Murdock Ride

Wednesday was some hills on the road bike at lunch. Yesterday was a kind of ride that I've coined the term Murdock Ride. Meaning, when you know the route you'll think:

Hey man, you're crazier than Murdock

The fool's crazy!
What's all that about? That guy's crazier than Murdock!


Well crazy for us regular folk. Par for the course for a lot of hardcores out there.




Google Map of the route

This kind of ride is designed to simulate the situations that are standard fare in races
-burned legs and hitting a hard section
-half bonked and stuck in technical terrain
-lower back on fire while in the middle of a long climb
-The wish situation
-wishing I'd driven out to the trail head
-wishing I'd brought more food
-wishing I ate more before hand
-wishing I didn't do those hills the day before
-wishing I'd taken sport legs

This route is mentally easier to put yourself into a hurt locker just by virtue of the terrain. You don't have to push yourself because just doing it is enough to make it hard.

Stats:
3:22
4924 ft elevation gain
25.4 miles

Route
-Home
-up Old Farm (18:51 full clean)
-Down Side winder to creek
-Up sidewinder
-Down Beast
-Up Beast
-Down Sidewinder
-Poverty Creek to Big Rock
-Gap to 3 way
-To Beauty Parking Lot
-Up Beast
-Down OF
-Home

The first part of Old Farm was hit over hard. To force recovery in the middle. This actually made the ride cleanable as there was enough turbo available for each tech section..barely

I hit sidewinder a couple of times today to get more practice on those sidehill type trails. Beast was just a rocket run. Too scary sometimes.

About 2hrs into it way out on the Gap trails the legs started to fade hard and the cobwebs of the bonk were starting. Blinking the eyes quickly shaking the head trying to get rid of the light headed feeling. I'd brought 3 bottles of go juice and 1 Pria bar. Only 1/2 a bottle was left at this point

Skills begin to fade quickly. I grab the brake hard and crawl, hesitate and pretty much flail during times like this.

About this time, I start thinking to myself that I'm a long long ways from home and need to start working my way in that general direction. Driving to the trailhead would have been better than I don't need to worry about if anything were to go wrong (mechanical/flat, etc)

It reminded me of a story from my early days of mountain biking. We were way in BFE on this 4-5hr ride in Northern California. One guy was bonked, had crashed an was just in a bad mood. The other guy-Kurt, a top expert in the area, and one of the inspirations that got me into mountain bike racing, was just talking away..We could go here, or here, or turn here or do this loop which is real cool...on and on....

Every time Kurt opened his mouth the other guy immediately said flatly and forcefully.."Shortest Way home, Kurt.. Shortest way home.."

I was getting a tiny panic attack and diverted course to the Shortest Way Home. Where is Mr. T when you need him.

Shortest way home was back up the Beast. Hike a bike what I'd ridden much of earlier. Thankfully the bonk had subsided a little. Going down Old Farm was very painful on my hands. The last of the go juice was drained and onward home. The last section of road home always irks me. It's just enough climbing to put the nails in the coffin.

Eat. Immediately..Carbs.. Aww man, I'm out of ensure.

Mission accomplished
Mission: Take what puts you at the edge and make it routine.

Edge:
Bonking, back hurting, hands hurting, legs hurting. All while still 1 hour away from being done

Time to rest. two days off, then one last block of 3 day before another 5-7 day rest period. I'm going to get back on the trainer for some of these workouts. Just to train more of a specific system rather than stressing the entire body so much.

Oh forget to mention that my drivetrain was creaking every pedal stroke like it was going to explode. The whole drivetrain is going to get taken apart and checked. And later that night I just walked by the bike and spun the wheels out of habit and both the front and rear discs were dragging a little. Like Lance man.