less little, more middle

since this morning was my last ride at higher elevations, i decided to make it a memorable one. from the first pedal stroke, i aimed at making this my fastest out and back. no sense going out with a whimper.

i started out descending like a madman. in the dim light that barely illumined the road down from quaker ridge, i had a couple of near disasters. i felt my body going forward a bit too far a couple of times, but threw my weight backwards enough to keep from flying over the handlebars. i crossed the grate at the entrance in 6'32", a minute at thirteen seconds faster than yesterday.

i couldn't savor that accomplishment for long. shortly after slipping across the highway to the bike path, the first and perhaps the longest of the trail's climbs began. for almost a mile and half, i pushed hard in my middle ring. my breathing was hard, but steady. my heartbeat rapid, but not near my redline. the other times i'd climbed this ascent, i'd shifted to the small ring. not today. i got near the bottom of the middle ring's ratios, but didn't give in to the urge to make life easier and slower. i crested and enjoyed a brief reprieve from the pain before the next climb.

that next climb is much shorter - only a quarter mile or so - but it is a doozie. not sure on the grade, but there are short sections that are steeper than the 7% near the top of the camp road. i somehow managed to turn the cranks and go up and over this mini-monster without downshifting.

for the next half mile or maybe a little more, i was able to recover on the slight downhill that runs passed the golf course. i brought my breathing and heartrate back under control and then started the next ascent, a longish climb, but not as steep as either of the first two. i felt pretty good on this one, but finally had to down shift when i hit the steepest section of the entire ride just before the descent to the city limits of woodland park.

entering the city, i climbed as fast as i could. my aim was to beat thirty-six minutes, the time it took me to ride to my turn around from the bottom of the camp road the first day. i bested that time. i got to the turn around in 35'45". if you subtract my camp road descent time, that means i covered the same distance that took me thirty-six minutes the first day in 29'13". when i did the math, i was pretty proud of my accomplishment.

without a break, i rolled right back up to the top of the descent that took me out of woodland park. the only thing that ruined the joy of this downhill was the multiple stop signs that slowed me down a bit. still, i was able to enjoy some active recovery riding, spinning my cranks as i plunged down the hill.

the ascents on the way back to the camp road aren't nearly as bad as those encountered on the way into town. though you'd never guess it in a car, the road is mostly downhill. i rode up and over the few little climbs in my middle ring. one i didn't even drop from the big ring to master.

it was just before 6:30 when i ducked under the highway and came up to the camp road for my final assault of the formerly dreaded hill. i intended to look at my time before i began, but i looked at the wrong numbers and so i don't have an accurate climb time. it was somewhere under eighteen minutes. that's all i can say. i pushed the middle ring all the way to the 7% grade and then dropped into my little ring. i'm not in good enough high altitude shape yet to do that in the middle ring. it's a bummer that i have to leave this afternoon. another week here and i'd be flying up the hill.

i'm happy with the riding i got in this week. it was way more miles and time than i thought i would get when i thought of this week early this year. i thought i wouldn't get any miles since i hadn't been able to bring my bike in the past. i'm glad it worked out this time. i've had fun.

goodbye, woodland park. you will be missed. (15.31 miles @ 12.9mph)

faster, stronger, better

what a difference a day of rest and a good night's sleep can make. this morning i woke up before 5:00, got ready and headed down the mountain from quaker ridge. i crossed under the arch at the bottom 7'15" into my ride and turned south toward woodland park.

i felt stronger today than i did on my first ride into town. i was able to stay in my middle ring more often and push up and over the steepest grades. i met up with the same helmetless guy on the mountain bike i'd passed two days ago. he acted just the same as before - didn't acknowledge my "good morning" with even a nod. i made it to the start of the centennial trail in just under 40 minutes. i was happy with my time since it had taken me around 36 minutes to get to the same place two days ago without the extra two miles down the mountain.

after a three or four minute break and a granola bar, i was ready for the plunge back down the trail. going down is much more fun than going up. going up is a painful kind of fun. flying down is a pleasant kind of fun. at one point, i nearly hit a deer. i was descending at around 25mph and there she was right at the edge of the trail. i grabbed my brakes and yelled, "deer," and she shied away. a little while later i met up with a familiar face. i'd seen the woman walking her golden retriever two days earlier. she smiled and said "hello" when i greeted her. mr. mountain biker could learn a thing or two from her.

when i got back to the quaker ridge road, i rolled passed it and continued down the centennial trail. i wanted to see how far it went. that question was answered fairly quickly. the trail doesn't even go another two miles. i had to go out onto the highway for a brief time. there was a bike lane, but it was still out in traffic. then for about a half mile there's a trail again and then it ends abruptly at a lake.

i turned around then and headed back up toward the camp. i took a little side trip to see what painted rocks look like. the sign poined up a slight rise to the west, so i climbed up and around the corner. the rocks were pretty cool looking. they looked like someone had built snowmen out of rocks. odd shapes were stacked on odder shapes. pretty cool!

my tourist excursion finished up, i sped back up to the hill and turned back onto the quaker ridge road. what took me 7'15" coming down took 18'16" going up. those sections of 7% grade near the top are killers. i was breathing pretty hard when i pulled to a stop outside our lodge. it took several minutes for everything to return to normal.

