Weekday Morning Rides
A bit of retroactive posting here...
before I got all busted up I got into the routine of going up to The Fells for a mountain ride around 9AM, then coming home, throwing the Deuter pack on (like a horse chomping down on the bit of a plow)and spinning to work on the road bike for 45 minutes. This had really reinvigorated my training routine which had become pretty stale as of late. As a dedicated single speed racer I'm starting to feel like this is all I really need, ride the SS for the strength, spin supah-high RPMs on the road bike and work the aerobic capacity. It seemed to work at The Cohutta, I'd never felt better at a 100...until I blew it all to hell on that corner. Now if I could just learn not to ride like I'm trying out for an episode of Jackass.
The above photo is a section of the Fells which I have never been able to clean, gears or no, it's harder than this shot makes it look, trust me, or even better come ride it with me. The only reason I try to ride it at all is because years ago I ran into Matt O'Keefe, (not the stupid-fast XC racer dude, the guy from Seven Cycles). He was out on this crazy contraption called a "Single-Speed", at the time it was pretty whacky. I'd never ridden with Matt so I just followed his wheel...as much I could, he's a Ninja, a Jedi, a Cirque Du Soleil acrobat on the bike. His style is fluid and playful, he floats and hops through the woods like a Thomson's Gazelle, which was a stark contrast to my Bull Moose in the rut charging blindly into every obstacle style. Matt blew through this bit of trail like it was nothing and to this day I cannot figure out how the hell he did it.
My ol' buddy JP came out for one morning ride along with his dog Noka, talk about fluid and playful, damn if I could ride like she runs I wouldn't need a day job. It was a great ride punctuated by a horrifying near emergency room crash. Jp and I were blasting down a fire road at over 30 MPH, dog bounding along behind, he suddenly drifted off the trail to the left down the embankment. To my tear blurred vision it looked as if he was maybe shooting down a trail I didn't know about...nope, he was totally out of control, launching himself into the abyss. I don't know how he pulled it off , but he just kind of skidded (for a long ass time), leapt from his bike, and ran it off, avoiding several trees and pointy rocks. Investigation of his debris footprint revealed that he had initiated the skid before dropping off a three foot stone wall to transition, landing with his rear brake still completely locked. Awesome.
The above photo is of Lyla, she is my niece, she is enjoying a sophisticated lunch comprised of fine cheese and pear. I watch her all day on mondays, I spend the rest of the week looking forward to next monday.
