I'm Back

I have never in my life had to quit a job, that is until Thursday. As you may have heard my school is closing this year, along with 6 other schools in the district. They asked me to help facilitate the moves this summer, which means move them. Right from the start though I was having some back issues. It was pretty painful and I would come home and lay down all evening. I quickly realized it was not worth it. I had three older ladies (and others) working with me that thought it was pretty funny that I had to quit and they didn't. I am trying to keep off it and heal it up before Saturday.

I am realizing very quickly that the Seattle to Portland is coming. Sutt and Doug will be here on Tuesday. Excited to see them, but hoping the back will hold. I have been toning down the riding due to the back and prep for the race. I would like to report that the DZ stache started late. I have had to meet with the superintendent of the school district and didn't want to show up with a nasty stache. But it is growing now. It has been growing for a couple of days and you should be able to actually see it by Saturday. It is pretty embarrassing that someone my age still can't grow facial hair. Thanks pop for the genes on that one! 6 days to go!

Hmmmmm

Hmmmmm…..what to write about…..there is so much going on I have found that I have little time to write and process cycling. I am writing as I was for 15 minutes before our school band concert begins. What with work, interviews, four kids, and trying to plug in riding I am finding it hard to up update the blog.

Me. I have been riding. I am finding my training is not as intense as it has been in the past, but I am still riding and a little racing. I raced an uphill road race in Salem. I am finding the cat 3’s are very fast. There are a few young bucks looking to move up and really hammer the pace. All the guys in the group are just as good as you, and most are better. I went into the 55 miler with the goal of not getting dropped and get the best finish I could. I hung in there and felt alright. In the last 200 meters on the uphill finish both my legs cramped and I limped across the finish line for 27th out of 40. Not to impressive, but felt I did fine until the last few meters.

I am getting excited for the 200 miler – Seattle to Portland in July and am realizing it is coming quickly. One more month! I will keep pounding the pedals to get ready for it. Sutt and Doug better be ready to pull me along. I thinking I might have to grow out the DZ stache though.

Lance … I don’t think I will vent on this one just yet. I will save it for my next post (in a few weeks maybe).

New E-mail

My new e-mail is asuttlemyre@wsd.net

I wish....

I wish on my 61st birthday that I could run a marathon without even training! I couldn't even do that right now. Congrats pop! Happy birthday! What can I say - you are the man. You just keep getting better with age.

Memorial Day Ride?

I want to do a GC Connection ride on Memorial Day. I would like it to either start/middle/finish at Gordon and Leah’s graves. Thinking of a couple of riding options for the various riding levels’ (any family member who want to join in for a few miles), but I need to know who’s in. Time, location, and distance need to be discussed.

White Rim Death Ride

Adam and I got down to Moab earlier than Daren and Tanner so we went and rode Slip Rock. It was great and a lot of fun. It was 85 degrees and felt so good to be warm. We came down to ride the famous White Rim trail in Canyonlands. We were riding it was clockwise and unsupported, which means you have to take everything you might need because there is no other way out. This route is 103 miles long.We had just started our White Rim ride. It was 13 miles on the dirt rode to get to the paved rode to get to our drop in trail. We were waiting for some friends of Daren and Tanner. Everyone is happy and excited for the day.

I'm feeling great after 13miles and really excited. I thought I've done many 200 mile rides, how tough can a 100 miler be on a Mountain bike?

Daren at the top of Ledger switch back taking us into the pit of no return.

This is looking down our descent road. It was a ball going down. Some how we all knew we were going to have to climb out after 100 miles, but it didn't seem like a big deal at this stage.

