Rockin’s Blog Site

Well, decided this week to not focus on my riding goals.  Instead I will be working on getting Carson as prepped as possible for Pickett’s Charge on the 22nd.  He still does not want gears on his mountain bike so we will see how it goes.

We ended up riding the beginner route on Saturday and went for a 16 mile road ride on Sunday.

Had to head up to Seattle and then to Portland to serve in my governor-appointed capacity (yes, you must bow next time you see me).  The plan was to head out early enough to check out some trails west of Naches WA on the way to Seattle.

It was a pretty drive up past Cliffdell from Naches, funny to be heading back to my old 4×4 stomping grounds with a bicycle.  Never thought that would happen.  It didn’t look like the Squaw Rock Resort has changed much.

How were the trails?  Wet, wet, wet.  I had an alternate ride down closer to Yakima but left work too late to get back down and ride it in the daylight.  The trails (was up at Crow Creek for those who know the area) were nothing but puddles anywhere it was even halfway flat.  I just left the bike in the car and hiked around a bit.  Got to watch some elk for a bit.  Heading over Snoqualmie Pass, there is still snow in the trees at the I-90 level so it will be a while before the Kachess area trails open up.

After meetings on Thursday, I planned to hit Capitol Forest for some riding before heading to Portland.  Well, I ended up wussing out.  It was only about 50 degrees and absolutely pouring rain.   Did scout around for the different trailheads and will definitely ride there during my travels in the future.

Turning the frustration with lack of riding into a plan, thoughts started to form up for a Washington multi-day road trip.  Normally I take a fall road trip after the kids get back in school and head south to Utah.  Washington would be a heck of a lot closer.  It could work well especially if I worked it out to hit the Naches area shared use trails during the middle of the week.  Hmmmm.

Headed out to ride the Pickett’s course yesterday as that will be my 9 year-old’s first MTB race.  It ended up being his longest MTB ride to date.  His comment just before the car “I am horribly tired” but when we got to the car he wanted to keep going.  We are working on pacing.

Last week ended up with 135.76 miles.  That got me to 2,470.51 for the year.

Read in my Cascade Bicycling Club newsletter about a guy who put in 32,000 miles on his 1992 Cannondale road bike last year.  He shoots for a 100 miles per day.  Yikes!  My wife’s comment - “He has even more mental problems than you do”.  Thanks Hon.

Later…

Well, another one in the books.

Sort of one of those mixed result days. Ended up winning the sport class by 17 minutes, but didn’t get as many miles in as I was hoping for. A win is a win, but for the series it is accumulated miles. I will be hitting it hard at the 12 Hours of Humboldt.

On to the start. It was 42 degrees and spitting. With my issues resulting from Tuesday’s ride I made a deal with myself that I was only going to stop if the bike had a mechanical or I ran out of time. Had to quickly change the nutrition mix when the first Clif Blok I tried to chew caused crunching noises and pain in my jaw. Looks like a gel, banana and PNB/bread kind of day.

Here is the last time we were clean and relatively dry all day…

At least we weren’t at too much risk of hitting 97 degrees like last year.

And they’re off - as soon as we hit the first dirt section you could tell it was going to be a long day. The red clay mud was slicker than snot. You could tell who had good bike handling skills and who didn’t. There was a steep, slimey down not too far from the start/finish area and there were a few people walking down.

Walking down? Are you kidding me? Don’t you people realize that you have 3 miles and 1,300 feet of climbing coming up? Oh well. I rode down. Wasn’t about to start walking until I had to.

Let the climbing begin. Must say the road seemed much nicer as it was more packed down and the big gravel was gone. Started a pattern that lasted most of the laps of being able to ride most of the hill until the steepest last half mile. I was ready to walk a bit by then anyway. 32:19 was a good choice for gearing. Time-wise to the top I was a bit ahead of my first lap time from last year. Woo hoo - I may be wet but good start to the day.

Legs recovered a bit on the traverse and then I started to head down. Holy crap! The double track downhill section that you could fly down last year was a greasy, slimey mess. Picking good lines was not really and option - your lines picked you as you slid down the hills. Then into the trees. Wow. It was even slick and goopy in the trees. Still feeling pretty good as I figured I was in the front third when I hit the singletrack. Passed a quite few people having trouble descending through the slime. As usual, everyone was pretty cool and supportive of each other and pulled off when they could.

