Self Esteem Hill Stomps.

Wednesday's ride was a good one for self esteem. Grumpy Jay and I went to Great Falls and Riverbend to ride some hills. I hadn't had the chance to bump up the gearing on my monkey after Big Bear, so I was still pushing a smaller gear. That helped me keep my pace up a little on the climbs. I needed that. My goal was to work my lungs as hard as I could for 60-80 minutes. I hoped in the process that my legs would get some work too.

That is exactly what happened. J and I took turns leading up the climbs. His pace was naturally faster than mine, but I managed to hang on his wheel. When we got to the long climb out of great falls into Riverbend, I hung on his wheel up the steep part and then moved past for the rest of the climb. It was nice to set the pace a little, even though it was slower that what J could have done.

There are a few trails in Riverbend that are okay to ride down when it is wet. They're a bit too steep to try and ride up since you'd dig in and cause damage if you spun your wheels. We did all the fun ones on the way down.

The parks folks at Riverbend are in the process of armoring the trail along the river. they've picked a line pretty far back from the waters' edge and have been trucking in tons of rock to make it very firm. Though it isn't very interesting to ride on, it is GREAT to have there because it gives you access to a relatively gradual line up the ridge.

I took the armored and rocky trails up the climb to the road. There is a small section that is hard packed dirt to the point where the little bit of rain didn't loosen it up at all. That area is getting a little rough, but is still very ridable.

We rode back down the doubletrack into great falls and rolled through the park. It was good to relax a little and talk with J about things. We've both been stupid busy of late and that has limited the time that we have to just hang out.

Then the big climb came. I'd pushed hard on all the previous climbs, so my legs were starting to feel it a bit as were my lungs. I managed to stay with Jay up most of it. He eased up a little at the top because he didn't know what I had in mind for the final part of the climb. It was great for me to chase him up the hills and work it. I honestly think I'd be faster on that climb with a bigger gear. I guess I'll find that out soon enough.

The end result was that I had a great ride and worked pretty hard on some of the hills. It confirmed that I still have a bit of recovery left to do after Big Bear. It also confirmed that I need to get a lot more rest than I've had this week. I hate riding when I haven't had enough sleep. My body just doesn't want to do what I have in mind for it.

Thanks for a great ride, J. I can't wait to do it again soon.

Pete

The 24 Hours of Big Bear

You've probably read WAY too much about logistical stuff. I'll talk about other things. ;)

Both Chris and I had to work on Friday. I really wasn't looking forward to getting home from work, packing up, then driving 3.5 hours to West Virginia, setting up camp in the dark and getting to bed by midnight the night before a 24-hour race. So I didn't. :D

I checked with the team and they were cool about Chris and I getting up early on Saturday and heading up. Chris was a trooper to drag himself out of bed at 0-dark-30 to be on the road. Chicken bisquits at GFC (God-Fearin' Chicken -- our nick name for Chick-fil-A) made the drive up a little better. The only bummer was that we didn't get to hang out with the team, or the other Bike Doctor Kent Island team that we shared a camping area with. We got to hang out a little as the race went on, but I swear, I only saw David for a few moments when I handed off the batton to him each lap.

I was going to write up my whole summary of the weekend, but that would be a bit redundant. Lets skip to the highlights.

Wayne, David and Jason picked out and set up the PERFECT Camp site. You guys ruled! Sorry that We didn't get to hang with you Friday night. I missed that, but needed the extra time at home.

My friend JoeP hit the nail on the head when he said that the best thing about this race was the vibe. People ask my why I'm starting back racing after 13 years off. It is because the people involved in these races are just fantastic. If you ever want to see the best side of someone, go to a 24 hour mountain bike race with them. I was camping with 2 folks that had never raced before. They both commented that the event was great because EVERYONE was really cool.

