Two Weekends, Two Different Climbs

Saturday the 8th of June was a rough day to ride a bike. I was still hacking up a lung from the cold that I had for during the week. I had made a commitment to ride up the old White Bird road in the "Just for the Hill of It" challenge. The weather in White Bird was very good for riding a bike and I hoped that I would be able to make it with out any major issues. It was quite a grind to get to the finish and I just had to keep hydrating and eating as I went. As I crossed the finish I realized that I had better start replenishing my food stores. I was starting to bonk and a cookie and orange slices were what I needed to get me back up. It took a few minutes of sitting on a concrete barrier to start feeling like I knew where I was at. I then decided to go ahead  and cruise on down to the start. I fired up the camera and put it on video mode in order to catch the descent down the hill. It sure is funny how it is quicker to go down the hill then ride up. The meal at the start was very satisfying and I was sore for a couple of days after the ride.

On Thursday, Palouse Bicycle Racing (PBR) put on a cycling clinic out at Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute (PCEI). They have a pump track out there that the kids could try. We also gave some mechanical and safety instruction to the kids. A fun time was had by all of those involved.

Saturday the 15th ended up being a cycling kind of day. First thing on the agenda was the "I Made the Grade" hill climb. An 18 mile ride with 8 miles of continuous climbing. Over 200 people started the ride with finish times starting at just under 56 minutes all the way up to almost 3 hours. I finished up with a time of 1:07'41. I was 34th overall and 6th in my age group. I felt so much better than I did the previous week. We did not ride back down since we needed to get back to Moscow to get ready for another cycling clinic that was being held at the local cyclocross course.

The clinic was setup to have some of the same mechanical and safety instruction but most of the time was spent out on the course. All of the kids enjoyed their time out there and I even heard that there were a few that wanted to have more clinics. Philip attended this one and he really had a fun time. He now wants to get over to the pump track at PCEI to try that out.

Sunday was Father's day and I did a nice 30+ mile ride to Troy and back. I ended up going a little ways further on the trail past Troy to see what the trail was looking like. They still have a very loose gravel laid down and hopefully it will get compacted more as time goes on.

Pinch flats and sick

Out riding the road bike a couple of weeks ago and pinch flatted the rear tire on a pothole on a street in Pullman. Did not see that coming at all. Jenna had a spare tube and it had a small hole in it that required airing up every couple of miles. Finally made it to Moscow and ended up walking the bike the last 2 miles home. Monday of this week ended with a pinch flat on the Vandal Bike as I was going into a parking lot. Ended up calling home to get a ride home as I didn't have a spare tube with me. This has taught me a couple of lessons so far:

1. Take a tube and pump along.
2. Make sure there is enough air in the tires (I did have the air down on the road bike for the gravel I was riding on).

I knew that these needed to be followed but it was one of those "short" trips that I really didn't think I needed to do this. I have been riding the Giant mountain bike with the trailer this week since I do not have an extra tube for the Vandal Bike. I now have more miles on the VB then I do on the Giant for the year.

I have been sick this week. Slowly kicking the cold out just in time to go to White Bird to do the "Just for the Hill of it" climb this Saturday. All I have to do is beat my time from last year and I will be doing good. I will be riding the new bike this year so that will help in getting me to the top faster. Another thing that will help is the number of miles I have ridden so far this year.