Cyclepaths/Wild Cherries Racing

Many years ago as I was just getting into bike racing, I had the chance to pedal out to a local training race alongside a pro team. By pro, I mean money, cash and hoes pro. Established riders, the real deal.

The race venue was about 10 miles away from where we departed, and I assumed that I was in for a world of hurt in the form of a warmup. However during the entire 10 mile ride, we never breached 15 miles per hour. We rode painfully slow the whole way. At the time, I assumed the team was just a bunch of fragile pussies afraid to ride hard before a race. But they weren't pussies, they were just doing a proper recovery ride.

Four Types of Riding

When it comes to training for bike racing, the types of rides you do can be broken down into four main types.

1. Racing
2. Training
3. Recovery Riding
4. Not Riding

Each type serves a big purpose in your growth as a rider. In order to maximize your growth, you will need optimally perform each type of ride.Race hard,Train hard,Recover easy andDon't Ride when you shouldn't be riding.

Recovery Riding Explained

There should be one to four recovery rides penned into your workout schedule every week. The purpose of these recovery rides is to "recover" from your training and racing rides. If performed properly, these recovery rides will stimulate blood flow into your legs, bring fresh oxygen rich blood to stiff muscles and help flush waste products from your tissues.

The worst thing you can do on these recovery rides is "train." After a recovery ride, your legs should feel at least no worse than when you started, and hopefully they feel better. If your legs feel worse, that means that you just did a training ride, not a recovery ride. If you can't do a recovery ride without training, you will be better served not riding instead.

Walking Your Bike

I used to be guilty of doing my recovery rides too fast, and in turn hindering my recovery. I have since started calling my recovery rides "Bike Walks," and it has changed my perspective.

• Leave your ego at the garage door. If you aren't getting passed by grandmas on their upright cruisers, you are going too fast. Don't bother putting on your full kit for your Bike Walk. Look like a Fred, ride slower then a Fred.
• Bike Walks are not the time to ride with someone that doesn't share the same exact ride goal as you. Not even your grandma.
• Avoid all possible hills. I have 28t cassette installed on my training wheel to insure I can crawl at 4 miles per hour up any hills I can't avoid. Don't hesitate to get off your bike and literally walk up a hill if you feel the slightest twinge of lactic acid build-up.
• If squeezing in the time for a Bike Walk is a stressful event in itself, you are far better served in recovery terms by not riding your bike on that day instead.

If you are willing to demote your recovery riding pace beyond pathetic, get beaten by your grandma and have your racing buddies think you are a wimp - then you will reap the true benefits of recovery riding; adaptation to training and racing stress. Which basically means you will get faster, sooner, by going slower more often.

Many endurance athletes are quite particular in regards to what enters the sacred temple that is their body. This is a wise choice, as garbage-in usually equals poor performance and an undesirable body composition. I'll buy into that mantra, except when it comes to post-ride replenishment meals.

Often after a race in a remote location, I'll find myself in a situation of limited food options. If I were a better planer, I'd always have a cooler with a perfect spread of foods waiting for me, but that isn't always practical. While I may be 3 hours away from an ideal nutritional meal, a sub-par or horrible alternative may be much closer.

If grilled salmon, steam vegetables and brown rice are 3 hours away, but a Taco Bell is 2 hours closer - I will always choose Taco Bell, even if I would never ever think of eating there at any other time in my healthy life. In as little as 60 minutes post-workout, the trade-off between waiting for ideal nutrition and just eating garbage is nullified. If you don't give your body something, anything, it's going to start breaking itself down and erasing any gains you would have made via the exercise you just performed.

Choosing to wait, and not eat that Taco Bell Gordita may actually increase your body fat percentage as your brain thinks you are starving, slows down your metabolism and begins cannibalizing muscle tissue to store as fat.

The human body is only capable of storing a limited amount of readily available glycogen in muscles and the liver. Stored glycogen, along with fat and additional calories taken during exercise, are what the body uses as fuel.

