BST: It's what's for lunch!

Back-to-back lunch rides to start the week. Yesterday I chased Mark A. and Jon S. up E Street to 11 Ave to Dry Creek and along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail to City Creek. Actually, I wouldn't even call it a chase as most of the time I couldn't see them, they were so far ahead of me. I knew I was in trouble when, as we began the climb up E Street, Jon kept it in the big ring. As he and Mark A. chatted, I hung on for dear life. At Popperton Park I politely excused myself from the group and watched them ride away. Occasionally they would stop to enjoy the view from scenic locations along the trail and I would catch up, if only for a minute or so.

There were tons of people out on the trail, all of whom were quite friendly, with one notable exception being a surly trail runner who knocked Jon off his bike and then polluted the air with a barage of expletives. Not cool, but I've encountered some angry, reckless bikers too so I'm not going to get down on trail runners. Luckily everybody rode and ran away without injury.

Today I rode solo up to the mouth of City Creek where I jumped on the BST heading west, climbing up to the overlook where I hiked last week (see the post below). For some reason the last couple of times I've done this section of trail I haven't felt like continuing up to the radio towers, nor have I been inclined to descend the same trail that I just finished climbing. This time I decided to explore, dropping down a rather loose, steep connector trail that eventually intersected the main Ensign Peak trail. I descended the last few hundred yards on the main trail (which was composed of a nearly continuous sequence of water bars) to the park, and then dropped through the neighborhood, past the Capitol to the bike/pedestrian lane that took me back to the mouth of City Creek and then back to the Avenues. A quick bomb down E Street and I was back to work.

On a different, but related subject, I'm not a huge fan of lycra and hairy legs. Unfortunately, my cycling drawer is currently full of the former, and my legs are quickly becoming the latter. The question I'm faced with is whether it's worth one final, late-season shave in order to fully enjoy the 2-3 remaining lunch rides this week? Normally I wear leg or knee warmers this time of year so the hair on my legs is hidden. This unseasonably warm weather pattern we're currently enjoying is throwing a wrench into my plans to have hair on my legs for the start of ski season.

Falling Back

Lately it's been harder and harder to get out on the bike. For example, this week (so far) I have done 0 rides. Hopefully that will change tomorrow as I have a nice window in which to recreate in the morning. To compensate, I've been avoiding the elevator and taking the six flights of stairs between the lowest parking level and my office on the fourth floor. In fact, some days I take the stairs down to the garage and back up to my floor each time I leave the office to use the restroom. It's not much, but better than nothing.

As far as "real" exercise is concerned, I did manage to get out on a hike Monday evening. Together with a client who was in town from Doha, Qatar, I went up the Shoreline trail on the west side of City Creek. We didn't have time to go all the way to the radio towers, and besides, the view from the overlook is better anyway (in my opinion at least, though you can't really tell from this blurry picture courtesy of my phone):



I was surprised how steep the switchback climb turned out to be. I knew it was a lung buster on two wheels, but for some reason expected it to be easier on foot. Not so, and it was cool to see the lines I normally ride from a different perspective.
We started just before 6 PM so by the time we reached the top it was already quite dark. It didn't take long on the descent to switch on our headlamps and we enjoyed the hike down in the dark. Maybe I'm just a wimp, but hiking (or biking for that matter) at night isn't something I would do alone. However, with company it's super fun and I always come away asking myself why I don't do it more often. Given that the time changes this Sunday, which means it will get dark around 5:30 PM, I'm thinking that recreating in the dark will become more and more common.

Custom Built Road Wheelset For Sale

I've decided to sell my backup wheelset. It's been a difficult decision because the wheels are a sweet custom build courtesy of Lyle at Spin Lite Cycling. However, now that I've converted my Ksyriums to a tubeless setup I don't see myself using them very often. Plus, I need some $ to buy a pair of bindings for my new powder skis!

Here are the details:

Rims: Velocity Fusion (black)
Hubs: White Industries LTA (silver)
Spokes: Sapim CX Ray (silver, 24 front/28 rear, laced 2x front, 3x rear drive side and 2x rear non-drive side)
Skewers: Zipp titanium (black)
Weight (front, no skewer but with Velox rim strip): 720 grams
Weight (rear, no skewer but with Velox rim strip): 860 grams

Asking price: $350 Cash or PayPal.

