Keepin It Together

So I was considering posting pictures of the deer fly bites that I acquired over the weekend. However, most of them are on my ass or near my ass region. Still thought about it. Then I thought about my mother and the comments she would have for me and I decided to just say no. You're welcome.

Saturday, Mike and I went for a 6 am ride at Waway. That's right. 6 am. You read that correctly. Up at 5 bells. Pedaled out of the driveway promptly at 6. The joints don't fight me as much in the am of the warmer months so the time is possible. Don't like it. But it's doable. We had a good ride. I haven't had a 29er SS on certain trails in Waway for a long time. There was some cursing and pouting. I have gotten so used to my Epic in there. I still can't believe I used to ride there with a fully rigid steel 26er SS a few years ago. I've gone soft.

* Sweet rock work on new singletrack at Waway

The latest new piece of Nature Jim's work is pretty ass kickin. It literally puts a smile on your face...even at the crack of ass!

*Bottle holder at the rest stop on the new trail (obviously the rest stop was not utilized on this ride)

Sunday, we headed to Stewart for a preview of the 40 course. Nice group ride. It was going swimmingly (word of the day on my co-workers calendar so I felt the need to slide it in there) until we came up on another team member and friend of mine. To protect the innocent we will call him Larry. We came upon Larry and he had taken a dirt bath. Larry's helmet was broken in three places. Larry recollected some other riders picking him off the ground and spraying water on him. Larry jumped back in and proceeded to ride. When we got to the top of the sisters Larry asked me to look at his back. I did a mini-mental status exam and Larry seemed to pass. I'm not sure he would pass when he was with it let alone after a fall on the head but that is neither here nor there. Now I had to be careful with my reaction around Larry. Larry is a notorious over reactor. It's like when a kid falls and is bleeding. You can't panic. Just have to remain calm and go with it. I was ready to witness a little dirt burn. That's not what I saw. It was gnarly. Raw meat. His side was singed off. you could see where a few rocks quite literally ripped through him. I had trouble looking. If you know me I like gore and am the first one on the scene wanting to see the causalities. I had to keep it together and tell him it looked fine. I was silently making vomiting noises in my head. I held in a gasp or two and pulled his jersey back down. Looks fine. You're just gonna be a little sore tomorrow. Mental eye roll. On we went. I made him go ahead of me. I got on his wheel and he rode a little conservatively for some time. When he started to try and drop me and hand me my ass I knew he was going to be fine.

My week in a nutshell

So this week I'm just trying to keep it together. What I mean by that is I'm doing my best to remain healthy so I can race the DH 40. I wasn't able to race it in 2009 and it totally sucked being there and not being able to do it. No flare-ups. Please. It's much easier said than done. It doesn't always work. The fact that I couldn't do Lumberjack and quite a few other events this summer are a testament to that. I will at least try to give my body a fighting chance. I'm powered by Whole Foods pretty much all week. If you see me with Goldfish crackers, beer, cake or anything that comes out of shrink wrap or a box feel free to slap me. Now if you see me with a big fat soft serve cone with rainbow sprinkles, please be kind. A girl's gotta live.

*Obviously, these pictures were not taken on that Saturday. They were taken on a leisurely solo ride. There was no stopping. Not because of the reason you're thinking, Monte is a maniac, but because if you stopped you were eaten alive.