Monday, April 02, 2007

What a weekend


040207_1543.jpg
Originally uploaded by cbnystrom.





What a weekend.

On Saturday we had a babysitter (Grandma) so we met up with some buds for a mountain bike ride over in Avalon. Me, Mel, Bob & Di, John, Perkins, and SuperDave hit most of our favorite trails. This was a fun, social ride, but we still covered some ground.

Later in the day we got a bunch of landscaping stuff done around the yard and the 3 of us put away a bag of white cheddar popcorn.

We missed the expected rain on Sunday so I got out early to meet up with Bob, Perkins, and SuperDave for a spirited ride around the trails. This included playing around on the jumps and stunts. I was the only one that didn't hit the deck, but that's because I was only doing the small jumps and e-z skinnnies.

It was fun & by the end my legs were feeling back-to-back longish rides on Rita. That bike is so much fun to ride. Viva la singlespeed!

In the afternoon the kid and I cruised over to the playground and hit it hard on the swings and slides. His climbing has really taken off in the last few weeks. I still spot him, but he's doing it all on his own.

To cap off a wonderful Spring weekend we hit up El Salto for a Mexican feast! Word.

3 comments:

Jim said...

Hey Chris, Johnathan S has converted me to your SS MTB religion recently... looking to buy a 29'er sometime fairly soon. You clearly have the right idea; there is something nice about 'just riding' out in the woods and not being fancied up. It's also nice to get a really sweet riding machine for under $3k, less than a third of that. Viva la 700cc x 1.95".

For your part, have you ever tried single speed 'cross? Give it a whack in a non-standings race sometime if you haven't. The intensity level is peel-your-eyelids-back sick. I spent a couple races at an average Hr of 94% of my Max Hr. (Corollary - I spent a couple hours after a couple races throwing up and munching aspirin). It's humbling though - not too many SS'ers can manage to finish at the front of the race even in the C pack... I'm trying to get in really good shape for the fall and do it more seriously this time around, and will consider front third finishes (up from top-of-the-bottom-third) in the C's on a single to be good results... Gotta be cool with sometimes feeling humbled and pared back to bare essentials by the bike, maybe there's a bit of that with SS MTB's too.

Peace.

Chris said...

SS cross is just plain crazy

I don't use that many gears in the average 'cross race, but they make a big difference. I'll stick to gears for 'cross.

On the mtb I'm riding my SS almost exclusively. It puts me in a happy place.

Come up to Avalon sometime with Jonathan for a SS soul ride.

Jim said...

SS cross isn't that bad, it's just different, like a really hard fixie ride where you just find a little happy place in the middle of a big unhappy place. Finding the flow early on in a race is key to keeping the suffering under control.

I may talk to Jon about Avalon later in the summer when I'm mid-summer fit and more skilled on the MTB. Minor technical stuff still punks me pretty bad, and as you're aware, once you lose momentum on the SS, the subsequent climbs explode the legs immediately. Jon was headed up a few weeks ago and said I could come, but went all Yoda and said, "until more skilled and better climber you are, you Avalon probably enjoy it will not" or something like that.

Maybe crashing at Wakefield every other Weds in lieu of barfing at Greenbelt might be in order.