Death Ride III - The Ride

My day started at 2:30 am. Actually I was so excited that I woke up a 1/2 hour before the alarm. Breakfast was oatmeal, banana, protein shake and yogurt. Suit up and on the road to the race start at 3:45 pm.

6 of we riders and our supportive friends and family arrive a the ride start and it is still dark. The entire team was 17 riders but the 6 of us got an extra early start to give us more leeway on the crucial time cut-offs. We do some stretching, fumble around looking for lights or long fingered gloves and try one last time to use the restroom.





























We hit the road at 4:30 am in the pitch black night in great spirits leaving a trail of blinking red lights behind us. With such a long day expected ahead of us, our coaches cautioned us to take the first 10 mile climb up Monitor pass very slowly. It was cool but not cold. It was quite an experience to see the sun rise while riding up a mountain. Here's a photo of me at the top of the first climb.















I had so much adrenaline that the two climbs up Monitor pass felt like they just flew by even though they took over 5 hours. That is good time for me, the entire group was doing very well and we were actually ahead of schedule.

We arrive back at our SAG (support and gear) stop to take a brief rest and eat. Eating lunch at 9:30 am was pretty weird. We regroup and hit the road a short time later.

The 13 mile climb up the front side of Ebbetts was glorious but extremely long. Lakes, snowcaps, Aspens, just amazingly beautiful.






























Here I am at the top of Ebbetts (the 3rd big climb of the day)















I take a 15 minute rest at the bottom in Hermit's Valley before making the U-Turn to climb back out. The heat kicked up on the backside 5-mile climb out of Hermit's Valley on Ebbetts and the going got very rough but I just kept spinning those legs and grinding it out. I can't describe how pumped up I felt cresting that 4th peak. A wave of relief passed over me as I realized that I was still feeling alive and well after 4 of the 5 climbs were behind me. The down hill was very long and technical. There were several hairpin turns with steep drops off the side.

Back to the best SAG of the day. We were greeted by cool drinks, fresh fruit and ice cold WASHCLOTHS. OMG, those hit the spot.

The majority of the team has regrouped by this point and we hit the road to the Pickett Junction time cut off with a 15 person pace line! It was over 95 degrees for the first half of the last climb up to Carson pass and I labored having to stop and rest several times. The last half was cooler but just kept going and going. Near the top, I see many people walking the their bikes.

Here I am at the crest of Carson Pass.















I get to the finish in kind of a daze and am met by the rest of the Team. The reception I got almost made me weep like a girly man. High fives, hugs and hearty congratulations.

The downhill was exhilarating. Kathryn, Sally and I bolt down in a team time trial, riding at high speed working as a group. So much fun.

The last bit was a 5-mile ride back to Turtle Rock park. I finished up at 7:30 pm after 14 hours on the bike to Christine's beautiful smiling face at Turtle Rock.















All and all, I had a fantastic ride. It was one of the best days I've ever had on the bike. The stars aligned and I had a nearly perfect ride.

Death Ride Part I - Pre-Event Training

Well, it's been over a year since my last blog entry. You can blame Facebook for that. I've got a little more to say this time, so a return to the blog seemed appropriate.

Christine and I just returned last night from my latest cycling adventure. Saturday was a big day in the saddle for me. I participated in the Death Ride.












The DR, also known as the Tour of the California Alps, is a pretty epic road bike ride with an embarrassingly pretentious name. On paper it is 129 miles, with over 15,000 feet of climbing over 5 mountain passes. In real life, it is every bit of that and more. It is a beautiful, glorious test of skill and character.

Those that know me or have been following my Facebook posts, know that I have been training very hard in preparation for this event. For a variety of reasons, I started training late and had some significant ground to make up. I joined in with Team in Training's ACE (Altitude, Climbing, Endurance) team on one of their midseason training rides as a guest mentor, and got my ass handed to me barely able to complete the ride. I may not be the most skilled or accomplished cyclist, but I try to work hard. I firmly believe that if you put your time in and do the work, you can reach your highest goals. So I started on plan B, putting in long lonely solo hours on the bike, doing endless climbing repeats on local mountains until I felt that I could show my face again with the ACE team on the last few training rides. My performance improved significantly, but I still felt I was behind the curve consistently finishing last on every ride. Then I had a nasty crash on Soledad Mountain with a nice visit to the ER which slowed me down during the last crucial weeks of training. My coaches advised me to trust in my training and rest and recover, but I couldn't help feeling that I had to get one last long training ride in and pushed it a little bit. It went great so I started to get some confidence back. In hindsight, it wasn't necessary from a physical standpoint, but it was crucial from a mental standpoint. I had to get back on that horse to see how my body would react. Even with all that, I'm not going to lie to you, I went into event weekend more than a little worried.

More later.

Hanging with the ACE team

For some reason, the attendance for training tonight was really small. We were down to one coach where there are usually 2-3. Anyway, tonight's spin leader was Coach Phil, the head coach of the ACE team. ACE stands for Altitude, Climbing, Endurance. They are also part of TnT but are a specialized team that is training for more mountainous rides.

Here's a really blurry photo of me taken with a camera phone at the start of training before I got too sweaty.


The workout was shorter than Tuesday's but it was very intense.

We started out with a spin up starting at a cadence 80 RPM and slowly increasing speed until we got to 120 RPM. On the regular team, we had only ever gone up to 105 RPM. That extra 15 was tough.

We then moved on to ILT (individual leg training) where we pedal with one leg at a time for three minutes at a time in the highest gear you can crank while maintaining a cadence of 80 RPM. This got the quads really burning.... We did two sets with each leg.

Next was everybody's favorite, the standing climb. The regular team did 12 minutes of standing/sitting. Stand for 3-minutes in your highest gear and then sit for the next 3 minutes without shifing gear. Repeat. It's very hard to crank in that high of a gear when you are sitting. It's easier when you are standing because you have your body weight to help your crank down.

The ACE team did 15-minutes of all standing with the last 5 minutes including rushes. In each of the last 5-minutes, 15 seconds were spent "rushing" which is sprinting while still standing. I decided to see if I could hang with the ACE team and gave it a shot. I was able to do the entire 15-minutes without sitting or stopping including the rushes but it was an ass-whooping. I was pouring sweat by the end of it.

Next was a modified 3-3-3. Pick a hard gear and go 80 rpm for 3 minutes, then upshift to the next hardest gear for another 3 keeping the same cadence. Then 3 more at a gear where you can barely keep that speed up. The ACE team does a 3-3-1.5-1.5 so they shift 3 times. It's tougher than it sounds.

Last was another spin up to cool down. Progress through various speeds up and down. Something along these lines 80-85-90-95-100-105-110-105-100-95-90-85-80. Then stretch, wring out your bandanna, pack up and eat.