The Utah Velo bike club were invited to participate in a time trail up Hobble Creek so it was added in the mid point of the Saturday ride for those who wanted to join. It was kind of an informal affair but they had several people assisting and about 24 riders did the 10.7 mile , 1283 feet of climbing, course up the canyon, starting at one minute increments. I was assigned number 18 and noticed that the three riders in front of me were all young fast guys so I didn’t think I would be able to catch anyone. In fact those three young guys were the top three finishers.

We had ridden about 15 miles from Orem to get to the start, a nice warm up. Hobble Creek is not very steep so it is not very suited to by ability where I do better climbing the steeper hills.

I took my heart rate up quickly to above 150 and it was not long before the heart rate went above 160, sometimes above 170. I kept in the red zone for the entire climb as shown by this graph.

My final time was around 36:31, with an average speed of 17.6 mph. That put me in 6th place out of the 24 riders.  The did not have any age grouping but best I can tell all five riders who did it faster than me were much younger.  My average heart rate was 166 with a maximum of 175. My cadence 84 so I am getting better at spinning. I did pass four riders on the course. Except for the three speedsters I passed everyone who started 7 minutes before I did. Number 11 didn’t seem that I passed in the last mile so he jumped out and passed me. I let him have a few seconds of glory but figured that anyone how had ridden 7 minutes slower than me could not hold the pace for long so near the end, I went by and dropped him. The top finisher was 33:10.

Categories: Cycling Group Rides, Cycling Racing
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Soon after I got up this morning I went for a 4.5 mile run.  I have not been running enough lately and felt like I needed to run today because I would not be able to run tomorrow with the club’s 4th of July breakfast and ride.  The legs felt weak, still affected by last Saturday’s Climb to Kaiser.

After returning from the run and taking a quick shower, Ann and I drove up to  Morgan Hill to do the South County Old Goats ride being led by Bob and Kris, which went around the reservoir and went up Croy canyon. It was nice weather but the pace of the group was too slow so Ann and I went ahead.  Ann felt the climb up Croy was much easier than the last time I took her up there, when she was newer to biking.

We waited at the top for the rest of the group. After a long time for the regroup, we headed down.  Once we hit Uvas we turned right and moved out, not seeing the rest of the riders again until the end.  After loading the bikes in the van we went over to Erik’s Deli and ordered soup and a sandwich and it was some time before others came and joined us.  We had an interesting discussion with Ken S., a very long term club member and the artist who has designed many of the jersey’s, including the 30th anniversary jersey.

I still wanted to do the Metcalf Mauler that started at 5 pm so after being home only 1 hour before I took off in my car.  I left rather late so I was afraid I would not get there before they left and since the temperature was hot, they may be going an alternate way.  I was glad I arrived at 4:55, so plenty of time.  At first it looked like it would just be Donny, Carl, Art and myself.  Lisa was not joining today.  Just before we were ready to leave another 4 or 5 people showed up, including Jim W.  I was not sure about how my legs would hold out considering I had run this morning and had already biked 31 miles with Ann.  Once we got going I felt strong and took a few pulls on the way to Metcalf.

We started to climb the hill and Jim and Carl were right with me.  I was going to keep my heart rate below 170, unlike last week’s big challenge.  I wanted to see how my time would compare using a lower heart rate.  After awhile I was climbing alone. Then Carl caught back up and rode with me awhile, then we were joined by Danny (a 15 year old who is on the Discovery Team junior team) who had started late.

I moved the heart rate up close to 170 and then it was just Danny and I, all the way to the top.

My time to the top was 13:35, which was 30 seconds slower than last week’s challenge, but a time I was very happy with since it was my PR time until a couple of months ago.  Also for the first time ever, I was the first one to the next two regroup points.  I usually fall behind on the decent, but felt strong and comfortable today.  I guess I was still energized by the Climb to Kaiser.

Categories: Cycling Group Rides, Training
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This was the first day after arriving in Utah last night. With the Tour de Cure coming up this weekend and with the weather forecast showing rain and cold tomorrow and Thursday, we decided that we should get in a bike ride while the weather is nice.

We started from our Orem condo and headed over to the Provo River trail, up to the end, then up to the end of South Fork. I knew from riding this route previous that this would only give us between 25 and 30 miles so I suggested to Ann we go further. I thought about either riding out to Utah Lake or riding up to Sundance ski resort.

We decided to head up to Sundance. After descending down South Fork we headed up the busy highway for a few miles to the turn off for Sundance. The climb up to it was a bit steep, but Ann did great.

