A Shock and a Smile

I've been really nervous the past few weeks waiting for my bike to get out of the shop. The rear shock - a Fox triad - blew up over three weeks ago and the best option was to ship it back to Fox to get re-built. The estimate was that it would take a few weeks and cost me 80-90 dollars.

I was scared to deal with Rock and Road because Troy had sent his fork back and it had taken a very long time to get back. In fact he still might not have it. I had ordered some replacement buckle for my shoes a few months ago and never got a call about them. These two incidents were fresh in my mind and helped to fuel the worry that my bike wouldn't be ready for the race.

I called twice since taking the shock in and both times I got the reply that it takes time to deal with Fox, but that it should be in "any day now". I was able to get Rock and Road to agree to lend me a shock for the race on the second call, but obviously that wasn't the best case.

Yesterday I finally got the call that my bike was ready to be picked up! I was so happy. I went down to the store and it only ended up costing me _TEN DOLLARS_. I can't even believe it. Even better was that I was looking around the store staring at nothing and then turned to see the cute girl behind the counter smiling at me. I'm sure it meant nothing, but girls never smile at me, so that was cool.

I remember telling Andrew that dealing with Rock and Road was like giving your number to a hot girl. She seems nice and polite and takes your number and promises to call you back, but then never does. When you call her she can't remember who you are and doesn't seem interested in you at all.

Thank goodness that analogy doesn't prove true anymore.

I can now add Fox to my list of companies I love. I'll take a free shock replacement even if it did keep me off my preferred bike for a few weeks.

To Build a Fire

"Also, he noted that the stinging which had first come to his toes when he sat down was already passing away. He wondered whether the toes were warm or numb. He moved them inside the moccasins and decided that they were numb."


(some guy dying in the snow due to cold)

The post topic is actually the name of a short story by Jack London. I read it in high school and never forgot it. It's about some guy that takes a walk in the snow and freezes to death because he can't build a fire to stay warm. For some reason I always think of this story when I'm really cold.

This past Saturday (2/24/07) Andrew thought it would be a good idea for us to simulate the Counting Coup start. That meant we needed to be _riding our bikes_ at 5:30am. That translates to waking up at something like 4:30am. Anyone that knows me knows that that time is just plain unreasonable. I'm more likely to go to bed at 4:30am rather than wake up at 4:30am.

But since my buddies were doing it and since I wanted to hardcore, I did it. I woke up a little after 4:30am and went and did the ride.

To the ride ...

The group was pretty small, but that's understandable considering the start time. It was me, Andrew, Matt and Junior. Poor Junior had to drive from Corona, so who knows how early he got up.

I remember getting to the parking lot first and just dreading getting out to get ready. It was a little windy and totally dark. No sun at all anywhere. I had the heater running in the car and was happy in my little warm igloo.

Andrew showed up and so I decided I had to get out and get ready. Man the cold hit me hard. My stupid Trek hardtail had a flat on the front tire and I needed to replace the tube. My hands were so cold that I couldn't manage to get the tire off. It was very hard to grip and hold things because my hands would start to go numb.

I ended up putting on everything I owned to protect against the cold. Knee warmers, booties for my feet, arm warmers (sleeves) and a wind breaker. The helmet and camelback actually help a lot too. Even with all the protection I was still freezing at the start of the ride. Hands quickly started to go numb, feet turned into bricks, nose started to run and my ears got that familiar piercing feeling as they went numb as well.

Since it was dark outside we used Andrew's little light to see the road in front of us. It was just enough and worked out ok.

The climb up to Beek's was again not that fast for me. I want to go a little faster come race day. I was trying to push a little bit on the ride though because it was only Blackstar-Motorway and nothing more. I figured I could ride a bit harder since it was such a short ride.

We all started to warm up on the first climb and we all took layers off in anticipation of warmth with the sun. Needless to say we were wrong about the sun bringing warmth.

When I got to hidden valley I got really, really cold. I had my windbreaker off and the stupid cold made my chest burn. I remember feeling that my entire chest was burning because of the bite of the cold. That was a first.

I actually beat everyone up to Beek's which really surprised me. Usually Andrew and Matt beat me on every climb, so it felt good to be the first up.

Beek's to the Motorway wasn't that interesting. Andrew got in front and destroyed all of us on the climbs. I would turn a corner to see him climbing the next hill. Eventually I lost sight of him, which was kind of discouraging. The only thing that made it ok was that I was doing the same thing to Matt and Junior. Haha.

The fire road had quite a few ice puddles on it. I had never seen those before. Big pools of water in the middle of the road that were frozen over. I had to ride through at least two of them because there was no way around. They just make a cracking sound as you go over them. Nothing special.

When we got to the top of the Motorway there was some dude guarding these pools of water. Kind of strange. I guess some punks had slashed the old pools and so they needed someone to guard the new ones. I do remember this was the first time going down the Motorway where my feet felt like bricks. Even with the booties they were gone.

