You know when this happens that it's been lots of hours of training, work, life, or, in this case .... all three!
Our move (moving homes) the end of April co-incided with my training peak for Spokane, my first 24hr. Incidently work was super busy as well. Throw it all together in a pot and mix it up and out comes a sick Monilee. Yup, i got a cold - and a nasty one at that. Oh how I dispise being sick!!! The part of my taper was spent moving. A whole week … sick. And now … I am on the mend and tapering (or is that training) again.
In the meantime – before this “perfect storm” of activity I got some good rounds of Tiger in on my 08 Faze. I just had it into Samammish Valley Cycle – not thinking it needed much of a tune up – but they did it all – rebuilt my shocks, replaced some seals and bolts, and did a general over-haul of my bike. It was amazing. I thought my bike was running well but the work they did made it smoother and stronger. Now they just need to make it faster :)
I swapped out the wheelset and breakset from my 08 (XTR for both) to the 09 (XT and Avid Exlicir) so that I could keep the better wheelset on my ‘dry bike’. As such I got to try out the new disk breaks – Avid Elixcir. I have to admit that when I went from the Hayes 9 to Shimano XTR I didn’t notice that much of a difference – they both break in the same manner/style. You can modulate your breaking pretty well. The Avids are a totally different beast. They also alow you to modulate but when you get to the ‘breaking point’ – pardon the pun, could not resist – that is it. You stop. Full stop. And yes, I found out the hard way – going full speed down the mountain around a twisty singletrack turn. And I still (2 weeks later) have the bruises to show it. Ahhh, trying out new gear is soo fun! The great news is now I know the limits – and did not learn in a race (always good)!
So now I am on my official taper and am eager to try out my new ride. Jon and the boys at SVC are tuning it up for me! The official count down is on - 10 days until my first 24hr Solo!! Wheeeeeee
