A Clean Century

Clean centuries don't allow for much picture taking but I snapped this shot of the distant long lake dam as I stopped to stash my sweater and leg warmers.

Last week I felt great and had some good rides that were not long but were high efforts with some good climbing. I still haven't fixed the broken tooth on my mtn bike so a long road ride was in order. I had to be back in the afternoon to pick up my daughter at choir practice. I had thought about taking on the 150 mile route I recently mapped out, but even if I left early enough to get the mileage in there would be no way to shortcut the route if things started going wrong. And to make matters worse most of that route is outside of cell coverage.
What I settled on was doing a clean century ride. By clean I mean that I wanted to do 100 mile of somewhat hilly terrain at a good pace with very little stopping. I packed two large water bottles and a 100 oz. platypus with powerade, four Bumble Bars, an almond butter and jelly sandwich, a banana, some gummi bears and a valrhona Manjari chocolate bar.
The ride was off to a fast start with a good tailwind. Actually the tailwind was somewhat of a curse because I am still riding with 39x17 because the 17t freewheel I have on my Paul hub is not threaded on but mashed on the now mangled threads. If I want to move up to a gear more suitable for this time of year I will have to get a new wheel. Since I am trying to divert all of my bike money into the new bike I was forced to spin some high cadence for 3 hours. The fast spinning really starts to cook the legs after awhile despite the apparent ease at which the pedals were clicking over.
For some reason I thought that a bumble bar every hour was going to be enough calories for the first half of the ride. At Springdale I ate my banana and sandwich. I layer the almond butter on thick so that the sandwich weighs in at around 500 calories. Once I started heading back into the wind I found that I was able to keep a solid pace and forged ahead. At around 4 hours I started experiencing the subtle symptoms of bonking. This wasn't a full on system crash. I was still chugging along at a high pace, the legs were doing there thing unchanged but mentally I began to wonder about whether the muscles were going to hold up. I began worrying that the discomfort in my knee was going to turn into a chronic disorder that would derail all of my future plans. I began to notice that distant road signs took a long time to reach me, my mind wondered around in a negative world of self pity.
It is only because I have been through this many times that I realized that I needed calories. My body never said "I'm hungry" the bonk manifested itself in a decidedly mental train wreck. I stopped off at a grocery store in Deer Park and ate a slice of pizza, drank a cup of coffee and finished off the gummi bears and chocolate.
By the time I got back on the road I was singing out loud and bunny hopping over shredded tires on the highway shoulder.
As for doing a clean century, my 16.7 mpg average is as good as it gets for the hills, the three hours of headwind at the end and my choice of gearing. After a shower and a pound of beef jerky I feel fully recovered. Clean enough. The true test will come tomorrow morning when I try and do some fast, hill climbing.
Here is my route: Springdale Century

Morning Ride With Friends

If you need a good workout in a short amount of time grab a single speed. Then call two of the hardest riding mountain bike riders you know and have them bring their full suspension, geared superbikes. Let them choose a twisting, rock-studded trail that you have never ridden so that you have to spin like mad to catch up whenever the trail straightens out. Since you might have a chance at making up some time on the hills, break a tooth on your rear cog so that whenever you commit to a big push the chain skips, forcing you to ride smooth and slow up the hills when possible and when it's not, jump off and run. Continue for two to three hours.
Shower, eat and go to work.

Cruiser Ride

If youv'e got the balloon tires time to put them to use. This Sunday there will be a ride just for the Cruiser bikes and their owners starting at The Elk in Browne's Addition at 4:00pm. There looks to be beer involved

Mudslinging

Dave Nelson sent this letter out and I think it is worth repeating:

