Noteworthy

All of my rides over the past few months have been good, but not really noteworthy. Rides tend to merge into one giant memory because nothing really special or exciting happens. This Saturday was definitely an exception for me.

The first thing that was different was the time I woke up at. 4:50AM. Ugh. I've slowly adapted to waking up early, but this was just too much. I kept waking up all night and looking at the clock to see what time it was.

Doug House was nice enough to let all of us carpool over to Blue Jay in his van. I remember thinking on the drive over in the dark, "What am I doing? I don't want to ride right now. I want to sleep. This sucks."

When we finally got to Blue Jay we all got out of the van and realized that it was _freezing_ outside. I ended up wearing four layers on top and was still very cold.

We rode up from Blue Jay to Trabuco and dropped Trabuco instead of continuing on Main Divide. It felt great to ride Trabuco fresh. It only took about 20-25 minutes to get to Trabuco so we were all really strong going down it. The trail was in fantastic shape.

From the bottom of Trabuco we headed up Holy Jim and I actually cleared every switchback except for one left turn. I even cleared the one left switchback at the top for the first time. I think the rain and tackiness of the trail made clearing the switchbacks possible for me. I usually miss 4-5 on the way up.

Once we got to the top of Holy Jim we took the fire road up to the peak. I've never climbed this before so I was a little nervous. Everyone I've talked to has said it's a grind and not the most fun climb.

You can divide the climb from the top of Holy Jim to the peak into two sections. The first is the climb to Upper Holy Jim and the second is the section from UHJ to the peak.

The first half wasn't easy, but wasn't too bad. The road was icy and muddy and this made climbing harder, but it wasn't horrible. I decided to spin on the way up and it helped a lot. I wanted to try and keep an endurance pace and it paid off because I was able to push harder later in the ride.

We ran into Ozzie and Frank near UHJ and talked for a bit before going on to the peak. The second half was really tough. The road was covered in snow and the only way to ride on it was to ride in tracks left by a jeep. It was really hard to get traction in the icy jeep tracks, but it was rideable for the most part. I'm proud to say I only walked maybe 20-30 yards of the entire climb. I wanted to ride it all but some parts were just too much for me. There must have been 6 inches of snow on the road.

Once at the peak we all stopped to eat a bit and enjoy the view before heading back down. My stupid rear brake sounded like a dying seal and I think I've worn my pads down which would explain the noise. It was quite the adventure descending from the peak in the snow. When I finally reached UHJ I looked down and realized that I was filthy from the mud. I think it was the dirtiest I've ever been on a ride.

I hadn't been down UHJ in a while so I was a little nervous, but it turned out ok. I walked quite a few switchbacks but rode most everything else.

From the bottom of UHJ back to Trabuco was a blast. I really love this section of Main Divide. It just feels good to hammer away and push. "The Wall" is the only part where I have to spin down and can't attack. Other than "The Wall", the grade is very manageable the entire way and it seems to suite me really well.

It was a tough ride because of the elevation versus mileage, but it went well. I think if I slow the pace down a bit I can extend it out for another few hours which is what I'll have to do for Vision Quest.

The nice thing about the ride Saturday is that the climbing is a lot harder than the fire roads we'll have on VQ day. Holy Jim and the snow on Main Divide made climbing a lot tougher than an ascent on Blackstar and Maple Springs would be.

However it was only half the elevation of VQ and I started to cramp a bit towards the end. Over the next month I need to ride a lot more on Saturdays to get ready. Hopefully I can spend almost the entire day outside riding to get a feel for VQ.

Fighting Against the Light

I've now had two lights die on me.

First my Light and Motion light, which I dearly love, died on a San Juan ride and now the replacement NiteRider Headtrip has died on me. I didn't even get an hour and a half out of the brand new NiteRider before it went dark. Unreal.

I'm going to try to return the NiteRider to Performance tomorrow to get a new one, but I'm kind of sick of dealing with all lights right now.

Last few night rides I've had to borrow lights and often times ride near someone to leech off of their light.

Last year before Counting Coup my rear suspension failed and it had to be sent back to Fox. I got it back less than a week before the event. This year it seems that rain and dead lights are the stumbling block.

I'm starting to get nervous because between darkness and rain I'm starting to feel fat, slow and unprepared.

Might be time to buy a trainer.

