Sunday, April 26, 2009

Rawrod 09

Finally the weekend for Ride Around White Rim trail in One Day arrived! It was very scenic and fun to meet new riders.

This video has a few scenes along the trail.




If you watched the video, you can hear the wind. The wind was relentless for the first 85 miles or so. The last 20 miles the wind let up and we either had no wind or wind at our backs.

I went down with Phil and Glen, who I had just met a few minutes before we left and they were gracious enough to let me ride down with them. Brad drove his truck with his son and Conrad, and Jilene.


We found the campsite late, like 9:30, it was at the top of horse thief. We planned to leave at 7AM and go away from horse thief in the clockwise direction.

The bratwurst at the campsite was delicious. We got there after dark, fortunately there were a few brats left. Most of us slept in tents, except for Phil, he slept under the stars on a cot.

At 5:45, I got up and packed my stuff, opened a can of peaches and ate those for breakfast. That was Erin's idea and it was a great idea, lots of carbs for the ride and they tasted good.


At 7AM we were off, moving away from the white rim trail, out to the road and the clockwise entrance. The road was actually hard to ride because of the wind factor. I hooked on to the tail of a peloton and that helped a lot. I was surprised at the number of singlespeed riders. Hats off to them for having that skill.

I felt pretty good for the first two hours. We arrived at Muscleman arch in pretty good shape, the group was pretty tight, not too spread out. After I left Muscleman, I started noticing that I was fatiguing quite a bit. Later I would realize that I had dehydrated.




A rider taking a picture between Muscleman Arch and Shafer trail

By the time I hit the Shafer trail I was dehydrated. How did I know?

I really didn't until a couple of hours later. The Shafer trail is downhill and the trail is pretty flat for a while after that.






The Shafer Trail Decends


So I didn't really notice that I had too much of a problem, except that my heart rate was about 90% of max on a relatively flat trail.





after the Shafer, the trail is fairly flat for a while




Later when more intense climbing and wind fighting became challenging I started to cramp, bad cramps. So bad that when I tried to walk or just stand it was very painful while my legs tried to implode from the muscle contractions.






This is one climb where my legs cramped up really bad, Kanyon Kris was able to clean this one.




I wasn't thirsty. I didn't feel dehydrated. But I realized I was dehydrated. Mostly because I hadn't peed in over four hours and I didn't feel like I needed to at all. So I pushed on painfully and when I reached the top of Murphys Hogsback I set a new goal: To Pee!

Yes my new goal was to drink so much water that I would have to go to the bathroom. So I started downing as much as I could. Man, it made me nausious and that is part of my problem. I don't really like to drink water when I work out. I will drink about 16 ounces an hour in most 1 -2 hour rides, that works in the short term, but long term I need at least twice that amount.







Hanging out at an overlook





The fact that it was so windy didn't help. I didn't feel thirsty, but the wind sucks the moisture out of your body leaving it like a withered plant in the desert.

After I drank water nonstop for two hours I felt the hydration coming on. I really had to force the water down, making a concious effort to drink as much as I could. I soon was hydrated and had to make a stop. Then I was able to finish the last 6 hours without cramping. That was awesome.

The climb up horsethief was painful, but at least I didn't cramp up, having drank a total of 150 ounces on the last part of the ride. I finally arrived at the campsite at 7:30, Twelve and a half hours after I had started.

Was it worth it. Yes. I loved the scenery, the camaraderie and the challenge. I also hope to do it again next year and hope to not dehydrate this time.

I thought I would never cramp because I was using an old trick that John Robinson taught me. He once gave me 3 magnesium pills and 3 potassium pills before a half marathon. The magnesium pills were 250mg. and the potassium were 125mg. I think the potassium is less important because you get potassium from a lot of foods. But the magnesium is harder to get from a normal diet and can really help in cramp prevention.

Finally, here is a video from fat cyclist I show up for two seconds in the video at 7:05 with a green Sobe jersey on my black frame Niner bike with the white Fox fork. Yeah. 2 seconds of fame as everyone passes me going up horse thief :)

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Tooth Brake or Braking with your Tooth

Author after using his “tooth brake”


Tuesday I finally had some time to ride, so I thought I would try area 51. I rode up Dry Canyon Drive (paved) to access the BST southbound.
For a great map look here
From the BST I went to the WaterTankRoad And then up Roller Coaster, up Betty to the GWT and Area 51.

I like the first ascent up Roller Coaster from the water tank Road.

Riding up RollerCoaster

The Roller Coaster trail was looking really Sweeeet! All the way from the start on up to the Rock Pile. Last fall after the deer hunt, horse traffic had really chewed up the trail and there were tons of loose rock and big piles of manure. So it was chewed up and stinky. So it was great to see what condition it was in this day.


I arrived at the Rock Pile and hadn't encountered any snow. The trail looked like it was in pretty good shape. That mean't I should go on up to Area 51, my favorite way to get over to Dry Canyon.
Me at the Rockpile (photo by Rockpile, i.e. self timer with camera perched on the Rockpile


Area 51 was completely snowbound, but I didn't know for how far so I trudged and I trudged and I trudged. Each time I went over a ridge, hoping that the snow ended, my hopes were met with disappointment.
Area 51 Snowbound


The whole trail was snowbound until it comes out at Lament. That added about a half hour to my ride, making me late for my son's Doctor's appointment. So the quickest way down is of course Dry Canyon, which I love. So down I went. The trail was in great shape, a little moist which means great traction and great speed along with no dust.

The Pipeline

A successful pipeline ride (Dec.2008, filmed by Paul Hillyard)


When I got down to the pipeline I of course rode it.


You shave off at least two minutes riding that tightrope. I made it down the pipe fine, but I had too much speed because as soon as I got off the ledge my back tire began fish tailing. I did brake, but only enough to prepare me for the oncoming trail which is straight but then gets rocky and I needed to be sub-rocket speed.
Well, the fishtailing began to aim me off the left side, a steep embankment. So I corrected, well, I overcorrected and slammed my rear wheel into the side of the mountain and I went down on my face and tried skidding on that part of my body.

My face is no good at that. It really sucks. Maybe if I had a big beard that could get some grip on the dirt and rocks but my smooth face just wasn't providing enough friction.

My front tooth decided to dig in and brake my speed. Thank you tooth, but that was really dumb. You are not that strong my white friend and that is why you broke. I now had only half a front tooth, but I did stop so all was not lost.