Transition: Day 7 (of 26) - Kicker Time!
Ok, today I just face the facts that I'm not going to work anymore unless someone asks me a specific question. It's remarkable how much better my day was because of this.
The Gumby Walk this morning is pretty quick. I know what I'm going to work on today so I do a quick passthrough after I water the grass and the trees. The first tree is probably close to being able to handle itself. I may start watering it just once a day to see how that goes. I don't stay outside too long because as pretty as the morning is, it's cold. The Allergy Tax is also really high right now. So I need to choose wisely when I spend time outside.
I go back in the house and finish up the first part of my daily homework, which is the self-inflicted learning I've taken up. I'm really trying to be diligent about re-engaging my brain and I think it's been good so far. But you know, let's not go overboard here. I've hardly taken on a massive load when I'm half done for the day by 8:00 am. In general I find it's better for my brain if I do this early, but it's also a great time to be outside as it's so quiet and peaceful.
After breakfast with D I go outside for 1.5 hours and work on a berm that's been bugging me for a while. The berm itself is ok, though these things can always use some work. It's the exit that's really bothered me. The low point of the berm's base didn't flow smoothly into the trail. Instead, it rose up a solid 3" and kind of killed the flow a bit. I wanted to groom this trail, cut the bed of it down to make it level, and use that dirt in other parts of the park. Yes I said "park."
I added the dirt to the 4-way jump (and soon to be landing) at one of the intersections. This needs a name.
Below you can see how the berm exits now. Nice and smooth transition.
All the while I do this, I listen to The Goldfinch in 1 ear. This book is really, really good.
Late morning
@rottin' stops by for his GU order. We kept our distance which is just kind of weird, right? I wanted to ask you in for a cup of coffee but I guess we're not allowed to do that sort of thing anymore. I feel bad as a human being but I guess this is life now.
After he left I finished up my homework for the day, which is module 8 of 17. Then I ate lunch. Like I said above, just giving up on the idea of pretending to work makes my day so much more full & rewarding. After lunch I built the 2nd Adirondack chair.
@jmanic - D said she would stain them but she wanted them built first. So there's that.
Here's the 4-way mound (in need of a name). Behind it I think you see what I'm going to work on next. Zac cut this the other day and while it's decent, the edge of the trails are walls and we both keep hitting that log in such a way that we're just on that right edge and your momentum goes to shit. That whole turn needs work to make it better. But I haven't yet put my finger on exactly what the main culprit is. This is the berm-turn and it's always been ambitious so it may take a while to get just right.
Early afternoon and I decided to do a workout inside. I wanted to get in something tight & focused, so I picked a 1.25 hour interval session from the Hunter's Challenge set. This is typically what I opt for with intervals because he and Coggan are the ones that wrote the book (literally) on power training. I was able to hit the workout 100% today without dropping to 90%, which is what I often end up doing. So that was a good thing. I watched the end of Westworld, season 3, while I rode. And yeah, so I'm still not sure what's going on. I'll need to read the Wikipedia article on it someday. Or not. I don't think I care that much.
After I sat with D for a bit and had an espresso I went back out for more. Finished up the kicker and then got on the bike to try it out as well as session the trails a bit. It came out much, much better than I was expecting and I fast tracked this thing and added it to the trails today. Took some time to properly anchor it then let it fly and it flowed like absolute butter. This is an exceptional addition to the trail and I may produce 3 more of these over the next few days.
I rolled around for 15 minutes moving, taking stock of what needs to be done, some of which I described above with the narrow trail. The trails are almost session-able at this point, but there are some rough spots and as the trail builder, I constantly find myself wanting to ride it 2-3 times then get off and spend an hour fixing something because it's not quite right. I guess this is probably normal.
But now I know what I need to focus on in the next few days. The
slave labor boys come back tomorrow and we have 5 days to work on these. I expect some good stuff by the end of Sunday.
The kicker and the mound:
After a shower D and I went on a late afternoon walk to the park & back. When we got home it was about 6:00 and I was pretty much done with all the things I needed to do for the day. I don't really know what to do with that much time. So I ate some leftovers, read a little, watered the grass, wrote this, laid on the couch, etc. And here we are.
Tuesday was a damn fine day. Damn fine, I tell ya.
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