Beans: Pappalecco

Still one of my favorites.  What's not to like? A espresso, a buffalino, and the LA Times.  I wonder what it'd be like if  San Diego had a city paper...

Addiction

So I'm addicted to Strava... I know it's silly, but it seems to motivate me.  Rationally, I know that everyone is not on Strava, but it still is satisfying to be ranked in the top ten on some of the local climbs. Beside it's SMART right?  Specific, Motivational, Accountable, Responsible, and Touchable...

Anyway, the riding is going well.  I'm stronger than I have been in a long time.  And the new gig is fantastic.  I'm getting some more balance by starting up the artwork again... good times.

The new Team has also been a lot of fun, a good group of guys, some really strong riders.  Next weekend is San Marcos, one of the first races I did when I got back to California.  We'll see how it goes.

Wednesday Back

Some big rides over the last couple of days.  

Yesterday was a 90 mile circuit down to Chula Vista, near the Olympic Training Center and up Honey Springs. I took the ride up Otay Lakes Road pretty slowly, Honey Springs  however... It wasn't a great time, but somewhat respectful. I tried to keep my heart rate well below LT, and was demoing a new bike - a Jamis with a  compact crankset; as such I managed a PR up it.  Honey Springs gains nearly 1900' over 6.9 miles, making it an average of 5.2% grade.  A bit of pain.  After a quick stop at the store I headed down Lyons Valley and then looped back up Lawson Valley.  Lawson Valley dead ends, well not truly, Lawson Valley has a spur that heads back up to Skyline named Mark Lee.  A good portion of Mark Lee is dirt, it's a bit steeper 7.5% for 2 miles.  It was a bit damp from the weekend's rains.  It was a tough climb.  91 miles w/ 7200' climbing.

Today's ride was the Arnie Baker ride.  There were several heavy hitters on the ride, of course Josh and Todd were there, and Mitch showed up.  One of the Kelly Benefits guys showed up as well, he finished 2nd on the third day of San Dimas  over the weekend.  I think he won every sprint.  The ride up 94 was fast... I put in some work at the beginning and then Mitch and Josh cycled through.  Ken, from Kelly, set the pace for a good portion of the climb, after we crested the steepest portion of the climb there was a bit of a break and so I moved to the front and started to ramp up the pace... a mistake.  It managed to drop one, but Josh, Mitch, and Ken came around pretty easily.  

The second half went much slower for me, but I have to say I like the compact.  The sprint down Mexican Canyon went well, but I jumped too early.  Had a good gap, but Ken closed it and won the two up sprint with Todd... he is pro after all.  Here the compact didn't work quite as well...  Cramped up pretty badly on the way home, but had a good talk with Arnie about possible reasons.  We'll see if they work next week.

            

It's been a bit crazy lately, a job change (one that I'm very excited about) has meant that I've been more focused on work than riding. But a few weeks ago I managed to carve out some time a began to ride with purpose.  I really want to upgrade this year, so time to focus.

To that end I've been doing the Sunday Great Western Ride with some of the Cyclo-Vets and Todd from Cal Pools / Dewalt.  We've been concentrating on on the bike strength training which means a lot of turning a 53x15 gear at 50 rpm up 8% grades... not a lot of fun, but it definitely makes you stronger.

This past Sunday, Todd mixed it up a bit with a surprise ride up Kitchen Creek instead of the usual Great Western Loop.  Kitchen Creek is a local climb up Laguna Mountain - it gains 2600' in just under 12 miles.  Portions of it are pretty steep, but it averages about 4% over the entire distance.  It's a great ride, tough, but with fantastic views and a closed road that begins in the sage desert and tops out in the pine forests.  Awesome.

The group was meeting at the park n ride just off the 8 / Descanto exit around 10:00 Sunday morning.  I decided to add a little "extra credit" and ride up from Rancho San Diego, doing the first leg of the Great Western and adding around 3000' of climbing and 50 miles to my daily total.  It was a peaceful ride up, I tried to keep the effort low, realizing what lay ahead.  I was also trying out some new nutrition products from Honey Stinger and Hammer Nutrition (seriously, I think I could live on the Honey Waffles alone...).  I have to say that the Hammer  Sustain really works!

