Should I stay or should I go

I'm starting to feel the pull to head south and race across the desert. The flowers are out in full force, and the deep snow in the mountains is gradually giving up the ghost as the days grow longer. My legs are stronger than ever, and the muscles are still remembering all those miles on the Divide last summer. Oddly, 750 miles does not sound like an enormous undertaking at this point (although getting from the finish back to anywhere does sound like a feat in and of itself). I'm not sure I can or should miss a couple weeks of work, if I really have the money for the travel, or if my head would stay in the game for a week of pushing the envelope. But it sure is pleasant in Arizona in April, I really do enjoy pedaling my bike, and I'll soon have new bags from Eric and hike-a-bike shoes from Pearl Izumi...

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.

Corn nuts

I'm in Moab right now, hanging out for a week or two, failing to get much work done (despite good intentions), but at least I'm spending a lot of time riding, running, and eating. Yesterday I rode for 12.5 hours and slept for 11.5 hours.

People always ask me what goes through my head when I ride for days on end. While riding yesterday, I had an interesting conversation with my legs. Or perhaps I imagined having this conversation. The mind wanders in strange directions when riding solo all day through the desert. Anyway…

………

Four hours into the ride, my legs were feeling sluggish, despite the mellow pace. I'm sure carrying two gallons of water wasn't helping matters, but 125 miles with no good options for acquiring more water makes that much a necessity. After riding in perturbed silence for a while, I finally spoke up.

"Hey guys, what's the deal here? You should have warmed up by now!"

The morning sun warmed my thighs through my black shorts and leg warmers, feeling pleasant compared to the cold wind blowing through my jersey. After a moment, the left leg replied: "We're just trying to figure what's going on. You haven't gotten up so early in the morning to ride in a while."

"What, did you forget last summer already?" I asked.

"Last summer? Oh yeah…last summer. I don't think we've completely forgiven you for that. We don't appreciate being cannibalized because you can't eat enough real food."

Then the other leg finally chimed in. "Yeah, we're still a little angry. Besides, you didn't really eat all that much this morning."

We crested a small rise separating the canyon rim we had just followed from the bench high above the next river bend. I slowed briefly as my eyes surveyed the vast new landscape that just appeared, including my first view of two towering sandstone spires to the south. The cottonwood-covered canyon bottoms behind me disappeared, but it did not cross my mind that I would not be seeing them again.

"Well I apologize for last summer. I didn't really know what I was getting into. But this morning I gave you a big bowl of granola. And I just gave you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich a few miles back! "

"Ooh. Peanut butter and jelly.," mocked the right leg. "Besides, you never know what you're getting us into, which usually means undue pain and suffering for us."

"Blech. No one wants peanut butter and jelly," agreed the left. "We want corn nuts!"

"Yeah, corn nuts!"

"Holy crap. Are you guys serious?" I asked, somewhat in disbelief. Corn nuts usually aren't on the menu until afternoon. And here it was, barely 10 am, and the legs were making serious demands.

"So if I give you guys some corn nuts, you'll start going a bit better?"

"Of course!" replied the legs, almost in unison.

"Fine. Corn nuts it is."

I stopped to extract a bag of salty morsels from the bottom of my pack, shoved a couple dozen in my mouth and crunched on them for a while. After a few more mouthfuls, I closed the bag, hopped back on the bike, and bumped down the rocky canyon two-track navigating a circuitous path around the precipitous head of a slot canyon.

"Happier now?" I asked the legs.

"Yes!"

Within a few minutes, the trail headed up a gradual incline to a white bedrock bench a few miles away, and I started to feel the confidence of strength returning to my legs. Little did I know, the legs would keep working for almost eight hours more before fatigue became too strong for even corn nuts to mask. Distant mountain ranges would come and go from my view, nearer cliffs would stretch tall in the afternoon sun and then shrink away as the cold, dark grasp of evening strengthened, and my legs would spin countless more revolutions.

"Now what can we do about this headwind?" I inquired with a wry smile.

"Try giving it some corn nuts!" joked the left leg.

………..

I had all day on the bike, and this was the only thing that went through my head I remember well enough to repeat. It's a shame I can't make my head do anything productive while I ride. But perhaps that is the beauty of all-day rides.

Striding through March

March has been keeping me too busy to find the time to post anything new here. This is one of my favorite times of year - the days are rapidly getting longer, the trails are melting off and drying out, and the winter training dividends have accumulated to a point that the fitness is beginning to come back to a solid level.

A few pics of what's been going on lately...

My tribute to the Iditasport racers up in AK. There were (and continue to be) some impressive performances up there!

I was talking to a guy yesterday on the N Boulder Valley trail. He was all excited that "mountain bike season has finally arrived." I didn't have the heart to tell him that I had been riding on the trail in the photo above off and on since mid-January. I think I've slogged up the long, often snowy climb and enjoyed the 1800' dirt descent more than a dozen times already this year. Dan joined me last week, but he wasn't thrilled with my playground.

Yesterday I ran this phenomenal loop. The forecast was for 60 degrees and sunny, and amazingly, I first thought about a long run, and only after contemplating that considered a long ride. I opted to run: 26 miles, 6000'+ of climbing, and 90% singletrack. I did 20 miles of this loop in November, and it destroyed me. This time I was still smiling at the end, completely capable of continuing on longer had I needed to do so. This was a great mental boost for my transition into the world of running.

Today was this guy's first ride of the season. Stefan killed my tired legs on the climbs and flew up the techy stuff like he's been riding all winter. Owen and Dan also joined the group for an early tour of the JeffCo trails. Snow moved in for the last half hour, and it's rained and snowed the rest of the day.

And on tap is a 9-day Moab training binge...their persistent winter blanket of snow has finally been thrown off, so it's time for some desert riding and running.