For most athletes, muscle glycogen stores become depleted within 1-2 hours of exercise (depending on the level of effort). Beyond that time frame, there is a greater emphasis on fat and external food intake as fuel. Furthermore, the human body is incapable of processing calories at the same rate at which they are depleted during typical endurance level (or greater) efforts.

What this boils down to, is that once you have exhausted your muscle glycogen stores, you are going to be riding on a permanent negative energy deficit until you finish your workout and stuff your face.

A post-ride meal may be the most important step to ensuring the fastest possible recovery. Studies have shown that there is a short window of only an hour, post-exercise, to rebuild your glycogen stores. After an hour, your muscles assume you are starving and become catabolic, and start breaking themselves down in order to refuel your body. Basically nullifying your workout, by destroying lean mass - not building it.

So post-workout, aim for a meal with roughly 15 - 25 grams of protein and 80 - 160 grams of carbohydrate. This equates out to a 300 - 700 calorie intake. The protein is there to begin the tissue building/healing process and the carbs are there to refill those empty glycogen stores. Here are some delicious dishes that fill that quota:

• Taco Bell Grilled Stuffed Burrito (34g Protein, 73g Carbs)
• In-N-Out Burger w/ Fries (23g Protein, 93g Carbs)
• McDonalds Double Cheeseburger w/ Coke (25g Protein, 92g Carbs)
• Dairy Queen Small Peanut Butter Blizzard (16g Protein, 83g Carbs)
• Gas Station x2 Payday Candy Bars (14g Protein, 54g Carbs)

Many phone calls, e-mails and software updates later . . . power set up is fixed . . . no more 64k watts . . . am mortal, perhaps less than. My experience is *the standard* for setting up power -- if the $$ don't scare away the average cyclist the other implementation barriers will . . . industry needs plug and play to bring power to masses once you have it like crack but just so hard to get.

Here is active recovery in TD finishing w/ 5pm pick up of Keira at Little Rascals -- this is the flattest ride from my house that actually goes anywhere.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/30647715?sms_ss=email

A photo from a recent training trip to Verdi, NV. Twenty two miles north east of Truckee just past Mystic. Sprint intervals. Sunny and cold. Race season has begun. Shout out to my buddy Nate Freed who just threw down at the first major Pro Elite race of the national calendar in Merced, CA. Way to hang dog!!!!!!

Crystal Peak bridge. Also known as Oneil's Crossing. The infamous Walden's ride intersects history and the Truckee river here. Site of the original 1860 lumber settlement. Crystal Peak was later named Verdi after the Italian composer.

It's been snowing for 10 days with two more to come. We will have accumulated close to seven feet of snow by the time this storm cycle is finished. Wow. Though we are living around the turn of the century that century happens to be the 21st. Modern times allow for modern preparations. Like housing, snow plows as big as a house and sorrels.

It's not 1840 up in here. We are not eating ourselves. The highways are open. A five minute walk from my house, in full blizzard, finds you at the local health food store where you can take a wheat grass bath if you fancy. We relish this kind of weather. Snowboarding nirvana. Dropping!!!! But how do I ride my bike and train in this kind of craziness? Driving to the warmer lowlands every week is a bit extreme on the environment and quite frankly my pocket.

Back when the Donner Party reenacted the last supper the modern day bicycle had not even been invented. Fred Flintstone could have handled a bike from the 1840's. There were no pedals and cranks. Just a seat, frame and wheels that Fred could push with his feet. That would have made indoor training for us cyclist useless. Really you would have been training for a marathon or that quick getaway when you realized that the third course on the last suppers menu was YOU.

But I have pedals, cranks and an indoor stationary trainer. So a few times a week I lift the back wheel, lock my bike in place and go mental spinning like a gerbil. I am my own pet. That's not a photo of icicles. It's a microscopic detail of my brain fibers after a session on the old indoor. Frozen and mangled. Rendered wet yet not as dull as a sack of wet mice. And brittle.

