Henry Coe State Park

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.