The climb up Dehesa was nice, and on the trip up Japatul it got quite a bit warmer and windier.  Just after "the wall" (never noticed the tin name plate before...) I caught up to a couple of the guys riding up from Alpine and joined them for the rest of the trip to the park n ride.

The rest of the riders were prepping their bikes when we rolled in.   After some talk, and some begging for water off of Todd, we were ready to head out.  We dropped down Old Hwy 80 towards Descanto and then began to climb to Pine Valley.  A couple of guys pushed the pace a bit, so I sat in - I was already starting to feel it a bit in my legs.  After riding through Pine Valley we regrouped at the I-8 overpass and then continued down Old Hwy 80, through the border check and on to Kitchen Creek Road (I forgot to turn on my Garmin - so no data on this portion of the trip).  We regrouped at the driveway just past the overpass.

Todd suggested that if we hadn't already done so that we should treat the climb as a Time Trial, that way have gauge for future improvement.  With nearly 5000' of elevation gain in my legs by this point, I thought I'd just play it by ear.  A rider from the Cash Call team had passed shortly before we left as a group and as we hit the road he was a good 400-500m up ahead.  I set a goal for trying to catch him, not that he knew we were racing, but...

We rode straight into a head wind.  Not the way you want to start a climb like this, but we couldn't complain too much, It was Nov 26th and 70 degrees out... gotta love San Diego.  The first few miles of Kitchen Creek are a series of fairly steep ramps.  I tried to keep my heart rate below threshold, and spin an easier gear, it seemed to work and I slowly spun away from my fellow riders and chased after the local pro.  I never really got that much closer, but I have to admit that I am almost too happy that I never really fell behind - I held my own on my one sided "race."

After cresting the initial climb you quickly drop down into a small valley, with a creek flowing through it, and the the climb starts in earnest. The road runs along the creek and after a mile or so, doubles back on itself. A small dirt path to the left of the security gate allows you access to the rest of the closed road as it winds upward and back into the headwind.  It was shortly after this that I began to feel some soreness in my legs, I also was pushing hard through this section, maybe a bit too hard and began to exceed my threshold.  I tried to back off but it was hard to slow my heart down.  Eventually I calmed it down and was able to increase the pace a bit, but it definitely affected the rest of the trip up.

The views from this portion of the road are fantastic, looking to the left you could see all the way to the Pacific - it was actually that clear, to the right the Anza Borrego - fantastic.  After topping this rise I once again drop down a hundred feet or so and climbed up through another security gate, just on the other side was an empty Border Patrol Jeep.  As I passed by I hear some rustling in the sage on the edge of the road, some of the guys who passed by later said that they saw a couple of machine gun toting Border Patrol Agents emerging from the those same bushes.

Towards the top of Kitchen Creek the wheels started to come off for me,  my heart rate dropped about 10 beats per minute and I felt like I had almost no energy.  As I entered the pine forest that signaled that final mile or two of the climb I significantly slowed down.  I ground through the find climb using every bit of my 39x28 and crested exhausted in just over 68 minutes.  Not a fantastic time (I think the record is somewhere around 51 minutes) but one I'll take this early in the year especially considering the length of the ride up and that I'm carrying about 8 extra pounds (that's worth an extra 4 minutes over 1 hr right???).

After waiting for the rest of the group to arrive the trip back was mostly characterized by my just barely hanging on to the last guys wheel.  A few of us took the I-8 short cut back to Alpine, and after saying good bye I dropped down Harbison  Canyon and into Rancho San Diego - dreaming of a hot shower and some food, only to find my car battery was dead... good times :).

All in all it was a 97 mile trip with just over 8500' of climbing.  Best ride yet of the season.

