Weekly Recap

A quick recap of last week's riding extravaganza ...

Picture of the rankings for the week:



Picture of the "medal" icon next to my name. (This is actually a big deal) ...



Stats for the week:

Rode 6 out of 7 days for a total of 89.7 miles with an elevation gain of 13,682 feet. I spent a total of 11 hours and 28 minutes actually riding on the bike for the week. Yikes!

Some people wonder why I'm still single, but I think this post explains why.

Blenderhead

One of my favorite old "Tooth and Nail" bands was Blenderhead. The reason I bring them up is because I've been feeling a special connection to their first album title, "Prime Candidate for Burnout".

After riding 6 days in a row last week I realized a 7th day was out of the question on Sunday (11/26/06). Instead of riding I slept and slept and slept. I ate a fair amount too, but mostly slept. I didn't have any soreness in my legs or arms, which was nice. Instead it was just an overall deep sensation of fatigue.

I ended up taking 3 full days off to rest and recover before riding this morning. That's right I said "this morning". Why is that odd? Well because it's a _Wednesday_. Usually I never ride before work because it puts me in a bad mood for the rest of the day and I hate getting up early to ride.

I ended up riding "Whiting to Old Camp" this morning with Matt. It's important to note that I rode with Matt because nothing buoys the spirit more than someone to ride with. At 6AM I need all the help I can get.

To the ride! ...

I got up at 5:30Am to get ready and met Matt at 6AM in front of Whiting. It was really cold, windy and dark. Not the best condition for a ride. We rode through Whiting really slow because mountain lions won't attack if you're going really slow and cautious. At least I think that was our unspoken plan.

We hopped over to start the "luge/old camp" portion of the trail and I noticed a ton of road flares on the road at the base of Modjeska Grade Road. Found out later that some guy on his bike got hit by a car last night and had to be air-lifted out. What a shame. Hope he's ok ...

Between the gate of the truck trail to the flag Matt and I got more than our share of wind. A few spots were so windy that I felt like I might get knocked over. Not the best experience.

When we finally got to Old Camp I had about had it with the trail. The wind, the cold and the desire to be back at home were weighing heavy. We stayed about 2-3 minutes at Old Camp before turning around.

Matt always leads on the downhill parts (he is that much faster than me), and on the way back I heard a "thump" and the rustling of some bushes. A thought passed through my mind along the lines of, "Matt just went over a ledge and crashed." Then again I think that all the time and I'm always wrong. This time I was partly right.

As it turns out Matt tried to adjust his shirt while going downhill and crashed with one hand on the bike. He jacked up his leg a bit and scraped up his hand pretty good. We waited a few minutes for the shock of the crash to wear off and for him to get some strength back.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. I felt tired going down The Luge, but otherwise ok.

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to keep up this kind of pace for much longer. Just need to survive until Tuesday (12/5/06). The game will be over then and I can take some much needed time off.

Rather Forgettable

I've been trying to catch up and write up each ride from the last week, but I'm having a tough time remembering which ride was on which day.

This post is for the final ride of last week, on Saturday (11/25/06).

It's always best to set the stage before going into the ride itself. Actually this ride was kind of boring, so the context might be more fun to read about.

Given that it was the last day of the week and I was trying for a weekly medal on GeoLadders, I knew I needed to pick just the right trail to ride. I needed to make sure that I had more points than the next guy. I was hovering around #4 or #5 for the week and only the top 5 guys get a medal.

I browsed through the site and decided on "Coto - Caspers Cougar Pass". Now this trail was going to be nice for several reasons. First of all it was a "new ride" for me, which meant I would get bonus points. Yummy bonus points. Second I knew the trail/area well so I knew it wouldn't be a terribly taxing ride physically. It's mostly rolling hills and has absolutely nothing technical on it at all. Finally it had a NAV file, which meant if I reviewed the NAV file that I would get MORE bonus points. It all added up nicely. 56 + 15 + 3 = weekly medal.

I had planned for the ride to be later in the day so I could sleep in. I did however want to be home in time for the USC/Notre Dame game. Not sure why I wanted to get home though ... the game sucked.

To make the ride even easier to swallow for me, I was able to get Corby to come along.

The actual ride was pretty uneventful until we got near Casper's Wilderness Park. The trail goes straight forever and then you do a loop and go back the way you came. In other words Corby and I came to a fork in the road and we could go either left or right. Well the NAV file had long since stopped working, so I picked "right". I had ridden that trail before anyways and I knew what I was getting into. Poor Corby didn't.

