Getting a little dirty....

I decided to begin my racing season at this past weekend’s opener of the Singletrack Cycles Westside Mountain Bike Series. It was a great chance to stretch my legs a bit in anticipation of the 2011 road racing season. The race was held at Dash Point State Park on a really fun course made up of slightly muddy and rooty singletrack with just enough elevation change to give the heart and lungs a real workout. The weather gods even cooperated, providing racers with sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 30s. All in all, a great recipe for an early season mountain bike race.

Being primarily a roadie, I generally don’t race my mountain bike more than a few times a year and then usually with no real expectations. My approach to this race was just to use it to add a little intensity to my training and as an excuse to escape the snows of the Methow Valley, if only for a day. My race started pretty calmly with me settled in near the back of a thirty or so strong field strung out nose to tail on the twisty singletrack trails. It took a good part of the partial lap that opened the race before enough space was appearing between riders to get a good look at the trails and to begin to think about passing.

As the course began to reveal itself (I didn’t get a chance to pre-ride), I was reminded of just how much fun the correct amount of mud can be. You need enough to get dirty and make the ride a little tricky, but not so much that it bogs you down. I was very happy to have left large aggressive tires on my bike as opposed to the faster rolling tires I might have usually opted for. Although this early season effort put the hurt on me at times, playing in the mud for most of the race left me giddy.

From a competitive standpoint, the race passed pretty unremarkably. I passed a few riders here and there, got passed by others, and continually swapped places with a couple more. When the end finally came, I’d finished 20th of 27, or about what I would have expected for my current fitness. I had a lot of fun and may try to add a couple more mountain bike races to my schedule before the road season kicks off for me in a couple months.

Getting the riding season started.......on snow!

Although snow storms have been sparse in the Methow Valley this January, it is still the middle of winter and icy roads have kept the bike riding options somewhat limited.  This year I decided to try a couple of new (to me) ideas to open up some other outdoor options for riding my bike in the middle of winter.  The shop I work at, Methow Cycle & Sport, has a demo Surly Pugsley, which for those who are unfamiliar with them, is a bike designed for soft surfaces.  It features tires that are nearly four inches wide and are run at very low pressures to get better traction and flotation on soft surfaces such as snow.  For my first ride of the year, I decided to take it out and see what it could do.

I took it to the local wildlife area and found some trails that had been packed slightly by snowmobile traffic.  These were not "groomed" snowmobile routes, but just areas that had been tracked a few times by snowmobiles passing by.  It was a ridiculous amount of fun.  Given the couple feet of snow cover, it was essentially like riding on an elevated trail.  The occasional soft spot or steering mistake was rewarded  (not punished) with a short flight into a pillowy soft landing.  I probably only took one or two diggers at any significant speed, but they left me laughing not cringing.  It was so cool being in an area that I typically only access this time of year on snowshoes or touring skis.  If you have the opportunity to try one of these "fat bikes", I highly recommend it.

Given the success of the "fat" tires on a moderately packed trail, I decided to see how my 29er with 2.4" tires on it would fare on a more firmly packed surface.  A recent warm period followed by cold had left the groomed trails at Loup Loup's South Summit Sno-Park very firm.  To my delight, the riding was excellent.  The tires sunk just enough to provide excellent traction without unduly slowing my progress.  To be fair, riding a regular mountain bike on groomed snowmobile trails is going to be very dependent on conditions that provide the firmest platform possible.  However, I got in a couple hour ride on a beautiful Methow winter day outside in the middle of January.  I'll take that over the indoor trainer anytime!

Putting a wrap on 2010

2010 was a great year on two wheels for me.  I had a solid and enjoyable racing season on the road, I completed my first triathlon, rode my first century in many, many years and got in some great mountain bike rides in the fall.

I didn't set the world on fire with my racing results, but I feel I am still progressing as a rider and improving.  I think my favorite race of the year was the Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race.  It was a pleasing weekend of racing for me.  I had a strong TT, finished my first crit in contact with the pack in forever, and had a fairly strong road race.  I'll definitely try to put by best effort forward at that race in the new year as I think I can do well there.  The return of the state time trial championships to Tenino was a highlight as well.  Although my form was not at my best, I really enjoy racing on that course and put in a solid and rewarding effort.

