Some Recent Rides...

I have been on a number of rides since I last checked in here, but today I will only share one of those rides with you all.

The Little Colorado River, just outside our cabin

It was the morning of December 8th...our 16th wedding anniversary.  Donna and I were celebrating our big day in Greer, Arizona.  For those of you who have never been to Greer, or have never heard of it...it's a quiet little mountain town, nestled among the White Mountains in Northeast Arizona.  Greer gets it's fair share of snow every winter....I know, those of you who are not from Arizona cannot imagine that us 'desert dwellers' get any of that white stuff.  Believe me though...the Northern parts of our great state get plenty!

OK, back to the story already!

We rented a cabin for a few days, and of course I took my bike...I'm in training, remember?  I planned to get in a few rides while we were there, taking advantage of some altitude training (although there is some question as to whether or not there is really much benefit to that...but that's another story!)  I was prepared for the cold weather, having brought all of my cold weather riding gear, including my very expensive GORE winter riding gloves.

I got a lot of funny looks heading north with this setup!

I waited for the sun to come out from behind the mountains before I ventured out.  I figured it would be too cold to ride in the shadows...hmm.  The 'rides' I was planning wouldn't be trail rides, as the trails were all covered in snow and ice.  I was planning on riding the 373 (aka "The Road to Nowhere") out to the 273 and back...about 16-miles all in all.  I topped of the air in my tires, threw my hydration pack on, donned my beanie and helmet, and hit the road.

About a mile into my ride I noticed that my hands were already getting cold!  "No biggie" I thought.  I've felt that before, and my hands have always warmed up after my blood gets pumping.  Today however, would be quite different.  My education in exercise science made me aware that, while you may not feel like you need to drink often during cold weather exercising, it is very important to do so.  So...at about mile number two, I decided to take a quick sip of water from my Camelbak...only to find that the water in the hose and bite valve had frozen over.  It was at that point that I should have turned back...but you know me.

I kept riding for another mile, making some short but steep climbs, all the while feeling the 8200+ feet of altitude, and the ever increasing pain in my hands.  I passed by the Greer Fire Station and thought, for a moment, about stopping in and saying hello to my brethren...all in an attempt to get warm...but my legs kept pedaling.  There was an apparent disconnect between my brain and my body...probably caused in part by a frozen brain, and the hypoxia I was experiencing due to the 'thin air'.

Shortly after passing by the warm fire station, I decided it would be be wise (certainly much wiser than my choice to ride in the first place) to head back to the cabin.  As I turned, so too did the wind!  I was riding into a gentle but freezing cold head-wind on the way out, and wouldn't you know, on the way back I found I was riding into that same wind!  By this time, I could not feel three of my fingers on my right hand, and two on my left hand...it was like they weren't there.  Thoughts of frost-bite were now freely roaming around in my mind, as the hypoxia increased, and my ability to think clearly began to diminish. 

I finally made it back to the cabin...my ride was only six miles, but it felt like sixty!  As I made my way up the short set of steps and onto the patio, all I could think about was just how much my hands were going to hurt as they defrosted.  You all know what I'm talking about right?  We've all experienced the painful sting as our hands return to normal temperature after being in the cold for a short time.  Well....multiply that by at least 100, and you will have some idea of what I was going through.

As I walked through the door, Donna (unaware that I was hurting) looked at me and let out one of those little sorrowful laughs.  You see, I looked as though I had just finished a marathon, and I had snot frozen to my nose and upper lip...yeah, it wasn't a pretty sight!

I began to peel the layers of clothing off, removing my helmet, beanie, and gloves.  The instant those gloves came off, and the heat being radiated by the, highly efficient, fire place hit my skin, the pain set in...full strength!  I was truly reeling in pain...it felt as though someone were forcing my to hold my hands on a burner...it was excruciating!

The pain lasted about 30-minutes, then finally subsided.  I was amazed at what had happened, as it didn't feel that cold when I walked outside.  I checked the weather on my trusty iPhone, only to find that it was 11 degrees when I left!  I wont make that mistake again.

Just Checking In...

Hello my faithful followers!  It's been a while, I know.  But remember, that was the deal this time around...occasional posts.  What I am finding out however, is that by not writing as often, I find that I have too much to write about, and try to fit into such a 'small space'.  I don't want to bore you with too long of a post, so that makes it a little difficult...oh well, here goes.

In my last post I mentioned that I was having some IT Band pain, remember?  Well guess what?  It's still there!  Not as bad, but present none the less.  The resiliency of youth...it's long gone.  But as I like to say..."Press On!"  And so I will continue to ride and train, making a concerted effort to rehab my IT Band along the way, and perform a variety of corrective exercises in an attempt to elicit some degree of healing, while still riding.  That's life for an old fart like me I suppose...press on.

Not a bad looking setup!

Since I last checked in with all of you, I have had some really great rides!  Over the thanksgiving holiday, I had the opportunity to ride in mountains around Monterey, California.  This is where the annual Sea Otter Classic mountain bike race takes place, and it is beautiful terrain!  Surprisingly however, it was nowhere near as difficult as I had been lead to believe.