We finished the loop and were on our way back when we ran into Doug Andrews. Doug is the guy who created GeoLadders, so it's always good to see him. Coincidentally we are also both on the same team for "Control", so it was fun to talk for a minute.

The only thing that sucked was that Doug implied that since I didn't ride _up_ Cougar Pass that I should claim some other ride. "Ok", I thought. No big deal. The other ride will be enough to get me my medal. Forget the bonus points.

Fast forward to me in my car at a nearby apartment complex trying to post my ride ...

I go to see the trail I had done already months ago and went to post my ride. Only 52 points. Crap. That's not much. After posting I looked at the rankings and I was 5th for the week. By 1 point. Hahaha. I figured I had done a good job and was pretty sure no one else would post the rest of the night. I was wrong.

Anyways to wrap up, Corby called me telling someone had passed me, I deleted my old ride and posted the one I intended to do and got my medal.

Lots of hard work, but it was worth it. That little green icon next to my name is awesome. Haha.

Potato Mountain - Irish Heaven?

Two random guys climbing Potato Mountain:



I got an email early in the week from my friend Mark about a ride for Friday morning. We usually ride as a group on Saturday mornings, but with the holiday weekend I guess we moved it up to Friday.

To kind of set the stage ... I had been riding for four days in a row already and the trail Mark wanted to do was where the 210 freeway meets the 57. Not close. Even better was that he wanted to start at 7AM! This meant I had to wake up super early and then drive a long way just to get in a ride.

I had wimped out of the last group ride, preferring to sleep in, so I figured I owed them.

I had never been to "Potato Mountain" or "Marshall Canyon", so I thought at least it will be a new trail. Maybe even the best trail ever. It wasn't the best ever. Haha.

One more piece of information before the actual ride ... this ride was done in the context of my first "control" game on GeoLadders. Unfortunately my buddy Troy and I were placed on different teams and since we were both only going to do one lap, that meant that one of us had to get credit for the ride while the other had to let it go.

Good for me I brought my laptop from work with a wireless internet card in it. Needless to say I got the credit. Hahaha. Sorry Troy ...

To the ride! ...

I woke up at 5:15AM and showed up at about 6:20AM at the meeting spot. Too early. Troy was there early too and we talked a bit. I tried sleeping in my car, but it didn't work.

Mark had sent a message to some guy that had done the trail a ton of times and asked him to show us the trail. His GeoLadders name is "gassertrucks" and his real name is Mark. Great guy.

Anyways the four of us (me, Mark, Mark and Troy) started out at about 7AM. Must have been around 45 degrees outside and boy was I cold. It warmed up later, but I have a feeling this winter is going to be very cold as I continue to ride at night and early in the morning. Just something I need to get over I guess.

The first several miles were pretty easy rolling hills. The only problem was that I wasn't having an easy time with them. My legs felt dead and I was struggling to find a comfortable gear to ride in. I remember watching my three friends getting further and further ahead of me as I lagged behind. Four days of riding in a row will do that to you I guess.

Eventually I warmed up and felt pretty good. What really helped was getting on some longer more consistent climbs. It felt good to get into one gear, stick with it and then grind it out.

The only noteworthy thing about the ride to the top of Potato Mountain was the last climb. Mark kept telling us that it was pretty steep and that it was going to be tough to do. I considered that a personal challenge. I've been feeling really confident in my climbing ability lately and I had planned to give it everything I had.

All in all it wasn't an easy climb, but it wasn't nearly as tough as Mark had hyped it to be.

My back brakes were sounding HORRIBLE on the ride back, but they've sinced calmed down.

Highlight of the ride was doing it about 20 minutes under the average time. I'm always excited to beat the average time for a trail.

Thanksgiving Ride

This year I was stuck at home for the holidays. I always thought guys with nowhere to go for Thanksgiving or Christmas were losers, but I guess I was wrong because I turned into that guy. Hahaha. I couldn't quite bring myself to drive up north to be with my family and instead choose to relax at home and just lay low. In retrospect I would have driven up just because it sucks being alone on a holiday like Thanksgiving.

However being at home did have a few benefits. With essentially a four day weekend, it meant more time on the bike.

This year I became aware of an annual ride up Harding to share bagels, coffee, etc. with other riders. Apparently Rock and Road (local bike shop) sponsors this every year.

The ride was scheduled to start at 7PM, but I made plans to ride with Mike at 6:30AM. We figured this would help us with parking and would give us a good head start. Plus I think Mike had somewhere he needed to be that morning.

The parking for Harding is never great, but then again not that many people are ever there at one time. As I drove away after the ride I was _very_ glad I had arrived early. Parking turned into a total nightmare for a lot of riders. I even saw cars parked on the side of Santiago Canyon Road!

