They don't call it Walker Ranch for nothing.....
After exchanging a few e-mails during the week with Lucho, Bill and Stefan, I decided to do something a little different (having an extra set of hands at home helped as well) and get out for my first time doing "SuperWalker" which is riding from Chautauqua, up over SuperFlag, to Walker Ranch, riding the Walker loop and then riding back. I have ridden Walker a few times on the mountain bike, run it a handful of times and have ridden Flag on the road bike often, but this was my first time doing this surprisingly.
The moment I got on the bike, I knew that my legs were not feeling great, which was compounded by the immidiate climbing. Flag was a bit of a slog on the mountain bike and I just plugged away, going a decent pace, but not really pushing at all. I assumed that I would at least be at or better than my run PR (37 minutes), but with the adjustment for the Chautauqua start (1:50 additional), I was more than 2 minutes slower.
I was at Walker in another 10 and decided to go counter clockwise in order to minimize the impact on my mending achilles by not having to hike-a-bike up the steep steps from the river. I began the first descent a bit too fast and scared myself a few times, so I backed off and took things a bit more conservative. The next climb from the river to the far lot involved more hike-a-bike than I remembered and I jumped off several times and just walked a few times instead of rapid fire mounts and dismounts.
The swooping descent out of the far lot was fun as always. I dabbed a few times and then walked down the short but steep rocky drops and then of course carried my bike down the steep rock steps, taking a breather half way down, as my scrawny arms and shoulders were sore from carrying my tank of a mountain bike.
The climb back to the lot is very steep in spots and tried to ride as much as I could, but got pretty maxxed out with the interval nature of it and found it easier to walk, which I did quite often and extensively. I knew my time would be well off my best, but was way worse than I anticipated, a pitiful 1:11.
Once back on the road, I had a road rider to chase. I reeled him in somewhat, but he must have heard me and stood on it. If I really got after it, I might have been able to catch/pass, but I did not want to do battle all the way back, so I just maintained a ~20-~30 second gap all the way back to Chautauqua.
I am full of excuses for this one. I am just plain old not in that great of shape, only getting out sporadically a few times per week. I am in moderate to poor biking shape and don't really have much for climbing legs as it has been quite a long time since I have biked uphill. Then achilles caution made for some slow bike pushing. Ughh. Knowing all this going into it though, I did not knock myself out and just had a great time getting into the hills after such a long reprieve.
Stone Bridge: 1:50
SuperFlag: 41:41
Start Walker: 51:38
Finish Walker: 2:02:38
Back at top of SuperFlag: 2:20:11
Finish at Chautauqua crosswalk: 2:29:54
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