Week 1: Wednesday (08/02/2009 - 08/08/2009)

If last week was vacation, this week was like Monday morning. Oh, so hard to get up....

Firing up the training engine again after an awkward length of time away can be tough. The momentum is against you, and you're never happy to accept that your fitness just isn't as it was. There's something about a few weeks that makes you feel as if there should still be more there.

Thankfully the tide turned on Wednesday when I picked up my shiny new Liquigas team bike, the newest addition to my growing family. Not only is it inspiringly beautiful, but I'm totally motivated to train hard to decrease the Fred Index!


Sunday 08/02: 43.8 miles, 3:27:40 (12.6 mph) Angeles Crest to Red Box via the RB with Sarah and Ian. I was a little bit worried after yesterday, but the pace was mellow and I felt pretty good. Really fun, great to catch up with Sarah. Still feeling a little bit out of sorts though, HR was pretty high and weird things are sore.

Monday 08/03: [Running] 22:14 in the am, 8 laps around the North Field. Running is still sucking. I've decided to do it every other day in addition to my cycling workouts, but so far results are poor. 20 minutes just feels like plenty, and I finish drenched in sweat. I just don't remember it being THIS bad... maybe part of it is that running around the field is extra un-rewarding, but I suppose I'll keep doing it for a few weeks to protect my new foot bones.

Tuesday 08/04: Unplanned off. Ugh, so the waking up on time lasted all of one day. Due to a miscommunication about when I needed to attend a work function, I thought that I didn't even have time to squeeze in a few laps at the RB, but in retrospect that would have been totally feasible. Bah, humbug.

Wednesday 08/05: 33.7 miles, 2:16:35 (14.8 mph) Angeles Crest to Clear Creek. Woke up late again and ran out of time to get to Red Box, but at least I got out there at all. Feeling a little better, I went a bit harder than usual, hammering a few miles at the top. It felt harder than it should have, but I was pleased that I could even climb at a halfway decent pace at all. It's hard to quash down the instinct to hammer when I feel weak... even though it's completely ass-backwards to the reasonable course of action which is to take it easy. I'm just really impatient about fixing the out of shapeness, and feel like I should try harder.

I was supposed to run again in the PM, but instead I drove to Pomona after work to pick up my shiny new bike :)

Thursday 08/06: 37.5 miles, 2:17:32 (16.4 mph) 10 x RB laps. Argh, yet another ride shortened by the inability to wake up on time. I guess it turned out okay, because I didn't feel very good for the first few laps. Not exactly sure why... I just felt kind of weak and tired. HR was okay though, and things got drastically better (by about 30 second per lap) after lap 4 or 5.

Friday 08/07: Off, shots. I was supposed to run in the PM, but I was at work pretty late and came home grouchy and exhausted. Mojitos at Ian's and installing a compact crankset on the new bike was just what the doctor ordered. (I really can't remember ever being so unmotivated about running).

Saturday 08/08: 90 miles. ~6:30-ish? GMR to GRR to Baldy Village, then some of the way up to the Ski Lifts with Ian. Got a late start due to the festivities yesterday, but thankfully it wasn't too hot. I was determined to debut the new bike today, and was excessively pleased! The campy shifters are pretty neat, and it rides so smoothly and climbs so well. The 34/25 turned out to be pretty grueling for the Ski Lifts, I'm usually suffering in my 31/25, so I didn't really approach this with the expectation of making it the whole way. I think I made it to about 1.5 miles from the top though, and turned around when Ian came down the other way (he made it to the top). Other than this segment, it was a pretty mellow ride, which was great and I finished feeling tired but not wiped out. Overall this was an excellent maiden voyage for new bike. I'm still getting used to the compact double, but I think I like it. I'm also glad that I can still do these rides, I was getting pretty worried after GMR last week. What a difference a week makes!

Training this week: 205 miles, 14:31:47, totally decent for a first week.

Week 0: Vacation (07/26/2009 - 08/01/2009)

I think I'm still pretty much in vacation mode. I was supposed to start doing some easy riding mid-week, but... that didn't happen. Ooops.

Vacation is pretty awesome though. My mom was here until Tuesday, and we crammed in a lot of things in the 5 days she was here, including a day for "mom stuff" like buying a fridge full of asian food products, making me lunches for the coming week and repotting all of my plants. I love my mom. I wanted her to see everything, we even had fruit from the fruit guy on the street near work... but even so we didn't manage to get to everything. I guess that's what next time is for.

