301 Paved Trail

So I took notice last night when feeding some friends who are vacations pets, that a really good section of the new paved trails along US301 in Riverview were finally paved. It also appears that once they finish there should be at least another 2 miles of nicely paved trail I'll have access to. The good thing is that the trail is really smooth, looks to be well lit (once it is finished) and has a similar look and feel to the Pinellas Trails. Unfortunately people in Hillsborough see bikes as targets (or don't even look for them) which made this ride difficult. I though that crossing Big Bend Road would be the scarriest crossing, but quite honestly, one subdivision and on entrance near a McDonald's were the really difficult spots. I guess visions of egg mcmuffins blinded some of these folks.

At any rate, aside from that, the trail is great, and I cannot wait till it is done so I can have a solid 20 mile paved ride nearly in my back yard. (2 mile ride from the house to the nearest entry point for me). So it is like a completely flat version of Boyette.

Ride Stats:
Started: Jul 3, 2010 8:26:49 AM
Ride Time: 1:10:53
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 14.40 miles
Average: 12.19 miles/hr
Fastest Speed: 19.63 miles/hr
Climb: 276 feet
Calories: 658

Balm Boyette Scrub Park Ride

Today's ride Recap:

Todays group met up around 8:30 at Boyette Scrub park. This jewel is about 10 minutes closer to most of us than Alafia, and would be even more popular if there was not a 2 mile ride (some of which is full of wonderful florida sugar sand) to get out to the beginning of the trails.

We started out by taking the fire road thorough the creek crossing and up towards Vista Ridge. This area must have had a ton of rain drop at once - most of the creek crossing was washed out, and the bike path on the fire road was pretty washed out as well. We headed up the hill to Vista Ridge - which was a pretty good description of this trail. One misguided slip to the right was likely to send you rolling for a long while - but the view spectacular. At the end of Vista Ridge we kept going on down West Meadow, a meandering trail that winds through the upper western end of the park. When we got to Randy's Trail (Randy is a member of the SWAMP club) we road it over to spider Berm. I am not sure if Randy likes super easy trails, but, this is one of the easier and shorter trails out here.

Spider Berm...
I am not really sure why they call it this (I see very few spiders here) but it does indeed ride along a berm. The lower section has some really nice drops and relatively easy climbs (as long as you keep pace). It was nice to ride this trail and not end up on my ass this time (the first time I rode this was the day I got my bike, and I caught some loose leaves at the edge and ended up sliding off the bike). When you hit the end of lower spider berm, you take a quick u turn and head back down the actual berm. The funny thing about this part of the trail is that it is more like a rock garden than Rock Garden on the alafia trail system. What we weren't expecting was a tree that had fallen in the way of the trail, its a good 8-10" in diameter, or in other words, too tall for me to hop! A quick hop off the bike, lifting it over and we are out of the trail and on towards Gator Pit and Golf Cart.

Gator Bait is pretty rough to start down - the trail is hollowed out of the ground and catches a pretty nasty tree and roots about 6 feet down the drop, followed by some roots a few feet further. The real fun is the sugar sand at the bottom and the huge climb back out the other side. We finished this portion of the trail and headed back out to where we could pick up Golf Cart, at which point we decided to take a break. It was about this time our nameless friend and his lady friend came ripping past us on his high $$ Ellsworth (which is apparantly the cats meow of bikes).

While we are on break, my latest take on nutrition on the ride...Today I really felt energized. I started the day with a Muscle Milk, 2 eggs, 1 Bagel Thin (with a touch of butter) and just before we headed out, a cup of blueberry coffee with cream and splenda. By the time we took this break, we were riding close to an hour, and had climbed and rode nearly 4 miles already. I wasn't the least bit hungry and my energy levels were still good. At this point I had drank about 1.5 bottles of water from the Camelbak, 1/2 of a 32oz Powerade, and it was time for some food energy, which I satisfied by eating about 7 dried apricot pieces. Shawn had mentioned these things on our ride last weekend - great for energy (29g of Carbs) and loads of potassium. This keeps down cramping, and the carbs keep the energy levels up. Anyway, back to the ride...

Golf Cart...
This is arguably now my most favorite trail of all the local trails. Its a good long ride, has enough technical parts to keep you busy, changes in elevation, some small rock garden sections, and just a few roots. Good fun! When we reached the end of Golf Cart, we stopped and talked to another rider about Mt. Boyette and Canyon (we noticed the sign for these trails when we stopped here). He said that Mt. Boyette was one of the steepest climbs, and the canyon trail was just a simple intermediate trail. We took off down the trail and found the climb, the other rider wasn't kidding, most of us rode up the climb as far as possible, then walked the rest of the way up. Knowing how hot it was, we all had also previously agreed that we weren't going to be going out of our way to pedal hard up these trails and waste our energy. From Mount Boyette (which did offer some pretty nice views of the park) we headed down the canyon trail. This trail was a more difficult intermediate trail, in that there are a few sections that if you dont make the turn, you're gonna fall a long way. The next part of the challenge was a couple of the climbs that really penalized you if you fail to gain enough speed down the previous drop. The only really mentally tought section was a tough climb that had a hard left at the very top that then dropped and at the end of that drop forced a hard right between trees and a dirt wall. Let me say that I rode side ways on a small section of that dirt wall (the 29er is a slowwww turner!).


