Two very different rides

Saturday was a cloudy, pretty ugly day. Well it was if you wanted to ride your bike in the morning. Doogie, NID and I met @ 9 and headed out through the Fort to The Palmetto Trail. We skipped the first section of the trail and went in just above the lake. On the way out, I tried to keep the pace steady. It was about the same pace as I usually ride when I hit the trail solo. Only we didn't turn around at the gate @ MM8. Instead, we keep driving forward. The plan was to go to Weston Lake and that's just what we did. The trail between MM8 and 9 was really chopped up. I guess the Army has been doing a bit of housecleaning, which usually has the opposite of the intended effect.
We made it to MM10 and the road to Weston Lake. We hopped the razor wire and hit the service road around the lake. The roads had just beed graded, so they were pretty smooth. We made the loop and ended up back @ MM8. Once rolling again, I set the pace about 2 clicks below race pace. If you doubt the pace, either show up and follow me, or ask NID how it felt...!

The pace stayed this way until we hit earthen dam around the lower lake. We just rode on in from this point. 2:45 on the cross bike with about 2 hours of it being on singletrack.

This morning, several of us met @ 9 for a road ride. We did the normal Thursday ride, but turned on Blue Johnson and went up the backside of Mt. Elon. Of course, I sat up to take off the hat I had on under my helmet. As soon as I sat up, Reed hit the front and jacked the pace up the climb. In my struggle to take off my helmet, Oakleys and the hat, I dropped the hat on the road. And as we all know, there's no leaving a Mapei cap behind. It's just bad juju.
I chased and we re-assembled at the top.
From there, we took the usual way in and kept the paceline at a good tempo. Mick attacked early at the sprint and no one reacted, so I jumped, ran him down and won the sprint with ease.

We did the Pineview to Shop extension. Once we hit the light, NewGuyRob took off and forced a chase. NID pulled it back in the middle of the bridge and called for me to come through. Nope, sorry, can't help you. I hung him out and made him pull down to the bridge sprint. I took off @ 300-ish to go and rolled away.

We had a great ride today, even though I had more lungs than legs. 220w average (norm) with a 1250w max effort.

Good ride weekend. Fewer hours than usual, but some good work and quality training.

#1 is at the Spa and #2 is napping...sounds like my cue to hit the couch... ;)-