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.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
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)
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)
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Week 13: Wrightwood (06/28/2009 - 07/04/2009)
Oh, the pain, the joy.... of one's first Wrightwood.
All I can say is that it was a collossally bad idea, but I survived. It was probably also a testament to the evils of peer pressure. I've been feeling bad all week, with sky rocketing heart rates matched with alarmingly reduced climbing speeds. The overtraining thought had crossed my mind... but there was momentum for Wrightwood this week, and I didn't want to be the lame-o to back out.
I think I was regretting my pride 8 hours later, as the thought occurred to me... can you will your heart to keep on beating??? What am I going to do if I look down and my monitor suddenly reads 0?!?!
This ride was about a lot of new things for me, some good... some not so good. The scenery was beautiful, I finally got to see what happened after Dawson's Saddle. I'm also pleased about how almost 11 hours in the saddle felt. It didn't feel as long as I thought it would. On the flip side, I did experience a state (medically) that I really think I would have preferred never to get to. I'm no stranger to "exhausted to tears", but I've never reached this state where it felt like my body was literally over-riding my brain and shutting itself down.
I kinda knew as soon as we hit the Angeles Crest that this ride was going to be about survival. Even my earliest long rides, I always started out feeling good, and ended up feeling bad. This one, I felt bad from the first step... I took down the pace to about a crawl, and hoped to feel better after Red Box, but that never came. I felt lethargic and weak but forced myself to keep up with Will and Ian up until about the 39 intersection, after which I was pretty much resigned to being dropped. Nevertheless I struggled up to Dawson's Saddle, feeling by far the worst I ever have at this juncture, but determined to make it to Wrightwood, at this point, it would be stupid to turn back. Or so I thought.
I expended my last bit of fight to get up the 2.5 mile ascent (Ian had mistakenly described it as a "short" uphill) a few miles before Wrightwood, and arrived pretty zonked out at the cute little cafe where we caught some lunch. I remembered feeling even more lethargic after some meals at Newcombe's ranch, so I decided to stick with a snack of a strawberry pastry and a donut. Maybe that was also a mistake.
I was feeling positively deathly by the time we headed back out, and in completely a different way than all of the other times I've over-extended myself on a ride. This time, it wasn't about a feeling of over-exertion or a high heart rate, it was the reverse... as if I was stuck in state of semi-hibernation, with only one pace. And it was by no means a challenging pace, but I couldn't manage to lift myself out of it. I felt almost as if I were at a little distance from my struggling body, fighting it, trying to cajole it out of its lethargy, but to no avail. As I climbed, I developed a side stitch, and then I noticed my HR begin to plummet, 160 went to 150 went to 140... I tried desperately to rev it back up, but to no avail. I was pretty freaked out as I reached the water stop halfway back to Dawson's Saddle, but the worst was yet to come.
Climbing the last 6 or so miles up to Dawson's was a surreal experience. Despite a little rest and a little water, my side hurt so badly, I couldn't stand up on my bike, as I desperately wanted to do... because my HR had now fallen into the 130's and I was starting to seriously worry that it would continue to drop until it was 0. In addition, I was engaged in a surreal discussion with myself regarding the fact that I couldn't account for a mile between here and Wrightwood. According to my odometer, I still had 4 miles to go... but according to the mile markers... I only had 3. I couldn't understand, and I honestly still don't. By the end I didn't have the bandwidth to care. The summit came 1 mile too early, but not early enough. Ian sat by the shed at Dawson's Saddle with me for a while as I pondered the medical/mental mystery.
Thankfully, things normalized a little bit after that... leading me to think maybe it was just a sugar crash from my ill advised lunch. I felt a lot better at the base of the 39, and was able to trundle relatively pleasantly back the rest of the way. My HR was still a little low, but not scarily so, and I was going slow, but not RIDICULOUSLY so. I was heartened enough by the time I got to Newcombe's that I didn't call for a rescue. I met the owner again, who suggested my next trip (to San Grigonio, another 23 miles past Wrightwood). I arrived home in the waning hours of light, feeling pooped but a million times better than during that stretch climbing up to Dawson's at 5 mph, wondering if my heart decided to go on strike, there was anything I could do about that. It was actually really scary. I don't ever want to be in that place again.
Sunday 06/28: 76.9 mph, 4:45-ish. "Flat" ride around Denver, with some mild dirt roading around Griggs Road. I should have known that nothing in Peter's vocabulary really means "flat", and this ride was like that as well. I felt positively heinous after yesterday. In hindsight this was the beginning of this weird low HR phenomenon. I was struggling and breathing hard at a really low HR, it felt insanely bad. I sprinted up a few hills about 2 hours in to get my HR up, and somehow that cleared up all of the bad feelings. I still felt tired, but a lot more normal after that and was able to complete the ride feeling okay.
Monday 06/29: Off. Travel, well deserved break.
Tuesday 06/30: 51.3 miles, 3:45:41 (13.6 mph) Angeles Crest to Mt. Wilson with Ian. I was feeling pretty decent to start off, but noticed that something was wrong when we hit the 2. I always climb the crest in third to lowest gear, at a nice quick cadence, but today, I was in second to lowest and already feeling tired. Bad news. Things only got worse as we went further up, I was huffing and puffing by Clear Creek, only to look down at my spedometer and see a fairly pedestrian pace. To make it any further, I convinced Ian to slow down to a snail's pace, and I made it fairly pleasantly up to Mt. Wilson, but was still kind of freaked out by the insane slowness, coupled with a really high HR.
Wednesday 07/01: 45.7 miles, 2:37:22 (17.4 mph) Peter's Short Long Loop. Decided a true easy day was in order. Did a nice relaxed flat ride, but somehow I felt tired and achey nonetheless. I was kind of peeved about the time, but I guess one has to make some allowances for a hard few weeks.
Thursday 07/02: Off, shots. Shot office is closed on Friday, so off day came early. Probably for the best.
