My Day In The Eastern Sierras - The Death Ride.

I would have to say I'm happy.

That's me at the top of Carson Pass. #5 of 5 passes climbed during the 2009 Death Ride.

I looked at my bike this last Saturday, it looked sad. Got ridden hard and put away wet. Somehow I have a flat rear tire. What’s with that? How can it have a flat just hanging on the bike stand? Maybe it’s mad at me for coming home from Markleeville, unpacking, and hanging it up on the stand, where it’s been, untouched, all week.

A week has passed since riding in the Death Ride. There have been mixed emotions flowing through me during this time. A sense of accomplishment has been tempered with the feeling of loss. I no longer have the “goal” of riding in the Death Ride out in front of me. I finished the ride feeling good. No injuries. I was sore of course, but not painfully so. A bad case of chapped lips was the worst of it. I am now trying to determine a plan that will enable me to maintain my current level of fitness while living life somewhat normally. Any suggestions?

Shifting back to focusing on my family, and my business, is the name of the game now. This is welcome; my family have been over-the-top supportive of me. A lot of time was spent training and planning for the ride. I have missed spending time with Veronica and Lassen. The real world beckons.

To all of you who offered support: financially by donating to TurningWheels For Kids, emotionally, and physically, there are not words to describe how much all this has meant to me.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

There is still time to donate to this extraordinarily awesome organization. Click here.

I am so honored to be part of TurningWheels For Kids. They are all so amazing: the riders, the cheerleaders, the cooks, the masseuse (oops, we forgot that one huh?).

The TWFK cheering section/rest stop set up at Hermits Valley was a welcome sight. I knew if I made it to there unscathed I would be able to finish 5 passes.

TWFK - Such an amazing group of people. Doing it all for the kids.


There are underprivileged children in Santa Clara County who will benefit directly from your support. Because of you, a few more brand new bikes will be under trees this coming Christmas.

Some stats from the ride:

• 129 miles ridden, 15,000' climbed.

• 1 flat tire, while descending the front side of Ebbetts at 35mph.

• 121 miles of great weather.

• 8 miles of rain while climbing up Carson Pass.

• 20+ water bottles, 14 E-Caps, 10 gels, 1 PowerBar, 2 bananas, 1 V8, and 1 Orange-Vanilla ice-cream bar at the top of Carson Pass.

• Just under 12.5 hours on the bike, about 13.5 hours out on the course including rest stops.

• 9600 calories burned.

• Started at 4:45am, 60 degrees. High in the 90's at the Woodfords rest stop, probably high 40's, low 50's, in the rain going up Carson Pass.

Fastest Descent: #2- East side of Monitor Pass - 50mph+!
Hardest Climb: #5- Carson Pass because of the 40mph gusting wind and rain.

Easiest Climb: #4- up the west side of Ebbetts Pass after a great, but short, rest with the TWFK folks in Hermit Valley.

Best View: Spotting Veronica and Lassen on the side of the road, cheering me on, near Turtle Rock, 3 miles from the finish! Their words of encouragement powered me to the end.

Biggest Smile: Jessica's, at the TWFK Team house while telling us she finished all 5 passes!

Cheeriest Cheerleader: Leah, every time we passed each other she let out a yell that kept me going.

Happiest Moment: Hearing Dave cheer for me when I was almost at the top of Carson. And having him turn around and ride a minute with me to offer encouragement.

Best Food: Orange/Vanilla ice cream bar at the top of Carson.

Melancholy Moment: Sitting at the top of Carson Pass trying to warm up while thinking how beautiful it was to be there, and realizing I still had a 20 mile ride to the finish.










Dave knows I'll finish...

Why are my quads sore?

First of all I have to say THANK YOU to all of my donors who continue to motivate me to pedal to the top of each climb. I am at 50% of my fundraising goal, I hope to reach 100% by the day of the Death Ride on July 11th. If you have been meaning to donate, please go to my TWFK page and donate, or send a check if you wish. Please do it today.

100 miles of riding, yoga, 2 hours of spin class, 2 weight lifting sessions and a couple of random hours of cardio each week. I am getting stronger. 15,000 feet still seems insurmountable. 129 miles is the plan.

Leah did a top 10 list for how you know she is training for the Death Ride. It's fun, take a look.

My version:

10. Scott doesn't make phone calls anymore - too busy trying to figure out when to ride.

9. He answers simple questions like ‘how are you?’ with "huh, do you want the long story, or the condensed version because I have to go out and ride".

