Not so Bad news and some Very Good news

Well, let's start with the ...

Not so Bad news. 

Sebring is out for me this February.   The logistics and cost just don't justify it.  5,000 mile round trip driving (I'd be taking two bikes and lots of gear so onliest way I'd do that is with my trusty Ford Ranger).  Gas, lodging, food, etc., would put it easily into the $3K range.  I can (and will) put that money to much better use in my neck of the woods.

Very Good news:

I'll be getting two `Time' and `Distance' courses measured out here to be considered for official sanctioning for the UMCA.

Time courses can be used for 12 hour and 24 hour events;
Distance courses can be used for 100 mile, 200 mile events. 

The Prescott Cycling Club will be heading up the course measurements and submitting them for sanction and approval.  We're expecting to complete the measurement process within the month and submit the data and materials to UMCA. 

Each course

• Has almost no traffic;
• Few and no intersections;
• Is flat;
• Almost straight as an arrow;
• Has an excellent shoulder (wide, no rumble strip, minimum road debris).

Course # 1:  

• 50 miles: Aguila to Brenda, AZ, on Highway 60.

This course is almost entirely on the RAAM / RAW route.  In the AZ desert, with elevation from to 2160 feet to 1350 feet above sea level.  The temps are what you would expect: 100 - 110 F range 8 months out of the year.  Tolerable the other 4 months.  No snow.  Ever.

Only two or three intersections going west and one intersection coming back east.  All can be navigated well by a crew that drives ahead to make the transit safe and fast.  A few towns (3?) from start to finish on the 50 miles.  Aguila is about 60 miles from Phoenix. 

Course # 2:

• 25 miles: Paulden to Ash Fork, AZ, on Highway 89.

This course is not on the RAAM / RAW route and climbs from 4400 feet to 5100 feet through National Forest on good and well maintained roads.  At these elevations some snow can sometimes be a factor but it is also a more temperate climate all year long.  The thing about the `National Forest,' though, is that the terrain is mostly scrub desert.  No intersections.  Again, this could be both a `time' or `distance' course.  Ash Fork is about 40 miles straight west on Interstate 40 from Flagstaff, AZ.  

The road cycling community in the Prescott area is active 12 months of the year.  And more and more serious cyclists are seeing the terrain and climate as being ideal for training. 

Also, Prescott is considered one of the premier mountain bike locations in the country.  What with the mountains, several National Forests and well maintained roads and trails it is nothing less than a hidden jewel. 

--------------

If Muhammad can't go to the mountain then the mountain will have to come to Muhammad.  

When I consider the time and money I would sacrifice to drive from my house to Sebring ... I'd rather build a Sebring out here. 

You'll be hearing more soon.  Stay tuned. 

The `b'ness' end of things

A few days ago I was out for along ride in the lower elevations.  Rolling desert rocky terrain below the snow line, waaay out into the unpopulated AZ ranch country.  Fewer than 3 vehicles on the road per hour. 

Rolling along after mile 25 on an out and back I needed to find a place to do my `b'ness.' 

I spot a break in the Juniper and Cottonwood trees and brush to the side of the road and pull over.  As I'm crouching my way through the brush it opens up into a completely empty green and brown grazing pasture.  The pasture is only about 50x50 meters and abuts a steeply rising rocky hill for about 800 feet. A quiet `spot' of beauty in nature.

There is a wide gate to this fenced in area.  The gate has a heavy lasso-type rope holding it closed against a strong post with firm barbed wire in either direction.  I look around carefully to assure that no one is there and that there are no horses or livestock that will charge at me. 

I open the gate and move off to the left about 10 yards behind a copse of big Manzanitas.  I proceed to do my `b'ness.' 

As I'm gazing at the immense beauty and noticing the utter quiet and silence my attention falls to the copious evidence of horses having done THEIR b'ness here, too. 

When I'm finished and get myself all ready to return to the bike ... it hits me: 

I turn to see if MY b'ness is bigger than the HORSES b'ness! 

Once again I am confirmed in my ability to hold my own against mother nature's best :)

Confidently and filled with utterly pointless hubris I let myself out of the gated pasture and resume my biking. 

I'm still feeling `proud' of the `b'ness' end of things.

Irrational and myopic ... but so, so human. 

(I wonder if there will be a horse that returns to the grazing pasture and ... does the same thing).

Real World Training

If you could be exceptional at either `intelligence' or `persistence' (not both), which would you prefer?

Sounds like a question I'd get from St. Peter at the Pearly Gates.  I'd probably get sent to hell `Express' for trying to negotiate a little of both. 

I'm about 70 % persistence, 20 % slack-jaw stump-stupid, and maybe 10% intelligence. 

When my clients saw all the degrees on my wall I'd try to lower the shock factor by telling them: "I'm educated waaay beyond my intelligence."  And, frankly, I think its true. 

I just kept going to school.  Didn't - WOULDN'T - stop.  I went to middling colleges and universities and they were happy to take my tuition as long as I didn't present as a potential embarrassment as an alumnus. 

Back to Training. 

After several depressing days of indoor training and a few shocking days of absolutely lethal outdoor training in the freezing, windy, icy, twisting mountain roads I figure out a real world training prospect for the cold months.  Drive down to a lower elevation and train. 

The snow line is about 5,000 feet.  I trained on rolling and challenging upgrades of 6% for 6 miles at 4,000 feet today.  It was windy, cold and wet.  But manageable due to the absence of crazy twisting descents and icy roads.  It was also in the mid-40's.

Dressing for the wind and wet requires `shell' clothes and some thin wool jerseys.  Made all the difference.

Training at lower elevation 

More tomorrow. 

Vocabulary lesson

I didn't expect to get a vocabulary lesson in my training ride today.  But I did. 

Mid-day it was relatively warm (50's) and brilliantly sunny day up here in AZ mountain country.   I got out for a training ride at 1:30PM.  At it's height the sun is low on the horizon, just 10 days from the solstice.  It gets dark fast.

I rode south, up a smooth and twisty road (White Spar/89) into the Bradshaw mountains in the Prescott National Forest.   The road hangs off the eastern side of the mountain. 

Melt Ice: At 6,100 feet the sun is intense on the snow.  The snow is piled in berms on the east side of the road and it covers the forest and sheer walls on the west side of the road.   When the sun beats down on the snow it melts and water washes across and down mountain roads.  When it hits the road it is a barely visible shade of grey as it freezes again

Shadow Ice: When the road is already wet from melting snow but the setting sun, low on the southern horizon, casts patches of spikey shadows on the wet road.  The shadow water freezes thin and slippery while the sun exposed road is dry and firm.  It makes for a corduroy pattern of icy road and dry road.

Sand Slip: In Illinois they spread salt on the icy road.  Out here they use sand and pumice.  Sometimes the sand/pumice mixture has the same color as the road.  It requires eagle eye vigilance on climbs, descents and turns so that you don't slip out and go down.

Sand Mine: That's when all three of the above conditions apply.  The road looks just a little sandy but it is actually ice thinly covered by sand/pumice. 

Update: 12/12/11:

Cloudy and raining today and nobody out this way thinks its o.k. to ride in this weather. 

So ... I rode.

Us hardy mid-westerners don't really know the difference between sunny and warm, and wet and cold. 

I added a few words to my vocabulary today: 

• Rockslide;
• Sleet/rain/snow (all one word);
• Fog;
  
• Mountain wind;
• Windchill;
• Hypothermia.

When I got home I realized that, though this is Arizona, it is winter and I'm riding in mountains.  I immediately got into a tub full of scalding hot water for half an hour.

• Time to swap the sandals for shoes and toe warmers.  
• Balaclava.  
• Rain gear.  
• Big honkin' flashing lights and irridescent ribbons all over me and the bike
• long pants
• shells over my gloves
• helmet cover.  

 So, what is this language with so many new words: Mountainese?!

One learns `road handling skills' in such conditions.

Or not.

Too much

Over the last several days I've put in a fair amount of miles and lots of climbing.  At least half of that is in the Prescott National Forest.  The other half is what geologists call the `transition zone' between the high Grand Canyon plateau and the low Phoenix desert.  Lots of sky, mountains, rolling hills.  Vast panoramas of drop-dead gorgeous terrain. 

Today's training comprised 70 miles and god-knows how many thousands of feet of climbing.  The contrast between the beauty of the natural environment was held in stark relief against the many never-before-seen by me roadside shrines to motor fatalities; the dead skunk, dog, cat, critters, and their bloody remains smeared across the road; the monstrous RVs pulling trailers of off-road 4-wheel toys; and, finally, another tragic automobile accident with almost certain fatalities.  The accident appeared to involve a car that went off the 2 lane road and down a steep embankment, rolling over and over before coming to a stop.  Multiple State Patrol vehicles, fire engines, ambulances and a helicopter.  Traffic backed up in both directions for a mile.

The contrast makes my head hurt.

