It seems like a long time since I was able to get in a week of exercise that I consider very good.  It seems to have been a long lull, with the cycling accident on April 8th (week 15 on the chart below).  Then the travel to Washington State, Utah, Atlanta and Florida.   Although I was trying to get in some exercise while traveling and while recovering, it was not at the level I usually can do and much of it was on a bike trainer.

After returning from Atlanta (week 20), we started our crash recovery course on cycling, quickly getting ready to a Century ride that Saturday.  It was the first time for quite awhile for both Anne and I to reach 200 miles of cycling in a week.  The next week should have been much better than it was, but the long ride we were planning on that Saturday turned out to be short due to very cold condition. But for this week (week 22), I biked nearly 400 miles.  Yesterday was my first time to cycle without any splint on, and it worked okay.  I went on the long distance training ride with the club (Anne could not join due to a conflict).  The 115 miles seemed not too difficult, but I did have a hard time to keep up with the guys I usually can hang right with.  My climbing is slowing coming back but I still have a ways to recover.

If I look at the accumulated cycling miles over this year, compared with prior years, the fall off is quite apparent.  From being ahead of any prior years, I have fallen back, well below last year.

Due to issues with my knees, my running has been very moderate for several months now.  While traveling, I did run more than I had been, but it is still at a relatively low level, never getting more than about 16 miles in a week.

My weight had climbed as my cycling at declined, but it is now finally coming back down, which is good news.

Categories: Training Log
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On Friday I went to the doctor and he said my broken left thumb had healed well. He wants me to continue to use the splint for another two weeks but I was lucky to get a new splint. This one is made of neoprene and is much more flexible. I tried it out on a bike ride on Saturday and it was much easier to bike with than the old hard splint I have been using.

Categories: Training Log
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It was six weeks today that I fell near the end of a bike ride.  It was not the first time I had a cycling accident but it has been several years since the last time and the first time I ended up with an injury that has taken this long to recover from.  Last week, after 5 weeks of wearing a splint, I finally made my way back on my road bike.   Then last Saturday, Anne and I, completed a flat century ride.  This week I finally made it back on to the tandem, which we rode yesterday and today.

So in celebration of getting to the 6 week mark when bones are suppose to be healed enough, I decided to go on the night ride up Henry Coe, the very same ride when I had the crash 6 weeks ago.

Over the past week I have learned to ride well enough with my left thumb held out by the splint. I just can not shift the front derailleur without reaching over using my right hand.  Braking with the left hand is also an issue, so I have been doing mostly flat riding and just braking with my right hand.  But enough waiting already and I felt okay to do a ride with a significant climb.

About 6 of us showed up for the ride.  With this group I can usually push the pace enough to drop most all of them.  But today I could not.  Taking my heart rate up much higher than I usually do during a climb kept me in front of most of the riders, but not a couple of them who went out ahead.  During the lower section of the climb I was above 170 bpm, going as high as 176.  In this type of group ride I usually never go above 165.   But this higher heart rate is usual when I have been off the bike for awhile and have not been  pushing the pace and climbing.  It seems that at my age, my cardio system declines faster than my legs.  When I am in shape and climbing the legs become the limiting factor, but tonight it was the heart and lungs.  But just as the cardio system declines faster, it also recovers faster so I am confident that with some more work, I can regain my conditioning.

Descending down Henry Coe was a bit problematic.  I can easily brake with my right hand (rear brake) but bicycles are meant to be used with two brakes.  So I had to keep the pace at a much slower decent and even then I did use my left hand somewhat to brake, but I could not wrap my left thumb around the bar when in the drops.  It has kind of made me off balance and I found that I was pushing the inside of my right leg against the top tube, I suppose to get more rigidity with the left fingers pulling on the brake without the left hand with a firm grip on the bar.  With the slower pace, I felt fully confident during the decent.

We have four weeks before out 10 day bicycle tour across the state of California.  I am now confident we will be ready.  Completing the ride up Henry Coe was exactly what I needed to get my confidence back again.  And yes, the spot where I went down last time, I made that turn REAL SLOW.

Categories: Training Log
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Since my cycling injury, my biking has been confined to the bike trainer.  At a follow-up appointment today with the orthopedic surgeon, who is also a sports medicine doctor, I was given the clearance to start to run and bike, as long as I used the splint.  I am lucky that I did not need a cast and even more lucky that no surgery was required.

