Fruita Trip

When it comes to my hobbies, you could say that I’m a jack of few trades, master of none. I enjoy several different activities and have a moderate ability in all of them. One of my newer hobbies is mountain biking.

Last year a friend of mine was looking to upgrade her mountain bike. She had a hard tail bike and was planning to get a full suspension bike. When she told me she was looking to sell her old bike, I was definitely interested. When she told me the price she wanted for it, I was sold.

I spent last Summer riding my mountain bike at least once a week at a local trail system known for being a great place for beginner mountain bikers. Mountain biking is technically challenging. You bike over rocks and roots, you bike on trails with switchbacks, and you’re doing this while either climbing uphill or descending down.

Last Summer I developed a love for mountain biking. It’s slower than road biking, but you’re constantly challenged by obstacles along the trail. I love being on trails, seeing wildlife once in a while (there are moose and deer where I bike), and not having to dodge road traffic. I stuck to the beginner trails last Summer and developed some technical skills. I’m still a beginner mountain biker, but I’m definitely looking to improve on my technical skills this year and start biking on the tougher trails.

So when some friends invited us to join them for a weekend of mountain biking in Fruita, Colorado, Troy and I were in. I went to Fruita once before, with a rented bike, shortly after I moved to Utah. I remember it being technical, there was one trail that I specifically remember being very challenging. I tried to get up the first hill of the trail, but there were so many steps and obstacles, I ended up turning around within the first quarter mile. I was a little nervous about this trip, I didn’t want a repeat of my first experience in Fruita, but with more mountain biking experience this time around, I was excited to see if the Fruita mountain biking would be easier. We packed up the truck and headed down.

On our first afternoon there, we biked a mellow trail right next to the campground. We descended down a trail called Kessel Run, then came back up a trail called Prime Cut.

Along Prime Cut there were washes that were filled with tumbleweeds. I’ve never seen anything like it! Also on Prime Cut were some moderately steep hills that I nearly fell on. I’d bike up the hill only to see a small obstacle at the top and I would almost fall from trying to get off my bike to walk up the rest of the hill. I quickly learned to start out the steeper hills walking and not biking.

The next day we drove away from camp to ride a trail called Horsethief. It started with a big rocky climb, lots of obstacles and steps. It didn’t take long for me to realize this was the same trail that I couldn’t do on my first Fruita trip. It was still pretty challenging, but this time around I managed to get past the first quarter mile, whew!

This is Troy and one of our dogs, Rafa.

Horsethief is a technical trail, by far the most technical trail I’ve done. There was a lot of walking, I was slightly paranoid about crashing and ending my running season early. But the longer we were on the trail, the more comfortable I got with the technical aspects of mountain biking. Moments of thinking “Whoa, this is a big obstacle, I better walk this!” became “This doesn’t look as bad as that other obstacle, maybe I should try biking it because I’m tired of getting off my bike to walk.” So I started biking more technical stuff and it wasn’t bad, it was fun!

After Horsethief, an ~8 mile ride, we grabbed cocktails at a local distillery, then headed back to camp. Some people decided to ride another short ride at camp, I was content to read.

Like our car camping set-up? I do!

The next day most people were biking again, I decided to run. I couldn’t leave Fruita without doing one run on those trails.

Rafa, ready to run at the trailhead.

This is called cheatgrass. It was everywhere, and it made the hills look purple, so pretty!

After that it was time to head home. Troy and I had a great time in Fruita, and we’re planning to go back this Fall. I’m excited to get back on the bike now that I’ve done some technical riding. It’s been a rainy week at home, but it’s looking like I’ll get to bike next week. As I was walking Pudgy the morning after we got back from Fruita, I noticed this:

Our Aspen trees have leaves! Looks like Spring finally came to Park City!

Any mountain bikers out there?

What are your favorite outdoor hobbies?

Weekend Recap

Last week I didn’t go to a spinning class. Instead, I went mountain biking on a trail system in Park City that finally had dried out enough for some riding. The trail area is Round Valley, and it’s my favorite mountain biking area, and one of my favorite trail running areas. Last Friday we did a short ride just before it got dark, here’s a shot of the trail:

When we got home, we saw that our pug, Pudgy, was sick. He had vomited several times while we were gone and was walking as though he was dizzy. It was scary. He has back problems, and I feared this was a very serious back episode, one that might require surgery, so we rushed to the 24 hour emergency vet (I’m so fortunate to live near one!). Pudgy tends to get nervous at the vet, so much so, that he gets an adrenaline boost and appears perfectly fine. Friday night was no exception. The vet thought he was fine, but then he vomited again, and we opted to do blood work and a urine analysis.

