Productive Monday

To Do Lists, Pseudo Taper, Mosquitos, & Bouldering Recon on the East Ridge (and uber long blog titles)

So I am leaning towards doing the Butte 50 this weekend.  I just can't bring myself to sign up for the 100...The fitness is there but the mental fortitude is not so the 50 sounds like a good compromise.  It will still be a long day in the saddle but not as long as doing the full enchilada!  The singlespeed got a little lovin' yesterday...the bike has been cleaned and also replaced the mashed up pedal.  I still need to go through it a little more to lube the chain and make some micro-adjustments in prep for Saturday.

The 50 is mostly on singletrack and will have some hike-a-bike sections that are too steep to ride on the single-speed - it will be somewhere around 8,000 ft of vertical gain.  It should be an easier mental dialogue than the Cream Puff as the current weather forecasted for Saturday will be in the upper 70's (much better relative to the 90 degree temps at the Puff).  I am going to take it easy on the riding this week and do a quickie pseudo taper in prep for the 50 on Saturday.  I will be much better prepared relative to last year and will carry tons of endurolytes so as to not repeat last year's cramp fest which included both hammies and quads...when trying to stretch the quads, the hammies would lock up and vice versa - it was not a pleasant last 25 miles!

All in all, yesterday was a productive day.  I have tried to be better about creating to-do lists each morning of things that I need to get done.  It helps to have something to look at and more importantly there is something very cathartic about being able to cross things off the to-do list.

We took the pups up to the East Ridge CDT last night.  I thought it would be a good change of pace to take them somewhere new so they could explore and smell the scents of a different area.  They always seem to perk up when on a new trail.  We walked up the East Ridge on the Cont Divide and immediately started to get attacked my mosquitoes!  It was ugly!!!  We could at least swat at the pesky little guys...the dogs, not so much.  The poor dogs were shown no mercy at all........poor Moby had bumps all over his body but especially his head.  Both dogs picked up scents and tracked them for a while.  It was fun to see them use their natural instincts.

While up on the East Ridge, we did some reconning for bouldering and there are a few lines that are very worthy of trying.   We will have to wait until the mosquitoes are not quite so pervasive but there are some cool looking lines to check out.  It is amazing what you actually see when you are not blazing through on a bike!