Freaking UGH

First some pictures I've been meaning to post ...

Matt and I at the end of the Coal Canyon training ride a few weeks ago ... (I had bonked bad in this pic)


On the way to Eagle (route was Blackstar-Eagle-Skyline-Coal-Blackstar) ...



Thanks to Troy for the pics.

Coal Canyon

Well my worst nightmare has sort of come true. I got sick over the weekend and it has stuck with me for the majority of this week. I'm starting to feel better now, but I know I haven't completely kicked it yet.

I'm proceeding as planned with my eating schedule and trying to sleep as much as I can, but I'm a little bummed out about the whole situation. It's far from ideal, but then again that kind of sums up mountain biking as a whole. Rides are never perfect. You just do the best with what you have.

Having said that I think I've put myself in a good position to succeed Saturday. It's the biggest ride of the year for me and I just want to get out there and do well.

Hopefully I can recover in time.

Feeling Dangerous

This last Saturday our little group rode a San Juan super loop in order to train for Vision Quest. San Juan super loops are basically 45-50 mile loops that always involve San Juan. Simple enough!

The big complication for me was that I had to ride the loop on my old Trek hard tail. Not cool. The bike just had its drive train replaced, so that was good. The bad news is that the front tire is the same tire the bike had when I bought it 4 years ago! The tread is thrashed. The final kick to the nuts was that I realized the front fork has about 1-2 inches of travel. Great.

I'm going to divide the ride into a few sections. I'm going to give each section a color code of RED, GREEN or BLUE.

RED means the section sucked.
BLUE means it was "just ok".
GREEN means it was good.


Section 1: West Ridge (BLUE)

I got left behind a bit on West Ridge because of the lack of suspension - riding over ruts from the rain with little suspension freaking hurts - and because I had to adjust my saddle height.

Adding insult to injury I managed to ride through quite a few muddy sections. The ride was not off to a good start.


Section 2: Oso (RED)

I hated going up Oso. We had to ride across a few creek crossings to get to Oso and every climb seemed to be steep, loose and void of good lines.

I was in the front of the group at the base of Oso but I stopped so I could drink some Cytomax. I had to stop to drink because I forgot to put a water bottle cage on the bike and so I had to carry it in my Camelbak.

Stopping to drink put me in the very back of the group.

The climb was tough and the bike sounded horrible due to all the mud and sand that we had been through. It had only been maybe an hour and a half into the ride and I was already upset and frustrated.


Section 3: Cold Springs (GREEN)

Every now and then I get surprised on a ride. This was a fantastic surprise. I thought we were going to have to ride San Juan Creek backwards to get to San Juan from Casper's, but instead we took Cold Springs.

It was an awesome feeling to ride through these two wooden posts in the middle of nowhere on a secret fire road to connect to San Juan. The terrain was not suited for a hard tail, but it was an amazing shortcut.

It just feels cool to ride a "hidden" trail, especially when it's super green and remote.


Section 4: San Juan to Cocktail (BLUE)

This wasn't that much fun. I tipped over on one of the lower switchbacks and when I put my hand down I jammed my right thumb and it still hurts a little.

Andrew and I both noticed the Trek's seem to handle the lower switchbacks better than our full suspension bikes. Not sure why that is.

I realized something on this ride as well. Whenever we break I always let almost everyone in our group go ahead of me. Then I get pissed that they are always ahead of me later on. Makes perfect sense though right? If they go ahead of me it makes sense they are going to stay in front. Haha.

I was surprised at how much I rode on the Trek going to Cocktail. I really love the last few miles to Cocktail because there is no exposure and it's just plain fun. I had to stop to adjust my bike seat (the bolt got loose and changed the angle dramatically), but otherwise it was good. I even cleared almost everything that I would normally clear on my full suspension bike.


Section 5: Cocktail to Blue Jay (RED)

Lame. Stupid. Frustrating. Crotch numbing. Painful. That's how I felt about the ride from Cocktail via New San Juan to Blue Jay. The hard tail really showed how annoying it could be on this section.

Andrew and I stayed in the back again and ended up getting passed by a couple that started out from Cocktail maybe 5 minutes after we left. Normally I would ride 100% of New San Juan before the climbing begins, but this last Saturday I walked quite a few sections. I just don't have the confidence in the Trek. It's a bigger frame and just feels awkward going over technical terrain.

Also the trip up Upper San Juan was really tough. There are quite a few technical spots that go for maybe 5-10 yards and the hard tail carries no momentum at all in those sections. You get over a rocky spot and then come to a stop. You have to constantly push and fight to keep the bike moving forward whereas on the full suspension bike you can roll and keep your momentum going.

