This week was a return to training after the annoyingly bad training during the power outage. Not a very high number of hours total, but effort put in was quality training time, so I felt good about this week.
Total 9.5 hours riding and 5.5 hours trailwork for a grand total of 15 hours of exercise.
Mon Dec 25 2.5 hours
Rode to base of Teneriffe. 58 minutes to the gate, was two minutes faster than nominal time. Once at the base, it was late and I was really cold and low energy just a half hour before sunset, so I decided to turn around and not do the climb. Wanted to do a longer day involving night riding, but still felt this was a great ride to return to the training program after the snafus due to power outage.
Tue Dec 26 1 hour
Spin class, moderate pace. Should have done 4 hours in the rain as I had the day off from work.
Wed Dec 27 1 hour
Spin class. One helluva workout. Substitute instructor, Ruben, kicked EVERYBODY's BUTTS! The normal teacher Leanne totally rocks, so is not a fair comparison from excellent to excellent, yet I will definitely be looking for more sessions with Ruben.
Thu Dec 28 1 hour
Sent home early, so did Grand Ridge. Total time 2 hours 10 minutes. Trailwork time around an hour, ride time around an hour.
Fri Dec 29 ??? hours?
What did I do? I know I went riding, but being on vacation I neglected to log the ride. Penalty for bad bookkeeping, will not count the hours.
Sat Dec 30 1 hour
4.5 hours trailwork on Grand Ridge, then an hour of riding to look for my cell phone...
Sun Dec 31 2 hours
10 miles of Poo Poo point. Time is estimated cause I forgot to record start and end.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Fireroad damage to Poo Poo Point
This is why I love fireroad climbing in the wintertime. Who can resist the challenge of bursting your lungs on a climb with the snow by the road? You know the reward here is a very fast descent. Poo Poo Point alternates climbing and descending, it is not entirely easy on the return.
The fireroads around Tiger Mountain are getting hit hard this year by the wind storms and especially erosion from the heavy rains. I've noticed along the climb to the towers on Tiger there is some heavy erosion from a steep hillside that is beginning to eat the road a little bit. Just a matter of time before it takes a heavy bite out of it.
The image below shows some minor damage to the fireroad leading up to Poo Poo Point, a favorite for paragliders. I would recommend leaving this tree alone, it is just a minor obstacle to the ride.
The last two images are at the 5 mile marker. Due to the washout, the road is closed to vehicles but a bike can get around it. Close to the edge, it looks like it wants to shear off even more road, so don't tempt fate by getting close to the edge.
The fireroads around Tiger Mountain are getting hit hard this year by the wind storms and especially erosion from the heavy rains. I've noticed along the climb to the towers on Tiger there is some heavy erosion from a steep hillside that is beginning to eat the road a little bit. Just a matter of time before it takes a heavy bite out of it.The image below shows some minor damage to the fireroad leading up to Poo Poo Point, a favorite for paragliders. I would recommend leaving this tree alone, it is just a minor obstacle to the ride.
The last two images are at the 5 mile marker. Due to the washout, the road is closed to vehicles but a bike can get around it. Close to the edge, it looks like it wants to shear off even more road, so don't tempt fate by getting close to the edge.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Grand Ridge - where is the trail?
Below are two pictures I took of a tree blocking the trail at Grand Ridge. This was on the climb from the RR to the road. Everything you see was cleared except the tree itself. By clearing the branches off the tree, and clearing the trail, it is just a short hop to get off the bike and climb under the tree.
I cleared all of the branches in the way on the climb, but there are still around 5 trees scattered along the climb which could use a cutting. I think most can be done with a bow saw, but would take a lot of work and possibly require taking wedges out rather than a linear cut. I consider this a low priority, because other trails are screaming for tender loving care. Dave tells me that King County will be coming out in a week or so with a chainsaw, so we can in good conscience leave the bigger trees for them, and be happy that we did a lot of the busy work for them by clearing the branches.
