Climber Wannabe

Racing has Started 2010

2010-03-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

I've had an interesting start to the new season. Normally, I'd hit a bunch of climbing races. This time, I've done five flat races, three on my TT bike. I opened with Beat the Clock (a training series) and beat my old best time by ~30 s. Not as much as I would've expected given the supposed slipperiness of my TT bike. Keep that thought in mind. The following weekend, I did the Berkeley TTT. It was a bit longer, but it didn't feel as hard as Beat the Clock. We had a mechanical on course, but still finished 3rd out of 6. I'll take that for now.

The Madera Stage Race was this past weekend. We got luxurious start times, and I rolled to the TT course with hours to spare. It was very windy and very cold for us soft northern Californians. I decided to go with a disc in the rear despite the risk of being blown off course. I had a very good race pacing and power-wise, setting new power records from 20 min on to the end of the race. Unfortunately, as the BtC result showed, I'm not aero. I killed it into the headwind and still lost time. A good point to work on for the future, and relatively simple compared to fitness, I hope. It's something you can throw money at, after all. Next up was the crit. Mind you, I haven't done a crit in four years, and have maybe done four ever. The wind was howling. I was surfing around near the back just trying to remember how to sit in a pack when the prime bell rang. OK, go faster. Then the field split when I rotated toward the back and someone smartly countered after the prime lap. I surged past the pack from the rear and bridged solo to the break. Unfortunately, the break had already split so I was now in the chase. Drilled it for another 40 minutes and lost 53 sec on the break, but at least made a decent move for my first crit back. The next day was the RR. Not too hard, but had to go to the bathroom incredibly badly. Need to learn to pee while riding; I've been told it's an art form. DNF. Next up are some hillier road races where my weight might actually be an advantage for a change!

Back at it

2010-01-24T20:58:00.000-08:00

Back in November, I was honored to be selected for the John E. Peckham Memorial Scholarship. Since then, I've been training much more consistently, especially for winter. I'm really looking forward to this season, and figured I'd go all in. So I got a TT bike:

And have been riding a bunch in the NorCal rain, which was fairly drenching over the past few days. I think I'm going to open up with a TTT in February, but might do a MTB race just for fun this coming weekend. For now, I'm happy to dial in my pedaling technique and get more comfortable riding in inclement weather while building my fitness.

Things I really like now:
25mm tires
Gore-Tex jackets and gloves
Rain bikes

Quarq Accuracy

2009-11-08T23:51:00.001-08:00

I've ridden one stretch of road enough to try to see how repeatable the Quarq CinQo is. It's the stretch from the bottom of Montebello to the school. So, we can play some games with numbers. Let's assume that I didn't change wheels (I probably put a set on that weighs ~1/2 lb lighter for some runs) and that my body weight and clothes were constant. Here are the results:

time	average power	deviation	kJ
00:14:09	284	101.91%	241.1
00:15:39	250	100.24%	234.8
00:12:28	326	101.78%	243.8
00:12:39	314	99.83%	238.3
00:13:33	286	98.21%	232.5
00:13:03	302	99.40%	236.5
00:12:37	311	98.70%	235.4

So, the mean is 237.5 kJ, and I've tabulated the deviation from this. It looks like the Quarq is well within its +/-2% accuracy spec, but of course, this spans a lot of time and probably many variations in weight and equipment. Oh yeah, I'm neglecting the confidence in the mean and such things that probably matter. I'm basically impressed that a device as rugged as this can give such repeatable data day after day.

OK, enough geeking out for a day.

Coast down estimation of drag and rolling resistance - Part 1

2009-09-01T22:17:00.000-07:00

So I promised some geekery here. The goal was to do a simple test and try to estimate rolling resistance and drag coefficients. The simplest thing anyone can do is a coast down: you accelerate to speed, stop pedaling, and coast to a halt (or close to it.) So, to do the analysis, you first need to solve the equation that describes the motion:

where:
ρ is the density of air
c_rr is the coefficient of rolling resistance
C_dA is the drag coefficient multiplied by the frontal area of bike and rider
m is the mass of rider and bike
g is the acceleration due to gravity
v is the velocity of rider and bike

You can use separation of variables to get a rather gnarly looking expression that describes the coast down behavior of a rider in a constant position:

where I've defined:

I went out and did several coast-down tests in two positions (straight arm in drops, hands on tops,) and covering the same course forward and backward. The reason for this is that and slope will look like a change in rolling resistance, so if you take the average rolling resistance derived from the two directions, that should cancel out any error due to slope. It does NOT cancel out wind, so I did this at midnight, which is typically fairly wind-free. I downloaded the data from the powertap and used the nonlinear fitting function in Excel (blah :() to find values for c_rr, C_dA and t₀. I then used R to see if there was a statistical difference in rolling resistance and drag between the two positions I used, and to estimate the error in those values. Next time, I'll show some data.

Teetering on the edge

2009-08-31T08:49:00.000-07:00

One of the challenges of training is getting close to the edge, but not falling off. The human body has a strange negative feedback mechanism. Do too much physical work and you have problems sleeping, and you slow down, making you think you have to do more work to compensate. I've overtrained before, but this year I've been pretty good (so far) at walking up to that edge and not going over it. This weekend was pretty close to it for me; after riding ~5 hours in 105 degree weather with a bunch of climbs on Saturday and three times up Mt Diablo on Sunday, I'm due for some rest.

A Rarity

2009-08-24T22:57:00.001-07:00

My wife came with me to the race. It's probably the only road race worth going to to watch the race, though there may be others in cool places to visit. She grabbed this photo of me:

So I don't just make up stories about riding...

