Two Wheel Blogs

Last night's training called for 90 minutes of flat to rolling terrain and nothing too taxing on the cardio side. Since the main road from my house is undergoing construction, I haven't been too apt to take off on the road bikes. Considering my options, I elected to grab the Intense Spider 29er which has been gathering dust in the workshop and head out to the Wood for a little "off-road handling workshop."

Seeing as the river is still flooding its banks, I passed on riding the flats. Thinking of options towards the front of the park, I decided to climb Love trail since its one of the easiest climbs you'll ever find and continue over to Rollercoaster and down Grotpeter. The plan was perfect. I took a rather pedestrian pace up Love pushing something in the neighborhood of a 32x22 gear. It's amazing how easy a climb can feel when you're used to mashing a bigger gear while maintaining a brisk pace so as not to lose the wheel ahead of you. Thinking back 18 or so months, last night's pace was probably my old race pace up this particular climb. At any rate, once I reached the top and was ready to begin my initial descent, I shifted my focus to picking good lines, carrying my speed, and keeping my head focused down the trail. The Spider was responding well and compared to my fully rigid s/s, this bike made the ride feel like I was enjoying it from the comfort of my living room sofa. Plush, baby!

All in, I made three laps and finished in 90 minutes. I also tossed in a dirt crit loop just to make sure I keep the rocks and roots fresh in my mind for the July dirt crit series. We need to do a little TLC on the course, as there are a few sections of trail that need some attention and could be dangerous under race laps. The most notable problem area is the little dip in the trail between the wooden bridge and the creek crossing.