeit a little cold. My morning commutes consisted of bundling up in various layers, only to have to lug them home stuffed in my messenger bag.
Friday afternoon, I met Craig to do a longer ride around Arlington. We met in Ballston and proceeded down the Custis trail to the W&OD. We were really hauling ass when all of a sudden, I felt wobbly. I looked down and sure enough, I had a flat!
We pulled over and began to remove the bad tube. But we couldn't get the first replacement tube to inflate. Nor could we get the second or third! Turned out we had 3 bad spare tubes between the two of us! Luckily, a good Sam stopped and lent me a spare and we were able to finish our ride with no problem.
But all these flats were indicative of a problem - my tires were really worn down. So when I got home at 7:30p on Friday, I had to replace my tires and clean my chain on top of that. Luckily I had tires waiting for me at home so it wasn't too big of a deal. And I got to use my new chain cleaner that I bought last week!
Saturday, I woke up early to meet Craig to drive out to Frederick MD for the 3 Covered Bridge ride. It was damn cold, but there was a huge group that showed up - probably around 15 people! And Saturday was a great day for a ride, but not that early in the morning. It was cold and windy and we struggled for the first half of the ride. But the wind died down and the air warmed up so the second half of the ride screamed! We did about 46 miles total and I averaged over 16.5 mph.
I was feeling it Saturday night, especially because I knew I was riding again on Sunday. I rode from my place to the start, in Bethesda. Then we rode to Old Town, Alexandria where I had to get a new under-seat pack because mine broke. But an amazing lunch totally made up for it! And when we got back to my place, we made an impromptu pit stop at Maggie Moo's (an amazing ice cream place). All in all, a very worthwhile endeavor!
It was a great weekend for riding and I hope you all had a chance to get outside and enjoy the sun!
Rachael