University Road Race

2009-08-24T19:58:00.000-07:00

Ah, University. As a simpleton racer, this is a race I can actually train for. It goes up, then it goes down. I usually like that kind of thing. Things started in earnest, with Menso de Jong rolling off the front repeatedly, and Chris marking him early on in the race. The pack reeled them in several times before Menso finally broke the elastic and rode away from everyone in true pro MTBer style. Chris followed after him, but got reeled back in one last time. Somehow, I managed to remember to drink without him there to remind me, but from now on I'm gonna have "god, do I have to mother you?" stuck in my head in Chris's voice.

Like I said, I'm simple racer, so I followed some simple rules for the rest of the race: coast up to the front on the descent, drift back on the climb, and never stand on the kicker unless absolutely necessary. I closed gaps where necessary as attrition really set in after 10 laps, but basically sat in pretty comfortably thanks to all the work Chris was doing off the front.

With only Menso long gone off the front for the last few remaining laps, not too much was going on in the pack. I managed to drop my chain and had to do a pretty hard effort to chase back on, but even that was fairly uneventful. I repeated my simple plan and thought about what I was going to try to do on the last lap. Somehow, I got it in my head that it would be a fantastic idea to launch a sprint from the corner, about 2 minutes from the finish line. Unfortunately, a rider from Cyclepath had already cleared the group by the last corner when I wasn't paying attention, so it was a race for third. I attacked hard up the left side right after the corner, looked Chester from Platinum square in the eye and we were off. I led out for the last 1.5 min, then Chester came around me for 3rd near the line; I held my position for 4th. We almost caught the Cyclepath guy, so I can't say I made the wrong choice, just not the best. Glad I was able to hold on for so long given my early "sprint" start!

I stuck around to cheer on the 4/5 and women's fields, then had a great lunch in SC before heading home.

Legs are finally coming around, so I'm looking forward to at least Challenge and Everest later on this year.

Patterson Pass

2009-08-19T22:40:00.000-07:00

Patterson Pass was my first race as a 3 last year. It's a hard man race, and I don't really belong to that category of rider. This year there was no wind so the climb was extremely selective. Being my first real race back in a long time, I hung in until the 3rd lap then got dropped as the heat and pace got to me. I soft pedaled to the top, caught a bunch of riders going back to the finish and slotted in at 12th. Nothing much else to report except that it was HOT. No water at the finish this year so I was parched by the time we stopped at the first gas station to BUY water. I'm not at all a believer in buying something that comes virtually for free from a tap, so it was a painful move for me to buy a liter of water and some V8 to replace all the salt that was all over my kit and face. Good stuff.

I got a new power meter. I have two sets of nice wheels, but since I'm a geek, I rarely use them so I can get power data from races. This, of course, being suboptimal, needed to stop, so when Quarq released their compact Cinqo, I jumped on it. I'd been saving the money since March, when I originally thought they were going to release it, so even though it's an expensive toy, it didn't hurt too badly. The first one broke on me during my crazy ride of the year (3x Diablo with Everest Challenge teammates) but Quarq's customer service came through in two big ways:

1) they answered email on a Saturday. They have this funny habit of apologizing for answering late, you know, because 2 hours is a long time to wait for help. I'm used to vendors taking forever, so I'm already impressed.
2) they overnighted a new crank to me. I barely missed using it. Awesome.

The Cinqo and powertap agree very well. I have Tukey mean-difference plots to prove it, but those who actually read this already know I'm a dork so I won't plot that here. I will, however, update you on how I measured my drag coefficient and rolling resistance in the next post.

Leesville

2009-07-03T23:11:00.001-07:00

Yeah, so that was interesting. Woke up with a stiff back that didn't want to loosen up and beat it with a stiff carbon frame across some beautiful dirt roads in Northern California. Break a few parts, lose some water and finish on the most god-awfully boring roads I've ever seen and call it a day. Probably not doing this one again. Basically, after breaking my power meter and getting a rock in the knee, I sat up and rode it home.

Good to get out in a fast pack again, and the damage wasn't anything a soldering iron couldn't fix.

Long Time No Post

2009-06-02T20:40:00.001-07:00

Been away from racing for a while. I'm nursing our bird Kang right now and don't really think I can get out to race. It's amazing how such a little bird can work his way into our family and be so important. I'm still riding, so come Cal Cup time, I'll bring a full summer's worth of training to the races.

Arthur

2009-05-11T23:07:00.001-07:00

Our adopted budgie checking out the camera:

Berkeley Hills 2009

2009-05-10T23:10:00.000-07:00

Arg. I started this race feeling like garbage again. Legs moved OK but my head was full of snot once again. I can't wait for summer so everything will just go and die. I wasn't having any problems sticking with the pack and started to think I actually had a chance when a crash separated me from the field. I turned around to check on my teammate who also went down and he told me to go for it. I tried, but my bike was skipping gears. I stopped and tried to straighten the wheel, but it turned out my derailleur hanger was bent. Unfortunately, this was at the top of the course, so I had to chase back on with a two minute gap.

I nailed the descent (why can I go faster on my own?) and drilled it down Camino Pablo, where I could finally see the field and all of the minor attacks rolling off the front. Head down, I cranked away. Finally, I got to a line of cars and used the draft to get myself back on. Now I was tired.

The last time up the main climb, I thought I should mitigate the damage and just go hard. That was a mistake - I should have gone all out. What's to lose? Anyway, finished up 20th or so of 60. I feel really good about getting back on with a flat/downhill TT (at <135 lbs, I don't go all that fast on the flats) but am disappointed with my mental performance where it really counted. Lessons learned.

