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 :)
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.
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!
 |
| '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!
No comments:
Post a Comment