Enjoy the Ride
Making the most of setbacks
The original plan for early-season racing this year was to do the Arches 50k (which I did), the Buffalo Run 50k (which was cancelled), and the Gorge Waterfalls 30k (which is in two weeks and I’m hoping to attempt to start), with the Madeira Island Ultra Trail 115k (which I just cancelled my flight for) as my first big goal. Unfortunately, things don’t always go according to plan. I’ve been experimenting with some new training methods this year and, while I think they were working well for my fitness, my body wasn’t quite able to handle what I was trying to do. My last trail run was March 3rd. I got an MRI two days later and have been dealing with a little stress reaction in the femur since then.
The good news is that we caught it before it became a stress fracture, we’re far enough out from the biggest goals for the year that everything should be fine for those, and I’ve actually sort of found that I enjoy the biking I’ve been doing as a result. My main lower-impact activities lately have been mountain biking, cycling, and ski touring. Salt Lake’s very lame winter has meant that biking has been quite pleasant. I rotate regularly between mountain biking on the unseasonable dry trails and road biking on some of the best canyon roads in the Wasatch, many of which are passable but still closed to car traffic, so we’re in the cycling sweet spot.
Anything new takes time to figure out. Biking is no different. The first week or two, I couldn’t sit on the saddle for longer than about 90 minutes before it hurt bad enough that I wasn’t having fun anymore. My neck and shoulders would cramp up. I struggled to understand how I was supposed to eat my gels without stopping completely. If I tried to go too long I’d start to notice a little pain in the front of my right knee.
By week 3, most of those issues had been resolved. My booty stopped hurting as much and I found that even up to 7 hours on the seat wasn’t so bad. That was thanks in part to getting nicer padded bike shorts. My original road bike was old and had problems shifting, the brakes were not trustworthy, and the back tire badly needed replacing. Rather than fix it up I decided I wanted to make cycling as enjoyable and safe as possible, and a nice bike off Facebook Marketplace did the trick well for that. The upgraded bike also fit me better and I dialed in the positioning to alleviate some of the neck, shoulder, and knee pain I’d been feeling. I think slowly ramping up the mileage and getting the specific muscles more accustomed to the biking motions helped with that as well. I borrowed some power pedals and got a COROS Dura bike computer to gamify workouts with insights into my wattage output. With practice, I’ve also learned how to eat while moving (it’s easier on the slight uphills) and I realized I can handle way more carbs while riding vs running, which has resulted in faster recovery. PF90 gels have been my hack for keeping energy high on even my longest rides because having a resealable container let’s me take in however much I need.
Here are some of my favorite rides from the past few weeks:
Exploring the Needles District of Canyonlands via mountain bike. I had never been to this part of Utah and we turned this into a four-day camping trip exploring with the family and riding lots of dirt roads.
A lap of Utah Lake with Christian and Michelino. This was my first longer ride in years and was a wake-up call. The guys I was with could (and did) drop me easily and it made me want to get better at biking.
Connecting Salt Lake City to Wyoming. I’d actually wanted to ride this road out to the Southwest Corner of Wyoming for a while and we lined up a fun group to do it with. The roads out by the reservoirs were empty and it was awesome cruising along with Garrett, although after this ride my bike was falling apart and ready for a fix or replacement.
Had a lot of dumb pics I could have chosen to sum up this ride but Jacob attempting to plank on the state border marker is probably the dumbest. I invested in my cycling happiness. If I’m going to be stuck on a bike for a bit, I may as well get myself a great setup and make it fun. I had been meaning to check out Butterfield Canyon for years and it was perfect timing with the snow barely melted and the road still closed to cars, grinding solo up to the pass and burning through my audiobook.
Butterfield Canyon pass with the new whip. My farthest ride ever, from my house to Ogden the fun way Once again, Garrett and I took on the Emigration → Big Mountain → East Canyon roads but this time we stayed north and continued up to the thriving metropolitan areas of Eden, Morgan, Huntsville, Liberty, etc. My cleat came off the bottom of my shoe and we luckily found a hardware store with the correct size screws in stock in the middle of nowhere within a couple miles of me realizing I had a problem. We finished in downtown Ogden, snarfed down some hot chicken and waffles, and barely caught the 3:08pm train back down to Salt Lake.
As I write this now, four weeks since my last trail run, I laced up my Zegamas this afternoon and tried going for a little test run. I did the shortest trail loop I can do from my house. 1.9 miles, 200 feet of elevation gain. Alternating 3 minutes easy jogging, 1 minute walking. For the first time in almost a month. I’ve missed the running motion. No obvious pain, no lingering aching. Good signs of progress, but still a long way to go. Even as things improve and I ramp back into normal running, I’m telling myself I’ll keep some biking in the weekly rotation. It doesn’t need to just be a last resort method of exercise, I think I’m convinced that cycling has a place in my regular training program.
