Over the river and through the woods...

The day before Christmas Eve I returned to the MTB with a ride out at OMSP. It wasn't as nice as the day before, weather-wise, but it wasn't bad. Just overcast.

Jon joined the Beast and I once again, and we left the South trailhead, riding the trail clockwise. I love the first section of this trail, lots of twists and turns with short climbs and descents...it's a nice fast section of singletrack.

As the day before, I struggled to keep up with the clearly stronger riders (Jon and Jeff) on the climbs, especially the climb up to Peavine Falls road from the North Trailhead, but I learned long ago that when I'm riding with the Beast, I simply let him ride off the front if that's what he wants to do...if I try to match him, I'm going to kill myself sooner. So I let him go, set my own rythm and work my way along, getting a good workout that leaves me enough to survive later.

Jon impressed me by cleaning through Blood Rock, though never having seen it before. I opted to walk through rather than risk a fall, since I was effectively riding with one hand. On the plus side, I killed the downhill section before and after Blood Rock and really had a great time.

Halfway through the final section, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, there were signs pointing to a new trail, and it appeared (to me) that the old MTWR was closed for some reason. Turns out it wasn't closed, but I was going too fast to read the sign, so I made the turn onto the new trail. Soon we found ourselves in a mud bog that was both long and deep. Then a creek without a bridge. It appears we had found the new trail that is being cut around the northwest side of the lake that will eventually cross the dam and link with the South Trailhead. It wasn't too long, and we ended up back at the parking area after fooling around in the weeds for a while.

We were pleasantly surprised to see that there have been changing stalls, and a bike wash station built near the parking area. We really liked having the chance to wash the mud off the bikes before heading home. A very nice touch.

I had forgotten how much I enjoy doing the loop out there. I've got to get on the MTB more often. Last year I had ridden at Oak Mountain most Saturdays since early September, but this was my first time out this year. It's a good workout, and I need more of that.

And it was a pleasure to have Jon along, as he experienced southern mountain biking for the first time. I think he had as much fun as we did. I hope we get the chance to do this ride again when I'm more fit to keep up.

Holiday Road

Wasn't that the name of the song in "Christmas Vacation"? Anyway, it was 3 days before Christmas, and Jon was in town from Utah. The morning broke on a beautiful sunny day. The weather channel app on my iPhone said it would be 61 before the day was over, so I happily tossed my tights back into the drawer and finished putting things together for the ride.

On my way out the door, downstairs heading into the garage, I smelled a funny odor...I asked by two oldest boys to make sure they cleaned their bathroom. But then decided to go see why it smelled so badly. The floor, and the tub were filled with backed up...you know what. After putting the two teenagers in charge of clean-up and taking on "get a plumber here pronto" duties for myself, I finally headed out to pick up Jon about 30 minutes late. I wasn't too worried about it, I knew we had plenty of daylight to ride with, and a little later start meant warmer temps as well.

We finally hooked up with Doug and the Beast at our predetermined meeting spot, out at 280 and 119. Got Jon's loaner adjusted to fit, and headed out.

Because the Beast was in town, and we were only a short ride from his favorite hill, I was resigned to the fact that we would indeed be climbing Hugh Daniel drive, from the Greystone side. Words cannot express how much I loathe that hill. The pitch constantly changes, and the easiest parts are 8-9%. I just can't ever get a good rythym going on it. After that climb and down the other side, we headed southwest and down through the Narrows, which is a particularly scenic road that has no traffic and a nice little river running along next to it. Heading down 43 toward Vandiver, I found that I was having a really tough time keeping up. Months of no riding were paying off for me in exactly the way I expected. My superior Mass/Strength ratio helped me close the gap on the downhills of the rollers, only to lose it again when the road turned up.

Finally pulling into the BP station at Vandiver, I pulled out my phone and started checking to see what was happening with the plumbing disaster. I also grabbed a plastic bag, put ice in it, and iced down my nagging elbow for 15 minutes while Jon, Doug, and the Beast all did a little loop that added some mileage to their ride. I met them at the top of Coosa Mountain, where they had already descended and climbed back up the north side from Dunavant.

