28 and Counting

A little late on the draw this week for the blog…I hope I haven’t abused blog etiquette too bad by not posting quite on time.  Kind of a busy week, and hey, I have quite a blog to top from the last one!  Pressure!  Haha!  But, here we are, better late than never!

With 28 Wednesday night rides so far this summer, I, along with everyone, can say what a great one it’s been!  I don’t mean to say it like its past tense, because our rides are still rollin’ along, even into the night hours!  We’ve truly had a great summer of riding though, I don’t think any mountain biker or outdoor enthusiast could argue with that.  A few wet ones here and there, but all in all, a terrific season!

I’d have to say this ride was fairly casual.  Well, casual compared to last Sunday…I’d say most anything is casual compared to 40 miles on knobs.  Me, Rob Horsepower, CB, Action Cheryl, Sarah, Pete, New Chris, and Secret Steve took another tour of the Crybaby.  This run was about the same as our last one with the same view of Rob drifting off into the distance.  Except this time I swear there was a little rooster tail spewing out from behind his tire!  Well, rounding the first corner we could tell the course had been groomed, it looked rather nice.  It had that texture every mountain biker looks for in a turn.  Smooth, but tacky enough to feel the tread squirm just the right amount into the dirt.  The kind that allows your weight to transfer confidently into the bars, lowering your weight just enough so you can squeeze an extra mph or two to sneak ahead of your would be competition.  And the course…if you were wondering…yup, still hurts.  All the way up.  I’m trying to figure out where I’m going to take a swig of water because my lungs will be working overtime!  Not sure what I was thinking when I signed up for three laps….

Our short tour of the course took us into the night.  On our way back the trail was dotted with our lights dancing all over the singletrack.  Thanks again Pete for letting me trade batteries for my little test.  Ah yes, night riding.  That’s a damn good time.  For #28 we didn’t get to dip into the darkness very much, but if our fall stays in line with our summer, we could see quite a bit more of it.  Might actually have us slow it down a bit so we don’t overdrive our lights…there’s only so far you can see careening down a familiar singletrack…the darkness plays tricks on you.  I remember more recently that one well worn trail “seemed” to veer right…well, it didn’t.  My poor knuckles.  (fist bump?)

As the lights feathered out, we gathered for some friendly brewskies and a little armchair racing thinking of how the upcoming race is going to pan out.  Grinding about technique, lane choice, and generally how the event is going to unfold.  Seems like I’ve heard a lot of positives, but we’ll see.  Until then, I’ll be sure to pack my tissues for that hill…  As Pete would say, yes, the race this weekend is going to hurt like a mother fu**er….or should he say more appropriately, HTFU!!!