If one wanted to work on this trail, I would recommend focussing on the derailleur grabbers (sticks under 2 feet long) and the excessive amount of mud puddles. I understand the WTA will be spending a month of trailwork in March here, so I would recommend to let them handle the mud puddles, and we should get the derailleur grabbers taken out, as a hiker group is not as concerned about derailleurs as we are.
Once done with the climb, the upper section of the trail past Grand Ridge Road needs A LOT OF RAKING to get rid of the derailleur grabbers. Dave and I cleared around two miles of trail past the road. We got the worst of the derailleur grabbers, but it is so bad out there you could rake the entire trail as if from the beginning. I would be delighted if someone would start raking right from the entrance at Grand Ridge Road.
For reference: my bike is on the trail...
I cleared all of the branches in the way on the climb, but there are still around 5 trees scattered along the climb which could use a cutting. I think most can be done with a bow saw, but would take a lot of work and possibly require taking wedges out rather than a linear cut. I consider this a low priority, because other trails are screaming for tender loving care. Dave tells me that King County will be coming out in a week or so with a chainsaw, so we can in good conscience leave the bigger trees for them, and be happy that we did a lot of the busy work for them by clearing the branches.
If one wanted to work on this trail, I would recommend focussing on the derailleur grabbers (sticks under 2 feet long) and the excessive amount of mud puddles. I understand the WTA will be spending a month of trailwork in March here, so I would recommend to let them handle the mud puddles, and we should get the derailleur grabbers taken out, as a hiker group is not as concerned about derailleurs as we are.
Once done with the climb, the upper section of the trail past Grand Ridge Road needs A LOT OF RAKING to get rid of the derailleur grabbers. Dave and I cleared around two miles of trail past the road. We got the worst of the derailleur grabbers, but it is so bad out there you could rake the entire trail as if from the beginning. I would be delighted if someone would start raking right from the entrance at Grand Ridge Road.
For reference: my bike is on the trail...
I lost my cellphone, presumably on the trail. If by extremely slim chance anybody finds it, let me know. I went back and rode the trail looking for my cell phone, but was unable to find it. I think it is gone for good.
It turned out that just past the bridge where we stopped is a tree with lots of branches obscuring the trail. Having ridden the trail, my recommendation for others is to take a rake to the early section, or a saw past the bridge. Even though we did a great job at raking and getting the worst of the derailleur grabbers, it really needs to get the organic layer off for purposes of puddling - it seemed more evident riding it than walking it out.
This part is worrisome. Dave laid branches to warn of a hole in the trail around a corner, and an hour later somebody removed it! After the trailwork, I went home and returned to the trail in under an hour, and thats all it took for somebody to remove it. So, even though I knew of the hole, I was cruising at warp speed cause that is during a fast section of trail, and almost ran into it. I would emphasize that the hole is a hazard, not a technical feature, due to it being a deep soft hole where the front wheel will sink into and not return. I found a rotten leaner and pushed it over, and that gave me a couple of 5 inch logs to place in the trail to replace the branches. Hopefully the logs will be painfully obvious that they are there to warn people and should not be removed. It should be a priority to come back with a shovel and bucket and fill in that hole. It really is a short matter of time before the logs are removed again and someone goes flying into it.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Transrockies Week 5 Training
This week was off to a slow start due to the electric power being out from last week's horrid wind storm, and complications with getting the house warm while going to work made it impossible to get any ride time in early.
Overall I will have to concede this week was a bit of a loss of fitness, but circumstances made it hard to get any ride time. Training is essential, but have to keep the house standing and the career intact, but now all is good again.
Total ride time = 3.5 hours.
Mon Dec 18 - no riding
Tue Dec 19 - no riding, electricity finally turned on at 11 PM.
Wed Dec 20 - 1 hour
spin class, heavy gears and high rpm to make up for lost time. Felt really great.
