Chino Hills

So Andrew has been on a "new trail" spree lately. I can understand. He is up in the top 10 for the year and working for a monthly medal. This means he wants to ride as many new trails as possible for bonus points. Combine this with the fact that we've been riding in the Santa Ana mountains for the last few months almost exclusively, and you get a day in Chino Hills.

Two routes were on the menu for last Saturday (1/27/07). The first would be 20.4 miles with 3,500+ feet in climbing and the second would be 14.6 miles with 2,200+ feet of climbing. So 35 miles in a totally new area. Sweet!

Since Mark Whaley wasn't able to make it, we all got to sleep in. I met Troy, Matt and Andrew at the park entrance a little before 8AM and we got started pretty quick.

I wasn't sure what ride we were doing first, but I was hoping for the long one. I really wanted to get it out of the way. It's different riding a new trail ... you don't know how to pace yourself or what you might come across so it's tough to know how hard to push.

As it turns out it didn't matter. Matt, Andrew and Troy left me in their dust. I could list a ton of reasons why I think they are riding that much faster, but I won't. Haha. It was definitely a theme for the day though. I'd ride to the top of a small hill only to look and see the three of them on the top of the _next_ hill. Haha.

Nothing interesting to report for the first several miles. It was just seemingly endless fire road going up and down and up and down. Eventually we hit a singletrack called "Bovinian Delight". I have to say this is probably the best trail name I've ever heard. It's not "Cow Delight", or even "Bovine Delight" ... it's BOVINIAN! Haha.

Small section of Bovinian Delight:



Anyways it was nice to ride down some singletrack for a change. It wasn't technical or challenging, but it was cool.

Bovinian took us to four corners. It seems like every park in Orange County has a four corners. I swear. Anyways, from four corners we took Raptor Road down to some ranger station. Raptor had some cool parts and was a bit steeper than Bovinian. It was mostly singletrack and I'm glad we weren't climbing it like some other guys we saw.

Some guy going down Raptor. A pretty cool shot:



From that point things started to go downhill physically for me. I remember climbing some mild fire road after getting to the ranger station and having that familiar "pushing" feeling. It's that feeling that someone is pushing you backwards while you pedal. I always look down to hope to find myself in the middle ring or something, only to find I'm already in a low gear.

After that it was again a blur of fire road mentally. I ended up walking a few short steep sections rather than trying to ride up and burn a lot of valuable energy. It was around this time that the cramping set in too. I've been cramping a lot during the last few rides and I'm sick of it. It ends up lasting all week too. I can feel twinges at work, driving the car and even sleeping. I wonder if I'm doing serious damage to my legs.

Eventually we ended up back at four corners only to climb up North Ridge to undulate some more. Thank God it ended with several miles of fast fire road descent. I saw two guys starting the North Ridge climb as we finished, which will be noteworthy later.

We ended up taking a break at the start of the trail and then went for round two.

Round two consisted of going up North Ridge, down to four corners, up Bovinian Delight and then down South Ridge. We had already been on maybe 80% of the trail from the previous loop. We were just doing most of the familiar sections in reverse.

Back to the two guys climbing from a few paragraphs ago ... I figure they had at least a 20 minute head start on us, and yet we still caught them on the climb. That felt so good. It's always a great feeling to pass someone climbing.

I ended up climbing Bovinian Delight without having to get off even though there were a few steep sections. The cramping was becoming dangerous, but I managed to drink a ton and eat a ton and I think that helped.

Nothing else really noteworthy about the second lap and this post is already too long.

This is the view from the top of South Ridge on the way back:



It was awesome to ride with a smaller group because we were pretty efficient. At least it felt that way for me. I'm sure Matt, Troy and Andrew felt just a little bogged down by me, but oh well. Hahaha.

I ordered a book on Troy's recommendation about how to eat and take care of yourself while working out. I have lots of plans to change my riding habits in regards to eating and drinking, so hopefully I can nail it before Counting Coup.

