Now since I've reached my goal of a sub-2 hour half marathon - it's time for me to go back to my first love - mtn biking. As just about everyone I know was prepping to run the Bolder Boulder - I was on Colorado singletrack.
The loop starts off with the 6 mile dirt road of Waterton Canyon - kinda a slog as you are itching to get to the singletrack. PLUS there is always a head wind going up the canyon and by the time I am on the return trip - there's always a headwind on the way back.
I can tell I'm still in the throes of 'running addiction' as I was thinking...hmmm...maybe I'll ride my bike the 6 miles - lock it to a tree and then run the 15 miles of singletrack....that would be a fun (long) day. It's on the "to-do" list for this summer.
But I digress...this is a demanding ride - I've never ridden it in less than 3 hours and there is some steep, lung busting climbs on this route...several of them are in the range of 15% - 20% and at this time of year the trail is nice and loose. The total of 3300+ of climbing and some of the climbs in addition to be steep, have challenging rocks to
ride over hike-a-bike over.
(I've never cleaned this section - it's on my list tho - just need the fitness and skillz...)
I went with a couple of my girlfriends - Dawna, Ari, Carrie, me. Ari is only 19 but she's a great rider, Carrie (Ari's mom) is pretty darn good, Dawna is a fairly new rider and this was a big ride for her, but she sucked it up and hammered it out.
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| Dawna, Ari, Carrie, me |
As we were approaching the singletrack - a gentleman (on a really nice SWorks) asked for directions for the Roxborough loop (shorter version of our ride). Then he said "I read your blog." Carrie goes "Did you know her or just recognize her from the blog pictures." He said "i just recongized her". I was embarrassed and said "thanks". He said "you do some impressive stuff". I was a bit flustered because I don't think I do anything that impressive. Then he said "the breck epic is impressive". Ok...I have to agree the
Breck Epic is hard. I said "Yes - that was really, really hard - but fun. I love to ride my bike!". So dude - if you are reading this thanks a lot of the compliment - it made my day!!! Hope you had a good ride. :)
Back to the trial description.... what goes up - must come down and there is a TON of fun descending.
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| carrie - all smiles. the wild flowers and greenery was off-the-chart beautiful! |
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| Dawna - she's got some nice arm muscles - I need a set of those! |
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| me - exiting an amazingly, fun, twisty singletrack section |
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| This is me riding the A line at the end of the ride(old pic) - sadly some guys were clogging up the A line by walking it - so we had to go around those dudes and ride the B line |
Only 1 little boo-boo... Dawna slide out on a loose rocky section and got this 'badge of honor'.
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| can't have a ride without a little carnage! ouchie! |
Stats:
Ride time 3:38
Elevation gain: 3360
Elevation loss: 3327
Fun factor: off the charts!
Steamboat Half marathon is next weekend. I plan to run and ride more this week - so I'm not expecting much - but it should be fun!
Comments
Woot to you, bloggie celebrity!