Going down the Motorway was good. I'm feeling really good going down the Motorway right now. I ended up dropping my sunglasses on the way down trying to put them in my pocket, but left them since they were only 8 bucks at Walmart. When I got to the bottom Matt and I waited quite a while for Andrew and Junior to come down. Turns out Andrew saw my glasses, stopped to pick them up and got a flat. Haha. Sorry dude!

The ride overall was good and almost a personal best time wise. The cold is the only thing I'm a little worried about for race day. It helps with my heart rate (it's 5-6 beats lower in the cold), but it kind of saps energy and isn't as fun as a moderate temperature.

I'm getting anxious for Saturday.

Old Camp Night Ride

I couldn't think of anything creative for the post title, so there you go ...

I've been wanting to ride on Tuesday's and Thursday's to train for Counting Coup and so this last Tuesday I did Old Camp to the Luge at night with a few guys.

Specifically I did the ride with Andrew and three other guys that I met for the first time. Steve, Jeff and Keith all seem like pretty cool guys and it was nice that everyone was able to keep up well. It can really suck to go on night rides and have an anchor or two riding with you. You'll end up stopping somewhere and while you wait for them to catch up you cool down and freeze to death.

Anyways to the ride ...

I haven't been on a night ride in a while and so the very idea of riding at night had turned into something a bit scarier than it should have been. Same thing happens to me when I haven't been on a certain trail for a while. If I haven't gone down the Motorway in a few months it starts to become much scarier in my mind than it actually is.

The five of us met at Cook's Corner at 7PM and started riding pretty soon after that. Always nice to start on time.

We rode up Santiago Canyon Road and up to the start of Santiago Truck Trail (STT) with no problems. I felt kind of bad for Steve because he was on a singlespeed 29'er and I know it wasn't easy to climb Modjeska grade on that thing.

We cruised to the flag without any trouble. My legs actually felt really good, which is noteworthy. I had done about 40 miles on the Saturday prior and played softball on Sunday. Just walking around on Monday and Tuesday felt kind of bad. My legs - especially my quads - felt really sore and tired. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel on the bike, but I felt great.

There were three other guys coming back from Old Camp when we got to the flag. It's always good to see other riders out at night on the same trail. I figure if they are ok and happy, then I'll be safe and happy as well. Haha.

It had rained the day/night before and after the flag we hit the first of many puddles of mud. Thankfully the mud wasn't super thick and the majority of the trail was very dry and tacky.

I felt like I was riding very fast, but my final time would show that I was just going at an average pace. We got to Old Camp at 1:26 for ride time. Not too bad I guess. We ended up talking at Old Camp for a lot longer than I wanted to. I had worn my windbreaker for the entire ride to Old Camp and like an idiot I was sweating underneath and thus freezing. I just wanted to get back to my car, but everyone else wanted to joke around and talk. Haha.

The ride back was fun. I had forgotten how fun night riding is. It's just a thrill to know you're out riding on trails while everyone else is sleeping and watching TV. It was cold out and that just adds to the sense of adventure.

Going down the Luge was just plain fun. I was a little worried because I hadn't been down it in a while and I had only gone down it once at night. Add to that the fact that I still have to ride my old hard tail, and I was curious to see how it would shake out. It ended up being really fun and I can't wait to go down the Luge again.

The final ride time ended up being 2:01, which was a personal best, but nothing special. I think I average only 7.7mph for the ride, which isn't that good. For a short 2 hour ride I would expect to average at least 8mph. Oh well. I can give a lot of excuses, but I'll skip that for now.

Here is a video of the Luge at night from fooriders.com. You should check out this site if you ride mountain bikes anywhere in socal. It's _awesome_.

Luge at night:



... and for contrast, the Luge during the day:

Verbosity vs. Brevity

Verbose: containing more words than necessary : WORDY (a verbose reply); also : impaired by wordiness (a verbose style)

Brevity: shortness of duration; especially : shortness or conciseness of expression

When verbosity and brevity fight in my head, verbosity always wins.

This past Saturday (2/17/07) was another training ride for Counting Coup. There is only one more Saturday left before "the race" and I can't wait. All the hard training rides are over now. All the riding until the race is going to be pretty easy in order to save my legs.

A quick summary of Saturday (remember ... verbose):

I woke up at 5:30am in order to get ready. I can't believe I'm typing this, but I'm actually starting to get used to getting up that early. My body doesn't freak out as much anymore. It's also nice to be _finishing_ an epic ride while other people are just starting. It's a great feeling to be flying down a fire road that other people are climbing knowing that you're on your way to sleep and food while they are on their way to climbing.

Anyways, I parked at Blackstar and met up with Matt, John, Mark, Scott and Andrew. We also had two other guys Mark knew tagging along, but we dropped them pretty fast.

The climb up to Beek's was really slow for me. I'm not sure why I was going so slow, but it was maybe 10 minutes off of my personal best. Part of the problem was my heart rate monitor. I'm not sure if it was due to the wind or the other Garmin's around, but I couldn't get an accurate heart rate reading for the first hour or two on the ride. It would go from 190 to 160 to 175 etc. It was really tough to know where I was at so I just went with how I felt.

