My Side Door

I’m just about to leave the office, pack up and head to our house in Pinetop for the weekend.  This weekend, Epic Rides is having their annual Tour of the White Mountains.  I rode the event last year, and am doing so again this year.  Last year I pushed through 52 miles, and this year I’ve gone insane, and signed up for the 67 mile distance.

Riding with me will be the usual cast of characters: Robert, Chris Z, and Chris M.  Chris M has never ridden in an organized bike race/ride before, so that alone will be interesting.  I’m hoping he can at least complete 30 miles.  Personally, I’m not in great shape, so this is going to be a personal struggle.

My riding plan is to start slow and finish slow, with slower parts in the middle.  We’ll see how well I’m able to stick to the plan.  Regardless, the weather looks to be fabulous this year (which is a welcome surprise), and the volunteers at the event are A-1 top notch.

I’m a month late in getting to this, but what the heck, better late than never.

The 24 hours in the Old Pueblo race went pretty well, all things considering.  Robert and I arrived on Thursday afternoon to secure a camp spot, get one night ride in on the course, and then be able to primarily relax on Friday, before the shotgun start on Saturday at noon.

Thursday evening, however, it started raining/drizzling.  That eventually turned into snow.  It was cold, and I was close to miserable.  Friday, it rained pretty much all day long.  And Friday night, it again snowed.  Waking up to 2″ of snow on the ground in Arizona is a strange thing.

At around 11am, just an hour before the race was to start, it really cleared up, and the sun began to peak through.  It wouldn’t rain again, but the past 36 hours of rain meant the trail was very, very muddy.  I rode the first lap, and really slogged through the mud.  It was a grueling lap, that really took a lot out of me.

Robert went next, and looking at his bike when he got back, you’d swear he was riding some place else.  An extra 90 minutes of drying time on the trail, plus 1000 bikes pushing mud off the trail, and conditions had greatly improved. 

Things went basically according to schedule until team lap #7, when Chris went out for his first night lap.  His light failed him 1 hr into the lap, and the final few miles, which should have taken 30 minutes took a full hour.  Oh well, I thought…that’s racing a 24 hr race.  Then team lap #8 also went poorly, although that rider (Carter) didn’t really explain why.  I rode lap #9 ok, and Robert rode lap #10 pretty well. 

Chris was supposed to ride lap #11 at 5am, but couldn’t get himself out of bed.  He was still dead from the earlier lap.  Carter said he couldn’t go at 5am either, and given I had only 30 minutes of sleep to this point, I decided our best bet was to wait until my alarm clock went off at 7:30am, and re-evaluate the plan at that time.

At 7:30am, I woke up to Carter having completely left the venue.  He had packed up his stuff sometime between 5am and 7am, and was gone.  That was certainly stunning.

Robert and Chris were up, and with 3 of us remaining, and not really that focused on the standings, we decided to pack our stuff into the truck, and just ready ourselves for one final lap at 10:30am, all together as a team.  We’d only get credit for 1 lap, but we’d get to ride together, which would be fun…and fun is really the whole point of doing the race.

Then at 8:30, I see my buddy John getting ready to go out for his first solo lap of the day, after taking a 6 hr nap, and quick changed the plan to go ride a lap with him, and let Robert and Chris ride the final lap the 2 of them.

So we did that, and in the end, we got credit for 12 laps.  I got credit for 4, Robert 3, Chris 3, and Carter 2…although Robert actually rode 4 laps.  Individually, we’d all hoped to ride 4 laps each at around 90 minutes per lap.  Robert and I were very much on that pace, while Chris was a bit slower, but pretty close, aside from the bonking and not riding a lap.  Carter…well, none of us knew him, and he decided to quit.  I’ll probably never see him again.

The conditions were very, very tough, and while Saturday night it didn’t snow again, it did freeze again, and for the most part, I was cold from my arrival on Thursday until 10am on Sunday.  I could never seem to get my core body temperature up to where I was comfortable, no matter how much I was wearing.  The only exception to that was when I was riding.  Riding, I felt pretty good.