Pictures of the terrain on which I train

The first is a link to my Picasa picture albums showing, first, the short and steep roads I use for `Hill Repeats' and, then, pics of the 34 mile, 4,600 feet of climbing out and back, up and over, course from Prescott to Wilhoit.  Prescott to Wilhoit and back

The second is the latest Garmin data and graphic of the Prescott to Wilhoit and back course.  Garmin - Prescott to Wilhoit and back

Season and transitions in training

Second week of November in the Arizona high country.  Living close by a ranging national forest and what geologists call a `transitional zone.'  Prescott is a smallish town on the edge a growing metropolitan area both east and north of us. 

Nights are cold and dark.  Days are typically sunny and warm.  If and when it snows it tends to melt away within a day or three. 

Gone are the days when starting a training ride at 7:30am promised 70 degree temps, pushing into the 90's by midday. 

Hill training several times a week for two or three hours.  Following loops into the national forest and back.  In the gym cross-training for several hours a couple of times a week.  One or two long rides into, through and out the other side of the forest every week. 

Outdoor training includes both front and rear wheel recumbents, and the upright Airborne Zeppelin ti bike. Indoor training includes Concept 2 indoor rower, the elliptical and a recumbent bike on the LeMond Revolution indoor trainer.  Calisthenics, situps, pushups and pullups. 

Consolidation, strength and balance are the training goals for the cold months. 

Heading into winter and exciting riding

October 19th and I'm feeling like I'm just getting started on my cycling season.  Last year at this time I was putting on the weight, dealing with rain, wind, cold, traffic, urban density and congestion.  This year I'm working my training plan and tracking significant week to week improvements. 

I've never had the opportunity to focus on cycling as much as now. 

Today I got in a 20 mile 1,800 feet of climbing training ride `after' I did the finances, met with the plumber and made some phone calls.  And I got back in time for a fried chicken lunch with our neighbors in our Common House.  Our cohousing neighborhood and community ... 

Took a nap, reviewed the training plan and confirmed that I'll be attending some great cycling events here in the SW this winter. 

• I'm stoked about the 200 K brevet (Heart of Arizona) with the Bullshifters Cycling Club this November 5th;.
• I'm focused on training for strong and fast hill climbing in a rational and thoughtful way;
• I'm targeting the Sebring Bike races in Florida next February 18th and 19th, the 24 hour non-drafting RAAM Qualifier event.

These are just a few of the great things I can train for and accomplish with `performance' in mind (not just `survival.')

I'm fortunate and lucky.

Ownership and attribution

I just sent a comment to the spam folder.  The author of the comment did not identify him/herself and made claims without attribution of sources.  Finally, this person made personal insults (not to me).

One of the reasons I blog and welcome comments is to further dialogue and questions.  Unsubstantiated claims and uncivil comments that do nothing to support dialogue will be deleted. 

Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those with one.  Those having an axe to grind or who are working out issues for which they should seek treatment can start up their own blog or pedal their tripe to listserv's that allow it. 

If you don't like what is said here don't read it. 

Another Roadside Shrine

Coming north on White Spar Road (89A) from Wilhoit to Prescott, AZ.  As one leaves Wilhoit there are signs warning drivers of dangerous mountain curves and grades ahead for the next 14 miles.

Here is a Garmin recording of one of my training rides on White Spar between Wilhoit and Prescott.  Wilhoit - Prescott: Road Shrine Row  You can zoom in to see for yourself the twists, inclines and descents.  For most of the route the road hangs off the side of the mountain with a wall on one side and a steep drop off on the other side.

Seven weeks ago I had just turned around at Wilhoit to return to Prescott on a training ride.  Less than a mile up the road I saw several people, motorcycles and a few cars at the lip of the cliff on a 90 degree ascending (4-5%) turn.  A motorcyclist had miscalculated his speed and the angle of the turn and rode right off the cliff, falling about 20 yards into a steep ravine filled with brush and cactus.  Foolishly his mates pulled him out of the ravine.  As I stopped to offer some aid it was apparent that this fellow was nonresponsive and quite likely dead.

A few weeks later I noted a `road shrine' cross and fake flowers planted in a pile of rocks.

Today I was barely out of Prescott and into the mountain grades to Wilhoit when I was passed by 3 or 4 emergency vehicles and an overhead helicopter.  About two miles up traffic was stopped.  I rode past the stopped traffic to see the helicopter slowly ascending and on the way to some hospital.  The police turned me back stating that they would be taking pictures and surveying the site for some time to come.

About an hour later I concluded the road should be clear and resumed my training ride to Wilhoit and back.  As I passed the scene of the accident I saw the destroyed motorcycle and metal and plastic on both sides of the road.  There were no tire skid marks.  But there were several fresh white gouges in the road.  And I am assuming that the motorcyclist was going downhill too fast for the curve, oversteered, lost control of the bike and s/he and the motorcycle went end over end until they came to the road barrier or mountain wall.  It was a bloody mess, with two squad cars parked nearby.

Returning later to Prescott past this accident scene I saw a tow truck attempting to collect the many pieces of motorcycle.

I myself have gone down twice on this same road at speeds greater than 35 mph.  Lots of road rash.  Some stitches.  About $800 of total damages to the bike.

Those of us surviving our bad judgment have a deep respect for the dangers of the road.

I'll be looking for another road shrine at that location soon.  How deeply sad.

HA!! Two Speeds

Speed # One:  All out race!
Speed # Two:  Dead stop!

Conclusion?  Delusional thinking and denial of the reality of dealing with time and anxiety.

Ha!!!

I just spent the last hour reviewing journal articles on `denial of aging.'  I've even got a book on that subject waiting for me at the Prescott Library.

With the wife gone for a week and being relatively immobile while the knee heals up I've spent waaaaay too much time `thinking.'   Such a waste!  Not my best `muscle,' i.e., from the neck up. 

I preached two mantras in my clinical practice as a psychologist: "Action Defines Us" and "Behavior Precedes Awareness."  One of my patients even went out and got me a ball cap with those phrases emblazoned on it as a retirement memento.

Take my own advice: Think less.  Do more. 

A good deal of the reason I am so active with cycling is so that I can wear myself out.  (DSM-IV-TR diagnosis: Cyclothymia.  Just a tad short of all out mania).  Just a different way of dealing with the same anxiety that creates alcoholics, zealots, workaholics and others among us burning up excess psychic kerosene. 

The challenge of `retirement' is in being able to integrate life's accumulated wisdom and the strengths it brings, and a relative certainty about the trajectory of the future having an ultimate downward slope (unless of course I'm on a 4% downhill descent into Wilhoit on a 75 degree angle left turn doing 36.4 mph on a posted 25 mph speed limit ... then the slope is a right angle, straight down.  I got lucky and am here to tell about it.). 

I really did feel pissed that I came in behind 51 other people in the recent Skull Valley Loop Challenge.  Angry, in fact.  I gave myself no `slack' for probably being among the 3 oldest people racing.  Some of it is good fuel for motivation.  A lot of it is denial of `inherent' athletic/genetic limits and limits imposed on me as a consequence of age. 

Transition.  Age and the time to think about it carefully and with acceptance and courage. A denial of it ... thinking that "I'm different and I'll prove it" can prove futile.  And `resistance is futile.' 

Of course, we all know that the only people without stress in their life ... are dead!

Sermon over.

Chondromalacia and Plantaris Muscle / Tendon

Left knee.  Had nothing to do with cycling.

Definition of chondromalacia patella: (By Mayo Clinic staff)
 
The cartilage under your kneecap (patella) is a natural shock absorber. Overuse, injury or other factors may lead to a condition known as chondromalacia patella — a general term indicating damage to the cartilage under your kneecap. A more accurate term for chondromalacia patella is patellofemoral pain syndrome. 

The plantaris muscle / tendon definition is so tortuously medical-wordy that I won't even try it here.  Essentially, it is a tendon behind the knee that is missing in 7-10% of the population and has little purpose or consequence.  However, when, for whatever reason, it is inflamed or damaged it causes pain and swelling.

I was schlepping 50 lb bags of dirt and rocks for some landscaping of our house and I pivoted on my left leg, generating these two conditions.

In 1989 I had arthroscopic removal of torn meniscus / cartilage in my left knee.  I'd run about 8 marathons at that point and ... that's what happens to some of us.  The cartilage gets damaged.  Since then I've been totally pain free (ran another marathon 9 days after the surgery).  But when I flex that left knee I'd always hear a few clicks and grinds.

Today I rode the bike 34 miles and climbed about 4,000 feet with nothing more than a slight sense of tightness.

When walking it is painful to straighten the left leg because of the plantaris muscle.  And the patella problem is resolving with NSAIDS, careful stretching, alternate heat and cold compresses, a knee band that sort of stabilizes the patella.  I used one on the Race Across the West and the slight initial pain literally vanished in less than 12 hours, never to return.   

Training will probably be on flat stretches for a while, avoiding too much power strokes on inclines.  Though, I still climbed faster than all my buddies today, and without pain.

Prudence, however, suggests reduction of climbing intensity.  So, for the next few / half dozen training sessions I'll be a flatlander again.  Probably a wise change of pace.  

Attention `Excess' Disorder

In graduate school we had to learn how to diagnosis mental disorders.  There is a `big book of mental disorders' that all credentialed folks have to use.  The unanimous experience of I and my classmates was that each one of us had at least half a dozen diagnosable serious psychiatric disorders!

