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Today I headed out on my first solo trip with my mountain bike.  Matt is out of town for work, and I am determined to keep on a good routine of riding, so that’s that!  I decided to just do a short bit at Happy Jack on some of the trails I haven’t been on before.  I am thinking about racing in the Laramie Mountain Bike Series race this coming Tuesday, and figured I should familiarize myself with some of the trails that are often used for the beginner category.

I felt like crap!  Couldn’t catch my breath, and it was oh so hot out.  I immediately started thinking about how bad I would probably do at the race, especially if it is mostly uphill (which seems to be the case).  It wasn’t my legs burning or anything, just my lungs and that sort of fitness thing.  But I kept on going… I took Meadow up to Ridge, then on Blackjack Loop, to Adler, then back up Adler to Meadow to the Campground Bypass.  Whoa, why did I now just discover the bypass?!  It is so much better than riding the campground roads, which have been horrible since they did whatever the hell they did to them a few weeks back to make them all sandy and loose.  I briefly stopped at my car for a drink and some Shot Bloks, and went back through the campground to the bypass again, just because I liked it that much! 

I almost T-boned a squirrel while flying down Adler   I saw the little critter on the side of the trail, and of course he decided to run right in front of my tire when I got closer… I’m pretty sure I ran over the tip of his tail!  I was doing about 16 mph, so the last thing I wanted to do was slam on my brakes and tear myself up.  I hope he escaped without harm, though the damn thing shouldn’t have ran out like that!  I do think this is my first wildlife close encounter, haha! 

Overall, 4.38 miles in a total time of 42 minutes, 9 second (I didn’t pause it when I stopped to take the above photo and answer some texts, however… either way, yes, it was slow!).  I did have a good high average speed of 6.24mph, which is nearly double than what I’ve seen on other rides.  So overall it wasn’t bad and I familiarized myself with some trails that I had been missing out on.  I know my fitness has improved A LOT since I first started riding, but I still get so out of breath and sluggish.  I really do want to enter a race, mostly for fun, but I don’t want to be the painfully slow person everyone has to waste time passing.  So we’ll see… I know I could’ve stayed out longer today, as I finally had started to feel okay by the end of my ride, but still called it a day.

Tomorrow I am riding Happy Jack again with a friend of mine.  It should be a good mental push for me, as I am not apt to whine nearly as much as when I go with Matt, and I’ll be wanting to impress! 

Sunday Matt and I are planning to hike in the Snowies.  I kinda wanted to bike, but then I figured that a day off to rest might be good in case the miles rack up tomorrow.  Tuesday night is the race, so I’ll be debating about that for the next few days.  Just pretty hesitant…

On Monday Matt and I decided to take a quick ride up Hwy 130 to “the top” – as I call it.  I absolutely love going up there, reminds me of my childhood, and to this day I still think it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to.  We have been making plans to climb Medicine Bow Peak sometime this summer.  I climbed it 4 times from ages 8-11, so I wanted to see how it was at my ripe old age of 28.

Matt ended up wanting to wander around Lake Marie quite a lot, so I carefully hobbled along in my Converse sneakers and short shorts… obviously, not very well dressed for hiking!  I made the mistake (??) of telling him about the United Airlines crash in 1955, so now he is absolutely determined to find the crash site and hike to it.  I must admit, it is a cool idea, so I’m going along with it.  But it did consume the rest of the evening… googling, mapping, etc.  Which also provided me with a way to summit Medicine Bow Peak that I didn’t know existed.  During my school trips up there, we always left from the Sugarloaf area.  Turns out there’s a trailhead at Lake Marie that takes you all the way across the ridge to the peak.  Totally excited to do this!

I was absolutely shocked at the utter lack of snow on top… last year, to the day of June 18th I drove up there with a friend, and we couldn’t leave the road due to feet and feet of snow.  Definitely doesn’t bode well to the drought and fire conditions we’re seeing this summer.

Just a few photos…

So now that Matt is on a mission to find the crash site, and I’m on a mission to climb Medicine Bow Peak, I knew I needed to invest in some hiking boots.  Usually I would just wear sneakers on our hikes, but since I have crappy ankles I was always worried about hurting myself and I wanted something that was waterproof.  So I journeyed over to Sierra Trading Post to find something to fit my needs.  I’m a sucker for pink or purple things (um, hi, have you seen my bike?!), so a pair of purple Asolo Advance GTX’s caught my eye.  They were on closeout and have awesome ankle support and are purple, so I couldn’t resist!  So I now own hiking boots… holy crap, sometimes I really gotta step back and chuckle over how my life has really turned around in the past few months!

