Aches and Pains

I went out for a mountain bike ride with Jim Bell today for almost two hours, which is about as long as I've continuously pedaled in a LOOOOOOONG time. My back is sore, my hands kept falling asleep, and I racked my choad on the top tube. Hard.

Here's Jim pissing in the woods.


I cut my bars down to about 25" and they feel a lot better. I also adjusted my saddle a bit and that seems to have helped some. I just don't know what to do about my hands falling asleep. It gets really bad, to the point that I can't grip the bars or feel the brake levers. I'm going to order up some of those Ergon grips and see if that helps.

I lowered my tire pressure (OK, Jim lowered it) to 30-32psi, and the ride was a lot smoother. I'd love to go tubeless and go even lower.

We started out at my house and rode over to the North Loop, where we met up with Slick. Then we hit up Riverside. We rode through the frizbee golf course, which resulted in riding through a huge cloud of weed smoke. Unfortunately, it was not enough to dull the pain! On the trail, some kids were trying to convince us to look in a hole. "Look in the hole! Look in the hole!" Why the hell would I look in the hole? Especially when the kids look like little pipe-bombers.

We rode back to my house, and I'm spent. My fitness is not cut out for rides like this, but my body seems to be adapting OK. We'll see how the rest of the fall plays out. My technical abilities are improving, so that will help make up for some of my physical traits (read: fat ass).