I realized when I headed back to work on Wednesday, that I really did not get very much sleep, we had stuff to do from dawn till dusk, and lot of it involved walking. Nonetheless, I felt refreshed, calm and happy. Maybe... too calm and happy. I just didn't feel motivated to get up for my morning rides. I guess that's okay. Well, even if it's not, its too late. Next week will be back to normal, new boss, new disgruntlements... and a New Plan to offset the consternation. Perhaps it will be the Everest Challenge... only time will tell!


Sunday 07/26: Off, shopping and mom stuff. Today was supposed to be a hike, but we got back so late from San Diego yesterday, that we didn't wake up in time to get an early start. It was already getting really really hot by mid morning, so we had to roll out Plan B. I even took her to some bike stores, but Steve's was closed by 5... so she didn't get to see the weirdness.

Monday 07/27: Death Hike 2009. JPL to Clear Creek, then back via Brown Mountain, I think the total was about 25 miles, and it took 11 hours, counting lunch and breaks. I thought the Brown Mountain route would be a short cut, but it turns out it added an extra 2 miles and 2000 ft of elevation. Ooops. We also ran out of water 3-4 hours before the end of the hike, I only brought some pastries and rice balls for the entire day, and my backpack experienced a catastrophic malfunction about halfway through. My mom is a one tough little lady. She was even up and about and much more spry the next day. Me? I was sore and slow moving for pretty much the rest of the week.

In case you are wondering, Death Hike 2008 was with Peter to Mt. Bierstadt... my first time at 14,000 ft. I felt delirious, my foot hurt, and I broke out in hives when I got back to LA the next day.

Tuesday 07/28: Off, donut crawl and office tour with mom before I dropped her off at LAX. I was supposed to do an easy ride this evening, but instead, me and Dennis ate all of the donuts that my mom bought for Kangway and Dennis.

Wednesday 07/29: [Running] 28:05, 10 laps around the North Field in the pm. Felt guilty about sleeping through my morning ride, so decided to do a quick run after work. Saw Garrett and Sedona. Ran out of daylight. I still felt sore from the hike and the run was pretty hard. I was actually only intending to do 8 laps, but I spaced out and did an extra, and since I don't like odd numbers of laps, I had to do 10. I don't know how I used to do this... running so hard.

Thursday 07/30: Off, motivational issues continue. Slept through another ride... nuts.

Friday 07/31: [Running] 22:27, 8 laps around the North Field in the pm. Couldn't go riding in the morning bc of shots, but did manage to squeeze in a short run. I was doing really well until I fell over on lap 5, which kind of killed the momentum. After that I got a side stitch and had to start jogging, so I decided to cut it short at 8 laps. Arghhhh... who ever said running was fun?

Saturday 08/01: 65.2 miles, 4:42:50 (13.8 mph) Slowest GMR Ever. Bah, finally made it out on my first ride, and it was kind of a wake up call. Maybe it's not running's fault for sucking... maybe there are just consequences for taking 2 weeks off completely. I slept in and ended up being out during the hottest 5 hours of the day. Started out feeling good, made good time to Encanto park... but noticed that my climbing pace was off. It didn't feel bad, just slow. Things got drastically worse after I descended to East Fork though, it was really hot and really windy and I suddenly felt really drained and exhausted. I was secretly hoping to make it to Baldy Village, but was pretty glad I turned back early. Finished the ride just completely pooped.


Training this week: Random medley of 25 miles of hiking, 65 miles of cycling and maybe 5 of running. For some reason I kind of feel like each of these items was not beneficial for the other two...

Note from the Author (07/19/2009 - 07/25/2009)

I'm posting about a month's worth of back-logged entries today. I haven't been posting, but a lot has been happening: my first race, my first swine flu and a whole bunch of ups and downs. Because of this, and because I took a bunch of time off after the race, and because 15 is a nice round number of weeks, I've decided to call this one discrete training cycle.

This is my first Cycling Experience, and little did I imagine the amount of things that would happen. I feel like these are memories that happen to most cyclists over the course of many seasons, but for me, it all happened in 15 weeks. Being hit by a car, getting violently ill before a race, doing my first Wrightwood, being super excited about progress, and super bummed about setbacks, riding with people who are tons faster than you, and also riding by yourself at 5 am in the morning. Not all of this was optimal, by any means, but there's the happy ending. I completed my first bike race, and it was awesome!