Mountains and hikes, here I come!

It’s amazing every time I get out on my bike, and I feel how I am getting stronger and faster.  It’s not happening over night, but is definitely occurring.  A few weeks ago I usually had to hike-a-bike anytime things got steep, especially near the end of a ride.  Last night I did over 3 miles of steep climbing at the end with all ride-a-bike!  I dunno, it’s just an awesome feeling.  I went from a completely sedentary lifestyle about 4 weeks ago to this point.  Makes me want to hug myself!

I’ve started to realize I’m really bad at writing in this, and have totally forgotten to write about South Dakota and our 30 mile ride on the George S. Mickelson Trail during Memorial Weekend!  Shame on me!

Well, the weather didn’t want to cooperate that weekend.  It was rainy and incredibly foggy, so when we drove up to Mount Rushmore on the 26th, we realized it would be stupid to spend money to look at clouds.  We figured we’d head up to Deadwood, cruise around on the bikes, and call it a day.  Our detour took us to Hill City, which is where the trailhead for the portion of the trail I wanted to ride was located.  We gave it some quick thought, and decided just to ride the trail instead of doing anything else.  Found a grocery store, stocked up on Lunchables (our #1 biking lunch option!!), and changed into our biking clothes and headed out towards Mystic.

I quickly got too hot and shed about 3 layers, and downed a Clif Bar.  The disadvantage to our whole idea is that we never ate a proper breakfast because we were just expecting to hang out with carved presidents, not bike 30 miles.

The first 8 miles was a pure climb.  I felt like death, but slowly my legs went numb, so all I felt was the aching in my butt!  Even at 8 miles, it was going to be my longest ride yet, but I was determined to see these two rail tunnels further on the trail.  By this time we were not sure we’d go all the way to Mystic, but dammit, I had to see a tunnel!  After the shelter at Redfern, we pretty much flew downhill the whole way.  Hell, Matt reached 25 miles an hour even!  Even though I was smiling because we were going downhill, I had that horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that all this speed meant a torturous climb back UP.  I hate going UP.  Have I ever mentioned that before?  UP = evil. 

BAM!  Tunnel A!  This my friends, made the trip worth it.  For some background, the Mickelson Trail is a rails-to-trails project, so it is filled with old rail trestle bridges, and 4 tunnels.  I managed to run through a pool of bat guano, yay me.  Between that and the cow and horse poop, I think this was a very poopy ride for my bike and I….

Little Matt, big tunnel!

I was stupidly excited for this tunnel!

I’ve decided that’s my official “I am dead” face!  I was even too tired to do my typical dorky flexing my arms pose.

We collapsed into the car, ordered Pizza Hut on the way back to Rapid City, picked it up, and proceeded to down a box of cheese bread in under 5 minutes, and then inhaled a large Hawaiian pizza upon getting to the hotel.  After a shower, I’m pretty sure I didn’t move the rest of the night!

So then on Monday (Memorial Day), we figured we’d ride the 8 mile portion from Mystic to Rochford, and back, for a nice ride through another tunnel.  Unfortunately, the wind was downright horrendous and chilly, so our plans changed.  We decided to ride to Tunnel C, and then back and call it a day.  We ended up doing about 5 miles, which was bad considering I was still majorly tore up from the 30 miles.

Tunnel C on the trail!

One of the super long, super high trestle bridges!

And that was our South Dakota adventure!  It’s been nearly two weeks, and I actually still have a sore tailbone/deep pelvis, which slightly concerns me.  I’m sure continually riding on it does not help.  Matt and I have wondered if my seat is a bit too narrow for my sit bones (yay child bearing hips!), so eventually I might look at different seats.  I’m also thinking that if we do another long ride like this I am definitely investing in some higher end chamois for more padding.  My Pearl Izumi Select line of thermal tights aren’t bad, but I don’t think they’re really made for 30+ miles of riding.  We’ll see… someday we do want to do the whole 110 mile ride from Deadwood to Edgemont!

