Stressed to the Max

March 30th, 2007

Once a month I get a Xolair shot for my allergy induced asthma. It’s just one of the many medications I’m on. I went in to get my shot this morning. I made the mistake of telling the nurse I was really stressed because of work. She decided she should take my blood pressure. When she was done, she didn’t tell me what it was but headed out the room and said she’d be back in a minute. She came back with the PA to have her double check that my blood pressure was as high as she got. It was. They said it wasn’t scary high but it was high and was especially high compared to my normal blood pressure. They’re concerned because having high blood pressure and being stressed will make it more likely I’ll have an asthma attack.

The PA said she could write a prescription for me to get out of work. Unfortunately our sick and vacation time is lumped together so that would just mean one less day for a vacation. If it was a really nice day, it might have been more tempting but the weather isn’t really that nice today.

Anyway taking a day off work isn’t going to fix my work. I’ve been frustrated for the last several months. Last week my boss dropped a giant bomb shell. It makes it worse because I’ve telling my boss that things weren’t working for me on the project and he almost always agrees with my suggestions to improve them but nothing ever changes. I can’t write about it here because I know people from work at least occasionally read my blog. Let’s just say I got a prescription for Ambien and it isn’t enough to keep me asleep at night. I slept just fine with it the night before Race Across America last year. Even the night before normal races, I don’t sleep very well so I know it will work for me except under extreme stress.

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Details on Avon to Glenwood Century Ride Route

March 29th, 2007

Avon to Glenwood Springs Elevation Profile

Fonk asked in a comment on my Avon to Glenwood ride last weekend about the directions. By the Fonk was my crew chief for the Race Across America so a big thanks to him for using so much of his vacation to help me attempt to ride across the country.

I rode from Avon to Glenwood Springs last spring while training for RAAM. It was the first time I had done that ride. When I was training for the Fireweed 400 (I need to put more than the elevation profile on that page) in 2003, I had done a big Memorial Day training weekend. I had done the Iron Horse Classic from Durango to Silverton. I then rode on to my aunt and uncle’s house in Grand Junction and spent the night there. Then I attempted to ride on to Leadville which included the section between Glenwood Springs and Avon. I ended up bailing on Battle Mountain. It was getting late and I had ridden in rain for awhile and my rear shifter cable was sticking. I dealt with it until I started climbing up Battle Mountain and then every time I stood up it would skip. Anyway I got about 170 miles the first day and 150 miles the 2nd day.

Alright so back to directions on how to do the ride. We were staying right by the I-70 exit for Avon. I’m not sure the name of the street but it’s only a few blocks and a couple round abouts from there over to US 6. Most of US 6 doesn’t have much traffic but a few sections have a moderate amount. You stay on US 6 all the way to Dotsero. Just before Dotsero, US 6 goes under I-70 to the north side. Dotsero is just a few buildings so don’t expect much. Once you get past Dotsero US 6 becomes part of I-70. This is where the Colorado River comes in from the north. Just after crossing the river, the main road turns right and begins climbing. To get to the bike path, you need to continue straight on the frontage road. I think it’s probably a little under a mile from that intersection before the road ends. There’s a small parking lot with bathrooms.

The bike path through Glenwood Canyon starts from the parking lot. Once you’re on the bike path you really don’t have an option to go much of anywhere else. Although you’re right by I-70, it’s not as noisy as you might expect. In most places the highway is above you so you don’t hear the traffic as much. I’ve really liked Glenwood Canyon since I was a little kid. I think a big part of it was from hiking up to Hanging Lake. It is an amazing spot and a hike worth doing in the area. If you took a lock and some running shoes, you could do it as part of riding the bike path.

Just before you get to Glenwood Springs, you go through a tiny town called No Name. You actually climb up rather steeply from the river there and then descend back down to the river. Once you descend back down, you go around an I-70 tunnel. Once around the tunnel you go over I-70 on a bridge and come out by the vapor caves and hot springs.

There’s a little bike shop right after you come off the bike and it’s in the Hotel Colorado. They have only a small selection of parts and accessories but they rent bikes. Just a block down the street is Mountain Sports Outlet.

The small shop didn’t have threaded CO2 cartridges and I’d used both of mine helping someone on the bike path. I don’t carry a pump so I wanted to get at least one before I headed back. He had a pump but the rubber seal seemed to have dried out over the winter. The first time I inflated his tire, it wasn’t seated right on the rim and blew out so I used my 2nd one. Mountain Sports Outlet still had a lot of ski and snowboard gear out but they also had a fairly good cycling selection too. I walked in and a guy asked me what I needed. He was very friendly and took me to where the CO2 cartridges were. They had both threaded and non-threaded CO2 and at a good price.