Friday 07/03: 64.6 miles, 4:29:30 (14.3 mph), East Fork back on GMR. This was supposed to be a nice relaxed pre-Wrightwood shake out, but it turned into kind of a nightmare. Peter started out saying he would ride easy with me, but apparently my pace became too soul crushing before 5 miles had elapsed, and he went on his merry way. I was pretty sad to discover that the Encanto Park bathrooms were closed (!) by the time I got there. So I continued onto the 39 but at this point I was becoming more and more uncomfortable, and also more and more dehydrated, but I didn't want to drink because then that would increase the peeing problem!
I finally made it to the East Fork turnoff, knowing that there was a bathroom up ahead. I arrived there, plowed through the dirt parking lot, and ran into the bathroom. Finally after that I drank an entire bottle of water. It was really seriously hot by this point, and it didn't feel like it helped very much. But I pressed on. Unfortunately as I was rolling out of the dirt parking lot, I slipped on some sand and crashed onto my bad hip (the one that was damaged in the RB crash). Unfortunately I was now in the street at a narrow curve, so I had get up immediately and get out of the way, being narrowly missed by two vehicles as I did so.
I determined that this was a poor location, so I got up and started riding, but I could feel my hip quivering and locking up where the impact had been. I felt pretty terrible, but pushed on to the base of the climb... where the police were closing up the gate. Motorcycles were being turned back... but I had to get home! I waited for them to look the other way and pushed my bike through and made my escape. Unfortunately the climb wasn't any better. I felt tired, dehydrated, insanely hot, and my HR was pushing 185. It was miserable. I was pretty happy to finally hit the GMR descent. I saw an eagle, and had a gu near the bottom, and the return journey was a lot more pleasant.... but all in all I definitely felt like I had taxed myself a LOT more than I wanted to right before the Wrightwood adventure... this had not been the pleasant easy short ride that I had envisioned.
Saturday 07/04: 134.2 miles, 10:49:36 (12.4 mph) Angeles Crest to Wrighwood, back the same way. Happy 4th of July folks! See description above. I've never stuffed myself with such reckless abandon as I did when I got back from this ride. Holy crap... 134 is a lot of miles.
Training this week: 372.7 miles, 26:27:09... holy shit that is a huge weekly PR!
All I can say is that it was a collossally bad idea, but I survived. It was probably also a testament to the evils of peer pressure. I've been feeling bad all week, with sky rocketing heart rates matched with alarmingly reduced climbing speeds. The overtraining thought had crossed my mind... but there was momentum for Wrightwood this week, and I didn't want to be the lame-o to back out.
I think I was regretting my pride 8 hours later, as the thought occurred to me... can you will your heart to keep on beating??? What am I going to do if I look down and my monitor suddenly reads 0?!?!
This ride was about a lot of new things for me, some good... some not so good. The scenery was beautiful, I finally got to see what happened after Dawson's Saddle. I'm also pleased about how almost 11 hours in the saddle felt. It didn't feel as long as I thought it would. On the flip side, I did experience a state (medically) that I really think I would have preferred never to get to. I'm no stranger to "exhausted to tears", but I've never reached this state where it felt like my body was literally over-riding my brain and shutting itself down.
I kinda knew as soon as we hit the Angeles Crest that this ride was going to be about survival. Even my earliest long rides, I always started out feeling good, and ended up feeling bad. This one, I felt bad from the first step... I took down the pace to about a crawl, and hoped to feel better after Red Box, but that never came. I felt lethargic and weak but forced myself to keep up with Will and Ian up until about the 39 intersection, after which I was pretty much resigned to being dropped. Nevertheless I struggled up to Dawson's Saddle, feeling by far the worst I ever have at this juncture, but determined to make it to Wrightwood, at this point, it would be stupid to turn back. Or so I thought.
I expended my last bit of fight to get up the 2.5 mile ascent (Ian had mistakenly described it as a "short" uphill) a few miles before Wrightwood, and arrived pretty zonked out at the cute little cafe where we caught some lunch. I remembered feeling even more lethargic after some meals at Newcombe's ranch, so I decided to stick with a snack of a strawberry pastry and a donut. Maybe that was also a mistake.
I was feeling positively deathly by the time we headed back out, and in completely a different way than all of the other times I've over-extended myself on a ride. This time, it wasn't about a feeling of over-exertion or a high heart rate, it was the reverse... as if I was stuck in state of semi-hibernation, with only one pace. And it was by no means a challenging pace, but I couldn't manage to lift myself out of it. I felt almost as if I were at a little distance from my struggling body, fighting it, trying to cajole it out of its lethargy, but to no avail. As I climbed, I developed a side stitch, and then I noticed my HR begin to plummet, 160 went to 150 went to 140... I tried desperately to rev it back up, but to no avail. I was pretty freaked out as I reached the water stop halfway back to Dawson's Saddle, but the worst was yet to come.
Climbing the last 6 or so miles up to Dawson's was a surreal experience. Despite a little rest and a little water, my side hurt so badly, I couldn't stand up on my bike, as I desperately wanted to do... because my HR had now fallen into the 130's and I was starting to seriously worry that it would continue to drop until it was 0. In addition, I was engaged in a surreal discussion with myself regarding the fact that I couldn't account for a mile between here and Wrightwood. According to my odometer, I still had 4 miles to go... but according to the mile markers... I only had 3. I couldn't understand, and I honestly still don't. By the end I didn't have the bandwidth to care. The summit came 1 mile too early, but not early enough. Ian sat by the shed at Dawson's Saddle with me for a while as I pondered the medical/mental mystery.
Thankfully, things normalized a little bit after that... leading me to think maybe it was just a sugar crash from my ill advised lunch. I felt a lot better at the base of the 39, and was able to trundle relatively pleasantly back the rest of the way. My HR was still a little low, but not scarily so, and I was going slow, but not RIDICULOUSLY so. I was heartened enough by the time I got to Newcombe's that I didn't call for a rescue. I met the owner again, who suggested my next trip (to San Grigonio, another 23 miles past Wrightwood). I arrived home in the waning hours of light, feeling pooped but a million times better than during that stretch climbing up to Dawson's at 5 mph, wondering if my heart decided to go on strike, there was anything I could do about that. It was actually really scary. I don't ever want to be in that place again.