On paper a workout looks like this:

• Warm Up: 15 mins
• Max Heart Rate? N/A
• Reason: Increase anaerobic power, lactate threshold performance and your repeatability during short intense efforts. High Cadence / maximal intensity 9.00mmol/L and up
• Method: Indoor trainer for better comparison between sesions or on a relatively flat section of road.
• Intensity Level: High (your heart rate will remain extremely high and you will train your muscles for power and repeatability). Each interval will be shorter and recovery time between efforts is limited. You will NOT fully recover between intervals. Heart rate is not applicable because each interval is at maximum effort.
• Practical Application: Your gearing should be moderate, but pedal cadence should be very high (105 - 115) during each interval. Attack each interval as hard as possible Jump out of the saddle and continue to build speed as the interval continues. If you need to, shift into an easier / lighter gear to maintain cadence, but do not let the intensity decrease.
• Workout: Perform 4 sets of 3 consecutive intervals according to this schedule.
• 2mins at maximum effort possible; 2mins rec
• 1min 45secs at maximum effort possible; 2mins rec
• 1min 30secs at maximum effort possible; 1min 30secs rec
• 1min maximum effort possible; 1min rec
• 30secs at maximum effort possible; 30secs recovery
• Recovery is 5mins between sets.
• Cool Down: 15 mins

So there it is. Winter training not in a nut shell but from a brain the size of one.

"Those" people are at it again. They are predicting the kind of snow fall that leads to cannibalism. No kidding. So before the fib and tib sandwiches are served up next week I decided to make one last pilgramige from Truckee to Colfax by way of Donner Summit in honor of the Donner Party.

A forty five minute drive and three thousand foot drop in elevation gets you 55 degrees, no snow and a sunny training ride in mid January. California baby. Of course everyone is on acid out here and writing their name in blood all over the walls.

Some bike ridding and pan handling on a rainy day in Colfax. Peace.

This article was originally published in the Friday May 14th 2009 edition of the Lake Tahoe paper, the Sierra Sun.

Now that the weather is changing, its time to put the summer storage wax on the skis and dust off your bike. Lube your chain and pump up your tires " its time to ride.

Many of us have been riding for months already, and are eagerly anticipating the opening of all our favorite local routes so we no longer have to drive off the hill to ride.

Heres a quick guide to some of our favorite local rides:

Winter and spring road cycling

Baxter (Open most of the year): The Baxter exit off Interstate 80 is close to Truckee and is a nice gateway to small back roads in the Sierra foothills, winding through tiny towns all the way to Colfax.

Colfax to Grass Valley (Open all year): Take Tokoyana Road to Dog Bar Road to Magnolia to McCourtney all the way to Grass Valley. Stop at the Flour Garden Bakery for great sandwiches and coffee, then ride up through Empire Mine State Park to Rattlesnake Road to Dog Bar Road and back up Tokoyana.

Iowa Hill Loop (Open spring through fall): Park in Colfax and ride on the beautiful, steep, narrow Iowa Hill road down the canyon, over the river, up through the town of Iowa Hill, and all the way to Foresthill Road. Take this to Auburn, then hop on Historic Highway 40 back to the car.

Auburn to Lincoln: (Open all year): Create a loop on roads like Mt. Vernon, Virginiatown and Chili Hill. Start at Auburn Bike Works, then be sure to stop at the Brickhouse Coffee Co. in Lincoln to caffeinate for the uphill ride back to the car.

Explore on your own: Pull out a map of an area that looks interesting (or just zoom around using Google maps) and look for the thin little squiggly white roads to explore. Those are the fun ones for riding, as they typically translate to smaller roads with less traffic.

Winter and spring mountain biking

Auburn (Open all year): Thanks to the Folsom-Auburn Trail Riders Association (www.fatrac.org), you can now link the Manzanita, Foresthill Loop, Culvert and Stagecoach trails together for 30 miles of swoopy, non-technical singletrack fun. But watch out. The poison oak can be thick! Do not miss the opportunity for a meal at Davids Thai to refuel after the ride.