Commute, commute

So... what have I been up up to? Well, a position chance at work has me up in beautiful Escondido, and has me commuting up there by bike. It seemed like a good idea at first, but it's become a bit much. The trip winds up being around 64 miles round trip and over 3700' of climbing... five days a week, plus weekend training rides is putting my weekly mileage around 400... too much.

There is something nice about riding after dark... dangerous, but nice.

What passes for winter here in socal has hit with a vengeance today. Wind and Rain. I know it sounds silly, but it's getting harder and harder to make it out when the weather turns. 6 years of year round riding in the mountains of Colorado and my school years in the mid western blizzards of Iowa all for naught as 50 degree temperatures and intermittent rain finds me on the trainer.

The early morning hours brought rain and the possibility of snow up around Alpine, so I skipped the Wednesday ride. The skies cleared up around 10am saving me from my date of trainer based intervals and ILT's and I headed out to Mt. Soledad for some hill climbs. 6 hill repeats for 39 miles and 4900' of climbing. Towards the end, the skies opened up and drenched me on the ride back home.

On one of the descents, I came across the aftermath of a pretty serious car accident... right about the same place on Nautilus where someone pulled out in front of Jason a few weeks back... dangerous place.

On a racing note: Boulevard was two weeks ago - the best weather yet... 60 degrees and sunny. As I pulled up to the line I noticed that one of my friends, Chad was also racing the Cat 4's. After realizing that I was most likely the largest guy in the field (not a good sign), we headed out for 2 laps of the course. The course was the same as last year, triangular with half the course descending and half the course climbing. The descent was mostly smooth, the pack of 100 riders a little skittish, but for the most part controlled. At the bottom you take a hard right, and cross over the railroad tracks. As my front wheel went over the tracks I heard and felt a "KaChunk!" Was my tire was going flat?

The riders at the front put in a pretty hard acceleration and began to split up the group. Riders slid back through the peloton like they had dropped anchor. I was far enough back that I missed the move and then had to set a steady pace to pull back some of the riders. Tough, my size wasn't helping much.

As I turned onto Old Hwy 80, I came up behind Chad, he had been battling it out with the ones on the front. We joined a few other riders and began to pace line our way up the climb. As we took turns at the front I became more and more certain that my tire was going flat. I looked around for the follow car, but no luck, it had stopped earlier for another rider, it passed with the rider hanging out the rear window holding his bike. No wheel for me.

At the top, my tire went completely flat and I pulled out of the race... pretty bummed. As penance I rode back from the race, 60 miles. Might as well get something out of the race.

Monday

A perfect day, 75 degrees and sunny. This morning I headed out to Rancho San Diego and set out to ride up Mt. Laguna. It would be a good time to work on some hill climbing and hopefully see a bit of snow. The first part of Dehesa Canyon Rd is pretty flat, until Harbison Canyon, then a hard right and it climbs 900' up to Japutal Road. It's a pretty steady climb, and is the first part of the Great Western loop. Went pretty slow, working on steady climbing - sub-tempo.

The next section is a rolling climb past Loveland Reservoir up Japatul Road followed by a series of lazy switchbacks and "the wall" ; a steep 10%+ climb - always hurts, never fun. To complete the Great Western Loop one turn right at Lyons Valley, but continuing up Japatul sends you back to the north, under I-8, and past Descanso.

The real meat and potatoes of the ride came after the left turn on to Pine Creek Road, just before Pine Valley. Pine Creek skirts the lower section of the infamous Nobel Canyon, crosses Pine Creek and turns into Deer Park Road. Scrub and Live Oak line the road as it follow the creek and begins the steep climb up Mt. Laguna. Really, really steep. It climbs about 2000' over 8 miles, but has a bit of up and down, so is really more like 2200' total. The total elevation gain isn't the entire story as the climb comes in chunks, sections of 15%, 17%, 22%, even 24% pepper the lower sections. The terrain moves from Oak lined creek bed, to desert sage, to fire scorched pine. It tops out around 5500' where it connects with Sunrise Highway. Towards the top a bit of snow was hiding in the shade at the base some of the trees, rocks...