Thu Dec 21 - no riding
Fri Dec 22 - no riding
Sat Dec 23 - 1 hour
CCC road. Had to cut ride short due to mechanical, Novara suspension was acting up. Rode in ruts of a car due to 2 inches of snow. Fairly decent climb, will have to get elevation profile of this ride. Ran into a cute girl who was trail running with two dogs, she said she did a lot of clearing of the downed trees, so thanks go out to her. Later, reports from several members of the mountaineers coming off Teneriffe told me the snow level is between 1600 and 2200 feet, so that will be cutting my favorite climb short, at least I can supplement it with other things. Interesting to note the mountaineers had ice axes, poles, and snowshoes for the climb up to Teneriffe. They said there was virtually no avalanche danger on the uppper part of Teneriffe.
Sun Dec 24 - 1.5 hours
Down the ridge twice to Preston and supplementary side trails. Really cold driving sideways torrential rain. I only had 1 pair of tights on, did not use my rain pants, and knees got about as cold as if I had been icing them for the last hour and a half. Strange, knees got really prickly and red once I showered to warm up, I think in the future when I get that cold I should warm up slowly. First climb up silent creek was 13 minutes, second climb was 14 minutes. Part of the trail is closed, as accessed by Bandera area, but Silent creek area is open.
Overall I will have to concede this week was a bit of a loss of fitness, but circumstances made it hard to get any ride time. Training is essential, but have to keep the house standing and the career intact, but now all is good again.
Total ride time = 3.5 hours.
Mon Dec 18 - no riding
Tue Dec 19 - no riding, electricity finally turned on at 11 PM.
Wed Dec 20 - 1 hour
spin class, heavy gears and high rpm to make up for lost time. Felt really great.
Thu Dec 21 - no riding
Fri Dec 22 - no riding
Sat Dec 23 - 1 hour
CCC road. Had to cut ride short due to mechanical, Novara suspension was acting up. Rode in ruts of a car due to 2 inches of snow. Fairly decent climb, will have to get elevation profile of this ride. Ran into a cute girl who was trail running with two dogs, she said she did a lot of clearing of the downed trees, so thanks go out to her. Later, reports from several members of the mountaineers coming off Teneriffe told me the snow level is between 1600 and 2200 feet, so that will be cutting my favorite climb short, at least I can supplement it with other things. Interesting to note the mountaineers had ice axes, poles, and snowshoes for the climb up to Teneriffe. They said there was virtually no avalanche danger on the uppper part of Teneriffe.
Sun Dec 24 - 1.5 hours
Down the ridge twice to Preston and supplementary side trails. Really cold driving sideways torrential rain. I only had 1 pair of tights on, did not use my rain pants, and knees got about as cold as if I had been icing them for the last hour and a half. Strange, knees got really prickly and red once I showered to warm up, I think in the future when I get that cold I should warm up slowly. First climb up silent creek was 13 minutes, second climb was 14 minutes. Part of the trail is closed, as accessed by Bandera area, but Silent creek area is open.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Transrockies Week 4 Training (recovery week)
This was a recovery week, so not much riding planned, but a couple of snags along the way, just about brought the riding down. Wednesday nite I showed up for spin class and forgot my shorts. Doh! Afraid I would have to beat the ladies off with a large stick, I decided not to ride in my boxers (sorry ladies...), so I just called it a nite. Thursday was the beginning of the horror of the wind storm that knocked out power for the rest of the week.
The power went out almost 11 pm on Thursday. Too bad it didn't go out an hour earlier, as I had to endure watching a terrible defeat by the seahawks, major screwups in the last few minutes...
Mon Dec 11 -1 hour
spin class, light weights and high rpm.
Tue Dec 12 - 2.5 hours
Nite ride with Justin and Jon at Tokul West. Barely beat the huge rainstorm, so conditions were great. Finished shortly after 9 PM. Couple of climbs got the heart rate up to 175 briefly, which was good.
Wed Dec 13 - no riding
Thu Dec 14 - no riding
Fri Dec 15 - no riding
Sat Dec 16 - no riding
3-5 pm training seminar in Seattle with Herriot Sports Fitness
Sun Dec 17 - no riding
The power went out almost 11 pm on Thursday. Too bad it didn't go out an hour earlier, as I had to endure watching a terrible defeat by the seahawks, major screwups in the last few minutes...
Mon Dec 11 -1 hour
spin class, light weights and high rpm.
