Trails

I finally got some riding in on real trails this weekend. Turns out that I'm not quite as rusty as I expected.

On Saturday, I went to the Rhino club ride at Bald Mountain; it's a super mellow paced ride. It's a good chance for me to focus on specific skills without worrying about much else. I tried some old Hutchinson Python tires that I've had for years. The last time I used them (2005?!?!), I had too much pressure in them and I crashed all over the place. I also just wasn't as good of a rider as I am now. This time out, I ran 30-35psi (tubed) and found that the tires worked just fine.

Sunday, I met a couple people and rode at Holdridge. It was my first time out there; it's closer to my house than I thought, so I'll have to try to get out there a bit more. It was raining a bit on my way out, but I thought it would clear up since the radar was clear. Nope. It rained almost the whole time. We rode a little on the trails, but cut it short since it was pretty muddy. I guess we got there too late; we talked to a couple guys who had just finished riding and they didn't look nearly as muddy as we were. We rode dirt roads for a little while then packed it in. I don't think anyone was too motivated to keep riding around in the rain.

In general, I felt a lot better than I expected to. My bike handling skills seemed pretty decent; in some ways probably better than last year already (I'll credit my Gene drills). My fitness seemed a little better than I expected too.