For a change of pace, I think I'll do the Sonoma 100 km mountain bike race this weekend. I've been surprised at my ability to recover recently, so hopefully it won't impact Mt Hamilton.

Wente RR, 2009

2009-05-04T22:45:00.000-07:00

I had to miss this race last year due to injury, and was really looking forward to a large-field tough race. Mark, Eliot and Bernhard provided some really valuable pre-race recon as I had no idea what to expect. I decided to remove all the distractions I could from my race: I raced with a simple bike computer and don't think I looked at it once. I also tried my new wheels - after racing on open pros and powertaps for so long, my 2 lbs lighter bike seemed like a brand new ride.

I lined up congested (allergies?) and feeling generally lousy (they need more lazy afternoon start times for us recovering mountain bikers,) but luckily it wasn't too hard up the climb the first two times. Brad was extremely active at the front while I basically sat in trying to clear the snot out of my head. On the fourth time up, a break of twelve had made it up the road, so Grant from Pen Velo and I drilled it on the climb and caught them by the finish. My head was finally clearing so I started to think about doing something beyond just finishing.

The last lap was aggressive and fast, and another Pen Velo guy made it up the road and away while the moto ref neutralized what was left of the field. Oh well, racing for 2nd now. I made my way near the front coming up to the turn up the climb and hit it hard when we made the turn, first chasing down a few riders, then making a newbie mistake by sprinting for the first tent I saw. Luckily, I didn't let up too much and kept going when I realized it wasn't the finish- and that sprint put me well off the front, or so I thought. I turned the corner for the real finish and saw one other guy from my field that I couldn't catch, nor had I seen him roll off the front, for third place. Still working on that race awareness.

Here's a picture of my bike in race garb:

I have to say gluing your tires on is a unique experience. The wheels are pretty nice, but I think I might need to drill out a bit more for the valve stems.

This weekend in Berkeley Hills, then I think I'm going to do the So No Mas 100 because I haven't had enough instant weight loss this year. And I haven't ridden my MTB in over a month, so I figure 8 hours in one shot should make up for that.

Copperopolis 2009

2009-05-04T22:40:00.000-07:00

Arg. This race is hard. Someday I'll do it right. This time I forgot to eat. I was on the bike for four hours and only drank one bottle and had 2 gels. That's somewhere around 300 calories, or what I should be consuming per hour.

The race started somewhat fast on the climb, but it's the rough lead-in that gets me. I fell back to the back of the pack and hung in for three laps of crappy pavement. The weather was good at least. My teammate went up the road for two solid laps; he's going to have a great season of Master's racing. By the fourth lap, I was barely hanging on in the crosswind section and actually got dropped on the climb. That's how gone I was. I rolled in for ~25th, glad to have finished. My old man back thanked me for stopping.

Sonora races 2009

2009-04-10T13:13:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago I did a double header up in Sonora. Ward's ferry was up first. Classic rough velopromo pavement mixed with a punchy climbs, this course had everything except a flat road. I was loving it until my front tire went flat at 38mph. I rolled safely to a stop, got a tube from a teammate and a pump from Robert and was back on my way, only 35 minutes after flatting. I pulled out, sadly.

The next day was Warnerville, a new race for the Norcal calendar, featuring some gently rolling terrain, a 1 mile rough dirt section and the winds from hell. At the starting line, we were under a wind advisory, and it only picked up from there. The field split in the dirt when someone lost control, and unfortunately I got caught behind the split. I chased like crazy, dragging around the winner from Ward's ferry, so the pack wasn't going to let me get anywhere near them. During the fourth lap, my hips started to hurt (I'm old, I guess) so I had to back off a bit from the pace. I ended up 8th out of 18 or so, which is pretty good for me in a flat race. I felt absolutely destroyed and couldn't even eat all of my burrito on the way home. Good stuff.

Due to work, I've done a drop-dead taper for Copperopolis this weekend. It's a C race for me - meaning I just want to survive and am not planning on peaking for it. A bunch of heavy hitters from the international and domestic scene will be racing the P12 race, so it should make for some entertaining racing from someone's point of view.

In other news, we're keeping Kang in an aquarium right now. He doesn't like it, but we think he ate something that's not agreeing with him and the vet recommended this treatment. He's already looking more chipper, but looks really strange pecking at the plastic and in general seems confused. Birds are expensive: his vet bills have totaled over $400 just for diagnostic work (blood, stool samples) so if you're eyeing a parakeet as a cheap pet, think more about getting a cat or something. The upfront cost may be low for a bird, but vet care is really pricey (although talented if you go to the right people.)

Orosi 2009

2009-03-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

Orosi is a tough, beautiful race. I haven't really put the training time in to do 90 mile races yet. I knew going in that this would hurt, but the scenery and course make up for the pain. We staged with only 8 guys, a result of some big race down south and the challenging terrain.

The first lap was pretty mellow; we set up a good tempo up the main climb and stopped for a nature break on the way down, and didn't get passed by the E4 pack until the smooth highway, which was a lot later than last year. Some attacks went off right after feed zone, and I zoned out and kind of followed, never in much difficulty, but got left in no man's land, which is where I stayed until the turn back onto Boyd when I got caught by some chasers. My brakes a-squealin' I kept up with my two companions on the fast descent, now chasing the three up the road.

