Hi All! How's it going? Just sittng here, enjoying more morning cup of coffee and getting caught up in what's going on in the world. Yesterday capped off a solid week of training that I'll be repeating for the next three weeks in an effort to keep, and improve the fitness that I have in order to be competitve at the Mt. Charleston Hill Climb in late September.
I've decided that instead of letting the fitness go, and then trying to regain it before the event, it would just be easier to keep what I have and build off that, slowly ramping up the intensity of my training leading up to the race date. My current training schedule looks like this...
Monday: Rest Day (no riding at all)
Tuesday: 60-minutes on the trainer (2x20min FTP intervals)
Wednesday: Repeat Tuesday's workout
Thursday: 60-minute tempo ride
Friday: Recovery Ride
Saturday: 3-4 hours fast-paced group ride (Swamis)
Sunday: 3-4 hours hill work
I just completed that work out yesterday, and feel pretty good considering. The weekend was great, I was able to get 8.5 hours on the bike, beginning with the Swamis Ride Saturday morning, then adding additional miles with my training partner Mark up in Valley Center, and throwing in Cole Grade Road for kicks!
Sunday was an incredible day on the bike! Over the last year, my good friend Art, a gentlemen who lives up in Valley Center, and rides two days a week with the
North County Cycle Clubs Cruisers, has invited to take me up in the hills around Julian, Lake Cuyamaca, Mt Laguna, etc, to show me the hills he use to ride back in his bigger mileage days. Not to ride with me mind you, but to follow me in his truck! That's a rare opportunity for any cyclist, to have someone volunteer to provide SAG support for a training ride! Truly a great gesture from someone who really appreciates and loves the sport of cycling.
We began our ride at the beginning of Wynola Road in Julian, and made our way through Pine Hills, up and over Engineers Road down to Lake Cuyamaca. From there we climbed up to the top of Mt. Laguna, where we stopped at the Laguna Lodge so I could get some calories in me. From there we back tracked to Highway 79, and finally back to Julian. 4 hours, 62 miles, 6000ft of climb, 2200 calories. A great day on the bike, covering miles of some of the best roads I've ever ridden! Thanks again Art!!!
Hope all is well! Until next time...
Hi All! Well, another event is in the books. I competed in the 2010 Palomar Challenge yesterday. This is an event I had heard about over the last few years, but for one reason or another, had never competed in. After the State RR Championships, I was feeling pretty good with where my fitness was and figured I might as well look for something else to compete in while I still had the fitness. With hill climbs being my favorite events, I decided to do a little searching on the internet and see what I could come up with.
Sure enough there it was...the 2010 Palomar Challenge, being held in less then two weeks after States, and just a week after my vacation. I figured why not? I checked last years results, and saw that the winner ran a 48:26, for the 11.5 miles up Palomar's East Grade Road. I've never timed myself up East Grade, so I really didn't have an accurate gauge as to how I compared, but knew that to finish high, or win, I needed to at least break fifty minutes.
Needless to say, that's exactly what I did...49:56, for 2nd place overall. Could of ran better? Yes! Didn't think it was necessary to win. I was pacing SDBC's Herb Johnson, thinking he was the leader of the race, not realizing the leader on the road was somewhere up the road out of sight! He finished in 44:56, exactly five minutes faster then me! I felt great yesterday, and had I seen the leader, I'm pretty sure I could of held his pace. Oh well, that's racing as they say! Here's a link to the results...2010 Palomar Challenge Results
That's all for now. Hope all is well, until next time...
Hi All! Well, my wife and I just got back from our mini vacation Sunday evening, and all is well, and a great time was had by all! Las Vegas, Lake Havasu, and Palm Desert were on schedule, and we managed to get them all in, and have fun along the way. I've discovered that I definitely have a thing for food. As you know, my last post was focused on what I was going to eat on the trip, and that turned out to be the focus for sure!
