Four laps of Oak. OK maybe just 2

I carried my bike to the bike shop yesterday evening to schedule getting the rear hub fixed. They scheduled me for Monday, so I took my bike with me so I could ride for the weekend. I will have to get it back to them Sunday before they close, but I did manage to get a ride in today. At the bike shop I ran into Brendan and he said a few people were meeting Sun morning at 7:00 to ride. This is one reason I took the bike back. I was actually planning on meeting the Montevallo riders for a road ride as I though I would be without the Motolite. I am glad I kept it as I was wanting to ride at Oak.

I was a few minutes late but met Brendan, Lee, Jay and Ted. Lee was talking crazy talk about doing 4 laps, and I thought I might be good for 3 so I said I would try to hang with him for as many as I could do. We rode a lap Clockwise and moved at a pretty good pace. We stopped to ride on or over just about every fallen tree near the trail. As we didn't start till almost 7:30, Brendan had to take off when we hit the Jeep trail to make it to work at 9. (I don't think he could have made it iin time unless he was flying. I wonder if he bailed out on the road or was late.) There was a fallen tree across the road near the green trail intersection on the top of the ridge. Lee was trying to cross it at a pretty high point and got caught in his pedals. He gouged his palm and I am sure was in pain the remainder of the ride. Ted showed me the hip jump coming down from bump where you can jump up on the wall to set you up for the turn. I attempted this and managed to get on the wall a bit. Definately something I can look forward to practicing going this direction. Ted had also set up a new log ride in foreplay that we tried to ride. I was only able to ride it successfully in one direction, so I will have to try again next time. At the parking lot, Lee's bike was not shifting well and we were unable to fix it, so he ran it by the bike shop.

Me and Ted decided to do another lap as I was feeling pretty good at this point. We headed Counter-clockwise for this lap and he set set a good pace at the start. I started to lag behind climbing up quary road but pushed myself a bit harder than I should. I had to rest at the base of Blood rock but luckilly Mark came by and we chatted with him for a few minutes. This gave me a chance to rest and we headed on . I was feeling a bit better for a while and enjoyed the ride down the jeep trail. Ted picked up the pace and I started struggling a bit to keep up. He kept up the pace and I tried to keep up as best as could, but I could tell I was holding him back. I really started struggling on the Garret's Gulch climb but kept going and finally made it back to the parking lot. I really don't like being the slow one, but appreciated the ride and the motivation to push myself to ride faster. I definately need to do this more often and hopefuly I can get a it faster.

I went to McAlisters after the ride as usual and met Steph for lunch. My legs (Hams) tried to cramp a few times while I was siting there so I had to keep my legs stretched out. I drank 3 glasses of tea trying to rehydrate. I got home and took a cool shower and feel much better now. I think three laps would have killed me, and am happy I quit at 2.

Also: I put links to the pictures of the rides for the past few (that I had forgotten). All my public galleries can be seen here: http://picasaweb.google.com/grundcm