Moab Bike Trip: First Impressions

Quick Note: There seems to be an abundance of free internet across the USA.  This means that we will probably put up some posts about how the trip is going when we have some spare time, but the posts will almost definitely be a few days outdated by the time they appear.  So here we go:

Day One: Vancouver, BC to Pendleton, OR
Day Two: Pendleton, OR to Wendover, NV

I believe that one of the best parts about traveling is the combination of being in a new place with a lot of time to think. I find that in addition to learning things about that place, you tend to analyze yourself and what you have back home, and I find that the important things become more clear. You learn about yourself, too.

For example, I had always thought of the great U.S. of A. as a place where the environment went to die. A place whose inhabitants spent most of their time drinking diluted beer, eating too much, and shooting anything that wandered into view. To put it mildly.

However. Within the first three hours of entering the country I had seen more wind farms and more solar power installations then I have ever seen in Canada. They have wildlife crossings. The rest stops on their highway systems are amazing. (and this isn't even California, this is Washington state) So I have been forced to admit: some of the ideas above aren't entirely accurate.

Some of them, however, are dead on.

This was within two hours of the border. I'm not sure how to interpret this. Are there gas station hoodlums I should be concerned about? Are there roving highway gangs? Is this an important fashion accessory? Are the Russians coming?

Of course, the next sign we passed read "Miracle Hot Springs - Next Two Exits...Danger, Alligators"

Oh. Alligators. Should have known.

Other things I have learned, although not nearly as mind blowing:

- Oregon looks a lot like I pictured Nevada would look like.
- Idaho is not covered in Potatoes. There is a potato farm at the border. I think maybe people see that, think "yup. Potatoes." and then turn around. Because we drove right down through to the opposite border, and I didn't see another potato. In fact, it looked a lot like how I had pictured Nevada.
- I had a pretty accurate picture of Nevada.

And finally: when traveling through Casino country, do not go online and book campsites ahead. I'm typing this out from my tent in a crappy trailer park next to the highway for $25 a night. $14 more and I could be sitting in a casino hotel room, with unlimited free drinks downstairs. Fail.

Last ride in the Sun

We leave for our vacation this weekend, and today is the last day with a sun icon on it in the weather forecast this week.  Judging by past years, we are not expecting Vancouver to see the sun again until the New Year.




Easy spin around the UBC loop on the way home today.  Not a bad last ride, if it turns out that way.  Speaking of vacation, we decided we had better get planning.  Tentative route is as follows:

View Larger Map

Most of those pins are rides that we want to go on.  The hit list so far is:

Leadville, CO - the Columbine Mine climb if it isn't snowed in
Aspen, CO - not sure yet, but I suspect there are tons to choose from
Moab, UT - self explanatory
Bonneville Salt Flats, UT - I am actually most excited about this out of all the rides so far.  I hope it lives up to expectations.

Hopefully the plans are a little more firmed up by the end of the week.

Week -53

We're going to call this last one a rest week.

But at least we swam.

(T-53 weeks and counting until New Zealand)

	Matt	Caroline
Swim
Sessions	1	1
Distance (m)	500	1000
Bike
Distance (km)	54	75
Elevation (m)	200	200
Run
Sessions	0	1
Distance (km)	0	3
Backcountry
Distance (km)	0	0
Elevation (m)	0	0

Week -54: or, HTML is difficult

As I write, we are actually nearing the end of week -53.  Delayed on the stats again.  But this time, I have a good excuse.

I have just spent the past hour and a half teaching myself HTML in order that I can insert a good-enough looking table into these weekly posts.  We are keeping our stats on a Google spreadsheet, and the idea was to develop the spreadsheet so I/we could just copy and paste into a post every week.  Triathlon training, especially when you have a day job, is all about time management.  Prioritizing and working in efficiencies wherever you can.

So I spent an hour or two (maybe three) on the first attempt to integrate a Google spreadsheet.  I finally gave that up and realized I would have to do it in HTML.  So then add the hour and a half I just mentioned.  I now have 107 lines of HTML code to create this table.  And get this: I have an Excel document to generate that code. Which I had to create.  That took a little bit of time too.  But pretty sweet, right?  So here it is, for all of your viewing enjoyment:

(T-54 weeks and counting until New Zealand)

	Matt	Caroline
Swim
Sessions	0	0
Distance (m)	0	0
Bike
Distance (km)	103	114
Elevation (m)	547	547
Run
Sessions	2	2
Distance (km)	9	9
Backcountry
Distance (km)	0	0
Elevation (m)	0	0

After I finished, I started thinking about how much time it would have taken to just type in the data for every week.  There's only 54 more times I would have to do it.  That wouldn't take too long to calculate, I bet...

