The weekend rally

I said I needed to kick my butt into shape so away I kicked. Saturday I packed up the mountain bike and hit Tokul with a fun group from uBRDO. We spent the day climbing fire roads and winding through single track on our way to logging 25 miles. My Garmin shows over 5000 ft of climbing. Can that be right?

It was a pretty ambitious undertaking for me considering it was my second mountain bike ride of the year. Turns out it's the furthest ride I've ever done. The epic ride over 4th of July weekend last year at White River is the closest I've come to that many mountain bike miles: 19.

The trails at Tokul were a fun mix of fast singletrack, steep descents, overgrown vegetation (is that really fun?), and some fire road climbs. One thing is for sure: I've lost my climbing legs. I need to find them fast because dragging bricks uphill is just not fun. Saturday's ride put the Cream Puff into perspective. Hmm, I need to be able to ride 4x that distance by July with about a quarter of the lactic acid legs. Lots more 25+ mile rides in my future.

I woke up this morning surprisingly not too sore, so I set out for the Arboretum and shocked myself by running just shy of 5 miles. I haven't run over 4.5 since my injury three years ago. Maybe I should kill myself on the mountain bike more often! Sure, that first mile sucked and the legs were screaming, but once they loosened up I got into a nice rhythm. Maybe I can finally start dialing up the mileage and getting myself back on the Boston train.

After the run I hit the Ashram for a power yoga session, then managed to eek out just enough energy for a climbing gym outing. Thursday I flailed horribly after not having climbed for a few weeks so I wasn't really sure what to expect. Today felt great and I climbed better than I have in a long time. I even managed to flash two new routes. I think I was too tired to try anything clever so I just went with it. Good strategy.

Even Jake got in on the weekend rally. He always runs with me but got an extra special solid hour at the Marymoor dog park after climbing. I swear I have yet to find another dog that can outrun him when he's got a tennis ball in sight. Jake cracks me up. Just like mom, he's all out 100% of the time :) Both of us are happily exercised and tuckered out, so it'll be a quiet night for sure!