The middle of the year brought a new two-wheeled experience for me as I completed my first triathlon in Chelan.  Triathlon doesn't light my fire the way road racing does, but I had a great time, bought a wetsuit, and will do a couple more in 2011.  The variety of the experience helps break up the monotony of training as well.

In the fall, my sister and I headed to Hood River, Oregon to ride in the innaugural Echelon Columbia River Gran Fondo.  It was the first time in many, many years that I had ridden 100 miles in a day and also the first time getting to ride an event with my sister in a long time.  It was a great event with a beautiful route and a wonderful way to spend a day with my sister.

Also in the fall I got a new mountain bike and got in some great riding before the winter closed in.  I am really looking forward to spending more time on the trails in the coming year.

As the year draws to a close, I am filled with excitement for the two-wheeled experiences that await me in 2011.  Bicycles are an indispensable part of my life and I look forward to many more memorable miles in the new year.  May all of you have a safe and rewarding 2011.

2010 Ride 542 - Mt. Baker Hillclimb

For the past three years I've headed over to Bellingham to do the Mt. Baker Hillclimb, also called Ride 542 because the route is up state highway 542 from Glacier to Artist's Point at the road's end.  Each year the weather has been more spectacular than the one before.  Given that the ride takes place in September and its on the western side of Mt. Baker, each year I wonder when the other shoe will drop and the weather will be miserable.  This was that year.

My sister and I left the hotel in Bellingham in a steady rain and temps in the low 50s.  As we drove east on 542 towards Glacier, more and more cars with bikes joined the stream of traffic, but the weather did not improve.  It was truly a gloomy, depressing atmosphere to be tackling such a challenging ride in.  For my sister, it would be her first time doing the ride.  I was sorry that these were the conditions for her debut.  We arrived in Glacier and picked up our registration packets and materials, put some spare clothes in the gear shuttle to the top, and got ourselves ready for a soggy, cold day on the bike.  My sister was doing the summit ride which is one of the earliest waves, starting a full two hours before my start in the competitive wave, the last start of the day.

As I hung around the start area, it began to become clear that this day was not going to be as originally planned.  I began to hear snippets of conversations indicating that the course was being shortened and that the start waves were being changed.  Eventually, an official announcement of sorts was made.   Some of the starts waves were being delayed and combined.  Also, due to zero visibility at Artist's Point, the upper three miles of the course were being chopped and we would finish at the employee lodge at the Mt. Baker ski area.  This was somewhat disappointing news, but given the conditions and the expected temperatures at the top, I was pretty sure I'd get over it.

The summit ride, with my sister in it, rolled out under somewhat moderating conditions.  At least the rain had eased.  By the time my start had come around, however, the rain had returned in its previous steady, depressing state.  I "warmed up" a bit and rolled to the start.  The competitive start usually has a couple hundred riders in it with a variety of pack riding experience levels.  Given the gloomy weather, I didn't really feel like mixing it up in the pack and thus lined up near the back of the group.  As you would expect, I was gapped very early on in the ride, after only a couple miles, and spent the rest of the ride in groups no larger than three or four riders.  This was just fine with me, as it was safer and more comfortable than being in the spray and close quarters of a larger group.  It did greatly reduce my pace however.  The first 14 or so miles of the ride are kind of a rolling stairstep climb, before starting the final 10 miles (7 this year due to the shortened course) which is all uphill.  I was about 5 minutes off my usual pace reaching the base of the final climb without the benefit of a large pack to ride in.

As we climbed, the rain continued but at least the effort kept me comfortably warm.  As we neared the final few miles, I really began to feel enthused for the first time during the ride and began to lift my pace and pick off several riders.  The rain also eased and the sky even began to brighten.  By the last mile or so below the ski area, I was wondering why we were finishing there, as conditions really didn't seem that bad.  Entering into the ski area and arriving at the finish at the lodge though, my opinion changed.  Although the rain had eased, there was a strong cold wind blowing that made things quite unpleasant.  I found my spare clothes, put them on in the lodge, grabbed a little food, and headed cautiously back down towards Glacier.