I had lots of friends signed up to go and was anxious to see them at the top.

Mike and I started right before Troy, but as I found out later, Troy's chain broke or something and he got stuck.

Fast forward to the ride ...

On the ride itself I was surprised at how good I felt. Mike wasn't pushing too hard and it let me relax and keep my heart rate low. We just cruised for the first hour or so. After that Mike said I could push harder if I wanted to and with that I put some space between us. I got passed by two guys on the way up, but that wasn't so bad. I was prepared to be passed by maybe 20 guys.

I reached the top right before the flood of riders. After about 10-15 minutes the population of Four Corners went from 6-8 to 30-50. Riders started arriving from everywhere. Maple Springs and Harding and who knows where else.

Friends I knew at the top: Jerry, Chris, Mike, Superjoe (real name is Joe?) and Troy. New Friends: GrannyRing (I don't remember his real name).

Going down was a bit sketchy as tons of people were riding up to get in on the party.

Good times.

Whiting Laps ... errr ... Old Camp?

Ever since the game of "Control" started on GeoLadders I've been checking the site constantly to monitor where my team stands. I've become keenly aware of our overall strategy and obviously I want to contribute towards a team win.

The day before Thanksgiving gave me an opportunity to do that. I had a half day at work and that meant I could ride after work before it got dark and then head off to church. My initial plan was to ride two Whiting trails and claim them for the team.

My team's strategy however was to control "long" rides and "extra long" rides. That meant that Whiting laps were out of the question. Instead I should focus my energy on riding trails in the 50-75 point range. Ugh. That was more work than I had planned.

I finally decided on Santiago Truck Trail to Old Camp as my Wednesday ride. It was going to be the third ride for the week and I knew I had a lot of riding ahead so I didn't want to burn myself out. If it had been the end of my riding week I might have picked Whiting to Old Camp or something longer.

To do this ride I knew my normal riding buddies wouldn't work. Matt and Andrew were out of town and Troy was on a different team! I was content to do it alone, but I asked Corby and Josiah just in case. To my surprise they both agreed to go with me.

My only concern was how long the ride was going to take. I'm sure Corby and Josiah both know they aren't the fastest riders and I wanted to make sure we started with enough time to get back before dark.

Fast forward to the ride ...

It was indeed a pretty slow pace, but I was ok with that because I knew I was going to be going hard the next few days and I didn't want to burn out early in the week. The weather was definitely colder than I would have liked, but the company was good. Considering how often Corby and Josiah ride, they actually did very well. I was surprised at how fast both of them were on the climbs.

I brought my light with me just in case and it turned out to be a very wise decision. It got dark before we finished and I think the light helped as we rode back. I say "I think" because I know it helped me, but I don't know how much it really helped Corby or Josiah. Haha.

Josiah ended up crashing in a small rut about 1/4 of a mile from the gate and that sucked. Other than that though, it was a good ride and it was good points for the site.

Finally! The Luge at Night!

First time I ever went down The Luge I was pretty scared. It was loose and had one or two places where you could roll down a hillside if you made a mistake. It took several rides to really start to feel comfortable and confident going down. My arms and hands always took a beating because I would ride the brakes so hard.

Over time I became pretty comfortable with The Luge and it wasn't such a big deal. However all those trips were done in the day time. Going down The Luge at night is a pretty common thing in the biking community and so I knew I had to try my hand at it eventually.

I was confident that I could do the climbing to get to The Luge. No problem. My main concern was that my light was on my handlebars and not my helmet. This meant I couldn't see around corners and The Luge has plenty of those.

I need to make this post shorter, so let's fast forward ...

There were an insane amount of people out when I finally did this ride at night. I did it on a Tuesday (11/21/06) and I don't know I've ever seen so many people on this trail - at any time of day. Guys, girls, advanced riders, beginning riders ... just people all over.

The climbing was a breeze. My heart rate tends to be really low and manageable at night, mostly I think because of the cold weather.

Matt and I decided not to wait at the flag or at the start of The Luge. We just went straight for it. It turned out to be not bad at all. I had more than enough light and never felt out of control or worried for my safety.

I ran into two people on the way down that had some bike trouble. One guy got a flat and the other guy might have fallen. His bike seemed ok, but he was standing on the side of the trail for some reason. Oh well!

I got passed by some guy (more like I moved over and let him pass) and then his wife/girlfriend ALMOST passed me. By the time she came up behind me we were almost done and I had too much pride to let someone else pass me. I tried to step it up and go faster to keep up, but she was right there.