Got on the old flume trails and checked my time - WHAT! How could I possibly be going that slow? Being in better shape than last year (even with my chewing difficulties) I was expecting about 1:05-1:10 laps. My time was showing that I was going to be barely under 1:30. How could I lose 20 minutes PER LAP?

Came in after the first lap - transition went great. Grabbed a gel and a fresh bottle of Accelerade and I was off. Back up the hill to do it all over again. Vic once again had a volunteer stationed at the top of the climb and I started grabbing an Orange Hammer gel each lap. Chocolate Accel Gel in the pits, Orange Hammer gel at the top and a bottle of Orange Accelerade each lap was my nutrition for the day. Decided to try pushing the pace a bit more to pick up some time. Seemed like it was raining harder this lap than last.

Down the slip-n-slide double track, just point and shoot. I have to say I was quite impressed with how well the Nanoraptor front/Small-Block Eight rear combo worked in the goo. I had one guy (which I was passing) tell me I brought the wrong tires. I just smiled.

Back into the pits - crap! 1:27. There is no way I am getting eight laps in today. OK, shoot for seven. Chatted with a couple people supporting pro and expert riders and found the fastest lap they turned in was about 1:10. Whew! That makes me feel a bit better. Also goes to show how SLOW the course was. They were turning in 45-47 minute laps a year ago.

Off for lap three. Ahh, that wonderful feeling of grinding mud into your rear as you climb the hill. Lap went about the same as last one. 1:31 - at least my times were pretty consistent.

Chocolate gel and some vitamin i for the face bones and I’m off again for lap four. Not feeling too bad, but the conditions are starting to go in the wrong direction. Towards the top of the climb I can see Chuck up ahead. He must have experienced his mid-race energy decline. Almost caught him before he took off on the descent. Ended up getting passed on the flume trails by Sloane. Towards the bottom I ended up making a great pass and stayed on the gas to build the gap. Whoa! Ended up overcooking a corner right into a dead manzanita bush. At least I didn’t end up hitting the already injured side of my face. I even got up and back on the bike before the person I had passed caught up. People started asking me if I was OK. Yes, I am. Did you know you are bleeding? Nope - hope it’s nothing major.

Pulled into the pits and there was Chuck. We decided to head up the climb together. He had to switch to his singlespeed as his GT was having mechanical issues. Up, up, up. At the top it seemed to be raining the hardest it had all day.

Onto the double track descent and my brakes started acting funny. Stopped really quick to adjust the pads out a bit then off again. The singletrack was really getting saturated and even slicker than it had been all day. About half-way down noticed that the back brake was sticking on occasionally. No big, I can deal with that. Then on the last series of descents before the creek crossing the front brake decided to stick in the on position, making for some exciting times. Heading in to the pits, I decided that without consistently functioning brakes I was done for the day. I had stuck by my deal with myself to stick it out until I ran out of time or had a mechanical failure. I was OK with telling Vic that I wasn’t going out for another lap. In fact, it looked like a bunch of people were calling it a day as the course was getting pretty scary in spots.

I had not looked at the results all day, so I took off my glasses and walked over to check. No way! First in Sport Class by 17 minutes. All the thoughts started running through my head - can I fix my brakes? Can I just disconnect the front and ride with the rear brake? Should I tell them I am heading out again and just go to stay ahead? Crap - how can I stop when I am in first? Shouldn’t I keep going?

As I was pondering all of these serious and life altering questions, my wife decided it made a great photo opportunity.

I personally like the blood drizzling down to my chin. Nice touch.

Ended up making the decision that it was probably not smart to head out without brakes and that it would probably take me more than 17 minutes to fix my brakes and decided to call it a day. Headed off to the bike wash to hose most of the goo off the bike.

As luck would have it, the rest of the people in my class (for whatever reason) had decided they were done as well. I came back from showering the grime off to have my wife tell me that all the people behind me were pulling off their numbers and packing it in. Woo hoo! It was going from being bummed about not getting in enough miles AND losing the race when I was in the lead to just being bummed about not getting in enough miles. Getting the W was a nice way to wrap up the day.

Ended up with 60.72 miles on the day with 8,140 of vertical.

Forgot to post up weekly numbers last week, so for the last two weeks I have gotten in 259.47 miles. That gets me to 2,334.75 for the year.

Later…

Well, off to Weaverville for the 12 Hours of Weaverville on Saturday.