On the last climb, we swept up one of the guys off the front, and dropped one of the guys that had caught me on the highway section, so we were racing for third. My companion asked me to take it easy on him on the climbs, so we could work together on the flatish sections of the course. I sat up and towed him in most of the way, enjoying a few minutes of draft on the highway. I actually felt pretty good, aside from hunger and a sore back. I rolled away from him ( he said he wouldn't contest a sprint anyway) on the approach to the finish and took third. For my longest ride by 20 miles and first race this year, I'm pretty happy with that result even though it means next to nothing for upgrade points.

SoCal

2009-03-18T22:49:00.000-07:00

I really needed a break from science for a couple of days, so I took a trip to Southern California to visit old friends from college. I awoke on Thursday feeling under the weather from allergies, and having the day off, I decided to just sleep in and do a ride locally before heading to Los Angeles. The drive was uneventful and boring as ever. It actually made a great race drive preview, as I passed towns like Madera and Coalinga. I crashed at Chris and Lydia's place, after dining on some really great pasta. Their cats seem to like playing on me, but eventually I got to sleep.

Chris and I rode up highway 39 with the intention of hooking up to highway 2, taking that back to Pasadena. Overall, I think that would have been a fairly long ride and would have rivalled many of the big climbs in Bishop for elevation gain in one shot. I really wish I had brought a camera on this ride. The road snakes in and out of steep canyons that have been scarred and reborn from fires, and best of all, it's closed to traffic due to poor conditions at the top. We did encounter a few Caltrans trucks bombing down the hill, but they were few and far between. The climb starts in the desert and slowly transitions to pine forest, finally dumping you into high alpine territory. We started passing snow above Crystal lake. At some point, a snow blower had come along to clean up the huge drifts, but the steepness of the hillsides must have made that difficult. Finally, near the top, we were stopped by a huge drift that even Caltrans couldn't handle. We had to scrap our plans and did the Glendora Mountain Road loop instead, making for an equally good ride. I did get to witness some kids getting busted for pot before heading back down the hill.

The next day I rode with Jim and his tri buddies. OK, I think aerobars are dorky, but the company was worth breaking some important rules (actually, some of the TT bikes there made me drool.) We hammered around San Diego for about four hours. Got to hang out with Tony and some of his friends and really experience a M3 on one exit ramp before heading out for a midnight ride in one of San Diego's many canyons. That was eye-opening for me. Here in the Bay Area, it's impossible to go night riding without breaking some kind of law (on trails) and they use radar guns on the trails to ticket speeders. I've never heard of such a thing, and I think it really indicates something's wrong with the type of people that congregate here, which I guess includes me now.

Monday I had an epic drive in front of me, so after fixing my AC, I hit the road. I got in an hour on the bike up Old San Marcos in Santa Barbara before arriving home at 1 am, ready for work the next day. All in all, a very satisfying trip. This weekend is Orosi, the first RR for the year for me, and I hope all this rain riding and long rides pay some dividends.

Spring Races

2009-03-02T23:55:00.000-08:00

I've got to admit, one of the hardest parts about racing is registering, after driving to the race. I think my heartrate goes to LT immediately upon taking a glance at the NCNCA website. I finally pulled the trigger and registered for four whole races. No crits yet, but eventually I'll get that bad taste out of my mouth and go for it (I like sprinting, even if I'm not good at it.) Most of the races I've entered so far are longer road races and many will have small fields, so maybe I'll even get an upgrade point or two. My fitness is looking pretty good. I think I'm at the same level I was last June (at least that's what my whiz-bang hub says) which was definitely my peak for '08. I hope to not get hit by cars, crash on my MTB, and mostly not get sick for the coming weeks. The spring season will all be new for me except for a few races, so I'm looking forward to it.

It's been raining, a lot. I now have neoprene booties and one of those little Euro caps. Much more comfortable out. And on days where work is especially difficult, I find myself looking out into the storm outside wishing I was just hammering away into the wind. Cheesy, I know.

To get out of the rain, I'm going to make a trip to see some old friends down in SoCal in a week and a half. I'm going to load up the wagon with two bikes and all my riding gear and hope to get a bunch of quality visiting and saddle time in. That takes care of difficult work and rain at once!

Rain

2009-02-16T23:34:00.000-08:00

It has been raining a fair amount here in Northern California - a realization that any viewer of the Tour of California has probably come to by now. I got a ride in the showers on Saturday, but rode the trainer Sunday after watching Mancebo take the win. Today, I couldn't take it anymore. I've come to the realization that trainer riding is fine when it's the only option, but today I just needed to man up and get outside. I've been testing some new gloves, and that really enabled the day, because it absolutely poured on me for most of the ride.

Last year I attempted a similar ride, and by the time I got home I couldn't even open the front door; my hands were completely frozen. I was absolutely miserable. I think I stripped and sat in front of our ubiquitous wall heater unit for a good 15 minutes before attempting to take a shower. After that, I looked like a boiled lobster (who knew water could be painful?) This year, I was bundled up and fairly comfortable. I think I need on of those caps, because I couldn't really see, and I'd love to get some warmer socks, though the wool ones I used worked alright. Really, fenders were the biggest thing I added to enjoy the ride. So, here's to riding in the rain.

The season is ramping up here, and I've got to decide what to do. I want to go out an support my team in all the road races I can, but I also want to see what kind of mark I can make in marathon MTB racing. Most of the MTB races around here don't suit my strength - climbing - except for the ultra-long ones. That probably means sacrificing some high-end for endurance, but it should be a fun season of racing once it gets rolling.