At the emergency room they used a simple splint after finding the fracture in my left thumb, but the following day when I visited the orthopedic surgeon, he made a new splint.  It is kind of a neat process.  It looks like a pad of cloth with some foam on one side.   After cutting it to fit my hand, he got it wet, then wrapped it around my hand and thumb to form fit.  Then to hold it in place, he wrapped in in gaze.  It is much better for  me than a cast because I can unwrap it and remove it if I need to.

At today’s visit he remove the splint to examine my hand and then used the same splint, wrapping it this time in an ace bandage.  He said this type of splint is bullet proof and some have even used it when playing football.  This image shows the splint on my left hand wrapped in the bandage.

This afternoon we went out for the first time on a bike.  I was hesitant to use a road bike because of the need to brake and shift with the left hand so I went on my mountain bike instead, and Anne went on her road bike.  We only went 20 miles, but that seemed like a long ways on a mountain bike.  We had a nice tail wind coming back home, getting our speed up to 24 mph.  That is rather fast for a mountain bike.  I think I will put my slick tires on my mountain bike and use it for now to ride outside in keep the road bike on the trainer.  I can still use my left fingers (to do things like type this blog) and to get a little grip on the handlebars, but most of the stability comes from my right hand.

I had another xray to day also and the doctor called and said it looked fine and to just come back and see him in 5 weeks.  I need to keep using the splint for that entire time. This is the splint itself, with the ace bandage removed.

I am real happy to be biking again but I hesitate to use the tandem while I need to use the splint, so it is single bikes for awhile. Although I am not so excited about the splint for another 5 weeks, there is one good thing. My left hand now has a palm rest when I am typing.

Categories: Cycling
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It was a beautiful day today, a bit on the cool side but sunny and clear.  Normally I would be out for a bike ride, or maybe a run, but instead I was on the bike trainer.  I hate the trainer and find it more boring than the treadmill.  It is usually something I do only when it is cold and raining or snowing outside and I can not safely bike.  But I can’t bike on the road right now.  You might be able to guess why by looking at this photo.

That photo insert in the lower right shows what I looked like 6 days ago.  It all started with my night ride up Henry Coe a few of us do on Wednesday evening.  As usual, we started out at 5:15 pm from Chuck’s house and after a short while we were climbing.  After riding two double centuries already this year, I was finally starting to feel in shape, enough so that I went ahead of the others on the climb.  I was at the regroup area, about half way up for awhile while the rest of the group arrived.  As we were waiting for everyone to get ready to ride again, a couple of young riders whipped by us on the climb.  I thought at the time that they were sure moving fast and figured it was because they were young.

Again I started to go ahead of the others in our group and soon started to gain on one of the two younger riders.  I guess he  was not going as fast as I had thought.  After passing him, I was wondering if I could catch the other young rider, so I charged ahead.  Well before the top I caught him.  He stayed on my wheel for the rest of the climb, only going ahead at the very top.  I was happy enough with that.

We got dressed into warmer clothes before the descent and then headed down.  I again went ahead of the rest of the group because I wanted to get down before it got dark since I had not brought a light.  I remember that I might be descending too fast since I did not see the others behind me, but I felt confident I was in control.  I made it down the entire hill without any problem.

I was now coasting on the flatter section at the bottom and approaching the turn.  I saw an arrow painted on the road, showing the turn for the Tierra Bella Century coming up. I thought for awhile to go all the way to Hill Road to see if they marked it right for the turn, but made a last minute decision to turn right and take the short cut over to Hill Road.  That was a mistake I wish I had not made.

I know that short cut road has gravel and I didn’t think I was going that fast, but somehow I misjudged things and knew I was going down.  I don’t recall hitting the ground exactly, which might be a good thing.  My glasses were off and I saw they had broken, leaving the side piece still stuck over my right ear.  I went to remove it and then saw the blood on my glove.  I figured the glasses had broke upon impact with the ground and I had cut my face.

I felt a bit stunned but decided I could bike.  I checked the wheel rotation before mounting and could see that the front wheel was not rotating because the brake had moved over against the wheel.  I had a hard time moving the brake back center because my left hand was hurting.  I don’t recall much after that and I don’t remember riding the mile or so back to the car.  I do remember putting my bike on the top rack and the others in the group were then with me.  I went into Chuck’s house to wash up, but not until Chuck took my picture (see above).

