FS III, Bikes and Stuff

So this morning I am tying my shoes and getting ready to go to the FS III race and I look at the bikes that I had sitting in the dining room and what do I see?

Two bikes, two flats pretty much at the same time.  What are the odds?

Yup!  Both freaking bike tires are flat! You can't tell on the MTB tire as much right now because I rotated it but trust me it is flat.  That sort of shot a hole in my riding plans for the afternoon.  What really pisses me off to no end is that I just put a new tube in the MTB on THURSDAY cause it was flat then.

On the upside, Larry and I met at Pro Cycling on Saturday and picked up all of the goods we will need to convert my MTB to tubeless.  Hopefully I won't have any more issues, or at least less after this.  But now I need to get the Cannondale fixed too.  I swear I hate bikes.

When I was a kid I rode A LOT of BMX type stuff.  Hard riding, jumping stuff, trails, all sorts of stuff and I rarely ever got flats.  Now it seems if I look at bike funny there goes a tire.  Not to mention my number one bitch of all time when it comes to bikes... Schrader vs. Presta valves.  ARGH!  Seriously... Why can't there be just one size and we just go with that universally???  I know why Presta valves are used on thin narrow rims as not to weaken them but god I hate messing with them.   I have hated Presta valves ever since I got my first bike with them in 1988.  I swear they were only invented to piss me off.

But anyway, if there one thing that scares the hell out of me in this potential Leadman quest it is just that... the bike part.  Not that I don't think that I can ride 100 miles, I think that is quite possible but can I ride 100 miles without a bike or a tire falling apart on me?  Maybe I will just put so much damned sealant in the tire that nothing will cause it to blow and say screw the weight!  I have already said that when I cross the finish line in Leadville for the MTB race that I am going to immediately put a "For Sale" sign on the bike to get some money back hopefully. 

Bottom line though, no ride today. 

Fall Series III went okay today.  I ran it solid the first 3.1 miles like I wanted then kept going.  My pace really slowed down the second half of the race but that is where the majority of the elevation gain was and the race was about a mile longer than advertised... 6.53 compared to 5.5 miles.  I really didn't want to kill myself today (I have decided that FS races just don't merit that great of an effort for many reasons) and just use the first part of the race as practice for my November race.  And I do believe that things are shaping up quite well for a new 5K PR in November! 

Still all in all not the worst weekend.  Melissa was home and that is great and we went to a fun Halloween Party Saturday night.  Annie came down from CSU and spent some time with us on Friday night. Some things never change as the three of us were having quite the cutthroat game of dominoes Friday night with everyone being as mercenary as ever.  God I love my family!  :)

Thursday Track - A Change Up

I have to admit that I have been feeling a certain degree of angst over slacking off on Tuesday's track workout.  Wind or no wind, JT powered through on Tuesday's crappy weather so I figured I had to do something to make up for it.

Tonight should have been 6x200m with 200m RBI like most Thursday's but I figured a happy medium and penance for dropping the 800's on Tuesday would be 10x400m with 200m RBI so that is what I did.  I have to say that after weeks of doing 800's and 200's, 400's are a real different kind of stress on the system.

Anyway... tonight... One mile warmup, 10x400m with 200m RBI then a one mile cool down.  86,84, 87, 89, 87, 88, 89, 87, 88, 87.  I didn't mind the cold and snow.  I would much rather have that than the nasty wind that we had on Tuesday night.  I finished that last one and I have to say that I was pretty damned happy.  My goal was to keep all of the repeats under 90 seconds and I was pleasantly surprised to do that.

I am enjoying watching my HR data.  Those would be the red lines on the graph above.  This is from today's workout.

From Oakley to Petzl

Ran North Cheyenne Canyon last night.  I got a late start due to the weekly staff meeting running on and on and on with stupid questions.  Just to be safe I threw the headlamp in my small pack when I left the Jeep.

The first part of the run was tough.  Lately it seems like my breathing and  heart rate at the start of any run is very ragged and strained.  Overall just a huge shock to the system not too unlike taking a blow to the chest with baseball bat.  It didn't last long and by the time I really started to climb and things got steep I was feeling a lot better.

