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Friday, July 04, 2008

Rock Cut ride

Som Jamie suggested that we do a ride up Fall River Road from Fort Collins. He is training for the Triple Bypass and needed to get in some miles. The usual suspects, Ron and Dave were busy doing their own epics and so it looks like it will be a small crew.

There is no friggin way I am going to ride from Fort Collins up Trail ridge. That's officially what I like to call crazy talk. Even when I was training for Leadville I wouldn't do that!   A more reasonable ride would be from the Dam Store so that's the plan. That' still pretty crazy for someone not training for anything, but I didn' have anything better to do.

I meet Jamie at the Dam Store and we take a leisurely stroll up to Estes Park. Probably one of the easiest I have ever had, but it will be a long day so why suffer for no reason. Jamie had a hard day Saturday so there were no complaints from anyone.

We did decide to go up Glenn Haven, and that's about the end of any forced extra suffering! My legs are tired from walking around the Moto on Saturday, Running on Friday and the TTH ride on Thursday...

We make to Estes, get some food at the Bagel shop. We refuel and head up to Rocky MTN park.   We get there and seems that now they will allow 2 cyclists to get in on one pass. Also the ranger stated that 2 people could sign 1 pass!   So I purchase a pass and Jamie rides for free today.

Once we hit Fall River road, the effort increases about 10 beats per minute for me. The HR wasn't high, but with tired legs I would have preferred to go slower cause I wanted to be able to make it without cramping.    We keep this pace for a bit then slow down then speed up. The pace is still pretty slow but that's OK because I am tired.

It's not as cold as I would have expected. Even near the Summit, we didn't find it necessary to add any extra clothing.

At the Visitors center we get some expensive food!   Jamie strikes up a conversation with some charity riders from Baltioore riding to Sanfran for Cancer etc. They are a good sized group all riding Lemonds. One guy made this camera mount out of an old tail light bracket and I will have to make one of these....

Once we are fueled we decide to ride up to Rock Cut and take traill ridge down. I was pretty sick of climbing but did it anyway.

The descent was nice except the cars were going way slow. I had to use a lot of break and my front brake shoes wore out and were now metal on metal. Jamie didn't mind going slower but I felt I was cheated out of my reward for all that climbing.

Finally back down to Estes and I was getting pretty cranky and tired.   I think I was like lecturing Jamie on some descending thing and I missed his point entirely.... Anyway, sorry about that Jamie... After getting back to Estes and getting more food I was feeling better....

We decided to go straight down the mountain.. Jamie did 90% of the work cause I didn't want to work.. Yeah, I could have worked, but I just didn't want to make this a training ride and just wanted to enjoy the day.   Anytime my HR got over 150 I just didn't want to work any harder...

Finally we make it to the Dam Store and frankly, my legs felt pretty good, and that's a good thing! I had a max HR of only 166 for the day which is a new low for me on that ride. Jamie continued on as his legs were still fresh.

Long day in the saddle. 7+ hours for me. I didn't think it would take that long, but it did. Oh well.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

AMA Motocross Nationals

So, What's this got to do with Cycling? Well not a whole lot but it's fun to watch.    I figured this would be a good chance to check out some Moto action, live instead of always watching from the couch.

This was a new experience for me, as I have never been to a MX event.   With James Stewart etc. slated to be there, this was a chance to see the best in the world race.    The event was in Lakewood and it was to be the 1st night time event ever. Yep, that was a good reason for me to go.

Too bad I couldn't go earlier and get into the pits and have a shoot at getting some autographs and pics. I was able to make it down in time for the main events for both the MX and lites classes.

I must say that these guys are really impressive. You've really got to be there to get the real sense of what these guys do. TV is OK, but seeing, hearing the stuff is much better.

I did a lot of walking around the track so I could see some of the race close up. There was action everywhere and tons of good battles. The top guys here were in a league of there own.   Stewart, Alessi, Vilapoto, Canard etc were making some impressive, moves/passes to score podium spots,

For the Last Moto I decided that I was tired of walking and that I would get a seat high up on the hill.    I think the word "High" said it best as the scent of burning hemp product was pretty strong at times.....

Anyway, I got to see "The Fastest Man on the Planet", James Stewart sweep both motos and keep is perfect season intact!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Gales Ride Pinewood TT, well almost!

Another Sunday and the opportunity to do the Pinewood TT is one that sounded like a good idea.   The legs were good the past weeks so this could be a good baseline to see how things are going. Since I am not training for anything or riding anywhere near as much as the previous 2 years, I don't expect a PR, but just some good clean suffering.

