runbikeswim

Crappy knees, weddings, and floating

Jun 29, 2009 Deep Thoughts, Dirt Biking, MTB, Racing 2 Comments

Where to start? My desire to race is lessening daily; I was basically just “training” for an 8 hour MTB race on July 4th. Lots of long rides. Some intervals, but mostly endurance and hill climb intervals.

Then 2 weeks ago I went dirt biking (moto) on Mount Hood and dumped the bike no less then 4 times. The 4th time I dropped it hard core onto my foot/leg, the engine landing solidly on my foot, which did not have a real moto boot on it. My foot was pretty well crushed; I could not stand on it, and by the evening I could not put an ounce of weight on it. It was throbbing something awful. J ended up having to take me to his house because I could not get up the stairs in mine to get to my bedroom. It was bad, I thought I might have broken something. I ended up having to take some serious pain killers to get through that evening.

I went to work the next day with crutches, but by the end of the day, I was able to hobble around without them; healing seems to have gone pretty damn fast, although it still hurts, especially to twist it (ie getting in and out of pedals).

What really sucks is that I kept crashing onto my knees, and now they refuse to operate properly. Walking up and down stairs is very painful. I can’t climb, I can’t sprint, I can’t do much of anything without some pain at this point. Even just touching them hurts. I’ve been icing like a mad woman, but I think this one will just take some time.

So this means no 8 hour race for me. However, I did go “race” short track this evening. And by race I mean I soft pedaled and tried to catch as much air as I could on the whoops and tried not to crash. Both achieved. My knees actually felt pretty good, but I’m thinking it’s because I didn’t push it, and it was really warm out. While I generally felt good, I don’t want to push it. My knees are bad enough as it is, don’t need to fuck them up for cycling AND running.

I haven’t been writing much because I’ve been really busy with this whole starting-a-business thing. It’s rather time consuming. Apparently.

I also went to Spokane last weekend for one of my best friends’ weddings. It was gorgeous, she was gorgeous, it was fun to see everyone…I got in a long ride on Friday around the Spokane River which was AWESOME. Except that I went too far and climbed too much and my knees were NOT HAPPY. Oh well. It was awesome anyway.

So, back to friends and weddings. I was having a good time, and then I read this little sappy-ish romantical quote that was affixed to a little wedding bobble thingy…it said “Hope is a waking dream.-Aristotle” I don’t know what it was about that, but fuuuck I had to GET OUT OF THERE. Not because it was sappy, rather the opposite. It like…hit something. Somewhere. The whole thing was very upsetting. I found a little bridge over a bubbling brook to sit on and stared at the water for a while. After that I just knew I had to leave Spokane ASAP, and I ended up leaving around 8pm and drove through the night to get back to Portland.

I know, maybe a little insane.

I feel very lost. No, lost is not the right word. Floating. I feel like I’m floating and I’m not really sure where I’m going or what I’m doing. I like riding the wave right now, I like just going with the flow and seeing where it takes me. However at times I worry there’s something else at play that’s just under the surface of the water, and eventually I’m going to stick my feet in the murky depths.

Car vs Bike Commuting = interesting math

Jun 15, 2009 Cycling 2 Comments

I was thinking about the time/money it takes to bike to work versus drive to work on my ride in this morning. I ran the numbers and came up with some eye opening figures.

First of all, I’m taking into account a few things.

• If I bike to work, that is my workout for the day. If I do not bike to work, I will actually still bike a few hours anyway, but in this case I will assume the average person goes to the gym and maybe takes a 1 hour spin class
• I do not include the cost of the car, car insurance or bike/gear. I already own both, and am giving up neither, so the costs are already in place for those regardless of what I do.

Per month (22 working days)

That is a HUGE chunk of change. Not to mention that when I drive I tend to stop for coffee, or stop at a store on the way home for some non essential shopping…wow. Makes you think twice about driving, doesn’t it?

Tabor, oh how I missed (puking on) thee

Jun 12, 2009 Uncategorized 1 Comment

Very last minute, I decided on my commute home to race Tabor. The weather was better then expected (I had gotten poured on earlier in the morning), and I left work early. So…I figured, what the hell?

