We start each of our rides with a Mission Moment. This is when someone tells a personal story about how their life has been touched by blood cancers. Today's talk was given by our Team Coordinator, Laurie.
Laurie is a coordinator with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Her job is to recruit and retain participants like me and organize endurance events with the overall goal of raising money to find a cure for cancers. It's a lot of work, the hours are long and I'm sure the pay isn't very good, considering she works for a non-profit. She started out as a participant on the Walk team, just like I did. She recounts that at that time she had no direct link the the "mission" and joined the walk team for personal fitness reasons. She became good friends with two other participants during that season, including one that was a blood cancer survivor. That woman was mother to two little girls and was training for a marathon and was one of the Team's honored teammates. She had fought back cancer two times over the years. She lost her battle with a third bout of cancer a few days ago. It was heart-wrenching to hear the story but even more so for me to watch Laurie, struggling to retain her composure while recounting the story. Tears welled in her eyes, her face flushed, her lips quivered as she described how her friend's life changed from "is" to "was". She no no longer "is" she is now a "was". I don't think this is something you can ever get used to even if you work for the Leukemia Society.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
They're Ready - 05-09-09 Team Ride
Yesterday's Team ride was a killer. The weather promised to be hot, and the planned mileage was long at 85 miles, not to mention the 5,000 feet of climb to go along with it. I'd missed the last two long rides while gallivanting around Nashville on vacation and I'll have to admit that I was a little worried about what it would be like to come back to that mileage. I made sure to ride during the week to at least have a fighting chance.
The route started and ended in Poway right at that little "Z" looking shape is to the right of the "56" on the map below. I forgot to turn on my bike computer for the first 8 miles so that little "Z" is supposed to connect with the arch above to make a sort of lazy 8 route.
We rode northward through Rancho Santa Fe, before looping back to the center of the map before generally heading west and north again the coast. We rode north past Encinitas and then doubled back and started heading inland again.
The group I'm mentoring, the B3's, had an exceptionally good day today. Everyone's spirits were good, and the riding was exceptional. Today was the day where they really and truly "gelled" as a group. The pace lines were tight the entire day. The group did a very good job of pace line rotations the entire day with all riders sharing the load equally.
We also had a lot's of good communication. Our group has had trouble calling out "pace" or "gap" when the line stretches out too long. Sometimes this happens when a rider rotates off the front of the pace line and mistimes their re-entry to the back of the pace line. All of a sudden, that rider finds themselves, 5-10 feet behind the rest of the fast moving pack. The natural inclination is to spend extra energy to surge forward to reattach to the line. For me it used to be a pride thing when I was learning the ropes of riding correctly in a group. This is a needless waste of energy and can sometimes result in 1-2 minutes of work to do. It is better to call out "pace" alerting the riders ahead to slow down 1-2 mph, thereby allowing the following rider to reattach quickly. This takes 10 seconds instead of 1-2 minutes of hard work.
The last part of the ride was an excruciating 10+ miles climb up Mercy Rd, Scripps Poway Parkway affectionately known as the "Purple Monster". This is real big kid stuff and it was coming at mile 70 at 4:30 pm when the sun was beating down the hottest.
Everyone put their heads down and just grinded it out. Pedal, breathe, pedal, breathe, pedal, breathe, drink, pedal, pedal.... You get the point. 50 minutes later, we reach the top, drenched in sweat. I tell you there is no tougher sport than cycling.
We gathered up and we looked down the hill at what we had just done, drinking it all in. Awesome. At that point, we had ridden 80 miles and had climbed 5,000 feet. The route around Lake Tahoe, is 78 Miles and the total amount of climbing is 3,600 feet. They're ready!
The next couple of weeks, we have a 90-mile and a 93-mile rides but none with the amount of climbing we did today. Just long rides with lots of saddle time. After that, it's one week of resting, if you count a 50-mile ride, "resting" and the following week is event day in Lake Tahoe. Very exciting.
The route started and ended in Poway right at that little "Z" looking shape is to the right of the "56" on the map below. I forgot to turn on my bike computer for the first 8 miles so that little "Z" is supposed to connect with the arch above to make a sort of lazy 8 route.
We rode northward through Rancho Santa Fe, before looping back to the center of the map before generally heading west and north again the coast. We rode north past Encinitas and then doubled back and started heading inland again.
The group I'm mentoring, the B3's, had an exceptionally good day today. Everyone's spirits were good, and the riding was exceptional. Today was the day where they really and truly "gelled" as a group. The pace lines were tight the entire day. The group did a very good job of pace line rotations the entire day with all riders sharing the load equally.
