that was quite the marine layer for the middle of October! Forgot to pack my long finger gloves and thin jacket, was a little chilly when first descending back into the cloud deck. On the way up it dropped from 64F to 52 at the top of the cloud bank, and then back to 63F above the clouds.
How much time are you putting in?! You did a good job evoking the imagery of a beautiful North East fall day!
Tnx. It was a very nice day here. Peak Leaf and a fair number of tourists driving around looking for good photo spots.
Averaging around 12 hours a week for āonā weeks. Rest weeks are around 8 hours. No structured plan. Just riding every day, rest day when I feel the need, some intensity when it feels good and is fun. Lot of zone 2 stuff. Weather has been pretty good with exception of 4-5 days of rain due to Ian.
11+ and high 500s seems to be my recovery cap, at least in the heat.
The riding I 'm doing, 600-700 TSS is no problem for recovery. Every 8-10 days I feel like a day off. Sometimes 12-14 days. When I was on structure, had more fatigue and recovery needed from ājustā 500-550 TSS weeks. Different flavors of fatigue and all that.
Suspectā¦ Iām doing more JRA and thatās less stressful than any type of plan. Probably less effective for driving adaptations, but am just riding and accumulating hours at this point. Itās nice to just ride the bike and do āwhateverā.
2 biggish days out in UT on the MTB taking advantage of the weekend days off.
Saturday 3.5 hours in Draper - did Levitate (their black jump line but so well built, itās probably a soft black) and built more confidence than Iāve ever had with air time on the MTB.
Sunday 5.5 hours in Park City. Took some of the suggestions from a guy I met on the trail Friday and a Park City thread that @DarthShivious had posted in a while back and built a big loop there. Armstrong - Pinecone Ridge - Wasatch Crest - Red Coat - Insurgent - Ricochet and then back across Hollys - Mid Mountain - Goldfinger - Ironman - Powerline - CMG all the way down. The colors were spectacular and the temps were perfect for a light LS jersey all day long. Redcoat-Insurgent-Ricochet was a pretty rowdy DH, especially with a dry and blown out as it is for end of season - headset needs some serious attention and was screaming by the end of the day.
Still no picture uploadsā¦
~17 hours/~900 TSS for the week - 15 of the 17 hours on singletrack - Iām tired and happy
Thatās a great trip right there. Sunday ride is stout for sure. When we do Mid-Mountain back after the Crest trail usually just bail out down Spiro. Typically start at PCMR main parking area so that works well.
If you get back there in the future, Charlieās 9K is worth checking out. Cyn City and Corvair are both fun downhills.
A good ride:
Start PCMR. Go up Jenniās, migrate over to Keystone, then Fat Lip and Stiff Upper Lip to Charlieās 9K. 9K over to Cyn City and back up for Corvair. If motivated, from bottom of Corvair can take Mid-Mtn and cross Guardsman to climb up into Deer Valley (tour de suds over past Red Cloud and into the Flagstaff / Road to Ruby area). From the meadow, climb up to where the Deer Valley engineered trails come together just below the peak of Bald Mountain (Holy Roller, Tidal and Tsunami). Take your pick down to Silver Lake (DV middle mountain) and then grab Undertow (engineered) or Devo (old school black) to the DV base.
Bald is the top most lift drop-off at DV and has two big microwave reflectors so itās an easy landmark. In the old days we would ride from the lower base of DV up to the top of Bald and then make our way over to Park City and up to Shadow Lake. Sometimes weād do the Crest and pop out in Lambsā Canyon on I80 then ride the highway and frontage roads back to PC. Those were some big days in the saddle. Fewer trails back then but we managed 
https://strava.app.link/x2cs3wTvcub
Wind Doping yesterday. 110 miles in 4:45, Century in 4:12. Tailwinds sound fun, but on a TT bike, with 80mm deep wheels and a quartering wind, it was a handful and nerve wracking. 30+mph really ramps up the consequence factor! In hind sight I would have skipped the bump northā¦.
An evening ā sunset ā night ride. Sunsets are beautiful this time of year.
Finished with lights on a downhill trail. Interesting. Felt like we were flying downhill, but weāre probably going half normal speed 
Some picsā¦
The start of the Strava segment from before the North Gate has about a 20 minute warmup built into it. I had ambitiously loaded the North-South-North two HC climb route.
