Two Wheel Blogs

Last week was perfect in my book. Sunny filled days and dry trails. Can't ask for more than that. Normally the weather we're having now would put me in a sour mood. Not this time though, after tonights climbing session I'll be on recovery for a week and a half leading up to Syllamo's Revenge. Going to try something new and try to peak for this race.

Last week I had three good trail rides in a row. Tuesday was Bittersweet. It was truely bittersweet. I tacoed a cheap front wheel on my Monkey, tore a sidewall, racked myself real good, and ripped the rear end out of my only good pair of baggies. Good times.

Wednesday I hit the local trails up. Got a good 10 or so laps in at Culp Park. It's a little mile and a half trail with some serious elevation for such a short trail. I was wore out.

Thursday I headed to the city to try out our newest gem, Swope Park. What a trail! Techincal in spots, screaming fast in others, and all around a great mile and a half trail system. They have some huge plans for this place, something like 15-20 miles I've heard. If the rest of the trail turns out like this first half, it's going to be a primo trail system. Got to ride with some new people, and put in some pretty good efforts.

I was wore slick at this point, so I took Friday completly off. Saturday I did a short spin and then went to the Zoo all day. I don't think I've ever walked that much in my life! Sunday I woke up and went turkey hunting and put in a couple more miles of hiking.

After a fun but unsuccessful morning of hunting I headed down to the lake for some evaluation of my fitness for the upcoming sufferfeast known as Syllamo. I had plans of 40 miles of singletrack on Honey Run. This is a stellar trail system that will rattle your cage with rocks a plenty.

The ride started out great, but about an hour into it I cut a small slit in the top of my front Rampage. The stan's wouldn't seal it so I had to throw a tube in. Not ten minutes later I slit the back sidewall of my Fasttrak. Once again I had to throw in another tube. Thnaks Kevin for the tube! I didn't have my extra so that would have been the end of my day had it not been for him.

I had a great ride, railing trails and getting the crap beat out of me. I put in a good solid 40 miles, in under 4 hours. Just what I was looking for. I bought a Garmin 305 so I got to try it out for the first time. 40 miles, 4 hours, 3000 feet of climbing, and an average heart rate of 145. Not bad in my book, right where I need to be. Right on track.

I've got a goal of completing Syllamo this year in under 5 hours. At the pace I was rolling yesterday I'm confident that without mechanicals I can do it. I wasn't fresh, and I intently didn't use my normal nutrition plan. I only drank water, took only one endurolyte, took in about 3 shots of goo, and drank one flask of my special juice. For Syllamo I'll ingest 3-4 bottles of Perpetum, lots of water, 6-10 endurolytes, 8-10 shots of goo, and a bottle or two of the special stuff.

Here's to one more day of suffering, hopefully put in around 3-4000 feet of climbing in the road on my Stumpy tonight, and then it's off the lazy land. Some easy riding here and there, but overall resting up and getting ready for May 9th.