Weekend fun

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Finally feeling like its time for some long rides and adventures. I think I might have been ready sooner if not for the Achilles issues after 24 Hours in the Enchanted Forest. But that's a part of 24 hour racing, particularly going solo. The cause of the Achilles irritation has been addressed and its feeling a lot better. No tightness and the swollen area in the tendon has gone away. I was really worried about it after the June 26 Ascent race, but after the July 10th fun I was feeling a lot better. The bad thing about behaving and making sure that everything healed up was missing a lot of fun rides. A lot of fun rides and adventures. Sure, we went to Breck for the CTS camp which was awesome, but there were plenty of other trips I passed on. Nick went down to Salida with the guys over the July 4th weekend, and followed it up with another ride in Breck. He invited me on the Breck ride, but I stayed home and behaved. I really wanted to go, but needed to ride easy and be smart. Boo. I love getting to ride new trails. A bike packing trip with the Tall Boys last weekend which I also bailed on. Wanted to go but again, needed to be smart so stayed home and played with the cats.

So come Sunday and Nick is planning a ride with Fred and the gang. I'm planning on riding over and then only doing a short ride - not the whole epic day. I only brought enough food and water for a short ride, so I was honestly planning to behave. But the day was perfect and the ride they had planned sounded fun. And they didn't mind if I tagged along. I left a little early sisnce Fred had one more person coming and they would easily catch me. An easy pedal up over the hog's back - very smooth on that technical section this time - then the gradual climb up Gold Camp. It took longer then I anticipated for them to catch up - but they'd been waiting for a while. The pace picked up a little as we continued climbing. I know they weren't riding hard or fast , but it was a good pace. A quick stop for a snack then time for fun.

And as I had anticipated, I was quickly dropped. I had to walk a few things and was much slower then the guys on the downhill. I did manage to ride more then last time, but I harbor no illusions. I cannot keep up with them on any downhills. On the traverse trail, I again did better - focusing on the trail and flow. I was doing a lot of talking aloud - focus, breath, ride my bike. One small goof up sent me into the dirt, but otherwise a really smooth ride. And well worth misbehaving for - but once again, I forgot the camera - no photos of the fun.

Waking up this morning to low clouds and much needed rain, I was happy I'd misbehaved. We need all this rain, and its the perfect light drizzle, but its no fun to ride in!

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