New Slang

I signed up for Boggs today. The race isn't until April, but you have to register for these races early before they fill up. I really hate having to plan so many months in advance. Life can be unpredictable, and four months is a long time. Things can change.

This is the fourth year in a row I have signed up. The 2007 race was my first solo eight-hour race. The weather was great, and the course was fun. I felt good about knocking out five laps (~50 miles) before the cramps did me in.



I signed up again in 2008 and broke my wrist a couple weeks later.

In 2009 I trained hard, but I caught some funky lung ailment right before the race.

I hope to have better luck in 2010.

I guess I kind of started training. I have done at least a short ride every day for the past eight days, culminating in a longer one today.

After spending the last five years as a geared bike, I converted my Karate Monkey to a single speed for the winter. The flat bars and bar ends were swapped out for riser bars and I put a solid axle in back. Other than that, not much work went into the conversion.

I can't recall ever riding a single speed from my house. I was looking to do something different today, so I gave it a try. I thought it might be boring at times, but due to the up and down nature of my area, I rarely spun out. I spent the vast majority of the time grinding up hills or flying down them (I topped 40 miles per hour a few times).

I hit the Serrano, Powerline, New York Creek, Wild Oak Park and Brown's Ravine trails. It was a little greasy in places, but overall the trail conditions were great. I was out for over three hours, and I was tired at the end from all the climbing. Fun ride.

Monkey:



Tough climb:



Later.