5th Wheel Cycling Team

07/23/09 – Night Ride….or Not…

The Sweetwater ride from the weekend really took a lot out of me, so that, along with a combination of the heat and general laziness, kept me off the bike for most of the week.  Finally, on Thursday, I decided “enough is enough” and finally got my butt off the couch to go on a night ride.  Well, apparently, enough wasn’t quite enough.  When I got to the trailhead, I discovered the helmet mount for my light had broke.  Once again, my night was spent watching other people ride their bikes on tv (Tour de France replays).

07/25/09 – Saturday Double Header

Earlier in the week, I made plans to do the Noble Canyon shuttle with Spencer.  It was gonna be a later start since he had things to do in the morning.  I wasn’t going to waste a Saturday morning on the couch again, so I decided to join the Dirt Treaders group ride at Lake Calavera.

Lake Calavera is a relatively small area, but the trails there offer a lot of variety, and can make for a very fun ride if you can fluidly link all of the sections together.   There is rolling singletrack, some technical rockgardens, some moderate to difficult climbs, and jumps scattered throughout the area.  Luckily, our tour guide claims this trail as his backyard ride, so we were gonna get the full Calavera experience.  Unfortunately, about 15 people showed up for this ride, so this meant that the 7:30 start time turned into an 8:00 start time, and there were many breaks and regroups.  Ordinarily, I don’t mind taking breaks, but it kinda sucks when we stop the whole ride for 25+ minutes so a couple of people can session some jumps.  After 2 hrs, and maybe 5 total miles of riding, I decided to bail so I could rest for my afternoon date.

After a little nap and a snack, I headed off to Noble Canyon to meet up with Spencer for our afternoon shuttle run.  I was worried that it was going to be hot as my thermostat read 85, but the 4:00 start time turned out to be perfect.   The weather was very mild at the upper trailhead and we had a nice breeze for the entire ride.  To top it off, there was practically no one else on the trail.

The ride was a typical Noble Canyon ride, but since it was just the two of us, there were few extended breaks and we made it down to the bottom fairly quickly.  On the BLT section of the trail, we did the usual log rides and log rollers.  There were a couple of “new” logs I would have liked to try, but I still didn’t trust my balance enough to give it a shot.  As we descended Noble, we were able to hit our groove.  As usual, the upper part was fast and flowy, and we didn’t miss a beat when we headed into the chunkier section of the trail.  I love rear suspension!  Spencer was finally able to clean the Widowmaker and I finally cleaned Stairway to Hell from top to bottom without stopping or dabbing.

This may have been the first time I did two rides in one day, but I don’t see it  being my last.  Even though both rides were fun, I, unfortunately, didn’t quite get in the “training” I wanted to for next weekend’s race.

07/29/09 – Post-Work Poaching

After the weekend fun, I was itching to get back on the dirt and a quick spin on my questionably-legal-backyard-trail was on the menu.  I asked my old manager, Trent, if he wanted to go, and surprisingly, he said yes!  We used to ride together 2-3 times a week, but since we were laid off from our old company, a few months had passed since we last went mountain biking together.

I was hoping to go at a faster pace so I could be somewhat prepared for the coming race, but it wasn’t meant to be.  Apparently, Trent hurt his back on a mechanical bull and this would be his first time on a bike in a couple of months.  He brought his friend Doug who would be riding these trails for the first time.  We did a quick 8 mile loop and it was just like old times.  Despite being off the bike for a while, Trent still rode pretty well.  We went down one of the “tunnels” I haven’t been on in nearly six months and I was quickly reminded of how fun it was.  It’s a real shame that these trails are officially off-limits, but judging by all the tire marks, they still get plenty of traffic.

With only 3 days to go before my racing debut, I wasn’t feeling very confidence since I haven’t pushed myself on a ride in a veeeeeeeeeeery long time, and all the “training” I had set out to do was deterred by the lure of my couch and television.

07/31/09 – Tahoe Bound

The morning started off with a few fake coughs, a phone call to my boss, and an 8.5 hr drive.  Before I knew it, I was parked in front of Corey Rich’s home/office, and 5th Wheel Cycling was together for the first time since the team was brought back from the dead.  After eating a mediocre calzone and waiting for Vince to finish the days tasks, it was time to hit some Tahoe dirt.  It probably wasn’t the best idea to go riding since I drove 8.5 hrs on only 4 hours of sleep and  we had to race the next day, but I had to make the most out of my short time in Tahoe.

Vince, Corey, Corey’s dog, and I headed out from his driveway and rode on the streets for a short while before we picked up the High Meadows trail.  We climbed and we climbed and we climbed some more.  I’m not sure what the mileage was, and it probably wasn’t even that much, but my legs were shot the minute we started ascending.  Overall, the climb wasn’t that steep, but the altitude, calzone, and lack of sleep all caught up to me and I ended up walking a good majority of the hill.  Vince, on the other hand, was just flying up the hill.  I was really impressed.  It was quite a change from when we last rode together.

He was every bit as fast going down as he was going up.  Not before long, he was out of sight and I was left to enjoy the smooth, rolling singletrack by myself.  I eventually caught up and before we knew it, we had logged  nearly 15 miles.  I wasn’t expecting to ride for that long, but was glad I did, since the downhill was as fun as anything I experienced in southern California.

The long weekend was off to a great start and it was about to get better as we had the Kirkwood 9 to 5 coming up in a few hours…

08/01/09 – Kirkwood 9 to5

(This is where I expect Vince to chime in with his race report.)