Trying to Stop and Smell the Cacti...

For the past three days, I've been conducting an experiment: Chilling (what is that?!)    Sleeping in (made it til 0845 this morning!), eating whatever & whenever I'm hungry (grilled cheese at midnight last night), propping up my feet in front of the TV (wow, TV options suck!), MTBing/running/etc for no more than an hour, and generally just trying to chill, rest and recover.    I actually went on two "mere" walks, although I must admit they were actually recons on some MTB local trails that I am told might be a bit too challenging for me.   (Btw, yep, they were right...challenging indeed...but were good hikes in my barefoot 5-fingers anyway.)   

So far, the experiment is going ok, although I'm having a bit of a hard time wrapping my MIND around it all.   I want to keep moving at 500 mph.   The past few weeks were at at least 500 mph.   Coming back home to AZ is always full-speed the first few days, as I can't seem to fit enough outdoor fun in the day....MTBing, running, exploring, dirtbiking, etc..   Then, those first few days smeared into the next week, with good friends coming to visit, the  Whiskey 50 MTB race (a great race put on by Epic Rides) which is another story of its own :-), many more hours of MTBing and showing our friends the trails, trying to keep up w/the guys on the dirtbikes, etc..   Poor lil "Donkey" didn't stand a chance.   

From sun-up to sun-down. 
So much to do, so little time. 


I'll write up more later, but wanted send a short sign of life, as well as say THANKS again to our friends who came all the way to AZ to play.   Hope you had as great of a time as I did and can't wait til the 2012 edition!

 

 

  

Next up...  Heading west.  My first attempt at a full XTERRA  since the knee issues, on the same singletrack I first "learned" to ride.

Happy new year to me, MTB and Donkey!

Yep, the trails are still here.  The rocks are still red.  The sky is still blue.  And the air is clean.  It's a bit colder than the norm...but yaaaay, am home! :-)

Still kickin...for the most part - Part II

As for me...lots of work but squeezed in some cool R&R here and there...

- tested out the knee at a race -- yep, XTERRA baby!;
- visited some great friends in NV/CA; MTB'd at Tahoe;
- ran  "Donkey" into the ground;
- hosted some cool family members in and around AZ & even discovered some things;
- was "bullied" into some shotty bungee/slingshot flying appartus (which was operated by teenagers...ugh);
- paddleboard'ed in the pacific;
- snorkeled about every day in the pacific until my face was purple and I was freezing my tata's off;
- tried (again) to partake in some yoga (ugh); 
- finally got my motorcycle license (during which I popped my first wheelie...oops);
- reconnected with some long-time friends, most of whom need to get their butts to AZ to visit! 
    (KK&KK!)
- watched in amazement when CB did all sorts of awe-inspiring stuff...willingly shuttled donkey up casner mountain, smiling, when I couldn't; built some gorgeous furniture; levitated up gnarly trails on his new 29'er, and more!
- returned to Cochise county...even got in some MTB;


I'll try to add some good stories over the next few days, but for now, here are some pics...

Properly Introducing "Donkey"....

It seems I didn't properly introduce my lil dirtbike previously, so I thought I'd do it now...

While he likes to look all harmless and mopey most of the time, especially when he's parked beside his big brother (the graceful and sturdy stud), he tends to be quite ornery and show his butt when I'm on him. Like a donkey, he bucks and brays and kicks and farts and generally either wants to go at full RPM and/or buck me off (often all at once).

He reminds me of this lil donkey from North Africa who wanted attention and would follow me around, but then when I'd try to pet him, he'd try to bite me and would take off bucking and braying and fartin' and making all sorts of racket!  Looked all innocent until ya get to close!  (Note the comparison of my Donkey and this lil arse.)

His latest exploit was earlier this week when we took the bikes out to the western Sycamore Canyon area where we were minimally packed to ride, hike, explore and camp. The first 30'ish miles were on primary paved roads, with the first 20m of those being on a smooth highway through the desert/red rocks but where Donkey couldn't quite go as fast as the max speed limit as he's pretty much a midget.  

Once out of the old mining town of Jerome, the rest of the roads (50'ish miles) were on dirt -- wide fireroads, doubletrack jeep roads, as well as some ol mule-packing trails.

(Sorry about the quality, most were w/the phone camera.)

So, for our little excursion, ol Donkey (he demands I capitalize his name) was fun and relatively well-behaved most of the time.  However, apparently he had some flashbacks to his former ass-life on the rougher stuff, because he simply refused to take me up a few rough pitches. While I'm pretty comfortable ascending/descending the rock stairs, slickrock, loose gravel, deep sand, etc., apparently I have not yet mastered the steep pitches which have 10" of loose dust/sand and big babyhead rocks and giant unsettled boulders scattered intermittently below the surface.  That, and Donkey simply doesn't want to take me up them.

So, by the end, I'd crashed twice out near the Great Western Trail. Neither were catastrouphic; in fact it was more like we were  'rrvv  rrvv' up the loose and rocky pitch, slammed into a jagged boulder, I put my foot down (forgot it wasn't my 21lb mountain bike to catch, and subsequently all 200+ pounds fell on top of me...all atop a bunch of jagged rocks and CB watching the whole ordeal. Cheap entertainment!  Five minutes later was a redux basically, with Donkey still being stubborn and me being kinda gun-shy at that point.   CB hauled Donkey's fiesty arse up the pitch where he got 'tied up' beside his big brother while we decided to hike from there.

(No, that is not my knee or calf; it's the goose-egg that was growing at top speeds on my shin about 15 mins after the 'crash'.)

So, Donkey and I are still getting to know each other, and while he's genuinely a pain in the arse at times, I think I kinda like him. :-)

 

Bummer...

well, despite my allowing the knee to 'rest', it's no better. in fact, via my personal version of 'rest', it looks like I've made it worse and am under some pretty strict dr's orders which appear to be part of a leadup to ol' lefty going under the knife :-(   clearly, no more racing this year, and worse, no real playing either.

errrrrr....this totally sucks!

on the positive side, despite nothing hardcore, have still managed to do some pretty cool things over the past week, which included a great visit by my very cool mom as well as some fun 'light' hikes, bikes, 4x4s, etc.

and as a special incentive to 'rest'...check out my new toy below! still can't get past bruising my shin from the awkward kickstart, but learning from a total pro. maybe it will benefit my mtb skills (and won't kill me, or a helpless javelina, in the process).  cheers.