Under the Weather

Elevation chart for Harding-Motorway:



This last Saturday (1/20/07) I had Harding-Motorway scheduled. 34 miles and over 7,000 feet of climbing. I rode this route almost a year ago and bonked going up Maple Springs. I wanted to do it again to prove to myself that I could do it without falling apart - and I sort of did it. I wish I could have done this route again healthy, but riding with a cold is better than no riding at all I guess.

I woke up a little before 6AM and rushed to get things together. I've started to earn a reputation for being late to the group rides and I want to work to fix that. I also wanted to make sure I ate a ton before the ride to try and store up energy. I ate two banana's and drank half a bottle of orange juice. I also took three bags of clifshot snacks with me and a banana for the rest of the ride. Also I brought a bottle of Dasani/Cytomax just in case.

The ride started in the freezing cold. I need to buy some booties for my shoes. I really hate being cold when I have a cold.

The group was a little different as we were minus Matt and Andrew. Matt was racing at 12 hours of Temecula and Andrew was at Disneyland! Bummer Andrew! Ha. The group consisted of Mark, Troy, John "La Ruta" Colvin and a new John.

I figured I'd get dropped fast on the climbs and I wasn't disappointed. I actually felt not so bad on the climb up Harding. It was a very slow pace for me though. It was close to a two hour ascent and that is bad for me. Oh well though - chalk it up to being sick, right? Maybe I can find some other excuses as well.

The break at Harding wasn't too long, which was good. I need to start riding long routes without taking long breaks. It'll help me prepare better for race day.

The trip to the Motorway from Harding was actually really awesome. I took my bike into the Bike Company to be fixed while I was in Thailand and they did an amazing job. I honestly can't remember being this happy with a repair ... ever. I keep telling anyone that will listen how happy I am. They replaced the brake cables, the housing for the cables, they trued the rotors and tightened my loose headset. The result is an insanely awesome experience on the downhill sections. This is especially comforting considering I almost killed myself on the 50 mile Rwanda ride at the end due to brake failure.

At the top of the Motorway I felt awesome. I was actually starting to have fun on the ride instead of suffering. The trip down the Motorway was the best in recent memory. I felt strong and again, the bike felt especially great. The brake levers are tuned so nice right now. It takes almost no effort at all to get some braking power. I need to remember how good it can be and not settle for less.

At the bottom of the Motorway I still felt good even though my right calf cramped at the very end. It was at this point on the last ride that things started to go bad - and fast. I climbed up the paved part of Maple Springs and had some trouble when I stopped. I could feel my legs cramping so I decided to stop and stretch. Bad idea. Both hamstrings blew up and cramped. I'm starting to get used to the feeling of bad cramps. It hurts like crazy, but all you can do is try to relax and wait for the muscles to "let go".

A guy and his wife (turned out to be ShakeDust on GeoLadders) were there to witness it and he gave me three anti-cramping pills. It was too little too late, but it was a nice gesture anyways.

The next 4 miles or whatever was kind of a blur. I ended up beating ShakeDust and his wife up Maple Springs, but not by much. I had to ride in a very low gear to keep from cramping and the cold kicked into another gear, making the climb harder than it should have been. I kept spacing out and getting really dizzy. It's not like I could bail out, so I just kept climbing.

Mark started to ride back to see if I was ok right as I was getting to the top. Sucked to keep the guys waiting.

I felt good going down Harding and I think I could have made it down a lot faster, but we were taking it easy.

Overall I ended up beating my previous best time by about 20 minutes. I think I could have done a little better if we had gone down Harding faster, but that's ok.

I'm happy I did the ride, but to be honest I'm a little disappointed that it took me so long and that I felt so horrible halfway up Maple Springs. We'll see if I can get healthier this week (I'm still sick now) so that this weekend sees happier riding.

34.5 miles in 5 hours and 7 minutes (ride time).


Ah, Motorway. Glad to be happy on you again ...

Evaluation Time

Since this blog serves as my own personal riding diary I figured I'd write a quick note about yesterday morning. Yesterday morning sucked. I had been back only a few days from Thailand and I brought back with me some wicked jet lag and a special "Thai" cold.