That reminds me of probably the only noteworthy thing on the climb to Beek's ... the wind. It was really windy. Hahaha. I remember hearing someone in front of me say "Ohhhh urggggh" and then a millisecond later I got sand blasted in the face. The wind made climbing a bit tougher, but nothing too bad.

We also saw Junior coming down Blackstar. It's funny because he is the only guy that would be coming down so early. I can't believe how much that guy rides.

Beek's to the top of the Motorway was pretty good. Maybe even the best I've felt on that section ever. I just feel really confident on that section now. It used to be a never ending struggle, but I've been doing it a lot lately and have gotten to know the different hills etc.

When we got to the Motorway we saw a helicopter and some trucks. Not sure what was going on, but some rangers were hiking down the Motorway to do ... something.

One more note about the top of the Motorway ... maybe 10 minutes after getting there these three riders come up from the Blackstar side. It's two girls and one guy. I recognized one of the girls from the 50 mile Rwanda ride. She had attached herself onto our group to help her get through the second half of the ride. She was faster than me and in much better shape.

It sucks to see a 40 something woman ride up and then to realize that she was going MUCH faster than you were to that point. I mean I didn't see that group anywhere when we parked. I never saw them behind me on the trail. That all adds up to a very fast ride for them. Which means I suck. =(

The good news though is that she was _horrible_ on the downhill. I mean really bad. Their group left 5-10 minutes before ours down the Motorway and we caught them fast. She was oblivious to us behind her though because she was listening to her ipod. I've had this happen several times and it's very frustrating. People listening to their ipods and unaware of what's going on around them on the bike.

Anyways she came to a dead stop on a loose part of the trail when she finally realized she had three guys right behind her. We rode around her and flew down the rest of the descent. Didn't see her or her group for the rest of the day.

At the bottom of the Motorway I got a pinch flat, which was the best place to get it really. I walked the bike to our staging area with the cars and fixed it before going up Maple Springs.

Scott decided to bail at Maple Springs, but that's cool. He isn't training for anything, so Blackstar-Motorway was enough.

Mark and John left right away to climb Maple Springs since Mark had to be back home at a certain time.

Matt, Andrew and I left a bit later because I had to fix the flat and re-fuel. We caught Mark and John on the paved part of Maple Springs because one of Mark's cranks had fallen off! He said his foot was still attached to it when it came out.

Andrew dropped everyone after the pavement and I didn't see him again until Four Corners. For some reason though Matt didn't pull away as usual. I actually caught up to him and road with him the rest of the way to Four Corners. I was feeling great and he wasn't. I think I could have beaten him up to the top, but I'll keep that to myself. Haha.

At Four Corners we waited for everyone to show up at which point I said goodbye to Mark (he went back down Maple Springs to go home) and goodbye to Matt, Andrew and John (they went on to finish the Counting Coup course). They tried to talk me into doing Counting Coup again, but I had made up my mind before the ride that I would just go to Four Corners. I didn't want to push myself too hard and wanted to watch the condition of my legs. It was _very_ tempting though.

On the way down Maple Springs I must have seen 20 riders. Interestingly enough many of them didn't have helmets on. Are they all stupid?! What's the deal? I mean it was hot outside, but still. DON'T RIDE WITHOUT A HELMET!

While I was riding back to my car at Blackstar I saw Corby driving his car towards Maple Springs. Hahaha. He ended up doing two pretty big rides that day as well.

The last note for the ride is that I got stuck behind a car on the road back to my car. Can you believe that? I'm on a mountain bike and I'm mad at the car in front of me because it's going too slow. I was going maybe 25-27mph and the car was going probably 20mph. I mean come on granny ... speed up.

Overall it was a good ride and I set personal bests for both routes (Blackstar-Motorway and Maple Springs). I averaged almost 8mph for the ~40 miles I road. I hope I can sustain that - or even do a little better - come race day.

A Quickie ...

I'm happy that I was able to ride on Tuesday and Thursday this week. That falls right in line with my training plan and both rides felt pretty good. The first ride was a quick out and back in Coto (West Ridge), which was frustrating at first and then pretty fun. It was nice to take my iPod with me on that ride to keep me company. It sure makes riding more enjoyable.

The second ride was a loop through Peter's Canyon with Andrew. Again, it was a bit of a slower pace, but that is because I'm trying to focus more on lower gears and higher cadence. The ride was funny because when we got into Peter's these two guys ask us if we've seen two yellow labs running around. We said we hadn't.

Maybe 20 minutes later we run into two yellow labs running on the trail with their leashes still on. Hahaha. We ran into them two more times before we left Peter's. The guy found them eventually I'm sure. Funny stuff though.

Mileage Meter

I added a mileage meter to the blog to track my progress. I decided to set a goal of 2,000 miles for this year. Last year I almost hit 1,700, so I figured 2,000 was a good aggressive goal. I'm not sure if it's realistic yet, but we'll see ...

I might have to re-adjust it soon.

Leftovers ...

