Final Preparations....

Well, it's almost over.  All the work and training, all the worry and wondering, finally I'll just be able to get on my bike and ride for as hard and long as I can.  Jen and I will be staying with my Uncle who lives in Logan because hotel rooms are all long taken.  I'll be tuning and cleaning my bike tonight and I'll go for a short ride tomorrow morning just to make sure everything is working as it should.  Then, we'll be off.  Off to see if what I had once thought impossible for me might be possible.  Jen worried at the beginning of the year that Lotoja would become all consuming and I've tried hard not to let it, but right now, it's dominating my life.

Jen asked me what's it going to be like for me and my bike after this race?  Would I go back to "sane" riding (like only once a day)?  I told her I didn't know yet.  I would like to keep my fitness and continue to get better.  I really enjoy riding my bike.  But I've ridden hard this year.  Over 4000 miles and 287,000 feet of climbing since January 1st.  Maybe I'll look back at this year and think "it wasn't that much", but from where I'm standing right now, it seems like a lot.

The next post I put up on this blog will be my report of how the race went.  Wish me luck!

Lotoja is Coming!

It's only 2 weeks before Lotoja and I'm getting pretty nervous.  I'm trying to get my last bit of hard training  before I start to taper down the last week leading up to the race.  Last week was great as far as training goes.  I wasn't able to get anything very long in distance, but I was able to climb Butterfield Canyon to the top on three separate occasions and that felt good.  This week as been a bit tougher time wise so it hasn't gone as well.

I'm having to get a new tubular tire for my back wheel as my current tire is officially shot.  As you can see from the picture I've had to be a little creative in trying to get the most life out of this tire as possible.  I've been using (with pretty good success) tube patches on the outside of my wheel to cover spots where large spots of tire rubber is missing.  The patches last about a week but they only cost about 50 cents each so it's a heck of lot cheaper then gluing a new tire.  Unfortunately, it's to a point now where I can't seem to keep air in the wheel for very long as the cuts have just gotten worse and worse.  I can't believe how fast the back wheel wears on tubulars. I will try a different brand to see if it helps but this last one only lasted 2 to 3 months.  The tire I'm replacing is the Continental Sprinter Gaterskin tubular tire for anyone who is interested.  I wasn't really impressed.  The next tire I will try is the Continental Grand Prix 4000 SR tubular.  I've heard it lasts longer but we'll see I guess.

Ultimate Challenge....Check!

Last year I discovered the Tour of Utah Ultimate Challenge ride that coincides with the Tour of Utah each year.  The idea is that they let "serious" amateur riders sign up and ride the exact course as the Pro's on what they call the "Queen Stage" of the Tour.  It's a brutal stage with more than 10,000 feet of climbing and I remember thinking to myself how crazy it would be to do it.  Well, with about a week before the ride this year, I decided I'd give it a try.

I was nervous going into this ride not knowing how my fitness would be.  I've been fighting a cold for the past few weeks and though most of it's effects are gone I'm still struggling with a brutal cough.  After visiting the doctor on Wednesday he confirmed that there wasn't much that could be done to help but the good news was that I wouldn't be aggravating or prolonging it by doing this ride.  That was good enough for me.

Saturday morning started at 4:30 am wake-up were I'd meet some Infinite team members and carpool up to Park City for the start of the race.  Thanks to the Infinite Team member for driving.  We got there with enough time to do final preparations and rolled to the start at about 7:15 a.m.  It was a bit cool so I wore some arm warmers but I probably didn't need them as it got warm pretty early on in the ride.  As I got going I noticed a rubbing sound coming from somewhere nearby.  With so many riders riding in a pack it was hard to tell if it was me or someone else who was make the noise.  Turned out, it was me.  My breaks were rubbing on my rear tire but there was no way to stop if I wanted to keep up with the main pack.  So I road all the way up the first climb with the annoying squeaks of rubbing breaks.  Once at the top, before heading down to Kamas I was able to hop off and quickly adjust my breaks, problem solved.  

Flying down though Kamas I elected to not stop at the first feed station.  I had plenty of food and water still and it felt good just to keep going.  The ride in the valley though Kamas was beautiful in the morning, with mist coming from the fields around you.  We then climbed out of Kamas and road down into Heber Valley which again was beautiful.  I made my first stop at the feed station in Heber because I was getting hungry and though I knew that most of my fellow teammatse were not going to stop I thought I better be safe and stay on top of my nutrition.  