Right on Sunrise takes you up over 6000' and to the Mt. Laguna Lodge for a root beer and some peanuts - and if you are lucky, a brief lecture on any variety of topics from the owner. The drop back down to Pine Valley is a quick ride, most of the corners are sweeping. From the top you can see to ocean. At the bottom, a right turn takes you through Pine Valley and then sends you to retrace your route back under I-8 and to the Lyons Valley / Japatul intersection.

A left turn and a short descent puts you back on the Great Western loop. It's a long drag over rolling hills that takes you up to the "four corners", instead of heading up skyline I stuck to Lyons Valley and dropped down, well Lyons Valley. A quick run down Mexican Canyon and back into Rancho San Diego.

90 miles

8795'

6 hrs 10 min

Wednesday

Morning meeting and then an afternoon ride. Headed out to Point Loma to ride the tide pools. 10 climbs alternating gearing and seated / standing. Started out calm and warm and ended windy and cool. Knowingly made the mistake of having a burrito and coke on the way home and had to climb out of mission valley with a full stomach... think I'd learn.

2011

Happy New Year! I rang the new year in last night by being in bed by 9pm... man, I'm really getting old. This morning was nice, not too many folks out and about at 7am. Did run across some of the aftermath of last night's festivities. Looked like one new year's eve reveler managed to rear end a parked car at the apartment complex up the street, then that car rear ended another... and the car another... they must not have stayed around admiring their handy work... 2011 is not going to start off well for a few.

I met up with the Chili's crew for the Saturday ride, pretty light turn out, but Marlo from Ranchos and Mike from Jamba were both there... good to see them. The route was the usual, Morena up through the UTC, down to Sorrento Valley, up Carrol Canyon and then the Top Gun back to Kearny Mesa. All in all about 36 miles. The ride is pretty fast up with uphill sprints at the top of La Jolla Colony and Carrol Canyon; and a flat high speed sprint at the end Kearny Villa Road. Felt strong on most of the sections, getting better at being in the right place at the right time....

After rolling back into Kearny Mesa I went back out for some extra credit and linked up a loop out through Lakeside, up Hwy 67, and back down Scripps Poway Parkway. All in all it was about 81 miles with 4500' of climbing.

Dirt

This past friday some of the crew from work and I had a chance to try out the SRAM XX 2x10 groupo. Amazing, absolutely amazing. I rode around Daley Ranch trying to keep up with Kyle, so was able to give it a good workout. Light, quick shifting (even while standing cranking uphill), and easy. Normally, I don't give SRAM alot of credit, but they knocked it out of the park on this one.

Week 7

Ah, weekly goals.... when's the next rest week?

Monday: Strength Training (Gym)

Tuesday: 3 hours (tempo intervals)

Wednesday: 6 hours (forced reps)

Thursday: 2 hours Strength

Friday: 3 hours (including trainer workout)

Saturday: 3 hours Big Ring low effort

Sunday:5 hours Strength (including trainer workout)

25 hours total

Holiday Week

I was able to get a few more days of riding in over the past week, toping out at just over 300 miles and 20 hours. Monday was a long ride up the coast through Oceanside / Vista and back through Rancho Santa Fe; Wednesday's east county ride; Thursday's Thanksgiving ride with the Swami's crew up the San Luis Rey course; Saturday's Swami's "A" ride; and Sunday a solo ride from Escondido to Ramona and back. Lots of climbing in really, really cold weather for San Diego. Temperatures in the 30's left me scrambling to find all my old Colorado gear.

I've put on a few pounds over the past month, but I'd be hard pressed to place the blame on too much Thanksgiving gorging... it more due to increased muscle mass from the big gear turning (at least that's what I'm telling myself). The climbing fitness is coming well and I seem to be on track for the early season races. This year the calendar seems to be filled with a few more Stage and Road races and I'm excited to try my hand (legs?) on some outside of California.

On the equipment front, Cody sent out a set of the EPC cycling kit last week. It's some of Pearl Izumi's premium gear and you can really tell the level of quality and construction from the first time you wear it. Really nice stuff.

