98.1
98.1 is not a new radio station, it's the mileage from my Memorial Day Weekend. Ok, ok the number is padded just a little bit. I took Friday off of work to go riding, so it's 98.1 miles in four days, not three.
Still, that's a lot of riding for me in the span of four days.
Friday I drove up to the Santa Ana River Trail (SART) to do some exploring with Matt, Mark, Troy, Mark and Andrew. I had been on this trail about a year ago and I know my buddies are sick of hearing it - but it was the scariest trail I had ever done. I really wanted to go back and conquer the fear I had.
I was able to get my fear about 90% under control. I rode very slowly on the turns with exposure (in other words cliffs) and took my time on any section I found to be particularly scary. The thing that makes SART so tough in some sections is how narrow the singletrack is. You have to stay right on it or over the edge you go.
There was one section that I walked both in the up and down directon. The reason being was that if I tipped over the edge I'd have fallen maybe 50 feet into rocks. Lots and lots of big jagged rocks. I'm sure I would have been fine, but it wasn't worth the risk.
So with my fear 90% conquered I can cross SART off of my biggest fears list. Which leaves the list as follows:
RYAN'S BIGGEST FEARS
1. Being alone forever
2. Spiders
3. Snakes
4. Clowns
5. Clowns dressing like spiders
6. Emo music going out of style
(Ok so I wrote down 0 of my biggest fears, but whatever)
Pic of the group minus Mark on SART:
Ride number two was a quick out and back in the Coto/Casper's area. I went with Matt and Corby and had a pretty good time. I decided to keep with my theme of pushing on the bike and I was happy with the results. I really enjoy pushing myself and the lack of cramping lately has made it easier and easier to do.
Highlight of ride two was catching two guys on the ride back to the car. I saw them finishing a climb right as Matt and I were starting the climb and I turned to Matt and said "Thinking what I'm thinking?" ... he said "Let's go get 'em" ... and we were off. Hahaha. Feels so good to catch people.
Ride three was the hardest, for obvious reasons. I had enough time to recover though, so I didn't suffer as much as I thought I would. The ride was on Monday morning and went from Blackstar to Santiago Peak. It was around 44 miles with almost 7,000 feet of elevation gain. The mileage is about right for The Traverse, but the climbing is 1,000 feet off.
I felt pretty good for the entire ride and that made me really happy considering I was pushing pretty hard in some spots. I set new personal bests to Beek's and to the top of the Motorway. Of course that made me pretty happy.
The average speed was 9.something miles an hour, which is excellent for me on a 44 mile ride. The paved section back to the car probably skews the metric considerably, but I'll take it. I've been feeling stronger and stronger on the bike and I'm hoping I've finally figured out how to push hard, not cramp and then recover for the next ride.
Let's hope race day goes as well as Memorial Day did.
Still, that's a lot of riding for me in the span of four days.
Friday I drove up to the Santa Ana River Trail (SART) to do some exploring with Matt, Mark, Troy, Mark and Andrew. I had been on this trail about a year ago and I know my buddies are sick of hearing it - but it was the scariest trail I had ever done. I really wanted to go back and conquer the fear I had.
I was able to get my fear about 90% under control. I rode very slowly on the turns with exposure (in other words cliffs) and took my time on any section I found to be particularly scary. The thing that makes SART so tough in some sections is how narrow the singletrack is. You have to stay right on it or over the edge you go.
There was one section that I walked both in the up and down directon. The reason being was that if I tipped over the edge I'd have fallen maybe 50 feet into rocks. Lots and lots of big jagged rocks. I'm sure I would have been fine, but it wasn't worth the risk.
So with my fear 90% conquered I can cross SART off of my biggest fears list. Which leaves the list as follows:
RYAN'S BIGGEST FEARS
1. Being alone forever
2. Spiders
3. Snakes
4. Clowns
5. Clowns dressing like spiders
6. Emo music going out of style
(Ok so I wrote down 0 of my biggest fears, but whatever)
Pic of the group minus Mark on SART:
Ride number two was a quick out and back in the Coto/Casper's area. I went with Matt and Corby and had a pretty good time. I decided to keep with my theme of pushing on the bike and I was happy with the results. I really enjoy pushing myself and the lack of cramping lately has made it easier and easier to do.
Highlight of ride two was catching two guys on the ride back to the car. I saw them finishing a climb right as Matt and I were starting the climb and I turned to Matt and said "Thinking what I'm thinking?" ... he said "Let's go get 'em" ... and we were off. Hahaha. Feels so good to catch people.
Ride three was the hardest, for obvious reasons. I had enough time to recover though, so I didn't suffer as much as I thought I would. The ride was on Monday morning and went from Blackstar to Santiago Peak. It was around 44 miles with almost 7,000 feet of elevation gain. The mileage is about right for The Traverse, but the climbing is 1,000 feet off.
I felt pretty good for the entire ride and that made me really happy considering I was pushing pretty hard in some spots. I set new personal bests to Beek's and to the top of the Motorway. Of course that made me pretty happy.
The average speed was 9.something miles an hour, which is excellent for me on a 44 mile ride. The paved section back to the car probably skews the metric considerably, but I'll take it. I've been feeling stronger and stronger on the bike and I'm hoping I've finally figured out how to push hard, not cramp and then recover for the next ride.
Let's hope race day goes as well as Memorial Day did.
posted by prevents email spam at
4:42 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home