A short race and a long weekend

The hill climb was Saturday morning and I decided at the last moment to take up Eszter's offer to stay at the condo, so started my weekend a little early after work Friday. When I have to choose between an early morning solo departure and some quick planning that will get me there the night before, I'll always go with the latter, plus the condo scene is always a good time.

There's not too much to say about the race itself: I blew up big time in the first couple hundred yards (just like I was told not to), hanging with two other women and pulling away from the others, only to hit a wall and then start counting as the rest caught up and passed (at least nine). Then it was just under an hour of suffering, with a little bit of energy left for the last grueling climb to the finish. I figured it was about 56 minutes, four minutes better than last year's embarrassing hour, but still not faster than my first year, or so I thought. Looking over the times online tonight, I see that this year was actually one minute faster than my first year, which makes me kind of happy.

Usually after a race I'm just ready to go home, but I talked myself into hanging out at the condo for another day and fitting in three more rides, including a near repeat of the hill climb itself. I'm still getting used to the new fork and bike set up and definitely should have called it quits before that third ride, but it was a lot of fun and, as always, I thank everyone who waited up for me at the trail intersections. I even enjoyed the new ramps and bridges on Free Speech and look forward to a repeat visit, maybe even with a rented full-squish bike.

While I still feel a little guilty about slipping away for the weekend, I think it was worth it. Household chores are nothing compared to excellent friends, food and rides. And we got to see a mountain lion on the way home - can't beat that!

Things found along the trail

The girls' Thursday ride was cancelled, much like yesterday's short track race, due to threat of impending doom (rain), so I opted to take the bike up Poorman just to make sure my legs remembered what a hill climb was like. Being able to lock out the front fork is totally cool and I'm sure it will save me some grunting on Saturday.

On the way back into town, I ran into Redcoat, who was hauling his big, bouncy bike up to Betasso for testing. Further down the creek path, I spotted some botanists and decided to ask them what tree provided the great-smelling flowers seen above. I've been seeing them all over the west side of town and they've been a mystery for me for a while. It's a Robinia pseudoacacia, for anyone who's curious. They also let me know it was the grape flowers that I had been inhaling on my ride up the canyon - kind of like a sweet, soapy smell and you'd never look twice at them since they hardly look like flowers. I love meeting people who can tell me more about the plants around here.

The best laid plans...

Now that I have my shiny, new Fox fork, I thought it would be nice to break it in on a trail I'd never been on before. I'd heard the wildflowers were out on the Bluesky trail and figured it wasn't that long a drive, so I headed north to Loveland/Fort Collins.

When I got to the trail head parking lot, I took it as a good sign that it was pretty empty. The bike was out of the car, the extra layers for the chilly day were on. Cue giant drops of rain. Aw, it's only a little rain, I told myself and the guys in the parking lot who were considering throwing their bikes back in their truck. It's refreshing, I told myself, as all the other hikers/bikers/runners headed back to their cars. Then I saw some white thing land in front of me. I seriously thought it was a bug. Till a whole herd of them started pinging off my helmet.

Hard to tell without knowing how big those rocks are, but I can tell you it was big enough to hurt, especially on wet, cold skin. I was glad to be wearing the helmet. Still, I thought I'd keep going. There were some breaks in the clouds and I was getting used to thunder as a background noise. The rain did pause, but just long enough to build up to another hail dump. Pretty soon the wet rocks were looking sketchy and there were mini red rivers flowing down the trails. Time to call it a day.

I was really a lot more damp than it looks here and anything below my knees was a pretty red shade of clay. The lips are an appropriately numb color. I don't think I even made it through the Hunter Loop, much less to Bluesky and I was only out for 90 minutes (much of which was spent standing and watching cloud movement). I pretty much wasted my front brake pads on the return trip (yeah, another reason to consider disc brakes - someday), but I'm pretty sure the fork did what it was supposed to do. Can't wait to ride it in more ideal conditions. The Devil's Backbone was intriguing and will also have to wait for another, drier day. The drive home was exciting, too, if you consider driving on little ice marbles exciting.

Still, could be worse. While I was listening to the pea-sized hail bouncing off the car hood, some other parts of the state had five tornadoes and hail the size of chicken eggs!

