Flew to Disneyland for Christmas this year. We had a great time riding thrill rides and not so thrill rides with the inlaws, nephews and niece. We spent 6 days in Anaheim which made for about 9 days of no riding for me. Our hotel was suppose to have a gym. Turns out that their idea of a gym is one broken recumbent, one busted eliptical, and a treadmill that turns off by itself. I opted for the treadmill cuz it was the only working piece of equipment that they had.

After not riding for a while it was mandatory that I meet with Keith on Sunday for some Monty Bell single track. We met up around 1 for the ride down, which takes about an hour. I was worried we wouldn't have enough light to get in a "good" ride. Turns out i was wrong. My legs felt ok but i just didn't have any get up and go. I was pretty wore out after just a couple of hours. This was good cuz Keith had spent the last few days beating himself up on hills and wasn't really feeling a strong long ride anyway.

That night I set my bike up with Snake Creek Gap gearing 32x21, about 3 more teeth in the back than i normally ride. It's a pretty easy gear to spin here in middle tn.

The next day I met up with Kelly, Cooper, Scott and Jeremy for a N/S trail ride. We decided the shuttle was gonna be more trouble than it was worth so we were planning a out and back ride of 30-40 miles depending how we were feeling. We got about 12 miles out and jeremy was begining to cramp a bit so he was gonna turn around and ride back. Scott went with him and the rest of us decided to ride the full North/South trail and have them drive down and pick us up when they were done.

The trail conditions made for a slow trek to the south end and the further south we made it the worse the trail. The creek crossing were deep and the fall lines were slick. Windfall was bad but not as bad as it could have been. We ended up having several flats and several stops to tweak bikes. At about 25 miles we crossed a fire road, and decided to call it quits. We didn't have enough daylight left to finish the trail. We called Scott and gave him some directions and we hit the gravel for about 3 miles of fast paced gravel grinding.

When we found Scott and Jeremy they were waiting with a cooler full of beer and some rock blasting from the minivan. What a way to end a ride. Overall it was a very tough 25+/- due to the nasty trail conditions and my lack of riding lately. I'm not sure if the easier gear helped me or hurt me. I think it actually made climbing more difficult. All year long i've been focused on sitting and climbing and have become pretty strong in that area but yesterday sitting and climbing seemed too much of a chore. Standing and turning the cranks was useless cuz each pedal stroke only propelled me about 44" or so. Perhaps the thousands of miles I walked at Disney last week, combined with my treadmill run took it's toll on my legs. Hopefully my legs will shape up before Saturday and can bet back to my Pre-Disney self.

Nothing exciting lately. Too nasty to ride trail lately. Cold enough for ice to form on the trail over night but not cold enough to keep it frozen. The wife and I have been hitting up the gym lately as we really haven't had much time together lately. I've been working weekends and she's been busting her ass with school. Speaking of the wife she just finished up a very rough semester with a 3.8 which absolutely rocks. 9 A's and 1 B I think. I'm a proud husband, but next semester is gonna be just as rough for her with another whopping class load. It usually means more ride time for me, which is great, but less family time, which sucks.

Speaking of the gym. I've been tearing it up on the spin bike lately. How gay is that? It's a pretty good workout but the cushy saddle hurts my ass after about 45 minutes. I have learned some sweet spin bike skills lately. In fact i'm quite the spin bike handler. I can ride with no hands and everything. You might say that i'm the Hans Ray of the spin bike.

I just changed the title today and hope to change it again real soon so stay tuned more to follow.

Adam

It's been 3 days since my last ride. I made a feeble effort today by fixing up the cross-check back to commuter mode, slimmer tires, fenders and panniers. I even went so far as to pack up for work and load the bike. My enthusiasm was quickly stifled when I stepped outside for a test ride, and the wind just about blew me over. I don't mind cold and I don't mind wet. I do mind a 17kt sustained NW wind with gusts to 30, especially when i work NW of here. I decided to call it a day.

With all of this not riding going on lately i've had some time on my hands to do some crap around the house. I even updated my blog...Twice, I fixed up the cross check a bit, finished up some laundry, I even took the time to do NMB Cribs. I can hear myself getting fatter.


It's now time to head to work for real and once again I'll be driving the Go Go Gadget Tunundra. I haven't been riding to work for the last couple of months for some reason. Mostly because my wife really worries and BAD. I work shift work which mean I have to either ride to work in the dark or ride home in the dark. Not a bid deal except I almost got hit last year and made the mistake of telling my wife about it.

My "near miss" (that's what we call it in Air Traffic, it should be called a "near hit") was all my fault. I was new to commuting and was choosing the quickest route and not the safest route. I was riding home at night with minimal lighting on a shoulderless unlit country road. It's a wonder i didn't get killed.

Picked up some sweet new kicks from Steve at Wood N' Wave a couple of days ago. TopGun and I headed up that way for some sweet trail riding. We stopped by the shop on the way so that i might pick up some shoes. I decided not to wear the shoes though. We were planning on a 40 mile ride and I though I might try the new kicks out on a shorter ride just in case i didn't like them. The weather was suppose to be in the mid 50's and cloudy. It felt a little colder to me but overall it was fine.

