Same place, same thing........

why change now?....after working a grueling six hours. no really it has a physicly hard six hours, i jumped on the bike and you guessed it, rode up millcreek canyon road.
got to big water trail and took that to great western. up to the park city over look.

was sporting the hammer man kit today as it is sleeveless and it was toasty hot.
a little leg action for ya.

luckily you are spared the up the nose pic here.
ahhhh...close yer mouth, ya look like a "cleatus"
some of the trail is shady and nice. in fact all of this trail is nice. i really enjoyed pushing the vassago up the road and this trail in 36x22 gear. although being leg tired from working it was hard today.

here is a nice look at park city. i think it is actually mid mountain, but the view is grand none the less. go ahead and click on the pano to get the full effect.
raced down the hill in a recreational speed as there were quite a few riders climbing up. fitness seems to be improving as i did pass a lot of people on the road and trail today while feeling wiped out.

Caught riding without a helmet by bob superbike

rode with trigirl this morning. just an easy spin, she got second yesterday in her triathlon even though she has had a stomach flu all week. talk about tough, most of us would not even get out of bed and she goes and races, gets second, beating many non-ill racers.



second ride today was a leg/core strength training up to dog lake with the doggies. i put the vassago in 36x18 gearing and rode up very slowly. walking pace to be exact. this is not easy as it really taxes the legs, back and mid-section. a bit tricky also navigating over the tree roots and occasional water bars at that slow speed. i reallly had to dig down and turn the pedals around.

the dogs love the rivers and jumpin at every crossing.
even at 7pm and overcast the trail was lush and inviting.
here my little one is getting to ambush me, but i catch her going into hiding first.
whats this?........"climb upon my knee, sonny booooy!!!" "mammy"
i guess mud is all the rage with the kool dogs on the trails this summer.
many flowers are popping up everywhere

bob "superbike"(stupidbike blog) caught me going up the trail helmet less and scolded me. i countered with "but i am only riding at 1/2 mph".
bob is a great guy and our fearless leader on the revolution bike team and he even has a secondary sponsor with gt on the "dirt coalition team".the trail is just perfect at this time of day
heard a bit of thunder at the top and cruzed back home. the husky is a bit nervous with thunder sounds and kept stopping on the trail with a worried look. a pat on the head and he is good to go again.


.

taking pictures gets me in trouble.

riding with trigirl here, once again on a supposedly just going up a canyon easy ride. she takes off and as much as i try to remind her that this is an easy day, she is still motoring up that hill.

so i then get scolded for taking pics while we ride.


this is either an italian "flip off" or "i told you paporizzi no pictures". ehhh...movie stars are like that.

fun ride thanks girl.

Big Cottonwood canyon+ Big Wind=Big tired Legs, and i got hit by a car.

set out for an medium hill climb day. got more than i wanted. right off the bat riding down wasatch the wind is blowing strong and sideways.
here i am pretending that i am not leaning sideways into the wind.

the mouth of big cottonwood canyon and the start of operation tired legs. didn't feel strong to start off with, so with a cue from the last workout, i started off up the hill in a 36x28 gear. this climb is 14 miles and has a few flatter parts.
the river that rushes down right next to the road is ever so loudly calling your name to staop, get off the bike and cool off your feet or whole body in its glassy refreshing goodness. but i did not.
after about the four mile mark the head wind which was pummeling me from the start almost had me turned around, but i forged up the hill.
at the six mile mark i had to shift down to 36x34, because the wind was so strong i was going backwards. no really it was blowing big time. and parts of this climb has some grade.

i whipped myself all the way up in that gear to the top of brighton and considered doing guardsmans pass, but my legs had that shakey, crampy weak feeling and i knew it would just be pain and fatigue without the benifit for getting stronger.

sped down the hill and limped back home.
on the last turn up millcreek road a car made a quick and unorthidox right turn from the second lane over as i was midway thru my right turn and pinched me between his car and the curb, knocking me and bike over. i yelled, but it happened soo quickly all i could do was fall onto the gravel where the sidewalk would be if there was one.

the car behind me, stopped to see if i was ok, i said yes and he yelled that he was going to get that guy who didn't even stop to see if i was ok. i never saw either one again and limped even harder home .


i got a small rip in my shorts and a good size raspberry on my hip. clutch is sad that i got hit. worry is all over her face.

Millcreek road gate now open, little water trail de-rocked and I took the wrong trail....

just wanted a 3-4 hour ride today of medium intensity. rode up millcreek road. the gate is now open because the sign says so!!!!
see i told ya its open and scary cars are driving way too close to us bikers.
i am going back to single speed training and kept the vassago in a 36x28 all the way up the road and on the trail. i could have easily gone up a couple of gears to 25 or 21 at the rear cog, but i wanted a good base experience for when i do move up.

there are three steeper parts on the way up to the top of the road and these were absolutely transparent in this gear. heart rate was 150-155 the whole day as well. the beginning of the climb felt too easy and not until just before the road ends did i even feel like a workout. i kind of liked the way i felt....strong, rested, able to sprint or charge at anytime. of course in a race i would have been left behind at this speed. would be nice to feel this way after a race and not so wipedout!!!
here is a crying shame. the flattening and removal of all rocks on this trail. it is smoother than it looks. just ridiculous as this is just before the parking lot and will increase speed of novice riders to "mach 7", unsafe and dumb.
instead of heading right up little water trail to crest, somehow i continues straight and the trail gets bad. here is a uphill gravely water running down the middle of the trail. with high psi still in my tires i could not clean this section even when i tried it twice. too slippery
most of the trail is challenging with rocks or angled slippery roots
a couple of parts are hike a bike due to the trail just disappearing into the river or so angled riding is impossible, let alone walking.
another problem is the over grown foilage that grabs the bike and stops you right when you are trying to clean a tough spot.
so after having to hike a bike and almost fall many times, i gave up and turned around back down the trail.
i was running out of time so i just did the big water trail "short track" five times and headed down the road to the top of pipeline and had a enjoyable cruz down to the bottom. the trail was fairly clear for the weekend due to 4th of july holiday.

