Playing in thin air

Another good training weekend in the books. On Saturday, Stephen and I decided to get out of town, hit up Rocky Mountain National Park, and ride the Trail Ridge Road through the park. Our goal was to get in some sustained climbing at some higher altitudes. Here's some photos of our thin air sucking ride.

The park gate is at about 7,500 ft, the high point on Trail Ridge Road is 12,183 ft....you do the math.

The snowpack is mostly gone, but it's still about 1.5 Carney's deep in a few spots.

Up...up...up

Over the top the first time. Then a quick stop at the visitors center to fill bottles, do some tourist watching....good times, then down the west side. Can you say wind chill??

We then turned around and climbed back over the high point and visitors center then back down the East side.

Down, down, down

Cranking away at 11,500

Rolling back to the truck.

All told, Trail Ride Road is a sweet ride and one I want to do again. The climbing itself wasn't bad at all, just long and steady. I was also pretty pleased at how I felt at 12,000 ft, good thing too because I've got some high altitude events in the coming weeks and I'll need an extra lung.

Today, we headed up high again, this time to the West of town. We drove up Buckhorn Canyon and got in some good miles up and over Pennock Pass to Pingree Park and parts beyond. We finished up with some riding on Monument Gulch. Another good day.

Descending the west side of Pennock Pass

Monument Gulch

Next up is the Firecracker 50 this weekend. Two weeks after that is the Brek 100. Bring on the suffering!!