Espresso

2009-01-03T11:52:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows that a true cyclist consumes espresso in quantity. Over this holiday break from work, I set out to make myself an affordable espresso setup. I've been using an Aeropress for quite some time, but it's definitely not the same thing. It produces very good espresso-like coffee, but throws away a lot of acid. This might be a good thing for certain drinks, but it kind of makes most coffees taste the same. There are a lot of very expensive machines out there, but I wanted to keep it as cheap as possible, preferably under $300, which is still a lot for a coffee maker. I'll try to document my setup here.

For the espresso maker, I bought a Saeco Via Venezia at Costco for $150. It has a pressurized portafilter (the part that holds the coffee) which means it's forgiving of tamp and grind, but on the other hand, doesn't let you diagnose those important attributes, either. You can remove the pressure mechanism (which also seems to make a fake crema) but I found that the gasket needs to remain in place. Here's a picture:

Everything pops apart, and with pressure control removed, it's easy to find deficiencies in technique. I found my cheapo grinder wasn't getting fine enough, so I got a Capresso Infinity grinder that works much better.

Temperature is very important in brewing, and you can find lots of information on adding PID control to the machine. I might do this some time with my Arduino, but for now I measured the temperature profile at the boiler and at the brew head. When the heater kicks off, peak temperature reaches about 100 C just at the mid point of the boiler, and about 105 C where the thermostats are. Just before the heater kicks in, the temperature drops to 80 and 85 C, respectively. I measured the brew temperature below the group by removing the portafilter and using a thermocouple in a styrofoam cup to probe the water temperature. Just after the boiler kicks off, the water is at 90 C, which is just passable for brewing espresso. For now, I brew right after the boiler kicks off. Eventually, the Arduino controlled unit could have forward looking adjustment and hotter temperatures for different roasts.

Tamping and grind control the pace of brewing. With my old grinder, the 'espresso' looked weak, tasted weak, and took only 11 s to brew. You can find a lot of information about tamping and most sites will say use about 30 lbs of force. The Saeco has a 53 mm portafilter, while commercial makers have 58 mm portafilters, so for this maker I settled on 25 lbs as a tamping force. I varied the grind fineness to get 20-25 s for a double shot pull and found that I need to use the finest setting on the grinder.

Two shots pulled using cheap Trader Joe's espresso blend. Tastes much better with good beans...

West Alpine

2008-10-11T16:20:00.001-07:00

I'm going to update the blog in reverse order. I did a bunch of cal cup races, and finished off my season with the Everest Challenge, which actually went pretty well for me.

Today was the 2nd race in the low-key hill climb series up W. Alpine. Despite its low-key start time, I still dragged myself out of bed feeling pretty miserable around 7:30 this morning. But wait - you say - that's way after your normal wake-up time. Well, it's a weekend, and I want to sleep in. I got to the Russian Ridge parking lot a little late, descended in the bitter cold, signed in and used the bathroom about five times. I think the cold does that to me.

The race went from Pescadero and W. Alpine to the peak of W. Alpine, which was a bit before Russian Ridge. My plan was to sit in on the two flat-ish sections. From the honk of the horn, it started surprisingly easy, but I was way back. I could see a bunch of the contenders rolling off the front, so I bridged up on the flat, never quite making it to Tim Clark. Once we turned past the bridge, the pack exploded, and I started reeling folks in. I tried to work with some guys across the flats, but no one really wanted to come around, so I just kept the hammer down. On the second to last corner, Geoff from Bike Trip came around me briefly and I attacked hard, holding it off for second place. Not bad considering how little riding I've been doing. My computer said it was an average of 288 W, so I'm definitely off my form from June. But hey, it's only October; I can't complain.

I finally got to meet Dennis from Bike Trip today - that team is full of great guys. That's something that could be said about a lot of teams around here once you get to know them.

Heat Training

2008-08-27T23:33:00.000-07:00

In preparation for the Challenge RR, I tried a TT up Sierra road today in the heat. The thermometer at Piedmont HS said it was 91 F at the start, but I tried to put out my normal power. That failed miserably. I felt completely zapped at the top of the hill and was over 1:30 off pace. I felt like throwing in the towel on what's left of the season. Google scholar came to the rescue though. This article says that going from 73 F to 91 F was enough to drop power output by 6.5% on average for the Australian National team. That's almost exactly how far off I was today, so I feel a lot better, but also a lot more like a dork for looking up this stuff. It even says that for the first 10 minutes, the power output was similar between the trials. That's pretty much what I experienced. It felt like a meltdown right around 11 minutes. Their conclusion has me thinking I should be dumping a lot more water over my body to aid in cooling during hot races as well.

I should probably write some race reports, but I really lack motivation to do really well for myself recently. I'm looking forward to a few more races and the low-key hillclimb series throughout the autumn though.

Peaked

2008-08-05T23:18:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to think I hit a peak right after Pescadero. Everything was falling in place, I was pushing good amounts of power and didn't seem to fatigue. Then I kept going, and going, and going until I eventually dug myself in a hole. I still feel pretty good on the bike, but it's kind of muted compared to what I was feeling a month ago. For now, I'm hoping to back off a bit in training, race a bit more and enjoy the end of the season without completely burning out.

Now that I look back on things, it was a lack of rest that got to me. I look at my training log and I trained hard for six weeks. At about week four, things went downhill, but I just didn't listen. Next time I hope I know what to look for. Now, I've somehow injured my hamstring and hope to just limp through the cal cup. Wish me luck!