My laps were great. Lap 1 was fast. I knew the course was rolling and fast for the first 6 miles, then pretty grueling and challenging the last 7 miles. I decided to go fast on the first half, then tough it out on the last half. This was the first lap. I knew it would be my fastest. I wanted to do it right. In the middle of the long double-track climb, I stopped to help a guy who'd broken his chain. He didn't have a power link and was trying to use a chain tool that he'd never worked before. I got the chain set up right for him, then gave him a power link so that he could put it back together agian. I lost a little time, but I managed to stay ahead of the folks that I'd passed earlier in the lap. I honestly don't think it slowed me down because when I started up again, I had renewed energy and I went fast for the next few miles to make up the time I'd lost. The big climb was brutal. I figured early that this would be my kryptonite for the weekend. I rode up to the steep part, hiked a little, then hopped back on. I walked the last half of the big rock garden. It was too slick to ride. I stopped for a second a little after that to move a turtle off the trail. He was trucking along heading for disaster. I moved him further along in the direction he was going and well off the trail. All in all, it was an easy, fast lap. My cycle computer had my time at 1:33. I think the race timing had me a little slower than that... 1:36. I was pretty dogged when I pulled into the tent to hand off to David. I spazzed the hand off. David got me to relax and do what I needed to do. I cleaned up, ate 2 boca burgers, 3 pbj's and 2 bottles of recovery drink. I took a nap.

Laura showed up around 8:30pm. She drove up because she remembered how miserable we all looked at the last race. She remember how great it was to have her moral support there. She is absolutely amazing. It was so great to have her there. She took a nap with me before I went out for my second lap. I got up, changed into cycling clothes and got my lights set for my lap. Laura had a paper due this week that she was working on. I told her that we were doing just fine, and that she should head home to work on her paper. She took off around 11, just before I headed out for lap 2.

Lap 2 was tough. The night laps always are. The course got a lot muddier. The rocks and roots were as slick as snot. It was humid enough that glasses fogged easily. The temperature dropped quite a bit. The winter jersey and leg warmers were just the thing to keep me warm. I backed off a bit to ride safely. The steep downhill was tough, but a lot of fun. I had one easy fall on the back side of the course. There was a rock that I didn't see and I ended up just walking over the handlebars. I was moving too fast for my feet to catch up, so I just tucked and rolled. I got my elbow dirty. That was the only damage. I walked more of the big climb. Everything else went well, though a bit slower. I stopped and helped a guy who'd fallen. He was trying to get back on the bike before he had his whits about him. I made him walk around for a few minutes to let his nerves calm down. He mellowed and said he'd stand there for a few more minutes before riding agian. He encouraged me to go on since some folks were coming up the hill that I'd passed 10 minutes earlier. I saw him at the end of the lap and he was fine. My time was 1:49 by my computer.

It was 2:30am now. I was too hopped up to sleep at that point. I cleaned up, put on dry, warm clothes, grabbed my camera and headed for the bridge. I snapped photos for 30 minutes and talked with my friend DT. He was just heading out for another lap. It was nice to hang out and be mellow. I ate 2 more boca burgers and 4 pbjs. I washed them down with two more bottles of recovery drink and at least a liter of water. They were giving away bananas and oranges to racers. I had 2 oranges and 4 bananas. I went back to camp and slept out in the open on Chris' air mattress. I don't sleep well in tents. I like being out in the open. It was a lot colder, but my sleeping back was fine.

Chris woke me up at 7:30am to get ready for my third lap. I ate breakfast, drank a bit and changed into riding clothes. I got up there early to get the hand-off from Jason. Wayne was just getting in for the other Bike Doctor team. Vince, the guy who was supposed to go out after him, wasn't in the starting area. I sent Chris to find him. He ended up being 17 minutes late. OOPS. That is VERY easy to do on these things. Wayne did a great lap. I met him there just as he came in. Here's what a freaking trooper he is. His first thought when he found out that Vince wasn't there, was "Should I go out for another lap?" What a great guy! I told him to hang loose and that Vince would be there soon. He made it in about 6 minutes before Jason did.

