i wasn’t kidding, last week was tough and i appreciated any scrap of sympathy that anyone could throw at me. Friday night I headed up to East Burke to meet up with friends for the annual Kingdom Trail bike weekend. I got there and I spent Friday night on the couch with an ice pack on my stupid, swollen sting. It was ugly.

Thankfully, it helped knowing that after three mishaps the worst was bound to be over. I let George head out with the big group ride on Saturday knowing that I prefer a little less traffic. By the time it was my turn, the clouds had parted and the trails were a ton of fun. On the downhills I could feel the jiggle from the swelling in my foot and it was definitely a little tender and itchy. My busted up neck actually felt better after riding.

img_0412

Sunday I went out early for a solo three hours on the trail. I wanted to push myself a bit and string together a lot of singletrack miles without a lot of stopping. No one else was really up for heading out at 9am after the activities of the night before , so again I just went out solo and got it done. Rode all the highlights including the new Barnum Down, Sidewinder, and the berms on Kitchell. Super fun.

It felt strange to be riding gears and full-suspension, and I kept forgetting to shift and neglecting to let the bike do the work. But awesome to feel my improved fitness from this year. I’ve been riding these trails for years, in the past my ride on Sunday would have taken everything I had – felt awesome this weekend.