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I made it an entire week without dirt. I can’t say it was pretty but I actually did it.

Long time no post. Short version:

Previous post > dirt > adventure walking > cracked/sprained ankle > purple foot > races > really big purple foot > doctor > no dirt/races > dirt > three double cheese burgers with bacon and cheese, spinach salad, and a baked beet > current post.

Towards the end of last month I embarked on an adventure walk across a hard packed, flat, wide open yard. Then I rolled my ankle probably worse than ever before. In hindsight I probably should have spit out my gum. I convinced myself it was just a normal sprain and did a couple of races, icing it hours a day and watching the swelling neither increase nor decrease. I think I may have given myself Arnica Shock Syndrome. Since I was experiencing a lack of power at the races and extreme pain after them I made the mistake of showing it to the wife. Then she told my mom on me. I mean come on. Then they both pressured me into going to the doctor who just like any doctor pounced on the opportunity to take away a biker’s dirt with the usual nonsensical black and white photos and even a speech about how for it to heal it’d need rest and I’d need to wear a special space age piece of plastic with Velcro straps just like the astronauts use for socks in space (ok maybe I made that last part up). Luckily since I had waited to go in for a few weeks it was already pretty much healed and I just had to avoid hurting it for a week and then assess it.

Asses it I did. Finally got out today and rode until my legs just wouldn’t work anymore. My power seems better than ever, probably from so much rest. I’ll have to hammer on it again tomorrow to really find out but I think it’s good to go. I tried four times to do the Lunar 12 race loop but each attempt I took a wrong turn here or there and my laps ended up coming out longer then they were supposed to so I just gave up and went back to my usual method of riding around the woods aimlessly with a giant grin to suit. I’ll have to go back with a map and then I’ll make a decent recon post. The course is already well marked, but it’s easy to mix up the order if you don’t know the proper lacing order, especially since PHP somehow manages to flow well in any direction on any trail and at a few points it almost crosses itself. So any time you do deviate from said course the last thing you'd do is stop and backtrack lol. It’s going to be a pretty fun time for sure, especially with the quirky paintball target aspect and the 6pm to 6am race time. 

On a side note I can not believe how superbly this Band-aid preformed today. Right on the knee and it outlasted me. 

5 hours of mud, sweat, rain, and humidity 

Sunday

I was looking forward to racing in New Hampshire for the first time today but after spinning yesterday it was pretty clear that while my ankle's mostly healed I still can't power stroke or dab on that foot, and unclipping was not pleasant. Fine for some light spinning and flow though so I bummed around some local spots which are pretty   supurb anyways.

I tried to get some decent footage of Pine Hill Park by installing a custom phone handlebar mount kit but unfortunately I pointed it a hair too far down and off center. And it's a little blurry. I'll have to give it another go some time since the picture quality looks like it'd have turned out alright if i'd aimed it better and maybe used the landscape mount rather then the portrait configuration. It was pretty crisp before I hosted it on my GDrive. A little blurry now. No matter how you lace it up a PHP ride can always end with some flow back into town.