Dave

The revolution has come

Dave — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:33:00 GMT

...and without further ado, you'll find it here: http://2-epic.com/. This is where Lynda and I will be sharing our journeys, ramblings, thoughts, stumblings...like all sites it's a work in progress. We'll fill it out in time.

In the words of EdE, crackheads unite!

(R)evolution

Dave — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:15:00 GMT

Since 2001 there's this core group of guys I've been loosely training and racing with. We've bundled our interests together, shared the enthusiasm, and made a team of it. The name has changed over the years - Gojus, 505 Trek, HFX - but the core group has been the constant theme. That core group is undergoing major change once again, and will be known as http://www.teamdirectoryplus.com/.

As this year of the pig comes to a close (look out campers - the Chinese calendar says YOTP goes till Feb 6 on our calendar!) there is no shortage of change. For one, Team HealthFX has come to it's end. The HFX years of the core group have by far been the best. Special thanks to Shane and Ken for your support and guidance. Your efforts have been appreciated throughout and took the team to new heights.

Another big change: Lynda and I will not be part of the new team. We are riding for Desert Cyclery of St. George this year, far removed from the gang in Durango. We'll be moving our inspirations & aspirations elsewhere...still working on the overhaul but we are full of ideas ;)

You can expect plenty from this gal:

And this guy

Going on about

and

Some of this

and most definitely a lot more of this

But probably not a lot of chatter about multiple gears. At least not more than one at a time ;)

OK, back to my revolution planning and scheming.

Togwotee

Dave — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:55:00 GMT

Tomorrow is the start of a race of a different ilk: the Togwotee Winter Classic. This is a bike race in the mountains of Wyoming. In January.

Dave Byers has the GPX up on the race site. Here's what I get for the profile in TopoFusion. 107 miles and ~15k vert for the hundy!!! Have I mentioned this race takes place on snow? And they've been getting plenty.

All I can say is wow. Anyone that starts this race I want to buy a beer. Anyone that finishes get's an all you can drink hot chocolate pass. It's an intimidating concept and route. You'd really have to like snow.

Of course, this would be a mere snack for Jill or MC...wonder why they aren't there?

I look forward to seeing how this one plays out. Good luck and be safe out there snowbikers!

Camp Lynda done, over and out

Dave — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 03:06:00 GMT

It sure was nice to have ~25 folks join us for a long weekend of training. We got to show off some of the lesser known great rides in the area along with some of the more popular ones.

Today was the finale. The route had optional sections - one to Gooseberry mesa for a bit of technical riding, and the other a 25 mile lap around the Jem/Goulds/Hurricane Rim loop singletrack. It was all linked via a main 45 mile loop. As it turned out the route was hard enough nobody did it all. I like that ;)

The evening before had us at a Chinese buffet, followed by an impromptu trip to the Iceberg - a shake shop. Meredith had everyone excited about the magical shakes of this place...I learned that Utah has the highest ice cream consumption per capita in the nation. No surprise there, gotta keep things in balance.

I rode gears today. Let me tell ya, it was sweet. Being able to choose a cadence today was golden and I wouldn't have wanted to be on a SS. The Fuel is back in favor, thanks to Dave Nice's cool hangar straightening trick. Turns out my PT axle is threaded the same as a derailur hangar bolt, just thread it in, lock in place with the skewer, and wala you've got a straightening tool - trailside friendly too.

Early riding with Bart, Matt and Lynda.

Did I mention the scenery today? Views of Zion all day.

Edge of the known world.

Marshal modeling his big ride food of choice.

So it's done. Impressions post event...

- Dave Nice riding the crap out of SW Utah on a fixed gear for 3 days...with big smiles and loving it all the while. Word. Day 3 we rolled up on him while he was changing a flat acquired on the road thanks to some glass. First thing out of his mouth: "Anybody want a shot of whiskey?" Ummmm....you know this is Utah, right Dave? LOL...

- Funniest moment had to be day 2. At the end of the Barrel roll trail there were maybe 20 riders eating and chatting when Adam Lisonbee comes in hot, locks up his back wheel in what would have been an impressive powerslide only to have his stansed wheel burp its load and roll off the rim. Thanks Adam!

- There are some strong riders in N. Utah and it was darn cool to meet and ride with y'all.

- Lynda's idea for the camp was brilliant. Self-supported, GPSed routes meant anyone could come, do the route on their own terms and timeline, and still enjoy the cameraderie. It worked a charm, riders of a wide range of abilities came and made the most of it.

Stats? Today turned out to be 67 miles in 5:25 and about 4000 kj. Thats some pizza I gotta get eaten.

Camp Lynda day 1 in the books

Dave — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 23:36:00 GMT

A great group of riders showed for the first annual Camp Lynda. Great conditions, sunny skies, good times were on the menu. Not everyone rode the exact same route, but my stats were

56 miles
6319' vert
4:52 ride time
338 TSS (yikes!)

You've had enough of my words lately, here's some pics.

1st day done, 2 more to go. Eat well campers, tomorrow has plenty of challenges awaiting.

Recursive bootstrapping to form

Dave — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Extreme geek alert!

More than I can recall there have been suggestions that I just toss the gears away once and forall. Finit. Single is simple. Liberating. But...it ain't gonna happen. Here's why.

Like all of us spokeheads, I often learn via the sensations that come with training on a bike. The difference between pedaling a road bike and a mountain bike are actually quite minor...and that's about all I know - until the SS obsession struck. I'm in the midst of a big tasty 2 wheeled single geared education.

At first, the SS never got old. I'd just grab it every time I rode aside from the long weekend exploratories. There came a point when it lost it's charm tho. Something was missing. I craved putting down steady power and that is plain ol impossible on a SS.

In another timeframe I was pretty smoked. Something like 1300 SS TSS inside of a week had me not too excited to do anything on a SS or geary for a bit - yet that is a load that isn't that big (by my standards) on a geared bike. This told me that TSS doesn't track well for SS - at least not nearly as well as for geared riding.

So what's all the rambling about? Two major systems we work when cycling are neuromuscular and metabolic. The latter is all about efficient fuel delivery to working muscles. Due to the high force demands of SS riding and the highly erratic nature of force applications, SS riding is disproportionally stressful to the neuromuscular side. The frequents "rest" periods - when being spun out or coasting - makes it much easier on the metabolic side. The catch here is that TSS was modeled after metabolic strain, not neuromuscular strain. So monitoring EweTSS metrics (PMC stuff in WKO+) while awesome for geared riding is somewhat limited for SS riding. I can have positive TSB and still feel smoked!

In retrospect this is no surprise. The focus of my training the past few years has been the long stuff - increasingly long. Metabolic fitness has been goal #1. Trying to mix SS with my current physiology is a challenge for sure.

Bootstrapping is something you prolly do every day: booting your computer. Starting a process which in turn fires up another process. Recursion is doing something repeatedly...this is the basics of how my training is evolving. The SS is the best neuromuscular training for cycling that I have ever encountered - far better! Geared riding is super for steady efforts. For the past month I've been doing blocks of SS riding, followed by blocks of geared riding. Hit yourself at the musular level, then hit at the fuel delivery side, rinse, repeat.

It's working. My method for testing FT is the average power for 3x20 min intervals. Tuesday's session put power 25 W higher than what I thought FT was at...that is somewhat shocking. It's also something I would have no clue about without the benefit of my power meter.

I haven't been on the SS in awhile - since last week anyway. It looks like there is always going to remain a spot in my garage for gears. For now tho it's time to diss them gears and dance on those pedals in Camp Lynda.

Speaking of which...here's the requisite picture for those that found the above waaay too tech/longwinded/boring/understimulating. Camp Lynda hostess or trail bandit? Could be a tough call on Tuesday morning ;)

Gears: a love/hate relationship

Dave — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:04:00 GMT

So there I am yesterday, cruising along and feeling the gear love all the way. Testing out the conditions for Camp Lynda day 1 things start to get a bit mucky. Then it happened, that crunchy grinding sound every geary fears. I stop, look at my rear derailleur, cuss, then laugh and pull out the camera. Oh the irony.

25 or 30 miles from home this was not a pretty sight. No phone, long walk. Or make it a SS? It took some field service that'd make the boyz at Desert Cyclery cringe, but I got her running again.

In any case, I was so unimpressed with them gears at this point. Is this how it all begins? The unavoidable fall into retro-grouchiness? Not quite yet, but if I had to walk it'd be all over.

How about a roll call for Camp Lynda? Me first - I'll be there ;) What to ride is the question. SS days 1 and 2, gears day 3 is the likely call. Small gears like 32.18 on the 26er may get the nod, we'll see. For sure on day 1. Day 2 may see the 17. If I was gonna SS day 3 I'd prolly go with the 16 and plan on doing a bit of walking on the steep Smithsonian climb. It's all downhill except that climb ;)

The weather forecast last time I looked is mid 50s and sunny for the extended weekend. Can you handle that?

Here's a descent we'll hit day 1. This is about as close as we'll get to snow. Snow is pretty when miles away.

LOL I just realized this is my first post of '08. A fitting title to frame the season methinks.

Training camp #1

Dave — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 23:53:00 GMT

Day 1 of 08's first training camp: Yuri cruising the secret singletrack. St George will never become the MTB destination that Moab is cause the real gems are hidden from view. Unmapped, unpublished. Local knowledge required. That's where I come in. LOL there was still some headscratching as the real local guide is in Scotland, but we still got'r done. A Zen experience you could say.

Yuri is sporting a new Marin 5" travel XC ready rig with the new XTR. Sweeeeeet bike, it's like what everyone rides out here minus 10 pounds.

3 more days. Trails are drying out nicely and a warming trend is coming. Give a holler if you feel the need to join in the fun.

Something old, something new

Dave — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 03:00:00 GMT

Here's a view I never tire of.

Christmas morning the family was fast asleep so I snuck out for a joyride in familiar terrain. Not having been here for nearly 2 years, it was waaay better than expected. On the SS, it was so new and fresh even though the trails are so familiar. After the ride it just didn't matter how the rest of the day went, it was already a success. But it got so much better.

So that's about it for the obligatory cycling stuff. The real Christmas gem this year came from Dixie. Remember Dixie, the gal who announced her wedding a few days before the Moab 24 hour race? Yes, that Dixie. Really, how many Dixies could there be anyway?

To make a long and personal story short, she put together a set of 8 stories about our childhood together, complete with pictures and all wrapped in a handmade leather booklet. The stories are great, and what's even better I don't recall most of the details but she tells it like it was yesterday. Things like "With you I learned that if you skip school enough the truant officer will come" and "if you toss a match on a mattress the house will burn down" jump right off the page. And then there was the trick or treating session she just had to be part of, but unbeknownst to her I had mapped out the entire town and we went waaaay beyond the borders of our neighborhood and didn't stop until we had mountains of candy.

And all this time I'd been thinking my manic nature on the bike came on recently. She taught me I've had it all along. Cycling isn't the constant, manic is...

Here's the lucky guy. Boyd, I hope you understand what a great gal you've got. All you gotta do is be her best friend. Get that right and the rest is easy.

The path to enlightenment: manic or nibbling away?

Dave — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:46:00 GMT

Ah, holiday time. I always get a bit retrospective this time of year...

Using all sorts of resources I've been trying to piece together that optimal picture of the perfect training and racing year. No matter how many studies, theories, or blogs I read, it always comes back to my own training data. There just isn't anything more convincing, powerful, enlightening that my own store of power file data over 3 years of ultra endurance training and racing.

Hopefully I can say CTL without causing too much forehead wrinkling amongst y'all (got that, Rick?). CTL = chronic training load, an analytical measure based on the daily TSS (training stress scores) calculated from power meter data. I've actually got 7 years of the stuff, but the last 3 have been the enduro focus. Here's how they've progressed. Click for the big'n.

It's hard to make sense of this picture for a few reasons, but there are some things that jump right out. Such as:

a CTL of 120-130 seems to be the comfy zone for racing and training.
coupled with power meter data I know that the fastest power gains occurred with the slowest CTL ramp rate - early '05
in the fall of '06 I apparently developed the ability to dig enormous holes from a training stress standpoint
the only 2 major cycling injuries in this lifetime have both come on the heels of PB CTL peaks, both in terms of absolute volume and ramp rates.

The observations above that are most affecting my thoughts for '08 are the 2nd and 4th...

There's been some talk on wattage about what sort of programs lead to better power gains - and would you know it? The Cog presented a lot of data showing similar stuff as above for his wife who is a national champ pursuitist. I've come to realize I have the ability to do massive training and get away with it most of the time (except when I don't) but that doesn't lead to power gains per se...it does lead to enormous endurance. It was perfect for Grand Loop. For anything shorter and more technical though, not the optimal plan by any standard. So this year the plan is to "nibble away" and avoid huge training stress spikes for the most part, and spend more time doing quality work. That pic above is proof positive of a massive 3 year base that is pretty much unshakable - no need for more.

The corollary to the above point is what I refer to as "headroom." You only have so much capacity for training adaptation, and if your CTL is too high there just isn't any room to do the quality work that increases power and improve from it. To put the above values in perspective, it's been estimated that Le Tour cyclists hit a CTL in the 150s by the end of the race. My peak this year was 173. That's friggin manic!

That 4th point...yep, no question, long deep builds are expensive. They are now so alluring because I can get stronger as they progress, seemingly adapting just fine. At some point the bottom drops out - but not until I rest. I never know during the build how much is too much cause the body (or ma head?) says "more please."

What does it all mean? Slower ramp rates (or even flat ramp rates) for '08. More quality. More SS. More power. More fun. Save the big manic builds for the end of the season - which in StG means June and Nov. It's all coming together.

Goat trail exorcised!

Dave — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:34:00 GMT

If you've done any amount of technical mountain biking you've experienced the goat trail. No, not that winding skinny high mountain trail that heads up to where the air is rare. Those trails are for goats, yes... but I'm talking about the trail that *gets* your goat. You know, the one that forces you to push beyond some mental or physical barrier or subject you to the dreaded walk of shame. Or worse.

There's this short loop near StG that has provided more than enough challenge since first putting tread to it. LW was telling me about a trail that was smooth and buff so I had to check it out. When I got there...geez I thought, this is no place like home. Smooth in spots, sure - for 20 feet. Other than that, plenty of rocky terrain and a few spots that required some scouting to find rideable lines (well for me anyway).

I'm not a great technical rider. Too much time with a NORBA license and not enough time with an EPIC license. I'm working on it...and add to that the hesitancy that comes from not being able to clip out on demand cause of the July injury, and well I'm a trainwreck when it gets tech these days. I'm far from Ed's consumate bike handling abilities...

This trail has been my benchmark for a few months now, and it has had a strangehold on my goat for the duration. Sept: spd crash (which I've begun to call "tipovers", an important semantic difference), left side a mess and a quarter sized hematoma - volcanic rock is sharp. Then the next round: right in the same spot I get a flat. Rythm gone, walking ensues. And so it went. I hadn't cleaned this trail yet as of 2 days ago.

Then comes the magic. Yesterday, for the first time since July 6, I clipped out intinctively, unplanned, with that left foot. Pain free. Unfettered. Confidence soars. With 3.5 hours and 5k' already done, I hit that goat trail up for a rematch. Just as we got to "the spot", LWs chain comes off both the front and rear rings. What is it with this trail? Well, I just said I had a score to settle and kept on going. Maybe it was the confidence of a working foot, the 3.5 hour warmup, the damp ground...but the trail seemed *easy*. Those tech pitches just cruised under my wheels like butter. There was hooting like those folks I used to guide down rivers in another life...embarrasing but no regrets :)

Yesterday's goat trail becomes today's best friend, just like that, and on the 32.17 no less.

Wanna ride it? It'll be on the menu at camp Lynda, only I don't think she's gonna make you do that forever Blakes climb beforehand. But I gotta warn you: this trail is a lot like chocolate chip cookies. one is never enough.

SS adaptations in QA

Dave — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 13:26:00 GMT

A few weeks back I posted a this QA scatter plot. I'd been riding the SS about 2-3 weeks at this point.

Here's the latest. Both rides were on the 2:1. The "Blakes" data is from a ~ 2500' climb with sustained grades well over 10% while the other ride was just rippin around faster singletrack with a grin.

See any differences? The legs are changing. Here's what I see in QA:

- the left "edge" of the data points in the first file is at a cadence of about 50 while it's upper 30's in the second.
- there are no cadence/force "holes" in the data.
- power is up despite no structured training. Free power? Yea baby!
- somewhat hidden in the second file...but there are several points popping up above the max AEPF/CPV line established by the standing start testing - this means max force at low cadence is increasing.

Note to Ed: see how the points on that left edge start to go straight up? That's where it's getting really tough to maintain that minimal cadence and I'll go as hard as I have to to maintain it. To hold a given power, force has to rise rapidly at low cadences, and that's the physics part I was tallking about in the comments. It's power that gets us up a hill, not force. Dangit.

I promise at some point there will be non-technical backway meanderings again...there would be today if I'd have had a camera yesterday!!! Big rain event and mountain snowfall, flash floods rising 30 feet over bridges in slot canyons...just picture that in the most scenic spot on earth and you'd have the picture :)

SS training plan

Dave — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:25:00 GMT

This SS thing is darn fun and it's tough to contain my excitement for it. Not that I'm trying ;) I promised I'd share my thoughts on actually training to be a better SS rider and that's the meat of this post...but some other interesting & related things are worthy of mention first.

It's taken about a month to adapt to the SS. I have limited gearing options (too lazy to buy more?) which are 32x (18/17/16). For a long time I futzed around on the 18. First time on the 16 I thought "holy crap this is hard." Last weekend I did (among other things) a 25 mile singetrack loop twice on the SS, first lap on the 18, then a lap with the 16 and gave it some gas (not that there was any choice!). To my huge surprise, I loved it on the 16 - and biggest shock to me - that was the fastest I'd ever done that loop and I've hit it hard on gears before.

Must be a fluke. As part of the new training plan I did 1.5 hour climb yesterday on the 32.16 - a climb I recently got spanked on in the 18. Pure folly, right? Well, I didn't think I was drilling it but another PR fell by the wayside.

Yet another observation: I don't seem to get tired on a SS like I'd expect to. It actually feels like I'm super energized like when in a power lifting program - weird! Hormones are fired up or somesuch...

Yet another: bike handling is getting better by necessity.

Yet another: my favorite of all, it's so stressful to the lower leg that it has forced my crappy foot to step up it's healing. I can run on it!

Yet another: SS for a few rides has been much more efficient than a geared bike. For the same routes - one a rolling singletrack loop, the other a long climb - the SS was faster and average power and hence energy requirements lower (normalized powers spot on identical). Higher variability index (normalized power/average power), less energy used, and less time pedalling by far. Hard when you're pedalling with lots of rest. The gist of this? Get your gearing right for a given course and maybe - just maybe - it's a better choice for endurance racing than a geared bike (OK I still don't know if I can climb all day on the SS). Did I just put that in black and white???

SS a disadvantage? Right...I'm beginning to get a clearer picture of Travis Brown's secret.

This whole experience rounds out my thinking on the demands of MTB racing. You see, I've used quadrant analysis in the past to determine demands of MTB racing and adjust training accordingly. The problem with this method, tho, is it tells you what you actually *did*, not what would have been best to *do*. The bottom line is I think the metabolic demands must be balanced with the neuromuscular demands when devising a good plan. The past few years I've been focusing a lot more on the metabolic demands. This is great for the long haul - but sure made the first 2 weeks of SS riding painful ;)

In a nutshell, the neuromuscular demands IMO don't get enough "attention" in most MTB training plans - at least the way I've tackled it. So whether training for 2 hour XC or 15 day races, a certain amount of on the bike strength work is called for in the right proportion at the right time. I don't think weights make the cut - not specific enough. Trail running, low cadence/big gear work, standing starts - these all make the cut. Of course you gotta be good at high cadence too so a little higher cadence work (at power otherwise it's wasted time) just before the racing begins is in the plan.

My first early season race goal is Vision Quest in Orange County. Whether SS or geared I haven't yet decided, but SS will play a large role in my training for the event since it's all uphill anyway. It falls on March 1...so without further ado here's the plan overview. If I get a lot of questions I'll do a follow up post explaining what the nutty professor is thinking. Click for the big pic.

SS analysis: strength or power?

Dave — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 13:30:00 GMT

Pure single speeders are a passionate bunch. After doing a bit of lurking on the mtbr SS forum and observing the SS related comments here it's obvious the top reasons SSers do what they do come from the heart. As it should be.

Perhaps I will find that happy SS nirvana in time, but right now I'm a geared rider having fun on a SS. It's my analytical nature that has me analyzing the demands of SS right now so that I can make a better plan to train for a SS event or two (or three or... ;). Nirvana is directly proportional to speed, 'tis a proven fact - so this quest is worthwhile.

There are two obvious paths to go when considering how to train for SS: target specific aspects of SSing (on the road or MTB), or just go ride your SS. On the geary, my long-standing paradox has been that to really improve, I have to do specific work - intervals and the like - usually on the road but not always. So, I'm going to choose the former cause it's worked best for me in the past. SSing 6 days/week might not be sustainable for me, it's hard stuff!

So then, what are the aspects of SSing that need special attention? Power Tap to the rescue....the first step is to install the PT on the SS, go ride, then take a look at the ride data through the various tools available. The most valuable of these has been Quadrant Analysis developed by Andrew Coggan. Chances are that if you train with power you know the good Doc.

QA simplified: every data point in a file represents a power output and cadence. Knowing this in addition to the crank length the data is further broken down to the constituents of power - pedal speed (CPV) and average effective pedal force (AEPF). In lay terms, how hard you are pushing on the pedals and how fast your feet are moving. Crosshairs are then drawn with the intersection at the pedal force and cadence that represent what is normally done at threshold power. This divides the plot into 4 quadrants with these relative characteristics.

I: high power, high cadence
II: high power, low cadence
III: low power, low cadence
IV: low power, high cadence

Obviously, SS requires one to push darn hard at low cadences and really fast when spun out. But where are the limits? And are they trainable?? Key questions in my quest. I'll be sharing my random thoughts along the way of this process. They evolve daily ;) But first, let's look at that QA plot again and see what it can tell us. Note: 57 is not my preferred cadence so the QA crosshairs are misaligned in this plot...preferred cadence is about 96 so just about all points are in QII in reality.

There is a lot going on here. Yea, it'd make a nice tattoo M but I'm not sure I have the bicep to pull it off so I'll stick to the geeky stuff ;) The points here are from two different rides, one on a 32x18, the other on a 32x16. The route is rolling, some steep short climbs, some fast descents. Overgeared and undergeard, like every SS ride I've done. The pace was moderate (not hard), but where it tilt's up I went hard enough so as not to walk. IOW, L6 power levels.

There is also some test data from 2 types of efforts: maximal standing starts, one set is done seated, the other done standing. It turns out the maximal AEPF-CPV relationship is linear, so getting some good points along this line allows one to extrapolate the maximal curve out to max force and max pedal speed. That's what the 2 straight lines represent. Those lines are the highest pedal forces I can achieve for any given pedal speed - I wanted to establish these lines to see how close SS low cadence stuff came to maximal.

That's enough background. Here are some things I see:

normal cadence range for SSing is 45-130.
typical pedal forces go up 550 N. In geared riding they rarely go over 275 N (I'll post a comparison geared QA at some point) and for the most part are below 225!
pedal forces occasionally bump right up against that maximal force/cadence line
pedal forces routinely go to (and above) 75% of max AEPF in a moderately paced SS ride. This is in comparison to ~ 25-30% in a geared ride.
the ability to put out power at low and high cadences are equally important (but have very different demands!)

Finally, note the 3 iso-power curves - red, yellow, and orange. In particular, note how they tilt rapidly upward on the left side. Where they are horizontal on the right, small changes in pedal force have big effects on power output. But on the left, it takes huge changes in pedal force to alter power output, or from another angle, at very low cadences it takes huge AEPF to put out any sort of power. In theory, at a cadence of 20ish I can do no better than threshold power no matter how hard I try. So for anyone, no matter how "strong" you are, being overgeared beyond some point is going to reduce your power on the climbs. Physics in action.

Did I miss anything? Requirements of the soul perhaps?? They don't show up in QA ;)

This weekend I'll be doing some longer rides with the SS. I'm curious to see what those data sets will say about sustainability of these higher pedal forces over the long haul.

Happy Thanksgiving! Stuff yourself silly as is our custom...gives cyclists a reason to ride more.

Square Top denial

Dave — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:59:00 GMT

North and a bit west of St George is a range of mountains snuggled up against the Nevada border. They haven't hit my radar at all yet 'cause they don't lie between here and St George, not even by way of my jagged thinking. I've put the trans utah obsession on temporary hold and saddled up with the crackhead for some "local" explorations this weekend.

Looking north from Gunlock Res there are two side-by-side prominent peaks - Square Top and Jackson. They lie in BLM land...the surface maps show a trail going between them. That was the destination, to explore the trail in that pass between these peaks. From this view NE of the peaks they looked huge, gaining that pass would be no easy affair - probably hike a bike - if the trail does indeed exist. We didn't find out...

The early part of the route heads up Veyo Shoal Creek road. It proved to be a wonderful backcountry route, lots of climbing, sometimes in canyons, sometimes in wide open desert terrain, it climbed roughly 4k' before we left it.

Then was the rancher encounter. This place is back o beyond...we surprised half a dozen cowboys and ranchers, one with his pants literally down ;) It was initially a barage of questions "where'd you come from" "where ya goin" and when this one grizzled old leather faced guy had processed our responses he proceeded to tell us where we were going, tossing out at least 15 place names that of course didn't even ring a bell. Good ol boyz for sure.

Surprise finds along the way. Slickrock where I least expected it!

These granite pinnacles sparked a fire in the old climber in me...looked just like Joshua Tree rock!

Then the hike a bike began. The really fun part of exploration using GPS, maps, and inquisitiveness is that you just don't know what conditions are going to be like until you get there. There is a trail on the Dixie National Forest boundary with BLM land called the South Boundary Trail. Well, it didn't exist at all. We got a good solid dose of Scott-a-bike. Following random horse tracks sometimes took the best route through, but those tall critters put the rider above the endless scratchy brush. It was never ending...turns out the only thing worse than hike a bike is hike a bike where you can't actually hike ;) And there's more than a little guilt to dragging someone else through it. I had to keep reminding myself that I was with Lynda, toughest non-complaining mountain biker I know.

So that hike-a-bike took the wind out our sails for further exploration...not to mention sunset was getting ever closer but the truck wasn't.

But of course, it isn't about the destination, it's about the journey.

All was wonderful in the end.

Ahhhhhhh......

SS upgrades

Dave — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 21:18:00 GMT

The SS learning process continues. Thanks to Dave Nice's advise (SID isn't squishy enough or rigid - ditch) I put a Reba U-turn on it. At about 105 MM it handles great, and along with a stiff gate setting it has no out of the saddle bob. Noice.

And then there's the Power Tap. Oh yea, baby, full on data collection mode.

So what would happen if instead of sinking time and energy into drinking and tatoo acquisition a guy was to look into the demands of single speeding and how to improve those aspects of fitness?

You'd come up with charts like this...for starters. Welcome to quadrant analysis.

More details here but you'll have to join the club to see them. The club is free tho with many benefits. One of them is you can download a copy of an excel spreadsheet used to make this QA analysis.

Smoky Mountain 'sploratory

Dave — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:56:00 GMT

The Smoky Mountain road between Big Water and Escalante covers huge expanse of remote, lonely, beautiful country. The road surface is actually quite good for the most part. Water availability is not bad either. It's been dry for a good long while yet we found plenty. The area lends itself nicely to an ambitious 2 day or ambling 3 day bike trip - I highly recommend it so I'll post a few more details than normal for this one.

A lot of these pics ya gotta click for the big version...

Near the start of the route (starting at Big Water) this sign looks so new and official. Not to worry, the man was nowhere to be seen and every other sign was bullet riddled, old and illegible ;)

After a bit the climbing comes on in earnest taking you up to the southern end of the Kaiparowits plateau. Initially steep, it rolls a lot through drainages and contours in other spots.

Lake Powell in the distance, Smoky Mountain road contouring below.

Ion working it up the final grunt to the plateau.

Other signs of life. This was the first (but not last) time I would hear yee-haw! this trip. Cowboys are grumpy.

We took a diversion. At Collet Top we headed over the Left Hand Collet canyon to descend to Hole in the Rock road. The Grand Staircase site said the road conditions were "unknown." In the future I'll know unknown means non-existant. The conditions were unknown cause this rockslide prevented vehicle traffic and the road was later abandoned.

For the most part we traveled a stream/canyon bottom for 11 miles. Most of it was rideable but very slow. Sand, water, big rocks and boulders, a bit of slickrock - a real cornucopia of conditions. Slow going, but it really put a smile on our face anyway. It's not everyday you get to ride something like that.

A cruise on HitR road took us to Escalante. It'd be easy to get lodging there and not take the overnight gear...

But you'd miss out on this.

You'd also miss out on the redneck locals. For future reference don't ever camp in the open near towns on a Sat night. Holy crap...repeated high powered rifle shots overhead scared me beyond belief. And here I thought I was afraid of nothing in the woods....drunk johny reb and his 12 half brothers were playing all sorts of antics. Big spotlights looking for gawd knows what, they spotted us in our sleeping bags. Shit. Nothing like being the evening's entertainment for local drunken idiots.

Yea, nice sunrise pic but note the atv track in the lower right corner. This shot was taken from where I was camped. They came by within inches in the middle of the night spewing rocks and hoots and hollers. The episode lasted at least 2 hours...

Heading south from Escalante on the Smoky Mtn road takes a nice climb to the ride's high point.

Beyond this point there is a wonderful section of rolling road. It skirts several canyons, crosses others, big views abound. You'll have to ride it to see it, I was too enthralled to stop ;)

I took a spur to the SW on Heads of the Canyons road. It goes in and out of several drainages. Plenty of up and down and road conditions similar to the Kokopelli trail. I kept having deja vu...then I realized riding this was remarkably similar to the White Rim - except much less traveled, more tech and more climby.

It drops through canyons on it's way to Big Water. This looked old and abandoned but there was food in the cupboards - oops!

Everywhere to the north is wilderness study area - no motorized vehicles allowed. Nice ATV tracks here, not one of them turning around at the signs. What is about ATVs that requires disrespect for land and your fellow man plus mass stupidity to ride them? My disgust is complete.

Strange black hearted canyons on the way into Big Water.

So there you have it. This may be the off-season and all...and I think I'm chilling out but I've got quite the string of 25 hour weeks going here. It's just too much fun to stop!

So that's how this works...

Dave — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 14:33:00 GMT

So many of my posts come across I'm sure as some desert whacko's ruminations. Not too many folks can identify with that.

But...if I want some feedback all I have to do is look for common ground, right? Like single speeding?

Yesterday's ride was pure bliss. There's this climb I really like, takes well over an hour on the geary. Plenty of steep spots on it and 2 months ago I'd have said it was an impossible SS route. Yesterday I rode it in a 32x18 and it was purfect. It all came together. There are massive views off to Zion NP from this climb and I was seeing it all through rose colored glasses.

Tomatoe you are right, I'm hooked now. I've been looking at all manner of squiggly lines and scatter plots of old data thinking on how best to improve this game. But I'll try the beer drinking too.

