I guess technically it’s not really summer yet, but it sure is starting to feel like it. We seem to be getting into some typical summer weather patterns, a lot of people in the office are in and out for various vacations, and the light of day is really long. I’ve been mixing things up a little bit lately. While I’ve largely been sticking to the dawn patrol rides on the weekends I have been on the geared bike a little more than normal and I took a cruise over to Dupont and hit some trail before heading back. This coupled with the first Summer Short Track race coming up this week and 12 hours of Tsali, where I’m going to ride on a duo team. All kinds of things I’m not used to, but so far it’s been good.
The geared bike has seen more trail time in part due to my main SS bike being pretty beat after PMBAR, most of the bearings needed replaced and sadly that took me longer than I’d hoped. On top of that once I did get everything replaced I broke the rear axle for a 2nd time on my first ride out (more on that later). There’s also the fact that I do like to mix it up some, having a full suspension can be a lot of fun around here and some gears open up some routes that I can’t squeeze into my timeframe on the SS. In fact Sunday, I was looking to get a pretty steady effort in, which can be a little tricky in Pisgah with all the long climbs and long descents.
I remembered that with a geared bike I can make it over to Dupont in a bit under an hour, it’s about 11 miles on the road each way and fairly flat. So I headed over there and tried to piece together some trail, unfortunately I don’t spend near enough time over there so I don’t really know my way around all that well. With that being said I put together a pretty nice loop and made it home almost exactly in the time I was shooting for. This was a pretty good change of pace from my normal Pisgah loops averaging 14 mph is not something that happens in Pisgah very often. It was also a chance to work on some more flowy trail riding before heading over to Tsali which is nothing if not fast and flowy.
Speaking of Tsali, a 12 hour event as part of a duo, this is not in my typical wheelhouse. However I was planning on doing the Iron Mtn 100K this coming weekend and when it was canceled Wes had mentioned maybe doing Tsali as a duo. After a little discussion with Katie, it was a go. I was really looking for a race and it should be fun to swap laps with Wes. Like I mentioned though a lap race isn’t typically my strong suit, I have a tendency to excel more as races get longer and more technical, but I’m looking forward to exposing how my fitness isn’t as good as I hope it is.
I managed to get out to the first summer short track series race at the Reeb Ranch this week. These are short little 25-30 minute races that are full gas the whole time. Just like last year I got beat like a rented mule. The conditions were slick, I wasn’t feeling very good, and I may have made a poor food choice just 15 mins before the race. I was really hungry when I got out to the Ranch, they were selling large pieces of pizza for $2 so I got one and ate it about 15 mins before a hard effort (that’s a poor choice for anyone who’s not aware). It was nice to get out and mix it up though as well as see some of the fast folks do what they do, this time I got a close up as a few of them lapped me. I keep thinking that at some point I need to actually learn how to be fast in events under 3 hours, but I just keep doing what I’ve been doing.
Oh and Saturday morning after climbing Club Gap I came across a significant tree down on Avery Creek. This one was interesting, getting through it was a challenge by myself. I had to make some interesting moves to get through it but I was able to make it happen
