Planning to plan a plan to have a plan (sooner or later)

The plan fell apart. There is no denying it, and I'll have to just make do with the fact that I need a new plan, but I'm currently only in the process of planning a new plan.

I was supposed to win the Topeak Ergon Basecamp contest. I was then going to use the upcoming basecamp as an excuse to use April to gain some fitness in preparation for the basecamp to be able to take advantage of all the awesome riding in Sedona. Then I was going to try to retain that fitness through May until the Trans Sylvania Epic.

I know this is similar to using a "new year's resolution" to motivate one's self towards a goal based on an arbitrary calender event. One can resolve to make a change in their own life at any point in the year, but it is nice to have some external catalyst. I was bound and determined to make shit happen starting April 1st.

That shit hasn't happened, but I've had some great excuses. Last week the Canadians were in town. Beer, food, and slow conversational rides were on order.

This weekend was the annual adoption conference in Charlotte, and I am eternally committed to holding down the fort while The Pie attends said conference. As primary parent for the weekend, riding had to take a backseat.

I did get out yesterday morning for a cycling related activity... one that Fajita was able to take part in.

Yes, it was time to do my best to continue with my failed "one trailwork day a month" initiative. I missed March, but April was a no-brainer. Mark Sullivan (owner of the Cycle Path bike shop in Cornelius, NC) was heading up a work day at Fisher Farm, a trail system that he meticulously maintains... with the help of others, of course.

That's Mark on the right laying a blessing down on the freshly peeled cedar log before we bury it in a shallow grave.

I have no before pictures of the work we did before we did it. What we started with was a small drop-in that had eroded to shit, but by the time we were done it was a kick-ass and laboriously hard to achieve feature that should hold up to some weather.

Drop to the left, roll to the right.

All the cedar logs we "installed" were held tight by six foot rebar which was painstakingly pounded into the ground with an effort that I would equate to interval work. Here I am looking for a place to lay down after putting the "pole pounder" to task.

Not many pictures were taken during the actual work done on the second project, but when we finished we had put into place a skinny qualifier to the entrance of the black diamond section.

It's a family type park as well as a MTB trail, and even though most of the features aren't terribly advanced to the average rider this should serve to warn the less skilled riders that they may be on their way to getting over their heads soon.

And an "in progress" photo for scale purposes.

By the time I got home The Pie had finished up at the conference, so I headed over to Belmont, NC for a road ride with the Robs.

Rob 1 in the lead looking very triathlete'esque in a sleeveless option and non-black shorts, while Rob 2 was sporting the new PMBAR jersey and the latest in high top, rubber lugged road shoe technology.

I was wearing my new Swiftwick socks, not the cool ones that you don't know about yet, but the new dual color flashy Four Performance.

It is difficult to take photos of one's feet while one is pedaling one's bike.

Even harder to do is timing the shot in order to get the Industry Nine logo on the front hub in the photo while keeping the Camelbak bottle in frame. How does Kerkove pull this shit off?.

These are not the new socks you want to know about. I have not worn those new socks yet, except for around the house. I was sucked into the new dual colors, even though they lack the cool desirable feature of my other socks (linked toe, anyone?). Fashion won over function on the day. I couldn't let the Robs outshine me out on the open road.

You know what I like more than an 80 mile road ride hammerfest? A 35 mile roll through the tranquil countryside past lakes and over (central) NC mountains.

Not a very good weekend as far as fitness goes, but with a four day sabbatical starting Thursday I wasn't going anywhere fast soon.

Two more days of blogging, and then I'm out for four.