what a weekend!
the solsun was smiling upon us okay, so it's been a couple of days. not that anyone reads these things anyway! so, let's start off with saturday. it was the typical saturday morning ride...met at the tree farm, back road ride into kensington and back. so much for the nice weather we had last week. it was dreary, cool, and windy. what else would you expect from late march michigan weather? i actually felt good on this ride. i felt like my training was getting me somewhere. i wasn't lagging behind everyone else on the climbs. in fact, the only person who beat me around kensington was soupy, but he was on my cheater cross bike! ;-) it was tempting to go to the bonfire after the ride but i knew i had a bunch of stuff to do around the house and my bike needed a little bit of work before our trip to yankee on sunday.
ah, our trip to yankee! what an awesome day it was! it started off early with the spring forward crap but i was excited so i reluctantly crawled out of bed and had a large bowl of cereal with some hammer whey sprinkled on top. i met up with soupy, erin, andy and the two kerry's in novi and westward we trekked.
all i can say is that yankee rocks! the first lap was a bit faster than i wanted to go but we stopped to regroup every so often which made for good recovery time. the flow of that trail is unbelieveably fun with the banked turns, swooping downhills leading up to some short, steep climbs. the fango is an awesome bike to have on a trail like this. it handles the roots with ease and climbs with unbelievable traction. the only limiting factor is my own climbing ability. i don't know what it is this year but i can't climb! i'm soooo slow. it looks like i'll have go out and do some hill intervals before the race if i want any sort of chance to get on the podium.
after our first lap, we were ready to hammer. i guess they didn't realize that i was already hammering on the first lap. oh well, these racer folks must've been holding back on the first lap. i knew i would be in trouble on the second lap so i didn't even bother trying to keep up with soupy and erin. i was dropped like cary's turds in a gas station bathroom within the first two miles. i didn't think i would see those two again until the i got back to the parking lot. i was wrong. about 7 miles in (if i remember correctly) there was a rooted downhill with a large stump in the middle and a big tree right behind that. you could either take the high line and go left around the tree or you could go right and go down on an off camber section. apparantly, erin lost control on the roots and then locked her eyes on the tree and sure enough when you fixate on an object you will hit it. from what she said she went into it at about 20mph with her back! ouch! visibly shaken, this was not enough to prevent her from finishing the loop. she is hardcore! i rode with her for about another mile or so and said that she really needed a beer when we got back to the lot. she said she was just thinking the same thing! i like how you think, woman! my legs at this point were totally screaming at me. when i say screaming, i'm talking about the fat woman at walmart yelling at her 7 kids, screaming! they would just not turn the cranks anymore. so, erin sped off to catch soupy. i rode by myself for awhile until i found andy on the top of a climb with his bike flipped over. yes, it was just one of those days for andy. he pretty much convinced me to never buy a full suspension bike. with three miles to go i kicked it up a notch. i gave it everything i had and still finished more than 3 minutes behind soupy. a nice reality check. no, i am not ready for this race and no i will not be on the podium. i'm slow, slow, slow! very frustrating. well, at least there was the post ride dark horse ipa! thanks, erin!
since the rains had moved in and we were spent and cold, we decided a trip to bell's in k'zoo was in order! mmmm...two hearted on tap...1/2 pound burger...cool new riding pals. what more can i say. an awesome sunday that's gonna be hard to beat! almost 12 hours after i left home, i returned. too tired to put my thoughts into words, i took a nice hot shower and went to bed. if this is a prelude to all the fun i'm gonna have this summer then......
ah, our trip to yankee! what an awesome day it was! it started off early with the spring forward crap but i was excited so i reluctantly crawled out of bed and had a large bowl of cereal with some hammer whey sprinkled on top. i met up with soupy, erin, andy and the two kerry's in novi and westward we trekked.
all i can say is that yankee rocks! the first lap was a bit faster than i wanted to go but we stopped to regroup every so often which made for good recovery time. the flow of that trail is unbelieveably fun with the banked turns, swooping downhills leading up to some short, steep climbs. the fango is an awesome bike to have on a trail like this. it handles the roots with ease and climbs with unbelievable traction. the only limiting factor is my own climbing ability. i don't know what it is this year but i can't climb! i'm soooo slow. it looks like i'll have go out and do some hill intervals before the race if i want any sort of chance to get on the podium.
after our first lap, we were ready to hammer. i guess they didn't realize that i was already hammering on the first lap. oh well, these racer folks must've been holding back on the first lap. i knew i would be in trouble on the second lap so i didn't even bother trying to keep up with soupy and erin. i was dropped like cary's turds in a gas station bathroom within the first two miles. i didn't think i would see those two again until the i got back to the parking lot. i was wrong. about 7 miles in (if i remember correctly) there was a rooted downhill with a large stump in the middle and a big tree right behind that. you could either take the high line and go left around the tree or you could go right and go down on an off camber section. apparantly, erin lost control on the roots and then locked her eyes on the tree and sure enough when you fixate on an object you will hit it. from what she said she went into it at about 20mph with her back! ouch! visibly shaken, this was not enough to prevent her from finishing the loop. she is hardcore! i rode with her for about another mile or so and said that she really needed a beer when we got back to the lot. she said she was just thinking the same thing! i like how you think, woman! my legs at this point were totally screaming at me. when i say screaming, i'm talking about the fat woman at walmart yelling at her 7 kids, screaming! they would just not turn the cranks anymore. so, erin sped off to catch soupy. i rode by myself for awhile until i found andy on the top of a climb with his bike flipped over. yes, it was just one of those days for andy. he pretty much convinced me to never buy a full suspension bike. with three miles to go i kicked it up a notch. i gave it everything i had and still finished more than 3 minutes behind soupy. a nice reality check. no, i am not ready for this race and no i will not be on the podium. i'm slow, slow, slow! very frustrating. well, at least there was the post ride dark horse ipa! thanks, erin!
since the rains had moved in and we were spent and cold, we decided a trip to bell's in k'zoo was in order! mmmm...two hearted on tap...1/2 pound burger...cool new riding pals. what more can i say. an awesome sunday that's gonna be hard to beat! almost 12 hours after i left home, i returned. too tired to put my thoughts into words, i took a nice hot shower and went to bed. if this is a prelude to all the fun i'm gonna have this summer then......
posted by Alden at 10:46 AM
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