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- Sep 17, 2013
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I drove 170 miles east today to Sault Ste. Marie and there are still a lot of patches of snow in the woods everywhere and the Upper Ste. Mary's River had ice all along the shore. Munising Bay in Lake Superior had a lot of ice off Sand Point that had blown in with the wind. On the return trip it was snowing but it stopped now. The woods are spongy and wet and the lowlands are full of overflow. I don't know about the 1000 feet of climb but I do know that when we do a C level group weekly evening ride of 10 -12 miles and we exceed 1000 feet everyone mentions it. A and B level rides probably do this each week. Must be a marker or something. I do the 1000 foot climb thing once a week all winter and spring, then when the trails get dry I will do 1000 in 5 miles on single track and gravel. I usually do this ride most every morning in the summer before it gets too hot. I never seem to improve no matter how much hill work I do and then I read somewhere that exercise physiologists seem to pretty much all agree that elderly people can't improve their VO2 max. It seems true, sad to say. I have no problem with the B group technical parts but on long steep hills after 5 miles I can't keep up. The A and B groups don't wait for anyone but the C group has a sweeper. Usually some sweet young thing B rider rides back to see if I am still alive. This makes me feel bad. So two years ago I started really increasing my hill work but I still get left behind at the same sections. It's frustrating because I am now technically a B group rider but I do not have the leg power or the wind to ride as fast or steep for as long as they do. Oh, I can finish the B group ride but I will be 5 minutes behind in 15 miles. I also get so exhausted trying to keep up that I sometimes crash near the end. I sort of wish I would have discovered mountain biking 20 years ago when I was younger, but I have to console myself and be grateful that I discovered it 4 years ago. Way better 4 years of riding than not trying it and finding out how much fun someone at my age can still have. Makes me feel good. We don't call it hero dirt but in November if it rains before it snows the water in the trails freezes and it becomes like concrete and is very grippy because it is rough. You can easily ride some technical stuff you never make in the Summer. You can also go very fast, just don't fall. You get bad road rash.I feel for ya and the foul weather. I went out for a mtb ride yesterday here, because it was raining in Denver. Weird weather happens here sometimes, when it rains down in the city it is usually not raining up in the hills. The rain down there deterred most if not all the adventurous folk and I nearly had the trails to myself! Also, the dirt here is composed of mostly crushed granite and gets loose and dusty when dry. When wet its a whole different ballgame, the moisture causes it to get very grippy and packed in. The locals call it Hero dirt. I had moments of sunshine, some clouds, and it hailed on me for a little bit, but was a lot of fun! Oh, and 1000ft in 12 miles is nothing to sneeze at, well done!
keep the rubber side down!