To get back to Avon or start the ride in Glenwood, just head back the other direction. The only potentially tricky spot on the way back is where you cross back to the south side of I-70 near Dotsero. That does appear to be the main road but you can also go straight on a frontage road that I believe eventually dead ends.

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First Century of the Year

March 25th, 2007

Bike Path Through Glenwood Canyon
Until today I hadn’t done a ride over 2 hours since October. I’ve always thought I could do a century ride even if I wasn’t very fit. That doesn’t mean that I would enjoy it very much but I’d be able to finish. A lot of doing a long ride is mental even for experienced riders.

We’re staying in Avon for a few days. I’ve been doing the UMCA Year Rounder the last few years. Part of it is the Larry Schwartz award. To get it you have to do a century a month. You can make up 2 months. This was my last chance to get a ride in to get it for this year.

When I got to Glenwood Springs I was feeling really good. I figured by the time I got back I’d be really suffering. The last few miles I was really tired but never got to the point that I wasn’t enjoying the ride. I rode 109 miles and averaged 16.3 miles per hour.

Fun in the Sun

March 20th, 2007

Going Over BMX Jump with Burley Trailer
During the last couple weeks we’ve had some really nice weather. This weekend it was in the 70’s which is about 20 degrees warmer than normal. I had a few things I wanted to get done on the house but I also wanted to take advantage of the weather.

Getting Speed for BMX JumpDanielle, my almost 4 year old, had been wanting me to take her in the bike trailer. She was wanting to go over the “big bumps” which means the BMX jumps by the bike path along Mark Dabling. Cassidy wanted to go too but she hates the “big jumps”. Danielle talked Julie into coming too. I hadn’t been on the jumps recently but the 3 on the north end have always been rideable pulling the Burley although they make me a little nervous. The Burley seems really well designed and stable. I don’t it would be smart to take less well made trailers over the them. This time the I found the BMXers had dug out the top of the 3rd and biggest jump. I caught a pedal and something caught on the Burley but I thought stopping could be worse than riding it out. Fortunately I stayed upright and the trailer didn’t tip.

We rode up to Ice Lake and let the kids get their feet wet. On the way back home, Danielle wanted to do the jumps again. Cassidy wasn’t about to go over them again so Julie held her while I did them a couple times. I don’t think that’s much over 14 miles round trip but pulling an extra 70 pounds made it feel longer.

Danielle Riding Her Bike to the ParkAt lot of times, I do the old Manitou Incline on Sunday afternoon because we go to my parents for lunch. The live almost to Manitou so it reduces my driving. Every time I go, Danielle has been begging to hike it with me. I decided to take her along since it was such a nice day and with the extra daylight we could take our time. It wasn’t very far until she said she was tired. She actually had good reason to be tired. It was the neighbor boy’s birthday and she had ridden 1 1/2 miles to a park and played for a couple hours.

Sleeping in the Kelty pack on the Manitou InclineI coaxed her along until we got to the Cog’s No Trespassing sign and then I put her in the Kelty pack. For a few minutes, I kept hearing about how we were nearly to the top. I knew much better. After a bit there was silence and soon her head fell on my shoulder. She snored most of the way up. I’ve never taken over an hour and my best time has been 29 minutes. Sunday it took me almost an hour and 15 minutes. It’s amazing what nearly an extra 40 pounds will do on something like that.

At the Top of the Manitou InclineAs soon as we got to the top, Danielle woke up and was full of energy. She was having fun running around and climbing on the rocks. It’s about 2 1/2 miles down Barr Trail to the trailhead. She ended up hiking the whole way down! Actually she ran more than she hiked. About a mile from the bottom, we meet Julie coming up with Cassidy. Cassidy wanted me to carry her so I got some more backpacking training.

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77,164 Steps In 17 Hours and 48 Minutes

March 18th, 2007

I posted a few weeks ago that Danny Chew was planning on climbing up Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning at least 100 times. He made it 101 times for a total of 77,164 steps which is 44,440 vertical feet. It took him 17 hours and 48 minutes. He has a report with links to pictures posted on his website.

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Texas Hell Week 2007

March 16th, 2007

Riding During Texas Hell Week

Hundreds of cyclists will be finishing up Texas Hell Week tomorrow. Bloggers Sascha and Steven have been writing about it. I wish I could have been there but it didn’t work this year.

