Build me an arc Noah

----Psalm 29er----

Once upon a time in a land far far away mortal men enjoyed the sport we love virtually free of the biblical rains we have seen in the past few months, free of the depression that a daily torrential downpour brings and free of the daily cleaning ritual that has become a part of our lives. Many men have given up, heading for greener pastures possibly becoming bass masters or maybe begrudgingly shuffling around the mall. I know this a fact because on my rides I see no evidence of others. No trampled grass, no tire tracks, no cars at Skyline drive....Weird

So the story continues....As we all pray for sunshine a few hardy souls are braving the elements. Working hard with an eye on the prize, Improving bike handling, getting stronger. These are the days that make you what you are, a warrior ready for battle. With a musty smell in your car and remnant's of mud everywhere. You're a mountain biker...

Go Right for the frying pan......... Left for the Fire

My weekend started off with a trip to Jungle Habitat on the new full squishy machine. Chris had some tires I wanted to swap with him and vice-versa and we figured we could get a good ride in also. Jungle Habitat in the 70s was a drive through safari that was abandoned and the animals were rumored to have been left behind. Nice.....Jungle Habitat today is turning into a mountain bike mecca with about 10 miles of legal single track and many miles of "illegal" connectors to Ringwood and Norvin Green state forest. After riding the legal stuff for a while we played dumb and rode (hiked) some of the illegal stuff. I say hiked because that's exactly what we did, this shit was gnarly. Ride 25 feet than walk-crawl 100, real back country adventure. you dont want to get hurt in there boys and girls! At some point we popped out on Greenwood lake Turnpike and being inspired by watching the tour I convinced Chris into a lap around the lake on the road. All in all the new machine was a joy to ride especially on the rough downhills and surprisingly on the road. I arrived home after 4.5 hrs of riding and still felt fresh enough to go do some laundry. strange for a mountain ride huh...



Sunday morning I called Mike from Darkhorse for trail conditions and he told me not to bother coming up to Stewart. His exact words were "it's underwater". Unless we have a major drought in the next couple weeks looks like it's gonna be a wet 40. Bring the bug spray kids they have skeeters the size of hummingbirds over there.
Looking at the clouds I could see the impending doom on the horizon and not wanting to go through the hour long cleaning ritual decided to take the rigid single over to cannonball. The first 45 went well enough but then I fell apart. My hands started to hurt and so did my neck, I had to convince myself to continue, Then the monsoons started. Talk about demoralized. My XDX tires that were so good through the race season stuck to nothing at this place, turns out they suck on wet rock, who knew. The day ended up being pretty nice once the rain stopped and I actually allowed myself to get some pics mid ride (normally a major no no). I fear my rigid days may be coming to a close my body is sore and It doesn't have to be. Just have to learn how to ride these damn gears though....

Thursday night, 7:00pm. The plan. 6hrs for Chris than 6hrs for me.....



Text message, 5:32pm Saturday.

......Its over, I sucked. Sorry.......



It always sucks when you let your team down and this was a disappointing as ever. Chris Ledonne buried himself for 6 straight hours while I sat around waiting for him to finish so I could take my turn only to suck a big egg. I could tell right from the first lap I didn't have it and it was going to be a sufferfest... I tried but I failed..

I could make a bunch of excuses saying how I had the wrong tires, I don't know the bike well enough or my fueling plan was totally flawed but the truth is that if you're flying in February it's gonna hit you around July like a great big frying pan in the face.

I just have a hard time pushing right now and most of my rides turn into me sniffing the daisies or watching the birds. Not that there is anything wrong with that, those rides can be fun but you can't call that training. Not at this level anyway.

The Darkhorse 40 is looming and I don't know how I'm gonna be, I think I have enough base to do well but with these recent results???? who knows
Could be totally embarrassing, stay tuned

hopefully not this embarrassing...