We also had a lot's of good communication. Our group has had trouble calling out "pace" or "gap" when the line stretches out too long. Sometimes this happens when a rider rotates off the front of the pace line and mistimes their re-entry to the back of the pace line. All of a sudden, that rider finds themselves, 5-10 feet behind the rest of the fast moving pack. The natural inclination is to spend extra energy to surge forward to reattach to the line. For me it used to be a pride thing when I was learning the ropes of riding correctly in a group. This is a needless waste of energy and can sometimes result in 1-2 minutes of work to do. It is better to call out "pace" alerting the riders ahead to slow down 1-2 mph, thereby allowing the following rider to reattach quickly. This takes 10 seconds instead of 1-2 minutes of hard work.
The last part of the ride was an excruciating 10+ miles climb up Mercy Rd, Scripps Poway Parkway affectionately known as the "Purple Monster". This is real big kid stuff and it was coming at mile 70 at 4:30 pm when the sun was beating down the hottest.
Everyone put their heads down and just grinded it out. Pedal, breathe, pedal, breathe, pedal, breathe, drink, pedal, pedal.... You get the point. 50 minutes later, we reach the top, drenched in sweat. I tell you there is no tougher sport than cycling.
We gathered up and we looked down the hill at what we had just done, drinking it all in. Awesome. At that point, we had ridden 80 miles and had climbed 5,000 feet. The route around Lake Tahoe, is 78 Miles and the total amount of climbing is 3,600 feet. They're ready!
The next couple of weeks, we have a 90-mile and a 93-mile rides but none with the amount of climbing we did today. Just long rides with lots of saddle time. After that, it's one week of resting, if you count a 50-mile ride, "resting" and the following week is event day in Lake Tahoe. Very exciting.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Mid-Week Training
It seems that I lost a little pep in my step during the two weeks off the bike during my vacation. Beside the world's slowest 1/2-marathon, my exercise during vacation was limited to walking between Barbecue Joints in Nashville. Didn't really feel like riding but with some big mile rides coming up over the next month and I knew that I had to get some miles in during the week.
Big Ring Tuesday was pretty good but climbing today at Mt Soledad was tough. Rode with Lisa Hill and did two repeats. It was pretty warm and I was huffing and puffing. Heat is my personal Kryptonite and just saps the strength out of me. Toughed it out on the uphills and screamed on the downhills to relieve a little stress. Got up to 41 MPH on the Nautilus St. downhill. Wheee!
Totals were 14 miles with right around 1600 feet of climbing.
Big Ring Tuesday was pretty good but climbing today at Mt Soledad was tough. Rode with Lisa Hill and did two repeats. It was pretty warm and I was huffing and puffing. Heat is my personal Kryptonite and just saps the strength out of me. Toughed it out on the uphills and screamed on the downhills to relieve a little stress. Got up to 41 MPH on the Nautilus St. downhill. Wheee!
Totals were 14 miles with right around 1600 feet of climbing.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Cult of the Big Ring
The days are getting nice and long and that means...Hello Fiesta Island. Read my lament from last year when the days got too long to continue riding.
Tuesday night is usually a spin session but I've always preferred actually riding my bike to using a spin trainer. Coach DJ (aka the sadist), the coach of the ACE team premiered a new training session tonight on the island called Big Ring Tuesday. Lately he's been very big on heavy resistance training to build power and endurance. Our spin work outs have included lots of big ring (harder to pedal) work. Joining in the fun where a couple of team mates, Tonya and Christine H.
First rule of the Cult of the Big Ring: You must be in the big ring at all times.
Even our warm up laps were done in the big ring. Luckily the island is mostly flat so once you get going you can really get moving.
After a few warm up laps around the small 2.5 mile loop, we pick it up to 16-17 mph and make our way around the large 4-mile loop. Then the fun really starts. Interval sprints between random "no parking" signs on the side of the road. Gather speed to the first sign and then just cut loose going as hard and fast as you can until you get to the next sign. Recover to the following sign, then repeat. 5 sprints total. I get to the end gasping like a fish out of water with my legs on fire.
Second rule of Cult of the Big Ring: you must feel like you are going to puke for at least 20% of the time you are riding.
Another big loop around the island to recover and then let's do it again. This time, the sprints are two signs long instead of one.
Third Rule of Cult of the Big Ring: You must feel like murdering your Coach at least once during the training session.