It really started as a RAAM training camp. It used to be if you didn’t put in at least a 100 miles a day you were frowned on. There still are rides every day that a in the 100+ mile range but there’s also B and C rides that are around 60 and 40 miles respectively. Besides it being great training it’s a lot of fun. There’s very little traffic and interesting things to see. I hope to go again sometime and if you’ve never been you should plan to sometime.

Last year it was the best thing I did for training for the Race Across America. I got in 872 miles in 7 days. I had planned to ride another 100 miles on the 8th day but I was tired and it was raining when I got up. I decided the rain was a sign that I shouldn’t push it too much. You can check out my pictures from last year’s Texas Hell Week. On my page of pictures I also have links to my blog posts for each day that include the elevation profile for the ride.

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Dragging This Week

March 16th, 2007

Tearing Down Old Garage

Our old garage as I was tearing it down around Christmas.

New Doorway Through Foundation
The opening I cut in the foundation last weekend.

Slab for Garage is Poured
This week we had the floor poured for our new garage.

New Stairwell into Basement
The new stairwell that will allow us to go into the basement from the garage.

I’ve really been dragging this week. The nasty crud I had before my Eiseman Hut trip turned into a sinus infection last week. The first couple days after I started on antibiotics I continued to get worse. I’m feeling much better now although I’m still congested. Saturday night I took 3 doses of cough medicine, nighttime Tylenol, and nighttime cold medicine before I finally fell asleep at 1 AM. It was even worse because that was really 2 AM with the time change. Although I like that daylight savings time came earlier this year, I’m still adjusting. Having kids makes time change harder because they aren’t ready to go to be when it’s time for them to.

The other reason I’m dragging this week is because of how I spent my weekend. I cut a door opening in our foundation and used a chipping hammer to shorten a wall. I probably moved a couple tons of block and concrete. I’m in the middle of a new garage project. It partly explains why my fitness level is so low and my weight so high. We bought our house 6 and a half years ago and we’ve remodeled it a third at a time. A lot of it I’ve gutted down to the studs. It’s a big part of why my cycling results have been so spotty the last few years. I do a big project and then take a break and focus on cycling again. Next year my focus should be back to cycling. Next year I’ll be trying to do something on the mountain bike that I believe will be tougher than the Race Across America. I’ve been planning to write about it and hopefully will get it done soon.

The rest of this post is off-topic rambling and ranting so continue on at your on risk of being bored. When we bought out house, there was a detached one car garage. It was needing a lot of work. The roof leaked, the soffit and fascia was falling off and the one piece garage door didn’t always stay on its track. I found out about the garage door the hard way and if there weren’t some boxes to stop it I probably would have been crushed. Even so my back was tweaked. I learned to never open the door from inside so at least if it fell I wouldn’t be under it.

Because of the condition of the garage, we have only used it was a storage shed. Rather on fixing it up we’ve been planning to replace it but wanted to get the inside of the house done first. Part of the last big remodel job was to make some changes to the layout inside the house so we could have a hallway to an attached garage. Even though we needed to get a variance to build the garage were we wanted to, I was pretty sure we could get it so I went ahead and did the interior remodeling. Here we have to get a building permit within 6 months of getting a variance so I couldn’t get it before doing the house and then take a break to train for the RAAM.

In September I started drawing the detailed site plan that was necessary to get the variance. City planning had me make changes to it before accepting it. Once they accepted the application, a public notice had to be posted for a couple weeks. Next they wanted some more changes based on other city departments inputs. After about 2 months, I had the required variance. The reason we needed a variance was because we live on a corner lot. Corner lots have 2 front yards, a back yard and a single side yard. In most neighborhoods you can’t build within 25 feet of the property line in front and back yards. To have room to build, we needed to be closer than 25 feet to what seems like a side yard but is considered our back yard.

Around Chistmas and New Years, I got the old garage torn down. Of course it wasn’t as simple as just tearing it down. First I needed a permit from the health department to make sure there wasn’t any asbestos. Then I had to get a demolition permit from the regional building department. I had to keep receipts to give to the health department to prove that rubish was dumped at an approved site.

Once the old garage was gone, I had to get my garage plans approved by the regional building department. After 3 rounds of having them reviewed and making changes, I got my building permit. My brother and several friends work in construction and it even takes them 2 or 3 tries to get plans approved so I don’t feel bad about it.

All but one of the big things that I don’t feel comfortable doing myself on the garage are done now. They were excavating and pouring the foundation and and floor. I’d also need help to get the trusses put up. That’s a least a 2 person job and 3 is better. Although I could do most of the rest of the work, I at want to be able to ride my bike and do other outdoor adventures too so I’m going to pay someone to do the framing. I also need to have money to pay for my adventures so I’ll do most of the electrical work, shingles, insulating, drywall and the dozens of other smaller tasks. Depending on how the balance of time to play versus money to play ends up, I may hire somebody for more of it.

