The ride that shouldn't have been

Should I have ridden the day after puking during a race??  Well, maybe... but should I have been putting out some solid effort?  Probably not.

The universe was trying to tell me not to ride anyway.  I showed up at Renaissance Park only to discover I had left my cleats behind.  SWEET!  So back up to Denver to get them... and back down to Charlotte to ride.  I figured I had already invested the "effort," I might as well get the ride out of it.

As I hit the trail the HiFi was squeaking something ugly from the rear suspension.  Tip of the year: do NOT ignore squeaking in your bike.

Although nothing catastrophic happened (yet) I did notice something funky after my first lap while I was switching out water bottles.  I lifted the bike by the seat to move it out of the way and noticed some movement in the seat (or so I thought).  Upon further examination the rear suspension had some play.  And then THIS.

Yeah, that's the bolt holding the suspension to the swing arm.  It was clearly working itself right on out of there.  I snugged that bolt right up and just like that the squeak was gone.  Seriously, I wasn't supposed to be riding today.  

So we have the missing shoes, jail breaking bolts, and a residual "ickiness" in the stomach during the ride leaving me feeling weakish.  With all that against me I still enjoyed the ride.  

I rather enjoyed the trails.  Some great rooty climbs.  A nice optional (not for me) rocky climb that certainly reminded me of NE riding.

Annie and I are headed back up to CT today to get her car, and to also see Maggie in and out of surgery.  Not sure if I mentioned it here or not, but Maggie tore an ACL - it's hard to slow her down.  We opted to get the surgery as she was still trying to run and play ball with the three good legs.  The vets are constantly amazed at how "young" she is - and although she is 9 (10 in December) they tell us she has the health and build of a 3 year old.  So I couldn't have her limping around for years to come.

So we'll be up in CT for a few days for that and then headed back down at some point during the weekend so we can hopefully check out a house for rent.  We really need to get into Charlotte so we can get back on track with the whole "living down here" thing.  On the agenda: 1. Get a place that will allow us to have our dogs 2. Get on getting jobs and whatnot.