I couldn't help but feel that this was probably the last nice fall/after work run of the season.  The days are getting shorter way to quickly now and the temps while trying to hang on are dropping as well.  As I climbed the canyon I could see the descending clouds enveloping the ridges and peaks above.  Below and behind me I could see that the air above the city had become heavy with moisture and not nearly as clear as it had been.  Whatever weather system we were supposed to get was definitely coming in.

I also got the strangest suspicion that I could be wearing screw shoes for Sunday's race possibly. 

After turning around at the top and heading down I was so grateful that I had packed my headlamp because about halfway down the canyon I had to take my sunglasses off of the top of my head and put the headlamp on.  It made for a nice run the rest of the way down to the Jeep.

I walked the last few hundred yards to the Jeep and the air was calm with some sort of precipitation falling and starting the Jeep showed that the temperature had dropped a full 10 degrees in the time that I was gone.

Melissa and I went out after the run for drinks and I wanted to have a cigar.  When we walked outside the club the snow was blowing horizontal down Tejon street.  I wasn't ready to see that at all.  It definitely feels like summer is really over.

Tuesday Track - Not So Much

Waited for Melissa to get home and we went to the track.  It was windy.  I ran a mile warmup then proceeded to start my 800m repeats.  I ran a 400m lap and said screw it. The wind, it was getting dark, dodging people and basically my heart was not in it so I decided to bail.

Ended up running another three miles with Melissa around the track and talking.  I think that I got a lot more out of that than if I did repeats.  Followed that up with a great dinner at Saigon Grill. 

Today may be the last day of decent weather for the week.  Tomorrow isn't supposed to be that cold but windy again.  I'll definitely run the Canyon tomorrow after work to pay penance for today then I will hit the track for 200's on Thursday.

That's really about all of it... After so many hard Tuesday workouts the past several weeks, I'm not going to sweat it...

Last Week's Numbers

Just for S's and G's, here are last weeks numbers.

Total Training Time:  15:12. One hour stationary bike. 7:46 cycling and 6:25 riding.
Total distance including riding and running: 75:83 miles. 41:31 miles cycling, 34.53 miles running.
Elevation gains in feet: Cycling, 10,605.  Running, 5,219.
Weight... 148.

I thought a lot last night about yesterday's ride and how it took a chunk out of me but I have to admit that in the final analysis I am pretty damned happy with myself.  The last time I did this ride, I did about 14 miles less of it and to be honest, I was 26 I think.  So despite the hours of abuse out there by myself yesterday I think in the big scheme of things I did pretty damned good.

All of this led me to another train of thought.  I really don't have any concept of what a normal 44 year old American male's average fitness level is.  Period.  All of my friends are way faster and mostly younger so that is my baseline for comparison.  So that is skewed.   I think I spend a lot of time thinking that I perform sub-par when in fact I don't.  Maybe.

I would really like to find the avg. fitness stats for Americans though.  Could be interesting.

Then I thought about attempting Leadman.  Well, that just ain't normal you know?  It is not like I got the bright idea one day while sitting on the couch while my arm was elbow deep in a bag of Doritos watching bowling on ESPN Ocho... No. At the root level this is something that I have calculated as doable and with some hard work and effort and is definitely achievable.  It is going to be awesome!

Bottom line... things are a lot better than I tend to believe a lot of times and I need to be more grateful of that a lot more often than I am.

Worse comes to worse.. at least I am not following this path regardless of how slow I am!

Sunday - The Rest of the Story

Okay I want to write all of this down before I crash.  As I said earlier today was definitely an education.  Later in the ride I began to ask myself if rebooting my mountain biking career at age 44 after so many years away from it was really that bright of an idea?

Today worked me no doubt.  Pretty much from the word go there were issues.  I'd say mostly my biggest problem though was the road and trail conditions.  Everything that I learned today is as follows.

