Had to go off in search of my happy place this afternoon. Luckily I found it up there.

Trails were damp, but not squishy today. Luckily the spring was so dry that our recent rains have mostly soaked right into the soil. X-kings are ruling it in every condition, the new bike is tops and the gearing is almost too comfortable. As always, I’m grateful to have this singletrack out my office door, available at my convenience.

Squoze in a short ride this afternoon. I thought that I’d have plenty of time to go out and climb some hills before the predicted storms arrived. But this was the view that awaited me at the top of Dewey Hill when I turned back towards the west. So much for my ride, I hustled back to the office just in front of the thunder and lightning. The storm wasn’t that bad in Stowe, but I’m not big on getting caught out in electrical storms.

Today my back felt fine. And my legs didn’t have that telltale weakness that I’ve been feeling. I kept reminding myself that I could actively push and not just gently move the pedals in a circle. Hooray for making progress. All signs point to a long weekend of fine weather, starting tomorrow. It’s time.

The afternoon brought some sunshine and a little bit of time to get out and pedal, I grabbed my mother’s day present from 4 years ago and rode up Duxbury mountain to string together some nice gravel cruising in Duxbury and Moretown. My back felt poorly so I kept the effort on the low side, I just wanted to spend some time outside pedaling and not cause further pain and injury. One of these days I do want to be back to normal again, really i do. I stopped for a break at one point, not something I normally do, but the view was quite nice and my back was hurting. Happy to enjoy being outside in the sunshine.

Working on the core strength this week, I learned some new moves on Friday night which will hopefully help me make some progress.

Starlight, starbright. This was the first star I saw Friday night. Yes, I wished on it. How can you not?

Can you see the bugs? They were thick, thick, thick but thankfully not biting. Not yet anyway. Bug season starts in  3, 2, 1….

Good weekend, stories to come tomorrow. I hope you had the same.

you've seen flask and growler holders, but white wine?

SSEC2012 happened in France just the other weekend. That would be the Singlespeed European Championships. Obviously I wasn’t there, though I would have liked to have been. Even though I couldn’t be there, some friends from Catalunya were there. I had met them at SSWC in Ireland when we struck up a conversation about belt drives. Later I would help them get the new CenterTrack belt set-up as we’re a dealer, we ship international and they couldn’t get it in the EU.

the badgers!

Anyway, they sent me a link to their photos from SSEC(see above) and it looks like it was a lot of fun and good times.  Best of all, my friends won the hosting rights and 2013 SSEC will be in Catalunya. More details to follow, but they’re saying about 50km from Barcelona. I really hope the timing would work that I could go over for this.

It’s been a productive day of work and taking care of myself. Got some other stuff done too.

Sunday is not only mother’s day, but it’s also a day to celebrate women and bikes. Cyclofemme is spearheading rides all over the world to honor what women can do both on a bike and with a bike. Whether for transportation or sport, riding bikes can improve the lives of women. I should know. Anyway, come ride with us in Waterbury on Sunday at 4pm from Five Hills Bikes. It’s an inclusive ride. Bring your mom, bring your kid. We’ll cruise around the village, head up into the woods. We might drink champagne. We’ll definitely have fun.

Singlespeed USA continues to be on for July 28. In fact, it’s really sold out, unless someone cancels. Then there might be another spot. And unless you’re female. We’ll make room for any singlespeed ladies. And if you’re a boy who happens to be traveling with a crew of singlespeed ladies, we can probably do something for you too. I posted some updates to the website about the schedule, and the facebook page too. Love hearing back from everyone stoked for the event.

Lots of great things planned. Between these events, upcoming races, and some work travel that I booked this week the summer time will bring much excitement.

Two full days of sunshine. It was about time. Friday I had big plans for an almost supermoon ride. Woke up to the sound of rain, watched it drizzle meekly all day from my desk. By the time my late meeting wrapped up, 6:30ish, the rain had mostly stopped. With lights, pbj, and some beers in the pack, it was time to ride up and into the woods for a bit of a Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. It was a bit damp and dark, there were frogs and toads everywhere and the darned moon didn’t make an appearance until the ride was over, 3 hours later. But it was a great adventure regardless.

Saturday passed in a flurry of mopping, sweeping, firmware updating, lawn mowing, and chair sitting. The fun of being back home after a few weekends of busyness in a row.