I took off on my third lap and chased like hell to catch Vince. He's a fast rider and I worked my tail off to catch him. I took a little time out of the gap between us, but didn't get close to catching him. My fun on the third lap was chasing this guy in a Specialized jersey. I first saw him at the end of mile 1. He was off in the distance. I told myself I wanted to catchup. There were some parts of the course where I was faster. I'd get within 20 meters of him before we'd get to a section that he rode faster. He'd pull away and go out of site. I'd battle back and get close, then he'd go off into the distance again. I finally managed to catch him just before the base of the steep climb. I rode in front of him for 1/2 mile before he managed to pass me again. I stayed close till the last mile, then I lost him. I also had a great ride with a guy named Steve. He was doing much the same thing with me. He'd catch me and pass me, then I'd pass him back. I ended up finishing ahead of him.

The funniest part of my race laps happened before the big climb on my third lap. I'd been riding as hard as I could. I really wanted to get back in time for David to do a good lap and send us out for one more lap at the end of the race. There was a woman who was FLYING along. She passed me and I went with her for a while. We went back and forth like that for a while. We talked a little, but generally were pushing each other to go faster and finish off strong. I know this is kind-of disgusting, but I really had to pass gas in the worst sort of way. It is incredibly rude to do so when someone is following you closely on the bike. It isn't much nicer to do so within earshot, which I would have most definitely been if I was right behind her. Luckily for me, unluckily for her, she slipped on a root and tipped over. I made sure she was okay. She encouraged me to go on, she said she was going to take her time getting back on her bike. She was fine, I took off. I finally got 20 or 30 yards away from her and let loose my fart. It felt good. I then heard her call from way back "I heard that!!!!" and she laughed. I somehow managed to yell back a "Sorry" while I laughed and rode off on the course.

In the end, my third lap wasn't fast enough. My computer had me in in 1:39 and I needed much better than that to get us out for one more lap. David did a KILLER last lap. This was his 4th lap when the rest of us had only done 3. He pulled off a killer lap and managed to pass one of the teams that we'd been battling with the whole race. We'd been as much as 30 minutes down on them. In the end, we beat them by 24 seconds.

We rode hard and had a ton of fun. The best thing was that we had a great team dynamic. We each have our strengths. We all are very different personalities. Somehow we all managed to mesh. Thanks a ton to my team mates and to the guys on the other Bike Doctor team. Thanks goes out to all of the folks I ride with from time to time who were there at the race. Y'all made it a fantastic race.


Thanks to all for a great weekend.

Pete

Getting an education while not getting schooled.

I had a great ride last night. After the 24 hours of Big Bear race last weekend, I was going to take a day off. With temps in the low 70s and hardly a cloud in the sky, I just couldn't keep the bike in the basement.

At 6:20 I found myself rolling into the Wakefield parking lot for JoeP's monday night rides. Joe's great on these rides. He does a neat mix of pushing the pace for the group while being laid back and relaxed about what we all need out of the ride.

Last week I did everything wrong before this ride. This week, I was a little better. My eating was right. I had prepared in the morning so I wasn't rushing around like an idiot. Though I wasn't recovered from the race over the weekend, I felt pretty darn good for a Monday.

Joe, David, Mark, Walt (dang I hope that is the guys name.... I've ridden with him 100 times and I still forget his name -- He's got a HUGE red truck and he's a fireman.) and I headed out at a pretty good clip. That's when my education began.

Mark was riding his Ironhorse Sunday downhill rig. He'd raised the saddle and put a slightly smaller chianring on it, but it was still a 40 pound DH bike. He rode it like it was an XC bike. That is a testament to two things... Mark's abilities on a bike, and the pedaling platform on the Ironhorse. I pedaled it around the parking lot and it felt AWESOME! It was, however, truly amazing that Mark rode it with such agility and speed. He lofted it up stairs and over logs as though it was a 22 pound XC race bike. Amazing.

I followed him and watched his lines. I loved watching him pre-load the suspension and then launch up a short flight of 4 steps at the base of the switchback in Accotink. He didn't touch a single stair. He floated the bike over 18" log stacks as though they weren't even there.