Vision Quest Training Update

I wish I had some really good information about my recent Vision Quest training, but I don't. I haven't been riding a ton lately. Instead I've been trying to fit in smaller rides here and there to make up for what I should be doing.

Hopefully starting this week I can pick up the pace and get serious about training. I need to put in miles and more importantly, elevation.

I'm going to run some numbers later to help in my training (to help evaluate where I'm at), but the big number I'm shooting for right now is "7.5". 7.5mph is the pace I need to maintain for Vision Quest in order to hit my time goals.

Right now I seem to be averaging a 9pmh+ pace on rides 4 hours and below (depending on elevation gain obviously), so that is good news. The bad news is that like I just said, that average is high because of the low amount of climbing.

The final bit of bad news is that PaulV on GeoLadders did Vision Quest last year in 7.5 hours (which is my goal) - and in general he is head and shoulders faster than I am. Makes me think my goal is unrealistic, but we'll see.

When Everything That Can Go Wrong Does

So last night was my first time on San Juan at night. Plan was just to go to Cocktail and back. It might be a little dramatic to say that everything went wrong, but certainly the overall situation was far from ideal.

Things that failed:

1. Me

I'm not sure what it was but I felt kind of out of it physically. I didn't feel horrible and I wasn't going to bonk, but I thought I would feel stronger. Part of it could have been that the group was pretty fast in general.

2. Bike

Ugh. I've been fighting with my bike for the last month or so like it's an ex-wife. I just can't seem to get the components functioning correctly. I'm taking the bike in _again_ today to see if they can fix a few things. Why can't it just work well and stay that way?

3. Trail

The trail wasn't horrible, but it wasn't good either. Mud, ruts and loose dirt made it more of a struggle than I would have liked. It was by far the best option for riding after all the rain we've been having, but it is definitely more rutted than it normally is. Everyone knows it's the best "rain" trail so it gets hammered a bit more than other trails hence the ruts.

4. Light

I always knew this day was coming. The day when my light just stops working. Ugh. I turned on the light after mounting it and it came on and then when I touched the cable connecting the light to the battery, the light died. I wasn't able to get it to turn on after that.

Jake and Jason were nice enough to lend me their backup lights and so I decided to use those to ride. I might have been wiser to just drive home. The lights were very dim and any time I moved the handlebars the entire trail just went dark. I was constantly riding into ruts and having to walk a lot of sections I would normally ride. Several times I just pointed the bike towards where I thought the trail was and prayed that there weren't any rocks or ruts because I couldn't see.


I ended up crashing on the way down on one of the upper switchbacks but it wasn't too bad. I got several scrapes and I think I broke my rear shifter (which I _just_ replaced!) but other than that nothing too bad.

Unless I can get the light working again there won't be any night riding for a bit until I can get a new light.

I swear sometimes I hate mountain biking. Things wear out so easily and are so expensive to replace.

Year in Review - Part 3: Goals

Ok this doesn't qualify for "Year in Review" since it will be focused on this next year, but it fits in the series of wrapping up one year and starting a new one.

I have a modest set of goals for this year. So here we go ...

- Finish Vision Quest in under 7:30. Might be too aggressive, but I'm going to kill myself trying to reach that goal.
- Do The Traverse and Toad Festival. Already signed up, so no big deal.
- Do a 12 hour or 24 hour event. I've done a 12 hour event so I know what that's like. I'd love to do a 24 hour event.
- Do a small venue race. Maybe Mt. Sac or maybe a smaller Rim Nordic. Just to see what's up. I chickened out this last year. =(
- Get faster. I don't want to set a mileage goal this year. I just want to get faster and improve my times. If that means riding LESS, than so be it.

Trails I want to ride that I've never been on:

- Telonics
- Five Oaks
- Smash Face
- Catalina (the island)
- Cadillac (connector from Trabuco Creek to Old Camp)
- Trail that goes down to Modjeska from Main Divide (can't remember name, but same side of the mountain as Motorway)
- Something in Arizona
- Something in Utah
- Coldwater
- Indian Truck Trail
- East Horsetheif (where is this anyways?)

That's it for now. I want to ride smarter and faster and not always kill myself by riding when I'm sick and riding when I'm too tired. Quality over quantity this year.

Year in Review - Part 2: Accomplishments

So I set a few goals for 2007 and I'm happy to say I hit all of them. I rode 2,700 miles which was 700 miles more than my goal. I also wanted to get better at technical riding and downhill riding and I feel like I hit that goal as well.

