Due to rain the last couple days, riding has been confined to the city limits. Not the best or most interesting riding, but there are lots of new trails that I haven't seen and others that I haven't ridden for a long time, so it wasn't all bad.
Saturday dawned early with the Havelock Charity run (no I didn't run)...
Afterward Ryan and I met up with no real plan except to explore the city trails and get some miles in. MapMyRide uses way out of date Lincoln maps, so my mileage estimate is rather rough, but I figured 32 miles round trip. Most exciting moment involved a mud induced slide of both wheels through a under-street tunnel....still learning how to ride that Lemond.
Where now? A decision point at Holmes Lake.
Is this Colorado, or southeast Lincoln?
Photo op...
Today, I headed back out, on the El Mariachi this time. Compared to the cross bike, I felt like a monster truck on the mtb. Stable, comfy, and slow... Hoping that the rain would hold off I headed toward Pioneer's Park. Ended up with 30 miles and an even 100 for the weekend. Next goal is consecutive 50 mile days. 55 days till the Laramie Enduro...
On Friday evening, I headed out for what I had planned as an extended gravel loop. Based on so many race reports from Dirty Kanza and others, I was convinced that the cross bike was the best tool for the job. I quickly realized that I either need to have different tires or a lot more confidence because I was rather skittish any time the gravel got deep or when I had any speed heading down hills.
When I came to Highway 79 and its nice wide shoulder, I changed plans and decided to head up toward Raymond. The touring tires on the cross bike liked this surface much better. Once I reached Raymond Road, I thought I would ride over to the lake. Upon reaching the lake, I took a lap around. As I rode across the dam it became obvious I was losing the light so I headed home as quick as possible since I was without lights. 36 miles...2 hours 25 minutes...a great post-work relaxer.
Looking into the valley from near my house.
It's rare to meet a friendly dog on your bike... Rolling countryside north of the lake.
Saturday was supposed to be a race day for me, but when I woke up, I just wasn't feeling the long drive. Most of the guys I hang out with at the races were also out for one reason for another, including Harp and Ryan, who were supporting the criterium race in downtown Lincoln. Jason was one of the few to man up and head out to Lewis and Clark.
Instead, Laura and I ran some errands, including picking up a new point and shoot camera that would be small and light enough to easily carry on bike rides. Eager to try out the new camera, a couple friends and I headed downtown to check out the the Capital City Criterium and say hi to the guys that had to be at the race. Pretty cool scene and what a beautiful day! Here's a short video I shot during the second lap of the Pro/1/2/3 race using the new camera.
After hanging out at the race for awhile, Mitchell and I took off to explore Wilderness Park. Mitchell rides a Surly Crosscheck and had never ridden offroad with it, so we planned to take it pretty slowly, but I was really impressed with his skills. Nice job man! I was riding a cyclocross bike too, a Lemond Poprad, that Robb let me borrow. I was surprised by the way the cross bikes handled on the trails, even with roadish tires on the Lemond...
Near the end of our trip through the park, I got the bright idea to take out the camera and shoot some video. I've seen enough examples (including the master) where it is made to seem so easy to shoot video on almost any terrain, so I thought I could handle it. Lets count the factors that led to the video that follows: first real ride on a borrowed bike, first offroad ride on a cyclocross bike, and first time attempting to shoot video while riding...sounds like a recipe for awesome.
Bike, camera and idiot all escaped without injury. I'll get this ride documentation thing down with a little practice and hopefully my blog posts about riding will be little more interesting.
