mountain bike season!

Taking it easy right now because I feel a little sick so I figured I'd post up about a couple of my recent rides.

Rode Eastwood a couple times early in the week and came away very impressed with the trail condition. I cleaned up a few things and double-checked some of the 'stunts' that Mike and I built last year, but a large crew had obviously done a great job last weekend. Eastwood was also surprisingly fun, but that might just be the allure of riding bikes in the woods.

Rode 4 hrs or so at Decorah on Thursday. Crazy (82 and sunny) conditions for this early in the year. It was the first week of being able to ride dirt trail ride of the year and it felt like mid-summer. The only thing missing was my fitness. I averaged over 155 bpm for the entire 4 hrs of riding and I know I was well over 200 a few times on climbs. I made 3 "laps" on the Mamasita and the last on the Marin 69er. It was pretty clear that 42x20 is a serious gear for such a hilly trail... pretty sure I got the heart rate well over 200 a couple times.

I took it easy playing golf and working on my cars on Saturday. The plan is to get out on the golf course 1-2x per week this year as relaxation/recovery between rides. Laura is excited about golf too, and I want to help her learn.

Sunday I rode out to Stagecoach on the Marin to ride and hang out with Neil. Couldn't have been better! Beautiful conditions and the trails are just amazing! There is no substitute anywhere for this kind of riding. As much as I like racing and the riding the major "developed" trails, riding these "barely there" trails through the woods like this with absolutely no one else around etc. etc. just seems so pure... I'll try to let the pictures speak for me because I don't know how to describe it properly.










The bike is working great too! Love the simplicity of the rigid singlespeed now that I can ride it more or less successfully. I'm awaiting the arrival of some even wider bars for it, but am loving it otherwise. The 42x20 magic gear seems as though it will work out pretty well for Stagecoach, I only had to walk a couple sections. I ended up at almost 40 miles at 9.6 mph average.