Tue Dec 12 - 2.5 hours
Nite ride with Justin and Jon at Tokul West. Barely beat the huge rainstorm, so conditions were great. Finished shortly after 9 PM. Couple of climbs got the heart rate up to 175 briefly, which was good.
Wed Dec 13 - no riding
Thu Dec 14 - no riding
Fri Dec 15 - no riding
Sat Dec 16 - no riding
3-5 pm training seminar in Seattle with Herriot Sports Fitness
Sun Dec 17 - no riding
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Transrockies Week 3 Training
Well, this week I fell short again on the goal of 18 hours of training, but I saw some encouraging gains. Spin class is very good for the heart, and 3 days of outside riding was good. I definitely sucked for bailing on Friday, but at least I was fresh for our big ride on Saturday. Always a possibility of losing a day due to recovery or other reasons, I'm OK with this Thursday off but it makes me realize I need to do more of stretching and PT style exercises to keep the back strong.
I finally got a heart rate monitor, and the Sunday ride revealed that I am riding on average about 15-20 bpm less than normal, meaning that the strong climb in middle ring is due to leg muscles, but I need to start pushing the heart a bit more. Having the heart rate monitor will help me to keep myself from sandbagging my own ride, as it made me realize I am not pushing as hard as I am capable of.
Doug is being really great about changing my nutritional habits during the ride, and it was evident on our long ride as I never was lacking for energy.
Next week is a recovery week of 11 hours, which is 1 hour more than what I did on a training week. It's easy to analyze after the fact how I come up short on hours, but basically I need to work on determination, as even a short day can get me off schedule. Always keep the clothing and equipment ready to ride. I think I will just forego the recovery week, and see if I can increase hours next week regardless. Will take the recovery week next time the schedule brings it that way.
Mon Dec 04 - 1 hour
Evening spin class. Great hard workout. Pushing heavy gears and endurance / hills
Tue Dec 05 - 2.5 hours
Morning ride. Rode to Rattlesnake Lake and back. One hour 13 minutes out, 6 minutes riding around lake, 1 hour 6 minutes return. Out was a slight gain in speed, return lost 6 minutes. Although I had breakfast, was super hungry on the return. Should have stopped for energy bar. Weather was cold but nice. One bridge was slippery due to compacted ice, but rest of trail was in great shape.
Wed Dec 06 - 1 hour
Evening spin class
Thu Dec 07 - Day off. Inflammation in lower back sent me to the chiropractor. Lots of stiffness there, I will need to start stretching that area better.
Fri Dec 08 - Day off for stupid reasons.
Sat Dec 09 - 4.5 hours actual ride time, 5.5 hours total.
Sno Ridge - Millpond - Reinig - North Bend - Teneriffe. Did the climb up Teneriffe for 45 minutes to the overlook around 3000 feet. Doug and I then headed over to Rattlesnake Lake. Realizing we could make a 50 mile day of it, we went up Ironhorse trail for 2.5 miles before turning back. Turned out to be a 49 mile day, with 6200 feet of climbing. Cold and rainy, but we are tough as nails. The last 8 miles I was out of water as I drank 100 ounces along the way, but was fine. Only counting ride time of 4.5 hours, but the extra hour of taking in food and other reasons counts for something as it was more time in the cold and rain. We actually saw a guy and a girl riding up Teneriffe as we were descending. I wonder how far they went, I have a hard time finding people willing to ride up that extremely steep trail.
Sun Dec 10 - 1 hours 9 minutes
Tiger climb to Preston TH, then over to RATT east towers. Middle ring the whole way. Super rainy and cold. Finished at 4:22 PM, 5 minutes after sunset. Actual climb was 55 minutes, descent for 14 minutes, could not descend as quickly as I wanted to due to darkness and much rain in my eyes. I've middle ringed it before to Preston TH, but I was stoked as this is the first time I stayed in middle ring up to the towers.
Total = 10 hours
I finally got a heart rate monitor, and the Sunday ride revealed that I am riding on average about 15-20 bpm less than normal, meaning that the strong climb in middle ring is due to leg muscles, but I need to start pushing the heart a bit more. Having the heart rate monitor will help me to keep myself from sandbagging my own ride, as it made me realize I am not pushing as hard as I am capable of.