I wake up early enough to ride to Gales, so I take my time and enjoy the ride. I get there and I see bikes and folks rolling in. Bruce is there, and has mended quite well since the crash. Ron, Gale, Scott, Dustin, Eric, Ed, Sledge, etc. are there. This should make for a spirited climb and I am looking forward to it.

So we take off and life is good and the pace is reasonable and all is well.   I had expectations that or at least hopes that this effort would hold but this was not to be. I don't know who was up front, but the pace amp'd up and I was starting to hurt a bit. Ok, not really, but it was more effort than I wanted before a TT.

Heading down 34 and it seemed there were a lot of folks that were up for all of this hammering. I am thinking "What the Frack" is this!   IMHO this is way to fast for me, but I am here and I might as well hang with the group for a bit. Now if I wasn't expecting to do as TT this would have been all well and good, but this is not how I like to warmup for a TT.

We exit 34 and head towards Carter Lake,   We make the right had turn and the Hammer is still down. Ok, "No Mas". I will just take it easy and hope that there will be an ordered start and I can catch up later. I ease up and watch as the group hammers away...

A mile or so pass and I don't really know where Gale starts the TT but I am sure it's somewhere after the turn for Carter. I pass the Carter Lake road and look up the mountain to see riders already up the road. I am a bit bummed that I missed the start but from the looks of the 2 riders up the road, there is no way that they all started together.   I don't know if everyone knew what the plan was. I think they did but the testosterone got to flowing and they couldn't help themselves.   I can't believe everyone didn't know, but I guess I had different expectations as to how this was going to go down. Oh, well, "It is what it is".

Now I have pretty much lost my motivation to climb hard, so I just setting into a hard pace, but I am way below my TT HR.    The legs are good but the motivation isn't there. I see Gale up the road taking it easy, and I am able to catch her. I continue going at a good effort. I look at my time as I near the summit and it;s pretty clear that it's not great, but then I didn't expect it to be...

I make the top and all are waiting. Gale arrives a minute later or so an it's off to ride to the dirt road and back. Oh Ok, whatever...

We now are making the climb back and there a rider up the road just oblivious to the car that had be more/less patiently waiting to get by.   I don't know who this was, but in light of the Sheriff and all the cycling stuff going on, I would think that he would have been a bit more aware of traffic. Finally the car gets around and it looked like some hand waving or something was going on.....

Time for the descent and off we go.    At some point, my pump flew out of my camel back so I had to turn back to get it. I am way OTB, but the group is waiting up the road.

Some folks do Carter Lake while Gale and most of the crew head back to her place. The pace is brisk and I am trying to motivate myself to wan to ride hard, but it's not working.....

We ride pretty hard as we enter the final sprint territory with me up front. I slow the pace a a bit so as to have a chance to get this one. Suddenly Sledge launches from the group, but Ron is quick to go by him to take the victory!

The rest of the ride was uneventful, with the possible exception of Scott winning the hill sprint against Bruce?

After arriving back a Gales, Ron, Sledge and I take it easy on the way back to the fort. Ron and Sledge were going harder than I wanted at times, but they would wait for me after they saw I was back.

Finally, I am home and can enjoy Fathers Day and I look forward to watching the 6 day races in the afternoon.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

24 hours of E-Rock

Ron and Steve Pick me up and we pile into Steve's Outback.    It's a tight fit but we get most of the stuff in....

We arrive on Friday to find Jeff and Tom from Team #1 setting up their pop up camper. We set up Steve's tent and get our stuff out.    More of the crew roll in, but our 1st order of business is to go check out the course.

Ron, Steve and I head out for and easy Lap.   It's a Pure Roadie coarse with only a bit of sand in spots to make things challenging.    After about a mile Ron walks away from Steve and I while we take it more or less easy.   I am taking it easier than either Steve or Ron so I find myself alone but that's OK.   The course is up hill on the way out with a slight grade which steeps a bit before the 1/2 way point.    The descent on the way back is fast, which some sandy off camber turns.    Speeds of 35 + are pretty easy but one needs to watch the waterbars.   I finish the Lap to find Ron and Steve waiting at the end....

After a bit everyone is here from Team #1 and #2.   We attend the pre-race meeting and prepare for the start.   We choose Will to start it off since there was a run involved. In hindsight either Ron or I should have gone 1st for reasons of the strongest riders doing the most..... but hindsight is always (20/20).