Personal goal for this one is eight laps which should put me at about 98 miles and 12,400 feet of climbing by the end of the day.  Last year I did 7 laps with the temps getting up to the 95-96 range - I hope the weather will cooperate this year.

The Lenz is back together for the race and I will be riding 32:19 gearing.

The dial-in ride did not quite go as planned.  After I started riding I got a call I had been waiting for all day.  After talking for a bit, I proceeded 300 yards down the trail to a technical rock section.

Brain:  “You just got back from riding more technical stuff than this, keep processing the work-related phone call”

Bad decision, Brain.

Result:  Major bruising to right quad and hip and swelling in that ankle/shin area.  But it could have been worse if I had not slowed down the impact first by leading with my face (right cheekbone to be exact) into the rock first.  I want everyone to know that by leading with my cheekbone I was able to avoid causing any damage to my brand new helmet that I purchased after the incident with the rural mail carrier.

Any one have soft foods I don’t have to chew?  Feeling is I will not be eating steak or anything that requires significant chewing anytime soon.  I may try to post up a facial pic.  I have been telling everyone that my wife pushed me down the stairs.

Have to laugh.  The first rider I came upon after hopping back on the bike I asked to check my teeth (they felt rather funny).  The look on his face was great - probably doesn’t get asked to do that every day.

Still planning on racing - just going to hop on the road bike and try to spin out the bruising to the leg.  The face and teeth will just be along for the ride - looking like gels, bananas and maybe some Clif Bloks.  No Wheat Thins, Tricuits or Clif Bars this time around unless I can suck them through a straw.  This is all part of my grand plan to show that I am actually not getting older and wiser.

Wiser implies that I will start making wiser decisions, which I am just not ready for yet.

Let’s be careful out there.  Well, at least you be careful as I seem to have some problems with that.

See you at Weaverville.  Later…

It was quite the trip. I will post up working backwards through my 40th birthday trip. They say the mind is the first thing to go, so details will probably decrease.

Finally got to ride the White Rim on May 3rd. I guess the third time is the charm. The previous two solo times were derailed before they began by equipment issues.

Day started in Mineral Bottom in my mummy bag with ice around the opening - brrrrr.

Coffee (thanks Dave) and scones from the Red Rock Bakery plus a banana were breakfast. Since the gear was prepped the night before, it was not a long time from sleeping bag to ready to ride. Good thing - it was chilly.

Profile anyone?

I knew from the beginning that it was going to be one of those days where I just had to ride my own pace as the legs were not feeling too peppy. My excuse is already having 210 miles in on the SS. I know - what a wuss.

Climbing to the rim…

Then it was the long, gradual grind before we got to descend to the National Park entrance. The very nice lady manning the booth (fortunately a biker) let us all in on Dave’s park pass. Nice to save some money - $5 is $5.

Then we headed for Shafer.

The camera was used as an excuse for my legs many times today. Glad I had it.

A peek at where we are heading and a pic of the route down. In the “where we are heading” pic you can look for Chuck in the upper right and there is a rider way, way down there on the road if you look really hard. Can you find them?

At about mile 33′ish I decided to wait at Musselman Arch so that Fred could catch us as he was riding out to meet us from town (actually I was just being a tired tourist as we did not know for sure that Fred was coming). Fred’s comment - “I didn’t think I would catch you guys this early”.

At about mile 40 I raced ahead to use the facilities. I am ruined for life as I cannot look at Honey Buckets (Porta Potties) or anything that looks like them without thinking of Nathan’s 24 Hours Of Old Pueblo Experience. First thing I did was make sure I left my helmet and sunglasses on my bike.

Just a couple of selected pics from riding along. Some of the scenery I could just not ride by without breaking out the camera.

With about 30 miles to go, I was down to one and a half water bottles. As you may know from past episodes, running out of water seems to be the norm for me. Even though I could have mooched from the others, part of endurance riding is being self-sufficient and figuring out what to do with the resources you have. I set up my rationing plan to run out of water at mile 95 - 5 miles to go. Knowing ice cold refreshments are waiting at the car would keep me going for the last five. Even though it was warmer than I had planned, I figured this was doable.

By mile 80ish, it was apparent that Chuck was running a bit low on fluids as well (two bottles) and had stopped drinking to preserve water. WHAT! Preserve water for what? So we chatted about how having water when you get back to the car doesn’t do you any good. There is more water at the car - drink up.