Well, that’s all well and good, except when you show up and see people like Sue Butler registered. Sigh.

I am still not sure if I’m glad or not that they cut our race from 8 laps to 6. Six was plenty, but it also meant balls out the entire time. Basically Sue just road her ass off and everyone struggled to stay with her. Sounds like fun, no?

I managed to stay with the lead pack until the top of lap 2 when I dropped my chain, lost contact, and that was the end of that. Suck. I almost just stopped racing, but I had teammates cheering me on, so I had to keep with it. Plus I paid my damn $15, I was going to get my workout in.

Bike commuting, more hardware, and a 360

Jun 8, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a comment

Life has taken some interesting turns, shall we say, in the last few weeks.

I got back from Boston Sunday night, and promptly left the next morning for a new part time contract position out in Camas, Washington. I drove the first day, given my unpreparedness, having just gotten back into town, but I biked Tuesday and Wednesday. 18 mostly uphill miles in, 18 mostly downhill miles home. Me being late both mornings and hauling ass there. And then realizing on this one very specific hill on the way home just how tired the morning ride made me.

It’s awesome. My metabolism is on fire all day long with 2 hard rides and a day, and it’s like I don’t even have a commute because that’s the amount of time I would have spent riding anyway. And it’s easy for me to add on on the way home (Lacamas Lake, Marine Drive, Mt Tabor, Rocky Butte, to name a few).

Last weekend I was back in Bend yet again for another mountain bike race on my brand new full suspension titanium Merlin mountain bike. Yes, you heard me correctly. Oh holy lord this bike rides like a dream. I had some mental and mechanical issues during the race (front derailleur??), but still pulled out a 1st in my age group in cat 2, and 3rd place over all cat 2. With some more practice on this new bike and getting it dialed in, I think I could do reasonably well as a cat 1 (but I will wait until I get kicked up, learned that lesson already…)

Other shit that has gone down? Well… er… this is where I’m not sure exactly how much I feel like sharing on this blog. I wonder if other people have secret anonymous blogs. I have a secret blog, but it’s just simply private (ie a typed out diary that happens to be hosted online that no one else can see). Mostly it’s private because it’s 100% uncensored crazy and fairly incoherent. But now, but now, it has the potential to be more then that. Ideas are forming. It would definitely be very brutal, honest, and inappropriate. I shall think on this.

Boston

May 30, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a comment

I’m sitting in the Boston HI Hostel having my free breakfast (the coffee is better here then the sh*t at the conference…) and I’m on day 3 of no exercise. Unless you count the fact that I’m staying a mile from the conference so have at least been walking 2 miles a day. Not exactly tearing it up. I brought running shoes and a yoga mat with the best of intentions, and to be honest I usually find a way to fit it in when I’m traveling.

But I just needed a break. A real break. Where I don’t have to stress out about when I could possibly fit in my daily exercise. I even got my running shoes and outfit all ready to go last night, but I realized that SLEEP is WAY more important at this point.

There are a lot of really smart people here, many of them from Portland, and as always I feel inspired to do something more then just what I’m paid to do. I want to create amazing things. Many of these developers are artists and are so passionate about what they do, it really shows through in their work. When I have a project I love, it really shows, too. As do the projects I don’t particularly like.

It’s about not compromising your vision (which can be tough when you battle your clients’ vision). It’s about taking it to the next level, and going above and beyond. Following your nose. Envisioning amazing things. I need to open my mind a bit and let my imagination go wild. More brainstorming. Less being lame.

Birthday weekend!

May 26, 2009 Dirt Biking, MTB Leave a comment

I was both excited and terrified of this weekend; for some reason I had decided it would be a great idea for me to take up dirt biking (of the motorized kind). So J and I hatched a plan to adventure back down to Bend Friday night for a long weekend jammed-packed with as much off road 2-wheeling as possible.

Saturday (the official Birthday), was spent as any awesome birthday should be spent: on the trail. For as long as physically possible. We rode from our campsite, with intentions of doing a ride called the “Farewell Epic”, as I had gotten it into my head that I needed to do one of the 5 rides labeled “Epic” in my mtb book. 38 miles of single track. Sign me up.

