Kristin Rides

Saturday I went out with a few other PVers for the Ride Around Clark County century. We round around…well, Clark County, starting in Vancouver and heading out to Amboy along the Lewis River. It was an absolutely beautiful course, and the weather stayed mostly dry with a few teases of almost-sun. I wasn’t sure if I was going to do the 65 miles or the 100 miles, and I had about 37 miles to think about it.

I just could not make up my mind; at first my legs felt very stiff, my knees achey, and in general not so good. We were going at a fairly casual pace, and by the time we hit 37 miles, I was feeling pretty good. So I decided to keep going–after all, long miles are exactly what I need. So three of us continued out, along the river; I was pretty hungry by the time we got to the second rest stop…I usually never notice hunger on team rides, because any discomfort in my stomach is driven out by extreme pain elsewhere. I loaded up on pb&js and a strange thing called “trail putty” (a delicious mix of pb, powdered milk, and honey), and we caught onto a large group of riders who were keeping their pace a bit higher then we were alone.

So we rode together through the rollers and hills; I was thankful for the draft, as 100 miles in a small group can be a bit of a challenge (100 miles alone I simply cannot fathom–although I did actually do this for my first century). By the time we were hitting about 50 miles, I was feeling much, much better. In fact I would have to say I felt better with every mile (every mile that wasn’t uphill, at any rate).

We hit the last rest stop around mile 75, again loading up on tasty treats. My upper back/between my shoulders was just burning with pain, but the rest of me felt good. After some stretches, I managed to loosen it up though and it felt better most of the rest of the ride. We slowly got more and more into the city, more and more houses; I was staring at my computer, counting each mile as it passed. I was kind of hating my computer at this point, not because I wanted the ride to be over, but mostly because it’s a habit to keep staring at it that really, really annoys me. I’d rather just enjoy the ride.

The final 10 miles saw 2 very steep leg-killing hills, just to remind you how far you’ve ridden. I ended the ride feeling really good, no bonking (thank you trail putty), and absolutely no saddle soreness. Which I kind rather surprising.

On Sunday, a few of us went out to Scappose for some mountain biking. It was BEAUTIFUL today. Clear blue skies and plenty of sunshine. We were out exploring the trails of which there are just tons…we ended up being out for about 2 hours. Its a funny gang, 3 of us on 29rs, and I’m the only one on a bike with any speeds (and only 9 at that). Damn single speeders

I took 2 pretty bad spills, one was the first endo of the season. Stupid ruts. The other one was very similar, although the actual fall wasn’t bad, my handle bar landed on my leg, squeezing my thigh between it and the frame really, really hard. The more I struggled to get the bike off, the tighter it squeezed, I thought my leg was going to break off. Thankfully Alex came to my rescue (as I was screaming “get it off me!” and a weird bone-breaking sound was emanating from either me or my bike). Turned out the breaking sound was just the shifter being clicked.

By the time we finished up I was mentally exhausted, although surprisingly my legs didn’t feel too horrible at all. Mountain biking involves a completely different kind of strength then road biking; it’s all about power climbs. Very short, very steep whoop-dees that I totally excel at (when I don’t endo). I only realized how tired my legs were on any sort of sustained, medium grade climbs.

Great weekend all together; tomorrow is the first PIR of the season. After a century and a mountain bike ride, I’m expecting my legs to feel like trail putty. We shall see. And then….. REST WEEK!