Taco Tuesday ride

Ride #1 of the 2012 happened last night out at BuRP (Blue River Parkway).  I got out of work a touch early to pick up some riding gloves from my mother-in-law (THANK YOU!) and got in some miles before meeting up with the rest of the group behind the Sand Trap at 6pm.

I usually ride some of the harder trails like the "wagon wheel" since my tech skills are so poor.  I figure if I can be decent at those trails, anything less should be cake.  At least I hope so.  I managed to completely flip over the bars after getting into a deep rutted downhill and trying (unsuccessfully) to get out of it.  Thankfully I'm a good crasher so I just got a little dirty and was able to laugh for a bit about it.

When all met up a 6, we headed over the section of trails that are further north than I go.  I just didn't quite know where to find them, although I rode them about a decade ago.  The trails up there are super fun, and pretty tech too, so I had quite a bit of walking.  It was at night, so I got to use my new trail light, a MagicShine 808-E.  It worked great, but I seemed to be having some balance problems, maybe that was due to it being night.  I've never felt like that before, but hopefully it's a one-time occurrence.

At some point up on Highline I got lost from the group.  I ended up taking a wrong turn on to Blue River Parkway (the road), and then decided to back track and climb back up the hill.  I'm not sure how I got separated, but fortunately after hustling back, one of the guys we were riding with, Travis from Bike Source, backtracked into me.  Some of the guys were getting a little beat, so I think they appreciated the break although I apologized for pulling some rookie stuff like that.  Happens to everyone at some point...

Travis was also kind enough to check out my cassette that had a gear or two slipping under load, and he was able to ascertain that I need a new cassette.  That is what I was starting to think, and a little bummed about having to shell out more dough, but this isn't a cheap sport.  And to think I started riding to save money because golf was too expensive in college.  Ha!

I ended up riding for almost 2:45, which was great.  I was pretty tired at the end, and starting to get kind of sloppy.  Probably a good thing we stopped when we did, before someone (like me) got hurt.

Hopefully I can find some time this weekend to head back out there since the trails were in nearly perfect shape.