This weekend it's off to check out a great big chunk of wilderness between Big Water (N end of Lake Powell) and Escalante. Ion & I will have pics and stories next week. Ya know those blog writeups that sound like the desert version of "Into the Wild."

So many pursuits, so little time.

KISS principal

Dave — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 01:30:00 GMT

Mon-Fri the past month this is the only bike I've touched.

Darn ghetto, eh? I've had this 9.8 frame for maybe 5 years now and it's seen all sorts of use, but has never been set up for long at any one time. It's current lifeform is w/ the Surly singleator + SS conversion kit. About 3 days after Moab I knew I had to get this thing singled out...had the parts since '05 just hadn't done it yet. The surly instructions start out with "1. Take off all that gear crap and toss it in the trash..."

SS riding is so...different. Maybe it's the crappy old SID noodle I'm running, but it really seems to make me pay attention to lines more. Momentum is your friend, and losing it is costly. Then there's the matter of torque. Cadences range from near zero to as high as you can go. When cadences are super low, it takes a lot of torque to get over that next obstacle. This is unlike geared bikes where you can spin on up and keep torque fairly low. In other words, it just might be possible that strength can be a real limiter for SS climbing - and some strength training could be in order if I was to get serious about SS riding.

Which, BTW, I am. I'll do a Kokopelli trail ride on the SS in '08 - underground race style. I'm considering some other big events too on the SS but we'll see how a few small ones go first ;)

So that means the powertap is going on the SS. Some quadrant analysis will give good ideas about the amount of strength required ... once I see some of that data I'll thinker on whether or not time in the gym is going to get the nod. It's hard to imagine as when I stopped lifting in the winter I started to get a lot faster.

What's the consensus in the SS crowd? Y'all do any strength training? Looking at Dicky I'd guess not, but hey looking at Kenny Jones maybe so. 2 fast SS guys with opposite builds.

What started as a whim is sparking new interest - and that is a ton of fun. Something new to deconstruct/reconstruct.

Just hope the knees and elbows hold out.

The Journey

Dave — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:17:00 GMT

The older I get the more I like to take my time with things, it leaves more time for savoring. Destinations often have a finality attached to them; everything that happens before then is the purpose. I don't seek the payout, I seek the experience.

You can draw a ton of analogies to this...racing is certainly among them. How often have you done a big event, full of excitement for it only to hit the post-race blues?

So this past weekend I continued on with my journey, explorations of new surroundings. It's cloaked in the guise of course research, but it's fullfilling other needs beautifully.

The previous week's outing gave glimpses of this huge plateau. I simply had to find a way to it's summit.

There are easier ways up than I chose.

But the easy ways don't have these views - and the summit would come and go too quickly. More savoring.

It was one of those all day climbs, filled with wonder around every turn.

With 4k' elevation over the surrounding region most of southern Utah is in view. It's a powerful chunk of turf up there.

And, wouldn't ya know it - from the top more new terrain comes into view, picquing my curiosity for another adventure.

The journey continues.

Challenges

Dave — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:05:00 GMT

To quote Curiak, "a challenge is something I'm not quite sure I can do." This Trans Utah concept is becoming a challenge in many ways.

The original concept was to have something that would make a good shakedown roughly 2 months prior to GDR. Big problems with that though: it limits elevation to ~ 7k' (april snow up high), and an April race date will force riders to choose between Scott's AZT race and Trans Utah. But the real deal killer: there's a massive chunk of real estate between StG and Moab that is made up entirely of sand. Unrideable sand. Improved/paved roads are the only way through by bike.

Creative redirection this weekend yielded some pleasant surprise finds - and ideas. The fall is crispy dry in southern Utah; the deserts and the mountains are rideable and pleasant. So why not shoot for an October date, remove the elevation restriction and AZT conflict?

'xactly.

It's an evolving process, but I'm leaning heavily towards an early - mid Oct '08 start. Level of effort along the lines of GLR, perhaps a bit more. First half in '08, StG to Escalante, 2nd half in '09, full route in '10. Start training now.

Not many viewpoints will go untouched by this route.

Powerless

Dave — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:55:00 GMT

...as in no control. And no power meter. Ain't the "off season" grand?

This weekend there's a big group doing the White Rim. I was going to join them but when I realized it would mean 15 hours of driving and 8 hours of riding that just seemed out of balance. Besides that, I'm gripped by an increasing passion for designing the perfect MTB route traversing southern Utah. So...I've got a ~ 120 mile route through the outback planned for the weekend. 3 hours driving and 16 on the bike, much better balance, eh?

After last weekends sand exploits I've got 2 of the widest tires I could find for 29ers on the way, the WTB Weirwolf 2.55s, and I'm not afraid to run < 10 psi either on my swanky MC built stans rims.. Didn't figure that one out last weekend until the last few miles when some 4x passed me with super soft tires. Duh!

Where am I going? I'll be checking out the Grand Staircase (and no, not one of those routes. Those are far too civilized.). Right now it's just mesmerizing names on a map - White Cliffs, Vermillion Cliffs, Skutumpah Terrace, Pink Cliffs, Bryce Canyon - sounds colorful and vertical. I think I'm seeing why it's called a staircase.

Have you checked out Camp Lynda? Big desert rides on tap, be sure to toss your suggestions up on her blog if interested. I've got a monster loop planned to cap the camp. It's the first part of this route I'm cooking up. If you're nice and not stinky you might even find floorspace in my house during the camp;)

My 24 Hours of Adrenaline experience

Dave — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:14:00 GMT

This may be taken as a rant. It will almost certainly result in a ban from 24 hours of adrenaline events. So be it, this story must escape...

Last December I registered for their 24 hour worlds solo event. In recovery mode from the first injury, I was looking for a solid goal. Perfect.

Fast forward to July and the BC bike race. Day 7 shattered heelbone means no worlds for me. Dangit. LW and I decide to trade support/race roles for worlds and Moab.

Not having read the cancellation policy but reasonably certain Stuart would have no allowances for such misfortune, I shot him an email anyway. My request was simple: first, to postpone my registration a year, and if that was impossible to transfer all or part to LW. That email garnered no response. So then I gave up on that and simply asked for my pit (since I was already registered I should get a pit, no?) to be located next to LW and Bernice Pierson as they were sharing a mechanic. We could use the extra space.

This time I got a response. It was from Stuart (the race promoter), and to paraphrase I was denied on all counts. The no refund policy was copied and pasted into the email; and no, I could not have my pit next to LW or Bernice cause that would give them an unfair advantage.

Right. Well feck that.

So, it cost me $450 to learn this lesson (I leave it up to the reader to draw conclusions). I've heard so many stories about this series it's hard to keep track. 24 worlds was devoid of the passion and festival atmosphere of Moab - why was that?

Anyway, had to let this out but didn't do so before the event so as not to cast a cloud over any of the racers I was associated with...

Off the grid

Dave — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:49:00 GMT

What a constrast. Last weekend was a struggle within; this weekend was a purely, deliciously, physical struggle.

Post Moab recovery took about 2 days. I built a SS out of my old Trek 9.8 hardtail - I had the parts in the garage to get it done and within 2 hours of motivating I had a SS bike. It has got to be the fastest thing I've pedaled....so after a couple days of hammering SS style, the weekend was ripe for some Trans-Utah explorations.

The setup I was using on the Yeti earlier this year, this time on the Lev. On front is the sleeping kit, misc food/maps, note water bottles on fork legs. This proved much too heavy on the front end of the Lev, repacking day 2 I learned that the sleeping kit fits nicely under the saddle and the bike handles oh so much better.

As I was cruising through Warner Valley towards the Hurricane cliffs all that joy and excitement of the spring came flooding back. The realization of a night away from civilization was a breath of fresh air.

The first sign is a nice try by the BLM, but I'm fairly convinced all Utah OHVers are illiterate. The second sign came out of freaking nowhere, posted about 30 ft off trail as I was cruising along beneath Little Creek mesa.

Gould spring. Yum.

The view from the top of Little Creek is endless. That "small" ridgeline is Gooseberry mesa.

Little Creek mesa was named for the creek, not the mesa. It's huge, higher than Goose and pinyon/juniper covered.

The timing couldn't have been better for this as I decided to pass on the Gould Spring oil slick.

This is an interesting slice of americana. Hilldale and Colorado city are adjoining towns on the AZ/UT stateline where polygamy is the norm. The homes are massive 10+ bedroom affairs. This is the site of Warren Jeffs that Krakauer had so much to say about in "Under the Banner of Heaven." Awesome read.

As I was rolling through the area my proposed route had me bumping into several locked gates. No signs, just locks. Usually I might go past such obstructions...but not here. Something about potentially trespassing on folks property who's way of life is against the laws of the land is most unsettling.

Shortly past Hilldale the hiking began. I spent the better part of the next 9 hours on foot. Steep & sand was the rule. The only place there was no sand was where the terrain was too steep for it to settle - and even the slickrock areas were sandy.

But, it was over the top gorgeous.

Sand.

Rock.

Sand and rock.

Views.

Just as I was thinking the trail couldn't be any harder (5 labored steps, bike on back and 3 points of contact, rest...repeat) reality showed it could be worse. Choose your horse carefully. Two laser like holes in the eye socket told the full story.

Just past this point I ran into a polygomous hiking group (or so I was informed by the next crowd I met): 40ish year old guy and 4 gals in their teens wearing long dresses. We chatted for a good long while, mostly about the area. They told me the route I had come up was nothing compared to what I had planned...I should have listened....one of the gals asked me why I didn't just toss my bike into the bushes since it was only slowing me down.

Plenty more happened beyond that point but it gets on towards a painful blur...

The first 64 miles took about 6 hours. The last 16...well let's just say that won't be part of the southern trans utah route. But if you need some beta on a good hike in the area let me know!

Ah, and looks like the blogosphere is about to explode. We've been joined by Laughs at Licraphobes.

Diversity

Dave — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:55:00 GMT

A buddy recently told me I'm too intelligent for lap racing. Dunno bout that. Maybe. Perhaps everything pales in light of the intense stimulus of the dual Grand Loop experience this spring. For now I'm going with Shane's assessment more or less - brain and body need new stimulus. That's the beauty of cycling, there are soooo many ways to get your spin on.

Yesterday I went out for a rolly singletrack ride on the Lev, but with a twist. I picked a roughly 2:1 gear and stopped shifting. That was an hour of fun that was so sorely missing last weekend. I've never had a SS bike and have spent a grand total of 10 minutes on one.

See where I'm going with this?

Out with adversity, in with diversity.

Existential delimnas in the desert

Dave — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:18:00 GMT

There comes a point in every 24 hour race I've done where I'm beat, and unfortunately it happens before the race is done. For these occasions I've learned to bring apple pie. So about 1:30 AM I came into the pit and said "pie!" and Lynda was so on top of the situation (I was 10 min later than expected) that pie was in my mouth before I could sit down...

In every other race, this has been a period of great torment. The body says no, the head says get up you wuss. This time, the body did all the talking. The head was quiet. Quite frankly, I didn't care. I knew I could carry on and chug out enough laps to hold 2nd place, and knew what it would take in terms of effort and recovery - and at that point it seemed stupid, pointless.

This is the defining moment of 24s for me. It is easy to pedal along up to this point. After this point the race requires a certain depth of fitness, hunger, motivation, mojo. This is when the real race begins. For the first time in my experience, I had the fitness but not the hunger, motivation. Fitness is not enough.

In a nutshell, that's what happened. There are lots of details, plenty of highs and lows of what actually went down out there and I'll post some of that shortly. Many have asked about bones...none are currently broken that I'm aware of, maybe a crack or two but that's nuthin...

What is waaaaay more than nuthin though is the absence of motivation mid-race. That's new for me and has never been an issue. Naturally that was a topic of discussion with LW on the drive home. She recognizes it as burnout, thought it was similar to the end of her pro glory days. It's really hard for me to wrap my head around that one - that I could be burned out when not racing for 3 months. I guess I could be burned out on fighting for the comeback as that has been the theme for the past year. Tom Danielson has had a rough year, check out his interview on VN. Our seasons have been strikingly similar.

Terminal burnout? Yea, right - I give it a snoball's chance in hell. I got a little care package from Curiak yesterday - Leviathon seatstays with brake posts on them. This means I can use the power meter on the 29er MTB. I was excited like a kid in a candy store about that one. Does that tell ya where my heart is?

One thing is certain. I'm relaxed. For the first time in a year there isn't some event that requires immediate training or rehab. I'm excited to get out and explore my new surroundings, and excited to get out and find that perfect route from St George to Moab. This fall is going to be about exploration. Not forced, just natural.

I'll go with the flow I have.

Off to the Moab Circus

Dave — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:15:00 GMT

OK bike racers, imagine this: about 2 weeks into summer you sustain a season ending injury and while all your bro's are out there givin it every weekend you are in serious rehab mode. This of course comes on the heels of another injury...about 5 months of rehab in the previous year.

So with a healthy mix of anticipation and trepidation I'm heading to Moab tomorrow morning. Racing for 24 hours solo, of course. With nary a race in 3 months, I'm hungry. Very hungry. With the fresh memories of being laid up in my mind, coming back whole from these things isn't something I take for granted anymore. With a foot at maybe 75% the plan has required a bit of massaging.

How it will play out is anybodies guess. Fox will surely be turning some fast night laps if he can keep his skinny tires out of the sand and inflated. The Coed-Pro Am field is bigger than I've ever seen with some fast teams in the mix. Sager's brainchild MonaVie looks super tough - if they can keep their 20 lb bikes running (and with Bart's experience in Moab they will) it could be a runaway. That will be fun so watch! The Jack Mormon Militia is back. The overall is going to be a stretch given the Pro-am field, but ya never know. They sure rocked it last year.

The solo men's field is huge - over 60 riders last time I checked. What's interesting so far is who isn't registered. Nat Ross and Josh Tostado aren't in yet, but I'm sure they will be there - has Nat ever missed this race? In '05 the conditions were good and I was able to get in 17 laps - more I think than had ever been done previously by a solo rider - but 2 other gents went faster with Anthony Colby doing an astounding 18 laps in his first solo 24. Word on the street is the course is slow...so maybe nobody will be doing 18 this year. I don't generally set a lap count as a goal - that isn't how races are scored in the end. I'll dig as deep as I can/have to in order to achieve my goals tho. What are my goals? Well, it is a bike race now isn't it? OK, one goal is to be able to ride the White rim 2 weeks post race and not spend this fall rehabing race injuries, there is some serious socializing on the horizon ;)

Of course solo is a misnomer for this endeavor. I'll have a team helping the cause. Lynda is the mastermind in the pit. If you've ridden with us you know the mojo advantage that will bring. I'll be debuting the Siren Song, a svelt 26/29 softail. The bike's godfather Brendan will be there to keep it running smoothly. The other bike is a Leviathon 29er with that new top secret shock courtesy of MC (thanks Mike). Desert Cyclery has helped to dial in all the mech bits and pieces to keep the show going.

The 29er theme is no accident - though I've done a good bit of power testing and in most situations find my 26ers faster, that doesn't hold true on the Moab course. There will be 29" wheels (at least one) under each podium rider this year - or I'll eat a whole apple pie!

Speaking of pie...this is a social circus. I'll be somewhere in solo row with a big bbq grill. Come on over Fri afternoon/eve, bring something for the grill and we'll catch up and relieve the tension building in advance of what we're about to put ourselves through.

Focus

Dave — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 12:57:00 GMT

It's detail week. Must...have...focus...

Change has been the recent theme. Change is not such a good thing for my focus, so today I'm reigning it in.

Speaking of change, St George may lie in the desert but that doesn't mean we can't have a taste of autumn here. This is just up the trail from my house on the way up Pine Valley mtn. It's quite the ride. The tail end of a 4,000' climb finishes with 26% grade pitches. Reliable Vertigo, maybe that's what this climb should be called.

Water is everywhere on this ride. Water spigots in the boonies, tough to beat that.

The focus of yesterday's ride was to dial in a new rear shock on the Lev. Thanks to this gent on a big white horse I am now testing a new shock that kills the Lev bob issue, is quiet and smooth. It has no branding and I don't know what it is so don't ask! So far though I gotta say it works well. It looks to be in for Moab.

Not to be outdone by the white horseman, Brendan was dropping stuff last weekend fully rigid.

Next up: tuning the rear shock for the new Song. The Cane Creek valve kit is here, time to make this girl sing her finest tune.

A'ight. Off to make that plan.

Certainties

Dave — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:29:00 GMT

Death, taxes, swallows to Capistrano and DH to 24HoM...what do these things have in common? Right. Like there was ever any other possibility. I've been to that race every year in this century, ain't about to stop that trend now. It's a circus, a spectacle, a bitch, a lover, a supreme challenge yet so simple. It has left me whimpering more than any other course and left me with month long highs. To me, it is the very definition of the high risk game of 24 hour racing.

Life is short so I'm making it count. The road to Moab is in my windshield, scorch marks in my rear view mirror.

Sorry sis, enjoy Paris. Love ya.

Uncertainties Pt. II

Dave — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 14:34:00 GMT

30 minutes ago I wrote: "One thing is certain. Come hell or high water I'm going to the 24 hours of Moab and will ride until I can't."

5 minutes ago my sister told me I have to be in Phoenix Oct 13th - for her wedding! Apparently beyond age 40 you can dispense with that courtship part and skip to the wedding.

What would you do?

This fucking pig has got to go.

Uncertainties

Dave — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 13:12:00 GMT

Somebody shoot that golden pig already. Please. The only certainty is uncertainty.

Warning: geeky training talk and squigly lines below.

EweTSS has been instrumental in keeping me in line this year. With two big injuries it's been essential to come back smarter, not harder. Er, well sorta. With several years of power data and EweTSS experience I know what I need to do well in a 24 hour race - by more than just instinct. The type and quantity of training that make a good race are not so uncertain. In OP this year I didn't have time to get there so just called it a training race.

Moab is different. There has been enough time for the key elements, although some of them got squeezed into a shorter period than I like. More experimentation. Increasing CTL from 107 to 147 in 16 days has turned out to be the biggest jump in that time frame in my experience. It was basically like doing back to back Transrockies. What was I thinking anyway?? Fortunately I recognized it was a bit agro and planned a 3 week taper instead of the usual 2...it's a damn good thing cause if the race was this weekend I'd be in trouble.

But...the sensations are improving rapidly now. Fitness is really the least of my concerns for Moab. Things seem to be unravelling in other areas....

Like the foot. I can only clip out if it's done well in advance. My left side is cut and bruised from a week of "spd falls" cause I can't clip out quickly. With any pressure on the foot, or in the wrong location, I just don't have that range of motion anymore. I have no doubt I can go circles around that sandy course on two wheels - it's the repeated trips on foot over nosedive and to a much lesser extent the Lemans run that have me concerned right now.

This all is probably coming off as self-doubt and confidence issues...however it's anything but. It's a small part of the big picture, yet this is the only brush I could find this morning.

One thing is certain. Come hell or high water I'm going to the 24 hours of Moab and will ride until I can't.

Anatomy of the Epic Ride

Dave — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 11:48:00 GMT

Ingredient #1: join me for a day in the saddle, you not being from around here.

Ingredient#2: I've got a burr up my craw to hit the top of some peak miles and miles away...

Ingredient#3: add the storm of the decade to the mix.

Time for some pics to do the talking. Here's topping out of the Virgin river gorge on the south side. Great views to be had on sunny days. Honest Jeff ;)

It wasn't long till #3 began to figure heavily.

Ingredient#4: brake pads become a pulverized mess.

Me: "Jeff, you don't wanna go up this climb cause you can't stop coming down. But I can't turn around now or my head will explode, I gotta go up this mountain"....

Jeff: "I'm following you"

Hmmm....ingredient#5: questionable decisions (LOL like there was any choice for either of us).

The top was in the clouds. This is the first spot that wasn't completetly shrouded in mist.

While we were climbing and descending, ma nature really revved it up and left this cherry for us on the return trip. We had to wait it out until it dropped to this questionable crossing level. Same crossing as the black creek above.

Towards the end we did have some moments of sun and the way the light played with this gorge offered the kind of natural beauty you can only really see through eyes that have been pounded by weather all day.

Now there are two bikes in St George that are up for sale and cheap! It was a tough day on bikes...

On a clear day here's the view from the peak. Top of Black Rock mtn looking towards St George, Pine Valley mtn is the horizon line on the left.

The Siren Song

Dave — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 11:50:00 GMT

I met Brendan and Mary Collier at the Kaibab Mountain Cross in June. Brendan is (among other things I'm sure!) a custom frame builder and owner of www.sirenbicycles.com; Mary races them. Purty fine mojo for this power couple if you ask me.

Siren doesn't do just any old frame design...the one that really fires Brendan up is a 26" rear wheel and 29" front wheel design. I rode his bike a little at KMC and really liked it. That big front wheel floats over stuff, and with the normal back wheel size the drivetrain gear ratios are what I'm accustomed to. The drivetrain issues were a constant issue for me when I rode 29ers in '05.

Shortly after KMC I started working with Brendan on design ideas for a new bike he's coming out with. OK the ideas are his and I supply the excited anticipation. Oh wait he's full of that too...anyway, to make a long story short, the new bike is a 26/29 softail design in the vein of the Salsa Dos Niner, but with close to twice the travel and more careful tuning of the suspension characteristics. She's in the jig and nearly a frame now. Here's how it looks so far.

The artisan in his element.

Lot's of standover in this beauty.

I think he's done this before!

The lower end consists of a titanium flex plate and another brace (not shown).

What's the coolest part of this design? Hard to pick one...but if I had to I'd say it's the action of the rear travel. There is some negative loading built into the design, meaning the shock will be tuned to get the appropriate sag, and it will be active! The Dos' rear end was rock hard to me - I'd get maybe 1/2 to 2/3" travel hucking something stupid - but this design will be active for any rider weight, and the Cane Creek AD5 will provide all the tunability required to dial in the sweet ride. So there you go, a bit more info that the teaser here: http://www.sirenbicycles.com/softail.html.

The bike will be known as the Siren Song and both Mary and myself will be doing some serious R&D at Moab. The anticipation thickens!

Horizons

Dave — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:54:00 GMT

Newness...I'm surrounded by it. Springtime in the fall.

The blog silence is a good sign in this case...I've been deep into my own version of a 16 day stage race. What's that mean? Well, it's part of the grand plan for that upcoming desert rumble...and given the foot status I was a bit limited to what I could do and when. 'Tis fine cause I like playing catch up ;)

Rides have been like this: stick my head out the door and see what chunk of unexplored horizon fascinates, consult the maps, plan a route, toss the filter and a prayer in the pack, head out for 60-80 miles of dirt. Repeat. Sometimes it's great training, sometimes it's just good for the psyche. Most routes include a 3 hour climb - the low point is usually about 2500' and the high point about 7k. Lots of volcanic rock in the region means every other new route I explore is riddled with black rubble on the edge of unrideable. Luck of the draw.

There is so much big ride potential around here it boggles my mind. South is the AZ strip, public lands stretching to the GC. To the west is the Beaver Mtns and tons of singletrack then big mountain climbs. N and E is more singletrack and Pine Valley mtn, the highest point in the county - about 7k' higher than StG.

A visual sampling.

A climb I'm quite fond of on the slopes of Pine Valley Mtn. Grades of 25% make it a challenge. The goal for popping over this climb is a spigot controlled spring...nirvana in the desert.

A fork in the road? I couldn't decide so did them both. The author wasn't kidding about the boldervard part!

Cedar Pockets overlook. Pine Valley Mtn is the horizon line on the right; the big slanted uplift in the center is Blakes Lambing grounds, the location of 2 of my favorite climbs in the area. I may as well sell my road bike cause it's become redundant.

I've developed a real fondness for domestic critters. They mean water is close by.

Others have been to these places before me...

Another day begins in the land of golden horizons.

Discovery

Dave — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 10:02:00 GMT

Some years back I rediscovered the passion for the epic ride. So much so that I made them the focus of my training, racing & free time. If you want my attention you better be on two wheels. Oddly enough, in all the years I lived, trained and raced in Durango most of my riding was done solo. Durango has got a quiver of strong riders, yet it always seemed to me that if it wasn't labeled by USCF, NORBA, or collegiate racing it just didn't make the radar. This applies to my HealthFX teammates - we'd get together maybe once/summer for a longish ride, but not epic by my standards.

Imagine my surprise at the evolving riding inclinations of Miles

and Greg.

Since I've left Durango, they've been having fun for long periods in the back country. They are fast too. They finished 1-2 at the Durango 100, a race that always involves 10+ hours of riding, 18k' climbing, nosebleed elevation and monsoons. A couple days ago Miles shot me an email of a description of their ride from Molas pass to town on the Colorado Trail, along with 40+ pics. His excitement for the experience was obvious; not only does it come through his words, but pics as well. There were some places he had to take 3-4 pics, trying to capture the moment he was experiencing at the time.

His account is just too good not to share with the world. I haven't asked permission, but he knows where good stuff he sends me is likely to end up :) Fellas, great ride & story. Maybe you should start thinking about this for next year?

All his pics are here.

-----------------------------------------------

We had an epic adventure yesterday while attempting to ride Molas Pass to Durango in one day!

We started at 5:00 am (up at 3:30am) from the top of Molas Pass. We proceeded to ride with lights until the sun came up around 6:30 am. The reason for leaving so early was because we knew the ride was going to take 12-13 hours and we wanted to get home before dark.

Everything was going as planned; we met the girls (Kricket and Sue) at hotel draw where we took on more calories and water(about 5 hours in). The girls did an amazing job and it was good to see them. After a short 30 minute rest we were back in the saddle ( a little reluctant because of the building thunderstorms).

About an hour after we departed the girls we were at a junction that was our last "escape" route off the colorado trail (Corral Draw). This route would have put us into the Hermosa drainage and we could of been home in 3 hours. However that was not the "goal" and would have left us feelings of disappointment. At this junction we ran into a solo hiker who was 2 days from finishing the entire (Denver to Durango) Colorado trail. This guy was hiking with a small 10lb pack and had been averaging 24 miles a day (walking), incredible!!

We stopped here for a while and contemplated pulling the plug because of the dark clouds looming over us. We were concerned because at this point we still had a large section of trail to do that was above tree line, very exposed and across some unbelievably hard terrain (Indian Ridge 13,000 feet). Needless to say we decided to continue on!!

Our pace was good and we continued to make good time all the while the thunder/lighting was getting closer. As we approached "Indian Ridge" the rain started to fall and the lightning got way too close. We knew we needed to stay warm and dry so we stopped, got off the bikes and made a "lean to" shelter under some trees (real mountain man shit!!). We used logs and pine branches to water proof the structure, sat inside and built a fire. Now the rain/thunder/lightning was on top of us but we felt secure in the hut and knew if we waited it out the storm would pass and we could continue on.

1 hour went by and we started making alternative plans to get the hell out! We knew that we could go back the way we came and come out and descend down "bear creek" drainage which would put us at Rico (halfway between Dolores and Telluride). However, if we did that we would have to call somebody to pick us up and that is about an hour and 15 from Durango. The girls had
already sacrificed their entire day and we didn't want them to have to come pick us up.

2 hours went by and finally the storms subsided and we had our window to summit the ridge and get down via Kennebec pass into Durango.

Waiting was a very wise decision and once we got on top of the ridge the clouds, light and fresh hail that looked like snow made the huddling in the shelter worth the wait. We made it over the ridge and into Durango with an official time of 13.5 hours including the 2 hours of waiting in the "lean to".

Battling entropy

Dave — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 13:29:00 GMT

So this year I've been testing Ergon products. Last year I put some Ergon grips on the bike before TransRockies and haven't used anything else since, so when Jeff asked me if I'd like to fly the Ergon flag for '07 it was a no-brainer. Let me see...a German company that puts lots of engineering thinktank time into cycling products...duh!

In the chaos that I'm calling '07 - the year of the Golden Pig - I've fallen behind on what I intended to post about a few products. So let's play catch up.

I've been using the Ergon gloves since early spring.

This critical piece of equipment is often overlooked, at least until you end up with intolerable blisters or the tips of your fingers ripped off. I'm not one to give glowing reviews, generally speaking. I am learning to bite my tongue though if I don't like something ;) Well, these gloves rock, plain and simple. I've used the same pair for 2 grand loops, 2 Kokopelli rides (oh wait, make that 3), BC Bike Race, Kaibab monster cross, and all the training to come between those events. They are still intact - a record for me. Tough, tough gloves.

I've modified them a bit as I like to have some fingertips open so I can find that gu in the bottom of a jersey pocket. All the fingers (not the thumb) have been clipped.

Initially I didn't much like the semi-hard plastic velcro over the back of the hand. When removing the gloves, you pull the plastic velcro bit apart but it snaps back onto the velcro, holding the gloves in place. I've since learned to be smarter (at least as smart anyway) as the gloves but attaching the velcro bit so it is loose - that keeps it in place and you can pull a glove off with your teeth. That's something I do quite a bit while riding long climbs for the cooling factor. Try it, it makes a big difference.

The palm material is minimal - no padding. Unlike some other gloves though, the material is thick enough so that it doesn't bunch up and pinch your hand. Oooo I really hate that! It's a perfect blend of toughness and minimal design to make a perfect match with Ergon grips.

Next up: I've been testing the BD2 pack and GX grips. Stay tuned.

Since this is my blog and entropy has not yet been conquered...you gotta check this out: https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=10885&locale=en_US. Surely this is going to send a few of you into a terminal tailspin and firmly establish the trenchnlines (hi DN and EdE), but talk about the holy grail of geekness. Garmin is all over it. Their new Edge unit is not only upgraded to do all the stuff of a mapping gps + cycling computer + HRM, it also can receive information from 3rd party compatible devices. What does that mean? It means, for instance, that the new forthcoming Quark powermeter that is ANT compatible will be able to feed the Garmin display. This is an entirely new level of geekness not seen before. It's hard to imagine any limits to data collection with this system.

A single setup good for Grand Loop, general exploration, and structured training? If it works on an MTB, I'm all over it. Someone, sometime, some year, is going to make something that works off-road. I'm still waiting.

Impatiently.

The big show

Dave — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 00:54:00 GMT

Worlds...what an experience. I've been waiting for Lynda to break the silence but her DSL got shot down while she was gone...so here are just a few impressions.

As is typical in these things, the Cyclingnews piece and the results don't speak to what went down in the ladies race. As early as lap 2 it was clear it was a race of Lynda vs. Rebecca Rusch. These ladies were killin' it. F'n goose bumps.

Full on racing, lotsa smack going down. They were neck and neck until just before sundown, much like the lead 2 in the mens race.

Eventually Rebecca pulled ahead for good. She laid down an incredible race. She showed up ready for anything and it showed. Much respect - it's hard to imagine a better ride. I honestly didn't think she'd fare well against Lynda on that course. Lynda made her earn that worlds title, but earn it she did. Without Lynda it'd been a one horse show. I've ridden a bit with Juli Furtado in the 90's when she was utterly dominant and Rebecca had that same look & demeanor I recall in JF.

Happy endings. Sally in 3rd used Lynda's training plan in prep for the event. Sally was looking buff and, well, manic! She had to lay it down to get that 3rd spot.

Hey fox, you want these lights?