8. He is in bed by 9:30pm, and it's still not early enough.

7. He finishes his meal while everyone is still on their first serving and he is wondering if 3rds will be enough.

6. He worries about running out of chocolate flavored Hammer Gel (tastes like chocolate icing).

5. There are no plans made with friends or family unless it includes a 40 mile ride to get there.

4. He cannot sit still for more than 10 minutes without stretching his legs.

3. He'll ride through wind, rain, clouds, cold weather because any training ride cannot be missed. And he HAS ridden through wind, fog, rain, freezing temps, wilting hot temps, and he just missed the snow.

2. His favorite meal is Hammer Recoverite followed by a hot dog and his favorite breakfast is a Vanilla Crisp PowerBar.

1. 9 times out of 10, if you asked where he is you’d be right by answering with "he’s on his bike".

Between riding and fundraising, and trying to fit in work, and family, I am sorry if i haven't connected with you lately.

I am doing it for the kids. They need us.

Thank you all for your continued support.

Recent photos from our training ride. Rand, Leah, Dave and I left from Bear Valley- headed east over Pacific Grade Pass and then down to Hermits Valley. Up the west side of Ebbetts Pass, down to the Carson River Resort. Headed back to Ebbetts Pass, up the east side (mostly in the rain for the remainder of the ride thank-you-very-much), down to Hermits Valley, up and over Pacific Grade Pass (OUCH), and back to Bear Valley. 70 miles.

This was a difficult ride for me. By the time we reached Hermits Valley on the return leg I had lost all my torque. It was all I could do to just keep my legs turning over. I didn't know I could ride so slow and stay upright. I made it back and didn't kill myself :^) Thank you Dave, for staying with me, and encouraging me, you enabled me to make it over the last climb and those pesky rollers leading back to Bear Valley. You are a true friend.

Training, training, training...

Been a little while since I touched base with everyone... the training is going well.

Total to date: 900 miles, 40,000' of climbing...

The last few weeks have been full. Lots of riding - two rides are worth mentioning: Boulder Creek and Markleeville.

Boulder Creek:
As you know I have been upping the climbing quotient gradually while trying to heal my knee. 2 weekends ago a group from TWFK rode from Los Gatos to Boulder Creek and back. 56 miles with 6000' of climbing, mostly on 2 long-ish climbs - Highway 9 and Bear Creek Road. This would be my first ride since the Tierra Bella with more than 1500' of climbing.

I took it easy on Hwy9 keeping my heart rate under 80% and pacing myself with "Steady Betty". Felt great when I reached the summit. The day was beautiful, cool and clear. Only needed 2 layers of clothing. The descent down 9 towards Boulder Creek was another story. Within 1 mile we rode into cold, wet, chilling fog. Arm warmers went on quickly, along with a windjacket. We warmed up and refueled near the bottom of Bear Creek Road. After the short break we headed up the second long climb of the day. Bear Creek Road starts gradually and creeps up on you after a couple of miles. I kept the main group in sight for quite awhile and then, as usual, I was climbing alone. Once again I concentrated on riding according to my heartrate. The top of Bear Creek came up and I still felt pretty good. No knee pain, but my quads were starting to complain.
Thinking that 60 miles would be my limit for the day I, and a few others, decided to head to Hwy9 via Summit Road and head down to Los Gatos. What I didn't realize was that even though you feel like you are at the top of the ridge at the Bear/Summit junction, you are still a lot of rollers away from the Summit/9 junction. We had 1000 more feet of climbing in those miles along the ridge. The views out to the ocean and the valley saved the day. We were above the fog and in the sunshine and it was beautiful.

The parking lot in Los Gatos was a welcome sight. I felt mostly good, had a sense of accomplishment for doing more climbing than I originally planned, and really only my quads were screaming. I knew I would recover quickly from that!

Overall a good day.

Markleeville:
I played hooky on Friday the 29th and headed up to Markleeville with some other TWFK diehards for some altitude experience. We left San Jose at 4:30am (geez, what was I thinkin'?) and arrived up in the mountains around 9:30am. 7 of us planned on riding up and over Monitor Pass, back over and then up and over Ebbetts Pass, then back up Ebbetts and down to the cars. It works out to a total of 4 passes of the Death Ride.

That was the plan and you know how plans go...

The climb up Monitor was about 10 miles long, starting at 6000-ish feet with the top being 8300'.
Dave and I rode together and maintained a nice steady pace. It was as steep as 10% in a few places but was mostly in the 5% range. It is amazing that after you ride 5%+ for awhile and it then goes to 2% you feel like you are going downhill! We started in the sunshine, with only one cloud on the horizon. Once we got to the Alpine County Line (a bit past the summit) the far range of mountains we saw in Nevada all had huge, dark, menacing clouds forming. And when we looked south a line of dark clouds were forming there also. We decided to head down to the junction and head to Ebbetts instead of heading down the backside of Monitor. We didn't want to get hit with mountain thunderstorms, cut the ride short, and miss riding up the front of Ebbetts. After all, it was a recon ride and the front of Ebbetts is one of the hardest climbs, if not the hardest. We headed down Monitor, I hit 48mph, caught up with a line of cars stacked up behind a truck and spent the last couple of miles on the brakes.

