Training Is Not Fun

I wrote about a recent adventure I had while training for the Crusher In The Tushar race:  http://utahmountainclimbing.blogspot.com/2011/07/crusher-in-tusher.html I've thought a a lot about long hilly bike rides during the last month or so as I've ramped up my "Crusher" training. I've come to realize that I don't enjoy most of the tough hill climbs, I rarely ever do. It's hard, painful, hot and did I mention hard. I recall about 6 years ago driving up Provo and South Fork Canyon looking at the cyclists that were sweating their way up those canyons on their bikes in the July heat and honestly wondering why they did it. It didn't look fun, it didn't look like they were enjoying themselves. I said to my wife, "why would you even want to do that, it looks awful?" Fast forward to today and I can tell you why those suckers sweat and grind their way to the top of the hill. You get a supreme sense of satisfaction from completing a tough ride, especially if it involves a big climb. Time after time I push myself on my rides, especially my favorite Provo Canyon/South Fork time trial. I push as hard as I can, yet feel myself moving in slow motion as I finally reach out and touch the gate to the Girl Scouts camp that marks the end of the road. Sometimes my heart is beating so hard that I have to have to sit down and put my head between my legs to keep my lunch down. Not fun. But I feel stronger and tougher because of it and that 30 seconds I took off my personal record feels like my own gold medal.

Despite all this feel good I get from training I tend to slack off the training when it gets hard. During cyclocross season the training is all about hard intervals and hard intervals suck. They suck even more because they're done in my basement on the trainer in front of a movie that I'm bored of and isn't doing anything to take my mind off the pain. Because of this, it's easy to say that tonight is just a bad night and my legs aren't feeling it. I cut the workout short, take a shower and sit down to a nice bowl of ice cream. Probably the best thing that training for the Crusher has taught me is to keep pushing. If I stopped every time the road got steep on the Alpine Loop it would take me forever to complete those training rides. Quiting was not an option, I had to get in the miles or get crushed by The Crusher. So I learned that when it got steep and my legs felt limp that I had to push harder and dig a little deeper. Sure it hurt, but I gained a little extra heart in the process. Giving up 2/3 of the way through a 45 mile ride through the mountains isn't really an option. Turning around and heading back down means I'd then have to ride 30 miles back home in the heat of the afternoon sun.

One of my favorite parts of completing a really hard training ride or race is the silent satisfaction that I get when I go back to work on Mon. and know that I'm that much tougher than everyone else that went out for 18 holes or sat on their couch watching a football game. I have nothing against golf or tv watching, I'll probably take it up when I'm 60 and I have to slow down a bit. But for now I'll relish the grit and mud that I clean off my teeth after a hard 'cross race and feel just a little bit tougher than you.

Out on the trails - Big Springs

Yesterday I had the itch to get out on the trails on my 'cross bike, just to make sure I can still handle skinny tires on the single-track. I headed up to Big Springs Park in the South Fork shoot off of Provo Canyon. There is a nice, but short, trail near the park that my family uses all the time. We spend a lot of time in Provo Canyon and at least half of that is spent at Big Springs. It's become the go-to area for us. Jen takes the kids up there hiking all the time, the trail is relatively mellow and follows and crosses various streams. It keeps the kids interested and makes it a nice area to go. It's also a great place to go snowshoeing in the winter.

I opted to start off my ride by heading up the dirt road that goes along the East side of the wilderness area. I was quickly made aware that my legs hadn't recovered from the weight

training I did two days before; but I managed to make it up the hill anyway. The trail/road is only 1.5 miles up, so a up and back nets 3 miles. Not a whole lot, so I ended up doing 3 laps going up the road and down the trail. I think the old couple hiking down the road and the family hiking up the trail were starting to wonder what I was doing after I passed them a couple of times.

After riding up the road for about a mile the trees open up into a meadow, this is where I cut back on to the trail to finish the last 1/2 mile up (you can see the trail just to the right of the road, heading off into the meadow). The trail is pretty mellow as it winds up, especially through

meadow. It's basically gravely, narrow double-track. Then the trail gets steeper and starts to get fairly rocky. I was a bit worried about pinch flatting on the rocks, especially on the way back down when I had some speed. I had my tires down around 40 psi to maximize traction. I was happily surprised to find that I can still finesse my way up and down through the rocks without much trouble, or pinch flats.

The single-track back down winds through aspens and pines, over rivers and streams and is really a lot of fun. Not the most technical or taxing as far as mountain biking goes, but plenty

fast for getting the cornering and breaking skills on a cyclocross bike. At one point I was

carrying quite a bit of speed and feeling pretty confident. I rounded a corner and saw a tree and a stream right in front of me, I was sure I was going in after I dodged the tree. I managed to get the bike slowed down just in time and made it onto the bridge. My second time down I noticed a lot of other tire tracks where the trail runs wide; I guess others had come into that corner a little hot too. While I was stopped taking this picture a mountain biker came by and did a double take as he passed by my cyclocross bike; obviously not a part of the cult of 'cross yet.

The fast ride down managed to give my legs, and lungs, enough of a break that I was able to be recovered for the ride back up. I managed to get my legs a bit muddy from cruising through a couple of the springs that spout up along the trail and almost ran over a snake. All in all it was a great way to spend a few hours on a Saturday.