Yesterday I participated in an annual Memphis event called "Iron Butt"....basically, Iron Butt was an idea contrived by a few Memphis mountain bikers some years back to ride every trail (some rideable, some hike-a-bike style) in the metro area in one day....
I woke up Saturday morning feeling pretty pumped up about doing the ride...as I have mentioned, if I am not pumped about a long distance event, be it running or cycling, it is hard for me to get in the groove...I spent Friday evening getting my borrowed mountain bike in working order (as my mountain bike is in pieces right now) for the day's ride....
The ride started at a guy's house in Arlington with 23 riders eager to hit the trails for a long day out....We took out from Arlington at 7:40am and rode about 6-7 miles to Stanky Creek where we took off for a lap around all the loops of the Stank....I guess it rained some at Stanky on Friday because those roots were the slickest I have ever seen them....I was still trying to get used to the borrowed ride and I was sliding all over the place....I rode my lap at Stanky at an easy pace with fellow trail runner Wade (who is racing next weekend in Bozeman, MT at the Devil's Backbone 50 miler) who had come out for the first part of Iron Butt...
From Stanky, we rode out to Jackson Avenue where we slogged through the mud with beer drinking rednecks on 4 wheelers....This is the first time I had been on this part of the trail since the death run in April and I have to say it was much nicer yesterday than in April as it was much drier and easier to find routes around the monstrous 4x4 mud holes....
When we got to Walnut Grove we hit the gravel road over to the Shelby Farms visitor center where we hosed off the bikes, lubed chains, and took a loop of the Tour de Wolf....From the Tour we hit the gravel road over to the Wolf River Trails where we took the blue\white trail to G'town Parkway....
From there we hit Gray's Creek trail all the way to Gray's Creek...this part of the trail was pretty overgrown with lots of stickers and log crossings that required dismounting....I have run all the way to Gray's Creek but I have never gone across it so I was curious as to how that was going to happen....the creek was fairly deep but there was a perfectly positioned log wide enough for us to walk across while shouldering our bikes...After crossing Gray's the bank is a very steep, use both hands to grab and pull up style bank.....we had to do a little bike hand off action to get the bikes up the bank....
The other side of Gray's Creek trail was hardly a trail at all...pretty much a hike-a-bike section that dumped into a power line road which dumped us into Houston Levee Road near Collierville.....From here we rode a ways on the road out to Fisherville to our lunch stop at Herb Parson's Park....took a much deserved lunch break at Herb's before taking off on a lap around the lake....by this time I was beginning to hurt pretty good....I felt good as far as my legs and cardio goes but my contact points (hands, butt, feet) were all aching pretty bad....
After Herb, we rode a 16 mile road section which was a great relief to the Lakeland trails....I have never ridden Lakeland before and I gotta say that trail kicked my ass after 80 miles of riding...I was in the lowest possible gear pretty much the whole way, occasionally even having to dismount and hike....from Lakeland took what was supposed to be a short 2.5 mile road ride back to our starting point but a wrong turn took a few of us a few miles out of the way, tacking on a few extra miles for the day....
Finally ended up back in Arlington for pasta, bread, and Fat Tire Ale.....ended up riding about 90 miles on the day....the second most I have ever ridden and by far the longest I have ever ridden on a mountain bike....I wasn't too terribly sore muscle wise yesterday but today I am definitely feeling it in my legs and my lower back as well as all my contact points....
I'm gonna take a few days off the bike but this week starts my return to running to it will all work out well....Tuesday Lauren and I are headed to Little Rock for the Widespread Panic concert but we are going to go early and run some of the Pinnacle Mountain Trail that kicked my ass in the Ouachita 50 miler....until next time...happy running and share the road
1 comment:
That is a long day on the bike!!
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