All bikes can be fun at different times, I suppose.

Everytime I start thinking the whole 30 is easy it turns around and kicks me in the nuts. Saturday I felt great on the bike. Hammering up the climbs. Maybe like mid season fitness almost. At least it felt it. Sunday was met with a complete lack of enthusiasm to even ride and a really heavy feeling in the legs when I did. I managed to get a test lap out on the 34:19 but nothing more. Another 1h 11m time. Is no equipment change on the bike I make gonna make a difference? Seems only the effort level to pull the same time changes. Hence the age old ss problem. "You can only go so slow, but you can only go so fast too".  

The last few weeks on the single speed has been fun but just like mid summer I'm starting to doubt that it's a viable race machine for me. 

My buddy Gordon says that, particularly at our age, doing a stage race (let alone two) on a ss is crazy. I'm really starting to believe that. If you look at the times of the ssers and compare them to the other classes, they're not even close at stage racing. Surely not every sser can be a drunken fool at these races? I know I can compete in a one day event but the day to day grind? My thoughts are, the guys in the geared classes just recover faster. Leaving them fresher for tomorrow. Stage racing is tough enough. Why make it tougher? 

So what do I do? I'm registered in 40+ at pisgah stage race. I'll stick with gears for that, reassess, regroup and think about TSE. Maybe race ss at the xc stuff? Or maybe the ss is just something that I'm holding onto. Something that defined me in the past. Made me what I am but needs to be let go. Am I no longer a singlespeed racer? Am I just a mountain bike racer? Does it really matter? -M