Training Log Archive: Bash

Some tippy 1-legged balance after a long day of travel, driving on no sleep, and sitting in the hospital. Mom is holding steady but she’s not well.

As it turns out, there will be no race. Sadly, Mom was re-admitted to hospital on our first day here. During her recent hospital stay, she improved steadily every day, and that’s what we all expected again. She and my brother figured we might as well enjoy our holiday, then I could take over from my brother when I get back. But she’s not improving so we’re flying home overnight.

Slim Shady, Templeton around Cathedral Rock, Easy Breezy, HT, Little Horse, Bell Rock Pathway. Very distracted - rode poorly. Partway through the ride, I got the text that made me decide we had to go home. It was beautiful though. I’ll add a couple of photos later.

‘Bent and I returned to the area in northwest Sedona where we rode on our first day here. We started near the Dry Creek Vista Trailhead and rode a few kms of trails that we’d ridden on Sunday.



The Mescal Trail had come highly recommended. It spends part of its time on a ledge with spectacular views. We’d saved it for a day when we had more riding under our belts since we figured it would be more fun that way. As it turned out, in most places, it was not as technical as the trails we’d ridden on Sunday although there was definitely some exposure. It was truly beautiful though!











This is the section of trail I just rode.



This is the section ahead.



This was a New GoPro Day for ‘Bent - a Hero 7 that I convinced him to buy after I accidentally knocked over his bike on Sunday and broke the attachment for his old GoPro. As a result, there was some re-riding of sections, some fiddling with different mounts, and some standing around - but I was a stellar wife who almost never complained about it. For very long. Our elapsed ride time was about 3.5 hours!





We also had a couple of long chats with people we met on the trail. It was so scenic that no one was in a hurry.





At one point on the Chuckwagon Trail, we met two women who were trail running. They asked if they were headed toward the parking lot. They had a long way to go to any parking lot so we had a long discussion involving several maps. At first they weren’t inclined to believe they had made a wrong turn; after all, maybe *we* were the ones heading away from the parking lot. (Hey people, you don’t know how much time I spend with maps - and we even showed them our location on Trailforks!) We persisted politely and they turned around. We later saw them in their car, happy they’d gone back.





When we were on the Mescal ledge, a squall blew in. “It’s snowing!”, some children exclaimed. As a Canadian, I was thinking “That’s graupel, actually.” I let it go. ;) We ran into a former avalanche forecaster who concurred. The squalls kept on coming! It was always graupel - sometimes quite heavy. In between, we had beautiful sunshine but it was cool. Really nice after the heat of the past few days.



I felt pretty good riding today. I’ve only fallen once in 4 days (knock on wood) and it left me with a long scrape on my arm and a painfully bruised glute. It could be worse. One more ride tomorrow - hoping to avoid further injury before Saturday’s trail ultra.

I’m a broken record but... this was such a fun ride!

For the 2nd day in a row, the temperature in Sedona was going up to 28C so it seemed like a good day to visit Flagstaff. It’s at a higher altitude about an hour north. The forecast high was 21C - more suitable for Canadians who have been running on ice in the past few weeks.



What we didn’t count on was the wind warning! At the Campbell Mesa Trailhead in Flagstaff, the wind was howling and there was gritty sand in the air. It was a little better once we got into the trail system but it was dusty at times, and it was a big effort to pedal against the wind - not something I usually think about on single track.



Aside from that, it was lots of fun! These are easy trails with occasional sections of small rocks but as long as I had momentum, it didn’t even matter if I chose the right line. After the last two days of constant concentration, it was a nice break just to ride.



The scenery was nice but didn’t change much - ponderosa pines, grasslands, occasional views of the snow-capped mountains north of town.



We’d planned a hike up to Elden Lookout but the wind was insane in the parking lot and it would only get worse at a higher elevation. So we found a nice sandwich place and visited REI and Run Flagstaff - the store Jim Walmsley is associated with.

Time includes photo/map stops.