They were a secret weapon and as far as I can tell there wasn't anyone with any more light on the course. On one of the first night laps Andy looked up and said something like "holy freak that's bright" followed by "oh, it's Lynda!" That was purty funny...after that we never had trouble knowing when she was close, the lights stood out 200 meters away.

Andy was another secret weapon. Well, not so secret cause he's a sucker for a dirty, non-functioning bike. If you bring one to him you will leave with a clean, well tuned rig. He was working on somebody's bike every minute of the night it seemed.

Apparently he's not a Specialized fan. He still fixes 'em up tho.

Conditions were unusually hot for the region and attrition was high. Roughly half of the womens field had quit less than half way through the race. Particularly hit hard by the heat were the Aussies as they flew from winter conditions to 100F racing temps. I actually didn't pay a ton of attention to the men's race, but it was hard to miss what was happening at the front. Kelly Magelky would come by, followed by Tinker 10 seconds back for the first 21 hours & 17 laps. On lap 18 Tinker laid it down with a 1:02 lap time. That's some 25 minutes faster than they'd been going for quite some time and one of the fastest laps in the race period. I would never have thought that possible, and have certainly never seen such a thing in a 24. One of the most impressive feats I've seen on a bike. Tinker is da man.

Even though I didn't get to race it this year, I'm comforted knowing patience is the name of the game in endurance racing ;)

In support of indulgence

Dave — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:15:00 GMT

Holy crap we leave tomorrow morning in a big ol' rented RV. Andy, Cathleen and myself will be joining Lynda in support of her 24 hour Worlds indulgence binge. It's all about the last minute details right now...downloading music, packing up the goods, spit shining bikes. Oh, and cycling batteries for the super special double top secret light setups made especially for the Wurlds course and based on LW's feedback. Light levels, patterns, functions all pure custom. Betcha want some more details, eh? Ask me next week.

The girl is gonna have some lumens on her side. We were riding side by side at 5am the other day, she with the custom setup and myself using a NiteRider HID. She had to ask if my HID was even on! I told her she'll know when its night by the temperature change ;)

Yea...guard yourself.

Exciting stuff. Rumors are floating about the inner circle about top competitors - what they have been doing, what they are doing now. Juicy. This is going to be a great show. My notepad is at the ready.

And training? I didn't realize it at the time, but I set a lifetime PB 30 min pnorm in training yesterday and at -20 TSB as well. I guess that explain my inability to move the next 20 minutes... You don't really expect those to keep coming at my age, but there it is. Limits are self-imposed and I choose not to impose any. Keep 'em out of your head and your body does the rest.

Best of luck to all those pushing the boundaries this weekend. May your mojo be full, crack endless.

Socially acceptable mania

Dave — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 09:12:00 GMT

The start of 24 hour Worlds is one week away. Excitement is building, anticipation thickening, mojo rising.

And I've stopped sleeping.

My standard training rythms just don't fit any established norms. In good training periods sleep is optional. I'll wake up in the middle of the night with a head full of, well, manic, and the day begins. Toss in an upcoming world championship event and the manic becomes MANIC. I can keep this up for a loooong time. I wonder if I could keep it up for 2 weeks on GDR?

Wurlds part I. Our star player is looking great. We did this loop yesterday featuring a 1.5 hour climb into a desert sunrise (can you say nirvana?), not drilling it at all but keeping a nice steady tempo. We totally chilled the last 20 minutes...yet still the ride time was a PB for her - by a lot. And she's only been riding a few days since being sick, go figure. All I can say is wow. The big show is gonna be fun, our gal is on.

Wurlds part II. I'm obviously not racing. Good and bad, really. I'll get to watch the heavy hitters take take their best shot in this wide open edition. Tinker, Nat, Steve, Ernesto, Mark, Brandon, Mario, Yuri - it'll be fun to watch y'all drill each other into the dust. I look forward to having time to meet a few folks rather than be wrapped up in the racer's obsession. I look forward being part of LWs team, keeping that pit humming smoothly. But...I will miss racing oh so much. I'll keep that bottled up for 6 more weeks.

Yesterday the day began at 1 AM. My eyes flew open with the force of a hurricane...the previous evening we were getting lights dialed in and wow there are a lot of little details to work out and some thorny compatibility issues that I didn't solve immediately. In the space of the 60 seconds I had them all conquered, mentally anyway. An hour later I was testing some settings on the Lev crusing up and down the block...and to my surprise I wasn't the only one working in their garage. Yet another benefit of this desert life, the nocturnal lifestyle is not quite so zany.

Is it ok to be listening to Rage Against the Machine at 3am?

Testing, testing, and more testing

Dave — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:19:00 GMT

In winter 05/06 I was on a quest to answer the question: which bike is more efficient, a Trek Fuel or a Salsa Dos Niner? It just so happens that one uses 26" wheels while the other uses 29" wheels...

These have proved to be rather popular posts, most of them getting over 10,000 hits and still counting. To this day, it is the only published attempt at quantifying the difference in wheel formats using power. I could be flip and say it doesn't really matter anyway, we're just riding bikes for fun, right? Well, based on the popularity (infamy?) of these posts it clearly matters to some folks out there. Probably you ;)

My stable has grown - it now includes a FS 29er (again), lots of 26ers, and soon a 55er (26+29=Siren Fifty-Five). And if that isn't confusing enough, there's an outside chance I'll be testing a new entry to the wheel size mix, the 650B/27.5" by Kirk Pacenti.

So guess where my interests lie now? Yep, learning the strengths of each of these formats. It's a technical nightmare as James at CN has learned. Realistically, the only power meter I trust on an MTB is the Power Tap. The major (MAJOR) hitch is they don't have a disc compatible hub yet. I've been leaning on them for a few years but I'm only once voice. If you are interested in the same hit with an email. The Lev is rear disc only...so any testing on that bike is limited to terrain where a rear brake is optional.

Fun things to look forward to, more charts and geekdom.

So with all the downtime in the last 6 weeks, aside from moving and a few other things...I've got my music situation dialed in. Some folks get cable TV, I get a monthly music service with Rhapsody. Their top plan is called Rhapsody to Go but it requires specific MP3 players to utilize it - it always seemed overkill to me. Well my trusty little Creative Nano finally croaked and forced my hand...so I got a Rhapsody compatible player. All I have to say is I'm glad that Nano bit the dust. In the past once I found the music I liked online, I had to buy it somewhere. It wasn't so much the money but the time that was a PITA and kept those efforts to a minimum. Rhapsody to go - so far - has changed all that. I can now upload anything from Rhapsody's catalog to the MP3 with a 30 day license - this even includes custom stations. Pretty sweet deal considering I work at a desk and use Rhapsody most of the time already...the new MP3 just upped my music addiction.

Ain't technology somethin'? I guess this means I'm no retro-grouch. Gimme gears, suspension, music, and power baby. That and a touch of crack makes for a lot of flow.

Adaptation

Dave — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 10:02:00 GMT

Lots of adaptation going on right now - and it all seems to be coming at the speed of light.

The past several years I've done blocks of high intensity training (HIT) in the winter & spring months. The basic MO for these training periods is stringing days of self-flagelation together until you crack, rest a few days, repeat. VO2max and anaerobic capacity intervals with a smattering of threshold work is the standard fare. It's super powerful stuff and raises all of my power levels in a hurry. The timing of this stuff was partly due to race goals and partly because short workouts are easier to get done in Durango winters. Here in St George, there's a short window of daylight in the AM before it gets too warm for quality work - so it's sort of the same, but in reverse.

I haven't done any of this stuff for the '07 season - once I could get outside after the collarbone I was outta control on long rides. Now that I live in Utah I'm in Durango training mode, how ironic ;) In any case, this area is awesome for this sort of training. Snow is seldom seen here so there are short super steep hills all over the place. Great stuff. And...I'm adapting quickly. Having some extended down time has been a gift horse as MC says...this week I ended up with 1200 TSS of self-flagelation and there's no sign of a crack. Sorta scary - that's a truckload of L5&6 - so I'm taking time off anyway. That's tough for a manic to do...but EweTSS has taught me all too well that my intuition in these things isn't always on the mark.

One workout this week is worth mention - I'll call it the full spectrum VO2 workout. The interval durations are descending, the power levels increasing. 5-4-3-2-1 minute intervals with a 1:1 work:rest ratio. I started the 5 min int at 116% of FT then raised the power 15-20 watts each interval until the 2 & 1 min ints, which were done out of the saddle the final 30 seconds. 2 sets of these and boom, that was a 200+ TSS workout with the warmup/cooldown.

This stuff is my catnip, it fills my crackbag and morphs me into a racer. Utterly beautiful, purposeful suffering.

Desert living in the summer is another round of adaptation. Yesterday I was in the garage getting the Lev sweetened up some (new wheelset ala MC totally rocks) for a couple of hours - like 1-3pm - and realized it seemed cool. So I checked the temp and it was 101F. Freaky! I'm gonna freeze my ass off this winter. A benefit of heat adaptation seems to be leaning out - weight has tanked 5 lbs since getting here too. Of course I'll have to admit to carrying a lot more goo than I needed on arrival ;)

The foot is on the adaptation plan too. About every other day it feels really good, so I push it some, rest it, and it responds. I'm going to be normal again soon (my foot, that is) and that's a relief. You can only hear so many dire predictions from surgeons without letting a bit of doubt in.

Now for some tidbits on other folks...

Lynda's mojo is returning. She's not completely out of the woods, but feeling waaaay better. She will be at worlds - so depending on who you are you can be happy for her or start tweaking your gameplan accordingly ;)

Matt McFee put together an outstanding writeup of his GDR experience complete with tons of pics. Check it out!

Jill struck out on a long solo journey in Alaska/Canada. Great story from a fellow enduro nutjob.

Geoff has been on a tear this summer. I think it's his first summer of serious competition (Geoff?) and based on his accomplishments it will be fun to watch his progression in endurance sport. His last big race gives me goose bumps. I really hope to meet Geoff and Jill in the spring.

Baby steps to the sky

Dave — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:24:00 GMT

Tomorrow will be 6 weeks from the time of the shattered heelbone incident. Since it is feeling good enough to start thinking about weight bearing, I headed off to the doc for an x-ray to make sure all was well. Since I'm in StG now, this was a new (to me) doc - the one that put Lynda back together after her clavicle demolition. He was funny - wanted to talk about cycling, not my stinkin' foot. Can't blame him. "So how well does Lynda do in these long events? There's nobody around here that can stay with her." "Oh, she's one of the best in the world. We'll find out in a couple of weeks"

When he learned of my calcaneus fracture and looked at the original cat scan he started telling me how healing this thing could be a 2 year proposition. Why do these guys always have to sound so pessimistic? Jeez.

Then he looked at the x-rays, looked at my range of motion, and changed his tune dramatically. Everything is where it belongs, tight, and on the fast track. He said I'm half way there, 6 more weeks and he figures I'll be back to 100%.

Now it's time to let some cat's outta the bag.

The 24 hours of Moab is ON. Competition is gonna be fierce this year and I plan to be in the mix of it. It is the focus of my training right now, what ignites my fire. The competitive streak that seemed to falter in the spring has come back ten-fold. I may not be able to walk, but that hasn't slowed training. It's nuthin' a little tape and coffee can't take care of. This might sound odd to you hammerheads out there, but even at high power levels pedal forces are much less than bodyweight. I'm in the middle of a big ol' VO2 block right now, and doing it under 3k' where there are lots of Os is making quite the difference. Lots of perks here in StG so far.

To get it done (Moab, that is) I've got a new stable of bikes cooking up. As I've gone to the hospital and a long recovery twice now from the Yeti, it has lost favor. It'll be a backup bike at Moab. The other two bikes I'm really excited about. One is a Leviathon, the other is an innovative custom bike built by Brendan of SirenCycles. Between the two of them, there will be 3 29" wheels. My boxing gloves are on, bring it :-)

The final cat: I'm looking into a route traversing most of southern Utah. The idea is rather loose right now...but some things I expect are

4-7 days to complete it
Extremely remote in spots
timing to be mid-late april (sorry Scott)
some intriguing twists to course routing...that's all I'll say for now ;)

Generally speaking, I'm thinking it should be similar in nature and difficulty to the Grand Loop. It's scarier on paper than the GL though - it will be very tough to bail. On GL, especially on the Tab, you just point your bike down some drainage if the shit hits the fan - not an option in S Utah. Hence the allure.

Hard to imagine a better way to get acquanted with my new surroundings. Lots of forays into unprobed territory on the plate for the fall/winter/spring. I'm tossing this out now so anyone interested can weigh in - and start thinking about all the strategy it's gonna take to pull off such a trek.

A good friend referred to my broken foot as a "gift horse" as while everyone is pushing through August burnout and heat, I've got that late winter excitement thing building. I'll have to agree with him!

That desert life

Dave — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 11:10:00 GMT

No question: I'm a desert rat. I wasn't sure 2 weeks ago cause I don't think you can be a desert rat if you hate the desert summer...but I'm loving it. It could be other factors...such as being able to ride outside.

You read that right - it's no misprint. I still can't walk, but riding the road is fine. Leaving Durango also meant I left my ortho doc behind - along with the restrictive don't do anything for a couple of months advice. Steve Palladino has been invaluable in providing advice for an athlete tailored aggressive rehab program while maintaining (and even building!) fitness levels. Of course I have taken it to new levels of aggressiveness...but the overriding philosophy is to pay attention to the foot/heel. It will let me know if what I'm doing is too much. More on healing in general later - but the gist is that the body is so dynamic, left to sedentary recovery it would heal at a sedentary pace. Stimulate it at the right time in the right way and accepted timelines go out the window. I'm becoming somewhat of an expert on the topic ;)

Mornings...there is no better time in the desert summer than the few hours surrounding sunrise. Riding as the sun rises in a deep blue sky rimmed with red rock walls and far away mountain ranges, it is all so clear and open. It does the same to my mind, these morning rides leave me mentally acute and optimistic. I couldn't be more psyched to be here.

St George is an interesting place. EA would never approve of it - the church to bar ratio is utterly out of proportion. In fact, I haven't seen a bar yet - is there one here? But the folks I've met thus far have been great. The cycling scene is big. Different than Durango, but big. Yesterday I saw no less than 20 riders in Snow Canyon. Based on the bikes coming and going at Desert Cyclery, I'd have to say a 7 inch travel beast will be required if I'm gonna ride with anyone here! Lot's of free-ride terrain with names like "fuzzy bunny." I had a peek at the fuzzy bunny and it didn't look rideable to me, not by a long shot.

Well it's 5:30AM. Time to get the sunrise fix of the day.

Friends

Dave — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 10:52:00 GMT

What would we do without them?

When I lived on the north side of Durango I was lucky enough to have some great neighbors. 3 guys in their 20's, athletic, each very different but all with a quick smile and positive outlook. Gabe, China, and Chet. As it goes in this stuck up country we didn't have a lot to do with each other for several years...mostly cause I was "too busy." Last winter after my clavicle surgery it was tough to get much done. Chet would come over after it snowed, shovel my walk and wipe the snow off my truck. I never asked, he just did it...

It was hard not to notice the interesting stuff going on next door. Chet is a sculptor - there were stone heads, wooden signs, all sorts of stuff in their yard. They all ride a ton. No racing (right now) but if they wanted to they'd clean up. The riding they do is more along the lines of pure nuttiness - extracycles with kayaks attached. Extracycles, wind fairing, with skiis attached and riding to Purgatory 30 miles uphill in winter. Extracycles loaded with work tools and riding 60 miles to the next job. Friggin studs all of them.

When it came time to move to St George last week it was a no-brainer to ask their help. Since all I can carry is crutches, I was gonna need a lot of help. It was a bigger job than I imagined (I won't bore you with how much bike shit I have) but these gents hung tough until every last thing was loaded, tarped, tied. I was pretty speechless at the end of the loading.

Next up? The 3 musketeers are doing a full ridgeline traverse of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range. 30+ days, nearly all above timberline.

The moral of the story here is get to know your neighbors! I guarantee you have the time.

Here on the St George end I was greeted by local honch Dave H and ace wrench Andy to unload all that stuff. It took about 1/10th the time it took to load it, thank goodness. So far I'd have to say this is one friendly town. Warm, but friendly ;)

Remember Ryan and Hillary who won the mixed field at BCBR?

They had been planning on going to TransRockies. However, Ryan just took a nasty spill on that BC terrain, got nasty concussion and jacked shoulder out of the deal - so he's out for TR and Hillary isn't looking to replace him (he's irreplaceable anyway). There's no option to get a refund, so if anyone out there is interested in doing TransRockies, shoot me an email (contact me link above & left) and I'll put you in touch with her. The event is sold out so this is a great opportunity if you were late to the party and can still make it.

Ryan, here's to a speedy, full recovery.

So you like riding the Colorado Trail do ya?

Dave — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 16:57:00 GMT

Well if so check this out: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_recreation/article/0,2777,DRMN_23950_5647282,00.html

Large chunks of the CT, including Monarch Crest - are in danger of being closed to mountain biking.

Please, read the article and send your comments to the email address at the end of the article. Note the link for the address is broken - type it in.

Thanks!

Hunger

Dave — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:26:00 GMT

Cycling itches take many forms...

Earlier in the year, rehabing from the last big crash, I had this whole existential dilemna about where my cycling goals were going. My interests were all over the map - most of them in new directions. The thought of racing really seemed to get in the way of the learning process, and at one point had utterly lost all appeal. The springtime quest for something new took charge, and while training with others was awesome, I had no inclination to race others. It was about learning new tricks for the bag of lucky charms and learning where the limits of that bag lie.

It was a solitary process, more or less. When your cycling itches take you on 200+ mile rides at regular intervals that restricts the training partner pool considerably ;) 700 miles of solitary racing in 2 weeks (the grand loop double) was enough for even my solitary tendencies. Suddenly I was craving more social events, and the KMC and BCBR fit the bill to a 'T'.

Now, with every day I spend on my butt with my foot in the air, the hunger for *competition* grows by leaps and bounds. BCBR was by far more competitive than anything I've done this year; it ignited some latent passions... The healing is coming, the scheming has begun, a goal has been set.

Let's just say my season isn't quite over yet.

Project 1: into the fire

Dave — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 13:21:00 GMT

As I nearly rear-ended this thing while day-dreaming along Hwy 160 the irony was not lost on me...

First, the medical update. My orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Field Blevins, is top notch. Nonetheless I've spent far too much time with him in the past 9 months. I met his family under less than favorable conditions Thursday. His son Christopher is one of the best 9 year old BMX riders on the planet and was all set for BMX worlds next weekend. Just before my appt, Christopher broke his arm in training, so the doc was attending to him. As both Christopher and I face missing a world's event this year, the doc wanted us to meet so we could comisurate a bit. Chris was sparkly and alert for having just broke an arm, been under pain meds, having it set and all that...that little guy had the eye of the tiger glowing brightly. He wasn't bummed, he was pissed! I just told him it would make him that much more hungry for the next one, and for this year's worlds the competition just got watered down a bit. He got that in an instant.

As for my situation - no surgery. It was a tough call and I've consulted with 4 surgeons to come to the conclusion. The outlook isn't as bad as I initially heard, but I'm still looking at 2 months of non-weight bearing. It's the lamest injury I've ever had. It seems so insignificant, but everyone I've talked to about it has put the fear of lifetime gimpiness in me to ensure I don't rush things. So I'm not rushing things. Well...not much ;)

The first project is well underway. Since I'll be back to normal training this fall...there's no way I'll maintain my sanity in a Durango winter after this layoff. I've been planning a move to warmer climes this fall anyway...this is the perfect time to get it done though. Destination: St George, Utah. I'll save so much in terms of gas money this winter - last winter/spring I was in Utah every weekend. It is a bit tricky though. Not being able to carry anything does create some issues, but good friends on both ends will make it possible.

The new home is a 3 br townhome. That's a lot of space for one, visitors welcome!

The return of optimism

Dave — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 13:45:00 GMT

There's no denying it. Coming back from Canada all busted up - long term - and having let my partner down has landed on my head like a ton of bricks (or a BC tree as it were). Not neccessarily in that order. It is an odd experience right now. There are so many parts of the week that glow in my memory, and those parts fill my subconcious. I know this cause when I wake in the morning it is from sweet dreams. Then the rib screams, the foot aches, I go for my crutches and the day begins...

Yet, the initial shock is wearing off (the diagnosis 2 days ago was a surprise dave bomb), opportunities are presenting themselves, the head is clearing.

Steve Palladino, Wattage forum member, has been fielding questions left and right for a day. His experience and responses have helped put this thing in perspective and remove some of the unknowns. Thank you Steve for shedding some light!

No matter how I slice it, there isn't going to be any serious training for 2-3 months, which realistically means no racing for 5-6. Christmas star anyone? As I learned in the collarbone experience, lots of time off = lots of fitness loss. At my age it doesn't come back in a week or a month. It takes a bit of time. Realizing this, I'm actually quite relaxed about the situation. There's no rush, aside from the ability to do enough to maintain sanity. After the collarbone incident, I rode like there was no tomorrow as soon as I could toss a leg over a saddle. I've ridden and raced more in the last 6 months than most do in a decade. That'll hold me over for a good long while, and in the meantime, I've got some cool stuff in the works. One project is gonna be over the top...something I've wanted to do for a long time, and the current situation makes it doable.

The support from friends has been tremendous - thank you everyone who has emailed, called, commented and sent the vibes. All have been well received...and it's been overwhelming.

A mesmerizing fish story

Dave — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:16:00 GMT

Impressions. That's what I'm left with in the wake of the BC Bike Race. I'm not sure if it's from trying to take out a tree with my noggin or the sameness of much of the route...but some of the days have already blended together, while others stand clear. So here comes a sampling of my impressions, straight from this stream of (un)conciousness.

Getting there was half the fun. plane/plane/bus/ferry/bus/taxi and 14 hours later we were crammed into a tiny, 129$/night 4th story room slightly larger than a postage stamp. Did I mention there was no elevator? It didn't seem to matter, I was fired up to be away from the everyday and set about building my bike up with gusto.

The next day we got our registration taken care of - which sounded uber complicated on the website but went quite smooth in reality. At the end there was a pep rally, the first of many where the race organizers would gush with enthusiasm about how great this race was going to be for us all for years to come. My eyes glazed over...these pep rallies never failed rile me a bit. Yet, I seemed to be alone in this sentiment. I was constantly reminded of a B movie called "The Wave." If you've seen it you know what I'm saying. Let the race speak for itself!

Earlier we took a short spin on a paved bike path. Not much of an opener, but the week would provide plenty of opportunity for that. As my spring schedule has been a bit enthusiastic and ultra filled, I showed up with a bizarre combo of feeling a bit smoked, but undertrained. I warned Lynda ahead of time to bring 7 jerseys.

The start was a mellow affair in an alley. Ahead was roughly 5 hours of gravel road terrain. I think we hit a short section of trail at one point. There was one decent climb, many views of clear cut logging areas. The forest is incredibly thick/dense on Vancouver island, it was a treat to be riding in such different environments. We just plugged along, not too terribly hard, but I was feeling sorta smoked at the end and was happy to jump on the back of the Spike boys for the 35k of pancake flat, straight as an arrow ass numbing rail trail finish. It was the perfect opening day for rusty legs, and we were surprised to be the first mixed team to the line.

For the rest of the race we would hold on to these yellow jerseys, building our GC pad each day. Until day 7, that is.

Day 2 I felt great. It was a long, flat, roadie beginning and we rode in a group of sometimes 50 riders for roughly 50 km. Then at the first aid station the terrain made a sudden change to the rougher side of things, and I went on the attack for about 6-7 minutes. Lynda and I were out of sight from the rest of the mixed teams. From this point forward, knowing we could make big gains on the longest stage of the race, I pushed hard on all the flats and we pretty much drilled climbs. It felt great, maybe I wasn't smoked afterall ;) Lynda was riding at a new level too, she is lighter and has grown her threshold power a few watts. Holy moly can that girl ride! We hit the finish line and watched the clock...tick tock...22 minutes was the gap to the next mixed team.

GC leaders get staged at the front. Several of the stages sported neutral starts behind a moto or police car.

Day 3 was a nutbuster. Lots and lots more gravel road, then a "Fantastic climb" in marketing speak that in reality was a bitch of hike/ride combo up washed out double track. The descent was incredible though. Steep, fast, inside an alder tunnel in spots, full of bear shit. I thought for sure we'd be coming face to face with a big bruin on this section.

No pics, but the race lead medical guy was always warning us about bears and cougars. "You must discuss with your partner what to do if you encounter a cougar. Ram a pump in it's eye, you gotta take it down!" I'm sure it was a had to be there moment, but his warnings were one of the highlights of the race.

So no bears today. We did get to ride Bucket of Blood, and I left some along with my fancy GPS. This was the first real singletrack of the race and it was a wakeup call for both of us. We were seeking advice from locals on how ride this stuff shortly after the finish. Julian Hine, NORBA guy from the 90's, was in the race and satisfied our curiosity. His tips helped a lot.

Port Alberni mascot.

Breaking in new singletrack for the locals.

On paper, day 4 looked like a race promoters nightmare. Get everyone on a bus by 5:15am for a 6:30 ferry ride, catch a second ferry, then race. This was probably my favorite day on the bike. We both were quite sparkly this day, riding with smiles - it was the 4th of July after all. We rode with Ryan and Hillary for a bit, but on the first descent really drilled it and the ensuing power line rollers and then it was just us. It's hard to put into words how in synch we were this day. I'd grab a banana right as Lynda was...on this one steep roller we both jacked our front derailurs at the same spot. Freaking hilarious, we're both fixing front Ds at the same time and laughing. We also worked with the other SS team a bit - waited for them on a road section. They were wanting to make some time on the 80+ GC bid as the course got steeper, and they seemed to have the legs to get it done. Sorry Tim & Rich. We backed it down rather than picking it up at the end. Still lots of racing left to do, gotta save those matches, right? We finished in Seshelt, grabbed some ice cream and headed to the beach. Can this day get any better? Then it was off to dinner, after which we were treated to a tribal dance performance that eventually had most of the racers dancing on the floor too. This was a doozy of a day, hard to conceive how much the BCBR staff stuffed into one day, but they pulled it off. Fantasy island day.

Day 5 was an incredible day of singletrack riding. 2 major climbs, the last of which was semi tech singletrack. This stage likely created the most smiles at the finish. Folks were jubilant at the end - those that were still in once piece.

It turns out this day was the line of demarcation for me. On that last singletrack climb I had a seemingly benign slow speed uphill fall. The front wheel whipped a 180 and the left barend tagged my right rib cage on my way down, breaking rib #7 clean through. From here there was still a bit of climbing which I could barely do cause I couldn't breathe now, and then a shitload of techy descending. What was bringing smiles to everyone else was giving me a bad case of tourettes as every root, rock and bump was nuthing but pain, I couldn't lift the bars or even get out of the saddle and was pretty much on the ragged edge of control on flat pavement, this techy stuff was suddenly tough to manage. But manage we did and the stage eventually ended. After arriving at the finish, we got to wait 3 hours for the ferry then bus to the next camp. This really took a toll. I was compensating for the broken rib and by the time we hit the ferry my right shoulder and back was knotted and tense...I couldn't release it. Fun times, especially looking forward to the next day, the queen stage with the most climbing, tons of techy stuff.

Day 6 is bittersweet in my head. The views heading up the river gorge were outta this world. The water was high, unrunnable falls everywhere, the roar filling the canyon. I was in trouble though. The night before the race doc taped my ribs but I don't think it did much. I couldn't breath more than about half a lungful without the rib clicking. Clicking is bad. So I was reduced to rapid shallow breathing. It wasn't that effective, and I couldn't hold the pace of the paceline up the dirt road. Somehow I felt this was betraying my partner and it's hard to relate the depths of my dispair at that moment. As always though, we were right in synch; as I was wrestling my demons she started telling me that was good to get off the train cause they were too bursty or sketchy, this pace was perfect.

There were more surprises in store. Shortly after losing the train the hike a bikes started. Mean hike a bikes, at least to a guy that can't even lift his front wheel off the ground. Maybe I had no business starting this stage, I dunno. But to be honest, not starting wasn't even an option in my mind. On one hike a bike I was clearly struggling and folks were marching past us while I fumbled. Lynda wasted no time and grabbed my bike and hers, marching up some rocky pitch. This vision is indelibly etched in my memory, tiny 102 lb Lynda hauling 50 lbs of bike on her shoulders - and moving at a good clip too.

And so it went. It couldn't have been too bad cause the day seemed to go by in a flash. We started to get time gaps to the lead mixed team of Ryan and Hillary. At first it was 3 min. Really? I would have thought they were 30 min up the trail by then. Then 1 min. You kidding me? Then 20 sec. Sure enough, they were in sight. All I can say is they must have been tired on day 6. We eventually moved into first and kept it trucking up the nutty 32 switchback climb above Whistler to arrive at the insanely steep billy bob (or whatever) descent. My back was seizing again and things were not flowing...but the trail did finally end in much appreciated pavement taking us to the finish.

I'm an emotional racer as things go. I've been known to get choked up on podiums, and once even for a 4th place finish, LOL. From so many angles, this was one of the hardest rides of my life. It wasn't the trail - that would have been awesome under normal circumstances. There is nothing that pushes me like a team effort. Back in high school I could run a full second faster in the 100m split in a 400m relay as opposed to a 100 m sprint. Team efforts make me tick. The thought of letting a teammate down is beyond unbearable...so I pushed with all I had that day, and together, we won that stage. I have no doubt that Lynda carried me every bit along the way, and to think about it still gets me a bit choked up.

But alas, I screwed the pooch on day 7. With a 75 min GC pad, all we had to do was finish. My memory of what happened doesn't jive with Lynda's, and since she was concious for all of it her version is prolly closer to the truth. In any case, like VN said, I fell off a bridge, hit a tree that knocked me out, then landed (a long ways down) in a heap. When I came to, I tried to keep going, but it was hopeless. I was a bit disoreinted, left foot was jacked and swelling, and Lynda was pushing my bike again on flat ground. Our race was over.

--------------------------------

The magic ingredient to a good event is good people. This becomes increasingly clear to me as time goes on...here's but a sampling of some of the faces and friends at BCBR.

Tim and Rich (ya know, Dicky pink wheel guy) rode brillianly all week. Dicky really stepped it up late in the week, Tim set a hard pace to match but it was impressive to see them building mojo. And the entertainment factor..well yea that was there in full force!

Karl and Jen rode a great race in the open mixed. They seemed to have great synergy and always had a smile.

Ryan and Hillary. Hillary races with 100% heart and only gets stronger in these long ones. Ryan was the first on the scene of my accident and settled us down a bit, taking control until the medics took me away. He gave no thought to his own race despite being in a position to win. I have mucho respect for this power couple.

Matt and Leslie were tabbed as the team to beat but there luck was about as good as ours.

Cornfish's leg after day 4.

Cornfish is tall and rides a 29er. His mojo was on the upswing BIG TIME all week. Super positive guy. You want to ride with him, trust me.

Don't know these gents name but ran into them everywhere. They were having a blast. This is the big smile produced by stage 5 singletrack.

More post stage 5 smiles. Mark and David from Breckenridge rode an awesome race. We rode with them quite a bit. Parnters in suffering, one day they pulled us, one day we pulled them...

Yep, it's the people that make an event great.