I had finally started to reap the benefits of my snails pace all day by this point and was feeling pretty good.

Ended up being out for 11.5 hours and 99.74 miles, including sightseeing.  Thanks to Chuck, Dave and Fred for a great day.

Hopping in the car to drive the 14 hours home right after was not nearly as much fun.  Hard to believe it was a week ago already.

Later…

I will post up later with more details from the 40th birthday trip, but overall got in a bunch of SS riding in a mad dash across Utah and dipping into Colorado (had to hit the Hot Tomato).

Ended up putting an additional 310.25 miles on the Jolly Green Kona SingleSpeed 29er in what is probably its farewell tour. As Dave and Chuck will attest, it is making creaking noises from about everywhere and as they are my witness I tried greasing everything I could. With the headtube ovalizing it is probably about time.

Too much fun. Backed off of my mileage goals to increase the fun factor.

I leave you with one picture - more later. For scale, take a peek at Chuck in the upper right corner.  Can you see him?

310.25 miles for last two weeks, 2,075.28 for the year.

Later…

By my own choice this time.

So many things to do to get ready for Utah, and I am letting them take precedence over the 100 mile per week goal.  With 500-600 miles of mountain biking between now an May 3rd my legs may appreciate a little break in the action.  Plus it is 29 degrees and snowing.  My mind (and body) has already moved on to the current St George conditions - 70’s and sun.  It will be snowing the next couple days, and I will be riding the next couple days so do not be too disappointed in me.

Now that I have the three day work week ready to go I can focus on other things.

Off to get the Lenz back together and start pulling together all the other items for the trip.

77.78 miles for the week - 1,765.03 for the year.

Later…

All you have to do is cover the delivery to St G.

Cheers!

Don’t know about where you live, but Central Oregon had some great weather this weekend. Sunny and mid-70’s to 80. Time for the shorts.

Made it back from the business meetings in Pewaukee Wisconsin on Tuesday night. I have once again sworn off flights that go through O’Hare. Heading to Wisconsin, we ended up taxiing on the runway at O’Hare for 30 minutes for a 16 minute flight once we were airborne. What a mess.

The traveling continued Friday as we headed up to Salem for a volleyball tournament. My daughter’s team had an awesome day and ended up placing second. Go Oregon Volleyball Academy!

On to Sunday WebCyclery.com’s annual Spring Ride. In honor of Paris-Roubaix, every year we do a 40 mile “fun” ride that is about 3/4 pavement, 1/4 gravel road. Sorry, we don’t have any cobblestones in Bend. I say “fun” in quotes because every year ends up being a hammerfest. It is still fun though. This year, true to form, once we hit the first dirt section the front group hit the gas. Nothing quite like flying down loose gravel roads at 22-25 mph on your road bike trying to draft. I highly recommend it. Once again Kevin’s parents did a great job manning the feed stop at the midway point. Thanks so much.

I was much happier with my performance this year as I was able to hang until about mile 28 where I bobbled in some loose gravel and almost took out a couple of people behind me. By the time I recovered, the pack was too far down the road to catch back on. Gave me time to gab with Derek a bit until we hit China Hat Road.

We then came across Dan who had gone full speed into a big pothole for his second flat of the day. I donated my spare tube to the cause (now I have positive tube karma points) and by the time Dan was ready to go we had gathered a couple other riders to ride with back to WebCyclery.

Fun times.  Even managed to sneak in a quick mountain bike ride with my wife and son in the afternoon.

Ten days to departure on my 40th birthday rideathon in Utah.  8.5 days and 500+ miles of mountain biking.  Woo Hoo!

Ended up with 122.09 for the week, 1,687.25 for the year.

Later…

Greetings from Pewaukee, Wisconsin.

With all the travel (DC and Wisconsin) only had three days to ride last week.  With skipping the Boggs 8 Hour I was planning to get 50+ miles in on the road bike to keep the 100+ mile per week streak alive.  But in the end, the grand plan was killed by 8+ hours of honey do projects.

On the plus side there is less to get in the way of prep for the 40th birthday biking trip.  With 14 weeks gone in 2008, I’m still over on a total basis by 165 miles.  Now I just need to put at least one of my mountain bikes together and get some MTB miles in this week to test out the shoulder.

Only got 49.15 miles last week - running at 1,565.16 for the year.