I hadn't been riding in two weeks and between all my riding friends being in the top 20 on GeoLadders and Corby reminding me every day that he is ahead of me, I had to get out. I just couldn't let myself off the hook even if I was sick and tired. Add to all of that the fact that I need to train for Counting Coup and I knew there was no choice. I needed to ride.

The only question was what I should ride. I decided on Cactus (Whiting), but kept flip flopping back and forth between Cactus and Live Oak. Live Oak is easier, but not by that much. Live Oak is also easier because it has nothing remotely technical and so I know I don't have to worry about crashing. Then again Counting Coup is coming up and I need to practice handling skills, so I ended up doing Cactus.

I swear some days I just wish I was a flat slob who slept in every day and never worked out. It's just so hard waking up and riding sometimes - especially when you're doing it solo.

Anyways the ride was uneventful. I didn't see any other riders and it was cold outside. That's the ride report. I don't remember much because I was too out of it. I do remember getting home and taking off my arm sleeves to find a lot of cold sweat. That's not a good sign and I've never had it happen before.

I'm now trying to decide whether or not I can make the next big ride on Saturday. I've been trying to nurse myself back to health, but I'm not sure I'm there yet. I know I need to train, but my body just feels dead right now. We'll see how it shakes up.

Biking in Thailand

The good news is that I got a mini-vacation from life in general. The bad news is that I feel out of biking shape and I'm sick to top it all off. I plan on taking a few days to let my body recover from the lack of sleep and from the cold/flu I caught. I definitely don't feel strong at all.

Even though I was in Bangkok for a week, I found time to get out and ride a little. I signed up for a guided tour through a rural area of Bangkok called Ko Kret. It was only 50 dollars and my hope was that I could GPS the ride and get some geoladders credit - no matter how small - while I was in Thailand.

Unfortunately on the way to the trail I realized my GPS wasn't picking up any satellites. Needless to say for a few minutes I was pretty upset. I ended up getting over it, but I wasn't happy that I wouldn't get any credit for the ride. It would have been a tough ride to GPS though since we stopped and started so much and walked around as well.

There isn't much to describe about the ride - at least not in my usual mountain biking terms. The first half of the ride was through the normal urban environment of Bangkok. There were some really cool raised concrete path sections with some neat drops into swamps on both sides. The tour guide said some people have fallen into the swamps before. Haha.

The real highlight though was riding through the island of Ko Kret. We rode through quite a few markets on the island and it was a constant challenge to stay on the bike while navigating through people and stores.

The overall poverty of the area was amazing. Families literally were living in shacks in swamps. Pictures and words don't really do it justice. It's sobering to realize people actually live day to day in that kind of condition. It makes me thankful for what I have and where I live.

The weather was hot and humid, the company was good and it isn't an experience I'll quickly forget. I missed a ton of geoladders action, but I think it'll be worth it. Better to ride in a different country than ride The Luge for the millionth time.

San Juan, Hooray

Pictures of San Juan ...

Switchbacks? It has tons of them ...



I'm starting to get used to exposure (or drop offs on the side of a trail) ...



More switchbacks ...



Starting this year I had three trails on my list of "must do" trails. San Juan, Joplin and West Horsethief. Those were the big three. I was feeling kind of tired Monday (January 1st), but since I had the day off I knew I should use the day to ride. I was going back and forth mentally between the full San Juan up and down trail (22.8 miles) and the "half" ride (12.7 miles). Based on how I was feeling I decided to do the "half". I had Tuesday off as well so I figured I needed to save something for the next day.

I ended up getting to the trail an hour late and found that all my friends had left already. I can't blame them though. I would have left too. I waited till the morning to make some bike repairs and they ended up taking a lot longer than I wanted them to. It was good in the long run though because they needed to be done.

Then I got lost trying to find the trail and the trailhead once I was on my bike.

The ride itself was pretty awesome though. I really enjoy riding solo because I can set my own pace and can really take in the scenery as I ride. It was fun exploring a new trail not knowing what was coming around each corner.