At the resort we decided to have lunch so we bought a turkey sandwich to share. We took our lunch out to a wooden deck to enjoy the beautiful view. I asked Ann how she felt about the climb up to Sundance and she said she decided to go to Sundance because we would not get a good sandwich at Utah Lake. I started to laugh out loud. While we were eating, Greg called and asked if we wanted to go golfing. So we headed back home and got there just in time to head to the golf course for 9 holes. Ann and I didn’t exactly have a great game but were impressed by Greg’s skill and his new driver, and decided that maybe we have to get one of those.

After returning home I got ready for another bike ride with the Utah Velo club. The ride started in American Fork and since Ann wanted to be able to use the car, I decided to ride to the start, about 9 miles. The club ride was a very fast paced 35 miles and then I rode home. My average speed for the entire 45 miles was 19.3 mph. That is how fast this club rides.

All in all I had a great time today, riding and golfing with Ann and then doing a fast paced ride with the bike club. It was really a triple day at the races.

Categories: Cycling Group Rides
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That is the question! With the super difficult Devil Mountain Double coming up on Saturday I was thinking I should take two full days off from running and biking. It was hard today, kind of just doing stuff to clean up my desk and other things and not getting in any physical workout. With all the marathon training I was use to doing at least one major workout a day and some days doing multiple workouts. So my body just doesn’t do well getting too much of the “R” thing (rest).

Thursday’s we usually mountain bike at 5:30 pm, at a place called Harvey Bear Ranch. It is a county park, only about 8 mile drive from my home. I just couldn’t resist and finally went on the ride. But I did take it real easy and used a much lower gear than usually do so I would spin more and use less leg strength. So …. tomorrow I promise no physical activity, honest.

The guys I went mountain biking with are all doing the Mt. Hamilton Challenge ride on Saturday, the ride I should be doing. That ride is tough enough, but I know I could do it. Instead something crazy inside of me pushed me to take on a challenge that I am not 100% sure I can finish without getting sagged in. I guess in life you need to do some things that challenge you to the limit. Some try to discourage me from over extending while others have the confidence that I can handle it. It is overcoming those challenges that helps you to understand who you really are. Those who live inside their comfort zone live a very narrow life indeed.

Categories: Cycling Group Rides
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One of my favorite mountain bike rides each year is the club rider over the Fort Ord trails to visit the Sea Otter Classic. This year Ann joined me for her first long mountain bike ride. She did great, and made it up every hill. We even did one single track section, which she handled with easy. We arrived at the Sea Otter Classic before most all the rest in the group.

It was sunny and the temperature was not too bad, around the high 50′s. But the wind was something else. It rarely blows that hard in California. We were all plenty warm while we were biking, but when we spent about 3 hours over at the event, visiting the vendor booths, it got on the cold side. Ann bought a new cycling jacket at the Voler booth (for only $20) and decided to put it over her other jacket, and vest and jersey for 4 layers. I love to try to find a bargain jersey at the Voler booth and did find one this time, something about Boulder Triathlon Coaching, for the wannabe in me. It is a medium race cut. I tried it on when I got home and realized I had better not gain a single pound more so I can wear it. The race cut is much tighter around the waist than the so called club cut that I usually wear.

At the Toyota booth they took our picture in front of one of their monster SUVs the FJ Cruiser (I think FJ is from my first and middle initials). For that we were each given a multi tool kit, quite nice. Some other freebies were some tire tools at the REI booth, a bandanna at the Volkswagen booth, and a whistle at the Gore bike clothing booth (they people of Gore-tex fame).

It was beautiful biking over the trails. We went on some of the paths that the cross country racers traverse this weekend. I asked Ann how she liked mountain biking and she said she really likes it and wants me to buy her a full suspension mountain bike so she can take on the really tough stuff!

Here are some photos taken by Bob Thompson. The Toyota photo takes 72 hours, or when you buy a FJ Cruizer, whichever comes first!

Categories: Cycling Group Rides
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This evening is one of my favorite weekly rides, the so called Metcalf Mauler. I like the group that shows up for the ride, usually about 10-15 cyclists, most of them are significantly faster than I find on my club rides. I did not run this morning becasue I am “tapering” for the Boston Marathon next Monday. I checked my training program, courtesy of Runner’s World Magazine. Hum, it shows Rest/XT today. I think that means rest from running and do some cross training. A perfect excuse to go hit the road on the bike.

