Group Rides

You either like 'em or hate 'em. I think I fall in between, I like AND hate 'em. You have to choose your group rides wisely though. Sometimes group rides means riding at 16 mph all day, no attacks, with the purpose of having fun. On the other end, a group ride could mean riding at 25 mph, with intervals (or speed sign sprints) over 30+ mph, and the purpose is to drop as many riders as possible. Both are great an both serve a well needed purpose. However, you have to be conscious knowing what you are getting into when showing up for "group" ride.

I will only show up for a group ride when I need to work on speed drills or need to get a very hard (race simulation) workout in, something that is difficult to do on your own unless your are highly motivated and have access to motor pacing.

There's been much talk in town lately about Bend's Tuesday night "hammerfest" ride, which if you don't know is roughly a 30 mile loop with a mixture of some rollers and 1 somewhat climb. This ride can at times be much faster than most road races (at least on a consistent basis) and depending on who shows up. The big controversy lately though has been the debate to ban riders from using TT bikes during the ride. There a re a few who complain that the TT'ers have an advantage and ride too fast. Are you serious? I did mention the rides name is "hammerfest" right? Again, this goes back to my first point about choosing your group ride wisely. If the ride is too fast, choose another group ride. For those that can lay down the hammer, why should they have to slow down to accommodate slower riders. It's not like you are out in the middle of nowhere and if you get dropped will have a hard time finding your way home. I won;t spend to much time on this subject because it is ridiculous that I even had to bring it up. The Tucson, AZ "shootout" ride was my first introduction to a hammerfest-type ride, and you pretty much had to ride at your limit the entire ride...that's how it should be.

Chris Horner (Team RadioShack) was in town this week and decided to show up for the group. What began as a pretty mellow ride turned ugly just before the climb up Horse Ridge. With the group rolling along at 26 mph, one of the front riders veered to miss rolling through some gravel and took down 5 other riders with him. Luckily there were no major injuries; just some pretty bad road rash and a few flat tires. The scary part, however, was the number of riders that swerved into the lane of traffic out of instinct. Fortunately there were no cars/trucks coming from behind.

After 10 minutes of gathering bikes/bodies and trucks honking as they pass, the group rolled up Horse Ridge. The top of the climb is usually the turnaround point, but today myself and a few other including Horner decided to roll-on towards Millican and do the longer loop around Alfalfa. It was great to talk with Chris and get his thoughts about riding/racing in Europe and what his favorite races were. He mentioned that Leige Bastogne Leige race as his favorite. The most interesting thing I learned was that during one of the Tour of California stages, he said that he averaged 309 watts during a 4.5 hour race...ouch!

Group rides can be fun, although you have to be prepared for just about anything. Whichever one you choose to participate in, the goal should always be to ride safe.

Team Kit

A new Team kit is currently in the design phase. I'm pretty psyched on how it is looking so far. I am hoping to have everything by the end of April or early May. Mt Borah will be supplying the clothing this season rather than Louis Garneau.

I could show you a sneak peak but that would only tease you, and you don't like to be teased...do you?

On a side note, I decided against competing in the Echo Red to Red race last weekend. I was feeling under the weather for most of last week and didn't want to stress the body anymore than necessary. However, I got a text from a friend of mine saying that he was putting together a small group to go ride the McKenzie River Trail. This is one of Oregon's better trails, and certainly one of the best within an hours drive from Bend. 29 miles one-way of damn sweet singletrack with a good mixture of rocks, lava, and roots. I had not ridden this trail before, so when the opportunity presented itself I couldn't refuse. Funny how quickly my body felt better. Next time I ride that trail I would like to do the out-and-back and make it a full days worth of riding.

With several stops along the way to soak in some of the beauty along the trail (waterfalls rivers, etc) and many bridges that required dismounting to walk across, we finished in roughly 3.5 hours. Doing it as an out-and-back I figure it would take about 6.5 hours.

Early Season Races

Next weekend will be my first race of the season, Echo Red to Red XC over in Echo, OR. It will mark the 2nd year for this event and first time for me. It's a 1-loop course over 28 miles with lots of singletrack. It should be good to gauge my fitness against the local racing scene. Not much emphasis will be placed on this race. The goal will be to use this race as a hard training day. There is no better way to simulate racing than racing itself.

Early season races are the best time to work on several areas such as; travel logistics, pre-race warm up, proper nutrition, and race strategies. You don't want to be wasting energy on these areas during your "A" priority races. It's a lot like figuring out what fuel works best for your body. You want to know which foods (bars, gels, rice cakes, etc) your body performs best with and can digest easily. What might work for your endurance rides might not work for an above-threshold-level-effort for 2-3 hours.

There can be a lot gained from doing several "training races", so put a few on your calendar and don't be too concerned with the result. Make notes of what worked and what didn't so that you don't make the same mistake/s again.

Good luck on YOUR season.

