Fred’s Utah Biking Vacation – Day 1

Ok, I have been dreaming about this moment for a while now … vacation, biking and a break from the 2009 economic outlook which has been depressing the hell out of me!

Here in Utah we are in bikers paradise and since I have a dream bike, I thought I could put the two together for an amazing “biking madness” vacation. Louise’s parent live in Utah valley at the bottom of a mountain called Timpanogos. The house is at 1500 mts and you can bike all the way up to 2500 right out of the garage. We are on the Wasatch mountain range and anywhere you look there is a 3500mt summit! Yum.

Today’s ride was a “test” ride … and I passed. I went up American Fork canyon all the way to the summit of the road and came back down. Since I am still a little jet lagged and the kids were up all night I really tried to watch the Polar and “listen” to my body to stay within the limits; no use in blowing up on the first ride … there are three more weeks to do that!

From the house to the summit there are 22km and a vertical gain of 930mts with an average grade of 5%. I ascended in 1h:25m at an average 15.5km/h and average heart rate of 161 bpm. Now I have a benchmark … we’ll see what happens in the next three weeks …

Lot’s of riders in the canyon, will for sure try and hook up with a pack for a little more social experience.

Tomorrow I ride with my brother in law going up the Sundance ski resort.

Cheers for now,

Fred