I was going to start my own thread on the same topic, about my own ride
today! So I'll jumpin on yours.
This was much shorter MUni distance with minimal mounts. Today I rode
the Clementine Loop in Auburn, 7 miles with about 1000' of climbing,
part on pavement, and much on very technical singletrack, with only 4
dismounts total. That's a major personal best for me.
In my current state of good riding skills but lousy conditioning, the
hardest part was the long slog uphill on the first half of the ride.
Normally I'll stop several times to rest, and ride quite a bit faster in
between. In order to not only ride the entire paved uphill section
(about 800' of up, mostly on pavement), and still have energy left for
the remaining dirt climb when I got there, I had to take it dead slow.
The problem is, riding slow on uphills is risky as well. The slower you
go, the easier it is to get tripped up by bumps or unevenness in the
pavement. But a slow cadence was needed to keep my heartrate where I
could control it.
For those not familiar with this ride, it was the first one at the first
MUni Weekend, and we returned there to ride it again in '97, '98 and
'03. It starts at the American River Confluence, goes under the big
Foresthill bridge, then heads uphill until it's a couple of hundred feet
above the bridge. Then it comes back down along a different fork of the
river, on some of my favorite singletrack anywhere.
http://www.unicycling.com/brett/clemen.shtml
It was 80-90 degrees out, which is typical for this time of year.
Amazingly, I made it all the way up the early dirt uphill, and all of
the paved portion of the uphill. My first dismount came after about 50
meters of uphill on the remaining climb. I took a rest. Then I managed
to hold it together for the remainder of the climb, and rode right past
the big oak tree at the top of the hill, where we usually stop to rest
and wait for people.
A little while later, I moved over to let some bikes past. I had to give
them the courtesy, as one of them gave me one of the best quotes ever:
"You are the coolest dude I have ever seen in my life!" I moved over
into some weeds to let them pass. Stupid. People on bikes suck at
passing unicyclists on singletrack. They slow down and get reluctant. So
I UPD'd while hopping in the weeds next to the trail. This was on an
easy piece of trail, so I prefer not to count that one as part of my
ride score. I immediately jumped back on after they passed, so there
would be no advantage of resting.
Then, after riding some very gnarly and rocky downhill stuff, I UPD'd in
a relatively easy spot. Isn't that always how it is? My official count
was at 2. Almost all the uphill was long past, but the remainder of the
ride was almost all singletrack with lots of rocks and narrow spots.
I rode right through a technical spot on the trail I'm usually chicken
to ride. No problem! I managed to continue through the culvert (tunnel),
down to Old Foresthill Road, across the road and onto the OHV road
(which was closed because they were updating the pavement; tar mixed
with rocks?). My next dismount came at a spot along the Confluence Trail
where a waterfall runs across the trail during the winter. That spot is
here:
http://www.unicycling.com/things/index.htm#34
Then I fell off again on one of the technical bits where the trail lumps
up over a slide area; steep, narrow and rocky uphill section with major
exposure to the left (just how I like it). That was four.
I passed a runner coming the other way, and realized I was a little rude
as I didn't yield the right of way. Though the trail tends uphill for
her, I was actually the one riding uphill at the time. She just stopped
in the middle of the (narrow) trail and stared. It takes too long to
explain why you don't want to stop or move over!
The last time I tried to do minimal dismounts on this trail, my final
score was seven. But that only counted UPDs, not deliberate rest stops.
This was different. But on that last time, my last dismount was in the
last 100' or so of the trail, on the uphill bit that comes out near the
parked cars. I was determined not to let that happen this time! But I
was pretty tired from all the non-stop downhill riding. Then, dread of
all dreads, a family group was walking down as I was coming up. Mom,
dad, little kids, grandma. Please make a space for me, I thought to
myself, and hold onto the little ones! They did as I wished, and I was
able to crank past them.
I made it up to the road! But I was not finished. I had stopped several
times on the first part of my ride, before deciding to go for a record.
I had to continue back onto the Clementine Trail and a little ways past
the Foresthill Bridge before my loop would be complete. I got more and
more paranoid as I went, fearing small bumps would ruin my numbers.
Then, just as the doubletrack was turning to singletrack, here came a
couple of hikers. I rode real slow, hoping that would not
mess me up before I got to their location, giving them time to get to
the wider part. Made it! What a ride!
I knew I'd gotten a good workout as my sweat felt cold on my body.
That's either the body's cooling system working very well, or something
wrong with me.
Ride notes:
- I love my Scott Wallis carbon handle. For my riding style a
symmetrical handle would be more appropriate, and if he ever makes one
I'll get that and put my current handle on a Trials uni. The smooth
carbon makes for a wet handle as my hand sweats on it.
- I was getting saddlesore on the long uphill slog at the beginning. The
combination of riding real slow, for a long time without stopping, is
bad on the crotch. I tried to shift around some, but without a longer
handlebar system or the occasional stop, the body has limits. My seat is
a new KH Fusion, unmodified (except for the handle).
- The goal of minimal dismounts took a lot of fun out of the ride. The
slowness of my uphill part took a lot of patience. It was very slow! I
usually go quite a bit faster, and then stop when I have to. If I was in
better shape I would have been able to roll a little faster, but I
wanted to arrive at the final dirt uphill with energy to spare.
Along the same lines, the fun technical sections on the second half of
this ride were instead worrisome, potential dismount sections. All were
approached with fear, and I rode the easier lines when possible and
avoided all the "fun" stuff along the sides.
Though I am very proud of my personal goal accomplishment, I would
normally much rather do the ride with lots of stops and multiple tries
on all the fun sections.
--
johnfoss - More Moab Fun
John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
"jfoss" at "unicycling.com" -- www.unicycling.com
"Read the rules!" -- 'IUF Rulebook'
(http://www.unicycling.org/iuf/rulebook/) -- 'USA Rulebook'
(http://www.unicycling.org/usa/competition/)
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