Dave, Jessica, Todd and I stopped at the truck for a quick lunch/refuel stop. We then headed along the road to Ebbetts. The first part of this leg winds along a river and slowly ascends through a beautiful canyon before jumping up onto the sides of the canyon while climbing to the summit. It was simply zen-like climbing through the forest, alongside a roaring mountain river, with the only thing on the road a couple of bikes and the occasional car and motorcycle. You wouldn't be on this road unless you were out for a scenic drive. It is too narrow, too remote, and too demanding to be a "commute" route to anywhere.

Soon we were seeing snow alongside the road. We hadn't gotten rained on yet, although it looked like it wanted to dump on us at any moment. It would probably have snowed since the temperature was dropping with every foot of altitude. We hit a couple of 17% sections, a few 10%+ sections. Climbed 6 to 8% for most of the way. Passed a partially frozen over pond. I rounded a corner and saw Dave standing up ahead yelling "just a little more climbing!" I thought he meant another climb around the corner, but no, he was on the summit telling me the climb I was on was the last section. Yea! 8400'

It was freezing on top. I had 4 layers on: base, jersey, vest with arm warmers and jacket. The climb took a lot out of me. The back side of Ebbetts beckoned, but I was cold, sore and knew I still had to drive home. Jessica, Todd and I opted t head down to the truck. Dave climbed a bit more after hooking up with Greg, Mike and Norm.

Did about 50 miles and 6400'. Less than what I planned, but the smart thing to do. I was disappointed and discouraged by how tough the ride was. I did 2/5ths of the Death Ride, and the real ride is only a month away. How am I going to be ready for the big day?

The ride was good in that I learned a few things. I know now that I can't take long drinks of water or I will get out of breath quickly. I shouldn't let me heartrate get above 80% or I will die on the climbs. I need to be driven by my heart rate and not my speed or cadence. I will need to start the ride and "be the tortoise" all day long if I am going to finish 5 passes.

Tierra Bella Reflections

It's now been a week since I had my first 100 mile day. Last time that happened was around 1995. Been a long time.

Before the TB event I wondered how I would feel around the 75 mile mark, not having done that distance yet this year. It was an unknown for me. I committed to the 100 mile route and had that goal in mind the whole day.

I have been training hard, but really not enough. My ride routes have been chosen for quality, not frequency. Learning how to balance all this has been an experience which I haven't figured out yet: wife, kid, BMX, T-Ball (how did I get roped into helping Coach James I'll never know), music lessons, weights, yoga, spin, TWFK, and oh yea, my business needs to run everyday.

I did ride 100 miles, I survived, and except for my left knee felt really good after. A group of about 8 TWFK riders started out together and had a great rolling time in the morning. The weather was cool- just perfect for the beginning of a long day. On Santa Teresa someone had the idea to pull a 20+mph paceline along the flats. Of course it was fun so we all hung in there. Not really the smartest thing to do early in the mileage for the day. But it felt so GOOD.
I left the Anderson rest stop a few minutes before the others since I knew they would all catch me somewhere on the climb. I think Leah caught me first. She's amazing... flys up the hill, chats everyone up along the way. I think she got her heart-rate up to a 100... :^)

My knee started hurting part way up the climb to Henry Coe State Park. I had plotted out an escape route before the last climb, up to Gilroy Hot Springs, in case I felt like I would injure/hurt myself if I continued. When I approached that spot I evaluated my condition and decided to go for the 100 miles. In retrospect I am glad I made that decision. Sue R and I rode together to Gilroy Hot Springs, had a good rest and refuel, and headed out for the last part of the route together, feeling good.

I ended up at the bottom of the last descent not knowing where Sue was. I coasted waiting for her. She didn't show. I ended up asking the next person down the hill if she'd seen a light blue jersey... she did, on the side of the road crashed, near the top of the descent. Options: ride back up to her (an hour climb) or find a checkpoint with a radio, report it, and get medical to her. Luckily there was a checkpoint near the bottom of the hill. Reported rider down, got a report back she had been found with minor injuries, she'd be taken back to the school. Dave R was at the school and we connected via cell, he would look after her and get her to the hospital to get checked out. Long story short... Dave drove Sue to Nancy's, Nancy the wonder-nurse cleaned Sue up, Sue's got road rash, bruises, a banged up helmet and bike. Cause of the crash is unknown. She went down hard but survived without broken bones or a concussion. Good news considering what could have happened.

