I left work a couple of hours early because it was slow and we were all caught up, got home and took Greta for a long run in the woods, then jumped on my mountain bike and rode down to the Rincon parking lot to hit the trails around UCSC.
Since I didn't want to drive to the trails, I was on Hwy 9 the four miles to the trails. My legs were stiff and my heart didn't really want to keep up with what I was asking it to do. I thought about turning around, and had a great excuse lined up in my head: "Clay, you've been up since 2:50 this morning. Just go home and relax. If you're not into it on pavement, how are you going to make it on the trails? And do you really want to do that climb to get to the top of the U-Conn trail?" Actually, that's three excuses.
I think it's worth exploring how I talked myself through this.
I started with the most common rebuttal - that, like a lot of endurance sports, it often takes a few miles to "settle in." I've experienced it on long-distance paddleboard events, I've heard other cyclists say it, I've heard Adria say it about her long trail runs, and even when she goes backpacking. Once we let our bodies take over what they really want to be doing (moving), our minds stop chattering.
The other rebuttal I used with myself to stay on my bike was a reminder to myself that the more miles I put in, the more money I raise for the people at the Homeless Garden Project. I stopped by the Garden a few weekends ago and met two people who work there. I'll post about that this weekend.
My final rebuttal was sitting about 16 inches below my face - my GPS! There was no way I was going to turn around after three miles!
So by the time I made it to the bottom of the U-Conn trail, I was nice and loose and my mind wasn't chattering. I climbed to the top of U-Conn, but still had to stop two times on the way. For those readers who don't live in Santa Cruz, or don't ride bikes, or haven't ridden U-Conn trail, there a reason why I am so fascinated by this trail. First, it's beautiful - narrow singletrack on packed dirt with some moderately technical sections, all under redwood trees. That, combined with the fact that it's f'ing steep!! If my math is correct it's a 6.5% grade for 1.85 miles. That and that, combined with the fact that I ride it on a singlespeed. Last season, when I was riding trails more, I was able to easily climb this trail without stopping. I think I'll get back there soon.
After the climb I played around on a lot of the same trails that I was on last Saturday, just reinforcing the way the trails link together. Another one of my biggest challenges is learning how this trail system is laid out. There's no published trail map. Some of these trails are "unauthorized" (i.e. illegal). When I ride with my friends on the trails, I'm impressed with how they link the trails together - we can ride for hours and never be on the same trail.
After about an hour of riding the same trails as last weekend, I explored some trails that branch off of these and saw how these new ones link up. I saved the locations of new trailheads on my GPS to help visualize it. I think what I'm going to discover when I plot all these trails on my GPS is that these woods are like Disneyland - lots of smaller sections of trails linked together to form one giant network of fun.
The condition of the trails was excellent - super tacky from the recent rains, but not muddy. And the heavy winds of the storm made it look like someone took a buzzsaw to the forest.
Today I'm going to ride down to Santa Cruz to run some errands, then do another mountain bike ride on campus. That should be about 40-50 miles. I need to make sure that I eat well all day to sustain.
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