Sunday 06/28: 76.9 mph, 4:45-ish. "Flat" ride around Denver, with some mild dirt roading around Griggs Road. I should have known that nothing in Peter's vocabulary really means "flat", and this ride was like that as well. I felt positively heinous after yesterday. In hindsight this was the beginning of this weird low HR phenomenon. I was struggling and breathing hard at a really low HR, it felt insanely bad. I sprinted up a few hills about 2 hours in to get my HR up, and somehow that cleared up all of the bad feelings. I still felt tired, but a lot more normal after that and was able to complete the ride feeling okay.
Monday 06/29: Off. Travel, well deserved break.
Tuesday 06/30: 51.3 miles, 3:45:41 (13.6 mph) Angeles Crest to Mt. Wilson with Ian. I was feeling pretty decent to start off, but noticed that something was wrong when we hit the 2. I always climb the crest in third to lowest gear, at a nice quick cadence, but today, I was in second to lowest and already feeling tired. Bad news. Things only got worse as we went further up, I was huffing and puffing by Clear Creek, only to look down at my spedometer and see a fairly pedestrian pace. To make it any further, I convinced Ian to slow down to a snail's pace, and I made it fairly pleasantly up to Mt. Wilson, but was still kind of freaked out by the insane slowness, coupled with a really high HR.
Wednesday 07/01: 45.7 miles, 2:37:22 (17.4 mph) Peter's Short Long Loop. Decided a true easy day was in order. Did a nice relaxed flat ride, but somehow I felt tired and achey nonetheless. I was kind of peeved about the time, but I guess one has to make some allowances for a hard few weeks.
Thursday 07/02: Off, shots. Shot office is closed on Friday, so off day came early. Probably for the best.
Friday 07/03: 64.6 miles, 4:29:30 (14.3 mph), East Fork back on GMR. This was supposed to be a nice relaxed pre-Wrightwood shake out, but it turned into kind of a nightmare. Peter started out saying he would ride easy with me, but apparently my pace became too soul crushing before 5 miles had elapsed, and he went on his merry way. I was pretty sad to discover that the Encanto Park bathrooms were closed (!) by the time I got there. So I continued onto the 39 but at this point I was becoming more and more uncomfortable, and also more and more dehydrated, but I didn't want to drink because then that would increase the peeing problem!
I finally made it to the East Fork turnoff, knowing that there was a bathroom up ahead. I arrived there, plowed through the dirt parking lot, and ran into the bathroom. Finally after that I drank an entire bottle of water. It was really seriously hot by this point, and it didn't feel like it helped very much. But I pressed on. Unfortunately as I was rolling out of the dirt parking lot, I slipped on some sand and crashed onto my bad hip (the one that was damaged in the RB crash). Unfortunately I was now in the street at a narrow curve, so I had get up immediately and get out of the way, being narrowly missed by two vehicles as I did so.
I determined that this was a poor location, so I got up and started riding, but I could feel my hip quivering and locking up where the impact had been. I felt pretty terrible, but pushed on to the base of the climb... where the police were closing up the gate. Motorcycles were being turned back... but I had to get home! I waited for them to look the other way and pushed my bike through and made my escape. Unfortunately the climb wasn't any better. I felt tired, dehydrated, insanely hot, and my HR was pushing 185. It was miserable. I was pretty happy to finally hit the GMR descent. I saw an eagle, and had a gu near the bottom, and the return journey was a lot more pleasant.... but all in all I definitely felt like I had taxed myself a LOT more than I wanted to right before the Wrightwood adventure... this had not been the pleasant easy short ride that I had envisioned.
Saturday 07/04: 134.2 miles, 10:49:36 (12.4 mph) Angeles Crest to Wrighwood, back the same way. Happy 4th of July folks! See description above. I've never stuffed myself with such reckless abandon as I did when I got back from this ride. Holy crap... 134 is a lot of miles.
Training this week: 372.7 miles, 26:27:09... holy shit that is a huge weekly PR!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Week 12: Ouch (06/21/2009 - 06/27/2009)
Eeeeeps.
There are certain days where I get lulled into thinking, well maybe, perhaps I'm not quite such a sucky rider after all... and then there are other days, where one gets clobbered over the head pretty good with the reality stick: actually, yes, you do suck. And quite a lot at that.
I've been considering and re-considering the Mt. Evans Hill Climb ever since I've been trying out this cycling thing. It seems hard and grueling, which I like, and there's also the nostalgic value of having been mentioned in Running with the Buffaloes. Finally, after considering last year's race results at much length, I decided on a trial run this Saturday.
28 miles (7 - 14,000 feet), of which the first 5-6 being somewhat mellow, and Peter having described the rest as being like Clear Creek (red flag #1... nothing Peter thinks is not steep is actually not steep) I insisted that 3 hours was a reasonable finish time. Maybe with race conditions, I could even swing 2:45, which, while still slow, was not *catastrophically* embarrassing.
Nothing could have prepared me for how horribly mistaken I was... the beginning section, on which I had hoped to make some easy gains, was already pretty miserable. I didn't have a speedometer, but, it only took me a few mile markers into the climb to realize that I was drastically off pace, with HR already racing at 170. By the time we hit the actual Mt Evans road, with 14.5 miles to go, I was thoroughly unamused... my time goal long since replaced by the goal of survival.
Luckily about this juncture, I ran into a fellow sea level dweller, Stefan, a friendly non racing cycling enthusiast, who accompanied me, delirious ramblings and all... the rest of the way. I was vaguely comforted to realize that I still had enough breath to talk, and that we did manage to pass everyone else we encountered on the climb (other than Peter). It was very much a surreal experience--you really do get more and more light headed as the scenery becomes more and more breathtaking. At times I wanted to get out of the saddle and push harder, but was held back by the fear of passing out.
