This Season Needs an Enema

This has been an odd race season thus far.  Typically, I'd have at least twice as many races under my belt at this time and I'd still be bitching and moaning about my lack of fitness.  This year I've cut back on the races for a couple of reasons.  1. I'm trying to not let my racing dictate my family's summer. 2. my schedule this season has been crazy with stuff happening constantly (like finding out yesterday that I have to go to an impromptu wedding this saturday!). 

All that said, I still felt like things were progressing at a slow and steady pace and, on the upside, with so little riding and racing happening, there was ZERO chance of burnout happening.  But then, my bike exploded, we got a ton of rain and then I picked up a lovely little bug that has kept me sidelined for the last couple of days.  Two weeks have passed with two days of riding and I can feel what little fitness I had slowly fading away.  Bah.

The good news is that I didn't do an impressive endo on a bridge last week and drive my face and shoulder into the ground like my buddy scott.  He gets a 2 month riding vacation as he waits for his various injuries to heal, including a torn UCL, smashed face and broken thumb.  Heal up fast Scott! So, it's time to stick a rubber hose attached to a water canon up the business end of this season and flush all of the shit out. I'll be sure to take photos.

Finding a New Home 

You know you have to spend more time with your kid when she starts getting cozy with the mannequins in the store.

Headless daddy.

are you my mommy?

close enough

I also sent the Dos Niner off to a new home over the weekend.  She was a good friend but hasn't seen use in a few years so it was time to part ways (along with most of the parts from my beloved selma).  Hopefully doesn't leave her outside of his home in Manch-vegas to be stolen by a meth head. 

No riding happened over the weekend, instead I busted my ass working essentially from sun up to sundown on Saturday building our new chicken run (I guess I should post a picture of that so that I'd at least have something) and then spent Sunday morning scrambling to finish building up the Dos for when we met up around noon. In reality, it was a nice (albeit, a bit busy)weekend spent with the family and friends. Unfortunately, though, as I went to bed last night, a sore throat was developing and woke up with a horrid scratchyness. You know you have a sore throat when all you dream about all night is drinking glasses of ice water. Brutal.

Because of the sore throat, I skipped the morning run and did some trail work instead and a quick raking of one trail section turned into the creation of almost 1/4 mile of new trail. I still need to clip the shit out of it but the beginnings of the trail are there and my sore hands are here to prove it.

Smitten Again 

This spring my buddy Kevin and I had come to terms to sell him my El Mariachi frame, fork, stem and bars for $125. A number I felt was kinda low but a good friend deal. Eventually, though Kevin changed his mind and I was "stuck" with two single speeds again.  Last week, after the Carbon-opolise, I hastily swapped a bunch of parts over to the Mariachi so I'd have a back-up bike for the father's day weekend camping adventure.  Then, on Saturday, I went out for a 2-hour hill fest with Kevin on the Mariachi (my first real single speed ride in over a year) and couldn't have been happier.  Sure, I was being immensely punished by the rigid fork on some of the relentless rooty trails but I was able to climb just about everything and riding single again allowed my manliness coefficient to tick up another notch or two (pretty important since my daughter almost caught me shaving my legs in the tub the other day.  at least I had already turned off the Kenny G and blown out the candle).  It's only 5 weeks (egad!) before single speed usa so it's about time I get serious about not sucking on this bike.

Sure am glad I hung onto the old girl.

ever wonder what power bar energy blasts look like after going through

 a wash/dry cycle?  well, wonder no longer.  they were probably 

still edible-ish but I couldn't bring myself to eat more than a nibble.

Father's Day Weekend

For father's day weekend this year, we decided to camp at Bradbury State Park for two nights with a small group of friends and a pile of kids.  The "plan" originally was to get to the park on Friday, go for a mountain bike ride, camp Friday night, ride Saturday and then get up at the butt crack of dawn Sunday and make the trek to New Hampster for the Pinnacle.  The Pinnacle is a super fun race, and one I've sworn to do every year but, with our camping trip and my "issues" last week with the King Kahuna, I decided I'd just lay low and hang with the fam all weekend instead and I'm glad I did.  Without the stress of a race and super early departure on Sunday, I was able to do and drink as I'd like all day Saturday.  That'll cure your missing a race blues right quick.

One thing that I was able to do was get out for a wee little run with my father's day present, a Garmin 110 gps watch.  Saturday I planned a quick 45 minute run just after breakfast but when I got to the trail there was a group of ultra marathoners getting ready to do the second part of their trail run for the day (a couple were planning a 15 mile day) so I hopped on with them for a bit planning to peel off after a little while but once they got talking about where they were going I just had to go along.  Their plan was to head over to the Tryon Mountain area, an area I haven't really dabbled in, so I figured this would be as good a time as any to give it a shot.

One of the new bridges on the Tryon trail

Photo by BenjaminMWilliamson

I ended up with 1.5 hours of running and some extremely sore legs from the approx 2500' of vertical.

This new section of trail opens up lots of possibilities and potentially some linkage to the Yarmouth and Falmouth trail systems but it will take some splorin' to figure it out.

The run was followed by B getting out on her bike for the first time in weeks.  More importantly, she was riding on unpaved surfaces, up and down small hills for the first time ever.  And then, THEN, she hit her first trail ride.  It was short but I was super proud as she rode over rocks and roots.  Now we just have to work on her steering and braking!