Blackhawk/Rock Spring Trail Riding...

I spent the last two weeks right after my last race not riding, well maybe a few short rides, but mostly recovery rides not more than one hour. This morning, I felt good enough to go on a hard long ride(finally!). Since I went to watch the Tour of Utah, I thought a lot about Payson Canyon and the Blackhawk Trail happened to slip into my mind. I remember doing this trail during fall of '97 with two other guys. I remember it was a lot of fun and we did it because there weren't much singletrack trails near Ephraim. I decided to do it again today and it was harder than I thought! A lot of granny gear climbing and very long. I did a 16 mile loop and went on the Blackhawk and Big Spring/Jones Ranch trails. These trails are actually equastrian trails and is shared with mountain bikers and hikers. There were a lot of fresh wet horse poop everywhere and I got some on me and my bike. I didn't run into any horses though, thank goodness. There were a lot people up there though, a lot campers, bow hunters, mountain bikers, and road bikers. On the trail, it was nice, only ran into maybe 5 other mountain bikers. It was a good ride today and I was out and in my car in about 3 hours. I probably got 2 hours and 30 minutes of riding and 30 minutes worth of taking breaks and eating snacks. The downhill was great though and that reminds me, I checked both of my brake pads, they are all worn down, I need to get some new ones next week. I'd do this trail again!

Tour of Utah Fan Experience...

Today, my dad and I decided to go to Nebo Loop and watch part of the Tour of Utah bike stage race. Today's stage started at Thanksgiving Point through the backroad of Utah Lake, Goshen, through Mona and Nephi, then finishes off with a 20 mile climb up the south side of Nebo Loop with 4,500 vertical feet of climbing. We ended up parking almost at the top but we got a good spot to watch the racers climb up the steepest road of the Tour of Utah stage race. It was pretty cool, about 118 riders and they were just professional cyclists from all over the world plus Levi Leiphiemer who finished like in the top 5 in the Tour de France in a number of years. Also he just won the Leadville 100 last weekend(breaking the course record). Speaking of him, he won the stage today and is the overall leader now. I never had a chance to find him climbing up but dad said he saw him(number 190) and said, "go Levi!". I thought dad was rooting for the wrong guy but I guess he really didn't, I don't know.

Well anyways, watching this race made me want to climb up Nebo Loop, and I need to sometime. The racers made it look easy but it really isn't. The south side is the hardest climb ever because it is so steep, now going up the north face of Nebo Loop from Payson is a less graded climb and is probably prettier but I bet it is busier though but if I was going to climb up Nebo Loop, I would have to go up the south face because it's closer to home.

Back to the tour, the Tour of Utah is the hardest stage race in America they say, and the last stage of this stage race is supposed to be the hardest stage ever. From Park City, through Heber City, to Sundance and up the Nirvana climb to American Fork Canyon, down American Fork Canyon, from American Fork to Salt Lake City and up to Snowbird. Sounds hard! There are some tough riders in this race. I bet!

Plus the vans handed out Tour of Utah bells, drinks, and other souviners before the racers came, and also I got a water bottle a racer used that a team car threw out. Pretty cool I guess.

24 Hours of Moab or BUST!

Greg asked me like a month and a half ago(at Solitude race) if I wanted to do the 24 Hours of Moab with him and some other guys. I told him lastnight I would like to and I am excited about it. We'll be the Clydesdale group and we are going to try to shoot for 2nd place in the Clydesdale class.
There will be four of us as a team and we will be taking turns. The course is 15 miles of jeep road with 1,300 vertical feet of climbing per lap. Greg told me we each will be doing it like three times during the whole race. So I will be doing it once in the afternoon or evening, then once during the night hours(in the dark), then once during the sunrise on Sunday morning. The race goes from noon on Saturday 'til Sunday at noon. Whoever finishes the most laps in a 24 hour period, wins.

Most people like to do this race solo, duo, coed, or a team. There will be some fast riders out there and this will be great. A great endurance race in the end of the bike season. Most endurance races are always held during the end of the season. That's when everybody likes to do them.

To train for it, I need to get some lights for my bike to practice riding at night, Greg told me I should get a handlebar mount light for like $130, then one of those energizer headlights for the head.

This race will be held on the first weekend of October. I am going to get me a medal this time.

Group Ride lastnight...

