Nothing much

I haven't been writing as regularly, and while this may be in part because we haven't been doing any crazy awesome trips lately, I am also blaming this on the fact that we've been told not to use our work laptops for personal use, even when at home and not connected to work's network. I am much less inspired sitting at my desktop than on the couch or in the backyard.

Today we picked up Russell's tracer again... the right size this time... and we're both excited to have him back on a mountain bike. I had a ton of fun riding with him this weekend on a borrowed bike and realized how much I have missed our rides together. We had a pretty epic ride on Sunday. We rode up over Crafton College Hills, then up the highway to Loch Leven, then up the old 38 to Angelus oaks and then back down through Thomas Hunting Grounds. This is about 45 miles and 5500 ft of climbing, which is pretty huge for Russell's first ride in more than a month. Who am I kidding it's a pretty huge ride for me too, I definitely had Jello legs until today. Russell said he wanted to shock his system back into shape... and while I'm not sure it works that way, we did certainly accomplish the shocking of the system.

In other news, I heard a story this week about a kid I have seen at races lots of times breaking his C4 Vertabrae and fracturing other parts of his back. From what I read, he is now doing ok considering he just broke his back, and doesn't have any paralysis. I don't know him, but I am still very thankful that he is going to be ok and wish him a speedy recovery. Stories like this really bring me back down to earth about things like wearing protection and knowing my limits. While I don't (and won't) let this type of thing scare me off of riding and progressing, it does bring that little reminder that the sport I do is dangerous to the surface of my mind. This is most definitely a good thing, as it reminds me that I should always be sure to have my wits about me and be in a focused frame of mind when I'm pushing my limits. Also, just another reason to cough up the $400 for a Leatt brace for 2010.

Anyway...

We have a bunch of fun stuff coming up soon, so I hope to do some more frequent posting. We have the annual Hell ride this weekend on the Santa Ana River trail, and then the 3rd 12 hours of Socal Race the next weekend. Then the following weekend we leave for our week long trip to Moab and Sedona. Lots of good posting material there.

Until then... ride fast.