I'm sure owning a restaurant for the last eight years has played a large part in the reason I've become a self-proclaimed "foodie". My gluttanous adventure really began Tuesday afternoon with a trip to a local Mexican cafe, where I've heard they serve up a great street taco, and given the fact that I'm a competitve cyclist, I've always reframed from trying them out. The verdict...well worth the wait! On to Wednesday, the first official day of our vacation. We hit the road around noon, and made our way up the 15 headed towards Vegas. We reached Hesperia where I decided that a trip to In & Out Burger seemed liked a good idea. Tasted great, but not worth the gluttony.
We arrived in Vegas, made our way to Treasure Island Hotel to check in, cleaned up, and made our way by foot to Ceasar's Palace and Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill. Now this is a restaurant I've been wanting to go to for years, and just have never been able to for one reason or another. Again, well worth the wait! My Ancho Chile rubbed Pork Tenderloin literally melted in my mouth! I won't even get in to the ridiculuosly good Chocolate Corn Bread Pudding! Dinner was at 6, the follow up Veggie Burger, Onion Rings and Fried were at 11! I could go on, but you get the idea.
Needless to say, I took six straight days off the bike, and managed to gain exactly six pounds in that time! Not bad really, considering the excessive amounts of calories I took in over that time. Yesterday, it was back on the bike for a little 45-minute easy jot around town to get my legs use to the feeling of pedaling again. I figured I wasn't going to lose that much fitness in six days, but my legs would definitely soften up a bit. Today was 90-minutes on the bike, pushing it harder, and I could definitely feel the effort in the legs! I've also been dieting to the extreme as of yesterday, taking in very little calories, and attempting to lose the six pounds I gained this week before the Palomar Challenge this Saturday. My engine is good, but there's no need to be carrying any extra weight up the mountain if not necessary.
Hope all is well, until next time...
Hi All! Yes, it's that time of year. Vacation! It always seems the wife and I take our vacations in June. It's not that we necessarily plan it that way, it just seems to work out that way. I'm sure, without even realizing it, it falls in June because of her teaching schedule. School's over, and we're both ready for a break immediately afterward.
Last year it was the bike trip down the Oregon coast, this year, the Tour De Heat I call it. It's funny because last weekend I was up in the heat of Bakersfield for the State RR Championships, now today, we're heading out to Las Vegas for one night, then Lake Havasu for two nights, and finally Palm Desert for our last night! I'll take an order of heat, heat, and more heat please!
I should be looking forward to this trip, dreaming of the rest from the grind of training I put in getting ready for the State race, but what's funny is now that I've pretty much reached peak fitness, both with my engine and weight, I'm a little anxious about taking six days off of training and eating a lot more food then normal. Here's the catch...because I've been working in the restaurant business for the last eight years, I've become some what of a "foodie". That is, someone who loves food, loves trying new dishes, has an open mind and palette to what ever is put in front of me. This isn't a good combination when combined with being a competitive athlete! I'm really good at being disciplined with my diet when I'm at home, but when I'm on the road, it's a different story! I want to eat everything I see! Maybe all us athletes are that way? It's feast or famine. Who knows??? More then anything it's the weight gain that I'm most concerned about, I know I'm not going to lose too much as far as my engine is concerned, and the rest will probably be just what the doctor order for my body overall, I'm really only worried about my weight because six days after we return from our trip, I'm competing in the Palomar Challenge. A 12-mile all uphill race, and as you know, being light is key for an event like that. So here's my plan...
I'm going to allow myself one good, calorie packed meal a day, the other meals will be light. Stay away from scales during the trip. When I return home, I figure I have a whole week to drop what ever weight I picked up on the trip, and given my metabolism, that shouldn't be difficult. And after all, it's not like the Palomar Challenge is an official sanctioned race, more like just bragging rights for the year.
On a side note, the results for the State RR Championships were posted this morning. A little better then I expected...27th on the day! Not too bad considering how the race played out for me, that is, the unexpected events that occurred that I had no control over. Hope all is well, and I probably won't be posting for a couple of weeks, so, until next time...
