Week #66: Home On The Rocks

What seemed like the longest week ever has finally passed, and the kitties and I have arrived in Pennsylvania safely. They actually did better on the drive than I was expecting, and Mushu took to her new temporary home at a surprisingly rate. I guess after 10 years together, our seventh residence isn't too much of a shock. Plus, it has stairs and Frank, two of her favorite things. Clemmie, on the other hand, was kind of traumatized at first, but seems to be settling into her Badcat ways.

I'm feeling much better about things now that I'm finally here, and I have a week to chill out and adjust before starting my new job. I'm still anxious about that, as well as the "real move", but I think that while I was panicking last week, I underestimated the regenerative power of a week of relaxation and hanging out with Frank.

Why didn't I have this bike when I was on Velo Bella? It's perfect!

Of course, relaxation is relative, as my first order of business was to hit Rothrock and test out my new Giant Lust 2, aka Gnar Bike. The one time I rode the trails here before, it was miserable. So when I decided to move here, I knew that a full-suspension bike was in order to make the transition easier.

#scenicvistagnarbikeselfie

I expected the first ride out to still be exceptionally hard, but the bike actually seemed to give me some amazing powers. I'm still out of shape, so the ten miles of rough stuff with much longer, steeper, and obstacle-strewn climbing than anything in Indiana was still enough to leave my body feeling shredded. However, as far as being able to clear stuff, I was pretty amazed.

I've still got a lot of work to do to actually be good at this sort of riding. It's like having the hardest parts of the Ouachita Challenge and Syllamo's Revenge five miles from my house, without a lot of easy parts to break it up. However, the beauty of this is that I can take it a little at a time, knowing that I can come back and ride more in a couple of days. I actually had a ton of fun yesterday, when I sort of expected the first time out to be pure suckage until I got better. The fact that I could ride most of it the first time out is exciting. I dabbed a bunch, but there weren't a lot of long hike-a-bike sections for me. Now I just have to get the bike dialed in and start working up the two 50-mile races that I'm hoping to complete this summer.