---------------------------------------

OK, this was about the hardest blog to write ever. Lots of mood swings in it cause it took about 5 tries to get it done. In the middle of the writing of this biatch, I learned that my injuries are far worse than expected. In short, my heel bone is shattered and it is one of those things that doesn't seem much at first, but is quite possibly the end of the season for me. No hard riding for 4-6 months was the last thing I heard today...other phrases included "life changing injury" and "we gotta take care of this one Dave" as if the collarbone was childs play. I'm really struggling with the reality of another long rehab right now...seems like I'm just getting going after the last one.

Sooner or later this shell shocked state will give way to bold action, but not quite yet.

BCBR quickie post

Dave — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 19:56:00 GMT

We're back and I'm alive to tell the tale. And what a tale it is...

We didn't head up there with the intention to win, but rather more of a cycling vacation. In retrospect, that was a silly notion. Lynda & I are what we are - pin a number on our bikes and the strategem is never ending. Our teamwork far surpased that of TransRockies, and the closer to start time the more aggressive our plans became. Surprise, surprise ;) It was dreamlike for the first 5 days...

Anyone reading this is prolly wondering what happened at the end...the VeloNews article only reveals the surprise ending, which is a shame cause the the previous day we did an interview with Jason Sumner. He had all the story but I guess it wasn't all newsworthy. That's the media for ya. Whatever VN.

I'll get to it in time. As I've got another round of bone healing to get done before riding again, I'll have plenty of time. Right now I just wanted to let everyone know that checks in here that all is well. Thanks for the emails!

H2O

Dave — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 12:58:00 GMT

We're all oddly shapen bags of water. Without it we perish; too much of a good thing is possible. GDR racers are struggling with the heat and aridity and it's taking a big toll on everyone out there. The most recent reports are filled with the personal drama (trauma?) of this struggle.

Sunday I did a little cruise of the Alpine Loop. As I took in the breathtaking scenery and high altitude climbs, water was everywhere. My thoughts drifted towards the past, current and future struggles of the enduro crowd out there. With a tinge of guilt I savored the cool temps and abundant H20.

The stats surprised me. It's the easiest 10k of climbing around. Maybe it's the water ;)

The route is never far from liquid gold.

It comes from the highest places...

to follow the path of least resistance.

We try to control it...

...play on it...

...span it...

...carve it.

Ahhhhhh.

Armchair GDR analysis

Dave — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:35:00 GMT

There are times when it sure is fun to *watch* a race rather than ride it. GDR is one of those. Lots of suffering going on out there - body aches and ills, broken frames, frozen freehubs, headtrippin' drama - the Great Divide Race has got it all this year.

I'm a visual guy - I need plots to get a feel for what's going on at the front of the race. So, using Scott's chart data, I generated a few charts to get a good glimpse of status for the first week of the race.

The first chart simply shows distance covered at call in times. I didn't do it for all riders...let me know if I've missed your favorite rider and I'll see what I can do. One way to look at this chart is to notice the change in horizontal distance between points. For instance, you can see that Matthew gained some time on Jay in the last round, since less time lies between the points at 950 miles than between 790 miles.

Here's the cumalitive average speed for the top 3 riders at each check in. See any trends here?

This is the money plot. It shows the average speed between call ins. Think of this as the current momentum plot.

Clearly, as far as the start goes, Matthew is shooting himself in the foot by doing the Canadian prologue. I just read yesterday he did 200+ miles in rough weather in 36 hours before the GDR start. He lined up with a big load of fatigue, so was unable to hang with Jay and Pete.

That ain't the end of the story tho. Matthew has some serious "mo" building. Mo as in momentum, and maybe mojo...his pace is generally trending upwards! Pete has had a triple whammy the past couple of days...and Jay appears to be slowing down.

Interesting stuff. Time will tell...but based on Jay's aggresiveness in the construction zone, he's still burning some high octane crack. He nailed the fast start he was looking for, in the next week we'll know if it was a good strategy. It very well could be that some of Pete's current issues were triggered or compounded by trying to stick with Jay's hot pace - and that's what he was hoping for. I've tried that strategy myself a few times but it always backfired :(

In the scheme of things, Jay's lead is pretty darn slim. Given the current trends, if I was a betting man my money would be for Matthew to pull out the W. His mo is building, he knows the route well, has finished the race multiple times...and Jay senses the hot breath on his neck.

It's gonna be a nailbiter, that's for sure!

GDR overview map

Dave — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:57:00 GMT

Is anyone not completely wrapped up in the GDR updates? I didn't think so ;)

Jay P. has really busted the start wide open, but now they've all been moving awhile it sounds like the effort is starting to really sink in. From his last call in:

Uh, JP here. It's 7:20 PM, Tuesday, and uh, I just got into Flagg Ranch. And uh, had a decent day. Things are taking shape. Waking up, and taking a long time before I can actually sit down, due to the rear end. And uh, had quite a bumpy ride on that stretch from Island Park, on the railroad bed. And uh, other than that, you know, starting to get hot. The heat's here. So... Just uh, going OK though. So I'm just clicking away. Feels good to be here in Wyoming. So, just feeling the vibes from everyone that knows I'm here. Alright, I'll check in with you next time. Thanks.

I can relate to that. He's on an Orbea hardtail so for sure his butt is taking a beating. There's no way I'd do the event on a HT but I'm soft. I don't know the history of this race that well and don't know if it has ever started this fast (for the leaders). It sure seems like JP is burning a ton of matches early on. The tough part of an aggressive start strategy is backing it down. Everytime I start hard it becomes a "go till ya blow" event.

I put together a couple of overview maps with the names of the towns from the ACA GD stage overview maps. It helps a bit when trying to get context between the reports and the actual locations of the riders.

Here's the northern half.

The southern half. KMC and GLR route included for perspective. Geez...

Rock on riders!

Late edit: Doh! Of course I should have known Scott would have a GPX available for this beast. That means we get to check out a profile too. Lot's of spikes riding this Great Divide route.

KMC photoblog

Dave — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:38:00 GMT

After seeing the pics Mark took, I guess I didn't take that many. But, here's a tiny sampling of the scenic wonders all the KMC riders were treated to.

Fred W and his "secret weapon."

The hosts. Not the best shot but it's all I have. I tried SO hard to get a shot of Meridith. She's camera shy defined.

You kiddin' me? We get to ride on the rim of the GC? The canyon was filled with echos at this point. Multiple yahoo's blending into one big woooooo.....

The tightest ribbon of singletrack anywhere, about an inch the either side of your tire (well, my 2.10 tire that is) is all you get. Slightly downhill with fat tailwind = more yahoo to woooo.

East rim views. You can see well over 100 miles. Oh my.

Taken from the same spot as the previous pic. You're in the high mountains, looking into deserts.

Same spot again, other direction. The trail surface changed constantly but was always awesome.

After the AZT we bombed off the top of the Kaibab and into a P/J zone with difficult riding, ala the Paradox. 9-10 hours in and temps in the 90's. Mandatory shade breaks started. I was soooooo happy I filled to capacity at the store up high as well as grabbing a liter of pepsi. I left the store with 260 oz of fluids, finished with 35.

This pic is heinous! These lenses were a friendly gift from MC a couple weeks ago. They also obscured the GPS. I had to remove glasses to see the GPS and consequently made a lot of navigation fubars.

The bike didn't get shade. I was getting grumpy at it about this point...

The final climb was a doosy. All the steep pitches are over 20% grade. It's also part of the great western trail, an off road vehicle route. When I first saw the GWT sign I almost cried. That meant we'd have moto's torn up surfaces up the climb. And that's how it worked out.

The climb was up through the burn area of the Warm Fire (odd name for a fire, eh?) so no shade to be had. But the wildflowers post-burn were off the hook.

Heading home I came across this scene. A ranger was blocking the road so I quized her:

DH: Is there a fire somewhere?

Ranger: No, were hauling water to a game stock tank above Vermillion Cliffs.

DH: That's odd. What did the critters do before you started hauling water for them?

Ranger: Well, before we showed up the water table was healthy and there were many springs that are now dry.

DH: hmmmmm.

A touch out of sequence, but here's the profile of the route. My 10 miles of off route stuff was removed for this - this is the exact course.

Floating in the mid-day heat, dreaming about a trip down the big ditch rounded out the experience.

Hard to imagine, but the long awaited BC Bike race is just around the corner. Lynda and I leave next week. Hope I've got some matches left!

KMC short post

Dave — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 03:07:00 GMT

Yesterday was the innaugural Kaibab Monster Cross. The most fitting term in the title is monster...

15 salty enduro vets showed up, 2 finished. The re-route added considerable mileage and difficulty, and I added 8 miles and 1000' of climbing just for good measure. The GPS only works if you use it wisely, doh! As best I can tell, the official course was 135 miles with about 16,500' climbing. It's funny that my total mileage should fall at 143 cause in the last 2-3 hours I was getting the strong impression the route was on par with KTR as far is difficulty. Except the KTR has more water availability. Flashback to the Paradox multiple times...

We were all a bit surprised, but everyone rode smart and relatively conservative as we all knew the re-route was unkown territory. Everyone had a great time, finished happy, the cameraderie was a lot of fun. Everyone camped at the same spot so we got to relive our day's adventure for a bit more before snoring became rampant. Dave and Meredith did a killer job working with the FS, made cool trophies (!), brought ribs to go with my bbq grill and cake to finish it off, yum!

Highlight of the day was an 18 mile section of the AZT with views of the east rim of the Grand Canyon. Trail conditions and views were off the charts, nicest chunck of trail I've put tire to in AZ. Put this event on your calendar for '08, it's full of scenery, wildlife, good trail, challenges, and more challenges just for good measure. One of the coolest parts of the race? Staging from our campsite and getting to know everyone after the event. Nobody opted for a lodging option (not sure there are any close?) so it was one big happy family.

It took me a bit over 12 hours, Brian aka Donkey finished a bit over 13. Everyone rode 12 hours or more so a big day for everyone. Those roads we all thought were gonna be smooth and fast, well, weren't! Roadblocks awaited some as well in the form of Mormon reinactment parties. The report I got was "a sea of humanity" as one of the Matt's was flying downhill as he came around a bend, there they were, 200 folks dressed like pioneers covering every bit of road.

Yep, we had a lot to talk about over dinner.

Random acts of thinkerin'

Dave — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:13:00 GMT

There may not be an official prizelist for GLR, but the unofficial prizes have been steadily forthcoming. Lots of intangibles like new and/or rekindled friendships...and some tangibles too. MC gave me a few lenses for my M-frames and some clothing so I could finally get outta that chammy (that's an evil thief, wherever you are may the fleas of 1000 camels...oh nevermind). Yesterday, Scott gave me a copy of TopFusion.

GPS software is something I've been using a lot lately, and I've come to the realization there is no package out there that does everything. I end up using one for route planning, one for GPS interface, yet another for performance analysis. Depending on the task, I'll use 1 of 3 for certain operations on track data.

TopoFusion is quite complex with all the built in features and the more I use it, the more I prefer it over others. One feature is track playback - you can look at where you were, in time (or distance), at what elevation, how fast, and see a little guy riding or running at that location on the map. I'm really interested in how many times I stopped and for how long in the GL, and this is the only software that makes that analysis easy.

Scott & I shared our GPS data from our respective GLRs, and it's been fun & educational to compare. Scott is apparently unaffected by sleep depravation ;)

It's fitting that I should be talking with Scott about multi-day racing. In 2005, I read his account of his individual time trial of the Arizona Trail. The pictures drew me in, but the play by play just astounded me. I had no idea anything like that was possible and the story - and Scott - seemed larger than life.

Anyone that's trained and studied for a big goal knows about the post-event "now whats?", and I've had my share. Fortunately, they've all been positive and not at all depressing. If anything, GLR taught me that anything really is possible. So I've been looking with keen interest at the GDR (incidently, this year's version is set to start in a few hours as I write this), but the lack of real mountain biking makes it a mental struggle. I am intrigued by a 2-3 week effort, but can't commit to doing it all on dirt roads. The AZT, however, is puuuuurfect. I've been emphatuated with AZ since I read about Doc Holiday when I was 10 years old, and it continues on even though I've spent many years there. Sky islands, desert, mountain and canyon, singletrack and hikes...the AZT is filling a big spot in my mind right now. Eventually it will see a race similar to GLR...but can I wait that long?

The planning has already begun.

Here's a bonus pic of the East Rim of the GC taken from Scott's AZT trip. I'm not sure where exactly it was taken from, but in the final miles of the KMC tomorrow we'll be dropping off this rim to the low areas to the east, only to climb back up. Good times await.

Kaibab Monster Cross!

Dave — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:37:00 GMT

Mr. Ionsmuse has strung together an awesome section of forest roads and singletrack in the Kaibab National Forest, adjacent to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. He's calling his legitimate child the Kabiab Monster Cross - 120 miles of dirty goodness this Saturday. It's not that far from Durango and most is new ground for me - how can I resist?

Here's what the mapping reveals:

Probably some wild inaccuracies in here so don't take is as gospel, not that you can read the details anyway ;) I come up with significantly less than expected mileage on the Rainbow Rim section of singletrack, so I may not have the entrance/exit points right. Or, maybe it really is that twisty...anyway, I get ~ 97 miles and 11k' climbing. The 120 miles is gonna be alot closer to reality though, this mapping technique always comes up short. In any case, it looks like a very fast 120 miles.

I have done the Rainbow Rim before - incredible views of the North Rim of the GC, and the only decent singletrack on the GC where bikes are allowed to my knowledge. That alone makes the trip worth it - toss in 37 miles of the Arizona Trail and a meeting of a bunch of enduro nutz in the deep forests of the Kaibab and you have a winner.

Post GLR recovery has gone better than expected - probably cause I stopped to eat and/or sleep whenever the urge struck. MC's take after reading my report: I was a Grand Loop tourist. What can I say? The best thing about not drilling myself into the ground is I get to keep on playing! Sunday I tested the legs out on 6k' climbing up the Colorado trail, all systems are go. OK, maybe the butt is still a bit tender...

If any local Durango riders are interested, give a shout out and we'll carpool it.

Chances are I'll be hauling a gas BBQ grill for the event, so bring some grillin' goodies!

Great Divide Race rider spotlight: Matt McFee

Dave — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 11:50:00 GMT

Thanks to this blog, it seems after every big event or ride I meet new folks. This may come as a surprise, but here in Durango I'm somewhat under the radar. Cycling is huge here, but so is the spirit of competition - NORBA, USCF, and collegiate type events dominate the scene. I don't know one person in the region that would be interested in most of the stuff I do on two wheels.

That all changed yesterday. I got an email from a guy offering congrats on the GLR finish and that he was about to head out for GDR in a few days - and that he lives in the neighboorhood & we should join up for some backcountry fun when he gets back (and recovers). That was a real shocker.

Meet Matt McFee.

Me: "Is there anything I can do for ya before you head out?"

Matt: "Pray?"

I can relate to that sentiment. Turns out he was going for a sendoff ride on one of his favorite loops - Hotel Draw -> Corral Draw -> Hermosa creek. He wanted to make sure he remembered what it was like to have fun on his bike, or something like that ;) I hadn't been down Corral Draw before, so jumped at the chance to ride new trails with new friends.

It was an international group. Matt's wife Katrin (left) is from Estonia, Gabby is Czech. They were both as strong as you'd expect from Euro chicks!

If we did 20 miles, Sampson did 100.

I've seen Matt's food supply, it looks like he's got enough to cover the Great Divide a few times over. One of his "secrets" is the Big Sur bar. He gave me one to try out and wow - the calories of 3 powerbars in a package not much bigger than a powerbar, and tastes like pecan pie.

Just in case you didn't click that GDR link above and don't know what it is - that would be the Great Divide Race, a mountain bike race from Canadian border in Montana (yea Rocco, the port of Rooseville of strip search infamy) to the Mexican border in Antelope Wells, NM. It follows the great divide, climbs some enormous number of feet, and has never been done in less than 16 days - that honor is held by Mike Curiak. The race, like the Grand Loop, is fully self-supported. Hard to imagine how tough this one is...and yes, I'm keenly interested...

The race starts this friday (June 15) at noon. Updates will be made via text to http://greatdividerace.blogspot.com/ and via voice to http://mtbcast.com/wordpress/.

Matt, pack lots of chammy butter and have a great race!

Big Mojo on the Grand Loop

Dave — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 13:24:00 GMT

The morning of the Grand Loop Race I was relaxing in the lobby of the GJ Super 8, enjoying some "free" raisin bran and reading the paper. I turned to the horoscope section just for fun and found this:

You will have abundant energy the next few days but it's best to pace yourself - you can't do much with a pile of ashes

Let's just say the pre-race vibes were as good as they get. I had a rare day to relax before the start. While that may drive some nutz, that's a luxury I never have, and it set a great tone and mood for the start. MC read it as overconfidence, but in truth I was oh so relaxed, content with the prep I'd done for this monster, and was downright excited to get going.

Planning

I'd ridden much of the course already. The Koko obviously has seen my tracks a few times, and 2 weeks prior I'd attempted a solo GL venture only to be turned back by snow at the beginning of the Tabeguache trail. So 2/3 of the course I'd already ridden; I'd generated routes via mapping software to be loaded to my GPS for all of it, knew the profiles and elevations well, had done my homework.

Weight and heat were big concerns. I wanted to minimize heat exposure because in late spring/early summer I'm not adapted to it yet. If there was a way to hit all the big climbs at night or early in the day...and lighter than 2 weeks ago...

Putting these concerns in my pressure cooker lead me to a plan of a fairly aggressive start with minimal food supplies, relying on the Bedrock store for resupply. Then move on to Tab creek for a short bivvy, getting some much needed rest - before making the big push to attain the Uncompaghre plateau in the darkness before the heat set it.

The other key piece of the puzzle was the Roubideau section of the Tabeguache. Difficult routefinding, difficult trail conditions - I had to be through that section before dark set in on Sunday, otherwise I knew I'd end up having a forced bivvy. Beyond that, the plan was to go until I blew. I expected routefinding and trail conditions to be much easier after Roubideau. If I could keep going to the end, great - if not, so be it. Sleepytime is good too.

As it turned out, I stuck darn close to that plan and had very few problems. The big push from Tab creek all the way to the end was a bit over enthusiastic, but I was still able to finish the loop in record time. Here's how it went.

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Planning for 3 days self-supported is new to me. I've been on one very steep learning curve since doing the first overnighter back in March. I started the GLR at least 25 lbs lighter than my first overnigher (!). It turns out you don't need slippers, a coffee press, a big coffee mug and who knows what else I was hauling. My equipment was pared down to this (not shown is my sleeping kit that attached to the bars). About 14 lbs before water but including food.

We (all 7 of us) met at the Tageguache trailhead in GJ with MC to head to the official start at the Kokopelli trailhead in Loma. At 6pm, it was fairly warm and arid, but not so much that we didn't chat like schoolgirls for the entire 20 miles. We rolled along at a nice easy pace; Stephan & I compared notes on our "secret" weapons, homebrew LED light systems that threw huge lumens but burned few watts; MC and I chatted about all sorts of stuff - he's a real "idea man" and the more time I spend with him the more I want to; Chris and I chatted about bikes, tires, prep - ya know the geeky stuff.

One gent made the haul from Washington for the race, Dave Kirk.

Dave had the most unique bike setup/gear choice. Everything was on his bike, he didn't even have a pack. That had to be comfy, at least on the rideable parts of the course.

By comparison, Chris had almost nothing on his bike.

MC ambles up the course a few minutes ahead of us so he can snap some shots of us coming through. We are left to make our own start. As we head up the first hill out of the parking lot, I move forward and hear Stephan say something like "well I'm not holding that pace" and that's the last I heard of anyone. Solo time from there on out.

As I came by MC, he said he bet Scott a pint of ice cream I'd take 6 hours off the record and wished me a good ride. Considering he held the record, I found this remarkable and a real testament to his character. It was a great sendoff, and added to my already building mojo by providing a concrete goal to shoot for. I wasn't gonna be responsible for MC losing a bet if I could help it!

Riding to Salt Creek in the daylight was a treat. I'd done this section 5 times this year, each time loaded, each time in the dark. I never really liked it that much. But in the waning light it was a hoot! It only took about 1:45 to hit the top of the hikeabike, and Plesko was close behind. He was looking quite strong. I changed into clear lenses and fired up the deisel.

Everything was flowing like butter, the desert landscape crunching under my wheels at a nice clip. I don't know if there were tailwinds, but it felt like it. A nearly full moon was casting light and shadows all over, the temp was perfect, and damn was it good to be cruising steadily. At the top of the Bitter Creek climb I looked out and saw all the riders lights close together. It let me know this was a race, not a solo TT - and the sensation made it completely different. I realized that with competition present, I was riding considerably faster than 2 weeks previous.

And so the desert section went - quickly. I had a flat spot between WW and Cisco, but the McGraw section started to wake me up and by Yellowjacket I was on fire. The turbo kicked in big time here and I knocked that bit out in 1:05. When I hit Dewey bridge the moonlight was making the white stanchions glow so bright I busted out the biggest cowboy howl I could muster. I was just overwhelmed. Riding across the bridge, somebody was camped on it. A group of sight impaired teens (as I later learned) were camped on the bridge. No wonder they were so confused as I stepped over them and informed them there would be 6 others behind me - this was a race. "Whhhaaaat?" Just past the bridge, somebody comes running my way - it was Lynda, my crack buddy who was camping there. She was on a family rafting trip and wanted to get some shots of the riders coming through. We chatted a bit, I ate a lot, a quick hug and it was off to the shandies.

I had not been looking forward to the Shandies. These steep sections of Entrada Bluffs road are super loose sand with rocks, traction is tough and when loaded it can be really draining. Not tonight. I was making good time, so did all the Shandies in the dark. The sun didn't come up until after Hideout actually. That was perfect timing for a breakfast stop - time to make coffee and have a bagel with hummous - yum! I was stoked to be here so early and was way ahead of schedule. Taking 30-40 minutes for breakfast was just fine. I learned in the solo ride that going sans coffee is suicide for my GI, so I brought lots and lots of the black gold on this trip.

All caffeinated and fed now, the climb up North Beaver mesa went quickly and I began the Paradox trail by10am or so. The goal to do the climbing before the heat of the day so far was on track.

I really love this section of riding. There's a lot of climbing to it, and it hurt me some last time. This time I was mentally prepared and and just cruised along soaking up every view the east side of the La Sals could offer - and that is many. This is a hidden wonderland...

Flowers were everywhere.

It's all gravel road - the surface at least isn't very tough.

Just before dropping to the paradox valley (named so because the Dolores river carves across it, not through it as every other river in the world does in it's canyon) Buckeye res was oh so inviting. I now regret not spending some time going for a dip here. Beauty spot.

The descent down Carpenter ridge is steep! It's a real brake burner and I felt my levers getting closer to the bars.

Headwinds in the Paradox valley, and they were pretty warm. Nonetheless, I hit Bedrock store at 2:18. I was shooting for 4, so I had some time to kill. First things first: get some ice cream, a Frappaccino, and a V8 and put it all down the hatch. That done, I considered the next move. It was in the mid 90s outside and no clouds. If I kept moving I'd be at Tab creek by 5:30 or so - then what? I don't like dry camps, and the next spot beyond tab creek with water is the far side of Glencoe Bench - 4-5 hours when feeling good from tab creek. That just was way more than I wanted to do - and I don't think I could have. It was hot. Plus, I was a bit sleepy...and there was a comfy chair in the Bedrock store...and a swamp cooler...and as it was built in the 1800's it was as if time was standing still - peaceful. I sat in that chair and had a great, cooling nap. The gal in the store didn't say a peep and I thanked her when I woke. She was completely unfazed.

Next, get the supplies to finish the route. Some of that included pop-tarts, but I didn't want the entire box, only 3 of the 4. A group of Prescott college students had drove up, on a boating trip by the looks of their gear. I asked them if they wanted the extra pop tart and one guys eyes really lit up. Sweet tooth in the group, eh? We chatted about what I was doing - they were fascinated. Then, one of them offered me an orange. I'm a real fruit bat and to my dismay there was no fresh fruit at the store - my mouth burst into watering mode. "Hell yea!" As he goes to get the orange, it dawns on me that could be construed as support - strictly against the rules of this event. This was the hardest decision I made the whole race, to tell this guy no thanks I really don't want that orange. Relating that story to MC post trip it turns out it was within the rules to accept it since it wasn't planned...oh well. Next time I'll accept!

In the meantime, it had clouded over a little. Still warm, but the ride through the Dolores canyon to the confluence of the San Miguel was quite pleasant. Intermittent shade from canyon walls made it much cooler. I was in no hurry here since I was only going to Tab creek. Once at the creek at about 7:30, I soaked my legs in the creek a bit before making dinner. The leg soak trick worked well for Lynda & I at TransRockies last year, so what the heck. It sure felt good. I was snoring solidly before the sun went down...

I hate alarm clocks and never use them. I let my body decide when it's time to get up - and it usually tells me it's time darn early. Sun at 12:14 am is precisely when that happened this time. And holy moly did I feel good - no stiffness, soreness, just ready to get chomping on a big day.

Since I was pretty tired arriving at the creek the night before, the first order of business is something I did an awful lot of - filtering water. My filter choice was based on weight more than speed. I think I got those priorities wrong. Oh well. Note the coffee is already made. Seeing a theme here?

I'm embarrassed to say how long it took between waking up and getting rolling, sometimes I just don't know where the time goes. But anyway, there were still many hours of darkness left.

This section of the Paradox is a bit of a bear. It starts out well enough, but quickly turns to one hike a bike after another - both up and down. It is not well marked either, but thanks to my GPS work and previous rides here I made short work of this difficult section. It was interesting to see how many signs there actually are, they show up so much better in the dark under lights!

The rough, sandy, nasty conditions give way to grassy meadows and ponderosa forests on Glencoe Bench, still one of my favorite sections of the Grand Loop. This was the site of breakfast/coffee # 2. Often the trail was only defined by dead dandilions.

2 weeks ago it was much wetter in all the meadows. This time conditions were much, much faster. It was a blast cruising this section this time.

Big views into the upper reaches of Tabeguache creek.

Next is the magical Aspen forests of Hauser road. The road is well graded most of the way, but does get steep towards to the top. At this point I'd been riding, oh maybe 5 hours but was feeling really good. I kept having to check myself: "back it down harris, remember the horoscope - can't do much with ashes!" It started to get really cool as I approached Divide road. Finally, I hit the top at about 10am.

After a quick spin down the Divide road, I'd hit Transfer road and quickly enter the beginning of the Tabeguache trail. This is where I was turned back by deep snow last time - only 2 weeks previous. What would it be like now? There wasn't much snow left on Divide road and that was encouraging. But the real trouble spots were north facing slopes that receive little sunlight. At least I had most of the day to work it out....

As it turns out, the snow was GONE. There were a couple of drifts to go around, and plenty of swampy areas, but it was really all rideable. I was surprised, and relieved.

This was as far as I got last time - there was no exposed dirt AT ALL. Now there is no snow. That was fast.

The singletrack was actually quite tech - lots of roots, steep in spots and demanding. Even with good conditions it wasn't very fast going, and I was beginning to feel human. Just in time, I hit the Roubideau trail proper, a fast, rocky descent of about 1000 feet on two track. This is where conditions really take a turn, and the beginning of what I figure would take a lot of time - must finish before dark.

The Uncomphagre plateau is massive. Now that I've seen it from the Divide road - a dirt road that follows it's spine - and the Tabeguache trail, it's still hard to wrap my head around just how immense this landform is. The Roubideau section drops away from the spine of the plateau and crosses 15 (!) drainages before climbing back up onto the spine. The Tab trail designer is a bit twisted methinks, and I thank him/her for the demensia. It goes something like this: rocket down some steep eroded scary ash hell trail to the bottom of a drainage, cross a creek getting your feet wet, then hike out the other side with said wet feet. A few of the ups are rideable, most are not. From canyon bottoms you have no clue where on earth you are, other than inside your cloistered forest home. In between drainages are mesa tops where the world opens up to massive views and the riding is oh so easy and pleasant.

Typical trail conditions.

The last 3 of these drainages were huge with 15-30 minute hikes out of each. This is Potter canyon, filled with marshes and small lakes, it was absolutely gorgeous. It was tough going but is there a better place on earth to be? Despite my dislike for hike a bikes, there was no complaining coming forth. The pics just don't do this spot justice. It's a real "have to be there" place.

I was a bit unsure what conditions were going to be like after the last drainage crossing. My GPS routing was telling me to turn left where there was no trail or road, and I was loathe to leave the nice track I was currently on. Unsure what to do, I sat down and pulled out some food, something I almost always did when unsure of which way to go. No coffee this time though ;) Then I looked up and saw a Tab trail marker pointing right where my GPS was telling me to go. Well I'll be. The GPS routing work saved the day once a gain. I thought about Fred who didn't have a GPS and how it was going to be so confusing for him at this spot, especially since I had overshot the turn leaving tracks in both directions.

Heading off into the grass, a trail began a 100 feet later. It was faint, slow, bumpy, and prolly my least favorite part of the whole Tab. I was ready for some fast moving roads and this was a slow boat to China. Oh well. Finally, FINALLY, this slow piece of semi-trail mostly grass led to a major dirt road. Just before the intersection there were all sorts of aspen logs tossed across the trail and no trespassing signs - and a Tab trail marker sign. Access issues on the horizon here for sure.

A short while later I came to Cottonwood road. Fast, scenic riding. Oh yea! I had made it through the Roubideau with plenty of light to spare - it was about 5pm. I celebrated the day with a 2 hour nap, dinner, and coffee. A large area of stately ponderosas and the soft pine mat underneath was too inviting to pass up.

It's just amazing how much coffee & a nap can bring me back to life. Cruising the ups and downs of Cottonwood road in the waning light was truly magical. The evening light was filtering through the fresh greeness of apsen trees. John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" was doing loops through my conciousness. I know according to most of the reports I've read of folks doing this loop I should have been deep in the pain cave right now, but honestly, euphoria was closer to my state of mind. I almost feel like I should be apologetic. Almost.

Climbing up 25 mesa the ponderosa gave way to spurce/fir as I gained ~ 1,500' towards the high point of 9,600'. It was now dark and almost spooky here - this was new terrain, the first time night riding in unfamiliar terrain this trip. A huge canyon or drop off seemed to loom off to the left and I wished I was there in time to catch that view in the daytime, but the nap was worth it.

Soon I'd be hitting the Divide road, and shortly after that stretch came the Dominguez section. It was all new to me and not knowing where the next water would be I stopped and filtered to capacity. It's a good thing I did this where I did, because there was some climbing afterwards and it was getting cold. I needed the warm up.

Divide road was fast and easy and mostly with tailwinds. It was a rush to descend at 30 mph through deep forests in the dark. Eyes were everywhere, picked up by my homebrew lights. However, it was getting cold. I stopped several times to put on more layers, and before long I was going homeless style - I was wearing everying I had.

Dropping down off the top of the Unc towards Dominguez creek, it's all downhill. And it got MUCH colder. I was beginning to have some difficulty - I couldn't see very well and was shivering. The constant descending offered no relief to the cold.

I was hoping to make it to the finish in one push through the night, but I'd been on the move for roughly 21 hours at this point and it didn't feel at all safe to continue. Time to concede and bivvy.

