Looking for my happy gear

We made it to Granby after a little stop-over in Arvada. We spent a couple days with Bob, an old buddy of Alan's, and his family. Got in a little ride around the neighborhood Friday, which wasn't so bad. Saturday we hit a 6 mile out-n-back trail (Lair o' the Bear).

Although you'd think it's pretty obvious, it took doing this ride for my brain to wrap around what Colorado trails would be like. Before we started our ride I asked Bob about how long he thought the ride would take... 6 miles, out-n-back would be 12 miles, so an hour or so?

Well, about an hour later we made it to the turn around point. The way out was more climbing than descending, so the trip back had more fun down hill runs and didn't take quite as long.

We had some good times getting caught up and watching the kids. They have a houseful with a teenage son, a preteen son and triplet daughters (you never know what life is going to throw your way). Anyway, they have a awesome backyard set up with a sidewalk that circles a fort/swingset which makes a great roundy-round. The kids chase each other in circles on bikes, Kettcars and skatebaords. There's also a half-pipe in the yard... cool, huh?


Sunday it was back on the road and on to Granby, we took the scenic route through a canyon




Coming into Granby

view from the hotel


Today we did our first ride of the course for the National race. Mountain bike National Championship races are held at ski resorts. Which means lots and lots of climbing. This course starts with 145' of climbing in .22 miles (12.48% grade), the next 4.5 miles continue up for another 880' before you hit the top of the highest climb, total ascension per lap is about 1460'. Alan and I only have to do two laps, Kyle gets to do three... being old does have some perks.

The whole time Alan has been telling me not to worry about the climbing on the course, just find my "happy gear" and keep the pedals moving. After finishing the ride I told Alan that there was something wrong with my bike - I couldn't find a "happy gear". Although I was whining and crying during the ride, most of the climbing really wasn't too bad. More long grinding beat-you-down climbs than the short power climbs that we have in Texas. I'm hoping it was more lack of oxygen than lack of leg power that was slowing me down (please, please let it be better by Saturday).

There were some very pretty views along the course and I'm planning on taking a camera with me the next time out.

That's all for now, more words and pictures to come.

Just a quickie

I haven't posted anything in a while. I could say it's because I really haven't been doing anything worth posting about since race season is over and that would be partly true. Work, riding, life and sleep seem to take up most of my time. It's all the same old, same old of everyday routine and who really wants to write, let alone read, about that.

Although race season is over, training has actually picked up. One of my riding buddies made a comment along the lines of I've never seen you really train before. Well, I've never attempted racing at the Mountain Bike National Championship before, at least not until this year.

Not that I'm expecting great results (others in my family have that burden on their shoulders), but I would like to not embarrass myself. So I have been listening to my "advisor" and training, including doing the painful things like intervals. While I think I am riding stronger I have never done long extended climbs or ridden at altitude (7900' +/-).

Well, I will soon find out what it's like and will have something new and exciting to write about. I think I'll also get to experience pain pellets at a whole new level.

Wish me luck!

It's not the heat...

It's the humidity.

This is from the weather history for Little Rock yesterday

Temperature:
Mean Temperature.....85 °F
Max Temperature......95 °F
Min Temperature......74 °F

Moisture:
Dew Point............72 °F
Average Humidity.....65
Maximum Humidity.....94
Minimum Humidity.....36

Then I went to this other cool website to calculate the Heat Index, which has this to say about Heat Index:

What Is Heat Index?
Heat index (HI) is sometimes referred to as the "apparent Temperature". The HI, given in degrees F, is a measure of how hot it feels when relative humidity (RH) is added to the actual air temperature.

The following equation approximates the heat index. There are many assumptions made to produce this, far too many to list here. The equation was obtained by multiple regression analysis and there is a ±1.3 degree °F error.

HI = -42.379 + 2.04901523T + 10.14333127R - 0.22475541TR - 6.83783x10 -3 T 2 - 5.481717x10 -2 R 2 + 1.22874x10 -3 T 2R + 8.5282x10 -4 TR 2 - 1.99x10 -6 T 2 R 2

where

T = ambient dry bulb temperature degrees Fahrenheit
R = relative humidity

Yeah... whatever. More importantly there was a calculator that you could plug in the numbers, click on the "Calculate HI" and it magically gave you the Heat Index. The answer was an invigorating 103 degrees.

Take that 103 degrees and place yourself in some hilly woods. Let's add a little more by imagining there's a breeze, but you can't feel it. You're almost there: you are hot, it's humid, there's no breeze. Are you drenched in sweat yet? No? How about one more little thing to make the experience complete, 1.5 - 2 hours of physical exertion! Sounds like fun, huh?

There were about 10 of us that ended up making the trip from Texas for the 3 Legged Dawg race in Little Rock. While just surviving the heat/humidity seemed to be a major accomplishment, most of the group made it to the podium.

It was a fun trail and except for the added misery brought on by the high Heat Index issue it was a fun race. I'm glad we made the last minute decision to go, just wish we had a portable a/c unit to mount on the bike.

Planning? Who needs planning?

8:51pm Friday - decision is made to drive to Arkansas for a mountain bike race.

Spur of the moment non-planning rocks. Gotta go pack.

Hmmm, I may know someone like this

Time to catch up

Let's see... what kind of exciting things have I been doing lately?

The AJ and I road tripped to Alabama for the Bump & Grind race, which this year was part of the UCI US Cup Mountain Bike Race Series. It's amazing that in the 9 hours it takes us to drive west to Terlingua, TX we can drive east on I-20 and leave Texas, drive through Louisiana, Mississippi and half-way through Alabama... but I digress. We are joined by Claire from Austin for the drive and weekend of racing.

This is my third trip to Oak Mountain

and my second attempt at the race, which is a twice around a measly 17 mile loop that includes 600' of climbing in about 3 miles. The first year I passed on the racing as the distance and Open Women's class didn't sound too appealing. Last year I lined up, but shamefully didn't finish the race. This year was my chance to redeem myself. Although it was still an Open class (all Cat 1 women 19+ race together), I wanted to finish what I started and get up that climb both laps.

The day before the race we did some driving around Birmingham and found a neat little neighborhood on the side of a hill. How would you like this for your driveway?
You can see the roof of the house hiding in the trees next to the trash can.

We also found a nice collection of cars in the parking lot of the mall








My race was more of a ride (Claire kicked butt, winning the Open Women race), but I did finish and did not have the slowest two lap time (hey - gotta go for the little victories). While I did have some mechanical issues with my chain (thanks to a combination of sand and water) I did ride up most of the Red Road climb. I think I could have made it to the top if the chain had not given me problems. "Proof" I was there, as was The AJ.

After our race we stayed to watch the Pro race, which was made all the more exciting as we knew 4 of the Pro men racing. To add an extra dose of excitement, two of our friends were racing single-speed bikes.

Mitch finished in the top 3rd of the Pro Men, and Will was right there with him until he flatted towards the end of the race.

As a parting note, it's important to color coordinate your polish and helmet straps

Too bad I don't have the SUV that completes the ensemble

Blogger blues

There are words to be written and pictures to be posted, but time seems to be spent other ways.

So... until I find some time here's something to ponder:



How much are you willing to spend on a McChicken?