Two Wheel Blogs

I'm going through trail withdrawal here. Had the sun come out today as forecast we might have been having a marginal day to get out on the trails. Reports from yesterday said the trails were wet, but another day of drying and everything would be alright.

I checked the forecast for today yesterday and saw almost exactly what the doctor ordered: Partly cloudy on Sunday. I couldn't believe my eyes when I looked out the window this morning to raindrops on fresh puddles of water. Amazing.

Now I get this email from the big Unit. It's sunny and mid 50's there. They have a group rolling out at 2pm. I think I'm going to cry.

With the start of month number three in this year's season it's time to start adding in a little bit of extra spiciness to my workouts. By that I mean a little bit of planned intensity.

It's still to early to do any structured interval stuff. That will come later. For now though, it will be good to drop in some occasional work above the magical Functional Threshold Power level. It's not like I'm not already doing that anyway every time I go out on the trail. This is like bringing a little of that trail goodness inside and playing it out on the trainer.

If I'm going to do this Ouachita Challenge thing I will need to be able to put out watts above FTP lots of times. You know, burn lots of matches. The race is only 3 months away - a bit less. Factor in a week or so of rest and recovery going into the race, and probably about 2 weeks of business travel and suddenly it looks a lot closer than what the calendar says. I have only so many workouts between now and then to teach my legs to hold more fire.

So my plan is to start mixing it up a little. Days like today, when I work until dark and my only option for training is the trainer, I'll turn up the heat a few times each workout. When I can get out on the trails I'll put the emphasis on duration, because as you well know, the heat's already there.

Last night was a tough one for this old dog. It was my second night ride in a row and it wasn't pretty, no matter how you look at it.

I was all over the trail, that is, when my bike was even on the trail. It was one of those nights when my wheels just would not follow the line my eyes picked out. The result - carnage. The trails, rocks and roots were just wet enough to require good skill to ride them respectably. With my skills I might have hoped for a passing grade had I been "on". Unfortunately I wasn't anywhere near "on" not last night.

Maybe I was distracted by the annoying noise coming from my chain. I was in a rush yesterday to get on the road and forgot to lube it after hosing the mud spatters from the night before. Or maybe I was just tired from riding the night before. I could blame my tires maybe, for their inability to hook up. The wet, the cold... my fear of falling into the lake. Who knows, maybe everything. Maybe none of the above.

I'll call it a tough night and move on. It was still a night out on the trails. That automatically puts it in the "good experiences" category.

And it's one I'll remember for a while. One in particular

Wow that was quick. Registration opened just 2 days ago.

If you were planning to do the Ouachita Challenge this coming spring and you haven't signed up yet it looks like you'll be doing the tour.

The race is full.

According to the Ouachita Challenge web site there are fewer than 70 spots remaining open for the tour. That's 200 racers in the house, and 230+ tourists(?) in two days. I think these guys have a winner on their hands and I for one am glad I get the chance to go find out for myself what the excitement's all about.

Winter solstice. At exactly 8:22pm tonight the season changed from fall to winter. At that moment of time I was right exactly where I wanted to be: trail riding, in the woods, on my 29er singlespeed. I can hardly think of a better way to start out winter.

Earlier today I had thought that riding tonight might not happen. We've had a lot of rain here in the past couple of days. When I pulled in to park I asked the ranger if the trails were OK to ride because I think it's bad karma to tear up someone's hard work carving out a nice trail. She replied that for the most part the trails were in decent shape.

For the most part? I decided to take it easy and see for myself. Sure enough, only small portions of trail were bad enough they shouldn't be ridden. Where the trails were wet at all it was usually only a tiny bit of watery mud. Beneath that it was solid and firm.

Ah, but the rocks and roots... watch out. Slippery doesn't come close to describing what it's like negotiating an off-camber rooted and rocky corner.

The best part, however, was the fog.

We're getting Christmas early around here. I don't know what the official high temperature was, but you didn't need anything covering arms and legs today. Not by a long shot. We had a gorgeous day for cycling here, and you know I went out to take advantage of it.

I'd heard the local trails were in great shape so I loaded up my Karate Monkey for some single speeding. In all I got in nearly 2 hours of quality trail time.

That's 2 hours of virtually non-stop riding. Steady climbing and as fast as I dare descending. When I'm riding alone the only times I stop are to let riders I meet get by, to say hello to people out walking - and there were quite a few of them out there today, and when I crash. Crashing is a full stop. Sometimes it's a slide, tumble, scrape, then stop; but there's always a stop at the end.

Today was no exception, except today there was no slide or tumble or scrape. I just fell over. See, I was just finishing my first climb of the day. I was thinking it might be my last because my legs felt crusty in the extreme. I hadn't yet fully warmed up I guess. I just hadn't yet gotten comfortable riding. But there I was at the top of the first climb, breathing hard and sweating.