With a few accidental out-and-backs, we ended up at Tumalo Falls, where we went up a few different routes, all ending in snow, despite the mid-70s temps. No Farewell Epic for us. So we turned around and decided to just ride around Phil’s complex until we couldn’t ride no more. A few highlights: Whoops, Skyliners (did an out and back on this one), going down Phil’s trail, although I admit, it was 99% awesome. Except when I did a front wheel wheelie for about 5 feet and then for some reason decided slamming on my front brakes would be a GREAT idea, which of course landed me in a superman position flying over the handlebars and royally fucking up my knees.

6+ hours later, we decided we’d return to camp, when we spotted the thunderclouds. And realized we had no idea where we were despite the constant map checks. Somehow we ended up in the Land of Unmarked New Trails, and decided to just high tail to the road (which road? no clue). We rode through some kind of freeride area (The Lair), and ended up in the creeeeepiest unbuilt development area ever. Paved cul-de-sacs with no houses. A graveyard of the shitty economy. Very bizarro.

We ran into a herd of rollar-skiiers and they pointed us in the right direction; turns out we ended up having to ride about 10 miles on the 2 lane highway to get back to camp. Staring into the thunderheads, and realizing the 100% mesh tent with the sleeping bags and pads in it did not have the rainfly on. Shit.

Of course, by this time me knees were done with me, and I had to ride really slowly. Ever.So.Slowly the rain drops got heavier and heavier. We were so close it was maddening. By the last 500 yards or so, J sprinted ahead to save the tent, and I just spinned along, hoping there was a freak opening in the clouds above the tent.

Thankfully, we got the rainfly on just as the rain really started, and it only last an hour or so; suddenly we had blue skies again and sun (despite still hearing thunder), so we got our stuff totally dry before nightfall.

Sunday it was time to get motorized. We drove out to the East Fork OHV area, and I repeated over and over to myself where the brakes (right foot, right hand!), clutch, shifting, and throttle were. Oh bejezuz.

J was stoked. Wanted to ride until we couldn’t anymore. Sadly for him, I didn’t think that would be very long, given that I’ve never riden a motorcycle outside of circling a high school parking lot a few times.

We started out on the “learner’s loop”, which was a succession of VERY TIGHT corners and berms and steep inclines and declines. I crashed the bike within 5 minutes. Let’s just say that laying down a motorcycle is a much larger pain in the ass then a bicycle–picking up 300 pounds of machinery fucking sucks.

Anyway, we did the loop twice, (I was not feeling good at this point), and off we went onto the Real Trails. Which turned out to be far easier then the Learner’s Loop (wtf?). Of course, we started on the trails rated “easiest”, and I started feeling better, making good speed through a few minor burms and over a few rocks without dying. Pretty soon we were out in the desert flying through a foot of double track dust. I wasn’t used to the bike, I didn’t want to go any higher then 2nd gear, and the bike was totally squirrely under me. I dumped it again when I stopped to let some other riders by  (of course), and then I ended up crashing again, going maybe 15 miles an hour, flying right off the front of the bike into the scrub brush. Ouch. Not. Good. I had a bitch of a time picking the bike up that time, and I was getting REALLY nervous and unhappy at this point.

Not super excited at this point

We had to go over some pretty technical (for a mountain bike) rocky sections, and I totally freaked. I just stopped, totally froze. I felt like the first time I did a real mountain bike ride (mt st helens) where I crashed a billion times and had a panic attack on the trail. I didn’t quite go that far, but I was really, really frustrated. J just stared at me (well, you can’t really talk over the motors, and through your ear plugs). Finally I kind of pushed through it with my feet on the ground, and we continued on. I was an unhappy camper. And we were only maybe an hour in, if that.

We stopped for a snack, J gave me a few essential pointers (stand up on the rocky sections and hold the throttle lower), and VOILA. Suddenly I could ride the stupid thing. Oh, stand up. We ended up having to go over a really technical rocky section (as in un-bicycle-able), and I fucking just went right over it. It was awesome. I was riding the burms at speed, kicking it into higher gears, trying to catch air on the mogels, yeah. I don’t know what happened, but it was like a light switch went on, and I could ride.