There were a ton of people on the trail though which made it a little sketchy at times. I was ringing my bell a lot to make sure people coming down knew I was coming up.

I ended up getting to Cocktail Rock in a little over an hour and a half. My pace was pretty slow compared to what I might normally do, but I didn't care. I wanted to take it easy and enjoy the ride and not push too hard.

I remember riding up the trail thinking that the downhill might be a bit tough in a few spots, but I was wrong. The downhill was just plain _fun_. There were a lot of sections that I really enjoyed and nothing was that scary at all. I still had to walk a few switchbacks that were a bit tricky, but it was not as scary as I thought it would be.

I practiced my switchback technique at the bottom and fell over when I unclipped my left foot on one switchback. I don't feel very comfortable getting my left foot out at all, so I need to work on that.

Overall a fun ride even if I did it alone.

Project Rwanda

Me going down Harding (I look strange):



A few months ago some guy posted a link to http://www.50mileride.com saying he wanted to ride 50 miles for his 50th birthday. He was going to somehow tie that into a charity event with the goal of purchasing 50 bikes for Project Rwanda (http://www.projectrwanda.org). I signed up right away since the ride was on December 30th and I figured it would be a good way to end the year. Lots of friends of mine also signed up and I had high expectations for a good time leading up to the event.

Unfortunately I severly under estimated the ride. The ride was broken in to two stages. First stage was from Cook's Corner to Four Corners via Harding and then stage two was cruising around O'neill and RSM. I can climb Harding without any major problems and O'neill/RSM is always easy, so I figured "easy + easy = easy". I made this mistake once before when I did Harding-Motorway and I can't believe I did it again.

I keep forgetting that after riding 25 miles, anything that used to be "easy" suddenly becomes a bit more difficult.

I woke up at 5:30 and got dressed and packed pretty fast. I was excited to get going. Mistake number one was eating _nothing_ before the ride. I got to Cook's early enough to get good parking and to meet all my buddies. It was around 34 degrees and boy was I cold.

Our group of about 10 guys left early while everyone else was getting a briefing. Felt a little rebelous, but whatever. It gave us a good head start because with all the fast guys out that day, we would need it.

About one third of the way up Harding we started getting passed. I think Doug Andrews was the first guy to pass me. Not a big surprise. The only other guy I recognized that passed me was Manny Prado. I think I got passed by at least 20 guys on the way up. Oh well.

At Four Corner's our group rested for just a few minutes to eat and take a few pictures before heading down. There was a _ton_ of traffic going down. About one third of the way down it all cleared up. I guess they were pretty good about cut off times.

We then cruised over to Cook's Corner to rest, eat and get "warm weather" clothes on. It took longer than I would have liked, but it was ok. We added a lady named Heather to our group because she didn't know the area that well.

The second stage started up what Matt and I call "Live Oak". I've done this trail so many times it's not even funny. Unfortunately I let my ego get the best of me and I burned out going up the first two serious climbs. My heart rate shot up above 190 and stayed there a lot longer than it should have. As a result I lost my entire group and was left for dead. Haha.

I eventually caught up at the front of O'neill.

Our group then continued on and it didn't take me long to feel like I just couldn't hang. I was pushing fairly hard and was still losing ground slowly with the pack. I managed to close the gap on the road in RSM, but was not feeling the best. It's a horrible feeling to be pushing and asking your legs to push and not getting anything back. Also a bad feeling to realize the guys in front of you are cruising and not having the same trouble.

Somewhere near Tijeras Creek I started to notice a problem with my bike. My brakes weren't working well. I had to squeeze very hard to get them to "bite" and then when they did, I would hear a horrible, horrible squeeling noise. In the future I am going to stop and work on them instead of doing what I did on Saturday, which is continue to ride with no confidence in my brakes.

I ended up riding through Tijeras Creek mostly by myself. The only good thing was that I ran into some biker girl in a pink skirt. Man she was cute. Ha.

