Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Slow is good for the soul...and marriage!

Riding MTB's is something I do for exercise and the challenge. Second in the list of "why I ride MTBs" is the outdoors, scenery and such. Most of the time, my type A personality and lust for pain and suffering means my head is down and my thoughts are focused on finishing a long ride in a respectable time. Today was different...my wife who loves the outdoors but doesn't share a love for a good sufferfest wanted to come out and do a nice fall ride to see the colors. So, I took her up on the AZT NE of the peaks...it would not disappoint....

Monday, October 17, 2011

I rode a long way today...

Finally, I mustered up the huevos to do the ride I'd planned for most of the summer. Start at the bottom of Schultz Creek... ride north, up the AZT, east on FR418, up to the inner basin trail. Planned to ride to 10kft, but the IB trail was a beatdown; figured I need to save a few "matches" to burn for the way back. So I stopped about a 1/2 mile up the IB trail and turned around. Kinda figured it was the last >70F day this fall with no chance of rain that I could pull off a long, all day ride close to 70 miles. The day was as good as it gets... perfect... Riding on a carpet of yellow at times...
Arrived...at Locket Meadow...
On the way back to the AZT...
The final ride stats....I'm tired...

Friday, October 7, 2011

Ouch...

I think one thing I like about long, endurance type rides is that is doesn't feel like an all out hammerfest. I mean, at least at my current fitness level I certainly can't go "balls-to-the-wall" for a 6-11 hour ride. However, scale back the distance to something accomplished in <3hrs, and certainly, the possibility exists for more of a real hammerfest. I rode a few weeks ago with a few guys who also ride SS (Race them too) and it taught me a good lesson about pace. We had set out to do about a 32 mile ride at BCT starting at Emery Hendersen and heading north around the Little Pan Loop. They were running 32x18's and were able to put the hurt on me. I had to ride above my normal pace which definitely exposed weaknesses in my bike handling and paid the price by doing an OTB roughly 1/3rd in to the ride. No major carnage, but definitely a warning. By the end, all 3 of us were pretty toasted as it was also getting pretty warm. It was a great lesson for me and an eye opener as far as training goes....sometimes you really have to ride with other guys faster than you to push both your fitness and your skills. Flash forward to today, I decided to do a solo ITT out at BCT where I rode the quintessential BCT lolipop ride; Start at Rock Springs and go south around the Little Pan Loop and back. I've done it many times before but today felt the right day to go as fast as I could muster; with a sub 3 hour goal. The weather was perfect...about 65F when I started. I reached the top of the loop in 57 minutes so I knew I was on pace. At the bottom of the loop which is pretty much the 1/2 way point, I was at 1:21...excellent...still looking good. Reaching the top of the loop, which is 2/3's of the mileage, I was at 1:47....sweet...keep the hammer down. Crossed back over the main road at 1:59 and only 8 miles to go... I figured it was gonna be close. Kept my head down climbing back up to the skyline section then bombed down to the river (as fast as fear would let me!). Crossed the river at 2:35...picked up my bike and ran across the sand and riprap, hopped on and then hammered up the last section. Rain started to fall right then but there was nothing at this point to stop me...rolling over the last gate, I glanced down and knew the goal was in the bag... rolling into the lot, hit stop...2:46...whew, that hurt.