Single and Alone

No this isn't a post about my dating life. Yesterday I decided to try and add another trail to my "conquered on the singlespeed" list. I didn't have anyone else to ride with me, so I went off by myself to do the Coto Valley Loop.

I had done the loop twice before on the geared bike and had logged a pathetic time of 1:48 as my best. To put that in perspective, I think Troy's best time is 1:16. That's over _30 minutes_ faster than my best.

I remembered a few hills from the last ride and I had ranked them mentally as far as difficulty. There was one in particular that I was worried about - namely the one right before entering the Chiquita Preserve. It's fairly steep and not short enough to just go all out on.

The ride through Coto and down into Riley was not that exciting. It was frustrating not being able to hammer on flat sections or downhills. I had to just sit and wait for some resistance so I could pedal.

I also discovered that when I'm standing I can stand straight up so that more power is put into the pedal strokes. The idea is that more of my weight is directly above the cranks and so that makes it easier to get them around. The disadvantage is that I lose traction in my rear wheel.

My habit as of late when standing is to lean way over the handlebars so that my helmet is almost touching the front wheel. Well ok, maybe not that far, but you get the idea. I'm going to have to experiment with how I stand to get the most power and the most traction out of it.

Anyways I got to Riley to see this sign:

"Mountain Lion Sighting - Most Recent Sighting: 9/12/2007"

That was not encouraging. I was alone at dusk in a park that was empty and someone had spotted a mountain lion there the day prior. Great.

Needless to say I got through the Riley area pretty fast. Well ... as fast as my singlespeed would let me. I also got lost trying to find the entrance to Riley which cost me several minutes and an extra mile of riding.

Riding up to the hill that I was worried about was tough. For some reason my legs were not there as I approached the climb and I felt weak before I had a chance to even start. I tried to ignore it and figured I would just give it my best shot.

I made the whole thing without having to walk, but it was very, very tough. I remember wondering what the point of failure would be on the climb. Would my legs freeze or cramp? Would I have a heart attack? Asthma attack? Something had to give because I was ignoring the warning signs my body was sending (high heart rate, heavy breathing, legs full of lactic acid) and I knew something would fail.

Nothing failed, but I paid a steep price. It took me a good 10 minutes or so before I recovered from the strain and the stress.

There were quite a few hills after getting into the Chiquita area and I made them all - but again at a price. My lower back started to hurt and I started to get discouraged because every corner I came around showed more climbing. This loop just has that quality to it. I kept thinking that around each climb I'd get to Tijeras Creek, but after each corner I just saw more and more climbing.

I finally got to Tijeras Creek, passed four guys like they were standing still (I was not going fast at all, they were just _really_ taking their time) and made it to the last climb after the crossing at the Coto entrance.

The final climb was the last potential problem I had listed mentally and it ended up being really hard on me. I don't think I've ever done this after a climb before, but I actually grunted and groaned out loud because of the pain in my legs. It was the kind of noise I usually make after going over the bars into bushes or something like that.

I'm happy I finished the entire ride in a decent time (1:21) and I'm happy to have cleared everything on the SS, but man it was a lot of work. Somehow the sense of accomplishment makes up for the pain and suffering.