Scenery and Stats

I enjoy reading all of your written comments. The live comments here in Texas? Not so much. Kevin today expressed surprise about mercury mining. Hello? Did you read my suggested reading list that I emailed to all of you fellow riders? My own wife, the woman I have been dating for nearly 44 years, asked “Did you include me on that email?” Why do I bother?

Today’s 48 mile ride was from Terlingua through the National Park to Santa Elena Canyon. The scenery was 100% spectacular and the ride was 85% awesome and 15% misery. The first 26 miles involved a lot climbing and the rest of the ride was mostly downhill. It was a very pleasant 57 degrees when we started around 9 am and I thought maybe I was underdressed. The temperature kept climbing until it reached 94 degrees for the last hour of riding. I tried hard to hydrate and was fine until around mile 42 when I started to wilt in the heat. Lacking any shade, this place can get so hot that you feel like you are baking in an oven.

Here are some pictures from our ride along the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive, which do not do justice to the overall really spectacular scenery of Big Bend:

And since today was Opening Day, we had our second annual Baseball Cycling Jersey Day. Hopefully this will be a good predictor for the season:

A lot of cyclists pay attention to their riding stats — average watts, speed and elevation for example. At the end of the day riders often have a lively discussion of stats. I do not have much to contribute to those conversations. Here are my stats for the day (note that I mistakenly had my watch turned off for two miles):

Check out that elevation! Unusual? Well I’ve done 200,000+ feet on a six mile run:

Okay, am I too cheap to buy a new watch with a working elevation function? Or am I trying to be the Rosie Ruiz of Garmin statistics?

Mary pays close attention to her cycling, running and swimming stats. Our friend Liz’s stat IQ is off the charts. I do not even understand most of my stats. For example, the “swolf” swimming stat is probably just another way of telling me that I am a sucky swimmer. Even if I understood swolf, all I would be able to think of is the “I’ve tried, but there is nothing more I can do” look of disgust from our Tri Club coach Pascale when she watches my stroke. Here is the ugly truth of my attempt to swim in a straight line during one of our summer morning swims in Long Island Sound:

Well, I have intentionally chosen not to fix my Garmin elevation problem. I am hoping that folks who look at my Garmin stats think that my watch is completely broken and that my swimming profile must also be broken.

Anyway, we ended our ride today at the Santa Elena Canyon where the Rio Grande is quite narrow:

The Rio Grande originates in the southern Colorado mountains. By the time it reaches Texas, most of the water from this once mighty river has been used for irrigation and drinking water. That’s Mexico on the far side. Below are pictures of the Rio Grande from the top of the trail and me after making an illegal crossing into Mexico:

I will leave you with the below picture of an actual road runner that we saw during dinner tonight: