Transrockies Week 12 Training

Total 6 hours

Well, the ride with Doug was encouraging, because we pushed hard for 4 hours on a beautiful day, and got some great singletrack riding in. Unfortunately, my arches are aching. It could have started from the two days of telemark skiing (flexible leather boots, lot of pressure on the arches), and especially from spin classes where you are out of the saddle most of the time.

At any rate, despite having low hours of training recently, it is time to see a podiatrist and change my style of training to be less stress on the arches. One thing that is critical is stretching the calves, as that pulls on the arches. I bought a few massage toys to do that. A few days of rest and ibuprofen are in order for next week. I bought new arch supports as well. I may stop going to spin class for a bit, and do training on home trainer and outside, where focus is on pedalling while seated, maybe that will be less strain on the calves and arches.

Mon Feb 5 1 hr
Spin class. Moderate intensity. Metatarsals were aching, somewhat of a shift to the arches to alleviate the pain. This could be the cause of perceived plantar fascitis (see sunday)
Tue Feb 6
day off.
Wed Feb 7 1 hr
Spin class. Intense, pushed hard.
Th Feb 8
day off, visited with Miguel and Charla and Jenny in Renton.
F Feb 9
day off, visitied with Chad and Armando.
Sat Feb 10 4 hours
Rode with Doug from Snoqualmie Ridge down to
Sun Feb 11 Day off.
Arches ache! I've been ignoring the pain in my feet for a few weeks, but its come to a head. Some say it is plantar fascitis, so I am stretching the calves and massaging the feet. Hoping this is a temporary thing.

Week 11 training is omitted (Mon Jan 29 - Sun Feb 4). Due to 12 hr days at work and visitor from out of state I was unable to train that week.

Southwest vacation plans

Plans are not finalized yet. I am looking for one or two riders to join me on this adventure. Contact me via email, if you do not know my email just enter a comment. Thanks.

Update: I may reverse the order of the whole trip so that the high altitude riding is at the end, in case snow needs extra time to melt.

I've been to Moab twice, so the 5 days of riding there will be the classics, in whatever order we choose on a daily basis. Options such as Poison Spider, LaSalles, Porcupine Rim, etc.

Bryce Canyon / Flagstaff / Moab / Kokopelli / Fruita

10 days of vacation time

• Fri Apr 27. Leave Seattle (after work, 6 pm drive start)
  
• Sat Apr 28. Bryce Canyon (16 hrs drive, arrive 10 AM) Red Canyon unwind
  
• Sun Apr 29. Thunder Mountain
  
• M Apr 30. Gooseberry Mesa (St George UT, 2 hours drive from Bryce)
  
• T May 1. Flagstaff, AZ (5 hrs drive time, do it after Gooseberry ride). ??? for actual ride. Thinking maybe just a hike on North Rim of Grand Canyon.
  
• W May 2. Mount Elden Loop, Flagstaff. 3-5 hr ride, expert level.
  
• Th May 3. The Peaks Loop, Flagstaff. 46 miles, all day ride. high elevation. End of day or next morning, drive to Moab (5 hrs drive).
  
• F May 4. Moab, easy spin around Slickrock trail
  
• Sat-Mon May 5-7. 3 days of Kokopelli with Doug. 1.5 hours drive for return to Moab from Fruita CO
  
• T May 8. Moab
  
• W May 9. Moab
  
• Th May 10. Moab
  
• F May 11. Moab
  
• Sat May 12. Moab. Drive back to Seattle. Start 4 pm, 16 hrs drive, home at 8 AM Sunday.
  
• Sun May 13. Back in Seattle, sleep...
  

Drive planner maps:

Snoqualmie WA to Bryce Canyon UT

Its a lot of hard riding planned, a lot of time away from work, and a lot of time with kenobonn, so don't be surprised if I want to ride with you first before we agree that we are suitable travel buddies. All I want to do is drive, sleep, ride and maybe see the grand canyon by bike or foot, so no downtime for licking your wounds from the day before, although rides can change on a daily basis at our mutual discretion.