I was soooo cold. All chammied up, wearing everying I had with me, I crawled into my bag. As always, I put some calories down the hatch before sleeping, but not much this time. I had to get some heat going. Coyotes were howling away all around me, but that didn't keep me from drifting into deep sleep.

I didn't budge until daylight, about 5.5-6 hours later. First thing I did was check the trail for tire tracks - something I always did after bivvying. With no reports coming my way, I had no idea if anyone was close behind. I half expected to see Plesko's tracks - but there were only my own.

Damn was it cold! A water bottle had frozen, my bivvy was covered in ice. This wasn't the expected weather...and meant the extremes of this event were something like upper 20's to mid 90's. As always though, coffee and food snaps me right into action, and after sleeping for what seemed forever, I felt like a million bucks. It's time to knock this thing out. I only had 55-60 miles left to go at this point and ~ 15 hours to do it to best the record pace. Only a catastrophy was going to stop me from ensuring MCs ice cream!

Yesterday at the end of the Roubideau section I left my chain lube somewhere...luckily I had a bit of olive oil with me. It makes good chain lube, FYI!

Clipping into the pedals today was a little different than the day before. I was a bit tight and it took some time to warm up. Fortunately, Dominguez road has some great rolling climbs after crossing the creek. It is wide open sage plains, big views in all directions but the sort that a camera just doesn't catch well. Flowers were off the charts as well. It wasn't long until I was back in the groove, and since this was the last day I was raising the pace some and loving it.

Before I knew it the road was dive-bombing down to Dominguez campground. A real ripper of a descent and the scenery was turning towards red sandstone canyon country. Then it hit me - BAM! I was so choked up. This is when I knew I'd finish strong, that 3 days of hammering away was within my grasp, that I was on the final leg of the most difficult cycling journey I'd ever done. And, that I'd set a new course record in the process. But it wasn't so much these thoughts that triggered it, but the scenery, the sensory overload. Tears began to roll...just as they had done on day 7 at TransRockies last year.

Holy crap Harris, there's people at the campground, pull your shit together man! I hate it when folks interfere with a white moment...

The campground is an awesome oasis, fully equiped with vault toilets. Ah, the good life. After filtering a bunch, rolling up the road a couple hundred yards there's a pipe coming from a spring..doh! I filled another bottle just for good meaure. After a short steep climb out of the canyon, it's on to the Cactus park section.

Cactus park was a blast. There's a slightly descending road, very sandy, that you can just fly down. What a surprise that was, moving 20+ in the sand for miles. In general, the Dominguez road and Cactus park sections have a lot more descending that ascending as you go from 8900 at Divide road to ~ 5000 at Hwy 141. That isn't to say there isn't any climbing, it's still the Tab after all. But nothing too tech or demanding. Cactus park proper was very green and I was pushed by massive tailwinds coming across it. Just before the final descent to 141 is this spot:

An awesome limestone ledge with big views, much like Murphy's on the White Rim. I christen this the Murphy's of the Grand Loop :) I stopped here for 2nd breakfast which consisted of a bagel, almond butter, and cold soup. Odd combo, yes - but after the descent to 141 I was going to be hitting the 9 mile climb "no mas hill" in the heat of the day. Salty soup seemed like the thing to toss down. My options were a bit limited now anyway.

I started up 9 mile at 11:30. At under 5,000 initially, it was hot. At first it is techy singletrack, most of which I found unrideable. This was seriously bumming me out - I didn't know if it was going to be like this all the way or not - but it quickly turned into jeep track with improving conditions. As it turns out, it was mostly a middle ring affair.

This was the homestretch in my mind. Only 22 miles left! Time to drop the hammer, and that I did. I was maching up that hill. It was effortless, I felt weightless, I was grinning ear to ear. And I was sweating like a glass of icewater in the tropics. About an hour from 141 I hit the 6500' mark (the climb goes to 7200), and at the same time got the gurgling sound of an empty camelback bladder. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Things could get real ugly out here all of a sudden. I backed the pace waaay down to conserve that last bottle of water I'd grabbed from the Dominguez pipe.

Now I was a bit ticked at myself. I had totally underestimated how much water I'd need in the final stretch, and what was worse in the heat of hammering that climb I wasn't even paying attention to how fast I was drinking. Worst of all, I had to back it down. That was just not what I was in the mood for right then and there.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, I found water. Manna from heaven? When your mojo is strong, it can sometimes make up for stupid mistakes, but it's best not to count on that...anyway, I was oh so relieved. And hydrated.

The next few miles were quite technical, but more down than up and before I knew it there was my little red truck in the distance. I rolled into the Tabeguache trailhead parking lot at 3:02 PM, for an elapsed time of 2:19:47, completing the hardest, most demanding event to date. The satisfaction of completing this loop is as immense as the Uncompaghre plateau. There are only a few of us that have managed to finish this one out.

That is the end of my ride story, but it isn't the end of the experience. There's a lot more I'd like to say - in time - regarding MC's part in this ride and my continuing "education"; those that have helped me achieve this goal either through direct support or inspiration; a thing or tow about what I know of other rider's rides; and some about the state of ultra racing in general.

But it's high time I get something posted, the hits to this blog have been off the charts lately, so here ya go, thanks for reading, and here's to more adventures!

2:19:47

Dave — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 19:44:00 GMT

That's how long the Grand Loop took. Unlike most race finish times, the units are days/hours/minutes. I covered more ground in less time over much, much more difficult terrain than the solo attempt. I was racing full gas from go. It was hard, brutal, beautiful, magical, and required all my reserves. I loved every minute of it.

It's a funny thing, this ultra bag of racing. At the end of the trail there are no crowds or podium girls to shower you with kisses and flowers, just my truck with a broken window, all valuables removed. The hardest part of the entire affair was driving home after the race. After a coupla hours at Mike's place, I was feeling great so hit the road. Big mistake. 20 min later I was asleep at the wheel and had to go right back into ultra race mode - nap when you have to, give'r gas when you can. I didn't get home until sunrise today....and driving the passes without a drivers side window in the night when the bad guys have removed your clothing for you isn't that fun either.

There seemed no end to magic moments in this venture and over the next few days I'll think of how best to put them into words and pictures. For now though, I gotta get my feet back up the wall...it's time for some serious kankle reduction work.

Grand Loop do-over

Dave — Thu, 31 May 2007 17:37:00 GMT

Second chances are a wonderful thing since I rarely get anything right the first go-round. Usually though, I have to wait awhile for round two. Not this time. Just 2 weeks after the solo Grand Loop attempt (where I got stuffed by too much snow), I'll be lining up at the start of the official event in Grand Junction Friday 6pm.

Two weeks after a big effort seems to be just about perfect timing for me...I didn't plan it this way but hey, I'll take it! I also have the benefit of learning a lot of stuff in the first try and as a result will be 11-12 lbs lighter overall. This only equates to a 5% increase in w/kg for total weight at typical enduro climbing power, but I'll take it. Every bit helps on a route with 340 miles of difficult terrain and 40,000'+ of climbing.

It is different this time - I'm a bit more nervous, anticipation is thicker. Maybe cause I have expecations for myself this time. One thing that hasn't changed is how much I look forward to uninterupted riding and time under the big blue sky. Is GDR in my future? Then what? Well for now GLR is aplenty.

It's been relatively cool and it even snowed above 8k since my solo ride...so that snowy section will still be a challenge. Should be interesting.

The new camera is making the journey with me, look for a colorful update early next week.

Fellow Grand Looper Mr Plesko on Carpenter Ridge. Chris, we won't feel quite so fresh this time at this spot...

Until then, check out Fox's blog for some Utah racer personality interviews, Adam's ideas for another multi-day route...

Keep ridin' and smilin.'

Specificity

Dave — Sun, 27 May 2007 13:46:00 GMT

With the GLR start fast approaching (uh, as in Friday - didn't I just do this thing?) I figured I'd head out and do some specific training. Lots of time in the saddle has been my approach, rather than higher intensity efforts. Seeing how I rode 35+ hours last weekend I wasn't sure what the legs would have in store - I'm so treading new ground here - but my overriding assumption for this go-round is that being too fresh is worse than being too tired.

The chosen route was Jones Creek to Flag-Pinkerton and the return leg via the Hermosa trail. Durango is just off the bottom of the map for reference...

Like most good rides in Durango, the profile is an inverted "V" shape. Accumulated climb is ~ 8k.

Lucky for you I just got a new camera. No more of this nonesense of a dead camera on big rides. When I told MC my camera died on the GL last weekend his immediate response was "well then you have to do the race!"

You never know who you'll run into on the trail.

Conditions were wet but rideable. Slow going...and of course I loaded my pack with miscellaneous items to make sure a 20 lb pack feels ok next week.

Flag-Pinkerton follows the top of the ridge between highway 550 and the La Platas. Good views in all directions. Trail conditions are another story. A motohead came through right after all the recent rains and tore the trail to shreds. Jerk.

How bizarre to see this 1/2 mile long fence up here.

At about 10,300 things started to get interesting...

Note to self: hitting deep drifts hard is ill-advised.

Lots and lots of postholing for the next several hours. What should have taken an hour took 4. It's funny how my perception has changed though, a year ago I'd have turned back after 10 min of postholing. Now it's just part of the experience.

In the midst of the postholing session it started snowing. I'm trying to understand why I have a useless 20 lbs of weight on my back but no good wet weather gear. Right when it's beginning to feel epic, I see that I'm not alone.

But alas, the postholing training came to an end and I was treated to the Hermosa creek trail for a fast, mostly downhill 20 miles of killer singletrack. New obstacles on the trail!

My favorite filter spot.

Not bad, eh?

Awesome day on the trail. Now, what do y'all think the Tab will look like next week? We are gonna get so wet up there...

Ergon Grip Setup

Dave — Thu, 24 May 2007 12:37:00 GMT

And now we'll take a break from the GLR obsession for a word from our sponsors...

Ergon is a German company putting some R&D into all things ergonomic for bicycles. Grips, gloves, packs, saddles, suspension posts are just a few of the items in the works. They have several styles of grips currently available and with their growing popularity, I figured I'd share some of what I've learned on how to set them up.

I first used the grips at TransRockies last year. For sure, I carried a set of normal grips on the trip in the event I hated the Ergons...but that was not the case. The Ergons wiped out some forearm numbness issues I'd been having since the 24 hours of Steamboat. This year I learned the setup is not bulletproof. For one, the instructions are written in english by non-native english speaking folks, so seem pretty cryptic to me. This led to trial and error - and at 24 hours in the Old Pueblo this year I had them set up wrong and had numb hands for quite some time.

This is a snippet of an email I sent to a fellow enduro nut interested in the grips. The first sentence is about how not to put them on upside down (hi Nat). The rest is all about the angle.

Edit: Google's picassa changed the links so the pics aren't coming up right...

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Just look at one of the million pics of ergons on Jeff's site and you'll see how to put them on - it's obvious. What is less obvious is getting the angle just right. It really depends on your riding style - do you keep your arms locked at the elbow or bent at the elbow with forearms close to parallel to the ground? Something in between? Based on the answer here, the grips may be pointed upwards or flat. See if you can spot a pic of Adam's (http://epicriding.blogspot.com) setup vs. my setup and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Here's a pic of Adam's setup. Not very good...but look where the grip is. He rides with locked arms. http://picasaweb.google.com/adamlisonbee/2WheeledPhotos/photo#5046832636629728642

Here's a pic of my setup. I ride with bent arms. http://picasaweb.google.com/hairball.dh/GLRPrep/photo#5058969510468091826 Again, not a great grip pic, but note the angle between the grip and barend is about 180 where on adams it's more like 100*.

Grand Exposure

Dave — Mon, 21 May 2007 15:13:00 GMT

There could have been no better way to begin a Grand Loop solo TT than to stage from Mike Curiaks home. He's a machine both on and off the bike - the way he was putting wheels together as we talked exuded the sort of expertise you want from the person building the most important part of your bike. I haven't spent a lot of time talking to him and have usually had the impression his hard earned lessons in endurance racing were closely guarded from a competitive stantpoint. Such is not the case - he understands that the most valued lessons learned are those learned through trial, error, and pain. Those are things you won't forget, and things you will cherish. To freely hand those out is to cheat the new ultra rider out of a good part of the experience.

As we chatted and my understanding of his motivations became clearer, more pieces of this ultra puzzle were clicking into place. As I write this goose bumps are coming up because I realize in retrospect the time with MC for a coupla hours had a large impact on the outcome, the decisions I made, in this GL TT...

As we roll out to Loma on pavement, we chatted about a lot of things and at times I was in stitches. Mike is a cunning rider; you don't set long distance records by luck or chance and some of his strategies had me getting an early ab workout. Rolling into the Kokopelli TH at Loma we met Pete Basinger who I had not met before.

The more multi day ultra riders I meet, the more I'm convinced it's a big boy's game - literally. Pete, Mike, Scott M., Stephan - all are considerably bigger than my 140ish lbs. The reason is simple - there's a fixed amount of gear required to get these done, and the larger the rider the less the percentage of body weight of the gear. No matter what my w/kg is, it changes drastically when considering my beginning gear weight was ~ 1/2 of my bodyweight. Rather significant when a route entails some 40k+ feet of climbing, eh?

Just before sunset I head off down the Kokopelli trail, alone in my thoughts for the next 3 days. This was a great feeling. I was on the Yeti, recently tuned to perfection by Andy at Desert Cyclery in StG. In addition, I'd asked him to get as many water bottle mounts on it as possible and it came back with 6!!! This is 5 more than the bike has mounts for. Impressive work my man. This was great. It meant I didn't need to use my pack bladder at all, and therefore didn't need the rear OMM rack to haul extra food/gear.

Before I knew it, I was at the top of the hike out from Salt Creek. MP3 on, I was ripping along in a moonless night under the power of 500 lumens of my custom lights. Rabbits and mice were everywhere. Now there are a few less. As many times as I'd ridden this trail in the past year you'd think I could follow it blindfolded - but I was in such a great groove with the tunes and vibes of riding through the night that just past Rabbit Valley I made a left down to the river instead of heading upwards towards Westwater. I almost made it to the river before I figured it out. DUH. An hour later I was back at the missed turn, slightly aggravated with my error - and hugely aware that this wasn't a "paint by numbers" endeavor and I better wake up and start paying attention.

The rest of the night was heaven. There is a lot of flow in the desert section of the Koko and I enjoyed every bit of it. Next up were the shandy climbs of the Entrada bluffs road beyond Dewey. The last time I rode these loaded I ended up walking a couple of times to relieve the grind...but conditions were great, it was still dark & cool and they seemed much easier this time. At the top of the second one I stopped to enjoy the sunrise unfold over the Uncompaghre plateau. That looming monster was to be the challenge of tomorrow...

I really dislike missing sleep, and that's one of the bigger challenges of multi-day racing (for me) and of the timing of this route in particular as it starts when I usually fall asleep. To my advantage though, I can take a quick catnap at the drop of a hat and rise refreshed. The periodic napping began somewhere after Rose Garden Hill...

Working my way up N. Beaver Mesa I was astounded by the flowers. The building billowy cumulus clouds, blue sky, greeness spring was really accentuating the bloom.

Shortly thereafter the route leaves the KT behind and follows the Paradox trail through the La Sals until it bombs down Carpenter Ridge to Bedrock, CO. This section, although non-technical, is above 8,000' and never flat. It wore me down some to say the least, but I was bouyed by new scenery...and even saw a big brown bear running down the road. It was suddenly there no more than 30 feet in front of me, running from me, and I had no idea where it came from. It must be naptime again ;)

I really enjoyed this new region and I'll be back in a non-race setting sometime...sadly, this is the last picture my camera took the whole time. The next time I went to snap a shot it was dead as a dodo.

A while later I'm pushing throug a decent size storm, getting really muddy and the roads turned to muck. It was slow going for a couple of hours. Finally, getting near Buckeye it was drying out and getting fast, just in time to descend to Bedrock. By then I was tired. I'd hoped to make it to Tabaguache creek tonight, but Bedrock would have to suffice. I phoned Mike with my progress and was slightly dissapointed to get his answering machine. In retrospect, it was prolly a blessing in disguise as he could have easily played on my weakened mental state ;)

160 miles done, I made a little nest in the sand and slept like a baby. A few hours later I awoke to sky sparkling with stars and the rare sound of a live, running Dolores river. Suddenly I was ALIVE. Oh man that was a fine time. I slammed some breakfast, packed up, and started off in the dark. The river canyons were lively as both the Dolores and San Miguel were running high. Lots of class II stuff to listen to as I rode by. Next up was the Spring creek mesa climb which was relatively uneventful. Cows early on made for some poop dodging as I had a water bottle in the crud catcher position.

Arriving at Tab creek it was time for some calories to go down the hatch while filtering enough water for the most challenging section of the Paradox, Tab Creek to Hauser road. Having pre-ridden it with CP and DN, I knew what was coming, at least to Pinto Mesa. It got fairly hot here and I did stop under a tree once or twice, but still made good time. Arriving at the top of Pinto Mesa a very light shower blew over to provide my own personal misty cooling system - manna from heaven. Actually, it was from the Uncompahgre plateau, that great weather cooker. Each day I'd see clouds form over the top of this beast of a landform.

Then something special happened. Glencoe Bench. This is the section north of Pinto mesa, and for me, this was terra incognita, beyond where our pre-ride had taken us. The vegetation, the views, it all changed in a heartbeat from p/j high desert to ponderosa, aspen, marshy ponds, and so green it made your eyes hurt. Enormous views down into Tabaguache creek, it was overwhelming, and to be in new country after so much effort (my GPS was telling me I'd climbed well over 20K feet by now...) was priceless. It made me re-think the concept of pre-riding courses for this type of event...made me consider why anyone would do these events. Is it for the result? Experience? Escapism? Just to ride unfettered? I don't have all the answers, but one I do have is this: I don't do it for the results, and that is the best argument for pre-riding routes. Pushing hard through unknown territory forces one into a heightened awareness of ones own existence - survival - and pre-riding demystifies this. I like mystery. Hmmmmmmmm........

Hauser road. Upward and onward. Soon I reached to Divide road at nearly 10,000' and was somwhat alarmed by the quantity of snow still remaining. It was a dry, warm March that had snowpack much reduced from normal levels and I had guessed it would be OK by now, but now I wasn't certain. A few miles later, heading up the powerlines everything was dry and snow free. Where the tab singletrack heads into the woods, it was not so dry and I was dodging snowbanks and fallen trees, but the going wasn't too bad.

I was hoping to make some good progress on the Rubidau section before a short bivvy, but man this was looking grim. Then it got worse. postholing through crotch deep drifts, dragging a loaded rig, is just a lot harder than riding a bike. And I was moving inches per hour, not miles...after a few hours of this it was clear I wasn't going to get through this section before sunset. There was no way I'd make it through here in the dark, if at all.

Decision time: should I bail down transfer road and call it quits, and if so, then what? Should I skirt the singletrack section via Divide road? Should I cry for mamma?

Truth be told, I was damn tired and didn't trust my decision making ability in this situation. So, I backtracked out of the snowy area to find dry ground, built a white man's fire and made dinner. Slept like a baby again, and since there was no need to start before daylight had lots of time to sleep too. I'd hit the snow puzzle in the am with a fresh pair of eyes.

It froze up there overnight, so the snow was crusted. I could make easier progress without postholing. But eventually the trail sidehills on a steeply sidehill slope in deep, dark timber. This was my undoing - there was not a patch of ground to be seen, it was all 5-10 feet of snow and trees. Trail? What trail? It was winter. I tried to guess where the trail would go and followed that route for a few hours, but realized I had gone about 1/2 mile in 3 hours - doing the math, it was going to take another week to finish this 7 mile section. Stick a fork in this GL attempt. Game over, film at 11.

Getting out of there proved no easy task. The sun was up, the air warming, the snow's crust softening. Where I was able to walk on the crust earlier, I was now postholing again, but I was much farther in than yesterday. To complicate things, coming in I didn't make lasting tracks and navigation in those dark woods is rather disorienting to say the least. The GPS saved my bacon in this area as I was able to follow my track out of there.

6 hard hours later, I was back to the Divide road. I started pedalling...soon thereafter I came to the road that shoots down to the Roubideau trail - and it looked rideable. Soupy, but totally doable. Yet another decision to be made. Do I head down this road, pick up the tab and do the remainder of the route? I had been salivating over the idea of doing this trail for a long time. It started last summer, and really heightened when laid up this winter. Mapping it out intensified it further. Yet, I was now a DNF for the GL, which could mean only one thing: I would be back. To ride the tab would be in essence to pre-ride the tab, and I would cheat myself out of the intense experience back on Glencoe. I held a straight line, sticking to the Divide road, and never looked back.

The Divide road did not dissapoint and affording sweeping views of at least half the planet. At one overlook, you could look down on Glencoe bench and the route up to Pinto Mesa. That in itself was a real sense of accomplishment. Funny, I felt probably better this day than all the previous two, and tapped out the ~100 miles back to GJ in no time. I got to see the Uncompahgre plateau from the top; it's deep dark timber in the south, giving way to aspen and open meadows in the north, and eye popping canyons descending to the Gunnison river drainage. Deer, elk, bear, porcupines, a blind rodent crawling in my bag, wild turkeys are just a few of the wildlife encounters. After it's all said and done, I covered 345 miles in under 3 days time and was flooded by many emotions, thoughts, experiences.

Of the entire experience, my favorite part? By far, that left undone.

See you June 1.

Dreaming with open eyes

Dave — Wed, 16 May 2007 10:50:00 GMT

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure." - Helen Keller

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It's game time. All the planning, training, anticipation have culminated in this moment. Today I begin a solo time trial of the Grand Loop.

As you can tell lately, this isn't something I'm taking lightly. This route has nearly destroyed tougher men than I.

For perspective in the profile below, the Kokopelli trail/Paradox (gateway rd) intersection is at mile 102. It's actually about 113 to this point...my mapping produces shorter than actual mileages. Lots of time in the desert, lots of time in the alpine. The last 150 miles I know only by the maps...it is intimidating. High elevation, uber tough trail conditions (by reports), abundant wildlife, as remote as any spot in the lower 48. I am fascinated by this stretch...

Some comforting words came my way yesterday.

- Mike Curiak (who established this race) upon learning of my plan: "sheeeeit, glad it's you and not me..."
- Sager: "it's an interesting place you guys go." He ain't talking geography either.

But I can take comfort in knowing it has been done before. Mostly I'm just thrilled to have the health and fitness to contemplate such a ride. It will be a great learning experience. New limits will surely be found, and with luck, extended.

The schedule: I'll leave GJ this evening about 6:30 pm, which should have me starting the KT about 8pm. Just enough light to get through some techy bits. I'll call Mike from Bedrock, CO and he may post updates to MTBR in this thread, or he may make a new one. Not sure...

To all those doing KTR, good luck, play fair, and I'll (eventually) miss y'all, but I'll be deep in my own cocoon during your race. If the plan pans out I'll be at the Virginian hotel in Moab Sun am, prolly dead as a dodo but willing go out for b-fast and swap stories. Hope to see some of y'all there.

March of the Pigs

Dave — Thu, 10 May 2007 18:50:00 GMT

Quest of the obsessed might say it better.

Time for some geek talk, it's been awhile since I mentioned stuff like TSS, the training manager and the like.

So what does one do when GLR is in the plan but fitness is at rock-bottom post surgery? Time for some planning, that's what! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that an event like the Grand Loop requires massive endurance, a functional gut, solid technical skills...and about 20 other things I could mention. To nail the first (and to an extent the second) the training manager, as usual, comes to the rescue. Knowing a bit about the demands of ultra events, how I respond at certain CTL/ATL levels, it's possible to map out a plan projecting TSS forwards. I do this in a spreadsheet of course. It's turned out to be darn close in reality to what I had mapped out back in the winter when I had all those long hours of no riding to fill my days. Here's the pic, click for bigger.

This is one serious build, even by my standards. Coming from a CTL of 57 in Dec to 150 last weekend - that's a march of the pigs :) Note the occasional big spikes - that's characteristic of ultra cyclists. Days of 500+ TSS will do that to your CTL curve. Even so, the upward trend is more or less constant over the long haul. Those really big spikes tend to incur some hefty recovery penalties. In some regards, this makes ultra cycing ideal for the working rider who has lots of time on the weekends but not so much on the weekdays - I couldn't train like that all week long every week or I'd be toast.

This is a bit of an experiment. I've never done an event anything like GLR - the closest would be a 24 hour event. GLR is more like 2 24s and a hundy strung back to back. I estimate TSS to be about 2300 for the event - that's more than 7 days of full-tilt racing last summer in TransRockies. But with this tool I have confidence that endurance is right up there at or close to PB levels as I'm about as high CTL-wise as I got last year. The difference this time around is I never got smoked in the process, and that's a good thing.

Last week saw very little training, so TSB shot upwards in a hurry (5 day ATL TC). Starting this week at +54 TSB, there's room for a 1000 TSS week while staying positive TSB the entrire time. How about that for a "taper" week?

So there are all my training ideas in a picture. Make sense?

10k Foray, part I

Dave — Thu, 10 May 2007 00:51:00 GMT

The hills are opening up quickly. Despite the cool moist weather the past few weeks, it's dry to the top of Jones creek trail now. It's a bit moist over 9k, but I only had to go around one small snowbank.

Here's what it looks like at 9600'.

Even the NW facing wet slopes were free of snow.

Why blog this? Well for one, I feel darn lucky every year this time to have this sort of terrain an hours ride from my front door. But most importantly, this spot is about 60 miles as the crow flies from the higher elevations of the Grand Loop - and within 300' of the highest elevations as well.

Given that the long range weather forecast has nuthing but sun and more sun + rising temps, a May 19th Grand Loop expedition is ON. Of course, I'll go check out the high points of the Tab this weekend just to make sure ;)

It's climbing season!

The Grand F'ing Loop

Dave — Tue, 08 May 2007 16:05:00 GMT

There is this event that has been looming large for me for quite some time. My training, equipment & nutrition so far this year has been focused on this single goal. The event is the Grand Loop. The scheduled race date is June 1, but since it is technically a time trial event can be done at any time. I have chosen to do it ahead of the official race date. Snowpack is low this year and that's the main reason the race is scheduled as late as it is.

I'll be posting a few bits and pieces about the event prior to my departure. The whats, the whys, the hows, the wheres. The intent is not so much to inform those interested in the event, but rather to shed some light on this obscure event and genre of racing for those not familiar with it.

I'll start with this. Jefe, aka wookieone on MTBR was the second finisher last year. When asked why, here's what he had to say:

Yeah it haunts me, I can flash back with ease. Suddenly i feel that deperate panic pounding with adrenaline, that cooked beyond recogintion totally used up feeling. Oh my, i was about 24 hours in when Scott and I hit Fischer creek in the La Sals, and i swear at the time i was never going to do this again, never, my mind and body was in revolt, " you foolish dupe!" And to be honest the first 24 were the easiest part. Not to discourage anyone from an attempt, but imagine this, a 24 hour race, a 100 mile race and then another 24 hour race, back to back, little sleep, horrible trail conditions, and carrying everything on your back and bike. No one to clap and encourage you on, keep you company, make you food, fill your camelback. It was one of those experiences that i will never be able to forget, trully life changing, yet it still hurts a bit deep down.

The pink can't even soften those words...yet the anticipation, the draw, is huge.

ch-ch-changes

Dave — Mon, 07 May 2007 23:37:00 GMT

The past 7 days have been "interesting." I've suddenly achieved race weight; I moved across town and now live next to Bread - yep, that Bread; winter returned. Not exactly a blog-worthy lifestyle, but it has been trying to say the least. I hate snow and moving, I love eating. The universe has been out of order for a week, but I do sense my zen space returning.

The weather is looking like it's gonna turn summerish, my GI tract is back to normal, and the move is complete.

Moving...it's been awhile. Moving is a shocking experience. How much crap do we really need? Being ruled by possesions is in direct conflict with my need for the simple life. Moving has been a big whack across the face. About half of my life is now sitting at the bottom of the La Plata county landfill. Fox had it right trying to sell his life...

But, the new location kicks ass. It's all good.

In the meantime I've been living vicariously through the efforts of others. Anthony, Jesse, Greg Lewis, Michael Carrol, Mitch, Gaige, Marisa - they all rocked Gila the past week. Jesse gave it stick day 5, coming close to an upset stage win, but alas he's a mountain biker. Greg was solid all week and had a great final day to finish 3rd GC in the 3s. How about Michael winning the Inner loop stage? And how about Marisa winning the pro women day 5???!

And Colby. Jesus man, nice riding.

On the other side of the pond, Rob is back in action picking up a win in a 12 hour race. In the UK they like to start 12 hour races at 8PM. Truly nutz over there. Looks like Gav took the mixed field - who's your partner?

Francis just set a lifetime PB (I think he's over 40 now?? Francis?) and a course record in a 40k TT. How cool is that.

The Payson 24 hour race that I bailed on was this past weekend. Despite being on USA Cycling's Ultra calendar, it drew few top riders - Nat and Tinker, and local Chuck Wheeler whom I remember from OP had a good ride too.

So now it's time to think about bikes again. KTR is right around the corner, GLR shortly after that. I've been planning to do the Grand Loop on the KTR weekend, but I really don't think ma nature has been aware of my plans - looks like there may be too much snow left for that. So, I could end up doing KTR, Grand Loop the following weekend - or back to square one and doing them all at the scheduled race times?

I'm not a big fan of loose ends. I'll make the call soon.

Colby the rock star

Dave — Fri, 04 May 2007 12:28:00 GMT

It's been really great to see the recent successes of Anthony Colby. He has had more than his fair share of hurdles to overcome on his way to good health and peak fitness, but he's doing it remarkably well.

Back in March we rode together some and at one point when he turned on the power up a climb, I watched in amazement as he blazed away while my power tap was telling me mid 300's - and a few minutes later he accelerated even more. I knew right then I was witnessing something special. That was the week before the Tour of California.

Then, in the Tour of Georgia, I whined about the peleton's laziness in allowing a 29 min gap to a break, negating further efforts in the race. Just on queue, Colby kicked ass on the Brasstown Bald stage, leaving his daylong breakaway companions to finish 3rd behind Levi and Tom. That'll teach me not to whine!

Marching on, Colby pushed on to a 5th place finish yesterday in stage 2 of the Gila. This is no ordinary field this year. There aren't major conflicting NRC races right now, so all the big teams are represented. It's like a Georgia or ToC field.

Keep killin' it bro!

How to lose 6 lbs

Dave — Tue, 01 May 2007 14:05:00 GMT

Believe it or not, the past year or so I've been having trouble with ride nutrition beyond the 8 hour point. Just like clockwork, at 8 hours the acid gut would show it's ugly face. There were some good nutrition threads over on MTBR that led to links for various nutrition products, one of which is Succeed. I've used their electroyte tabs in the past but didn't know they made drink mixes. They have a good article on nasuea here.

So I ordered some Amino and Clip2. The former has aminos added, the latter has complete whey and a touch of MCTs (an easily digested fat source). Suddenly, I have zero gut issues! This is huge...it also meant I was eating at an alarming rate last weekend. My calorie plan for the weekend was 3000 cal + 32 * 350, where 32 was my expected ride time for the double KT and 350 was the number of calories per hour (if you are wondering, yes 14,200 calories is heavy). As it turned out, I rode about 23 hours, not 32 - and I didn't finish with very many calories left over. What a pig!