That says it all doesn't it? Hahaha.

Two quick things I forgot to include in my massive Counting Coup ride report:

1. On the way back to our cars Matt got insanely sick in the back of Troy's van and was sick for maybe two hours? It was nuts to see because he seemed to feel fine after the ride. The trip back in the back of the van was too much though. Haha.

Even better was when I drove him back to Maple Springs ... we got there only to find out that Matt had forgotten the keys to his car. While I was trying to call Troy, a stray dog wandered over to Matt's car and peed all over it. Hahahaha.

We ended up driving all the way down to Maple Springs just to see a dog pee on Matt's car!

2. Some stupid girl from STR rode the same course on the same day I did on a _singlespeed_ and was only 7 minutes slower than me. Talk about humbling. Ugh. Freaking girls.

Counting Coup Milestone

There is just too much information to put down in one post, but I'm going to try. First a quick summary for anyone that might not want to read this huge post ...

Counting Coup is an annual race in the Santa Ana Mountains. It is 42.5 miles and consists of 8,627 feet of climbing.

Elevation chart:



Google Map of the course:



Some quick stats for the ride:

Calories burned: 4,441
Average Heart Rate: 155
Max Heart Rate: 188
Total Ride Time: 6 hours 3 minutes


Times for various checkpoints (time is total ride time to get to a point):

Blackstar Gate to Beek's Gate: ~1:07
Beek's Gate to Motorway: ~2:25
Bottom of Motorway: ~2:35
Maple Springs to Four Corners: ~4:05
Four Corners to Upper Holy Jim: ~5:00
Upper Holy Jim to Bottom of Lower Holy Jim: ~5:45
Lower Holy Jim to end of Trabuco Creek: 6:03

I beat the first cut-off time by almost an hour and a half and beat the second cut-off by almost two hours.


Now for a more detailed ride report (only read if you have lots of time) ...

The Counting Coup race is on March 3rd this year and I wanted to make sure I had trained enough for the ride. I really wanted to do the full course once before the race to build up the confidence and to work out riding strategy. I wanted to make sure I knew how to eat and drink on the ride and where to hammer and where to cruise.

A bunch of us decided that this last Saturday (2/10/07) would be a good day to do the entire course. The final group ended up being me, Troy, Matt and Andrew.

I was kind of worried about the ride though because my normal bike is in the shop due to a dead rear shock. This meant that I would be riding the entire course on my old Trek 6700 hard tail. I had waited a while to buy new riding shorts and I ended up buying them just in time. I needed all the padding I could get considering the hard tail offered me _no_ protection against rocks etc.

My other fear - besides the bike - was bonking. Bonking just means running out of gas physically. I came up with a plan that I stuck with for the entire ride, and it turned out to work really well.

The plan for Stage 1 (Blackstar to bottom of Motorway):

Take 1 bottle of Cytomax and a camelback with 2 liters (2/3's of the capacity) of water. I didn't fill the entire camelback because I didn't want to carry water I wasn't going to drink.

Have one gel flask in my pocket for eating. The flask holds about 6 gels inside and makes it very easy to get gel in without a big mess.

Have one cannister of "cramping pills". You just suck on these until they are gone. The only downside is that my breathing is affected when I have this huge pill in my mouth. At least they have a nice lemon taste.

For the first stage I planned to drink 2-3 mouthfuls of Cytomax and 1-2 mouthfuls of water every 20 minutes. Every 30 minutes I would choke down 1 gel from my flask. Every hour I would take one cramping pill.

This strategy really paid off I think. It was tough at some points to drink, swallow a gel and then pop a pill, but it seemed to work ok.


The plan for Stage 2 (Maple Springs to Holy Jim):

I took the same quantities of the items as listed above, but changed the water in take to every 15 minutes instead of 20. The gel stayed at 30 minutes and the cramping pills on the hour.

I figured I needed more water at this point, especially since it was hot out.


Overall I was really happy with the nutrition plan. I never bonked and I never felt like I didn't have enough energy to finish a particular climb or descent. It was also good to stay on the bike while eating and drinking. I didn't have to stop to do a gel or anything like that.


The actual ride ...

We had planned to start riding at 7am, but we ended up starting at 7:30am because of me. Haha. I had a lot of things to do to my old bike to get it ready to ride. I used my one zip-tie to mount my GPS upside down, I needed to replace my water bottle holder, tighten my clips and lube my chain. Thanks for being patient with me guys. Haha.

The ride up to Beek's wasn't that eventful. Some guy passed me, but wasn't riding a very fast pace. He ended up cruising with Matt and Troy to the top. My goal for the first few hours was to keep my heart rate at or around 160-170. If I had to push up to 175 I would, but I wanted to stay below 175 if possible.

Interestingly enough, even with my heart rate so low (which really means I was riding lower gears), I only missed my best time to Beek's by a few minutes. I usually like to push as big of a gear as I can and keep a low cadence. This ride taught me that it is probably better to push a lower gear at a higher cadence. That will save me for longer rides.