Doug is being really great about changing my nutritional habits during the ride, and it was evident on our long ride as I never was lacking for energy.
Next week is a recovery week of 11 hours, which is 1 hour more than what I did on a training week. It's easy to analyze after the fact how I come up short on hours, but basically I need to work on determination, as even a short day can get me off schedule. Always keep the clothing and equipment ready to ride. I think I will just forego the recovery week, and see if I can increase hours next week regardless. Will take the recovery week next time the schedule brings it that way.
Mon Dec 04 - 1 hour
Evening spin class. Great hard workout. Pushing heavy gears and endurance / hills
Tue Dec 05 - 2.5 hours
Morning ride. Rode to Rattlesnake Lake and back. One hour 13 minutes out, 6 minutes riding around lake, 1 hour 6 minutes return. Out was a slight gain in speed, return lost 6 minutes. Although I had breakfast, was super hungry on the return. Should have stopped for energy bar. Weather was cold but nice. One bridge was slippery due to compacted ice, but rest of trail was in great shape.
Wed Dec 06 - 1 hour
Evening spin class
Thu Dec 07 - Day off. Inflammation in lower back sent me to the chiropractor. Lots of stiffness there, I will need to start stretching that area better.
Fri Dec 08 - Day off for stupid reasons.
Sat Dec 09 - 4.5 hours actual ride time, 5.5 hours total.
Sno Ridge - Millpond - Reinig - North Bend - Teneriffe. Did the climb up Teneriffe for 45 minutes to the overlook around 3000 feet. Doug and I then headed over to Rattlesnake Lake. Realizing we could make a 50 mile day of it, we went up Ironhorse trail for 2.5 miles before turning back. Turned out to be a 49 mile day, with 6200 feet of climbing. Cold and rainy, but we are tough as nails. The last 8 miles I was out of water as I drank 100 ounces along the way, but was fine. Only counting ride time of 4.5 hours, but the extra hour of taking in food and other reasons counts for something as it was more time in the cold and rain. We actually saw a guy and a girl riding up Teneriffe as we were descending. I wonder how far they went, I have a hard time finding people willing to ride up that extremely steep trail.
Sun Dec 10 - 1 hours 9 minutes
Tiger climb to Preston TH, then over to RATT east towers. Middle ring the whole way. Super rainy and cold. Finished at 4:22 PM, 5 minutes after sunset. Actual climb was 55 minutes, descent for 14 minutes, could not descend as quickly as I wanted to due to darkness and much rain in my eyes. I've middle ringed it before to Preston TH, but I was stoked as this is the first time I stayed in middle ring up to the towers.
Total = 10 hours
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Transrockies Week 2 Training
Cold all week, outside riding only on weekend.
Mon Nov 27 - 0.5 hour rollers. Big ole snowstorm and cold outside. Too snowy to go to gym.
Tue Nov 28 - 0.5 hours rollers
Wed Nov 29 - 0
Thu Nov 30 - 0.5 hours rollers
Fri Dec 01 - 0
Sat Dec 02 - 3.5 hours
Ridge to Ridge with Doug, 36 miles and 3600 feet
Sun Dec 03 - 2 hours
Ethan @ Griffin Creek
Total 7 hours, goal was 18. Not enough riding, but extraneous circumstances of snowy cold weather and family illness cut into my weekday riding.
Mon Nov 27 - 0.5 hour rollers. Big ole snowstorm and cold outside. Too snowy to go to gym.
Tue Nov 28 - 0.5 hours rollers
Wed Nov 29 - 0
Thu Nov 30 - 0.5 hours rollers
Fri Dec 01 - 0
Sat Dec 02 - 3.5 hours
Ridge to Ridge with Doug, 36 miles and 3600 feet
Sun Dec 03 - 2 hours
Ethan @ Griffin Creek
Total 7 hours, goal was 18. Not enough riding, but extraneous circumstances of snowy cold weather and family illness cut into my weekday riding.
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