What does this have to do with losing 6 lbs? Nothing really ;) I just wanted to mention the succeed drinks cause they work so darn well. Along with the drinks, I could throw most anything down the hatch without any trouble - pizza, dried fruit, pizza... The 6 lb weight loss happened after eating fast food on the drive home, getting food poisoning, and being thoroughly cleaned out and unable to eat much for 2 days. Despite how much I was eating out on the trail, I was burning a lot more and always end up with a calorie deficit following big weekends. I tend to make that difference up on Mon/Tues, but that didn't happen this time.

It's not my first choice of getting down to race weight, but hey, whatever, I'll take it.

Scenic lessons

Dave — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:38:00 GMT

How many views can one take in inside of 36 hours?

It became obvious early in the ride that this wasn't to be a KT double. A few mechanicals, 2 hours of sleep prior to start, tool escapes...all the same, I did ride roughly 250 miles roaming the KT and parts nearby. It was an incredible experience.

For one, I've never done a ride quite like this - 11 hours at a fast clip 2 days in a row. Add the overnight gear and it gets real interesting. Add the first warm weekend of the year and it gets even more interesting.

The lessons kept coming. Like, water. Traveling long distances in desert country when warm, you really have to be on top of your hydration, current water amount on board, and time to the next water hole. This, more than any other element, dictates pace and planning in this sort of ride. I felt myself getting in harmony with this triad at some point on day 2 and it was very cool indeed.

And, that shandy hill is a real bitch with 7 hours in the legs. KTR/GLR is gonna be a hoot!

Bonus points if you can figure out what you're looking at here.

Sabotage

Dave — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:29:00 GMT

Right when you think you have a good plan.........

So. I've been trying to figure out how to make this weekend happen to my liking, but no matter how I slice it the road ride from Moab to Fruita on an MTB w/knobbies is so unnatractive. Then crackhead Lynda this am was bubbling with inspiration: why not do an out and back of the Koko?

Well, why not? There are good reasons to do it:

- shakedown for GLR
- the weekend is clear
- it appeals to the manic in me
- weather looks great, albeit a bit warm
- if things go awry, bailouts abound

The challenges:

- there are zero restocking options on the route
- is it reasonable to think one can do ~ 4300 TSS in 16 days and come out of that stronger, not wasted???
- I don't think I could (or really want to) do it without a sleep break. More gear required = slower climbing.
- The Yeti is in St George getting gussied up, it'll have to be on the Fuel.

Sure seems like a great idea to me. Intimidating, and I've been cheated out of the anticipation...but not the journey.

Thanks so much Lynda. I think ;)

A tale of 3 races

Dave — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:28:00 GMT

More and more I am becoming aware of a paradigm shift in my athletic inclinations. For example, the Kokopelli Trail Race. I did it twice last year, first, second. Very different rides. The first was a mass start event with 56 starters, the second was a solo training mission.

The mass start event was a blast. Starting at midnight under a full moon was unforgetable, no doubt. The vibe on the start line was thick as pea soup.

The solo mish was, without a doubt, my favorite 1 day ride last year. Now why would that be I ask myself...

I could go on and on about this paradox. Mass start events usually come with a goal of victory, and to be honest, I have no desire to "beat" others. I absolutely enjoy riding near my limits on a regular basis (duh) but don't relish the thought that doing so might diminish others enjoyment of their efforts. I say this because when I am unsuccessfully chasing in an event, I usually find my limits before expected because sensations are muted in this instance. I don't know I'm pushing as hard as I am until it's too late. And that isn't very fun.

If you've raced with me, this might sound like horseshit. In the heat of battle, I am very focused, level headed, and will do all in my power to chase you down or leave you choking on my dust. That's the rule of the game. The shift is that my enjoyment of this game is waning. More often than not, I find myself preferring to smell the roses.

Back to that solo mish: now that's the sort of thing that turns my crank. Why? Because its me and the course and it's as simple as that. It's pure. The only external influence on my actions is the wind, sun, trail. To me, this is the essence of athleticism - or dare I say the human experience.

The 3rd race would be team events. In TransRockies last year I discovered a new type of racing, one requiring teamwork, synergy, and focus towards a common goal. That is entirely different because with the right partner you will help each other reach new levels of performance. Maybe that is the human experience.

In any case, as I look at my early season racing schedule there are some things that don't quite gel. For one, the Payson race. It's hard to get excited for lap races these days (thanks a lot Curiak) in general, but when I learned it was staged in a county fairgrounds (read: animal manure and flies) and there is no singletrack - life is just too short to spend doing that sort of event, and I can't bring myself to ask a support crew to hang out in the fairgrounds for 36 hours swatting flies. So, about 2 weeks after registering for it, it's off the plan. That leaves a big hole, cause I have been building fitness for the event. I'm shaking things up a bit like this:

This weekend I'll do a solo KTR mish. So far no shuttle plans so I may park in Moab Sat, ride to Fruita via pavement, sleep a few hours in a hotel then blast away. That will push the 16 day TSS total to ~ 3500, not a bad 2 week binge total if you ask me. From there its a taper and sharpen period to the weekend of the scheduled KTR. Depending on conditions, I will either do the GLR route or KTR that weekend. I'd prefer to do the GLR route, but if the Unc is still snowy then I'll chase moonbeams & rabbits with y'all.

For certain, I will put everything I have into solo 24 hour worlds this year. Time will tell whether or not it is a one-off event. What really gets me excited for '07 is a solo GLR attempt and BC Bike Race.

Kudos (or condolences) if you've made it this far. These are some concepts that have been rattling between my ears for awhile. Hope it came out right, but I doubt it...

She's back!

Dave — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 21:01:00 GMT

Remember this gal?

That's right, Lynda is back in action, and as far as I can tell she's as strong as ever - and oh so appreciative to be outside riding big climbs and taking in big views once again. Having something taken away from you for awhile makes it all the sweeter on it's return.

It was the perfect weekend. Sat was a solo White Rim mission. I hadn't done the WR in the spring before, wow was I ever missing out. It's green! Flowers were in full force, the sand of January was gone, packed firm by the hordes of tour support vehicles and recent moisture. Easy crusing in comparision - except for the wind.

Sunday I teamed up with Lynda and Dave Byers to check out the Kokopelli trail from Dewey Bridge to Moab. Adam and EdE had just done it the day before, and we met them Sat afternoon after they finished their ride and shuttle. The ride is considerably more epic in this direction. Except for the last major climb, the elevation gained is on sandy, rocky terrain as opposed to pavement/hardpack coming from Moab. The climb from Cows Head Hill to Beaver Mesa is long but generally not steep and was really my favorite part of the day. The views just keep coming at you and before you know it you're up in the pines.

Here's Dave on that climb overlooking Fisher Valley and Top of the World.

Weather - we got it all. Sun, rain, snow, wind - it is definitely springtime! But, there is no snow to speak of at 8500' in the La Sals. When we got to the Paradox trail junction I felt a strong pull and started heading in the wrong direction...

About 14 hours of riding this weekend, every second of it heavenly.

Georgia Lemons

Dave — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 23:21:00 GMT

Allright, who drugged that sluggish peleton in Georgia today? With the main group coming in 29 minutes after the leaders of a 13 man break, the race just lost all of it's suspense. I'm pissed. No matter how well my secret heros like Colby, Donald and others do, their efforts are going to be washed away by todays bizarre result.

Speculation: the Discos were supposed to be rallying around Tom, right? All I can think is that Tom wasn't feeling as snappy as he had hoped and with Brajkovic up the road they blocked instead of chased. So much for Tom's '07 Georgia peach. Or...maybe this was the plan all along and all eyes were on Tom so the group didn't feel threatened by Brajkovic? Yea...right. That kid's a ripper, if he doesn't take the spoils I'll be surprised.

OK, so this is supposed to be a MTBers blog...but that rant just had to get release. Today I got a solid climbing workout doing Jones Creek laps. Yep, that's right - Jones is mostly dry to about 9k'. I laid the first tire tracks of the season up there today. The trail is showing some wear from the fall rains in spots, and a couple of downed trees, but otherwise she's good to go to the waterfall. Couple weeks and it should be clear to the top.

This weekend it's a desert double: White rim on Saturday, followed by Dewey to Moab on Sunday. Should be fun, haven't been to the White rim since it really was white back in January.

On cracks & craters

Dave — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 23:04:00 GMT

Caller ID strikes again. I just called Andy at Desert Cyclery and the first thing to come over the other end was "Speak of the devil, destroyer of drivetrains!" What's really funny? He hadn't read the Dawn til Dusk report yet. He did say it was time to send the Yeti to him for some lovin...he could sense it's pain. So the Yeti gets some new parts, shocks, wheels and who knows what else. Andy and Kong at Desert Cyclery are the real deal - if you are in need of anything bike related in St George, ya gotta check 'em out.

Each year, early in the season, there is some event where I push it really hard - too hard too soon for the distance - and have one helluva crack. It seems to be an integral part of my training. I can't claim the crack is planned, but they are very productive. Dawn til Dusk served as the '07 spring crack, and it was a good one. The day after I felt as though I'd done a 24 hour, not a 12 hour. But I'm happy to report things have come back to normal very quick.

Today was a nice steady climb to 9,000' - no snow up there, even though a foot or so fell up there last week. Ya been next to a stunt kite doing it's thing? Ya know the big whoosh sound it makes? That's what I heard at one point on the ride today - even felt it. Surprised, I looked up, and was even more surprised to see a golden eagle no more than 6 feet above my head with talons waaay bigger than my hands, wings and feathers all over the place, so much that it looked deformed. Almost crashed again, but stayed upright...turns out the eagle had some screaming critter in it's dangling talons and was being harrassed by some sort of agile bird of prey.

That screaming little critter had more than a crack. That was a crater.

The Bridesmaid

Dave — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 14:34:00 GMT

Dawn til Dusk 12 hour has come and gone but it has left a mark. Quite a few actually ;)

My initial goals for the event were to dial in nutrition and get some good training in a competetive environment. I'm trying out some different race fuels, stuff that is light to carry (thinking forward to KTR and GLR) yet works well for the long haul. In the 4-5 days before the event, though, my legs were telling me it was going to be a bit better than a training event. By race time, the goal had shifted a bit - leave nothing out there, no kJ unused.

Apologies for the lack of pics - my camera went AWOL in the event and it is still unaccounted for...it didn't work too well anyway. Team Matt & Jeni took a lot of pics enroute to the SS solo win, you can see them here. Awesome job by Matt - he's entered the super freak category.

Weather was a concern. Driving down the day before it wasn't too bad until we got to Gallup. It was cold and rainy driving from Gallup to the course. Since there's a bit of clay out there (NM is all clay, right?) I was concerned about another mudfest. Moab '06 and the RimRide were both wet events...not another wet desert event? I put on some raingear and had a great pre-ride - the moisture had the course totally buffed out. Conditions couldn't have been better, and I'd say the same for the legs. I was feeling good for mid-April.

At the 7am race start it was cold and moist. The ground was covered with a very thick frost, almost like snow, that hung around for the first two laps. Throughout the day I swear I could see the grass getting greener by the lap! But sight wasn't something of mine to be trusted today as it turned out...

It didn't take too much effort to stay with the first 10 riders at the start. I was comfortable and relaxed. About 15 min into the lap that all changed took as my chain broke. Jeesh. Much to my surprise, Brian Lugers stopped to help fix the chain. He later told Anna he was really just planning to grab my chain and ride off, but I don't believe it! He's a great guy all the way...it seems I'm racing with gentlemen this year. After it seemed I had it mostly taken care of Brian rode off. After I got the chain put back together, I went to get it on the chainring, but DOH! It was wrapped around the BB shell. You gotta be kiddin me...so, 15 min later I'm heading off down the trail, about 5-10 min behind DFL. Sweet. Passing was really tough on this course as it's all singletrack. The trail was buff and fast, an inch to either side was deep sand, soft and slow. If riders didn't move over, passing took a huge effort...so that first lap I mostly hung out behind riders.

On lap 2 the herd had thinned and it was time to get to work. I was riding at a pace I knew wouldn't last all day...or would it? With a DFL start, there wasn't anything to lose, so I just kept the power to the pedals. The course was a blast, the music in my ears was great. I was taking in a lot of calories and all was working well. Updates were confusing and slow in coming - I never really knew my position. I knew Brian was going to be super tough, and Fred W was rocking his SS in the geared cat as usual, but I was basically chasing ghosts. There was one guy I caught up to maybe on lap 5 or 6, he was riding really well and it took quite some time to catch him once I saw him. I later learned this was Peter, a local master's rider who kicks some serious butt. Nice riding Peter!

On bike choice...both the Yeti and Fuel were ready to rock, but it was Yeti love all the way. The smooth rear end bearing pivots are so much smoother than the Fuel's ('05) bushing pivots, so I stuck with the Yeti until the final lap. The rear D cable kept coming out of the channel in the SRAM derailur, forcing me to loosen the pinch bolt to get it back then do a quick re-adjustment. Other than that, the Yeti flowed like butter all day.

At the end of lap 8 I asked Anna where Brian was, and right as the words came out of my mouth he rolled on up and said he was done. Turns out he hit something out there and was feeling the effects. So as far as we knew, heading out for lap 9 I was in the lead. Could it be true? I still don't know.

Now I was starting to fade. My left eye had been checking out on me, just like what happened in OP in '06. By lap 7 it was seriously foggy, by lap 9 it was gone. Then, while trying to eat a banana, my front wheel strayed off the buff course into soft sand and it was air time. The full impact of the crash was on the right shoulder (the good one) and I swear it should have broken that collarbone...but I came away with nothing more than cuts, a mouth full of sand, and the rear D cable jumping the channel once again. But with that crash I could feel my mojo draining into the dirt.

Last lap: position still unknown, I headed out for #10. I was tiiiiiiiiiired at this point, and the first steep "cougar hill" climb cracked me. 10 hours in chase mode had taken it's toll. I was overheated, legs dead. At the top I layed under a tree for 10-15 min, waiting for things to normalize. There was a local photog up there from a Gallup paper, he shot about 15 pics of me while interviewing me in that dazed and confused state. Funny. Finally, I get up and start rolling. Wobbly and not seeing well at all, things began to improve as the lap went on. By the end I was feeling OK again...but still uncertain of my place in the field. On the final descent, Jenna Woodbury was there (she wins the loudest cheering award!) and I asked if anyone was in front of me and she said yes, Brian Bennet was. Well shucks. Matt later said I lost by seconds, but I haven't seen the results yet so have no clue. I was a touch dissappointed, but man did I get the workout I was after.

It was a killer race. Lots of competition and plenty of drama in the solo field. There were several players with the lead a moving target. Team HealthFX was there in full force too. Zach Shriver and Greg Lewis laid waste to the course with a 12 lap tally - that's under an hour for average lap times!!! Miles and Andrew teamed up to keep Zach and Greg honest, coming in for 2nd in the duos. Our own cap'n Ken Armstrong rode a super strong race to take 2nd in the master solo field. Did I mention this was his first solo 12 hour bike race?

It ain't pretty but it is honest. I had some very human moments out there and the battle was largely within. The only other thing I could have asked for is a non-lap race, but that's another topic!

Free stuff and a realization

Dave — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 22:31:00 GMT

Spring cleaning has taken a double meaning as I'm moving soon...and this is to your benefit, at least if you're in the area and need some random bike stuff. There's some goodies in front of my house, everything in front of the camper is free for the taking, come on over and help yourself. Among the items is a road wheelset, and Ultegra 170mm crankset, rollers w/ resistance unit, and lots of tires - both 26" and 29".

Here's a sample pic, check out the garage sale link below for more.

From Garage Sale

Now for the realization. I woke up yesterday with an understanding about GLR, which simply put, is that the reasons I want to do it don't have anything to do with anyone else. It really doesn't have anything to do with racing. It's hard to explain. But one thing is for sure: I'd rather do it completely solo than in a race setting. That doesn't mean I won't try to go fast cause of course I will. It is simply more natural and agreeable to make a solo TT effort out of it.

I was quite surprised to gain clarity on this thing that doesn't make a lot of sense...but that GLR route is my solo quest for '07.

Scared witless

Dave — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 13:51:00 GMT

Global warming ain't so funny all of a sudden. Riding up to almost 9000' on the Colorado trail in early April is fun and all...

But Durangoans recall all too well the fire season of '02 when Missionary ridge burned ALL SUMMER long. Nasty. Then Mike Curiak offered this bit o wisdom yesterday on an MTBR forum about just how bad things can get in an ultra race in a drought year.

Time for a gut check.

What are current conditions?

SW Colorado snowpack is at 55% of normal right now: ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/data/snow/update/co.txt.

SE Utah snowpack is at 2% (!!) of normal right now: ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/data/snow/update/ut.txt

What's the long range forecast? From weather.com, here ya go:

KTR and GLR could be more challenging than usual this year...I'll be keeping an eye on conditions and a flexible plan. I'm all for personal challenges, but death marches into sandstorms take the fun right out of it. It's all about the optimal experience - and if they happen to be in Canada this year then so be it!

Paradox demystified

Dave — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 15:28:00 GMT

'Twas an awesome weekend in no-mans land. Perfect weather, hard trails, what more can you ask for.

Day 1 was a ride West of Bedrock on the Paradox. The route winds around the valley floor a short while before heading up Carpenter ride. Riding up Carpenter ridge with Chris is where I learned that 30+ lbs of gear is waaay more bad than 14 pounds of gear. Maybe it was the VO2 and superoxic threshold training of the previous two days, but crikey.... Creature comforts are getting tossed, weight-weeniness is in.

Once on top of the ridge it got muddy. A little snowfall late last week made everything soft above about 7300', that seemed to be our turnaround elevation both days. Riverside camping, can't beat that!

Day 2 took us to the beginnings of Glencoe Bench north of Pinto mesa. Interesting section of trail...after a climb out of the San Miguel drainage, the riding is incredibly pleasant through sage covered plains (seemingly) leading to the Uncompaghre plateau. But in the sick demented manner of the Paradox course designer's mind, the trail bombs back downhill to Tabeuache creek so that you can do that climbing again.

This is where it got fun. Thank god for GPS, that's all I have to say. There's no way I'd get through that section without it. Sketchy tracks in every direction that see very little use. In some places there are trail markers...one such place I didn't believe at first cause there was only a jumble of boulders...sure enough, more sketchy track around the next corner. The route is steep, rocky, uber soft and slow going from Third Park to Glencoe. Hike-a-bikes abound, both up and down...just like Jefe said. Fortunately though, my mapping proved effective and was always within 100 feet or so of the actual route. Kinda feels like cheating. MC's record GLR ride without GPS just got a whole lot more impressive in my mind.

The pre-ride was invaluable. The route is frightening. All the while I was trying to put into perspective how the section to Pinto Mesa would feel after doing the Koko and West side of the Paradox already. It put new perspective on that term "shambilizing." GLR is a very complicated, difficult undertaking. It has my full respect and attention.

I wonder what surprises the Tabeauche trail has in store?

One of my time limiters for a GLR type race. The bibs gotta go. Note the beached whale on the right. That's gotta go too.

Dave Nice rode this silly stuff on a fixie - and rode it well. He's looking really strong this year and he's a diesel. I predict a GDR fixie finish for him this summer :)

GLR Recon

Dave — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 14:17:00 GMT

All the goods are in: racks, waterproof panniers, packs, hydration systems, lightweight bivy gear, GPS, maps. Now, how does all this stuff a) fit on a bike, and b) work?

Time to find out!

The middle section of the Grand Loop Race is the Paradox trail. Getting maps for this has been more than challenging. An email request to COPMOBA was returned 3 weeks later with a suggestion of joining the organization and requesting the map pack - with another 2-3 week turnaround time. I don't mind supporting MTB trail advocacy groups (and joined up), but the delays...are like getting a passport.

Fortunately, I'm resourceful and google ferrets out the goods. Using this map as a guide and the BLM section descriptions, I've mapped out a GPS route in NG Topo!

Here's my version:

Hmmm...I think I see discrepancies already...

This weekend is Paradox recon weekend. Hard to tell where the mudline will be...if I'm lucky and can get to the 8000' mark I'll be able to check out the Glencoe bench area - one of the routefinding toughies of the Paradox. The Paradox goes through some awesome river canyons at the lower elevations, should be the perfect time of the season for those. It'll be much nicer now than in June!

Oh, and an added bonus: the camera lives. Pics to follow.

Anyone wanna join in the fun?

Technical difficulties

Dave — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 13:16:00 GMT

My camera is dead. Is it any coincidence the last picture taken was this one?

I think not.

Rim Ride Moab: the new classic

Dave — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:33:00 GMT

As Fred W and I stood waiting for the start of Old Pueblo this year he was telling me about a different epic ride a month later in Moab. It was hard to think of doing the RimRide 2 minutes before starting a 24 hour effort...all I could think was the timing was bad, I really needed to be in a good training groove at this time. That is pretty much what I had been thinking all along, until about 4 days before the event. But, I knew I'd cave in...how much sense does it make to pass up an epic event for the sake of training anyway? Yea, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed sometimes, but eventually I come to my senses. And holy muther, what an event it turned out to be.

Springtime came early this year. March up to a few days ago has been unusually warm and dry. Well, that changed in a hurry. The weather gods knew there was a race to be held in Moab so sent the clouds and storms to Moab - desert and drought notwithstanding.

But hey, what's a little rain in the desert? It just makes the sand more rideable, right? Yea, that's what we thought at Moab 24 last year too :)

Food: let's see...in my platypus bladder (100 oz) I had 7 scoops of drip and 2 packs of eFuel plus a few enduralytes. In pockets, plenty of eGel, mini-snickers (my new favorite), 3 bananas, and 4 organic Ostrich sticks stuffed in the elastic of my shorts. In total I had about 4500 calories with me. I expected a 10 hour ride but planned for 12 just to be safe.

I shared a hotel for the weekend with Adam and the Holleys. Adam had done his scouting and after some time wrestling inner demons was excited to get going.

Chris wasn't stressed at all as he and KC weren't really planning to ride the whole thing. They were doing Porc rim and Flat pass the next day so were going to save some legs for those.

Meet Tex. Tex loves people, and really likes to burrow under your covers at 3am ;)

KC and Chris were rippin last year at the E100 12 hour, almost winning the overall.

Back to the race start. Checking in with Jenna. Henry Horrocks there in the blue/orange kit. He was super strong on his single, but one of the hypothermia victims of the day.

Fred W the man, Adam's bike, and my GPS.

So, race details. Off we went up the paved bikepath with a neutral start until Fred said "go." Nobody was willing to go any faster than our conversational pace...so I just had to go. It was a fool's folly as I knew I'd get lost. Anyway, the sight of the lights behind me quickly faded, but there was an almost imperceptible hum of tire on pavement behind me. I look back and ask who's on my wheel. Yep, it was Sly as he had promised. No lights and traveling light, he was taking advantage of my light. "What's your fueling plan?" "I'm gonna eat when you eat." So we're cruising along, and my GPS wasn't set up quite right and I couldn't get it done riding, so I stopped. Hey, we're at the front, I have the only light, what's he gonna do? Leave me in the dark? Naaaa..."there's 4 guys coming up on us." At minute 15 of 600 it didn't seem relevant. I continued to fiddle, purposefully wasting time...changing clothes, taking a leak...shenanigans to be sure.

Rolling again. The other riders had caught us but we slipped away again. As we were cruising down a dirt road, we heard Fred yelling at us that we missed a turn. Doh! Backtracking through sandy washes in the early dawn, I decided to stick on Fred's wheel until 191. There were a lot of turns on the Sovereign trail and I just didn't trust my GPS or mapreading skills. Sly did a lot of yo-yoing off the front, but there were 5 of us that more or less stayed together to a bit past 191: myself, Fred, Henry Horrocks, Chris Peters, and Sly. The clay-mud hike-a-bikes were the great neutralizers and kept us all together.

Once we had passed 191, I was more comfortable with the upcoming navigation. It also was very obvious Sly was just cruising along. The pace wasn't enough to soften him up. If he was fresh at the end, I'd be in trouble...so the Seven mile canyon climb is where I upped the pace a bit. Well, after the really crappy muddy hike, that is. What would have been normally rideable was a hike with a 80 lb bike on my back. Yuk. I even said a bad word or two directed at my heavy ride, to which Henry told be to be nice unless I wanted to walk back. Good point!

From there on Sly and I rode at a good clip for a loooong time together. We chatted a little, but not much. He wasn't much for words so I put on the MP3, which dropped PE and upped the pace some more. All the better. Riding between Monitor/Merrimac was dreamy, and the subsequent slickrock was pretty cool too. We got a bit lost, cliffed out and had to backtrack. At one point I stopped to put lube on to stop the chainsuck, and to my surprise Sly stopped and waited for me.

Pretty soon we're at 313, cruising up that pavement into a headwind and steady rain. The weather was looking sooo ominous. Pretty soon we were descending Gemini bridges road in a very cold rain. It was hard to see as the glasses were a no-go most of the day and mud was in the eyes. There was an adventure race going on in the area which provided many slow moving targets...folks running and riding, all looking beat. We must have been at the back of the race.

After 20 minutes of this, I had myself a situation. My forearms were cold, hands numb and barely functional. I made the call to stop and put on drier, thicker gloves and a jacket. Thanks goodness I had them with me, otherwise it'd been ugly out there. It also meant I was now in chase mode. Sly wasn't showing any signs of slowing down...I had my work cut out for me. This was turning out to be quite the epic race. I wasn't too concerned as the end of these things is where I can really turn it on - and I was feeling great once I warmed up.

But, alas, between some bad luck and dumb mistakes, I never saw Sly again - before the finish that is. It didn't really matter though, cause the experience up on Gold Bar was priceless.

Shortly after the glove stop my right cleat got a bit loose. It'll stay put, right? wrong. The cleat fell out of the shoe. Finding those screws in the sand is some fun, let me tell ya. That was the first time that happened. It happened again before getting to Gold Bar, and they loosened up again on Poison Spider but held on for the finish.

Then on Gold Bar my chain broke. A day of chainsuck, mud and the like had taken it's toll. Just ask Henry how many times he got stalled out while I botched shifts ;) But still, I was feeling GREAT, no pain and riding strong. There was a lot of time left. If Sly was weakening at all, I'd catch him mechanicals or no. But then I really goofed. In my head, the route had us doing all of the blue dot trail, a techy, granny gear, routefinding challenge along the top. Very tricky, very slow, very scenic. Then I realized there were no tracks - I was breaking new ground since the last rain. At first dissapointed cause I figured Sly was lost or bonked somewhere, I got over it. Coming to the top of the Rim on the blue dot trail for the first time, I was overwhelmed by the scene spreading out below. Billowing mists were swirling up the canyon rim, obscuring the view below, and looked soft as if you could step out there into the softness. First I yelled. Then I busted out the camera, thinking of you.

The effort, the chase, the fatigue, the epic scene - they all combined into a poignant moment up there on Gold Bar Rim. It was one of those moments that happen once or twice a year with luck...and for the record, the type of moment that has never happened in a XC event. It's the kind of moment that validates the addiction.

OK, so maybe you can't see those pics through my eyes...but I hope you can. It was damn cool up there.

As it turns out, we were only supposed to do a small portion of the blue dot trail. I lost way too much time...but I didn't really care. The above scene wasn't part of the course, and if I'd have been on course I would have missed it. I rolled into the finish at 10 hours, right on schedule.

When all is said and done, the Rim Ride is an epic route. Mad props to anyone that towed the line, and moreso to those that finished. And Fred - my friend you've just created an instant classic. It inspires me to do something similar in Durango...

Outfoxed at the RimRide

Dave — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 13:29:00 GMT

Quickie update from the Mondo Cafe here in Moab - the RimRide was a blast...and made even more epic by yet another storm of the century. Whoever said Moab is a desert is just plain wrong! At least on race day...

Turnout was good - around 30 folks didn't let the weather dampen enthusiasm and met at Lion's park before 6am for a dark start. Lots of SSers were in the mix, and some folks were carring an amazing amount of gear too. Marco showed up with a big pack and winter bivy! I wonder if he used it?

The course is amazing. Tough but amazing. Rim ride is a good name for the race cause you always are riding to or on some canyon rim. I did take some pics out there and will post 'em up later. One set of pictures was during a rare "moment" in racing...stay tuned.

In the end, Chris Fox came across first and I was 14 minutes behind him. We rode together most of the day and I gained a lot of respect for him - he's a full-on heads up rider. If you only know him through his blog you prolly don't know him.

A big SS contingent (I think) filled spots 4-8. Scott Sportsman, Chris Plesko, Ed Ellinger, and Dave C all put in great rides. I wonder how much walking they did in GBR?

More stories to come. Today it's a little recovery spin on Porc rim before heading home.

Quack Quack Quack

Dave — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 13:59:00 GMT

Those ducks are making a lot of noise but not sure they are all getting in a row quite yet, but I'm pushing them in that direction. With a head full of new stuff, here's the sampler:

Navigation. 'Tis a big deal for GLR and Scott Morris did a great ride with the help of a Garmin GPSMap 60 CSx. Guess what I just received?

Maps are ordered and on the way as well. Topo maps can be uploaded to a SD card in the unit, pretty cool, huh?

A few folks recommended the Old Man Mountain racks for the upcoming adventures, they promptly sent the Sherpa model my way. It attaches to the hub and v-brake bosses, has a 40 lb load limit, and looks and feels super super solid. No more of that seat post mounted stuff - they break too easy and adversely affect bike handling.

And training...is flowing like butter these days. I had planned a L4 climbing sesh for today but the weather looked iffy so I doubled up yesterday with a L5/6 am (G2 for those in the know) and then hit the new Edgemont/Cliffs climb with Fergy in the afternoon. If you haven't been up that climb, you gotta do it - brand new pavement to the top of Missionary ridge, smooth as glass, steeper than the Mogollon in the Gila SR. Good stuff. Little did I know there was a group ride last night, it's already that time of year!

I've been on the fence on whether or not to do the RimRide this weekend. It's a brutal course and I really don't want to break up my training rythm with a forced recovery period. But...Fred W has done so much work putting together such an epic route...it's springtime in the desert...and I am weak. Prime Time made the decision a lot easier by posting the map below. I've traced the route on a Classic Moab Trails map (since I haven't seen the first 2/3 of the course) and plugged coords into the GPS. The rack is on the bike, as is a new hydration system to test...and a 6am start means lights are needed the first hour or so. All in all, it'll be great testing grounds for a bunch of new stuff. I just hope those ducks don't get lost!

Enjoying global warming

Dave — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:44:00 GMT

At least for now. As anyone who's been around here long knows winter is coming back...but for now it's tough to beat 70F in March. That's overtraining weather! It's been warm and dry long enough that it's time to check out some dirt ...it's been all pavement around here for awhile.

Training has been going well. I'm finally beginning to feel like my old self now that CTL is comfortably closing in on 120. It doesn't hurt to toss in a bit more intensity too. 2 weeks ago I started raising the roof with help - getting towed around SW Colorado by some strong local boyz, teammates Miles, Greg, and Colavita guy Anthony. Anthony was a good sport and pulled us along all day. Any time I was next to him it was taking 250-300W to keep up. Ouch! Coming off of OP I could maintain 200 forever, but that ride woke up some dormant muscle fibers.