If you want to see what Gator Pit, Golf Cart, and Canyon look like, check out the video below, courtesy of Proedgebiker.com



From Canyon we decided it was time to head over to Pandemonium, Sidewinder and Swamp Thing. I rode the Pandemonium bypass today (didn't feel like doing the bigger drops) while the others rode the easier (but still hard) drops. When we finished here we took the nice drop out of Pandemonium and hit the hard right back towards Sidewinder. Sidewinder is another more advanced intermediate trail, with lots of small drops and switchbacks, along with terrace rides that remind you NOT to look over the edge. Swamp Thing is a lot of the same thing, albeit some of the drops are a little less forgiving (more like those found on Alafia). We rode over to where Ridgeline was just so those of us who had never ridden it could see what it looks like (the trail was closed due to recent rains). Definitely some major drops here!

On our way back from our on foot sight seeing trip:


After looking at Ridgeline we rode the rest of Swamp Thing till we hit the fire trail, then headed back up the fire trail. The majority of the crew wanted to ride Pandemonium one more time, while that occured Alex and I pedaled down to the end and waited for them to run through. After everyone had finished, we had all pretty much agreed we were done, I had the brilliant idea to take the guys over to the spur jump...yeah we rode it the wrong way and didnt get to jump and we were too tired to attempt it again.

At this point we had about a 3 mile ride to get back (the last 3 miles doesn't show as the battery on the phone had died). We all rode hard back to the parking area, total mileage was probably about 13 miles for the day.

Ride stats for the time the phone was still powered up:
Started: Jun 27, 2010 8:34:13 AM
Ride Time: 2:48:56
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 9.49 miles
Average: 3.37 miles/hr
Fastest Speed: 13.78 miles/hr
Climb: 292 feet
Calories: 436


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Saturday's Pinellas Trail Ride

Ana and I headed out to the Pinellas trails Saturday for a ride on the pavement. It is no doubt blisteringly hot outside this time of year. Today was no exception. The only saving grace today was that it was partly cloudy so occaisionally we'd get the relief of a a cloud obfuscating the sun for a few minutes. In retrospect that was a rather technical way of describing the sun going behind the clouds for a minute.

Since there was an arts and craps festival in downtown Dunedin (pretty much how I feel about these events), we parked up at the Publix at Alt 19 and Curlew Rd. From here we pedaled all the way down to court street in downtown Clearwater. We passed over a small bridge just south of Stevenson Rd, and saw a few manatee's cavorting and playing around out in the distance. It is always amazing to see these huge creatures just having a good time rolling around in the water.

When we got to downtown Clearwater, it was amazing to see how dead the area that we used to have to drive through to get to the beach had become (you no longer can get to the beach directly from downtown). The area looks amazing but you can see how many of the mom and pop shops have closed up as a result of the loss of business.

Pedaling a little further, we took a break in a parking garage that had a set of benches in it. This section of the trail offers very little in the way of shade, just plenty of reflective concrete.

After cooling off for a bit we headed back up the trail and stopped for lunch at our favorite spot, Cafe Alfresco. We both had omlettes, but I also opted for some of the raspberry cheesecake they have which is absolutely fantastic.

After this we headed back up toward the car, but decided to go all the way up to the overpass so we could ride it back down (we like to go fast!).

Ride Statistics:
Started: Jun 26, 2010 11:25:20 AM
Ride Time: 1:39:06
Stopped Time: 50:02
Distance: 13.65 miles
Average: 8.26 miles/hr
Fastest Speed: 17.82 miles/hr
Climb: 249 feet
Calories: 654

Google Map of the Ride:

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Thursday evening ride

Tonight's ride was great, still in the 90s (no rain to cool things off). I bumped the seat up another 1/2" and it made a world of difference. I remembered my water bottle this time and the batteries in my headlight were fresh. This time I experimented with locking out my front fork and that too helped speed (at the cost of comfort). Now that the fork is broken in, it rides much better, but that squish factor wastes a lot of power.

At any rate, ride stats:

Ride Time: 1:08:28
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 13.29 miles
Average: 11.65 miles/hr
Fastest Speed: 26.93 miles/hr
Climb: 705 feet
Calories: 669



Eating adjustment: Down 2.3lbs since Monday morning.

Making lemonade in the dark

I had intended to head out the door around 7 tonight...but being Florida, the electrical storm was in full swing out here in Riverview at the time. Finally around 8pm it finally cleared up, so I got put the lights on the bike, suited up and headed out the door.