I feel like I've earned the right to call myself a cyclist, and now, I've got a big ugly scar and a race result to prove it :)

**************************

Sunday 07/19: ~ 18 miles, ~ 1:10 ish around Denver with Peter. Shake out from the race yesterday. I feel great. I wanted to ride more, but we went to get lunch instead, where I scarfed down a salad, sandwich and french toast in rapid succession. I'm starved! Flu be gone, and this is the first time I've been excited about food in over a week. I guess I'm just really really really hungry.

Monday - Wednesday 07/20 - 22: Off, tired... also lazy. I think my body's had a hard time basically starting at around the Wrightwood adventure, and it's time for a consolidated block of time off. Coincidentally, my mom will be visiting me for a few days this and next week, so it's a good opportunity to rest and recover. On Wednesday night, I drove to Vegas to pick her up from a biology conference. Someone joked that I should bike to Vegas. I kept thinking about that with some terror, as I drove the 265 barren dessert miles in the 108 (at 10 pm!!!) degree weather, basically gaining and losing the same 1500 ft of elevation over and over and over again. I lost count of how many 2000, 3000 and 4000 ft elevation signs I saw!

Thursday - Saturday 07/23 - 25: Off, doing LA things with mom. Drove back on Thurday morning amid thundershowers. Still hot back home though. We went to see the botanical gardens, the San Diego Wild Animal Park and did some gardening and good food. Lots of walking, but also lots of cupcakes :).

Week 15: Race (07/12/2009 - 07/18/2009)

Race Report 2009: Mt. Evans Hill Climb

Plan D = Success!!!

Plan A = Not be overtrained and exhausted
Plan B = Not get swine flu
Plan C = Get enough sleep, food and training in the 5 days before
Plan D = Show up anyways.

My co-workers have been implementing a new policy called "Summer 'o Fun: No analyses, no consequences". For many, this could be loosely translated to: get drunk and sleep around... but we decided that Summer 'o Fun could mean different things to different people. For me, it was about breaking out of my risk averse race planning habits, and doing my first bicycle race.

No matter that my trial run time would have placed me squarely last by about 45 minutes, or that I've been galavanting off to Wrightwood while Peter dutifully crunched out his hill intervals... this was going to be the year that I entered my first race. Unfortunately, lack of analysis sometimes does breed consequences, and things started to take a turn for the worse after I had registered (hands shaking as I pressed the 'submit' button).

While Wrightwood had seemed like a good idea at the time, the week following was spent in a lethargic, under the weather sort of a state, until I acquired something suspiciously akin to the swine flu. After not eating for 2 days, I was determined to resume some semblance of riding, so that the race would not be my first ride back. Day after nerve wracking day was spent riding slow laps around the Rose Bowl, but results were not what I would have liked. On the contrary, I tried to do a pre-race on Thursday of 10 laps around the RB, but had to abandon after 5, due to extreme fatigue. But circumstances be damned, by golly I was going to do this bicycle race!

I slept fitfully on Friday, having arrived in Denver in time for a nice pizza dinner. I felt that pizza was the secret to success for the Baldy Village adventure a month or two back, and I needed all of the luck I could get. Thankfully, I woke up relatively calm on Saturday and thought better of consuming the remaining pizza for breakfast. Instead I had some slices of bread and got into the car with growing trepidation.

Thankfully, we were able to find parking, and Peter advised me not to warm up, as that would probably just tire me out even more. I was feeling too nervous to function by this point, so I dutifully did as I was told, going to the bathroom numerous times and pedaling absently up and down the main street of Idaho Springs (which is generously about 500m long), waiting for my race time.

Finally, it was within 10 minutes, so I rode over the starting line, and watched the Pro-1-2's depart... then the 3's and the age group riders. We gathered at the starting line at this point, a motley crew of women, ranging from scary, fit looking ones in team kits, to frightened looking ones on pink bikes. I rolled my beautiful vintage steel Tommasini (that Peter had outfitted with fancy campy nucleon racing wheels, but was still probably the heaviest bike of the bunch) to the back of the pack, feeling like if they didn't call the start soon, I was either going to throw up or start crying.

Luckily one of the others noticed my look of sheer terror and started up a friendly conversation. All I could get out in response was "uhhhhh... thisismyfirstbikeraceimreallyreallynervous!" Thankfully for me, the started called the 4's at this point, and off we went. From what I remember the race went kind of like this:

Minute 0: As we clipped in, I glanced down at my HRM and saw 151... apparently it was NOT just my imagination that my heart was pounding in my chest from apprehension. I am fully prepared to be last, but somehow that doesn't reduce the nerves.

Minute 5: I am desperately hanging on to the back of the peloton, which appears to be moving ridiculously fast, as evidenced by my new biking HR PR of 201. Yikes.

