State of the MTB Union Part II (Q2, 2008)

Back on April 1, I posted a first quarter State of the Union address for the blog, detailing the progress I had made on my 2008 Ride List and Goal List and projecting the likelihood of meeting the remaining goals on each respective list. I enjoyed the chance to evaluate my progress and hypothesize about how to achieve the remaining achievements, so I figured I'd do it again at the end of the second quarter (Q2) of 2008.

2008 RIDE LIST:

If I count July 1 as part of the second quarter of 2008, I have ridden 13 of the 17 rides on my 2008 Ride List. In the second quarter alone, I rode Black Mountain, Daley Ranch, Santa Margarita River Trail, and Sweetwater. I also rode the full Noble Canyon shuttle, which I had not done at my first trip to Noble in the first quarter when I bailed out on the last portion and rode the paved road back. I also rode the Cuyamaca Grand Loop (twice!), which was not on my ride list but is a popular San Diego county ride, so that was a good one to get.

Even though I rode 9 of the items on the Ride List in Q1 and only 5 in Q2, the five I rode in Q2 were generally tougher rides and required more planning and creativity to get to. For that reason, I'm prouder of the 5 I did in Q2 than the 9 in Q1.

The remaining rides on my 2008 Ride List are Big Laguna Trail, Lake Morena, Elfin Forest, and Mission Trails/Spring/Oak Canyons. Skyline MTB has a ride planned at BLT in early July, so that is attainable. Elfin is a tough ride, but is in Escondido, so I have no excuse but to get there sometime this year. And SDMBA is having an organized ride over at MTRP in mid-July, so that will take care of at least part of the Mission Trails ride. Lake Morena remains a wild card, because it is so far away and apparently quite a challenge. But I think I'll get there. STR member Chip has offered to show me around the next time he goes, so that is one option.

2008 GOAL LIST:

As for my more general 2008 Goal List, the results are less impressive. For a full description of the goals themselves, check out that entry. Below is the list, with comments on my progress thus far (or lack thereof) and prognosis for completion by the end of the year on a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being unlikely and 10 being already done):

1. Ride Noble Canyon: (10)

I did the full Noble Shuttle, and am satisfied that this goal has been met. As I predicted in the April State of the Union, I rode the full Noble trail from top to bottom at the Skyline MTB weekend, and generally had a lot of fun. The portion of the trail that I skipped on my first time out there was the best part of the ride, and I'll never bail out on that section again.

2. Do a ~50 mile/all day-type ride: (5)

This one I haven't done, and haven't even really gotten close. In fact, at this point, I probably couldn't ride 50 miles in a day, unless it was pretty flat and I had all day to finish. I heard rumors of an Archipelago/Islands ride in early April, where they'll ride La Costa --> Elfin --> Hodges --> San Dieguito River Park --> Santa Luz --> Black Mountain --> LPQ, which should be about 50 miles. It would be awesome to be a part of that, but its not gonna happen for me this time. Hopefully they'll do it again later in the year and I can join that one.

3. Do a Multi-Day ride: (5)

The likelihood of attaining this one has diminished with rising gas prices and my failure to do it at the Skyline MTB weekend in Laguna. I still want to, but traveling to go biking doesn't seem likely in the near future, so I have some doubts.

4. Do an Out of Town Ride: (4)

I initially thought I accomplished this goal when I rode at the Santa Rosa Plateau in mid-June, and then I went back and looked at the description of the actual goal and realized it referred to a ride outside of SoCal entirely, so I'm back to square one here as well. Like the above goal, gas prices and time play a major role in whether it will happen. I'm not going to Adam's graduation in Sacramento, so that option is out. I may go visit Joel in Sacramento in August or September, but I doubt I'll be able to afford to drive, so biking while there may be a stretch. I have concerns about whether this one will happen.

