Weekend Ride Reports

[mtnbiker]

The synopsis of the ride says "I was pedaling squares the last few miles before Brian Head (which all seemed to be above 10 pct. grade, with pitches of 14 or 15)". That's going to hurt. I would definitely like low gearing for that. At least a compact chainring (34 tooth) or triple, with about a 28 tooth cog on the back. Ten or 15 miles of climbing with those gradients would be quite a grind. I'd like to hear your report when done.

[PaloAltoCougar]

In addition to the foregoing recommendations, which I second, I'd focus on your crotch, although only for the most pure of reasons. Given all the running and other exercise you do, I think your legs will be fine, but hours in the saddle can take its toll. If you don't already have a really good pair of cycling shorts, get one. Use Bodyglide or some kind of chamois butter to keep your nether regions lubed. And hydrate heavily, before and during, and maintain a steady fuel supply.

If you can get in a 50 with a good amount of climbing this weekend, plus a good amount of saddle time on shorter rides, you'll do fine. And I hope you're still planning on the CUF ride the following week. It will be relatively easy.

[ERCougar]

I think that if you are in a position to do a few 30+ milers this week, then that would be really helpful. Even moreso, a good long-ish ride of 40-50 miles with a long, sustained climb ASAP would do you wonders. I would try to find something where you are grinding away uphill for an hour or so. If not that, then find a shorter ride with a 2 mile climb and do intervals up that to equal 60 minutes of climbing.

I don't think that you will suffer too badly on the ride next weekend, but having some long, sustained climbs would help tune up your engine to be ready for it. Mtn biking is pretty good cross-training for the road, but from my experience the types of climbs are much different on the dirt as on the road. The dirt often involved more of an interval/burst climb, whereas the road is more steady and sustained.

As to a taper, I wouldn't get too worried about it, aside from taking it easy for the 2-3 days prior to the ride. 3 days of relative rest and lots of good grub for a week to increase your glycogen supplies should be enough.

BG comes through again!
Ok...I can think of a fun 50 milish route that would have some good sustained climbs.
Here's what I'm thinking:
Wed - R Hand Canyon route (Probably around 20 miles total from my house, but 5 miles of a pretty brutal climb--see JIC's reports)
Sat - 50 mile loop to Kolob and back (good climb in the middle of it, with really the whole thing climbing)--of course, I'll be humming the song.

Then Monday and Wednesday, two more 30-40 milers?

EDIT: Thanks to PAC and mtnbiker too. What constitutes "good" cycling shorts? I have a few pairs, probably about $50 a piece. Never had chafing problems before. I guess I'll see this weekend?
And yeah--I'm 95% sure on the CUF ride, provided I survive. And provided I can crash on someone's living room floor?

Sorry if these are dumb questions. I'm pretty clueless on what I can push myself to without getting hurt--that's my main concern here.

[bluegoose]

BG comes through again!
Ok...I can think of a fun 50 milish route that would have some good sustained climbs.
Here's what I'm thinking:
Wed - R Hand Canyon route (Probably around 20 miles total from my house, but 5 miles of a pretty brutal climb--see JIC's reports)
Sat - 50 mile loop to Kolob and back (good climb in the middle of it, with really the whole thing climbing)--of course, I'll be humming the song.

Then Monday and Wednesday, two more 30-40 milers?

EDIT: Thanks to PAC and mtnbiker too. What constitutes "good" cycling shorts? I have a few pairs, probably about $50 a piece. Never had chafing problems before. I guess I'll see this weekend?
And yeah--I'm 95% sure on the CUF ride, provided I survive. And provided I can crash on someone's living room floor?

Sorry if these are dumb questions. I'm pretty clueless on what I can push myself to without getting hurt--that's my main concern here.

That looks like a good plan. How do you feel after a 30-40 miler? I would be cautious with that second 40 miler on the Wednesday before the big ride. Unless you are really confident that your legs will feel ok on 3 days rest, I personally would keep it closer to the 20-30 mile range.

[ERCougar]

That looks like a good plan. How do you feel after a 30-40 miler? I would be cautious with that second 40 miler on the Wednesday before the big ride. Unless you are really confident that your legs will feel ok on 3 days rest, I personally would keep it closer to the 20-30 mile range.

Good to know--I'll cut it shorter. Thanks.

[ERCougar]

So, my first big climb is in the bag:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/101203825

Didn't break any speed records, but I did it, dang it!

[PaloAltoCougar]

So, my first big climb is in the bag:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/101203825

Didn't break any speed records, but I did it, dang it!

Now that's impressive. Needless to say, you're ready for Tahoe. Indeed, I may need to come up with a couple of HC climbs to keep you and a few of the others busy. Great work.

[mtnbiker]

So, my first big climb is in the bag:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/101203825

Didn't break any speed records, but I did it, dang it!

Nice! That's a lot of climbing. You must be fearless on the downhill - it shows 168.5 mph for your max speed. That's picking them up and setting them down!
What's with the early heart rate spike? Still trying to warm up? Or did you see a Daisy Duke similar to what we saw on the CUF ride last year? You should have seen Archaea panting after her.

[ERCougar]

Nice! That's a lot of climbing. You must be fearless on the downhill - it shows 168.5 mph for your max speed. That's picking them up and setting them down!
What's with the early heart rate spike? Still trying to warm up? Or did you see a Daisy Duke similar to what we saw on the CUF ride last year? You should have seen Archaea panting after her.

Ha...that was nice huh? Not sure what happened. The highest I saw was 43.3 mph, which is a new high for me.

And sadly, no Daisy Dukes. It's a weird thing I can't figure out on my Garmin--for the first 10-20 mins of my ride, my heart rate reads way higher than it is.

I took a few pictures with my phone--it was gorgeous up there today. I'll try to post them if I can figure out how.

Figured it out!
Cedar Breaks

Overlooking Zion in the distance

Columbine and Bluebells--fields were full of these





EDIT: Or not...help?

[Jarid in Cedar]

So, my first big climb is in the bag:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/101203825

Didn't break any speed records, but I did it, dang it!

How safe did you feel on the ride? I hesitate to try that route because there is almost no shoulder on the road and people drive it like they are at the Daytona 500

[ERCougar]

How safe did you feel on the ride? I hesitate to try that route because there is almost no shoulder on the road and people drive it like they are at the Daytona 500

Yeah, that's always been my hesitation too, but we left pretty early (6:15ish) so really ran into almost no traffic going up. I was actually more nervous coming down, but you're going so fast that people can see you with plenty of time. So yeah, I wouldn't go in the middle of the day, but it was much better than I expected.

[Jarid in Cedar]

Yeah, that's always been my hesitation too, but we left pretty early (6:15ish) so really ran into almost no traffic going up. I was actually more nervous coming down, but you're going so fast that people can see you with plenty of time. So yeah, I wouldn't go in the middle of the day, but it was much better than I expected.

Good to hear. I may give it a try in the near future

[bluegoose]

Yesterday I missed my morning group ride due to a trip up to Southern Oregon. So last night once the kids were in bed, I hopped on the trainer with the thought that I would ride as long as the slowest rider from the ITT yesterday and see how far I went.

I was certainly disappointed to see that Mark Cavendish was the slowest rider at about 1:03:00. Not disappointed in his performance, but rather that that was all the time that I was allotted for my little experiment.

So I started out with an easy 15 minute warm-up and then re-set my bike computers for my ITT. I've been battling a cold the latter half of the week, so I wasn't feeling especially perky, but I actually felt better on the bike than I had for the past several days.

End result- in 1:03:00 I only made it about 21 miles, just a tad above 19mph. So by the time the ITT caboose, Mark Cavendish, finished the course yesterday, I would have barely made the last time-check, still having 5 miles to go.

Oh, and did I mention that my course was flat with no corners or speed bumps to negotiate? And I had the motivating tunes of Mission Impossible blaring from the tv in front of me as I rode.

So if you are ever in need of a good humbling experience, try to match the pace set by even the slowest members of the pro peleton. Those guys are smoking fast.

[PaloAltoCougar]

As a tune-up for next week's big one, I headed out sans wife (her bike is in the shop with a broken shifter) for 50 miles and 2900 feet of climbing per MMR. The climbing didn't bother me much at all, in part because I took it easy. On the last climb, a four-mile Cat 3, I was passed quickly by three separate riders, the last an attractive young woman. This actually embarrassed me, perhaps because I was wearing a Tour of California King of the Mountain jersey. As she passed, I wanted to call out, "I'm being ironic!", but by the time I thought of this she was out of earshot.

[ERCougar]

I did it!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/102897313
This was a little anticlimactic after last week's ride, but this ride has been a goal of mine for over a year now. Miles 25-27 were the most brutal two miles I've ever done.