Mountain Bikes, Bass Guitar, and other stuff I like

Met up with Steve Whittier at Chicopee. It was nice to ride some different trails for a change. Nutrition and hydration were good. Ate a few hundred calories about every hour. Feet were really hot today even with adding 2nd pair of socks. Right knee began to get sharp pain after about 30 miles. Chain came off the singlespeed about 5 times. Overall an exhausting but satisfying ride.

16 miles on the singlespeed until my pedal shattered, yes my pedal literally fell apart. A few minutes later my rear wheel came loose, I assume from all the torque being put on one pedal. Bizarro! Went back to the house and got the geary and did another 20 miles after a 20 minute interlude. Hot as hell but electros and nutrition were good and plenty of water this time helped. No cramps but hands and feet hurt. Legs ok and cardio good, not too stressed. Time to finish, 5 hours

In preparation for the upcoming 6-hour race at Blanket's Creek, I decided to see if I could actually ride a bike for 6 hours since my previous longest was about 4 hours. I left my house at 3:30 and arrived back home around 9:15. I estimate there was about 20-30 minutes of stop time. Since I don't have a bike computer, I think my mileage was about 36-40 miles not including the 2.1 mile trip from my house to the trail and back , which was road riding. I went on 2-hour rides on the singlespeed the 2 days prior so I wasn't exactly fresh heading out there. Today I went on my geared bike and I'm glad I did. For the first 3 hours or so I rode in the first ring at about half or 2/3 my normal speed. This took A LOT of patience as I generally like to sprint. Plowing through 2 South Loops was grueling. Met up with Steve Whittier on Dwelling which was a nice break from the grind. Nutrition for the day was good with eating 200 calories about every 45 minutes. Clif Shot Bloks...

30 miles at about 9 mph pace at Blanket's today on the single speed. Chain is now not falling off after I shifted the tensioner back 1/4 inch. Today was my first ride in 6 days after being at the beach all week and it felt great to be back on a bike.

Drove the long way up to Ocoee, TN through Chattanooga which took us about 3 hours to arrive at Ocoee Whitewater Center. Definitely taking 411 next time which was about 45 minutes quicker on the way back. Have another sinus/respiratory thing so I wasn't feeling my strongest plus my legs were begging for a break heading in to my 9th hour on a bike this week. I was so glad I brought my geared bike today. This will be the most hours I've put on a bike in a week, which is about 11 hours. Hit the trail and immediately started climbing on Bear Paw loop. This was a good 10 minute sustained climb. So much for a warmup! The trails are fairly well-groomed and nothing overly technical. Next on to Chestnut loop which reminded me a lot of Tsali with plenty of single and doubletrack mixed in a big,beautiful forest. I couldn't tell it was 95 degrees outside because of the canopy. Everyone had told me to ride Thunder Rock Express and I can see why. It had some of the most fun downhi...

Big Creek Bike Park, Roswell, GA Martha Shatzmeyer and Nancy Brown-Griese interrupted their jog last Tuesday to applaud a mountain biker at Big Creek park for his brilliant downhill descent and jumps. "Normally we're out here doing our jogging thing and don't notice the bikers. You know, what we do out here is pretty important and all. I particularly admired the way he kept his weight back and really crouched down in to attack position. I can't stop clapping! I hope he doesn't case his next run," Martha beamed. Nancy added, "The youngster bombed that one gnarly section and it was so nice to see him catch some sick air on the backside." The two ladies then decided to go home after realizing that nothing beyond this experience could take their day to any loftier height.

Spent just over 3 hours on the singlespeed yesterday at Dauset Trails near Jackson, GA. I was still some tired from Pine Log a few days before and my hammies felt like they had steel rods in them. My feet hurt from the first minute I was on the bike since they were still sore from all the hiking at Pine Log. This was one of my least fun rides on a mountain bike. Dauset is a real grinding type of trail that just wears you down with all the roots and terraced climbs on Huff n Puff as an example. There are no huge climbs and really not a lot of room for recovery, especially on the singlespeed. My goal was to go for 4 hours but I was toast at 3 hours. I'm not really sure how much mileage I covered as I was just following the black arrows. Need to get an odometer.