the tao of cycling: dam dam dam dam dam

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

dam dam dam dam dam

I don't like decisions.

ha! some of you are laughing, because you know this about me.

it's usually because I like both or all of the options, and I don't like having to choose just one.
how limiting!
but I need to make a decision about this weekend: there are 2 rides, and be one cyclist I can only choose one.
now if I were a super-cyclist, I could choose both, because one is on saturday and one is on sunday.
some cyclists would do both, but I think I'm better off to just choose one, as they are both on the aggressive side.

dam.

so the first option is a saturday ride: the 5 dam ride.
this one begins in park city, and goes past jordanelle to kamas, then through oakley and on to rockport dam, then past coalville to echo dam, then around to henefer (ooh, love that place) and up-and-down to east canyon dam, then up the back side of big mountain and down to little dell reservoir, up little mountain and down emigration to end in salt lake.
91 or so miles, with the frustration of starting one place and ending another.

sunday's ride: mt. nebo.
this one begins in nephi city park, and cruises through all those utah county places like mona, goshen canyon, santaquin, and payson lake, with a description of "major climbing."
70 or so miles, with a long car ride to both get there and get home.

they both pull me, though they both have drawbacks. Mt. Nebo is out there like a carrot: I've never been there in a car let alone on a bicycle. maybe if I knew how tough it was I would drop the option like a hot potato. the Mt. Nebo ride sponsor (the Bonneville Bicycling Club) rates it a "mt. everest: the hardest climbs you can think of."
saturday's ride is more familiar territory, but long and it will be hot and it's got a lot of what I did last saturday.
it depends as well on who might be going on which ride: a friend is tentatively offering her companionship saturday, and the bad ass team is part of sunday's ride. oh, to split myself in two . . .

and luckily it's only wednesday, so I can postpone this decision a bit.

to dam, or not to dam, that is the question . . .

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the Male Ego

The other day I was coming down a canyon in my drop bars (two years ago I would have said, 'what's a drop bar?'), working hard, when I came up on two guys who were also heading downhill but at a more leisurely pace. I passed them, said hello as I did so, and pulled back into the bike lane. a few minutes later they went flying past me, faces looking dead ahead, not a single bit of acknowledgment that I even existed on this planet let alone was involved in and enjoying the same sport they were.
I have to attribute this to the male ego. what else can it be? now I know we all have egos, myself included. and mine even shows its ridiculous little head once in a while, or perhaps more often. but the difference between mine and say, those of certain men on bicycles, is that I KNOW mine exists and I can LAUGH at mine. I know my ego was quite excited to pass those guys, and I could also smile because I knew if the men had really been working like I was, they would have kicked my butt down the hill.
I think I pissed them off.
and I'm sure I will be sharing with you much more of my thoughts about the male ego . . .

a little history

I was married, and I had a mountain bike which I rarely rode. we separated, I moved out, and four months later someone stole my bike. the next spring, 2005, I bought myself a new mountain bike. I rode occasionally, and in april 2006 I rode in my first century, the Cactus Hugger in St. George, Utah. I made it 54 miles on that mountain bike, and it took me about 6 hours. I think that included the rest stops where I prayed that someone would steal my bike again . . .
in june 2006 I started riding my mountain bike five mornings a week, a 45-55 minute loop that was intended to be all about exercise. and what I found was that I loved the quiet, peaceful morning full of bird chatter and barely breaking sunrises. by that fall I was hooked, and began considering the purchase of a road bike. I rode up emigration canyon for the first time that Labor Day of 2006, panting and plowing along on my trusty (heavy) bike, and a month later I was the proud owner of my own road bike: I had become a two-bike girl!
a 17-week-long "power camp" over the winter and a handful of new friends kept bicycling front and center in my life, and when spring of 2007 rolled around I was ready to hit the pavement. I rode my first century the end of april, when I again went to St. George and completed that Cactus Hugger. it took me about 7 hours, but this time I rode the entire 100 miles with about 9300 feet of vertical gain. woo hoo!
I started riding canyons around our area, emigration and millcreek, city creek, big cottonwood, little mountain and big mountain, and once--yes, only once--little cottonwood.
then in september of 2007, I rode from Logan, Utah, to Jackson, Wyoming, in the slightly infamous LOTOJA race. I rode, I did not race. and I completed the thing, crediting my good training buddies, the incredibly perfect weather, my support team, and an amazing convergence of all things positive in the universe.
I put in about 3500 miles last season, and as of today, july 19, 2008, I have about 1700 in, adding to it every day.
I have again signed on to ride the LOTOJA race, and my goal is to have just somewhere near as great a ride as I did last year. oh, and to have someone fun to talk with along the way as I got incredibly bored last year . . . star valley is still a nightmare scene in my biking memories . . .
and here is a picture of the machine that has helped me reclaim my life.