Pride and Crankjoy

About a week or so ago I saw a post on my Instagram feed from one of the local pizzeria owners here in Flagstaff. His name is Caleb, and he owns Pizzicletta, which in my opinion, is probably the best pizza place here in Flagstaff. It's woodfired pizza in a custom built oven, and it is so incredibly good. The ingredients are fresh and locally sourced when possible, and I believe the meats are cured in-house. And the gelato...oh my goodness, the gelato. The best I've ever had. I can't even describe in words how good this place is. Pizzicletta is on our short list of places to take guests when they come into town...provided their idea of pizza is more adventurous than the meat lover's at Pizza Hut. Working right along next to everyone in the kitchen is Caleb. He's been there every time I've been there. For all the good things I can say about the restaurant, I could probably double that about Caleb. Granted, I barely know the guy, but I've interacted with him a few times here in Flagstaff, and I think you would have a time finding a more engaging, genuinely nice person. He makes you feel welcome in his restaurant, and come to find out, in the great outdoors as well.

In celebration of the Giro D'Italia, which is a 21 day bike race in Italy, Caleb has been running up Elden Lookout road in Flagstaff every morning since the bike race started. Today is day 12. He has publicly invited anyone who wants to join, and has a crew of four people who have thus far joined him every morning to hike, bike, or run up the mountain. The best part? A free pizza just for making the trip.

Elden is no joke. The summit is 2,000 above Flagstaff, which sits at a thin-aired 7,000 feet above sea level. Living at this elevation is difficult enough at times; exercising at this elevation will make even the fittest flat-landers feel like they've never exercised at all. I've been living here for almost 4 years now and I still get out of breath with light-moderate exercise. I keep wondering if I'll ever acclimate. Due to the elevation and the moderate climate, Flagstaff is a big draw for professional athletes, particularly runners. It's not all that unusual while out on the trails or at the local coffee shop to rub elbows with Olympic hopefuls and runners sponsored by athletic companies. It's actually really cool. Although seeing them on the trails barely breaking a sweat and having an entire conversation without missing a breath makes runners like me look like we're running underwater. It's inspiring for sure, and also very humbling.

So yesterday I told Simon that I want to try to bike up Elden to meet up with Caleb and his crew. They get up early in the morning and meet at the top at 8:30am. It's about 5-6 miles uphill from the parking lot at the base of mountain. Simon was a little skeptical, given that he's ridden up Elden Lookout Road on his motorcycle and had an idea of how steep it was. Having never been up the road myself, I had no idea what I was getting into, but I thought to myself...it's only 5 miles...I can bike anywhere for 5 miles. Ha! Was I in for a surprise.

To set the stage, I ride a single-speed mountain bike. In the world of mountain biking, this is not the most advisable set-up, nor is it all that common. Given that I don't ride the burliest trails in the world, I found little use for all the gears that come on a traditional mountain bike. I switched to a single speed a few years ago after realizing when I was out on the trails on my bike, I rarely, if ever, switched gears. Having had a fixed-gear road bike for several years, I decided that I wanted to get a single-speed mountain bike as well. So I found a beautiful single-speed Gary Fisher (now absorbed by Trek) with 29-inch wheels on Craigslist a couple years ago, and I'm so in love with it. The bike fits me perfectly, it rides like a dream and it's geared pretty decently to my activity level. At least I thought it was before trying to summit Elden. I should probably also mention that I haven't ridden my bike since last fall, and the fact that I chose this particular ride as my first of the season was probably overly ambitious.

Elden Lookout was a struggle. I made it about halfway up the mountain before realizing that there is a very good reason that people ride bikes with gears, and that reason was staring me straight in the face in the form of a gravel road with a grade angle that was challenging even for a person on foot. Trust me, I spent plenty of time on foot this morning pushing my bike up those switchbacks...it's steep.

I had two goals in mind for this morning...to make it to the top, and to beat Caleb, who I referred to as "The Pizza Guy." Caleb runs up Elden, and he started a full half-hour behind Simon and I. On our way up, we were passed by 2 mountain bikers, but otherwise didn't see another soul. As we were getting near to the top, I thought for sure we would beat the pizza guy up there. And then I heard voices behind me. And suddenly there he was, keeping pace with a biker and having a full-on conversation like he was leisurely walking on flat ground. I was walking my bike at the time, laboriously mouth-breathing, and he passed me like I was standing still. He gave me a quick shout of encouragement and disappeared around a curve in the road, still chatting away to his biking companion. And that's how it is here...the athletes are just on a whole 'nother level. As we were nearing the top, Caleb was coming back down the hill. He explained that he was running back to look for someone else who was on their way up. So not only did he run all the way up, he was running back a ways to find the missing person and then was going to run back to the top to join us there for a photo. It was mind-boggling. I told Simon that we had to get to the top before he got back there for the second time...hahaha! We did accomplish this, but not by much.

We were greeted at the top by the two mountain bikers who had passed us, and a gal who had hiked up the other side of the mountain on the Elden Lookout Trail. The other bikers thought we were insane for trying to ride up the road on single speeds, and truth be told, I think they were a little surprised that we had made it at all. They complimented me on my gear ratio (which I know nothing about), even going so far as to call it 'burly.' Which is kind of funny, given that when they had each passed me, I was walking the bike...hahaha! No matter...I did it, they did it, we did it. Getting to the top is the goal, and no one really cared how we got there, just that we came out and shared that moment with them. We spend a very short time at the top talking and looking around. It was such a clear morning that the guys were convinced that we could see the north rim of Grand Canyon from there. Maybe we could...my geography is relatively poor when it comes to this area, but I definitely was able to see a canyon of some sort. Way, far away.

Throughout all this...the slog to the top, the cramping quads, the burning lungs...I kept going. Mostly due in part to Simon, who is my ever present cheerleader. He kept me going by telling me that there were level spots ahead (there weren't), and by telling me that I was in Beast Mode. I told him I felt like I was in chipmunk mode, and he explained that technically, a chipmunk is still a beast. I commented back that if that's the case, then our lazy pug back home who was undoubtedly taking his 3rd nap of the morning was also a beast...hahaha! I wanted to quit at the halfway point, convinced that there was no way that I was going to be able to get back on the bike at any point from there on up, and the thought of pushing my bike up a mountain for 3+ miles was incredibly unappealing. He encouraged me to keep going, and we rode our bikes on the flatter parts (flat, meaning that it was a gradual incline rather than a steep grade). We walked when I petered out, then rode again for short distances. And somehow, we made it. Granted, we were a little later than the designated time of 8:30, but we still made it, and even though I had to walk some of the way, I had accomplished something. How many other people can say that they summited a mountain this morning before 9am? Well, the 4 people who got there before we did, of course...hahaha!

So now that I've ridden bike up Elden Lookout Road, I've convinced myself that on Sunday I'm going to run up it. And by run, I mean run a little bit, walk a little bit....until I get to the top. It's four-ish miles from where the gravel starts, and again, will be straight uphill. We're going to give ourselves just shy of 2 hours to run it to the top...it'll probably be at least an hour back down. It's weird to be so ambitious about these outdoor activities lately. It feels good, and rather than be too upset about what my body can't do, I have to remind myself to be impressed by what it can do. I was talking to Simon earlier about how I don't want my fitness to be defined by how much time I spend in the gym, how much weight I can lift, how many classes a week I take. I want my fitness to be defined by what I can do, where I can do it, and how well I can tolerate it. So that's my goal. To get outside and do something...and most of all, to have fun doing it! See you on the trails!