Muse back!
July 06, 2008 / Sunday
Hey Stomach, You're Back At Sea Level Now. Behave!
Well, I thought I was feeling better. Woke up this morning, had pancakes and a latte for breakfast, then headed off to Rancho Cañada del Oro for some mountain biking. There was a bit of a delay in getting to the park because Aaron's bike broke a spoke and needed a detour to the bike shop, but once we got to there I ate a mini Luna bar to top off on fuel and we got to riding.
Rancho Cañada del Oro is a park they recently opened up to mountain biking. It's only about 11 miles to ride out, make a loop, and ride back, but the route includes a decent amount of climbing, some of it fairly steep.
I wasn't fast on the initial uphill, but I attributed that to my usual snail's pace warm-up period and still-tired legs from the big hike. It was hot out, so I sipped from my hydration pack at a reasonable rate. After 3.1 miles we found ourselves at the loop. My stomach felt a little strange. I mentioned it but continued on. More moderate uphill followed by the real climbs less than a mile later. I worked hard to stay on my bike through them and rode up a good portion of this section of trail, but the exertion left me in a really bad state. With the same amount or more of this steep climbing to go, my limbs felt like jelly, my stomach was queasy, and my balance was starting to go.
Well this just sucks! Another trail outing where I have to turn back? Lame! But then, I really didn't want to get stuck out on an exposed trail on a hot day. You know, part of that whole dying-is-not-my-objective thing. So we turned back. Again. Sigh.
The ride back was slooow. The downhills were fine, but there was also a decent amount of climbing required to get back to the trailhead. I super duper snail's paced it back up about 900 feet at ~2.5 MPH. When I reached the parking lot, I did a couple left-right swizzles for fun and nearly fell over because the world tilted a LOT more than expected. Okay me, get off the bike. NOW.
So I guess I'm still recovering from that 14,000 feet icky stomach feeling. When does that stop? Before Tuesday, I hope. There's hockey on the calendar!
July 6, 2008 11:15 PM | Mountain