Silly Season

     The silly season is now officially underway. It happens every Fall. It's the time of year where everyone frantically applies for sponsorship for the next season. I was hoping to get some team to notice me for next year as we badly need some help with expenses. But there was no interest at all, not even one team remotely interested in having me on as a rider. However, the news is not bad at all, as I am happy to say that Maxxis is back on-board with me for the 10th straight year, and First Endurance will continue to sponsor me for a fourth year. I am so grateful to have both of these companies supporting me. They have stuck by my side through it all and I hope I can get them some return on putting their time and products into me next season.

     Since Race to the Canal, mountain biking has been my priority for training. I've also been trail running here and there. Our Wednesday night mountain bike rides at Rotary Park have ended after a run-in with the cops. Apparently, the park closes at night now. Nobody told us. The cop let us off with a warning. We honestly didn't know. That has pretty much ended my night mountain biking for the time being.

    Our backyard trail has been immaculate as of late. My Dad is still out of work after rotator cuff repair surgery. He has been bored, especially now that he can use his arm again. He has blown the leaves off the trail not once, not twice, but three times in the past 2 weeks! The trail has been spotless and perfect to ride. I've trimmed a few roots in places and he has also repaired our rotting tabletop bridge over a downed tree.

My Mom out on the trail

Shannon

    I was ripping the clean trail a few days ago going for a fast lap when I slipped a chain and went off through uncharted woods. I almost flipped over the bars when the chain fell off, but somehow I stayed upright, riding the front wheel off the trail into a group of saplings where I ran clean over one of them. I busted my lip and scratched my face, but it was my GPS that took the most damage out of the incident. It hit directly on the tree that got flattened, breaking at the fused seam along the back of the device. I later glued it back together and it is working, though it has a weird shape to it now. It doesn't really fit the bar mount or charging cradle anymore. Oh well, at least it works!

The sapling I ran over with my GPS

Shannon trying out on the of the sections we have been remodeling

Ending the ride with a campfire

      Shannon and I have had some epic trail battles lately. She rides while I run. We race one full 4-mile loop. We came out together the first time, but since then Shannon has picked up the pace and has beaten me handily. It's good for both of us. It's making her ride faster and making me push much harder when running. I'm getting pretty comfortable running 4-5 miles on the trail now and usually follow the runs up with several laps on the bike.

A clean buff trail is what I've ridden the past 2 weeks

Snoop on the prowl in the creek

Sunset from the trail

     Halloween was disappointing this year. We both had to work late, but at least we got to dress up for work. I wore the same creeper hooded cape as last year. Even Snoop dressed up this year. She was Skeledog. And she hated wearing the costume...

Me at work on Halloween

      We never have any trick-or-treaters at home, so we decided to do a night mountain bike ride on our trail. We were supposed to meet my parents, ride a few laps and then have a backyard bonfire. Well, they weren't home when we got there. We waited a while for them. When they finally showed up it was too late to ride. We just ended up making a fire and roasting some hot dogs on it for dinner. They didn't have any trick-or-treaters either. Lame!

     The most exciting part of Halloween was at work when I tried to ride a bike in my costume. I was trying to diagnose a shifting issue on a coworkers bike. For some reason, I thought it would be cool to ride with the hooded cape flapping out behind me. Well, you have to go fast to get the cape to flap and I went slow. The cape got sucked up into the rear wheel and proceeded to then yank me off the bike by my neck. By some miracle, I was able to stay upright, but required the assistance of Shannon to get me untangled so that I could stand up. The cape had me pulled down onto the seat on my back and was choking me. She saw the whole thing and had a hard time untangling me due to heavy laughter. Cape + bike = not a good idea.