Moronacity

Sunday Trail Day

It’s the week before Christmas . . . er, Fat Tire, and I have the anticipation that a child would have for presents. I have a great week planned, and it has started off properly, considering the climactic event.

Yesterday was the weekly Copper Harbor trail day. I showed up early to assist Rachel with providing breakfast for the trail crew, then I headed out with Sam, Sam, and Ann for some pre-race trail cleanup.

Last year, this highly motivated kid and his mom showed up for trail day. We all remember them because the kid’s name is Sam, just like Keweenaw Adventure Sam, and they were working together building new trail. I was surprised to see Sam and his mother join us, again. Apparently, they are from Minnesota and they have a cottage just outside the Harbor. Trail day is one of the parts of their Keweenaw vacation that they look forward to. We’re not only surprised, but grateful to them.

My yearly goal for trail work is twenty hours. Yesterday, I reached that goal. Why twenty? Well, there was a discussion in the MMBA forum quite a while back about bikers putting in trail time. Someone gave the 20/20/20 guideline: $20 to MMBA, $20 to IMBA, and 20 hours of trail work. Last year, I did just over twenty hours of trail work. This year, I’m at twenty on the dot. I plan to get more this weekend.

Monday Night Ride

Today, I hosted the Trekker’s Monday night ride. My house is beautiful! It’s clean! I even did away with the dust bunnies under the couches. Six of us broke off the main riding group because we wanted just to take it easy and simply enjoy the way our bikes roll over the terrain. The other group, I’m sure, was quite a bit faster.

You see, Keweenaw riders are very good and quite fast. Sure, we have riders of all abilities but, unlike other areas, our faster riders definitely outnumber the inexperienced riders. We have a steep learning curve. The terrain is so demanding that the new riders who are willing to put themselves out there and learn from other riders will progress rather quickly. While we’re not all lightning fast, most of us are certainly faster simply because of the local terrain and our bike skills aren’t too bad, either.

Most of the group rides I’ve done this year were fast. The fastest few would lead and the rest of us would pedal for dear life to keep up with them. I was happy to find out that a few riders just wanted to hang out and ride at an enjoyable pace. It was simple fun. Hey! It’s my taper week!

This next bit of information is probably useless to you, but I need to document it so I have something to refer to next time I host the ride and can’t figure out what to serve: four boxes of the Betty Crocker Complete Meals Three Cheese Chicken is perfect. Two boxes may suffice for snowshoe season.

Beer

My “no beer” vow has been broken, but only for a good reason. I attended the Fat Tire meeting last night, which was held at the Keweenaw Brewing Company. Well, beer is kind of on the menu there. Also, I was informed that beer during the meeting did not count since it was a part of official business.

Ok, I’m back on the wagon and will not have any more beer until Thursday night.

Beer . . . or ride? Hm . . . well, I could sneak a ride in tomorrow even though I’m on call. I’ve done it several times before. I used to do it all the time when I worked full time and fifty percent of my free time really wasn’t free at all . . . because I was on call. That beer really sounds good.

I don’t know if I’ve told you this, but I’ve given up beer until Fat Tire weekend (that is Labor Day weekend for you non-cycling folk). My friend, Pat, is trying to lose five pounds before the race, and I’m trying to get down to 165 pounds. I was 175 a couple days ago, and it might very well be because I was doing the normal fluctuation thing, but I’m trying to get 175 out of the picture altogether. Today, I’m 171. Hopefully, by Fat Tire, I’ll be 165.

I got pretty close to the ten hour mark for the week, today. I won’t ride anymore, though, because I have some serious house cleaning to do while on call, tomorrow, and I have trail work all day, Sunday. That’s ok.

Next week will pose a bit of a challenge. I will be working three days and will try to commute by bike. That will give me about three hours. I’ll probably mountain bike on Thursday – a race pre-ride – and do a gentle road ride with a couple sprints on Saturday just to keep things fresh. I’ve found that my legs are generally heavy after a day off. Friday will be free from biking, so I think I’ll hit the harbor by kayak.

The decreased biking will not get me to ten hours. It just won’t happen, so I’ll have to watch my food intake. This is usually difficult when work is involved. When I had the weight loss conversation with Pat, I told him that I was going to give up beer until Fat Tire weekend. That was Monday. I opened a bottle of sparkling wine that night. I’ve been good ever since, though.

Tonight posed a challenge. I planned to ride, but I really couldn’t motivate myself. I saw a lovely picture of a beer on a forum and suddenly wanted beer very much. It’s a hot day. It’s Friday. I had just gotten home from work and from buying textbooks. It’s the perfect day for a beer. I was justifying skipping the ride and getting the beer. I decided to wait ten minutes to see if I still wanted the beer. I tried reading. I got up. Sat down. Got up. Realized I was too antsy to not do anything . . . and changed into my cycling clothes lightning fast! I went for a thoroughly enjoyable road ride. I’m glad I did. I never had that beer. I don’t even want that beer, now.

