Waterfront, BTV, 5degF, never mind the windchill. Cold fingers.

Met the wife downtown for lunch. No bike parking at Magnolia’s? Burlington’s first ‘green’ restaurant? And one that sells t-shirts about riding a bike instead of driving…

Lowered the saddle once I settled into the singletrack. That made a huge difference, especially on the technical bits. Tweaked the bar position.

Think I’m getting it dialed for both gravel and trail. This morning was – make adjustment, ride a lap, rinse, repeat.

The Vulpines roll well on the gravel and dirt – but they are definitely not a wet, snot, rock tire. Would love to have a 2.2 or 2.4 up front – and something sticky like a Nevegal. Would give me some more confidence in the slick. That said – rolling on a knobby isn’t fun – so the Race Kings or Vulpines will do for now, until I set up a second wheelset for eaiser changes. Riding trail on essentially a large cross tire is fun – and I can’t complain – I used to ride these same woods on 35s and 42s back when the CrossCheck was my ‘all-terrain-a-saurus’

Mellow weekend. Farmer’s Market, morning rides, flowers in bloom, some industrious kids up in the woods, flood damage, more rain, gray skies, good fun.

New sneaks arrived for on the Fargo and Pugsley. My Specialized shoes have finally given up, with the sole @ the cleat pushing into the bottom of the shoe. Looks like they are delaminating. 5 year old shoes, ridden in mud, snow, rain… I really can’t complain. I opted to replace them with some Pearl Izumi X-Alp pro shoes. Carbon sole that is supposedly good for hike a bike… I would have gone for another comparable pair of the Specialized shoes – but they have a very stiff sole now, and a local rider told me they are great for on the bike, not so good for even short off the bike pushes.

And then I found this (for the Enduro model) and this. Kurt’s plug pretty much sold me on the shoe. He’s currently out front on the Tour Divide.

In other news I snapped the hanger on the Fargo. Hit something, and glad I didn’t shift into the spokes. New parts (and a spare for my kit) are on the way. On a separate morning I went over the bars – perfect wheel swallowing divot coming off some roots.

Next week I hope the continuing fatigue is gone, hoping to start a formal training plan to take me into the fall. Will be the first time I’ve done any specific training since burning out when I hired a coach back in 07.

After the burn out I didn’t ride for nearly 8 months. Looking forward to it, as I think I’ve got the largest base in place in a long long time – but need to knock a few more pounds off the body and step up the intensity for climbing. (hmm, when I migrated over from Blogger it seems I lost all my pictures on previous posts… sad…)

Left early Sunday morning and managed a fatigued ~48 including some tacky, some snotty, and some dry dirt, rolling south from town to the covered bridges. Still feeling off, but opted to climb Irish Hill on the return leg, and actually felt OK. Lots of low gears for me…

Monday morning and we are still getting wet.

So much rain… starting to get depressing, until I walked outside from sipping my coffee and saw a rainbow. I raced to the lake hoping to catch it over the mountains, but the rain picked up and it went back to hiding.

Hoping Summer arrives before Fall.

Still figuring out the drop bar position – currently its great for gravel / local trails – but I can see for extended single track I’d want it a bit higher. Still annoyed with the adjustment / shifting of the SRAM FD… doesn’t stay put after adjustment and gives come chain rub in too many combinations. Salsa sent along some missing inline adjusters… but the one for the FD seems to unwind itself every few days. Might need to tighten it down and add some electrical tape.

Starting to feel like myself again. Still fatigued, with sore legs… looking forward to a decent ride this Sunday.