Minute 8: Though my heart is already exploding in my chest, the front end of the pack is breaking away, and the person in front of me has lost the wheel in front of her, so I make a move to the outside to bridge up to the first group. For some reason the competitive instincts have overridden caution at this point.

Minute 17: Despite my best efforts, I am dropped by the front pack. Fortunately, a few others are in my boat, so we form a grupetto to get to the base of the climb.

Minute 41: HR has calmed down to about 185 since we hit the climb. Riders are now strung out, but to my surprise, I seem to be fairing better than the others around me. I start picking them off one my one, thinking gleefully that I've got a lot of time to move up. This is more fun than I thought! (somewhere in here, we almost got hit by a station wagon, that was attempting to do a 3 pt turn on the race course... *shakes fist*)

1 hr 15 min: I reach Echo Lake, where there is a short flat section that marks the half way point (distance-wise, the steeper part is yet to come). I'm 15 minutes ahead of my trial time, so I'm pleased. I'm still feeling some nerves at this point, so I throw in an all out sprint on the flat section, prompting some disapproving comments from nearby riders "there's still a long way to go, you know..." I do know, but I'm all nerves and excitement.

1 hr 45 min: Ugh, its not as good when there's no one ahead of you to chase. The last person who I passed has hung onto my wheel, so I've been pulling this chick for a few miles now, but otherwise no one else from our original group is around. We don't lack for company though, as now we start to pass the citizens riders and age groupers who started ahead of us. I see the mile 5 sign, which means there are 9.5 more miles to go. I start to worry again about finishing... so I consume a gu to distract myself. I didn't swerve or crash, so it's a success! It's hard going, but at the same time it's easy to space out. I just tried to keep my HR above 185.

Suddenly, everything changes at once. The girl behind me offers to take a pull, so I sit back for a few minutes, but then, a third girl passes us on the right, and so we hang onto her wheel, a 3 person chain. I find the new pace a bit grueling, but I don't want to be dropped so I hang on. We're starting to pass more people... then *gasp* the girl in front of me loses the wheel in front of her! In a split second reaction, I surge past her to catch up with the first girl, who turns out to be the nice person who talked to me at the starting line.

~2 hr 15 min: I've been riding with the new person for a while now, I'm getting used to the faster pace, but my HR is now 193-5. She's also a former runner, but has been mountain biking for 7 years now. She's really nice, and the miles seem to be ticking by quicker... though one might imagine I should have been saving my copious amounts of breath for survival purposes. We get to Summit Lake, a glacial pool looking thing quicker than I thought, and I can smell the finish, though it is about 5 miles away still. The climbing starts picking up again soon afterwards, and my new riding buddy has gapped me. I know that its time to dig my heels in and finish, with or without her. I see Peter descending at about this point, and he tells me I'm on pace to finish in about 3 hours! This is the first time I've even thought about time.

2 hr 30 min: It's time for the last gu. I know I'm close, and I know I have to finish strong. I've been doing finish time estimates at the last few mile markers--assuming I can maintain 6 mph in the worst case scenario, each mile should take 10 minutes... by mile 12 I realized I was going significantly faster than 6 mph, and that I was going to break 3 hours! The switchbacks are getting pretty intense, but I stand up in the saddle, muttering "come on, you can do this!" to myself over and over.

2 hr 51 min: I make the final turn and cross a thin white line on the road, well before the end of the parking lot where I stopped before. "Wait, that was the finish?" I ask quizzically as they call out my race number. I look down at my HRM and see 2:51 something... holy crap! I did it! Never in my wildest dreams was this a possible scenario. I roll into sea of cyclists towards the 14,000 ft sign, wild eyed and giggling like a maniac, which in turn prompts a severe coughing fit. Passerby express concern, but I am unfazed. This truly is my Summer 'o Fun!


Sunday 07/12: Off, swine flu recovery continues. Still feeling nauseous, but I need to start riding again tomorrow, so towards nightfall, I force down a small bowl of plain Pho. It's tasty but I can feel my stomach begin to gurgle again. After some nervous hours, I'm confident that this meal isn't coming back up, so I try to get some sleep.

Monday 07/13: 22.2 miles, 1:23:20 (15.9 mph) 5 x RB laps in the evening. I'm still feeling vaguely nauseous and achey so, sleep is hard to come by, no matter when I go to bed. I couldn't manage to wake up, but I did manage to get home early enough to squeeze in a short ride. I felt really, really weak... like riding was a foreign concept, just couldn't get any power on the pedals. Kept a high cadence and went easy, but I was still discouraged to see the speed.

