Saturday, my parents came over and I got to run out for a ride on Kitsuma. Before leaving, I felt like I hadn't slept good and kinda weary. The trail was in fantastic shape and devoid of any other riders. Tacky, smooth, fast...oh, the joy! At the gate to old Hwy 70, I saw a sign that just made me shake my head in frustration: "Downhill skaters, please use caution!"
Wow! I hate that they paved old 70. It made no sense to me why you would run an ugly strip of black top up an existing concrete road bed and call it a "trail". Just a joke. It takes a 15 foot wide, old concrete road that was perfectly fine and narrows it to an 8 foot wide piece of black, blistering hot eye soar. And now cyclists FLY down it while people with baby strollers push up it in half the corridor at twice the speeds. And now skateboarders are ripping it up. Stupidity and narrow mindedness!
Anyway, the whole ride was so much fun and when I got back to the truck, I felt a little woozy from the effort. At first I thought it was the heat and my hard effort. But when I got home, I hit the shower and everything went downhill. My head, shoulders, eyeballs, neck, back, even my brain ached. I spent the next 36 hours sleeping, tossing and turning, sivering, hurting, showering some more...and sleeping! Just a wicked virus of epic hostility. I'm just starting to feel a little better this morning, even though my eyeballs feel like they're gonna pop. Ick!!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Countdown to Clemson - A borrowed pic says it all
I'm pretty sure this pic was pilfered from Brado, but it explains what's so darn fun about that wonderfully manicured hill that is Clemson's DH Track. 3 berms, 1 pic....nothing else you can say!
www.clemsonfreeride.com and click on EVENTS.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Horse trails are 'sorta' fun to ride in the morning!
Nothing much to report today. I woke up in time to take a short ride near the house this morning. It was a steam bath of gorilla mist and cool breezes and a little sanity on the climb. Plus I got the hook-up on a set of brakes from a casual friend and for the first time in 9 months, no brake drag. That might sound trivial to some, but I've had ghetto brakes front & rear with 2 bent rotors and non-functional pads forever that make my bike a noisy drag on climbs and pathetic to stop.
Anyway, the trail back down was well used by the horses, no doubt doing just like me and hitting the trails hard in the good weather. Damp horse trails are like riding in wet beach sand and poo...challenging, rewarding, filthy, slow! hah hah. But I'm happy to be riding!!!!
Anyway, the trail back down was well used by the horses, no doubt doing just like me and hitting the trails hard in the good weather. Damp horse trails are like riding in wet beach sand and poo...challenging, rewarding, filthy, slow! hah hah. But I'm happy to be riding!!!!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Heartbreak Ridge with Matt Griffin
Saturday was play day for me. Ryane was at the Biltmore house with her friend and the girls were with grandma for the night. The plan was to do some DH runs with Mueller & crew, then meet Ryane at 5:30 to get in an awesome date night.
1pm rolled around with no call from Mueller, so I assumed they were MIA and sleeping in like college dudes do. No biggie since Matt was ready at the drop of a hat to check out the brutal old toll road to Heartbreak Ridge. We even set up a mini-shuttle at the bottom of Mill Creek to cut out the climb up to Ridgecrest.
I wasn't my fittest ever, but felt fine and had plenty of food. But at the 2nd hunting cabin my thighs cramped so bad, I couldn't even walk the bike. Called out for Matt, but he was rolling on like an animal. It kept up for the rest of the ride and I was in MISERY. I wasn't dehydrated or hungry with plenty of food and water. Then the hamstrings hit within 2 miles of the top, forcing me off the bike for good.
Up top, we were running SO late. We ran into 3 latino males (cop speak) walking in seperate directions with huge army duffells on their backs, one headed toward a closed parkway alone? On the DH, I was in for much worse. My quads seized, forcing me to sit down for about 80% of the descent. On the flat pedaling, my inner thighs cramped forcing me off and to the ground again!
We made it to the bottom at dark and I locked us out of my truck. Matt was forced to hammer the climb up Mill Creek Rd in the pitch black while I stood there shivering like an idiot.
In the end, I was 3 hours late to meet my wife, who was scared I had become a statistic. She's still upset, but glad I was safe. Now I remember why I've always done that ride in the morning...with a GROUP!!
1pm rolled around with no call from Mueller, so I assumed they were MIA and sleeping in like college dudes do. No biggie since Matt was ready at the drop of a hat to check out the brutal old toll road to Heartbreak Ridge. We even set up a mini-shuttle at the bottom of Mill Creek to cut out the climb up to Ridgecrest.
I wasn't my fittest ever, but felt fine and had plenty of food. But at the 2nd hunting cabin my thighs cramped so bad, I couldn't even walk the bike. Called out for Matt, but he was rolling on like an animal. It kept up for the rest of the ride and I was in MISERY. I wasn't dehydrated or hungry with plenty of food and water. Then the hamstrings hit within 2 miles of the top, forcing me off the bike for good.
Up top, we were running SO late. We ran into 3 latino males (cop speak) walking in seperate directions with huge army duffells on their backs, one headed toward a closed parkway alone? On the DH, I was in for much worse. My quads seized, forcing me to sit down for about 80% of the descent. On the flat pedaling, my inner thighs cramped forcing me off and to the ground again!
We made it to the bottom at dark and I locked us out of my truck. Matt was forced to hammer the climb up Mill Creek Rd in the pitch black while I stood there shivering like an idiot.
In the end, I was 3 hours late to meet my wife, who was scared I had become a statistic. She's still upset, but glad I was safe. Now I remember why I've always done that ride in the morning...with a GROUP!!
Friday, March 6, 2009
Dragging along
Lost a little motivation during that brutal cold snap and fighting to get it back this week. Wish me luck!
Haven't been so mopey in a long time. I just keep seeing everyone else riding their DH bikes, showing off their new builds and it kills me that I'm sitting here without my buddy of 15 years, a DH rig.
I've gotten to the point where I contemplated last week selling my road bike and my trail bike to start amassing money for a DH bike. The wife smacked some sanity back in me on that one though. Gotta work harder!!!
Haven't been so mopey in a long time. I just keep seeing everyone else riding their DH bikes, showing off their new builds and it kills me that I'm sitting here without my buddy of 15 years, a DH rig.
I've gotten to the point where I contemplated last week selling my road bike and my trail bike to start amassing money for a DH bike. The wife smacked some sanity back in me on that one though. Gotta work harder!!!
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