Le' Tour De Torture

After sucking wind at the Olympic training center I decided I needed some real elevation training to get me humbled and back on track with my motivation. So I loaded up the truck with a quiver of bikes and set out to climb the major passes of the Sierra Nevada's of California. I wasnt quite sure what I was getting into at this point but I knew I wanted to cripple my lungs and destroy my legs for a chance to be able to suck up the rockies during RAAM.

On the way to elevation I smashed out two metric century's on the american river bike path in Sacramento. this is actually on of my favorite riding spots since it is an all paved two lane path that winds along side the river, under bridges and through all kinds of scenery. it goes from the tourist attraction at old Sacramento all the way to Folsom lake.

I then hit Tahoe with a vigor, I smashed out the lake loop which made another century in three days and decided to hit something a bit more complicated,    The death ride.

For those of you unaware of the death ride it is a 130 mile-ish ride that hammers out 15,000 feet on three different summits getting up to 9,000 feet in elevation.

A small lake nearing the Summitt of Ebbetts pass

On the descent of Ebbetts pass looking onto the valley below

I finished my death ride day with a soak in the markleeville hotsprings.

In all the death ride was a total of 123 miles with 15,890 feet of climbing on the three major summit passes

Monitor Pass (8,314')
Ebbetts Pass (8,730')
Carson Pass (8,573')

Amazingly enough the fastest time I have seen for someone finishing this ride was less than 7 hours. My mind can not fathom the dude that can rip that out considering the 24% grades on Ebbetts. I however was no where near that time.

I took a rest day and vegged out in south lake and watched the eclipse on the beach and then set out for some more insanity for stage 6 of the tour de torture

Next stop was over the hill to attack Tioga pass. This monster comes in at just a hair under 10,000 feet and has no reprieve on the grade whatsoever.

The views were nice and the climb enabled me to inspect my lungs (that were on the ground) even at the mid point of the climb. I ended up riding the whole way up from 395 and over to olmstead just enough to be able to see half dome. Even though I had to climb back over the other side it was well worht the ride down in to Yosemite.

The descent coming off of Tioga was probably the most rewarding and entertaining downhill run I have ever made in my life. There was hardly an traffic, the asphalt was new, clean  and unadulterated and there wasn't a turn that required a single ounce of brakes the whole way down. No wind, no cars. it was bliss at 68 MPH. yeah you read that right.

I ended up doing a handful of other minor passes and mountain bike rides through the week including some mammoth mountain single track and some death valley jaunts but in all it was an amazing trip to get out and clear the lungs and get elevation under my belt.

I even got pulled over for good measure! Got away with a warning and a handshake. In all over the last 3 weeks I rode 931 miles and Climbed 36,000 vertical feet all above 6,000 feet in elevation, burnt 19k calories, drove 2100 miles, consumed one gallon tub of perpetuem, 29 ounces of hammer gel, one gallon tub of recoverite, one case of muscle milk, two cases of clif bars, two boxes of shot blocks, three tubes, one tire one chain and a intercooler boot.

I can wait for the RAAM madness to begin!

Real deal training

I recently had the opportunity to go to the Olympic training center in Colorado springs, Colorado for a week long training clinic on race development. Being a grunge like mountain rider I had no clue what to expect from the week of training being new to road racing but I was very surprised at what transpired over the week.recently.

I arrived in the Colorado springs airport to find a reprieve from the so cal hustle and bustle of airport madness, luckily my bikes made it without incident and I was able to get things together and roll out to the ride to the training center.

It just so happened by complete randomness that two other racers on my team (Mason Poe and Freddie De los santos) were also attending the week of training, so it was a pretty welcome sight and good experience for the three of us to be able to mend before race week. once we left the airport the military branch bashing and general good humored banter commenced with full vigor.

 While we arrived at the athletes center, no longer than we had off loaded our gear and went inside our bikes and gear were whisked away off to our quarters by mechanics and coaches while we got our credentials and heading to lunch.

As you walk into the facility it is nothing short of an epic place to be standing. every wall you see are adorned with athlete accolades from every sport and year imaginable. there are numerous motivating quotes from superhero status athletes everywhere you look. Just the dining facility itself is more motivating than tony robbins riding  unicorn with a light saber.

One of the most impressive things about the whole week was the food. I am no stranger to institutional style food after being in the military and fighting forest fires for many years, but I have to say the cuisine was overwhelming every meal. The food prepared was unbelievable in taste and loaded with nutrition in mind. there were many choices each meal and it never failed to hit the spot. It was truly food I would have paid for at any high end place in town.

It was a marvel in itself just to be able to cruise the campus and see the determination amongst the other athletes prepping for the upcoming games. There was a dedication on the air that was thick as steel and it truly ruminated deep within myself during the week. Being able to Eat, train and mingle with some of the other athletes was really a gut check of dedication. I am not sure there is nothing more motivating sitting around a group of athletes that are the best in the world at what they do.