The first thing we encountered when we got down on the plateau was that we had a very hard head wind, and it was HOT, not warm but 95 degree's with a 30 mile and hour head wind, and 75 miles to go. It just got harder and harder. We began to feel like we were in a blast furnace. We went in unsupported, so we had to watch our water intake and try to gage our usage. When we got to 50 miles we stopped and tried to eat but after 3:30 riding the desire for food was leaving. We had no place to go but keep moving forward. There were some really steep climbs that I could believe you could go up, but we did. We were going down one steep descent and Adam rolled a tire and lost his air, so he and I had to put a tube in the tubeless set we were all riding. Daren and Tanner were ahead and didn't see the flat so they were a mile ahead. They started to come back, but the climb to us was brutal so I waved them to stay down and we got it fixed with a tube fine, and away we went. This was our only bike mechanical breakdown, if only our 4 bodies had held up as well.

I tried to take some pictures, but the longer we went it just wasn't worth the effort.

About 80 miles in I got the squirts so bad every mile I'm having to stop and do some business. If I drank anything I immediately got the cramping and would have to go again. I just was so dehydrated I couldn't go on. Adam Tanner and Daren went ahead with the idea to drive down and get me. I layed in the dirt for 45 minutes and finally I was able to force one of Adams Cokes down and I started to ride again. I was thinking they were all doing great and would soon be back for me, but as I rode on I couldn't see how a vehicle could even get here. I kept on and start to feel some better and my computer was showing 99 miles, but it looked like there was no way out. I was alone and thinking did I make a wrong turn. Then I saw Adam up the road walking with his bike. I got up to him and I thought he was a dead man walking. They had all been having as bad a physical problems as me, and Adam had run out of water 10 miles ago and was heaving up often. Daren and Tanner had left Adam to continue but they were hurting as well. We continued up the road and could see a fork and then could see the switch backs out. This is Adam and I at the bottom thinking we are going to die, or wishing we could. I'm pooing and Adams throwing up, we were a great pair. There is no way we are getting up the switch backs, so we are just going to wait for Daren. Just then a vehicle comes up the fork heading up so I waved them down and they gave me a ride to the top. When I walked to our cars, Daren and Tanner were laying on the dirt like they had died. They had just gotten to the top and didn't know how they were going to be able to come get us. They had had a rough time as well stopping every mile or so and trying to recover enough to go on. The last few miles had soft sand that you just couldn't ride through. It was so hot and windy and hard to get through we all about gave up, but we had no options, so on we all went.

I drove down and picked up our bikes and Adam and drove out. I was feeling so bad I didn't know if I could drive up the switch backs, but we made it up. Daren was in his car with the body shakes going, I'm cramping, and Adam is throwing up. What started as a great day really was the toughest time I've had on a bike. 103 miles in just over 9 hours, what fun. We couldn't find a hotel in Moab so we drove to Green River and tried to recover. Adam threw up all night, I don't know what to do, so finally he and I decide to head for home. Adam was not in good shape but we headed out early. When we got home Mindy took Adam to the hospital and found him to be in renal failure. They started the IV's and did some other blood work. His lactic acid was still off the chart. They finally let him go home after he had stabilized some. Adam weighed himself when he got home from the hospital and he had lost 13 pounds. I lost 6, Daren lost 5 and I don't know about Tanner. Biggest loser we've got the place for you to go. Adam has gotten kidney function back today, so things are looking brighter. We all are pretty weak and the prospects are looking up, we were lucking as the end results could have been much worse. Never another 100 mile bike ride for me. Let's see we have six weeks til Seattle to Portland 200 miler, thank goodness its on a road bike. Ride safe.

Group ride

I learned a few things Thursday night at the Simply Mac group ride.

First- When 4 or 5 guys from another bike shop show up to ride IT"S ON.
Second- One sandwich for Lunch is not enough 6 hours later.
Third- I can't ride at 35 mph
Fourth- I don't ride hard enough during the week to keep up when it's all out right from the start.
Fifth- Don't play flag football all day before doing the group ride.

However, the ride was still a good ride. After getting kick out the back four of us (Doug, myself and two other simple mac guys) took a shortcut and worked hard enough not to get caught. It was a good ride, but now I know that I'm not as young as I once was.