All his tests came back normal, and the vet was certain that his back was not the issue. The most likely explanation was that he had eaten something he shouldn’t have, and it made him sick. We were to feed him a bland diet and make sure he didn’t continue vomiting. If he continued to be sick, we had to bring him back for an ultrasound to look for foreign objects in his GI tract. By the time we got home it was nearly 1:00 in the morning.

My plan for Saturday was to run 8 miles, but with Pudgy being sick, and a lack of sleep from the late night vet visit, I opted to stay home and make sure he was okay. We cooked some plain chicken and rice, and fed him bit by bit throughout the day keeping an eye on him to see if he’d get sick again. He was completely fine all day! He was back to normal. 🙂

He loves to sit in the sun. 🙂

We have a follow-up visit with his regular vet tomorrow morning. I hope they don’t tell me anything too scary, Pudgy seems to be doing fine now, fingers crossed that is the case!

Sunday was a snowy day, so I stayed in most of the day again. With a few 10+ mile long runs in the bag, and the fact that I’m not hoping to PR in my half marathon this weekend, I was totally okay with not doing a longer run. Troy’s parents are visiting us this weekend as well, so it was the perfect time to clean the house and relax.

Today Troy and I went climbing. Our climbing gym, Momentum, opened a new location that is only 14 miles away from us (versus the 27 mile drive to the old location). Tonight was a member’s only climbing night, so we took the chance to check out the new space. It was A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!!

The majority of the climbs are steep, which can get tiring, but they’re really good for building strength. The bouldering area (the top picture – no ropes, short walls), was my favorite. I’ll definitely be getting back into bouldering this year. The climbing legend Chris Sharma was there, and it’s always fun to watch him climb. All in all it was a fun night of climbing, I just hope it gets less crowded within the next couple months!

I’m now in full taper mode. My half marathon is on Saturday, so I’ll run two or three days this week nice and easy. I might go climbing again later this week, but other than that I’m resting, eating, and trying not to get too anxious about the half.

Week In Review (Last Week):
2 runs, 8 miles
1 climbing day
1 strength training day

What A Weekend!

Last weekend was a busy and fun weekend, I only wish it could have lasted longer!

I kicked off the weekend with my first race if the year. I ran the Leprechaun Lope 10K. It was a bit windy at the start near the state Capitol, but once we ran into City Creek Canyon, I didn’t notice the wind much at all. The course was uphill for the first half and downhill for the second half. I haven’t been doing hill work at all since early Winter, and I could tell. I struggled going up, but felt great coming down as reflected in my mile splits: 12:32, 13:47, 13:58, 11:10, 10:03, and 10:15. My time was 1:14:11, definitely slow for me, but I had no goals coming into the race besides having fun, and I definitely had fun! My friend S also ran this race, she was super fast and won our age group, woo!

After the race I went home, ate, and cleaned up the house while waiting for Troy to get home from working a half day. When he got back, we loaded Rafa (our hiking dog) up and headed out for a hike in Salt Lake City called the Living Room hike. The Living Room hike is a shorter hike in the foothills near my work. It’s a moderately steep hike of ~2.3 miles round trip. When you get to the view point, there are a bunch of rocks set up as chairs. It’s a great spot to sit, take in the view, and enjoy a tasty beverage.

We called it a day after that and enjoyed the night in.

The next morning we had a brunch reservation at Sundance. Troy’s parents got us a gift card for Christmas, and we were finally getting around to using it. It was my first time enjoying the brunch buffet there, and man, was it good! So much food, and it was all delicious! My favorite was the butterscotch marshmallow bread pudding, it was the perfect texture and sweetness, I seriously can’t stop thinking about how good it was! They sat us next to the fireplace, and after breakfast we took a short walk on the grounds. We’re already planning a trip back there sometime late Summer/early Fall, next time we’ll hike to Timpanogos, stay in one of the cabins overnight, then wake up for brunch and another hike. I really can’t wait to go back!

After breakfast we came home, did more stuff around the house, then got ready for our first mountain bike ride of the year with C and C. In order to mountain bike, we had to drive to lower elevation trails. Since I’m still new to mountain biking, we also needed easy/non-technical trails. So we went to the Corner Canyon trail system in Draper. It was a long drive to get there, but it was definitely worth it. Having never biked there, I didn’t know what to expect. Corner Canyon is an excellent trail system for the novice mountain biker. There are some big roads there, but also plenty of single track, and there were plenty of dry trails for all of us to enjoy ourselves. Troy and I definitely liked getting out on the mountain bikes.

After biking we went back to C and C’s and had a nice little BBQ. By 9:00 we were pooped and called it a night.

We had a great time hiking and biking over the weekend, we’re definitely looking forward to doing more of both. As an added bonus to the weekend, I got a chance to go to the Nike outlet store not far from my house, and I scored a great deal on some running shorts. The deal was so great ($17), that I got two pairs. This means that after losing 20 pounds over a year ago, I finally have running shorts that fit! I’m looking forward to running in them 🙂