Week 16

Early Sunday Morning, Dakota Ridge looking out towards Red Rocks, you can almost hear the music.


Sunday morning after the time change is a great day for heading out early and hitting the trails. Given the minimal precipitation in Colorado this winter all the foothill trails are fine for riding so another day on the mountain bike was in order. I left the house by 7:30, which considering the time change felt more like 6:30 to get out in the dirt. Clearly the animals that live at Mathews Winters Park had not been made aware of the time change as I saw deer and rabbits by the dozens. Each taking care of their morning breakfast routines with me only slightly altering their courses.
I decided to string together a new route today, Mathews, part of Dakota, Green Mountain (for the climbing), Zorro, and more of Dakota. While the ride was good and the trails fun my route wasn’t as perfect as I’d hoped. I wanted the perfect two hour ride, not trails being repeated, minimal roads etc. Instead, today, I got a few too many miles on the road, a route that was short and caused two sections towards the end to be repeated to hit my time and a feeling that better mountain bike surely was at hand. Part of the problem may have been my route, starting on Mathews and climbing Zorro/Dakota at the end. The trail I went up is far better the other direction; my concern was the steep climb to start, so I took the less fun overall route. I did manage to get in a good ride, felt really strong on the climbs and felt as if I was riding well on the technical sections. I think there may be a better (and longer) route that can be created by including Bear Creek, but that will have to wait for another week.




Dakota Ridge looking west to Mathews



Dakota Ridge looking east to Green Mountain
On a side note, I’m feeling I took the weekend too easy. By Friday I already had 100+ miles and with a 35 mile ride Saturday a 200 mile week was easily within grasp; however, as a mountain biker I went for the mountain bike ride Sunday and even at that a short one. A total of 155 for the week, 9:50 of riding, with another 2:00 of riding it would have been a big week of training, as it stands a solid week but nothing special.