31st Birthday Challenge (June 28, 2008)

Some of you reading this may have received an invitation to my 31st Birthday Challenge, in which case no introduction is needed, but for everyone else here is a brief intro: a sacred tradition exists where every year on (or near) your birthday you celebrate by driving yourself to the brink of exhaustion with a feat of physical endurance, to prove that you aren't ready for the old folks home just yet.  Last year on my 30th birthday I celebrated with 30 rock climbs in American Fork, and this year I decided to commemorate the occasion with a long ride on my bicycle.  The only hitch was that I hatched the idea just a few weeks before my birthday, and I hadn't been doing long enough rides to be in shape by the time my birthday came around.  For this reason, I scheduled it for 2 weeks after my actual birthday.  For some reason I had no takers on the open invite, although everyone had a good reason: my Mom had some sewing to do, Roanne had a couple of fantasy novels that she had to read, and Chris and Sue were busy drinking pims in their backyard.  The closest thing I had to a taker was from Chris (who I had roped into belaying me for 7 of the 12 hours of my last birthday challenge) who agreed to do the final canyon with me.  This was either because as a good friend he wanted to help inspire me to finish the challenge, or because he wanted to exact some revenge from previous rides we had done together by putting me into the hurt box after I had had 3 canyons to soften up my legs.

I rose bright and early at 5:30am on Saturday morning, it was still a little dark out and all my bike gear was carefully laid out, my bibs prepared with lovely chamois butter just waiting for a birthday challenger to step into them.  I had the usual break fast of champions (1 cup raisin bran crunch, 1 cup cinnamon toast crunch, 1/3 cup french vanilla almond granola, 1.5 cups vanilla soymilk, 1.5 cups skim milk), and was feeling a little bleary eyed as I dug in and contemplated the day ahead (photo taken with timer as Rosie was still in bed, not to rise for another 4.5 hours):

I headed out the door at exactly 6:00am, and was treated to lovely cool temperatures, and the sight of the first rays of morning sun hitting the mountains.  There were a surprising number of other cyclists out enjoying the quiet roads and perfect temps.  I headed south to Little Cottonwood Canyon, and proceeded to ride up it, feeling quite sprightly as I had taken two days off of physical activity in week leading up to the challenge, in a tribute to what some call "the taper".  I reached the top of LCC at 8:15am, and saw a few backcountry skiers getting ready to head out for a day of skiing (strange on a 95 degree day in the valley, but it was a big snow year and there is still plenty to ski on).  I had brought the camera to take a picture at the top of each canyon, but didn't remember until I was blazing back down the canyon, so I decided to get pictures at the top of all but LCC.

I refilled my three water bottles and ate a banana at the 7-11 at the base of Big Cottonwood Canyon, and then headed up.  This canyon was also quite uneventful and I was still feeling pretty good when I reached the top and refilled my water bottles at the Solitude Nordic Center.  I reached the top at about 10:15am, and by now it was getting pretty hot so I was drinking a lot more water.  I once again forgot about the photo op until I was halfway down the canyon, so no picture at the top of BCC either.  From the base of BCC I then headed over to Millcreek, and headed on up.  On the way there I decided to snap a few action photos to make up for the ballast of a camera that I was carrying up all the climbs.  Here is a photo of my bars and speedometer after 4 hours and 40 minutes in the saddle:

And here is a rolling shot of our protagonist himself, headed north along Wasatch Blvd towards Millcreek:

Millcreek has a lot more shade than the other canyons, so it was a nice break.  Another nice bonus is that the snow only melted off the upper part of the road about a week ago so it was still closed to vehicle traffic, making for really nice riding.  At the top of Millcreek I again didn't think of a photo, and headed directly down to rendezvous with Chris at the Sinclair gas station at Foothill Drive and 1300 S (on the way to Emigration Canyon).

Chris and I both arrived at the prescribed meeting place at the same time, and he waited outside while I went in and refilled my bottles.  I had been eating a lot of energy bars up until this point, and they start to get a bit sickening, so I decided to partake of the hersheys chocolate bar that my loving wife had left out for me before going to bed.  Unfortunately, chocolate bars that spend 6.5 hours in the back jersey pocket of a sweaty cyclist in 95 degree heat don't hold up that well, but it ended up being so mushy that I was able to slit a hole in the package and squeeze it out like an energy gel.  This was actually pretty good, I would recommend that others try this as well.  Here is a photo of Chris standing beside his trusty Serotta bicycle ("the canary" a.k.a. "big bird" for the bright yellow paint job), and one of me with the remnants of the Hershey Power Gel making it look like I am missing a few teeth:

Chris and I then headed up Emigration Canyon.  After about 15 minutes of trading pulls, Chris started launching attacks and I began to wonder whether he was in this for the right reasons.  I gave him a lecture on the attributes of a good domestique, and he responded by informing me that in the peloton his nickname was "the badger", and he would no sooner stop attacking than tear the Team Italia jersey off his back and dive in the creek.  We continued up and over Emigration Canyon, where I sprinted past Chris to be the first one to the sign at the top, and as I collapsed on my bars and wondered if I would die of heat exhaustion, he sprinted past and joyfully announced that the KOM points were awarded at the rock marker, not the sign.  We then headed down into the next canyon towards Big Mountain, with Chris launching several more attacks that resulted in me deciding to sit on his wheel and not take any pulls since he was clearly feeling a little too fresh.  Chris led up the initial slopes of Big Mountain, but then I came around when his pace was letting my cadence drop a little below my high RPM Lance Armstrong pedaling style.  We stayed like this until about 200m from the top, when I saw that some gaps were opening periodically so I put down my last ounces of energy to snag the Big Mountain KOM points.  We stopped for a few minutes on the summit, and I started to feel a bit sick and get some chills which probably isn't a good sign in 95 degree weather, so we then headed back down.  Chris very kindly let me sit on his wheel for the ride back, and dropped me like a bad habit on the climb back up and over the top of Emigration, as by this point I had already "given it everything, maybe even little bit more" (to be said in a thick German accent, like Jens Voigt).  We arrived back at our house at 3:25pm, where Roanne served us some delicious chocolate cup cakes as a recovery snack.

So, the 31st birthday challenge was a "great success" (to be said in a thick Kazahki accent) , with the grand totals being: