Hillside Park Rocks & My Manliness Hurts

There was a gathering today at Hillside Park in Elk River. Missing from the scene was Kenny, who pulled a Bob D. last night and happened to be severely dehydrated this morning. Yesterday, while Grasshopper and I were logging some miles on the road, Bob was riding rollers on the single speed and tweaking his gearing for Cheq in September. He did 40 miles on the single speed. Dammit, puts me to shame.

He was with us today and was heading out for more miles when I was leaving for home. Once again...putting me to shame.

The single track at Hillside is really awesome, but some of it was far too technical for my trail handling skills. My crashes have been a testament to my skills handling the bike. Definitely need some work and confidence in this area. I had to promise Patti that I wouldn't break anything today. My promise was kept, nothing broken, just some bruises, scrapes, and some other damaged goods.

The trail has sections that role and flow very nicely. Some of the uphills were challenging for me, primarily the ones with sharp switch backs. I had some difficulty keeping my momentum on a few of these and this of course means only one thing for me. Going down. I landed on my sore knee twice, but without any damage. Now some of the downhill runs were in my eyes absolutely insane. I dismounted and walked my bike down to where I thought I could continue on without killing myself. Remember, I promised Patti and am actually glad I did. It helped me keep things real. I'm such a chicken shit!

The one dicey hill that I did decide to tackle got me pretty good. Thank God no one saw because it had to look pretty damn comical. About half way down the hill I became, shall we say, somewhat detached from my bike. I ended up falling forward off the seat, handlebar to my chest, feet dragging on the ground, and my man parts being bashed against the top tube. This mountain biking really is a good deal of fun.

Five weeks to Chequamegon keeps ringing through my head. I was thinking of going back to Hillside tomorrow, but it's more a place to have fun rather than to train for Cheq. I've decided to follow Bob's cue and ride Elm Creek tomorrow, staying off the single track and keeping to the wider trails with the rolling hills. The single speed should be fun for this, but I hope it doesn't stress my knee out too much. Right now it's feeling pretty good. Looking forward to going out and getting lost at Elm Creek.