We wait for the start and had a chance to meet some folks.   The "Tough Girls" were one's of note and they had their look dialed in.   The mood was festive with a ton of folks looking to take some pics of video of the start.

Since Will and Jason hadn't seen the course, they were slated to be 1st to do just 1 lap apiece while it was still light out.   Oh, the race started at 6:30 and for an 8 mile lap would allow plenty of time.

We watched as the 1st competitors returned, turning blistering times in the 27 - 30 minute range.

Will and Jason complete their laps with Ron slated to be the 1st of our team to do 2 laps. We figured that 2 laps each would give us more time to sleep.   Ron turns the 2 laps in under and hour which is really really fast!

It's totally dark now and it's my turn to go.   I am ready and I take off at a moderate effort. I don't want to blow up too early. I try and take advantage of the rollers to get some free speed without too much effort. I pass a lot of people on that 1st lap. Bummer that my bike is having shifting issues so I must use bigger or smaller gears than I would like and I feel like I waste a lot of time fishing for them.   I also over dressed a bit, with a jacket instead of arm warmers and I was over heating a bit which I am sure slowed me down.

On my 2nd lap I am still feeling OK, Arm warmers this time and I don't overheat. It was so nice to pull them down on the climbs! I can tell I am a bit slower on parts of the course, but it's early in the race and I must meter my efforts. I am wishing I had better lights for the descent as I am forced to go slower so I don't out run my view.

Finally I am done and I hand off to Will.    Back to camp where I fumble to change clothes and get something to eat. I take some Ensure and a mojo bar for my 1st meal during the battle. Time to get some rest, but I don't sleep much. The legs feel good though so I am not too worried.

Results are posted sporadically so we don't really know how we are doing. At 1st check we were in about 10th with Team #1 right behind us.   Ron is turning some blistering times and the rest of us are holding our own. Bummer that Will got a flat/slow leak and had to pump it up on the trail.

Hours pass ever so slowly and folks are talking about lap times etc.   Soon It's my turn again and yes it's still dark.    Steve comes in a few seconds faster than I expect and I was fumbling to get my gloves and stuff on after fiddling with something.   These next 2 laps I am a bit more weary and this bike shifting problem is really getting old. It's probably costing me more time than I think.   The 1st of the 2 laps goes OK, but on the 1st one, I seem to have a lot more trouble descneding. The sun started to peak out abit on the 2nd one, which is a good thing as my lights were starting to fade... I am so glad to be done again.

Rinse lather repeat as I do another Ensure and Mojo bar.    Change the clothes and hit the sack. The legs are still good though.   I try and get some sleep and I may have gotten some, but it didn't feel like it.

As some point during the night I heard Team #1 calling out that their "next" rider didn't show up for the hand off. This cost them at least 10 minutes for the 1st time this happened. It may have happened again too, but I wasn't paying too much attention to their affairs....

Once Daylight hit it was time to go back to doing single laps. This was better for all of us and our times reflected it. Some more than others however.   It was weird doing ny 1st 4 laps in the dark since I had no speedo or HR monitor to look at. I can only hope I was riding where I should have been...

I don't know how much sleep the others got, but in our tent, I would say that Steve G. got the most.   I was starting to get sick of Ensure, and was able to down a cold can of some kinda pasta Ravioli in-a-can thing. It was a welcome break from the ensure.

As we wore onto the after noon, the winds picked up on the outbound leg and it was slowing a log of folks.   For some reason the wind didn'r really bother me too much. Sure I was going slower but I was happy to be pushing into it.   Maybe this was because I knew I was only going to have to do one lap. The only annoying thing was that shifting issue which I think was getting worse...

Rinse Lather Repeat the whole food thing. I have had a bunch of Ensure's by now and get some Nuts and stuff to go with. I was tired enough at this point that I think I got some sleep maybe.   In any case I layed down a lot.   I should mention that the tent was kinda hot and I was concerned about extra dehydration, so I tried to drink as much water and Cytomax to offset this...

Results are really sporadic with only the overall team times so we don't really know how we are doing. We may have moved up to 9th but those #'s are hours
With 1 more lap for me to do, I take the bike down to the Shimano Tech's to have a look at the shifting. They find a bent tooth on the cassette, Loose Hub, Bent Deraileiur hanger and an 12 tooth lockring where I should have had a 11.   It took them about 45 minutes to fix/diagnose all of this. I am grateful to have this done and all Free too!

