Spring "break"

I decided that I've been productive enough over the past few months that I deserved to take a real spring break, undergrad style. It's sort of murky territory in grad school, but I made an executive decision this year. I packed up a bike, running shoes, a lot of food, made some convoluted plans to meet up with different people in various places, and headed off to the desert. It ended up being a fantastic 10 days (I may have stretched things out a little longer than a week), with amazing weather, tons of miles, great times with friends, and no major mechanicals or physical break-downs. After just shy of 60 hours of "training," my body is worn down and it's time for my brain to get back to work.

A few highlights...

Early morning light on the La Sals from near the top of Long Canyon, en route to the White Rim

The White Rim isn't a technical ride, but riding it from near town makes it an all-day affair. I think I only encountered a dozen other souls out there that day.

Fred and I aren't really runners, but we're pretending pretty hard that we are. He led me on a gorgeous route on slickrock above Moab and down a series of canyons back into town. The ability to explore places that bikes would be a huge burden (or are just plain not allowed) is just starting to sink in...

Another early morning, this time looking east across the Klondike Bluffs. This was en route to Fruita, but since the first half of the Kokopelli Trail was snowed in, I took a new route around the north end of Arches. It was mostly double-track, and mostly horribly inhospitable country, but I loved it.

About to drop into the north end of Salt Valley

40 miles of roads that you don't want be anywhere near when it rains

The Poison Strip, an area covered in abandoned uranium mines. There were also more dead cattle than I've seen in any one area...coincidence?

I ended up high on Dome Plateau. Actually, higher than planned. My map didn't actually match what I found on the ground, so I had to improvise. In the distance here is the Uncompaghre Plateau, something I'll soon begin obsessing about once again as attention starts to shift to chasing DaveH's Grand Loop record. He set the bar pretty high last year with a very impressive ride.

Dan met me at the Loma trailhead, and we spent a couple days riding around that area. I also snuck in a great run in the Book Cliffs and found a fun little slot canyon to explore.

Then it was back to Moab for a little early-season 100-miler. Last year I wanted to ride fast at this event, so I tapered a little and rode it in 11:13. I was satisfied, but the winner beat me by nearly 90 minutes, putting down a blistering time. This year I came in with a huge week already in the legs, but they felt great when the time came to pedal hard. I let a few strong singlespeeders (Brad Keyes, Kenny Jones, and El Freako from Rico Jeff Hemperely) take off on the long climb out of town and eventually caught them on the slickrock of the Brand Trails. We rode together for a few more hours, and gradually we began to spread out. Kenny and I were together going into the Deal Breaker around half way through, and Brad clawed his way back up to us. I was still feeling great, so I upped the pace a bit and spent the rest of the day solo. I think I ate close to 3500 calories in the first 8 hours, and my legs just kept going. The climb up Sevenmile Rim flew by, Metal Masher actually felt easy, and the final long climb up Golden Spike meant I was almost done, so I pushed the pace even more. I managed to ride just about the entire section of techy, chunky singletrack along the rim, which I had to walk most of last year. The final pavement back into town was where my legs finally started to really hurt, and the headwind didn't help, but I rolled in to the finish in 9:45. That took nearly 90 minutes off my time from last year, and it tied the winner's time from last year (though his tracks indicated missed the entire Sevenmile Rim section of the course...). But best of all, I enjoyed the entire ride!

On Sunday a small group of us rode up Amasa Back and down the steep stuff on the north side. It was fun to have Dan there to challenge me to ride sections I probably wouldn't have ridden otherwise, helping me push my limits. I think I was grinning the entire way down.

Yeserday I met up with Fred for one last run before heading home. It was a big loop through Arches, exploring a lot of terrain that looked something like this. It really doesn't get any better than that, and I think Fred and I were both pretty fried after 4+ hours.

Oof. That was a lot of ground to cover in a week, and I'm feeling it now. There are a few events looming on the horizon, but I feel like the Arizona Trail Race might be a little more than my head can handle at this point...it's a bit frustrating, because I think my fitness is considerably better than it was a year ago for the AZT300. We'll see...I'll have to make up my mind in a week or so.