lucky you

Today I had to cancel my day trip ride plans, sucks for me but good for you, that is if you enjoy reading this blog. Semi sketchy weather, sick kids and tire issues forced all of my compadres to bail on me over the course of the last 12 hours so I instead of riding I will take this time to blog a bit. Fear not the ride will happened, not today but Thursday.

Slowly but surely my riding has started to pick back up. Not all of the trails are ready to roll on but the temps have risen a bit and the snow has stopped for the time being. It is still winter but I'll take it.
Saturday, Fat Tony put a ride on Iron Mtn together and luckily I was able to make this one. It's been a couple of years since my last ride on Iron so I was really pumped. I called on the JET9 for this trip as Iron is not a well groomed trail. It's a back country trail that doesn't see regular maintenance. Baby head rocks, downed trees, steep ups and downs, creek crossings and unpredictable weather are all part of a ride on Iron.
We shuttled up to Skulls Gap with the intention of riding somewhere around 20+ miles. Our first couple of miles were a very icy fireroad. After realizing we were going to be walking very slowly up the 2 miles of fireroad rather than riding we opted to cut a 5 mile section out and skip straight over to the Iron Mtn trail.
I was really surprised at the large crew that we had in tow, several newbies to Iron Mtn, were in attendance and I think once the trail pointed downhill they were hooked. Surprisingly the ride went mechanical free until the last mile when Fat Tony sliced the sidewall of a brand new tire. No matter what he tried the Stan's juice was just not up to the task of sealing this one forcing him to walk it out. I'd hate to think what he would have had to do had it been early on in the ride. For some odd reason I'm not sure we packed any tubes.

Since the War Party 10k run, the back of my knee has been bothering me a bit. It's been tight and the first couple of days it was swollen so I've not been running since. Thankfully it doesn't effect my riding or I might have gone off the deep end. Not really worrying much about personal records on runs I felt like the War Party 10k was a good run for me. I finished around the 55 minute mark and I felt surprisingly good. I'll probably give my knee a rest for another week or so before I try hitting the pavement again. Until then I guess I will have to suffer through riding my bike. Whoa is me.