Look what the cat dragged in. Yelp--Big Dave got here last night. We actually got up early and went over to Safeway to pick up some breakfast--oatmeal, raisins, milk and bananas. To my great pleasure, there was a Starbucks in the store so I added a latte to the short shopping list---good cup! I mean by real standards, not low grade Starbucks standards.

We decided to do a reasonable, mellow loop which went up the east side of the mountain and across the top before heading down the west side.

Big Dave is still smiling--we are about 2 miles and 300 ft of climbing into our ride.

An absolutely perfect road to train on--nice surface, 6-8% grade and beautiful views.

Love the aspen trees--I was taking this photo as the biggin started his required complaining--it took 22 mins and 49 secs. Not bad.

Dave is normally pretty positive but there is something about climbing that turns him into a little girly bitch. I pointed this out to him and we had a good laugh--not all that easy at altitude. 

He was actually hung over the handlebars dying, but managed to stand up before I could snap the photo. See for yourself--1:01, 9819 ft and 1637 ft of climbing. It's fun to give the big man a hard time. In all fairness though, he did this entire ride without a small front chainring--I was pretty impressed.

The view from Dave's place of rest. We went up another 400 ft or so to find some not so good weather.

The rain was coming fast and getting pretty heavy just as we turned downhill--I must say 55 degrees and 25 mph + heavy rain all clad in spandex make for some cold decending.

Luckily it did not last long.

Here's what it looked like as we finished up.

If you click on this photo, you can see where we went--pretty cool.

In my never-ending battle to add more calories to my rides, I've been trying these shot bloks-6x30 cals-- they work like a charm as long as I'm going downhill--i.e. I can't breathe through  my mouth while chewing on them.

Today I got in 430 cals in 1hr 45 mins.-- short of the 500-600 goal. 

I found a new recovery drink--tasty!

Big Dave not looking so big-- you know who--beware.