I knew I must have hit my head since I did not have a clear memory so I decided to call Ann to come get me instead of taking a risk of driving.  She was there within 20 minutes and we decided since it was late now, about 8:30 pm, it was best we went to the emergency room to get checked out.

It was a bit difficult to change into those wonderful gowns they have and I could see some road rash on my right side, but not too bad.  I had some on my right shoulder, exactly in the same spot where twice before I had had some injury.  I guess I fall on my right side all the time.  I was not sure why my left hand was hurting if I fell on my ride side.

The doctor decided to do a CAT scan and also x-ray on my left hand.  I was worried what the CAT scan might find.  Hey, maybe they would find out that I was really an alien or something from outer space.  While I was waiting for those results another doctor stitched up my cut over my right eye.  I didn’t feel much pain, except the left hand.

The results were in and CAT scan did not show any problem but the left hand had fractured so they put a splint on in.  After getting some bandages on some of my other wounds and some cleanup of the road rash, we were finally out the door, around midnight.

The next day I decided to call the orthopedic surgeon they had recommended I see, but we had no communications in the area since someone had cut the fiber optic cable.  No phone, no cell phone, no internet.  We drove over to the address on the card they gave me but the doctor had moved to Morgan Hill so we drove up there.  I was able to get an appointment later that day.  But I realized that without the internet the doctor could not access the x-ray they had taken, so we drove back down the the ER to get the films, then back to Morgan Hill.

The orthopedic surgeon looked at the file and said the good news was that I probably did not need surgery.  He put on a new splint, a much nicer one that almost fits like a cast, and wrapped the hand up.  I scheduled an appointment to see him in a week.  I did ask him about biking and he said if I was okay to bike with a splint, after a couple weeks it would be okay for me to get back on the bike.

A day later I had the courage to look at the data from my heart rate monitor.  I could see that I had stopped a bit less than 6 minutes after I crashed until I was back on the bike.  I assume the others in the group had came upon me and road with me to the car, but frankly I can remember.  Looking at the data, I could see it took me 6 minutes to ride the 1 mile back to the car.

Last Saturday was the Tierra Bella Worker’s ride. Anne and I had planned to ride the 100 mile route on the tandem and then go to the picnic.  I thought about just driving to the picnic, but I didn’t like that idea, so I got on my mountain bike, and Anne on her road bike, and I biked one handed over the 3 miles to enjoy the picnic.

Yesterday I finally had the courage to go look at my road bike.  The right brake lever had rotated around upon impact so I fixed that. Then I saw that the left aero bar had also rotated and the ends of both aero bars were scrapped up.  I adjusted the aero bars back.  Actually last Wednesday I had decided to take the aero bars off since I would not be doing any more time trials or double centuries for awhile, but with the left hand in a splint, they are going to come in handy.  So today I put the bike on the trainer and got in over an hour of training.  Did I already say I hate the bike trainer?

Categories: Cycling
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Some say that the easiest double century in our area is the spring Solvang Double.  Yes, the climbing is less than most but with over 7,000 feet it is not quite like some real flat doubles in others parts of the country.  Yes the total miles is a bit less than 200 miles.  So for many people it is the best way to do your first double.  But for me it is not so easy because, unlike with other doubles, people always want to know how fast you did it.  So it is more like a race than an endurance event.  I make matters worse for myself by starting with the 7:30 am group, which gets timed with the times posted on the Plant Ultra website.

Actually I was feeling rather prepared for this double, even though it occurs so early in the season.  For the first time ever, it was not my first double century of the year because I rode the Death Valley Double one month early.  Maybe I was feeling a bit too confident because in the same week Anne and I did a little too much speed work, setting 3 new PRs on tandem hill climbs on Henry Coe, Thomas Grade and Metcalf. I don’t mean PR for this year, I mean our best time ever.  In retrospect, maybe that was not such a keen  idea to do only days before doing a double.

Last year I completed Solvang under 10 hours. By under 10 hours I mean by about 20 seconds.  I remember last year  I felt I had a shot of breaking 10 hours about 40 miles from the end, which added a lot of pressure and drove me to push much harder than I might otherwise. I had no intention to do that again.  I told everyone I was going to stop and smell the roses.

I showed up at 7:15 and they started a roll call of those who wanted to be timed.  Joining me was Paul D, Gary F, and Barley and Susan.

