Riding Harder Again

July 12th, 2006

The last couple weeks I’ve kept my rides an hour or less and at a recovery pace. Monday I rode an hour and 15 minutes and my left leg was only a little tighter after the ride.

Yesterday 5 of us from work went out at lunch. I’m lucky to work with several good riders. James won the 24 Hours of EROCK the beginning of June even though he did a fair amount of it without a crew. Last year he finished the Leadville 100 in under 8 hours which is something very few people have done. Bob was also on the ride. He was on was on the 4 person team that finished 3rd overall at the 24 Hours of Steamboat this year. John is a Sport mountain bike racer and we also had Daryle, my 2nd level manager, who is a strong recreational rider. We also have a few other strong recreational riders that weren’t on yesterday’s ride.

We went out into Black Forest which has lots of rollers. At least that’s what we call them although people from other places don’t agree. I was riding with Mike Enfield from Arizona at last years RMCC 200k and he insisted they were climbs instead of rollers. James was pushing what seemed like a hard pace but I haven’t done any intensity for nearly a month and a half. I managed to hang on even though Daryle and John got dropped. Bob also looked like he was working hard to stay on so I think I haven’t lost as much speed as I thought I might have. I had some pain in my left leg and hip but not nearly bad enough to affect my riding. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer before everything is back to normal.

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Surgery

April 26th, 2006

On Monday I had surgery to remove a lipoma on my forearm. It was just done in the doctor’s office with a local anesthetic. I had debated about having it done for a couple weeks because there’s always the chance of infection and with RAAM less than 7 weeks away I don’t want anything to go wrong. I probably wouldn’t have done it except that I had a much larger one removed last year that was a bit complicated to get out and it wasn’t sore more than a couple days.

It was very small compared to several others that I have but it’s right at the edge of the armrest of my aero bars and has been red and sore after long rides. I figured that I’d get a couple days into RAAM and it would be too sore to use my aero bars. I’ve been going to Strode Family Practice for over 10 years. I used to see Dr. Strode and really liked him but it started getting hard to get appointments with him. When I needed to get in once they said they could get me in right away with Dr. Carter who was a new doctor with the practice. He’s about my age and has been very active outdoors and although he still thinks I’m a bit crazy he understands what I do. He always tries treating me so that I can continue training. When he stitched up my arm, he did it so that it could take some abuse so I wouldn’t have to worry about it while riding.

Monday night I woke up a couple times because I was putting pressure on it. Yesterday I rode on the bike path and barely felt it. Today I went mountain biking and could hardly feel it. Yesterday I got a pneumonia vaccine and I felt it a lot more when I was riding than I did where the lipoma was removed.

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New Bike Passes Test

April 26th, 2006

After a few weeks of dialing my new bike in, last weekend I felt it was time to test it on a long ride. Saturday I rode 108 miles and felt fine so I went out on it again Sunday and put in 114 miles. On my old bike after a 100 miles I wouldn’t actually be sore from the saddle but I’d find myself standing up more to relieve the pressure. I didn’t realize it until after Sunday’s ride, but on my new bike I was just as comfortable on the saddle after 100 miles as I was at the beginning. I have the same model of Flite Gel Saddle and saddle pad as my old bike but without all the miles to break the saddle in.

One thing that I changed with my new bike was the aero bars. For the last 5 years I’ve been using the Profile Design AirStryke Aero Bar. I’ve never felt very comfortable in them. The two sides are connected and the angle of the connecting piece made it feel like I was rotating my wrists in. Also the armrest cups always felt too flexible to the point of feeling like my arms were going to roll off the edge. They also had three screw holes to adjust the width of the armrests. It felt like I needed to be halfway in between two of the holes. The thing I liked about them was the fact that the armrests fold up giving full access to the tops of the bars. The downside was that the hinges always rattled. Joe Gross wrote an article on how to stop the rattling but I never tried it. The springs would eventually break and I was about 100 miles into the Race Across Oregon when a spring broke. I had to ride over 400 miles with lots of climbing where the armrest rested on the back of my hand when I used the top of the bar. It didn’t take long of that to create a sore. Over time the pins that are part of the hinge would also work loose.

At this point I don’t want to change anything that works but I figured since I was having trouble staying in the aero bars because I wasn’t comfortable, I didn’t have much to lose in trying something new. I went with the Syntace C2 Clip aero bar because they have a 1 inch lifter to allow access to the top of the bar and be more comfortable for long distances because of not being so bent over. I have my handle bars lower than I think most ultra riders do. I couldn’t get it quite as low on my new bike with a -6 degree stem but the top of them is still a little over 1.5 inches lower than the saddle. Maybe if I got a -10 degree stem, I’d end up the same as on my old bike. It turned out because they use an adapter for 31.8 bars that I couldn’t use the lifter but the adapter raises the armrests just enough I can still get to the top of the bar. Now I’m going to put a the Syntace C2 Clip aero bar on my old bike and since it has 25.8 bars I’ll use the lifter kit on it. Another advantage of the Syntace bar is it’s 174 grams lighter. I don’t stress over a few grams but 174 is a fairly big difference.

