Total Ride Time: 11:48:57
Total Mileage: 106.6
Total Elevation Gain: 9,581 feet
Total Calories Burned: 11,794
It's very early and I'm incredibly tired so this may not read as well as other posts. You've been warned.
I only rode four times this week but tried to make each of them count. Work is really getting pretty busy and is going to stay that way for the next few weeks, so I'm going to have to make the best of it when I do ride. Each of this week's rides were on the mountain bike, including a lengthy 47 mile ride I did on Saturday that used local rail-trail to access a couple singletrack spots. It was a good long day in the rain, but doing it felt great.
Yesterday, I made the trip to Orcas Island to finally meet a potential TransRockies partner coming down from Vancouver, BC. We tried to meet up a couple times in the past weeks but he had to postpone. This time around, I wanted to be the one to cancel but I didn't want to bail on him last minute. I probably should have just stayed home. I got some good riding in at Moran State Park, and Jamie was a very nice guy and good to ride and chat with, but our paces were just very different. He's coming back from injury and is probably a good several months of hard training away from reaching where I am at now. I was hoping that by doing a 47-mile ride the day before and only getting 2 hours of sleep (worked all night) that I would be slowed down enough for him to keep up, but not so. I actually felt pretty good and climbed really well yesterday. Although I can look past the lack of fitness regarding the climbs, it was actually all the waiting I did on the descents that has me concerned. It was pretty slick yesterday and after having gone down hard on a wooden bridge, I was taking it pretty slow. Yet I was still putting big gaps on him on the descents. Unfortunately, this may have been an effort in eliminating a potential teammate rather than a day spent finding one. Too bad, too, because I got along with the guy really well.
And if going all the way to the San Juans yesterday wasn't time-consuming enough, we get back to my truck and get cleaned up at 2:00pm. Just in time to head to the 2:55 ferry back to Anacortes, right? Wrong. Despite there being only 5 cars on the ferry in the morning, and despite it being a windy, rainy, nasty weekend on the islands (the sun finally came out Sunday afternoon), the ferry landing was mobbed. We rolled into the terminal at 2:15 and not only was the 2:55 ferry full, but I was on stand-by for the 6:15 ferry. If there were any medical emergencies needing to get people off the island, I would have been bumped to the 9:00 ferry.
This is why I stay away from the San Juans in the summer -- you can't daytrip to a regional vacation/honeymoon spot without being overrun by tourists. Well, that and the fact that mountain bikers get kicked off the trails between May 15th and September 15th.
So, anyway, about this week's riding. I'm glad to have gotten the 12 hours or so of riding in (that time is actual pedal-time and doesn't include stopped time) but it's clear I'm going to have to do most of my training alone. A lot of people are transitioning back into "bike mode" now and are easing back into things a bit more socially than I would prefer. So group rides right now consist of lots of frequent stops and conversation. Which I love to do, but I just can't. I'm just too busy right now to invest time in rides in which heart rates repeatedly drops below 70bpm. Looks like the Wednesday night Thrilla rides will be my only group rides for a while, at least until it warms up a little and stays lighter later. Once it does, then I can time-trial my way to some of the trailheads, ride socially for an hour or two, then really push it back home afterwards. One place in mind is 14 miles of rail-trail from home -- and all uphill on the return trip.
Well this has gotten longer than I intended and I didn't wake up at 6:30 to waste time posting on my blog. I have a lot of work to get done. I do have other things I want to post about though, so maybe I'll sneak it in at lunch time.
PS: I begin my monthly sports massage sessions tonight. Couldn't have come at a better time, as I am very sore after this weekend's rides!
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