All told it was 3:40, give or take 5 minutes to the top, and I arrived thoroughly humbled but with a sense of wonderment at being so ridiculously high up. I was really glad that I did this, despite the fact that it started out very frustrating and demoralizing, this is the first time in a while that I felt like I tackled and survived something really really hard. 14K feels disproportionately less good than 10K. The conclusion is that a proficient civilian does not a bike racer make. Apparently there's still a pretty sizeable gap between me and being a Real Cyclist... I guess I'll have to stick it out at my day job for now.
Sunday 06/21: 79.9 miles, 5:56:20 (13.4 miles), Angeles Crest to Cloudburst summit with Ian. A really beautiful day, and a great ride. I felt pretty tired from yesterday, but thankfully we just went a very very mellow pace and it felt good. I felt like I perked up a little bit near Newcombe's ranch and was excited about the last climb. I really love this section of the 2.
Monday 06/22: Off. Some much needed rest.
Tuesday 06/23: 34.7 miles, 2:41:21 (12.9 miles), 2 x Chantry climb, second one up to the Helipad with Ian. Tried to seek out some steeper grades per Ben's advice. The part near the base of the climb was pretty shocking to my system, but it was a LOT easier than I remembered. The first time up felt a little rusty, I definitely did not feel very good, but the second time went much better and much faster. It felt good to go a little bit harder than usual.
Wednesday 06/24: Off, motivational issues. Slept in. Bah, so useless....
Thursday 06/25: 51 miles, 3:46:25 (13.5 mph), Mt. Disappointment with Ian. An eventful day: First, I decided consciously to be late to work so that we could check out this new road that Will told us about. Second, we saw a bear (!) 30 second after we turned onto Mt. Disappointment road. Third, the last quarter mile or so was ridiculously ski lifts-esque steep. I recorded my first 200HR in several years for about 5 seconds near the top. The ride was most definitely not disappointing. It was really beautiful, especially with the rolling fog underneath.... there was no city, only mountain peaks in the distance, as if you were the only person on earth. Then I karmically spilled curry all over my car as I rolled into work at about 10:30... I still wasn't sorry for my truancy.
Friday 06/26: Off, shots. Travel to Colorado.
Saturday 06/27: 56 miles, 4:50:00 give or take 10 minutes. Mt Evans Race Course, half of it with Peter. See description above.
Training this week: 221.6 miles, 17:14:06. Pretty decent, esp. considering the rides.
There are certain days where I get lulled into thinking, well maybe, perhaps I'm not quite such a sucky rider after all... and then there are other days, where one gets clobbered over the head pretty good with the reality stick: actually, yes, you do suck. And quite a lot at that.
I've been considering and re-considering the Mt. Evans Hill Climb ever since I've been trying out this cycling thing. It seems hard and grueling, which I like, and there's also the nostalgic value of having been mentioned in Running with the Buffaloes. Finally, after considering last year's race results at much length, I decided on a trial run this Saturday.
28 miles (7 - 14,000 feet), of which the first 5-6 being somewhat mellow, and Peter having described the rest as being like Clear Creek (red flag #1... nothing Peter thinks is not steep is actually not steep) I insisted that 3 hours was a reasonable finish time. Maybe with race conditions, I could even swing 2:45, which, while still slow, was not *catastrophically* embarrassing.
Nothing could have prepared me for how horribly mistaken I was... the beginning section, on which I had hoped to make some easy gains, was already pretty miserable. I didn't have a speedometer, but, it only took me a few mile markers into the climb to realize that I was drastically off pace, with HR already racing at 170. By the time we hit the actual Mt Evans road, with 14.5 miles to go, I was thoroughly unamused... my time goal long since replaced by the goal of survival.
Luckily about this juncture, I ran into a fellow sea level dweller, Stefan, a friendly non racing cycling enthusiast, who accompanied me, delirious ramblings and all... the rest of the way. I was vaguely comforted to realize that I still had enough breath to talk, and that we did manage to pass everyone else we encountered on the climb (other than Peter). It was very much a surreal experience--you really do get more and more light headed as the scenery becomes more and more breathtaking. At times I wanted to get out of the saddle and push harder, but was held back by the fear of passing out.
All told it was 3:40, give or take 5 minutes to the top, and I arrived thoroughly humbled but with a sense of wonderment at being so ridiculously high up. I was really glad that I did this, despite the fact that it started out very frustrating and demoralizing, this is the first time in a while that I felt like I tackled and survived something really really hard. 14K feels disproportionately less good than 10K. The conclusion is that a proficient civilian does not a bike racer make. Apparently there's still a pretty sizeable gap between me and being a Real Cyclist... I guess I'll have to stick it out at my day job for now.
Sunday 06/21: 79.9 miles, 5:56:20 (13.4 miles), Angeles Crest to Cloudburst summit with Ian. A really beautiful day, and a great ride. I felt pretty tired from yesterday, but thankfully we just went a very very mellow pace and it felt good. I felt like I perked up a little bit near Newcombe's ranch and was excited about the last climb. I really love this section of the 2.
Monday 06/22: Off. Some much needed rest.
Tuesday 06/23: 34.7 miles, 2:41:21 (12.9 miles), 2 x Chantry climb, second one up to the Helipad with Ian. Tried to seek out some steeper grades per Ben's advice. The part near the base of the climb was pretty shocking to my system, but it was a LOT easier than I remembered. The first time up felt a little rusty, I definitely did not feel very good, but the second time went much better and much faster. It felt good to go a little bit harder than usual.
Wednesday 06/24: Off, motivational issues. Slept in. Bah, so useless....
Thursday 06/25: 51 miles, 3:46:25 (13.5 mph), Mt. Disappointment with Ian. An eventful day: First, I decided consciously to be late to work so that we could check out this new road that Will told us about. Second, we saw a bear (!) 30 second after we turned onto Mt. Disappointment road. Third, the last quarter mile or so was ridiculously ski lifts-esque steep. I recorded my first 200HR in several years for about 5 seconds near the top. The ride was most definitely not disappointing. It was really beautiful, especially with the rolling fog underneath.... there was no city, only mountain peaks in the distance, as if you were the only person on earth. Then I karmically spilled curry all over my car as I rolled into work at about 10:30... I still wasn't sorry for my truancy.
