Day 282 - Racing Again

Today was the first mountain bike race that I competed in since my hip fracture. It was also the first time that I race my "Blue Beauty", my Giant Anthem X2. The race was sponsored by Bikemasters and our cycling club, The Mission Trails Club. It was a 6.4 mile lap at Mission Trails. The twist was the lap was raced backward, which made it harder. I finished in 4th out of seven riders in the expert class. Not bad for a 46-year-old man with a bum hip. I have an excuse now if I don't place well. "My hip was acting up." Did 3 laps for a total of 18 miles in 1:23:28 with an average heart rate of 170 bpm and max heart rate of 183 bpm. I took home a medal for my efforts, which made my day. At my age, I'm happy to take home anything. Felt good to be racing again.

Day 275 - La Lomita

My wife and I went out for a ride in the morning. We rode to La Lomita Chapel in Mission. Built over a century ago by Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the chapel supported the priests and their charities and served as a rendezvous spot for the “Padres on Horseback” en route to Roma from Brownsville. After stopping at La Lomita we rode further past the Anzaulda Bridge. We turned around a few miles after the bridge. The wind had picked up and we rode into a stong headwind on the way back. My wife bonked and had to stop at La Lomita, while I rode back to the parking lot at Mission Trails to the truck. I drove to La Lomita and picked up my wife and we headed home.

Day 274 - Getting Dirty with Specialized

Me and a couple of buddies, Grape, Tweezer, and Rayworld, came out to the Specialized Demo that was held at Mission Trails on Saturday morning. Bicycleworld brought in a big trailer full of their top-of-the-line, expensive mountain and road bikes to ride. It was like being a kid in a candy store. Ray and I jumped on some Epic 29er Marathon bikes, while Tweezer and Grape jumped on some Stumpjumper Marathon 29ers. All the bikes were running the new, SRAM XX 2x10 drivetrains. Since the trails were wet, we rode the Hike and Bike down to Bentsen. At Bentsen we detoured onto the top of the levy road. That was a mistake. Since it was caliche it wasn't too bad, but we started getting dirty from hitting small water puddles. After a mile or two we were kicking roster tails of wet dirt spray and the bikes got dirty. By the time we got back to Bentsen the bikes were real dirty. The Specialized guy, Richard, gave us a dirty look when we got back from our ride. We were having so much fun, we jumped on some $7K S-Works bikes and hit the Hike and Bike again. For the first time on a road bike it was awesome. Compared to a mountain bike the road bike accelerated like a rocket. We flew down the Hike and Bike, hitting speeds in the low to mid 30s. I could easily get addicted to the speed. After about 30 minutes of playing around we hightailed it back to parking lot. Wow. What a fun day of testing we had. It's not every day you get to ride a such expensive bikes. We had a blast getting dirty with Specialized!!!

Day 267 - Roaming Roma

Nico, Ridehard, Tweezer and I woke up early Saturday morning to drive out to Roma, about 45 minutes west of Mission to check out a piece of property for potential trail development. The City of Roma had invited us out to take a look at their property to see if we wanted to do a mountain bike race. We met up the with several City and Chamber people and they gave us a quick tour of their property. After we finished talking we hopped on our bikes and went exploring. It is always exciting to ride new trails. You're not sure what you are going to find around the next turn, drop, or climb. We stopped often and played around riding dirt mounds, hills, drops and other technical challenges. I caught our adventure on my HD pocket camcorder and will post footage. After two hours of riding we loaded up our mountain bikes and gear (see picture of Ridehard and bikes) and headed home. It was a fun-filled morning of riding with friends. You can't beat that.

Day 261 - Chasing a Golf Cart

The trails were too wet to ride from the rain we received earlier in the week, so I hit the road on my mountain bike in the afternoon for a ride. Rode from my house in Mission to Edinburg to McAllen to Mission and back. On the last leg on Conway Rd. I came upon a golf cart riding in the bicycle lane (see picture). I hammered the pedals, caught up to it, and passed it. Shortly thereafter I arrived home, two hours and 26 miles later. It was a good ride, but had way too many stops at the stoplights. That's why I like mountain biking as opposed to road riding. No stoplights. No traffic. Just flow. I can't wait to ride the trails again.