Good riding in CT

Monica and Rich, Grace's sister and her husband, moved to CT a few months ago. I was concerned when I heard they were moving, because there was some *good* mountain biking in Greensboro, NC... but after visiting this weekend, I found my concerns were unfounded. They live just off of the Shenipsit trail, which despite the name which begs for variations, (sheep s**t, snippy s**t, conniption, etc) is pretty awesome. It's very technical, littered with rocks, and you really have to work for it, but it's amazingly fun.

I have to also say that the back issue seems to be completely resolved. I rode yesterday and today, and rode hard enough that I was totally wiped out at the end, but my back was fine. My back hurt a little when I was off the bike Saturday night, but was fine by Sunday and didn't bug me at all on Sunday's ride. I'm VERY happy to be done with that chapter.

We came across several other cyclists, and while thinking about it later, I realized nobody was riding a twenty-niner. Considering the rocky terrain, I was pretty surprised about this. In Wissahickon, niners are just about everywhere and taking over... and the rockiest sections of Wissahickon aren't anywhere near as tough as the average rock gardens on Shenipsit. Mind you, we only saw about 10-12 other cyclists while we were out, but the same selection of riders in our area would have netted at three or more niners.

Speaking of riders we met, we met up with a couple on the trails who were out riding with their dog. We asked about the trails, and they offered for us to ride with them since it was easier to show the trails than describe them. We gladly accepted and rode with them for a while. At one point when we stopped to regroup (and recover) and they mentioned that they are the president and webmaster for a local club, Eastern Bloc. Stuart and Laura were really cool and told us next time we come back to get in touch and we'll meet up to ride again! Gotta love the awesome people you meet while mountain biking!

I also had another first on this ride... I failed to clear a technical climb for a reason I had never thought I would use -- my arms gave out! As strange as it sounds, I realized several times while muscling through the rough stuff, I was REALLY cranking on the bars. On this one climb, I was slightly out of the saddle to give the bike more room to move over the ground, and to keep my position as well as push on the pedals harder, I was pulling back on the bars good and hard. My legs were fine, my lungs were fine, everything seemed good, but I realized that my arms were fatiguing from the effort, and had to stop before I lost my grip! Not having my gloves contributed, no doubt... my hands had gotten sweaty and the ESI grips had started to get a little slick after we started riding with Stuart and Laura.

I also should mention that all the riding Grace has been doing with Amy has been paying off bigtime. Grace has been riding VERY strong, and even having a hardtail with a road cassette didn't slow her down through the gnarly rock gardens. Returning to the house on a road climb, she dropped me like a bad habit. Yes, she's strong, and yes, I'm psyched!

Funny story about that... while we were riding with the Jensens, we were doing a prolonged technical climb, and the day's riding was starting to catch up with me. Stuart was starting to gap me up ahead, and I heard one of the ladies catching up to me. I took a quick glance back, and saw a green jersey, and thought it was Laura. She sat on my wheel for a while as I climbed, and at one point I offered to let her by. She declined, but was stuck to my wheel. I was fading, and figured if I couldn't clear a technical section, I'd get in her way. I considered telling her that it was okay to pass me, I didn't mind being passed by a woman -- since I wouldn't be able to ride with Grace if I did! Didn't actually say it (was gasping for breath anyway) and a little while later realized it wasn't Laura after all, but Grace sitting back there and apparently not even breathing hard!

A non-awful ride!

If you've been reading, you'll know that I've been fighting some serious back pain when I've been riding the mountain bike. It's really made riding way less than fun lately, and was getting really old. Well, about a week or two ago I visited Grace at the fitness studio where she works, and she had me do several exercises while she observed. As it turns out, for some reason, my back muscles are activating too soon, which means they're working too hard, and thus are getting fatigued before they should. So, she gave me a series of exercises which I've been doing exclusively.

Last week, I got my rear shock back from Push Industries, which meant I could finally get my Santa Cruz Superlight back together. With the back pain problems, the Scott Scale hardtail just hasn't been doing it for me lately... so I was eager to get the SCSL back on the trail. On Wednesday and Thursday I disassembled the Scale, and rebuilt the Superlight.

So, for once, I was actually eager to get on the trails on Friday, and I joined Grace, BVL, DZ, and Lance for a ride in Wissahickon. I am happy to report that with the suspension -- and, more importantly -- Grace's exercises, my back was FAR better. Not perfect, but I was actually able to ride with a reasonable amount of speed, and lead the pack several times.

The suspension on the Santa Cruz needs some fine tuning, on fast, rocky downhills, the wheels felt like they were skipping off the rocks, but other than that it was SO nice to feel rear travel again.

I'm actually looking forward to riding the mountain bike again!

Rode the Monkey

My Karate Monkey is currently set up as a commuter, and with the weather getting nice, I'm wanting to get back into doing the 33 mile commute once or twice a week, so yesterday I pulled it down and took it for a ride. Not much of a ride, just out and around Lake Galena, probably about 10-12 miles total.

Interestingly enough, even though this was a road ride, my back was killing me. I didn't double check my setup on the bike, but the saddle felt like it could have been higher, and as you can see from the picture, the handlebars are significantly higher than I have on the Giant road bike. (because of the riser stem sourced from Dmitri's old Trek MTB) I guess that geometry is contributing to the problem.

This doesn't solve any problems, but it is an interesting datapoint. Interesting to me, at least. The unfortunate downside is I won't be commuting in -- at least on that bike -- for the foreseeable future. I haven't ruled out riding the Giant in, instead.