Hi All! Well, the California State Road Race Championships have come and gone. As you may know if you follow this blog, I trained hard for that race, riding more, and with more structure then I ever had before. Have been watching my diet closley, getting my weight down lower then it's ever been, hoping to bring it all together on June 6th. The good news is, it worked!
My father-in-law Marv and I left San Diego headed for Bakersfield around 9am Saturday morning. After a short stop at the base of the Grapevine for a Subway sandwich, we reached Bakersfield and drove straight to the race course. I wanted to pre-ride some of the 31-mile course, especially the climb, to get a feel for what I was to expect come Sunday.
When we arrived, all the Masters racing had finished up for the day, and the race crew was packing up. The weather as expected was hot. I believe it was around 96-97 degrees! I unloaded my bike, changed in to my kit, and began making my way down the road while Marv leap frogged along the way in the car in case I needed help.
The course was fairly uneventful, give or take some potholes and rough asphalt, until mile-11. At mile-11 the climb began. I was told by friends that the climb, although fairly long, (about 3.5 miles), wouldn't be of much benefit to me because it wasn't all the steep, and that the descent on the other side was, and besides being steep, was fairly technical. As I made my way up the climb, I began thinking they were mistaken, the climb took a bit of work to get up.
As I reached the summit of the climb I noticed chalk writing on the asphalt, "Go Lance!" "Go Levi!" "KOM". Then sure enough, there was a tape strip marking the KOM line. This was the same climb used by the Tour of California ealier! Pretty cool I thought. I originally planned on stopping at the top of the climb, loading the bike in the car, and finishing the rest of the course recon by driving it, but Marv and I both decided that I might as well ride the descent to get a feel for how technical it was, and it wasn't like that would make much more work for the legs.
After reaching the bottom of the descent I decided to keep pushing on, I was feeling good and was just short of an hour on the bike. About fifteen minutes down the road, I began getting warm and decided to call it quits as soon as I could find a shady spot to pull over and load the bike in the car. All in all, I rode 22-miles of the 31-mile course. We drove the remainder of the course to check it out, and then made our way to the hotel, cleaned up, and then headed out to meet John Bailey and his wife for dinner.
We arrived at the course Sunday morning around 7:30am, checked in, unloaded the car, and then around 8:45 I began riding my bike up and down the road for a light warm-up. I decided there was no point in getting a hard warm-up considering the temperature outside, (expected forecast 98+ degrees!) and the fact the race was 62-miles long, with the first 11-miles fairly flat until we reached the climb.
The whistle blew a little after 9:30, and off we went! As expected the first 10.5 miles of the race was a nice, easy pace, although some rider decided to attack 5-miles in to course. We all just laughed and let him hang out there until eventually he fried himself and was brought back in to the pack. Also as expected, about a kilometer from the start of the climb, a mass surge took place with the bulk of the pack wanting to be near the front as we tore in to the climb. I say tore, because we hit the base of the climb at speeds around 22-24mph! Those speeds didn't let up for the first mile of the climb! I was easily able to stay near the front of the group as we made our way up the climb, happy that the recent work on the bike, and my drop in weight seemed to be paying off.
We reached the summit in what seemed like no time at all, and then made our way back down the other side. The descent was nice and controlled, and the pack stayed together through the windy back half of the course. As we rounded the final turn on the course and began making our way to the start/finish line, the pack was riding the gutter/curb up the road, myself sitting about 4th place in the field of 101 riders. A rider directly behind me somehow managed to get his front wheel caught in the crack on the road that was between the concrete gutter and the road asphalt itself, and the next thing I know I hear riders and bike hitting the deck! I remember thinking I'm so glad I'm ahead of that!
The feedzone for this race was directly after the start/finish line, on a pancake flat section of the course. Before the race even began, I thought that was an unusual spot for a feedzone. I knew the speeds would be fairly high as we approached that section, and sure enough, they were. I had Marv waiting there in case I needed a bottle, and as planned, he was. The problem was, there was so much chaos taking place with riders attempting to get over to their feeders, and other riders not taking feeds and instead blasting through the feedzone, that I decided it wasn't worth even trying to take the bottle from Marv.