Sunday called for a gravel road ride up to three hours but it was just too nice to waste it all on gravel road so I planned a mixed route of roads and singletrack. My singlespeed has the 22t on the back and was ready to go. I felt a bit nervous about my back and kept the pace steady endurance all the way and was a little surprised about how good I felt climbing up into Sterling Valley. I didn’t even wish for gears, thats a good sign. Took a few new turns and then found my way over to Adams Camp for another go at the new climb. Loved it ever more in the daylight, very singlespeed friendly.

Part way up the climb I stopped to go pee and noticed something feeling amiss in my shorts. After I got back on my bike it felt like I was sitting on gravel or that I had just taken a pee in a stinging nettle patch (impossible at this time of year and no nettles in Stowe). So with the trail clear in both directions I stopped to try to adjust my lady bits. Two hands down my pants trying to sort out the problem and all of the sudden I look up and there are two guys on cross bikes that came from nowhere. Hope they enjoyed the show. There wasn’t much I could do, seems my chamois had a massive failure and it was just a matter of finishing up the ride as quickly as possible.

Time for new baggies. My old favorites came from Oakley about 5 years ago and they no longer do them. Who is making the best baggies these days and has a ladies option?

we’re deep into spring here in the mountains. buds are breaking, spring flowers are sprinkled across the ground and the fiddleheads are unfurling. i love the symbolism of the fiddlehead. of rebirth and renew. it never fails to give me some hope after winter.

The makings of a giant bonfire. At least two years of christmas trees plus other assorted wood. I’d like to burn it before summer really gets here, maybe plan a ride and a party and light it up.

But a few miles into the singletrack I started to feel not so good in my back. And quickly that feeling got really bad and became like hot knives poking into my lower back. All my pedaling power went away because it hurt, and my ability to ride over roots and rocks started to suffer. The fun just got totally sucked up and away. Near as I could figure I was about 8 miles into a 28-mile race and it was going very bad indeed.

In my head I reviewed Emily’s list of very valid reasons to not DNF, and my back hurt. I thought about how it would suck to quit, but I also thought about how much it would suck if I tried to stick it out and ended up really hurting my back. And then I pulled the trigger. The course jogged right towards some fun singletrack and a bit of a gentle upward climb, and I opted off the course, towards the marshall with a vuvuzuela and directions back to the start. It was all i could do to propel myself forward on the road, obviously calling it was the right choice. But I was bummed, DNFing is not fun.

Funny, I had no twinges or back pain on my pre-ride the night before the race. But dinner had dragged on far too long, so I neglected to stretch out afterwards. Not that it would have made any difference probably. My back was hurting after the long weekend working the grinder and the travel. And obviously I need a renewed effort in core strengthening. Appointment with my sports guy in the morning, and daily core efforts going forward. Back pain will not be tolerated.

Singlespeed-apalooza is coming up on Sunday, and I’m sad to say that I think my performance is going to be completely terrible. Regardless, I went out on my bike after work according to the plan. Endurance for 1-1.5 hours. I took the Air9C and climbed up Barnes Hill and my legs and lungs felt like crap, no giddy-up at all. But a funny thing happened about 30 minutes into the ride, my legs just became happy to sit there and turn pedals. No matter that they weren’t turning quickly, they were moving.

My mind was moving too. Thinking about a lot of things. About how, even if somehow I felt better by the weekend that my 22t cog was so big for that course that I would be left in the dust in the first few miles on the road. About how that didn’t really actually matter that much to me, that I really wasn’t into mountain biking to win races and that I’d feel more successful if I came home with new friends and lots of laughs with old friends than if I got onto the podium. And I wondered what this season would feel like, I’ve been burying myself in my bike to counteract the drama and trauma of life and now that has settled down what would I get from biking? I thought about how much more fun cycling is when you have fitness and I thought about engaging my abs and trying to keep my back from hurting. I thought that maybe I would see a moose and about getting ready for SM100 and about how much I enjoy alone time on the bike. And I thought about the hail that fell briefly. And then I kept wondering how bad that gear would be on Sunday but kept telling myself that it didn’t really matter.

I thought about all those things and then 100 more and by the time I got home I felt a lot less crappy than I did before I went for a ride.