Laurel Mountain

Sunday morning and out the door at 7am. I was meeting Dr. Don, Aaron, and Wayne at Laurel Mountain to get a loop in at a place I don’t ride often enough. We’re pedaling by 9:10 and I can tell within the first 3 miles it’s going to be a long day. I don’t know the area well enough to name trails or even to describe to the loop we took, but I will link to the ride profile on motionbased at the bottom of the page. I’ve been to Laurel Mountain once before and this time I wised up and brought a bike with front suspension. The pace was just above my comfort level, which was nice at first, but would eventually begin to wear me out. The thing about Laurel Mountain, for me, is the number of long flat spans. I simply don’t have the sustained power to keep up with someone like Don on those efforts. About halfway through the ride, Wayne said it was turning into a ride of attrition. I think that summed it up quite nicely. Aaron got four flat tires, which was pretty amazing and was down to the group’s last tube and CO2. The last flat came with about 7 miles left and it was kind of a blessing as it let me stretch out a bit and rehydrate myself. I was feeling pretty stiff and cramped up and the opportunity to drink half a bottle of water made the last leg a lot more enjoyable.

Looking back on it, usually my aerobic capacity is straining before my legs give out. This was not the case this weekend. My lungs felt good, but my legs were stiff and heavy. I didn’t sleep enough the night before so maybe that had something to do with it. Laurel Mountain is tough on me. It’s not the rocks; it’s not the climbing up from Linn Run State Park. Like I mentioned before, those long wide-open efforts really destroy me. I notice the same thing on a road bike in that it’s very difficult for me to pull anyone for a long period of time.

I have a plan for this though. We'll talk about that later; it's rather exciting.