In order to reach my membership in the race team requirements, I had to guide a ride. I guided a ride with another rider, Greg. We decided to take everybody to Lambert Park in the foothills near Alpine, UT. I told Greg I wanted to go there and try them because I've never ridden them before and I heard good stories about these trails.

About 8 people showed up and we had a blast. The trails were just very windy and very snaky. They were easy though, not much climbing, but you could still get a workout. The girls stayed together and the boys in front went where ever they wanted. We had quite of few beginners and they had a lot of fun. At the end my computer read 11.75 miles with an hour and 22 min. of riding. I got a good ride even though I am not fully recovered from all my races.

Lambert Park has many trails you can choose from, it's like a playground and you can ride all over. It's open year round and they have a race every February called Frozen Hog which riders have a blast in the snow. They say all you do is more walking in the snow.

Well, now I know some more good trails to ride on in Utah County, I had a blast on them.

Farewell old freezer, farewell...

Well, that's it. The 60 something year old freezer ended it's life(almost, we actually ended it's life). The old ugly green freezer left the basement and went to the dump on August 10, 2010. It was in the exact same spot since the house has been built something like 33 years ago and was in grandparents house before that. Grandma and grandpa Barlow bought this freezer when dad was a little kid and it's been working ever since. It still works today but the lid fell off a few months ago. It's just impossible to fix the lid(door). But the motor works just as dandy! I have a lot of memories of the freezer, it always had ice cream in it, also otter pops, frozen pizza, meats, etc. It was so nice to be in the basement watching tv during the summer months and walk like 10 steps into the laundry room and grab a ice cream bar from the freezer. The freezer kept the bar frozen, nice, and good. Well, I thought about this freezer today and it made me sad for some reason. Freezer, you fed me good and I will miss you.

2010 Rock The Canyons video...

ICUP finale at The Canyons...

This was the last race of the season this year and it was a great one except the part where Ryan ran over my front wheel. This course is the same trail as last year but we did it backwards this year, this time it was a lot easier I thought. It was shorter than I thought too, they were going to have it longer like go up the service road some more then go back down on the right side of the road but they decided not to do that for safety reasons. So we just took the service road up to Ambush and climbed on Ambush then went down on Rob's and Rosebud's Heaven. It was an all right course but short. On the starting of the downhill on Rob's, a few professional riders passed me then like the third guy wanted to pass me was in my class, I heard him say something behind me and I thought he said, "move over". So I immediately moved over because I thought he was another guy in the Pro class. So I moved over and then ran into an aspen sticking out over the trail a little bit. My shoulder hit it so hard, well my hand first, then I swung way over the other side of the trail and did a soft landing(thank goodness for some crash landing techniques from the bike magazine), but worst of all my bike was still on the trail and it was Ryan that ran over my front wheel and tacoed it. I immediately got back on my bike and finished the race. At the finish line, he said he was sorry but I was just glad he didn't run over me. I guess that's what racing's all about, broken parts. I am hoping my wheel will get fixed tomorrow, at least the rim will hold off for the rest of the season then I could ask for a new rim for Christmas or something. Well, I had fun and finished 5th again.

Snowbasin Bash

Now this race, I thought I did good because I really tried this time and had one of the funnest races in my career. Before starting, I warmed up for 45 minutes or so and I felt pretty good and was ready to roll. I got my heart rate up and started really good. I passed Aaron, Ryan, and another guy on the service road at the starting of the race but I couldn't catch up with Greg, nobody can. So I held on 2nd place on the singletrack like during the first 30 minutes, about halfway of the race then Ryan and Aaron passed me right where the half loop splits. Then I tried to keep up with them but I was more like 2-3 minutes behind them at the end. At the top, I saw Ladd and I was going to catch up with him and I did at the last part of the climb. He did start 3 minutes earlier than I did so I was pleased to catch up with him. On the fun downhill, Ladd and I literally tried to pass this guy that was in front of him, the guy was going slower but trying to pass somebody going downhill is somewhat impossible. But we never did pass him at all. At the finish after a dusty downhill, I never felt so tired and thirsty because I ran out of water at the top and I didn't slurp down a gel during the race, I should have though. It's really hard to get in the jersey pocket with all the singletrack riding and grab a gel and eat it. I need to sometime just slow down for a few seconds and do that so I can have energy for the remaining of the race. It was a hot, dusty, rocky race and I loved it! There were not really major steep climbing, just a fun middle chain ring twisty singletrack climb. Everybody else liked it and I hope they will have it again next year. I actually stayed and got a 5th place ribbon!