We managed to finish 80th of 125 finishing 4-man teams.  Can’t wait to do it again next year.  Hopefully with a 4th team member that we can trust.

On Saturday I rode the 109-mile El Tour de Tucson on my road bike.  This is a major event, which this year drew over 9150 riders, including Greg Lemond (whom I passed during the second river crossing 8-). 

Leading up to the event, I had been mostly riding with Chris Z doing 50ish mile road rides.  Since my training rides were a bit short, I wasn’t sure what to expect from myself in this event.  The 52 miles I did at Show Low in October on my mountain bike was more comparable to this ride, but I really should have done at least one 75 mile ride in preparation.

Going in to the ride, I had set as a goal the same time I had done in Show Low:  6 hours 45 mins.  I figured I’d ride at around 18 mph, taking 3 or 4 breaks, and thus 6:45 seemed a reasonable goal.  Since I was there with Chis Z, I wasn’t totally sure if I was going to ride with him the whole time, or if we would seperate.  But 9 minutes into the event, I threw caution to the wind, caught on the wheel of a group that had just passed us, and pretty soon was humming along at 20+ mph, a good bit faster than I expected to be able to sustain.  Before the first river crossing, which was at mile 8, I had left Chris well behind, and was completely on my own.

This event is unique for a road bike race, in that it has 2 river crossings where you have to walk your bike across.  Actually, I carried my bike across, because I didn’t want to get a flat tire as a result of it being in the desert sand.  The first river crossing, which was the shorter one, took ~8 minutes to walk across.  The second crossing, took ~9 minutes, and allowed for a bit faster walking, since it was around mile 47, and riders had spread out much more.

All was going far better than I expected until 3 hours 20 mins in, when I had fallen a bit off the pace of a group I had been riding with.  They were just going so fast, and I was starting to fatigue so I slowed a tad, and was riding along side another rider.  That’s when I flatted.  It was mile 67.  About the time I had the new tube in the tire a bike patrol guy came by and asked if I was ok.  I said “yep”, and he continued on.  30 seconds later I realized I wasn’t ok, as I didn’t have any CO2 cartridges to blow my tire up with.  Suddenly I was stuck.  I sat there for 12 lonely minutes waiting for the next bike patrol guy to come by and save my sorry butt.  About 1 minute before we had it fixed, Chris rolled past.  Turns out I had built a 17 minute lead on him.

With the tire fixed, I headed to the very next SAG station, needing water, as my bottles had been empty for the last 10 miles or so.  After this stop, I noticed that the riders I was now riding with had changed.  Falling back just enough where I noticed the typical rider wasn’t going as fast as I wanted to go.  I was finding it difficult to “group up” and find a pace line that was travelling at the right speed.

Eventually, a bike patrol lady and a 67 mile rider (he was signed up to ride 67 miles, and thus started 42 miles closer to the finish than I did.) passed me.  Being fresher, they were riding at just the speed I was looking for.  Eventually our little group became 8 or 10 riders, and we moved along at a nice clip.  Of particular fun was a slight downhill stretch where we averaged over 25mph for 10 miles.  I must say, it was perhaps the funnest 10 miles of road riding in my life.  Being the rider with the most miles, I let them set the pace initially, but when 4 of the leaders had all taken a turn, and all seemed a bit tired, I finally took my turn.  We had been doing 27 mph, and I kicked it up to 29 mph, pulling hard for 3 strong miles, which was a real blast.  I wasn’t sure if the group was going to be able to keep up, but sure enough, our core group was right there behind me the whole way.  I think everyone enjoyed the opportunity to go that fast.  I know at my size and weight, I have an advantage in these circumstances, but I pushed my heart rate up over 160 bpm, which was amazing for me to phathom some 84 miles into the ride.

