Just Keep on Building

Friday afternoon I decided to again hit the 'wood before the Halloween frenzy began. It was an awesome day weather wise and I worked my butt off in hopes that I would be able to steal some time to get in another ride before dark. Luck was on my side and I was able to get out around 2:00pm. I arrived at the park and was ready to roll by 2:30. The only bad thing was that I didn't have any short sleeve jerseys in the car, so I rolled the l/s team jersey. Not too warm, but definitely not my first choice for the indian summer day.

I warmed up with 2 laps on the dirt crit loop and then headed for Justin's trail. My new goal (and no this wasn't a result of my exploding rear derailleur) is to climb as much as I can in nothing lower than the middle ring. I've never really been a fan of the granny gear, as it just seems as though you can climb anything as long as you're willing to plod along at a snail's pace. My bike choice of the day was my fully rigid Mamasita that currently tips the scales at 22.5 pounds. This bike was originally built up as such for the dirt crits, but I've got to tell you, this has become my go to bike. It climbs like a mountain goat on EPO and descends fairly well thanks to the carbon Origin 8 Black Ops fork.

From Justin's trail, I crossed over to the Rollercoast and enjoyed one of the sweetest trails in the area. To me that trail is just fun. Keep your head up and your eyes down the trail and you can really rail. I'm really not the best at carving a trail with pace and little braking. For me, the ultimate test for that sort of riding are the trails at SIUE. However, the Rollercoaster is the next best one to practice on if you want to learn to stay off the brakes and pin it.

I hooked up with Cody for the bike shop and we tackled the back part of the park. The washout (scene of the drivetrain mishap) is really getting bad. You can ride the entire section when coming from the back to the front, but on the way out you'd need some trials skills to clear the steep, uphill step over the tree root. Cody and I took turns of leading and carving the trail. On one particular section I refer to as "Misery" you're forced to make a choice to dive between two trees just barely wider than your handlebars or take the sissy route and shortcut the corner. I was leading and came into the corner really hot and had to dive to the outside of the corner and Cody took the opportunity to put a wheel underneath me and take the lead. We weren't racing per se, but certainly had fun riding at tempo and testing each other's handling limits. All in all a great 90 minute workout and that marks the longest training week I've had in the last several months. I was able to get on the bike 5 times in the past week and that certainly should start to help me a little in the cross races.