This was a shore thing!!
And MattyTee showed up for a bit a surprise visit...
Anyways....all of this set me up for a crusher of a MTB weekend.
So...this started with a 3 hour ride on our local trails on Saturday...and of course I rode the 29+ Fatboy...cuz that bike is just so much friggin fun!
Especially on our local trails...Waterdown...hills, rocks, hills, roots, hills. The terrain here makes a 1 hour ride work you like a 3 hour ride anywhere else...so a 3 hour ride was a total workout. But the 29+ wheels just smooth it all out, and traction galore!!
NewfieSteve joined me from the start...
He rode the new Stumpjumper 650Plus (Lisa's new bike...yeah Steve stole it for the day). That thing has, like 140mm of travel (Full Suspension)...so watching it soak up every drop and jump we could find was amazing! And, unlike me, Steve has the MTB skills to attack and handle all that stuff!
We met up with EnglishJim an hour in and he joined us for the last two hours...but Jim hasn't been riding much, and as much work as our trails are...we may have hurt him...
If you reaaallly zoom in, you can see Jim back there somewhere....
Jim had trouble staying awake for the post ride firepit corn roast....
So then Sunday Jaimie, Steve, and I head to Turkey Point...for another 3 hour ride. Jaimie rode his carbon Specialized Epic race bike....and this time Steve rode his carbon Specialized Stumpjumper Hardtail race bike. And there was me with my aluminum Fatboy with the 29+ wheels, so this time it was me working my arse off just to keep up...
Two hours into the ride...me chasing these fast, fit, fast racer types...I was whipped...and of course clipped a small tree with my handle bar (the only tree in a full square acre, but I managed to clip it...well the fatboy bars are wide....but still...). Over I went...one of those falls where you fly through the air long enough you have time to think that this is gonna hurt when I land. I landed...I rolled...I hurt. A few scrapes, bumps and bruises...nothing so bad...but I wrenched my knee hard. In my sordid sport history I have had both knees surgically repaired...so I am a little concerned when I hurt a knee. It was OK enough to finish out the last hour of the ride. But now it is quite swollen, jam packed with extra synovial fluid (yeah...got to use my science background a bit there...which is kinda dangerous cuz some of you are science/doctor types (Kate???), so I can't get away with calling it amniotic fluid...apparently that would be wrong...).
I don't have a pic of the knee cuz pics of swollen injuries don't really seem to work...people often post a pic after a crash to show how swollen the injury is...but it doesn't really show through the camera unless it is ridiculous like...
OR...
I actually didn't get any pics of the Sunday Turkey Point ride at all...I am very poor at taking good ride pics. I either need ApexTed at every ride, or need some JeffS lessons. I have actually asked Lois to help me by taking pics of me that I might use in the blog...so she sent me these random pics from around our house...
ironing
kitchen
bedroom
But none of them are about mountain biking....and I think the joke is kind of on her...because I don't think any of them are really pics of me.
Anyways, I am getting way off track yet again...
So...the injured knee...quite swollen, a tad unstable, and very, very stiff. I have been doing all the things...icing it, elevating it...to try to get it back to useful again.
I was planning on doing DanOfSubstance's race this weekend...the Kingston Trophy...but now I am not sure I will be able to. The race is 80 kms of MTB trails in the Kingston area. I will do it if I can get this knee properly operational, and without fear of making it worse.
I will go on an easy, recovery ride today...and keep to pavement and/or gravel, to test it out. By Thursday I should know if it will be a go...
Stay posted!
It's not so easy to take a good mtb pic...
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