Overall a great ride and a big boost of confidence.

Trabuco Creek (Crazy People Road)

So I always thought that if some day I wanted to really buckle down and get major points on GeoLadders that I'd want to do some easy trails and get bonus points etc. There are quite a few trails out there that are short and easy, but I've never officially ridden them. This means bonus points.

Even better to ride a new short trail at night!

Trabuco Creek Road is near O'neill Park and it's basically just a dirt road. No singletrack, nothing technical, nothing fun. Just bumpy dirt hell for 5.5 miles in and 5.5 miles out.

I somehow convinced Matt to ride with me at about 8pm. Man was it boring. Quite a few drivers slowed down for us and shouted stuff at us. I honestly don't remember one word of what was shouted, but who cares anyways.

Highlight of the night was coming back to our cars where some white trash guy was parked next to us. I wasn't sure what he was doing there and was hoping he wasn't going to murder us and steal our cars or something.

He didn't.

+48 points for a totally boring, garbage ride. Hooray!

Post Avalanche

This past week was pretty eventful riding wise. I haven't had time until just now to write up each ride, so I'm going to do that now. One post per ride and then maybe a summary. Hooray!

Alone Again?

Had a ride scheduled with Troy, Mark and Matt for this past Saturday at 6:15am. I've been getting up at around 6am on Saturday's for a few months now and I finally decided to take a stand. I called Matt up at 11:30pm the night before and cancelled. Good for me!

My plan was to ride Whiting to the Luge and then another Whiting lap after that to avoid having a "weak" Saturday. I wanted to make sure I saw most of the OSU/Michigan game, so that factored in to things as well.

I ended up sleeping in to about 9am and then kept waking up every 20 minutes due mostly to restlessness and guilt for not riding with the guys.

Fast forward to the ride ...

Whiting to the Luge always seems easy in my mind. I've done both routes so many times that they just don't seem so bad, even when they are put together.

It was hot outside and that kept a lot of other people off the trails. I only saw a handful of people on my first pass through Whiting on the way to the Luge. I passed a few riders on the small climb that is halfway between the gate to the truck trail and the flag at the start of the Luge. It was great to ride past them as they could barely even walk their bikes up the hill. When I got to the turn at the top of the climb I realized they were part of a huge group.

Nothing too eventful for the rest of the ride. I wasn't feeling all that confident on the Luge, but made up for it on the second half of Cactus. I'm really starting to enjoy that section.

The second lap through Whiting was a little tiresome, but worth it. I was halfway up Mustard when I passed a shirtless, helmetless rider pushing his bike. He saw me and asked me if I went to church with him a while back. I turned around and realized it was Robbie. He told me Ricky was at the top of the climb and that gave me motivation to climb a bit faster.

I hung out with Ricky and Robbie at Four Corners for a while before taking off to get home for the game.

Hightlight of the ride: Passing 200,000 feet of climbing for the year. Hooray!

Fullerton Loop

The Fullerton Loop is a pretty popular trail. It was featured in Mountain Bike Action Magazine and on GeoLadders it's been ridden about a gazillion times. I've had this loop on my "to-do" list for quite some time now, and last night I got a chance to finally ride it. At night.

There are two important facts about the Fullerton Loop that have kept me from going. The first is that the trail is confusing as all heck and the directions for going on it are like ten pages long. The second fact is that it is widely known as a "beginner" trail. Well beginner stuff is not for me, so I figured not riding it was no big loss.

I was able to get Matt to ask Mike (MF Titan on GeoLadders) to show us around since he does the trail so often. He agreed.

Traffic was horrible getting there, which just might keep me from ever doing this trail again at night. I just can't handle waiting in traffic for an hour. No trail is worth that.

Fast forward to the actual ride ...

We started at the Fullerton Courthouse and right away we jumped on to some wide fire road type trail. Almost immediately Mike took us down a fairly short steep section to hit another part of the trail. I didn't realize it, but this would be a theme the rest of the night.

Mike knows all the little jumps, drops and hidden singletrack on the trail and went out of his way to show us everything. Where most people would go straight on fire road, we'd go off to the left or the right to explore a section of singletrack.

I was surprised how many minor technical sections there were.

At one point Mike yelled back at us to watch for the bridges. Bridges?! Over what? We are on singletrack Mike ... what do you mean bridges?

Each bridge was at the bottom of a sandy slope through a maze of trees. Each one was pretty small and it was challenging considering how insanely slow I was going.

Overall I was impressed by the myriad of options the trail had. Lots of stuff to mess around with and I can see why some people would want to do it over and over.

Thanks Mike ...