Day 104...A great ride!

I worked yesterday, which meant that I didn't get too much sleep last night.  We only ran two calls after midnight, but like usual, when I got back to the station, I couldn't sleep so I watched a couple of episodes of Son's of Anarchy on Netflix...goodbye two hours!  I knew I had to ride this morning so I tried to eat a healthy breakfast before I left the station, hoping to top off my fuel stores so that I wouldn't bonk on my ride.

What is bonking you ask?  Believe it or not, it is sometimes used as a reference to having sex.  Believe me...I DID NOT have sex out on the trail! :)  For athletes, especially endurance athletes, the term bonking is used to describe an immediate loss of energy caused by a lack of glycogen stores.  Another common term used to describe this situation is hitting the wall.  Well folks...let me tell you, today I bonked...and bonked hard!

Everything started out good, except for the fact that I forgot my socks today.  Something I didn't find out until I had parked at the trail head, and began getting ready to ride.  I grabbed for my shoes and reached inside one of them, expecting to find the clean pair of socks that I had taken out of the drawer just minutes before.  Guess what...no socks!  As tired as I was, I knew that if I drove home to grab those socks, I would not return to ride.  So, I did what any dedicated weekend-warrior would do...I went without.

I felt good when I started riding, but when I reached the two- or three-mile point, my hands started shaking and I immediately felt as though I had no more energy.  In just three miles!  Apparently my breakfast was no where near as sufficient as I had thought.  That was pretty disappointing, as I had recently met with a sports nutritionist from Athletes' Performance.  More on that later.

Fortunately, I had packed a couple gel packets, a Clif bar, and a bottle of sports drink.  I pulled over, sat down under the shade of a tree (no rattlers!) and proceeded to have another breakfast.  I sat there for about 10-minutes before I began to feel better.  I was almost ready to turn around and head back when I felt the surge of sugar running through my veins.  If had not packed the Clif bar, I would have had to turn back, as the gel packets provide a relatively short blast of energy.  The two together created a good glycemic load (remember that term?) and I felt comfortable that I could continue my ride.

I decided to take a trail that, in seven years of riding this area, I had never taken before.  I'm glad I did, as I was able to ride on some new trails, that eventually led to a very challenging climb.  The picture below was taken at the bottom of the climb.  It's funny, but whenever I take a picture of something that I think looks pretty difficult and intimidating...it never really looks that way in the picture.  I'm sure most of you look at these pictures and videos on here and think "That really doesn't look all that hard!"  

Believe me...it's was tougher than it looks!

Feeling full of energy, I geared down and hammered into the climb...and made it about five feet before slipping into a deep rut.  I dismounted my bike, turned around and walked back to the bottom, ready to give it another go.  This time, I knew what line I had to take, and I was confident I could make it.  On my second attempt, I cruised right past my previous point of failure...I was making it.  To make a long story (about a really brief event) short...I only made it halfway!  I had to hike the remainder of the trail.  If you look closely at the picture, you can see a cactus just to the right of the fence...that was halfway.  I hiked the majority of the rest, and came upon something that I felt was calling out to me...challenging me to try it.

Once again this picture does not do justice to the degree of difficulty found along this little traverse.  Looking closely, you can see the remnants of a trail, just to the left of center, in the photo.  I stood there for nearly ten minutes trying to determine if it was worth it to attempt this highly technical section, that has a high degree of fall exposure just to the left of the photo's edge.  The next picture should give you a greater sense of the fall exposure...not straight down, but very steep and full of nice sharp rocks!

The question is..."Did I attempt it?"  You will have to tune in for my next post to find that out!  Thanks for reading!