In Love with a 29er

First off Congrats to JZ. Great ride at track Nats.

I must admit I think I'm falling in love with the 29er hardtail I've been lent. I took it for a three hour ride up at 3 Stage on Monday. Even when I was done I didn't feel like I had been on a hardtail for 3hrs.

I had the GPS on while riding and I'm going to try and map out 3 Stage. Could come in handy. There are a couple of sweet downhill sections that I'd like to be able to find a little easier.

Let's keep out fingers crossed for this weekend. Perhaps I'll get a chance to race in nice weather.

Race On

As long as the body says it is willing to race and it doesn't rain, it should be game on at Provincials. I've been lent a 29er hardtail for the race. Going to try and get a couple of rides on it next week to get it all dialed for me.

The plan is simple. Don't die! I think it's a solid race strategy. With limited fitness going into a hilly race, I'm not expecting much.

Racing Delay

Took my race bike out for the first time since March on Friday. Thought I would give it a good ride to check out what needs adjusting or replacing. I couldn't remember anymore. I knew that the crank bearings needed replacing.

Hour and a half ride felt good. Wrist held out nicely. I think I'm ready to try out Kelso. At the back of course.

Gave the bike a quick wash and to my horrifying surprise....There's a crack in the drive side chain stay...The racing plan may not happen now.

It's all about

I found this on Lance's Twitter page. Great vid. Performance.

Recharge

Yesterday seemed like too nice of a day to be cooped up sitting at a desk all day. I managed to wrangle the afternoon off work. Yeah. headed home to grab the road bike for a little personal suffer fest. Ate lunch, picked a loop and headed out the door. Ahh glorious sunshine. Instant sweat! This is how summer should be. Riding in the peak of the heat with the sweat pouring off your face.

I miss judged the distance of my loop, I thought it was 100km. Seems as though it's been too long for the brain since I was on that route last. Turns out it's only 90km. That's ok though. I'll forgive myself.

It wasn't the fastest pace I've ever rode at, but was pretty good for my limited fitness. The best part, my hand only went numb a couple of times. So I think I best try some real MTBing again. Perhaps racing Provincials will happen after all. I think I might try out some of those interval things next week to see if I can't force myself to get a touch bit faster.

Night Riding...Hell Yeah!

It's taken me far too many years to make my decision about getting lights for night riding. After some great examples from Doug @ Bikeface I chose a Sigma PowerLED with the Li-Ion battery. It's not a super bright light, but it's also not very expensive. The other cool part is that it comes with an adapter to run the light off of "AA" batteries as well.

Last night I couldn't take it any more and I went out for a late night ride. I used the helmet mount last night. Once I had the angle set it was great! 45 minutes and a little mud later and I was home and hooked. I'm ready to go out again. This fall is going to be great. No trainer for me until there's snow on the ground!

Storm-Ride-Storm

Congrats to JK for his 3rd place yesterday. I take part credit after making him pull me on our ride on Monday!

I didn't make the trip to Mt View yesterday. I didn't think I was up to sitting in a feed zone with that humidity when I didn't have anyone racing.

After the first storm in the morning was over I decided to take the single speed out for a ride and try out the wrist. It wasn't bad, but the ice like rocks weren't helping the confidence any. The hand is still going numb too. Need to get that looked at.

I had some fun changing my first trail side flat in like 2 years. Note to self, put tubeless on the single speed!

Home safe no new injuries. Then that wicked second storm. I should have taken some video of the sideways rain.

All for now...

Missed the rain again

I have somehow managed to please the Cycling Gods this season. Put in a 3 hr ride on Monday with it threatening rain the whole ride. Only two drops fell on me. This morning it was raining when I woke up. But stopped before I rode to work! Bonus!

The 3hr ride yesterday day was spent mostly on JK's wheel. When I could! Still not quite there in the fitness department. That ride should help immensely though. It was a great ride finished off with a sketchy decent down Scenic Caves. The wind was blowing around something fierce. I decided it was in my best interest to hit the brakes at 83km/h. The illusive 90km/h will have to wait for another day. Perhaps once my fitness is better I would be able to take some pictures while I'm out riding.