Verbosity vs. Brevity
Verbose: containing more words than necessary : WORDY (a verbose reply); also : impaired by wordiness (a verbose style)
Brevity: shortness of duration; especially : shortness or conciseness of expression
When verbosity and brevity fight in my head, verbosity always wins.
This past Saturday (2/17/07) was another training ride for Counting Coup. There is only one more Saturday left before "the race" and I can't wait. All the hard training rides are over now. All the riding until the race is going to be pretty easy in order to save my legs.
A quick summary of Saturday (remember ... verbose):
I woke up at 5:30am in order to get ready. I can't believe I'm typing this, but I'm actually starting to get used to getting up that early. My body doesn't freak out as much anymore. It's also nice to be _finishing_ an epic ride while other people are just starting. It's a great feeling to be flying down a fire road that other people are climbing knowing that you're on your way to sleep and food while they are on their way to climbing.
Anyways, I parked at Blackstar and met up with Matt, John, Mark, Scott and Andrew. We also had two other guys Mark knew tagging along, but we dropped them pretty fast.
The climb up to Beek's was really slow for me. I'm not sure why I was going so slow, but it was maybe 10 minutes off of my personal best. Part of the problem was my heart rate monitor. I'm not sure if it was due to the wind or the other Garmin's around, but I couldn't get an accurate heart rate reading for the first hour or two on the ride. It would go from 190 to 160 to 175 etc. It was really tough to know where I was at so I just went with how I felt.
That reminds me of probably the only noteworthy thing on the climb to Beek's ... the wind. It was really windy. Hahaha. I remember hearing someone in front of me say "Ohhhh urggggh" and then a millisecond later I got sand blasted in the face. The wind made climbing a bit tougher, but nothing too bad.
We also saw Junior coming down Blackstar. It's funny because he is the only guy that would be coming down so early. I can't believe how much that guy rides.
Beek's to the top of the Motorway was pretty good. Maybe even the best I've felt on that section ever. I just feel really confident on that section now. It used to be a never ending struggle, but I've been doing it a lot lately and have gotten to know the different hills etc.
When we got to the Motorway we saw a helicopter and some trucks. Not sure what was going on, but some rangers were hiking down the Motorway to do ... something.
One more note about the top of the Motorway ... maybe 10 minutes after getting there these three riders come up from the Blackstar side. It's two girls and one guy. I recognized one of the girls from the 50 mile Rwanda ride. She had attached herself onto our group to help her get through the second half of the ride. She was faster than me and in much better shape.
It sucks to see a 40 something woman ride up and then to realize that she was going MUCH faster than you were to that point. I mean I didn't see that group anywhere when we parked. I never saw them behind me on the trail. That all adds up to a very fast ride for them. Which means I suck. =(
The good news though is that she was _horrible_ on the downhill. I mean really bad. Their group left 5-10 minutes before ours down the Motorway and we caught them fast. She was oblivious to us behind her though because she was listening to her ipod. I've had this happen several times and it's very frustrating. People listening to their ipods and unaware of what's going on around them on the bike.
Anyways she came to a dead stop on a loose part of the trail when she finally realized she had three guys right behind her. We rode around her and flew down the rest of the descent. Didn't see her or her group for the rest of the day.
At the bottom of the Motorway I got a pinch flat, which was the best place to get it really. I walked the bike to our staging area with the cars and fixed it before going up Maple Springs.
Scott decided to bail at Maple Springs, but that's cool. He isn't training for anything, so Blackstar-Motorway was enough.
Mark and John left right away to climb Maple Springs since Mark had to be back home at a certain time.
Matt, Andrew and I left a bit later because I had to fix the flat and re-fuel. We caught Mark and John on the paved part of Maple Springs because one of Mark's cranks had fallen off! He said his foot was still attached to it when it came out.
Andrew dropped everyone after the pavement and I didn't see him again until Four Corners. For some reason though Matt didn't pull away as usual. I actually caught up to him and road with him the rest of the way to Four Corners. I was feeling great and he wasn't. I think I could have beaten him up to the top, but I'll keep that to myself. Haha.
At Four Corners we waited for everyone to show up at which point I said goodbye to Mark (he went back down Maple Springs to go home) and goodbye to Matt, Andrew and John (they went on to finish the Counting Coup course). They tried to talk me into doing Counting Coup again, but I had made up my mind before the ride that I would just go to Four Corners. I didn't want to push myself too hard and wanted to watch the condition of my legs. It was _very_ tempting though.
On the way down Maple Springs I must have seen 20 riders. Interestingly enough many of them didn't have helmets on. Are they all stupid?! What's the deal? I mean it was hot outside, but still. DON'T RIDE WITHOUT A HELMET!
While I was riding back to my car at Blackstar I saw Corby driving his car towards Maple Springs. Hahaha. He ended up doing two pretty big rides that day as well.
The last note for the ride is that I got stuck behind a car on the road back to my car. Can you believe that? I'm on a mountain bike and I'm mad at the car in front of me because it's going too slow. I was going maybe 25-27mph and the car was going probably 20mph. I mean come on granny ... speed up.
Overall it was a good ride and I set personal bests for both routes (Blackstar-Motorway and Maple Springs). I averaged almost 8mph for the ~40 miles I road. I hope I can sustain that - or even do a little better - come race day.