The Sea Otter Classic

 Before leaving on our trip to Monterey, I downloaded some trail maps of the area.  However, these maps lacked information as to where one should park their car if driving to the trail-head.  So...as I was driving around looking, I stumbled upon a parking lot full of roughly 30-40 mountain bikers gearing up for a Thanksgiving morning ride.  It was obvious that I was not a local...and I was waiting to here the dreaded "Yer not from around here...are you boy?"  Thankfully, they responding instead by introducing themselves, and freely providing me with advice if I chose not to follow them.  That's the friendliness associated with the mountain bike community...that differs greatly from the often 'snooty' road bikers...sorry all you roadies, but it needed to be said! You guys should really lighten up!  Anyhow... my new best friends were heading out in a number of different directions.  I chose to ride with a small group that was heading toward the area that I had maps for.  I rode with them for a little while, but soon realized (once my nervousness subsided) that I was actually riding far below my ability, as well as the intensity needed for some good training.  So I said thanks for letting me ride with them, and then disappeared.  Okay, not really...but I did slowly pull away from them on a long climb, and eventually left them all together.  It was actually a really good feeling knowing that I could hang with these guys...a real confidence booster...similar to the time when I rode with a local rider in Laguna Canyon while training for the Police and Fire Games.

Beautiful riding scenery in the hills outside Monterey, California!

The next day I rode along the recreation trail that parallels the Monterey Bay coastline.  This is a multi-use rec-trail...paved and flat, so it was nothing demanding...just a beautiful way to get in a light recovery spin after a day of climbing.  The scenery was beautiful, and my turn-around point was just past the famous Lover's Point in Pacific Grove.  I stopped to take a few shots of the surf pounding the sea wall, then jumped back on the bike and headed home...around 12-miles total.

Pacific Grove, California

Yesterday I rode with some of my firefighter brethren....attacking a section of the Black Canyon Trail system that I had never ridden before.  It proved to be quite challenging...both mentally, and physically.  You see, one of my fellow firefighters' brother-in-law joined us...oh, by the way...he's a cop.  He was joined by yet another police officer, who was fairly new to the sport of mountain biking.  Oh, I forgot to mention that this particular trail is NOT the place to bring a beginner!  This trail runs along the Black Canyon...hence the name Black Canyon Trail, and there are many places where the trail is only about two feet wide, and the fall exposure is quite high...over 100 feet straight down into the river bed below.  Kinda scary, even for a fairly seasoned rider like me.  Oh yeah, there is a tremendous amount of climbing involved in this ride as well.

One of the 'easier' parts of the trail

Well, it looked as though the ride wouldn't happen at all, as the rain (and hail) began to fall quite heavily while I was driving up towards Black Canyon City.  It was so bad in fact, that Interstate 17 was completely white due to the amount of hail that was falling.  It was actually something between hail and snow...solid enough to hit hard, but soft enough to splatter when it hit the windshield of my car.  i arrived at the trail-head parking area to just behind one of my fellow firefighters.  As we were discussing whether or not we should ride, the cops showed up.

Before I go on, let me fill you in on the typical relationship between cops and firefighters.  They refer to us as hose draggers, and we call them (appropriately) donut eaters.  Most cops don't care too much for firefighters...we think it is because they are jealous of our great schedules; the fact that our trucks are far cooler than their cars; and the fact that the public generally loves us, while they (more or less) loathe the cops.  We often tell them that they somehow must have stood in the wrong line when they were handing out applications, or that since they failed the fire department entrance exam, there was really only one occupation left that would accept them.  As you can see...there is not much love lost between our two service organizations.  In reality though, their not too bad...I even have friends and relatives who are police officers :)

So as I was saying...we were there, minding our own business, and the cops showed up...oh wait, that's a different story!  Let's just say that when these cops showed up, it was game on...and they started it.  The brother-in-law cop pulls up next to us, rolls down his window and says "Don't tell me you firemen are going to pu--y out!"  With that, I pressed the button on my power window, effectively silencing the little donut eater.  Moments later, the rest of my firefighter family arrived.  Seeing friendly faces, I got out of my vehicle to greet them, which apparently offended said brother-in-law cop.  He looked at me and said, "What?  we're not good enough for you to get out and say hi to us?"  Blah, blah, blah.  After a few minutes of bantering and decision making, we elected to go on the ride.

'nuff said!

 
Much to the joy of bro-in-law donut eater, who quickly stated just how much he was looking forward to kicking some firefighter ass out on the trail.  And with that, we headed out on what was planned to be an 18 mile ride, taking us about 2 hours.  Remember those numbers.  Right out of the gate, we were faced with a 1 1/2 mile climb...the cops didn't fare too well.  upon reaching the summit, I (like a good mountain biker) stopped to wait for the slower riders.  Roughly 10-minutes later, the group was intact.  The problem with this however, is that when the last guy gets to the top, the rest of the group is usually well rested, and ready to go.  This however, is not the case for the last guy...he still needs to rest.  So...to make a long story short...we made many stops like this one.  Fifteen to be exact!  Not exactly what I had planned for.  Oh by the way...it was the two cops that we were waiting for most of the time!  Total ride time...four hours!

I'll check back in soon!