With the wet weather, I had very little braking power and had to be quite cautious with my speed.  Also, even with the extra clothes, the cold and wind was quite penetrating and soon I was shivering, at times fairly violently.  All in all, the descent off the final climb was not pleasant and at times a little scary.  I was relieved to be back down on the rolling section of road back to Glacier.  Typically, the little climbs on this stretch back to the start are very annoying and uncomfortable with the fatigue of climb in my legs.  On this day however, each one was welcomed as it provided an opportunity to generate some heat in my body and keep the cold at bay.

A couple miles before Glacier, I caught up with my sister who had started her descent a little while before me.  We chatted about the ride and the conditions and rolled into Glacier together, Ride 542 in the books for another year.

2010 State Time Trial Championships

This seems to be the year that I take a really long time to get around to writing my blog posts about my races.  Seeing that it has been well over a month since I rode the state time trial championships, it must be about time for a post on that subject.

This year's race was back in Tenino on a course that I really, really like and had raced on twice before.  Its mostly flat with only a few small hills and is on fairly winding roads which keeps things interesting.  It is far more enjoyable to race on than the straight featureless shoulder of a highway somewhere.

I headed to Tenino with pretty limited expectations.  Preparations for my triathlon experiment during the previous couple months had diverted my focus away from my cycling training in favor of swimming and running.  This meant I knew I wasn't going to set the road on fire and was probably going to be "pack fill".
Still, I knew the course well and enjoyed racing on it so I felt it was worth the trip.

I'll spare you the blow by blow account of my ride, but I felt great.  It was one of my best efforts and I don't see how I could have ridden any harder or any faster.  I was really pleased with my race and enjoyed it, but with so little training leading up to it, I finished the 40k course in just over an hour and placed 15th of 28 in the category 4-5 field.  About what I should have expected and still a pretty good way to spend the first day of August.

Thanks to David Longdon for the photo.  Be sure to check out his blog: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/velocity/

Tri-ing something new

One day late last summer, I came home from work to find my wife watching TV coverage of a women's triathlon.  I sat down and started watching it with her.  As we watched it, I could see the wheels turning in her head.  I said to her, "You're thinking you could do that aren't you?"  Well that's exactly what she was thinking.  Soon after that day, she had set herself a goal of completing the Danskin Women's Triathlon in Seattle this summer.  She also said she'd like to do the Chelanman Try-a-tri, which is about a month prior to Danskin, as an introduction to the sport.  Well, I'd always thought I could do a triathlon, but thinking about it and doing it are two different things.  So, being a supportive husband, I said I'd do the Chelanman Try-a-tri with her.  I now had ten months or so to get over my dislike of running and my even stronger dislike of and discomfort with swimming.

Throughout the fall, I worked on my running to be prepared to comfortably complete the 5k distance required for the Try-a-tri.  I started working on the running so early because I knew the big challenge for the spring and early summer was going to be turning my non-swimmer self into someone who could survive the 1/4 mile swim required for the event.  I was going to have to do this despite being a 2-hour drive from the closest swimming pool until June when our local outdoor pool would open.

The running training through the fall and winter went well and I even began to enjoy it for the short distance required.  I even competed in a 5k in December and had a really enjoyable time.  I started working on the swim in late April with once a week trips to the nearest pool (100 miles away).  As expected, I was not very secure or strong in the water when I started, but gradually I was able over the weeks to increase the distance of my swim workouts and plan for a combination of backstroke and freestyle to get me through race day.  Eventually, the local pool opened and I increased my workouts to twice a week.  Outdoors I discovered that I have real difficulty swimming straight on my back.  I tend to wander a bit.  My plan for race day was going to have to involve more freestyle or I might end up way off course.

A couple weeks before the tri, my rental wetsuit arrived, and I headed for the local lake.  I knew that it would be a big help buoancy wise, but was really surprised at what a difference it really made.  I now felt really confident that the swim was not going to be that big a deal.  A few days before the race, I had a chance to swim the race course in Lake Chelan.  The water was definitely rougher with frequent boat wakes, but still not all that bad.  I looked forward to race day with great optimism.

