so... i did it.
boooo
first off, its not like jogging in the morning where you can zone out and just go. riding the bike requires a degree of concentration... one that i barely had for the first half of the ride. jesus.... i think i rode off the trail 4 times in the first 30 minutes. also, i had teh same derailer issue that i mentioned in my nepaug report... so i had 4th gear. and whenever i'd forget, it'd bind up. boo.
after the first 30, i broke out onto hatchet hill (i guess you can cover the same amount of ground trail running as biking...more consistant speed? ) Going up the street to connect with the blue trail i caught my mind and had a great 20 minutes of ripping just as the sun was starting to poke through the trees. pretty cool. Convincing enough to do this again.
then, as i blasted into what i'd consider a final decent, i detoured into some newer single track. this required...10 pedals, tops.... and then it happened.... the derailer clogged and binded, and prevented me from pedaling forwards, backwards, it prevented me from physically man handeling the chain into the 4th gear position... i was screwed... at around 5:45am.... so......
with 15 minutes to get out of the woods, and get lunch made before going to work.. i had to scramble. i mad dogged the fall line (off trail) and connected with a main path. jogged it up hills and pump rode the downhills and flats... actually pretty fun, considering. then had to hike out along the farmington river... boo... poison ivy and thorns, mud and .... loud ass trucks. haha.
long story short, the hustle worked, and i made it back to the fort in time to prepare a really shitty lunch and do a bike swap for this afternoons ride in Nepaug.
5am... = wierd
boooo
first off, its not like jogging in the morning where you can zone out and just go. riding the bike requires a degree of concentration... one that i barely had for the first half of the ride. jesus.... i think i rode off the trail 4 times in the first 30 minutes. also, i had teh same derailer issue that i mentioned in my nepaug report... so i had 4th gear. and whenever i'd forget, it'd bind up. boo.
after the first 30, i broke out onto hatchet hill (i guess you can cover the same amount of ground trail running as biking...more consistant speed? ) Going up the street to connect with the blue trail i caught my mind and had a great 20 minutes of ripping just as the sun was starting to poke through the trees. pretty cool. Convincing enough to do this again.
then, as i blasted into what i'd consider a final decent, i detoured into some newer single track. this required...10 pedals, tops.... and then it happened.... the derailer clogged and binded, and prevented me from pedaling forwards, backwards, it prevented me from physically man handeling the chain into the 4th gear position... i was screwed... at around 5:45am.... so......
with 15 minutes to get out of the woods, and get lunch made before going to work.. i had to scramble. i mad dogged the fall line (off trail) and connected with a main path. jogged it up hills and pump rode the downhills and flats... actually pretty fun, considering. then had to hike out along the farmington river... boo... poison ivy and thorns, mud and .... loud ass trucks. haha.
long story short, the hustle worked, and i made it back to the fort in time to prepare a really shitty lunch and do a bike swap for this afternoons ride in Nepaug.
5am... = wierd
