Jeni's Training & Recovery Schedule: Fanta Se

Matt's doing his SFBFL ride today with some friends as I sit down to type this blog. I got us a hotel in Santa Fe near the plaza, the Old Santa Fe Inn. It's just a couple blocks from where Matt and crew met at the Zele Cafe bright and early this morning at 7:30AM.

I tried to get back to sleep after Matt took off, but couldn't. Friggin' inn workers were laying bricks on the ground outside our room! Geesh, this is a local Inn, but come on! Do you have to start manual labor at 7:30AM?!? I'm pissed--I was looking for some more shuteye.

So, rather than be lazy, I woke up, enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the inn, eggs, potatoes, etc., then came back to the room, threw the hair in a ponytail and put on some shorts and a t-shirt and headed to Zele myself to get an Americano and read the newspaper. I finally made it back to the hotel and out the door for a ride on my own at about 11AM. Wow, what a ride it was!

I decided to ride Dale Ball Central. It's probably been a year since I've been out there! I pretty much had the trail to myself until toward the end of the ride; a very peaceful day with a slight breeze and just enough clouds to keep the temps reasonable.

I left from the hotel, taking Alameda to Upper Canyon Road, to the trail head at Upper Canyon Road and Cerro Gordo. From Alameda, I picked up the Santa Fe River Trail. It was completely dry! Not a puddle to be found. Very sad considering the amount of water

I've seen running through there in the past. The two pics look like totally different trails!

My ride today had a heck of a lot of climbing; the toughest I've done on the mountain bike since the hip surgery.

The Moots rode like a dream after I let out some air in the tires. I had loaded them up to 35 psi before the ride--way more than necessary--it's been long enough that I couldn't remember how much psi I normally ride with on the Bontrager Jones XR TRs. I love these tires, lightweight, and perfect for the terrain I ride.

Ran into Bugs' cousin on the trail. He saw me coming and hopped to the side, but not too far off. He didn't seem to be very afraid of me, so I snapped some pics. I continued to the top of one of the many climbs and decided to take a breather and swig down some water.

There was a silly little trinket shrine (something quite common in NM), so I thought I'd get a picture of that. While trying to focus in on the shrine with the camera, I heard a large bird calling at me from above. He continued to call loudly, circling around the area where I was. My guess is that I must have been too close to its nest. The last of the wildlife today was a tailless lizard that quickly scurried by my front tire. Gee, I wonder how he lost that tail?!? Had he had one, I probably would have ridden right over it.