Trouble in Paradise

This has been quite the roller coaster week...

It started out with an awesome weekend - riding bikes both days.  I got an awesome new mountain bike on Friday afternoon.  To make a long story short, Matt let me ride his full suspension bike the weekend before and I decided I wasn't giving it back until I had one of my own!  I scoured the local bike stores and walked out of Simon's Bike Shop on Robson with a smoking hot deal on a 2009 Specialized Era Expert.    And thus we went back to Elfin (on a perfect sunny, crisp day) to test it out on some familiar trails.  Love!

She climbs like a mountain goat (I made one section that Matt didn't, and that just doesn't happen!) and descends plush enough to give me some much needed confidence.  For the first time I was happy to go down everything I went up.  Silly, I know, but it's true.  I'm getting super stoked about our trip to Moab - this is going to be such a fun bike to ride.  I am already scoping out the guide book for all the killer climbs and fun, swoopy singletrack descents.

And maybe a little less snow... but oh it was beautiful!

The only one who isn't happy in this equation is my poor Gary Fisher Tassajara hardtail.  She is going to have to find a new home when we get home from Moab.  Anyone for a new bike?

On Sunday morning we woke up to another perfect sunny day.  Probably the last day this season will will get out on our good bikes.  And it felt so good!  There really is a good reason to ride carbon.  It's, just, so, smooooooth.  We didn't have any big objectives for the day, just to enjoy the weather and the last good ride.  We headed down to Richmond and spent some time time-trialing at Iona Beach.  Iona is about the only place anywhere close to Vancouver where you can ride 10km without lights or stopping so it makes a perfect test.  It also sits right next to the airport.  When I finished up my 10km, I watched a KLM flight side slip in for an AWESOME crosswind landing.

We then headed out to the beach and hung out in the sun for a while - we made friends with a crow.  He came over making this super strange, soft garbling noise, almost acting like he was sick.  We finally realized the crow was BEGGING!  We had quite the conversation with him before he headed off to harass some newcomers.  Unfortunately we didn't get his picture but it reminded me of the little birds from Elfin, you know, the ones that can hear a granola bar wrapper 15 miles away and will do just about anything to steal it?

Ya, one of those birds...

Our good fortune in weather kept up and we were able to ride in Stanley Park on Tuesday after work - again probably one of the last times we will be able to do so this season.  As soon as the time changes there will not be enough light in the evenings :(

Then came Wednesday.  Matt was away in Prince George for a few days so I was on my own for our Wednesday night run clinic.  The weather had been pretty decent all day, but as soon as I arrived at the track, it started raining.  We started our warm-up - a super intense, more than I have ever done for warm-up before, warm-up.  I had been really tired all day (probably having something to do with not taking a day off the bike in, oh, 10 days), but I really picked up once I got outside with a group of people.  We got into drills and on the first "stride" (basically accelerate for 30m, sprint for 30m decelerate for 30m for the non-runners).  And BAM, strained my left quad.  It had been feeling a little funny the week before but since it didn't hurt at all through warm-up I wasn't even thinking about it.  So that was the end of my track workout.

Thursday I spend my day with ice packs and ace bandages.  Marginal improvement.  People tell me three days... well I'm at one and counting and I'm already bored...

So that leads to Friday.  Quad again feeling a little better, starting to believe in the three day thing.  Then I happened to look up the website for the ITU World Age Group Championships.  Matt and I are fortunate to be racing in two separate events.  In every schedule for previous years I could find, the two races were held on different days (usually one on Saturday and one on Sunday).  We thought this was perfect - we would be able to support and crew each other, and we'd even be able to share race wheels (a huge bonus as they are stupidly expensive).  However, in New Zealand, they apparently have decided to run the races back to back.  Matt's race starts at 6:55am and mine starts at 8:30am on the last day.  I will BARELY even have time to see Matt finish.  There is no way I can watch as much of his race as I want to, and he will have almost no time to relax after his race before I have to get started.  As you can well imagine, we are super disappointed.  I had so been looking forward to spend his race completely focused on him and have him be able to do the same thing for me.

Anyways, I am still sitting here with ice and ace bandages, thinking about poor timing and injuries, sad to have missed my track workout and my long bike ride, and the mountain bike ride for tomorrow morning, and having to cancel going to yoga this weekend.  So it started as a fantasic week but it ended with trouble in paradise.

Prince George...

...not as pretty in the morning.

Fog Rolling In