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.