Deer everywhere for the early birds, a buck and a doe:
and some posers on a hill:
My last attempt to climb Mt Diablo on a bike was after my buddy John and I bought MTBs in 1988 or 1989. We knew we had to do something epic, so we decided on going up Mt Diablo on the fire roads! That lasted a mile, maybe two, before our fitness and the slippery slope had us pushing the bikes uphill. After nearly getting heat exhaustion on that epic day some 33-34 years ago, we made it to this very Rangerās station where the North and South roads meet:
Notice the overcast skies. From the rangerās station its another 4.4 miles to the summit. After 3 miles up the road I reached the wet, cold, and windy ātop of the marine layerā cloud deck:
Thereās a video of the clouds moving on Strava. At this point I saw two riders in front of me, I passed one:
before the summit, and the other one I was two bikes lengths behind him on the 14-17% grades at the very top. He must of heard me huffing and puffing, as I set a 2 min power best for the last 90 days. At the end of 1x90 minutes of 85% IF. Was gassed but not wheezing yet, wanted to dismount and walk the bike up but then I couldnāt face that dude in the parking lot at the top #NoWalkOfShameForMe
Summit parking lot at 3849 feet / 1170 meters, including dude I couldnāt quite catch and pass:
He wasnāt even breathing hard when we hit the parking lot 
Xertonline gave me a breathrough:
and a commemorative Google maps pic of where I was stalking the dude right before the summit parking lot. Side note: IMHO that is the slickest feature of Xert
I was just happy to have finished the climb without stopping, and afterwards seeing almost no aerobic decoupling (1.8%) over 90 minutes of erg-like power by feel. They say erg mode keeps you honest, I like to think that long HC climbs are like a metabolic truth serum The first 110 minutes of the ride, and full climb, was powered by a single 90g carb bottle and light breakfast at 5am.
On a clear day you can see all the way to Mt Lassen in the north, and the Sierra mountains to the east. With binoculars you can even see Half Dome in Yosemite Valley. Today was not one of those days. However I could see Mt Hamilton (climbed it last month) on the left of center, and right of center is Mt Loma Prieta in the Santa Cruz / Coastal Mountains:
Pretty thick marine layer. Next time Iāll remember to pack my long finger gloves and a thin jacket/shell for the descent.
Fun graphs for @DarthShivious
Kinda of like doing Wright Peak 3x30-min without any rest breaks or erg (Iāve done Wright Peak -2 three times). At 85% ftp target Iād call that tempo but many would call it Sweet Spot. Good for #3 on the all-time 90-minute power bests, although a solid 31W below #1.
Elevation of the HC climb on Strava, highlighting the steepest gradient at top:
My Garmin 530 was only off by 50 feet on max elevation.
Next time Iāll do the South Gate climb. Or the elusive dual HC, North-and-South, with a return to parking at the north gate.
Happy Monday!
Just sharing a couple cool pics I got while riding Sunday. We had a cold front move through and bring a little fog/dew with it. Iām ready for the clocks to āfall backā.
2 rides in, and I really love ringing in England. The weather isnāt the best, and the roads are almost as bad as they say, but the undulating terrain is a lot of fun, and there is tons of other road cyclists. Also, many little climbs, that really make riding here interesting.
West Sussex to Brighton and Back:
Red rock canyon and Blue Diamond loop this morning. Second ride of my Las Vegas vacation.
Really amazing scenery! 
Super pleased with my average power over the length of the ride - especially given it was pretty hot for a pasty Englishman
Endless summer 12 months a year, for an Englishman! Highs in the winter around 14-16C.
My younger son killing it on 20ā wheels, rigid bike. Thatās gotta be hard to ride.
We have a bigger bike with 24ā wheel, plus sized tires, and front sus waiting for him - but heās not big enough yet.
Yay, pictures are back!
Feed that kid some whole milk. No, seriously, our oldest just couldnāt seem to put on weight so we switched him from skim to whole. Heās still thin as a rail but is taller than me and over 6ā.
Heās on it. He eats a decent amount. Just not growing. Hopefully he has a growth spurt soon.
That is a LEGIT climb, @WindWarrior!!! Nice work and congratulations! I used to keep my horse out that way so I have been there but never attempted that climb! NICE!