Decades later... no different.  We were right. 

These past two months of cycling in `valhalla' (Prescott, AZ) with more time to ride and train than I've ever allowed myself I've violated my notional dictum: `Be a fanatic about living a balanced life!!'  In otherwords, I'd frequently overtrain by doing too much, too hard, too fast.  Fortunately, I've been able to `listen to my body' and recognize it in a day or two and back off. 

This last `go-round' with overtraining left me wiped out, empty and flat all day after my early morning training ride.  I liked the training ride.  I `hated' feeling flat the rest of the day.  And, of course, my `psychiatric disorder' raised it's ugly head and I started blaming myself for stepping into this familiar hole again.  Then I started making lists of things I have neglected.  Finally, I took two naps instead of just my usual one -- this so that I can pile on the self-loathing for being such a slug and a sloth. 

This morning I looked at my Training Plan and realized that I had abandoned any forward looking Plan two weeks ago.  Instead I was just using it as a Riding Log. 

So now I'm going to do what I am supposed to have been doing all along:

• Identify cycling events that I want to train towards;
• Anchor my training to these events;
• Set short and longer term goals;
• Follow the `Periodization Training' method that has served me so well;
• Live a frigging `balanced life!'

Skull Valley Loop Challenge - Prescott, Arizona

Skull Valley Loop Challenge Garmin Data

The heart rate data are completely wrong. There were power lines that screwed with the HR. And halfway through the race the `grade' function on the Garmin stopped working. 

The last time I did this route was June 17, 2010 -- (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/37612893). Climbing gain was 4,079 feet. Still, this beats previous Personal Best by 49 minutes. I was the only recumbent in the event and finished 52st among `around' 150. 

I liked it.  It was fun.  I used some muscles that connected to my coccyx that I didn't even know were there.  Coccyx muscles?!!

Big Bad Bagdad!!

Training in the Arizona deserts and mountains is humbling.  In the midwest there was a farm or a town within spitting distance of most anyplace I was training.  If my unconscious carcass was off to the side of the road I'd probably be noticed within an hour or two by some passerby.

Here, though, the natural threats are dramatically more profound, if not actually lethal.

First, there are the descents and twisty turns.  I was baptized in this danger a few weeks ago by foolishly speeding down a twisty mountain grade at 35.1 mph (posted vehicle speed limit: 20 mph) when I let the bike get out of my control (spooked myself by a crease in the road) and destabilized myself, going down HARD, damaging some bike components and getting lots of bloody and painful road rash.  I'm lucky I didn't kill myself.

The other danger has to do with the dramatic climatic and terrain conditions.  A few weeks ago I left Prescott in the AM when it was 66 degrees.  I rode 44 miles south and descended about 3,000 feet, arriving in Congress, where the temperature was 104.

The solar radiation of the sun at this altitude is dangerously intense, certainly burning the skin and risking pain, injury if not cancer (melanoma).

What humidity?!  Sitting on my front porch, in the shade, for an hour results in passive dehydration.  Training uphill, into the sun, with no wind for fifteen minutes means that I have to drink a quart of liquid with electrolytes.  Training on a relatively flat surface of slight descent can `trick' me into forgetting to hydrate.  Both conditions can cause loss of consciousness or severe disorientation, making cycling even more dangerous. 

Twenty miles between dirt roads leading to ranches three or four miles off the paved roads constitutes a relatively densely populated area :)  So-called `towns' amount to one store and a few dozen mobile homes off on the side of a hill.  Today I had to plan for a source of water (post office has an faucet out behind, near the dumpster) in the likely event that the one store in town was closed.

Things `eat' you out here.  Not little `bites,' like with a bug or mosquito. 

No.  They friggin' EAT you.  Javelinas, mountain lions, coyotes, critters of all sorts that might consider my conscious / unconscious carcass found bounty.  And don't sit down on the side of the road. Snakes.  Spiders. Scorpions. 

Tires.  The road surfaces just eat up road tires.  I've already had one tire literally split apart at the middle of the tread due to the heat of the road and the roughness of the pavement. 

These were just some of the things in the back of my mind over the past week as my training distances and challenges increase.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bagdad is a copper mining town 68 miles from my front door.  A two lane state road `terminates' in Bagdad.  There are three little one-horse towns between my house and Bagdad.  The road to Bagdad is paved and passable but it follows some very significant changes in geology, climate and terrain.  From table top mesas to `bottom of the earth' canyons.  Not a 10th of a mile of straight road to nor from Bagdad.  Descents and ascents and descents again, ranging 3,000 feet at a lick and 30 to 45 degrees in temperature difference.

I'll be in a brevet to and from Bagdad in a short time.  

So, this morning I was working on the Silvio and adding long-distance `worst case' gear and equipment so that I could `probably' survive a trip to Bagdad. 

Big, good week.

Here it is Friday, September 2nd, and I know that I've got at least four good months of training ahead of me.  No more of this `dash' to squeeze in as many events as possible before the ice and snow get here. 

This week is Week # 6 of the evolving Training Plan.  I've still got two days before I close out this week and already I've ridden more miles, hours and climbed more feet than any of the previous weeks.  And I'm not tired! 

Because of the distances and climbing I've done so far this week I've trained every other day.  Again, trying to be careful about overtraining. 

Monday I had planned to do hills and mountains but wound up going north toward Ash Fork to get in some flat miles.  Mistake.  Intense traffic. All kinds of crap on the road.  Got a flat tire.  Four and  half hours, 3,451 feet of climbing, 60 miles.  Nice to get in the miles but I felt like I was riding on a crazy highway ... which I was.

Wednesday I rode from Prescott to Congress and back.  Ten hours, 9,504 feet of climbing and 9 hours of riding, with one hour off the bike for food and hydration.

Today, Friday: Good workout. 5,170 feet of climbing over 45 miles. I feel like I'm cheating when flying on the descents but later, on the climbs, I'm paying cold hard cash. Stayed in 39 front ring and 23 rear ring on all climbing (except the two 11% and 14% `pops' at the very end of the training ride). Cadence was typically in the 40's. Climbing HR usually in the teens(except for those last two `pops'). Training goal was to develop capacity for long (4.5 hours) solid grinds, i.e., endurance. Good week of training and rest. 

Here's a link to the rides.  Page back to see the rest.  3 Training Rides this week 

Four Week Block Data

Elevation Correction is a Garmin setting that I had inadvertently disabled when I was training in the flatlands.  I recently discovered this function and applied it to the training over the past four weeks and came up with a significantly different number.  I'm correcting the climbing figures below.  ("Garmin Connect selectively applies corrections to depict a more realistic representation of your elevation experience.")

WEEK 1:
Hrs trained:   7.33 hours
Miles:  79.26
Feet of climbing: 8,510

WEEK 2:
Hrs trained:   11.6 hours
Miles:  133.3
Feet of climbing: 13,525

WEEK 3:
Hrs trained:   16 hours
Miles:  162.5
Feet of climbing: 17,379

WEEK 4:
Hrs trained:   13 hours
Miles:  158
Feet of climbing: 14,760

Very unlike previous training in the midwest my 4-week block miles are down (533) and my climbing is up (54,174).  That averages to 101.6 feet of climbing per mile, or an `average' 1.92% incline.  Grade Percent Incline And Downgrade Calculator

Ugly butt ....

I'm sorry, but I've been thinking of that post `title' almost all morning as I climbed from Skull Valley to the top of Iron Springs road.  It was `ugly' but ... I did it. 

Every time I do that section I say to myself ... "but it shouldn't be so difficult.  I've done it before and I MUST be in better shape by now."  NOT!

Skull Valley Loop Clockwise

Temptation .....

Got a late start (12:15pm) at the hottest time of the day (92 - 93). Up, over and back over the mountain again. Rushed back home to finish a project before I had to attend a meeting, eat a late dinner and ... crash! 

Training is coming along really well.  But I constantly have to reel myself in from doing too much and risk overtraining. A real temptation when you find yourself making significant improvements ... makes me want to push it even harder. BIG mistake ... that, so far, I've avoided making.

Up, over and back over the mountain ....

Skull Valley Loop Challenge - Prescott, AZ - September 11

Skull Valley Loop Challenge

The Skull Valley Challenge is a 55 mile loop with over 4500 feet of climbing.  More than half of the loop takes place on some of the most difficult climbs on the RAAM / RAW route (Kirkland Junction - Skull Valley - Prescott).

This is my Garmin data for the Skull Valley Loop in June of 2010:  Skull Valley Loop - June 2010

Many a RAAM / RAW racer report that it was the most unforgiving section of the race. 

I'll see you there!

On track. On the edge.

These past 3 weeks of summary data:

WEEK 1:
Hrs trained:   7.33 hours
Miles:  79.26
Feet of climbing: 6,954

WEEK 2:
Hrs trained:   11.6 hours
Miles:  133.3
Feet of climbing: 10,826

WEEK 3:
Hrs trained:   16 hours
Miles:  162.5
Feet of climbing: 14,028

At the end of the first week I felt very fatigued and sort of shocked at how difficult it was to train.  I expected the fatigue and was alert to not overtrain.

