Cross...sort of

Thursday, 26 October

Yes, I made it to the cyclocross practice at Marymoor last night. Yes, I learned a lot, thanks to Kristi and Craig. Yes, it was even mostly fun. Yes, I got back on the bike today to practice.

But....it wasn't all perfect.

My drive to Marymoor got short-circuited because SR 522 was completely shut down, so I had to park at Log Boom and ride to Marymoor. And back. 13 miles each way. On knobby tires. At least they were wrong about the weather and it was dry. It is kind of cool to ride up the Sammamish Trail in the dark.

I rode maybe a sum total of two miles during practice. For that I went through the hoops to borrow a bike (thanks PruDog), swap out the saddle, take off the rack, go buy tires and put them on (I think they even rotate in the right direction--my mechanic skills are less than legendary), etc. etc.

It hurt like hell after about 30 minutes. All that riding around on my left foot on the left side of the bike with so much weight on my left side, and those sore ribs (on the left side, of course) were sorer and telling me about it. I had to quit after about an hour, and the pain was enough for some waves of nausea on the way back to Log Boom.

However....I shouldn't be such a whiner.

I like riding the cross bike. Except for the tedium of knobby tires on smooth pavement, it handles nicely and feels really stable. I've now ridden most of K2's bike product line: cross, road, TT, and mountain bikes. I am happy and comfortable on them all.

I won't admit to liking the triple chainring. But the Campy shifters are great. Mrs. P has a nice bike!