Gary, Paul, Franz at start of Double

I knew I was in trouble when I saw four tandems there.  One was Barley and Susan, who I had ridden with a week ago and knew they were fast.

Barley and Susan at start of Double

Right at 7:30 a group of 62 riders were off.  The tandem in the photo is what I call the 4th tandem later in my story.

The reason why I knew I was in trouble with all those tandems is because two years ago I was not able to stay connected on the descent down Foxon Canyon, and lost the fast group at that point.  Last year, with no tandems making the descent,  I was able to keep with the lead group all the way to the second rest stop at 84 miles (we skipped the first rest stop).

This year keeping with the pack was a bit of a strain but not overly taxing.  We when up a couple of short hills and I would move right up behind the tandems and stay on their wheel as they went down.  The first descent down Foxon Canyon went alright but on the second one, the same spot I lost the wheel two years ago, proved too hard.  No matter how hard I tried, I just could not stay on the wheel and the group started to drive away from me, even though later I could see I had hit 50 mph.  Being a poor sprinter meant I was working way too hard trying to catch them. I was actually making some progress and starting to close the gap.  It was a race between either burning myself out or  latching back on.  I should have known better and backed off sooner and saved the legs for the many miles ahead.  You can see from this graph, my heart rate was running in the red zone going DOWN the hill trying to get connected to the lead riders (click to enlarge).

Soon after I realized I would not be able to close the gap,  I was passed by a younger faster rider wearing a Furnace Creek 508 jersey.  We worked together, although he was taking longer pulls.  For awhile we were starting to gain on the lead group, but you can only drive that hard for so long.  Soon the group ahead was vanishing from sight.  I had lost my route sheet on the fast descent so I was not sure where the next turn was.  The fellow 508 rider pulled his from his back pocket and started to read it. I road in the center of the road to give him space but even with that he cross wheels with me as he was looking at the sheet.  Suddenly he was down, and extremely upset about it.  But this was one tough dude.  Even with some road rash and torn cycling shorts, he got back on his bike and we started off again.  Just then we were pasted by the fourth tandem, along with a couple of other riders drafting behind them..  We jumped in the group and stayed with them for a few miles, but they stopped and the first rest stop so we went on without them.  Only one other rider skipped the stop and rode with us, another one wearing a Furnace Creek 508 jersey.  Kind of like 3 FC 508 guys, but the others were much younger and stronger than I was.  Several miles down the road, as we were making a right turn, a group was coming back toward us, having missed the turn themselves.

Yes, I thought.  I was now back with a larger group.  I moved up toward the front of the group not wanting to get dropped on some of the rollers ahead.  I thought I would be able to stay with them until the 2nd rest stop, but my legs were burning from trying to catch the lead riders earlier.  It just didn’t seem worth the effort, so after about 5 miles I let them go and started riding solo, something I would do for much of the rest of the event.

I was a bit worried without a route sheet but eventually did catch a couple of other riders.  Having no route sheet, I wanted to stay with them so I did not get lost.  Although  I wanted to go a bit faster, I was afraid I would miss a turn, so I ended up mostly pulling.. The problem is that this small group did miss the turn and we went about 3 miles before we realized it. So by the time we got back on course we had biked an extra 6 miles.

Just as we got back on the course I saw Paul D.  He rode with us for a mile or so but then started to cramp and dropped off.  Soon after that we passed Louise.  Once I knew I had made the final turn before the second rest stop, I moved ahead and rode solo.  At the second rest stop I saw that I had averaged only about 19 mph, compared with close to 22 mph last year when I had stayed with the lead group, but this year I had now biked 92 miles before stopping for food and water.  I guess that was some sort of record for me.

It might have been my imagination but there seemed to be more headwind.  I was riding that stretch along Highway 1 toward Moro Bay by myself into the wind.  About 6 miles from Moro Bay a group of about 8 riders came up from behind, so I joined them.  I saw a couple of riders ahead, both wearing the same jersey.  As we passed them, I could see it was Art and Patrice.  I stayed with the small group until the lunch stop.  I was thinking to keep with them, but they were taking longer eating their sandwich than I wanted to wait so I headed out alone.  I never saw them again until I was waiting at the finish after taking a  shower, so it is a good thing I didn’t stick with them.