As the week started there was a definite force to be reckoned with, the elevation. The OTC sits around 6,000 feet of elevation and coming from sea level you definitely notice the difference as soon as you hit your first mile on the bike. This was a good lesson for me since I have almost always lived above the 5-6k mark and haven't really experienced the elevation deprivation. Since being in So Cal since December I been acclimated to the sea level life of training and didn't even consider the elevation, but I will talk about that in my next blog post.

Our first day in the training was basic bike handling at speed. I know what your thinking, now what could I possibly learn that I don't know all ready about cornering and braking? Well, quite a bit when you are on a tight course and there are 4 of the bet coaches around watching your every move and barking out your faults every time you come around the corner. Needless to say it was a bit of a wake up.

We got quite a bit of instruction on the velodrome as well. this is something I have never done before and frankly was never really interested in it. But when one of the coaches (also a mountain biker) said the resemblance was like a giant downhill berm, I was hooked. since we didn't have track bikes on hand we were only to run the track in one gear in order to keep everyone on the same playing field. I caught onto it pretty quick and was at the top of the turns in no time.

All the blocks of instruction were very eye opening to the finesse of road bike racing and the amount of factors that play into a good finish. We had blocks of instruction on climbing, descending, handling, gear selections, race strategies, nutrition, workouts, mental prep, and even paceline work and close quarters rubbing.

I would have to say my favorite day of the week was when we hit the grass. yep, that's right. the coaches took us out on the grass and we had to do a handful of very entertaining road bike drills such as cone weaving, rubbing other riders, slow races, and picking up water bottles while riding. Being a mountain biker I have gone down alot of times, but I truly have never been down so many times on a road bike as I did that day. I think it was one of the most confidence inspiring days I have ever had on a road bike. the drills were designed to be in a group of three or four riders and get the handle bars locked together, or rub wheels to the point where you end up going down in the grass. we were shoving elbows, pushing others off, getting so comfortable on the bike with others around it seemed natural. Working on the flexibility on the bike to be able to pick a water bottle laying flat while is definitely something to try if you have never done it.

We did several group rides in the surrounding mountains and areas through the week working on the skills we had learned during the week of instruction.  I was especially impressed with our ride the the garden of the gods. it was simply amazing to have this so close to ride everyday. It is truly spoiling.

Overall the week was a great benefit for me and the others who were lucky enough to be chosen.

Now for some elevation training!

Special thanks to the worlds best coaches on hand,

Jim Cunningham
Hector Torres
Glen winkle
Dan Shelby
and mechanic Mark Legg

White bar tape is faster!

They say white bar tape is so pro it will actually make you faster. It has the ability to make you pedal harder, breath deeper and smash out the power to the pedals like no other. Some have even said it has the power to prevent flat tires and cure cancer. If the pro's use it must make me faster right?

They say white bar tape will scare your opponents and cause women to stampede to your finish line celebration. It has also been rumored that you can use it to heal massive wounds when used as a dressing and terrorists self detonate at the pure sight of it.

Since using white bar tape my bike has lost 9 pounds and my Garmin shuts off in disgust and disbelief. My water bottles evaporate in minutes due to evaporation if the caps are left open and my sweat forms a contrail  of cloud like formations behind me.

I have witnessed the pure power of white bar tape on today's ride. Check out my max speed!

I am pretty positive it has nothing to do with my descending ability, nor the massive tail wind and lack of traffic on the road.

I attribute my personal (and probably lifetime) achieved maximum speed to white bar tape.

I am still trying to figure out how to harness the almighty white bar tapes power for climbing.

Poking fun at myself

Stairway to heaven

Since I have the hills nearby and the need to stay on the bike for several hours a day in training for the race I decided to put my new Garmin 800 to use and joined the Classic climbing challenge. This will be climbing 105,312 vertical feet on the bike from March 15 to April 30. Considering I am doing close to 5,000 feet a day I don’t think it will be much of a problem.

There is no real reason in itself for joining the challenge but simply gives me a benchmark and some much needed motivation to gauge my fitness amongst others in the same challenge. I am not sure of the total amount of riders across the world that will be doing the challenge starting this Thursday but it will be interesting to see how I will rank amongst the pros and full timers of the sport. But I am mostly excited about getting to break in my new Garmin.

The spot I am riding is a huge chunk of hill that tops a tad over 5,000 feet in less than 15 miles. The ascents are constant with no flats for rest and the descents are very fast and riddled with tons of 15 mph hairpin turns. I am planning on mounting a couple go pro cams to the bike in order to capture the madness and give you a taste of some of the speeds and cornering. I am looking forward to this little mental carrot of motivation and being able to check myself in this dry time of training.

