It was a good ride.

So finally on Sunday I was able to pull the bike out and try and figure out what the hell was going on with my "ghost shifting" issue. Had to wash a good bit of mud off the bike. Wiped it down and inspecting the rear d I found the issue, the shift cable was about 3/4 frayed/snapped. Oy!

Over to TBL Springfield I went and the guys got me fixed up real quick. Though the shop guy did note my chain is getting close to warn out and that my rear gear set is pretty chewed up. Not unexpected. Fortunately I have a new rear gear set that I won at the MORE Winter party for 20-20-25 trail work. And it's a WAY nicer one that came with the bike. Tempted to also go ahead and replace the triple at that time, but I really would like to go to a 2x instead of the 3x but that requires a new front derailleur and shifter also in addition to the crankset and it's just not in the budget I guess.

So after getting the bike back to rideable I headed out for a quick tour of good ole Laurel Hill. Nice fun to zip around the place. Didn't feel great at first, couldn't generate power and was tired at the end. Argh, gotta ride more. The washouts were HUGE. The one at the big bridge on Giles was shocking as was the one in the field. The crossing at the bridge one sucked. The weather/temps were amazing. It was SOOOO nice. Though with some of the brambles I would have like to have had my enduro's on.

Hoping to hit Schaeffer tomorrow night but the weather is not looking super happy. With rain possibly tonight and then Thursday is looking like another non riding night. ugh. STOP IT MA NATURE!

GRilled up some steak and sausage when I got home and enjoyed a SixPoint Sweet Action, a tasty brew in can. Check em out.

The great mail cleanup

Sometimes you just have go thru all the damn email. My work primary email was up over 500 messages. The 2nd'ary was pushing 150. Gmail was getting bloated. It was time to take out the trash, handle the important and kick back the crap.

4 Hours later my inbox's combined have about 100 messages. 30 in each of my work emails, and about 40 in gmail. God what a hassle but I did take care of about 20 billion little things.

Yesterday was the IMBA Laurel Hill .GOV ride with local movers/shakers in policy positions in DC. It was pretty good, 40 or so riders out with 5 newbie's, 10-15 non regular riders (at least of mTB) and another 20 regular riders or such. Good spin for our casual group doing Slaughter house and a bunch of the perimeter trails at LH. 8 miles from our start in the Occaquan Park. Nice

GPS should be in the side bar. Maybe pics to come from the after part. I need a camera bag for mounting on the bike.

Tomorrow will may be a self trip up to Gambril/shed or a ride at Schaeffer with Jen. We'll see.

Good Riding

Lots of riding in lately, it's been a nice change. Not challenging but still nice.

Last week with 3 rides, this week I'm going to get my 2nd ride in tonight, for 2 in a row. Hoping for a 3rd on Thursday but the weather may not co-operate.

Yesterday I hit Laurel Hill for 12.5 miles running a 9.3 pace, then as I finished at dark I hit Wakefield for another 8.5 miles running a 8.8 pace. Damn it felt so fast, I really enjoy leading the casual group but I don't really get to push myself at all as a rider excluding technical type stuff. And small burts of speed.

The new gear setup continues to rock, though I do want to convert to a 2x9 soon I think and that also means re-adjusting the front D a bit as it's a bit hesitant to drop into 1x9 from 2x9 under any sort of load.