Tuesday, December 8, 2009

White Mountains 100


Brian and I were excited about the prospect of being able to ride our bikes out to Eagle Lake in the winter when we set out Sunday morning. We didn't know that we would only get about four miles in three hours.

First, I should tell you that we both have signed up for the White Mountain 100 Race, which will be my first winter endurance race. It's quite ambitious, I know, especially for someone who just started riding a fat bike a month ago. But I really have been in a funk lately and need a new goal and a new adventure to look forward to.

I see it like this. I'm at that age where women usually have two or three toddlers hanging from them, which I can only imagine is the biggest challenge and adventure of a woman's life. Since I don't have any children, my life is quite easy and simple, but my mind and my body are still craving that adventure. Well, not THAT adventure, but some adventure. Something to challenge me and keep life interesting.



The trail out to Eagle Lake was like mashed potatoes and has not seen much traffic lately. I learned that even fat bikes have limitations. Even if the trail is packed down well, but only a foot wide, it's no good. When your front wheel wanders left or right off the trail it dips in and you go flying.

But it was a beautiful day out regardless of all of the walking we did. Since I spend all of the daylight hours during the week inside an office (so backwards), I have vowed to spend every weekend daylight hour outside this winter. That is about 5 hours each day right now, for a total of 10 hours out in the sun every weekend.

In the end we decided to chalk up the day as "push training" and more "character building". You never can get too much of that.



That's me giving Brian the finger through my mittens. I'm really tired right now and cannot get these pictures and videos to line up pretty so you just need to deal with the mess that is this post.

4 comments:

Alaskan Dave Down Under said...

White Mountains are great in March! Perfect time for the race. Even though it may hit 30 above during the day, it can easily be -30 at night down in the low areas so be prepared and have FUN!!!

Julie said...

Hi there! I just stumbled across your blog when googling for the recent WM100 news articles. You must be the other Julie signed up for the race - very cool! It's my first real endurance race too, so I'll be right there with ya. Nice blog, and good luck training!

Julie

Julie said...

Hey Julie! I was surprised to see that there will be five women on bikes in the race. That's awesome. Good luck with your training and see you at the race!

Anonymous said...

It's gonna be awesome! We just heard from BLM that the permit has been issued. Slight change in dates, though...