Triple D Winter Race: Training Log 2

The Triple D training continues, and what better way to extend the efforts than to combine a ride with Saturday's "Global Fat Bike Day" rides that were happening......well, globally!

The community of fat bikers in this area were assembled at the Camp, but instead of driving there, I decided to ride there and back. That would prove to be a good chunk of mileage, I figured, on the fat bike, and should prove to make for good training.

I left at 8:00am and made my way northward to The Camp and arrived at 9:10am. Whoops! I didn't think I'd get there that quickly, but oh well. The rest of the crew wouldn't show up until 10:00am, and I wasn't going to sit around and wait that long. I'd have been frozen stiff had I done that. The air was completely saturated, it was windy, and the temperature was in the upper 30°'s. Plus, I was cooking. Stopping for very long would have been a bad deal. I had to keep on moving to stay warm.

Two deer, still alive!

The single track was saturated on the very top layer of dirt as well. in some places my tires were making noise as if running through wet mud. I knew it would get real sketchy in terms of traction out there, and especially since I was running Big Fat Larrys, which are not known to be great muddin' tires. That and I was the first bike on the trails yesterday.

Well, it was coming sooner or later, but I hit an off camber down hill, and even though I had the speed in check, the wheels lost grip on the greasy mud and I was going down. Not a bad crash, but I fell heavily on the same spot on my left leg that I did a few days ago, and it really hurt.

I was gimpy already, not able to put all my weight on the leg when I got up, so I cut my ride at The Camp short and got back onto the gravel. I had to ride back home, and risking another biff on the same leg wasn't worth it. As I got going out on the road again, I could feel the dull pain from my hip to my foot, and I was worried there for a bit that it was going to get worse, but it didn't, and I continued onward.

The skies were gray most of the ride, but for a brief moment or two, the sun peeked out.That was only a tease though, as the clouds quickly thickened up again. The sounds of shotguns blasting away was also evident as I rode along. It was the opening day of shotgun deer hunting season, and the sounds of gunfire were a bit of disconcerting. I kept wondering if I was going to see some mad, bloody deer run across the road. Thank God I didn't see anything of the like. In fact, all I saw were live deer. These were all either in town, or very nearly in town though! I'm betting a lot of deer were taken down yesterday.

Gummed up tires

I got a "nature break" in finally, and re-mounted going back up Bennington Road when I saw the clouds getting darker. The forecast called for showers, and I figured I would beat them before they got here. The precipitation held off until I reached the edge of town, and then a fine mist started up. It wasn't long before I started to get chilled by this, and I was glad I had a water resistant shell on, because things could have gotten really ugly had I not.

As it was, I had frozen feet bad by the time I reached the city and I was quite keen on getting the ride over with. I had a few bits of bike path, a bridge crossing, and some street riding to go before I would hit the front door 3 hours and 20 minutes after starting out.

My left leg, which obviously held up for the ride's duration, was sore and stiff later on, but I have some down time to let it get some healing coming up. At least I managed another good effort at getting some miles in for Triple D.