Here's what I learned in Mark's riding class last night. He gets the front wheel over a log at speed, then pushes it down as he's lifting the rear wheel over the log. It is a many-step process that, when done right, becomes one fluid motion. The cool thing is that it is FAST FAST FAST. It insures that the back wheel gets up enough that you don't end up riding a front wheel unicycle for 10 feet off the back of the log.

After following Mark for a while, it was time for my next class. I got on to JoeP's wheel and noticed that he was hopping logs much the same way. That was cool to see. I started messing with it, and though I certainly am not as smooth as either of those guys, I've got the technique down for smaller logs. We'll slowly build up the size of the log stacks over the next few weeks/months.

What I really picked up from Joe is how smooth he is. My transitions from seated to standing climbing always feel labored. I always feel like I'm hesitating a split second. Joe has none of that. After following him for 30 minutes or so, I think I figured out how he does it. First off, he's off the saddle earlier than I am. It is hard to tell because he's running different gearing than I am. I'm pushing a smaller gear. But he's out of the saddle before his cadence drops too much. I let my cadence get down pretty low before I get may butt up off the saddle. Part of that is that my legs can put out pretty good power even when seated (not that Joe can't). I tried getting out earlier and it felt a little smoother. I think I need to find a point somewhere between where Joe gets out of the saddle and where I normally do.

The other thing I noticed about Joe's riding is his position on the bike. His back is usually relatively flat when he's out of the saddle. He's using his whole body to climb and doing it smoothly. When the going gets rough, I tend to go a bit more upright and torque like hell. It isn't pretty and it probably isn't near as efficient. I have to work more to keep my hips back to keep traction on the rear wheel. I found that bending my elbows used more bicep than tricep for climbing, which is a good thing for me. It kept my center of gravity low for better and faster reactions to stuff on the trail, and it shifted my hips back to weight the back tire while keeping my head forward to weight the front tire.

You kind-of have to see what I'm talking about to understand it. As me the next time we ride and I'll show you what I'm talking about.

Here's the cool part about this... I've been riding these silly mountain bike contraptions for a long freaking time. It'll be 20 years this fall. I learn something from people EVERY ride.

Thanks guys! I can't wait till next Monday.

Pete

Can Anything Else go Wrong????? and Cat Toys.

A better question is, could I care less that everything has gone wrong so far?

Lets just say that I've been walking funny lately because I feel like I've been prison loved by life (not that there's anything wrong with a little prison love now and then.) ;)

Here's the cool thing. I did a little life simplification, spent a little really cool time with my wife, did 10 things for other people that I didn't have to and they weren't expecting, and I played with my cats as much as is humanly possible in the last 8 days. The end result is that I could care less how things are going in other parts of my life. I've done all I can to make those things come out right. I am continuing to do all I can. I've finally got a little grounding and that makes me feel like I can deal with it all.

Thanks to all the people in my life that have knowingly or not knowingly helped me turn things around. If you're reading this, then you probably contributed. The little things pulled me through.

On another note, if you've got cats that are very playful, let me suggest a toy. As you may know, Gracie and Mao (now about 15 months old) are two of the most playful kittens in the entire world. We just raise them that way. With me in the house, pretty much anytime is play time (that goes for humans too). It was Laura's birthday last week and she got some of those mylar helium balloons. They had a long ribbon on them and a heart shaped plastic thing at the end that keeps them from flying away.

When they first came in the house, Gracie and Mao's eye's got HUGE! Neither one could contain themselves. They were both spinning circles beneath the balloons, looking up at them and meowing their fool heads off. We let the balloons loose and sat back to watch the hyjinks.

Mao jumped up on furniture and dove off it to try to get to his balloon. He ran and jumped and did everything he could to get to it with no avail. Gracie kind of sat back and watched this. She took a more cerebrial approach (as always). After one attempted jump (she missed by 2'), she stood next to the plastic weight and stepped on the ribbon. She took another step, pressing the ribbon down again with her front paws. She then walked across the living room, stepping on the ribbin each time. The balloon got lower and lower and lower. Mao went nuts. She stood on the ribbon while Mao jumped and batted at the balloon. He had a great time!!!