Brevity: shortness of duration; especially : shortness or conciseness of expression
When verbosity and brevity fight in my head, verbosity always wins.
This past Saturday (2/17/07) was another training ride for Counting Coup. There is only one more Saturday left before "the race" and I can't wait. All the hard training rides are over now. All the riding until the race is going to be pretty easy in order to save my legs.
A quick summary of Saturday (remember ... verbose):
I woke up at 5:30am in order to get ready. I can't believe I'm typing this, but I'm actually starting to get used to getting up that early. My body doesn't freak out as much anymore. It's also nice to be _finishing_ an epic ride while other people are just starting. It's a great feeling to be flying down a fire road that other people are climbing knowing that you're on your way to sleep and food while they are on their way to climbing.
Anyways, I parked at Blackstar and met up with Matt, John, Mark, Scott and Andrew. We also had two other guys Mark knew tagging along, but we dropped them pretty fast.
The climb up to Beek's was really slow for me. I'm not sure why I was going so slow, but it was maybe 10 minutes off of my personal best. Part of the problem was my heart rate monitor. I'm not sure if it was due to the wind or the other Garmin's around, but I couldn't get an accurate heart rate reading for the first hour or two on the ride. It would go from 190 to 160 to 175 etc. It was really tough to know where I was at so I just went with how I felt.
That reminds me of probably the only noteworthy thing on the climb to Beek's ... the wind. It was really windy. Hahaha. I remember hearing someone in front of me say "Ohhhh urggggh" and then a millisecond later I got sand blasted in the face. The wind made climbing a bit tougher, but nothing too bad.
We also saw Junior coming down Blackstar. It's funny because he is the only guy that would be coming down so early. I can't believe how much that guy rides.
Beek's to the top of the Motorway was pretty good. Maybe even the best I've felt on that section ever. I just feel really confident on that section now. It used to be a never ending struggle, but I've been doing it a lot lately and have gotten to know the different hills etc.
When we got to the Motorway we saw a helicopter and some trucks. Not sure what was going on, but some rangers were hiking down the Motorway to do ... something.
One more note about the top of the Motorway ... maybe 10 minutes after getting there these three riders come up from the Blackstar side. It's two girls and one guy. I recognized one of the girls from the 50 mile Rwanda ride. She had attached herself onto our group to help her get through the second half of the ride. She was faster than me and in much better shape.
It sucks to see a 40 something woman ride up and then to realize that she was going MUCH faster than you were to that point. I mean I didn't see that group anywhere when we parked. I never saw them behind me on the trail. That all adds up to a very fast ride for them. Which means I suck. =(
The good news though is that she was _horrible_ on the downhill. I mean really bad. Their group left 5-10 minutes before ours down the Motorway and we caught them fast. She was oblivious to us behind her though because she was listening to her ipod. I've had this happen several times and it's very frustrating. People listening to their ipods and unaware of what's going on around them on the bike.
Anyways she came to a dead stop on a loose part of the trail when she finally realized she had three guys right behind her. We rode around her and flew down the rest of the descent. Didn't see her or her group for the rest of the day.
At the bottom of the Motorway I got a pinch flat, which was the best place to get it really. I walked the bike to our staging area with the cars and fixed it before going up Maple Springs.
Scott decided to bail at Maple Springs, but that's cool. He isn't training for anything, so Blackstar-Motorway was enough.
Mark and John left right away to climb Maple Springs since Mark had to be back home at a certain time.
Matt, Andrew and I left a bit later because I had to fix the flat and re-fuel. We caught Mark and John on the paved part of Maple Springs because one of Mark's cranks had fallen off! He said his foot was still attached to it when it came out.
Andrew dropped everyone after the pavement and I didn't see him again until Four Corners. For some reason though Matt didn't pull away as usual. I actually caught up to him and road with him the rest of the way to Four Corners. I was feeling great and he wasn't. I think I could have beaten him up to the top, but I'll keep that to myself. Haha.
At Four Corners we waited for everyone to show up at which point I said goodbye to Mark (he went back down Maple Springs to go home) and goodbye to Matt, Andrew and John (they went on to finish the Counting Coup course). They tried to talk me into doing Counting Coup again, but I had made up my mind before the ride that I would just go to Four Corners. I didn't want to push myself too hard and wanted to watch the condition of my legs. It was _very_ tempting though.
On the way down Maple Springs I must have seen 20 riders. Interestingly enough many of them didn't have helmets on. Are they all stupid?! What's the deal? I mean it was hot outside, but still. DON'T RIDE WITHOUT A HELMET!
While I was riding back to my car at Blackstar I saw Corby driving his car towards Maple Springs. Hahaha. He ended up doing two pretty big rides that day as well.
The last note for the ride is that I got stuck behind a car on the road back to my car. Can you believe that? I'm on a mountain bike and I'm mad at the car in front of me because it's going too slow. I was going maybe 25-27mph and the car was going probably 20mph. I mean come on granny ... speed up.
Overall it was a good ride and I set personal bests for both routes (Blackstar-Motorway and Maple Springs). I averaged almost 8mph for the ~40 miles I road. I hope I can sustain that - or even do a little better - come race day.
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