Washington (Open spring through fall): Climb fire roads then descend on the fast and fun Missouri Bar trail, returning to the car on the breathtaking Yuba River trail. But watch out for poison oak! Be sure to stop at the Washington Hotels caf after your ride to immerse yourself in gold-rush history and enjoy a beer and burger or fish and chips.

Other rides: The Commemorative Emigrant Trail is traditionally the first local trail to melt out, while the Forest Service Road 06 area is usually the second area to melt out. The big network of roads and trails around the 06 Forest Service road in Sierra Meadows presents many options.

Team rider Conrad Snover is the author of this week's Cyclepaths/Wild Cherries Racing column. Cyclepaths/Wild Cherries Racing (www.cwcracing.org) is a Truckee-based cycling team focused on racing and local bike advocacy.

The south side of Donner Lake is a go. I hit it this morning and in the park were a couple of park rangers spying on a nesting osprey with a huge telescope. They let me peek into the glass and WOW. Very cool. While I was out doing 25 uphill sprints there was a huge bird sitting on a real live egg. Oh yeah. The egg said " It's going to take me a while to get hard, I just got laid.

...to ride your bike " have I got a ride for you! Last year, a group of CWC racers hung out in Murphys after the Copperopolis race and we rode Sunday with the S/O's. It was an epic day complete with sighting of the Easter Bunny. Read that blog here:

Beyond Copperopolis...Lies Murphys

As good as our post-Copper ride was last year, we didn't have any takers this year. So it was an opportunity for me to try to fashion the ultimate, killer, Murphys/Sheep Ranch ride on my own. And by golly, I think I've done it!

I poured over the maps and came up with a plan. Estimating the ride, or underestimating as it were, at around 60 miles and 7,000 feet, I hit the road in Murphys at 8:30 AM on Easter morning hoping for another Easter Bunny sighting. Sheep Ranch Road out of Murphys could easily be mistaken for a driveway. It's so narrow between the old town's buildings that it's one way at the bottom near the town. The cyclist begins climbing immediately and repeatedly as there are three stiff climbs before arriving in the lovely town of Sheep Ranch.

The town's gas station appeared to be closed for Easter. Probably since Easter in the 1940's!

After Sheep Ranch, I passed the site of last year's Easter Bunny encounter. Nothing happening. Either I was too early or it just didn't happen this year. Too bad. On to Railroad Flat road where a resident created what might be called "Little Africa."

Next to Jesus Maria Road, maybe one of the best cycling roads in Calaveras County. Tons of climbing, quiet, and lots of variety. Mostly wooded, the road then opens up on a huge descent heading toward Mokelumne Hill, a town with a surprisingly low population of just 328!

There are some steep climbing sections on Jesus Maria and one arrives in 'Mok Hill' with nearly 5,000' of climbing in just 33 miles or so. But then the rider gets a break. After Mok Hill, it's more or less a cruise to San Andreas. Riding smooth pavement with a nice shoulder, it's easy to cruise the mostly downhill at 25-30 mph, a welcome relief after all the climbing!

The rider then leaves Hwy 49 via Gold Strike Road, a back way to San Andreas. I took a brief break in San Andreas at a picnic area to study the map and get some nutrition.

0

From San Andreas the cyclist then heads toward the little sleepy town of Calaveritas on a beautiful one lane road.

I saw this fixer-upper there...

Now on to Fricot City Road. This road traverses a ridge top and has splendid views. And tons of climbing. The easy middle part of the ride is over now, and it's hard all the way back to Murphys.

The road eventually turns to dirt, but very smooth dirt this time of year. The rains pack the clay soil in such a way that it's smoother than some of the rough pavement, and there is no dust due to the moisture. I can't speak to how it would be later in the season, but in April it's perfect. This dirt lasts for 5.5 miles.

Fricot City Road brings the rider back to Sheep Ranch. From there we trace our route back to Murphys. This, of course, means we have to do the three climbs in reverse, so we still have another 1500' more to climb.

The ride stats? 67 miles and 9,040'. Not bad for an after race day spin!