We headed down and I think Jon was a bit surprised with the short but steep climb after the descent back up to the "town" of Dunavant. We turned west again and after riding 41 past Shoal Creek, headed back up Hugh Daniel (the side we had descended earlier), then down the other side and back to the cars.

A good ride, that motivated me tremendously to do something about getting back in shape. Jon was strong and didn't appear to have much trouble keeping up, so I'm told he had a good time and learned a little bit about what it's like to ride in the south.

All in all, you couldn't have asked for better weather, or friends to ride with.

Holiday Riding

Okay. I'm fed up. I've finally decided to ignore whatever shape my body is in and work at doing something to improve my fitness regardless of the lack of complete functionality. To that end, this past week, I started riding my bike again, and keeping track of what I eat to better keep control of my caloric intake every day.

So far, even with holiday eating, I'm down 3500 calories from my budget this week. My goal is to lose 20 pound over the next 20 weeks. This seems reasonable...no? I'm using "Lose-It" for my iPhone...the app I used last year to lose some extra weight before our cruise so I could eat away without worry while on vacation. It worked for me then, so it should work for me now.

How am I down 3500 calories? Riding. After riding to and from work on Monday, on Tuesday I did a 35 mile road ride with the Beast, Doug, and Jon. We had a great day with spectacular weather (low 60's, sunny, light breeze), and some strong climbs, and lots of rollers. Yeah, I spent most of the day off the back, but it still felt good to be riding again. Wednesday we rode the loop out at Oak Mountain State Park...a tough mountain bike ride, technical with a long steep climb, and fun fun fun descents on twisty single-track.

I took the rest of the week away from excercise, but I'm back to it tomorrow with a lunchtime swim.

On the Road Again...

I haven't been on the bike since October 3. It's not been any fun. I find I sometimes need external motivation, and three things have conspired this week to provide that for me.

1) Jon, of Lactic Acid Threshold, is in town for a wedding, and we're going to get a couple of rides in while he's here. I've never ridden with Jon, and while on any normal day, he would kick me all over the road, I'm hoping to use the home court advantage to keep the humiliation to a tolerable degree. We'll ride MTB at Oak Mountain, and a do a road ride, both with the Beast.

2) I stepped on the scale two days ago and discovered that I was cursed with an additional 12 pounds, aquired since returning from a cruise back in March. It's got to come off. No wonder I feel so tired lately.

3) That bright round disc in the sky has returned, and I'd better take advantage of it while it's here. Who knows when we'll start getting rained upon again, and how many weeks it will last before seeing sunshine again.

So, with that in mind, I put on every layer of cold weather gear I owned this morning for my "in the 20s" commute/first ride in nearly 3 months. Turns out I didn't need all that layering as the aforementioned 12 pounds insulated me sufficiently.

In short, the ride hurt. From the first mile of 8% climbing to get away from my house, to the little rollers along 10th South, it was as if I had never ridden before.

I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to the ride home tonight.

My Favorite Weather

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day, cool and sunny with a cloudless sky. A perfect day for a nice easy 35 with Jake. It feels good to be back out riding again, after an endless summer of injury.

Where did the summer go?

It's been a loooong time since I've been on my bike. May's 3 State 3 Mountain put me off the bike for 3 weeks. Just as I as ready to start riding again, the weather went bad, and I had a crash on my scooter that seperated my left shoulder, bruised ribs, hip and knee. That meant no riding for 6 weeks (according to my doctor, I was planning on 4). The next set-back came early in July while I was at the lake with family for a week. I decided I'd go ahead and waterski. Overcompensating for the shoulder, I managed to tear muscle away from my ribs, which has only this past week stopped hurting enough to let me sleep on that side.

So. Summer is gone. And it's been several months since I spent any time at all on my bike. Sure, I've put in 5 miles here and there (about 3 times over the past month), but nothing to write about.

