It's been a while since I felt like exercising, however with the Salem Tri only a month away, I thought it would be a good idea to get out and ride my bike today. Up until I got sick just over a week ago, I was riding 20k and running/elliptical 5k on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. However because I got sick, I've done nothing the last 10 days.
Last Saturday, when I was sick, Deni took the opportunity to ride from our house to Salem, then ride the Salem Tri bike route up Payson Canyon and back. Total distance is just over 25 miles (40k).
I decided to do the same today. The weather was quite nice, in the lower 60's. I rode with a light windbreaker jacket on. It took me about 22 minutes to get to Salem (about 6.5 miles) and then I started up the bike route.
You can't tell this from the map, but there are quite a few hills getting to the mouth of Payson Canyon and a constant uphill up Payson Canyon. The ride was a lot harder than I had expected up the canyon. Total elevation gain is 519 feet (in 6.4 miles, most of it coming in the last 4 miles). However,what goes up, must come down. As slow as I rode up the canyon, it was fun flying down at speeds over 30mph. This will be an interesting ride on race day. There are about 800 participants and the ride up the canyon isn't too great (the pavement needs to be redone). It was very fun and easy coming down by myself, however adding even 20-50 other riders going down and another 100 or so going up, will make it an interesting ride. I rode back to the "finish line" and then continued on home for another 6.5 miles. Overall I went just over 25 miles (40k).
When I got home I was exhausted, which I shouldn't be at this point, but I'm going to blame it on getting and attempting to recover from getting sick last week.
