Weekend wonderfulness

The weather has finally cooperated in getting the roads cleared of the snow and ice buildup. But the melting snowbanks mean that rivers of muddy water are running down some of them and the roads are soft and muddy in other spots. But then there are those beautiful sections of dry, smooth dirt. But don't let let them fool you because just around the corner is a landmine of potholes, waiting to cause a flat or damage your rim.

Saturday morning my coach came out to ride and I took him on the first half of my hill route. We managed to ride down the snowmobile packed snow and parts of a rail trail that were covered with snow but also packed down from foot traffic. The road conditions ranged from great to poor, dry to very muddy. My partial fenders helped keep a lot of the mud off me but I was still covered pretty good in the front.

I hit one of the many pot holes a little too hard and flatted the front tire. It didn't take too long and we were on our way. By the time we were finished with the ride I was feeling a little tired but happy to ride outside. I was looking forward to doing it again on Sunday. But I took some full fenders off another bike in preparation for the mud.

On Sunday two of my Cannondale Midwast team members came over for a repeat of Saturday's route. They were both on single speeds while I took the easy way with gears. Hugh rode his fixed gear cyclocross bike with huge 44x16 gearing. My knees would probably be blown out if I tried that.

The roads were in better shape in spots but I managed to get a flat on the front tire again, from a hole on a different down hill than the previous day. After getting home and downloading the data from the ride I was pleased to find that the wattage output in various metrics were almost identical to Saturday's ride. It just hurt more to achieve it. But overall that is good that I could do the same work two days in a row.

I was going to relax once I got done riding but my son told me about a new TV that Circuit City had just gotten in, a 2008 model of a 2007 TV that he had been looking to buy. And he had gotten an email from CC with a discount. After I took a quick shower we went over to look at the TV. Bottom line, we now have moved into the high definition age with a 50" HD plasma TV in our living room. The picture is amazing and the HD channels are super clear, just like in the showroom. But of course it couldn't just sit on top of our old floor console TV, right?

Meijer was having a sale on TV stands and since my son works there that is another 10% off. After dinner we went over and picked one up. Or more precisely, picked up the kit. We spent the next hour and a half assembling the stand but once finished and in place it does look good. Plus the stand has shelves and drawers that will hopefully hold the video game stuff that seems to always be strewn about.

Now we just need to get another big screen for in the basement for when i'm on the trainer. I'm not holding my breath on that.