So I went this morning with some friends. They took it easy on me. We did 33 miles. At times it was faster than I would have liked, but that's just the way it goes. I suffered on the climbs (my shoulder hurt a bit when I would pull on the bars just the right way), and my legs were quite sore when I climbed the stairs after getting home. It's been a long time since I felt that burn.

I like it.

Wet

Saturday was the 3 State 3 Mountain ride in Chattanooga. The weather forecast when I left Friday afternoon was for a typical summer type day, with 50% chance of rain in the late afternoon. Since I planned to be finished and long gone on my way home before late afternoon, I figured it was going to be a nice day.

Following baseball practice (my Dodgers are 8-3-1, and have won 5 in a row by the way), I got off to a late start when I couldn't find the wrench I need to attach my rack to the van's hitch mount. Cathy found it for me, and I left to pick up Jake. Discovering along the way that I forgot the GPS mount. So Jake and I headed back to my place to retrieve it. In other words, an already late start got later by the minute.

Finally out of Birmingham, and on our way, The Beast called wondering where we were. We were about an hour short of Chattanooga, just outside of Gadsden. 5 minutes later, it started raining. Then it began to rain harder. I had the wipers on as fast as possible and couldn't see a thing. I started checking the weather radar on my iPhone (love that feature) and discovered huge bands of orange and red and yellow stretching all the way to Arkansas. Sigh. Maybe a miracle would happen.

The next morning, it was barely raining at all. Encouraged, we headed off with 2500 other riders through downtown Chattanooga. We were near the front, feeling good, even though it was beginning to rain a bit harder. Then The Beast had a flat. We'd gone maybe 3 blocks. We pulled over and changed that flat in less than 3 minutes. Hundreds of riders had passed us, but we were still well within the group. We jumped out and started off again. Less than 2 blocks later, The Beast was stricken with another flat. Again, a very fast change and back into the group, but near the back this time. Heading past AT&T field (where the Lookouts play), Jake had a puncture. His tire was a little harder to change, but eventually it was repaired and while inflating it, the tube blew. So we pulled the whole thing apart again, and installed our last tube. So, if you're keeping score at this point, it's now raining pretty hard, we've gone less than 1.5 miles, and had 4 flat tires in our group of 4 riders. There was talk of packing it in right there, but...

Finally on the bikes again, a few blocks later, we passed a bike shop, which opened for us to replenish our tube and CO2 cartridge supply. Jake and I also got cheap rain jackets...the clear rubber/plastic kind that we discovered kept the rain out, but the sweat in. I know.

We made it to the outskirts of Chattanooga, without another rider anywhere in sight. All 2496 riders (besides ourselves) were up the road. We were dead last. A motorcycle support guy pulled up alongside us and warned us about some railroad tracks up ahead. He said they'd had several crashes there and suggested we walk across. When we came to them, I pulled my right leg over to the left side of my bike and coasted across them, ready for the bike to slip. Jake on the other hand, chose not to dismount, and sure enough, he went down. I looked back to see him picking himself up and trying to get going again.

As the first climb began at mile 10 (Suck Creek Mountain), the rain was falling pretty hard, but things seemed to be looking up as far as making some headway on putting some miles behind us. This climb lasts 5 miles, and 3 miles into it, the bottom fell out and it couldn't have rained any harder. There was lightning and thunder, and I'll admit that being on a bicycle near the top of a mountain in such conditions was not exactly comfortable. I'm no coward, but I have a healthy respect for things that can kill me...like lightning.

All along the climb, we had been passing riders. We probably passed 2 or 3 hundred on our way up. Now we started seeing large numbers of riders coming back down the mountain heading back in (abandoning). I have to admit, a dry, warm car was an enticing thought at that point, but we kept on going.

Skipping way ahead, to mile 45...my knee had been bothering me for about 10 miles. By this point it was almost unbearable. In the cold and wet, it had never warmed up properly (and I'm too stupid to bother to stretch properly before I ride). We had a discussion as a group and decided that I'd head off and do the 100K route (63 miles) while they finished the full 100 miles. So we split up at that point. About a mile into the shorter route, I decided to abandon that plan and go back and finish the full 100 miles too. I rode back and rejoined the 100 mile route.

