The Whiskey Offroad is this weekend, and I have been training pretty hard. My “normal” routine of spinning about 8hrs a week on the bike of pretty much whatever type of riding I feel like. On Beckie’s advice I have been making more long rides on a regular basis, and probably have had about a 4 hr ride at least once a month for like 6 months now. Been keeping a good log so its easy to check…yup 5 4 hr rides this year plus a coupla 3s (Quad Bypass, East Mesa Epic, 6 Shooter Canyon, 4 Peaks and Porcupine Rim).   I’m about 3lbs lighter woohoo finally shed the few lbs I have been stuck with and I think I can keep them off.   That the impetus to shed them was a 3-day case of ass-pissing from something I ate is not important, though I was down to like 142 during the worst of it.   Also stronger, and I got a fast fast rear tire on my bike for a change.   I asked Bill at Adventure “what would be faster than a Nevegal” and with a straight face he said “Everything.”   Last year I did 5:03 and cracking on the Skull Valley climb is what burned all my time. My training rides times have not been so good timewise on 4 Peaks and Saguaro Lake, there have been good reasons like weather for most of that, but I need to not let that get in my head. Hopefully I will be better this year with all the little improvements and tweaks.

The Blur was in the shop since Moab, and was ready today. Had a really good talk w. Bill about where I’m going w. the blur and about a 6/6 bike. The SC Heckler is for sure on my short list and definitely being able to buy from Adventure would be a selling point…we’ll see. Going to be doing some test rides next week, and found some hookups for a Titus MotoLite, an Ellsworth and a nice Turner. So Bill and I had a good talk there, and about one of his mechs who is a nice guy but sometimes too aggressive and ping-deaths me…its great when I can deal w. Bill I just tell him what I want, he tells me what I need, and I know I get a price that’s fair for both of us. I don’t ask, he just gives me the bill and I pay it.   Sucks that the shop is so hard to get to now, but everytime I get in a twist by that it seems I have a great experience there to keep me coming back.   Definitely that is better than starting fresh with a shop if I dont need to, cause all shops are going to piss you off at some point about something.

So brought the bike home, swapped some tires and tubage and went for a quick sprint down TRW wooooohoooooo it is riding fast.   Made it from home to the end of TRW in 18 minutes, that’s about 5 miles of singletrack…mmm mmm fast fast fast you go RickyBobby.   Stopped at the RMR pool for a quick swim and that was so so sweet, and now I may even watch Breaking Away like I need any more psych right now. Hope this weekend goes well.