CT50 (sort of)

I've had a cold for the past week (I'm feeling much better, thanks for asking).  I thought I was getting better earlier in the week but racing on Tuesday set me back a bit...which kept me off the bike.
3 days to be exact.  That's longer than I can usually hold out.
Everyone in New England who owns a bike (except me) was racing the VT50, so I felt I needed to get in at least that much riding this weekend.
Saturday I did a Mini TdT.  A TdT from my house used to be about 32 miles, now a Mini is almost 31?  The humidity and Garmin screwed me out of about 1500' of elevation gain, but it was a good ride.  I felt okay, but if I breathed in really deeply I'd get a little gurgling (ah, details, you welcome).  I rode Blüsteel set up as a 1x8 with big ol' Ardent 2.25s.  I finally got the pressure dialed in on those meats so they aren't too bouncy, or beat me or my rims up.
I did have a wardrobe malfunction

and then another

Someone never informed the mosquitoes that it was now Autumn, because they were out in droves.

Here's a picture of some rocks:

and a couple of one of my favorite trails that was interrupted by said wardrobe malfunction:

Doesn't look like much in the picture, but I can't tell you how many times I've been told "Man, that was fun, like a roller coaster!!" after turning people on to it.

So that was 60% of my goal.

Sunday I had a smaller window of opportunity.  I guess not everyone was in VT because I ran into these geezers:

Nate could have been showing Lance his super Dad strength in Utah at the  XTERRA championships (he is one up on the most tested athlete in the world), but instead showed me his new 29'er.

He's been wanting to taste the sweet nectar of the koolaid for years, and finally Ol' Yeller broke down enough to give him an excuse.
They soon tired of my obsession with climbing each and every hill I could possible find and we parted ways.  Even so I had to skip the Grand Finale of the ride due to time constraints.
In the end I got in 21.5 miles, just enough to achieve my goal.
It would have been more fun to do it all in one day, but pizza at the beach and soccer are pretty alright too.
I had a superfuntime riding my bike, which has got me rethinking CX (again).