About a mile into that, my chain broke. I took that as a sign I was making the wrong choice. I started walking back hoping a support vehicle would be along soon, when another rider offered to help my fix my chain. We got it together and I managed to make it back to the finish without it breaking again.

It isn't the way I'd hoped to do the ride this year, but sometimes things happen in a way you don't expect. On the plus side, there were Physical Therapists at the finish who finally pointed me in the direction of what is causing my knee problems. Hopefully, if I break my bad habit of not stretching and start building better flexibility (particularly my IT Band, which is causing my knee pain), I should have it beat.

I'm hoping to enjoy the full ride next year.

Yeah, it's been a while...

But I have been riding...some. I've been mostly doing the commute to work and back, interrupted by frequent days on end of rain and storms. Then a cruise to the Bahamas took me off the bike for 10 days, and added some of the weight I'd been working so hard to lose (admittedly, so that I could enjoy the cruise without so much worry).

But back in Birmingham and back on the bike now for a few rides. I did 4 days of the work commute last week (Tue, Wed, Thur, and Fri). I had some vague plan to work a ride in around B's baseball practice on Saturday, but nothing concrete until Jake called me and set up a ride for early Saturday morning.

I arrived at the appointed start as the sun was coming up, and was completely unprepared for the cold morning. After JB showed up and I repaired a flat on his rear tire, we took off, and the cold became freezing. At least until the sun started shining over the ridge we were riding next to.

I was a bit curious how this ride would go. Usually Jake and JB, who are runners, very fit, and 10 years younger than me are off the front on these rides, especially the climbs. But when the road turned uphill on 25 toward Sterrett, I found myself riding away from them on the front. When we got to the final climb, up Hugh Daniels Drive, once again, riding away on the front (and the hill didn't seem quite as steep (it's 16% at the top) as it did the last time I rode it with them).

All in all, it was a good week, and I'm encouraged with where I am fitness-wise with 6 weeks to go before 3 State 3 Mountain.

Starting off right

I slept late yesterday...up late New Year's Eve and into the morning, so it was around noon when I finally started putting my stuff together for an afternoon ride at Oak Mountain. Unfortunately, most of my important stuff was awol. So I ended up leaving without it.

JB and I met up and started a nice comfortable pace. It didn't take long before we stopped and I pulled my tights and stuffed them in my pocket. Now wearing a short sleeve jersey and shorts, I was still very comfortable. It wasn't hot by any stretch, but it was warm enough that summer wear was working. As I said to JB along the way, let's see you do this on January 1 in Minnesota (from where he moved last summer).

JB's headset loosened up a bit so we stopped to tighten it (one of my "essentials" that I did manage to find was my multi-tool). 30 seconds after stopping for that, he called out that he had a flat. One of my "essentials" that I was unable to find was my pocket pump. Since he didn't have one either (the day just gets better) we were out of luck, although I did have a spare tube. Another rider came along and he let us borrow his to air up the repaired tire and we were off again.

Climbing the jeep road up from the North Trailhead, I noticed that it seemed as though they had taken a bulldozer to the trail and scraped up all the rocks that used to bedevil me on this climb. It was nice and smooth, at least up to the bridge, which made the climbing much easier. I decided to walk through Blood Rock after cracking my elbow trying to ride through it last month. No sense starting out 2009 with a bruise, right?

JB crashed hard on a stair step set of rocks on Johnson's Mountain. He planted his front wheel, it stopped, he kept going, landing square on his forehead, opening a small gash, and taking a large chunk out of the front of his new helmet.

My legs had that first twinge of cramping as I climbed the last hill up the girlfriend trail that leads to Mr. Toad's section. But we had ridden pretty steadily (effort-wise) and I wasn't surprised to have them notice the effort and protest a bit.

It was a beautiful afternoon for riding, and we had a great time. Best of all, I feel like I started off the season right, with a good 2 hour effort. It's raining today, but tomorrow is supposed to be sunny again. I think I'll take the Tarmac out on the road in the morning for a couple of hours.

My resolution for 2009, ride like I'm 35 again.