All rides posted are tentative, so I can be flexible as to what trails to hit. My criteria is I want to do some riding in the 8-10,000 ft elevation range (Bryce area and Flagstaff), and some riding in 90+ degree heat (Moab). Note that some days can be factored in for shorter rides for recovery if needed.

The one thing that is set in stone is the days of Kokopelli with Doug. We agreed it is just the two of us doing that 3 day part of the trip, so that is a good opportunity for you to hang in Moab and do your own thing. I sorta expect others to be in the area, so you may be able to hook up with other riders.

Transrockies Week 10 Training

Total 4 hours biking and 2 days of telemark skiing.

Mon Jan 22 1 hr
Spin class. Worked hard, but a little unfocussed today. Sleep deprivation and long hours of work, I found myself drifting a bit. At least I caught myself at it, so would refocus and get back on it. Overall moderate intensity because alternating between high intensity and drifting off. I wonder what the instructor thought, it must be unusual to see someone kickin a** in the front row and other times going thru the motions.
Tue Jan 23 Day off. Date with Kristi. Wonderful girl, but did not work out, I found myself wishing I were on the bike instead of at a bar.
Wed Jan 24 1 hr
Spin class. Extremely high intensity. Wow. Lots of sprints. Lots of level 10 heavy gears. This was a great workout today.
Thu Jan 25 2 hours
Thrilla! Finally doing some outside riding.
Fri Jan 26 0 hrs
Drive to Whistler
Sat Jan 27 0 hrs (6 hrs skiing)
Telemark Ski at Whistler. Very icy.
Sun Jan 28 0 hrs (4 hrs skiing)
Telemark skiing at Blackcomb. Very icy.

Transrockies Week 9 Training

Total 4 hours

Very low on hours of training. However, quality of the training is good. This week had zero benefit for endurance, as they were only 1 hour rides, but a good benefit was speed and intensity work.

Mon Jan 15 1 hr
Spin class, worked really hard, felt great.
Tue Jan 16 day off
Very stiff today, weightlifting of Sunday finally caught up with me.
Wed Jan 17 1 hr
Spin class. Moderate intensity. Worked hard, but without heart rate monitor to guide me I did not push as hard as other days.
Thu Jan 18 1 hr
Indoor trainer. Actually enjoyed it for the first time in a long time. Just gotta deal with the vibrations, and not so bad.
Fri Jan 19 day off, worked till midnite.
Sat Jan 20 day off, drove to Eugene
Sun Jan 21 1 hr
Road ride the hills of Eugene. Felt so strong it was as if someone were pushing my bike up the hills. It was funny to see a roadie going the other direction of the loop, and later on passing him again. He gave me the funniest look as if to say "how the hell did you get there so quickly". Hey, I may have a mountain bike with 6 inch suspension and a backpack so full I look like Quasimodo, but on a good day I can go fast. Unfortunately, had to cut ride short with just one loop as I was in Eugene to visit family.

Transrockies Week 8 Training

Total 7 hours 15 minutes

Sucky weather put me indoors mostly. Getting into the groove for spin class, still hating the rollers, this time cause I moved them indoors and they vibrate too much. Tried Spinervals for the first time, makes up for the boredom of rollers. Thankfully Ethan suggested we hit some trails so I got out one day.

Mon Jan 08 1 hr
Spin class
Tue Jan 09 1 hr
Spin class
Wed Jan 10 1 hr
Spin class
Thu Jan 11 45 min
Rollers (with Spinervals!)
Fri Jan 12 30 min
Rollers
Sat Jan 13 2 hrs
Lake Sawyer with Ethan. Fun times riding over crunchy snow and first twisty singletrack in a while. Really needed the outside time...
Sun Jan 14 1 hr
15 minutes on treadmill (does not really count as exercise...), then an hour of weightlifting focussing on legs only, then 35 minutes of high speed spinning on recumbent bike trainer. Did a lot of 1 minute sprints at 120-130 rpm, final sprint was over 150 and hit a high of 162 rpm. Fun to do such a high rpm, mostly impractical for real life. Since the weightlifting was focused on legs, I'll count that as half time.