I realize this email will not win me any popularity contests but I would like to ask everyone to please ride responsibly (as always) and reconsider riding some trails in town when they are muddy. I had thought about sending this email out a few weeks ago when the CCC river trail (aka “Little Vietnam) was under water at Riverside but didn’t, and now I wish I had. Now that the water has receded there are a few areas that are very muddy and one in particular has gone from being single track 5 years ago to being over 15 feet wide with ruts all through it. Most of the trails here in town do not support riding in mud and only become much wider and/or rutted when they are ridden. Please use common sense when riding during the spring thaw and subsequent rains because what we do now as riders can affect our access here in the future. It is very difficult for me to approach a land manager asking permission to build or maintain a trail when things like this happen. If we have to refrain from using a trail for several weeks until it can support riding then that is the best thing to do- like it or not. We need to police our own so that others do not have to do it for us. Please; whether you agree with me or not, refrain from riding excessively muddy trails and if you do come to a muddy area ride thru it and not around it, and if you see others doing the wrong thing respectfully set them straight. I know a lot of people are riding the 24 hour course to get ready for this years race but unless the muddy areas are allowed to rehabilitate they will be closed off to everyone. I realize that more than just bikes use the trail however it is the wheel ruts and trail widening that WE do that I am concerned with. Again- please use common sense and restraint when you chose what trails to ride this spring. A couple weeks of restraint may be all it takes to keep the trail in great shape.
Also- for anyone interested in helping out with some trail work at Riverside, we will be meeting at the upper parking lot on Aubrey While across from the Bowl & Pitcher this Sunday at 1:00 pm. If enough people show I would like to also work on the mud pits in Little Vietnam in the hopes that they will be ready for the 24 hour race. If that section is a huge mud hole this year I don’t expect it will be part of the course as it will not sustain the damage.

V/R
David Nelson
V.P. Fat Tire Trail Riders Club

I think that Dave is making a solid point that most of us agree with. In this area, with the soil and climate that we have, mud is not much of a problem so asking to avoid muddy trails is not a big deal, especially in Riverside where there are very few trails that get muddy.

Bump In The Night

I needed to do a long mtn bike ride and thought that some night time riding would be even better. It has been awhile since I did a night ride that was going to require more than one battery for my nitetrider system. Unfortunately, my niterider woes continue and both of my extra batteries have fallen victim to the same problem as the one that I had to pay to get fixed last year. So instead of leaving at midnight and riding until dawn I left at 3 am and spent some time in the dark and some time in the daylight.
I like riding trails at night, I always have. I have not spent much time in the last year riding alone at night in the woods. I was surprised by my feeling of unease. I had a creepy feeling almost as soon as I got to Riverside State Park. I kept hearing pine cones sounds. Were they dropping from trees or getting stepped on by deer? My wariness was made worse when I came across a shovel and two garbage bags in the middle of a trail. I made a quick scan into the trees as a rode by and I saw the distinctive bright strip of a reflector like the kind on the back of a cyclists jacket. I wrote off the whole thing as a couple of local kids having a little overnight adventure in the park...with a shovel and some garbage bags.
About 45 minutes later I was in the same area just one bluff higher. I could see a fire and hear men talking. It seemed a really strange location for someone to camp, but it explained the shovel. I kept riding, but decided to head out to Deep Creek which is a little more isolated and a lot steeper. After working the knees hard for an hour, I headed back to the creepy area just as the sun was coming up. Before I crossed the mysterious shovel area I saw two people laying behind some bushes. They were partially obscured but clearly two people were hiding in the bushes. This latest oddity was beyond explanation so I just kept riding.
Once daylight had fully illuminated the forest I quickly figured out what was going on. See Riverside State Park is also a Military Reservation, meaning that the National Guard trains there occasionally. I have come across a Humvee or two in the past but never have I been in the park after dark when they were on maneuvers. As I did a second lap through the area I saw dozens of camo clad, m-16 toting soldiers wandering through the trees. I found a couple of sandbag forts where they must have been hiding as I passed by in the night.
I don't know if I made their training more exciting or if I was just an annoyance but I know that the weird uneasiness I felt in the night sure made me laugh when I figured out what was going on.
While thinking about the bumps in the night I managed to get 63 miles of trails in before heading home where breakfast was waiting. I felt good after the ride and spent the rest of my day working in the garden.