Race day arrived with a strong westerly breeze and swim conditions that were described by experienced competitors as "choppy".  Most rookies were using terms like "oceanic".  The wind had piled up a steady series of 2 to 3 foot waves.  I got in the water early and tried to acclimatize and figure out what strokes and methods in my limited skill set were going to help me through this.  After being in it a bit, it really didn't seem all that bad.  Soon the start was upon me.  My wave had maybe 50 people in it and I lined up at the back and waited for the traffic to clear a bit before starting out.  The first 50 yards or so were straight into the teeth of the waves and then the course took a 90 degree turn to the right and began parallelling the waves.  Although I had waited before starting, I was soon stuck in traffic with many other struggling swimmers.  As we cleared the first turn, the conditions became very challenging.  My wife and I talked about it afterwards and decided it was what we think being shipwrecked must be like.  You couldn't really make much forward progress.  It was kind of just treading water with a little forward motion while periodically being dunked.  I had hoped to make the whole swim distance non-stop, but soon found the conditions and lack of forward progress very tiring.  I "rested" a couple of times hanging onto the course marshal kayaks.  Even while hanging onto them however, it was very physical and hard to recover.

Eventually, I reached the second 90 degree right turn on the course and began to swim with a following sea.  Here, I could swim a bit on my back and make pretty good progress.  The challenge for this part of the course is that it was straight into the morning sun and was very hard with the rough water to spot the buoy line that we were following.  Finally, I had passed the last of the bouys and could head for the beach.  I staggered out of the water and made my way into the transition area towards where my bike was racked.  I glanced at my watch and was surprised to see I had only been in the water less than 15 minutes.  That was  the longest 15 minutes of my life!

Heading into this race, I obviously had plenty of confidence in my bike leg.  I brought my TT bike, but left the fancy wheels at home.  The Try-a-tri is designed for newcomers to the sport and is not really a competitve event.  Everyone is timed and gets a full set of splits, but there are no awards.  The sprint event also taking place the same day used the same bike and run legs but started with a 1/2 mile swim.  I wanted to be serious enough about my bike and run that I could compare my times with the sprint competitors to see if I should keep doing tris if I enjoyed my debut.

I got my helmet, shoes, and gloves on and grabbed the bike and headed out on course.  As expected, I steadily passed all sorts of riders.  I didn't ride full gas, maybe 85 or 90 percent as I wanted to do a good run as well.  Soon the bike leg had passed and I was back at transition for another change of shoes.  I sucked down a gel and headed out on the run.

Most triathletes you talk to and articles about training for triathlon that you read talk about how difficult the transition is from biking to running.  Both in training and on race day, I never experienced it.  I just leave transition and take off running smoothly.  The only problem I seem to have is the temptation to run faster than I can sustain.  I think after the speed of the bike, I'm trying to keep that sensation going instead of settling into the slower speed of running (part of the reason I get bored with running very far!).  Other than a couple of brief patches where I walked for 50 yds. or so at a time, the run went really well.  I caught a couple more people in my age group and soon had turned back into the park towards the finish line.  I crossed the line and received my finishers medal.  My first triathlon in the books!

The times were posted very quickly and to my astonishment, I was the fastest in my age group, and 17th fastest of  the nearly 300 who did the Try-a-tri.  Although, 13th out of 15 out of the water and several minutes back, I'd had the fastest bike and the fastest run in my age group.  My bike leg was the fastest for all the Try-a-tri participants, and would have been the 8th fastest out of the 338 Sprint triathlon finishers.  I'm going to have to work hard on my swimming to be ready for the increased distance next time and hopefully find a little more speed as well.  Yeah, that's right, I said next time.  It was a lot of fun and I will certainly try to mix in a few triathlons each year with the bike racing.  In fact, I bought my wetsuit just an hour or so after the race, so as one friend told me, I guess I'm committed.

2010 Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race

Seeing how it has been 6 weeks since I raced it, I should probably write a post on my experience at this year's Mutual of Enumclaw State Race.  This race weekend is probably my favorite of the year.  The race is really well run, the courses are interesting, and the fields are usually large and competetive.  Last year was my first crack at this race and I competed in the master c/d field.  This year, I opted to race category 4 instead.
Another change is that last year's race was based on points awarded by finishing positions in the stages and this year was a true time-based stage race.

