I just returned from the 2011 edition of the Hell’s Gate Hundred and for the second year it did not disappoint. What an incredible event. There is something about Death Valley that never fails to deliver. Last year this ride really tore me up. It was partially due to bad nutrition but also a matter of bad training. This year I had a very keen understanding of what it took to ride this event, both with nutrition and with training. I am 6’3 and 210 pounds, not exactly a natural climber. That meant that I needed to focus a lot of my training on the hills. I knew going in to the event that my strategy was going to be …
Cycling
What is going on!
What is going on lately…well, unfortunately not that much. I rode the LA River Ride in 6 hours and felt very proud of that accomplishment. I set a goal, shot for it, and hit the target. Great! The only thing about it is, I have been experiencing some knee troubles, and they were only exacerbated on the River Ride century. I started experiencing knee pain out of the blue during the Big Bear 200k. I didn’t think much of it then, just thought it would go away; but it hasn’t. Every time I do a ride of about 30 miles or longer, I start feeling this pain right in the middle of my kneecap. The pain gets to a certain …
Ride Report – LA River Ride Century
Sometimes rides go horribly bad and sometimes rides go amazingly perfect. Yesterday fits into the latter category. I set out to achieve a specific result, and damned if I didn’t achieve it exactly. The LA River Ride century was the very first century I ever rode, and it was exactly a year ago. Last year I had a less than stellar performance, and I was hell bent on redeeming my performance this year. When I rode the event in 2009, I finished it in 7 hours flat. This year I wanted to shave a full hour off of my time. I had a whole year’s worth of experience and riding to help me. Just like with the last ride report …
Velourettes
*Warning: This post contains some foul language, but I assure you it is necessary to tell the story. Shy eyes should, well…shy away* When I was younger, I was a little bit of a rabble rouser, some would even say unpredictable. I fancied a scene, and wasn’t afraid to be loud. These days, I have a kid, a mortgage, a steady job…I have grown up and mellowed out. My daughter is two years old and is starting to repeat everything that my wife and I say, so I have been trying to eliminate my use of words I don’t want her to use. This all explains why it is so strange that I find myself having a condition that has …
I Was There
The Amgen Tour of California just finished on Sunday in Westlake Village, after 8 crushing stages down the state of California. Michael Rogers (an aussie) was the winner, edging out Californian’s Dave Zabriskie and Levi Leipheimer (the 3 time champ). I was on hand for the stage 6 finish in Big Bear, and for the stage 8, 4 lap circuit in Thousand Oaks. I can tell you nothing that you can’t read online. There wasn’t anything I saw that you didn’t have a better angle of watching the tour on Versus. However, what I did get was some pictures from my static position during the race. I thought it might be nice to share those images with people. Some of …
Big Bear 200k Brevet – Ride Report
The serious Randonneur (why so serious?) I read a lot of ride reports, and I love them. People note helpful details and make you feel as though you are there. I myself have written reports of that tune, but this time I want to tell the story of the things that I thought were important, the memories I will take with me from this ride and leave the little details out. If you do want to read a complete narrative of this ride, my friends Errin and Ryan both wrote reports about it, and they can be read here and here. I would love feedback on this report style, love it or hate it, your thoughts are appreciated. That said, …
Prepping for a birthday 200k
On Saturday, May 22nd I am going to be riding the PCH Randonneurs 200k (126 miles) brevet from Big Bear City out to Newport Beach. The plan is, head up on Friday morning to Big Bear City with Errin and a couple other folks, and watch the finish of the queen stage of the Tour of California, which finishes where we start the following day. Then we go to sleep, then we ride. My birthday is on May 23rd, so in a way, this is a pre-birthday celebration for me. Time with friends a long stretch of road is a hell of way to celebrate 28 years on the planet. Sadly I will have to spend the day away from …
I think I get it now
I mentioned that my conversation with Nate Loyal had flipped a switch in my head regarding training; well, the light finally came on. I think I finally get it, base period is everything. I have heard that phrase and read it more times than I care to say. In all my rookieness, I always chalked up base period as “a really boring stretch of time where you ride slow and just log miles to get your legs used to it”. Little did I know that there was a very important biological process going on during this time period. To quote Joe Friel “In some ways the initial Base period of the year is the most important in the athlete’s season.” …
Bleh!
I confess, I am a big slump at the moment. I know I know, wasn’t I all fired up about getting my book, my fitting and finishing the HGH? Yes, I was, but I am still in a slump. Let me explain: It feels like one thing after another is keeping me off the bike and busy with other things. Whether it is being sick, my back suddenly being in extreme pain, work, family or other assorted interruptions, I am not getting to be on the bike as much as I should be. This does not bode well for training for events like the LA Wheelman Grand Tour, which I have intentions of riding with Errin. I already have no …
My Fitting With Nate Loyal
As I mentioned in a previous post, I got a professional fitting done with bicycle wonderman Nate Loyal. Nate was a pro level bicycle racer, and has raced almost every form of bicycle you can imagine: Road, track, criterium, time trial, mountain, single speed mountain, 24 hour mountain. He is an overall madman and a hell of a nice guy. I arrived at the fitting and instantly felt extremely confident in Nate’s abilities. This guy was no jokester trying to pose as someone who knew what they were doing, he is the real deal. He hooked my bike up on the fitting trainer, I hopped on and started pedaling. He and I started chatting about what my cycling goals are, …