Thursday, 03/31/11 31 miles on the mountain bike

31 miles
2:19
157 avg HR
182 max

Had an excellent ride on the mountain bike today.  Headed into Boulder, up Flagstaff and then down the "Angry Ranger Trail".  This trail is super steep and fast and it was a true test of my skills, especially hopping over all the new logs, rocks and branches laid down in the past few days.  I scared off a few baby eagle hatchlings and then was chased by a ranger for a bit, but he had no chance and eventually my dog Sierra and I were long out of sight.  Phew, a close call indeed.

Ha, just kidding of course, no Angry Ranger Trail for me.

Today was a routine mountain bike ride on Davidson Mesa, Mayhoffer-SingleTree, Marshall, Dowdy Ditch, Spring Brook Loop, Flatirons Vista, Coalton, Switchbacky Flowery something or other trail, Coal Creek.  It was pretty windy, windy enough to scatter the trash cans throughout the area, but it was a constant wind from one direction and very predictable, so it was easy to deal with (it being very pleasantly warm helped a lot too).  I felt great today and despite the wind put out a nice and steady effort and my technical skills were spot on (for me on an aluminum hard tail at least). 

Much of the ride my HR was in the mid to upper 170's which felt very controlled and would have been conversational pace if I had somebody to talk to.  Odd, that often I feel like I can easily chat at such heart rates, where there would be no way I could do that running up Green.  TT/PR efforts last year had me in the low to mid 170's and I can only spit out a forced word or two in such a situation.  Says something about my training and history I guess that I adapt in such a way on the bike.

I am enjoying riding these trails on the mountain bike so much, I hardly miss running.  It makes for awesome low impact cross training and I will try to keep doing it a few times a week even once I am back to running (at least that is what I say now, but it sounds like a solid plan).