Several miles before the 4th rest stop, while waiting at a traffic light, the 4th tandem came up, the one that had stopped at the first rest stop.  They had only one other rider with them, so I joined the small group.  The two of us on single bikes would take turns doing some pulling.  As we kept passing riders, they were jumping on the train, but they were all wheel suckers.  I took another pull and tried to move back into the group but these wheel suckers would not let me in, wanting to keep their spot.  Forget them I thought, and I just went ahead and dropped the entire group, again riding solo.  At the 4th rest stop I saw Gary S. and Gary B, who were about ready to leave.

After mostly solo riding, I finally made it to the the last rest stop where I saw Chuck, who had started at 6 am.  By now I had passed all the other club riders, except of course Gary F. and Barley and Susan on the tandem. I knew Gary was probably about two hours ahead of me, which meant he was already enjoying the finish line.  Ann was there and took his picture.

Gary at Finish

I didn’t spend much time at the last rest stop, knowing the end was not far.  It was up Drum Canyon Hill, a part I really like.  I enjoy climbing this hill and passing all the other riders who hate to climb, especially after 180 miles.  But unlike last year when I was climbing at full speed to make some time, I kept it much easier.  I made the turn on the final highway, with the slight uphill and then the down hill.  While going down, I was passed by the 4th tandem and a bunch of riders.  I had to accelerate quickly but was able to finally close the gap. I rode with them to the end.  I knew the tandem started at 7:30 but I think most of the rest of the group had started earlier.

Franz at finish

I finally made it to the finish, taking a total of 11:16, which was more than a hour slower than last year.  Part of that was due to riding an extra 6 miles and part was from doing a lot more solo riding.  I still felt I was working hard and when I looked at my data later, my average heart rate was even higher than last year.  Of course that might be because I am just getting older.  These two tables show a comparison with my prior Solvang Doubles.  My stopping time at the rest stops was a bit more than last year but the crash did cost me some time while I helped the rider back up on his bike.  Overall I am happy with how I did.  A little older, a little slower, but still riding alongside the young bucks.  My only regret was even though I was slower, I never did see any roses to smell.

My thanks to Anne for taking all the photos in this blog.  See all her photos of Slovang here.

Categories: Ultra Cycling Events
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One of the annual events is the Mt. Hamilton Challenge that goes up Mt. Hamilton, down to the junction, over to Livermore and then back through Calevaras.  There was a long distance training club ride yesterday that did this route in reverse, which has some tougher climbs.  The ride started at 7:30 am and initially I was going to suggest to Gary that we start later, as we often do, and try to catch the rest of the group.  The forecast was for rain later in the day so it seemed better to start with the rest of the riders and finish earlier

It was still dark when I stopped at Gary’s house to pick him up.  After a drive up to San Jose, we arrived just in time.  It was getting light now and the temperature was not too bad, warmer than last Saturday.  We had enjoyed wonderful weather on Friday but I knew this day would be much cooler.  Ann was not able to join so I was on my single bike, which was too bad because there were two other tandems, Russ & Sheila and Barley & Susan.

Most of the group was together as we started to climb up Calaveras.

Russ and Sheila

It was not long before five of us went ahead of the rest of the riders and the two tandems.  After climbing the “wall” we started through the rollers along the Calaveras Canyon.  Our group now was down to four including myself, Gary, Brian and Vince.  Brian was taking pictures of us from the back while riding which was amazing considering we were moving rather quickly.

Vince, Franz, Gary on Calaveras

Then Brian went ahead, to get a front shot!  Not sure how he did it because I thought we were cruising right along.

Franz and Gary

At least I thought we were moving along and was surprised that we were suddenly passed by Barley and Susan, who were making a very fast pace through the rollers.

Barley and Susan

I raced to jump on their wheel thinking I should be able to hold on with all these curves.  I know I have to slow down when cornering on the tandem, but Barley has a lot more courage than I do.  I was starting to slip off the back.  Gary went around me and was able to connect with the tandem.  By now Brian had dropped off the back and we were soon joined by Guy.  The three of us were trying to connect with the tandem before the descent but that last climb was just not long enough so they were over the top and headed down fast.  Three of us, myself, Vince and Guy, worked together as we were headed to Sunol, trying to close the gap but never seeming to make any progress.  Gary was riding in the tandem draft, RESTING!

