Taco Tuesday is Dead

This is what it looks like when you ride at night:



Lots of people every week go out and enjoy Taco Tuesday. Not me. The last three weeks Taco Tuesday has been replaced with Torture Tuesday. Night rides up Blackstar with a group of guys that I cannot for the life of me keep up with. Haha. I find myself breathing heavy, pushing hard and watching as the lights of the leaders slowly pull away. Torture Tuesday.

Ok, maybe that's a bit dramatic. All in all a fast pace is good for me. Makes me stronger and gets me into better shape. It is tough on the old morale though.

Last night 7 of us rode Coal Canyon-Blackstar. There is nothing to report as far as fun sections or any of that. Just some thoughts on what last nights ride means in regards to Vision Quest.

1. Vision Quest has 11,200 feet of climbing. I only did 6,000 last night. Could I basically do another lap? I'm sure I could do another lap, but it would be a nightmare. A total and complete nightmare. Something like having an ex-girlfriend die and then her soul takes over your dog. Your dog now can talk and you can't kill it because you can still see what used to be your dog. Nightmare.

2. I was happy that my overall time was about 20 minutes faster than the last time I did Coal Canyon, but I'm not sure it's fast enough. 3:40 for 6,000 feet of climbing. I'd have to do another lap at the exact same pace to hit my Vision Quest goal of under 7:30. Yikes.

3. The nutrition seemed to really pay off last night. I don't know what it was but I didn't seem to fade too much towards the end of the ride. I started to be able to keep up with other guys the longer the ride went. I was proud to slowly catch up more and more as the ride went on. (Granted I was beat to the first few rest spots, so maybe "catch up" isn't the right phrase)

4. I'm wondering if there is different types of climbing. I mean isn't 1,000 feet of climbing the same no matter what? In other words if we want to compare time vs. elevation, doesn't it come out the same? For example if I want to climb 1,000 feet over 10 miles, I can go very fast because the average grade over 10 miles is low. If I want to climb 1,000 feet in a mile I will go slow, but I climb faster.

Which scenario is faster? I believe that the overall energy spent is less with the easier grade, so maybe that adds up to faster times over the course of a long ride?

I'm just to reconcile the idea that I felt tired after a 3:40 ride with 6,000 feet and I don't see how I could sustain that pace for another 6,000 feet of climbing. Something has to give.

(I finally passed my revised goal of 2,500 miles. New goal for the year is 2,675 which would give me 1,000 more miles than I had last year. Should get that easily.)

Out From Under

Me next to the Christmas tree on Trabuco. (Thanks Corby)



Work has had me under a rock for the past week or so. Combine that with going home for Thanksgiving and just a general apathy for posting and you get Ryan under a rock.

I'm crawling out just briefly to note a few things. I'm going to bullet point the post to make it easier on myself. Then it's back under the rock.

- The Tuesday night rides have turned into races. Not sure if everyone realizes it, but we've been racing. The worst part is that I've been losing - and badly. I just can't keep up with the pack and the last night ride left me feeling tired and sick. Hopefully I can change this by either stepping it up or by riding my own pace and just accepting DFL.

- Went on a ride with Corby and Melissa yesterday. We did Holy Jim to Trabuco, which is a pretty tough ride. I realized it's pretty comparable to Blackstar-Motorway, but for some reason it's much easier mentally for me. Both Melissa and Corby impressed me by hanging in there and finishing a tough ride. The climbs on Holy Jim and the descent down Trabuco are fairly technical and it takes a lot of effort physically to keep going.

- I've been feeling kind of sick over the past few days. It has been coming and going. Thanksgiving night I got really sick and thought it was just a one time thing. Then yesterday I had no appetite for lunch (probably a donut I ate after church), but ate a big dinner. This morning I had another minor stomach "attack" and have no idea why. I've also lost 2-3 pounds over vacation which is very strange. In general I haven't been eating a lot lately. I hope it doesn't affect my riding strength and stamina.

