I meant to say "metric century"...

JoeFro and I rode bikes yesterday. I rode the Quiring in full-on mtb mode: Ignigtor up front and nano out back and 34x15 gearing. Joe was sporting a sigulated cross bike with a pretty big gear and cross tires. The plan was for 100 miles of roads.

Well, the wind was blowing at around 20 mph dead out of the east. Our route (Ok, my route) had us going due east for the first 25 miles. It becase clear after about 10 miles that this plan was not going to work for me. We turned off the main road and made some headway by takeing a slightly more sheltered route. We got to a 'checkpoint' and I decided that we needed to ride with the wind for a while. Truth be told, I was feeling pretty bad at this point. My hands and feet started to get very cold, and I was thinking that home was looking pretty good. Joe, however, saved the day by saying "Well, we have to get at least 60 miles in, right?".

An alternative route was created. The chemical heaters in my shoes and gloves started to kick it, I sucked down more of the frozen Perpetum from my water bottle and things got a bit better. The wind was really hellatious; even as a crosswind it was not alot of fun. Eventually we turned west, and at last the wind was out friend. We were able to move along at a nice clip.

We ended up with 69.75 miles and just over 5 hours on the bike. I was a mess when we got back; a little Recoverite and half a frozen pizza were consumed. I clicked on the Tour of California, wrapped up in a couple of blankets and promptly fell asleep on the couch!

I did get up in time to head over to Little Mexico for some food and Clique Lanes for some bowling with the good folks from the Western Chapter of the MMBA. Good times were had by all; it turns out that I can't bowl worth a hoot! But Scott Chambers, that man is a God of Bowling. He has his own ball and one of those fancy wrist brace things. He was en fuego all night.

The lesson from this weekend: Don't get too used to riding a super-light cross bike if you think you want to race a durable singlespeed during the season! I plan to spend much more time on the mtb for the next month.