tomorrow's my last day here. i hope to ride the same route or some variation of it again. i'm thankful that i was able to bring my bike with me to this beautiful area. it's been fun riding through the pines and aspens. (19.92 miles @ 12.3mph)

60-second confession #10

i love riding with a a bunch of cyclists. there's nothing quite like the rush of speeding along wheel to wheel. the draft is awesome! but i have a confession to make concerning a few recent group rides. while the good is really good. the not so good is really bad.

recovering from sickness

between puking up everything i had in my belly and alternatively sweating and freezing, i didn't sleep well last night. thankfully, the former ended by midnight. the latter kept me awake for hours after that.

i woke up at 6:00 and decided i felt well enough to get out for an easy recovery ride. i dressed quietly so that my wife wouldn't wake up and tell me i was stupid for trying then slipped out the door.

i felt okay for most of the ride. i explored some of the trails near the camp, climbing slowly when they headed uphill. i coasted down the short inclines and just spun my pedals.

after about a half hour of riding around the camp, i dropped down the mountain to the camp sign and rode back up. that was probably the worst decision of the day. it took a bit out of me coming back up. obviously i made it. i took one more circle around the camp, dropping down by the dining hall and then creeping back up to the horse stables. i finished just as my "time to wake up" alarm went off.

my wife was up when i walked in. she frowned at me and scolded me a bit. exactly what i had expected. i'm showered and shaved and ready to go to breakfast now. hopefully my health will stay with me for the rest of the day. (5.18 miles @ 7.7mph)

kansan takes on mountain

i did it! every year i've come to this camp ground and every year i've felt like i was going to die just walking around. my heart would start pound and my lungs would heave. not this time!

i drove down the hill with my bike because i didn't know if i'd be able to climb it. i wanted an escape option. if i got too tired, i'd be able to turn around and coast down. turns out that wasn't necessary.

i started out riding the centennial trail into woodland park, a ride of nearly six miles, almost all of it uphill. i stopped in town and rested a bit. i wasn't exhausted, but i was tired enough that stopping felt good.

after five minutes or so, i clicked back in and pedaled back to the camp road. well, i didn't pedal much on some sections. i hit over 30mph several times on the steep downhill sections of the trail. i hated slowing for the street crossings, but had to do it. there were two places where i would've hit a car if i hadn't braked.

arriving back at my van, i took a minute or two to switch to sunglasses. the amber lenses i'd been using weren't quite enough to make the glare of the morning sun bearable. i'd been up since just before 5:00 and the light had changed a bit. the temps had too. it was almost 40 degrees when i started up toward the camp.

i had anticipated two miles of pain when i thought of this ascent at home. i imagined the lack of oxygen and the sections of six and seven percent grade doing me in. the suffering i dreamed of in kansas didn't come. i climbed slowly and steadily all the way up. not once did my heart rate get close to my red line. i inhaled and exhaled in a regular, non-labored way. no problems.

on the way down, i'd noted the distance from the camp quaker ridge sign to the actual camp, so when i passed under it i knew i had only seven tenths of a mile to go. that last seven tenths was probably the hardest and steepest section of the ride. i just kept pedaling, creeping along at 5-6mph. i pushed it a bit for a quarter mile or so and got up near 8mph. not an incredible pace, i know. but this kansas flatlander was pretty pleased.

fifteen plus miles was by far more than i expected to get in. one other year, i'd been here and hardly been able to ride for thirty minutes on a borrowed bike. after nearly an hour and a half, i felt like i could've ridden more. i stopped because i needed to get a few things done before breakfast. i'll be back out tomorrow. no driving the van down the mountain then. i'm planning to go north on the centennial trail and see what i can discover. (15.73 miles @ 11.1mph)

riding in colorado springs

i could’ve ridden a lot faster today if colorado springs hadn’t installed so many hills on their streets. my pace was pretty good going down their inclines, but not so great going up. there were times that the hills kept me under 10mph! evil hills! i learned that if a street has hill or mountain or ascent in its name, i should take another.

then there are the curves. every street veers this way and that. i would be riding along and all of a sudden there wouldn’t be any street in front of me. i’d look right. no street. where’d it go?! then i’d look left and there it would be. one street I followed went meandering around downhill to the west, turned north for a short time, then doubled back to the east and climbed back up the hill it’d just come down. crazy people these coloradans. streets with hills and turns! What’ll they think of next.

oh, and then there’s the oxygen level the city fathers have chosen. it’s way too low. someone needs to complain until they do something about this problem. import some air from somewhere else for crying out loud! not from kansas, mind you. We’re keeping ours. i hear illinois has some extra oxygen. maybe the president could transfer some of his hometown’s air to the folks in the mountains.

most of my riding today was wandering around in housing developments. the main streets were a bit too busy for my liking, but the side streets were awesome. friendly runners and cyclists were everywhere. i bet i smiled and waved at a dozen or more potential dailymilers. i would’ve recruited them on the spot, but i’ve heard city people are kind of skittish about talking with strangers. my “good morning” greeting was probably more than threatening enough without a sales pitch.(37.12 miles @ 13.4mph)