Find the Gnome

If you go biking or hiking at the new trail in Strongsville, look for the hiking Gnome.

If you find him, caress him, kiss him, rub him and hide him somewhere else on the trail, where it can be found by someone else of course. Hide him behind a tree, a rock, anywhere you want to but don't take it home with you or pestilence will follow you until it is returned.

A hint where it'll be placed first. EAST.

40 days

It had been 40 days since the last time I rode my road bike, since I'm the all day person at the office today and my start time is 8:30, it was time to ride the road. I've been riding off road almost everyday at the new trail since TSE. I try to put in 2hrs every time I ride there and just enjoy the trail. Riding fairly easy letting the ribs heal. Yeah, with a rigid fork on the single speed bouncing all over the place, yeah, they are going to heal fast.
Anyways, I rode last night at the trail and Ross had just finished a few hard laps with Steve T. and we rode together for a lap. The place is great, as hot as it was yesterday, it's always 5-10 degrees cooler in there and no sun, the entire trail is under the canopy. I even had a Sam Adams Summer Ale at the end of the ride. Had it packed very nicely in ice and it tasted great after a hot ride.
The ride today was warm from the begining, but riding through the Bedford reservation is one of my favorire routes. I like to stop at the overlook for a few minutes and just take it all in. The pic doesn't show how nice the place is.

Road kill. Probably came out to the warm pavement and got run over.

Lots of painting tomorrow getting the house ready for all the visitors that are coming for the wedding.

I'll still find a couple of hrs in the day to hit the trail.

Single speed changes

I like riding a single speed either off road or on. Makes you work hard at keeping your momentum going.
For a SS my Specialized SS is (was) heavy at 26lbs. This is stock out of the door. The first upgrade I did to it was a carbon flat handlebar which I quickly trimed to 22 inches and it dropped quite a few grams from the riser aluminum that it brought. The next upgrade was a lighter set of specialized wheels I bought off one of my team mates. Almost dropped 1 pound.
For the last couple of months I've been toying with the idea of installing a rigid fork instead of the crappy sid it came with. Cashed my spinning check and "thanks" to Jason at the Edge Outdoors I now have a White Brothers carbon fork and it looks sharp. The bike dropped 2 1/2 lbs to a hair over 22lbs.  More improvements coming to try to hit the magic under 20lbs line. (a better set of wheels)
What a difference it is riding with a rigid fork after riding with squishy forks for the last whatever years it has been. The front wheel bounces all over the place, you need to grip the handlebars tight or risk losing it. One thing I have yet to figure out is if the front wheel is flexing on the turns, it sure feels that way. But since I haven't ridden a rigid fork in such a long time I can't figure it out. Going downhill is going to take some time to get used to, but so far I'm enjoying the ride. One very important fact I learned  on the first ride is that a big volume tire like a 2.4 pumped to 25-30psi will be better for the front end. I found out the wrong way. After the fork was switched I didn't put anymore air in the front tire and I burped it going downhill leaning hard on a turn. Needless to say it was my broken ribs side that I fell on. Slid down the trail and stopped before I hit a pile of rocks. Got lucky there, no damage other that a couple of scratches. I told the wife and I was warned that she doesn't want any broken bones before our daughters wedding next week. After the wedding is ok, thanks honey I love you too.
I'll post some pics maybe tonight. It does look like a real SS now.
Later.

Changes coming to CVNRA

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2012/06/improvements_in_the_works_for.html

4 + weeks

Is going on 4 + weeks since the last time I touched my road bike. Well, I've moved it from one corner to another, does that count? I've been riding the new trail almost everynight for the last 3 weeks, living only 1.25 miles from the trail makes it an easy decision to grab the mtb and go ride it. I'm just riding easy and finally just letting the ribs heal. I'm not even doing the Twinn Sizzler road race. I have to get better and see if I can get the lost fitness back and race hard in September, October. Breaking or snapping the same ribs 3 times in the last 4 months is not good for you, you know.
The grand opening of the trail was a success, thank you Cleveland Metroparks and Camba for your hard work. 10 plus miles of trails for begginers to advance riders to enjoy close to home.
I'm going to start driving to the trail riding a couple of miles and then running a couple of miles, hit two birds at the same time. The only thing that's a pain about this idea is having to eat dinner late at night, but it is the only way I'm going to get any running in, and I do want to start running again.
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I've been thinking about what to do with the blog and an idea that cam to mind is to do an interview with different people once a week. Like race promoters, bike mechanics, fast racers, slow racers, anybody that wants to talk for that matter. I think it'll be different hearing what people think about riding a bike. look for it soon.

I forgot

Since I came back from TSE I've been laying low and doing some easy rides at the "new trail" trying to let my ribs heal. The problem is that since I broke them first in February, I have snapped them twice. Once in March and during the Wednesday's stage. I really have never given them a cahnce to heal properly. Specially when the one that keeps snapping is the one that's overlapped. As soon as it starts healing and doing good I start doing hard efforts on the bike when climbing and the pulling on the handlebars is what gets me. Once it snaps the bones grind one on top of the other and what do you know "pain". It's starting to feel good in there. I'll start riding to work next week.
Anyways, about the post title, I forgot how much I loved running. It's been over 3 years since the last time I ran. Last night I couldn't decide whether to ride or stay indoors and do weights. I stayed indoors and to do a quick warm up I jumped on the treadmill for a fast walk. 3 minutes in I found myself running. Ran for 20 minutes and wanted to keep going but didn't want to overdo it since the reason I stopped was that the pounding was taking a toll on my back. This morning I got up and felt good, so who knows, I may start running again and see how the back holds. I was a cross country runner in HS and I miss it. I'm going to the new trail this week and running a couple of miles and see how I feel and take it from there. It would be nice if my body holds and I can run 3 times a week.
Don't forget the gran opening of the "new"trail on Sunday at 11am at the Royalview picnic area.

When I grow up, I want to be like him.

Click on the image to make it bigger.

PICS

Here's a few pics from the new trail and the cain i stayed at during the race.

The finished bridge. Great work by the parks.

nice long bridges over swampy areas

barely room for all my stuff, but comfy enough.

Bike storage.