Day 429 - Riding the Border Wall

Here's Nico climbing the side of the levy of the Border Wall near Chimney Park in Mission. The drops are about 30 feet long and a 40 degree angle and are fast. The climbs are the opposite. It is a great leg workout. Brought along my pocket cam and took some footage of the fun before my pocket cam slipped out of my shorts pocket and crashed on the concrete and my batteries bounced into the grass! I hope I didn't break it. Lost a battery. So I had to rely on my trusty digital camera. Snapped a couple of shots of Brian and Nico descending and climbing the wall. We had a lot of fun riding the side of the Border Wall and got in a good training ride for the adventure race at SPI in two weeks.

Day 423 - I'm Pissed!

I'm pissed! I dinged my mountain bike today after my group ride at the trails with Nick, Chuy, and Nico. It wasn't even on the trails. I did it after the ride. Nico and I met up at the convenience store after the ride for a frosty. Was backing my truck backward into a parking spot at the convenience and didn't see a big ass steel lamp post hiding behind my truck. Hit my mountain bike and pushed it off several spaces on my bike rack. Slammed on my brakes when I realized what was happening. Jumped out of the car and ran back to check out my mountain bike. To my dismay it had a 1/2" dent on the side of the top tube 5 inches from the seat tube. Fortunately, the protective film that I had put on the top tube protected the frame from being scratched or the damage would have been worse. However, it coudn't stop the dent. I take good care of my bikes, so I was upset for the rest of the night. :( I drowned my sorrow with a few frosties when I got home.

Day 419 - Miles to Go Before I Sleep

Been putting in the miles the past few days. Rode for four days straight. Thursday did 15 miles on a group ride with the club. Friday did 25 miles solo. Saturday did 25 miles with Nico out to Bentsen, and Sunday did 10 miles solo at the trails. For a grand total of 75 miles. Wow! I think this is the most miles I have ridden in a week for a long time. These miles should help me since I have decided to do the Surf and Turf Adventure Race--a run, bike, paddle event at South Padre Island in August. So my training has begun. Running, weight lifting, and mountain biking. It reminds me of a verse from Robert Frost's famous poem "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening".

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Day 418 - Beer Memories

Stopped by the grocery store Saturday night to pick up some brew. Bought a sampler pack from Breckenridge Brewery. It is a brewery in Breckenridge, Colorado, that brews some tasty microbrews. I've been to Breckenridge a couple of times to ski and snowboard. Stopped by the brewery too. The sampler pack has one brew, a vanilla porter that brings back a special memory. FLASHBACK. We were driving back one year from Breck and we almost ran out of gas. It was like 2 a.m. in the morning, and I couldn't find a gas station so we parked at a closed convenience store. My wife and two sons were in the car. It was like 30 degress outside. Fortunately, I had a six pack of Vanilla Porter that I had bought at the brewery in the car. We all sat shivering in the car and drinking Vanilla Porters and watching Austin Powers "Goldmember" on a dvd player, until we fell asleep. A cop pulled up at 6 a.m. and escorted us to a gas station where we were able to get gas and get back on the road. It turned out the gas station was less than a mile away! Argh!

Day 417 - 25 Miles

Took off the day from work so I could take my wife's car in to be fixed. After I dropped the car off at the dealer, I came home and put on my cycling clothes and went out for a ride. I rode the same route we did yesterday, out to Anzauldua Park. I rode past the Anzauldua Bridge and followed the road all the way down to 23rd Street in McAllen. I couldn't go any further because the underpass was flooded (that was my excuse) so I turned around. The ride back was easier as I had the wind to my back. However, it was close to noon and it was hot. The heat sapped my energy and sweat out of me. I dropped my pace and it became less of a training ride and more of I-just-want-to-make-it-home-ride. I stopped at a convenience store on the way back, bought a Powerade, and chunged it down. It helped. I got back on my bike and made it home, 25 miles after I had started.

Day 416 - Crossfit Crazy!