Just a few minor modifications

So the bike got tweaked thanks to the guys at BCSM and I took it out for a test run Sunday at Heil. This whole move forwards is pretty noticable in the climbs. Now I feel like I'm really on top of the bike and didn't slow on any of the ascent. I know they've been messing with the approach on Wapiti a bit, but the climb felt really good. The seat's like a rock in street clothes, but in the chamois, I hardly knew it was there. The split tail and cut out bode well for the hillclimb next weekend. The fork still scares the crap out of me on the descent, but there's a shiny, new replacement on the way this week.

Other positive notes for the week: the hide-n-seek flamingo has returned to 19th Street and the toad has moved to my side of the garden.

Getting back on the bike

Leaving work today, I was happy to see ominous black clouds pushing east, along with a pretty stiff tailwind. I kept thinking, "If I just ride slow enough, I'll be too late to register for short track this week." I figured it would probably start pouring at five anyhow. After last week's bike meltdown, I didn't really want to face public humiliation again.

The tailwind got me there with time to spare, I handed over my seventeen dollars and lined up. I asked myself again why I was there and still didn't have an answer. So we went around the course for the usual excessive number of laps, I couldn't get any water, but the corners weren't too bad. I passed some women, three, I think. Somehow, I ended up third. Not sure how I managed that. The storm clouds literally parted, the wind disappeared and the sun came out. Not how I thought the day would turn out, but I'm happy.

Getting things to grow

Taking a break from the bike this weekend, partly due to the on-again-off-again rain (currently on), I tried to spend some time in the garden, which has been showing some signs of neglect. I've replanted a bed twice with greens and have nothing to show for it but the lettuce I transplanted from the garden path. I am tempted to blame the pillbugs that are running amuck under my leaf mulch, since I've found a few sprouts that came up and then mysteriously lost their leaves. Usually, by this time of year, I've already had my first salads, but now I'm just waiting to see if I should just give up on the cool weather plants and make room for the nightshades. At least the peas are trying.

I did finally clean up the corner where a giant pile of sifted soil had been hanging out. I opted for super-cheap wood and some scraps from other gardeners, so this is definitely a temporary bed. Unfortunately, I had so much soil, there wasn't much room for compost, so I fear it'll be a poorly draining box this year. Still, it is a new home for 19 potato pieces, morning glories, onions, parsnips, radishes and cypress vine. If these don't make it, the squash seeds are ready to go...

New bed (thanks to Buffy, weeding in back, for use of the saw and drill)

One step forward...

I finally went to the BCSM for a bike fit this week and Larry and Sean gave me lots of things to think about, along with a shopping list. Looks like my saddle will be moving forward a bit on a new post and the saddle itself will be replaced, too. Hopefully that'll mean no grimace of pain on the hillclimb this year. Apparently I was riding on an overstuffed pillow that wasn't doing me any favors. It was pretty cool to see the computer images of my body alignment change as each part was tweaked.

While all that extra attention to the bike did give me some hope that this season might actually turn out OK, tonight reminded me again that there won't be any dramatic improvement if I don't actually know how to ride my bike. I followed the girls to Picture Rock in Lyons, kind of excited to see a new, local trail and get on it without the weekend crowds. Shortly after the initial climb, I realized I should fall to the back of the group so I wouldn't be in the way. I wasn't really tired, since my Wednesday night short track attempt turned into the usual light workout, but my mind and body just wouldn't cooperate. I couldn't corner, cringed at most of the off-camber sections and, when it came to climbing through rocks, I just freaked out. No skills whatsoever and the guilt of slowing anyone else down, even on a no-drop ride, was just too much. I felt completely humiliated, walking parts that I knew even a beginner would ride, all the while convinced that my fork was trying to do me in. Maybe I should have just turned around and gone home. The descent was just as embarrassing, though Liz willingly took a turn talking me down the trail just like Sarah did on the way up (thanks guys).By the time I reached the trail head, I was having serious thoughts of never riding again.

After food and a shower, I feel marginally better, but am still wondering if this is the end of the line for me and bikes. I do love riding, but I never seem to get any better at anything and I'm tired of being the one that everyone has to wait for. I have no innate sense of how to ride a bike and have sabotaged any attempts at formal learning at clinics. I swear I've even forgotten stuff I knew how to do two years ago and instead of fading, my fear of doing stupid, painful things has just come back stronger. But maybe things will seem different in the morning. I really hope so.