Recover doing a small loop then it's follow the leader. We line up behind the coach in a nice orderly paceline and then he gradually turns it up until we can't hold on any longer and drop off. We start at somewhere around 15 mph and all is well. Then 16, 17, 18, 19, uh-oh. Tonya drops back, then Christine. Then it's me and DJ, 20, 21, 22, 23...going fast and furious. I'm on his wheel like white on rice. We get to a slight uphill at one of the "turns" and I know he's going to try and lose me on the incline. I'm ready and give it some more gas and hang on. Fun fun fun. We continue on for a bit more and then I start cramping on my right calf and decide to finally drop off. We all gather up somewhere down the road do one last cool down lap around the small loop and call it a night.
Very intense work out and very enjoyable. We've been doing so much hill work that it is nice to get a variety and do some speed and strength work. More training variety means can only improve our overall performance.
I had forgotten my bike computer so I don't have totals for the night but it was somewhere around 20 hard miles. It was actually pretty refreshing to ride without the data input, just reacting to the riders around you. Very pure.
Tuesday night is usually a spin session but I've always preferred actually riding my bike to using a spin trainer. Coach DJ (aka the sadist), the coach of the ACE team premiered a new training session tonight on the island called Big Ring Tuesday. Lately he's been very big on heavy resistance training to build power and endurance. Our spin work outs have included lots of big ring (harder to pedal) work. Joining in the fun where a couple of team mates, Tonya and Christine H.
First rule of the Cult of the Big Ring: You must be in the big ring at all times.
Even our warm up laps were done in the big ring. Luckily the island is mostly flat so once you get going you can really get moving.
After a few warm up laps around the small 2.5 mile loop, we pick it up to 16-17 mph and make our way around the large 4-mile loop. Then the fun really starts. Interval sprints between random "no parking" signs on the side of the road. Gather speed to the first sign and then just cut loose going as hard and fast as you can until you get to the next sign. Recover to the following sign, then repeat. 5 sprints total. I get to the end gasping like a fish out of water with my legs on fire.
Second rule of Cult of the Big Ring: you must feel like you are going to puke for at least 20% of the time you are riding.
Another big loop around the island to recover and then let's do it again. This time, the sprints are two signs long instead of one.
Third Rule of Cult of the Big Ring: You must feel like murdering your Coach at least once during the training session.
Recover doing a small loop then it's follow the leader. We line up behind the coach in a nice orderly paceline and then he gradually turns it up until we can't hold on any longer and drop off. We start at somewhere around 15 mph and all is well. Then 16, 17, 18, 19, uh-oh. Tonya drops back, then Christine. Then it's me and DJ, 20, 21, 22, 23...going fast and furious. I'm on his wheel like white on rice. We get to a slight uphill at one of the "turns" and I know he's going to try and lose me on the incline. I'm ready and give it some more gas and hang on. Fun fun fun. We continue on for a bit more and then I start cramping on my right calf and decide to finally drop off. We all gather up somewhere down the road do one last cool down lap around the small loop and call it a night.
Very intense work out and very enjoyable. We've been doing so much hill work that it is nice to get a variety and do some speed and strength work. More training variety means can only improve our overall performance.
I had forgotten my bike computer so I don't have totals for the night but it was somewhere around 20 hard miles. It was actually pretty refreshing to ride without the data input, just reacting to the riders around you. Very pure.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Avenue of the Giants
The second leg of our vacation was in the Pacific Northwest. Christine and I were in Ferndale, CA in way northern California for a 1/2 marathon called Avenue of the Giants. This race takes place in the Humboldt Redwoods State park and is very scenic. The route takes you through the Redwood forest with most of it being under the canopy of the trees. It was gorgeous.
It's been a long time since I participated in a 1/2-marathon now that my principal sport is cycling. the last one I did was the 2008 San Francisco 1/2-marathon and it did not go well. I didn't really train for it and had seriously underestimated how far my form had fallen since I stopped walking on a regular basis. I had decided to not make the same mistake twice and had made plans to attempt some real training for this one. I made plans to walk on Monday nights with my Walk Team friends, walk during my lunch hour and do some long mileage on Sunday. The best laid plans.... Works been crazy, I was prepping for a vacation, I've been riding lots of weekend miles, etc. I managed to get in 3 Monday night sessions, 2 weekend walks and 0 lunch time walks. I also got some new shoes 3 weeks before the event and was really pushing the limit of getting them "broken in". Not so good. I did manage to get in a 10-miler a couple of weeks before the event so I knew the 13.1 miles was within striking distance.
