Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Off, On, and Off Again

Last week saw my riding time greatly diminished, as I had to take 5 exams for school within three days. Good times, right? The timing actually ended up being good though, as it rained nearly every day last week. I was finally able to get out on the road on Saturday. Even better, I managed to pick a good window and dodged all the rain. Being back on the road was a strange feeling, as the dry weather the previous weeks had me trading the skinnies for the fatties at every opportunity. I had planned to do the Tsali SERC race, but the week of rain made for an easy decision to avoid it.


Sunday made for an even better day on the road, with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 70s. I love this time of year. It's that turning point where I don't have to complain about how my body decides my appendages don't need blood anymore or have to worry about my shins turning red because I convince myself I'm too cool for full leg warmers. And it's not yet so oppressively hot that you're soaking wet 10 minutes into a ride or unzipping everything and still melting on all the climbs. Pretty soon I won't even have to think about what to wear. I'll have to figure some other way to waste the 20 minutes I spend before every cool weather ride agonizing over what to wear. For some reason, what I think I should be wearing changes completely with every 5 degrees or so of temperature change. But, thoughts of spring aside, the road ride was quite nice, with a scenic trip out through south Knoxville to Walland, and then a nice climb up Happy Valley and Flats Road, and then back down the parkway. Whoever named Flats Road def has a since of humor, as the grades hit 20% in places.

I wonder which knee got to meet my stem...

A few days of dry weather saw me back on the mountain bike on Tuesday at IC King. The trails were in great condition, all things considered. The ride went well until I broke my chain on the Rig and my right knee got to meet my stem/bars at high speed. Luckily I didn't have too long of a hobble out of the woods. After some serious icing and a good night of sleep, the knee was much better, so hopefully that will all be back to 100% before the Cohutta. Tonight's quick ride on the boulevard wasn't too painful spinning, but I could definitely feel it if I tried to put any real power into the pedals. Looks like I'll be taking it pretty easy for a few days.

In team 29er news, the new jerseys have arrived. Pretty darn sexy if you ask me. (Not that you did, but I'm pretty sure you would have...95...)

2 Comments:

  1. Rachel said...
    Dave,
    I found your blog on the 29'er page!
    Awesome! I will see you at the Cohutta 100! I will be on the geared Paragon...leaving behind my new Rig unfortunately.
    Anyway, good luck and by the way...you can't help it you are so skinny, you are a guy!
    check out our blog...www.rayandsmap.blogspot.com

    Cheers! See you on the start line!
    Rach
    Rachel said...
    Thanks for the comment! You are on my blog officially now!
    See you at the Ocoee tomorrow! I'm getting down there hopefully by 10 to HOPEFULLY get a spot at TR campground. Smap will be coming down later on that evening. I plan on gettind dinner somewhere prior to him getting there. We'll catch up.
    Rach

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