When I got to Beek's I stopped for maybe 2-3 minutes to pee before getting right back on the bike. I wanted to simulate the race as best as I could and that meant no stopping.

The ride from Beek's to the top of the Motorway wasn't that interesting either. I kept busy by watching my heart rate and eating and drinking on my intervals. Probably lost some time wrestling with the pockets of my new shorts. Haha. The descents on some of the hills felt different as the hard tail doesn't absorb anything for me. I felt everything.

I got to the top of the Motorway only to see Matt waiting to see if I was ok. Once he did he was gone. Haha. Was cool he waited though. Hope he didn't wait too long.

The ride down the Motorway just plain sucked. The first third wasn't horrible, but the middle section after the rocky switchback was terrible. I can't believe how much energy I burned trying to fight the bike over the rocks. On my other bike I usually fly down and it's not a big deal. The hard tail was a battle though. I remember thinking I was going to cramp in my legs on the downhill and that it was harder on my body going down than it was going up.

I was excited to see though that I made it to the bottom of the Motorway in a real time of about 2:40. That means that including stops and all that, it took 2:40. That's better than my average and my ride time was about 2:35. I was very happy with that and I felt good at the bottom of the Motorway.

We rested at Maple Springs for a while, but I wanted to get going as soon as possible. I filled my camelback with Propel, which apparently was a mistake. I thought Propel was mostly water, but it turned out to be pretty sugary, which might trash the bladder in my camelback.

I had forgotten my Cytomax mix and so I ended up using only Propel. It worked ok I guess. I won't make the same mistake on race day.

I wanted to really concentrate on the ride up the pavement from the bottom of Maple Springs. It's so tempting to hammer away because pavement is easier than dirt mentally. You figure that since it's paved it has to be easier and so you should gear up and put the hammer down. Add to that the fact that my three friends were riding at a faster pace and I had to fight the temptation to gear up and attack.

I kept my heart rate down on the paved section and I think it paid dividends later in the ride.

The dirt section after the paved part ends really sucks. I just don't like it on the longer rides. The first two miles are a little rocky and the grade is a little steeper than I would like. It's funny to write that since the grade is actually insanely easy and it's about as smooth as you could want in a fire road. However after riding for 3 hours (and on a hard tail too), it's not that much fun.

The only other thing to note about the ascent to Four Corners was the effect of the gel I was taking. I would notice that every 20-30 minutes I would get this huge burst of energy and would gear up and take off. At the time I thought it was because the grade was getting easier or the road smoother. In retrospect I realize it was the gel hitting my system. All of a sudden I felt amazing and would ride a lot faster. Then the gel would wear off and I'd crash back to earth at my super slow pace.

At Four Corners I met with Troy and Matt as we waited to Andrew. I passed Andrew on Maple Springs because he got a flat. On some other day I would have stopped and helped or waited with him, but this was a race training day. He'd have to go it alone. Haha.

Andrew ended up getting two flats and so it took him a while to get to the top with us. We ended up seeing Cameron at Four Corners and it was cool to talk to him. I mean this guy is what I would consider a world class rider, and it's awesome to talk to him and see what he's doing. He was training for Vision Quest and had just finished his _second_ climb up Harding for the day. He said his first time was around 1:10 I think and the second wasn't too far off that. In other words he can climb Harding twice in about the time it takes me to climb it once. _AMAZING_

From Four Corners I got dropped pretty fast by the boys. It was a really bad climb up to Modjeska Peak. I spun out once and had to restart on the bike. I hate that. I'm not sure if I was picking bad lines, if the bike was the problem or if the trail was just that much rockier, but I had a really hard time getting up that section. Usually I fly up that section and feel fine, but not Saturday.

The ride from Modjeska to the saddle also sucked. I'm usually able to gear way up and fly down, but the bike just wasn't having it. It was really hard to get momentum up on the hard tail. I would get going and then hit a bump and all the speed was lost. Even worse was the fact that I was losing energy absorbing the impact of the rocks etc.

I passed a guy on the climb to the peak, but that didn't make me feel that much better. That last climb always takes so much longer than I want.

I ended up coming to the peak to find that I was alone. My buddies had kept going, but that wasn't a big deal. I understood. I figured they'd be waiting at Upper Holy Jim for me, but they weren't. Haha.

Again the descent from the peak to UHJ was no fun. I want my Specialized back.

When I got to UHJ I just went straight down. I didn't stop to eat or anything. The ride down wasn't the best at all. I walked a lot of sections I would normally ride for two reasons. Firstly I didn't want to fall and get injured before the race. Secondly I was not nearly as confident on the hard tail. The brakes are so much weaker and I didn't have the benefit of suspension. It took me quite a while to hike down a few sections.

Matt and Andrew were waiting for me at the start of Lower Holy Jim. Nothing to report about the descent really. Lots and lots of hikers were out, but they all were nice and got out of the way. I even ran into some _very_ hot girls at the bottom of the trail. It's not how I'd prefer to meet hot girls, but oh well. I mean here I come with snot on my face, white crap (more snot) on my shirt and who knows what else on my shorts ... not the best looking, but oh well.

