Weekend Riding

Pretty much a normal, low key weekend - no big plans, a few bike rides, a clean house and a few projects done. I got Chase & Thera's sitter to come over on Saturday and drove up to Ft. Yargo to meet up with a couple of friends - Bob Kuhn and Torre Smitherman - for a few laps on the outside loop mountain bike trails. It was a nice morning for a ride, although still rather warm and humid. I'm looking forward to fall and winter! Bob is preparing hard to defend his GA State Champion's jersey for Single Speed Mountain Bike and is riding strong. I did my best to hold his wheel, but quickly discovered several "slight" problems. I'm riding too big of a gear for the steepest hills, my handling skills still leave a lot to be desired and last, riding a mountain bike is a whole world of difference from the road. I can hold my own on a road bike and maintain good speed and power, but on a mountain bike there is no steady pace - it's on and off the entire time. At a "race pace" you are constantly having to slow down for turns, obstacles, hills, etc... then jump hard again to regain your speed. There really isn't any rest, which is much different than road biking. There I can draft someone for a minute or two and drop my heartrate by 40 beats per minute or more, but on the MTB it's go, go, go. Even the "easy" sections aren't since you have to keep pedaling. Coasting on the trails does not work since you slow down really fast. Still, having Bob just within sight for nearly the entire ride kept me going and pushing hard to see if I could make up some ground. I also have to remind myself that I've done this maybe five times now since 1997. The handling skills will only come with time, and the fitness will take work. At least the tough hills can be helped by buying more cogs! All together I got in just over two hours of riding and had a great time. Then it was back to the house for the usual Saturday cleaning, sweeping, vacuuming, laundry, dishes, meals, dogs and projects. No rest for the weary!

Today was another episode of a ride I have done many times - The Dan's Macabre. This ride is so named because it's typically run as a fast race training ride and no mercy is granted for those who don't keep up - the warning posted for the ride is to the tune of "keep up or bring a map". However, today's sojourn was more of a Dan's Macabre Lite... No blazing pace and a regroup after the hardest part of the ride. Well, that plan kind of worked out. The turnout was great - possibly the most riders we've had all year. For most of the first half the pace was mostly civilized with just a few folks attacking off the front for a county line sprint. The second half was a lot faster with a few determined attacks and chases. I finally decided I'd had enough of the hard riding and eased up a long climb with my good friend Dan while a couple other riders kept charging. We waited at the top for the rest of the group and started a good, steady ride back to the cars. Well, that's what I thought. I was having a grand old time on the front, pushing a big gear and keeping my heart rate nice and steady. After a long time, I looked behind me at - Dan. No one else was even in sight. My puzzled question was - I wasn't going that hard, was I??? No matter, we caught up to the three guys in front of us and I had fun putting in a few hard, fast pulls in the last few miles of the ride. I finished my efforts with one final full power lead-out to the last sprint point of the day and then it was an easy spin back to the parking lot and a chance to catch up with everyone.

The rest of the day was relaxed and I'm finally just about finished with one of my projects. We bought a bed frame off of CraigsList for Thera, and it needed to be stripped and repainted. I'm doing it pretty much old school, just a paint scraper and sandpaper. It's tedious and not very easy, but I'm nearly done getting all of the old (and really bad) paint off of it. Now a good sanding and we'll repaint it and get it set up. It's a nice looking bed and should look great once we get it into Thera's room. Photos to come when we get that done! We went to our new favorite Mexican restaurant - Fernandos - in Dacula for dinner and a BIG beer. If you live in the area and want a good dinner, give them a try!