The final set of goals involved a few races and I'm happy to say I did well on all three. I beat my goal of under 6 hours for Counting Coup and I got third in my class for The Traverse. Also Matt and I took third (THIRD NOT FOURTH) at 12 Hours of Temecula in the duo category.

I wanted to make a brief list of climbs and descents I was excited to ride from 2007 ...

Climbs (only listing stuff I cleared 100% of):

- Poles in El Moro
- Canyon Acres near Aliso
- Cougar Pass (recent)
- "Hell" hill in Malibu (not that bad)
- Every climb in Weir Canyon (a few are pretty tough)

SS Climbs:

- Big Red in Peter's
- Gate to gate at Blackstar
- All of Skyline
- Climb to "the ball" on Main Divide
- Tough climb in Limestone (I think they had their own 3 B's)
- Mustard in Whiting

Descents:

- Old and New San Juan (this was scary at the start of 2007)
- Viejo Tie
- Joplin
- Noble Canyon in San Diego
- Los Pinos
- Bell Ridge
- T&A or Laguna Ridge (rode ~90%)
- Stair Steps (rode ~90%)
- Chiquito
- Clearing 100% of Weir Canyon
- Rattlesnake in El Moro

I basically listed anything that was an accomplishment for me. I was pretty scared of technical riding at the start of 2007, but I've grown to enjoy technical riding and have made some good progress.

Some trails I've improved on time wise (getting good personal bests):

- Beek's gate to gate.
- Harding gate to gate.
- Old Camp & Luge.
- Luge (short lap)
- Whiting, Live Oak
- Coto Valley Loop
- Coto, West Ridge
- Blackstar to Sierra
- Blackstar to Skyline
- Blackstar to Motorway

Only reason I mention these trails is that I ride them quite a bit and for each ride I really tried to push hard to get a good time. I was proud of being able to knock off big minutes for each ride.

Year in Review - Part 1: Memories

I'd like to start off with my favorite memories from this past year with each of the guys I ride with.

Matt:

- Seeing Matt train hard and finish Counting Coup super fast.
- Watching Matt clear "Stairway to Hell". I realized at that point how much better he has become on the bike. Amazing.
- Sitting on the side of the trail before "The Wall" while training for The Traverse. Both of us were dead tired.
- Seeing Matt dominate on The Traverse. He would have won money if he had competed in the Expert category.
- 12 Hours of Temecula. Enough said. I will still always tell people we got third.
- Doing an extra Luge lap at night to beat Trekstorm. Talked me into it.

A great year of riding with Matt. Lots of fun night rides, some good singlespeed adventures and it's just been incredible to watch how fast and strong he has become on the bike.


Andrew:

- Just like Matt he dominated Counting Coup. What a great feeling when I rode in and we all realized we were top 20.
- Challenging Andrew to a race in Riley ... and losing. Haha.
- Seeing Andrew finally crash at the Toad Festival. He never crashed before this that I knew of!
- Hiking up Horsetheif and being miserable. Good times.
- Moving Andrew into his new house all day and then riding Weir Canyon. We're awesome.
- Hanging back and fixing a million flat tires on Los Pinos.
- Being dropped on a trip to Beek's. I swear I almost had him had he not stopped to check out his tire. Ha.

Andrew always seems to have another gear. I'll push to catch him and then he pushes a bit harder and I'm left in the dust. Sometimes literally! His favorite words from this last year: Awesome, Shekinah


Troy:

- Cracking his frame during a training ride for The Traverse. First time I've ever seen that.
- Troy being the only guy in our group to do Vision Quest and FINISH it.
- Chasing Troy and being chased on the SART ride. Was fun to push.
- Having Troy ride behind me on Counting Coup up Maple Springs and pushing me on the back a bit to help. Thanks! Ha.
- Giving me water and encouragement on Bell Ridge. What a tough ride.
- Being patient with all the flats on Los Pinos.
- Finishing the year on the Project Rwanda ride. Troy knows everyone! Ha.

Several times this year I had no one to ride with and I was able to give Troy a call and go riding with him. Always good to ride with someone that is always positive and fast!