It was not until we finally hit some traffic lights that we joined up.  We road together through Livermore and before heading to Mines Road three riders stopped to get water.  I was afraid to stop so I was the only one that followed Barley and Susan as they continued on.  On the way up Mines Road, Gary and Vince finally caught us but we did not see Guy again that day.  I was so glad to be climbing up Mines road because my heart rate was now much lower than it was on those flat sections and rollers.

We all stopped at the Junction Cafe for maybe 10 minutes, just enough time to eat something small and get water, then it was off toward Mt. Hamilton.  I was feeling fatigued at this point but was able to keep reasonably close to the rest of the group.  Except for Gary, I caught everyone on the last climb before the descent down to Isabel Creek.  I was so happy we had finally hit the backside of Mt. Hamilton.  I know that sounds strange, but for me I like climbing and it is much easier for me to keep with the fast riders when we are climbing, especially that wickedly fast tandem of Barley and Susan.

I decided to time myself up the backside, although I knew it would not be that fast since it was well into a long ride and I was not going to be racing up.  At the top I did a split and found my time was 46:30.  I waited there for awhile, wondering how far the others were behind, but no one was coming up.  It was a chance to put on my jacket and eat some more food.  It was cold so I decided to head back down the hill about a quarter of a mile to see where everyone was and then I saw Barley and Susan down below coming around a corner.  I waited for them and climbed up to the summit and along the flat to the Observatory where Gary was waiting.  The tandem didn’t stop but headed straight down, even though Susan was in short sleeves and it was now 48 degrees!

Gary and I started down the hill but I never descend as fast as he does, so soon he was out of sight.  About 3 miles down the hill I suddenly got a massive cramp in my right leg and had to stop for a short while. I was wondering if I was going to be able to get out of the pedal with the cramp, but managed somehow.  I was surprised to get cramping in such cool weather and when I was going down the hill.  After a couple of minutes I was feeling good enough to go on and was okay the rest of the ride.  Gary was waiting at the bottom of Mt. Hamilton and Barley and Susan had already gone on.  The weather was starting to look more threatening so we headed the 7 miles to the car.  At 2:30 pm, it started to rain.  Gee why could it not wait until 3:00 pm like the forecast.  We got wet enough but were glad it was at the end of the ride and only for 20 minutes.  I was glad when we finally reached the car and got the bike inside my minivan.  Gary and I headed into Erik’s Cafe and Gary bought me a sandwich.  That sure tasted great.

When I got home I went to the King of the Mountain Page to see how fast I climbed up the backside of Mt. Hamilton before and found my best time last year of 46:53, 53 seconds slower than I just did on this long ride.  Then I noticed our time up on the tandem last year was 49:45.  That must be a mistake.  Even thought that ride was up the front and just down to Isabel Creek, how could we climb up so fast.  I opened up the data file I had downloaded from my Polar heart rate monitor and saw this graph of that ride last May.  Yes, I had taken my heart rate well into the red zone at times climbing the backside.

I then checked the splits where I would have recorded our climb time and sure enough we had done it in 49:45 over 4.6 miles as I had put on the KOM page.  I am not sure how we did it that fast.  Since we were in the 60-64 age group, that record might stand for awhile.

Categories: Cycling Group Rides
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Death Valley received its name in 1849 during the California Gold Rush. It was called Death Valley by prospectors and others who sought to cross the valley on their way to the gold fields. I realized how much has  changed since then until today when numerous cyclists cross death valley each year.

Late last year I received an email that they had just opened registration for the Death Valley “Spring” Double and right after that I got a call from Gary F. telling me he was signing up. In an impulsive moment I went on their website and signed up, just before they reached their 300 rider limit in the first hour. Then I was starting to wonder how I was going to get ready. I was going to be traveling a lot in November and December and that left only two months to get in shape. It was kind of like cramming for a final, except the body can only develop so fast. So during the first two months of 2009 I biked more miles than I ever had so early in the year. Although I did not feel like I was fully prepared, I was close to the training program I had laid out for myself for the first two doubles this year.

On Friday Gary, Louise and myself carpooled down to Furnace Creek. After a 500 mile, 9 hour drive, we finally arrived at the Furnace Creek Ranch Lodge where Gary and I were sharing a room.  As often happens on these type of events, I did not sleep that well.  I woke up at 1:30 am and not quite sure if I ever went back to sleep.  Gary and I decided to try to get in with the first wave of riders so we were up early and to the start line by 5:45. But they had 50 people already there and they held us back to start 10 minutes later with the second group.  I was not too worried about that but I knew that it meant Gary would need to bridge the 10 minute gap somehow to catch the fastest riders ahead.