Snow day very bad for driving

I've declared winter officially over, but evidently I seem to be overruled by forces larger than me. Below is a force of nature opposed to the snow, Speedy is saying something to the effect of "WTF, stop screwing around and let me in!".
You know the expression "you can curse the darkness or light a candle"? Figuratively, I will do both. Curses cause I don't do 4+ hour bike rides in this weather, but will enjoy the snow by doing an easy bike ride around the neighborhood, just a short hour or so. I'll definitely be stoked when I go skiing soon at Alpental, and then Whistler the weekend of the 27th!
I am working from home this week, but annoyingly I wanted to run an important errand in Issaquah today. I may have to bail on the errand based on the mess you see below. Anybody want to count the cars by the side of the road? I counted 31, but two of the counts are dubious lumps of snow. Normally I would be driving past this section on my way to work. Not today...
I like these pictures, I think I captured the snowstorm from Wednesday rather nicely here. What direction is the snow flying? The original full size pics actually capture the snow flying better, but this is good enough for a web posting.


Needless to say, training this week involves using my indoor trainer with Spinervals.

Puno Peru To LaPaz Bolivia

Compare these photos, first is from my trip to Peru/Bolivia in August 2006, second from hansrey site.

Transrockies Week 7 Training

Total 8 hours 45 minutes

Spin class workouts are great. Hating the rollers in the garage, major sensory deprivation. Hating the frickin weather and ANOTHER blackout Friday nite. Despite adversity, feels like I am making some strength gains. This weekend was fun doing a solo ride.

Mon Jan 01 day off no riding
Tue Jan 02 1 hour
Spin class with Jessica E.
Wed Jan 03 1 hour
Spin class with Leanne. Intense workout. Got to see Oslem again!
Thu Jan 04 30 minutes
Rollers in the garage. Hating life.
Fri Jan 05 1 hour
Rollers in the garage. Kill me. Stupid power outage just before midnite, at least it was an excuse to go to bed and the power was on by morning.
Sat Jan 06 4 hour 15 minutes
Rode almost to McClelum Butte, around 44 miles. See previous post for more interesting writeup. EXCELLENT Seahawks game afterwards, watched it with Ethan at my place.
Sun Jan 07 1 hour
Rollers in the house! Finally moved them indoors, much more enjoyable. Did 3 hours of trailwork with Erik, but much of it was walking so lets just call it two hours and not count towards total exercise hours. Erik lent me spinervals, that should help motivation with the rollers at home.

Ironhorse still snowy

I rode from my house to Rattlesnake Lake via SVT today. Estimating around 44 miles, time was 4 hours and 15 minutes. A lot of people call this an easy trail, but they don't ride in freezing temperatures for hours like I do. One nice thing about trails like this is that you can cover a lot of distance quickly, and the sightseeing is great. Riding it solo like I did today, and it is a great feeling of independence.

Just a bit on the slow side, but my rear brake was on the whole way. I've made a lot of effort to fix that rear brake, but it keeps sticking shut, and I gotta ride. I try using isopropyl alcohol to clean the calipers, and even push them out, but they just want to stay shut. Being able to fix brake problems is critical, so hopefully I will get this figured out soon.

I experimented with the ole baggie in the shoes trick, where you put a baggie over the socks. It has some benefit, but some drawbacks. Benefit is for wind stopping, but drawback is your toes get really wet, which is fine if it is warm, but once it gets cold it gets cold real quick. Luckily my toes were warm for all but the last half hour of the ride.

Decisions...decisions... Close examination of this sign says that the park is closed, and the trail needs repairs, but does not say the trail is closed. So I rode it. Followed the letter of the law, if not the intent. The only thing wrong with the trail is a creek crossing, and at this point there is an inch of snow, in a few miles there will be 3 inches of snow.

Almost there. I get a kick out of these signs advising how far it is to Chicago. I think this trail follows a railroad grade that used to go to Chicago. It would be really cool if the trail extended the whole way, except then you would be in Chicago - doh!

The snow obviously slows me down, but is fun to ride thru. Sleet was falling for part of the ride. I came out of this ride completely soaked, but by dressing properly, taking in food and water, and minimizing breaks to keep moving, I stayed warm. No bike tracks other than mine, but there were ski tracks before me.