Mean Joe Queen - Amature Mooto-X Pilot

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.