At the end of the second week I felt fatigued, too.  Lots of naps.  But it was dawning on me that my gearing was not right.  Too many high gears, too few low gears.

Now, at the end of the third week I am pretty much on top of the fatigue and realize that this next week needs to be a week of relative rest.  Fewer hours of training.

Yesterday I switched out some gears (from 11-25 to11-34 cassette) on the rear wheel of one of my bikes and rode a triple crank (60-39-30).  My training ride today was significantly improved because of it.  Lots of climbing, mostly in the 4% - 7% range with some 11% - 14% climbs. 

Previously on the longer 7% climbs my speed would be paced in the 5 mph to 6.5mph range.  Now, with the improved gearing I'm steady in the 7 - 7.5 + mph range for long periods.  Tangible proof of improved fitness and better gearing. 

Pacing was good.  Within my capacity.  Fatigue was not as overwhelming as it was the previous two weeks. 

Two Speeds: Race and Stop

The plan was to ride the 34 miles and 3,700 feet of climbing to and from Wilhoit. But I sensed even before I started that I was on the edge of the dreaded `over-training' factor. So, ten miles into the ride I turned around and came home. Two minutes after I got in the door an enormous monsoon storm roared and exploded overhead for about 45 minutes. Instantly the temp dropped 20 degrees. The experience of these past four weeks has been intensely physical, tangible, sensual. Among the many changes I expected on retirement the one that is most poignant is that from semi-sedentary daily life to full-on physical intensity interrupted by complete and total sleep. The metaphor I have used to describe my life has been that I have two speeds: race and stop. Strange to enter the domain of the elderly and find that it is no longer a metaphor. It is reality. 

20 miles = up and down

Classic: Skull Valley Loop

It wasn't pretty ... but it WAS:  4,519 feet of climbing in 56.29 miles.

Skull Valley Loop - 08-10-2011

I was fit for about 40 of those miles.  The rest were done with a pact with Satanl that if I finished I'd name all my future children after him.  HA! Future children?!!

(Re)Balance

Almost a year ago I entitled a post `Balance.'  Had to do with balancing job, family, training, private time, time to do nothing.  I didn't and still don't know anybody who can do it all well.

Now that I'm retired I have a new set of factors that don't include `job' and a few other things.  The transition, for a type A kind of guy, needs to be considered well in advance or you'll experience the `Wiley Coyote Syndrome,' i.e., the absence of demanding schedules and professional adulation will make you feel like you ran off a cliff and the bottom dropped out from under you.

Action Defines Us.   And it requires structure, initiative and determination to re-manufacture relevant meaning in one's life. 

I'm experiencing two important discoveries.  First, spending more time training on the bike takes a toll on my post-training energy.  At this point in my training the naps become more frequent and my sleep is deeper and more satisfying.  Second, I'm tempted to put non-training things off until later.  Part of that has to do with the post-training fatigue.  A fair amount, though, has to do with a sense of anxiety about `change.'  I don't entirely understand, yet, what that anxiety is about but it's getting clearer and clearer --- that's what maturity helps with: one works on a thoughtful `response' instead of just `reacting.'

More later about this topic but it is as relevant to my training as everything I've done in the past.  Training has to be what you WANT to do, not something that is an addictive distraction from floating anxiety.

Can't learn if you don't try ...

Everything carries some risk.

Those of us who think they avoid risk are, in fact, risking the possibility of a good outcome to an anxiety producing stimulus.  Those of us who withdraw from recognizing this, those of us who make our world smaller and smaller by trying to eliminate anxiety live truncated and sad lives.

So, our task is to attempt to improve our judgment as to what constitutes a calculated risk for an outcome that is worthy.  How do we improve our judgment?  By taking risks, becoming experienced, getting some knocks along the way that motivate us to exercise better judgment the next time.

Today I did what is becoming my usual training run.  A 35 mile up and over out and back course with lots of hills, turns, burning sun and threatening wind and thunderstorms.  An excellent training course.

Navigating a 2 mile descent to the turnaround point there are many twists and turns in the road.  Today I encountered a `crease' in the road surface at one of the turns while doing 35.1 mph (according to the Garmin) and feathering the brakes.  My wheel drifted in and out of the crease in the road and I went down, sliding about 15 yards to the sandy shoulder of the road.  I got three nice, red skin burns (aka `road rash') destroying my shorts and an arm `cooler' in the process.  Mountain training course - Crease in Road

What did I learn? 

• To be alert to that curve and crease.  
• That I made a good decision in buying cheap riding shorts at Walmart.  
• That when something like that happens it is best to take an inventory of your body first, the bike next.  
• To do whatever road repairs necessary to safely finish the training course.  
• To finish.  
• To finish!

A fellow in the group with which I was riding was coming back up the mountain and was good enough to stop and offer assistance.  I asked him if, when he got within cell phone service, he could call my wife to get her to come get me.  He made sure I had food and water and took off.  I got the bike back on the road, rode to the turnaround point and started back up the mountain.  When he got to the start point (Safeway) he drove back, halfway to Wilhoit, in his car to assure I was o.k..  He offered to drive me back.

What a great fellow!  Again, he assured I had food and water and even offered to give me `a push' as we were on a 6-7% incline.  I thanked him profusely but declined the offers.  As for the push I told him that my `ego' wouldn't allow me to accept it.  We shook hands and I assured him I would `pay it forward.'  I took off and as he drove past me he honked and I waved. 

Perhaps more importantly, today, I learned that I need to begin to modify my training program to include short uphill intervals.  I was passed by a handful of DF cyclists while climbing the 4 mile elevation to a `rocky top.'  Though I am improving my endurance I need now to carefully but deliberately begin intervals.

I'll review my plan to include this 4 mile 3% - 8% series of steady inclines so as to ... go faster.

A good day!!

Dearth! Calamity.

Not as in `Darth Vader.'  Dearth means there is a relative scarcity of something. 

There is a `dearth' of recumbent cyclists where I live.  Almost, in fact, an utter absence of bent cyclists. 

I can understand why, of course.  Today, on what is becoming my frequent training run, http://connect.garmin.com/activity/104259159 I did 34.75 miles and climbed 3,277 feet at an altitude of 6000 feet.  Most of the course was between 4% and 8% grades (out and back so I got what I gave) in just over 3 hours. 

When I think of doing 34 miles in just over 3 hours when living in Illinois I'd have probably just sold my bike and taken up recreational drinking til the end.  But today there were as many 5 mph uphill grinds as there were screaming 36 mph descents. 

--------------------------

During my training today I encountered packs of recreational motorcycles, two and three at a time.  They looked like they were loaded up for long distance riding and it appeared to be a motorcycle club probably out of Phoenix going north. 

As I returned from the `out' limit of today's course I was going up the Bradshaw Mountain two lane road with numerous switchbacks and sheer drop-offs to the right.  About 3 miles into the return I noticed a fellow standing at the bend of a switchback, stationary.  Who is that?  Why is he just standing there? 

As I neared the sharp bend to the left in the road I then noticed about 12 motorcycles, two SUVs and lots of fellows clustered near the edge of the cliff.  I was wondering: "What?!  Are they taking pictures of the valley below?"  Until I got closer and realized that there were two feet sticking up from a stretched out body. 

I pulled over and was prepared to help if possible.  No need.  At least, as I write this there seemed to be no need. 

One of the motorcyclists was either taking the ascending switchback too fast or he was not paying attention.  In any event he just drove right off the road - no skid marks --, off a cliff and into a ravine about 100 - 200 feet below.  His mates saw this and came to his aid ... at least, this was certainly their intention. 

His motorcycle was deep down in the ravine among the rocks and brush.  He was apparently brought out of the ravine and laid out on a flat section of road.  The fellow attending to him was asking him to tell him the day, what date it is.  He was laying there motionless, his eyes open, unblinking and dilated.  No response.  Motionless. 

The fellow I saw at the corner of the switchback was calling for help on what must have been a satellite phone (because there is no cell service in this remote location). 

I hope that my conclusions about what I saw are incorrect, that he was just dazed and unhurt.  But further up ( 30 minutes!) in my ascent into the mountain road came four emergency vehicles including an ambulance. 

Pay attention, mates.

45 miles, 3800 ft, 4 hours

Going south from Prescott the rider has two choices.  One option is to take 89A; the other is to take Iron Springs Road.

89A to Wilhoit has more ups and downs and turns.  The rider does have to deal with 6-8% grades but rarely for more than half a mile before there is a `false flat' offering a short respite. 

Iron Springs to Skull Valley and back is a course that is dramatically different.  Briefly out of town one hits the top of a hill (6,014 ft elevation). From there it is 12 miles of almost full-time decline to Skull Valley.  And the rider has to `pay for it' on the return.

The route south to Skull Valley took about 1:25:00.  The return took almost twice as long (2:30:00).  No false flats.  Common inclines of 4-8%, reaching 9-11% briefly.  When I am riding a 2% incline I have the sensation that it is `flat' and that I can stop pedaling now.

The reward for getting back to the top of Iron Springs road from SV is an almost 1.5 mile series of declines to the more populated Prescott area ranging from 4-9%. 