Rest Hard, Ride Long, Eat More Baklava

Pete Basinger is my hero. Not just because he rolls the single speed most of the time and not just because he holds the second fastest time on the GDR by a wafer thin 20 minutes. He is my hero because he passes on the 500 mile training weeks. He once mentioned in a MTBR.com forum that he "trains" about 10 hours a week. This is profound because he beats the pants off of guys who will train 10 hours in a day. I have to admit that even though I want these facts to be true, I held a suspicion that he did a lot of physical activity that he did not consider training.
Now that I have come across his blog I see that he does in fact ride about 10 hours a week. Two hour rides are de rigeur. Nice. Of course, he will throw a 17 hour ride in every so often and I think that is the key.
Awhile back I was reading about the king of ultramarathon running Yiannis Kouros. His record is astonishing. When someone is that good everyone wants to know what he eats, what he drinks, how much he trains. When pressed about his training regimen he explains that you cannot train for a 1000 mile race, that is preposterous. Instead he tries to rest as much as possible and breaks up the rest with 45 minute runs each day. I understand that as much as he competes he really is just doing a recovery and maintenance routine but there is a lesson to be learned.
Single Speed GDR record holder Kent Peterson says it is better to practice than to train. I immediately understood what he meant. Stay fit, stay healthy, stay rested and every so often beat yourself up with an ultra epic day. Sounds like a good plan to me.

Bucket of Links

Camping At Glidden Lake Fall 1998

I have a ridiculous amount of URLs taking over my dock.
Glidden pass is an area that I have hiked and biked around over the last 15 years. It is epic territory. I found this old web page detailing a mountain bike route in the area. I want to keep the place in mind for later this summer.
The other day I was at Auntie's book store perusing the magazine rack when I came across Wend. Wend is an outdoor rag from Portland. The magazine caught my eye because it had an all wool cycling fashion spread but I bought it because it had an article written by Mike Curiak. When I read the piece by Curiak I was a little disappointed. The story is an excerpt from Mike's forthcoming book about racing the Iditarod course to Nome by Bike. I am very much interested in the whole story but reading several pages about one harrowing moment when he was pinned down in a wind storm left me hot and bothered. The story is just getting good and it's over. If this bit of writing is any indication, the book will be worth buying.
While I was flipping through the Wend I was drawn to an ad for Nau, an outdoor clothing company from Portland. I know, how many rain jackets does the world need? Nau seems to understand that the outdoor clothing market is a vast sea of clones. Nau is not making clothes for activities as much as they are making clothes for active lifestyles. I am not entirely opposed to forking out some big ching for some quality but the lust inspiring Courier Windshirt costs more than I paid for a used MB-2. by the way, the best clothing purchase of the year was the Old Navy Cashmere sweater I have been wearing since January. $60 and soft as bunny farts.
I have also bookmarked iRule Moab shorts. I don't sport the spandex sausage casing all that much anymore but I see the value in these endurance specific models. The pockets on the thigh is a major selling point. I am through buying any pants, shorts or jackets that don't have pockets. I have bike clothes I don't wear because of the no pocket issue.
Speaking of pockets, I have been riding with the Ortleib messenger backpack for over two years now. It is rock solid piece of equipment that won't die but I am constantly bothered by the lack of exterior pockets. I added a Timbuk 2 iPod case to the strap but have avoided adding any more accessory pockets because of price and desire not to look like Batman. I think it is safe to say that regardless of the who the person is or what backpack they have, the world is a better place when there are elastic net pockets on the sides of backpacks.
One company that has figured this out is Wingnut. I will be buying their Adventure 2006 pack sometime soon. I was holding out for the 2007 but it does not look like there will be a newer model.
I love the Brooks Team Pro saddle on my Hakkalugi. It is the most comfortable saddle I have ever had and I like the fact that I won't need to replace it ever. Hopefully. Now there is a company in Wisconsin that is trying to improve the Brooks saddle concept. I can't figure out if they improved the century old design or ruined it. Either way I not putting a Brooks on my new mountain bike. I have not done any off road with the brooks and can't imagine that 16 hours of my sit bones against that rawhide is going to be a good thing.
Dave N. saw that I was spec'ing outboard bearings crankset from RaceFace. I already had intended to upgrade the bearings to Phil Woods after next winter but he sent a link to Enduro. They look like a good upgrade option.