Mark:

- One of my favorite memories of the entire year was when Mark rubbed out my cramps on Los Pinos. Hahahaha.
- Riding Harding-Motorway after I got back from Thailand and talking nutrition. The advice worked. (He recommended a good book)
- Meeting Zippy - Mark's new best friend. The inside jokes never end from that ride.
- Riding with Mark DOWN Mustard in Whiting on our "Ride of Shame".
- Going on the rain ride down Horsetheif. What an experience. Sand, mud and water everywhere. Mark's idea I believe!

Mark always comes up with the biggest toughest rides for our group. If it's a long and tough ride, then Mark wants to do it. A great guy to ride with.


Corby:

- Corby ate it in Mammoth! The only time I've ever seen him fall! Haha.
- Watching Corby make the transition to clipless pedals. Congrats!
- Seeing Corby gut it out after moving Andrew in. Not easy to do, but he got it done!
- Going up to Beek's several times on my SS. Corby enjoyed seeing me suffer. Ha.
- Having Corby show us the Phat Tire loop. We had a good thing going when we had sunlight after work.
- Three words: Lower. Rock. Creek.

I was amazed to see Corby progress this year. He is riding a ton and can clear tons of climbs he couldn't clear the year before. He has also become very comfortable on technical terrain. Fantastic year for him.


I'd also like to thank Doug House, Steve (chaos), Mark Chamley, John Colvin, Jason (rushak) and all the guys I met this year on various rides for being patient with me and helping me become a better rider. Too many memories to list.

Also I want to give special mention memory wise to the entire Mammoth trip. Corby, Matt and Andrew ... that was one of the best vacations I've ever had. I couldn't believe how amazing it was. Adventure, laughter and total ownage all weekend. It was perfect.

Project Rwanda - Long Version

(Another pic from the ride on Tijeras Creek)

Last year was the first Project Rwanda 50 mile ride and I remember it being pretty tough. I bonked at about the 35 mile mark and it made the rest of the ride pretty miserable. I was determined this year to stay strong and finish well.

I don't have a ton to write about since the details were kind of boring. Our group of maybe 5-6 guys broke up right from the start. Matt and Andrew took off and I ended up trying to chase them to catch up. I finally caught Andrew and then we waited for Mark and Troy so we could ride together. That lasted for a while until Troy and I broke off. I rode with Troy to the top of Cougar Pass where we picked up a friend of his and then the three of us finished the rest of the route together.

The course this year was quite a bit easier. It didn't feature any long climbs (except maybe for Cougar Pass) and the elevation gain was only 5,900 feet. My goal for rides like that is always to hit a 10mph average. That is the magic number. I think I ended up a 10.6 or something, so that's good. The total ride time was 4:23 which was respectable but not that impressive.

I was happy though that I was able to push for most of the ride and that I was able to sustain it. I'm hoping that rides like this are just deposits in the bank that I can cash out when Vision Quest rolls around.

The BBQ after was a lot colder this year and it seemed that not as many people stuck around to eat after the ride. It was cool to see Mike, Doug House, Doug Andrews, Matt, Andrew, Troy, Mark and Jason though. Always fun to recap the year and talk riding.

A Solid Push

I wanted to get this post out of the way because I have two other posts to write and each one will be fairly lengthy.

I spent New Year's Eve playing Rock Band on the XBOX and got to sleep at about 2:30am. Then I got up at 6AM and headed off to do Holy Jim-Trabuco. It was murder getting up to ride after only 3.5 hours of sleep. It was made more difficult when Andrew called at 6AM to back out. That meant only Troy and I would be riding.

Troy had just done Trabuco-Bell Ridge the day before (a very tough ride) and so he peeled off once we got to Holy Jim proper. Another rider named Dave (I think it was Dave?) hung with me until Main Divide which was nice. He was a strong rider. I saw him ride several sections on Holy Jim that I've never seen anyone ride. It was impressive.

From the top of Holy Jim all the way back to my car I rode alone. My personal best was 3:21 and I wanted to beat it so I tried to push a bit. I ended up with 3:05 as my new personal best which is really exciting. I love it when I can get a new best time.

I cramped a bit at 2:25 and had to spin the last half mile until I reached Trabuco to save the legs. That was frustrating and I might have had a chance to get under 3 hours if I had had more in the legs. I think the difference is not drinking Cytomax. Gatorade just does nothing when it comes to cramping and keeping the legs in good shape.

My next goal is to break the 3 hour mark for this ride. I really think I can do it. I just need to be a little stronger (no cramps) and attack a few of the hills better. It's very attainable.