Today, on the descent I reached 48.2 mph into a headwind.

Heart and lungs doing well.  So are the legs.

Here is the Garmin data from today's training ride.

Skull Valley via Iron Spring Road

Training is on track

Plan was to ride from my house to Wilhoit and back: 35 miles.  Nothing special, just over the mountains and back.  Got to Wilhoit and was tempted by the 7 mile downhill to Kirkland Junction on new pavement. 

Current gearing is o.k. for the 4 - 9% grades along this route.  But got totally squeezed almost empty with the 11 - 17% grades I ran into.  Thats why the gearing changes needed. 

P'cott to KJ an back

Note my observation about Garmin.

I'm changing my gear setup for the hills and mountains

As a caveat, I am not a mountain bike owner or rider.  No off-road dirt trails (yet) for me.  So the gearing description that follows relates to recumbent road bike riding and racing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm changing my gearing setup to accommodate the hill training. 

Currently I'm running a SRAM Force 53-39 130-BCD Q-Ring setup up front with an 11-28 ten speed cassette in the back. 

I'll be switching to a SRAM Force compact crank 52-36 110-BCD Q-Ring upfront and not changing the rear cassette. 

Essentially, I'm giving up one tooth (from 53 to 52) on the big ring to gain three (from 39 to 36) on the small ring.  The smaller the `small' ring the more likely I'll be able to climb hills with inclines in the teen percentages (i.e., 13% - 18% incline) when needed (for example, switchbacks on mountain roads, i.e., Mingus Mountain and from Sedona to Flagstaff, etc). 

As well, the smaller `small' ring may be helpful when grinding up mile after mile of 7% - 11% inclines. (Yarnell Grade, Iron Springs road to Prescott from Skull Valley).

I could opt for a long-cage RD that would permit an 11-34 cassette but ... I just don't want that pizza pan size ring back there. 

A comment about (what I consider to be) the relatively small big ring.  

In the past, when my training and racing terrain was mostly flat with a few short 6% inclines every now and then, I would want to keep my pedaling RPM lower (85 - 95) when I had a tailwind.  This RPM range suits my weight to power ratio. 

My front big chain ring had 60 teeth.  This allowed me to frequently exceed 30 mph for extended periods of time.  (On one race [Race Across the West - 2010] I found myself averaging 40+ mph on a flat and glass smooth road with an 18 mph tailwind.  This went on for more than 15 miles).

Now that my training and racing terrain is mostly hills and mountains ... I don't need a 60 tooth big chain ring.  When descending even 3% declines my speed approaches 40 mph with the smaller front big chain ring.  Short of the TdF these descending speeds keep me well in the competitive range. 

If and when I'm racing ultra distances and have a follow vehicle and a crew it might be smart to have two bikes to accommodate both flat terrain and mountainous terrain.  One bike would be geared for the flats (big front chain ring).  The other bike would be geared for long and steep inclines. 

Perspective thoughts ...

As I peck out these words I'm sitting in our home, looking out over a few dipping valleys and buttes toward the horizon filled with taller mountains.  Sunsets are crimson along the rim of the full horizon.  The temperature is around 81, humidity 30%.  Rolling thunder in the distance though there is just a mild overcast.  The `monsoon' months of July and August.  Cools off and the humidity drops in September.  Sweater season starts December for a few months.  Some snow at times amounting to several inches but it all melts away in days.  A few really cold nights (7 degrees) just to remind us that we're 5,625 feet high.

There could not be a more dramatic difference from Chicago just less than 10 days ago.  Our Chicago friends report temps in the 98 degrees and humidity to match.  "It's hard to even breathe here."  Chicago reported the most rainfall in any 24 hour period in recorded history yesterday: as much as 7 inches in some places. 

Here, `home' in Prescott, we're finding that the altitude adjustment is subtle but progressing nicely.  Afternoon naps a must.

Taking off from our front door yesterday I rode just under 13 miles in 1:14:00.  This works out to an average incline of 2%.  But it doesn't reflect the fact that much of the route was comprised of 4 - 8% inclines, reaching into the double digit inclines on several occasions.  On the way back I reached 41.3 mph on a slowly twisting downhill stretch.  Friday Training Ride

THEN:

• My `job' required me to be sitting 11 hours per day.   
• I sat another 2 hours commuting no less than 75 miles each day to and from my practice.  Fuel for my pickup was rarely less than $450 each month.   
• And when I needed to train for long hours I'd have to pack the bike into the pickup and drive 105 miles, round trip, to the flat and rural farmland roads. 
• I rarely saw the front of our house because the garage was in the back and I had to drive everywhere. 
• Shopping and going to stores required navigating heavy traffic almost all times of the day.  
• Sitting in our back yard we couldn't hear one another speak because of the airline jets flying in and out of O'Hare Airport, the freight train and commuter train lines (2!) half  block away, and two major interstate highways half a block away.  

NOW:

• I don't commute at all.  
• We can't move 10 yards from our home without going uphill or downhill.  
• Everything is within 4 miles of our house (downhill).  
• I ride from my front door to train on both hills and flats.  
• Our second story porch faces the west and we sometimes whisper so as not to disturb the humming birds nearby.  
• Cars and vehicles are quarantined/restricted to a nearby parking area, leaving the meandering road in front of our home free for people to walk, sit in the small park in front of our house, sometimes stop and chat with one another.
• My first night here I woke up because it was too quiet.  
• We saw a handful of shooting stars last night.
• My body is adjusting to the reality of not sitting for half the day; I'm sometimes tired, even sore.  But less and less each day. 
• On days when I'm not training on the bike I'm doing errands and getting our house together, climbing hills, carrying things, walking to and from the city center, Farmer's Market, etc.... 

Though this is a more substantial physical experience than I had anticipated ... it makes all the sense in the world.  I have my body back all day, every day.  And there is no time, mileage, urban barrier to keep me from doing what is needed or wanted.

Modified my Training Plan - Next 5 weeks

Like everything I've done in my life I've set goals that are about 50% too big.  I did that a few weeks ago with my AZ training program. Yesterday's experience (felt wiped out) helps me `inform' my thinking so that I don't overtrain (and miss out on the rest of life).

Because the terrain around Prescott is hilly to mountainous it requires some `grinding' up 6% - 9% hills for at least half of every training workout.  Far less `gliding along' even though there are lots of downhills.  (Interesting, the downhills really demand riding skill improvements ... essentially making them almost as difficult as the uphills).

So, I'm focusing less on Miles trained and more on Time and Intensity.

Next week I've got 11 hours scheduled, the next 12.5 hours, next 14.5, next 18 (which may be too demanding).

The temptation to take advantage of the wonderful training opportunities here requires real discipline.

There is that `balance' thing in life.  Not to mention the fact that `overtraining' plays more havoc than `undertraining.'

And, though I hate to say it, being 65 yrs old may have some impact on my physical ability to recover one day to the next.

Attacked by tumbleweeds ...

After a few hours of shakedown and dialing in the gearing I managed to get out for 25 miles of gently rolling hills (max 3%), out and back today.  First time on the bike in probably 3 weeks.  Rode the high plateau road from Chino Valley to just past Paulden and into the northerly section of the Prescott National Forest.  Great road, good shoulder.  Still when out in the AZ high desert and heat I use tire liners between the tire and the tube to add that extra margin against flats.

I certainly need to get back into regular training because I was feeling a little tired at the end of the ride.  Fortunately, it is very likely that this will be the most consistent and potentially challenging training I've ever been able to do in my life.

A pretty stiff westerly wind whipped up something I've never encountered before: an `attack' of tumbleweeds being blown across the road.  Started looking for Roy Rogers, Gene Autrey ...

Arrived

House in Chicago is now history to us.  Arrived in our new home in Prescott yesterday in time to take a quick nap, enjoy a glass of wine with our neighbors and watch a brilliant, explosive sunset over the mountains.

Funny ....

When reviewing the dozens and dozens of posts I've written in this blog over the past 18 months this is the one that has gotten the most hits:  

Use of External Catheter for Racing (or just convenience)...

Arizona Mountains Training Plan: August to December 2011

My training plan for the next several months is shaping up.  To accomplish the ultracycling speed and distance goals that I have will take between 12 - 18 months of focused and disciplined training.  This is the first installment of the kind of training I expect to accomplish in the Arizona mountains. 

The rural desert mountains and warmer southwestern climate provides me with at least ten months of the year of challenging terrain and `doable' outdoor weather.  (Unlike the central midwest where big cities, snow, ice and blizzards for 5 months of the year destroy any possibility of consistency and growth of strength and endurance). 

The Garmin links below provide examples of the mountainous terrain:

Prescott to Flagstaff - mountainous terrain to the north

Prescott to Congress - mountains to desert to the south

Skull Valley Loop - local mountain terrain

And below you will note the `work in progress' training plan I have to start with.

Training Plan and Schedule - Aug to Dec 2011

The current (short term) training plan is rooted in a near term event goal, i.e., el Tour de Tucson on November 19, 2011.  You will notice that I've sketched out only 4 weeks of the four month training plan.  I think it is prudent to apply the Periodization Method to training.  And I am certain that the specific day-to-day training tasks will be varied but in keeping with the Periodization strategy. 