i have really been enjoying semi-training and joyriding, but as time is progressing and the knee is still feeling good, i will have to buckle down and get back on track. today felt good due to rest last couple of days consisting mostly of riding the single speed with the dogs and only doing short steep blasts. and staying in an easy gear all day.

next week i will bump up to 36x25 and see how that feels, which is just below my single speed bike 32x20 for those that need that comparisan number. my 36x21 is just above the single speed. so i might be riding the single speed while building up strength in between.

Crazy rain, then dry trail at hogs hollow

this was the view cruzing to the trail behind bike peddler. left my house 92 degrees and sunny. half hour later crazy hard raining, then it stops. luckly the trail did not get one drop of rain, only in the city.






meet these guys at hogs hollow and we begin with a nice two mile fire road climb.
part of that
looking down
the cross roads. from here we climbed up to jacobs ladder and to the top of clarks
on the way up
more up. yes there was a lot of up.
click here and see a pano of looking left over alpine and right over draper. its almost a 360 degree view.
from here we dropped down a fast downhill rock ridge, then into a fun trail with ton o switchbacks. then more of that but faster and covered by vegetation. our return trip up was via the new brocks point trail which put us tot he top of clarks and then a fast run down hogs fireroad to the trail head.


this was my easy day, heart rate 140 with mostly all easy gear climbing. hardly a workout, more just spending two hours on the saddle. fun downhill on the rigid vassago.

Temporary doggie house guest and millcreek flowers

this black dog is woody. he is a search and rescue dog like clutch and has that similar hyper play with toys attitude.

my boss is away for ten days so i busted him outta doggie jail(the kennel) so he can join us on trail runs and sleep over.


all the weeds in the canyon are on fire with flowers. you hayfever people should start feeling it soon enough.





shot these as i was riding my single speed this evening around 8pm. yes the sun is still out at this time of the year.

Solitude race course and a moose..........

first off i found this helmet in my closet that i forgot i had. its one of those big mushroom head lids that no matter how kool you are, well...its just kooky. and on me it is even funnier on my extra large melon. the only redeeming properties is that the crash value is almost as high as a fullface helmet(minus the face part)






did two laps on the solitude race course.
i knew when i got up this morning that it was going to be a low energy day. i originally planned to ride from my house to the mountain, up big cottonwood canyon and then do this ride with the guys but it is my easy day and that plan would put me at 5 plus hours on the saddle. too much for an easy day at any speed and especially for a low torque leg day.




this is mitt, he has a girlfriend that they do some epic long all day rides with....nice!!
here is nate, he wanted to check out the course for the wednesday night races he plans on dominating. go nate!!
solitude right now is as green as green can get. very nice. this will turn various shades of brown and tan all thru the summer.
we took a quick side route down part of the new trail "queen bess". the trails seems better tramped down than last year when it was first cut in the fall just before the snow. it still need more ride though. it is fun with jumps and small berms it is geared towards the freeride crowd.
on the last leg of the lap is a somewhat rocky section that has you indecisive about braking or not. most of the time you can just skim over the tops of these rocks, but one wrong move or loose rock and the penalty is high. i chose to slow it down a bit as ran the rigid today.
its hard to tell or maybe this is not the rockiest part, but at higher speed you can really tumble on the rubble.
at the end of the second lap, this big guy was making a crossing in front of us. at first it like ahhhhh a moose. then .....
he passes by the cars and he is almost as big as them. whoa.....big moose and a young male at that. when he gets to be full size next year he will tower over my van.



here mitt and nate discuss doing another lap. i am happy with two easy laps and call it quits as they go for another run
kind of hard to see but this big moose is just cruzing

Flying dog backwards is much more fun

got up early and did flying dog this morning.

only we did it backwards and it turned out much better that way. better warmup and climbing.
met this silly sally on his single speed. OMG look at those white shorts. that is just begging for mud puddles......
auto stitched a multipic shot of glen overlook here. ryan is pointing to trails we must conquer along mid mountain and beyond. soon, very soon.....

finally got a couple of shots of meadow grass lands in glenwild as we are usually speeding thru this lush fun paridce of single track to take any pics

coming out of the flat and into a steady switchback climb up the hills
back and forth on semi-rocky trail for a while. this was funner than the front route of steeper rocky climbing.

all in all we finished at 1:45 in a medium intensity ride(hr 150-160)(zone4). the trail going down was fast, rolling and swoopy. climbed most of the time in 36x21/25 which is close to a 32x19/22. i am trying to slowly get back into bigger gears, but have been conservative due to my recent knee pain, which is feeling much better.



poached these from ryans blog. my jeff jones H-bars were working really well for me today and made this great ride even better. stick that tongue back in yer mouth before you bite it off sir!!!



ummm please tell me when my jersey tag is sticking out, i hate looking even dorkier than usual.

Fun with otto stitch at the lookout

first a pic of "little miss muddy feet". you are not coming in the house like that!!!

well this was going to be an epic pic stitch except two of my pics didn't save right and this came out as three panoramas. but you get the idea

the first came out funny cause the dogs would not sit still, so they showed up everywhere


the middle shots

the rest