I decided yesterday that I should attack High Grade Road today. I got out to Deer Creek Canyon about 7:30, took a last minute whizz, and took off. I was pretty much alone at this point, and for that matter the whole climb; on the descent I passed a lot of folks coming up.

Anyway, getting onto my Trek 5200 after putting 120 commuting miles on the Serotta last week was a bit odd. The bikes feel and handle very differently (I'll write about that sometime). As I started climbing Deer Creek Canyon road I noticed that I didn't feel all that strong - as a matter of fact I felt pretty weak. As I was to find out, the problem wasn't me, it was the (roughly) 10mph headwind adding to the effort. That, and the fact that I'm a slow warmer-upper, combined to make for some suffering in the first couple of miles. It was bad enough that I was crafting a plan to turn around when I reached the High Grade turnoff. However, at some point I noticed that I wasn't breathing hard any more, and I was actually fairly comfortable, though moving pretty slowly.

The High Grade climb itself was without incident, except that my left knee started complaining on a particularly steep pitch that I'd climbed standing. Once I backed down a gear or two and sat down, I was fine, and no more complaints from the knee the rest of the ride.

While on High Grade, I decided to just ride to the Pleasant Park school, at the top, and double back rather than continuing into Conifer. Two reasons for that: this was my first big climb of the season and I felt my knees deserved a little break, and it would save a bit of time. The descent was uneventful, but a little hair-raising due to all the winter gravel strewn about.

My bottom bracket has been creaking for the last month or so, and was really annoying on this ride, so on the way home I dropped the bike off at the LBS to have the pull the BB and regrease it. I want the bike to be ready to rock when we head to KY to do the Horsey Hundred in Georgetown.