Hell yeah.

We ended up riding about 4.5 hours, which considering it was my first time on a motorcycle, I think was pretty impressive. I couldn’t hardly walk afterward, my knees hurt so bad. With standing up on all the mogels, its basically like doing squats for 4 hours. My quads were SO SORE the next day, pretty pathetic.

Monday, we decided to “take it easy” by riding a scant 3 hours around Phil’s again. We ended up riding much of the Pickett’s Charge course, which is a lot more technical then most of the other trails in the area. We got lost a few times (again), and just kind of ended up winging it, riding on a trail called CIA, which was really fun and not on The Map (ohh!).

We left “early” to get back to town (3pm), but ended up in the Mount Hood Memorial Day traffic jam, where it took us about 45 minutes to go 12 miles, as we desperatly tried to make it to Govy for beers and dinner and so I could pee.

All in all, an awesome weekend. And I’m still sore.

MRT & PIR

May 18, 2009 Uncategorized 1 Comment

Saturday I got the rare pleasure of helping a friend deflower a shiney new Santa Cruz Superlight; we drove all the way to McKenzie River with 2/5ths of the Moab crew to ride the shit of out MRT. Talk about buff! The weather was amazing, if a little hot, and we rode, and rode and rode. The first 2 hours we kept a pretty solid tempo, I was definitly working it. Helps that the way out is all mostly uphill. Around mile 15 I had a narly crash trying to navigate some rocks; apparently one decided it liked me and took me out. Landed with all my weight directly onto the rock on my quad and knee. The bruises are just now turning deep purple, 2 days later. ouch. So, given that we were about 3.5 hours in, and it was Doug’s first MTB ride in a while and his first on his own bike, we turned around early, leaving Joe and Bernie to shred the rest. It was a fast decent back, ride time around 5 hours.

With that much riding, plus all the driving, we didn’t end up getting back to Portland until 10pm. So I bailed on my morning’s plan to ride Wilson River Trail with PUMP, and instead spent the day the best way I know how when I have nothing I want to do and it’s summery out: brunch, bloody marys, followed by home made margaritas, followed by art-opening-party-BBQ. What a lovely day!

And finally, today. I FINALLY manned up and road PIR, first roadie race since King’s Valley. It was a blast, between Hammer Velo laying down the hammer, and me taking 3 or 4 fliers and bridging some gaps, I had the best interval workout I’ve had in a while! I tried to take a flier on the last lap, which didn’t work out, so I was 100% fried at the wind-in-your-face sprint. Thankfully I took 3rd on one of the bell laps so I got a point (1st in the pack, as 2 were off the front). Wow, you mean you WON A PACK SPRINT? No, not really, actually I don’t think anyone realized it was a bell lap, and that you get a point for taking 3rd. Whatever, I’ll take it!

Tonight reminded me of a few things. 1) I like road racing when I have a chance to actually have some fun and put the hurt on some people and 2) I am much stronger then I realized. I felt really good. I know a lot of people were probably tired from Silverton on Sunday, but still. I felt really good. Like I could have attacked some more even, which is totally shocking to me. So, I might have to man up and do some more road racing. I’m almost bummed it’s kind of late to get in a stage race. But only kind of.

Road Racing FAIL

May 15, 2009 Cycling, Racing Leave a comment

I’ve fallen from the road racing horse and I’m having trouble getting back on.

I haven’t done a single hard group ride or road race since… King’s Valley. Which was approximately 5 weeks ago. Not that I haven’t been training, dutifully doing my LT intervals (ok, maybe not my sprint intervals). I have a total mental block when it comes to the road now.

Don’t get me wrong, I ride my road bike about 4 or 5 times a week, 2-3 hours a day. But riding around town, west hills or not, does not compare to riding hard with a group; the mental battle just isn’t there to nearly the same degree. At all.

All I really want to do is mountain bike. Even race–and 2.5 hours of ass kicking MTB racing is NOT easy. No way. There is certainly a huge mental battle there. But its completely different from road racing. Everyone is on their own–it’s a time trial. You don’t get dropped from the group because there is no group.