Like nearly all weekend omniums or stage races, the Enumclaw race consists of  a time-trial, criterium, and road race.  Typically, in an omnium, I hope for a strong TT result to gain enough points for a decent foundation for the weekend's competition and try to defy the odds and gain a few more points in the crit or road race.  Because this was going to be time based, however, a strong TT would only need to be followed with staying in contact with the bunch in the crit and road race to garner a strong result.

The weather forecast for the weekend was for cool and damp conditions and the TT conditions didn't miss the mark.  A light drizzle and temps in the low 40s greeted me as I arrived at the race site.  Being unenthused because of the weather, I was a little slower than usual getting my bike on the trainer and starting my warm-up, and ended up with a little shorter warm-up than I probably should have.  I rolled to the start line hoping that wouldn't come back to haunt me.  As in Wenatchee the week before, I rode the TT without a heartrate monitor or a computer, just my body's sensations to guide me.  The course is a nearly dead flat, 6.5 mile u-shaped course around Mt. Peak.  There is not a lot of time to spare settling in to a rhythm.  The clock counts down, you hit the gas, and you've either got it right for the day or you don't.  Luckily for me, I was on a good day.  I quickly caught the two riders that started ahead of me, kept my pace high, and took all 3 technical corners on the course at top speed.  In fact, I slid sideways a bit through the final corner.  Immediately after the finish I was not all that thrilled as my time of 15 minutes even was around  20 seconds slower than the previous year.  Once the results were posted, however, my mood improved as my time was good enough for 7th out of 76 starters in my category.

With a solid position now established in the overall, I set my sights on the afternoon's criterium and not losing any time in it.  It had been many, many years since I had finished a criterium in contact with the main bunch so I certainly would not be taking it easy.  The weather gods smiled on us and we had dry, sunny weather for our race.  Criteriums frequently start off blindingly fast for the first several laps and starting position can make a big difference on how easy it is to hang in there during this initial intensity.  Another benefit of my strong TT in the morning was a front row start for the criterium as the top 10 TT finishers were called to start line ahead of the field.  The race started very fast as usual, but instead of struggling to maintain contact with the tail end of the field, I was able to gradually drift back through the pack over several laps.  By then, the pace had eased some and maintaining contact was easier.  Then the crashes started.  Our race was only 30 minutes long, but there were at least four different crashes.  The first took place in the middle of a straight away, right near the front of the pack involving quite a lot of riders and took a little faith on my part to keep my pace up while shooting through gaps between fallen riders.  I managed to stay out of trouble and in contact with the second group to the finish, losing only about 19 seconds to the leaders.  In the overall, I still maintained a top 10 position with only the next day's road race remaining.

Sunday's road race would be 44 miles in length and feature three trips up the Mud Mountain Road climb.  The conditions that greeted us at the start line could not have been bleaker, steady rain and low 40s, this was late May right?  It felt like March.  We rolled out and were soon soaked through by the rain from above and the water off the wheels from below.  The first trip up the climb soon arrived and unfortunately, just like last year, I came up about 200 meters short of cresting it with the pack.  As the field disappeared up the road, I was soon caught up by a group of other dropped riders and we began the effort of chasing.  Unlike a similar effort last year, however, we were able to regain contact and get back into the field a couple of miles before the second time up the climb.  This time I was only able to hang on until about halfway up the climb.  I resigned myself to the fact that they were gone for good.  I was able to hook up with a couple of other riders as we began the final lap.  We worked well together, but certainly without the urgency of the previous chase.  As we approached the last intersection before the base of the climb, the corner marshal asked us which group we were with.  We answered 4s and she said, "keep it up, they're neutralised".  I thought to myself, "Sure, but they're ten minutes or more up the road".  We came around the corner, and there they were only a few hundred meters ahead just starting the climb.  It might as well have been 10 minutes, though, I was pretty cooked  from the chases and the weather and we never caught on.  At the finish, I was about 4 1/2 minutes behind the field.  As you might expect, this doomed my overall result, but I still ended up 35th out of the 76 cat 4s that started the weekend.

Other than the weather, it was another great weekend of racing in Enumclaw and with a little more climbing training before next year's edition, I may just get this race figured out.