The good news is I found myself dropping into the aero bars any time I wasn’t on steeper climbs. Even on moderate climbs I was comfortable and felt I could get good power which I couldn’t on my old aero bars. On Monday my back muscles were a little sore. It wasn’t a bad sore but was because I was pulling harder on the bars since I felt good in the position. Now I have about 6 weeks to strengthen my back muscles.

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New Bike

April 21st, 2006

The road bike I’ve been riding for nearly 5 years is a steel Tommasini Sintesi. It has been a great bike and I’ve qualified for RAAM 4 times on it. For RAAM I wanted to have a bike with a triple on it for the steep hills when I’m exhausted.

Last fall I did research and talked to some riders and concluded that I wanted a Specialized Roubaix. It is a full carbon frame with inserts that they call Zertz. The Zertz help to dampen vibrations.

First I tried getting on the Specialized grass root program which I have been on in the past. Part of the program is really good discounts on their bikes. Due to some mis-communication with the shop I went through, I didn’t find out until pretty late that for this year Specialized is only accepting teams to the program instead of individuals. I then tried getting a good deal through the shop that sponsors Pikes Peak Velo. They really wouldn’t do much for me so I called Paul at Team Telecycle.

Paul is a great guy and I used to mountain bike race with him back in the early 90’s. He gave me a great deal on last year’s Roubaix Elite Triple. I really would have liked the Comp Triple which is the same frame but with some better components but Specialized didn’t have any left in my size. Paul is also helping me out with some other things that I need for RAAM so a big thanks to him.

I got the bike a few weeks ago but the longest ride I’ve done so far has been a little over 4 hours. Tomorrow I plan to put in 8 hours since I’ve now gotten pretty much everything dialed in so it fits just like my old bike. As much as I love a new bike I also don’t like it because it seems to always take a month before I get it to feel just right. I keep rotating the bar slightly and turning the brake hoods a little, etc. I finally got the aero bars on last night so I’m sure I have some more tweaking to do on them. I rode the lunch time training race on Wednesday and felt very comfortable on the bike and also fast. I finished 3rd out of about a dozen riders so I’m getting some speed and climbing well on it.

Probably the biggest thing I’ve noticed about it is how stiff it is. I hadn’t realized how flexed out my Tommasini. I have over 25,000 miles on it and I tend to gear mash which probably hasn’t helped it. It’s amazing how fast my new bike accelerates when I get out of the saddle and I don’t feel the bottom bracket flexing. The Roubaix has the same bottom bracket design as the Tarmac which is their USCF racing type bike. The bottom bracket stiffness is also very noticeable when I’m climbing hard. It’s also noticeable how it feel when going over bumps. I feel the bump but then it more like a thud and no more vibration. I’m not sure how much of it is due to the carbon fiber and how much is due to the Zertz but I think it’ll make a big difference on long rides.

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More Hell Week Pictures

March 24th, 2006

Nick Martin, a local photographer in Fredericksburg, took lots of pictures of us riding at Hell Week. He gave the pictures to Nick and Nick put them on his Zoto site. I looked through them and found some good pictures of me. It’s amazing with all the pictures there are only a handful of riders that I recognize. I guess that’s because I was doing the A ride or brevets every day.

You can also see my Texas Hellweek pictures (nothing new since I first posted them)

I’m late putting up this list but here’s a list of other blogger’s that were at Hell Week.
Annie
Eclectchick
Sascha
The S.S Blog
Recreational Reading


Somewhere on the LBJ Ramble.


Waiting to start the 200k brevet.


Rolling out at the start of the 200k brevet.


Time trialing up to catch Nick and Paul on the 200k brevet after hanging back and debating whether to go that hard.


Riding with Nick and Paul on the 200k brevet. My mountain biking is showing in how I have my knee out to make an upcoming turn.

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3 Days and 300 Miles

February 27th, 2006

Until this last weekend, it had been nearly a month since I had done a long ride. When I had the flu about a month ago, I ended up with a sinus infection. For my Eiseman hut trip, I was on antibiotics and felt Ok. A couple days after I was finished with the antibiotics, the sinus infection came back. Now I’m just over 10 days into my 2nd round of antibiotics.

With Texas Hellweek only 2 weeks away, my coach scheduled this last weekend as 3 back to back long days. Fortunately the weather even cooperated and it was nice all weekend. My wife was out of town Friday night through Sunday afternoon but her parents were able to watch the girls during the day. At night and in the morning, I got to play Mommy and Daddy.

