Monday, January 28, 2008

Saturday Morning Mountain Bike Ride

Today I took off for Springville on the Bianchi. I took Rt-240 down and decided to come back up Rt-391 (which was much more enjoyable!!!). I had a lot of problems with my CamelBak freezing in the mouthpiece area. I had to stop a couple of times on the way to adjust that and my bacalava to keep my forehead from freezing! It was around 15 degrees when I started and thank goodness there was no wind to add to the cold temperature.

I made it down to Springville in about 1 1/2 hours with the stops I had to take and decided to grab some hot chocolate at Dunkin Donuts since on my rides I will be stopping periodically to refuel. Had some fun conversations with a couple of people asking me where I was riding from and telling me to be safe and to have fun. Once I got moving again I was shivering from being cold again. Next time I will not stop that long for sure!

So I headed over to Springville-Boston Road (Rt-391) and headed back home. This was a fun ride. Not any large hills so I could keep my heart rate in a good range for a long time. Then the decision came - How do I go home and by this I mean which hill will I ride up. I live at the top of the hill and no matter what when I leave for a long ride or run I get to head downhill at first, and then the finish is always which hill up.

I was going to ride 50 miles but got a late start and had to clean up for the basketball game that afternoon, so I cut it short. I decided to head up Herman Hill Road. I purposely went slower than I could have to keep my heart rate lower. I crested out on the hill and cruised the remaining relatively flat portion home.

As I got off the bike my left hamstring cramped up! That stunk. I did a lot of stretching and took the bike downstairs to start the clean off process. A lot of road grime was on the bike and my clothes so I cleaned them up and headed off for basketball after my world famous smoothie. Ask me for the recipe someday and I will share it with you! I also polished off a chicken taco before the game for good measure. I earned it!

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