On the way home, in Lathrop, CA, we ran into Trent Stewart and his custom '57 Chevy bicycle. Nice work, Trent!

Ahh...Spring training. My favorite time of year for exploring the back roads of California. I know, by March I should be doing intervals and sharpening my racing skills, but for me it's base miles time, after nordic skiing all winter.

One of the best places to ride early season is the Auburn/Foresthill area in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. A personal favorite ride is Mosquito Ridge Road. The road descends from Foresthill, then climbs up into snow country and is not plowed in winter, so if you want to make for a longer outing, you can go until the road is no longer plowed, then drop down to Interbay P

ower Station.

This road plummets 2200' in just 4.5 miles. A sign reminds the rider, "This road is steep, crooked, and hazardous." It's remote and beautiful, but it won't go unnoticed to the early season legs that the first 2.5 miles of the climb back out averages 12%. It eases off a bit for the final 2 miles but it's a great workout. If you add in Spring Garden and Yankee Jim roads just off of Foresthill Road, you can fashion together a pretty nice 65 mile ride with about 9,000' of climbing! Just take it easy and this can be a thoroughly enjoyable early season training ride. Honest.

I'm done, I'm cooked, I'm fed-up, I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm grumpy, I'm depressed, I'm burnt-out. I've been training hard since December of 2007 and I think I finally popped my own cork.

After I finished the Cascade Classic Stage Race (a major goal of the year) a few weeks ago, I suddenly lost all desire to ride my bike. I was hoping to hold my form through July and finish strong at the State Road Championships before taking a break. Instead my bike has sat almost dormant in my garage, still riddled with dead bugs from Bend, Oregon.

What happened, where did I go wrong? Am I over-trained, over-reached or just a big pussy? This is the first season that I kept a detailed daily record of all my training data, including stress and recovery systems. In theory, analyzing this data will reveal the answer to my lack-of motivation.

Mantra to Form & Fitness Enlightenment

Working out hard, followed by recovering even harder brings adaptation and an increase in fitness. Rinse and repeat ad nauseam. That's training in its simplest terms. Workout hard; recover harder. Recovery > Workout.

It took me years to grasp this concept. And as simple as it is, I still haven't mastered it. Whether it's the lure of a fast group ride, a doubt in my form that provokes an extra training session or simply too many junk miles; upsetting the recovery balance is frighteningly easy. Even with the foresight of my over training temptations, I often still find myself grinding along on tired legs, digging my own recovery grave. For optimal growth to occur, that recovery grave-hole needs to be filled back up again before I dare go near it. And not only does that dirt need to packed down, but there should be a layer of grass growing on top as well. If I come back too soon, shovel in-hand, I'll be working with loose soil - which makes it even easier to dig a deeper hole.

During my eight year journey in bike racing, I don't think I've stood on green grass very often, and I sure as hell haven't stayed fresh enough to let any flowers grow. But this season was going to be different. By using daily stress monitoring methods, I planed on turning into the "Johnny Appleseed" of balanced training.

TRIMPS

Starting this year, I began tracking my training loads using a method know as TRIMPS (Training Impulse Score). The basic calculation for TRIMPS is duration times average HR (heart rate). I add weight to the equation by incorporating perceived exertion (scale of 1-10) and heart rate zones (zones 1-5).

(Zone A Minutes x Zone A Average HR) x A
+
(Zone B Minutes x Zone B Average HR) x B
x
Perceived Exertion = TRIMPS

This formula gives me a numerical representation of total training load for any given workout. The differences in TRIMPS scores from day-to-day and week-to-week are usually confirmed by my waking HR and perceived level of fatigue. So by comparing the following three values;

• TRIMPS Score
• Percieved Level of Fatigue
• Waking HR

I am able to quantify my training, recovery and responses. By monitoring this data I am able to plan and adjust my training schedules accordingly.

I have graphed out a portion of the 2008 season using TRIMPS, noting the major events of each week. My training loads are planned around the A priority events (in red), gradually building intensity and duration. Before an A level event, I typically take a rest week to achieve total adaptation.