Troy was waiting at the bottom of Holy Jim and we rode out Trabuco Creek Road together. Well ok, maybe not together. I was way behind because of the stupid hard tail.


In summary I'm stoked I did the ride and I feel great about my fitness level and my nutrition plan for the race. My time was 30 minutes under the GeoLadders average, which is pretty good. I'm hoping to finish the race in under 6:30. Even though my ride time was 6:03 this last Saturday, that doesn't include breaks. We'll see how it goes.

I'll have to stop this post now because it has already gone too long. I'm sure I'll think of more things worth noting, but I'll try and save that for a later post.

Blast from the Past

My last post talked about how I have been forced back on to my old hard tail. It sucks, but I need to stay on the bike. I figured I'd swap the pedals and take the Trek on a spin around Whiting to see how I'd feel on the bike. I wanted to make sure I was comfortable and that the bike was in shape for Saturday.

Saturday is around 45 miles of riding and I need to do it. It's the last big step in my training and I need to make sure the bike I ride is reliable.

Anyways I was surprised at how fast I changed the pedals with the new pedal wrench I bought. Very easy. I'm excited to think I can take the wrench, my pedals and my shoes anywhere and instantly make any bike into something I can ride comfortably.

It took a few minutes to adjust the seat, lube the gears and chain, but I got going pretty fast.

The ride itself was uneventful. I was actually very happy to see that the bike responds very well to my pedal strokes. Any time I wanted to hammer down the bike responded instantly. It was awesome. I miss having that kind of efficiency on a bike. Nothing was lost to a rear shock.

The descent was a little bumpy, but that's cool. Having my feet clipped in allowed me to maintain control of the bike, so it felt fine. I need to tighten the clips, but otherwise it's ok.

Overall not a fast ride for me, but still not bad. I average just under 10mph, which is about as fast as I get on any trail.

"Good News and Bad News"

So jury duty got out a little early yesterday (Thursday) and we were sent home. I got stuck on a 15 day criminal trial and it has totally re-arranged my schedule for the next month.

Anyways with the extra time I figured I'd go and do a few Whiting laps (Live Oak). My last ride at Whiting I had noticed my rear shock was not locking out. I would put the lever into the position and it wouldn't stick. I figured I could look at it later and fix it.

I get down to the bike and notice a greasy substance all around the shock. Uh oh. I look at the lever and notice there is _nothing_ to adjust. No screws or levers or anything. I start freaking out at this point because I can't get the shock to lock out. It's on "full suspension" mode, which is bad.

I refuse to climb any hill with my bike's rear suspension on. You lose so much energy to the shock as you bob up and down. I want my bike to be a hard tail (no suspension in the back) while I climb.

Anyways, I take the bike into Rock'n'Road and I get the "I have good news and bad news ..." line. I never did get the good news come to think of it.

The short of it is that my rear Fox Triad shock is toast and needs to be sent back to Fox to get re-built. _Not cool_. I had planned to do a pre-ride of Counting Coup this Saturday and I obviously wanted to ride it on the bike I would be racing on.

Picture of my shock that is now dead:



I asked the guy how much a new shock was and he said 400 dollars. Not good. To send the shock back would be about 80-90 dollars. A huge difference.

So I had the guy take off my pedals so I could put them on my Trek 6700 hard tail.

Picture of my "old" bike that I'm now riding:



Now I'm stuck with my old hard tail while my other bike gets surgery for a week or two. I'm not happy about it, but what can you do? I put 1,800+ miles on that shock and I suppose it was going to explode eventually.

I'm going to research other shocks just in case. We'll see what happens ...

Early Morning Cactus

Last night the book "The Performance Zone" finally came in the mail. I ordered it on Troy's recommendation and it is supposed to have information on how to eat and drink during heavy physical activity. This is perfect for me because I've been trying to get all the information I can about preventing cramping (muscle damage) and how to improve overall performance.

I read the first couple chapters last night and took away a few key concepts.

1. Drink 15-20 ounces before a ride.

I never do this. I mean never. I usually wake up, get dressed and start riding. Apparently this is a big mistake.

2. Drink 15 minutes _after_ a ride.

Again I never do this. I've been trying to drink and eat more after a ride, but it's always much later than 15 minutes after a ride is over.

3. Drink sports drinks because they are better than water.

I'm ok on this, but I usually do prefer water. Water doesn't ruin my camelback, so I usually carry mostly water. Apparently I also need to get a sports drink that has a lot of carbs and protein. My current drink (Cytomax) lacks the protein, so I need to change that somehow.


So armed with all this new information I decided to give it a try this morning on Cactus. Oh also, I bought some new Fox shorts and wanted to give them a try as well. I've had one pair of riding shorts for over a year and they are in pretty poor shape now.

I woke up at 6AM to start drinking. I tried to get through an entire water bottle of Cytomax while watching ESPN, but I couldn't do it. I drank maybe two thirds before stopping. I then filled the rest up with water and Cytomax and took off to meet Troy.