I finally met my group at the Oso turn around point after crossing several creeks. I was tired and needed a minute, but my group was getting impatient. Andrew gave me a powerbar (thanks Andrew) and then the entire group left. Haha. I was still chewing on the powerbar as I left with them. I didn't rest nearly as much as I would have liked.

They dropped me right away. I also got stuck behind some guys on the single track, but didn't mind too much since I was hitting the wall. I ended up zoning out for the next 8 miles or so as I just tried to focus on getting back to Cook's Corner as fast as I could.

I ended up meeting GDR from GeoLadders on the tough road climb out of O'neill. It was also cool to see a guy that passed me get off his bike and walk it up the climb whereas I rode up the entire thing. I think his bike didn't gear down as far as mine, but who cares. He walked and I rode. Ha.

The final climb up the newly graded part in "Live Oak" was very tough. I hope climbs like that are good preparation for Counting Coup. I was giving it a lot and it was very tough mentally as well as physically. I didn't have to walk the bike though, which was awesome.

The last few miles back to Cook's sucked as both brakes gave out entirely. The problem ended up being loose brake cables and after a little tightening they were ok. I almost had a pretty bad crash coming down on that steep part near the nursery though.

The party afterwards at Cook's was great. I got a free massage, cheap food and drinks and had a good time just hanging out with my GeoLadder friends.

Picture of me climbing Harding (I never realized it, but I look kind of too big for my bike):

2006 Year in Review (Part 3 of 3)

Finally the last post for 2006. I have some serious catching up to do with posts, so I'm going to try and make this last post brief. It's going to be tough though because this was the busiest of the three parts of 2006 for me.

Numeros ...

SEP 06:

125 miles
Ascent 20,693 feet
9 rides
DA Ratio: 165.5

OCT 06:

185.4 miles
Ascent 29,539 feet
12 rides
DA Ratio: 159.3

NOV 06:

275.4 miles
Ascent 42,678 feet
17 rides
DA Ratio: 155

DEC 06:

211.5 miles
Ascent 33,775 feet
10 rides
DA Ratio: 159.7

Highlights from the last four months of the year (in order of event):

1. Finally rode down Trabuco for the first time. It was on my list of trails to do since everyone in Orange County seemed to have done it. Good ride.

2. Met Troy (ThinkFast), Mark and Andrew (Winger) and started doing group rides with them almost every Saturday. A great group to ride with.

3. Hit 200 beats per minute going up Big Red in Peter's Canyon. I think that's the highest I've ever gotten my heart rate. I felt _horrible_ after getting to the top. Was a good lesson in how heart rate relates to stamina and overall strength.

4. Rode Upper Holy Jim twice. First time I walked maybe 75% of it, and the second time I walked only about 10% if not less. It actually has some really nice parts to it. I need to up my confidence around exposure.

5. Had my first night ride on Halloween up Harding. It was very cold and a long, lonely ride. A very different experience riding at night.

6. Rode Motorway (2x), which has to be my hardest ride to date still. The second time down the Motorway I thought my hands were going to fall off. I remember going to brake and my fingers stopped working. Scary feeling knowing you can't get the energy to brake.

7. Rode _up_ Trabuco even though I felt sick from ice cream the night before. I learned my lesson after this ride.

8. Finally rode the Fullerton Loop - and at night! Was a nice tour from Mike (MF Titan). The list of trails I want to do just keeps getting shorter and shorter.

9. Rode down The Luge at night. This is kind of a right of passage for every Orange County mountain biker. Glad to get it done. Wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

10. Got a monthly and weekly medal on GeoLadders. This is a big deal considering both medals were against roughly 700 other riders. I got top 10 for the month and top 5 for the week. Probably the last medals I'll ever get.

11. Rode Blackstar-Motorway ... at night. Enough said.

12. The last highlight was doing the 50 mile ride for Project Rwanda. Really this was the perfect way to end a very memorable year of riding. I rode with a lot of friends and had a great time even though I ran out of gas.

Picture of me climbing Harding (around mile 8 of 50):



Totals for the last four months:

797.3 miles
126,685 feet climbed
48 rides
DA Ratio of 158.9

One more 2006 post and then that's it. Ha.