Weekend Training Rides

Colorado Springs, Mountain Bike, training | UltraRob | Tuesday, May 9th, 2006 at 4:59 pm

Since I’d been sick last week with a mild cold, I didn’t go to the 200k brevet that I had planned to do. Instead I did a ride up to Palmer Lake, through Black Forest, out on the plains to Peyton and then back US 24 in to town and then rode up toward Woodland Park.

I started late because it was cool and rainy first thing in the morning. It cleared off nicely and dried off making for a nice day when I started out. Thunderstorms kept building around them but I managed to stay out of their way for a while. When I went through Falcon on the way back into town, there was a thunderstorm on each side of US 24.

I debated whether I should take shelter at the gas station or hope I could get between them. I decided to take my chances and the 2 storms grew into one. At first it was just big, stinging, cold rain drops and then it was mixed with big chunks of slush. Fortunately it didn’t turn to hail. I probably rode in the rain for about 30 minutes but it took over an hour to dry off once I got through it and then sun came out. My cyclocomputer once again quit picking up just like it did after riding in the snow a little over a week ago. I discovered that the o-ring that’s supposed to seal the battery compartment on the transmitter has gotten old and cracked. Now I hope I can find something to replace it with. I think I got almost 110 miles in although my computer only recorded a little over 91.

I had the stitches removed from my arm last week and Dr. Carter said I could use the aero bars as much as I wanted as long as it didn’t hurt. I didn’t even feel any discomfort. Unfortunately that couldn’t be said of my knee that I slammed into the fence post when I was riding near Avon. It was stiff for the first couple hours and then it got to the point that it didn’t feel too bad. My bio-mechanics were off though because my ankle and hip hurt and my hamstrings were getting tight.

Sunday I went for my first weekend mountain bike ride in a long time. I’ve done a few mountain bike rides at lunch but they’ve been short. I rode a bunch of my favorite trails such as the Chutes, Buckhorn, Upper Captain Jacks, Bear Creek, Intemann, and some trails in the Red Rock Open Space. My handling skills actually were better than I was expecting but my shoulders and arms got tired since I don’t use them much on the road.

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