1.  The north part of High Drive is a mess to ride above the Bear Creek Canyon Trail cutoff.  The road is not packed at all right now and there is so much loose gravel (Pikes Peak Granite type) and it is so deep in spots that you just sink and stop.  And in my case, if an unplanned stop a subsequent tipping over.  I would equate to trying to ride up High Drive right now to be on par with trying to roller skate up a waterfall.

2.  Old Stage Road has the worse washboard on it that I have ever seen.  It was constant work to try to find smooth surface to ride on.  The washboard just made the bike undulate up and and it was not fun.  When I was finally able to get some speed at one point I thought that I was going to fall apart due to the violent nature of the rattling.  Secondly... Old Stage Road needs to be renamed to the white trash/redneck, NASCAR wannabe highway... Too much traffic on that road going way too fast.

3.  Trail 701 from Frosty's to Jones Park... damn.  This used to be a great trail to ride.  It was so nice that it made any and all of the work to get there well worth it.  Now it just sucks.  It is more of an eroded sand filled ditch strewn with bread loaf sized rocks or larger blocking the "channel" as it were.  Let me reiterate... it was like riding in a DITCH!  Like two - three feet deep in spots.  Dirt bikes have always used this trail in the past but my god I have never seen it do destroyed.   It wasn't fun riding at all.

4.  Trails 666 and 667 down Bear Creek Canyon were pretty torn up as well.  Not only was the trail deeply eroded and lots of large loose rocks littering the trail but more deep Pikes Peak Granite and sand which made it hard to have any traction.  Past the Buckhorn Trail cutoff (and below motorcycle traffic) things got a little better but not by much.  It wasn't until the last 1/2 mile of trail before hitting High Drive again that it was actually fun.  I had never been more glad to hit pavement than I was when I got back down to the caretaker's house.

5.  The bike and stuff... god I miss my little framed old Trek.  Plenty of times today I found myself to be uncomfortable that far up off of the ground.  Clipless pedals are a challenge as well especially on technical stuff and especially if I need to get out of them in a hurry.  I bet that I wrecked and tipped over at least a dozen times today.  I still need to get the suspension and lock-outs dialed in and set right for me.  In all of the deep and loose gravel I did not like the way that my front wheel/tire floated in the scree.  I don't know if it is a function of the 29" wheels or the nature of the tires that I have or just the crap they were on but their traction was less than optimal on the loose stuff as far as I was concerned. I felt the front tire wanting to "power-slide" a hell of a lot more than I would like.  My old Trek was a bit heavier too and I think that also plays into the traction issues that I experienced today.  Lots of times in a low gear and climbing the back wheel would slip and if I were up and out of the saddle I had to make sure that I was geared to help prevent slipping also.   Bottom line is I just need a lot more practice on the bike riding somewhat technical stuff and just getting more comfortable over all.  Just not this route.

6.  I should have bailed when I got to Old Stage and rode down to town and then home.  It would have been a shorter ride but I would probably have enjoyed it more.  I hope that Rampart Range Road reopens soon as I think that would be better to ride on.  The one upside with today's ride is that I learned where I won't go riding again in the future.  Especially up High Drive and everything up Old Stage and down Bear Creek Canyon.  

Lessons learned the hard way.  I learned enough today to know what I need to work on in anticipation of riding in Leadville next summer.  I know what parts of the trail I could have problems on and I need to start addressing that stuff now.  So while today was FAR from fun... it was a great experience, eye-opener and I learned so much so it was definitely worth it.  And hey... it WAS a good workout.  :)

Another view of today's ride.

Today's Ride

There is a lot to talk about but for now I will just call today's ride a success based on the criteria that I didn't end up bleeding... well externally anyway.  Got my but kicked not so much by the trails as much as the trail conditions.  I'll explain that later when I write up more about the ride.

But for now I will just call it 41.3 miles of getting an education. Time for food and getting cleaned up.

From the house, up through Bear Creek Park, up and over High Drive, Gold Camp to Old Stage then to Penrose Res.  Across to Jones park then down Bear Creek Canyon to High Drive then home pretty much.