infinitely sustainable pace

bikes, beers and cabins

There I was, swooping down a buff, flowy trail - totally in my groove. Totally thinking about lunch. What sort of fabulous spread would be waiting for me when I finished up this mountain bike business at hand? And then - bam. Front tire went out from under me and I went down. On nothing tricky. Just let my mind wander a bit and the looseness of the pine needles swept my bike out from under me. All was fine, but it was a nice reminder that this was still real life.

The weekend at Mulberry Gap almost made me forget about real life. I had a business meeting in Atlanta, and as I watched the dates line up I realized that things were looking good that my meeting and Namrita’s Women’s Weekend would synch up. Sounded like fun, so I procured the proper permissions and confirmed my spot.

Everything I needed, for work and for riding, was crammed into my carry-on. Shipped the bike down ahead of time and I was really looking forward to the weekend. After finishing up a series of meetings, I met up with Namrita and we drove up into the mountains.

I had no idea what to expect and was so pleasantly surprised by the beauty and remoteness of the North Georgia mountains. We were almost the first to arrive, and headed out for a short warm up ride. It was a blast. A nice climb up, fun downhill. We headed back to Mulberry Gap for dinner and met the other ladies as they rolled in.

Everyone was fabulous. Friendly and open, this was a good group of ladies. We enjoyed the first of a series of powerfully good meals, told stories and talked about bike parts before hitting the hay.

On Saturday I rode over four hours in the morning, and another couple of hours after lunch. By the afternoon my legs were spent and I confess that climbing up that long gravel road saw me taking more walk breaks than I should. I just couldn’t turn the cranks while sitting or hold myself up to stand anymore. I bailed down a trail while the other ladies continued on for another couple of miles. Turns out I made a great choice. The way down was a fun downhill with rocks and stream crossings. 

This was about when my upper body started to suffer and I started to wish I had a suspension fork. This is when I should have picked up on something going wrong in my arms. But hey - I’m tough.

The next morning we headed up that same ride. Thankfully fresh legs brought a better perspective to the climb. Not as good as I had wanted, but I wasn’t the last one up it either. Descending was fun, but rapidly becoming more painful. I loved riding with the other women - overall a very fun group with great abilities.

We tacked on a couple of legs of singletrack. Beautiful buff, bench cut trail. The sun was out and the air was warm and I was delighted although at this point i was wishing i had an easier gear to push. During the final downhill was where I crashed. Even though I didn’t do anything more than scrape a little skin, it took the last remaining wind out of my sails.

My arm was hurting so bad and I was trying to figure out if going slower was better, softer, or just going fast and getting it over with was the better option.  I made it out fine, trying my best to enjoy the luxury of singletrack in March and got myself a nice post ride beer or two and enjoyed that lunch spread. 

Now, back to VT and the cold. It was 13 degrees this morning. A far cry from the shorts and jersey weather in GA. My arm is messed up. Serious pain in one particular part of my forearm and some tingling in my hand. Internet research points to something called Handlebar Palsy, or ulnar neuropathy or something like that. Caused by excessing bumping and jarring. Um yeah. Tomorrow I have an appointment with my sports med guy who can hopefully help with some treatment.

The (wonderful) rigid White Bros fork will come off (though probably not until I’m about to get more singletrack) and a squishy fork will go on (boo - I love rigid) and I think those particular Ergon grips will have to go. I feel that they stop me from moving my hands around the bars, and I have noticed extra forearm fatigue since putting them on. Which is just strange, as they’re supposed to help with it. They appeared to be mounted at the right angle, so I’m not sure why i’m having a bad experience with them. Maybe it’s the perfect storm of singlespeed riding form and rigid fork and weak forearms.