It was quite refreshing out tonight - maybe 84F since the rain had cooled things off. At 8pm it is still pretty bright out this time of year, so the lights weren't really necessary at that time. I made it down the road about 4 miles when I noticed that my headlight wasn't very bright. Another 2 miles down the road...ah crap, I forgot my water bottle. At this point I figured I should head back, it was now pitch black, my headlight was dying and I had nothing to drink. By the time I made it to the 8 mile mark, the headlight called it quits and I still had almost 4 to go. The saving grace here is that I witness one of the most beautiful electical storms - there was a huge thundercloud over Pinellas County that had lightning dancing all over it. It was also nearly a full moon. The bad thing is that the headlights from cars coming toward me kept me from seeing the trail at some sections, which really slowed me down. I made it back home, feeling great, having enjoyed the outdoors, my bike, and the adventure of riding a bike in the dark - thus turning my lemons into lemonade...in the dark

Ride Stats:
Started: Jun 22, 2010 8:30:02 PM
Ride Time: 1:06:35
Stopped Time: 1:09
Distance: 11.72 miles
Average: 10.56 miles/hr
Fastest Speed: 18.72 miles/hr
Climb: 512 feet

Father's day ride

Today Shawn, Ryan, and I headed out to Alafia to do some riding. My goal for today was to ride North Creek as much as I could mentally and physically handle. Of all the trails out there (the I had attempted) North Creek had really been the next "hurdle" of sorts to learn to clear. Roller Coaster and Bridges will be the next. There are 3 sections of this trail I absolutely needed to learn how to clear. Number one was the tree roots at the beginning of the trail. I learned how to deal with it, stay to the left, pedal hard and jump it, let the rear wheels roll over it if I don't hop it completely. The second is still on my to do list. I call it the staircase of death because it looks like you are going to die if you go over the bars. At any rate, the first 4 steps down, I lost my footing on the pedals and ended up in the wall. It was downhill from there, as the trail got the best of me. It seems that not only was it crazy hot and humid, but this was our first trail of the day. I honestly felt as if I had no power or stamina. Could it have been from the cupcakes I ate the night before? Perhaps I didn't eat enough for breakfast. I guess we'll see how it goes as the summer gets into full swing.

Mentally for me it seems, I need to ride some easier trails and get my confidence "warmed" up before I try doing this portion of the trail. At any rate, i felt wobbly as could be, was dismounted several times by the trail (once to avoid going into the gator infested waters) and I ended up falling once, which resulted in my derailleur knocking on my wheel. I finally got to a point where I could adjust the cable tension and all was well with it again.

I continued down the trail and even made the final jump. From here we headed over to Rock Garden, which we proceeded to run the opposite direction. As usual running this trail is great fun, albeit it is almost all uphill going in reverse order. We got to the end of Rock Garden and we saw four adult deer and a doe, foraging just past the edge of the trail. It seems like every week I see more and more wildlife while on the trails. From the end of the trail we headed back to the trailhead to take a break and drink some water.

After the needed break, Shawn and Ryan went back to ride North Creek again. I passed and headed back to Rock Garden, it just wasn't in the deck for me mentally. I rode rock garden again and then followed it up to where North Creek exits. While waiting for Shawn and Ryan I chatted with a guy from the SWAMP club, who gave me some pointers about riding North Creek, and commented that my 29er should clear most of the obstacles without a problem. Just about that time Shawn and Ryan were just exiting the trail. We chatted and cooled off for a minute and noticed the sound of a gator which seemed rather close. I looked down about 5 feet down on the edge of the water, only to see a 2.5' gator slinking back into the water.

After checking out the gator we headed back down to Rock Garden and ran it again. After running Rock Garden we headed back to cool off again back at the trailhead. I decided to go ahead and run North Creek again, and this time try to clear as many of my previous problem spots. I cleared the roots, and approached the staircase (which I decided I was not going to do). The next trouble spot was where a pair of trees grew close together and their roots formed a wide V and behind this V is a short drop. Our friend from the trail told me I could just roll over the bottom of the V - he was right! Problem solved. Now if only I can get my head around the initial drop.

All in all good riding today, even if it was insanely hot!



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Time to trim down again

It is funny how weight has a tendancy to creep back up on you. I noticed today I was over my 5lb self allowed "swing zone" when I hopped on the scale. It is amazingly easy for us to overeat after a good run or biking session - oh sure, I'll have the cake, I just burned 1100 calories. Did I mention I had the hamburger, fries, brocolli, zone bar, and whatever I could rake in while I was at it.

So...starting Sunday, it's not that I plan on dieting, but watching what I am eating in quantity and quality. I have to live low carb not to get fat again, but it is very difficult not to take in carbs before or during endurance sports.

I'll start logging the eats in here as well once Sunday rolls around.