I Think I am in Love

Installed some new bits on the single speed today and they look amazing. Silver set-back Thomson Masterpiece seatpost, silver Thomson Elite X4 stem, and a Salsa 17 deg Al handlebar. Next up is a King headset and some lightweight rotors as well as a tubeless setup. I should be able to get this SS 29er under 20lbs without resorting to non-functioning light weight tires.

A Beautiful Day and Good Training

First thing, today was perfect as weather conditions are concerned. Sunny, a light breeze, not a cloud and temps in the mid 60's. I can't ask for better weather.

Training is going smooth, spending plenty of time in all three disciplines. Rode Leatherwood today for 2.5 hours. If anyone locally is reading this, go ride Leatherwood. I've never seen this trail system in better shape than it was today. Completely dry. I'm planning to ride road tomorrow but I may make the trip back to ES because I had such a good ride today.

Today Was A Good Day

Yes it was. Got in late last night from LA, a successful trip to see my parents. The trip was fantastic, note to self: Get down there more often.

Woke early this morning, much coffee consumed and headed to Slaughter Pen. Met up with Max but didn't get to ride with him, next time my friend. Got in a solid 2 hours on the single speed. This may be the most fun to ride bike I have ever owned. Here are some pics

Can you spot the deer in this pic?

My new bike!

That's me having fun. I hope your Monday was as good as mine.

Another Satisfied Customer

Had an awesome experience at the bike shop on Saturday. I'll set the scene: It's late into my shift, about 3pm, and we are getting our normal late day rush. All associates were busy as I saw an older couple enter the shop and head straight to the component section. They looked normal enough as I headed over top greet them with a polite "Can I help you find anything?" Simple enough, right? I do this every Saturday with no problem. Here is how the rest of the conversation went:

Angry Customer: "Yeah, I'm looking for a "seat stem"(use your best grumpy, angry, old man voice)
Me: "A seat post?"
Angry Customer: "Yes"
Me: "Do you know what size you need?"
AC: (Now extremely angry) "If you tell me that .2 of a millimeter is going to make a difference, I'm outta here. I've been to two other shops today told me that."
Me: "Well actually..."
AC: "That's bullshit, just show me what you got."
Me: Sir, there are several sizes, 27.2, 26.6, 30.9, and so on, I doubt you would be able to eyeball the size. Do you have the old post?"
AC: (Wicked angry at this point) "If I had the old post, do you think I would be in here?"
Me: " Sorry, thought maybe just the clamp was broken."
AC: " Don't you have a book back there that tells you what size fits Huffy's"
Me: " Sorry but no. If you can bring the bike in---"

I stopped talking at this point as Super Angry Customer had turned his back to me and was storming out the door. This was unacceptable behavior in my opinion. Why would you come to a dedicated bike shop and completly not listen to what the staff had to say? I have worked another retail job that required knowledge of the product for sale and I was never treated this way. Apparently, talking to my coworkers, this is common practice in the bike industry. All was good though, AC probably continued to have a miserable day and I got to have a few good laughs re-telling the story.

Always interesting conversation and interactions at the bike shop.

Training news: Knee feels great, no pain at all. Going to go for a 3 mile run tomorrow morning, my first in about 3 weeks.

A Short Ride

Finally got out on a short road ride today. Got in about 38 miles in roughly 2 hours. This was a ride just to test out the knee, to see how it would react to a decent effort. I would say that the knee acted "ok"
After being on my feet all day at the bike shop on Saturday, Sunday my knee was swollen and painful. So, I laid around the house, saw a movie and spent quite a lot of time on the couch with an ice pack. Today the knee was still a bit swollen but feeling much better, so the ride was on.
No sharp pain throughout the ride just a dull ache towards the end. I could also tell my knee swelled a bit by the end of the ride. I stopped in at the bike shop on my ride, some of the guys remarked on how much larger my right knee is than my left. Yeah, I know I look like a freak.
On a positive note, I got my dog on a walk after the ride. No pain. Running might be an option soon. Fingers crossed.

Not Good

I was off work early yesterday, early enough that I had time to drive to a trail for a little off-road biking. After some thought, I decided to save gas and ride a local trail. It's been a while since I have been to Kessler so I was amped to ride it, maybe a bit to amped.

Two minutes into my ride, I come to the first intersection. I hesitated, right or left? I decided right and let off my brakes, next thing I know I am going over the bars. It was a low speed crash but my right knee took the brunt of the fall.

After the fall, I immediately hike back to the car and headed home. The pain was intense and my knee grew to the size of an orange. This freaked me out so I decided to try and bend my knee. The bent knee caused a large amount of blood to flow from a nasty 3/4" long gash. For the next hour and a half it would not stop bleeding and swelling. Upon inspection from my sister, she decided to take me to the ED for Xrays to rule out any major damage

The ED visit wasn't horrible, about three hours of sitting watching TV while waiting for the MD.

Xrays were negative. That's good, the "Not Good" part is that I will not be racing this weekend, no telling when I will be able to run again or bike, etc. I just hope it heals soon.

Right now I am off work, good timing for my scheduled day off. I have knee splint/immobilizer on and even just standing up is painful. Work tomorrow may be out of the question. I'll close with a pic of my knee. It doesn't look like much, but I assure you that it's painful.

pics!

Weather here went fom Winter to Summer to Early Spring and now Summer again.