5. Do a Ride in the OC: (8)

I obviously haven't done this yet either, but I am interested in shuttling San Juan, riding Aliso, or maybe even doing San Clemente Single Tracks. Again, with the sheer volume of STR rides in those places, it shouldn't be a problem doing one of them. I really want to get out to San Juan, which I've heard is a lot of fun.

6. Do a Night Ride (w/Light): (10)

This is one of the three goals I met in Q2, when I did the SDMBA Cuyamaca Night ride. It was a whole new experience riding at night, and I enjoyed night riding enough that I picked up a NiteRider TriNewt from Performance when they were on mega-sale, so I'll be doing more night riding in the future.

7. Clear all of Martha's: (9)(No Change since Q1)

I'm so close on this one, and I already basically did hard part with the downhill, so I just need to clean climbs and one tiny part. Its close to home and I ride there pretty often, so I'm pretty confident about meeting this goal.

8. Clear all of "the ****": (10)

Did it. And it was kind of a cool story, since I went and rode the S**** the night before SDMBA went and did trailwork on it and changed its landscape forever. You can read the ride report here.

9. Climb Bernardo Mountain: (10)

I accomplished this one as part of perhaps my best biking experience in Q2, the Tour de Hodges. I'll talk more about that day below, but I did ride Bernardo Peak, and while there was definitely some HAB, I accomplished the goal of getting to the top.

10. Improve my climbing skills/general fitness:

This one is still hit and miss. I've almost completely abandoned the stationary bike, but have been on the trails much more in Q2 than Q1, and have been running quite a bit as well. I had some good days and bad days in terms of fitness in Q2, but overall I've seen real improvement. I'm still HABing more than I'd prefer, but if I compare my Daley Ranch ride on July 1st with the same (attempted) ride on January 26th, there's no question I've come a long way. Other good days included Black Mountain, Cycle Eastlake, the first time through the Cuyamaca Grand Loop, and the Tour de Hodges.

Bad fitness days included Sweetwater, a basic North/South Hodges ride, and the Cuyamaca Night Ride.

HIGHLIGHTS OF Q2:

I met and rode with some neat new people in Q2. After multiple emails and blog comments, I finally got to ride with Doug at SMaRT, which was great. I also met and rode with Dave G., Sol, and even local MTB celebrity MTB Bill, which was awesome. I was actually a little starstruck, but Bill is a really neat, down to earth guy who was a pleasure to ride and chat with.

I also bought a new (to me) bike in Q2. The jury is still out to some extent, but I generally like it a lot, and don't regret the purchase. The additional suspension travel is a huge plus, and as I get in better shape the additional weight will be less and less of a factor.

I did my first organized MTB event in Q2, Cycle Eastlake. It was a poker ride, not a race, and was generally a lot of fun. I enjoyed the "event" aspect of it, and would like to do more things like that in the future with friends.

In the beginning of Q2, I was in a bit of an MTB rut, and wasn't enjoying riding as much as I used to. Then I went on a tear, riding six new trails in less than a month, and I was back to enjoying riding and looking forward to being on the bike. The lesson there was that its important to mix things up every now and then and ride new places. I also learned that a large portion of my enjoyment in riding is exploring new trails and navigating unique locations.

I also developed a new local ride in Q2. I linked up the 4S Ranch trails with parts of lower Black Mountain and put together a fun loop that I can do in less than an hour. The loop also includes the Canyon Rim trail that I did trailwork on in late March, which is a challenging, techy downhill that has really improved my confidence on other difficult trails.

Probably the top overall highlight of Q2 was my Tour de Hodges ride in late May. It was by far my longest ride to date at 27.43 miles, and was an awesome experience.

For the second quarter of 2008, I rode a total of 254.75 miles on my mountain bike, as opposed to 133.63 miles in Q1. While rain and weather did factor into the lesser mileage earlier in the year, I did step up both my frequency and duration of my rides, and I think that its paying off in my enjoyment and conditioning.

Those are my thoughts on Q2 of 2008. I'm pleased with my progress and look forward to checking back in in September to see what new experiences I'll have to write about then.