Friday 06/26: Off, shots. Travel to Colorado.
Saturday 06/27: 56 miles, 4:50:00 give or take 10 minutes. Mt Evans Race Course, half of it with Peter. See description above.
Training this week: 221.6 miles, 17:14:06. Pretty decent, esp. considering the rides.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Week 11: Rebuilding (06/14/2009 - 06/20/2009)
Getting back in the saddle. I've been having some moderate motivational issues since the crash and the plague. Once you take a whole bunch of days off, it kind of shifts the momentum. I also feel sad and discouraged about the setback, which also feeds the negative feedback loop for the motivation.
I'm pretty sure the only cure is to stamp out these memories and feelings with some good rides, and get back into the right mindset. I'm going to try to do a Mt. Evans trial run next week to determine whether I want to participate in the actual race, so I've got to bring my A-game. I think this week's goal will be to ride semi consistently and get back over 200 miles.
Sunday 06/14: 41 miles, 2:23:46 (17.1 mph) Peter's Short Long Loop, truncated due to flat tire and no tools. Well, the comeback is off to kind of a crappy start. I felt awful on this ride... I was full of snot and phlegm from being sick, except that I couldn't cough or sneeze bc my ribs are still so bruised. I felt tired though I was going pretty slow, and I was completely discombobulated by the down tube shifters and the 52/38 gearing on Big Red. I also forgot to bring a patch kit or spare tire, and figured it was just my luck to land a big flat tire about 5 miles from home.
Thankfully, I was rescued by the KB mobile, and took my poor injured Celeste bike to Steve's for some patching up. Bah, this seriously didn't help my vague suspicion that this is all a sign that me and bike racing was not meant to be...
Monday 06/15: Off. Woke up really tired and discouraged, so I didn't attempt another ride, and was really in a foul mood all day.
Tuesday 06/16: 45.7 miles, 2:36:11 (17.5 mph) Peter's Short Long Loop. Try #2. This one went much better. Felt a lot less sick, and even that helped. I think I've basically figured out how to deal with the six-speed and the shifters at this point so that helped too. I guess its never a good feeling when route times are slower than they used to be, but at least I didn't feel tired out by the effort. It was a good solid step in the right direction.
Wednesday 06/17: Off. Another really bad morning. I had Red Box planned for today and I even did wake up at 5 am... like fully awake, and not even that tired. But I sat on the edge of my bed with my head in my hands feeling like I just didn't want to go. I still lacked confidence with taking Big Red on any longer rides, and going into the mountains for the first time in a week and a half felt daunting. Visions of crashes and catastrophes filled my head... and I remembered that I had felt a little like this the day that I went on that RB ride last week. That superstitious thought tipped the scales, I crawled back into bed and fell asleep... it felt like the right decision at the time, but as the day wore on, I felt increasingly guilty and stupid and bothered.
Thursday 06/18: 41.5 miles, 2:44:00 (15.1 mph), Angeles Crest to Clear Creek, plus a few laps of the RB on the way home. Today started out a little bit like yesterday, but I was determined to get past this feeling. I still did dawdle for long enough that I no longer felt like I had enough time to go to Red Box, but I was determined at least to make it to Clear Creek. I heard that the bike we purchased off of eBay (Bianchi FG Lite Team bike) was arriving today, so I told myself that the least I could do was do a ride today so as to deserve my new purchase.
Climbing on Big Red was a lot easier than I thought. Actually managed a pretty speedy ascent, despite feeling positive dreadful trudging over to the base of the 2. I was pretty pleased. To alleviate some guilt for not having gone to Red Box, I did a few laps at a moderate intensity at the RB before heading home for the day. All in all I think this was what I needed to get back into it.
Friday 06/19: Off, shots. So tired... so sleep deprived. Everyone left work early, including me. By which I mean I left at 6:30 pm.
Saturday 06/20: 86.9 miles, 5:47:38 (15 mph) GMR to GRR to Baldy Village and back the same way we came. First time doing it this way, rather than just taking the flat way back. This was a harder than usual effort for me, Will, Ben, Alec and Scott were there, so it was kind of a "Ride just to keep up" sort of a situation. I felt pretty good until we reached the base of the climb, after which the pace felt a little bit stressful. I considered just dropping back right off the bat, but realized that with the 38/25, which is the smallest gear that Big Red has, it just felt more natural to go at the faster pace, so I kept it up and it started to feel easier.
I was pretty excited that I kept up with the group until mile 6 on GRR, at which point I was fairly catastrophically left behind. I was feeling a little bit freaked out at this point, my motivation to push hard totally gone, I kind of wondered if I should just go home alone the flat way rather than risk the climbing up from Baldy Village. I had a gu at BV though, and decided to man up and go back with the group. The first climb was a lot shorter than I thought it would be, and thankfully Will decided to drop back and rock the grupetto with me. It's so much better than the grupetto of one.
The ride back was... fraught with some misfortunes, unfortunately. It had been drizzling almost the entire ride, and we suffered some casualties. Will got a flat tire and Ben crashed on the descent, but all in all it appears everyone made it home in one piece. As a result of these two items, I ended up riding back to Pasadena with Alec, which was a little challenging, but I think I dug in and managed not to slow him down too much. I had a good time though, despite the rain and the droppage... and Ben told me all about the Everest Challenge and made me really want to do it!
Training this week: 215 miles, 13:31:35. Slowly inching back towards acceptable!
I'm pretty sure the only cure is to stamp out these memories and feelings with some good rides, and get back into the right mindset. I'm going to try to do a Mt. Evans trial run next week to determine whether I want to participate in the actual race, so I've got to bring my A-game. I think this week's goal will be to ride semi consistently and get back over 200 miles.