Speaking of the Giant, I've heard the saying "steel is real" which speaks to the wonderful ride of a steel bike over all others. The Karate Monkey is steel, and I couldn't help but notice how, even with fatter tires, I could feel far more surface irregularities on the road than I could with my carbon fiber Giant with skinnier tires.


In the meantime, I've been pop-riveting flashing onto my car to close up a rust hole so the car can pass inspection. I'll have to post some pictures of that mess when it's done. Kinda funny, how this car was bought new and was my pride and joy at the time... now it's just something to carry bikes around in. When I bought the car, I was pretty sure I would be the first and last owner, and I would get every last bit of usefulness out of it before I was done... and that prediction seems to be coming true!

Progress at the Rally!

The PMBA Rally in the Valley was yesterday, and goes down as the best ride I've had on the mountain bike in probably a year, year and a half.

Grace and I rode the full "advanced" loop, which starts with the ballbuster climb just after Bell's Mill Road, and I actually felt pretty good. Mind you, I took it slowly, used every last tooth of that granny gear, and didn't push too hard, but I got up in a respectable time, and didn't have to walk it. In fact, I cleared all the climbs without walking except a handful on the Indian trail at the end.

My back was NO problem for the first 15 minutes at least, and when it started to hurt it was just a little fatigue, nothing debilitating. A little fatigue is understandable, considering this was my third ride in three days -- road Thursday, Wiss with Grace on Friday, and then the Rally.

This also marks the first time I started feeling some of the power that I have no problem finding when I'm riding on the road. Not much of it, not enough to do anything useful with, but it was there... and this is very good news for me, since it means I'm improving on the mountain bike.

Now, lest you think this was some sort of record-breaking ride, it wasn't -- I was really getting fatigued by the end, and that's when we wound up on the Indian trail, which is probably the hardest in the park! I wound up walking a couple of climbs, and without the usual return on Forbidden Drive, my average speed was a abysmal 7.4mph. Still, I felt far better than I had on any previous ride, so I'm not upset about that average at all. We'll see what happens next time we do a standard loop, bailing out at Valley Green Inn.

Let me just wrap up by saying DZ and the gang of PMBA volunteers did an awesome job organizing and running the Rally. If you ride in the Philly area, definitely consider joining PMBA so your money can help them keep up the good work.

A step in the right direction

Today I left work early and Grace and I hit Wissahickon. After yesterday's great road ride, I was a little concerned about how things would go. Well, it wasn't bad. I used ALL the gears and rode slowly and deliberately, but managed to keep my back from becoming too much of a problem. I also discovered that my leg strength allows me to ride through some really rocky sections at lower than walking pace... I just keep the pedals turning and roll over stuff.

The flipside was that I wound up having the slowest ride in Wissahickon in a while, with an average speed of only 8.2 mph. Grace, on the other hand, ran rabbit and disappeared up the trail, until she decided it was time to wait for me to catch up!

The Rally in the Valley is tomorrow, I figure I'll take the same approach of riding slowly and see how it goes.

I just don't understand!

I like bikes. I like road bikes, and I like mountain bikes. The problem is, for a while now, mountain bikes don't like me back. When I ride the mountain, I usually have trouble with my lower back hurting me, to the point where it adversely affects my ride. I can still ride, but I've got no power, and the enjoyment goes down. In the Utah trip, I was almost always at the back of the line, with the exception of a handful of times when my back didn't bother me and I was able to ride well for a little while. I can still enjoy a ride, but it gets frustrating.

What makes it even more frustrating is just how different life is on the road. Tonight I got home and hopped on my road bike for a quick ride. It's staying lighter later and the weather was just perfect, and without having to pack the bike in the car and drive somewhere, a road ride is a perfect way to get in a ride in a short time frame. Today, just like back on March 26th, I had a great ride... I felt strong, I was able to ride fast and for a while, with no problems. Towards the end of the ride, my back did start to get a little sore, but unlike the mountain bike, I was able to keep riding without the pain slowing me down any. The fatigue set in after an hour and ten minutes of riding, versus within the first five or so minutes as I get on the mountain bike.

I even decided to ride Tohickon Hill Road, (a long hill with three sections of up to 15% grade) which, the last time I rode it, nearly killed me. Now, I might not have been fast, but I felt good the whole way up and at the top was up-shifting as it leveled off -- I didn't need any easy recovery. For the rest of the ride, I kept pushing the pace and really, really enjoying myself.

As a quick aside -- I've got to give a quick nod to the drivers who were so considerate, but for several of them, the mountain bikes on their roof racks kinda gave me a clue as to why they were so nice -- they were bikers too! (High Rocks/Ralph Stover state park is about a mile from Tohickon Hill Rd)

So I ride the road bike, and feel like a rock star... then I'm on the mountain bike and I ride weak like a kitten. I've checked my position between the two bikes, and it's very similar, especially when looking at saddle-to-bottom-bracket positioning and saddle height, which I would think should be the biggest controls of why my back hurts. It's not even specific to one bike, either. I had problems like this (although not quite as bad) with my Santa Cruz in the '05 racing season. This year I'm getting it on the Scott Scale hardtail... but when I demo'ed the Gary Fisher HiFi at Fair Hills, I got it on that bike as well, although a little later.

My theory is my back just isn't as strong as it needs to be, especially compared to my legs. Thankfully, Grace is a personal trainer and knows her stuff, so we've been working on this problem together, although so far without much luck. I'm certain that with her help, we'll get this figured out, but for the foreseeable future, I'm going to be enjoying road rides a whole bunch more.