"Why Hello There Taper"

Ride updates.....Monday was the proverbial day OFF!  Tuesday and Wednesday were supposed to be my last 2 somewhat hard efforts before the taper begins for the Puff.  Tuesday's weather foiled my plans when I got to the trailhead and the thunder/lightning/rain started to unload.  It ended up being a 1 hour effort on the indoor trainer trying to keep constant pressure on the pedals for the full hour...not fun, but necessary.

Wednesday also threatened with dark skies and spotty areas of rain.  As I drove out to the trailhead, I could see that it had just rained as the roads were starting to dry.  Fortunately the trails locally dry up very quickly due to their being made up of decomposed granite.  I headed out to the East Ridge and the plan was to ride the CDT to the ended where the trail fizzled into bushwhacking above Maude S trail. 

The beginning of the trail is really steep....especially on a singlespeed.  You gain about 1000 ft in about 2 miles and there are sections where you have to dig deep to keep moving and not dab the feet on the ground.  I kept tell myself this was the last hard ride before tapering and to keep moving.  I eventually made to the sign that indicated Maude S was 3 miles below us somewhere through brush, down trees, etc...Considering the return leg was 9 miles, and mostly downhill with about 2,000 ft of fast, swoopy singletrack, it was a no brainer to crest back up to the highpoint and then bomb downhill back to the car. 

The turn around point was pretty close to Our Lady (If you look carefully, you can see her on the right side of the pic). 

The sun was starting to set and my mind kept playing tricks on me reminding me that there was a Grizzly Bear (yes, a grizz!!) that was shot a couple of weeks earlier about 3 miles north of where I was....not to mention the cat sightings...I tried to put it out of my head and take time to enjoy my surroundings...

There is plenty of rock to explore in the area.  I am constantly juggling between trying to keep my eyes on the trail, and scoping out opportunities for climbing/bouldering.  The problem is most of the bouldering is not very easily accessible so it is always more of an fyi to store in the back of the file cabinet for the future.  It was a nice ride back to the car and once I loaded up I kept reminding myself how the Cascade Cream Puff is only 10 days away and not it is time to taper and reap the bennies of all the training.  It was an 18 mile day with a little less than 3,000 ft of climbing.  The legs felt tired at the beginning but seemed to warm up a little about 2 hours into the ride. 

I got home to see Erin leaning up against the cabinet in the bathroom and hugging the porcelain throne.  She must have gotten some nasty little bug because she looked really pale.  Her med students cooked her and her colleagues dinner last night as a thank you for all the mentoring throughout the past month.  I joked that maybe she got them fired up and they gave her some food poisoning as payback!  My attempt at humor quickly backfired as she quickly corrected me and told me food poisoning would not happen the fast...so I got paranoid thinking it might be a bug and the last thing I needed was to contract a nasty bug prior to race day (especially since one of her colleagues has been hit hard with a virus this whole week...including having to get fluids!)....it was time to hit the medicine drawer and load up on Echinaccea and Vit C as a precaution....and just to err on the side of caution I spent the night on the couch.  Fortunately Erin felt much better today so hopefully that bodes well for the immune system.

Did I mention it is time to taper????