Sunday 06/14: 41 miles, 2:23:46 (17.1 mph) Peter's Short Long Loop, truncated due to flat tire and no tools. Well, the comeback is off to kind of a crappy start. I felt awful on this ride... I was full of snot and phlegm from being sick, except that I couldn't cough or sneeze bc my ribs are still so bruised. I felt tired though I was going pretty slow, and I was completely discombobulated by the down tube shifters and the 52/38 gearing on Big Red. I also forgot to bring a patch kit or spare tire, and figured it was just my luck to land a big flat tire about 5 miles from home.
Thankfully, I was rescued by the KB mobile, and took my poor injured Celeste bike to Steve's for some patching up. Bah, this seriously didn't help my vague suspicion that this is all a sign that me and bike racing was not meant to be...
Monday 06/15: Off. Woke up really tired and discouraged, so I didn't attempt another ride, and was really in a foul mood all day.
Tuesday 06/16: 45.7 miles, 2:36:11 (17.5 mph) Peter's Short Long Loop. Try #2. This one went much better. Felt a lot less sick, and even that helped. I think I've basically figured out how to deal with the six-speed and the shifters at this point so that helped too. I guess its never a good feeling when route times are slower than they used to be, but at least I didn't feel tired out by the effort. It was a good solid step in the right direction.
Wednesday 06/17: Off. Another really bad morning. I had Red Box planned for today and I even did wake up at 5 am... like fully awake, and not even that tired. But I sat on the edge of my bed with my head in my hands feeling like I just didn't want to go. I still lacked confidence with taking Big Red on any longer rides, and going into the mountains for the first time in a week and a half felt daunting. Visions of crashes and catastrophes filled my head... and I remembered that I had felt a little like this the day that I went on that RB ride last week. That superstitious thought tipped the scales, I crawled back into bed and fell asleep... it felt like the right decision at the time, but as the day wore on, I felt increasingly guilty and stupid and bothered.
Thursday 06/18: 41.5 miles, 2:44:00 (15.1 mph), Angeles Crest to Clear Creek, plus a few laps of the RB on the way home. Today started out a little bit like yesterday, but I was determined to get past this feeling. I still did dawdle for long enough that I no longer felt like I had enough time to go to Red Box, but I was determined at least to make it to Clear Creek. I heard that the bike we purchased off of eBay (Bianchi FG Lite Team bike) was arriving today, so I told myself that the least I could do was do a ride today so as to deserve my new purchase.
Climbing on Big Red was a lot easier than I thought. Actually managed a pretty speedy ascent, despite feeling positive dreadful trudging over to the base of the 2. I was pretty pleased. To alleviate some guilt for not having gone to Red Box, I did a few laps at a moderate intensity at the RB before heading home for the day. All in all I think this was what I needed to get back into it.
Friday 06/19: Off, shots. So tired... so sleep deprived. Everyone left work early, including me. By which I mean I left at 6:30 pm.
Saturday 06/20: 86.9 miles, 5:47:38 (15 mph) GMR to GRR to Baldy Village and back the same way we came. First time doing it this way, rather than just taking the flat way back. This was a harder than usual effort for me, Will, Ben, Alec and Scott were there, so it was kind of a "Ride just to keep up" sort of a situation. I felt pretty good until we reached the base of the climb, after which the pace felt a little bit stressful. I considered just dropping back right off the bat, but realized that with the 38/25, which is the smallest gear that Big Red has, it just felt more natural to go at the faster pace, so I kept it up and it started to feel easier.
I was pretty excited that I kept up with the group until mile 6 on GRR, at which point I was fairly catastrophically left behind. I was feeling a little bit freaked out at this point, my motivation to push hard totally gone, I kind of wondered if I should just go home alone the flat way rather than risk the climbing up from Baldy Village. I had a gu at BV though, and decided to man up and go back with the group. The first climb was a lot shorter than I thought it would be, and thankfully Will decided to drop back and rock the grupetto with me. It's so much better than the grupetto of one.
The ride back was... fraught with some misfortunes, unfortunately. It had been drizzling almost the entire ride, and we suffered some casualties. Will got a flat tire and Ben crashed on the descent, but all in all it appears everyone made it home in one piece. As a result of these two items, I ended up riding back to Pasadena with Alec, which was a little challenging, but I think I dug in and managed not to slow him down too much. I had a good time though, despite the rain and the droppage... and Ben told me all about the Everest Challenge and made me really want to do it!
Training this week: 215 miles, 13:31:35. Slowly inching back towards acceptable!
Week 10: Crash (06/07/2009 - 06/13/2009)
... Crash and burn... the latest in the "Involuntary Rest Week" series.
On Tuesday (06/09), I woke up not really wanting to ride, but I coaxed myself out the door with the promise if my first set of RB intervals. I was feeling great after my Sunday ride, and itching to do some harder stuff. Little did I know....
Sunday 06/07: 103 miles, 7:24:08 (14 mph), Hwy 39 to the 2, then up to Dawson's Saddle and back on the 2. It's been a while since I updated the blog, but this was an epic ride. Got a little bit of a late start, but figured I had just about enough daylight to squeeze this in. Felt great, and got some compliments from a random guy who rode with me for a few miles, but by about mile 30 I was feeling inexplicably pooped, and the weather was now way too warm for my base layer. There was some slogging up to about mile 38, after which the clouds rolled in and I started feeling inexplicably better.
Side note: Does anyone else think that the road condition of the 39 has deteriorated significantly? I remembered this as a really nice, non steep road from 2 years ago, but it was really overgrown and full of pot holes. I had considered turning back early a few times, but decided that there was no way I was going to descend down this death trap.... so onwards I went.
The really barren stretch from Crystal lakes to the 2 also seemed to be twice as long as I had remembered, but thankfully it was pretty easy going. Unfortunately, now it was starting to get drizzly and cold... so I arrived at the intersection of the 2 feeling a little bit irate. Then through the swirling fog, I saw a beautiful patch of sunny blue sky just to my right towards Dawson's Saddle. I rashly decided that heading back down into more cold, foggy descending sounded unappealing, so I turned right to make the ascent out of the clouds and up to Dawson's Saddle. I think I was a little bit more worn out than the last time I was here, but the climb was nice nonetheless.
