Moving and Mountain Biking

Well, we are settling in to our new home. I remembered again why I hate moving so much. Way too much stuff gathered over the years that I feel guilty buying anything new as I would be continuing to gather "stuff" and finding places or buying more storage just to store and have something in it's rightful place.

From this move I realize I am a hoarder of information. I seem to collect journals, magazines, books, internet articles, dvds etc that archives information of interest to me or that I feel would help my coaching or any of the athlete's I coach. The amount I have amassed is overwhelming and I wish I could make time standstill for a day or two just to be able to read it all, absorb it all and discard the redundant or useless information. Since I can not halt time, I must peer through the amassed literature when I have time or urgency in needing it - hence my need for this resource library.

I also noticed how much cycling equipment I possess. Not just bikes and wheels and shoes and helmets and clothing but the little nuts and bolts that I have found invaluable having around when in a pinch. I thought long and hard about tossing all of it to start fresh until I realized I could use this spacer for my disk wheel which is not centering itself in my Cervelo depsite working in all my other bikes. Someone recently marveled at my collection and was amazed that I had "spare" parts in boxes to build up a bike if need be. Is there something wrong with me? I was never a boy scout so I have no idea where this "being prepared" attitude comes from.

With the move came the painful four days of no riding along with the guilt and angst associated with it as my body and mind throw a fit in response to me not thrashing it as I regularly do. I substitued it with heavy lifting and hustling up and down stairs. I was tired everyday but kept thinking back to my Ironman last year in which I developed and ingrained a new level of what my mind and body could endure for so long.

After much of our belongings were settled in the garage of the new home, I was able to commence riding again and was pleased to be able to balance road riding and mountain biking over 5 days. Yes mountain biking! It was all in town here but it is always fun to get out on the dirt - or so I thought. Day one was a mix of commuting to work and home and taking trails enroute. I was feeling comfortable and confident in my handling.

On my second ride, I toured the Tuscany ravine and then followed the Bow river riding the trails along Silver Springs. What I then realized on this ride why I stopped racing MTBs in the first place.

1) I enjoy exploring new trails and noticed that there are lots of new trails around that were not there 3 years ago - this was the fun part. The part I did not enjoy was that my nice smooth legs began to get "whipped" by the new growth of small trees and bushes over the trails. After 5 minutes of riding through this and then getting back onto the main path, my legs were stinging with welts and bloody. As of today my legs are still not "pretty".

2) Next were the mechanical troubles. First my shifting was flawless then it was skipping all over the place. I stopped to adjust the cables only to notice that my chain was breaking apart - looks link a link broke and the outer plate was bent which caused the skipping. It has been years since I did a chain repair on the trail and I am happy to say that it is no problem. Now I need a new chain and possibly new cassette to match. As well as a freehub repair and disc brake tune-up.

3) Technical singletrack! Fun, exhilirating when you clear it but damn painful when you don't. I was exploring the area where the SideShow Bob trail was - wow lots of new single track has opened up in that area. I went West to East on it and the steep pitches combined with granny gears left me wobbling back and forth on the trail. My left pedal kept hitting the dirt mounds too which ended up throwing me off my line and doing a front wheel stand as I pitched forward onto a small tree which prevented me from falling 20ft down the side of the hill. The painful part was that my pedal hit my left calf and left me with a nice gash and a bloody sock. The tree broke at the base as I hung on for dear life. The rest of the ride was an adrenalin infused "shit show" as I completed SideShow Bob for the first time in many years. Bruised ego and a desire to be back on the road bike - at least my motivation is back up for the road! Maybe I need body limb armor??

So as it stands now, I don't plan on doing much MTB racing in the future as my skills suck and I don't want to injury myself from the above mentioned lack of skills. I will do the Deadgoat 8 hour event at COP as I feel that the trails there are of my ability level. Now I remember why I gravitated to indivudal time trials and triathlons...

JVD