Sunny Skies

For most of the winter in Bend this year we' have seen lots of unseasonably cloudy days. Look up Bend, OR on any search engine and you will find that it averages over 300 days of sun. Well there is a lot of catching up to do this year already...then again it's only the end of February.
This weekend was a pleasant reminder of the beauty that Central Oregon offers. No matter which direction you looked you could see the many snow-capped mountain peaks (Bachelor, The Sisters, Broken Top, Mt Hood and even Mt Jefferson). I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and crank out 7.5 hours of ride time between the two days; 4 hours on the mountain bike Sat and 3.5 hours on the road bike Sun.
Although the trails around Phil's still have a descent amount of snow on them, I stayed on the lower elevation where there was only a few muddy sections. Over at Horse Butte, the trails were in great condition with no snow at all, and lots of fast flowing singletrack. This was the longest ride of the season so far on the mountain bike; I've been splitting time between skate skiing and riding to get in the volume the last few months.
On Sunday I was joined by Bruce Rogers for a "conversational pace" ride out through Alfalfa and Powell Butte. The goal today was to keep the HR below 140 bpm. With mostly flat roads and maybe a 10mph wind it was easy to keep the HR controlled.
Mother Nature is calling for several days of rain and cloudy skies all next week again, who knows maybe Bend won't hit the 300 number this year. My fingers are crossed that it does.

Thanks for reading.

Strength Training

You either like it or you don't. I am one of those that enjoy strength training. I usually begin hitting the weights around November and continue through March/April performing 2 days a week, and then reduce to 1 day a week once the season gets officially under way.

This off-season I will be working more on one of my weaknesses than I have in the past. I normally don't put too much effort into the "power" exercises (considering power is not that critical in ultra-endurance events). However, with the increase in age comes a decrease in power. I am just finishing up my final week of max strength workouts which focus on very heavy weights (80-90% of 1RM and few reps (4-8). Combining this with more skate skiing this winter, I have noticed a significant increase in strength. It will be interesting to see how this transfers to on-bike strength gains. Max strength workouts are great because not only are you making strength gains, but also burning fat at an extremely high rate. Timing of certain nutrients is more critical than most would think. As a rule of thumb, it's ideal to consume protein 60 min prior and within 60 min after workouts; the amount varies depending on body size. This time of year is when burning fat is most important, not during the season. Maintaining proper nutrition is also important, because what you put in your body now will affect how you feel in 4-6 months.

I have also been using a piece of strength equipment called TRX, which utilizes two straps attached to a wall (or door), for developing overall balance and core strength. TRX can give you a very functional workout because you are using your own body weight as resistance while incorporating full-body movements. TRX was designed by a former Navy Seal. For more info: TRX Suspension Training

My training volume on the bike this winter has been much less than in previous years because I have noticed that I get a little burned out towards the end of the season. Unfortunately, the months of July, August and September are when most of my priority races occur so I wanted to take a different approach this season and do more cross training. So far I can say I have enjoyed getting up to the mountains more often than usual. Besides, the days of riding the trainer have become much more of a chore than enjoyment. I figure if I can't ride outdoors due to weather conditions, I will use that time more efficiently.

Thanks for reading.

Designing a Race Schedule

With the new-year upon us and a new mountain bike season rapidly approaching, searching for certain races to design a Race Schedule can sometimes be challenging.

Taking into consideration the location, benefit to sponsors, cost of event, fun-factor, and timing all play a role in designing the schedule. It's always difficult to have that "perfect schedule" because usually there are two or three races that fall on the same weekend or only one week apart. Unfortunately, we cannot peak for all races.

In order to be able to compete at your best at certain races you have to choose which ones will best suit your riding abilities and strengths while trying to "peak" your training. We all have our "to do" races/rides that we try to do each season and every year it seems like two of them fall on the same weekend or around a time when we have other commitments already planned.

Another factor that affects how the final version of the schedule will look is that some races tend to change dates or cancel all together after initially setting a date. What's up with that? Lots of times it's due to lack of entrants prior to the event that lead to the organizer canceling his/her event. With our poor economy lately that has happened more that once unfortunately.

So with all of this taken into consideration, good luck designing your race schedule...who knows maybe I'll see you out on the same trails.

Christmas 2009

This is how jenny and I decided to spend our Christmas Eve and Christmas morning this year...camping up on Swede Ridge overlooking The Sisters Mountains. About a 1 hour hike from the trailhead brought us to this location that made for a memorable Holiday. Temps were hovering around 15 degrees but we were able to stay warm with the help of some tiny heat-packs and good sleeping bags.




The sunrise over The Sisters on Christmas Day was well worth the trip.

Something New Worth Checking Out

This could be the coolest off-season tool. Take a look at the video to get a better idea of how fun this looks.

Random Photo

I'm confused, is this a means of walking or riding?

Northwest Challenge XC

I headed down to Diamond Lake Resort today with Cloninger to do the Northwest Challenge XC race. This is the last mtb race of the season for Oregon. We arrived at the Resort about 9:20am for the 10am start. Cloninger was making his return to racing after spending 4 months up in Alaska working on a project for work. He was foaming at the mouth to open up the legs/lungs and feel the "pain" of racing again. Not a bad showing for his return (4th place). We quickly registered and suited up and had enough time for a 10 min spin for our warm-up.

The race paralleled the lake early with some undulating singletrack and then headed up Mt. Bailey for some leg burning climbs. By the time we reached the high point it was time for some well-rewarded fast descending (very similar to the 12 Hours of Willamette DH section but shorter).

The course was 28 miles with roughly 4,000ft of elevation gain. After polishing off a gallon of ice cream this past week I wasn't sure how the body would feel under duress. I jumped out to the early lead after a confused turn within the first 100 yards. I was joined by Van Plews about 20 min. later and we stayed together for the next 6 miles. Half way up the climb on Mt. Bailey Plews began to open a gap. I stayed a consistent 2 min. behind all the way to the finish for 2nd place.

Pretty low-key event with roughly 50 racers total. Within minutes after finishing, ferocious winds and rain began to fall putting a damper on the post-race festivities. Good times for early Sept. racing.