Friday I took off work and met up with the Verizon (formerly MCI) lunch ride. When I worked at Agilent, I used to ride with them quite a bit but now it’s hard for me to get over there. As always there were some attacks and sprints. I then went out and rode through Black Forest to Peyton and then came back in US 24. That gave me 93 miles and 4662 feet of climbing.

Saturday I started out with the 10:00 Acacia group ride. There was a large turnout and I’d guess there were about 70 riders. There seemed to be a lot of riders that weren’t used to riding in a group. I really thought there’d be a crash. On Link Road I got dropped when I didn’t realize the 3 guys in front of me had let a small gap open. I tried bridging but couldn’t. I was pretty down on myself for not being able to hang.

I had to keep telling myself I had done 93 miles the day before and that they’re training for short, fast races. At the group turn around, Tim joined me on his recumbent and we went out to Hanover and Ellicott. I finished out the ride with a trip through Manitou to get 110 miles and 3501 feet of climbing.

Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day with the temperature topping out around 60 degrees. I rode down Hwy 115 to Florence and then back. On the way down I had a pretty good headwind. I was afraid it would shift but I got a tailwind on the way back. I got in another 97 miles and 4131 feet of climbing.

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Safety

February 23rd, 2006

Soon after I got back from my Eiseman Hut trip, there was an article in our local paper The Gazette about avalanche safety. One of the things it talked about was that avalanche deaths have increased since avalanche beacon use has become more common. I use the Ortovox F1 Focus Avalanche Beacon.

The chances of surviving an avalanche even when wearing a beacon is only 50%. One of the guys that was on the hut trip was on a guided trip in Canada when a slide occurred and when of their group was caught in it. If I remember correctly, they could see the jacket of the guy on the surface but had been killed by being slammed into a tree. The article said there should be more focus on avoiding avalanches than on learning how to use a beacon.

When I ride on the road, I worry about being hit by a car. I avoid some of the worst sections of road but I still ride roads with narrow or no shoulders with lots of traffic. As I ramp up my miles for RAAM, I’ll be on the roads a lot more. In fact over the next 3 days I plan to get in 20 hours of riding.

I wear my id wrist band from www.RoadID.com whenever I ride in case something happens but I hope it’s never needed. I used to only wear it on long rides. One day I was finishing a lunch ride and was less than a mile from work on a street when I saw a cyclist down from being hit by a car. Since then I’ve tried making sure I always have it on. I have a friend was riding along and apparently crashed and was taken to the ER but he doesn’t remember it.

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Very Cold Weekend

February 20th, 2006

Tuesday it was 60 degrees which was probably because of the wind in front of a cold front. Wednesday it was cold and snowed a little and it just kept getting colder. Friday morning it was 1 degree and by Saturday morning it was -12 degrees. The high was 10 degrees.

I planned on riding a couple hours on the mag trainer. It ended up only being an hour because it took me longer than I thought it would to solder ends on the cables I ran for my CompuTrainer through the walls when we were remodeling. My computer is in a different room from where I ride and with little kids it just doesn’t work to string cables across the floor which is what I used to do. There haven’t been many cold days so I haven’t bothered with getting it set up.

Sunday it was -5 degrees in the morning. The only time I had to ride was in the morning so I couldn’t wait for it to warm up outside. I managed to ride for 3 hours on the mag trainer watching last year’s Giro. Even three hours was a stretch for me. Many years ago I did a 5 hour trainer ride and don’t have plans to do it again. I may be forced to if we get several nasty days since I’m training for RAAM. I checked out the page for the UMCA Indoor Challenge and some people are putting in insane hours inside. One guy has put in two 20 hour rides on the trainer. You’re allowed 5 minutes off the bike per hour and every 6 hours a 15 minute break although that time doesn’t count as part of the ride time.

At least riding the trainer Sunday motivated me to finish setting up my CompuTrainer. I plan on getting the Logitech MX5000 keyboard and mouse since it uses Bluetooth that gives about a 30 foot range. I just found today that TigerDirect has a rebate on it. The RAAM website has the CompuTrainer files for the complete 2006 RAAM course so maybe I should start riding it. One of the reasons I’m into riding my bike is because I love being outside so I hope I don’t have to ride inside too much.

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Undoing the Dew

February 17th, 2006

One of the biggest problems with my weight and training has been my addiction to Mt. Dew. In college I would sit down after dinner to study with a 2 liter bottle of Mt. Dew and when it was gone it was time to go to bed. My first job out of college was a block from a Loaf n Jug and I had a 32 oz cup that cost 59 cents to refill. It was a nice break to walk to the Loaf n Jug and refill it.