Shortly before sunset, ‘Bent and I hiked from our place up to the small saddle behind Chimney Rock. ‘Bent was testing his new GoPro so he should have some good photos to share. After admiring the views in all directions, we did a hike-run downhill to work up a little more appetite for the Javelina Cafe.

‘Bent and I rode the Adobe Jack trail system, which is in a large block of green space between residential neighbourhoods in West Sedona. Looking at a map, one might expect this area to feel semi-urban but it was as spectacular as any riding we’ve done here.







There was a tremendous bike repair station with good tools on long cables. I looked it up. It made me want to donate one to a bike-friendly place some day. ‘Bent needed to use it.
https://www.bikefixation.com/product/deluxe-public...



It was a super fun, scenic ride - some of it more technical than yesterday when we mostly stayed off black diamond trails. There are never any photos of the technical stuff since we’re too busy in those sections! Toward the end, I got a bit cocky and ended up with road rash on my arm from a rock. First fall of the vacation - boo.









The Seven Sacred Pools



It was a hot day heading for 28C so we kept it short and headed to the Sedona Beer Company for a recovery flight.



Time has been deducted for extended Gopro antics but not for all stops.

‘Bent and I went for a short pre-dinner hike up to the end of the Tabletop Trail near the Sedona Airport. Nice views of the red rock in the Oak Creek area. Lots of cactus too!







Here’s our official “Training for Storm The Trent” photo. :)



I accidentally recorded the drive home. Data is corrected but the GPS track is not.

‘Bent and I had planned a ride from the Bell Rock Trailhead, close to the bike shop in case something needed to be adjusted. I’d rented a Pivot Switchblade from Absolute Bikes. It feels similar to my home bike (also a Medium Pivot) but it’s designed to handle rockier trails.

The bike was a huge success - it’s even bright blue! - but our planned ride was a flop. There weren’t any parking spaces at the trailhead and we could see lots of Sunday hikers on the trails so it didn’t seem worth starting at a different access point. We returned to our house and I planned a new route from there.



Our route was paved road from our place to Lizard Head Trail, then a bunch of trails with very different character in the area northwest of Sedona around Dry Creek Road. The coolest trail was Aerie - beautiful with a bit of exposure - but all the trails had their own highlights and terrific views.













I haven’t ridden a bike (including a trainer or fat bike) in almost 6 months. So this was a heck of a start to the season - 30 km on rocky trails on a hot day at noticeable altitude. For awhile, I was feeling pretty pleased with myself (“Training? Who needs that?”) but by the end, I was really struggling. I think it was mostly the heat, given my bright red face!







Time includes stops.

‘Bent and I wondered if this trip might have to be cancelled but we’ve made it to Sedona, Arizona.

‘Bent brought his big recumbent mountain bike. I can rent a Pivot in Sedona - a little beefier than mine but it should be good for the rocky trails.



We drove through saguaro country north of Phoenix, which made me think of Cristina.



Then we arrived at our cute rental house, Stardust Oasis. The neighbourhood streets include Stardust, Moonglow, Harmony, Rainbow, Windsong and Friendship.



After settling in (i.e. after ‘Bent had most of his bike assembled), we went for a short hike to stretch our legs after a long day of travel. We’re very close to Thunder Mountain trailhead but someone has built A Wall to keep foreigners from walking across the small piece of empty land between here and there. But walls don’t stop people from getting where they want to go. We walked the long way around. :)

It was great to be on desert trails with their bright colours, weird rock shapes and different vegetation.



We hiked up to a small summit with a great view of Sedona. It was actually a little sketchy coming down with loose sand on sloped rock. Then we went for margaritas and enchiladas.

So far every single person in Arizona has been extremely nice - from the airport car rental to the nearby bike shop. I’m sure we shouldn’t talk politics though. We drove past a “Pray to End Abortion” sit-in and got passed by a high speed pickup truck on stilts with a Trump 2020 sticker. But we can all still laugh together.