It was another great week for riding in Richmond. After last Sundays hell ride I didn’t get on the bike until this Saturday but I did some good stretching and strength work this past week with my coach at http://www.motionmomentum.com/ Patrick Burns has helped me recover from the L-4 disc repair I had in May and is also working with me on some other movement issues. I hadn’t been on the mountain bike much for anything other than social riding and have not been on the downtown loop for about 9 months. The downtown loop is one of if not the toughest trails in the Richmond area and probably one of the hardest urban trail systems on the east coast if not the country. It’s used for the Xterra east coast championships and is the favorite bike course of most of the pros because of its roller coaster feel. But for me it’s a love hate thing. I’ve raced it a couple of times during the Urban Assault MTB races and finished well for my age group but it kicks my ass every time I ride it. So we have come to an understanding, I’ll show some respect and it won’t try and kill me. This Saturday was meant to be a reintroduction to the trail, just a chill ride to enjoy what a great resource we all have. I had a couple of dabs here and there but all in all a great ride. Monday I went over the Ellsworth Truth and pulled down the rear suspension, head set and greased all the pivot points and crown race and reset the headset all to find that the nagging creaking sound was coming from the rear shock. Freaking thing has maybe 40 hours of riding on it but I have a spare so it got swapped out then on to Powhite Park to do a short shake down ride. After that, to keep the base miles up I went on a 2.5 hour road ride around the city with a friend. The pace was just right for this time of year and I haven't heard yet but I think we finished in time for him to take the christmas turkey out of the oven before it burned. Then today with everything lubed and noise free I went back downtown for a little faster run at the trail. Still not dab free, although it never is, but a great ride just the same.