We rode from the North Welcome Station down the North/South trail to Sugar Bay and back. We really kept a nice pace the whole way. We totaled 40 miles and could have easily finished under 4 hours if not for some minor issues. Josh had some derailleur problems and later he had to take a phone call. The pace was good, not vomit inducing fast but not boring and slow. The trail was in great shape despite fears of the dreaded Freeze/Thaw that we deal with around here.

It's funny cuz i'm pretty sure the climbs were much longer last year. Perhaps it was my conditioning last year? So either my conditioning was not as good or we had some kind of a geological event causing all of the hills on the North/South trail to shrink. Pretty sure it was the former but hey I'm no geologist.

I was pretty wiped out after the ride. I had worked a midnight shift the night before and was suffering from a lack of sleep. It's funny though It never seems to affect my riding. In fact some of my best races were after working a midnight shift. I was also feeling malnourished after the ride, so i broke down and ate some meat. Not good meat either, I'm talking Mexican Food dripping with gooey white cheese and covered with sour cream and guacamole. HELL YEAH. Now I feel like crap. My inards hate me right now.

Anywho, with the cold weather sinking in I decided to brake down and get some "proper" gear. I swung by the Army Surplus store near Ft. Campbell and picked up 3 pair of BDU pants and I even found some sweet wool pants. I cut them up and made them into some pretty cool knickers. The wool pant came out well but they are extremely warm. I rode the BDU's on the North/South trail ride with Josh. They performed very well with some sexy boy tight britches under them. I like the extra pockets, their good for cliff bars and such.

I also picked up some toe warms from the bike shop and, my favorite piece of gear....wait for it. Swiftwick Twelve Merino's. I was introduced to Swiftwick socks about 2 years ago when they were part of the NMB team kit. I bought 3 pair and those same 3 pair have been in the regular rotation ever since. They're looking a little rough now but they function like they should. I picked up a few more pair when I joined Yazoo then I got a free pair at DSG. They're like a little piece of heaven for my feet. I can't wait to try out the 12's.

Just got back yesterday from a trip to Mulberry Gap, or as I like to call it, heaven. If I live a good life then hopefully I'll end up there when I'm dead.


I met up with the boys, Jeff & Thad, at Thads Hippie pad. A quick bite to eat, some coffee and 2 pisses later we hit the road. 234 miles and 32 food stops later and we made it to the bunkhouse with plenty of daylight to get a good ride on. We were greeted by our hosts Ginni & Dianne who treated us more like friends than customers.

We stowed our stuff and jumped on the bike to squeeze in our ride. Thad set the pace since he knew where he was going, and a brutal pace it was. Jeff & I were sucking wind at the top of the first big climb. We were both "feeling" the last food stop, which happened to be taco bell. We rode Pinhotti 2 out and then back for a total of about 16-17 miles. 3 mile climb to get up followed by one of the longest and most fun decents I've been on.

Back to the bunk house for some hot showers and some good home cookin'. I mean real good home cookin'. Diner was fantastic, we sat around a hot stove swapping stories and drinking beers and playing with dogs. Good times. I didn't even want to got to bed but I was pretty spent.

The next day after a fantastic breakfast we met up with Andrew, another one of the hosts, who we invited to ride with us. Andrew has only been biking for a short time but he's clearly in the right place and rode like a champ. Jeff were feeling better this time Thad was a little under the weather, but an under the weather Thad is still stronger and faster than a healthy Adam so the pace was not quite as brutal.

We rode to Bear Creek and did the loop there then rode Pinhotti 1 to the end then to Pinhotti 2 then back to the bunkhouse. We settled up and said our goodbye's and headed home. An excenllent end to and excellent trip. I can't wait till the next trip. I'll be heading back there as soon as I get the opertunity.

Yesterday I picked up Josh and we set out for Montgomery Bell State Parks for some single track action. Josh had just built up a single speed but decided to bring this geared bike(EX-9) too just in case. We hit the road heading south toward Dickson and the road was nice and dry and the ground was not too wet at all. About 10 miles from Monty Bell we decided that there hadn't been as much rain as we thought the night before. Josh had never been to Chickasaw Trace in Columbia so the decided to continue south and ride there instead.



We get to the trail head and get geared up. Josh locks his fancy EX 9 to the rack and truck just in case. We don't get a mile for the truck when his chain starts jumping off the rear cog. The tensioner isn't keeping the tension tight enough. We decide to head back and get his geared bike. We get back and realized the Josh forgot to bring his key. Looks like he's riding single speed. We pulled a link off of the chain and zip tied the tensioner to the chain stay pulling all of the slack out of the chain. Worked like a charm.

We rode one really fun lap then decided to switch bikes. I couldn't ride it. The gear was too tall me and the seat was too low and seatpost too short putting too much pressure on my knees. We swapped back and finished the second lap with smiles on our faces. We load up and head back to clarksville chatting about the ride.

It was a great day. Not too hot, not too cold. The trail was damp but not muddy or slick. Can't wait for the next one.