After 20 minutes, he finally got tired and went off to watch birds. Gracie then proceeded to play punching bag with her balloon for quite some time. She'd let it fly up, then trap it again. She grabbed the ribbon and ran around the house with the ballooon trailing after her. This drove Mao into play-frenzie #2. He Chased after the balloon, trying to jump and grab it as Gracie did laps around the kitchen. He finally launched off the table and grabbed it mid air. He landed ontop of it on the floor and it kind of bounced him off. He was stunned momentarily before he got up and took up the chase again.

Eventually Laura and I went off to do other things. The cats slept well that night. One balloon survived the night. It survived the next night too. and the next. It took a full week before the last balloon was punctured.

Now the cats are waiting for us to bring home another balloon for them to play with. I may get them a regular balloon just to see what they do when they pop it.

Sorry for babbling on so long about the kittens. They're great and a perfect source of happiness for me.

Pete

Einstein goes for a mountain bike ride.

Any day that you ride is a good day. What a crock of shit! Just kidding. I really think that is true... riding is always better than not riding. Lets just say that some rides are better than others.

Yesterday was one of the others. It was a textbook example of what NOT to do when you go on a ride. I hadn't eaten since breakfast, so I wolfed down 2 PBJs before heading out on the trails. I washed them down with Extran hoping that would help my energy level. It did for the first 30 minutes, then I just wanted to take a nap. All the blood was rushing to my stomach to digest the PBJs and nothing was running to my legs or brain. (The last part is nothing new... My brain has been oxygen starved for years).

I also ignored my own advice. I ALWAYS set up my rides so that I get a warm-up, ride and then warm-down. That is how I ride the best. I didn't do that. JoeP was leading the monday night group and I went out with them. They had what I call a Baptism by fire warm-up. It was WAY too fast for what I needed... especially on a recovery day. I don't blame joe at all. His pace was perfect for all the other guys. I just had a bad combination of things going on that prevented me from riding the way I'd like to.

In addition to this, I lost my favorite glasses and fell on my butt while trying to go up a hill. I bonked hard and the ONLY thing that saved the end of my ride was hanging out with Brian, Mark and Rick and riding back in the pouring rain.

Einstein I am definitely not. I did manage to have fun and my bike is really clean now. I guess I can learn from my mistakes.

Thanks Joe for leading a fun ride. I did horribly at it, but I did manage to have fun in the end. I'll ride with you guys again when I have a chance to warm up before heading out. I'll do much better at keeping up at that point.

Take care,

Pete

My math sucks!

Greetings inhabitants of the planet earth.

In case anyone out there hadn't figured it out yet, I'm an idiot. I've been goofing around with gearing on my single speed for a while. I was a bit limited by the parts that are available to me. I was really limited by my complete inability to calculate gear ratios properly.

I've been bouncing back and forth between 32x21 and 34x21. For some reason, I thought 34x21 was somewhere in between 32x21 and 32x20. When I finally plugged in the numbers, I found that 34x21 is actually a little bigger than 32x20. While it doesn't look like a lot, when I was somehow thinking that it was a little smaller, the difference is something I can feel. Here's now the numbers work out:

32x21= 1.52/1
32x20= 1.6/1
34x21= 1.62/1

With the increase in wheel size that I get by riding a 29er, the 32x20 is really close to the 32x18 that I used to run on my 26er bike. That is probably where I need to be. For now I'm going to stick with 32x21. I'll bump up to the 20 tooth cog when it arrives in a week or two.

To give an idea of what it means to me riding, I'm a lot faster with the 32x21. I rode Fountainhead Saturday and Sunday. Saturday I rode with 34x21. My lap times were 61 and 67 minutes (parking lot to parking lot). I found there were a bunch of sections that I just didn't have the power to crank up. I actually could have cranked up them, but I'd have been so spent at the top, that it would have hurt me for the rest of the lap.