We rode and I felt great at the start. I noticed a decent difference between where I expected my body to be and where it was. A good difference by the way.

On the climb up Mustard I noticed my heart rate was consistently below 180, at at the most 185. That is great news for me. It means I'm doing something right, because I would have expected it to be over 190 at some point.

The rest of the ride went well. I have new tires and they seemed to do fine. I'm still not sure if I like them or not. They seem just different. Not better and not worse. They are thinner and I don't think I like that. I prefer a wider tire for more traction. We'll see how things go for the next few rides. Have to give them a fair shake.

Thanks to Troy for riding with me this morning as well. It sure beats riding alone.

Blackstar to Coal Canyon

Training for Counting Coup requires that I ride at least 30 miles every Saturday. This Saturday (2/3/07) the trail decided upon was Blackstar to Coal Canyon. I've been up Blackstar to Sierra Peak before, but nothing after that. I really had no idea where we were going except that we were going to end up at the 91 freeway at the Green River exit. Then of course we'd ride back the way we came.

The total mileage for the ride was 35.1 miles with 5,971 feet of elevation gain. Blackstar to the Motorway is 4,520 feet of elevation and Maple Springs to Four Corners is 2,698 feet. So if you were to ride Blackstar to Four Corners, you would have climbed 7,218 feet. The ride Saturday was 1,247 feet short of going to Four Corners. That's about the same as one lap around The Luge. The difference between the ride Saturday and going to Santiago Peak is 2,702, or roughly one ride on "Old Camp to the Luge".

So the million dollar question is ... after the ride Saturday, could you have done a lap on The Luge? If yes, then congrats! You can ride Blackstar to Four Corners. The next question ... could you go to Old Camp and then The Luge? If so, then congrats! You can do Counting Coup.

I'm pretty sure I had the energy for a Luge lap. Not so sure I would have done so well going to Old Camp and back. That would have really hurt.

Anyways on to the ride ...

I showed up on time and our scheduled group of four riders quickly exploded to six. One of the guys on GeoLadders (Phil Kramer) had invited two of his buddies. I should have known we were in for pain when I saw they were all riding single speeds. That means they all only have _one_ gear to ride in. Usually that gear is fairly tough as well.

We started off at a normal pace, but picked it up a little climbing to Beek's. I had resolved to drink 2-3 mouthfuls of water every 20 minutes, and to eat something every 40 minutes throughout the entire ride. I've been trying to work on my stamina and cramps and this was the best I could think of. Haha.

Anyways, we passed a few riders before reaching Beek's. I was the last in the group of six to get to the top, but I was able to tie my personal best gate-to-gate. I rode from the Blackstar gate to Beek's gate in 1:03. One of these days I'll break one hour.

At this point Phil gave me some energy pills or whatever to suck on for cramps. Nice guy. I ended up taking several of them over the course of the ride and I think they really helped.

We made great time from Beek's to Sierra and then down to the end of Coal Canyon. I never realized how many fire roads are back there in the canyons. It's really quite amazing. The scenery is also something special. You can see lots of acreage burned down by a fire and large rocks around etc.

One other note on the descent ... I finally got to see "Mini Moab". I've heard it mentioned by other riders and now I finally know where it is and what it looks like. Cool. Just another "in", making me more part of the socal riding community.

We didn't spend too much time hanging out before turning around to climb Coal Canyon. At first the climb was really easy for me and I was _very_ excited to feel fairly strong and aggressive. The grade was easy and I was riding fairly fast in a high gear.

Then it happened. I started to fall apart. The combination of the heat, cramps and a steeper grade pushed me into a bad place physically. I felt like my back tire was digging into the ground. It wasn't sandy on the trail, but it still felt like I was being sucked down.

I found out this morning actually that my rear suspension is jacked and that it won't lock out - meaning that the suspension is always on. It might have been that way Saturday, or maybe Saturday caused it.

Anyways the climb back to Mini-Moab sucked. I was the last guy in the group again, but not by that much. Phil was riding around my pace on his single speed 29er and he was hurting too.

We then rode back towards Sierra when I caught up with Andrew and Phil. Andrew broke his chain and it took us 20-30 minutes to fix. Poor Andrew keeps having trouble with his new bike.

It's safe now to skip towards the descent down Blackstar. Nothing noteworthy except the fact that I rode over a gopher snake at the end of the ride. The other three riders seemed kind of upset that I did it. It was an accident guys! Haha.

Overall a fast pace for me. I clocked in under 4 hours for a trail that has an average of about 4:40. My average speed was 8.8mph, which is good for me considering the distance of the trail.

Body Check

A quick post so I can record the state of my body. I think it'll help me remember months from now what was going on and maybe how I fixed it. Also a way to track progress.

I'm happy to record that my weight has been consistently under 170 for a while now. I'm usually about 168-169 in the morning (which is of course when I'm at my lightest). I'm hoping to get down to 165 this year, but that might be a stretch. I was 195 when I graduated from UCI about four years ago. Thanks biking!

