Project Rwanda
Me going down Harding (I look strange):
A few months ago some guy posted a link to http://www.50mileride.com saying he wanted to ride 50 miles for his 50th birthday. He was going to somehow tie that into a charity event with the goal of purchasing 50 bikes for Project Rwanda (http://www.projectrwanda.org). I signed up right away since the ride was on December 30th and I figured it would be a good way to end the year. Lots of friends of mine also signed up and I had high expectations for a good time leading up to the event.
Unfortunately I severly under estimated the ride. The ride was broken in to two stages. First stage was from Cook's Corner to Four Corners via Harding and then stage two was cruising around O'neill and RSM. I can climb Harding without any major problems and O'neill/RSM is always easy, so I figured "easy + easy = easy". I made this mistake once before when I did Harding-Motorway and I can't believe I did it again.
I keep forgetting that after riding 25 miles, anything that used to be "easy" suddenly becomes a bit more difficult.
I woke up at 5:30 and got dressed and packed pretty fast. I was excited to get going. Mistake number one was eating _nothing_ before the ride. I got to Cook's early enough to get good parking and to meet all my buddies. It was around 34 degrees and boy was I cold.
Our group of about 10 guys left early while everyone else was getting a briefing. Felt a little rebelous, but whatever. It gave us a good head start because with all the fast guys out that day, we would need it.
About one third of the way up Harding we started getting passed. I think Doug Andrews was the first guy to pass me. Not a big surprise. The only other guy I recognized that passed me was Manny Prado. I think I got passed by at least 20 guys on the way up. Oh well.
At Four Corner's our group rested for just a few minutes to eat and take a few pictures before heading down. There was a _ton_ of traffic going down. About one third of the way down it all cleared up. I guess they were pretty good about cut off times.
We then cruised over to Cook's Corner to rest, eat and get "warm weather" clothes on. It took longer than I would have liked, but it was ok. We added a lady named Heather to our group because she didn't know the area that well.
The second stage started up what Matt and I call "Live Oak". I've done this trail so many times it's not even funny. Unfortunately I let my ego get the best of me and I burned out going up the first two serious climbs. My heart rate shot up above 190 and stayed there a lot longer than it should have. As a result I lost my entire group and was left for dead. Haha.
I eventually caught up at the front of O'neill.
Our group then continued on and it didn't take me long to feel like I just couldn't hang. I was pushing fairly hard and was still losing ground slowly with the pack. I managed to close the gap on the road in RSM, but was not feeling the best. It's a horrible feeling to be pushing and asking your legs to push and not getting anything back. Also a bad feeling to realize the guys in front of you are cruising and not having the same trouble.
Somewhere near Tijeras Creek I started to notice a problem with my bike. My brakes weren't working well. I had to squeeze very hard to get them to "bite" and then when they did, I would hear a horrible, horrible squeeling noise. In the future I am going to stop and work on them instead of doing what I did on Saturday, which is continue to ride with no confidence in my brakes.
I ended up riding through Tijeras Creek mostly by myself. The only good thing was that I ran into some biker girl in a pink skirt. Man she was cute. Ha.
I finally met my group at the Oso turn around point after crossing several creeks. I was tired and needed a minute, but my group was getting impatient. Andrew gave me a powerbar (thanks Andrew) and then the entire group left. Haha. I was still chewing on the powerbar as I left with them. I didn't rest nearly as much as I would have liked.
They dropped me right away. I also got stuck behind some guys on the single track, but didn't mind too much since I was hitting the wall. I ended up zoning out for the next 8 miles or so as I just tried to focus on getting back to Cook's Corner as fast as I could.
I ended up meeting GDR from GeoLadders on the tough road climb out of O'neill. It was also cool to see a guy that passed me get off his bike and walk it up the climb whereas I rode up the entire thing. I think his bike didn't gear down as far as mine, but who cares. He walked and I rode. Ha.
The final climb up the newly graded part in "Live Oak" was very tough. I hope climbs like that are good preparation for Counting Coup. I was giving it a lot and it was very tough mentally as well as physically. I didn't have to walk the bike though, which was awesome.
The last few miles back to Cook's sucked as both brakes gave out entirely. The problem ended up being loose brake cables and after a little tightening they were ok. I almost had a pretty bad crash coming down on that steep part near the nursery though.
The party afterwards at Cook's was great. I got a free massage, cheap food and drinks and had a good time just hanging out with my GeoLadder friends.
