Monday, June 11, 2007

YES!

What a relief! I actually rode my bike! On Saturday, Other Paul, Cory, Emily, Alex, Will and I worked on some trails at Petersen Pits. With the flooding we had just before Trans Iowa several of the trails were ruined. It was a good time and really got me motivated to get out again. Later in the afternoon I rode just short of 20 miles enjoying the bike again. Sunday morning I took off for Cory's house around 8:30 for some morning coffee and a ride to Boone for some single track. We took off south of Ames on the gravel which I knew would likely add an hour to our trip due to the fact there was not going to be a bridge crossing the Des Moines River so we ended up having to go a bit further south, but miles are miles and it was a good time.

We got to Seven Oaks and they were having a motocross race on the front side of the ski hills. It was actually pretty cool so we sat around for a half an hour before heading out on the single track. Once we got going I was getting my ass handed to me. I was able to clear one section that I had never been able to do, but I had to put in 100 percent effort to due it and I was maxed out to say the least. This trail shouldn't be that hard, but I have lost some of my conditioning since Dirty Kanza and without that extra training I just got my butt kicked. What is amazing to me is Emily running 34 X 18 (I think it was). You see, I was in my very easiest gear quite often and there were times that I was looking down at my chain rings and I thought for sure I was in my middle ring when I actually wasn't. So, running 34 X 18 on a 29er certainly would be tough. She truly is one of the toughest riders I know. I finished 1 lap... yes, 1 lap and was cooked. I was wondering about getting home quite honestly as I was very hungry. We left Seven Oaks and found some ice cream in Boone! That hit the spot. I was fresh again and off we went. I got home feeling great, yet tired. Just over 60 miles with an hour of near maximum effort thrown into the middle!

Good times that is for sure.

Paul

9 comments:

PaddyH said...

wicked

Paul said...

I see someone grabbed your humenny.blogspot.com pretty quickly.

Hey, those Red Ass reports were awesome. Great idea.

PaddyH said...

ya, but I got it back with some intimidation...

PaddyH said...

...the updates were done by one of the other cats at the shoppe, I just figured I'd throw it up on mtbr as well

Cornbread said...

Emily is tough. No doubt.

What's your next big race Paul?

Simmons said...

Hey Paul. Good to see you back here. Mind if I link your new site? I'll call it something inconspicuous :)

Paul said...

Hey Simmons, thanks for the email the other day. I still may go up to Maplelag! We will have to see what is on the agenda.

Link away! The main thing that freaks me out, and I am sure I am being just a tad paranoid, is when parents and students do a search and come across my blog. I have had a few two many people come across it. It wasn't like I was doing anything bad, but I just didn't want to risk it.

Yet, another teacher got fired this week for their online activity.

Simmons said...

Thanks Paul, uh, I mean Jacob :)

PaddyH said...

That's "Mr. Smith", I believe....