fastlearner
02-02-2009, 05:07 PM
It was a very, very tough start to my enduro season this weekend. I've done the Snow Run twice before. The first year if was just frozen ground but it was about 6 degrees all day. Good riding, tough weather. Last year it was about 35 degrees and raining all day. Good riding, tough weather.
Yesterday was just the opposite. The weather was beautiful and sunny. Temps started at 23 and went up to 39. Trouble was the trail conditions. The snow pack we've had was really tough to ride in. Imagine riding in 8" of sugar with 3/4" of frozen crust on top. Lots of ruts made of this sugar that just constantly threw your front end around. My riding was OK for a while but my fitness ran out just before the gas stop at mile 22. I bonked in a serious way on an uphill just before that and I was done. Time to get more serious about fitness.
Some guys had very good results and looked like they were riding on bare ground. Mike Lafferty was there. I was on minute 4 and he was on 14. He passed me in the second section like I was pedaling a tricycle. I dropped 45 minutes in the first 22 miles. He dropped 13 minutes in the total 72 miles.
I won't embarrass myself by telling you my result, but I got further than a lot of guys.
The pic at this link shows you what I looked like while I was still moving forward. You can get an idea of the conditions from the photo, but hard to do the conditions justice.
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/orderpage.aspx?pi=032E008V000040&po=40
Now I've gotta get downstairs to the treadmill.
Yesterday was just the opposite. The weather was beautiful and sunny. Temps started at 23 and went up to 39. Trouble was the trail conditions. The snow pack we've had was really tough to ride in. Imagine riding in 8" of sugar with 3/4" of frozen crust on top. Lots of ruts made of this sugar that just constantly threw your front end around. My riding was OK for a while but my fitness ran out just before the gas stop at mile 22. I bonked in a serious way on an uphill just before that and I was done. Time to get more serious about fitness.
Some guys had very good results and looked like they were riding on bare ground. Mike Lafferty was there. I was on minute 4 and he was on 14. He passed me in the second section like I was pedaling a tricycle. I dropped 45 minutes in the first 22 miles. He dropped 13 minutes in the total 72 miles.
I won't embarrass myself by telling you my result, but I got further than a lot of guys.
The pic at this link shows you what I looked like while I was still moving forward. You can get an idea of the conditions from the photo, but hard to do the conditions justice.
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/orderpage.aspx?pi=032E008V000040&po=40
Now I've gotta get downstairs to the treadmill.