I then road with various packs past Deer Creek Reservoir down Provo Canyon.  We then turned on the road up to Sundance.  This is at about mile 50 in the ride and I was surprised at how good I was feeling.  I knew this was going to be a tough climb but my strength was good and I wasn't coughing a lot.  I found my rhythm and really enjoyed the long road up.  As you get higher the ride gets prettier and prettier.  I don't think there is a more scenic ride anywhere.  It really helps take your mind of the struggle of the ride.  I stopped at the food station at the top for food and a bathroom stop and then headed down through American Fork Canyon.  I found myself alone going down and that made me be a bit more cautious because  I find it much easier following people down a canyon road following their line than trying to judge the speeds and the turns myself.  I eventually caught on to a group near the bottom and road with them all the way through Alpine up towards South Mountain.  One note about Alpine, they had an option to finish there if you wanted and there were people lining the roads cheering you on at this point.  I couldn't believe how many people in fact.  It was a cool atmosphere as you road on through.

South Mountain is a climb I've done many times before and I know it very well so I was able to judge my effort easily on this climb.  I still felt really good and what made it even better was seeing my wife and kids cheer me on at various points up the hill.  I stopped at the top and had a quick chat with them and took these photos:

As you can see, I look pretty happy at this point.  I bombed the decent down the north side of Suncrest and road through the very familiar roads of my hometown, Draper.  I knew at this point what I was in for the rest of the way and I still felt pretty good so I knew I'd be able to finish.  Once at the bottom of Little Cottonwood I stopped for a quick feed and I figured there was no point in delaying the inevitable pain so I started up the canyon.  One mistake I made at this point was that I drank a Coke that they had at the feed station thinking that it would give me one last little boost at the end.  But I learned that you don't experiment with food at this point.  I never drink coke on rides and it did me no good.  In fact, it made me feel sick about half way up the canyon.  It was really hot at this point of the day and I did my best to stay hydrated but I could feel my strength being drained.  I began to loose my rhythm and I struggled to keep going.  I could see other riders stopped on the side of the road struggling as well.  I didn't dare stop because I didn't trust myself getting going again.  As I reached Tanners Flat I began to feel good again.  I still felt somewhat sick but my legs were gaining their strength back and I was able to keep a decent peddling cadence.  People were lining the road at this point cheering you on and that was really fun.  People in crazy costumes offering you food and water.  Some guy put an ice pack down my neck which felt wonderful.  It was the boost I needed to make it the rest of the way.  

Someone had told me that the finish was at Snowbird Entry 1 this year instead of Entry 2 as in previous years.  I was highly disappointed at the time to find out that was wrong.  But once past Entry 2 you go downhill to the finish line where people cheer you on as you cross.  I saw my family in the crowd cheering the loudest of them all.  Once I crossed the line I thought I was going to throw-up.  It took everything I had to keep it down and I then started coughing like crazy which didn't help.  It took me a good 45 minutes before I felt okay again.  I enjoyed lunch with my family at Snowbird and watched the Pro's come in about an hour after I did.  Such a fun ride and I will for sure put it on my calendar for next year.  

ULCER 2012

Last weekend we decided to ride this years ULCER that starts at Thanksgiving Point and goes around Utah Lake and finishes again at Thanksgiving Point.  The course was a total of 103 miles of mostly flat roads.  This was our first century ride last year and we probably over-trained at the time thinking that is was going to be "so hard" but it ended up not being bad at all so this year we signed up at the last minute without stressing about it too much.  I recommend this century to anyone who has a goal of doing one for the first time.  It's so well run with plenty of food and it's nice and flat with pretty scenery.  Jen and I stayed together the whole time and we had fun chatting about the funny riders around us.  This was us getting ready to go:

I could feel a cold coming on as we rode this and by the next day it had gotten worse.  I'm headed to the doctor today because it's gone down into my chest and I have a hard century ride this weekend and I don't think I can do it in my current condition.  This weekend's ride is called "The Tour of Utah's Ultimate Challenge" and yes I know, it sounds very dramatic but its going to be tough.  It's 100 miles with 4 good climbs totaling about 10,000 of elevation gain.  I'll post about it once its done.  Hopefully I'll feel better by then.

A Crash and a Vacation

Every year my wife's family does a reunion / vacation in the bear lake area.  Jen lately has been calling the trip "Bike Camp" as we are usually able to get in some good miles around the lake in the mornings as the kids played with their cousins at the rented house.

