Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Slacker

Since Monday was a holiday and Wednesday is my regular day off, I took Tuesday off. It would be stupid not to, right?

I took the opportunity to ride out to Granite Bay again. After five days of winds, it was dead calm and cool. I got out early and had the trails to myself for the first two-thirds of the ride. I love the feeling of being out early on a weekday and feasting on all the morning has to offer. It feels like freedom, like sticking it to the man, a little bit like stealing. There are times when I like sharing a ride like this with a friend, and times like yesterday when I dig the solitude.

I tapped out a nice 33-mile ride on the single speed. It was pretty much the same ride I did Friday, but with enough variations in the route to keep it fresh. I'm loving all the single speed rides I have been doing lately.

My wrist felt pretty good. Although I have been riding on the road all spring and summer, I only began riding off-road at the end of July. It seems every MTB ride in the last couple weeks I see progress in strength and flexibility. Since The Crash, I have only been able to climb with bar ends. I simply haven't had the range of motion necessary to climb holding the grip. Yesterday I was able to do a couple short climbs without moving to the bar ends, albeit with a little pain, but still it was a small victory. It's nice to see progress once in a while.

Unfortunately, the new position and stress I put on the joint led to stiffness and a little swelling today. That's pretty much how rehab works--with forward progress comes a backslide. I'm used to it.

A much calmer Lake Natoma:



I actually took another properly framed picture, but I like this one better:



On the parts front, I ordered one of these today:



It's the '09 Reba SL, only $413 and free shipping from Speedgoat. I can't wait to see how the increased offset (46mm) makes my Waltworks hardtail handle. I was never really happy with the slow steering with the old Reba at 38mm of offset.

Later.

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