The other aspect of global warming is snowmelt - the rivers are rising. Just in time for Steve's (the recovering crackhead's husband) training trip down Westwater canyon on the Colorado, just W of Fruita. Nuthin like a good float and bloat to prevent overtraining.

I'll be back Sunday and plan on doing a big passes ride. Something like Needles -> Ouray and back. Anyone care to join me?

MTB the Grand Canyon?

Dave — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:55:00 GMT

A couple weeks back a story in the local paper mentioned 3 guys that rode their bikes into Grand Canyon national park on trails reserved for foot & mule traffic. The NPS was sufficiently pissed to chase them down in Tucson at the 24 hours in the Old Pueblo. That's a lot of tax dollars and effort for a misdemeanor. As part of their plea bargain, they initially put up an antiseptic story of what happened on their website. Well, now they've put up more details, and it's a helluva read. Food for thought....like...careful what you blog, you never know who's reading!

Go to http://www.ridingthespine.com/Journey/uncategorized/denouement#comments for the lowdown.

Overnight Revelations

Dave — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 15:53:00 GMT

The past week I've been in Backcountry Experience no less than 4 times. The 3rd time one of the guys that work there saw me walk in the door and exclaimed "Buy me backpacking now!" OK, so he didn't get the specifics right. Bikepacking would have been a better term. But I did buy it last week, LOL. As it turns out, the Grand Loop Race is going to be more expensive than doing the BC Bike race this year.

1 lb down bag
Bivy
pad
stove and pot (7.3 oz!)
compression sacks
backpack
hydration bladders

Nothing left to do but give it a test run, so instead of doing the big group rimride pre-ride, I opted for a solo overnight of the Kokopelli Trail. That route is just nothing but good vibes.

School was in session. Packing for a self-supported overnight by bike took as much time as getting ready for a 24 hour. Ugh. That put me at the Fruita side of the KT at 5pm on Saturday. I've got good lights and was looking forward to some time in the dark.

The sunset was a beauty on the Troy Built trail.

It's getting green out there already. Springtime is making an early showing.

So the big question for this type of effort is how much you can do without. This I learned in retrospect ;) Hiking up from Salt Creek with a 45 lb rig and wearing a 20 lb backpack felt a lot like work. Reading various GLR reports I was wondering why nobody hit the Bedrock store before it closed. Well duh. Aside from the heat riders faced last year, it's a whole nuther ballgame with a loaded bike and backpack - everything you need for 3-4 days.

Yep, that's the Dos Niner all loaded up there. Big, big revelations with this rig. First of all, I've never got much suspension travel out of the softail design. I'm too light to get it to move. But - put a trunk on the back with my grub, and a heavy pack - suddenly the bike felt as smooth (or better) than the Fuel. I was getting full travel out of it and it felt great! Much to my surprise, the 29" wheels felt great with a loaded rig. With this much weight it just feels like it holds momentum so well. This bike was just about to get dissassembled and sold...but maybe not.

So...how to carry all the creature comforts? I put a small rack on the front and the Delta seatpost mounted rack on the rear. The front held strong, but the seatpost rack was a no go. For starters, I was riding conservatively on any descent cause I was afraid it would break my post while I was out of the saddle and I'd sit back down on a sharp dagger. That'd be bad. Turns out the Easton EA70 held strong but the rack didn't:

So...everything gets redistributed between my pack and the front. No biggie.

And the riding? What a hoot. Cruising through the Rabbit Valley area in the dark, I come around a corner to hear ~ 20 generators. RVs on the KT? And then the real treat, getting chased by dogs in the dark. Sweet.

Speaking of dogs, the sheep (and their big dogs) are in the Cisco area right now. That big pooch stood squarely in the middle of the road, waiting for me, but as I approached his tail started to wag and he was smiling. If you encounter this fella, just say something nice to him and stay away from his sheep, no matter how lonely it is out there ;)

As the high points of the KT near Moab are still under snow, I opted to finish the ride with an out and back from Dewey bridge to Top of the World. It was a good litmus test to see what a 3000 foot steep techy climb will feel like loaded after 5 hours of riding. At the top of the climb, suddenly the trail ends and you ARE at the top of the world. Breathless, literally.

Obsession

Dave — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 14:03:00 GMT

There are some incredible stories coming out of Alaska right now. The Iditarod trail race is a 350 or 1100 mile winter race through the heart of Alaska - in winter! Mode of travel is optional. Some bike, some run, some ski. Read this thread over on MTBR and if you don't get all jacked up you best get your pulse checked. Lots of illuminating commentary by the previous course record holder Mike Curiak on what the leaders are likely experiencing, thinking, feeling, and what tactics they are opting to use. Prolly the most engrossing MTBR thread I've come across. Congrats to anyone that started this event, special congrats to anyone that finished, and super special congrats to Jay P for busting out such an amazing ride as a rookie.

So how many details do you think have to be nailed down to survive an event like that? -30F temps, 40 mph winds, as much as 24 hours between checkpoints, wildlife, trail conditions all over the map including ice, snow, rivers (frozen & otherwise), vegetation choked mountain passes - the list goes on and on. Yea, to survive that one I'm thinking takes a deep bag of tricks and quite a few lucky charms. And that comes from...

Obsession.

------------------------------------------------------

So, I hate the cold. Really. As exciting as it is to read those accounts, I don't ever see myself doing that sort of thing. But...I've been looking at the Grand Loop Race for over a year now. It is similar in distance, and the course record times are similar as well. Maybe a bit more climbing at 48k+'. The trick is it's completely self supported. No outside support, at all. There is one remote store near (but not on) the route. I find this fascinating...

Clearly in a 3+ day period ya gotta get some shuteye. How much grub do you have to carry? Water filter or tablets? Cooking gear or go with all cold stuff? I've never even done an overnight by bike so school is in session.

The attraction of this event is tugging at me with the power of a black hole - and it is a bit of a black hole as well. It'd be cocky to do it with any sort of plan to "race" it the first time around - if I do it the goal will be to finish. Besides, with events like the BC Bike Race, 24 hour worlds, and the 24 hours of Moab in the season plan, it'd be darn risky to burn the candle at both ends for 3 days in the heat of June.

Physically, I am ready for this race. Not so long ago I had the impression than when the bonk came that was the end. But in the past 2 years there have been many times when I thought I was done, only to experience a quick rebound. All it takes is a bit of fuel, water, maybe a nap, and I'm good to go again....mentally, I need a new challenge. Cycling has always had a way of providing new challenges.

I feel a good obsession building.

Moab meandering

Dave — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 14:10:00 GMT

The week after 24's...well they can be an exercise in patience, but not this one. I was trashed for 2 days then suddenly felt great. That can mean only one thing in late Feb: it's time to get on over to Moab.

There's an event coming up late March, the Moab Rimride. It hits a lot of unfamiliar terrain, and after reading the route description I figured it would make for a good ride (part of it that is...). I didn't have the recommended "classic Moab trails" map, just the Latitude 40 Moab East and West maps. Resolution and included trails were not sufficient to get the course figured out, so I ended up just picking my own route, which was Gemini Bridges, Gold Bar Rim (the blue dot trail), and Poison Spider.

I hadn't been to Gemini Bridges before, you walk right on up to it before you know you're there. Suddenly a gaping hole in the ground lets you know you've arrived. Yea, real observant harris...

From Gemini it's a short bit of backtracking to get to the Gold Bar Rim. I'll be calling this the 90 weight trail, as that's what it smells like. Jeeps hit this one hard, literally, and their transfer cases & differentials have left trails and puddles of the goo all over. I found Gold Bar to be rather hard. Very little dirt, mostly slickrock. Lot's of stuff requiring a quick dismount or a freeride bike. There's an alternate route that goes right along the rim in spots, the "blue dot trail", it's singletrack, techy and fun. The main road makes a zigzag route from 300 feet below the rim and back to the rim...repeat...over and over. Great interval work. Views from the top let you know your livin'.

For those doing the March event, this section at the end of the ride is going to be HARD. Save some juice or you'll be suckin' the grease. Literally. Stuff like this will present challenges to tired legs (it's deeper and farther across than it appears):

There were a coupla moto guys from Boulder out there. They had me in stitches at one point. "Yea, Mark here had a skiing accident last year, broke his hip, back, and got impaled in his ass by a stick. Skiing mag wrote it up in Nov '06, article title is The Tale of Two Assholes." Then they went on to hammer endurance runners..."There's no adrenaline! OK, what am I going to eat in the next 20 minutes...Ooo, I'm gotting lift my foot REALLY high on the next step!" and on and on...oh and they shared some jellybelly sports beans, haven't had those before but they are now on the shopping list, yum.

They were intrigued by my Power Tap hub; I was envious of their power!

Next up was Poison Spider. After Gold Bar, PS was a breeze. Felt so easy and all downhill...except for the sand.

And that's a wrap.

"It's my turn" (updated!)

Dave — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 13:50:00 GMT

That's what Levi said to Voigt yesterday after nailing the TT win in the ToC. Levi has been super confident and not afraid to show it. He is looking more like a champion than ever right now. There's something to be said for being backed by LA and his winning team, eh? I can say for certain that good support plays a big role in cycling success.

Also in the "it's my turn" category is Lynda. She went in for surgery yesterday afternoon...I'll bet she's back in no time. Her range of motion has been good even with the breaks, so I don't think she has major muscle or ligament damage. The tricky part for her will be the patience required to heal. She didn't get that gene.

LW update: just spoke with her, surgery went well, she's back in one piece and at home resting. She even sounds to be in high spirits. Less than one week after the crash she's speeding down the road to recovery! Most excellent.

Other odds and ends...

Ergon's new packs, grips and gloves will be available early spring and ooooo am I drooling. I'm keenly interested in their pack designs and really looking forward to tying those out on some epics. If you haven't seen them yet, the Ergon packs have an interesting concept where the pack itself is hinged on the frame like a "knuckle" and floats on your back. I haven't actually seen one, that's how it was explained to me...stay tuned for more. Ain't this a beauty?

Team HealthFX has a new blogger - Rick Callies is a super strong (both physically and verbally) cyclist, skiier, and adventure racer. Gawd only knows what will come out of his keypad but we've turned him loose anyway: http://teamhealthfx.com/blogs/rick/default.aspx.

In the week after a big event, there's always the NOW WHAT syndrome. What's next? As you can see in the left sidebar, I'm way behind in updating my season schedule. To be honest, I've had OP tunnel vision for awhile, it has served as a great carrot on which to focus the post-surgery recovery efforts. The base is solid, now it's time to get fit. The biggies of course are BC Bike race and WSC. KTR? I'm actually waffling a bit on that one because it will dominate the entire month of May if I do it. There is a lot of cool stuff going on in May - a 12 hour race in Cortez, the 18 hours of Fruita, another Epic Rides event - the Whiskey 50 miler, and of course the whole Iron Horse weekend. Doing KTR will hose all but the Fruita event...a large concession. So...I'm gripped hard by the NOW WHAT. Still working it out...

For now, it's a quick trip to Moab for the weekend. It's springtime in the desert and it beckons!

Drive

Dave — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 15:42:00 GMT

Being goal driven alters the experience, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. Seeking a destination can get in the way of the journey. It's a delicate balance.

For those of us in the inner circle of ultra endurance sports, Adam reminds why we do what we do - at least the lucky ones. If his words don't ring true it's time for some introspection.

I am happy that I can go out and "suffer" through a day of bike racing. That I can experience the gritty wind in my face, or the dull ache of numbing feet. A 24 Hour solo is hard, don't get me wrong. There is physical and mental pain, but it isn't suffering. It's experience. And that is why I think I do it.

His full post is here.

Thanks for the inspiration Adam.

Old Pueblo, '07

Dave — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 00:46:00 GMT

So the first race of the year has come and gone. I had a good, conservative plan that panned out in the end. I could write another zillion word essay on another race and even started to do so, but other events have transpired to take the wind out of my sails for such a literary effort.

You see, my crack buddy LyndaW had a freak accident in the race, falling into some sort of hole at low speed allowing another rider to go by and broke her collarbone, hand, finger, and knuckle. The collarbone isn't just a little break - it's like mine was. Shattered. She's going in for surgery next week so please send her your wishes for a speedy recovery. She's tough as nails and has big plans for the rest of the year and I have no doubt she'll get it all done, but I can say for sure that it helps to know you have friends out there, even if you haven't met face to face. I received an enormous number of emails after my accident and it became a big part of my recovery day to respond to them.

So...the race did go down and here is the top 10 list of highlights, lessons, observations....

Speaking of LW, did anyone get to ride with her at OP? She was tearing that OP house down. She came in with a super aggressive plan, and I'll be damned if she wasn't pulling it off.

Tinker was stronger than ever this year. In '04 I think he pretty much struggled to get 18 laps done. He had 18 done by 9:30 am this time. Jeesh. I guess a 24 is nuthing compared to RAAM, eh Tink? Nice job man.

As I've been training all of 2 months post surgery, I had no expectations for the event. I did want to experiment with a more even pacing plan, starting easier and finishing stronger. I paced by a combo of PE and HR and was suprised to be ticking of 1:08s at the planned pace. I figured it'd be more like 1:15 given current threshold power and weight. It turned out to be a good plan for where I was and allowed me to pull in a 2nd place finish.

I did have issues...the legs never tired, but man I just couldn't stay awake to save my life after about 4am. I ended up napping on the side of the trail for about 10 min, then again in the pits. By then I figured oh hell, I've blown 2nd so might as well change the chammy too. That's what the 3 hour lap was all about. Then I got the intel that 2nd place was 17 min in front of me and it was before 9am. Then I got to work. Lap 17 was the only lap where I felt like I was drilling it and it felt great. My watch told me 1:10 but the splits say 1:15. It all comes out in the wash anyway I guess. So 2nd place with 18 laps is how I finished up.

Narcolepsy is a new one for me...I haven't had that issue before. The week leading to the start was also about as stressful as ever, and to top it off I left home without my cycling shoes, doh! So I ended up taking an unplanned detour through Mesa to hit DNA cycles for some specialized shoes (I'm fussy), picked up a table from Home Depot since I forgot the one from home...and finally got to the venue late Friday afternoon. It was a mad rush to get everything setup before go time, and the howling wind that started the night before the event didn't help sleep any. So big lesson for me. Minimize stress in the week prior or pay the price at 4am!!!

Support. Andy (from Desert Cyclery) and Anna were in fine form, and I can't say enough good things about them. Andy was so on top of everything I threw at him (and that was plenty), and he also found time for 4 other cyclists. Anna was great too. Around 2am I was sick of the same ole gruel and recalled there was pie in the camp somewhere...I just couldn't get to the pits fast enough. PIE, GIVE ME PIE! That's the sort of stuff Anna puts up with, filling my pie hole at 2am with a smile. Brad Mullen was there supporting Epic Adam. Brad turned out to be a great help too. Thanks Brad!

Lights. Simply put, they are an unfair advantage. My lap times don't even change after the sun goes down. I think I have the holy grail. Eyes were happy the entire event, lights were blazing good. One of the lights had a mount failure (bar mount) and I used a NiteRider HID for a few laps. Wow, what a dissappointment. It was so much dimmer than my LED lazers...so I figured a way (with Andy's help, of course!) to use the LEDs for all laps.

Todd Sadow and the entire epic rides crew do an awesome job with this event. I'm impressed every year and this was yet another great run event.

A solid OP has been a long time coming for me. 3 years running I've met some sort of misfortune at this event, but I'm persistent if nothing else. 2nd isn't so bad, and given that it was 2nd to Tinker it's really 1st human now isn't it?

Vision quest, '07

Dave — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 22:12:00 GMT

There's been a current theme hitting me hard the past few weeks - vision. Last year at OP I basically went blind for 8 hours. There is a certain entertainment value in riding off course and not even knowing it, you find yourself in some interesting places. All the same I'd prefer to keep the sight this year.

Last week I had the first eye exam ever. They told me at DMV some years ago I had 20/13 vision so heck, I'd never need an exam, right? Well...things do change. 20/25 and a slight astigmatism. Damn. He even talked about glasses. Some sweet prescription Oakley M-Frame lenses are 300+, ouch. 20/25 isn't that bad I'm thinking. Besides, I am now a light whore:

I've been researching, designing, and testing new and better lights every chance I get. Nothing beats LED technology now, the Crees have raised the bar. At least as efficient as HID, better light color, more focusing options, infinite dimmability, instant on/off, 50,000 hour lifetime, the list goes on and on. Above is a collection of my designs over the past year. There's an 800 lumen Cree Quad, two Cree triples, a Cree double, and a K2 triple that I used at Moab.

Of the different lights, the Cree triple is likely the most versatile. Lightweight enough for your noggin all night, bright enough to see planets, dimmable enough to burn for days on lower power. Combine all the above with the lightest, highest capacity batteries available today and this is state of the art.

It's gonna be an interesting night at OP. Now, if I could just have that 20/13 back?

Full public disclosure

Dave — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 14:56:00 GMT

I was recently accused of being super stealth. The reality is I've just been to busy to blog...and is overtraining that interesting anyway? So here comes a random sampling of all the stuff I've been meaning to catch up on.

First off, dump truck drivers. These rednecks are the worst of the worst in La Plata county. I've been getting buzzed by them at least 4-5 times/year, they have no respect whatsover for cyclists, and what's worse, they intentially aim for them. Yesterday, case in point. I'm riding N on 550 up Shalona hill, about 6" right of the white line. There's 2 northbound lanes here since it's uphill. Not a single vehicle in sight, except Mr. Dumptruck who thinks its funny to buzz my skinny butt. He was ON the white line. He had an entire passing lane, wide open, to his left, yet he aimed for me. Yes, the truck grazed me. Yes, I was about as mad as I've been in recent years and HR jumped up 15 beats instantly. As I was going up past Tamarron, he was coming out of Tamarron, apparently having dumped his load. He had the audacity to toot his dam horn at me. Grrrr....

Mr. Dumptruck driver in La Plata county, you are a sad pitiful little man. We need your dirt but you can keep your shit to yourself.

On a more positive note, this was the second ride to Coal Bank this year. It's a bit early for heading over 10k, but hey, the roads were dry both times. In case you were wondering, climbing Coal Bank pass seems harder in the winter ;) OK, maybe it's the descent that is harder.

Last weekend was a beauty all around. I really let the cows outta the barn & rode myself silly. What do you get when you combine a relatively low CTL, a 10,000 kJ weekend, and an already negative TSB? A TSB of -122. I could only do this sort of training off-road being an MTBer at heart. The first day's route was Lockhart Basin rd from Needles to Moab. It's similar to the White Rim, but much less travelled, and in fact, there are a few spots that are impassable to jeeps or bigger. Zero tracks out there...the "road" gets difficult in spots with a series of rubbly steep rollers, then drops down a wash to the Colorado river at the base of Hurrah pass. Some scenes...

The start near Needles. An hour earlier it was 7F in Cortez. It must have been 40+ here, a real beauty of a day.

There were quite a few jets flying in formation overhead today.

Looking across the Colorado drainage to the White Rim near Shafer trail.

At the base of Hurrah pass is this lodge. It's for sale and can be yours, camels included.

Sunday the goal was to dial in nutrition and pacing for OP. White Rim is the perfect place for this. 'Twas a great day, respectable power and endurance. I've been training somewhat aggresively for a couple of months and have had a grand total of 3 days with TSB over 0 since early Dec...so I did exceed my expectations for this point in time.

White rim was oh so slow. From Potash to the base of Shafers is some of the most incredible scenery, especially during sunrise. I highly recommend the route...in general, the WR is at least a little sandy everywhere, and for miles and miles on the south and west sides it's like this:

At one point I noticed that at 250 W, going slightly downhill, I was getting all of 6 mph. The WR required by far the most kJ of any previouis ride I've done here, so it was super training. Riding it this time of year gives it's own type of rewards not seen other times of the year...

As for OP...right now I'm a diesel. This time last year I was a jackrabbit. There will be no sub 1 hour laps for me this year, and I'm OK with that. Since I really don't have any huge expectations for the race other than a good time on my bike for 24 hours, there's a freedom to experiment. It's an opportunity to test out some ideas and equipment in preparation for the WSC in September.

Lights will be new and different, my Cree creations. 800 lumens on the bar, 600 on the noggin should cover it. Did I mention the helmet mounted light will last all night on a single battery?

1 week to go and let's keep those fingers crossed for good weather. See ya out there!

The power of green

Dave — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 13:30:00 GMT

No, not that kinda green...and for once, not that kind of power either...well kinda sorta but not really ;)

Thanks to Jeff Kerkove, Lynda & I are going to be riding and testing the Ergon product line for '07. I picked up some grips before TransRockies last year, rode them the entire race then after the race mounted them on all my bikes & never looked back. They made an enormous impact on my ability to keep my whimpy arms functional. They do a lot more than just grips, and each product seems to be about rider comfort. In my book, comfort = speed. I'm stoked!

That was a big weekend

Dave — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 16:02:00 GMT

Quickie post. More with pics to come.

Chris P couldn't get out of the icy grip of the front range, so it was some big solo MTB time in the desert for me. Sat I ditched the road loop and opted for a new (to me, and based on the lack of tracks not well known) route I've been eyeing on the map for some time. Very cool.

Sun was the Potash to Mineral bottom route as planned...conditions were awesome and horrendous at the same time. No leg coverings!!! Miles and miles of sand though. ~ 90 miles required more kJ than any white rim ride I've done, and the WR is about 104 miles. Awesome training for sure.

So after a 915 TSS weekend it's time to chill a bit.

A weekend in Abbey country

Dave — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 13:20:00 GMT

It's time to let the cows outta the barn one more time, letting them roam far and wide across the mesas, mountains and canyons of SE Utah. Day 1 is this route below. It's got some of everything and is prolly my favorite 105 miles of mostly pavement around. It isn't fast...but the terrain ranges from desert near Mexican Hat to PJ forests near Natural Bridges NM. It crosses Comb Ridge twice, and if you've read the "Monkey Wrench Gang" that should resonate. If you haven't do so soon!

The next day will be a little jaunt of my favorite stomping grounds, the White Rim. With Shafer's closed, we'll start at Potash.

Did I say we? Yep, Mr. Plesko will join in on the fun.

From a training perspective, this weekend is all about making the most of what ya got. 2-3 weeks before 24s I like to drill a weekend effort. Does it raise FT? Not likely. But what it does do is help you to go a lot longer before you begin to fade, shake out nutrition ideas for the event, and really figure out if your bike fit is gonna work out. But honestly, besides the training mumbo jumbo, it's a great excuse to tromp around the scenic center of the universe in a semi-socially acceptable endorphin producing state. And that is what it is really all about, isn't it?

A month or two ago I posted a pic of my planned build for OP. Here's the actual build - at least up to today, beyond today the values are obviously predicted. I still have a long ways to go, which is great - I couldn't have said that this time last year. But, considering where I was 7 weeks ago, I couldn't be happier. The body is an amazing thing...it's healing powers are nothing short of magical. Don't take it for granted and treat yours right!

Kooks and Crack

Dave — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 00:01:00 GMT

The next best thing to a no chain day is a new chain day. A few posts on wattage yesterday reminded me of the phenomena I've seen many times before - that when putting a new chain on a bike I see an automatic power increase. An old, worn, dirty chain loses a fair bit of power to frictional losses, and because I use a PT, those losses happen before the power is measured - so dirty chains work against you mentally if you ride a PT. SRM/Ergomo users would never know the difference. Seeing how today's plan was a road ride up into Mesa Verde NP (from Durango, of course) - the longest road ride since september, and the same route - hell yea I put a new chain on the bike! And I'm happy to say, it did not dissapoint.

Looking at the power file is encouraging. I've been doing what I can to regain some sort of form, but today was a most pleasant surprise. Power was 95% what it was on the same ride before Moab on this ride (same route), but identical on the final climb. The endorphins were overflowing today, most certainly helped along by some new tunes, the Kooks. Thanks for that big wally :)

No camera today...this is the opening climb in Mesa Verde (last Sept, it's a lot whiter right now). Lots of switchbacks before this grade...and a shaded area covered with a couple inches of ice. More ice. Fun stuff.

I'm doing something different than originally planned with lights for OP. Let's just say I've opted for an 800 lumen Cree bar light...then whatever I put on my head is mostly redundant - so I'll go with light weight for the noggin, prolly a Cree x 2 setup with spot beams. But honest, this light I'll put on the bars is so obnoxiously bright (about 40% more light than Lynda's monster) the helmet light is going to be redundant...apologies in advance to anyone that'll be at OP and gets blinded by my luminosity.

Rumors and rumors of rumors

Dave — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:20:00 GMT

A few quick blotter notes:

Bart is free. FREE SAGER is working. Now, what will this mean, retroactively, for Jason and Cale?? Anything at all???
Word has it the NORBA marathon event has gone the way of the dodo. While this generally sucks, the format was really only any good in '04 and '05. Last year it got so watered down with crap courses...it's just as well. I'm fortunate to have been able to do so many of the early events, they were some eye-popping epics with a guarantee of first rate competition.
The OP startline to include Monique Sawicki, LyndaW, Tinker, and Nat Ross. A real clash of the titans is set to go down in a few weeks in the desert. A preview of WSC perennial favorites...
There are more free ultra events popping up than you can shake a stick at. This ultra thing seems to be gaining critical mass.

Late edits....

Cale is free!!! Will Sager be next or will USADA make him a martyr? Time will tell.
Philips/Lumileds, the folks that once had the high powered LED market more or less cornered, have just made a public release of a forthcoming LED that puts out 130 lumens at 350 mA, and a whopping 501 lumens at 2A. The free market is doing wonders for portable lighting and cyclists will reap the benefits in the very near future. HID is SO dead.

Ride on!

White Rim Comedies

Dave — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 19:01:00 GMT

Good times at the White Rim this weekend and if you were there, you know what I'm talking about.

First, how about starting a big day when the temps are below 10F? This is what the back of my truck looks like after driving 3 hours in a snowstorm...lots of snow here at Mineral Bottom road too.

The plan was to ride clockwise. Chris and the Dave's were leaving around 6am, I was leaving whenever I got there. Maybe I'd see them, maybe not...

Here's what I saw when I got to the top of the Shafer trail.

Ranger: "you can't take my picture, that's illegal!"

Me: "so do I have to burn my camera now??"

Let's just say he wasn't seeing the humor I had rolling. He was going for the stoic as Smokey the Bear look. "I get it. We're just props." Learn something new every day - no picture taking of government props. Noted.

Then he turned as away. Shafer trail was closed. It wasn't so bad for me - Chris and the Daves got turned around while partway down. Chris was a bit frustrated, he was in the mood for adventure. There was plenty of that to be had though, simply ride out towards Murphy's hogback and flip it when time was getting thin. That's exacly what I did and wow what a ride. 9 hours and 95 miles later (including 7.2 walking/running due to unridable ice) I called it a day. Here's a sampling of what was there for the taking...

The road below the Mineral Bottom switchbacks.

The close up view. At 10+% grade I found this quite unridable.

The river showing the effects of one of the colder spells in recent history.

Good times on Hardscrabble.

Ride's end, impeccable timing.

The WR in winter is sloooow going. If it isn't so icy that you're on your feet (or ass, as the case may be), it's loose sand/dirt, and mineral bottom road is snowy...so allow lots of extra time if you're planning a winter foray here. But guaranteed, you will get some serious balance work in!

I feel a binge coming on...

Dave — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 09:27:00 GMT

The past 2 weeks has had me bleeding out of my eyeballs, but it's in the books, mission accomplished, and for that I get a 20+ watt power boost.

Now that base is done, it's time to get on with the regularly scheduled program. With OP fast approaching, that can only mean 3-4 White Rims in the next 2-3 weeks. Yes, there are other places to ride, but none as delicious & accessible this time of year. Let's just hope it doesn't live up to it's name in the next two weeks ;)

Installment #1 is today with the future of endurance racing, a fixated fellow, and this gent I'm looking forward to meet. He's promoting this event in June which looks most interesting.

Yep, it's 3am and I'm still in Durango. Gotta run!

Light building in progress

Dave — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 12:49:00 GMT

Lookie what showed up yesterday.

Here's a better view of the Cree's:

Time to get assembling.

Lynda called last night with the report from her first night ride with a triple Cree system. I'll leave the detailed descriptions to her...but let's just say her HID (that was on her bars) was rendered useless :)

The night is getting a whole lot brighter.

Lights for a night or a month?

Dave — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 11:39:00 GMT

I have this dream of a super bright light that will go all night without a battery change. Too much to ask for?

A side benefit of this quest is a light that will burn for, uh, weeks. Yea, no BS here - doing GDR this summer? Put one of these on your bars as the main light and something silly light for your helmet (for around camp and nightime repairs) and you're good to go.

These charts show the potential dual useage of this setup I've got cooking in my brain.

The light is run by the bFlex as mentioned in the last post. The bFlex allows configuration of max current (light intensity), and within each setting there are 5 levels. The light levels are listed on the chart as "lumens", each grouping of runtimes are values for specific battery configurations. The battery weight is approximately 6 ounces for 2400 mAh. Yea, kinda techy but that's how to read the chart.

For the above chart, this shows that you can have 668 lumens for ~ 5 hours with a 12 oz battery. That's twice the light I had on my head at Moab (and 320 was plenty). 392 lumens can be had for 11 hours with the same system.

Now, take a look at what happens when we throttle back the max current setting to 350 ma.

For reference, a single 3W Luxeon puts out about 80 lumens. I used two of these for KTR this year and the night went great. Throw was a touch short on the descents, but totally doable. Looking at the light blue lines, at 123 lumens you get about 70 hours of runtime, while at 200 you get about 40. GDR nutz: how much weight do you typically allow for batteries? It's certainly feasible to have a sub 2lb setup that will last the duration of the event, provided you finish in a month ;) It's also possible to use AA battery packs and use expendible batteries...but not having to worry about batteries I'd think would be quite an advantage.

Keep in mind this is all within the same light but with different settings. I don't think there is anything remotely close to these capabilities on the market...dunno why, that market space is soooo big ;)

The best thing? The above projections are based on the P3 Cree and in a couple of days I'll have the P4s which are roughly 10% brighter. When they show up I can turn this gedanken experiment into reality.

Hard Candy

Dave — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 16:11:00 GMT

Question: what do you do when the weather is wet, snowy, and cold and you have a 24 hour race coming up? The correct answer is of course get outta town, head south for warmer climes. I've been doing that for 2 years, but not this year. I was getting soft on that program. The alternate answer is to dip into the candy jar...

Although I am more patient than I used to be...power has still been a bit slow to return for my liking, so I've been on the drillin' and chillin' plan the past week. It's been an eye-popping week of relentless intensity - and an associated power increase that is beyond my expectations.

What has the program been like? Lots of time at VO2max power with short rests, and lots of time at about 85% VO2max (longer ints) and short rests. The inspiration for the workouts is courtesy of Michael Ross' book. He really nails protocols on determining optimal intensity and duration for HIT interval work wrt studies on which I've been basing my HIT workouts for 3 years already. Great book, it really resonates and I recommend it highly. Slow base fans eat your heart out.

Ah, heck...don't get me wrong - this is my preferred plan. Sometimes ya gotta make do.

