throet

Officially 4 months post-op now. My recovery rides have graduated to 1/4 Notch W-E, which was normally a no-dab ride for me. I'm having to use more gears now though and I'm not attacking anything, which is resulting in a few dabs. Overall though it feels great to be out on the trail and pushing myself a little bit. As tempting as it is to stay in a higher gear and just motor up and over stuff, I want to give myself the recommended 5-6 months for full recovery.

Definitely need to get over there and try that! My go-to Stout has always been Left Hand Milk Stout.

If we take away guitars, only Outlaws will have guitars!

Well, at least 99.9% of the time they do!

Akrigg is pure beast!

Definitely nowhere near 100% but 80% is all that is required to resume full activities. I'll post an update in the Injury thread so as not to derail the Brushy thread. One thing I noticed just riding upper Picnic is that alt lines have been put in around the tree that sits right behind a section of roots when going W-E. You used to have to cross those roots and stay on the right side of the tree. Over time if I recall correctly that alt line to the left of the tree got started. I've always stayed true to the original line, but now I see that there is a second alt line going up high on the right and around the tree. Was that by design to avoid riding over the roots or is that another unsanctioned line?

Haha I'll take real or fake as long as I have some form of measuring stick for my progress. I'm not looking for KOMs - just trying to get back to what an overweight, arthritic 61yr old can do with a lame hammy.

Yep that's the segment that I used to pick up but yesterday I picked up the other one called Peddlers Pass (Sept 2019) which logged as 2.55 miles. I'm seeing though that times are getting regularly posted in November 2019 to both of those Strava segments. So either a bunch of folks are taking a wrong turn somewhere or maybe somebody created a duplicate segment that is tracking slightly shorter than the original. That seems odd though as 2/10 of a mile is not an insignificant distance. Suppose I could take the time to look at the segments side-by-side and see where they are different but I think instead I'll just go ride it again and see which one I pick up next time. So much fun!

Is the latest, greatest PP really slightly shorter than it used to be. Timed my ride on it today just to gauge my injury recovery progress and I was around 2 min slower than my best time on the old Pedler's Pass 4.0. Still well under 20 min though, and I was on my long-travel 27.5 with tires inflated for sidewalk riding. Will give it another go this weekend on my short-travel 29er to see if I can get closer to 17 min.

Haha Giro or Maytag?

Can you post a link to these? I've been using the Headsweats beanies for several years and they seem to work OK. They are very thin though and may not be adequately protecting my very exposed scalp from the sun. They require quite a bit of wringing out as well during warmer rides.

Suburban Ninja

I'm going to need a tour of that real soon! Just don't want to get too tempted by those jump lines yet.

Had my first proper trail ride in 4 months today. Rode Picnic and then rode the trail along the creek to get over to Peddlers. Felt really good on Peddlers and probably could have pushed it even harder but I proceeded cautiously. Put in a second lap for good measure. Stalled getting up out of the creek on the first lap but cured that the second time around. Overall I didn't feel like I was missing much on those two laps, in terms of either strength or stability. Tested my lungs pretty well too on the second lap as a couple of riders were coming up behind me and I didn't feel like getting passed. Figure I'll use Picnic and Peddlers as my training ground for a couple of weeks to see how I progress but it felt soooo nice to be out riding and PP was in superb condition.

I smoked at 14, when 50 cents and access to a gas station would get you a pack out of the machine with one pull. Of course I could have just stolen packs out of my Mom's cartons, but since I was pretty much smoking just to be cool, the Silva Thins would not have helped in that department. Fortunately came to my senses before graduating from high school and haven't smoked since, although I did go through a period in my forties when I enjoyed fine cigars. There are health risks even with cigars though; so moved past that as well.