My throat is giving me trouble. It feels like I'm choking on something, but I'm not. Actually maybe it's not my throat, maybe it's my esophagus. It just always feels like there's a lump in my chest and I don't know why. I think it's a leftover symptom of my cold. Whenever I move my neck/head around I can feel it and sometimes it makes me cough if I move too much.

Heart rate has been high, but I'm happy to report that all it really seems to do is make me breath heavier. I don't feel light headed or sick to my stomach.

That is all.

The Andrew Winger Ride

Since I was feeling guilty and shamed, I decided to get something done for sure yesterday. I emailed Andrew and planned to pick up my new tires and then go for a ride after work. Somehow it's easier to wake up at 6:30am to just go into work instead of riding.

The ride was a bonus for Andrew too since we planned to leave from his house and then ride to Peter's Canyon and then back. I guess he does this ride a lot and it makes it easier for him to post the ride if he has it GPS'ed.

Matt ended up hearing about the ride somehow and invited himself along. Haha.

It rained on Wednesday this week and it was looking like it might rain yesterday as well. The fear was that we'd ride on the road and public trails to get to the park and that the park would be closed. We were lucky it wasn't.

Anyways to the ride ...

As I was telling Matt and Andrew, I would really classify this ride as a sort of "Fullerton Loop" in South Orange County. Lots of riding around homes and across streets and on horse trails.

Matt and I changed in our cars (hope those women nearby didn't see me naked ... or Matt for that matter?) and after a little chatting we were off.

We road on the road for 2.5 miles before hitting a horse trail. The next 3-4 miles were on the horse trail and I was very surprised at how steep and technical some of them were. It's not to say the trails were hyper-technical, but I was expecting smooth fire road conditions. Instead several of the ups and downs had rocks and little drops. Cool!

We finally got to Peter's Canyon and I was thrilled to see that the park was open. I went to hop over the wood barrier at the entrance and ended up making a fool of myself. I got over, but when I landed both feet came out of my clips and I fell back onto the saddle. Lame. I need to practice bunny hops _bad_.

The time spent in Peter's was the standard loop from GeoLadders. Basically around the lake and then up Big Red. It's worth noting that going up Big Red was not easy for me. Mentally I think I'm in good shape and am a strong rider, but sometimes reality conflicts with my mental image of myself. My heart rate got up to 194 going up, which is too high. Even though it was high though, I felt ok. I wasn't dizzy or sick to my stomach. Just breathing really heavily.

Picture of Big Red:



Some guy in a red jersey ended up passing me after Big Red, but not by much. I tried to stay ahead for a while before giving up. I'm still fighting my cold from Thailand a little. I just can't get the deep breaths and my chest starts to really hurt if I push too hard. Not to mention the stupid cramps.

Matt and Andrew ended up hanging with him though and said he actually sucked. Haha. I love riding with these guys.

The ride back was fun. It was cool to see all the little trails around Peter's.

After the ride it was really nice to hang out with Andrew, his wife Bridget and Matt. We went and got food at the Tustin Brewery and just talked and relaxed. Overall a really good time, which was sorely needed. I need to keep burying the guilt and shame from earlier in the week. Ha.

Picture of where I saw a rattlesnake a few months ago (right after Big Red):

Guilt, Shame, Pain and Rain

I've been very busy lately and thus I find myself falling behind in posts.

I should explain each word from the post topic.

Guilt:

Counting Coup is a month away and I decided I needed to ride big on Saturday's (30+ miles) and then twice during the week. I also decided that Tuesday and Thursday would be the days I ride during the week. That would space it out well.

This last Tuesday I had planned to ride Whiting Ranch before work, but I slept in. I just couldn't bring myself to get up and go. One of the excuses I gave myself was that I could go at night because Matt and Andrew were doing Blackstar-Motorway at night. I figured I'd just tag along to Beek's and then go back to the car alone.

I feel guilty that I chickened out of BOTH rides. I ended up doing no riding on Tuesday.


Shame:

Shame comes in when I heard about how awesome the ride was Tuesday night. It's one of those things ... you want to be one of the guys bragging about a tough ride, not one of the guys hearing about it. It's an ego thing with me. So I'm ashamed I wimped out when my buddies stepped up.


Pain:

I just can't seem to kick my leg cramps. It's _very_ frustrating for me. Every day since the Harding-Motorway ride my legs have felt tight and raw. Sitting at work, driving in the car and especially on the bike. I feel the pain the most in my hamstrings. I'm trying to change my diet and stretch them out, but so far nothing is working.

I just ate 2 Tums this morning to try and stuff some calcium into my body. I guess Potassium and Calcium are what you need lots of to prevent cramping. Better believe I'm going to be eating banana's and Tums for a while.


Rain:

It has started raining a little in Socal lately, but that hasn't really stopped anyone from riding. Most of the local parks have only shut down for one or two days, which isn't bad at all. Let's hope the rain stays away a little longer.


I'm also putting up a picture I found from the 50 mile ride in December 2006. It's Matt and I hanging out after the ride.