"The weekend before" update.

They told me to taper, taper I did.
You ever had one of those days where you didn't feel like riding but you knew you should and once you got out on the bike you loved it?
Well Saturday wasn't one of those days.
Contrary to what the weather man said, the humidity was still high.
The only thing the day had going for it was overcast skies.
Took off on the road bike with no plan. Tried to make it fun.
No helmet and my shuffle full of new music (Go ahead and cringe.)
10 minutes later the sun pops out and it gets hotter than it was.
The short version, I'm out for 90 minutes with no training value.
I got home and did backup training. Mowed the lawn.
Go ahead and laugh but its not easy pushing a mower around for 2 hours while dodging dog crap.

Sunday was a fun MTB ride down at Quantico.
Barry, Matt, recently back from over-seas Jason, newbie Brandon, and fellow next week racer Chris were in attendance.
This was fun. This is why I ride.
Mostly a bull-shit ride. Quick stop at the top of all hills to re-group with good natured ribbing.
Brandon started riding with us a few weeks ago, he just went clipless last week. This was his first ride there. He got bumped up real quick to harder trails.
We just did a lap that took us probly 2 hours.
I led most of it, well I was in the front on most of the ride.
Lots of intersections and we were going from memory of the race in June which way to go.
Most of the time I was wrong.
My sense of direction sucks.

My newly converted tubeless tire ran fine.
I got one gripe about my new Niner.
During the ride, once again, I was taking decents faster than I have before. Thats good.
We took a fire road descent near the end of the ride which from memory, has always been a blast.
You build up alot of speed, its loose gravel with alot of ruts.
I remember it being a white knuckle type of ride. If you lose concentration for a second and go in a rut, it could turn out bad.
The Niner made the fire road boring. I was still carrying all the speed I have in the past, but the bike soaked up everything and took all the fun out of it. I was riding thru the ruts on purpose just to spice it up.
I think the old hardtail won't be retired for as long as I thought.

seeya