Utah Day 1 (Ride 1)

In regards to next summer's Big Ride across the country, biking in elevation and climbing serious mountains has to be among my top concerns. Some how climbing overpasses in the flat lands of Chicago just cannot seem to quiet these thoughts. Therefore in lieu of the normal vacation of relaxing on a beach I decided to visit a friend in Salt Lake City, UT to conquer these exact issues.

The plan for the trip was pretty simple: arrive with my bike, set it up, bike, bike, maybe take a day off, bike some more, head home.

I got in late Thursday night to a warm welcome from Todd and some great dinner chili with him and his girlfriend. After a great meal (Todd I still need to get that recipe) it was off to the garage to put together the bike. Having been my first trip traveling with my bike I was surprised to find I packed it well and the hard case had held everything together. By far the best protective investment for my cycling investment. The rest of the night was spent shooting the shit as I worked and tweaked my bike and Todd worked on his (motorcycle, not bicycle).

Friday morning I was up surprisingly early, probably around 8:30 am Utah time. To all those that know me, if I don't have to be at work, I'm usually not awake until noon. I guess the anticipation of training was too much to let me sleep in. I light breakfast and I was out on the road. After a few blocks I would have to stop as I realized I still had tweaks to make from the previous night's reassembly: increasing the angle in the seat, leveling off the handle bars, re-centering the lines of the saddle, and so on.

It wasn't long before I found my first climb and my first taste of what it is like to train in elevation. Normally when riding I may feel a tightness in my chest as I find my lungs out of shape, or a muscle cramping in my leg muscles as I find I am pushing them to new boundaries. Instead this time it was burning in my lungs as I took the deepest breathes possible. As for my legs, they would feel fine until after a steep climb. Then it was not a matter of muscle tightness, but rather the feeling of muscles that were not well rested. In both cases, it was obvious it was a lack of oxygen to my lungs and working muscles. Oh the love of elevation!

I found the best solution was to ride myself to near exhaustion for an hour or two, then rest for 30-60 minutes. I repeated this for the rest of the day and by dinner time was climbing with much greater ease. The final total of the day was ~40 miles.