I threw an empty bottle to the opposite side of the road, and continued on. To my amazement, a number of riders didn't just take a bottle from their feeder, but quite a few took actual mussette bags, and a large number of them began pulling out one or two Cokes, numerous gels, and snack food! Why??? We only had 31-miles left, so why the need for numerous gels, and all that snack food??? I suppose it looks "pro"!
The second and final lap around the course was definitely ridden at a faster pace then the first. I rode smart, stayed near the front, and focused on keeping myself out of the ever-present wind. Same pattern as the first lap, the pack staying together, then the surge just before the base of the climb. Knowing that the climb was going to hurt, and expecting the final selection was going to be made on it, I mentally dug in and prepared for battle.
We hit the climb at another blazing pace, and held it again for quite a while. I pedaled hard, fighting to keep myself near the front, definitely not wanting to get unhitched and loose contact with the lead group I was in. I was passing a number of riders as they began falling off the pace, they were really breathing hard, not sounding too good, making sure to focus on my own breathing, keeping as calm as I could.
About 3/4 the way up the climb, as we neared the steepest section of it, a rider directly in front of me must not of been paying attention, and wound up off the pavement and in the soft shoulder of dirt, which was very narrow, and had about a thirty-foot drop down it! He struggled with his bike for a second, and fought hard not to go over the edge. He did what he had to do, turned his bars hard right, and fell over, hitting the pavement directly in front of me! I hit my brakes hard, causing riders behind me to crash, and two riders directly to the right off the original crashed rider swerved right, hitting each other, and then hitting the deck. I unclipped my foot expecting to have to stop, and then at the last second noticed a small gap between the two fallen riders, pedaled with my foot that was still clipped in, shot through the gap, clipped my other foot back in, and took off.
The good news, I didn't crash, the bad news, a lead group of twenty-some riders that were ahead of the crash, were now quite a ways up the road! I began pedaling hard, hoping to reel in the lead group, but knowing I couldn't go too deep and blow myself up, leaving nothing for the other side. The lead group was also pedaling hard though, making it impossible to catch them. I crested the summit with about nine or ten other riders, and we began the descent together.
This time down the descent, we rode much faster, desperately trying to catch the lead group. Unfortunately for two riders, the pace they were pushing was a little too fast, as the found themselves riding right off the side of the rode, and down the side of the hill! Seeing that didn't help my cause, as I braked a little too much and lost more distance to the lead group. I reached the bottom of the descent, and found myself behind a single rider about a half of a kilometer, and decided to go in to TT mode and try and reel him in, hoping we could work together if I did.
He was strong, I wasn't able to reach him, so I checked behind me, and noticed a small group of riders with the motorcycle behind then slowly reeling me in. I decided to ease up, let them catch me, and then work with them to catch the single rider ahead of me. That planned worked. The rest of the race pretty much played out with our chase group, able to see the leaders about a half a mile up the road, working desperately together, trying to catch them, but instead, as we neared the finish, our organization falling apart, with a few riders not wanting to work, and then our group falling apart on the final home stretch. I rode my way across the line about 3rd in that group.
I don't know my final result yet, but my guess is probably 30'ish. All in all, I'm not excited about where I finished, sometimes no matter how prepared you are for a race, bad luck, just as good luck, plays in to the race, and becomes a huge factor in your overall result. I am however, extremely pleased with my performance, knowing that all the hard worked I put in getting ready for this event, paid off big time! Oh well, that's racing!
Next up, the Palomar Challenge on June 19th. I'm hoping for an excellent result in this event, considering it plays right in to my wheelhouse. I'm not going to worry too much about my preparation for this event, it's not an official sanctioned race, and I am leaving town this coming Wednesday for a five-day mini vacation, so that will mean five straight days of no training. So we'll see what happens. Hope all is well, until next time...