Henry Coe State Park

2008-07-20T23:18:00.000-07:00

Recently, I've been dismayed by the attitude shown towards mountain bikers by the local open space folks. It's really hard to enjoy a ride or the outdoors when you don't know if ranger rick is out there to ticket you. I've even been out on rides and greeted rangers only to be sneered at in return. Henry Coe is unlike any of these local rides. It's remote and extremely challenging, both technically and physically. What surprised me even more was the warm welcome I got from the ranger at the headquarters. He kept going on about the amazing riding and how much I was going to enjoy the ride that I was afraid that I was going to run out of sunlight. He actually addressed this by saying that they never close, and riding by moonlight is wonderful within the park. Try to do this in any local park and you literally get points on your license, and if you're speeding (they have radar guns) even more dings and money out of the pocket.

Anyway, the ride was incredible. I went down the Middle Ridge Trail and was pleasantly surprised with techy bits that, gasp, I had to get behind the saddle on. This doesn't even happen in Skegg's! Mucho steep climbing followed, then another descent into China Hole. The climb out is actually a good way to end the day, because it's not technical and rolls really well. I was rolling so well, in fact, that I nearly smacked into a mountain lion! I turned a corner on the climb and was about 15 yards in front of me. He jumped around in a circle, raised his huge tail and went running off into the woods. Needless to say, I think we were both freaked out a bit. For the next mile, I let out a periodic scream to let the beast know I was there, then climbed into the sunset back to the car. I have never seen a cougar outside of a zoo, so this was a pleasant surprise, though I would have preferred more distance between us as I contemplated how I should make myself look bigger in lycra.

It was really cold at the end of the ride, which is incredibly unusual for this part of the state in July. I shivered as I put my bike away in the car, but before, I grabbed one photo of myself.

Although the total climbing amount wasn't huge, it sure did a number on my legs. If you look closely at that chart, there are a few section with >20% grades. At one point, I saw 35% for ~20-30 seconds. Ouch. Great anaerobic workout, and a lot of fun in between the sets.

Sierra Passes

2008-07-02T23:17:00.001-07:00

Climbing in the Sierra Nevada is amazing, at least for California. I haven't ever climbed in Europe, but that looks even better. For now, the Sierras are going to have to pass as a climbing mecca. The whole trip was really relaxing and well worth the time. I stayed at the J Marklee and had trouble getting to sleep the first night due to the complete silence of the place. We got to eat pasta at a small villa on a really Germanesque hillside while watching the sunset and grilled Salmon for an outside dinner the third night. Breakfasts were hearty, too much so for my fragile stomach, so I suffered on the early climbs each day, but did really enjoy the food.

The first day, we climbed Ebbetts pass and the Pacific Grade. The latter climb is short but sweet, with stairsteps, switchbacks and great views of the valley. The descent past Alpine Lake was fun, then I turned around and did everything in reverse.

The next day was Monitor Pass and a shuttle over to Sonora Pass from the east side. This climb is brutally steep at the bottom and end, but fairly easy in between. It's also beautiful and goes past a bunch of gurgling streams and through conifer forests. It smells totally different up there; here in the Bay there's a distinct lack of smell, like it has been scrubbed of everything organic. Up in the Sierras, the I swear you can smell the rocks as well as all of the different plants. The descent off of Sonora is definitely fun, but something you have to be very alert for since the curves are all on the steepest parts of the road.

The last day, we rode to Blue Lakes along a beautiful stretch of new pavement. Finally, I rode up to Carson Pass. That's something I've done before on the Death Ride, and this time was no more fun that last. It's heavily traveled, and the views pale in comparison to the other passes over the weekend.

All in all, I think I rode around 200 miles and feel completely rejuvenated. Now that I'm back at sea level, I feel stronger than ever, too. Maybe I'll go ahead and race this weekend!

The folks that went on this trip were a fairly diverse mix of people, though we were all engineers/lawyers/doctors. It's hard to get people to climb this much, but these guys and gals just attacked everything like it was something they did everyday, then at night the conversation was always animated and interesting. The company really put the final touches to make the weekend special.

Vacation

2008-06-24T23:03:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a long weekend for a vacation this week. I think it's my first real vacation since our honeymoon in 2003. Of course, because I'm a geek, I'll be going bike riding almost exclusively. The plan is to ride a bunch of Sierra passes, including Ebbetts, Monitor, and Sonora. I'm doing it to reboot, enjoy the scenery and spend some quality time out on some quality roads. The last time I was in the area was 2006, when a friend picked up road cycling and got me back into it. We decided to do the Death Ride. I didn't really train for it except for doing a bunch of hard rides with folks in Santa Barbara and climbing to Santa Ynez peak several times a week. I was also coming off my first road racing season, 'cause you know, the first thing most people do when they buy a bike is decide to race it.

I did alright, but only recently realized that the cramps on the last climb were due to the energy drink I was using. Too bad, because it seems to work well otherwise. That day ended up with a giant hailstorm, but by that time I was fed and dressed and well off the bike. Most were not as lucky but they persevered to make it through all five passes. I danced around in the mud cheering the thousands who poured by to get to the finish; it was definitely a good time, but frankly, something I'm not likely to do again due to the sheer number of people there.

I've learned a lot since then. Nutrition-wise, it's simple for me. HEED and gel. That's it. Anything else is asking for trouble. I am often hungry physically, but I seem to have enough energy to keep going strong with this on-the-bike diet. I wish I could eat burgers and tri-tip like I saw my companions do on one particularly fast ride from SB to Figueroa and back, but I have trouble digesting that stuff when I'm not at LT. Such is the life of a weenie. I also strangely never care about climbing amounts anymore. Sometimes it's interesting, but in general I either am going up or coming down, so it's not as important as it used to be for me. That ride is still the longest ride I've ever done (I think) but I don't go out for distance anymore, now it's time and effort. Minor changes, but it helps in some way when you don't track those kinds of numbers. Of course now it's all TSS and CTL, but it's kind of a passing interest unless I'm trying to peak.