- I just realized a lot of what I do (eat, sleep, work) revolves around how it is going to change my time on the bike. I spend a lot of time planning to ride. Yikes.

- My seat is squeaking again and I just realized that one of the rails is completely off. Stupid Rock and Road supposedly fixed it for me, but obviously they didn't. I have to take care of this.

- I'm hoping to rest a lot this week and catch up on some missed sleep. It will improve my mood, my riding and just everything.

- Happy to reach 2,500 miles hopefully before the end of November.

How to Look Fast

First I wanted to post two pics Troy took from this past Saturday. The pics are nice because they break up the normal textual assault. (Wow that's crazy how one word has 'ua' and the next has 'au')

Andrew and I:




Group:




Now to "How to Look Fast" ...

I've discovered a new way to seem fast. It's been kind of a trend lately and it has been really great in boosting my self esteem. I basically have been riding certain routes for time (meaning I push) that I haven't ridden in a very long time.

Perfect example is the El Moro Epic we did last year compared to the exact same ride this year. I think my improvement was something around 30-40 minutes. Nice. That makes it seem like I'm really fast when the actual difference is just a matter of a year's worth of work.

Same thing with Blackstar-Skyline. The last time was a few months ago and we took singletracks (when you were supposed to take the fire road) and got lost at the bottom. All those things add up to kind of a slow ride. Tuesday night I beat my previous time by over 40 minutes! Haha.

Once again this morning with Coto-West Ridge. Usually I ride this ride with someone else and the last few times I think I've taken my singlespeed. I went from 1:17 to 1:08 with some pushing. That's an average speed of 12.8mph and my average heart rate for the hour was 176bpm. That's right. The AVERAGE heart rate was 176. Haha.

All in all I'm happy that I'm setting new personal bests, but I take it with a grain of salt. I am finding that I can push a lot harder than I thought I could. My body has become pretty good at taking a beating and then recovering. The cramping issue is pretty much gone and I'm amazed at how hard I can push and how big of a gear I can stay in for certain rides. The key is to get used to suffering on the bike. That'll help take the times down even lower.

(As a sidenote I think my blog has been up for over a year now? Or close to it at least. Crazy.)

(Another sidenote. I'm 1 mile away from 2,400 miles for the year. Almost at my revised goal of 2,500 miles for the year. Hooray.)

Number Crunching

This past weekend was pretty good for riding. Our full group was able to make it up to the Whittier area to bang out a few new trails. The complete group consists of Matt, Andrew, Mark, Troy and of course myself. It's been awesome riding with these guys for the past year because everyone is really solid on the bike and we all get along. No matter what I always know at least one of them is available on any given Saturday.

We ended up riding three loops for a total of about 29 miles with 5900 feet of elevation gain.

Some number crunching:

1. It took 3:33 for me to complete the three loops.
2. Average speed was about 8mph for every lap.
3. Blackstar-Motorway is 4500 feet of climbing. Maple Springs to Four Corners is about 2600 feet. We did 5900, so that's about halfway up to Four Corners if you started at Blackstar.


I realize the Blackstar-Motorway loop has more climbing that wouldn't be included in something like VQ, but still that is about right.

So what does that mean for my potential VQ time? Halfway to Four Corners at 3:30 ...

Probably get to Four Corners at 4:00 (if I'm lucky) and then to UHJ at maybe 4:45. Bottom of HJ at maybe 5:30. Not good. My goal is to hit the bottom of HJ at about 5:00.

Now if I hit Four Corners at 3:30 ... that would be something special. Either way I know that with the time and elevation from Saturday, I was too tired to finish strong for something like VQ.

All in all I need to do better. I want to ride at an endurance pace and find myself at Four Corners at around 3:30-3:45. That means a little over 2:00 to the top of the Motorway, 2:20 to the bottom which means a total time of ~1:20 to climb from the bottom of the Motorway to Four Corners.

