back at it

Oh man does it feel good to get things back to half way normal. The past 3 weeks have sucked like none other. Once every fours years at work we have a big shutdown and do a ton of cleaning/maintenance/repair/improvements. You see I work at a plant that runs 24/7, 365 days a year and this is the only time we have to do alot of the big projects so we really pack a lot into a small amount of time. Every workday was a 12 hour shift spent outside. Week one was a 77 hour week, 2 & 3 were 84 hour weeks. I had 1 day off in that time period. The only plus that comes from this is I get paid by the hour so overtime was good for my paycheck. It would've been cool to have a GoPro strapped to my hardhat, I spent alot of time climbing up and down 200+ foot columns and all over pipe racks. There were some really high crane basket rides as well that had me traversing over onto the columns, talk about exciting.

Yesterday was really my 1st official day off after the madness and I had plans to go for a ride but I developed a nasty head cold a week or so ago and couple that with a bit of exhaustion I just couldn't pull it together. I felt that bad pretty much all day. Today was a better day and even though I'm back at work tonight I made it out to the trails for a ride today and man did it feel good.

I hit Warriors Path with the JET9 and other than a little bit of fitness loss I felt really good. I cleaned everything and felt only a little off in my rhythm. The trails were in perfect shape, almost too good. The local trail gnomes have been hard at it already this fall fixing problem areas and re-routing some sections with huge downed trees. Thank you guys, your efforts are very much appreciated. As I rolled into the parking lot I noticed I was the only one there, it would have made for an excellent day for riding in the buff, not that I did.

I was really expecting the leaves to be really thick on the trail making navigating tough but I was surprised to find they been packed down very nicely throughout the entire trail system and not just the more popular trails. The trails at WPSP have become very popular in the past couple of years and we're seeing a huge boost in mountain biking in our area.

This weekend I hope to get a couple more rides in with Melinda as long as her hip is up to it. She is one tough lady, she's been riding with a torn tendon in her hip for months now without really knowing what's been causing her pain.

Saturday I'll be putting in my hours doing some trailwork out at Bays. We've officially begun the process of building the upper section of Chestnut and there has already been one workday. I hear that the trail gnomes will be at it tomorrow, I wish I could join them. That's enough for now, my head hurts.