Spooky trail and climbing in a Trance

13 1/2 hours in the saddle over the past three days is part of the reason I feel like I have been hit by a truck. However, the main reason I feel like poo is lack of sleep and it is not becaue I stay up late. It seems that as my training volume increases, my quality of sleep decreases and it has been worse in the past two months than ever before. I have tried several natural sleep aids and so far nothing is helping.

Saturday's mtb ride was part training and part exploration to link up two sections of trail for a future epic ride. Michelle joined me for most of the ride and was riding really strong...again. It has been great to see her make a big leap in fitness this summer.

The exploratory part of the ride was a letdown. The goal was to use Spooky trail as the launch pad to get to the Canyon Creek loop but the North Fork of Pine Creek trail is too steep and "moto'd" to be considered good training. There was a lot of hike-a-bike over softball sized rocks that had gravitated to the center of the steep trough...I mean trail. We still got our big ride in though.

The Red Creek loop at the beginning of the ride just gets better and better and has plenty of tech spots to keep you on your toes.

Sunday's road ride was a mental test due to the strong headwind right out of the gate. I did not set any PRs up and over Teton Pass but I was surprised at how good I felt for my third big day in a row. I decided that I needed a little variety for this ride so I downloaded some Trance music to my Shuffle just for climbing since this ride has about 6,000' of it. I didn't own any techno prior to this but I have to say that the tempo of Trance music is perfect for stomping on the pedals up a big climb.