Two quick notes: A stupid boy scout almost killed me by not moving over on a very narrow section of trail with exposure. Thanks little asian punk dude.

I was on a tight line on a climb and rode into a branch that left me with a pretty cool scar on my right arm.


Section 6: Blue Jay to Trabuco (GREEN)

This was pretty easy for me actually. I managed to stay in the front of the group and felt good the entire way. I just spun away and was surprised at how well I did. Made me feel like my slow trip up San Juan was more due to the bike and not my fitness.

Also I saw this girl I rode behind on Counting Coup at Trabuco when we stopped. Dang that girl is freaking cute.


Section 7: Trabuco (BLUE)

This wasn't much fun. I won't label it as RED though because I rode everything and didn't crash or have to stop. However the combination of no traction on the tires and the lack of good suspension made it harder than it should have been.

I really missed my hydraulic brakes on Trabuco. The brakes on the Trek engage quickly which is good when you want to feel like you have some braking power, but bad when you want to save your hands.

It's nice to have hydraulic brakes because you can get them to engage really close to the grip and yet still have power. The closer you can get the brake lever to the grips and yet still maintain power, the better. The farther away the engagement happens, the more energy you spend trying to hold the lever and keep the bike under control.


Section 8: West Horsetheif (RED)

The trip up Horsetheif was really difficult for me. Hiking with a bike is not one of my strong points. I can hike without a bike really well and I can ride up hills, but hiking with a bike ... not so good.

I timed myself and it took me 43 minutes to get to the top. My plan was to walk the entire thing and to be consistent. I think on race day I won't have the energy to ride any of it so I wanted to try to simulate that as best as possible.

I took several breaks on the switchbacks to give my back a break. That must be what having a failing back feels like. I would have to slowly straighten my back out because it hurt so much. I couldn't just stand straight up.

It was definitely a mental challenge because the hike feels endless and the footing is so poor. Every step felt like it was a step on ice. I had a hard time keeping my feet from slipping.


Section 9: West Horsetheif to Holy Jim (GREEN)

I actually felt pretty good on this part of the ride. Physically I felt strong and mentally I was in a good place. Just like the climb from Blue Jay to Trabuco I started to work my way towards the front of our group, but when Troy got a flat tire I decided to stop and wait to make sure he got it fixed ok.

It took a little longer than I thought it would, but that was fine. When we finally got rolling the rest of our group was long gone.

Troy and I ran into a guy that was lost on his motorcycle on Main Divide at the gate for Indian Truck Trail. He was trying to get around the gate on this huge bike and we stopped to help him because it looked like he was going to roll down the hill and get really hurt without some support. What a guy.

I felt really strong as Troy and I came rolling in to the top of Holy Jim.


Section 10: Holy Jim (RED)

"What the hell?" "Uh oh." Those were the thoughts going through my head. Actually "going through my head" is not the best way to put it. Nothing was really going through my head because I started to space out on Holy Jim. It's more like:

"What the ... Hey look! A flower! I was thinking about something ... oh yeah, I like jelly beans! Oh wait is that a turn?"

Jake said it best when he said he was "feeling dangerous". I couldn't describe it any better. I felt dangerous. I felt like I was well on my way to a gnarly crash because I was so gone mentally.

So I didn't exactly set any records coming down Holy Jim. I took my time and walked a lot to try and make sure I didn't get injured before race day.

I need to figure out how to get my mind to be more active and engaged so I feel confident on descents.


Section 11: Trabuco Creek to Finish (GREEN)

Felt good again. I rode in the big ring and the hard tail actually didn't bother me much at all coming out back to the cars. I seemed to have a lot of energy and it felt cool to pass cars on the road.

Also some girls we rode past gasped when they saw us and that made me feel good. It was an, "Oh my gosh those guys are so hot on their bikes" gasp. Nice.


So to wrap up, the ride was good for training, but tough for morale. I don't like finishing rides feeling dangerous. I also cramped up later when I got home. It had been a few hours after the ride and I was trying to sleep when my right leg cramped up. I thought I had the cramping under control but I guess not.

I think it cramped in part because I was standing a lot more than I normally would because of the hard tail. The muscles that locked were muscles that I don't think have ever blown up on me before.

I was considerably slower than the rest of the group for the ride which is a little discouraging. I can make a laundry list of excuses but that's lame. I just need to work harder I guess to keep up.

Rigid Retardation

Andrew bugged me last night about not posting in a while, so I figured I'd catch up a little with the blog.

