Dry, hot, and windy have been the story of my riding this past week.  Fires down south have hampered air quality to the point of it being very noticeable.  Just this morning the haze of smoke was so thick you could taste it as you gasped for air.   It makes me wonder if my overall health is being helped or hurt by being outside on a bike.  Still, I'm addicted and I always notice when I don't get a my ride in for the day. (sometimes two.)

Yesterday at work I was showing a subcontractor what we needed done to one of our buildings when out of the blue he asked me what I ride.  At first I thought he was talking about motorcycling so I asked him what he meant.  He responded by saying "oh come on.  Shaved legs?(I was wearing shorts), tan line just above the ankle? You don't have to talk about it if you don't want but it's obvious that you ride."  It was a little embarrassing but it made me laugh.  I didn't know it was that obvious but I guess I do have a pretty funny tan line.  It turns out this guy also "rides" and he seemed to be just as fanatical about it as I am.  I'm thinking you have to be in order to spot someone out like that.

High Uinta's 10,000 Road Race

Friday night, thanks to my wife, and really on just a whim, I decided to do the High Uinta Classic early the next morning.   It's a challenging 80 mile race from Kamas to Evanston, Wyoming.  I figured it would be a good test of the legs with the nearly 30 miles of climbing.  I woke up early, drove to Kamas and got myself ready for the punishment that was to come.  As we started I did my best to stay near the front of the pack.  I even did 2 pulls at the front before the pace was just to much and it didn't take long before I was dropped.  I was caught between packs of riders from then until pretty much the end of the race.  I did latch onto a group of 3 guys who were in a different category for the last 15 miles or so and that really helped in getting me to the end.  I couldn't believe the difference between riding on those flat Wyoming road alone and riding with a group.  I was able to go 1 to 2 miles per hour faster and practically soft pedal for the whole time.   I ended up taking 25th out of my category of 40 riders which isn't very good but at least I wasn't last.  

As a side note, I flatted my rear tubular tire today on my lunchtime ride.  This is going to be a pain to fix but at least it wasn't in race.

B4K Stage Race, Venus and More Training....

I was able to complete the next 2 stages of the B4K Stage Race on Saturday.  The Road Race in the morning and the Time Trial in the evening.  I did okay in the Road Race but I lost some time in the Time Trial.  I knew I would without a TT bike but all in all I was happy with whole thing.  I ended up finishing 20th over all 3 stages.

We got to see Venus transit the Sun on Tuesday.  It's such a rare event that we made a special effort to do so. It was cloudy and windy and cold most of the evening but we drove to a break in the clouds, set up the telescope along the side of the road and watch the last hour or so of the transit.  It was could to see.  Not on the scale of the last solar eclipse but while thinking of how little it happens it was cool to see.

Yesterday I was able to go on a lunchtime training ride that turned out to be a little bigger than I planned.  I headed up South Mountain and back down the Highland side with the intention of turning around and going right back.  But I kept going.  I ended up reaching the mouth of American Fork Canyon and continued on up.  It's really a beautiful ride and the temps were cool and the climbing felt great.  I reached the summit trailhead and came back down.  I didn't bring near enough food or water with me so I started to struggle back up South Mountain back into Draper but I made it.  It ended up being 64 miles and over 6,700 feet of climbing.  I should have been better prepared but I really didn't intend on going so far.   Sometimes I get caught up in the freedom of riding a bike and I just keep going and going.   

First Stage of My First Stage Race

 I began my first stage race by competing in this mornings B4K criterium around Daybreak.  I've been recovering for the last week from the flu so I was really worried about how I would feel but so far so good.  My goals were to get through this opening race finishing in the lead pack and not crashing.  All goals accomplished though there were several very close calls and 1 major crash that I was able to avoid.  The course was interesting since it used the roundabouts in Daybreak with the intent of making the corners safer but they had to it to reduce it to 1 lane which made the turns tight and fast.  Currently I'm about 7 seconds off the GC lead and with the road race portion tomorrow I'm hoping to do even better.  I feel like I've got plenty of energy left over so we'll see how it goes.  The time trial portion will be tomorrow night and it's the final stage and since I don't have a time trial bike I'm pretty sure I'll loose a lot of time, but still, it's worth the experience.