Looking back on the day I would have to say it worked out.
The Good:

• Fueling the body went well and worked
• Mileage goal was met
• Bike held together
• No flats - knock on wood
• No breakdowns - knock on wood
• The weather and scenery were beautiful
• No sunburn
  
• Sue survived her crash
  

The Not-so-Good:

• Sue crashed
• Dave was hurting and cut short his ride
• My knee hurt
• My gearing was too high
• I finished without my TWFK teammate
  

Bike Fit session by Thomas Chapple

It has been over 15 years since I've had any sort of bike fit/position review. With the Death Ride looming ahead I need to take advantage of as much help as possible. So it was off to Thomas Chapple's place.

On Friday I had the bike fit session with Thomas. Over the course of 3 hours we measured, rode, measured again, adjusted, rode more, re-adjusted... on and on.
My flexibility was evaluated, knee pain investigated, goals discussed, exercises reviewed... on and on.

We found:

• my flexibility is pretty good for an old guy, thank you yoga
• my weight training routine is good
• need to up the stability exercises - here comes one leg lunges, and one leg cycle-rows
• cassette gearing not low enough for the proper cadence on long steep climbs - new cassette on the way
  
• seat was too low - moved higher which improved the saddle/knee/foot position
• raised handlebar to match saddle height movement
  
• old style LOOK cleats locked me in too much - adjusted to best position during session
• switched to LOOK Delta Red (9degree float) before first "new" ride on Sunday

So now I am on a transition ride routine for a week or so. Small movements up to the new fit position while emailing Thomas about how the changes feel. In another week we will evaluate the results and confirm a "final" position to train with.

Tierra Bella Stats...
Saturday April 18th 2009

• 7:30am start - 4:15-ish finish.
• 1 hour spent stopped at various rest stops.
• Total time on course=8.25 hours
• Total time on bike= 7.25 hours
• 100 miles.
• 6000 feet of climbing.
• Temperature: lowest 56, highest 92.
• Maximum speed while descending: 44.5mph.
• Minimum speed while climbing: 4.5mph.
• Lowest gear: 39/26
• Highest gear: 53/12
• Calories Burned- calculated: 8000

Food/Nutrition:
Before ride:

• 16oz. Iced Coffee
• 1 GU
  
• 16 oz. H2O

During ride:

• 3 GU
• 1 Powerbar
• 2 20oz. bottles of Hammer Perpetuem
• 6 24oz. bottles of H2O
• 2 12 oz. cups of Gatorade at last rest stop
  
• 2 bananas- 1 each at top of 2 climbs
  
• 6 capsules Hammer Endurolytes
• 2 Advil at top of 1st climb
  

Within 2 hour window after ride:

• 2 12oz. cups lemonade
• 1 serving meat lasagna
• 1 serving vanilla ice cream with apple crisp
• 24oz. Hammer Recoverite
• 20 oz. H2O

Thinking About The Tierra Bella

My first Century Ride of the year is coming up on Saturday. After signing up for the Death Ride last December I thought to myself that I better do a couple long, 100 mile, training rides before July. Since I would be unbelievably bored doing one on my own I signed up for the Tierra Bella Century put on by ACTC.
100 miles in April? No problem, I have been training since October. But wait, didn't I ride to Henry Coe a couple weeks ago, and while closing in on the end of the ride, I thought to myself "here I am at 60 miles and I don't think I have 40 more miles in me". Uh-Oh.
4 days to go and I am prepping for the ride. Drinking lots of water, stretching, eating well and trying to quiet my mind. I am a bit worried about the ride. The weather report predicts good weather, I just hope the winds don't pick up in the afternoon. How/what I will eat on the ride has been a concern. During my longer training rides I have been experimenting with different brands/flavors of gel. Hammer is good, so is GU. Powerbars are on my list for solid food. Eating only gel during the ride should be all I need, but sometimes I want something solid to chew on. My plan is to have 2 bars/100miles, 4 gels/100miles and 24oz/hour H2O. I don't know if they will be serving an energy drink at the rest stops. I'll probably avoid it since I haven't been using anything during training. After the ride I will have some Hammer Recoverite - GOOD stuff.
I'll check in after the ride and write up a re-cap of the event and whether, or not, my training has been up to speed.
Wish me luck, I'll need a little bit to get up the last steep section to Henry Coe.
Check out the last mile... one section is a 17% average grade over 1/10th mile.