My legs are already screaming! I like it!

Riding in the rain

Not sure what the deal is with riding in the rain. I have been doing it a very long time on mountain bikes and enjoy the heavy coating of dirt and mud at the end of a slip and slide ride through the trees over the slick roots and mossy rocks at a break neck speed.

I step out the other morning and looked at the sky and it was overcast and no real standing water on the asphalt and thought what the hell, I am going for a road ride. I have a rain bike that has some pretty nifty fenders that combats that gnarly wet stream from your butt to the top of your neck. The bar tape is cork and the tires have some pretty good grip. But not enough I guess. The skies let loose!

I was coming down a bridge transition around a corner doing a mild 35ish mph and a 3 foot long snake was coming out of the grassy shoulder across the road with a purpose.

I couldn’t avoid it since there was no shoulder to begin with and the traffic was fairly moderate so cringed as the reptile speed bump approached. Just in case any of you are contemplating running over a snake on your road bike in the rain I would highly advise against it.

As soon as I hit that thing it split like a banana and sent me down into a low side get off as if I was sliding into third base. I had snake guts, blood, sand and who knows what else all over my left side. Now I have a road rash that looks like the portrait of Bart Simpson and a colorful set of bruises that would make the northern lights jealous of its awe inspiring color spectrum.

So what did we learn today?
1. don’t ride your race bike in the rain (use your training bike)
2. don’t run over snakes (bunny hop them)
3. don’t wear your favorite kit in the rain (it is ruined)
4. tumble, don’t slide (cheese grater 101)
5. make sure you crash close to home so you don’t have to ride half naked for too long
6. clean off your bike before snake parts dry (nasty-ness)
7. road rash sticks to the sheets
8. if you don’t want to get sick, ride on rollers

Herculean headwinds

So set out on a ride this morning on the TT bike and knew it was going to be a little windy but not as windy as I thought. This wind was the kind of wind that makes cows airborne, the kind of wind that impales fence posts with pieces of straw. Today’s wind speeds were those that make new reporters tumble off camera like a beach ball. The kind of wind that sand blasts your face with road debris and likes to shove you into traffic.
I have ridden in a lot of winds over the years but today was definitely one of the best days for wind.
I know what you’re thinking, “Best days for wind?” now that can’t be right, most would say worst by far. Nope….it was one of the best days for several reasons.

After I completed my ride I got online and the local airport was reading gusts at 42 mph. That is one heck of a headwind but it is also a very valuable (and free) training tool that would rival any fluid trainer or stationary cycling gadget on the market. There is no better resistance training than a headwind. It can’t be duplicated anywhere but on the road and the muscular reactions are twice (if not more) than a standard fair weather ride. My average MPH today was cut more than half, but my cadence was almost 30% more and my ride time was more than twice as long. Sounds like a workout to me!

But why would anyone in their right mind take a TT bike out in the hurricane force winds that are tumbling cars? Well here is my take on that. The majorities of road cyclists do not have a TT bike and most that do; don’t ride them that much with the exception of full time racers and multi-sport athletes. The TT bike is the knife edge weapon to better equip you in the wind. It provides a more aero posture on the bike and flat lines to be more streamlined, unless you go out with a baggy wind breaker and are up on the bars with a white knuckle death grip letting your torso act like a Drone parachute like riding on a road bike.

But the main thing is to be fluid, don’t fight the bike and just ride it. If you’re fighting the wind too much with the bars you are risking the chance of going off the road. Keep your cadence in the wind and it will keep you balanced on the bike. Just as the same in descending, a coasting bike is a wary bike. Keep your chin down and tuck as much as possible, grab some gear to counter the gusts and keep a training attitude. The attitude is the biggie, without it you will be miserable, but instead think of the best training accomplishment you done and be proud of the elements you have conquered.

Hopefully this wind keeps up around here, Besides if you ride into the wind long enough it becomes a tailwind!

Scratching and pawing

I think these terms are reserved for the cat condos and single speed mountain bikes. When the fad started I had a hard time wrapping my head around it. No suspension? No gears? .... Well that doesn't sound fun at all.
Well it is.
The first time I rode one was about a year ago and have a little sweet spot reserved for them since. I primarily use it as a training tool. I can get great Cadence training while working on single track handling and speed that rivals that of a imperial storm trooper in a ti fighter. With a single gear I can work my way through the numbers of teeth like a notch on my rifle and have a collection of gears that would resemble a ninjas arsenal of throwing stars.
It runs silent as the red October and rolls over terrain like grave Digger on cars. No chain noise, no fork nose. Just your own grunts and the scratching and pawing of small block eights up a hill.
But what it actually feels like is childhood. The bike you got under the tree and would pedal as fast as it would go. It is the closest thing to a grown ups bmx bike you can find.