Here are a few of the local training courses I have developed and plan to do as my fitness and endurance improve:

Local mountain and desert long distance encurance training courses

The deed is done

Retired today.  Lots of memories.  Lots of sadness.   Will miss soooo many good people. 

The King is dead.

Long live the King.

Just figured this out

Today is Tuesday.  For the past six months I've been working 3 day weeks: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. 

Long about on Tuesdays I'd go to the weather website to gander what the weather will be for my days off: Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Now that the warm(ish) weather has arrived I'd be wanting to plan my cycling on the days off.

So, today I went to the weather site.  Mixed forecast for the days off this week.  Then I noticed that on Monday the forecast was warm and sunny.  DRAT! I said to myself.

"But wait!  There's more!"

Then I recollected that ... I don't work next Monday.  Nor next Tuesday.  Nor Wednesday.  In fact ... I don't have a job to go to forever and ever and ever.

Yikes!  I'm retiring tomorrow.

I like that.

Nice to `like' things.   

Entropy

I don't really have anything of import (as far as `training' is concerned) to say in this post but I guess I just wanted to emphasize and/or record this for posterity. 

I'm in `crap' shape!

Last year at this time I was doing back to back 140 mile training rides for the Race Across the West.  Now, after doing 55, 25 and 18 miles over the past three days I'm shakey in the hand afterwords.  This is the consequence of not training over the past seven months. 

I don't know to what to attribute the stark contrast in level of fitness.  Some people say that it is a natural consequence of being and older athlete.  We're less resilient.  But I really don't have much to compare it with.  When I was in my late twenties and thirties I did lots and lots of miles as a runner, completing more than 8 marathons. 

I'm inclined to conclude that it is less `age' than it is not training. 

I do know that this has been one of the most inclement winters in my memory for Chicago.  And I've been much more conservative with my time and effort, not wanting to haul the bike 100 miles round trip in order to get out on the open road. 

It will be good to have the time, weather and terrain that will offer no excuse for not getting out there to train. 

I just HATE that steep climb into some mid-level of fitness every spring. 

I'm Lucky

Five weeks ago I went for my annual check up with my doc.  We've known eachother for the past 25 yearrs and we've always enjoyed keeping one another current about events in our lives: kids, work, vacations, etc.   My doc as tight as a drum when it comes to being both `professional' and personable.  Exceptionally thorough. 

So, the doc finds I got a lump on my prostate.  WHAT!!?!!!  Me?!!!  I'm an ultra endurance bulletproof pain machine athlete!! 

Doc has that `serious' look on his face.  A week later my doc's concern is confirmed by a top notch urologist.  I'm scheduled for a biopsy. 

In the meantime I'm talking very confidentialy to a few others while on a laser-focused information gathering process.  All of them confirm that early diagnosis is the key to successful outcome.  All of them praise my doc for being so diligent in literally pestering me to come in every year. 

Went in for the biopsy last week.  Took all of 15 minutes and was utterly and completely painless.  Half way through the procedure the urologist says "How you doing, Dan?"  I reply: "Fine.  You?"  He looks up and says: "Well, I'm a little behind right now."  Me: "Is that supposed to be a `pun.'"  And we share a little grave humor.

Today the urologist calls me.  I see his name on my phone caller ID and gird myself for `whatever.'  He starts out with: "Good news, Dan.  No cancer!" 

I was less impressed with the fact that the biopsy was negative for cancer than I was with the urologist's sensitivity to what must be going through his patient's mind when he gets such a call.  He didn't beat around the bush, give me a 5 minute preamble about medical this and medical that.  No.  First words out of his mouth: "GOOD NEWS, DAN.  NO CANCER." 

My advice to all reading this. 

• Avoid the typical meat and potatoes, high fat western diet;
• Don't do what I did and eat the worst of everything in the deluded belief that `if I'm a monster cyclist I must not be subject to any of the laws of mortality.'
• Be vigilant about medical attention and care; especially if you've got a genetic (family hx) vulnerability and/or if you're an older person.

This was a wake up call that was given to me by people who cared more about me than I cared about myself.  No question about it: I'm lucky!

Lance v Goldman Sachs

The government dithers over whether or not cycling is dirty (grand juries, subpoenas, etc) and whether Lance doped.  Of course, nobody likes cheaters. 

But when the Secretary of the Treasury (Paulson) gave banks $700 billion without any direction as to what they were to do with it ... where are the grand juries, subpoenas and indictments for the Wall Street thieves who took the money and gave themselves millions of dollars of bonuses?! 

One percent of Americans own 95% of American wealth.  Predatory mortgage lenders, supported by impossible to understand derivatives traders, remain employed, well paid and have happy future prospects.  The rest of Americans think that they can be Wall Street investment bankers and consider critics of Wall Street `socialists.' 

Democracy is `on the books' in America.  But `Capitalism' impoverishes all but the few oligarchs. 

Lance, please keep doing what you do for cancer research.  If I got caught every time I broke the speed limit I'd be in a prison ... receiving socialized medicine until my last day. 

10 Minutes of Terror

Stage 14 of the Giro d'Italia - Saturday, May 21, 2011

As it turned out the Race Organizers concluded that this section of Stage 14 was too dangerous and they developed a less dangerous and more safe route.  Wise decision. 

Our new location ...

Starting in the early '80s my wife and I were drawn to the idea of living among a community of people sharing our values.  Knowing, however, the dismal history of `utopian communities' we were cognizant of the dangers of cultism.  (Look it up). 

The cohousing experiences in Denmark really appealed to us.  Read more about cohousing at this link:  Cohousing

Returing, in 2002, from a week long conference in Seattle we took a side trip to a location we'd visited in the '80s in Arizona.  We found a fledgling cohousing community in Prescott that really appealed to us.  We were there for a day and a half.  Just before we left to fly back to Chicago from Phoenix we had coffee with a few cohousing residents.  In 15 minutes we decided to purchase a house in the community and get serious about moving there as soon as possible. 

As it turned out on our return to Chicago I had a once in a lifetime opportunity to join a community based group private practice of psychologists ( Hoover & Associates ).  My `dream job.'  My wife's enjoyment of her own work as a geriatric social worker ( CJE Senior Life ) would have been a major loss, too.  And then there was the fact of our boys, grandchildren, family and friends.  We decided to stay in Chicago and rent out our place in Prescott.   

Now that we're both retired (wife last year, me this June) we're making the move to the remarkable community of people in Manzanita Village ( Link ). 

We will sorely miss our children, grandkids and friends in Chicago.  And we are intent on having them come and stay with us often, frequently, for long periods of time and lots and lots and lots more :) 

I'm chomping on the bit to have more time to train on the bikes.  There are so many new and interesting people, couples and families who have moved to the Village that we're both excited to have more time to socialize, share and work towards the values of `community.' 

I will not miss the misery of Chicago traffic, congestion and weather.  My wife, though, has a capacity for appreciating Chicago that I simply can't match.  We will both miss our family. 

Another page in life to turn. 

The Athlete's Delusion

One of the delusions that ultra athletes typically entertain is that of being `bullet proof' because of the intensity of our physical training. We delude ourselves into assuming that we `burn up' anything that can negatively affect us. We conclude that we generate untouchable health benefits with our activity. We compare one another's `resting heart rate' or `recovery time to lowest heart rate' after an all-out effort.  Some of that is accurate. But some of us purposely try to push the limit, caring little about what we eat and drink.

I'm one of the latter.  Or, at least I was until last month.

My taste buds have always been pretty much non existent. That is, I really don't care what I ingest as long as I'm not hungry and have energy. The things that I would eat would make Annie and our kids roll their eyes and shake their heads. The only criterion I had with regard to food is that it didn't try to eat me back.

My genetic heritage predisposes me to atherosclerosis and high blood pressure. As the intensity of my summer training falls off the Chicago winters see me gaining 20 - 30 lbs, with all the associated risks. My eating, drinking, work schedule, exercise and sleeping habits are completely erratic 6 - 7 months of every year.

Some good friends related to me the wisdom of changing my eating habits: 

One thing that has made a dramatic difference to us in the past couple of years is learning of the need for greens in our diet. In reality we should be eating about 1-2 lbs. of greens a day but we can't eat that much salad, so we make and drink two fruit/green smoothies a day. We learned this from reading the book GREEN FOR LIFE and THE GREEN SMOOTHIE REVOLUTION by Victoria Boutenko.

We start with 3 cups of water, 3 cups of any kind of greens (kale, chard, spinach, leaf lettuce, beet greens, etc.) pushed down into the water in the Vita Mix blender. Then add 2-3 pieces of cut up fruit (Usually banana, apple, pear, orange, melon, etc.) Top off with a cup or so of frozen berries (black, blue, straw, rasp, etc.) to fill the blender to the top. I sometimes add a little Agave sweetener or some dried raisins, cranberries, prunes or apricots. Blend until smooth.