I was soooo hap old.
py to have gears again and life is much better for my last lap. The wind is still there, but I don't really care. I push on knowing that this is my last lap, I tried to improve my cornering as last time one of the "Tough Girls" and some other guy came blowing by me in one of the corners. Their bikes were hooking up so well. I did try and keep contact but without my 11 tooth cog, it was futile.

Any way   I felt pretty good after my last lap and I think I could have done a few more. It was clear that after Will that the team could do one more lap. Ron volunteered to do that last one. I guess I should mention that he had crashed on one of his later laps and had this nice bruise on his Achilles area, but he was still fast never the less.

During Will's last lap it started to rain and there was some Lightning! I was sure glad not to be out there!   Ron takes the final lap while the rest of us start to pack up. Ron turns in a fine time even after doing 2+ more laps that some of us!

When it was all said and done we ended up 7th/23. Not too bad. I think that we could improve this if we ever did this again, just by chaining a few things, which I won't go into here....

I think a good time was had by all.   We had fun, met some cool people (Golite & Tough Girls etc.) , got to camp out and bond with our fellow mtbrs. Everyone on Team #1 and #2 were really cool.

Needless to say I slept good that night.
Blue Sky & Demo Dayz

So it's another Sunday and I have taken off the past 5 days. My legs weren't feeling great so I hope the break is what they needed.

I meet Ron in the FCHS parking lot. Dave N, Peter and Wes are also there, but they are planning to do a road ride. We exchange greeting and they are off to the road.

Ron and take Horsetooth and before long we find ourselves at the 1st hogback. Ron was kind and let me lead up the 1st one which must have meant that my pace wasn't too bad. I could have gone harder but I was just testing the legs to see if they were good and they appeared to be!

So we continue on and on and finally find ourselves at Blue Sky.   As soon as we hit the trails my bike was having some shifting issues.   This forced me to ride gears that weren't optimal, but it was the best that I could do.

We had a good time flying down to Indian Summer Loop. Oh I guess I should mention that I am on the Trek Y and I am testing it for battle in next weekends 24 hours of E-rock. So far so good except for the shifting. This was quite annoying, but I could deal with it while the legs were strong.

We climb Indian Summer and then back down.   The Y bike is handling OK, but I miss the Yeti...

We head over to towards the Devils Backbone and we do the best we can on the climb. I clean a good portion of it, but I don't trust the Pythons on the Double Step so I dismount. Ron pretty much had the same luck on that one.

Now it's time to head to the parking lot and the Pelton Demo Days rig to get us some new rides to try out.   I follow Ron and it's pretty clear that his Trance is better on the rocks. I an reminded how the XC geometry is on that bike as I must be careful on the steeper sections.   I am getting really tired of my gear skipping issues but it will soon be over.

We reach the Parking lot to find Roy and Any his girl friend and the rest of the Peloton crew.   There were a ton of folks out on bikes already, so our choices are limited but still good.   We opt to get a pair of Hardtail 29r's!

Out on the trail and these things roll really well. I can feel the extra weight of tires when the grades get steeper but it's not too bad. Oh, I should mention that my unit had "Rotor" elliptical chainrings which I didn't notice at all.   I did get some chain suck when climbing that 1st steep climb however.

I watched as Ron just walked away from me on the climbs. My legs were getting a bit tired, but his appeared to be fresh.    After we regroup we do some rocky stuff and the 29'r is the real deal. However, there is no subusitituition for some suspension which a Devil's back bone was sorely needed.

After doing the outer loop we head back to the Parking lot to retun our bikes.   We chat, give our opinions on the ride and head back on our old bikes.

I could really feel the difference with the old bike not rolling as well as the 29'r.   I was getting a bit tired, but this whole shifiting thing was getting old by now.

We head back to Blue sky but we skip the Indian Summer loop. My legs are much better than the previous weeks, but I didn't want to push it.   After making the Climb towards Coyote ridge, Ron pretty much checked out. I made no attempt to go with him due to gearing issues and not wantting to over do it.

Finally back to the roads and Ron checks out on the 1st climb. A while latter I see Ron stopped talking to the woman who got her car stuck when a bee flew in her window and she drove off the road. Apparently she is allergic.... So I stop and Ron and I push her truck out of the ditch. She was grateful to us.

We finish up the ride not working too hard. Ron peels off at his place and I head for home. A good time was had by all.