Descending back into the fog was kind of terrifying, but I proceeded with caution until I was safely to Newcombe's Ranch, where it was near closing time, and I met the owner of the place, who seemed duly impressed with how far I'd come :). The rest of the journey was pleasant, the stretch home from Newcombe's seemed a lot shorter than I remembered, and I got home feeling pretty good!
Monday 06/08: Off, rest. Not really sure what happened this day. I think a fair amount of work. I was considering riding today bc I was feeling good, but didn't manage to wake up.
Tuesday 06/09: 20.4 miles, 1:13:57 before the crash. I really didn't want to get up today, but I didn't want to get into the habit of taking Monday and Tuesday off, so I decided to motivate myself by attempting my first set of intervals. The goal was just to do 3 at a moderate sustainable pace. On the first one, I had a lot of trouble keeping my focus, and my HR kept dropping down to 170... the split was 9:20, which is pretty crappy, so I resolved to do better on the next one. The second one started out pretty good, it was easier to maintain a good clip this time, and I could tell from the spedometer that I was going a lot faster than the first one. As I was coming down the last part of the downhill stretch right before the little hill, an oncoming vehicle made a left turn directly into my path.
I tried to make the gap between the tail end and the opposite side of the road, but I didn't make it, I slammed into the back end of the car, and the next thing I remember is feeling like my right ribcage had been crushed into a cube. It took a few moments just to recover from this horrible feeling, and then a whole bunch of people came running over. It was craziness. Everyone was really nice... except for the motorcycle cop. He seemed very unconcerned by my state or the events that had caused it.
Went to urgent care afterwards, but left when they told me it would be a 3 hour wait. I decided just to go the doctor's office and make an appt. but they were able to see me right away. Thankfully things are okay other than the road rash and some bruised ribs.
My poor bike fared less well. Apparently the impact had managed to bend the cranks, which no one had seen before.... as well as a lot of cosmetic damage. Incycle told me it was totaled and that it was unsafe to ride, and Steve said it was totally fine. Wasn't super comfortable with either opinion, so right now I'm waiting to make my decision.
Wednesday 06/10 - Saturday 06/13: Off. I got horribly ill the day after the accident... between the ribs and the plague, I couldn't sleep at all for the next 3 days. I felt terrible, didn't ride at all. I can't believe how many off days this was. Gahhhhhh....
Training this Week: 123.4 miles, 8:38:05. Soooooooooo sad :'(
On Tuesday (06/09), I woke up not really wanting to ride, but I coaxed myself out the door with the promise if my first set of RB intervals. I was feeling great after my Sunday ride, and itching to do some harder stuff. Little did I know....
Sunday 06/07: 103 miles, 7:24:08 (14 mph), Hwy 39 to the 2, then up to Dawson's Saddle and back on the 2. It's been a while since I updated the blog, but this was an epic ride. Got a little bit of a late start, but figured I had just about enough daylight to squeeze this in. Felt great, and got some compliments from a random guy who rode with me for a few miles, but by about mile 30 I was feeling inexplicably pooped, and the weather was now way too warm for my base layer. There was some slogging up to about mile 38, after which the clouds rolled in and I started feeling inexplicably better.
Side note: Does anyone else think that the road condition of the 39 has deteriorated significantly? I remembered this as a really nice, non steep road from 2 years ago, but it was really overgrown and full of pot holes. I had considered turning back early a few times, but decided that there was no way I was going to descend down this death trap.... so onwards I went.
The really barren stretch from Crystal lakes to the 2 also seemed to be twice as long as I had remembered, but thankfully it was pretty easy going. Unfortunately, now it was starting to get drizzly and cold... so I arrived at the intersection of the 2 feeling a little bit irate. Then through the swirling fog, I saw a beautiful patch of sunny blue sky just to my right towards Dawson's Saddle. I rashly decided that heading back down into more cold, foggy descending sounded unappealing, so I turned right to make the ascent out of the clouds and up to Dawson's Saddle. I think I was a little bit more worn out than the last time I was here, but the climb was nice nonetheless.
Descending back into the fog was kind of terrifying, but I proceeded with caution until I was safely to Newcombe's Ranch, where it was near closing time, and I met the owner of the place, who seemed duly impressed with how far I'd come :). The rest of the journey was pleasant, the stretch home from Newcombe's seemed a lot shorter than I remembered, and I got home feeling pretty good!
Monday 06/08: Off, rest. Not really sure what happened this day. I think a fair amount of work. I was considering riding today bc I was feeling good, but didn't manage to wake up.
Tuesday 06/09: 20.4 miles, 1:13:57 before the crash. I really didn't want to get up today, but I didn't want to get into the habit of taking Monday and Tuesday off, so I decided to motivate myself by attempting my first set of intervals. The goal was just to do 3 at a moderate sustainable pace. On the first one, I had a lot of trouble keeping my focus, and my HR kept dropping down to 170... the split was 9:20, which is pretty crappy, so I resolved to do better on the next one. The second one started out pretty good, it was easier to maintain a good clip this time, and I could tell from the spedometer that I was going a lot faster than the first one. As I was coming down the last part of the downhill stretch right before the little hill, an oncoming vehicle made a left turn directly into my path.
I tried to make the gap between the tail end and the opposite side of the road, but I didn't make it, I slammed into the back end of the car, and the next thing I remember is feeling like my right ribcage had been crushed into a cube. It took a few moments just to recover from this horrible feeling, and then a whole bunch of people came running over. It was craziness. Everyone was really nice... except for the motorcycle cop. He seemed very unconcerned by my state or the events that had caused it.
Went to urgent care afterwards, but left when they told me it would be a 3 hour wait. I decided just to go the doctor's office and make an appt. but they were able to see me right away. Thankfully things are okay other than the road rash and some bruised ribs.
My poor bike fared less well. Apparently the impact had managed to bend the cranks, which no one had seen before.... as well as a lot of cosmetic damage. Incycle told me it was totaled and that it was unsafe to ride, and Steve said it was totally fine. Wasn't super comfortable with either opinion, so right now I'm waiting to make my decision.
