Fun Friday

Wow, what a great day!!!!  I went out again this morning to see how the legs felt and headed toward Heil Ranch which is just up Lefthand Canyon. The last time I rode there was when I first moved to Boulder in August of 2005. I rode it once, thought it was nothing but a lame, rocky horse trail and never bat an eye about it. Then, there was all the hype about the Picture Rock trail, so I had to check it out. Much to my delight, I discovered that not only Picture Rock was new, but also the Wild Turkey trail since I had last placed rubber on the dirt there.

I am very excited about all the new trails. If you include Hall Ranch(which is fun and technical for the climb, and swoopy, fast lollipop loop at the top) and the commute to/from town to the trailhead, you’re looking at a 6 hour mountain bike ride. Ride a couple of the loops more than once and you get longer. Yes please!

The weather called for snow around noon.  It was about 25F out when I left this morning.  I hadn’t busted out the winter jacket or booties in quite awhile (I am lucky), so I didn’t mind so much.  The weather ended up getting warmer and the wind picked up later.  I was sweating like a beast with all the warm clothes, but I have been stuck in snow storms, ill-prepared and was not willing to take that risk today.

Uhhh, could you like, not snow, and stuff? Ok! so I wanted to find a sound clip from Beavis and Butthead do America of Butthead saying, “Uhh… could you like not stand there and stuff?” I couldn’t find it, but I did find a whole assload of B&B Soundboards. Check it out here. I am afraid to admit how much fun I had with this…. uhhh… thso?!

Oh my goodness.

I think this might be the Picture Rock? Maybe?  They weren’t kidding with the name.  Part of Picture Rock is respectably rocky.  The kind where I can’t just rage the downhill without consequences.  There was some finesse through some of the rocky sections needed fo’ sho’

I wish I got some pics of the rockier sections, but I didn’t want to stop. It’s tricky b/c if you have too much momentum, you won’t have enough control to finesse through tight one-line rocky sections. If you don’t have enough speed, you will not make it through. The Rotwild handled AWESOME. I am loving that bike more every time I ride it.

A lookout point off Ponderosa Trail.  See the snow on the mountains?

I ended up seeing like 12 other mountain bikers out riding, but I saw even more deer.

I am learning to use Imovie. It’ll get better. 🙂 The filming though, will not, until I get a sweet helmet cam… and then you’ll get to see something different than the buffed part of the trail!!  I took this on Ponderosa near the end of my ride.

And back to the parking lot. What a view.

The ride from my house in Boulder and back was about 4 hours.  My legs felt great, my heart rate was what it was supposed to be.  I rode about 1 hour at my 70 mile endurance pace (HR of 170-175), about 1 hour at what I’d do a 100 mile race at (160s), a smidge of time at sub-threshold (low 180s), and the rest of the time in zone 1 and 2.  It felt effortless and it was easy to stay on top of the gears and keep up a good speed.   Rick da man is trying to get my central nervous system (after all the shocks it has had in the last few weeks) to stabilize so I have been riding consistently every day.  We shall see how tomorrow goes.  I am not going to stress about it, just enjoy riding my bike.

I came home to some very exciting packages.  Time to swap out some road bike parts!

Also, check out this blog post on Dave Wiens and trail advocacy.