3rd Times the Charm

I went for another ride last night. And oddly enough, it is the fist time in a looong time I've actually ridden 3 different trails in one week. And, I don't even feel my best right now.

The image above is the tell-tale of how the trail ride went. Dusty and moist.

Water bottle?! I'm suppose to be testing out that HydraBak system. Well, I am... except since the bladder can separate from the tube... the bladder was left in the fridge while the rest of the pack laid in my car :-/. I did finally receive the replacement valve and really wanted to test it out. But that will now be reserved for next Monday's ride.

Back to the ride... the trail is in excellent shape with a few deep sand areas but nothing too bad. I felt like a slug for most of the ride, but the time is the tell-tale. I had the Sigma strapped on the bike and the HRM strapped around my chest. I wanted to see where I was in regards to my fitness and start making the training adjustments needed to complete the Iceman disaster-free. Time out? 29:45 from the base of the hill to the entrance of the freeride park. Odd. That's faster than when I feel like a hotdog smoking the trail. What's up with that? I noticed I did the same thing at Yankee on Monday; 59:10 even though two of the others finished before me. Hmmm... Nothing like doing better than you feel, huh?

It was getting close to sunset and I might have gotten off another lap before resorting to the lights, but instead I started charging up the face of the hill. And again. And again. It's good to air out the legs. I didn't really feel like a night ride (and I hate bopping around alone in the dark) so I packed it up and headed for home. The bike is close to being dialed-in again with the only hiccup on the short, steep climb. It didn't want to dump into the granny under force. So I still beat the hill with the middle ring and ample quads :-D.