I've gotten so into the bike this year that I can tell transitioning to winter is gonna be tough. Today was my first ride in 10 days and I was going into serious withdrawal.

After checking out the new exhibit at the American Visionary Arts Museum in Baltimore, I drove up to Monkton in Hereford County to do just over 25 milles on the North Central Rail-Trail. From Monkton up past the PA line it's a 2% grade uphill. The last time I rode that grade, it made me crazy to only be able to do 10mph while spinning my guts out on what looks like a perfectly flat trail. Today I intended to control my pace to prevent myself from getting fatigued, so I focused on choosing a gear that would allow a steady, smooth pedal stroke and keep me between 11-13mph. The cross- and headwinds blowing today still left me a bit out of breath, but not as much as if I had been spinning as high a cadence as I usually do.

Coming back down that slight grade was a blast. I shifted up into the big ring, leaned down into the drops, and did a consistent 17-19mph almost the entire way back, which for me is a high speed to maintain. On this part of the ride, I focused more on form and bike handling and really noticed a difference in the way I use the bars now. Back in March, I went from a hybrid with flat bars to a 'cross bike with chicken levers on the flats. For most of this year, I've used the flats and chicken levers a lot, probably because it was such a similar position to the old bike. Now, I'm finding with my new Salsa Poco bars that I feel much more control of the bike on the hoods and in the drops, and less on the flats. I still feel more I get more braking power from the chicken levers, so I'm wondering if next spring I should look for shift/brake levers that are easier to reach.

It's been fun getting more serious about my riding this year. Every single ride is an opportunity to work on improving my form and skills, or to consider more ways to customize my pony. And, I hit 900 miles on the odometer today, which is way more than I expected to do this year. Only a few more rides, and I could easily hit 1000 miles