Sunday, May 22, 2011

Cycling without Rodzilla

So Cap'n Rodney has been on the road all week, unfortunately driving a vehicle with four wheels instead of pedaling one with two. The text messages sent from his iphone have been intermittent at best and they have generally chronicled the places he has eaten (greasy spoon diners, Vegas strip all-you-can-eat buffets and the like). I'm just hoping he's biked at least a mile for every 1000 calories he's consumed. It sounds unlikely though.

That said, despite the fairly constant rain from Monday through half of Thursday I managed to put in my best week distance-wise of the year, 238 miles as of Saturday night. At this rate I will still come up about 100 miles shy of the 1000 I need for May. I'm going to have to have a very productive Memorial Day Weekend. It looks like the Nebo loop will still be snowed in, so La Canadienne is scheming a Suncrest-Alpine loop ride to substitute, that's if the Alpine loop is not snowed in, big question mark given our unseasonably wet and cold Spring so far.

The highlight of the cycling week was the trip La Canadienne and I took to the top of Emigration canyon.

photo


http://connect.garmin.com/activity/87140380 (Jen's Longest Ride of the Year !)

It was the last canyon ride on my list of essential ascents and the easiest as it turned out. I think last year I started with Little Cottonwood Canyon (it was the word 'Little' that tempted me) and that experience (one that dregger would classify as violent but that the US Cycling Federation would classify as a 'category 1 climb') left me feeling distinctly ambivalent about climbing local canyons. Emigration, on the other hand was kind. The ride from the west side of the valley to Wasatch Blvd left me more breathless than the Emigration summit. We met my brother-in-law Stuart 'stooie' Moffatt (another Canadian on a bike) in the parking lot of Hogle Zoo and we road to the top together. stooie is training for the Spudman Triathlon in July. I believe he's planning on borrowing La Canadienne's venerable Fuji team RC for the race, certainly he won't be able to ride the bike he was on yesterday, which weighs roughly the equivalent of a smart car (and that's without the saddlebags full of stooie's plans to save the valley in the event of natural disaster):


To his credit,s

to his credit, stooie road it all the way to the summit. It's that kind of endurance in the face of senseless physical adversity, for physical adversity's sake that will get him across the finish line on the spudman.


The grade up emigration only merited a half-hearted "I have conquered this hill" manly muscle flex. It was a good ride, challenging enough to get you a workout but never leaving you feeling beat. The door to door did cover 70 miles, making it La Canadienne's longest ride to date



We didn't get to leave until mid afternoon. Swedish Matt did essentially the same ride earlier in the day with the legend of Ivan, his (now) official nickname (that just happened). They met somewhere in West Valley and biked Emigration together and then the legend of Ivan rode home. Like most things regarding the legend, I have to take another person's word for it.

On the Team Sons of Perdition front, our team jersey kits have arrived. Medium for the legend, XL for Swedish Matt and XXXL for Rodzilla, that is if his recent tour of Restaurants of the Southwest hasn't moved him from triple X to moo-moo.

Pictures of  New Moo-Moo Dresses  - $25.00 Each

(I checked, this is the closest thing I could find to a cycling moo-moo, and no it doesn't match the team colors but the gold embroidery is nice). I delivered the XL and medium kits to Swedish Matt and asked him if he passed it on to the legend of Ivan and did it fit. He responded with this photo:



Still not sure if this is Swedish Matt or the legend of Ivan

As a back up he offered this:



Swedish Matt and the legend of Ivan atop emigration canyon (if you choose to believe such things).

So that's the week heading into Memorial Day weekend. The Rockwell countdown clock is under three weeks. Team Captain is on the road and Swedish Matt is spending more time maintaining the legend of the legend of Ivan than he is spending actually riding. Heady times to be sure. I actually met up with a fellow Rockwellian at a red light on Wasatch Blvd on our way back home from Emigration Canyon. He told me he was taking the cyclist #1 leg as well, just before he clipped in to his pedals and disappeared over the horizon like a super-hero on a bike. Clearly all of us have serious work to do in these few remaining weeks.

Talk/blog soon,

(im)deebers

PS this just in from our fearless leader:



It's Rodzilla's SS, on the road. No sign of Rodzilla, but at least his bike is getting out there.

3 comments:

  1. The red rider and I had a great trip celebrating a major milestone, although we brought our bikes we did spend more time in restaurants than in the saddle. Certainly not by choice, day one was filled with 40 mph winds and rain, day two more rain, day three 28 degrees and snowing in Mesa Verde, day 4 morning snow on the ground in Flagstaff. Day 5 85 degrees, Day six 77 degrees and a little piece of heaven.

    Was able to get about 150, which is respectable considering the above. I guess there is a future blog report, unique opportunity to bike with out worrying about making loops.

    Nice work to the La Canadienne's longest ride, mad props!

    and Love to see Swedish Matt, and the Legend getting some time in the saddle.

    After doing some biking in the south, I have a new appreciation for what this Moab to St. George ride will offer....stunning but challenging.

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  2. As for the Nebo Loop consolation ride

    Perhaps this little number http://soc.li/EeKxQog (map my ride link)

    Turns out that East Canyon and back is about 100 miles, also features over 6,000 feet of climb 3 Cat 2s Cat 4 and a Cat 5

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  3. Jenn... Great job on the new distance achieved. Very impressive. Nice writing once again Steven.

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