Fool in the Rain

Hill workout this morning.  Dragged my butt out at 5:30am and rode over to the Badlands (Weir Rd, Yarmouth Port).  I felt terrible on the first hill - apparently still haven't recovered from intervals the other day - but then my legs loosened up nicely. 

Did Two Bowls trail backward and then hit the fireroad for the gradual climb, then onto Black Racer for the serious leg burning.  Went up the first smooth climb, then went down into the valley and back up the techy climb.  My pack (which was packed for work with clothes and food for the day) was really weighing me down, so I hung it on a tree and put my rain jacket over it - oh yes, did I mention that it was raining for the 800th day in a row?  Then I streamed my Tool station on Slacker Radio on my phone and headed back down into the valley and back up and down again to the driving bass of 10,000 Days, Part 2 (gotta love 11 minute songs).  Repeated that 4 times, got off the bike a couple times to train pushing the bike up the hill, which happens a lot more in SingleSpeed racing than I realized it would.
 
It was not only a great workout, but it helped me tweak my climbing form on the new bike.  The new bike (Spesh Stumpy 29er SS) rewards a bit more upright climbing stance, with a real focus on pushing the bike forward instead of the bent over and side-to-side torque form that my old bike (Surly KM) seemed to want.
I then finished Black Racer and headed over to the long DH fire road.  Flew down that and turned around and climbed it and flew down again and climbed again.  Then I did a couple more reps pushing the bike up the steepest part at the top.  Then flew down and headed to work via the road and a quick romp through the boy scout camps.

Overall a good workout.  Plan to do a little recovery road ride on the way to work tomorrow, then do a long ride on Saturday morning.  Maybe Trail of Tears if it's not raining, but Yarmouth trails if it is as they don't get muddy for some reason.