Finally I have my new Grammo 29er...well, almost. I'm riding it without my shifters or wheel set, Unrealcylces is lending me those things until mine are in :) To say I am excited about the bike is an understatement. This bike is going to be right at home at the Xterra's this year. She weighed in at 20.5 lbs with out pedals or a seat. I have the Xpedo Ti Ti's on the way which or 210 Grams and my seat it 190 grams so she will be sub 22lbs : ) Its funny before this season/bike I was never a gram counter but once you start it kind of becomes addicting, actually more like a little ridiculous . . .
On to the good day during a bad story . . . I picked the bike up Saturday and spent a little time with her getting everything perfect for my mock triathlon day Sunday. It was funny Friday night I went to sleep like I did when I was 5 and it was Christmas Eve. And of course I woke up at 6am Saturday with nothing to do because I couldn't actually pick the bike up until 9am, I was just a little excited.
Well Sunday comes and it does not look so great outside but surely that will not stop me from doing my 18mile ride/6mile run around applegate with my new bike. The drive out to applegate is about an hour and on the way out there I see no rain and my spirits are high. Those feelings were short lived however . . .
This picture is me deciding if its really going to be worth it because the rain is starting to come down and come down fast. Plus not only did I get rain we had wind gust of up to 25-30 miles an hour. But of course I didn't just drive an hour to turn around and go home. My thought was well if I practice in this I can race in anything.
So I snapped one more final picture of my new Grammo before she hit her first actual trail . . . Off I went into the rain and wind, my tires were not the ones you want to run in the mud (small block eights). Right off the bat I could tell that I was going to do well on this bike as I felt it was extremely efficient and for having the race angles that it has the cockpit was very comfortable. I couldn't wait to make it to my first hill to see how she was going to climb. I think this might have been a first, climbing and smiling. What a difference coming off my old bike to this one for climbing. After the climb was a fun decent into some flat single track and I was cruising just a little to fast. Came up to a corner and lost all traction 25 miles an hour into a bush, better than a tree I suppose. It was a funny site to see, me lost 5 feet in this bush just holding me up, I was laughing. The rest of the ride went well, my time wasn't what I am capable of or wanted but with the weather and tires I wasn't bothered by it. Here is a link to info about the ride (elevation/speed/heart rate/route) via my Garmin 305 first ride on my Grammo around applegate The hard part of all this was getting back to the truck and still wanting to do my run. It would have been so easy to just get in the truck and go home but I knew I couldn't do that.
Of course as I'm transitioning into the run both the wind and rain decide to pick up, yay me!!! Soaked and cold it couldn't have been any warmer than 37 degrees I start my run. Simple 3 miles out 3 miles back and keep a good pace. My coach wanted me to be running 6:30-6:45 minute miles and I think for the first mile I entertained this idea :) But at mile two there was no way I was just to miserable. The run too was a little slick and I was having some trouble on a few of the quick short climbs. I realized as nice as it is to have the Garmin its equally not as nice. For two reasons, I thought I had hit 3 miles a lot earlier than Mr.Garmin said and looking at your pace when your climbing will kill the strongest mans soul. At mile 3 I had well fallen off the goal time set by my coach and was a little disappointed. However mile three had come, time to turn around. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a chocolate milk waiting for me in the truck, I call this motivation. With this motivation I was able to pick up the pace for the return run and get closer to my goal minute mile time. It seemed like the way back went by much faster than the way out. I made it back to the truck, tired, cold, soaked but with a sense of accomplishment.(link to my run stats) I removed the bike from the inside of my truck and put all my wet nasty gear in the bed . . .
Then I started my truck, I let it warm up a little, changed into the extra clothes I had brought and ripped into my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and washed it down with my chocolate milk. I would have to say today was a good day for being a bad day . . .
Of course as I'm transitioning into the run both the wind and rain decide to pick up, yay me!!! Soaked and cold it couldn't have been any warmer than 37 degrees I start my run. Simple 3 miles out 3 miles back and keep a good pace. My coach wanted me to be running 6:30-6:45 minute miles and I think for the first mile I entertained this idea :) But at mile two there was no way I was just to miserable. The run too was a little slick and I was having some trouble on a few of the quick short climbs. I realized as nice as it is to have the Garmin its equally not as nice. For two reasons, I thought I had hit 3 miles a lot earlier than Mr.Garmin said and looking at your pace when your climbing will kill the strongest mans soul. At mile 3 I had well fallen off the goal time set by my coach and was a little disappointed. However mile three had come, time to turn around. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a chocolate milk waiting for me in the truck, I call this motivation. With this motivation I was able to pick up the pace for the return run and get closer to my goal minute mile time. It seemed like the way back went by much faster than the way out. I made it back to the truck, tired, cold, soaked but with a sense of accomplishment.(link to my run stats) I removed the bike from the inside of my truck and put all my wet nasty gear in the bed . . . 