Nico, Roland, Jaime, Sergio, Dante, and I did a group ride down to Anzauldua Park to check out the flooding from Hurricane Alex. We rode down to the park at a nice, easy pace. The park, as well as a few of the bars down by the river were several feet underwater. We stopped and took photos of the flooded park. The water is rushing over the park road in the picture. On the ride back, Nico, who is doing Crossfit, a high intensity core strength and conditioning program that combines weightlighting, sprinting, and gymnastics, goes Crossfit crazy! He shifts into the big ring and takes off full speed, dropping us like flies. We chase him for several minutes, hitting 20 mph. We finally catch him. This happens several more times during the ride, until we finally reach the parking lot. So much for the easy pace ride!

Day 412 - A Real Bunny Hop!

In mountain biking there is a term called a "bunny hop" which describes a move on our bicycle to launch your bike into the air and off the ground. It is a useful move to clear obstacles that you encounter on the trail such as logs, ditches, rocks, etc. I learned it after riding a few months and can bunny hop a good 6 to 8 inches off the ground when needed. That's nothing compared to some riders. The world record the bunny hop is 4 feet 8 inches by Benito Ros of Spain: Highest Bicycle Bunny Hop - Guinness World Records Video. Anyway, we decided to do a little bunny hoping at our bicycle club's pool party and club meeting after a couple of frosties. Check out Grape as he demonstrates how to do a real bunny hop!

Day 411 -- Round Three. Ding. Ding.

It seems like an eternity since I've ridden the trails. In reality, it's been two weeks. The last trail ride I got in was the pre-hurricane Alex ride. Yeah! So with apprehension, I drove to the trails not sure if they would be dry or completely covered in grass. I got on my mountain bike and rode completing the new lap. The ground was soft and robbed the momentum from my tires. It felt like I was riding in quicksand throughout the ride. The good news was the trails were for the most part dry. The bad news was the grass was beginning to overgrow sections of the trail. Looks like round three of trail maintenance is about to begin. We have aleadry taken two big punches from rains in April and May. And now Hurricane Alex. It's been a tough fight. Ding. Ding. I hope we don't get knocked out. I finished up my ride into the parking lot, my arms covered with grass seeds stuck to the sweat on my arms. Between the grass and the soft trail it was a lackluster ride for my first ride time back on the trails.

Day 404 - Frickin Nature Watch

Got up at 6 a.m. Was suppose to ride Sullivan City with one of my riding buddies. Turned on my phone. Text message from my friend that he couldn't make it. I had a hutch that is was something to do with him texting me the night before that we was planning to drink tequila with a couple of his friends. Can you say "hangover"? Since I had my bike and gear loaded from the night before, I decided to head over to the trails anyway for a ride on the Hike and Bike. Got on the Hike and Bike and rode to Bentsen and the World Birding Center. Half way around the park, it started to rain. I quickly ducked into a covered bird watching hut to escape from the rain. While waiting for the rain to stop, I listened to rain fall, and the birds call, and watched the javelinas roam around. My ride had turned into a frickin nature watch. Sigh. Finally, the rain stopped 20 minutes later and I got back on my bike and finished up my ride around the park and and rode back to the parking lot.

Day 402 - Not a Happy Camper

Woke up Thursday morning, expecting it would be raining. To my surprise its not. It turns out that Hurricane Alex made landfall further south in northern Mexico and we escaped the high winds. However, we didn't escape the rain. We got at least 6 inches of rain throughout Wednesday, flooding the trails. It will be at least a few days before we will be able to ride. Mother Nature is cruel. I'm off of work for the next four days and I can't ride. And the rain is going to cause the grass at the trails to grow everywhere again. Just as we were finally getting caught up with trail maintenance. I'm not a happy camper thinking about it. Maybe it's time to take up road biking. No more trail maintenance. No more getting dirty. No more wrecks. Get me a road bike. Just riding on the road in a straight line...On second throught, I'll take trail maintenance and tight, twisty singletrack over the straight road on any day.