3's

Lots of things happen in threes, most notably, flat tires & crashes. Dos is still sitting with two flat tires and caked on mud from the Fitty, been back out on the fixy. Man, is that ever fun. Sunday's jaunt definitely revealed the rust. First obstacle out of Jake's driveway and I'm trying to backpedal a stutter stroke over a big rock. Ooops, pedals don't go that way, over you go, dumbass. Then more fumbling on logs. Logs, always a crux move to clear a log cleanly. Re-established my fixy hop last night though. Man, it's sweet when it works out, ugly as anything when it doesn't.

Bender & I roll from the Furnace last eve. Shootin' the shit, filling him in on Sunday's adventure. And try to share the lighthearted moment of Pedro attempting to learn to flick rocks, Harrisonburger style. The rock flick is something fun to do when you're bored on a fireroad. See a golfball sized rock sitting in the open, ride by it, flick it with the front wheel, and see if you can score a 'goal' by shooting said rock between the wheels of your buddy's bike. Pedro tried to replicate the action on Sunday, and just after he almost laid it down he says, "Guess there's more to it than I thought." See, you need to lighten the front end just as you flick, otherwise, you're just turning the wheel hard, which might have consequence if it hooks up and tosses you to one side or the other. Well, last night, I tried to demonstrate what Pedro did, and yep, I laid it down, brilliant. On the shoulder of B'ville road, not five minutes from the car, and I putz around and have to step off the bike while climbing at 6.3mph up a false flat. That's #1.

We get into Comm Service, I follow Dave's wheel so my cobwebby fixy skillz don't ruin his flow. Manage to follow his pace nicely, giving up ground on logs here and there, one or two pucker moments snaking rather quickly thru some tighter pitchy spots and pop up onto Logsled. Good times, good times. Keep it rollin' across the road and over to Woodrow for the evening's climb. Set a solid 2:1 tempo up that bitch and onto Jake's on up to the hunting camp. First time in a long long while that I didn't hike any of it, not one step. Might actually have some real fitness revealing itself, finally.

Collect at the top real quick like, then we're off to Rattlesnake. A little dabby dab here and there, a mostly smooth ride across the top and we're onto the 'new' section. I love this trail. I drop in for freshies and things are going good, the focus is there, the breathing is in sync with the flow and I'm holding a decent pace, even get an oh so slight gap on Dave. Get to the first cruxy spot, make it thru the tight steep bottleneck and then unexpectedly blow out of my right pedal. Fuck. Nothing like losing a foot to pedal connection as you're rolling a steep rocky pitch on the fixy. Try to save it, things accelerate quickly, spot a hopefully soft & rock free flat spot in the berry bushes and eject. Still clipped in with the left foot as I perform yet another cat like shoulder roll. Bike goes over top of me and unclips at the apex. Bike goes airborn and ends up 20' down the hill and another 10' or so further off the trail over in the brush. I somehow only end up with one small bruise on the elbow. That's #2.

We begin rolling again, right back on that horse. 30' down the trail and Dave washes the front end and dumps it into a tree. Officially, that's #3, we're in the clear, right? We roll outta there and follow the race course way thru the Nowhere loops, what a frickin' blast! I just wanna throw a shout out to all the fifty milers the other wknd. Ya'll did one hell of a job berming out what is probably one of the most super fun flowy sections in all of Michaux. Way way way fun, with lots a braapp bbrrrrappppp sounds being made. Then just as we're finishing up, at the end of a way spun out section, up onto a lip to get around a downed tree, when bam! Something grabs a hold of a pedal and almost rips the bike out from underneath me. I'm tossed into the bars, feel some unique stress in the wrists and thumb, and THAT was almost a big #3 for me. Enjoy the adrenal release, catch my breath, get back up to Dave, put some air in his softening tire and agree that spinning the road is a decent enough idea, rolled it back just shy of 2hrs.

Bonus was discoverring a new sunset spot, there's a kinda decent view from the top of the mud bank parking spot. Wish I woulda had the camera along, the late evening light was damn near perfect across that little ridge before we dropped onto the pavement, next time. Got home and cranked down the pedal tensions, clipping out of the fixy is usually not a desirable event, lesson (re)learned. The dormant ninja pedal skillz have been awakened. Tonight, plan to climb the 'steep' side of 233 along with an up-n-down on B'ville, hope the weather cooperates.

Time to climb bitch, it's time to climb.