So, here's to vacation, and here's to climbing for climbing's sake.

Time Trialing

2008-06-21T09:26:00.000-07:00

Supposedly, as a former MTB guy, I'm supposed to be good at TTs. At least that's what I've been told. Well, I don't mind suffering, but I don't put out the power necessary to be a stellar TT rider. I use a frankenbike - just my road bike with cheap aerobars and a flipped around seatpost. It's probably not UCI legal, but good enough for a training ride and definitely does the job for a cancer benefit ride. Beat the Clock puts on a great ride for a great cause, so I gave it a go this weekend. I was late to my start, but they were kind enough to let me slot in three minutes later. They really do aim to please! I was going to be chased by Justin Lucke, so my goal was to just not get passed, which I can say never happened. Obligatory graph for those of you that said I lack graphs:

Anyway, it felt good, so I probably could go faster next time. I always wonder what good TT gear would get me, but for my one TT a year, it's really not worth dropping the cash to get that stuff. It was already hot at the finish, and I'm going to head out to the mountains to try to do a cooler mountain bike ride without melting.

Upgrade

2008-06-16T08:21:00.001-07:00

I went ahead and got my upgrade. Now I have a lot to learn and re-learn about racing with a team. Hopefully I can make useful contributions. This upgrade came a lot soon than expected, especially considering how I got injured twice this spring. A summary of my cat 4 "career":

2006: Everest Challenge
2007:
Challenge RR 9/26
Everest Challenge DNS first day, 9th second
2008:
Cantua Creek 6/~45
Pine Flat ~15/70 (mechanical)
Copperopolis RR 26/70 (still feeling sore after getting whacked by a car.)
Orosi RR 3/~30
Panoche Pass RR 8/45
Mt Hamilton RR 3/75
Pescadero RR 1/70

Pescadero RR

2008-06-14T17:25:00.000-07:00

I was less than enthused going into this race. I haven't been training that hard, and my knee has been hurting, and there's smoke in the air, etcetera, etcetera. I guess I whine a lot. It looks like my kind of course, finishing on a kicker of a hill that's about eight minutes long. My wife volunteered to take my place as a course marshal so I could race, so I had to follow through (my other job of placing prime signs went to those more well-suited, so I ended up bringing pylons to to the finish area.) We rolled out in the fog, and quickly passed the first sprint prime. We went pretty hard on the climbs, but harder on the descents! No breaks really rolled away, but we kept the pace fairly high.

The first time up Haskin's, we rode hard, but well within my limits. On the second lap I started to wake up, and started to plan for the finish. I had kept track of landmarks and time from finish on the first lap, thinking I wanted a 1-2 minute attack to stick right at the end. Both Roaring Mouse and Squadra were keeping the race active, but it seemed that Squadra had three strong guys that led the pace up the last climb. One of them attacked near the feed, but they seemed to bring back their own guy. After the 180, they attacked several times and I followed wheels, trying to stay around 3rd place. Peter from Action Sports came around and really started to drill it, finally putting me in pain. I attacked with a minute to go right when I sensed some fading, opened a gap, and held off the charge for the win! I rolled across the line, and right to the portapotty while the marshals were trying to get us all to run downhill. I had tried to visualize my attack all week, and I executed it just the way I wanted to. Felt great to win that way, especially among such a strong field.

I now have more than enough to upgrade to cat 3, but might stick around for a while. Have to make some decisions coming up...

Sierra Road

2008-06-03T21:32:00.000-07:00

Sierra road rises out of East San Jose on barren grass covered hills. It's steep in spots, often hot, and has the distinct smell of cows from the close-by grazing lands. I often see beat-up cars pulled over on the side of the road, waiting for what, nobody knows. Glass covers most of the switchbacks. I love this climb. I use it to set dorky power records, and the view down the bay from the top is incredible. Sometime I'll bring a camera to show it. It's also quite a bit like a Santa Barbara climb, in that it's exposed and really doesn't go anywhere, so there's little traffic on the climb and screaming descent.

I have had this irrelevant goal to hit 300W average on this climb (it's about 25-30 minutes long, depending on your pace,) and I finally eked it out today, just a day after the two month anniversary of gouging my knee cap out on a set of rocks. A month ago I was wheezing on hour long 'tempo' rides. It sucked. I rode it much more aggressively than I use to, attacking the steep portions and backing off a bit in between. Normally I just hold a constant power, but I've got to say the 'new' way is a lot more fun. So, for you other bike geeks out there 300W isn't much. What can I say, I'm small, like 60 kg small.

El Corte de Madera

2008-06-03T00:44:00.000-07:00

One of the things I try to avoid is burn-out. I think cyclists in particular are prone to this, perhaps due to the repetitive motions involved. I try to break up the monotony with, of course, more cycling, but in the dirt. I started life as a mountain biker. I used to ride summers away at Upton State Forest with my friend Tony as we'd discuss what to build next in the basement: trebuchet, remote control hydroplane, etc... I stopped for a bit in early college, then realized I needed something to balance my life and got myself a new mountain bike. This time I really got into it and even took up racing, much to the chagrin of my GPA. I moved to California for its fine educational instituitions and mountain biking, noting that Santa Barbara had four thousand foot climbs right in its backyard. My MTB has remained a balance since then. Sure, road gave me a ton of fitness, but MTB invented it.

