Training Log Archive: Flight

Last day in Hawaii.
Tons of snow at home
Dropped Carla off with the kendels and went riding up the hills

Nat and I decided yesterday we wanted to come back to ride a true sea to sky.
Ocean up the Waikoloa, tovsaddle, up saddle to the observatory road, up the road to a car waiting with running shoes so we can run the last chunk of trail up the the site. I think he said they are around 9000ft up? I’d have to look.
High enough you can give yourself elevation sickness

I wanted to see what stringing the firs tbit together looks like

The trouble is there are no water stops so I could only climb 2hrs before I had to turn around so I’d have enough fluid to decend.

We’d need a follow car

C • Follow car 3

C • Awesome vacation! 4

Nat and I drove to Hilo for the farmers market/waterfall chasing/cave adventures and decided to leap frog the car.
I was drop at the highway junction and climbed north to the saddle road and then went east to the junction.
He thought this was rolling easy grade.
It was not.
I started at about 700m up and climbed through the inversion layer.

I had to stop mid climb to grab emergency snacks from my saddle bag as I had none in my jersey for the short distance.

Beautiful road.
Had a quick decent before the van appeared and I jumped in the chase Nat down the hill to Hilo. Sneaky monkey.

To find the hidden waterfalls.
And then into the waterfalls

Easy ride trying to keep carla in 125-155HR
Proved challenging but managed to get her averaging 137.

Super windy going north
Tail winds heading south.

Stayed in the main highway for the most part.

As a comparison, yesterday I went though 4.5 bottles. Today I went through 3. Almost identical ride time.

Left the ladies and their bikes at the Kendels so they could have their beach day and Nat and I could ride the north loop. It was actually super frustrating...one of them said “it’s only leaving like an hour earlier than we have been”. Failing to consider that we had to pack the vehicle.
It took Nat and I 45min. All bikes had to come apart.
No one said thank you they just grumpily got in the vehicle once we had it packed (ahead of our scheduled departure time).

We also didn’t get a thank you for rebuilding bikes on arrival.
This has been a theme of the trip which we already addressed. And yet.

Once they were dumped we parked the van at the beach lot which we were to meet at later with a designated key hiding spot and headed north.

I was having shifting issues off the hop which we stopped to try and fix. They got better but not perfect. I forgot to start my computer back up until the t at the end of the main road (about 5-6miles).
The climb took about 55min to go 2500ft

Gas station for muffins that almost killed me a bottle fill. Then we decided that the planned route looked very rainy so we turned around and descended a tad to turn back up and finish the climb and head into Hawi (3465ft).

The winds were wicked making the descent down into town after the summit a grind. I may have worked harder going down. We split off breifly so I could get water while Nat looped longer.

He decided soon after he wanted to go harder than I did (I was low on fuel, Hot, and having shifting issues) so he popped up and did some of the climb from another direction.

My shifters stop going into my 4 hardest gears and my gears start jumping between low ones.

I had one more water stop, ate a cookie and continued to the beach, I wanted to lap the section I missed to see how long it was buuuuuuut I accidentally hit stop. So then I restarted and had a new gap.

Made it back to the car almost out of water to find a) the keys not in required spot (but the girls bikes in there) b) the people not in the spot we were supposed to meet c) no one picking up their phones.
A kitchen staff helped me search al over, couldn’t find it. Asked inside the beach club house, no one left or turned in keys. After 25min someone answers a phone. They put the keys in a hole in the wheel well and they had fallen inside the fucking car.

I open in and the bikes inside aren’t apart in a way that will allow two more bike in. I unpack take apart and reorient, load my bike and find my bonus snack. Then Nat arrives with snickers and helps me get his bike in and load the tandem.

We face wash and go get beers at the bar in time to see the rest of the people arrive (they were meant to be there at 3, it’s now 4).

Kendels all come for happy hour and we tell stories of hikes and cliffs and get suggestions of some more roads for us to ride the next few days.

Eat burgers and coconut cake.
Then drive cranky people home. Neither of them speak to us. We start unloading bikes and my shifter cable snaps. At least it waited until after the ride.
We let the cranky unload some of their own stuff. They get mad about that. It’s annoying.

All of this while hung over.

Last night we went to a secret locals bar with a friend we made at another bar. They bought us shots and Coronas.

Carla wanted to go back to the coffee farm for chocolate covered things so we brought a back pack and went right toward the hills.

Her HR was 108 standing outside the unit but she insisted she wasn’t angry (she’s been in a mood for a few days). She was blowing out the ceiling of her adjusted zone pretty quickly. Made it to coffee and cruised back.

Switched pedals and went left to meet Nat.
He graciously waited to start his soul crushing intervals until I arrived having drilled it for 30min to find him.

Oh well.
Interval me.
5x 5 on 1 off

Then spun home and at papaya filled with things plus left over last nights homemade sushi annnnnnnd beer


I have to decide if I bother dropping these rides to Phil or keeping them as extra secret...

C • I’d confess 2

Today we jumped off the end of the world.
Short hike out a lava field.
Free climb up after the jump into the ocean.
I think I hit a max HR standing on the edge the first time watching the waves smash into the cave below.

Nat jumped first.
I jumped second.
Reverse of our previous scenario.
We both got off the high cliff point (eventually) then a local told us the highest point is off the tree branch (about 5m higher).

No thanks.

Then beer in the back of the van and frisbee in the parking lot.

Starwars for the afternoon.

Rest day done right.

C • Perfect day! 1

This hike was supposed to take us to fruit harvesting bounty. Perhaps we didn’t go until the bush enough.
It went down the rainforest cliff to the ocean and a wooded section full of little art treasures.
It was crazy hot and full of sweat dripping.
I played on a rope swing.

This was the waterfall hike
We learned there was a secret illegal water slide through the old sugar cane aqua duct system. We went through the tunnels for a while and turned around after some long dark sections that seemed like it would go on forever (we had a headlamp). Turns out the slide was literally 20m ahead when you popped out of that tube.
Oh well.
That may be for the best.

It was crazy foggy on the way up which had us wondering if we made an error and also why locals loved that hike so much.
Beers out of the tube killed enough time for the fog to start lifting.
We saw that we were traversing the ridge of a huge bowl FULL of tiny waterfalls.
Stunningly beautiful.
Makes sense.