By combining Average Waking HR and Perceived Level of Fatigue on top of TRIMPS data, I can construct a pretty good picture of how, where, what and why.

Breaking Down the Data

Upon analyzing the chart, it appears that I was able to keep my fatigue levels under control through the 4th week in May. From January through May, I had the appropriate amount of rest versus work load as indicated by my waking HR and fatigue levels returning to baseline.

During the 3rd week in March I had my highest recorded TRIMPS levels of the season. Copperopolis Road Race coupled with a very high training volume in the same week led to the high numbers. Obviously my performance at Copperopolis suffered because of the energy expended that week. Fortunately I took it very easy the following seven days, and was probably lucky that I flatted in the first six miles of Wards Ferry as it gave me another full week of rest.

Farther down the year, my results during the 5 week period of Sea Otter, Gila and Mt Hood reflect an almost perfectly timed peak of form. It was the workout hard, rest harder and adapt mantra executed to a T. But then I flew a little close to the sun.

Ciclismo Italia

It's a bit tricky to spot on the chart, but I melted my wings in the week following Mt Hood. The results of which caused a ripple effect through the rest of the season. After finishing Mt Hood I flew straight to Italy for a two week vacation. My body had a chance to super-compensate while sleeping on the plane for 2 days, and my recovery was further boosted by living at sea level once in Europe.

After my flight landed I went for a quick spin. From my very first pedal stroke, I could tell that the super-compensation had funneled some tremendous power into my legs. Yet I was hesitant to go hard. The idea behind my vacation in Italy was to get some true rest and effectively split my season in half. I was still going to ride, just not very hard. Recovery > Workout, remember?

The next day I mapped out what appeared to be a fairly easy ride, but instead it turn out to be an epic mountain pass filled jaunt into Switzerland. Once again, I was feeling amazing on the pedals, strong than I have felt all season. Without trying, I was ascending 2-3mph faster than normal, and I had the power to climb like that all day. I tried to throttle my efforts, but it felt so good to be able to charge so hard. It was a no-chain day, where riding seemed effortless. It was the culmination of fitness built from back-to-back stage races and 6 months of solid training. But...

And It Was a Trap

The rest of the trip was spent doing long, epic, body draining rides as I savored this penultimate form. I threw all plans to rest peacefully out the window. I had lost all sense of logic and Workout > Recovery. As a result, my fatigue levels following Italy were at a record high (and they were already high). I had sore legs for a week when I returned to stateside. I should have been resting in Italy, instead I was doing the hardest rides of my life, and digging myself a huge recovery hole. My TRIMPS scores for these two week reflect how good I felt, as my perceived exertion was minimal and resulted in very low stress numbers. While I had the legs to ride hard, I didn't have the reserves or cortisol buffers to tolerate so much volume and intensity.

My next mi
stake was to jump right back into my training plan post Europe. Since Italy was logged as rest weeks in my diary, and the TRIMPS scores were reasonably low, I assumed I had it in me to continue with Goal #2 of the season, the Cascade Classic. All the while I was blatantly ignoring my fatigue levels. I stacked three huge training/racing weeks before Cascade. These three weeks combined equaled about six weeks of normal training load. No wonder I blew up.

I have some scary notes in my logs from that period. All I talk about is needing more sleep, feeling tired, slow and sore. My fatigue levels stayed really high throughout this period. Going into Cascade, I just didn't feel right. I had fitness, but absolutely no form. Meaning I had the engine to power the legs, but my motor had been running too hot for too long and was starting to seize up. I needed an oil change, a new air filter and some cool-down time to polish my abused pistons back to spec.

It finally all came crashing down post Cascade. Not only was I physically worn down, but the day-to-day minutiae of training right, eating right and sleeping right cracked my morale. I started getting dropped on group rides. My muscles felt like crackling dry dog-crap through every pedal stroke. My placing in races had become mediocre. My mind started to wander from the dedicated life of an athlete. Cycling is 90% mental and I'm already mentally unstable. So tossing a wrench of failed expectations into my psyche is a surefire way to derail all training plans.