Over the years I’ve tried to cut back which has worked for a little while and then I go back to drinking too much. At my current job, they have Coke and Pepsi products delivered by the case and it’s just up to us to make sure what we like to drink is in the coolers. I sit just outside the break room and it’s just too easy to get up and grab another can. I can think I haven’t had much but by the end of the day there’s a pile of Mt. Dew cans on my desk. I can easily go through a 6 pack in a day.

I’ve figured out that if I drink one can, I drink a lot. In 2003 I quit cold turkey and didn’t drink any for 6 months. I had my best race season ever and got my weight back to where it hadn’t been for 7 years. In May I won the Expert 30-34 Chalk Creek Stampede which was part of the regional championship series. In June I finished 2nd at the Fireweed 400. In August I finished in the top 20 at the Leadville Trail 100 and 4th the following weekend at the Durango MTB 100.

I think it was more than just losing weight in 2003 that helped my performance. Sure my doctor finally got my thyroid medication figured out but I think cutting out the sugar was a big impact. Refined sugar does lots of bad things to the body. I figure I need to do everything I can in order to finish RAAM and that include time when I’m off the bike.

Since with my Eiseman Hut trip I wouldn’t have access to Mt. Dew for 4 days I figured that was a good time to quit. The first week is the hardest and the trip would get me more than half way the first week. There have been days that it’s been tough not to grab a can out of the cooler but I’ve made it for 2 weeks. Since I track all my food in DietPower, I can see that my average daily sugar intake for the 3 months before I quit was 268 grams and the last week it has been 77 grams. My fiber intake has also increased 20%. The only problem is I’ve replace too much of it with diet drinks and I really need to drink mainly water.

I’d like to say I feel better but I’ve been fighting a sinus infection for a little over a week. I think though that I would have felt worse this week than I have. My weight has also gone up a couple pounds although I haven’t been over eating. I seem to remember that also happening in 2003 for a couple weeks before the weight started coming off easier. I think too much sugar causes the body to be a little bit dehydrated and so I’ve probably gained a little water weight.

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Enduro or Traditional RAAM Category

January 31st, 2006

I received an email last week for Jim Pitre, RAAM race director that solo riders had until today to choose between the Traditional (old rules) and Enduro (sleeper) categories. We can change our mind once before May.

I don’t like the idea of the mandatory sleep stops. It’s not that I think 40 hours off the bike is unreasonable but I want to be able to sleep when I feel like I need to not when I manage to get to a control point. My first thought was great, I’ll sign up for the Traditional category now that it is going to be a real category with prize money.

But reading through all the information, I found one little detail that I haven’t seen anywhere else. The Traditional category isn’t the rules from the last few years but rather the original rules. The key thing is you have 48 hours after the winner to finish. I really don’t know if I can finish within 48 hours of mutants like Robic and Trevino. The Enduro category gives 12 days 2 hours to finish. That’s hard but seems a real possibility for me but in the Traditional the cut-off could be under 11 days.

My coach didn’t want me back on the bike until Sunday after having the flu last week. Even on Sunday she only wanted me to do an easy spin. That gave me Saturday to make another attempt at installing the remote car starter and remote door locks on my wife’s van. In the time between my last attempt, I had soldered up the required resistors and connected the wires to the relays so that it would reduce the risk of me getting stuck with the vehicle unusable for a few days. The short story is everything is working now including the horn honking and the lights flashing before it starts up. I’ll leave the painful details for another post.

Sunday evening I thought I’d hop on the trainer for an easy spin after we went over to a friends house. The kids were downstairs with their kids when we heard a big bang. About right away Danielle and Cassidy started crying. Danielle was lying on her back on the floor. They had the carpet torn out so it was just bare concrete. She was kind of limp but screaming. Cassidy’s face was bleeding.

We got them upstairs were I got the full benefit of Danielle throwing up. She was like a rag doll in my arms and we were having trouble keeping her from going to sleep. We called 911 and they ended up taking her to the hospital in the ambulance. For the first couple hours her heart rate and temperature were low and we couldn’t get much response out of her.

They finally took her for a CAT scan and that woke her up. After that she started talking and told us that Cassidy was on the stairs and started falling and so she had tried to catch her. Cassidy doesn’t weigh much less than Danielle so that was a bad idea. After a little while the doctor came back in and said the good news was there was no sign of brain bleeding or bruising. The bad news was her skull was fractured. They went ahead and sent her home since the brain was alright. Yesterday she was running around the house as though nothing happened. Cassidy’s face is pretty beat up looking.

Since I spent Sunday evening in the ER, yesterday was my first day back on the bike. I just did an easy spin for about 45 minutes on the Santa Fe Trail. My legs felt good so today I plan to ride a little longer but still keep it easy.

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