I’ve always felt a tiny twinge of jealousy when I see some of my facebook & blogger friends post about epic off-road training rides that they can do from (sometimes) right out their back doors. Living in Memphis does have its pluses, but close proximity to endless hours of singletrack isn’t one of them (luckily, one of the good things about Memphis is its close proximity to Arkansas).

Because of this, I do most of my training on the road. I like my road bike (if you’re new here, scroll back to 2008-2009 and check out some road racing adventures), so I don’t mind road training. However, with my busted fingers, I’ve been unable to operate the brakes on my road bike. The mountain brakes are fine, though- I’ve got enough range of motion, and they’re strong enough that I can do anything on my mountain bike. So, I spent all weekend on the Air9RDO with my powertap wheel.

…and by “all weekend,” I mean 5 hours both days with another 5 hours on tap for today. To those of you who assumed I’d be laid up because of injuries, you were very, very wrong.

I’ve taken to riding from trail to trail, which makes for some very entertaining training rides. It’s pretty fun to switch from “steady” to “trail mojo” periodically during a ride. It’s also been fun getting to know the new A9RDO a little better. All bikes have a personality. If this bike were a man, he wouldn’t be the one you’d take home to meet your parents.

My fingers are slowly getting better. A follow-up visit to the ortho doc resulted in getting the go ahead to be splint-less on my right hand. My left index and middle fingers have to stay taped together for another two weeks to allow the fracture in the middle one to heal. Looks like I’ll be “whole” in time for Slobberknocker and Cohutta weekends.