The Underside Of Wet Dog Ride

I was all geeked to get out on the Dos Niner tonight. I wanted to hit some single track to dial in the Fox and to burn some calories. I've been feeling a bit tubby lately and the thought of not riding was bringing me down faster than a $2 hooker. Wifey says I have I have BDD, I say I've enjoyed too may adult beverages and not enough miles.

I knew we (WPA) were supposed to get some showers today, but all day the showers kept going to the north or to the south leaving my trails nice and dry. Yeah, that was until about 4 p.m. when some light showers hit. Then 4:20 when some steady rains came. Great! "Looks like I'm heading to the Stankment®" I thought. By 5 the rains had stopped, but it was still wet as hell and there were more showers on the way according to the radar. I really didn't feel like skating around on slick roots and muddy trails, but I felt like riding in the basement on the trainer for an hour even less! So I did a mental compromise. I would hit Boyce, ride a little bit of single track and then hit some double track and park roads to get at least an hour in.

So come 5 p.m. I chamoised up, and headed to Boyce. Just as I started to ride the rain started. So I put on a rain jacket and headed out. The trails were wet, no doubt. But the dirt had not really had time to absorb the water to make it too muddy. Just a LOT of water. Water on the trail, water on the trees, rain coming down and me sweating like a damn fool with a rain jacket on. I needed to stop after a mile and ditch the jacket and fogged up glasses in my pack. Then I headed off again. It was slow, the roots were super slick and the trees were hanging lower than an old man's testies and thus making seeing down the trail a pain in the ass.

I bit it coming around a wet, rooty corner and ended up in the thorn bushes. Great. I had so many thorns in my ass I felt like a freaking pin cushion! On top of that I got bit by some sort of bug right on my left ass cheek!

With all that wet, prickly, itchy, muddiness I felt like the underside of wet dog. BUT, I was having a decent time. I was in no way going longer than an hour, given the rain and it being a race week, but it felt great to be in the woods. It was nice to be alone in the woods. It was so peaceful. Nothing but the sounds of the rain and my tires rolling over wet dirt as I cut through the fog and trees.

I am also happy to report that I'm totally in love with my new fork. If feels SO damn good! I have it set at about 80 psi right now and the all other setting at or close to, or at the factory settings. I didn't have it on the most difficult of trails today, but I was very happy with the feel and action of the fork. It took a while to get it up and running, but it was worth the wait. This weekend of course will be it's REAL first test.

I was glad I forced myself to spin around the park for the hour. No it wasn't like one of my "real" rides, but I felt better mentally for doing it, and I can rest easy knowing that my fork is feeling good on the Dos Niner. Now if I can just get all the thorns of my ass and out of my gloves I'll be set!

I did get motivated to get back on track using The Daily Plate to see what kind of calories I'm taking in. I also FINALLY entered over a month's worth of info onto TraingPeaks.com. I was glad I had The Chamois to look at to get my ride info. I think I need these sorts of things to stay focused through the season. I think I have some sort of athletes version of ADD. ADD-BDD-Big D whatever it takes.

Later.