Good Day

Sunday was my birthday; and like past years I once again set out on a big ride to celebrate. The extra hour of sleep from the ending of Daylight Savings Time helped a bit, plus it was already light by 6am. The goal was to head out to Rancho San Diego and meet up with the Sunday crew for a training ride up the Great Western. First was a quick stop in Linda Vista for an apple fritter - hey, it's my birthday right? No such luck, all out and not even 7am yet, so with empty stomach I headed east.

I made a quick coffee stop @ Cosmos Coffee in La Mesa, coming out just in time to see newly retired Kelly rider Neil Shirley heading out for a ride... here's wishing him good luck on his next adventure! On the way to the meeting place I ran into Phil and rode with him the rest of the way. I hadn't seen him in a while so it was great to get caught up again.

There was a pretty big group waiting at in Rancho San Diego for the start of the ride, Riders from the Cyclovets, Cal Pools/Dewalt, the USA National Team, and other assorted bike nuts all milled about and waited to Todd to pull them together. After a few comments and direction we pulled out and headed up Willow Glen to Dehesa.

The 5% grade of Dehesa signaled the first training interval: seating big gear climbing; which meant for me using my 53x14 @ about 55 rpm. Painful, but it felt good to get back to pushing big gears after spinning for most of the year. Over this interval Dehesa gains about 800' over 3.2 miles. After regrouping at the top, we started the second interval; Standing big gear 53x13. Smiley faces painted on the asphalt let you know when to stand or sit. This stretched for 4.6 miles and climbed an additional 1120'.

We regrouped and turned right on Lyons Valley and headed back to "Four Corners." Whenever the road tilted up we did Low Cadence ILT intervals. After the first two sets of standing intervals, switching to ILT's proved somewhat painful, but it'll pay off later. There's was another regroup at Four Corners. Instead of waiting to participate in "Anarchy" ( a series of race pace attacks and chases back to Rancho Santa Fe) Rigo, Don, Bobby and I rolled through and dropped down Skyline and Mexican Canyon. We hit the long drag to the flashing light sprint pretty hard and did a fair amount of work.

At the bottom Don and Bobby headed back up for "Extra Credit" while Rigo and I tried to find some water. At the 7-11 I ran into Mike (RAW rider and ultra distance rider extraordinaire) and Janel (USA National Team) and headed back up Mexican Canyon for some "Extra Credit." I was good to get caught up with Mike as well, sounds like he's gearing up for a solo assult on RAAM in a year or two - crazy stuff. We made a loop up Lyons Valley and back the way we came. Back in Rancho Santa Fe we hooked back up with Don and Bobby and headed back to Mission Hills.

The final damage for Sunday's ride was 101 miles with over 7000' of climbing. A great way to spend your brithday.

Early Signs

This past Saturday I went up to ride with the big dogs on the Swami's A ride. I got spit out the back on dump hill, but still got some quality work in. One encouraging sign was that even with the lack of much effective or pain free riding I managed to maintain 319 watts for 20 minutes. That's my high LT from last season... hopefully a omen of good things to come. Now, if I could only maintain 400 watts for 20 minutes... and drop 30 pounds...

Bee's Knees

I've been having major issues with my knees. Years of team sports in high school and club sports in college left me with a torn ACL in my right knee, a torn MCL in my left, and a fair amount of my meniscus missing in both.

I had been training pretty hard for a two day stage race up in Bishop, lots of climbing, but two days before I was to leave my left knee popped out of joint... not as bad as in the past, and not as bad as last winter... but still enough to keep me from going.

I took that as a sign to keep off the bike for a while, so I spent the next three weeks staying away.

When I got back on, the knee pain returned. Slowly at first, but by this Monday I was really wondering if I might have to give cycling up. Today I went for a slow, easy ride up the coast and on the way back everything "clicked" into place. Earlier, the weekend before the Bishop race, our rep from WTB had sent us some new saddles to try out. I had been having a love / hate relationship with my current Fizik saddle (I had decided that even though it was one of the most uncomfortable saddles I had ever used - there was no way I was going to be defeated by a saddle) and was willing to try out something else. I bolted it on, keeping it at the same angle as my previous perch, and went for a ride. And there was the mistake. I have always set my saddles up slightly nose high and so set this one up the same way.

