Winter Miles

Here we are in the midst of Winter and in preparation for the 2013 season. This means long stints in the saddle and big mileage to get ready for the 1/2 races. Today was my longest stint yet this winter, and I am glad to relaxing now.
After my 3 hour ride yesterday I started my morning by cleaning and regreasing the chain (an important step for maintaining your gear and sanity - nothing is more draining than listening to your chain squeak the entire ride!) I then rode out to meet my teammates for a few hills and some good miles. After some delay in the main group, Mike and I started off along the route on our own.
Riding along at a slow place we discussed wheel sets for the Baron Outsider bikes we ride in the winter and rainy day training. Since the Outsider uses disc brakes for all-weather stopping, choices aren't as plentiful, but many narrow 29er wheels work perfect. This was something I have been looking into since I really need to replace this Kona Payroll rims that I took off my girlfriend's bike. She is riding happy on the velocity/white industry wheels I ran before, so once I get some new wheels I can finally unload these silly Konas.
After finishing the first hill, the rest of the group was still nowhere to be seen. We kept riding the route and started the 2nd climb where we ran into our teammate Andrew. He hopped onto our wheels and finished the climb with us. At the top we decided to turn around and redo the climb, hoping we would run into the rest of the team. We were right, and about halfway down we saw everyone climbing up. A quick turn-around and now we were climbing again. At the top we regrouped and then rode into Juanita for the final climb of the organized ride. Some of the team kicked up the pace on the climb, but I chose to hold my pace and slowly passed the people who had tried to go all-out and ran out of juice.
At this point it was time to head home. Heading back along the river, I unfortunately battled the wind the entire way, not the best way to end a long day. After the wind tunnel I finally turned off the path and heading up one last hill for my destination. This hill is a long grinder, and by the top you are definitely ready to be done. A nice shower and some lunch is a great reward for these miles, and hopefully come racing, all this work will pay off with some solid results during the season.