Sunday, September 26, 2010

Hay in the hair

Well, it's not a good day on the bike when you end up with part of a hay bale in your pony tail. That's what happen to my friend Susanne at our last road race of the season today. I haven't been feeling comfortable in the corners at crits all season and hmmmmmm, I still don't. Something about those corners that likes to eat bikes and spit out the riders. Susanne ran a fantastic race last weekend, the Portsmith Crit, and it's a shame that we weren't toasting the end of the season together this evening. Also sad to see Anna Milkowski, a wonderful and inspirational rider, also go down and become injured. I hope that these ladies are feeling good and back on their bikes soon.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

A lesson on post crash inspection

Lap # 2 of Quadcross, my wheel slid out in a turn and I crashed fairly hard, moving myself from nearly last to dead last. I checked the the hoods were still straight and hopped back on. Only to hop back off again when I realized that the chain had come off. After getting up a good amount of speed, I crashed again in the next corner. Clearly, there was a problem with the bike and it didn't take to long to find a completely flat front tire. A little attention to detail after crash # 1 would have been smart. Fortunately, bruises and road rash were the extent of injuries from that day.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Change of scenery

I could use a change of scenery. The link is to a photo I took about 10 years ago on a road trip.

Today Patrick found the linker trail between Georgetown state forest and Willowdale forests. I tried unsuccessfully about 4 times last winter to find that trail, and Patrick found it no problem at all. We had a nice time riding our mountain bikes around there. Now that we found the trail, we can go all the way to Ipswich on trails which should be a nice ride. Today was my 2nd time on the mountain bike and it went well except that my wrists hurt and I had to upgrade the shoulder injury from "just fine, thanks" to nagging. Maybe that is to be expected? I was on the bike for about 3 hours. Next time I will work more on my posture.

My first time on the mountain bike was Monday. I mostly pushed the bike around Herold Parker park. Patrick end-o-ed 3 time. Our friend Ben showed us how to jump the bikes (need to practice) and demonstrated some amazing riding up and down some seriously rocky trail.

On other change of scenery topics....I saw a warning sticker on the top tube of a Huffy on the bike rack at work. 1. Wear a helmet. 2. Check brakes. 3. Don't ride at night. I found #3 to be a bit amusing. I rode two nights this week. The white line is my friend. Rain, not so much.

I'm reading about Shackleton. When you think you need a change of scenery, he just might be your man. Based on the first few pages, it sounds like some of the crew spent about 2 months huddled under lifeboats on a nasty little guano covered island. I've got my issues, but boy do I have it good compared to Shackleton.