This weekend has been a study in light building. I've considered the LED permutations from a lot of angles and have settled on building 3 x 4 Cree LED units. With more LEDs, I can run them at lower currents, get better runtimes for a comparable light output to a system with fewer LEDs, and incur a very small weight penalty for additional LEDs - about 20g/LED added. Look for the guy with a big ol' bar of blinding light on his head at OP and that'll be me ;)

For the tech heads, here is some beta on the design considerations.

This plot shows the general performance characterstics for a Cree P3 based Quad light. Most relevant details are in the chart; the one left out is the driver. I'm using a bFlex from http://taskled.com. The bFlex offers a dizzying array of setup options, drive currents (brightness settings), low battery warnings etc, etc.

This one illustrates why I chose to go with 4 rather than 3 (sorry for the bass-ackwards chart...doh!). The drop down green lines, for example, show that at 450 lumens the triple gets about 7.5 hours runtime while the quad gets almost 9 hours.

Dinotte has a super bright LED system in the works for about $500. Early reports are very good. I'll have 3 systems that are a bit brighter for about the same price, but they won't look as dope as Dinottes. Who cares in the dark though?

Don't leave home without booties and ear protection! -10F this am, yowza!

The Red Recharge

Dave — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 15:25:00 GMT

Ever get that feeling you just gotta get some dirt between your fingers? There's a chunk of the country that has given me this sense before I ever set foot in it. It's roughly a square region bounded by Grand Junction on the NE and Diamond Creek on the SW. Lucky for me, this is also my backyard ;)

In the lower elevations of this region, snow is not usually a concern, but it can be. This weekend, for example...a few days ago Moab got 3-4" of the white stuff, unbeknownst to me. Armed with the Yeti, a ride plan to drool over and a generous helping of ignorance I hit to road for Moab yesterday. Getting closer and closer, and lower and lower, and the snow getting deeper and deeper, it was apparent the ride was going to be on roads.

80 miles of mostly pavement in sub-freezing temps, but damn was it a sparkly clear and calm day. A real beauty. The Yeti flowed like silk...which was nice cause the last time I rode her she tried to kill me.

This was the start of the planned route. After a bit it seemed stupid to ride on ice and snow. Dave and Chris, you guys are nuts. Maybe there just wasn't enough snow to make it fun?

Click this one for the full res - Darwinism in action.

Nice scenery around here...

Arches NP

Top of the initial poison spider climb.

The recharge is complete. I came back with a head full of new ideas and tons of motivation to kick my own ass for the next 2 weeks.

Shuweet!

From dreams to reality

Dave — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:00:00 GMT

Newsflash: the 24 hours of Adrenaline World Solo Championships is set for September 1-2 at Laguna Seca. This is a key piece of the season's puzzle I've been waiting for. This event is becoming more and more interesting as it seems most riders accept the event as the defacto worlds (no event is UCI sanctioned as 24 hour "worlds"). Rider acceptance is everything, and if ya really want to test your mettle...this is it. So it's a go!

I was considering a run at the GG 24 hour series - but on top of 7 and 24 WSC that's just too much cake for one season. Did I really admit that?

So '07 is looking to be an epic dream season:

Feb - 24 hours in the Old Pueblo
May - KTR
July - 7
Sep - WSC
Oct - 24 hours of Moab

Those are just the biggies. Plenty of fun stuff in between. Notably absent are the E100 events. Boris is gonna send the KGB my way for sure, but the 12 hour and 100 mile are out for sure and the 50 isn't too likely. There is one possibility for a team run at the 12 hour...we'll see.

Now it's time to get scheming. Gotta figure out how to turn these dreams into reality.

Gazing into the crystal ball

Dave — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 13:01:00 GMT

Here's my best guess on how some things will take shape in the new year...

Lynda is going to win a big enduro race - outright. That's right, she's gonna chick every guy present in some big event somewhere. I just hope it's early season cause the rehab excuse will only last so long ;) She's getting into the flow of relentless intensity, big volume, and dialing in the details - and getting better all the time. If you've ever ridden behind her you know she's got some whack biomechanical issues, but they've all but gone the way of the dodo. And her tech skills just keep on getting better. This revelation jumped right out at me while she was kicking rocks in my face for 4+ hours on the Gem trail last week...

Here she is kicking rocks in the face of one of the fastest guys from the UK in TR last August. More of that to come! (no pressure Lynda)

Events: the bar is getting raised for '07. There are two more big events in our neighborhood, 7 and Boris' E100 Ultra. Those are biggies, dream vacations for crack addicts. Then there's the undergound movement in motion - KTR is alive and kicking with new blood, a new direction and interesting tactical changes...new events in Moab, Nederland area, the Colorado Trail Race - the self-supported racing movement is taking endurance MTBing back to it's roots of self-sufficiency and away from Big Brother along with all it's disregard for those whom it is chartered to advocate. The multi-day self supported ultras will continue to stand on their own, isolated by the difficulty to start such an event, but the growing number of no entry fee ultra's that can be completed in a day are going to compete with the organized, supported ultra events. In order to stay alive, promoters are going to have to sweeten the pot to stay alive - especially in the west where entry fees are (generally) high and payouts (generally) low or non-existant.

Competition: speaking of USADA (US against dedicated athletes), the bar is also going up for competition. There are 3 obvious characters in the west who we'll likely see toeing the line at enduro events who typically are gunning NORBA events. The thing is, when these guys start doing enduro stuff, they are going to (re)discover why they race MTB in the first place. A child-like enthusiasm is about to overtake these gents...it's contagious too, so look for others to bail out of the grip of big brother.

Everyone's doing it these days...

Finally, I see a week of unbounded crack coming to team Desert Cyclery/HealthFX starting July 1 in Victoria, BC. It's official: Lynda and I are registered for the Seven bike race, a 7 day epic in western BC in the same vein as Trans Rockies. Hot damn, there's rocks to be kicked up there!

Gettin' to the core of it all

Dave — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:14:00 GMT

In the fall of '04 I made some significant changes to my training routines, habits and mindset. The effect on race outcomes was huge. It really is true what they say about training smarter, although I still tend to think harder is better too. Character flaw for sure. The biggies were:

- Became a beta tester for the Performance Manager
- Used an altitude tent
- Discarded the concept of slow base and off-season fitness losses (think threshold power)
- Focused on core work

While it's always hard to say what really works, the 3rd item was prolly the most beneficial for power development, the 2nd the most expensive, the first the best for race preparation and tapering, and the last the most healthy. In fact, extensive core work the past 2 years has almost certainly made the injuries sustained in the recent crash less than they could have been and the subsequent healing waaaay faster than anyone expected (can I get a hell yea???).

The core work I adopted was the stuff laid out by Mark Verstegen's Core Performance. All but the most reclusive ostrich's use this program now ;) It's great stuff and easy to do anywhere, anytime. If core is lacking in a cyclists program, this can improve performance dramatically.

Verstegen has a new book out tailor made for endurance athletes, Core Performance Endurance. It was a pre-order item at Amazon a month ago and my copy arrived while I was riding my fat ass off in St George. I've been running the program through it's paces for 4 days now and have discovered some new muscles, that's always a good sign ;) One aspect of the book that is quickly leaving a big impression is the stuff on regeneration. He goes into many way to get to trigger points, relieving pain and tightness. I never knew a tennis ball could inflict such sweet pain. It's really too early for me to give it a two thumbs up, but based on his results with elite athletes and the result I had with his "made for everyone" book, it looks to be another winner.

So, fellow enduro head pack toting bike hauling energizer bunny in training, be sure to take care of that neglected region between your butt and neck and mind those energy leaks.

Here's to a healthy, strong, and happy new year!

Cheating nature

Dave — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 03:01:00 GMT

Yesterday was my 5 week post-op checkup with the surgeon. I'm happy to say I'm ahead of the recovery curve - the doc was surprised how much new bone I've grown in a short period. Range of motion is nearly symmetrical now too after a bit over a week of PT work. All involved are sorta scratching their collective heads, but hey - it's exactly what I expected.

So now I have the green light to go play on my bike as much as I can stand it. No restrictions other than don't fall on it. Tis a good thing too. The last gas purchase was in Grand Junction leaving from the infamous race back in October. Can you say cabin fever? So off I'm going to St George for some riding time with the crackhead...then I can get back into the flow of long rides and their desert vistas to share with y'all. They seem to be a bit more popular than training squak ;)

Last weekend I got busy with my LED light project. Quite a few things cooking there. For one I thought I'd experiment with different light colors. The human eye is much more sensitive to certain wavelenghts (colors) of light in the dark. The optimal wavelenth is that of the color cyan, and as luck would have it (probably not luck, really) Luxeon makes LEDs at that exact frequency. So I made a cyan light.

Here's a beamshot comparison with my K2 light (the K2 is super bright):

Since the part of the eye that detects periphereal vision is most sensitive to cyan (go here for where I got the scientific inspiration), the first run with this will be as a wide beam bar mount light. I haven't ridden with it yet (it's friggin cold and white in D-town right now) but have walked it. Anything red turns black, other than that it seems quite easy on the eyes. Not sure what that will mean in a red desert landscape...

So this morning waaay too early I'm sweating like a hog in my 10 degree garage, water bottles and feet freezing while internal meltdown seems imminent. Pushing that trainer's flywheel round and round, sure is great to be a mouse. Anyway, it's pitch black. I can't bring myself to train under a garage light, and the streetlights have been taken out by aliens. It's quite nice actually, but - for night riding when you want to see your dashboard, ya know, power meter display, gps, bike computer, HRM - why is there no handlebar light design that illuminates your gizmos for you? Such is how inspiration strikes. Necessity is the mother of all invention as the saying goes.

The final bit of light news I'll share...I received some Cree LEDs before Thanksgiving but really wasn't able to do anything with them until recently. I now have a 3 LED Cree light...all I can say is WOW. This thing is so freaking bright, it blows my K2 system outta the water. Since the Crees are so efficient, it will run a lot longer too. The current system puts out HID light quantity in a more useable pattern and lasts for 6+ hours - and it weighs about 1/3 the weight of my Niterider HID.

Here's a beam comparison (from L to R) of a Niterider HID Firestorm, the Cree triple, and the K2 triple. Both LED lights are considerably brighter to the eye. The Cree is much whiter than the K2 as well, and because of the optics chosen has considerably more fill as well. I'm looking forward to riding this light!

Here's a better shot of the Cree vs. K2. OK, better being a relative term as all the pics generally suck...but anyway...Cree left, K2 right. It gives a better view of the fill comparison.

Even better Cree LEDs are on the way (and I'm talking in the mail, not next year...). Cool stuff going down in my little workshop.

More power tools

Dave — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 11:42:00 GMT

Many cyclists focus on limiters in the early season. I haven't been doing that for a few years, mostly because there was no "early" season and no "late" season...it's been one continuous season for 3 years ;) Well, it's definitely the early season now.

One of my limiters is when the terrain is steep enough that cadence is forced below 75 or so. On the road, this number is closer to 80. I am no grinder, not by a longshot, and if you want to see me suffer just look for the steepest part of a course.

The past few years I've just worked on FT so that I had enough power to avoid low cadences. It has pretty much worked...but my FT has tanked big time. It is quite humbling: the first time I got on a trainer, I could not sustain 180 W for more than 2 minutes, no joke. At this elevation, FT is 280ish in good form. It seems I've got some work to do! The good news is that it's coming back at an alarming rate. I really have to use HR along with power because my FT seems to go up 10W every day.

An interesting tool that I haven't used much is another Cog creation, Quadrant Analysis (QA). In a nutshell, QA is a scatter plot of pedal force vs. pedal speed and is calculated from power and cadence data. For a given ride (or segment of a ride), it shows you what typical pedal forces and pedal speeds were. Using this to analyze key rides gives insight into the demands of the ride, and in turn insights on how best to train for similar types of rides.

Loss of strength is a concern with 6 weeks of inactivity. To address this, I took a look at a QA plot of a race file - in this case lap 2 of the E100 12 hour in '05 - and eyeballed what sort of pedal forces were common. Since this was a 12 hour event, the power was below FT but I figure it's close enough for these purposes. Then I took a look at what sort of cadence I'd have to use to maintain this pedal force for 60-90 minutes on the road or trainer. Basically, I'm mimicking race specific pedal forces at lower cadences & power. Here's what the chart looks like and how it turned out:

Actual cadences ended up between 65 and 80 in contrast to my preferred 90+. These workouts are fun and I dig it. They seem surprising easy at the beginning, then gradually settle in on ya. Best of all, they have been working a charm. Based on yesterday's ride I think I've pulled back 70-80 of those 100 lost watts inside of two weeks of training. That's waaaay faster than I had anticipated.

Now, about those extra few pounds...

The comeback trail

Dave — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 16:59:00 GMT

CTL has risen 6 points in the last week and it feels good. It's time to plan the comeback.

For the past 2 (or is it 3?) years, I've been a beta tester for EweTSS, now termed the Performance Manager as part of Cyclingpeak's WKO+ software. As a beta tester, I could only say so much about EweTSS...but now that the cat is outta the bag my tongue is tied no longer. It's is hands down the best tool to manage training volume. It's a perfect tool for coming back from injury, and that's a new use for me!

Generally speaking, I'll be building CTL steadily until mid-spring when I'm back to the 120-140 levels where I prefer to be for ultra racing. On the way, it's good to have some intermediate goals, and since I already registered for Old Pueblo before the accident, it gets the nod. Without further ado, here's the pictorial of my plan from today until OP.

One of the things I've done with my down time is create a windows program to help analyze my EweTSS data. I'm fussy and want the ability to track all sorts of stuff besides CTL/ATL/TSB. Plus, I wanted an easy way to use the concepts in planning mode. That's just too much to expect from a commercial software product...so I took matters into my own hands. It's been more challenging than anticipated, largely cause most of the work was done while on narcotics. Not so good for the clear thinking!

This plot illustrates some of the functionality of the new program. Anything prefaced by a "p" is a planned value. The "7" series is a 7 day rolling sum. The TSB=0 is simply done for a neutral reference point for TSB.

The plan to OP is quite conservative for me - but recovering the shoulder area takes a bit of oomph out of my sails so it prolly won't feel so conservative. Some interesting things to note in the chart:

- As per Andy Coggan's quote, "the more you train the more you can train." Note how as CTL rises, so does the 7 day TSS sum, yet TSB holds fairly constant. This shows that the higher the CTL, the more training can be done.

- Long ride progression. TSS for OP is predicted as for a conservative race (no, I'm not gunning for it this year). Looking at the race requirements, the long ride progression is designed to best get prepped to survive for 24 at OP.

- OP "taper." It isn't really much of a taper. Typically I'd have more of a taper for a 24, but this race is happening in the middle of a long build, so I ease back just enough so that the CTL crest post-race is where it would have been if the build continued instead of dong the race.

OK, that's really techy to some folks I understand...but there are a few years worth of personal insights buried in this chart as it applies to training for ultras. It's pure gold to me, and if you can wrap your head around it there might be a nugget for you too.

Happy training!

How much is too much?

Dave — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 13:48:00 GMT

Dicky is struggling to put into words his notion that there is some point point beyond which pushing incurs a risk far greater than the reward. This seems to be a revelation gained from inspiration from Craign Gordon's incredible ride at 24 hour worlds in October in which he dethroned Chris Eatough, prevouis world champ 6 years running. For his extreme efforts, he was rewarded with kidney failure, a 3 day stay in a hospital on a dialysis machine and who knows what other maladies.

Here's another take. We don't know exactly why Gordon suffered the problems he did...but it has to begin with dehydration and/or improper nutrition during the event. Yes, he was tearing down muscle for fuel and that's what gummed up his kidneys...but why did this happen in the first place? It's no wonder he didn't have all the nutritional details of a serious 24 hour bid nailed down tight - it was only his second 24!

The way I see it, PB performances come as a result of impecabble preparation and smart execution. You toe the line relaxed, confident in the work you've done to get there. External stresses are non-existant, you are focused in the moment. As the event unfolds, it is effortless, not difficult. Your mind is clear, you stay on task, fueling & hydrating wisely, staying within the bounds of your pacing plan. Even though it is effortless, you are hauling ass.

Of course, there comes a point when it isn't so effortless. But, provided you really are ready for the event and stay on top of fueling and hydration (and this is your top priority event), as the level of effort required increases, there is no point beyond which you should not push. You are prepared for the effort, both physically and mentally, and that's why you are there.

Just give'r.

The Big O

Dave — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 14:11:00 GMT

O2, that is. Got your attention now didn't I?

This blog started out as a way of confessing my obsessions...and winter seems to bring out the real blab in me...

What's a guy to do when he's mostly stuck to trainer duty even though it's nice and sunny outside? Well, ya gotta get some sun in your life, so naturally the trainer gets set up on the back deck in the direct sun. It was warm enough yesterday that I had to set up a fan outside. That's a real sight, some dude cranking a trainer on his porch with a big fan in his face. The neighbors continue to shrug their shoulders.

Some of my missing synapses are returning, thank goodness. You see, I have a great training aid for trainer work but it hasn't occured to me to use until recently. Back in '04 I acquired this baby, a Hypoxico altitude generator to be used with an altitude tent.

When you live at 6500 feet, an altitude tent's value add is dubious at best, but it is great to have in the winter's I'm in lower elevations. However, as altitude generators work, they must remove oxygen from the air in order to simulate altitude. That removed oxygen has to go somewhere, and in the case of this generator it comes out of an exhaust gas port on the front. The great Cog helped me figure out how to make use of this waste gas for training in hyperoxic conditions. It honestly isn't something I've done much cause why ride the trainer when you live in Colorado...but now is a great time to experiement with these methods.

How do I use it? The exhaust gas is 60% oxygen. I've hooked up a tube with nasal canula at the end, like you see folks using in the hospital, and wear it just like post-op 3 weeks ago. Using a pulse-oximeter, at this altitude I've determined it's about impossible to get saturation levels below 90% using the canula, but without it I can easily drop them to the 70's.

What does this mean? It's sort of like training at sea level while living at altitude. I am able to produce similar powers on the trainer that I would at lower elevations - about 10% higher. Oxygen is like magic, I can put the canula on during steady riding and watch HR drop 5-10 beats over 30 seconds.

Fun stuff on the back deck.

Inauspicious beginnings

Dave — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 13:11:00 GMT

Life in slow motion is beginning to speed up. It's been a waiting game for 5 weeks, but one day this week I got up and couldn't feel the repaired collarbone anymore. Wow, just like that. Amazing. On the flip side, the repaired muscles don't work so well and spasm all the time. But hey, talk about improvement...in the last few days I've put on t-shirts, pullover sweaters, and scratched my left ear with my left hand. It is difficult to put into words the pleasure these simple tasks give...healthy folks take a lot for granted. My eyes are wide open now.

I've been able to get on the trainer a few times. At first it was on the road bike with the bars upside down with the drops facing me - I was nearly straight upright. That was hard on the butt, so I waited a few more days until I could get on the Dos in this setup. Note the riser bars facing the saddle, stem as high as it gets. Completely opposite from my usual setup, but hey it works.

I'm using a Tacx basic electonically braked trainer with the PT. Hard to tell where FT is, but I think it is about 80% of what it was 2 months ago. Ouch. But damn am I ever fresh. CTL is still about 60.

My surgeon is THE MAN. He fixed a lot of stuff and enabled a normal existence...I'd be out for many more months without him, and never the same again.

I am really stoked for the '07 season. Still unsure of what I'll target, but lots of ideas are floating in the cranium. The accident won't likely affect any event other than OP. I'll still likely do it, but with different goals.

There's been a lot of downtime in the last 5 weeks. I've let my inquisitiveness take over for awhile and researched a few topics that caught my interest. Here's a sampling...

Heart rate variability (HRV) is fascinating. I'm trying to learn how it may be linked to performance, or more accurately, fitness & stress/training load. Despite how powerful the PMC stuff is, there are times when at high CTL and TSB I feel great, other times not so great at the same values. PMC is a model; I'm looking for direct measurement. Of what I don't know ;) But I've been aware of HRV for many years, and can sense that when high it's to be a good day. Suunto has based their T6 HRM on HRV and EPOC and developed a training software similar in concept to the Performance Manager. Unfortunately, the watch doens't give direct HRV measurement. At $300+, that's a deal killer...not to mention the fact that HR is so variable as to make the whole concept useless for me anyway.

I've also taken a close look at diet. One of the keys IMO to developing is the understanding that nothing is static. This is a prime example. Here's a big picture view of my diet over the last week:

Now compare to a period in early '04. Talk about changes! I've been keenly aware of changing metabolic needs that past few years but wanted to quantify it. More on this in time...

Signing out.

2006 Visualized

Dave — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 17:05:00 GMT

Join me on a visual journey through the 2006 season. The highs are many. The lows, there were a few. I'm still calling it dream season # 2.

Click the image for the slideshow.

From 2006 Visualized

More morphine, please

Dave — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 14:08:00 GMT

The past few days have been all about expectation management.

Doc pre-surgery: "your collarbone might heal fine without surgery. With surgery you will have good range of motion after the pain recedes in about 3 days"

Doc post-surgery: "you will be in a sling for 6 weeks. Don't even think about physical therapy until the stiches come out"

Needless to say, there were some complications in the surgery. Namely, a couple of muscles were torn from the collarbone. I didn't get both of their names, but one was a deltoid. In addition to the muscle tears, the collarbone was in 7 pieces (only 4 were observed in the xray). 1 plate, 11 screws and 5+ hours later everything was back where it belonged. The next 24 hours were a blur of pain. Much of my memory of it is altered, but I do know that Lynda was there to help me through those dark hours. It's the "down" times when the depth of friendships are revealed.

For now the dominant theme is pain management, but sooner or later that is going to give way to the road to recovery. I'm a rapid healer in general; this time around I'm focusing more energy on the healing and have an outstanding team of docs and pt's to guide such efforts. The surgeon also finagled a bone stimulator that is supposed to drastically cut down the healing time (for the bone, anyway).

Current topic of research is recumbents. A recumbent with one of my PT wheels set up on a trainer would be da bomb...anyone have one they could spare for a few months?

Ti upgrades

Dave — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 14:16:00 GMT

Today I become the six million dollar man, the modern day humpty dumpty. After 2 1/2 weeks of waiting, it's my turn with the surgeon. The pieces of what used to be a collarbone are to become one again with the mechanical assistence of a titanium plate and screws.

Things have been pretty quite around here lately, and they are about to get quieter for a time...but not to fear, my relentless need for speed (and all it takes to achieve it) runs deep. Once I'm back in action look forward to some PMC related stuff (hi Norm), LED light goodness, and probably a bit of stuff I learn about rehab.

As for now, if you can spare any healing thoughts I'd be most grateful.

On NORBA, part II

Dave — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 13:00:00 GMT

WTF is going on with this organization anyway? If you're a cyclist, this probably isn't news, but just in case...

Read this. Squeaky clean, the guy doesn't even eat meat for chrissake.

Now read this. Another squeaky clean guy, a family oriented working man. Seems to prefer yardwork over cycling.

You gotta be kiddin' me. Paranoia must be ruling the roost at USA Cycling. The organization that is supposed to support the sport of bike racing in the US has created an environment where it is impossible not to fail, where reputations are slurred, where the athlete is disempowered. Whats even worse, despite how fast these gents are, they don't derive their income from the sport, just great satisfaction pursuing their passions.

And Basso just signed with Discovery...

Drugs in sport is one issue. How NORBA allows USADA to proceed over their events is entirely another. The way the latter is being handled it's clear to me that the rider's best interest doesn't even make the bottom of the priority list.

My NORBA boycott begins today.

That's easy for me to do though, so is little concession. As a license holder I receive emails on a regular basis from the CEO, Steve Johnson. The most recent was to inform their membership that United Airlines has dropped sponsorship for USA Cycling, which incidentally is the only thing that made the license worth anything for me last year. Part of the membership included 4 one-way bike vouchers, a ~$200 value. I used 2 of them going to TransRockies, so that covered the license cost.

The only NORBA event that is even remotely interesting these days is 24 natz...although the venues tend to be not to my liking. It's more about the ride than the prize for me and riding in muggy then stormy midwest locales is, well, (sorry Kerkove!) unappealing. Adrenaline's worlds has better competition anyway...so if I need my thrashing fix off I'll go to that event.

Is it any wonder non-USA Cycling affiliated cycling associations are thriving? Is it any wonder the primarily association-free genre of ultra endurance racing is experience tremendous growth?

Me thinks not.

----------------------------

Check out Adam's take on the issue.

Cross season

Dave — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 11:00:00 GMT

Is there more cyclocross frenzy this year or have I finally noticed it? The CO state cross champs are today, here in Durango. The course is up at the college and will surely be a good one.

Elite women at 2:30, Elite men at 3:30, Masters A at 11, Masters B at 10. Now you know, don't miss it! I hear they've got a beer tent...

On NORBA, India, geeking, and bones

Dave — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 12:50:00 GMT

With so little physical activity of late, the brain is doing overtime. It's kinda fun in a sick way, feels like college days.

Here's an image of (part of) the damage.

The ER doc's response in Grand Junction: "consider this an advantage, with a shoulder 3 inches shorter you'll have less frontal area and improved aerodynamics! You're now in an elite club."

Dunno bout that. My orthopedic surgeon says 3 months to heal without surgery, but has seen cases where 6-9 months down the road everything is still floating around. NFW. So...I'm getting an upgrade. Surgery next Tuesday will add a Ti plate and screws to the mess and tie it all together.

The training impact is huge. Although structurally I should be fairly mobile in a short time, it's a false sense of security cause the bones still will take 2-3 months to knit. I'll prolly go old school for '07, LSD winter miles and gradually ramp it up. Time will tell, but right now I'm just not too willing to spread out the healing energy over HIT training and bone healing. Priorities. It's a good thing I'm not in AZ this winter or I'd go NUTZ!

Yesterday my CTL dropped below 100 for the first time in almost 2 years...

NORBA...total number of NORBA XC races I did this year: 0. Total number of USCF races I did this year: 0. Price paid for dual license in '06: don't remember, but it was about $100? Total amount I'm willing to pay in '07: 0$. You don't always get what you pay for, but I will next year. Plus, you can get totally screwed in NORBA events by a paranoid system without regard for it's athletes.

I've been using a spreadsheet to track my training progress forever it seems. It started with the rolling TSS days and has been upgraded to include EweTSS. There's a ton of info in this thing and it gets cumbersome to use all features, so I've been wanting to design a GUI front end for it for years. It's turning out to be quite the dynamic analysis tool, pics to come. Finally, my own windows based program to track what I want to track. CyclingPeaks is da bomb for power meter data analysis - unrivaled. My little program is a helluva complement to it. Look for some snapshots sometime soon...there's a silver lining in every event.

Finally, news from Anna, my 24 hour pit boss. She's in India for 2.5 months taking Hindi courses and studying yoga with Mr. Iyengar. She's been sending some gems via email, here's a snapshot:

"...the monkeys and piggies are keeping to themselves - although a monkey made contact with the electric wires this a.m. and caused a big thwump sound..."

"Today this little internet place has each tiny cramped space filled with the local young Tibetan monks.... dressed in dark red with closed cropped hair.
Yesterday and today, the Indian airforce has whizzed around. ??? 2 F16s doing quick circuits at acute angles...."

"The craziest analogies.... today about getting someone's attention - something about sticking pins in a monkeys genitals...."

Tip of the day: if in India, take it easy on the bananas lest you be mistaken for an ADD monkey.

Spec the light system of your dreams

Dave — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 15:12:00 GMT

If you've been reading my ramblings for awhile, you know I'm really into LED lighting technology. Why?

LEDs are extremely durable because they are solid state "radiating matter", no fragile filaments or ballasts
many options exist for light patterns, as opposed to an HID where the lens/reflector/light are a one piece deal. this allows you to put the light where you want it, lowering the overall luminosity requirement for an application.
LEDs produce vivid, white light that is especially nice in green underbrush, but works great everywhere I've had it so far.
very lightweight, minimal material requirements.
LED technology is advancing at a rapid rate while halogen and HID are sittin' still.
instant on/off compared to the HID slow ignition.

Putting my $ where my mouth is, I've used my homebrew lights this year every time I raced in the dark. For KTR, I used a 2 x luxIII helmet mount (and batteries were on the helmet too). It proved to be great lighting for the conditions. In Steamboat & the first leg of the E100 I used a similar system, and in the Koko record ride and Moab 24 I used my newer K2 lights.

The K2 lights are sick and I'm convinced were the brightest thing going at Moab. They are a LOT brighter than my Niterider HID. That's a strong statement, considering that by the stats the HID should have been roughly twice as bright - it puts out 2x the lumens. But, luminosity is only part of the story. The color of the light matters, and where it goes matters even more. The Niterider HID pattern is quite wide, so all those lumens end up in places I don't look. But...I designed the K2 model to put the light where I wanted it, and presto - the death ray is born!

Now let's consider efficiency. For each watt of power consumed, how many lumens are produced? HID technology has had a stronghold in this arena as far as bicycle lighting is concerned with a typical efficiency of 50-60 lm/w (halogen I think is in the 15 lm/w ballpark). The K2 LED falls somewhere between 25 and 45 lm/w, depending on the current. They (like all LEDs) become less efficient at higher currents.

Enter the Cree XR-E LED. Cree has been supplying cell phone manufacturers with blue LEDs for some time. A relatively new company, they were initially immune to the ups and downs of cell phone sales. But in the past 4 years they have saturated the cell phone backlight market so have been busy looking at other lighting possibilities. Flourescent lighting is very efficient at 70-100 lm/w...but that's where they want to go. Their new XR-E LED puts out more light than any other commercial LED and is more efficient than any bright LED at 70 lm/w. They are moving at a fast clip too - they've got LEDs in R&D right now that are producing 131 lm/w and expect to have a commercial product in '07 that puts out in excess of 100 lm/w. That's nearly twice as efficient as HID, and given all the advantages to LED lights...

Just like that, HID technology is so yesterday.

A couple more great things about LEDs: they are plenty bright and most efficient at lower power consumptions. HIDs are not - you gotta run at least 12 W, period. This enables enormous control over runtime capabilities and hence battery requirements...which means these babies are perfect for ultra stuff as well as NASCAR style 24's. As efficiency increases, we'll either have lighter batteries or more runtime - or both. It's only gonna get better for quite some time.

So here's the deal. While my bones are knitting I need something to think about. I'm after the perfect light design and have a lot of ideas, but if you could share your lighting requirements, especially where ultra events are concerned, that will help steer/form a good design. I think with some swappable parts a single system could work for just about any application...what would you want for your lighting application?

You can put your ideas in the comments section (which requires that you register to the site), or hit me via email at hairball.dh @ gmail.com.

We are not mushrooms...

shattered but not broken

Dave — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 16:17:00 GMT

what an interesting few days. first - many, many thanks for the kind comments and emails. i'm a lucky guy with no lack of support.

doc says collarbone might heal w/o surgery - all those chunks would make a big knot. it might not though, and would take a long time if it does work. so - my choice is an upgrade, pure ti baby. a plate and screws puts it all back together.

it looks like i'm out for at least a month - from work and riding. that's what i'm told anyway...but ya know my style by now...

in any case, for at least 2 weeks i can't do much that involves movement, so i'll be getting cerebral. the grey matter is long overdue for some feeding anyway.

any suggestions as to cerebral topics?