We drink one smoothie in the morning before breakfast and another before lunch or mid afternoon. Because it contains so much fruit, it should not be mixed with grains like cereal or toast as fruit digests much more rapidly than grains. If you mix them, it ferments and causes gas. Because the smoothie is liquefied it can move almost directly into the blood stream for quick energy. Then, a half hour or hour later, your system will be ready to digest something else. The color of the smoothie changes depending on the kind of fruit you use. Sometimes they're light pale green, sometimes darker green, sometimes tan, sometimes red or plum or purple depending on the berries. Awesome. When we're traveling, we pick up quarts of Naked Juice or an equivalent from a grocery story. Our kids now know to have them in the refrigerator for us.

Since we've been eating this way, we've both had more energy, lost weight, no longer suffer from constipation, have clearer skin, sleep better, feel lighter and have lowered our cholesterol significantly. Mine dropped from 230 to 189 in a matter of months, with the other numbers falling into place as well. (Husband's) is even lower, having dropped about 40 points as well and he is now off virtually all his heart and blood pressure medication! Doc says he doesn't need it.

We take a few supplements: B12 (to make up for lack of meat), D3 for sunshine, Calcium Citrate for bone strength, Fish Oil to help keep cholesterol down, 1 baby aspirin for heart health, and a multi-vitamin. We used to take more, but have cut back as we've learned which whole foods give us what we need.

Since getting some borderline blood test results last month and finally being scared into recognizing my mortality - in spite of my athletic `prowess' - I've elected to eliminate meat and dairy products from my diet.  It's been almost a month since I've been all vegetarian (with some tuna fish in water) and I've not missed it at all.  NOT AT ALL. 

Being the cheap Scot that I am it is also gratifying to note that our food bill has been cut almost in half. 

Just sayin'.

Three Weeks off the Bike

Today was the first day in more than 3 weeks that I've been outdoors on the bike.  A series of things that interferred and/or took priority. 

I'm struck at the literal sadness I feel leaving the patients constituting my private practice.  My sense of admiration and respect for others has literally blossomed over the past decade.  Perhaps that is one of the dividends of living through one's own troubles; so that it increases empathy towards others' with their own troubles. 

At the same time, there is that phenomenon referred to as `compassion fatigue.'  When the `helper' finds that he is too ready to step in and do the hard work that the `helpee' needs to do in order to build stamina and resilience ... it is time to take a break. 

I was taking a `power nap' at my granddaughter's birthday party yesterday and was awakened by her giving me a hasty little kiss on the cheek.  Then she ran off with half a dozen of her little birthday friends screaming like the happy and fortunate little children they are.  Are all little children exploding with joy in the present moment of one another's mischievous presence?  That giggly little peck on the cheek seemed to sum up my grattitude to be alive now. 

Do people much younger than me experience the warm fulfillment that I feel in my family?  My wife, sons, grandchildren, daughters-in-law?  I've never felt this before.  Is it time, experience?  Age? 

Perhaps my experiences at this point in my life are tangible proof that one can screw things up, make stupid decisions, behave with blind impulsivity ... and still be graced with simple satisfaction in the love of others.  I believe it.  But I find it hard to `accept.'  Pinch myself awake. 

Oh!  And it was warm and sunny today when I rode my bike. 

Update: Training and Events

It's 80% `time' and 20% 'cheap Scot.' 

I've just had to bite the bullet and recognize that I'm not willing to take the time away from other areas of my life for the purposeof training for the spring schedule of events I've lined up. 

I prepared a spreadsheet of cycling training, events, miles travelled, time spent driving, cost of food, etc., for the 6 weeks of training and events from April 17 to May 22nd and came up with a cost of $ 1,427, 2,823 miles travelled, consuming 62.1 hours of driving time and 249 hours of time training and racing on the bike.  None of this includes the many, many hours of reduced energy and sharpness I need for my family and work. 

So, I'm going to ride from my house in Chicago on the least dangerous roads as often as possible.  I may participate in the Balltown Classic. 

With the rest of my time I'll devote to family, my work, getting the house ready to sell, showing the house to prospective buyers, packing up to move to AZ no later than July 15th, and finalizing the renovation plans for our house in AZ. 

Better to do important things well than to do them poorly.

  

Talktalktalktalktalktalktalk. And more talk.

I used to belong to several bike listserve discussion groups.  I quit a few and got kicked off a few.  From one precious list I both quit and was later banned.  Sort of proud of myself for that.

Its been months since I surfed these groups so I just finished checking them out again. 

Vapid. 

Empty. 

Nothing there. 

The same few guys arguing the dimensions of the head of a pin and willing to sell their mothers to prove it. 

I was bored, I guess. 

I guess they are, too.

Angry

After a long cold winter, and committed to not making things even more depressing with insane indoor training ... along comes the slow start of spring's warm and agreeable weather. 

Last September I rode 360 miles in 24 hours and felt great afterwords.  Today I rode 61 miles in 4:40 and feel twitchy, deeply fatigued and ... angry.  Angry that I have to climb this painful wall of getting fit again.  Takes months just to approximate the fitness I had last year.

City - Silvio

Getting out of Chicago, the grim isolation of winters.

Anger is a good source of motivation.

I'm very, very motivated!

Pacing, restraint, planning, no-small-goals ...

This blog is called the `Training Blog' for a reason.  I'm fortunate to be associated with a group of cyclists known as the Big Dogs Ultra Cycling, who, in turn, are part of the Ultra Midwest, LLC.  Ultramidwest Link.

If you've gone to the websites above you'll note a member log of daily mileage, etc.  You'll see names of some of the worlds most accomplished and motivated cyclists.  At the Ultra Midwest website you'll note the impressive series of endurance and racing events organized and directed by Joe Jamison and Dave Parker (and many, many volunteers). 

Many of us Big Dogs are `aspirational.'  That is, we aspire to accomplish our best results while we balance life's other demands and passions.  Many of us are `inspirational.'  That is, we've individually accomplished exceptional cycling feats.  And then the majority of us keep a healthy discipline of doing our best to stay fit and use Joe and Dave's Ultra Midwest events as goals and benchmarks. 

Ultracycling is an addiction.  Certainly there are articles and psychological profiles that describe the `driven' commonalities of ultracyclists.  As a psychologist the best I can come up with is `they're very different, one from another; and they're very similar in that they are kind of crazy.' 

I am ramping up my training now that the weather has broken and returned home today after a windy 40 miles in 2 hours and 40 minutes.  Entering my home my wife said "And how was it?"  I was aware of a sense of grave mischief in my response, with a restrained intense smile "Very, very real!" 

And I think that that sense of `real' is the source of our driven motivation to ride for hour after hour, in all sorts of weather, alone most of the time, aware of fatigue, pain, and myriad other perfectly good reasons to stop! 

All day and every day, just beneath my focus on work, finances and family, there is that smoldering consciousness of the bike, the road, training.   These are anchors around which I allocate my energy, my daily chronology.  Everything becomes linear as I move the pieces of the `plan' for this or that cycling event and challenge. 

• Three months and counting before I can ride the bike out my front door and into mountains, deserts and plateaus. 
• Three months and counting before I can schedule a typical training day as being 60 miles and 6,000 feet of climbing. 
• Three months and counting before the `Training Blog' spawns a `Performance Blog.'

15% grades, bright blue sky and standard upright bike faults

This past week of training in Prescott, AZ, was just this side of blissful.  Makes returning home to Chicago feel like punishment for having done something sinful.  But, if that is the equation I'm all up for a future of wanton sin and wickedness!

I"m adding links to some of the Garmin data for three of my training rides.  What a delight to ride right out my front door, climbing three or four 15% grades and just as many 9% grades just to get to the open mountain and desert roads with sedate 6% - 8% grades as common. 

Although I enjoyed the chance to ride the Airborne Ti Zeppelin upright road bike and confirm that I'm no less fit or capable on it than I have been for so many years in the past ... the difference between it and the recumbents was emphatic. 

After two or three days of scrunching over the handlebars, craning my neck to see ahead of me, having a death grip on the handlebars lest I hit a bump and go flying off a mountain road ... no comparison.  I missed my recumbents.  Also, I noticed that I was slower on the upright bike.  Slower going UP the hills and much, much slower going DOWN the hills. 

I'm glad I can endure hours and mile after mile of pain and suffering that the road bike permits me.  But my ego no longer requires proof that I have veritable world class capacity for self-abuse.  Hell! I learned that countless times over the course of my life. 

Agreed!  Confirmed!  I'm head and shoulders above all of mankind in terms of capacity for agonizing self torture.  My conclusion?  I'm a blockheaded slow learner who needed multiple demonstrations that I'm expert at pain and suffering and better than every other soul on earth at it.  (Thank you, orthodox religious indoctrination institutions in my youth!!!)

If I lived in the middle ages I'd aspire to becoming a saint by being burned at the stake just to show others I could do it.  For that matter, I'd try to survive being burned at the stake just so they'd give me a wack at the `rack.'  Or, a chance to be hung upside down and shot through and through with arrows.  Or, nailed to a cross and left on a hill to die a slow agonizing death. Or, ... or.... or.....

So, here are some of the Garmin links. 

