WRIAD 2014

Completed my 4th White Rim in a Day last Tuesday, March 23rd. We had a total of five riders this year and it would be the first WRIAD attempt for two of them. None of us had ridden a bike more than twice since the snow started falling this winter.

Here is a recap of our prior efforts:
http://coloradotrailrace.blogspot.com/2013/04/wriad.html

The plan for this year was to drive down after work on Monday, set-up our camp at the usual spot down by Mineral Bottoms boat ramp, grab a couple hours of sleep, and get started under the full moon to wipe out the boring road miles in the dark. I had hoped to get rolling by 2am, but it was actually 3:30 before we all started the climb up the Horsethief switchbacks.

It seemed warm as we climbed up to the Island in the Sky, but once we got up there we all got very cold. My left foot was a frozen block. It felt slightly better to keep riding than it did to stop and complain about it so we gritted our teeth and kept moving. We had left a cache of water and breakfast burritos at the top of the Shafer trail and we reached that just as twilight began about 6:45am. We waited a little too long here, about 45 minutes, but we all wanted to feel the sun on our face before we descended down to the White Rim.

Even though the high for the day was only about 48 degrees, I warmed up nicely as soon as the sun rose. One buddy had to make a pit stop at the pit toilet at Potash Road, but I knew we better get serious about laying some miles down, so I chomping at the bit to get going.

We knocked out a little chunk and stopped to regroup at Point Ramsey (38 miles), a spot so designated because that is where we had to leave our sick buddy two years ago and come back (he continued on a few miles past Murphy's Hogback) to rescue him in the truck.

Point Ramsey would end up as a 45-minute break before everyone was regrouped and ready to go, so I knew we wouldn't be setting any records out there on this day. Getting over Hardscrabble and through the deep sandy section before dark became my goal.

We have gotten accustomed to using the same rest and regroup points, so the next spot was at 51 miles where there is a good little knoll that allows you to see back down the trail a good ways. I broke out some cheese and salami and actually got in a little nap before we were on the road again after an hour break.

The next section to Murphy's Hogback contains some of the harder miles. It has some sandy sections and generally climbs for the 17 miles. I didn't stop until the top of Murphy's, and then had a very long 1hr45min break before everyone was together and ready to continue on. I got a long nap in of at least an hour, but I'm not sure that really helped much. I felt groggy when I resumed and my ass was so sore I could not even think about sitting down. I applied a fistful of Okole Stuff and that helped a little, but damn that was painful.

The 21 mile section from Murphy's to Hardscrabble loses about 1000' down to river level, so it is always a morale boost to throw down some easier miles. I got a little concerned about 10 miles out from Hardscrabble when I took a drink and discovered I had run out of water.  By the time I topped out I was getting pretty thirsty, but thank goodness it was cool enough out that it wasn't a serious danger. I got a couple sips of gatorade when one of my friends reached the top and told them I was going to continue to camp.

I rode the final 12 miles back to camp without sitting down. Besides the sandy HAB section, those miles are very easy next to the Green River, so I rolled back in about 7:15pm for a 15hr45min tour.

One of these days I'm going to time-trial this thing solo and see what I can do.

My legs and body felt fine this year, but I'm not going to roll off the couch again and do this thing without some serious butt-seasoning beforehand. Pain like that is just not fun. Last year I came out with some knee pain, but didn't have any this year. I'm sure all the skinning I have been doing has strengthened them up.

One other odd thing is about my weight. I remember last year expecting to have lost a couple pounds, but I actually had gained several pounds when I weighed as soon as I got home. Then those pounds rapidly fell off over the next couple days.

The same thing happened this year. I weighed 175.4 on the day before we left. Weighed in on Wednesday when I got home and was 184.5!!! How in the hell does your body do that??? Then, Thursday morning - 182.5... Thursday night - 180.0, Friday Morning  - 178.5, Friday night - 177.2, Saturday - 175.0 and finally this Sunday morning - 174.6.

Very strange, but I'm glad to have shed them all off.

Didn't take a single picture, but here is the GPS profile:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/464366395