Sunday I rode the exact same lap with the 32x21 gear. I rode a 57:30 lap. I hiked a lot less. There are basically three hill sections at fountainhead that I just can't make it up if I'm out for speed. Two of them are hills that I'm not sure I could make it up even if I were taking my time. I have no problem with a geary bike, but I haven't been able to crank up them with the SS yet. Maybe someday.

Sorry for blathering on.

Pete

Multi-tasking...

Okay, I just had a serious lesson in multitasking.

I thought I was pretty good at multitasking, but I just got seriously schooled while in the bathroom today. I'm standing at the urinal doing what comes naturally, and this guy walks up to the urinal next to me. I don't break the code of silence or eye contact, but I can't help but notice what happens.

He's just started the process of peeing and the vibrator goes off on his blackberry signifying that he's got mail. He grabs his blackberry, navigates with the jog dial, then starts typing a response. Yup. he's still peeing. He takes a brief moment of concentrating on typing and peeing to spit in the urinal.

I'm amazed. I wanted to shake the guys hand (after we both finished washing them of course). I just said, "Dang you're good at multi-tasking." He laughed.

If it were me, I would have dropped my blackberry in the urinal, spit on my dick and peed on my shoes.

Have a nice day.

Pete

Looking for a deeper meaning.

As Jason will undoubtably tell me, bad things happen when I listen to Lucy. This is an example of that.

There are some songs that just have to have a deeper meaning. They can't be as simple as they appear. I'm imagining a whole cult following for a particular song... with thousands of members who laugh at the rest of us who rush to change the channel when this song comes on. Or even worse... they laugh, knowing that some of us listen to the song, almost enjoying it... but not understanding the deeply subversive meaning behind the seemingly harmless and inane lyrics.

Well I finally found the web site for this sinister cult.

I don't know who Nina and Pom are... I'm sure they're criminal masterminds waiting to unliesh their fieldish plan upon an unsuspecting world along with the 3 other fans that the band "Wheatus" has. I'm thinking of joining their group, just so I have a chance of surviving. I've already got the song loaded in my Ipod. I'm searching for the subliminal messages and subtle double entendres. I haven't found any yet, but I will.

And here is the song...

"Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus

Her name is Noel-
I have a dream about her.
She rings my bell-
I got gym class in half an hour.
And oh how she rocks-
In Keds and tube socks.
But she doesn't know who I am-
And she doesn't give a damn--about me.

*CHORUS* Cause I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby.
Yeah I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby.
Listen to Iron Maiden baby--with me
Ooohoo Hoo Hooooooo

Her boyfriend's a dick
He brings a gun to school
And he'd simply kick my ass if he knew the truth
He lives on my block
He drives an Iroc
he doesn't know who I am
And he doesn't give a damn about me.

*CHORUS* Oh yeah--dirtbag
No, she doesn't know what she's missing.
Oh yeah--dirtbag
No, she doesn't know what she's missing.

Man I feel like mold-
It's prom night and I am lonely.
Low and behold-
She's walking over to me.
This must be fake-
My lip starts to shake.
How does she know who I am?
And why does she give a damn about . . .

*interupting song she said:* "I've got tickets to Iron Maiden baby.
Come with me Friday- don't say maybe.
I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby-- like you . . .

Ooohoo Hoo Hooooooo" Oh yeah-dirtbag
No, she doesn't know what she's missing.
Oh yeah-dirtbag
No, she doesn't know what she's missing

Making Hummer owners feel good about the gas mileage they get..

Okay, I think pretty much anyone who knows me is familiar with my dislike of big SUVs. There are some people that genuinely need an SUV and a few that need a big one, but it freaking pisses me off that Hummer owners not only get less than 10 mpg as they tool around town, but they also get a big tax break for owning one of these (and successfully bypass the gas guzzler tax) by purchasing the vehicle for their business. Since it weighs over 8000 pounds, it qualifies as an industrial vehicle, and thus is exempt from the gas guzzler tax and some emissions requirements.