Tuesday 07/14: 25.6 miles, 1:34:49 (16.2 mph) 6 x RB laps. Feeling marginally better, but still sluggish. There was also this annoying dude who kept sprinting past me and then falling back repeatedly. I really, really hate people who do that. I'm concentrating on my training and enjoying some peace and quiet in the morning. Just do your own damn workout.

Wednesday 07/15: 33.9 miles, 2:21:17 (14.4 mph) Angeles Crest to Clear Creek. I had to test out some climbing before the race, even though I knew it would probably wear me out. I just concentrated on keeping race goal pace of between 8-9 mph. I knew this was unrealistic given the trial run, and that I wouldn't have a spedometer anyways... but for some reason I felt the need to do this. 8-9 mph is pedestrian at this lower altitude... but my HR was going crazy anyways. I decide it's still an overall good sign, the best ride I've had this week.

Thursday 07/16: 22.2 miles, 1:23:42 (15.9 mph) 5 x RB laps. Pre-race, because tomorrow is shot day. I have 10 x RB laps planned, but after 4, I slow down catastrophically, feeling insanely fatigued. I decide its time to limp back home after this really really old guy passes me... *sigh*. I feel discouraged again, how can someone who can barely complete 5 RB laps race 28 miles uphill???

Friday 07/17: Off, shots. Travel to Colorado. It's now or never, I am still determined to do the race!

Saturday 07/18: 56 miles, 4:15-ish? I didn't measure the return journey, because I wanted to preserve the record of the 2:51. I rode back down with the nice girl from the starting line, but parted ways at Echo Lake. The remainder of the descent was hot, windy and dehydrated. I couldn't make it to the car, so I stopped at the starting line to drink a bottle of water, but crashed on the sand in my hurry... nuts. I get back to the car, and I'm happy but I'm thoroughly exhausted now. Also, I feel headachey and nauseous again. Damn swine flu just won't die.


Training this week: 159.9 miles, 10:58:08. You know, this wasn't the way I envisioned my first race, but it was awesome! Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

Week 14: Swine Flu! (07/05/2009 - 07/11/2009)

On Friday, I got really sick. Like, really really sick, and suddenly.

On Saturday, I got an e-mail from el Boss Man: "Sorry guys, I've been coming to the office all week with swine flu! Hope you don't get it!"

I didn't get tested, so I guess I won't know if that's what it was, but it was pretty terrible... even with the allergic person's Super Immune System. Come to think of it, I've been sneezing and coughing like crazy all week, a sign of bad things to come.


Sunday 07/05: 45.7 miles, 2:53:00 (15.8 mph) Peter's Short Long Loop. I had Seal Beach on the planner, but was still feeling pooped from yesterday. Decided to cut it short and grab some breakfast with Peter. I just concentrated on spinning fast and the ride went by tolerably well--it was only until I finished that I realized how slow it really was. HR was also insanely low, 131 avg. Probably time for a nice easy week.

Monday 07/06: Off. Felt like this was well earned.

Tuesday 07/07: Off. This one was not well earned... just feeling crappy, couldn't wake up in time.

Wednesday 07/08: [Running] 20:38, 10 laps around the South Field after work and before delicious delicious apartmental dinner. Still feeling poorly... I decided to hit the track for some running just for the sake of doing... something. Unfortunately, this also felt really really bad. Quads were killing me the whole time. Also, had to hop the fence bc the front desk nazi was asking for ID cards again. Bah, humbug.

Thursday 07/09: 37.6 miles, 2:15:55 (16.6 mph) 10 x RB laps. Real easy, just tried to focus on high cadence. I thought this shakeout helped my quads feel less tight and sore, but the soreness returned later on in the day. Nuts.

Friday 07/10: Off, shots. Also, onset of swine flu. I was feeling under the weather and headachey all day, but it all went south pretty quick towards the evening. Barely made the drive home before I was vomiting, delirious, diarrhea, the whole works. Felt positively godawful. 3 pepto bismol and 2 advil later, I finally got a little bit of sleep at 5 am.

Saturday 07/11: Off, more flu. Now, whole body aches, but no more vomiting. Spent the day trying to force down Gatorades. Tried to rest but I felt so horrible it was hard to get any sleep. Got up and watched some Tour with KB in the afternoon. Feeling a little better, but still nauseous and achey. So much for the last weekend of training before the race...


Training this week: 83.3 miles, 5:08:55 ... this week could have gone better (in more ways than one)