Girls on singlespeeds; you don't see that very often!

Tuesday night was the Chica ride and Paige and I were ready to roll with 1 other non-chica, Evan. Evan's a nice 19-year old kid that Matt and I met at our favorite restaurant, Il Vicino. Matt's been trying to get Evan into mountain biking and had suggested he show up for the FooMTB Timid Tuesday ride. Unfortunately, the ride was canceled at the last minute, so Evan joined Paige and me instead.

Rode the Intense tonight. I've been having problems with the shock not having enough sag. Called Progressive today and they gave me the correct psi for the shock (70-75 in the IFP; 90 in front). Then they recommended I ride it around a bit since the oil starts to settle if it hasn't been used in a while. The frame is an '03, so this could be the case.

After adjusting Evan's rear brakes so that they'd work, we were ready to roll. It started out with the typical warm-up along the paved Tramway bike path. Evan's first comment, "Hey, you guys are going a little slow, aren't you?" You can speed it up if you want." I told him that the first lesson in mountain biking is knowing how to conserve your energy; you should never go full blast at the beginning unless you know what you're getting into.

Well, Evan decided to chase me up the dirt climb to Elena. We got to the top of the climb and had to adjust Evan's rear derailleur (chain kept dropping). He insisted I didn't need to help, after all, "We're almost done with the ride, right?" I looked up at him kindly, replying, "Oh no, my friend, we've just started." Evan managed to tough it out for the next couple miles. Eventually, he'd had enough and we took him back to a good turn around point. I think he managed a good 7 mile ride. Not bad for his first time out on the mountain bike. He's got great skill. If he keeps this up, he'll be the one dropping me on the trail very soon.

Paige and I got in a great 14 mile ride; total time-2:12; ride time-1:41 (fixing the derailleur for the most part); avg speed-8.2 mpg; max speed-26 mph; avg heart rate-136; calories burned-710.

Wednesday rolls around and it's time to ride with speedy Chica, Denise! We decided to singlespeed through the Foothills. We headed up Dan's trail, which is a tad on the painful side for starting a ride--no warmup, just instant climbing! Anyway, headed over to Elena, did the little whoopdie-dos and headed back to the house via the water tower again.

Holy cow did I ride hard!! Denise is super fast, so I cranked it as hard as I could. I managed to match the pace on my hardest road ride so far since the surgery. I manage one advantage with my tiny 24" wheels...I can accelerate extremely fast. Matt noticed it as did Denise. I notice it on the flats especially. I think I am going to have Matt help me get 1 easier gear for climbing though...at least until I build my strength back up. I can't climb the steep stuff, as hard as I try...even standing up. So, we finished the ride and stopped to catch our breath at the water tower where we ran into a group of 3 or 4 guys...can't remember now. They were stunned to see a couple of chicks on singlespeeds--"You don't see that very often," they noted. :)

SS Stats

• Total time: 1:31 hrs (no ride time, don't have a bike computer on the SS)
• Average heart rate: 160
• Calories: 620

Awesome ride, sore hip, smile on the face. Guess that's what it's all about!!