We'll see what happens. Just need to keep pushing.



Other fun moments from the ride:

1. On the first lap I tried to keep pace with Alex (mt dew) and got schooled. He seemed to fly up the switchbacks at the start and I was blowing up trying to keep up with him. My heart rate was 180+ for the duration of the initial climb. Haha.

2. On the second lap I saw a guy in a white shirt ahead of us on the singletrack about halfway through the route. I thought it was a white cotton shirt so I figured he was a Fred. After the singletrack I saw him climbing this long section of loose dirt and figured I could catch him.

It was a lot of hard work but I eventually dragged him down before we reached the summit. Turns out the white shirt was a white jersey. He wasn't as slow as I thought he was. Haha.

3. The entire area must be near power lines or something because I've never seen so many morons riding without helmets before. I mean seriously. Is it that "un-cool" to wear a helmet? We got going over 30mph on some of the downhills and I know if I were to eat it without a helmet I'd be in serious trouble.

4. There were a lot of singletracks that could have been fun options. Wonder where they all go?

5. There was a dump near the initial switchbacks and we kept hearing the workers fire off bottle rockets to scare the seagulls. I don't think it was working.

6. Ran into a lot of hikers and dogs in bad spots on the trail. I hate going downhill and then having to slowly dodge people. Also why does every hiker automatically pick the best line to perch on?

(Troy took pics so I'll post them when he does.)

An Interview with Andrew Winger

So I'm reading a book about zombies called "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War" and it's pretty good. Since the book is an oral history, every chapter is divided into interviews with people that supposedly survived the zombie war.

I figured I would do the same thing as a ride report from Saturday. I'm going to pretend Andrew was on the ride because it makes it more colorful.

Anaheim Hills, California

[I am at the residence of Andrew Winger - avid mountain biker and adventurer. He reclines in his custom made recliner while sipping some green tea. A thoughtful look sweeps across his face as I ask about his ride Saturday. You can tell he has a lot to say.]

I showed up for the ride Saturday expecting a normal ride. Nothing too scary. I have been riding in Aliso Woods for quite some time you see. I am a downhill madman - if I do say so myself - and I am intimidated by very little. [He smiles.]

The ride started with a trip up Meadows. It was a tough ascent, but we all made it fine. That is a really tough climb to start out with.

Where did you go from there?

From there we used the connector to go over to Top of the World. Matt, Ryan and I all cleared the entire connector section behind the houses on the way to Top of the World. I always ride that part - no problem. I was surprised to see Ryan roll the entire thing. That first steep step down takes some guts.

From Top of the World you guys went to ...

Yeah we went over to a trail that Mark Chamley called "V-Ditch". I don't know what he calls it that. Maybe because he likes the TV show "V". Maybe because there is a ditch on the side of the trail in the shape of a "V". Who knows.

I didn't make this section unfortunately. I did see Ryan clear the entire descent though. That was surprising because he usually wimps out on crap like that. He does this thing sometimes where he approaches a technical section and then stops and walks back to do it and then stops again. It's retarded. That's why I was surprised he rode down the entire thing without stopping.

Did anyone crash?

Nah. Most of us walked some sections and we hit the bottom just fine. From there we followed the route that Chamley had showed us from the last time we poached this trail. We hopped over to the Dilley Preserve I think. Dilley. What a stupid name for a park. I mean really? Dilley? Hey that rhymes ...

Back to the ride ...

Oh yeah, sorry. Hey! My wife is making more tea. Want some? [He motions over to the kitchen area.] No? Ok.

Yeah so from there we actually took a turn. We went down a trail called ... Sunflower I think. Really nice singletrack. I love doing new singletrack. It had no technical sections and nothing steep. Just nice rolling singletrack that went on for a bit.

