Intervals w/ Winter (Texas)

We hit the "Arbor Hills Nature Preserve" today (Plano, TX). It was unkigiuash, Me and Winter. It was Winter's first time taking a bike on an offroad trail and the totally amazed both me and unkigiash. She did the downhills, hit the corners, mashed pedal up the hills and only had to walk a few times (she really needs a bike with gears). How do I know she loved it? She kept "whooping" and "hollering" and yelling "mother nature."

Here's some action stuff.

The trail was a 2 mile loop and was just the right amount for Winter.

The motherland (Colorado)

We pulled an overnighter out to Colorado (Fort Collins area) to hang with our old Outdoors Unlmtd friends. The kids went to sleep in the Suburban in Texas and woke up in Colorado. Mt. Dew and sunflower seeds pulled us through.

My friend Steve and I did a short local run (short is good with the shape I am in) and there was a REALLY nice BMX/dirt jump/obstacle course at the halfway point. We stopped and messed around for a while before moving forward. I rode my other friend from OU's mt. bike since he couldn't come out at the last minute. It was a nice new Specialized Stumpjumper and while it felt strange to be on a new bike (especially one that is set up so very differently from my Specialist) it was great to get back out again and the Stumpjumper is a worthy substitute.

This is a double teeter totter that is cable actuated so that as you roll up the first section, the second section becomes horizontal - then you roll onto that and the cable resets the first section at an angle - a really cool design that adds some challenge to the obstacle as a result of the additional mass that you are working against as you roll through it. I had to hit the brakes at the highest point of the ramp, balance and wait as the mechanism worked through it's range, then proceed forward and pause and balance again to wait again, then proceed.

Steve on one of the elevated balance sections:

And yes, those are some SWEET dirt jumps in the background. Lots of fun and made me wish two things: 1) that I was riding my Specialist and 2) that I knew how to really ride dirt jumps. I couldn't quite get the flow and kept hanging my rear wheel on the flat sections of the table tops. Oh yeah, and I came up short on huevos to try the bigger of the jumps.

Busiek State Park (Branson, MO area)

My brother Josh and I trekked out to Busiek State Park (from our lodgings at Table Rock Lake) for a ride this afternoon. I had read reviews indicating 1) that the trails were kind of busy and that 2) the trails were very technical. Half of that was true.

The trail we rode (the red trail) started out with a nasty technical climb (made nasty by bread loaf boulder and tons of loose rock - presumably from horse riding) and after a while turned into some real nice winding singletrack along a beautiful forested ridge. It was great riding - except we kept having to back track and "explore" the many spurs that came off the main trail because the trail was so poorly marked that it was not immediately apparent which were the spurs and what was the main trail. In fact, at one point, we decided to jump onto the silver trail and thought we had done so. But after riding for probably a mile or so, the trail just kind of petered out and we ended up bushwacking around until we got back on the main trail and backtracked back to the red trail.

I'm sure if we were to ride it again, we could follow the main trail, but for a first timer to this area, the trails simply were not marked well enough and there were too many well-worn spurs.

The horseflies weren't too bad, the scenery was great, the single track rocked and the downhills were intense (again - due to the many boulders and loose rocks covering the trails.)

We had a great time and probably rode somewhere around 4-6 miles (including all the diversions.)

PS - with the sale of the house scheduled to go through on Aug 31, plans for the HH100 have been (lamentably) aborted. Why is it that I can never seem to get geared up for that race?

This here's the only shot we got of me:

Back - On The Road

So it has been a rough (lot of) months in terms of riding. But this past week, I broke down and started training for the Hotter'n'Hell Hundred at the end of August in Wichita Falls. Boy howdy have my standards been lowered. I used to ride the best trails in the world moments from my home and now I have settled on training for a road ride - it is pathetic.

It does feel good to be on the Ellsworth again. Even on the road, the Specialist is a fun bike to ride. Last week I posted a 10 miler, then a 15 miler and this evening, I did a 19 miler. The temperature is high, but I have been evening rides so it isn't that bad. The HH100 will be in the middle of the day in August though, so you can bet it will be tough.