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Eiseman Hut Ski Trip – Day 3

March 9th, 2007

Skiing Up the Ridge from the Eiseman Hut

This year’s Eiseman Hut ski trip pictures | Last year’s hut trip pictures

Wednesday morning I felt much better than I had Tuesday morning and I hadn’t slept so late. Tom and Jaime were wanting to get a few more runs in before they had to head out a day early than the rest of us. I had been debating whether to leave with them since I had been feeling so fatigue. Hanging out and getting some extra relaxation in the hut was nice but I was thinking I’d rather keep another day of vacation for when I could really hammer and abuse myself. I had driven David and Matthew up but I could leave my vehicle for them and get a ride with Tom. I discussed it with the rest of the the group and they were fine with me leaving early but they encouraged me to stay and take do some more relaxing. I decided to wait to make a final decision until after I had done some skiing.

Snowpants Zipper RepairTuesday afternoon the top zipper slider had broken into a couple pieces. I had somewhat held the zipper together with a couple safety pins for a while then it came apart. When I quit skiing I was tired and then forgot about fixing it. I was still working on it when the other guys were ready to head out so I told them to stop by on the way up.

It had snowed another couple inches overnight but not enough to cover up our tracks. The snow was still great and I got in a couple good runs. After only 2 runs I was feeling tired again and decided to head out with Tom and Jaime. They did one more run but I went in ate some lunch and got my stuff packed up.

There have been years when the Spraddle Creek route has been scary because of being packed and icy. Even going off the trail didn’t help because I’d fly over the crust until a ski would break through and stop. I’d then slam face first into the snow and my pack would further slam me into the snow. A couple times we’ve gone out the longer Red Sandstone Road to avoid it and hitched a ride or called a taxi to get back to the Spraddle Creek Trailhead.

Checking the Map and GPSThis year there was no worry about that. We were more worried about having to break trail. Jaime wanted to get through the trees on the way down to the Middle Creek drainage. I thought we were going too far right but Jaime generally has a really sense of direction so I didn’t say anything at first. Finally Tom pulled out the mapped and GPS and we were indeed much too far to the right. When we ski on the trail, we can see some cliffs up in the area we were in. We couldn’t tell from that map that we were above any but sometimes they fit between contour lines. Fortunately we were able to drop down and rejoin the trail without running into any cliffs. Normally we make it back to the trailhead in about 2 hours but with all the fresh snow we had to work more and it took over 3 hours. I had another fun time at the Eiseman Hut even though I was worn out from being sick the week before.

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Be Nice to Mr. Nice

March 6th, 2007

The Race Across America has been called the world’s toughest sporting event. Some people have put other races such as the Iditarod Sled Dog Race that is taking place now above it on the list. One race that didn’t exist when the list with RAAM at the top came out was the Great Divide Race. It was started in 2004 and at least for those trying to be fast it has to be harder than RAAM. It starts at the Canadian border and finishes at the Mexican border and basically follows the Continental Divide.

Last year Dave Nice started the Great Divide Race. While he was still in Montana, he was tired and took a nap along the road. When he woke up his bike was gone. I can’t imagine the feeling of waking up in the middle of nowhere and my bike being gone! I believe he had to walk about 30 miles to get to the closest town.

Dave plans to do the race again this year. Not only that but he plans to do it on a fixed gear bike. To help him afford the race the Fat Cyclist is holding a raffle. He has a lot of great prizes lined up and only $5 gets you a virtual raffle ticket. You have until Saturday, March 17th to buy tickets. Please help out a fellow ultra cyclist in following his dreams.

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Pike and San Isabel National Forest Meeting Tonight

March 6th, 2007

Pikes Peak From Top Of Old Manitou Incline
The local meeting on the Pike and San Isabel National Forests management plan is tonight. This meeting was scheduled because people were turned away from the meeting in Black Forest a month ago. About 50 cars were turned away from that meeting because there wasn’t enough parking. Tonight’s location should be able to handle enough people. The meeting is from 5:30 – 9:00 PM at the DoubleTree – World Arena, 1775 E. Cheyenne Mountain Blvd.

Unfortunately I’m not going to be able to make it. If you can’t make it but want to give your opinion, you can use the Need for Change Workshop Individual Worksheet. It says it has to be submitted by March 2nd which has already passed but since they’re having the meeting tonight I’d think you could still send it in.

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