Noteworthy
All of my rides over the past few months have been good, but not really noteworthy. Rides tend to merge into one giant memory because nothing really special or exciting happens. This Saturday was definitely an exception for me.
The first thing that was different was the time I woke up at. 4:50AM. Ugh. I've slowly adapted to waking up early, but this was just too much. I kept waking up all night and looking at the clock to see what time it was.
Doug House was nice enough to let all of us carpool over to Blue Jay in his van. I remember thinking on the drive over in the dark, "What am I doing? I don't want to ride right now. I want to sleep. This sucks."
When we finally got to Blue Jay we all got out of the van and realized that it was _freezing_ outside. I ended up wearing four layers on top and was still very cold.
We rode up from Blue Jay to Trabuco and dropped Trabuco instead of continuing on Main Divide. It felt great to ride Trabuco fresh. It only took about 20-25 minutes to get to Trabuco so we were all really strong going down it. The trail was in fantastic shape.
From the bottom of Trabuco we headed up Holy Jim and I actually cleared every switchback except for one left turn. I even cleared the one left switchback at the top for the first time. I think the rain and tackiness of the trail made clearing the switchbacks possible for me. I usually miss 4-5 on the way up.
Once we got to the top of Holy Jim we took the fire road up to the peak. I've never climbed this before so I was a little nervous. Everyone I've talked to has said it's a grind and not the most fun climb.
You can divide the climb from the top of Holy Jim to the peak into two sections. The first is the climb to Upper Holy Jim and the second is the section from UHJ to the peak.
The first half wasn't easy, but wasn't too bad. The road was icy and muddy and this made climbing harder, but it wasn't horrible. I decided to spin on the way up and it helped a lot. I wanted to try and keep an endurance pace and it paid off because I was able to push harder later in the ride.
We ran into Ozzie and Frank near UHJ and talked for a bit before going on to the peak. The second half was really tough. The road was covered in snow and the only way to ride on it was to ride in tracks left by a jeep. It was really hard to get traction in the icy jeep tracks, but it was rideable for the most part. I'm proud to say I only walked maybe 20-30 yards of the entire climb. I wanted to ride it all but some parts were just too much for me. There must have been 6 inches of snow on the road.
Once at the peak we all stopped to eat a bit and enjoy the view before heading back down. My stupid rear brake sounded like a dying seal and I think I've worn my pads down which would explain the noise. It was quite the adventure descending from the peak in the snow. When I finally reached UHJ I looked down and realized that I was filthy from the mud. I think it was the dirtiest I've ever been on a ride.
I hadn't been down UHJ in a while so I was a little nervous, but it turned out ok. I walked quite a few switchbacks but rode most everything else.
From the bottom of UHJ back to Trabuco was a blast. I really love this section of Main Divide. It just feels good to hammer away and push. "The Wall" is the only part where I have to spin down and can't attack. Other than "The Wall", the grade is very manageable the entire way and it seems to suite me really well.
It was a tough ride because of the elevation versus mileage, but it went well. I think if I slow the pace down a bit I can extend it out for another few hours which is what I'll have to do for Vision Quest.
The nice thing about the ride Saturday is that the climbing is a lot harder than the fire roads we'll have on VQ day. Holy Jim and the snow on Main Divide made climbing a lot tougher than an ascent on Blackstar and Maple Springs would be.
However it was only half the elevation of VQ and I started to cramp a bit towards the end. Over the next month I need to ride a lot more on Saturdays to get ready. Hopefully I can spend almost the entire day outside riding to get a feel for VQ.
The first thing that was different was the time I woke up at. 4:50AM. Ugh. I've slowly adapted to waking up early, but this was just too much. I kept waking up all night and looking at the clock to see what time it was.
Doug House was nice enough to let all of us carpool over to Blue Jay in his van. I remember thinking on the drive over in the dark, "What am I doing? I don't want to ride right now. I want to sleep. This sucks."
When we finally got to Blue Jay we all got out of the van and realized that it was _freezing_ outside. I ended up wearing four layers on top and was still very cold.
We rode up from Blue Jay to Trabuco and dropped Trabuco instead of continuing on Main Divide. It felt great to ride Trabuco fresh. It only took about 20-25 minutes to get to Trabuco so we were all really strong going down it. The trail was in fantastic shape.
From the bottom of Trabuco we headed up Holy Jim and I actually cleared every switchback except for one left turn. I even cleared the one left switchback at the top for the first time. I think the rain and tackiness of the trail made clearing the switchbacks possible for me. I usually miss 4-5 on the way up.
Once we got to the top of Holy Jim we took the fire road up to the peak. I've never climbed this before so I was a little nervous. Everyone I've talked to has said it's a grind and not the most fun climb.
You can divide the climb from the top of Holy Jim to the peak into two sections. The first is the climb to Upper Holy Jim and the second is the section from UHJ to the peak.
The first half wasn't easy, but wasn't too bad. The road was icy and muddy and this made climbing harder, but it wasn't horrible. I decided to spin on the way up and it helped a lot. I wanted to try and keep an endurance pace and it paid off because I was able to push harder later in the ride.
We ran into Ozzie and Frank near UHJ and talked for a bit before going on to the peak. The second half was really tough. The road was covered in snow and the only way to ride on it was to ride in tracks left by a jeep. It was really hard to get traction in the icy jeep tracks, but it was rideable for the most part. I'm proud to say I only walked maybe 20-30 yards of the entire climb. I wanted to ride it all but some parts were just too much for me. There must have been 6 inches of snow on the road.
Once at the peak we all stopped to eat a bit and enjoy the view before heading back down. My stupid rear brake sounded like a dying seal and I think I've worn my pads down which would explain the noise. It was quite the adventure descending from the peak in the snow. When I finally reached UHJ I looked down and realized that I was filthy from the mud. I think it was the dirtiest I've ever been on a ride.
I hadn't been down UHJ in a while so I was a little nervous, but it turned out ok. I walked quite a few switchbacks but rode most everything else.
From the bottom of UHJ back to Trabuco was a blast. I really love this section of Main Divide. It just feels good to hammer away and push. "The Wall" is the only part where I have to spin down and can't attack. Other than "The Wall", the grade is very manageable the entire way and it seems to suite me really well.
It was a tough ride because of the elevation versus mileage, but it went well. I think if I slow the pace down a bit I can extend it out for another few hours which is what I'll have to do for Vision Quest.
The nice thing about the ride Saturday is that the climbing is a lot harder than the fire roads we'll have on VQ day. Holy Jim and the snow on Main Divide made climbing a lot tougher than an ascent on Blackstar and Maple Springs would be.
However it was only half the elevation of VQ and I started to cramp a bit towards the end. Over the next month I need to ride a lot more on Saturdays to get ready. Hopefully I can spend almost the entire day outside riding to get a feel for VQ.
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