After that we crossed Laguna Canyon road and hit up Stagecoach near the Nix Center. Good times. Matt, Ryan and I really hammered up this section. We all missed a switchback near the top, but that was ok. Can't win 'em all.

So you finished Stagecoach and went to where?

[Andrew takes a long sip from his tea.] From there we hiked up a steep section going into Bommer. This stupid trail runner came bounding down the trail and like a freaking pinball he bounced arond and almost hit every single one of us as we were climbing. I mean really ... what an idiot.

After getting into Bommer we descended into what I think is Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. Not sure exactly. All I know is that we skipped "Cactus Carwash" and I'm happy for that.

We then rode _up_ Lizards and into El Moro. I wasn't excited about going up Lizards, but it ended up ok. Matt went in front so if any dumb storm trooper was going to take someone's head off - at least it wouldn't be mine.

Speaking of Matt ... he did some crazy downhill section twice in the middle of Lizards. Pretty impressive to watch. That guy is a crazy mofo.

I can see you're on a tight schedule, so I'll wrap it up ...

Well I do have to get going, but don't skip anything ...

Yeah whatever. [Andrew rolls his eyes.]

Ok so from there we hit Missing Link and ran into some more freaking runners. They told us El Moro was closed due to a "Red Flag" warning. Stupid commie park owners. They charge 10 bucks for parking and now close the entire park for some wind? Whatever. I swear ...

[Andrew mumbles for a few minutes about "commies" before coming back to the interview.]

We ended up going down New Emerald - or BVD - and then climbed back up to the ridge to go hit T&A (Laguna Ridge). I was amazed to see Ryan ride about 95% of the singletrack down. He rode over a lot of stuff I never expected him to make. He is either really crazy or really stupid or improving. I vote for stupid.

From there we rode across the road again and hiked up Stair Steps. This was hard for me because I've always had trouble with my knees and my back.

Once we got to the top of the ridge back in Aliso it was a quick trip down Rock-It before finishing.

So it was a good ride?

Yeah it was cool. I didn't time the ride, but Ryan did it in 3:29 and I know I was ahead of him for most of the ride. Take it Ryan! Haha. I felt good though ... I felt good.

I felt so good in fact that Matt, Ryan and I went out for a second lap. Up Cholla and down Rock-it.

If you had to describe the ride in one word, what would that be?

Shekinah.

Halloween Update

I decided to go easy on myself this year for Halloween. Last year was my first night ride - and it was up Harding. It was super cold and long and tough. It was memorable, but not all that fun at the time.

This year I strapped on my helmet again, but this time as a Mormon.



Anyways, back to real biking news ...

I rode Sunday and Tuesday this week for a combined total of 50 miles on singlespeed bikes. The first ride was on Matt's new 29er (gearing of 32-18) and it was pretty brutal. I struggled as there was a noticeable difference between my singlespeed (34-20) and his. His is just harder.

The 29er is called "Rita" so I nicknamed it "Rita the Vampire" because it's red and it sucks the life out of you when you ride it. Seriously. Those freaking 29 inch wheels can be really tough to get started. I did however clear the entire Coto Valley Loop. Not easy, but happy to get it done.

I'm not sure riding the SS always benefits me. Tuesday night on the Fullerton Loop I realized that even though I push really hard on the climbs (what climbs there are), I'm spinning and doing nothing on the flat sections.

I wonder how much energy is used on a route like that when you compare riding a SS to my normal geared bike. On the geared bike I'll gear way up on the flat sections so I can push a bit, but with the SS that's obviously not possible. It feels like I use _less_ energy on the SS for a route like the Fullerton Loop because of how spread out the climbing is.

The last note ...

By my calculations I have about 250 more miles left to reach my revised goal of 2,500 miles for the year. I started 2007 with a goal of 2,000, but I hit that a while ago. I'm really happy because last year around this time I felt horrible. I was tired and had to force myself to ride. This year I feel better and I've already passed my 2006 mileage total by 600 miles.

Awesome.