So on the ride back, I dropped the nose a few degrees and the pain disappeared! Who would have thunk? I guess rotating my hips forward also changed the way the pedaling forces go through my knees. I'll know for certain over the next few weeks.

Week One: Training Program 10.18 - 10.25

Monday: 2 hr Gym Workout

Tuesday: 2.5 hr w/ Spin Ups & ILTs

Wednesday: 5 hr Climbing @ low zone 1-2

Thursday: 2 hr Gym Workout; 1 hour on trainer

Friday: 2.25 hr low intensity zone 1-2

Saturday: 2.5 hr w/ Spin Ups & ILTs

Sunday: 1 hr x-train

Total: 17.5 hrs

Blue Trolley

I really piled on the miles this week. With the Everest Challenge and the Steamboat Stage Race coming up I'm looking at back to back racing with some long stages and even more daunting elevation gains. So with that in mind I did a 135 mile/10,000'+ day on Tuesday, a 76 mile / 5600'+ day on Wednesday, and a 106 mile/3000' day today; that made for a 28 hr week with 388.86 miles and 21,000' of climbing.

The goal this Sunday was to ride up to Fallbrook and back - with a stop at Pedro's Tacos for a Bean, Rice, and Potato Burrito. I haven't had one in years... a worthy goal. Sunday morning was fairly quiet, but by late morning the roads were filled the usual SUV and Harley craziness. Not fun.

Long days

17 hours of riding over the past two days... 206 miles... 10,709 kilojoules... 16,000'+ of climbing.

Tuesday was an epic day, I left the house at 6am and rode up though Escondido, grabbed a espresso and roll @ the Blue Mug, a couple of Bananas and a Granny Smith at a fruit stand and climbed up Valley Center Road towards... well, Valley Center. I dropped down Cole Grade and on a whim began to climb up Nate Harrison Grade... so steep. They are doing some road work on it, large trucks rumbled past, kicking up plumes of beige dust. At the top they were busy laying asphalt and so I had to turn around and slide back down the mountain.

I headed back up 76 and after Lake Henshaw took a right and climbed up Mesa Grande to Santa Ysabel. I hugged the white line and dropped down to Ramona and headed back home via Scripps Ranch. The new asphalt on Kearny Mesa Drive was well welcomed. 134 miles and some cramping legs. By the way, if you haven't tried DZNuts... run out and grab a tube now.

Wednesday was the weekly Cyclovet ride, with the two headed cycling monster of Arnie and Floyd - I was hoping for a slower day... Don, Jay, and I managed to get away on the first climb up to Jamul. We worked well together, I put in an effort towards the end of the climb and crested the climb solo. As I pulled into the stop, I looked over my shoulder and the two headed monster was just pulling in... barely made it.

One the second climb I struggled to stay with the two headed monster and Josh, but dropped back at the top and couldn't tag back on, although it looked like they slowed up for me. I dangled back about 20 meters and by the later portion Arnie/Floyd had gaped Josh as well. By the third section I was feeling the day before and struggled the rest of the way.

On the descent of Mexican Canyon the monster passed by like a freight train, and barreled by everyone, except for Don who latched on to a UPS truck's draft and and carried the speed through the sprint...Chapeau!

Week One

This week training for the Everest Challenge begins in earnest:

Monday: Trainer workout 1A

Tuesday: 85 miles with 10,000 feet of climbing @ 69-94% of LT

Wednesday: 75 miles with 5600 feet of climbing w/ 4 x 5 minute intervals @ > 4000' per hour

Thursday: Trainer workout 1B

Friday: 15 miles recovery ride

Saturday: 45 miles endurance ride @ 69-83% LT

Sunday: 50 miles endurance climbing 5 X 10 minute intervals @ >3000' per hour

285 miles with 26,000' of climbing

ouch...