When life gives me lemons I say f@#k lemons.
It was just one of those weekends where I knew on Friday my riding opportunities would be limited. I either had a family commitment or the chance of treatening rain that was going to put a serious constraint on my ride time. Saturday I managed to drop The Boy off at the airport for his volunteer duty at 6:50am, and then headed over to Rennaisance Park to get there as the Mr Man was unlocking the gate at 6:59am. I was on my bike by 7:04am, and I went out as hard as I could trying to squeeze out three laps in about an hour and a half. That early in the morning I felt like the Jane Goodall of the bunny world as I was sharing the trails with the long eared urban locals trying to munch on their breakfast in peace. I will admit that I did stop and take the time to adjust an old technical rock line that seemed to have been unused since I had last been there (has it been a year?), but for the most part I stayed on the gas the whole time. Why? When I got home I had about nine minutes to shower, put on some fresh duds, make a peanut butter sammich, and head out the door for The Fajita's soccer game.
Later that afternoon I considered going out for round two, but Stabby couldn't make it, and I couldn't motivate myself to go out again. A lackluster sleep due to allergies the night before had me drooling on myself on the couch around 4:00pm. Maybe I'd get a ride in Sunday....
When I woke up it looked like my front yard had been dumped on all night. That meant no dirt for me, and with the possibility of rain all day I needed some motivation to get on my bike at some point. I decided that later that afternoon I would ride the Berserker Boredom Killer in the rain out to REI to get a patchkit for my Thermarest. When I got home from the family related entertainment activity around 2:47pm I read on the interweb that parts of Charlotte had been spared from the previous night's rain. I was out the door at 2:55pm in full scramble mode to try to get in three dirt laps at Francis Beatty before I had to report home for veggie burgers around 5:00pm (and also before the imminent rain started dumping outta the sky).
I could feel the effects of yesterday's anaerobic effort all over, and I had a lot of body parts that weren't too thrilled that we were going at it again. I did take the time to ride the log ride, the skinny/high bridge, and the rock drop (a product of my brain), but most of the time I was on the gas. On my second lap I was pushing the pace trying to catch someone I could see on the trail ahead of me as we were twisting and turning through the woods. I had the gap down to about 10-15 seconds, but as I was rounding a high speed corner I didn't see the seven inch high stump on the inside of the corner I was pedaling through. Cross country speed riding means cross country speed crashing, and the little stob of wood grabbed my pedal and stopped my bike leaving my body to deal with all the leftover momentum. I was over the bars and rolling in the dirt faster than you could say "Hey, look at that noobie who just wrecked on a flat corner!". I leapt up, straightened my stem, and hopped back on trying to ignore the throbbing in my knee and shoulder, but I never caught my "competition". I did have to go back to the car to fix my now rubbing front brake, and then I made my way out for one more lap at a slightly more relaxed pace (after remebering that I am supposed to refrain from injuring myself the week before PMBAR).
I'm not so sure that three hours of all out effort spread out over two days is what I should be doing at this point in the year, but four to six hour jaunts are hard to come by nowadays. It just seems like there's too much going on to sneak out on the kind of rides that increase endurance, so I'll just be happy to take what I can get.
Riding all out on Saturday made me a little more aware of my position, so I made a change on Saturday night that may have been for the better. More about that later.
Later that afternoon I considered going out for round two, but Stabby couldn't make it, and I couldn't motivate myself to go out again. A lackluster sleep due to allergies the night before had me drooling on myself on the couch around 4:00pm. Maybe I'd get a ride in Sunday....
When I woke up it looked like my front yard had been dumped on all night. That meant no dirt for me, and with the possibility of rain all day I needed some motivation to get on my bike at some point. I decided that later that afternoon I would ride the Berserker Boredom Killer in the rain out to REI to get a patchkit for my Thermarest. When I got home from the family related entertainment activity around 2:47pm I read on the interweb that parts of Charlotte had been spared from the previous night's rain. I was out the door at 2:55pm in full scramble mode to try to get in three dirt laps at Francis Beatty before I had to report home for veggie burgers around 5:00pm (and also before the imminent rain started dumping outta the sky).
I could feel the effects of yesterday's anaerobic effort all over, and I had a lot of body parts that weren't too thrilled that we were going at it again. I did take the time to ride the log ride, the skinny/high bridge, and the rock drop (a product of my brain), but most of the time I was on the gas. On my second lap I was pushing the pace trying to catch someone I could see on the trail ahead of me as we were twisting and turning through the woods. I had the gap down to about 10-15 seconds, but as I was rounding a high speed corner I didn't see the seven inch high stump on the inside of the corner I was pedaling through. Cross country speed riding means cross country speed crashing, and the little stob of wood grabbed my pedal and stopped my bike leaving my body to deal with all the leftover momentum. I was over the bars and rolling in the dirt faster than you could say "Hey, look at that noobie who just wrecked on a flat corner!". I leapt up, straightened my stem, and hopped back on trying to ignore the throbbing in my knee and shoulder, but I never caught my "competition". I did have to go back to the car to fix my now rubbing front brake, and then I made my way out for one more lap at a slightly more relaxed pace (after remebering that I am supposed to refrain from injuring myself the week before PMBAR).
I'm not so sure that three hours of all out effort spread out over two days is what I should be doing at this point in the year, but four to six hour jaunts are hard to come by nowadays. It just seems like there's too much going on to sneak out on the kind of rides that increase endurance, so I'll just be happy to take what I can get.
Riding all out on Saturday made me a little more aware of my position, so I made a change on Saturday night that may have been for the better. More about that later.
So, when are you going to announce the winner of the cold beer competition? Dry ice? Frozen coozies? Alien technology? WTF are you going to do to keep your Keystone Light cold? (Comment this)