This past cyclocross season, I received a sample packet of Hammer Nutrition’s Perpetuem. Perpetuem is a drink mix intended for endurance rides. I finally decided to use this sample during yesterday’s four hour ride.

I ran out of Perpetuem before the end of my ride, and started slowing down before I got home. Of course, I don’t usually do thirty mile mountain bike rides, but I felt it was a great opportunity to put this sports beverage to the test.

It passed.

I fully intend to place an order for Perpetuem this weekend. When taken frequently, I felt great and was able to keep going. It seemed to give my body what it needed to keep the greatly feared bonk at bay. The key is to consistently use it throughout the whole time you wish not to bonk. If you wish to bonk, then quit using it. The bonk will soon follow.

Many people are familiar with the flavor of Heed. It isn’t exactly a fine wine that brings great pleasure the minute it meets the palate. Perpetuem doesn’t exactly fit this description as well, however it is different. It has the trademark subtlety of Hammer products, with more of a grainy flavor, a flavor that I found highly desirable in the midst of my workout. It seemed to be just what my body wanted.

I am still trying to decide which sports drink I prefer for the average ride, but Perpetuem has my vote for endurance.

My rides and races are usually quite uneventful. Aside from a few loose skewers, I haven’t had any issues for a while. I haven’t even had a flat since last summer.

I decided to ride my bike to the Michigan Tech Trails, today. I planned to be gone for four hours and decided it was best to prepare for the worst. I had my usual little bag packed with:
* Multi-tool
* Spare tube
* Two CO₂ cartridges
* Two tire levers

I also packed the following:
* Hammer Perpetuem
* Packet of Heed
* Flask of Hammer Gel
* Phone
* Camera
* Eye drops for contacts
* Lunch – peanut better and jelly sandwich, salted carrots, and two chocolate chip cookies
* Dozen chocolate chip cookies for The Bike Shop

It all began with a generally long descent into Hancock on the ORV/Rails-to-Trail path from my home in the north. I enjoyed pedaling down the path at about 16 mph. It was fun and a great warm up. I rode through downtown Hancock and crossed the bridge making way for The Bike Shop. I stopped in to deliver a dozen chocolate chip cookies to Steve and Caleb. I occasionally bake cookies for them to show my appreciation.

I headed to the Michigan Tech campus via the bike path and rounded my way up to the Student Development Complex to hop onto the Outer Loop just across the street. I was in Heaven. It has been so long since I rode the Tech Trails that I had almost forgotten what it was really like to ride there. The poem in my previous post was written with the Tech Trails in mind.

I rode the baby smooth singletrack of Outer Loop and moved onto the Inner Loop to complete the fun, fast trails on the hill. While climbing back to the trailhead, I suddenly felt something in my eye. I wear contacts, so eye debris usually causes the baby blues to scream. Fortunately, I had eyes drops! I popped out the contact and irrigated. All was well.

After completing Inner Loop, it was time to move onto the Time Trial Loop which leads to Hairy Toad and Barking Frog. Hairy Toad proved to be a challenge. I found myself uncertain with the skinny bridges as things just didn’t feel right. Some of the technical sections proved awkward and I didn’t even try to make it through a second time. My bike slid around turns and then I finally realized that I had a slow leak in my rear tire. Oh, boy! I finally get to use my CO₂ cartridges! Well, that’s the positive way of looking at it. The problem was when I couldn’t get them to work, at least in a way that was beneficial to me.

I decided to pack up my stuff and walk the bike several blocks down the hill to The Bike Shop to get some air. Just as I was about to get on with it, John, my team mate, showed up. He tried getting the CO₂ to work and failed as well. Then, three more guys showed up. One of them lent me his hand pump, allowing me to finish out my ride.

I finished up Toad and Frog and moved onto the Dragon Loop. This is where the most peculiar thing occurred. I was a little ways past the Dragon Bridge heading for the V-ditch when, on a turn, I noticed this:

Oh, yes. It is strange, indeed! A decapitated and scalped Barbie! I really don’t know what to say about that except that was the only thing I got a picture of, today. No, I do not know where Barbie’s face went.

I continued back down Outer Loop to exit onto the road the same way I came. I backtracked to downtown Houghton and took a rest on the waterfront to eat the snacks I packed. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich was smushed and wet, so I threw it out. I hate one-and-a-half cookies, but that really wasn’t the answer, so I tossed the last half. The salty carrots, however, were the perfect food. I had been riding around three hours and a healthy, salty snack was just what my body wanted.

I hopped back on the bike and backtracked through Hancock and up the rail-to-trail to my road and home, again. I was tired. My body was ready to quit. I was gone for four hours and five minutes. With my bike shop stop, flat tire, and park snack, I logged three hours and forty minutes of ride time over 30.39 miles. That is a lot on a mountain bike, and boy, do I feel it!