This weekend I went to Skeggs Point, aka El Corte de Madera. One thing I really dislike about the bay is the necessity to drive 30 minutes to ride a bike. The other is the speed limits on trails. I can climb faster than the speed limits on some trails, give me a break. Anyway, drive aside, I had the park to myself and the dense fog in the redwoods. It was beautiful. Sloppy at top, it dried out as I lost elevation along Fir and Resolution trails, remembering how to handle a bike in the dirt and slalom around trees. While reading a map, another rider came across the trail, so I followed him down South Leaf, a new trail for me. It was awesome ridge line riding with enough techy to keep it interesting. I kind of miss the death defying technical riding of the SB front side, but this was enjoyable for my lycra wearing butt these days. A long, beautiful climb lead me to Steam Donkey, which I rode up and down, savoring the huge bursts of power it took to climb the rock gardens and the flow of the descent. Next up was Manzanita trail, which had enough sandstone to almost remind me of SB, but all was over soon as I climbed back to the car. NorCal parks are small, except for Coe. It was a great reminder of how fun a mountain bike can be, and left me energized for the week. This kind of ride makes a bike feel like a logical extension of your being, while a road bike always feels like a tool to me. Hopefully I'll get out there more this summer.

One thing that always strikes me about racing out here versus riding is the difference in terrain. They'd never put a race on at a place like Skeggs, where I climbed over 3500' in less than 15 miles. Most races seem like dirt crits to me, and expensive ones at that. East coast racing seemed better about mixing up the terrain, but that probably has something to do with land usage rights. I never saw speed limit signs out there.

Bike

2008-05-31T15:22:00.001-07:00

A couple of months ago I was hit by a car while riding with my team. Actually, three of us were. Anyway, I had to get a new bike. For me, this is a horrible thing to do. I bond to bikes in a way no one should to material goods. I really wanted another Giant, but they are incredibly expensive. Then, I saw a great deal at Competitive Cyclist for a Ridley Excalibur with Rival for under $2k. Being the fan of SRAM that I am, I snapped it up with the idea that I'd strip it for the frame and put the Rival stuff on my Ti bike to use in crits. Like I'll ever race a crit again... It took awhile to get it in my hands, but it's a very good bike for the money. It's not incredibly light or nuanced, but it's a solid handling, great bike that feels better to ride than my Litespeed in almost any situation save high-speed descents. It weighs in at around 16.5 - 17 lbs, which is definitely good enough for me. Without further ado:

Blog.

2008-05-27T19:58:00.001-07:00

So I'm trying this blog thing. I'm not a good writer; I'm an engineer dammit, so you're just going to have to deal. Actually, this is more of a personal race/training/other log for my reference, but because I have no shame I'll slap it up on the web. I ride as much as possible, both mountain and road, so hopefully something semi-coherent will come of this. Maybe I'll shame you all with my massive power numbers from my little-man sprints (think you can take on 1000W, huh? can ya?) or diameter of my quads or guns, both of which probably sit squarely in the mean of 10-year-old boys, or share grisly photos of crashes. Who knows? It'll be like LOST, but even less exciting.

Mt Hamilton Road Race

2008-05-26T13:22:00.003-07:00

I came out to this race wanting to put in work that earned a good result, instead of watching the race unfold by sitting 10th wheel all the time. I figured if I can cut my teeth at the front and still get a good result I can prove to myself that I'm strong enough to hang. Anyway, that's the theory at least.

I rolled up to the school at 8:20 after some gasto, er, problems from some Mexican food the night before, so got my stuff on and rolled to the line in time for the start. The climb up Hamilton wasn't too bad, especially with Dave Rossow driving the pace in the drops for the first part! Farther up, I could hear the labored breath of the group so went to the front to drive the pace harder and whittle it down for the descent. At the top, I gunned it for the KOM, but didn't realize one guy had slipped away when I wasn't paying attention, so the chase was on. Oh yeah, that sprint for KOM made me feel godly, until I realized it was like 'winning' the charity ride.

Mark and Dave C. drilled the descent, really beyond my comfort zone after so many recent visits to the ER, but I held on. Grab a feed, then try to get organized. Unfortunately some of my group take the 'sit in and don't do any work' mantra too seriously and kept sitting up when they got to the front. One of 'em got a good result in the end, so I suppose it works, but it's still annoying. That's racing I suppose. After the junction, we see our guy off the front and absolutely drill it, with Mark and Zteam Robert and I pushing the pace harder than any climb before it to try to shed more of the pack and grab the man OTF. We caught the valiant breakaway, then started the long descent into the valley. Here, some of the paceline deadwood thankfully stayed out of the way and a real rotation started until we hit the bottom with about 1 km to go. A bit of cat and mouse, then it's on at 200m. I jump with the others, trying to unleash my little man fury, and get passed at the line for 3rd followed closely by Mark in 4th spot. I really like the hard races; starting to realize I don't like the 50 mile promenade followed by a huge sprint races and will try to stick to windy or hilly stuff. Without many summer road races, I'm going to reboot again and gun it for the cal cup while doing a few mtb races to keep it fun.

Hamilton was an awesome race. I keep an internal ranking, and it's definitely in the top 3. OK, so I've only done 6 USAC races, so it's not hard to get there now, but it seems like a great race and it's definitely echoed in the number of SB folks I saw out there that made the 5 hour trip..

5 points to go to Cat 3. Now that I've mastered grabbing water bottles in a feed without dropping 3 first, I can say I'm more than ready.