Let me know if you want to check them out.

Flying Dog & Glenwild

Kris and I got out for a sweet 2 hours of riding in Park City this afternoon. If all fall days could be like this I'd be a happy, happy guy. With temperatures in the 60's, a bright blue sky, the earthy smell of fallen leaves and plenty of colorful leaves on the hillsides made for a near perfect day. Finish it off with a burger, fries and Coke from Five Guys and it doesn't get much better.

Flying Dog:




Glenwild:

Fall on the BST

Season of Change

Today I received the following text:

FRM: SheriffCynAlrt@slco.org
MSG: Test of Sheriff Canyon Alert System for 2009-2010 winter season

For more info or unsubscribe go to www.slsheriff.org

Yeah! Bring it.

Bobsled

I hiked up the Bobsled with Mark A. this afternoon to re-visit the scene of his accident. It was a bit unnerving walking uphill on a popular high speed, downhill-only trail. I kept expecting a rider to come flying around a corner but luckily we didn't run into (pun intended) anybody.

He went down just above where this car sits off to the side of the trail, on an off camber section of loose surface on top of a hardpacked base. To the side sits a big, rather innocent looking rock that we assumed inflicted the damage to his arm.

Emergency Extraction

No, I'm not talking about dentistry. I'm referring to a call from a friend that is hurt and needs help. This afternoon I received such a call. I won't go into any details (my buddy who called has a blog too and owns the rights to the first real post on the subject as well as the graphic image of the wound) other than to say he's ok. It's nice to have a hospital (LDS) just minutes from the office and trail, not that I plan to return anytime soon. This was my second time taking a friend to the ER after a cycling accident and it does make you think about the inherent danger in what we do on bikes. I'm just glad I'll soon be able to ride with him again. Be safe out there.

I love CarboRocket

Seriously. It's all I drink on the bike when water just isn't enough. Well, I also like Coke but usually I only drink that when I stop at a convenience store post ride. Anyway, so today I discovered another use for the stuff that I want to share.

Last night both myself and my 7 year old daughter got hit by a stomach bug. Hard. She fared worse than me, and had thrown up 11 times by noon today. As you can imagine she was starting to get dehydrated yet couldn't keep anything down. She kept asking for water but I didn't want her to keep throwing it right back up. It was at that point, in a true moment of desperation, that I had the idea to mix a glass of CarboRocket (raspberry lemonade if you were curious what flavor) for her to drink.

Brad claims it's easy on the stomach and I'm here to tell you that he's not lying. I started with a spoonfull every 5 minutes, then 2, 3, 4 spoonfulls until I just let her sip it from the cup. At that point I was getting pretty stressed and worn out as my wife had come down with the same bug and wasn't able to help our 4 month old baby. I was completely drained and turned to two things for help: CarboRocket and my in-laws. Let's just say that both were absolute super stars and my family and I are feeling much better now.

I can honestly say that CarboRocket got us through a very difficult day. I love that stuff.

Will Bart repeat in the Clarks TT?

Last night I received an email from Bart Gillespie, local hero and working man's pro mountain bike and cyclocross racer. He had ridden his cross bike to Sandy and decided to give the Clarks TT a go while in the area. In his words:

I started very conservative and just upped the pace as I went, it made it so it did not hurt all that bad becasue I never got close to blowing up.

The result? 8:24! To put that time in perspective consider it's 58 seconds faster than the 2nd best time and 34 seconds faster than Bart's previous best time from 2008.

Can Bart be beaten? From his email it sounds like with slightly higher tire pressure, lighter wheels and less traffic on the trail there's a good chance he could go sub 8 minutes!

I'd really like to see Alex, Ali, Eric, Art, Reed and the other elite cyclocross guys give it a shot on their cross bikes. If somebody is going to beat Bart it will probably be from that group.

Again, in Bart's words, the "dirt is in great shape and the cool temps make it nice" so if you haven't done the tt in a while (or at all for that matter) now is the perfect time. Get out and ride!