I admit–I feel like a failure. I had such huge intentions of staying focused on road racing, of doing Elkhorn, of this, of that, and it’s FAIL FAIL FAIL. I lost my mojo in March and it never came back. So what do I do now?

Give up?

Go home?

Cry myself to sleep?

No way. I might have lost my road racing mojo, but I haven’t lost my mountain biking mojo–that grows expontially every day. It’s time to apply that confidence to the road bike and get out to PIR to mix it up. To remember. To test myself. I think I’ve been way too hard on myself with road racing in the past, and my competitive nature is very much “well, if you can’t win/stay with the pack, fuck it.” But I’m not getting any faster by not racing.

The road season is pretty much over at this point anyway–it’s too late for me to do Elkhorn or Mt Hood, Silverton and Rehearsal are the last one day races that were on my schedule (and I already made my mtb plans on those days), so all that’s left is PIR, crits, and Tabor. I can handle that. Hell, maybe I’ll even do High Desert Omnium or Eugene Celebration SR. All is not lost.

I need my mojo. I need all I can summon up so come cross time, I am ready and raring to go.

Cascade Chainbreaker

May 11, 2009 MTB, Race Reports 1 Comment

2nd place!

We drove down to Bend on Friday night and camped out at an unbelieveably amazing spot on one of the Sisters. We woke up to views 3 or 4 mountains, it was incredible. We had a long, lazy morning, then drove into Bend around noon to pick up our race packets, find a new campsite closer to the race start, and preride. We failed at our first attempt to find a good spot, so we momentarily bailed on the search and prerode…we got to the course around 2:45pm and did a lazy lap. At least mine was lazy. The course was fun, fast, with a few technical spots, but pretty straightforward overall. I had to be very conscious of my pedals, because there were a lot of bottom bracket-height rocks right on the edge of the trail that I slammed once or twice with my pedals. I was glad for my super tall BB.

After a good 2 hour lap, we went to the camping spot we had found on our trip a few weeks ago, and got ready for an early wake-up. Waking up before like 8 or 9am while camping, especially in the spring, sucks. It’s SO COLD. Rushing through making breakfast, cleaning up, and tearing down camp kinda blows. But, you gotta do whatcha gotta do. I had scrambled eggs, 2 morning star sausage patties, a piece of sprouted grain bread, and a mixed fruit bowl apprx 2.5 hours before the race start (writing this down so I remember, it was the perfect breakfast!)

We got there a little later then we wanted, but I still got in a good 40 minute warm up, going up the long dirt road climb that was the start of the race. I usually have really crappy starts, so I was bound and determined to have a good start. My only goals were to race my ass off and have a good start.

Well, I wasn’t the first one out of the gate or to hit the climb. But once we were climbing I just went to work, passed everyone, and hammered my ass off for about 30 minutes. Once I was in the lead, the only thing I could think was go as fast as you can as long as you can so no one can see you anymore. Out of sight, out of mind. After a while I noticed that no one was behind me. Once I felt I had thoroughly dropped everyone, I tried to relax and settle in, since it was a 28 mile race, after all. I had really pushed the beginning, my lower back, triceps and core were just screaming.

I came up with a mantra for myself to keep at it. Race strong, solid, and smart. In other words, keep a high pace at all times, but not so high that I get too hot and get sloppy with my handling. I overcooked a few turns and then really had to hold it back so I could flow and still stay strong.

I also kept repeating lessons I had learned from previous races. Look ahead look ahead look ahead I kept telling myself, when I noticed that I was starting to look at my front wheel. When you’re bombing like mad, that is REALLY important. I kept telling myself to relax my upper body, especially on the double track. Another very very key thing was that if I came up on someone (I was passing cat 2 men constantly), was to pass them immediately. It’s really easy to catch someone, then stay behind for a while to catch your breath. No. If you catch someone, that means you’re moving faster then them. Just go around, right away.

Finally, the other really important thing on this race was that I was remembering to drink water consistently, and I had a gel right before the race, and at the beginning of the second lap. So my head was in it the entire time.

