short christmas ride

after opening gifts i had just enough time to squeeze in a short ride before christmas dinner. (read: i was allowed to have 45 minutes only!!!) i raced around the main portion of vickie's loop. (see yesterday's post.) i enjoyed most of it. my legs felt better climbing today and i didn't try the really nasty one on papermill road. i did, of course, have to conquer beech hill. there's no riding here without taking on beech hill. i turned on to beech hill feeling good and climbed hard. i climbed around 11mph rather than the 8mph i was doing just yesterday. it was a wonderful 40 degrees out with just a little mist in the air. the roads were wet, but not icy. still, i held back just a bit on the descents. didn't want my center of gravity flying off the bike. a good ride...my fastest since arriving here in delaware. (11.92 miles @ 15.8mph)