Conclusion

And that's where I stand today. The desire to compete still hasn't returned. I'm trying my best to keep riding, as I don't want to lose my hard earned fitness. I'm sorta watching my weight, sorta monitoring my diet and sorta exercising with a modicum of enthusiasm.

Was I over trained? Yes, as indicated by abnormal fatigue and motivation levels. Am I a big pussy? Possibly. Is bike racing the most selfish sport in existence, leading to douche bags spewing endless online tales lamenting over their own fitness? That's a question for a real man to answer, not a giant weeping vagina on wheels.

I stopped on my training ride near Clipper Gap to check out a tiny car that had become a roadside display when I heard a woman's voice behind me. "Do you know what kind of car that is?" "Uhh, I think it might be a Fiat or something," I replied. "No," she said, "It's a Subaru."

The day started of a bit weird, and this little incident didn't change that trend. Conrad was racing in Brisbane (he ended up 4th in the crit, 11th in the circuit, and 3rd in the Omnium, nice work!), and he and others tried to talk me into racing, but after getting clobbered at Copperopolis due to lack of fitness, I figured I'd benefit more from a training ride. And as the Bay Area was socked in with fog, and Janet and I were heading to Truckee, I figured I'd stop in Auburn and do a Cyclepaths/Wild Cherries Racing team favorite ride out to Iowa Hill. (Check out the previous post, Colfax - Iowa Hill - Auburn Loop).

But on my way to Auburn I got a call from Conrad, who was heading the opposite way down to the bay area

to the race. "You'd better change your plan," he said. "Why?" I asked curiously. "Because it's raining cats and dogs in Auburn." Great, I thought to myself. I dodged the fog in the bay area... and now it's raining in Auburn? So I started my ride in drizzle but it soon stopped, and the ride got interesting.

I explored some twisty back roads as alternatives to riding beside I-80, and that was fun, but when I came upon the little red car, I had to stop and check it out. Turns out it was a 1969 Subaru 360, with a 360cc two-stroke motor, and the owners of the car, and the little gas statio

n mini mart, were there to tell me about it! The car had a top speed of 55 mph and delivered 62 mpg.

After that I came up behind another cyclist and it turned out to be Paco Lindsay from Truckee, so we rode together for a few miles as he finished his ride in Colfax. The ride then plummets into the American River Canyon. At the bottom is an old historic bridge, which now serves pedestrians, while cars and bikes travel over a newer bridge.

The road then climbs out of the canyon "sharply" to the tune of 1200' in just 1.7 miles. You don't have to do the math, I'll do it for you. It's just a bit shy of 14% average grade for almost two miles. It's an amazingly difficult climb, but the beautiful wildflowers in bloom alongside the road made it more tolerable.

A few miles later one arrives in Iowa Hill, and the population is not listed on the sign, but it's probably somewhere between a dozen and 30. Not much there except for a few mean dogs. The jail is an historic land mark. Smallest jail I've ever seen. Hydraulic mining was the rage back in the day and the area still shows some scars.

The ride then climbs up a bit higher to Sugar Pine reservoir where it then connects over to Foresthill Rd. I took a little side detour to Yankee Jim Rd. and Spring Garden Road, before meeting Janet in Foresthill where she had done a shorter ride.

Riding in Northern California in the early Spring is truly spectacular. It's great when you can really enjoy your training, and there are some interesting sights along the way. The ride was 65 miles with 7500' of climbing. Hopefully this will do me some good so I can step it up at the next team race, Ward's Ferry on April 5th. We'll have a good turnout there, so I'm sure there will be many tales to tell. But I doubt there will be any Subaru 360's in the parking area.

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When my teammate Gary asked me how I did in the bike race on Sunday, my first reply was, "It wasn't a bike race, it was a ski race... and I did OK." The Gold Rush, at Royal Gorge in the Lake Tahoe area is a brutal 42 Km cross country ski race with a ton of climbing. It was my last ski race of the season, so I figured I should post it, 'cause there won't be anything else on this blog about ski racing for a while.