Our plan was to ride Saturday morning, load our things in the afternoon and head up to the lake that evening.  We had just finished coming down Butterfield Canyon and I had wondered a ways ahead of Jen.  I decided to soft pedal until Jen caught up and while doing so I suddenly hear behind me "Ahhhhhhh"!  I then felt the impact of a bike crunching into the back of my bike.  I struggled to stay up at first but then I looked behind me to see Jen flying through the air over her handle bars and smashing, face first, into the dirt.  My first thought was "oh no, this is going to be bad."  I stopped to see Jen spitting out rocks and bleeding pretty bad from her knee and elbow.  It took some time for her to gather herself enough to get on the bike and ride the rest of the way home.  She must of had some serious adrenaline flowing at the time because by the time we got home she collapsed on the stairs exhausted and overcome.  It turned out that she had some serious bruising to her knee and some good road rash but remarkably nothing on her face.  I asked if I could take a picture to document her first major (there have been lots of minor) crash but she would have none of it.

After analyzing what went wrong we decided we were both somewhat at fault (mostly hers but a little bit of mine too.)  I wasn't paying attention at how fast she was gaining on me as I was waiting and she apparently got distracted looking at a yard sale that we were just passing and seeing a nice set of drums that she thought would be cool to own. She didn't notice I was going slower than her at the time and Boom!  I'm pretty sure the people at the yard sale thought we were idiots as they witnessed the whole thing.

Our bikes sustained some damage that we've been mostly able to repair.  Nothing too bad.  My back tubular tire that I just had replaced had a chunk of rubber taking out by her pedal but I've been able to use a patch on the tire itself and it's seems to be holding up.

As for our vacation, well we were delayed somewhat in leaving that night and Jen wasn't able to ride for the first few days we were there.  But about mid-week she got back on the bike and road quite a bit given that it seemed to help loosen up her hurt knee.  We had fun with our kids on the lake and hiking Logan Canyon and just hanging out and being lazy.  I've notice Jen is still a little bit skiddish on the bike since the wreck.  I'm sure she would say she's just being more cautious and I don't blame here.  It will take some time for here to forget and get more comfortable, I think.


This was a typical ride of ours in the morning.    
We also enjoyed climbing Logan Canyon.


A funny picture I think.

Dry, hot, and windy have been the story of my riding this past week.  Fires down south have hampered air quality to the point of it being very noticeable.  Just this morning the haze of smoke was so thick you could taste it as you gasped for air.   It makes me wonder if my overall health is being helped or hurt by being outside on a bike.  Still, I'm addicted and I always notice when I don't get a my ride in for the day. (sometimes two.)

Yesterday at work I was showing a subcontractor what we needed done to one of our buildings when out of the blue he asked me what I ride.  At first I thought he was talking about motorcycling so I asked him what he meant.  He responded by saying "oh come on.  Shaved legs?(I was wearing shorts), tan line just above the ankle? You don't have to talk about it if you don't want but it's obvious that you ride."  It was a little embarrassing but it made me laugh.  I didn't know it was that obvious but I guess I do have a pretty funny tan line.  It turns out this guy also "rides" and he seemed to be just as fanatical about it as I am.  I'm thinking you have to be in order to spot someone out like that.

High Uinta's 10,000 Road Race

Friday night, thanks to my wife, and really on just a whim, I decided to do the High Uinta Classic early the next morning.   It's a challenging 80 mile race from Kamas to Evanston, Wyoming.  I figured it would be a good test of the legs with the nearly 30 miles of climbing.  I woke up early, drove to Kamas and got myself ready for the punishment that was to come.  As we started I did my best to stay near the front of the pack.  I even did 2 pulls at the front before the pace was just to much and it didn't take long before I was dropped.  I was caught between packs of riders from then until pretty much the end of the race.  I did latch onto a group of 3 guys who were in a different category for the last 15 miles or so and that really helped in getting me to the end.  I couldn't believe the difference between riding on those flat Wyoming road alone and riding with a group.  I was able to go 1 to 2 miles per hour faster and practically soft pedal for the whole time.   I ended up taking 25th out of my category of 40 riders which isn't very good but at least I wasn't last.  

As a side note, I flatted my rear tubular tire today on my lunchtime ride.  This is going to be a pain to fix but at least it wasn't in race.