It is time to start training, hard, for real. There is the first AES race coming up and I do not feel ready for it. At any rate, I have been attacking my record on the bunny loop, hoping to beat my remedy time on my rigid SS 29er. I was hoping that I would be faster on my 0″ travel bike versus my 6″ travel bike, but I am not. Yet. I added a really hard gear to my twin ring setup which got me a wee bit closer. I am now rolling 32/20 and 35/17 on my twin ring setup. I did my fastest time trial with the 35/17 during the day, but was still just under 19seconds slower than my remedy time. I am thinking my few mistakes during the run cost me those 19seconds. My goal is to push a sub 19 minute time trial on the Bunny Loop. I am not sure how I will squeeze an additional 26 seconds off my time, but I will figure something out. You can see the graphs between my two time trials and even some top secret heart rate data below.

The rest of the weekend was a trail work session out at the lone cactus loop at fantasy island (foreshadowing, maybe?), a quick hike up Aspen Draw to take some final pictures of the fall leaves and a quick buzz up bugs/down prison. I was shooting for riding scorpion gulch, but the riding company forced me to pick a different ride. Finally, check out the awesome flyers that Janelle made for me after I threatened her with printing one that I made.

Going to be spending this week mentally preparing for the Black Canyon trail AES race on Saturday. Maybe a quick tuesday techy taco ride to see Chad’s new Behemoth he finally built up.

Fall is when everything starts to die. In the desert it is the time to start living, to start growing. A Techy Taco Tuesday with Chad and Scott where I picked up some new obstacles. A Lemmon drop where I was all over the place while descending, but picked up some new climbing lines on Green Mt. I gotta go GET that first switchback on Aspen–I shouldn’t be walking that. I gotta go get that line on Green Mt, despite some decent attempts my first and second time down Green Mt (see picture). I gotta commit to a line at the area on Green Mt that has like 4 lines. I gotta get that hard right hand switchback at the start of Green Mt (I am thinking about the far left line). Had to bail Lemmon Drop at Bug to make a lunch date, had fun and felt strong fitness wise. Moved my brakes over to one-finger. Trying to figure out how to “get fast.” What am I doing wrong? What should I change? I definitely need to do something new. More drills, more skills, more thrills. I seem to “get in the zone” every once in a while, I just need it to be more predictable. Another amazing Techy Taco Tuesday, a few more obstacles killed. I think my fork needs a bit more air, it is getting a little dive-y. I’ve found I can make a lot more techy stuff on the uphills if I use a harder gear. I used to putt-putt in my 22/34 granny, but am finding 3-4clicks up is the winning ticket to getting and maintaining momentum, making mounting momentous mountainous monuments manageable.

Our trails are amazing, ride ALL of them at least once. Done that already? Ride them the other way, double the trails. Didn’t make that obstacle? Try it until you make it smoothly or until you start to get really sketched out as today is not the day to beat that one.

MTB goals this “season”: KILL my Kentucky Camp time from last year, do a strong 24HOP SS Solo, _finish_ the AZT300, and clean all of scorpion gulch with confidence. I do not know why people put themselves into bins, it is all totally rad.

It is good to dream big. Sometimes body weakness and fatigue gets the best of me, but this is when I am the most honest. I tend to be overtrained all the time. I consider techy rides as recovery rides since breaks are OK. I am a mutant at heart (or my early MTB mind was twisted into thinking “Chad rides” are normal), but I certainly do not possess a mutant body, yet.

I have a hard four weeks ahead with black canyon, dirty bunny, and Kentucky Camp.

No pressure, no diamonds –Thomas Carlyle.

Today I met Chad, Ty, Benji, Dave, and Dave’s buddy at Le Buzz for a ride up Mt Lemmon. The plan was to ride from Le Buzz up to Molino, up Prison, up Bugs and then to drop back down. A quick cache of a croissant and a coffee while riding the flat part and much chit chat ensued on the way to the base of the road climb. Our group broke up a bit and I was probably pushing too hard on the climb, getting too hot. I eventually tired and Benji and Ty took the front.

We made it to Molino and I slathered on some sunscreen as I was starting to burn. My whole ride up Prison was a mess, but I had a mission: clean that switchback going up Prison. I had to session a few spots mainly due to me being tired/timid, and wasn’t riding strong. I made it to the switchback and failed on my first three attempts. After trying the outermost line, I was able to pick it up on my fourth. I proceeded to work on my crawl up Prison and saw a very large gopher snake in the trail. Gopher snake sighting means rattlesnakes must be around. I was hoping the snake season would be done, but not yet apparently. I then buzzed through Prison and goofed around on the drop that is in the campground.

Working my way towards Bug Spring, I found my rear tire to be a bit squishy. I added more air, but it did not hold. Great, busted slime tube. I stopped at the base of the Bug Spring climb and saw that Chad and everyone was at the top of the mountain yelling and whooping at me. I tried yelling “FLATTT TIREE!” that failed so I removed my tire and held it above my head as a signal. Just then, Ty and Benji came rolling up, apparently they were waiting for us at the Molino campground. I told them to go on as I was going to finish the tube swap.

The climb up Bugs went poorly, I was feeling weak. I would ride hard. Push. Ride hard. Push. Ride hard. Push. Eventually I tossed on my headphones and some ISIS and was able to just plain ride hard.

Eventually I met up with the crew on the way down. I snapped some pictures and gave chase. I was bonking/hot/weak/dizzy/timid/twitchy/rear tire @rock hard pressure and had a bum descent. I made it down everything, but was not flowing. I am still trying to psychologically recover from the crash and some saddle and technical riding time and will hopefully help that.

Check out Chad’s Entry on the ride!

My final ride in Hawaii was for sure the best ride I had there. It left me feeling beat, but hungry for more.

First thing, as you may know from previous posts, the humidity in the jungle is so oppressive. I could barely move at a brisk pace without being consistently soaked and dripping wet. Second, nobody got the memo on how to trim branches on a trail. They cut a lot of them at an angle with loppers to produce a spear point. Next, the jungle is way too dark for sunglasses, but I opted for reduced visibility for eye protection. Also, I found it best to try tuck in my pinky fingers as vines kept hooking on them and trying to break my finger off. Oh, and did I mention every trail I rode needs an obscene granny gear to move at a sustainable pace? Needless to say, the jungle is brutal. The trail had some wet, rooty areas, but there were a few dry areas with some wild switchbacks I was able to pull off out of nowhere. I made it up pretty much none of the “technical climbs” and made it up pretty much none of the harder switchbacks. I felt like I was having an off day, but it could be that it was also an unusually hard trail. I’d love to go do this trail again and again and again.

There was a cool section of trail where the surrounding landscape narrowed down to this 5ft wide land bridge between two mountains. Supposedly there are a lot of features like this in Hawaii.

Janelle and I hiked the trail the next day and I think we beat my climbing time. Unfortunately our slow (slower than the bike) pace on the descent allowed enough time for mosquitoes to catch up and attack us.

I will see you again when I am stronger and destroy you.

Went to ride in the Laie area. It ended up being a long, endless hill climb that people seem to ride motos at. The vegetation was as sundry as ever, but I scouted some weird secret trails and had a good hustle getting to the top. The descent was extremely fast and I was all smiles. The top of the trail cut through a Kona berry patch and was fairly challenging riding through it, given the narrowness of the trail.

Ride again? Yes, just for the amazing views and the killer workout.