It was just getting light as we started off at 6:10.  Riding in the desert at sunrise is something so beautiful that it is impossible to explain and needs to be experienced.  In the foreground was the vast expanse of Death Valley and looming far in the distant was the Sierra Mountains, with snow caps on Mt. Whitney.

In our group of 50 I saw a couple on a tandem, but not just any tandem.  It was a very high priced racing tandem and they were both wearing Everest Challenge Jerseys.  That is the State Climbing Championship I participated in last year so I figured I could draft behind them.  But they turned out to be not fast enough and I eventually went past them.  Not too long after that we formed a pace line of about 9 riders and worked together for about 40 miles when we stopped for water and food.

Franz is one in Orange 508 jersey

I made a quick stop and decided to go ahead without the group since we would be climbing up Jubilee  within 7 miles.  From that point on it was mostly solo riding for me.

This double is two parts, the first part is out to Shoshone and back to Furnace Creek.  This is stage 4 on the Furnace Creek 508, but both times I was the “A” rider so I had not cycled on these roads.  So instead of being sleepy eyed in the support van watching Paul V. bike in the middle of the night, I had the chance to ride in the daylight.  It was wonderful weather, not too hot, not too cold, not too sunny and not too cloudy.  I could not have asked for better cycling weather.

When I got to the base of Jubilee, I noticed that I had already “climbed” over 1,500 feet, which showed how many rollers we went over.  Jubilee Summit was at 1,290 feet and then after a short descent it was a very long climb up Salsberry.  I passed several riders during the climb up to  3,300 feet at the summit.  I guess these were all riders in the group that had started 10 minutes before us.  I could see a tandem ahead and was thinking if I could catch it before the summit I could follow it down the other side.  I was able to make a connection just before we hit the crest and attempted to keep in their slipstream as we zoomed down the hill.  I finally found myself pedaling as fast as I could and watched them slowly slip away from me even though they were “coasting”.  “Wait a minute” I thought, I still had a long way to go so I gave up the chase.

After we leveled out I found myself in a stiff headwind, bringing my speed down to 11 mph.  I was starting to worry because the winds last year during this event had caused a high DNF rate.  But the wind lasted for only about 10 miles and although it seemed to always be a head wind for the rest of the ride, they were not that strong.  I made a quick stop at Shoshone and headed back.  On the climb back up Salsberry, I saw the same tandem again but found it easy this time to catch them.  Again I tried to keep in their slipstream down the very long descent but once again I finally gave up.

It is breathtaking to descend from over 3,315 feet down to below sea level.  Once I was back down to the valley floor, it was a short ride back to the rest stop to get more water.  From there I had about 30 miles to reach Badwater, where there was a lunch stop.  That seemed like the longest 30 miles.  I was on the verge of bonking and was out of water as I pulled into Badwater.  Badwater is a basin in Death Valley and is the lowest point in the US with an elevation of 282 feet below sea level.  It was also for me the lowest point in the ride.

I realized I needed a break so sat there for nearly 19 minutes enjoying a sandwich, a coke, and a V-8.  I was now feeling much better and headed off.  I grouped with two other riders, one was wearing a Furnace Creek 508 jersey from last year.  I had been with him early in the day with the small pace line we had formed.  I was chatting with him and he indicated that he had only been on the bike 4 times since last October’s Furnace Creek 508.  “Wow”, I thought, how could he do that.  He said he had been swimming and running.  I asked him if by chance he had run the Badwater Ultra marathon, put on by the same group putting on this event and the 508.  “Yes”, he said, “4 times”.  This is the hardest running race I know of, covering 135 miles non-stop from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney.  He said he had finished 4 times and had completed both the Badwater Ultra Marathon and FC 508 solo in the same year (his totem is Desert Duck).  He is only the second person I met who had completed both events and the first to do it multiple times.

I reached Furnace Creek for another stop, I saw Gary’s coach there who had already finished.  That meant he had finished the last 50 miles out to Stovepipe Wells and back before I even started out.  Yikes, I guess I had better get going.  So after a 10 minutes stop I headed on, riding solo once again.