Not doing a run before the Metcalf Mauler paid off. We have a fast 3-4 mile dash from the start before we hit the climb. The stretch just before the climb is usually into a strong head wind and today it was stronger than usual. The group usually splits apart here as it did today but I was able to hang with the front group. I even took my turn pulling taking the last long pull before hitting the hill.

My intention was to not push to hard today, I do have a marathon, remember. But I felt good and kicked it in from the start. Danny, a member of the Discovery Pro team Junior’s squad was riding with us and he kept right along side of me as we left the rest of the riders behind. It is kind of an ego thing for me to drop very good cyclists who are 15 years younger than I am and keep up with a teenager who has won a national championship for his age. But then I knew Danny was just pushing only as hard as needed to stay with me.

Anyway, it worked for me because by the middle mark, I could see I near a PR time. I kept up the effort, keeping my heart rate around 168-170 through the end. Danny pulled ahead in the last stretch, barely breathing. That was okay with me because I crossed the top marker with a time of 13:19, a new PR for me and 6 seconds off the prior PR. Below is some charts that show the climb. The split markers 1 and 2 are for the bottom and the top of Metcalf. From the split chart you can see my average heart rate was 165 bpm and aveage speed was 7.6 mph for the climb.

So the youngest and oldest rider were the first to the top! No, I was not the youngest rider, but felt like it today.

Categories: Cycling Group Rides
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Today I joined the long distance training ride (LDTR) with the bike club. We started in Las Gatos, up Hyw 9, along Skyline, down Hyw 84 to San Gregoria, where this picture was taken.

After this short stop we headed over to Hyw 1 which we took for 30 miles down to Davenport for lunch. After lunch we headed up Boon Doon, down Jamison Creek, up Hyw 236 and then the climb up China Grade. I was a bit worried because I had brought my new bike and this was a tough hill, but as I have been finding it was no that difficult climbing with just the double chain ring.

Categories: Cycling Group Rides
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One of the hills we climb in the club is called Rolling Hills. It is not that long of a climb, but it is the steepest grade of the 99 hills we do. I use to establish my maximum heart rate each year by going up this hill because the steepest section was so difficult it took all I had to keep going. Even then I had to stand and lean forward to keep the front wheel from coming off the ground. I think a year ago my heart rate went up to 182. So I was hesitant today to take my new bike up the hill, because it has only a double chain ring but what the heck, why not give it at try.

The club ride first rode up Henry Coe, which is a long climb, then after decending we headed over to Rolling Hills. I had no problem making it up the hill and was surprised that my heart rate never got above 170. So that means the higher gearing of my new bike is more than offset by my conditioning and lower total weight. Here is a graph that shows the hill profile. The shaded portion is Rolling Hills and the red line is Bohman. Overall Bohman is a tougher climb because it goes on much longer, but you can see the grade on Rolling Hills is steeper.

Categories: Cycling Group Rides
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One of the weekly club rides I like doing is the Metcalf Mauler. With the advent of Daylight Savings time the ride has moved to 5 pm, so we get a lot faster riders through the summer. Today was the first such fast paced group. After running 20 miles yesterday I was not sure how well I would do and started making excuses before we even hit the hill. Maybe it was the new bike, but I set a new PR going up the hill, at 13:28, beating my best time set last fall of 13:35.

I won’t bore yo with yet another heart rate graph but my average heart rate during the climb was 168, with a max of 173. Okay, I can’t resist, here is the graph. The numbers 1 and 2 on the horizontal axis shows the start and end of the marked climb. By graphing based on time, instead of distance, it looks like the hill incline is consistent, but that is only because I was holding the elevation gain per minute nearly even. See how my heart rate went up towards then end of the climb, because I knew I was close to setting a new PR. That might have been a mistake to do so early in the year.

Now the fun part of the ride is going down San Felipe. I pulled par of the way down the hill, with a train of about 10 riders right behind me. Notice on the following graph the speed we reached. I am glad I didn’t have a compact crankset or I would have spun out trying to pedal at that speed.

Categories: Cycling Group Rides
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On Saturday, I took my new road bike out for a ride and the first hill we did was Quimby. I was a bit worried about making it up such a steep hill with just a double, but it was okay. Here is a graph of the data during the climb. You can see my heat rate was going a bit into my defined red zone during some parts of the climb, but I was not pushing the pace. When I do push, my heart rate goes above 170.

Categories: Cycling Group Rides
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