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| File Photo: GZ and me. We're texting one another. |
GZ and I were trying to decide on a mini adventure to replace the postponed trip to the Grand Canyon. In our most creative brainstorming, we came up with repeat laps to the top of Green Mountain (8,144 ft). We intended to do four laps but it became clear that there would be time constraints that wouldn't allow for 7 hours on the trail. I felt a little lethargic for the first 3 hours but started getting into the groove and felt fresh on the third lap, nearly coaxing George into a fourth trip to the top. Still, it was 5.5 hours of good work on terrain varied from warm, dry rocky trails to solid ice up higher. I've seen George trip and fall on a flat bike path, so I was surprized that he negotiated the full day with 7,500 ft of climb without much more that a slip on the ice here and there (which would be impossible to avoid in some sections).
I followed it up with a soft 10k recovery run this morning just before the 80,000 mph winds began. It was a good, mellow, week of training with a little cycling, some fast walking workouts, and a few runs.
Renewed both my road and mountain bike licenses with USA Cycling. I have to start over as a Cat 5 (like riding with a bunch of blind bulls - all strength, low skills) road and Cat 2 mountain classification (what happened to 'expert', 'sport', etc??). Feels good to be licensed and ready to race again. I'll likely only race road races and not crits on the road bike. A 1993 crash during the Tour de Michigan stripped away my nerve to hit a 90 degree turn at 30+ mph with 125 other cyclists. The mountain bike races, for some reason, don't bother me, go figure.
Coming up: Review of the new Tecnica Diablo Max trail shoes that I wore for the run on Green.
It is a good thing those two have good SPF on their calves and shins or the groupies would go nuts.
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly agree with the "crit" decision. I did a lot of road bike racing in my twenties and never could develop the nerve to dive into the turns. My only strength was the time-trial, a left-over from my triathlon days I am sure. One of the few times I ever beat some Cat 2,3 guys was in a time-trial series. I was a Cat 4, there was no "Cat 5" back then. I think I remember when that began, but before that, the only thing below Cat 4 was the "Citizens" category. I tried racing with those guys a few times when I first started - now that was some scary crap. I remember telling a guy to "hold his line" once, and he looked at me like he obviously had no idea what I was talking about.
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