Aside: The low-point of Olympic broadcasting was in 2000 when NBC showed the first 200m and the last 800m of the Men's 10K in which Haile Gebrselassie, who was unbeaten for seven years (!!!), went head-to-head with Paul Tergat, winning by 0.09 seconds, in a time of 27:18.20. This was the closest margin in Olympic history in this event. I admit, the finishing sprint was epic and fun to watch, but it would have been nice to see that race develop, especially as there were three other athletes right there, all equally capable of testing Haile's dominance.
Anywho, with a heavy training week in full swing, I got to yesterday with dead legs, 5 hours of sleep, and a couple of huge work days. The training schedule suggested a 1 hr run with pick-ups near the end. So, I went for a bike ride. My black beauty (cyclocross bike) was itching to get out of the garage and I had been meaning to explore the fire roads near the "town" of Wren, looking for some new loops to make for the winter.
I peaced out of work at 6:00, and headed along HWY 20 to Philomath and beyond. I took a turn up Woods Creek Rd. and went right at the first gated fire road I came to. This adventure was brought to me by a desire not to ride on HWY 20 all the way to Wren but to find a back way to Harris Rd. At first, the road was nice: smallish-sized gravel, not too many ruts. My intended bearing was North and the road generally proceeded that way. But after a half mile, two roads diverged in the wood and I took the one most traveled by. This took me to a series of climbs that were too much for my 12-25. I was forced to hike-a-bike up two of the climbs. Eventually, I came to a - wait-for-it - a utility tower. Hhmmm... not exactly the intended destination. I noticed an overgrown fire road continuing on just before the tower and, fueled by Mojo, I decided to put on my exploratory shoes (remarkably similar to cycling shoes).
This road, not surprisingly, started to go up once more, but only for a little bit. Then it started to descend, and descend, and descend until I wondered what climbing I was going to have to do up ahead. Also, the flora along the "road" continued to encroach further on my path, including those spikey, purple-flowered weeds, thorny vines, and chaffe grass. I swallowed spider webs. Occasionally, I had to switch sides of the double track to avoid huge tree limbs and sticks in my path. Hidden in the growth were deep water ruts, one of which threatened to plant my head in the dirt. A quick check of my phone indicated that were something to happen, I would have to wake up from my coma and ride myself out for emergency treatment. So, I slowed a bit and rode more conservatively. And low and behold, before long I came to a gate that opened up onto a driveway that led to Harris St.!
Because this had taken me well over an hour and I was still all the way out by Wren, I half-heartedly turned up Kings Valley trying a similar tactic in order to find a back-way up to Patterson Rd. in the Mac-Dunn Forest or the Lewisburg Saddle. I failed. And instead rode back along HWY 20, which ended up being really fun because of the huge descent that I tucked in to as logging trucks blew by me.
I managed to make it home around 9:00 pm, plenty of time to book it over to Bill and Erika's for a little tape-delayed Olympic action... and another late night enabled by caffeine.
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