Just so's you all know ... if I were on the bent I could have doubled and tripled the mileage!  Easily.

March 25

March 27

March 28

Ha! And people think endurance cycling is masochistic!!

I'll tell you what is masochistic!  Being a passenger on a commercial airline for 3 hours is masochistic. 

I once had the opportunity to spend more time than you would believe in a maximum custody federal penitentiary (in my early 20's).  (Graduate school was worse, by the way)   I'd do it again do it all over again to avoid last year's commercial flights to and from Italy.  On the way back I was wishing I had followed in Savonarola's footsteps in Florence!

I several times have raced on a bike for 24+ hours through the broiling southwest deserts and the teeth chattering freezing cold, up 15% grade mountains and down death-defying mountain switchbacks.  I'd do FIVE such events in order to avoide being a passenger on a commercial airline for 3 hours. 

The round trip this past week from Chicago and Phoenix and back had me so scrunched up that at one time I had the tray in front of me down and my legs crossed over it just to get them stretched a little ... and I'm not a short guy with skinny legs.  I must have looked like Mahatma Gandhi if he had done weight training.  Lucky I didn't get arrested by TSA for suspicious behavior. 

In my profession I have access to the kind of pharmaceuticals that could render me the consciousness of a celery stalk for 3 or 4 hours without any long term detriment.  For THAT I don't have the (choose one:) a) courage; b) stupidity; c) self-hatred; d) intelligence; e) forgiving self-love. 

I guess I could write myself a `letter from a doctor' that informs the airline staff that I have an `anxiety disorder' about flying so that they assign me a spacier bulkhead seat lest I erupt into an extended panic-induced screaming jag at 35,000 feet.  But ...

I guess I could pop to pay for a first class seat.  Though I'm certain that my blue collar class consciousness would probably have me eating a few cans of beans and a box of prunes a few hours before the flight just to make my fellow first class aristocrats gag every time they take a breath for 3 hours.  It'd almost be worth the criminally high airfare just to commit a high altitude revolutionary act.  WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE.  YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT A FEW HOURS OF SLEEP WHILE LAUGHING YOUR ASS OFF.

pleasant surprise

Out in Prescott, AZ, for the past few days.  Though it is a bit on the chilly side for Prescott the 60 degree daytime temps are perfect for cycling.  I have two bikes here.  One is a somewhat bizarre road bike frame that I bought from Nashbar about 4 years ago.  Aluminum with odd dimensions.  Outfitted it with Ultegra gruppo and some good cyclocross wheels.  Brooks saddle.  The other I just shipped out here.  Airborne Ti Zeppelin with similar Ultegra setup.  Compact crank (39/50) upfront with a 9 ring 11/34 cogset in the back.  Mavic Kysirium Equipe wheels.

I haven't ridden a road bike in about 2 years.  But I've put many miles on the road bikes in this area in the past.  So yesterday I assembled the Airborne and took off for a mighty hilly 20 miles in the mountain roads south of Prescott.  20 miles and 1800 feet of climbing.

At first I felt unsure and lacking in confidence for two reasons.  First, because I've not put in a lot of miles on the indoor trainer this winter (attending to other matters).  Second, I've been focused on recumbent platforms in the past two years and have pretty much let the upright road bikes collect dust.

To my pleasant surprise I found my riding power and road bike handling skills have not diminished much, if any.  Certainly the endurance is not there, but that is to be expected.

Today, on my second 20 miler I returned feeling the old road bike rocking and out of the saddle accelerations come back to me with a vengeance.  I still had to feather the brakes on some of the more exciting downhills, but I recognized the old realization that climbing hills requires leg strength and power ... which I am happy to accept continues to be with me.

Looking forward to some good training over the next few days.  Tomorrow an early morning 20 - 30 miles and then a trip to Jerome, AZ, for a get together over mid-day dinner with lots of good AZ friends.

All in all it's nice to feel better than competent on the several platforms I enjoy: upright road bike, rear wheel drive recumbent, front wheel drive recumbent.  I feel, happily, `at home' on the bike and am looking forward to much more performance related accomplishments and lots of variety.

Extinction is in my future

Honestly!  If the baby jeezuz offered me the option of choosing between eternal hell or eternal life in Chicago in perpetual winter it would be a no brainer: HELL!!

The winter of 09/10 saw me spending enormous amounts of time and money to train outdoors no matter what the weather.  Crazy insane preparation for RAW 2010.  I seriously neglected many other areas in my life to get ready for RAW. 

This past winter, though, I have been compelled to attend to other priorities.  Though I did do some indoor training of moderate quality it was not something to be proud of.  And I'm o.k. with that.  I did very well with the other priorities.

So today was a sunny Saturday.  Temp was in the 40's.  Prairie winds always in the high teens.  Drove the 107.5 round trip distance to train on the open prairie farm roads. 

Though I did fine I'm not remotely in as good a fitness (endurance, strength) as I was this time last year.  And THAT is what has really got me irritated. 

Living in the frigging tundra where you have to dress like the Michelin man, drive for hours, spend $30 on gas and tolls just to attempt a quality outdoor training experience ... and THEN contend with the loss of fitness due to the cold and snow! 

Climbing the late winter, early spring training wall ... year after year after year after year.  Anybody ever heard of Sisyphus?!!!

G'bye Chicago!!  G'bye tundra!! 

And good riddance. 

BTW: oftentimes the reason a species goes extinct has to do with that species' inability to accomodate climate change.  Hence my reference to becoming extinct.  If I had to stay in Chicago I'd take up single malt sport drinking. 

Work, love and play

Freud.  One of the few things he got right.  Notice Freud didn't include `job.' 

How immensely fortunate I am to be able to have a life where I have the luxury of even considering these distinctions.  Succinctly, why am I not devoting my life to the poor and the desperate in the streets of Calcutta?!  Equally succinctly, I should be.  But I'm too selfish.  I'm not afraid.  Just selfish. 

But that's another story.

Now that I'm transitioning to being a `welfare queen,' living off savings and the largesse of other institutions I have the indecency to admit to my derision for `jobs.'  I needed the job to make the money. 

Oftentimes I was simply stealing some of the money I was being paid for the ostensible `labor.'  I'd be physically present but always with an eye on the clock.

But far more often I was putting into my work four or five times the `worth' than what I was being paid for.

No complaints.  I had choices. 

The years in the pokey taught me how to `generate' tons of money if and when I wanted to.  Could have boosted truck loads of the electronic crap that people buy to entertain themselves.  Could have been a shyster lawyer.  Could have been an investment banker.  Just chose against those options.  The money isn't worth it.

I guess I have a conscience.

I've done a lot of work in my life that I loved doing because it felt like play.  TRIPLE SLAM!!  

But I usually pissed somebody off doing it.  Viet Nam and draft resistance.  Union organizing.  Disassembling a viciously destructive `child care' organization.  I'd do them all again but better this time. 

I like work.  Jobs suck! 

I found myself taking jobs out of fear of not having the money to take care of things that money requires.  But in the last twenty or so years I've had wonderful work to do that, coincidentally, provided me with money.  A big `plus' sign on that end. 

It's hard for me to actually believe that there are really wonderful people in my life who actually love me ... but I believe it enough to accept it. 

I think I've been a self-absorbed over-focused jerk most of my life.  But my wife, sons and grandkids have forgiven me.  I think its because they know that I have sacrificed a lot in the `micro' for the interests of mankind in the `macro.'  I think its because they know I wasn't actually mean to them. 

As for love ... I'm short on showing it and long on getting it. More a sin of `omission' than a sin of `commission.'  A coward's way, actually.  I am trying to do better and I suspect I will.  But kind of late in the game to start paying attention to giving back what's been so often and long given to me. 

Pretty much a wuss when it comes to one on one intimacy.  People generally scare me.  And, like too many kids growing up where family discipline meant blood and teeth on the floor, my survival response was to `fight' instead of take `flight.'  "Ready!  FIRE!  Aim!"  Pretty indiscriminate.  Scares people back.  (Sounds like the psychological profile of a hermit.)

A shrink once told me that I was `counterphobic.'  That is, I would attack anything that scared me.  That works sometimes.  But there are A LOT of people and things out there that are so big and tough that they can squeeze and crunch me into a little wad of snot.  As I have too often discovered.

It was what it was.  And I'm still alive. 

And all the threads in life now seem to be winding round one another (in the near term) to create a decent prospect: `retirement.' 

I'll probably be a lot more sociable to people who fear/think I have just one speed: crude, conflictual and confrontational.  That's an easy one, frankly.  Should be pleasant surprise for them. 

------------------------------------
So why have I rattled on about all this stuff on a blog entitled `Training.'

That is where `work' enters the focus of this blog.  Given that work, love and play have always inhabited the same place in my life ... cycling is now going to be my work. 

My wife described me as having been `uber focused' all my life.  I have described myself as having an `Attention EXCESS Disorder.'  I'm really, really organized.  (Organizational ability can often be a great substitute for real intelligence.)  And when I believe something is worthwhile I'm really, really focused and disciplined.

I'm going to put all of that focus, energy, discipline and organizational talent into my cycling. 

Work.  Love.  Play.