The weather was unseasonably cold, about 21 degrees Fahrenheit at race start with a howling wind. Nobody wanted to go out in the icy winds and warm up, I hung out in the lodge with my buddy Mark until just before the race.

The race starts with a long gradual downhill. It's like a bike race, skiers going top speed down the course shoulder to shoulder hoping no one crashes. That wasn't the case as during the first 50 meters one guy went down, and I hopped safely around him. Then about 1K into the race during a high speed descent with two abreast, another guy went down, and again I slipped through unscathed.

The race features two 21 Km laps with all the killer climbs toward the end of each lap. One particular climb was about a Kilometer long and so steep you could hardly get any glide at all. I took it as easy as I could, skiing tempo the first lap.

My big idea of using a Camelbak to feed, rather than stopping at the feed stations, backfired big time. It was so cold the hose froze, and consequently I carried an extra 3 lbs. on my back but could never use it. And I couldn't get rid of the Camelbak because it was under my race bib. I had to stop to drink at the feed stations. Oh well.

Halfway through the last lap there was no one in sight behind me, and 4 guys working together about a hundred meters ahead. It was windy and drafting came into play for sure. I made it a goal to catch as many of those four as I could. Toward the end of the lap, just before the big climb, it all split up - every man for himself. One by one I picked off 3 of the 4 guys but knew the last guy was going to put up a fight. Up the steep climb we went with me about 30 meters behind. Slowly but surely I reeled him in and caught and passed him on the downhill approach to the finish.

He jumped behind me, and I then sprinted to try to drop him...no luck. I eased up and he started stepping on my tails. I waved him through and sat behind him ready to pounce. With 500 meters to go he launched a massive attack. I matched him stroke for stroke, and after the last left hand turn into the downhill finish with 100 meters to go it was time to go around. I sprinted like crazy, but alas, he was quicker. We crossed the line side by side, me about a meter or two behind.

At the finish line we high fived and he said, "Thanks for making the finish interesting, I was alone out there for a while."

OK, now let's go bike racing!

With the racing season creeping closer and closer, Conrad, Gary, Ramsey, Nate and I headed down the mountain for a harder ride on dry roads. We met up at Wild Cherries for some breakfast and drove to the Baxter exit along I-80. However it was still 39 degrees off the highway, so we drove another few miles down the road to the Gold Run exit. Somehow it jumped up 10 degrees in temperature within those few miles.

The route began with a 20 mile descent past Colfax, and I couldn't help thinking about the brutality of climbing back to the car at the end of the ride. We hammered away at the roads for 40 miles and then stopped at a quaint little coffee shop in downtown Grass Valley. From then on it was rolling terrain and a final 16 miles of uphill back to Gold Run.

Conrad, Gary, Nate and Ramsey were riding really strong the whole 70 miles, with form that is sure to grow even stronger as the season kicks in. My excuses for being slow were a busted rear derailleur and that I am sick.

After filling our stomachs with coffee and pastries from Wild Cherries, Nate, Ramsey and I drove down to Colfax to ride in the warm and dry weather. Nate had been skiing hard for the last two days, Ramsey hadn't been riding much, and I had done a really hard TT workout the day before - so we assumed we'd take a nice easy pace the entire route. However the sunshine probably brought our legs back to life, as we did the normal 5 hour, 8,000' elevation gain, 68 mile loop in 4.5 hours instead. Finishing the ride nice and tired, we made our obligatory Taco Bell feed stop on the way back to Truckee.

As a side note, when you install a new freehub body on your wheel - always make sure to ride it first before thinking it will hold up after 70 miles. I incorrectly aligned the pawls and springs inside my DT 240 hub, and had to ride on a rear wheel that slipped every 5 pedal strokes. I could avoid the slippage by pausing for a second every 4 pedal strokes to let the pawls re-align. Climbing 8000' was tons-of-fun having to re-force my momentum 20 times a minute.

Colfax - Iowa Hill - Auburn
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