Chasing Hamburgers

Les and I went riding this morning.  Las Llajas, of course.  The trail is perfect right now, the little rain we got a couple weeks ago has knocked all the dust off, but it's not muddy yet.

This morning I decided to push on up to what we call "Sunshine Mountain."  This is 5.7 miles from our house and pretty much all uphill.  I haven't ridden that far since before the marathon, so I didn't know how I would do.  Well, I got fourth woman overall on the segment called "Oil Wells Climb."  This is 1.2 miles with an average grade of 10.4%, some parts are close to 20%.  I watched my heart rate climb and climb, finally maxing out at 169 BPM.  It took me 24 minutes and 17 seconds to ride that segment!  A 24 minute mile while running is crawling, but doing this on the bike is killer!

After catching our breath, we headed back down.  The fun part!  About a third of a mile from the top, Les slowed.  "There's a momma cow and her calf."  They were just ahead of us on the trail, running for all they were worth to get out of our way!  They finally took a short cut that led back to the ranch, while we headed for home.  You just never know what you're gonna see on Las Llajas!

Not "our" cow, but this is what she looked like.

Total ride:  11.4 miles in 1:33:22, 7.3 mph average.
1,638 feet of climbing
Average HR 137
Max HR 169
Calories burned 690

Have you ever seen anything crazy while out running, riding, or walking?