With the rains last night ZNels and I thought it best to head out to Powhite for a quick ride this morning. That place has a funny ability to make you think to yourself (or sometimes out loud) "Which way do I go?" Especially when you are trying not to ride the same trail for the 2nd, 3rd or 5th time.

After grabbing a shower, lunch and a quick nap, I headed out to the shed to give the BUSS a little long overdue TLC. In wanting to put a bigger gear on it but not wanting to spend more money on chainrings, I pulled out the gold RaceFace crank that came stock on it. I had bent something on it awhile back and it started to eat chains. Breaking one almost every other ride. Well I think I have it straight once again but cannot say for certain until I give it a new chain to chew on.

I had picked up another set of the Ergon grips the other day at the shop. Since I was going to remove the Pepperjacks I figured I might as well install the new Avid Ti Brake levers I bought months ago. Both the grips and levers look and feel amazing! A new set of pads and cables completed the pampering of said BUSS for the night.

Before Friday, I plan on replacing the bearings in the rear wheel. Stay tuned for that as I plan on doing it myself for the first time. Could get ugly?!

Carytown 10k

From the title you are probably thinking, "When did Andy start running?". The answer is he hasn't. I did however make it down to Carytown to watch Jenn run in her first 10k. She was a bit nervous before the start of the race as to if she would be able to finish or not due to two reasons. First she was sick for about a week just 2 weeks ago which kept her from doing any sort of exercise and the second being that her knee had been given her trouble on the last couple of runs.

Just like I promised her, I said a prayer so the knee pains would stay away for the day and they did. Although, that did not eliminate all of the pain from the run. While still able to muster a smile she was looking good at the 1.2ish mile mark as she turned back towards Cary St. At about the 3.5 mile mark she still looked good to me (I know I'm a bit biased) but commented that she was starting to feel the burn a bit. I saw her once more with about 1/4 mile remaining where she made the turn back onto Cary St and finished it off strong.

Jenn (white) Girl who doesn't want to see these pictures aka Olivia (pink)

Fighting through the burn and pain she achieved her goal of finishing with a time of 1 hour 12 minutes. Couldn't be more proud to be your man! Looking forward to June 9th where Jenn will tackle the competition once again in her 2nd 10k all the while training for her first half marathon.

Now I ask you Jenn: Are your legs as tired as mine?

New Lid

Since Maxxis is such a generous sponsor this year, thought I would rock their colors on the new helmet. Now if only mother nature would play nice I could get a ride in. Thankfully Saturday, Sunday and Monday look to be very nice.

Not so Mellow

Met up with the group doing the Mellow Monday ride again yesterday. Then I decided to show everyone how bad of a rider I actually am and fell over while attempting a log pile. Dolt! The onlookers from behind were fairly convinced I would have been able to pull a complete barrel roll had the ground not gotten in the way. Just means I will have to take my stunts to much greater heights.

The rest of the ride went without a hitch. Even made it up a steep climb while big ringing it. A few weeks ago it took me borrowing Jay's El Mariachi to successfully ascend to the top. Note to self, "The big ring is where it is at!"