A few miles later, there was a crash a short way ahead of our group, and the bike patrol lady had to stop and offer assistance.  It was really too bad, because it tore our whole group apart.  For the last 20 miles or so, I would essentially ride alone, catching a wheel here and there, but rarely hooking up with any group for even a mile before a SAG stop or something caused it to bust apart. 

At mile 103, just 6 miles from the finish, my rear tire flatted again.  I knew I was riding on low pressure, but I was so close to the finish I didn’t want to stop.  Plus I didn’t have a pump.  Unfortunately, I hit a pot hole and pinch flatted.  Fortunately, the guy riding right behind me asked if I was ok, and then stayed to offer help when I said I had no air.  He said he was tired and needed to stop anyway…just 6 miles from the end!  The second flat took under 4 minutes to repair, but once again, Chris rolled past me while I was broken down.

In the end I finished with a measured time of 6 hours 20 minutes.  My event official time was 6 hours 24 minutes, because it’s not a race, and they only measure when you cross the finish, not when you cross the start.  It took 4 minutes for me to cross the start, with so many riders.  I’m really happy with the result.  Having expected to take close to 7 hours, and then being able to ride at a sub 6 hour pace was certainly beyond my expectations.  In the future, I’ll be better prepared, and next year, it will be my goal to finish in under 6 hours.

After a month of waffling over whether or not I was going to ride in this event, today I finally signed up.  The 25th annual El Tour de Tuscon is this Saturday, November 17th.  I’ve chosen the “I must be crazy” distance of 109 miles on a road bike.  That will be by far the longest road ride I’ve ever done.  We’ve been doing 50 mile rides every weekend for 2 months now, without much trouble.  Of course, there is indeed a big difference between 50 miles and 100+ miles.  About twice as much.

I’m optimistic I’ll finish somewhere between 6 & 7 hrs time, but I have no true basis for that optimism, having never come close to riding this kind of distance.

There are expected to be between 10,000 and 11,000 people riding in the event, although not all of them will be doing the 109 mile length.  Many will do shorter distances, but you figure somewhere around 40% of the people will do the 109 miler.

We went to Jeff & Denise’s annual halloween party yesterday, which is always a treat.  I know Jeff’s favorite holiday is halloween, and it really shows with the celebration event they throw.  Tomorrow, I promise to post some pics of the girls in costume, and even some a few from our Disneyland vacation 2 weeks ago.

At any rate, I was talking with Jeff’s mom who mentioned she was planning to house sit for Jeff’s grandmother in Tuscon next week, when it dawned on me…Jeff has family in Tuscon.  Hmmm, this might be a nice way of getting some accomodations for the race.  I mentioned this to Jeff, who’s thinking about entering the race.  He’ll probably decide over the weekend, and basically if I have a place to stay, I’ll be in as well.  Otherwise, I’ll sit this one out.

The Kona 24 hours in the Old Pueblo is a 24 hour mountain bike race down near Tuscon that is on February 16, 2008.  Robert, Chris Z, and I have agreed we’re doing the event together as a team.  We need to find a 4th (at least, it would be a good idea if we did), but otherwise, we are all committed.  When doing the event as a team, the event takes on a relay format.  One rider does a lap, and hands the baton to the next rider, and so on. 

Having done it before as a 4-man team, I’m going to guess we’ll probably do around 16 laps.  It’s tough to say though, as when I did this event before, the course was 17 miles long, and now it’s been shortened a bit to 15 miles.  And not knowing who our 4th rider will be (assuming we get one), doesn’t make this guessing game any easier.  Robert will definitely learn a lot about himself in the event, as he’s never really done any type of distance racing.  Knowing what it feels like to be running on pure cardio, because you’ve burned every last bit of quick energy out of your system is what this type of event is all about.  That and riding at 2 am, when it’s 30 degrees outside, and your cold, tired, and it’s pitch black outside.