I was now riding on the same road I had ridden twice during the FC 508, except in reverse.  What surprised me was that this road had a lot of rollers.  When doing the 508 I always thought this section was flat.  Doing it in the dark made it hard to see the ups and downs and I had thought the difference in effort required was due to the shifting winds.  But now I was measuring as much as a 300 ft. change in elevation through the rollers.  About 5 miles from the turn around one fellow did pass me so I jumped on his wheel for awhile.  Then I felt like I could pull and went around him.  A mile or so later I glanced back and he had fallen way off the back so I just went ahead by myself.  I finally reached Stovepipe Wells, which is right at sea level.

At the turn around point they offered me a cup of noodles.  Hum, that sounded good so I sat down and enjoyed it since  I wanted to make sure I had enough energy to finish.  After a 13 minute rest, I decided to bike to the finish.  It was getting late in the day so I decided to turn on my lights before I headed back to Furnace Creek for the last 25 miles of the ride.  One fellow joined me but he had a simple CAT-eye light so he enjoyed following me with my bright light.  I was thinking he liked following me a bit too much because he never took a pull.  Oh well, at least in the dark it was safer to have two riders together.

I finally pulled into Furnace Creek at 7:30 pm, for a total time of 13:20.  Gary, who had finished two hours earlier, was there to meet me.  I was happy I was done.  Not long after I finished the fellow with the totem Desert Duck pulled in.  I asked him if he was going to do the Badwater Ultramarathon and FC 508 again this year.  He said he was taking it off because he was going to do a triple Iron Man instead. “Yikes”, I said, “what is a triple Iron Man?”  He said it was “7.5 mile swim, then 336 mile bike and 78 mile run.” But he added, “I have 60 hours to finish”.  I started to feel like a wimp for having a hard time finishing only 200 miles on the bike.

Desert Duck

After eating some more food, I headed to the room to take a shower and then went back out to the front to wait for Louise.  I slept well that night. Checking my data later I found I had averaged 16 mph over the course of 197 miles and 9,300 feet of climbing.   My total stopping time was about 1 hour.  Although I had not pushed myself as hard as I had on some other doubles, overall I was happy with how I did.  Maybe I should be thinking about doing a triple Iron-man, NOT!

Route

Elevation Profile

Categories: Ultra Cycling Events
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I am off to Death Valley tomorrow do to the Death Valley Double on Saturday.  If I finish the event, it will be the first time that I biked 2,000 miles and climbed 100,000 feet by the end of February.  Although it is not quite up to my aggressive training plan, it is still more than I have done in the past.   It is not often that at an age of 60 that you reach a new milestone in sports.

Categories: Training Log, Ultra Cycling Events
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The Death Valley Double is this Saturday.  It has been difficult to get ready for a double century that takes place so early in the year.  With vacations in November and December I was not able to really get much biking in until January.  Two weeks ago some of our kids and grandkids were visiting and I wanted to spend more time with them.  Then this February had many rainy days.  Last week I was finally able to get in a lot of miles, over 350 of them.  I did a long 112 mile ride last Saturday. I felt like a slug because it had a lot of climbing, but I did make it without much stopping.  Although my accumulated miles so far this year are not quite what my training program called for, it is higher than the last two years.

I was not able to get in a real long ride, like 130 miles, but I did some long rides on Thursday, Friday and Saturday that hopefully accumulated had a similar effect.  You can see on week 7 that I was only able to get in a 52 mile ride, but at least on last week I got closer to my training plan.

As I mentioned, I felt like a slug on Saturday.   When I looked at my average speed over the 112 miles, it was not too bad considering the 8,700 feet of climbing.  In my training log I have a lookup table that shows my overall  effort when I consider average speed, climbing and total distance.  By averaging 14.7 mph, I did get a “fast” grade for the ride, even though I could not keep up with the lead riders the second half, as I could last year.

Today it was raining all morning. I had already taken a day off yesterday so I felt I needed to get back on the bike.  I went to the bike shop and bought some fenders to put on my old bike and then headed out to do some interval training.  It took me so long to get the fenders installed that the weather had cleared and the roads were mostly dry.  I have a course for interval training and measured how I did compared with similar training last year. I could not find my heart rate strap so I was missing that data, but overall I did okay, although not quite like last year.  It is a circular route so only the total can be compared with the winds different each time I do it.

Categories: Speed Workout, Training Program
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