Sunday morning and it is showtime. I start out with Christine and a couple of Walk Team friends, Ellen and Debbie. Ellen was actually one of my Walk Team coaches when I trained for the Dublin full marathon in '07. Well, she's faster than the rest of us and takes off leaving us behind. Debbie usually walks a slower pace which leaves Christine and I. We gobble up some very scenic miles and then I have to take a nature break. Christine presses on and I say I'll catch up. Get back on the road and Christine is a small dot up ahead. I speed up to but I never did catch her. I had started to get some troubling symptoms; too much foot movement within the shoes, a burning feeling in my toes, hips starting to ache. I'm not physically tired but my body isn't used to the pounding any more.
I hit the 1/2-way point and we make a U-Turn to come back to the start.
There were a lot of Team in Training people with at least the San Francisco chapter using this race as a formal event so this represented the end of the season for them. It was great to see all the cheerleading going on from their teammates and coaches and it frankly felt a little weird not being a part of it. I wasn't wearing any of my TnT gear so they had no way of knowing that I am "one of them".
Walk the last 5 miles essentially alone. All the runners were long since done and the few walkers left on the course were few and far between. It was actually very peaceful and I tried to pay special attention to the surroundings. Feet are hurting and hip flexors are really aching.
I finally finish up with a very slow time, not really tired, just physically beat up.
Here is a post race photo
Coach Ellen, Debbie, Christine, Me with our Medals
I've never been particularly fast since I do the race-walking thing but at my peak, I could knock out the 1/2's right around 3 hours. This time, not so much. 3hrs and 46 minutes! Terrible time but not completely unexpected considering my lack of preparation. On the positive side, I did actually complete the race while most people in the world sat on the butt watching sports instead of doing them.
It's been a long time since I participated in a 1/2-marathon now that my principal sport is cycling. the last one I did was the 2008 San Francisco 1/2-marathon and it did not go well. I didn't really train for it and had seriously underestimated how far my form had fallen since I stopped walking on a regular basis. I had decided to not make the same mistake twice and had made plans to attempt some real training for this one. I made plans to walk on Monday nights with my Walk Team friends, walk during my lunch hour and do some long mileage on Sunday. The best laid plans.... Works been crazy, I was prepping for a vacation, I've been riding lots of weekend miles, etc. I managed to get in 3 Monday night sessions, 2 weekend walks and 0 lunch time walks. I also got some new shoes 3 weeks before the event and was really pushing the limit of getting them "broken in". Not so good. I did manage to get in a 10-miler a couple of weeks before the event so I knew the 13.1 miles was within striking distance.
Sunday morning and it is showtime. I start out with Christine and a couple of Walk Team friends, Ellen and Debbie. Ellen was actually one of my Walk Team coaches when I trained for the Dublin full marathon in '07. Well, she's faster than the rest of us and takes off leaving us behind. Debbie usually walks a slower pace which leaves Christine and I. We gobble up some very scenic miles and then I have to take a nature break. Christine presses on and I say I'll catch up. Get back on the road and Christine is a small dot up ahead. I speed up to but I never did catch her. I had started to get some troubling symptoms; too much foot movement within the shoes, a burning feeling in my toes, hips starting to ache. I'm not physically tired but my body isn't used to the pounding any more.
I hit the 1/2-way point and we make a U-Turn to come back to the start.
There were a lot of Team in Training people with at least the San Francisco chapter using this race as a formal event so this represented the end of the season for them. It was great to see all the cheerleading going on from their teammates and coaches and it frankly felt a little weird not being a part of it. I wasn't wearing any of my TnT gear so they had no way of knowing that I am "one of them".
Walk the last 5 miles essentially alone. All the runners were long since done and the few walkers left on the course were few and far between. It was actually very peaceful and I tried to pay special attention to the surroundings. Feet are hurting and hip flexors are really aching.
I finally finish up with a very slow time, not really tired, just physically beat up.
Here is a post race photo
Coach Ellen, Debbie, Christine, Me with our Medals
I've never been particularly fast since I do the race-walking thing but at my peak, I could knock out the 1/2's right around 3 hours. This time, not so much. 3hrs and 46 minutes! Terrible time but not completely unexpected considering my lack of preparation. On the positive side, I did actually complete the race while most people in the world sat on the butt watching sports instead of doing them.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Bluebird
We did so many things in Nashville, that I really didn't have enough time to write about most of them so I'll just comment on them over the next couple of days as I have some free time.
One of the highlights of the trip for me was a visit to the famous Bluebird Cafe. This is a very small intimate venue that has showcased local songwriters and musicians for over 25 years.
