Chris had penned in Saturday on his family dry-erase board, so he was good to go for a ride. We were going to ride somewhere, rain or shine – it was decided. Rainy weather on Friday made us a little apprehensive, even for our Ditch fallback, but dawn broke on Saturday morning with blue skies and tradewinds. As we converged on Wailuna, Ckucke called me to say that he and JT were at the park already, but he had forgotten his hydration pack at home, so they were heading back to get it. Chris and Kevyn were already there when I pulled up. The park was full up with soccer mom vans, so we parked along the street. Root arrived, and we waited in the shade for Ckucke and JT to return. Continue reading ‘Dance of Dook’
Archive for the 'bike' Category
Page 21 of 40
Ckucke, Kevyn, and I met at the bottom of the hill a little early. JT cancelled out at the last moment, and at roll-out time, Root called to say he was going to be late. I told him to just get ready and come anyway: We would start and he could catch up with us. We were going really easy at the start, and kept a decent pace all the way up. I was within the small pack, but not pushing to beyond a touch of burn. The time was good at the one-lane bridge, so I put on the power and embraced the burn to the top. I managed to come in under 40-minutes. While we waited at the top for Root to catch up, Ckucke both astounded and disgusted us with his completely sweat-saturated Underarmor helmet liner. It glistened heavy with wetness and dripped! Root rolled up about fifteen minutes after us, and we went down the Tantalus Drive side. Per CKH’s direction, I led everyone down the “follow me” detour. Nothing quite like cyclocrossing in the dark! I did an unnecessary panic dismount at the switchback and flubbed the dismount and run at the log. Maybe I’ll clean it next time… We took it easy heading downhill, so the time was nothing special.
D = 17.60 km (10.94-miles), Vavr = 19.6 km/h (12.2-mph), Vmax = 72.8 km/h (45.2-mph), T = 54-minutes (39-minutes up, 15-minutes down)
Is it Spring or Summer? Even with the heat outside, it was better taking a spin on the ‘cross than remaining inside. I could see some rain out in the bay by Coconut Island, but it never worked its way over to bring cool relief to the land.
D = 17.89 km (11.12-miles), Vavr = 22.9 km/h (14.2-mph), Vmax = 43.5 km/h (27.0-mph), T = 47-minutes
Thursday was humid and hot with very little perceptible wind. I was jazzed to ride, but I was not looking forward to doing so in this weather. Everyone else was feeling the dread of the weather, both JT and Ckucke waffling on the edge of indecision all day. We met at the appointed time and found the area again infested. Jarrel came down the hill after doing a lap on his freeride hardtail. He was set to ride St. Louis, but his riding partner bailed, so he went up Tantalus. Ckucke managed to talk him into joining us for a second climb! I was not on the game for some reason or another, so I was off the back from the start. Somewhere up ahead, Root latched onto some roadies and drafted them to the top. My lower back was burning and my legs really didn’t feel like they were giving their all. Oh well. The descent went faster.
D = 15.32 km (9.52-miles), Vavr = 17.6 km/h (10.9-mph), Vmax = 62.9 km/h (39.1-mph), T = 52-minutes (climb = 42-minutes, descent = 10-minutes)
With dwindling numbers for the Monday St. Louis downhill, I opted out and went home for a quick spin on the ‘cross. The cloud cover was light and scattered, but the heavy vog made it look like it was raining or about to. The heavy, humid air added to the illusion. With the arrival of spring, I am expecting my allergies to start acting up. There was a bad week a couple of weeks ago, coinciding with the avocado blooms. Along my route, I could see the monkeypod and Formosa koa trees starting their blooming, so I am expecting something bad to happen in the immediate future from the pollen along with the vog. Circuiting the course on the 1.25 slicks was so much faster than on fat knobbies, but the lack of suspension forced me to stick to the nicer pavement, taking some of the side-loops out of the laps. I was paying attention to standing climbs to help with Thursday Tantalus rides. Hopefully my shoulder doesn’t give me trouble tomorrow…
D = 16.00 km (9.94-miles), Vavr = 22.0 km/h (13.7-mph), Vmax = 44.8 km/h (27.8-mph), T = 44-minutes
I’m over it already.
I think we’re all over it.
We explored central Oahu again this Saturday. The payoff was not quite worth it considering all the effort it took to get to where we wanted to go. Although the main valley did not appear to be in use, some of the plots over toward the old access road were. We verified a second route over to the plateau, by crossing the road and going through the old paint marker gaming area. We found a quicker way to access the valley near the familiar steep climb through the eucalyptus trees. There was a steep climb-out to the bottom of the ridge where the abandoned structure is located. We rode through squealing pig to the doubletrack, then explored several dead-ends along the dirt road and the road itself. Access to the old flume trail was not available because of an active agricultural usage. The trail across the end of squealing pig is blocked off, and because of disuse, the trail further in was blocked with a lot of deadfall. After all the in-and-out exploration, we didn’t want to go all the way around and out the back side, so we looped around the way we went in the last time and went out that way. Continue reading ‘Over It’
Sunday morning was cool and cloudless, which meant the day would shape up to be sunny and brutally hot. What better a day to go on a long ride in central O’ahu! I met Ckucke, Kevyn, and Root for a recon ride out in the forbidden zone where we used to ride back in the day. Rumors through the grapevine indicated that the former tennant who had erected fences and signs was no longer in leasing the property, either because of an upcoming housing development in the area, or perhaps from repercussions over alleged illegal activity in a structure on the property. Continue reading ‘Outlaw Deathmarch’
The weather report on Wednesday called for locally heavy showers beginning midday Thursday, so heavy in fact that a flash flood watch was in effect. With a reasonable expectation of bad weather, I packed my ride kit and brought it in on Thursday. Throughout the day, the cloudy skies grew progressively darker. Webcams showed the H3 corridor and the windward side socked in and shiny with rainwater. As quitting time approached, I went outside to check visually on the top of Tantalus, and lo, even though the thick ceiling of clouds was an ominous dark grey, it was high up and not in the act of relieving itself of its precipitable moisture. The air outside did however feel thick and heavy: It felt like it was going to rain any minute. Ckucke and I had eaten heavy lunches from Young’s in ‘Aiea, so we were feeling lethargic. We kept waffling on whether we should call it or go. In the end, inspiration won out over apathy and the call went out that it was mission “go”. Continue reading ‘Flash Flood Ride’
Pain.
It’s been two days since the Monday night St. Louis downhill and jump session, and my body hurts the same as if I had done a full day of snowboarding two days ago. My messed-up shoulder is stiff, and my back muscles, triceps, and forearms hurt – just like I repeatedly stacked in the terrain park or something. My back leg quad and calf really hurt – just like from riding deep pow all day with not enough stance setback.
I hope I can recover for tomorrow’s Tantalus ride! Continue reading ‘Back Leg Burn’
Thursday morning was so socked in rainy on the Windward side that when stopped at a traffic light, I couldn’t even see the next intersection. When I got over the mountain, town-side was all blue skies and sunrise. It looked like good weather for a ride. Of course, by mid morning, the clouds had worked their way over the Ko’olau summit and were raining down all kinds of evil from Pacific Palisades to way past ‘Ainakoa. Things were suddenly looking grim. Thankfully, the trades continued to blow, and the clouds exhausted their precipitable moisture, so by noon, the rains were tapering and the clouds were dissipating. When work was done, the blue skies had returned, and the remaining clouds were calm and non-threatening. Continue reading ‘A Change in Weather’