May 4th (Afternoon)
A bit cold actually today! It was like 12°, but it felt much cooler actually. It was a pretty good ride in all. I missed the second switchback of the two that I always miss, but made the first one. The second one I started losing control and just about bailed into a small 4’ ravine, but managed to at least stop in time! 4 stops and 1/4 walking up the other side of Peterson’s creek.
I came around a corner and was about 10 feet from a mangy deer. For a couple of seconds we both just stared at each other, but as I was still moving rather fast, he didn’t take much time to bolt out of there. Still, for those couple of seconds before my brain clued into what he actually was, my heart jumped for sure! I now understand why Rob’s riding buddy had the crash he did when he came up on a bear! Hah!
The section through Frolek’s land is still pretty bad, but today I was able to spot the nasty sand traps ahead of time and picked some better lines than yesterday, allowing me to make it through the whole way without bailing. The cliff at the end to get onto my trail is getting really tough to scale up with the bike over my shoulder! The loose sand falling under my feet makes for a tough little climb! But, I don’t see this getting any better ever, so tough luck! I got some good speed on the Rose Hill pipeline stretch, made the 2nd to last peak again and probably more than 1/2 way up the last peak!
From Rose Hill to Juniper, I stuck to the main path rather than following the pipeline like I had yesterday. Over all, my time was pretty much the same (0.5 minutes faster) and the distance was a mere 0.04 kilometres shorter on the main path. Not to mention the two hills that suck the life out of me on that path! So, I’m pretty sure I’ll be taking the pipeline trails next time for the fun, variety and the hills, albeit more of them on this route, just don’t seem as bad!
May 5th (Morning)
Cold! In fact, it’s snowing out my office window right now... :( But, the ride to work was dry (it had rained last night, but not while I was riding). Coming out of Juniper was a bit muddy, but still a blast. I can’t get over how much fun this trail is. The only problem I have with it is now that I’m becoming more familiar with it, it is over much too quickly! I do wish I could ride trails like these the whole way!
Had a headwind all the way to work this morning. Not nasty, but enough to extremely limit my speed! I never even considered the big ring today, and my time was a whopping 51 minutes in all!!! Ouch... I did hit the granny gear on the first half of Hillside and noticed my speeds were still around 7 or 8 km/h, as they are when I’m in the middle ring. The difference obviously being a faster cadence. So which is better? I still felt just as tired when I got to Aberdeen mall, so energy wise I think the same amount is expended. I would assume a faster cadence is better for cardio in the end as well? Hmmm...
Well, it was supposed to be a sunny day, so hopefully that still comes around soon! Yesterday morning was beautifully sunny, and then suddenly turned cloudy and sour... Let’s hope for the reverse today!
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