Monumentally Afflicted

So, I had a great time on the Ring the Peak Plus trip. Nick and I rode over 82 miles and climbed more than 13,000 feet. The first day was brutal, with over 7000 feet of climbing. I didn't realize how heinous the climbing was 'til I saw my GPS capture of the climb. No wonder I was soooo spent at camp that night. We found a perfect campsite, with a view of the lower slopes of Pikes Peak. My Golite Shangri La performed flawlessly during the crazy overnight thunder and lightning storm. No bears pillaged our food, which was a concern of mine after Nick's bear encounter from 2 weeks ago. We woke up to a beautiful day and got off to an early start. After about an hour of spinning up hill, we encountered some guys doing the RTP trail in a day. We let them pass and shortly thereafter I was surprised to catch back up to one of them. Unfortunately, my bike started acting funky. I thought it was chainsuck, but it was much more. A broken chain and twisted derailleur hanger. ...

Getting ready to Ring the Peak with Nick. We plan to take a fairly casual 3 days to complete the trip. I've done a few bikepacking trips in the past, but used old school racks and panniers. For this trip, I've significantly updated my setup. I have an F3 Designs seatbag, a Revelate Designs Tangle bag , a Revelate Designs Sling and drybag, and two Salsa Anything Cages with dry bags attached. In addition, I'm carrying a Wingnut Hydration pack . I've tried to keep the amount of gear on my back to a minimum and I think this configuration will do that. My Wingnut only contains the things I'd take on a normal ride (water, snacks, tools, rain jacket, etc). I've had the bike out for a couple test rides, including a decent amount of singletrack while fully loaded at lunch today. The setup seems very nice. Certainly way nicer than a rack and panniers. The bike behaves in a very normal, unloaded fashion, only requiring a slight bit more input for small direction...

Still having fun at +20 hours! Well, I think my race season is done... I did (part of) Vapor Trail last week and 24 Hours of Colorado Springs this weekend. Vapor Trail was a bust. I had a chest/head cold leading up the race, but it seemed to get better in the couple days prior to the start. Guess I wasn't quite ready, as I suffered mightily while breathing heavily at high elevation. My pace was way slower than expected and, at about mile 65, I noticed that my throat/chest were wheezing or whistling with every deep breath. Pulled the plug at Monarch Crest, about 75 miles into the race. Lessons learned... Vapor Trail is wicked hard. Major sections of hike-a-bike. Listen to your body, and don't try to push things when sick. I need to figure out how to better dress for changing temps and conditions. All that insane hike-a-bike may (just) be worth the massively fun descent from Granite Mountain After VT, I got off my butt and went to see the doctor. I should have done this e...

Got out with Nordby and Keller for some incredible new trail riding. Woohoo! Nice to see the continual development of opportunities in the area. My technical skills are feeling really good right now. Feeling a bit like the good old days, when I could roll through just about anything. I'm hoping that with some tapering, my endurance will feel the same way in about 13 days. Had some stomach issues on today's ride, which doesn't bode well for fueling at Vapor Trail. Not sure what is up. I switched to Perpetuem from Sustained Energy a couple weeks ago. Not sure if that is the issue, but my stomach was feeling pretty sour by the end of yesterday's ride. I may have to switch back to Sustained Energy if I can't get it figured out. I know my stomach is fine on that for 18 Hours. I do find Perpetuem easier to drink, though...

Well, my original plan to race at 24 Hours of Colorado Springs is looking unlikely (surgery in the family requiring travel). So, I got looking around for other ways to put my training to good use. One week earlier than 24 Hours of Colorado Springs is a race that I've always wanted to to, but haven't managed to plan for or train enough to consider, the Vapor Trail 125 !!! So, I pinged Absolute Bikes and they actually had a couple spots still open and I'm in! I'm pretty psyched to have the opportunity to participate in the race, especially since I feel fairly well prepared. The VT125 is known as one of the hardest endurance races in the US. 125 miles, most of it at high altitude, with 20,000 feet of climbing. Whoa! Looking at the course description and elevation profile is a bit scary. Tpak did this race the initial year and says it is awesome. Much better than going around in circles for 24 hours. :-) The race starts and 10pm. I'll ride through the night a...

Got out for some flat out climbing up Rampart Range Rd today. Did over 3200 feet of climbing 1 hour and 30 minutes! For the first 5.5 miles of the climb, I tried to keep my heart rate in the 150's. For the next 4.5 miles, I turned up the effort but tried to keep it below 170. Then, for the last 1.5 or so miles, I just went flat out. I miscalculated a bit and thought I was doing 11.00 miles. Turned out to be really 11.30, so the last 0.30 miles was some pretty serious suffering, mentally and physically. I feel pretty lucky to have an 11 mile dirt road climb near work and a 10 mile dirt road climb near my house. Leaves little opportunity for excuse making when it comes to climbing ability. I took a look at my ride data from the past month, and I've done over 42,000 feet of climbing. Wow, I don't think I've ever hit that much in a month before. Hopefully, all that climbing will make the Falcon Trail climbs feel surmountable in the 24th hour of racing!

For a while now, I've been mapping out a dirt route between my house in Monument and my cabin in Park County (near Trout Creek Pass). Today, I decided to do an out-and-back of the first section of that route. Up Mt Herman Road, north on Rampart Range, then west over to Highway 67. On the map, it looks like 309F is a logical choice. However, the Pikes Peak Atlas shows the road as being gated... Well, upon descending 700 or so vertical feet, I verified that it was indeed blocked off and signed ("guard dogs") even. Took a look at the map and realized I could bushwack about 1 mile to the north and hit Hotel Gulch Rd, which would then take me west to Hwy 67. Worked out fine. Easy bushwack and passed some nice cabins along the way to Manitou Park, which is really nice. Old CCC buildings which now appear to house weather and forestry research crews. Oh yeah, passed a flaming and unattended campfire just above the upper entrance to Limbaugh. Nothing like open flames on a ...