The last two Tuesday nights I've been out riding Blackstar with the usual suspects. I've been forced to ride my singlespeed since my normal bike has a broken suspension link. Even better is that stupid Specialized sent the wrong part to the bike shop, so my time on my other bikes has to be extended.

I'm going to be really honest and say that I've become very tired of riding rigid. It used to be really fun to ride rigid on Blackstar, but that was before the rain and the ruts that come with the rain.

In the last 3-4 months I've crashed _THREE TIMES_ on Blackstar in the last 2 miles of the descent coming back from Beek's. I'm sick of it.

The ruts on Blackstar are wide and I'm not good at bunny hopping. Everyone tells me to just jump over them, but it's not easy jumping with a rigid bike. You get no spring at all when you push down and the landing always hurts.

Add to the problem the fact that the singlespeed has the worst brakes I've ever used on any bike ever and, and, and ... well at this point I'm just making excuses.

Ok enough excuses. I suck on descending Blackstar on my rigid bike. There are lots of reasons, but the fact is I just plain suck. I can climb just fine on it, but the trip down is problematic.

Here is a picture Slater took of me the other night after I ate it:



He posted it on his blog: Trail Time

I need to practice my bike handling skills and I need to fix the brakes on the singlespeed. I'm planning on putting on my old manual disc brakes that I had on my Specialized. The singlespeed has everything I need already to mount the brakes. The hubs are ready and the frame has the mounting places for them, so it's just a matter of making the time to put them on. I'm planning on doing some bike work this weekend if it rains.

Deja Vu

Saturday was a pretty good training ride. Started with Jake, Jason, Matt, Doug and Armondo and had to part ways with Doug and Armondo towards the end because they had to get back home before a certain time.

The ride was: Up Holy Jim, up to Upper Holy Jim, down UHJ, take Main Divide to Blue Jay, down San Juan (using New San Juan), take San Juan Creek to Caspers and then West Ridge back to the cars.

We had planned to do a longer ride but decided to cut it short because a) some of us were feeling tired and b) my bike broke.

The ride as a whole was much better than the week prior. I didn't bonk and I felt pretty good when we finally finished. I ended up eating three Clif bars, four bags of sports beans and went through three bottles of Cytomax and two full camelbacks before the ride was over. It paid off.

There were a ton of people out as well. We saw quite a few riders on Main Divide and then probably 40-50 people on San Juan. I guess there was some running race up San Juan because we saw trail markers and a ton of people with number plates on.

I had an "OH CRAP THIS IS THE END OF THE WORLD" moment on Main Divide which really scared me. I was maybe 100 yards from the top of Horsetheif when I looked down and noticed my GPS was gone. It had fallen off.

I realized it most likely fell off on the fire road right before that point. The road is steep and rocky and I figured it had just bounced off. Two guys had passed me a few minutes prior going the opposite way and I thought they might find it. I ended up turning around and riding back to look for it. I actually cramped when I started going back so I started to walk.

Thank God for two things. First that the two guys ahead of me stopped and didn't keep riding. Second that they found my GPS. I caught up with them and they gave it back to me and I was _really_ happy.

The last crazy thing to happen was that my bike broke. The suspension link in the back cracked in half and even though the bike was still rideable, it wasn't good news.

I took the bike in on Sunday and hopefully I'll have it back before Saturday. The good news is that Specialized has the part and I think I'm going to get it replaced for free.



Until I get it back though, it's singlespeed time. =(

Overdrawn

A practical example from life:

If I have 100 dollars in a bank account and I write a check for 200 dollars, what happens when the check is cashed? The account is overdrawn and you owe the bank money. You also get hit with a fee.

This last Saturday I think I took out too much energy. I had a pretty bad bonk coming back from Sierra Peak and I'm still trying to recover from it. I've been eating a ton and trying to sleep a lot, but I can't seem to break even. Maybe my body assessed me a fee for taking out too much.

Ever since the bonk I've been having trouble focusing. After the ride the rest of the weekend was mainly spent staring at walls and zoning out. I've started to feel better, but my mind is still fuzzy.

It's really frustrating because my muscles feel fine but my ability to focus is just gone. I need to make sure I take more food with me for the longer rides and then maybe I won't have to focus so much on recovery.

It is nice to note though that the ride Saturday was 54 miles and 9,300 feet of climbing. That makes it the hardest ride I've ever done when you consider mileage and elevation. Not the worst experience I've ever had on a bike - but the hardest ride in terms of pure numbers.

I'm happy that training for Vision Quest is on track, but I'm worried that the training is going to take too much out of me before race day. I'm in big trouble if I feel like this the week before the event.