It is a staple of the Nashville music scene and has hosted a lot of musicians that polished or developed their craft there. People like
Garth Brooks
Kim Carnes
Carol King
Kris Kristofferson
Faith Hill
Cowboy Junkies
Bonnie Raitt
and on and on and on.
We were treated a In the Round session comprised of four musicians that are loosely related due to three of them being on the same record label.
Tom Kimmel
Brent Moyer
Hugh Moffat
Hunter Moore
They would take turns playing one of their original songs and the other musicians would either reverently listen or join in for some harmony or guitar work.
Our seats were so good that Christine could literally reach out and be able to touch the shoulder of one of the performers.
Brent Moyer
Christine with Hugh and Brent in the background
L to R (Hunter, Tom, Hugh)
The performers were all different but each were extremely talented professional musicians.
My impressions were that Hunter had the most polished "craft" in terms of construction of a song. He demonstrated a variety of styles like a downhome blues number, a funny semi-conversational toned song and an almost spiritual song about his childhood.
I thought Brent was the best guitar player of the bunch and would play a lot of the solos for the others. His songs were more bar room country romps. Feel good numbers but then he wowed me with a very sweet romantic ballad.
Hugh had the purest singing voice. He also had some very amusing anecdotes to his songs. His songs were mostly mournful love songs that tended to strayed a little too close to being over the top but I'm a sap so I loved them. One of his fans, played an CD of a 10 year old album to the top DJ in Australia who liked it so much that he played it non stop. Next thing you know, one of the songs is the number 1 tune down under. Hilarious. He's had some famous musicians record and perform his songs including Dolly Parton, Alabama, Merle Haggard, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
Tom was the favorite of Christine and I and I personally think he is a genius. He has a sort of raw singing voice and his songs just cut right to the quick of you. I bought a CD of his music and he explained it is an album comprised of rough first or second cut recordings of his songs. He then recorded more polished versions but his producer actually preferred the raw versions of the songs and encouraged him to use those instead. I have to agree with his assessment. Great stuff.
A very enjoyable evening and another reason to love Nashville.
One of the highlights of the trip for me was a visit to the famous Bluebird Cafe. This is a very small intimate venue that has showcased local songwriters and musicians for over 25 years.
It is a staple of the Nashville music scene and has hosted a lot of musicians that polished or developed their craft there. People like
Garth Brooks
Kim Carnes
Carol King
Kris Kristofferson
Faith Hill
Cowboy Junkies
Bonnie Raitt
and on and on and on.
We were treated a In the Round session comprised of four musicians that are loosely related due to three of them being on the same record label.
Tom Kimmel
Brent Moyer
Hugh Moffat
Hunter Moore
They would take turns playing one of their original songs and the other musicians would either reverently listen or join in for some harmony or guitar work.
Our seats were so good that Christine could literally reach out and be able to touch the shoulder of one of the performers.
Brent Moyer
Christine with Hugh and Brent in the background
L to R (Hunter, Tom, Hugh)
The performers were all different but each were extremely talented professional musicians.
My impressions were that Hunter had the most polished "craft" in terms of construction of a song. He demonstrated a variety of styles like a downhome blues number, a funny semi-conversational toned song and an almost spiritual song about his childhood.
I thought Brent was the best guitar player of the bunch and would play a lot of the solos for the others. His songs were more bar room country romps. Feel good numbers but then he wowed me with a very sweet romantic ballad.
Hugh had the purest singing voice. He also had some very amusing anecdotes to his songs. His songs were mostly mournful love songs that tended to strayed a little too close to being over the top but I'm a sap so I loved them. One of his fans, played an CD of a 10 year old album to the top DJ in Australia who liked it so much that he played it non stop. Next thing you know, one of the songs is the number 1 tune down under. Hilarious. He's had some famous musicians record and perform his songs including Dolly Parton, Alabama, Merle Haggard, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
Tom was the favorite of Christine and I and I personally think he is a genius. He has a sort of raw singing voice and his songs just cut right to the quick of you. I bought a CD of his music and he explained it is an album comprised of rough first or second cut recordings of his songs. He then recorded more polished versions but his producer actually preferred the raw versions of the songs and encouraged him to use those instead. I have to agree with his assessment. Great stuff.
A very enjoyable evening and another reason to love Nashville.
Passing
Got some bad news yesteday. Our honored teammate for my 2008 El Tour de Tucson Century Team, Kevin Hatch, lost his battle with cancer a few days ago. His visits to the Team provided a real face to the cause we are all fighting for. It greatly saddens me to see a young man taken in the prime of his life by this disease. His positive attitude made a deep impression on me. There really isn't too much to say beyond that.
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