So, back to the battle royale. About 12 miles (?) into the race (just before the tunnel), Abby came up on me and passed me. I was actually shocked she hadn’t passed me earlier, because I knew she was stronger then me (apparently she had dropped her chain at the beginning and had to work to pass everyone). After that, I just tried to keep her in view at all times. Strong solid smart. I just kept at it. Finally, on that really steep uphill section towards to the first half of the second lap, I saw her ahead with about 5 or 6 other people walking up the climb. Oh hell yes, I said to myself. I bombed it, got through everyone, and passed her. I figured she would pass me again, but I kept at it as long as possible.

She ended up passing me again at the exact same spot. I tried to keep her in view again, but she was hammering like a crazy person (or I was just slowing down), and she just flew from my sight pretty quickly. At that point, all I could think about was holding onto 2nd place and keeping at it, no matter what. And that is what I did. I never let up, I never slowed down, I just time trialed my ass off, and got my second place.

This was my Win that I REALLY needed. I feel AWESOME about this race, it was fun, great weather, and I did every single thing I could do, and I really succeeded. My time was about 2:15. I cannot believe I can do 28 miles of single/double track in 2:15. That kind of boggles my mind. I also cannot believe how much faster and better technically I was then a lot of cat 2 men. I thought the guys I was passing on the climbs would pass me on the downhills, but au contraire. I still passed dudes on the downhills. I think my skills, confidence, and fitness on my mountain bike has just skyrocketed this year. I’m so happy to feel good about racing again! I can’t wait for Pickett’s Charge!

Health 101

May 7, 2009 Deep Thoughts, Food & Diet Leave a comment

I’m on a major “health” kick. I don’t just mean my diet, either. I mean everything. These are my basic goals for current healthy living month:

1. No alcohol the first week, limited after that
2. floss (most) every day
3. drink a pitcher of water daily
4. sleep 8 hours a day
5. add in more weight lifting and yoga to routine
6. following a “diet” (more on this in a bit)
7. set up work schedule better (and get shit done!)
8. very limited eating out
9. save money

I’m on day 4, and the only thing I’m royally fucking up on is the saving money part. I’ve spent gobs of money in the last week (about $400 at REI alone). Ouch!

Basically, I’m trying to change my mindset about…everything. Being a bit more responsible and concious about my decisions regarding my health. Rather then just saying “fuck it” all the time as I have been, I’m trying to treat myself with more care. I like it when I feel healthy and strong, rather then tired, dehydrated, and hung over (surprise, surprise). My mantra for this health kick is “Perfection Doesn’t Exist“. Seems strange, but I have a tendency to set stupidly high goals, fail slightly, and then bag the whole thing. Rather, I’m thinking of this as a process toward a greater goal : long term health and feeling great about myself.

Part of this, of course, is fixing my diet. I’m “on a diet”, but I’m more interested in seeing how playing with the percentages of macronutrients effects me (mood, energy, concentration levels, etc). Right now I’m shooting for 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat, and consuming about 1,600-1,800 calories a day. Getting enough quality protein (that isn’t all soy) is stupidly hard when you’re vegetarian.

Before this, I was consuming vast quantities of beer and sweets. The first 3 days I was dizzy and light-headed; I basically felt like I was buzzed/half-asleep all the time, particularly in the afternoon. However, I woke up this morning feeling great. I think I was going through sugar withdrawals. I really feel that sugar is like crack. Once I break out of my no-sugar habit, it’s like WHAM! I want it all the time. Once I stop for a few days, which can be very hard, I don’t want it all anymore. So bizarre.

Other then avoiding processed sugar and alcohol, I’m also avoiding added salt and wheat (except sprouted). It took about a day and a half of eating like this to notice some serious results. My stomach immediatly flattened out (hm, imagine that, vast quantites of sugar, salt and beer makes one bloated), and all my sugar cravings went away.

At some point in the near future, however, I’m going to want to go out with friends. I’m thinking more dinner parties and tea parties will be in my future. Also in my future: growing vegetables and more cooking. Hopefully I won’t kill everything right away.