Picture of me climbing Harding (I never realized it, but I look kind of too big for my bike):
A few months ago some guy posted a link to http://www.50mileride.com saying he wanted to ride 50 miles for his 50th birthday. He was going to somehow tie that into a charity event with the goal of purchasing 50 bikes for Project Rwanda (http://www.projectrwanda.org). I signed up right away since the ride was on December 30th and I figured it would be a good way to end the year. Lots of friends of mine also signed up and I had high expectations for a good time leading up to the event.
Unfortunately I severly under estimated the ride. The ride was broken in to two stages. First stage was from Cook's Corner to Four Corners via Harding and then stage two was cruising around O'neill and RSM. I can climb Harding without any major problems and O'neill/RSM is always easy, so I figured "easy + easy = easy". I made this mistake once before when I did Harding-Motorway and I can't believe I did it again.
I keep forgetting that after riding 25 miles, anything that used to be "easy" suddenly becomes a bit more difficult.
I woke up at 5:30 and got dressed and packed pretty fast. I was excited to get going. Mistake number one was eating _nothing_ before the ride. I got to Cook's early enough to get good parking and to meet all my buddies. It was around 34 degrees and boy was I cold.
Our group of about 10 guys left early while everyone else was getting a briefing. Felt a little rebelous, but whatever. It gave us a good head start because with all the fast guys out that day, we would need it.
About one third of the way up Harding we started getting passed. I think Doug Andrews was the first guy to pass me. Not a big surprise. The only other guy I recognized that passed me was Manny Prado. I think I got passed by at least 20 guys on the way up. Oh well.
At Four Corner's our group rested for just a few minutes to eat and take a few pictures before heading down. There was a _ton_ of traffic going down. About one third of the way down it all cleared up. I guess they were pretty good about cut off times.
We then cruised over to Cook's Corner to rest, eat and get "warm weather" clothes on. It took longer than I would have liked, but it was ok. We added a lady named Heather to our group because she didn't know the area that well.
The second stage started up what Matt and I call "Live Oak". I've done this trail so many times it's not even funny. Unfortunately I let my ego get the best of me and I burned out going up the first two serious climbs. My heart rate shot up above 190 and stayed there a lot longer than it should have. As a result I lost my entire group and was left for dead. Haha.
I eventually caught up at the front of O'neill.
Our group then continued on and it didn't take me long to feel like I just couldn't hang. I was pushing fairly hard and was still losing ground slowly with the pack. I managed to close the gap on the road in RSM, but was not feeling the best. It's a horrible feeling to be pushing and asking your legs to push and not getting anything back. Also a bad feeling to realize the guys in front of you are cruising and not having the same trouble.
Somewhere near Tijeras Creek I started to notice a problem with my bike. My brakes weren't working well. I had to squeeze very hard to get them to "bite" and then when they did, I would hear a horrible, horrible squeeling noise. In the future I am going to stop and work on them instead of doing what I did on Saturday, which is continue to ride with no confidence in my brakes.
I ended up riding through Tijeras Creek mostly by myself. The only good thing was that I ran into some biker girl in a pink skirt. Man she was cute. Ha.
I finally met my group at the Oso turn around point after crossing several creeks. I was tired and needed a minute, but my group was getting impatient. Andrew gave me a powerbar (thanks Andrew) and then the entire group left. Haha. I was still chewing on the powerbar as I left with them. I didn't rest nearly as much as I would have liked.
They dropped me right away. I also got stuck behind some guys on the single track, but didn't mind too much since I was hitting the wall. I ended up zoning out for the next 8 miles or so as I just tried to focus on getting back to Cook's Corner as fast as I could.
I ended up meeting GDR from GeoLadders on the tough road climb out of O'neill. It was also cool to see a guy that passed me get off his bike and walk it up the climb whereas I rode up the entire thing. I think his bike didn't gear down as far as mine, but who cares. He walked and I rode. Ha.
The final climb up the newly graded part in "Live Oak" was very tough. I hope climbs like that are good preparation for Counting Coup. I was giving it a lot and it was very tough mentally as well as physically. I didn't have to walk the bike though, which was awesome.
The last few miles back to Cook's sucked as both brakes gave out entirely. The problem ended up being loose brake cables and after a little tightening they were ok. I almost had a pretty bad crash coming down on that steep part near the nursery though.
The party afterwards at Cook's was great. I got a free massage, cheap food and drinks and had a good time just hanging out with my GeoLadder friends.
Picture of me climbing Harding (I never realized it, but I look kind of too big for my bike):
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