I quickly learned that biking in normal walking/running shoes pretty much sucks, especially if any amount of hiking has to occur.  With the temptation of REI’s Anniversary Sale, I found some pink and grey Pearl Izumi X Alp Drift II mountain biking shoes that I couldn’t resist. Matt was kind enough to bring home a pair after work, but they were too small 😦  From what I’ve read, Pearl Izumi shoes run about one size smaller, so I had to order in a 41. Anyways, long story short (I’m a wordy person…), they arrived at the store last Thursday, so we

picked them up and headed up to Lory State Park west of Fort Collins, CO to do some riding after work. 

I really like the shoes!  It definitely helps having a stiffer sole.  The only huge issue I had was the plate that covers the cleat mount is slippery, so my feet could come flying off the pedals at the worse moments.  Obviously this will change once I mount the cleats that came with my new platform/clipless hybrid pedals that I ordered in with the shoes.  Other than that, I really like the shoes, they’re comfy on and off the bike, and have good ventilation.

Anyways, Lory State Park is awesome!  We did two laps of the Valley Loop trails, for a total of just a little over 10 miles.  Lots of speedy singletrack mixed with some rocky challenges.  This marked the first time I never hiked-a-bike during any portion, so another accomplishment!

It really made me wish we lived in Fort Collins, so we could play around here more often.  Luckily, it’s not horribly far from Cheyenne, so we can make do, and it’s a great place to catch a ride after Matt gets off of work. 

Tomorrow I think we are going to hit up Curt Gowdy State Park for our ride. 

Yesterday marked the one week anniversary of getting a mountain bike.  I think I can declare it a pretty successful week!  I went from not riding a bike in 14 years to barreling down some challenging “black diamond” designated trails in Happy Jack!  According to my GPS app I use on my iPhone, Cyclemeter, I rode 28.20 miles in this one week period, and add another 4 from our first day before I had the app, for a total of 32.20 miles.  High Five for me!

Tuesday, May, 15, 2012
Yay, bike day!!!  Matt and I both ended up with bikes different than expected, but in a good way.  We purchased our bikes at a great little downtown shop here in Laramie, The Pedal House.  I just love the personalized service we received, which included Dewey working about 40 minutes after closing to finish up our bikes and accessories, and to ring us up.  Now what big box store would give that kind of service?!

I got a Giant Rainier 29er 0 model.  I love it because it’s grey and pink.  Oh, and it’s pretty awesome to ride, too.  🙂  Also picked up water bottle cage (in pink!), a helmet, and gloves.  Matt got a Giant Trance full suspension bike, bottle cage, and bicycle computer. 

Second day out, and we decided to give the Greenbelt another go, just in the opposite direction.  Just about another 4 miles under our belts.  The GPS got all wonky on the way back, probably because Matt had my phone in it pocket and was bouncy all over the place.

Despite growing up at 9000 feet in the Snowies west of Laramie, WY, after childhood I really grew into a “girly girl city type” (as much as that can exist in Wyoming!).  Through age fourteen, which was the time my family moved into Laramie and out of the mountains, I spent nearly all my time outdoors.  I would cross country ski several miles daily in the snow months, had my own homemade ice skating rink, downhill skied avidly, ran in the warmer months, and was always on my cheapy mountain bike, all amidst being a very dedicated and obsessed gymnast.  Exercise and activity were just part of life, and life occurred outdoors. 

Needless to say, I lost this oomph through my later teen years and into adulthood.  Every once in awhile I would lose myself in some patch of nature with my camera, but usually I was a couch/computer/TV bum.  My eating habits spiraled out of control, and I packed on the pounds and associated health problems.

Now, at age 28, just finished with nursing school, and trying to get a fresh start on my life, I’m re-evaluating all of this.  I live in such a beautiful area, why am I not outdoors, being active, eating healtier?!  My boyfriend, Matt, moved down here to Laramie in late April, and has really inspired me to get healthier and more active.  We took several long hikes in Vedauwoo, and being out in the fresh air just made something come alive in me.

Matt and I decided to purchase mountain bikes as a way to get more active.  I was hesitant and nervous, as it’s 1) an expensive hobby 2) can injure me 3) requires good physical health and 4) requires the outdoors.  Well… screw all of that, I’m hooked!  I love it.  I never love anything that brings me pain!

So this will be a little blog/journal/brain vomit of our various biking shenanigans, trips, hikes, adventures, whatever.