feeling healthy

Feeling hugely better after a weekend of riding the Kona on the road around Rochester and the Mamasita at Memorial and Battle Creek. The antibiotics surely did their thing, as I began feeling great within 40 or 50 hrs of my first dose.

Saturday was a ~65 mile road ride with a great group of guys. I was able to keep up on the Snake, but was still feeling a bit tired. However, by Sunday morning I was feeling great and I was able to try to push myself a little bit and got a good workout in (which felt amazing after being sick). Bob G. is looking very strong for the Almanzo and his mountain bike season. Sunday's ride was going to be a 2 hr recovery ride and wound up being a 4 hr 75 mile hill fest. I rode with my 2 litre water bladder and my mountain feed bag in order to get used to using both.

The Kona did great all weekend. My initial concerns with the "funky" fit were quickly forgotten after I dialed things in a bit more. I have ordered a new seatpost, but other than that I think it's spot on. The woodchipper bars are awesome for my needs. One thing I am still uncertain of is the IRD 11-34 cassette- it just doesn't shift that smoothly. Of course, riding on the road (never left my 50t ring either) isn't exactly the reason i have it... I'm thinking I can put up with it if need be, but for on the road I will probably try to pick up an 11-23 to run on the Ultegra/open pro wheelset that came with the Kona. Crap, I suppose I will also wind up dropping $ on real road tires then too. All in all, the bike is going to work out and I dig the handling and ride characteristics.

I also threw the suspension fork on the Mamasita- thinking I will want to get used to it a bit here because I will definitely want it for the Sandwich 50 and Cheq 100. Rode 90 minutes with it at Memorial Sunday night (some of it with Jacob Huot) and another 90 minutes or so at Battle Creek this morning. Damn is mountain biking ever fun!

I've got a big week ahead of me-

Unfixocogging the fixocog and readying it for sale as a more or less stock bike and buying some groceries early in the week here.

Thursday I have a "late start" to work and will likely get out for some seat time on the Mamasita.

Friday I have entirely off from work and will probably do some more mountain biking n(blue mound state park???? or Lacrosse?) on my way down to-

http://ballsride.blogspot.com/

which I plan to ride fully loaded. They do have a car driving out to the camping location too, but I'm thinking that all I'm going to send along in the car is beer and maybe an extra sleeping bag/large tent in case of rain (no real reason to suffer any more than necessary). I will certainly have as much or more gear strapped to my bike for this thing than I will need for the trans-wisonsin race, or at least that's the plan. Heck, seeing as how I don't even own half the gear I probably "need" for trans-wisconsin maybe I'll just pack that beer on my bike to get the weight up to the right amount.