Monday, June 29, 2009

Challenge delayed...

Training had been going great up to last weekend. With two out of the six weeks down, I had gone from being completely unprepared to beginning to feel like this might be possible. Over those two weeks, I logged over 220 miles biking on the roads, 20 miles in the kayak, a few hours climbing and one day biking on the trails. But I suffered a setback in the middle of my workout on Saturday morning.

I headed out early Saturday morning and was amazed to be able to fit the bike, both sets of wheels, the kayak, and all associated gear in my new little Honda hatchback. The plan was to ride about 30 miles on the road, switch out the wheels and do an easy 15 miles on the Barton Creek greenbelt trail, and then take the kayak out for about 5 miles on the lake. All to be done in time for me to go to the store and clean up the backyard before 50 people arrived for our first pool party of the summer.

About halfway through my mountain bike ride, I was coming down a set of steep limestone shelves and I went to drop my front tire down a two-foot drop. Normally I would have dropped my but behind the seat, but at that moment I realized I had raised my seat way up for the morning ride on the roads. So not only could I not slide back off the seat, but my center of gravity was way higher than I am used to. Result: I went over the handlebars and dropped about six feet onto the rocks below.

So forgive any typos you see as I am now trying to hunt and peck with my left hand in a cast. All in all I was lucky. I got a bunch of scrapes and a good lump on my knee. But I also broke my left hand and sprained the wrist. Not sure how long I will be out of commission, but it is clear I won't be able to bike, kayak, or climb for a while. So training is on hold until the cast comes off. Hopefully I can do the challenge in August, but we will see...

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Change to the Course

I did some scouting last weekend and discovered that the course I had laid out was unsafe at best and in some ways was not possible. One of the roads turned out to be a private road that I cannot use. There was no public access to lake travis near Reimer's Ranch. And all the roads that head out that way are curvy highways with no shoulder - way too dangerous.

So here is the NEW door-to-door, self-propelled 40th Birthday Challenge:

It will start early on Friday morning, 7/31, and must be completed within 40 hours
Bike 40 miles
the first 20 miles will be from home to Walnut Creek Park and the remaining 20 miles will be from Walnut Creek to Mansfield Dam.

Mountain Bike 40 km
25 km on the trails at Walnut Creek. The other 15 km on the Barton Creek greenbelt from Barton Springs to the top of the Hill of Life and then down to the house.

Climb 400 vertical feet
on short, steep limestone in the Barton Creek Greenbelt (5.10 or above)

Kayak 40 km
Put in at Mansfield Dam and paddle the entire length of Lake Austin, portage the dam, and then paddle down Town lake to Barton Springs

Eat party munchies from my past...
4 Top Raman
4 Slices Pizza
4 bao
4 orders of french fries
4 raw turkey franks
4 bags popcorn
4 orders of fried rice
4 pieces of fried chicken
4 jumbo dill pickles
4 hostess cupcakes

Drink 4 - 40 ouncers
Probably a mixture of cheap beers & malt liquor

The Course:

Monday, June 15, 2009

I'm not too old for all of this, am I?

So I am turning 40 this year. I figured that the birthday challenge had to be something special. I thought about making it truly epic, but who can compete with Stainless Steve's 40 days of hell? So I landed on something that is epic for me but also captures the spirit of the midlife crisis: doing a bunch of things that were probably better suited for me when I was 20 years younger!

The Challenge:
Taking a page from Steve's 2008 challenge, this will be a door-to-door, self-propelled challenge. It will start early on Friday morning, 7/31, and must be completed within 40 hours

Bike 40 km
on the roads from the house to Reimer's Ranch

Mountain Bike 40 km
on the trails at Reimer's

Climb 400 vertical feet
on short, steep limestone at Reimer's (5.10 or above)

Bike 40 km
split in two parts: 1) from Reimer's to lake Travis 2) from Lake Austin to the house

Kayak 40 km
20 km on lake Travis, portage the 278 ft Mansfield Dam, 20 km on Lake Austin

Eat party munchies from my past...
4 Top Raman
4 Slices Pizza
4 bao
4 orders of french fries
4 raw turkey franks
4 bags popcorn
4 orders of fried rice
4 pieces of fried chicken
4 jumbo dill pickles

Drink 4 - 40 ouncers
Probably a mixture of cheap beers & malt liquor

The Course: