Busy busy

Friday after work I got a ride in at Blue Hills.  I planned on it being a quick ride so I didn't throw the heart rate monitor on, and I kinda wish I had.  I instantly noticed the new Ignitor on the back of the HiFi as soon as I hit the sandy trail from the parking lot to the trailhead.  How could I notice a difference that quickly you may ask?  Well it's simple really.  I'll admit, at first I didn't know it was the tire - I thought I was getting attached by a swarm of ravenous mosquitos!!!  The tread on the tire was throwing sand up into the back of my helmet!!  But I must say, a combo of the new tire and running lower pressure due to the tubeless set up had me leaning my bike over more confidently on downhill turns, it was AWESOME!!

The first half of the ride I rode the "tamer" white loop.  The second half I hit the yellow loop and took the "hill" - that is where I would have loved to check out my heart rate.  It starts off with a grind up a service road.  The pitch steepens once it breaks off from the service road and gets much rockier.  I didn't make the whole deal without hiking (but I was pleased with how far I did make it).  Honestly, the last bit hits some rocks that I don't know how you'd clear unless you had lungs and legs of steel... maybe one day.  I hadn't ridden Blue Hills in a while, and I think this was only my second time on the yellow loop but things were very different this time.  It all started with that initial climb. So I'm not sure if it is my fitness is better, or because I was riding the HiFi this time, or a combo of the two... but I seemed to take both the climbs and the decents much better.

Saturday Annie wanted to focus on planting in the back yard so I was left to ride alone.  I didn't really feel like packing up the car (and couldn't decide where I wanted to ride anyway) so I took a ride along the Charles.  Friday afternoon while I was out on my ride we received a package... a new Drift HD170 Stealth Camera, so I took my easy ride as an opportunity to see what I could do with the camera.  I didn't really want to attach the camera to my helmet, and the only other option was handlebar mount... not my ideal mount (I have straps on order to provide better angles in the future) but I figured I'd test out picture quality.  Unfortunately the whole thing was filmed sideways... I guess I wasn't paying attention and didn't appropriately rotate the lens to accommodate how the camera was attached to the handlebars.  But things looked pretty good, even over some rooty mess I hit at the mid-point of my ride.

I ended up riding 38.26 miles and my legs were done when I got home.  What really hurt was having to stop for lights on the way back.  Whenever I had to stand and wait I could feel my legs just burning and wanting to cramp.  The way my legs felt I half expected to wake up the next morning to find my thighs had doubled in size over night!  I rode the 4300 and even though I brought along a spare tube (as I caught a flat last time I rode the Charles) and tire levers, I left my pump on the HiFi... I even forgot my multi tool!!  Wasn't an issue for me, but on my ride I came up on a guy repairing his pull behind baby carrier and I paused to ask if he needed help.  He said he was cool so I continued on, and that is when I realized I didn't have anything that would have been useful in helping him - namely a pump or multi tool!

Sunday Annie was raring to go so we headed out to Wompatuck.  We hit some singletrack and again Annie showed she can handle it - even though, like all beginners, she doubts herself from time to time.