Albion To Mt. Harrison Cyclocross

The annual tradition of Cycling from Albion City Park to Mt. Harrison was again completed!  Got up at 5:30am and got everything ready to go up there.  I packed snowshoes this time because I knew that the snowpack up there was going to be insane!  I was right on, cause they were definitely needed.

I left at 6am exactly from the park and the sun was just coming up as I got to the turn off the highway up to Mt. Harrison.  Took several breaks for pictures.  When I got about 2 hours into the ride, the smell of the air was extremely refreshing!  That alone was worth the trip!  If I could can that air I'd be a millionaire.  Loved it!




Once I got past Pomerelle, I hit my first snowbank on the road that required carrying my bike.  Then I got past the gate on the road and crossed over a couple more snow bank patches on the road.  Then I got up to Lake Cleveland and from there I stashed my bike and hiked/snowshoed the rest of the way.  I did about 3 miles of hiking/snowshoeing.

I was nervous about seeing a bear up there.  Then when I get about 1/4 mile from the top.  I saw a big hole in the snow with tracks coming from it. Man was that thought enough to pump my blood even faster!  I got to the outlook and noticed that this time, they had locked the deck around the building.  I took pics, but no vid from that point since my camera battery was dying and wouldn't let me take vid from that point on.  It was a perfect day.  No clouds, not very windy, and I left early enough in the morning that it wasn't hot.  Plus it wasn't that cold despite the snow.

On the way back down I saw a hole in the snow that was filled with ants. It was amazing. Red/Black ants crawling all over the snow and inside this hole. Awesome!

Absolutely perfect ride!  The last time my butt sat on that saddle was last year when I did this ride. I've been focusing so much on my swimming that I really had to blow off the dust on my bike and get it oiled up for this ride.  I was sure I could make it, but I knew it would take time.  It sure did!  And most of it was because of the detour in my planned trip.  I back country'd a good portion of it.  What an adventure!
Here's all the pics/video in Picasa:

I have forgotten

How good it feels after a really good sweat!  This afternoon I watched this interview on KSL Sportsbeat where Rulon Gardner walked off the show:

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

He said his problem came after the Olympics where he was successful and figured he'd take a week off to let his body heal.  That week turned to a month, and then into years.  Ouch!  I don't have a problem taking a week off, but that's it!  So that inspired me to get my running shoes on and head downstairs.

I did:
1 mile run/walk.  I noticed that when I got to the point where I was considering giving up, that my heart rate was at or above 145.  Then I'd slow down to 3.0 mph and walk and monitor my HR.  When I felt way comfortable and felt like starting to get back to running was when it dropped down to 120.  So my comfortable aerobic HR I figure is about 130-135.  It really doesn't take long for my HR to drop or rise from 120-145 at all.  So if I can find a pace that allows me to maintain that 130-135 HR range, that would be ideal.  Either that, or increase my HR comfort zone.  I did the mile in 11 minutes.

Then I did 15 minutes of elliptical.  That felt good and I really got up a good sweat.  I was maintaining a 130spm pace with my tunes.  Then I did:

2 sets of:
Set the stack at around 110 pounds
12 bench press reps
12 close grip pull downs
12 seated cable rows

About 35 minutes of good work.  Felt great, lots of sweat and I feel like a million bucks.  Even though this is probably one of the wimpiest workouts I've done in a long time!  Consistency is the key now.  Stay with it!