The Suncrest Ride...Part 1.

So, Chris and I have completed what I would consider our first "hard" ride. "Hard" is such relative term. We have been on rides with hard aspects to them... a ride with a hard hill, or a really long ride. But all of these rides have one thing in common... they are either short in nature, or flat.

I will put up another post on this particular ride, but with video and pictures. Yesterday will be a day to remember. Chris and I pushed the envelope like we never have before. We were sure to pack plenty of water, Gatorade, and Cliff bars to keep us fueled. We had two water stops also, where we could fill up and keep moving.

Chris and I left his place at 8:00 in the morning. We had mapped out our ride (or rather, Chris had) and he knew the way to get us to the beginning of our main climb. I've included a link to our map so that those of you familiar with Utah can get a mental picture of our ride. Please take a peek to get an idea of our ride. See the loop that we made around a sparsely populated area on a curvy road? That was the monster hill that we conquered that is known as Suncrest. The name comes from the Housing development that is on top of the mountain.

We killed ourselves up the hill! If you are savvy enough, you can look at a view of the vertical that we did on my map. It was definitely not for the faint of heart! I remember being right by the Mt. Timpanogos temple and staring at those bald mountains right above Alpine and thinking "I'm dead". But then I came around a corner and got a view of the hill we'd be climbing. I wasn't so worried anymore. For those familiar with Utah, you know that the Point of the mountain doesn't look that bad, but try telling that to Chris and I as we were climbing up the hill! It was a long hill... probably about 3 or 3.5 miles. It was super nice to coast down the SLC side though. Chris and I ripped down the hill and cruised back to Provo in record time. I'm still feeling the effects of the ride as of 4:30 p.m. wednesday, and I am sure Chris is too. Fatigue and soreness are a part of life after super long rides.

Miles ridden over the river and through the woods: 65.3

Hours in the saddle: 4.25

A ride on a whim...

Yesterday (Friday) Bridget left early to go on a ride with a couple of girls from our ward. i was left alone at home trying to decide if I wanted to go one a ride. We have both been on ride together and separately this week, which I haven't had time to blog recently. Here is a pic from our Tuesday adventure.

L-R Chris, Mike Bridget and me at the end of the Hobble Creek trail

So anywho, there I was sitting in bed trying to drag my bum out of the bed, and I decided that I wanted to do another new ride. This brings me to a side note. Cycling is bringing out the adventurer in me. I am no longer content with the same ride over and over again. I need some variety. Pretty soon we'll be taking road trips to great places like Washington, St. George, and Vegas. On my wish list right now is Nor-Cal... don't know if we'll have time for that though.
So, back to my bed. I decided to ride to the mouth of American Fork Canyon because it is one of my goals to ride the Alpine Loop this year, and I'll have to know how to navigate from my place to the start of the loop. I had an eventful ride (for me at least), and enjoyed the change in scenery. What is a good ride without getting lost during part of it? Yeah, I did, but no worries... I found my way. Luckily I'm in Utah, or else would still be lost... thank you grid system!
Once I got to the mouth of the canyon in Cedar Hills, I decided to extend my ride to go say hi to my Bishop and his family, who just moved to Lehi (just east of Thanksgiving Point). I showed up and they entreated me... they're so kind! After a chat, some ice-water and a quick glance at the map, I headed home. I had a gorgeous ride home on Lone Peak Blvd, passing the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. The Blvd was long, straight and had a slight decline... exactlly what I needed! It was a fun cruiser. I made it home tired and spent, but I loved the ride. I love getting out on the road and pushing myself, seeing new places, and even occasionally getting lost.
I have used a website called mapmyride.com that helps to find routes for rides. This time, I mapped out my ride, so you click HERE to see my exact ride that I took. Let me know what you think!

Miles on a whim: 45.4 (45.7 according to mapmyride.com)

My favorite new biker...

When I came back from my Heber ride last monday, Bridget had gone on a bike ride up to Vivian Park and back on her own volition. I was super proud of her. She mentioned that, after 6 months of me trying to convince her, she was willing to go check out a road bike. That evening we went by our favorite bike store... None other than Mad-Dog's! We found a smokin' deal, a good entry level bike, and sold her "old" bike the next day to someone who put it to great use! Selling her old bike helped us pay for a more than 1/3rd of her new bike.

Here she is with her new ride! Check out her Jersey too!

We went for a ride on wednesday, and the weather was great for a quick jaunt to Vivian Park and back. We took the quenticential picture by Bridal Veil Falls. (don't tell her I told you, but she experienced her first 'I got stuck in my pedals and fell over' spill right before we took this picture) :) It happens to everyone!

Bridgie and I in front of Bridal Veil

All in all, we had a great ride! I am excited to have Bridget experience some stories behind the handlebars with me!

Miles with Bridgie: 22.8

Hell's Hill and Humidity...

So, Chris and I took a short hiatus from long rides for a while there. We heard the long road calling our names, so off we went on a ride we'd never been on before. We headed to the Spanish Fork windmills at the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon. It was a nice ride, but it got windy as we got close to the Canyon. Headwind = no fun. I hate wind!
We were super close to one of my friend's house, so we stopped by real quick to say hi. As we left his place, Chris came up with another of his genius ideas... here's how it went.

"Dude!"
...me thinking something was wrong..."What?!"
"See that hill on the other side of the golf course? We're going to do that hill right now..."
...I examined the hill with horror. Even from a distance I could tell Chris was trying to kill me. Trying to sound cool and confident..."but we still need to ride back home. What time do you have to be home?" I was hoping he'd realize he needed to get home soon.
"I have time bro."
...DANGIT!..."let's do it bro!"...secretly thinking 'I hate my life'...

We found our way over to the road and felt the burn from the start, but nothing prepared us for the final hill, what Chris came to call "Hell's Hill". Below is a pic of Chris on the "melow" part that I thought was hard. I had no idea how easy that part was...

Here is Chris conquering his way up to Hell's Hill... CLICK on the pic to get an idea of how steep this is!

Here is another view of the Hell's Hill. Hopefully you're getting an idea of how steep it is.

As we got to the base of Hell's Hill, I was convinced I was done. I was already dying. When I saw the final hill, I yelled "NOOOOO!!!". Chris pressed on though. "You can do it dude! Follow me!" He just pushed on, that jerk! I just couldn't let my dogg down, so I followed. When we got to the top, we made this video...

After our hill climb, we were straight up out of water. We stopped at a Chevron gas station to 'fuel up'. We had no cash, but a super nice dude gave us $5, so we filled our water bottles with gatorade and bought two granola bars. Thanks Good Samaritan Man!
We headed back to Provo via Mapleton. We detoured up Hobble Creek canyon just to put the cherry on top of our long and hilly Sundae. It was SOOO humid in the canyon! I felt like I was in Florida! I couldn't believe I was in Utah. Weird monsoonal weather! Anywho, the trail up Hobble Creek Canyon rocks! We'll definitely revisit, that's for sure.
It was a great ride. We finished it off with a protein shake and stretching sesh at my place. Chris and me add whole oats to our shakes, saying that all the carbs and whole grain would help us 'recover faster'. We were rolling on the floor laughing as we tried to swallow the bottoms of our shake. It was the consistancy of sand!
I would never give up these memories or biking! It is teaching me I can do hard things, and have fun at the same time.

Windy, Hellish, Humid miles: 40.3