Wednesday 06/10 - Saturday 06/13: Off. I got horribly ill the day after the accident... between the ribs and the plague, I couldn't sleep at all for the next 3 days. I felt terrible, didn't ride at all. I can't believe how many off days this was. Gahhhhhh....
Training this Week: 123.4 miles, 8:38:05. Soooooooooo sad :'(
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Week 9: Fail! (05/31/2009 - 06/06/2009)
As such things go, life was determined to force upon me another "rest week"...
So far, work has not been cooperating with the getting into racing shape initiative. Whether it's the 2 am leaving times or the massive quantities of CPK pizzas that the team has ordered in for the long night ahead, I'm definitely getting fatter, not fitter.
Sadly, my 8 week run of putting in decent mileage has come to an end with this week. It was one of those things where I woke up on Saturday morning, not feeling free or even relieved... but just completely exhausted and deflated. It really hasn't been a good week.
Sunday 05/31: 78.7 miles, 4:32:03 (17.3 mph) Seal Beach the Short Way. Oddly enough, the week started off auspiciously. Rode a record time for this course, despite overshooting one of my turns and adding and extra 2 blocks. I felt surprisingly unaffected by yesterday's 105 mile ride. I even felt peppy enough to do 30 second sprints every hour like Peter. Otherwise, just tried to keep it easy except for a 10 minute segment where I had to pick it up a bit to hold off a guy who was trying to pass me. He seemed unamused. It's not personal buddy, I'm just a competitive person.
Monday 06/01 - Wednesday 06/03: Off, this was a really tough week. On Monday morning, I attended the funeral of co-worker, a 24 year old girl. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I worked well past midnight. I felt horrible, physically, mentally, emotionally.
Thursday 06/04: 43.16 miles, 2:54:50 (14.9 mph) Angeles Crest to Red Box. Got to bed at 1 am and woke up at 5 am, I decided that being fat and disgusting was worse feeling than being sleep deprived, so I actually managed to go on this ride. Basically tried out some higher cadences per Will's suggestion, and found the journey to be both easier and faster than before. Felt good, so I threw in some 30 second surges every half hour to break up some of the easy climbing. This ride was a bright spot in an otherwise pretty terrible week.
Friday 06/05: Off, shots. Finished work at 8 pm, a record for this week! Went to get thai food, and consume large quantities of cocktails and cupcakes with my coworkers to celebrate our survival.
Saturday 06/06: 45.7 miles, 2:35:22 (17.6 mph) Peter's Short Long Loop. Measurements approximate on this one. My cyclocomputer had a nervous breakdown in the middle of this ride, for unknown reasons. It seems okay now, but I was not amused. I guess I wasn't really in the mood to be amused by anything today. I tried to get up at a reasonable hour to go on a long ride, but I dozed guiltily until about 11am, at which I realized that I had to go to the bank before it closed at 1 pm. Despite 10 hours of sleep, I still felt really exhausted in all ways... and the overcast weather was uninspiring for a long ride. This was exactly like the cycling equivalent of when you go on a dinky 5-6 mile run to alleviate the guilt of not doing your longer/harder workout. I felt really tired though, even on this short flat ride... pretty demoralizing.
Training this week: 167.6 miles, 10:02:15
So far, work has not been cooperating with the getting into racing shape initiative. Whether it's the 2 am leaving times or the massive quantities of CPK pizzas that the team has ordered in for the long night ahead, I'm definitely getting fatter, not fitter.
Sadly, my 8 week run of putting in decent mileage has come to an end with this week. It was one of those things where I woke up on Saturday morning, not feeling free or even relieved... but just completely exhausted and deflated. It really hasn't been a good week.
Sunday 05/31: 78.7 miles, 4:32:03 (17.3 mph) Seal Beach the Short Way. Oddly enough, the week started off auspiciously. Rode a record time for this course, despite overshooting one of my turns and adding and extra 2 blocks. I felt surprisingly unaffected by yesterday's 105 mile ride. I even felt peppy enough to do 30 second sprints every hour like Peter. Otherwise, just tried to keep it easy except for a 10 minute segment where I had to pick it up a bit to hold off a guy who was trying to pass me. He seemed unamused. It's not personal buddy, I'm just a competitive person.
Monday 06/01 - Wednesday 06/03: Off, this was a really tough week. On Monday morning, I attended the funeral of co-worker, a 24 year old girl. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I worked well past midnight. I felt horrible, physically, mentally, emotionally.
Thursday 06/04: 43.16 miles, 2:54:50 (14.9 mph) Angeles Crest to Red Box. Got to bed at 1 am and woke up at 5 am, I decided that being fat and disgusting was worse feeling than being sleep deprived, so I actually managed to go on this ride. Basically tried out some higher cadences per Will's suggestion, and found the journey to be both easier and faster than before. Felt good, so I threw in some 30 second surges every half hour to break up some of the easy climbing. This ride was a bright spot in an otherwise pretty terrible week.
Friday 06/05: Off, shots. Finished work at 8 pm, a record for this week! Went to get thai food, and consume large quantities of cocktails and cupcakes with my coworkers to celebrate our survival.
Saturday 06/06: 45.7 miles, 2:35:22 (17.6 mph) Peter's Short Long Loop. Measurements approximate on this one. My cyclocomputer had a nervous breakdown in the middle of this ride, for unknown reasons. It seems okay now, but I was not amused. I guess I wasn't really in the mood to be amused by anything today. I tried to get up at a reasonable hour to go on a long ride, but I dozed guiltily until about 11am, at which I realized that I had to go to the bank before it closed at 1 pm. Despite 10 hours of sleep, I still felt really exhausted in all ways... and the overcast weather was uninspiring for a long ride. This was exactly like the cycling equivalent of when you go on a dinky 5-6 mile run to alleviate the guilt of not doing your longer/harder workout. I felt really tired though, even on this short flat ride... pretty demoralizing.
Training this week: 167.6 miles, 10:02:15
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