Climb, climb, and climb...and rain, rain, and rain....

This week turned out great on my riding.  I am back to a lot climbing.  By climbing, I mean climbing up the canyon road until I get tired.  Last Thursday, when the weather was super, luckily the boss called me and told me to not come to work that day.  I was kind of glad because all I wanted to do on that nice, warm day was to go on a big ride on my mountain bike.  I also had Tuesday off, so I went on my once a week moderate pace long ride on that day, the weather forecast forecasted a ton of wind, so I went that morning and tried to get back before the wind started.  I started at 8 in the morning and rode down west of town and around town for an hour and then went home to eat breakfast then switched bikes, so on my mountain bike, I rode another 2 hours on Little Pigeon Hollow Road to Spring City and back.  On the way back, the wind started blowing and I had a major headwind but I made it and logged in 35 miles that morning.
Back to Thursday, it was a ride I really enjoyed because it was all climbing and I love to climb.  I went up along the Powerline Trail and up on Green Gate Road then climbed some more on the canyon road.  I kept going up until I got tired and made it to that sharp curve before Ponderosa Pine Plantation.  I haven't got that high up in two years and it felt great.  I plan to go higher on the next ride.

 

After the climb, I turned around and went down the road then the Flume.  The Flume Trail was all packed down like I said it would(after one week).  It looked like a hundred bikers went down it.  It is really fast and smooth now.  It was a blast though.

Saturday.  Saturday was all rainy all day and cold.  At 7 in the morning, before the wind would start blowing later in the day, I went on a ride on my road bike.  I am glad I did it even though it was pouring rain, I just rode around town then up the pavement of the canyon road twice.  I rode for at least 1.5 hours and logged in 18 miles.  It was very wet, drenched, and cold.  I had a lot of fun though because I had a very good workout and my legs felt stronger than I thought.  It was like being in the Seattle rain again.  I didn't really have the proper bike rain gear but this blue jacket worked for a little while.  But I had no protection on my feet so my ankles and feet were itching so bad after an hour I got home.  It was really a blast though.  I hope I can ride in the rain again but it's rare in Utah to get rain like this.

I like spring....

I pretty much like spring, well, I like all seasons, whatever season comes.....I like it.  I'm a four season guy so that's pretty much it.  So now spring is here in Ephraim, UT and I love it.  This gives me the opportunity to ride quite a bit, if the weather permits.  It's April now so that means April showers.  But it's been pretty nice lately, with a little bit of rain on some days and I like rain too.

The Flume trail is all dried up and I went on that Wednesday morning before work, speaking of work, I got a new job and I enjoy it so much more than my last one.  It's a cabinetmaking job(my field!)in Moroni about 15 minutes from here and I've been working there for a month already.  It's really nice that I enjoy the work schedule better.  I go to work from 9:00 a.m. until 4 p.m., sometimes I go to work at noon so that's what did last Wednesday.  I rode that Wednesday morning on the Flume and it was great, it needs to be packed down more and I am sure it will by next week, it's a pretty popular trail.  The climb up it was different than most climbs other people do.  I like to go on the new trail from the hydroplant and then up the Green Gate Road.  I like that way because it's more challenging.  Everybody else just either go up the main Canyon Road or just shuttles up.  I don't why because that way is so BORING.  I hate it.  So that's why I like to go up the more challenging, harder way.

Thursday, I did a moderate intensity ride on Little Pigeon Hollow dirt road to Spring City and back.  About 20 miles.  Lately I like to go on that road for my moderate rides.  Then today was a very beautiful day.  I rode all around Black Hill and logged in 14 miles.  I did a lot climbing and felt great. I feel like myself again.  I'm now on full power on cycling, the last two years of training was really crappy and I don't why the last two years didn't turn out good at all.  My legs kept feeling sore almost every ride and now my legs feel good when I go riding.  I just don't why though.  Somebody told me it's probably because I didn't eat enough bananas and I was thinking I just needed the rest.  I don't know.  It's going to be a mystery for the rest of my life I figured but I did gain some weight which is not good.

I joined Strava and I follow a few friends but I don't have a Garmin bike computer yet.  I do have an old Garmin Forerunner 201 and it works but I can't figure out how to download my workouts on Strava.  I guess I will wait next month to get a Garmin 500 bike computer for my birthday.  Then hopefully I can figure it out.  I still have the liking to check out Strava lately to see where everybody goes around here.  I did this new route on Black Hill today I found out on Strava which is supposed to be the new advanced Vike on the Bike Mountain Bike Race Loop this year.  I liked that loop though and I didn't really do the whole thing but got most of it.  I won't do the race when they have it this year but I enjoy just riding it.  I'm just antisocial around here I guess.  I already got plans for Memorial Day anyway. 

 Well, it's been a good week and Happy Easter!

Moab Spring of 2014

I went to Moab this weekend to do some riding.  I just got back this morning and I came home feeling happy and bike replenished.  Saturday morning I left and got there at around 11:00 in the morning and I couldn't wait to do some Moab style riding.  First I did a new trail on the Amasa Back called the Hymasa, it just opened this year and I wanted to try it.  I wasn't disappointed at all and it was also a pretty good hard trail which was all climbing all the way to the top of Amasa Back.

Hymasa Trail looking down.

Self portrait with the Amasa Back in the background.

When I got to the top, this is the view.  It was breathtaking.  I rode a little bit of the top of Amasa Back jeep trail and I was planning to to go all the way to the viewpoint and maybe ride a little bit on Pothole Arch but I felt like I should turn around and go ride on the trails at Dead Horse Point state park which I was planning to do the next morning.  It was a weird feeling.  So I turned around and went back down on Hymasa even though I am too chicken to ride down on Captain Ahab.  I keep hearing Captain Ahab is "too hard" or "just for experts".  Hmmm, maybe next time.

So, I finished the ride and went to town and got a big thing of cold chilled Gatorade and a sandwich and ate while I was driving.  Pretty much all the loading, unloading, stopping at the gas station, and driving to took a good old two hours.  So I took pretty much a two hour break before I got riding again.  I was pretty tired from Hymasa so the break was good while it lasted.  The Dead Horse Point Intrepid bike trails is relatively new and very intermediate difficulty.  I liked it though because I could go pretty fast and it's on top of a mesa, I like trails like those.  So I did a 14 mile loop on all the Dead Horse Point bike trails.  There were many different trails but I kept taking left at every trail fork and did it clockwise. I did the ride at moderate intensity.   I loved it and there were hardly anybody there and there were quite of few people at Amasa Back though.

After riding at Dead Horse Point trails, I was rewarded with this view.  It was amazing.  I haven't been to Dead Horse Point ever since I was a teenager and it was nice to see it again and even better, to ride up there.  Also, this was the first time I've ever been to the Amasa Back area.  So that was pretty cool.
After I was done with Dead Horse Point, I rushed back down to Moab and ate at a fast Mexican restaurant and ate some fish tacos then caught a movie, "Captain America" at the theaters to watch.

After that, I drove to the Kane Springs Campground and crashed in the back of my truck which was a very comfortable bed inside my new Softopper.  The night was pleasant and very warm.  The next morning, the sound of thumping of rain onto the Softopper woke me up and it was raining.  At first I thought I was glad I did that Dead Horse Point ride yesterday instead of today.  I was pretty lucky.  So I got up and ate breakfast somewhere and had banana walnut pancakes and went home while it was pouring rain all over Moab this morning.  It was a great little trip and I enjoyed it.  I did my calculations and I rode about 24 miles and took a total of 3.5 hours on Saturday.  It was enjoyable and did plenty of riding myself.