As the title implies, I found something worse. I talked to the owner of a GMC 4500 industrial truck that he has converted into a pickup. He took the bed off of a big GMC dually truck and fit it on the back. It had to be wideneed significantly to fit on.

I asked the guy how he used his truck. His answer amazed me. He uses it for commuting. He's never carried anything in the back of it in the 10 months he's owned it. He'd be hard pressed to get anything in the back of it because the bottom of the bed is almost 6' off the ground. He's not sure how much stuff he could put in the bed anyways since he had to widen it and isn't so sure how strong it is. The bed is mostly for looks. He also said he wouldn't want to put a bunch of stuff back there because it would scratch the paint. He's in the process of getting custom wheels made for it. He's found someone who'll make 26" wheels for him. He's not sure there are tires that will be able to handle the weight of the truck though. He might just have those for shows and riding around on the weekends, then go back to the stock wheels for during the week.

I'm not sure if you can imagine how big this truck is. I asked him what his last truck was. He had the biggest of the GMC SUVs. I asked how this compared. He said his new truck is 7' longer, seats 7 adults comfortably in the 2 rows of seats. He's getting ready to install an audio and video system in it.

I didn't get a photo of it. I went out to GMC's web site and found a picture of what it looked like when he purchased it.

Here you go.



I gotta get me one of these... or two! :/

Pete

Jason's blackside...

Well I've already embarassed him enough by using that title for this entry. I won't attach any adjectives to his backside. I will, however, say that I saw a lot of it tonight.

I chased Jason around Fountainhead tonight. I won't delude myself into thinking that myself into thinking that I was keeping up with his fast stuff, but I did have fun chasing him on the hills and sorta keeping him in site. Luckily I've got really good eyes and he was wearing bright colors. ;)

I started feeling a *little* better tonight. I took the geared monkey out tonight for a ride. I need to put more rides in on it before we ride in the 24 hour race at Big Bear. I counted tonight and even though I've had the bike for just short of 3 months now, tonight was only the 8th ride on the bike. It was also the second ride in Virginia.

Back to Fountainhead. Jason was riding really well tonight. I let Brian and James follow him at the beginning and I kinda hung back with Corey. As I warmed up, I felt like I could pick up the pace a little. I certainly wasn't in Jason's league, but I felt good on the climbs and I kept him in site for the rest of the ride.

The really fun stuff was all the roots and rocks. I know Brian was wishing he could get past me to let loose on the descents, but I had a damn fun time riding the bucking bronco that the monkey becomes on some of those big roots and rocks. My shoulder didn't complain a bit.

As a quick side note, DAMN THE NEW TRAILS ARE GREAT!!!! The cool thing is that they're only going to get better. As they ride in a bit more, the roots and rocks will work their way up and the trail will get all ripply and bumpy like much of the rest of the trail.

I'll also make a comment about how much fun the rigid 29er is on those trails. There are plenty of sections where it is rooty and rocky and you still need to be putting some power down. The cool thing is that you can just lift off the saddle a little and let the bike float underneath you as you pedal through the rough sections. It is a cool feeling. It is like there's a lot of dancing going on under you as your elbows and knees soak up the bumps, but the upper body feels smooth and level as you pedal through. Cool feeling.

Thanks guys for a great ride.

Pete

Something from a while back that I totally forgot about...

When we were in St. George, Jason and I ate at the Village Inn Pancake House every day. We did in Grand Junction too. The place is so good that I can't imagine starting a big ride day out west without stuffing myself with pancakes ahead of time.

I noticed this at the St. George Village Inn. I thought it was hillarious.



I want to be a frequent pier when I grow up!!!!

Eat 6 pies at one time? BRILLIANT!

Pete

My new cycling helmet...

As promised, I finally got my phone working right.



I'm thinking this is definitely a look that is going to catch on. Just remember where you saw it first. ;)

Pete