Save The Trails...

It was a busy fun weekend.  I spent most of it outside.  The weather here has turned into awesomeness.  80's during the day, 60's at night, like a good radio station. 

Saturday, I rousted the family early for the Save The Trails Challenge.  It was a fun, laid back , event, and definitely challenging.  I opted for the 25 miler, since I had to be in Swannanoa for work by 3pm.   Since I don't get out to Dupont much, do to time constraints, I had no idea where I was most of the time.  So, I just got into a groove and rolled with it. 

A word of caution:   I had just crested a hill and decided to eat a gel.  I was still anaerobic, breathing fast, HR high.  Somehow, some of the gel trickled down my windpipe, and I started hyperventilating.  I stopped, and tried to relax, but couldn't catch my breathe,  about 10 seconds passed, which feels like 10 minute when you can't breathe,  and my body took over.  It was one of the weirdest feelings. All of a sudden, my body straightened up, my chest opened up and I involuntarily, inhaled deeply.  But with the constriction in my windpipe,  the resulting sound was the most horrible wheezing that I have ever heard.  After the deep inhalation, I was able to get a couple of sips of water and calm down.  Pretty scary.  Lesson learned though,  don't eat while breathing fast.

The in-laws were in town this weekend, and they actually made the effort to come hang out in the hay field and open air to see me finish.  It's rare for me to see family other than Rhonda and Jubal at my events.  That was pretty cool.  Family support regularly contributes to the success of endurance MTB racers.
Finishing in a little over 2.5 hrs, I got loaded up and headed home to lay on the couch and doze a bit, before heading out to earn a buck.

Sunday morning, a Mike ride was on tap.   I got up early again, and was dragging.  It took a while to get moving but I rolled out to meet him at REI by 8am.  We rode the Thrusday night Liberty Ride Loop, and wound up at Starbucks.  Fun ride, and great conversation. 

After bidding each other farewell, I headed home to spend the rest of the day with my wife and kid.  We hit Wendy's for some Frosty's, found a creek to sit in and built stone statues, found a pull off on the Parkway to hang out at, stuffed ourselves at Papas and Beer, then headed home for the night.  I was in bed by 7:30pm.  

Have a great day!!