My last entry into the event was back in 2004.  Our 4-man team completed 18 laps to finish in 12th place out of 86 teams, so we were pretty happy with our results.

Robert needs to get busy getting some miles in so that the event doesn’t kill him, but I think Chris and I are already in good enough shape that we can each complete at least 4 decent laps without much worry.  Should be a good time, but we have lots to do to get ready for this event in less than 4 months.

Chris Z has been prodding me a bit to consider entering the 25th Annual El Tour de Tuscon, which is coming up on November 17th.  He’s planning to do the 109 mile length, which will be his personal longest ever ride in one day.  I think he’s done the MS 150 a number of times, but that’s a 2 day event.

We rode together on Sunday, doing 45 miles or so, and felt pretty good doing it.  I don’t think either felt significantly faster than the other, as we stayed together easily, and for the most part just moved along at a comfortable pace for each of us.  I felt reasonably good at the end of Sunday’s ride, so I’m giving the Tour de Tuscon some serious consideration.  109 miles in one stretch on a road bike would be similar to the 52 miles in one stretch I did for the Tour of the White Mountains on my mountain bike.  I’d probably finish the 109 miles in a very similar time, and feel about the same when I was done…dog tired, but alive.  And since my mountain bike is currently out of commission, this would give me even more encouragement to ride my road bike, with a bit of a very near term goal.

I dunno.  I’m thinking about it is about all I can say right now.

Regardless, we’re loosely planning some more training rides this weekend, and that’ll probably help me decide how strong I feel.  I’ll have to get a feel from Jan whether she wants to take a weekender to Tuscon, as that would definitely help if she could be there.

Over on MTBR I posted this ride report.  There’s no sense in re-hashing the whole thing here, so just click on over.  Yesterrday (and why I’ve waited this long to post here), they posted the results. Of 30 finishers in my category, I finished 27th.  That doesn’t sound great, until you consider how many DNFs there had to have been.  I mean look at the pre-race photo with nearly everyone starting.  I figure close to 100 started, so that means something like 50  or so must have DNFed.

That makes me a feel a little better.  I’m still pretty stoked to have finished.  That was a tough ride.  I’m somewhat glad my friend Chris didn’t go with me.  He wasthinking the 41 might be all he could handle, and I’d have done that with him.  The 41 would have been no challenge (at least to finish), while the 52 had me concerned through the first quarter of the race that I might not finish.  Plus, the only part I got lost in was a section that the 52 does differently than the 41.  What fun would it have been, if I didn’t get lost like everyone else?

My bike, on the other hand, is feeling the effects of age.  Both my front and rear wheel are basically shot.  So this week, I did some research and settled on a set of Industry Nine wheels.  These are the new “latest thing” in chi-chi things for your bike, and so, of course, I need a set.  Unfortunately it’s going to be a while.  Speedgoat says 6-8 weeks before they are in. 

To the untrained eye, these probably don’t look all that special (aside from the red color), but looking closely, you’ll notice that the spokes attach to the hub in a very different and unique way.  Well, not that unique, because the Mavic CrossMax wheels attach similarly, but compared to a “standard” hub, these spokes are unique.  A standard spoke attaches to the hub via an eyelet that requires the spoke to have a J-bend at the end.  The spoke slides through the eyelet, and the J-bend allows the spoke to make the 90 degree turn it needs to.  In order for the spoke to be strong enough to be bent and still take all of the stress it has to, the spoke is thicker.  High end spokes are thicker at the ends, and then thinner in the middle, but they still suffer from breakage at the ends, due to the bend.

An advantage with the Industry Nine hub, is in the weight savings they can have, at the same or even higher strength, in comparison to a traditional hub.  With no J-bend, the spokes can be a bit thinner, making each spoke lighter, while still providing the same or higher strength.  That alone is a huge benefit.  But another benefit of the Industry Nine hub is in how quickly they engage thanks to their internal pawl design.  My CrossMax’s engage after about 8 degrees of wheel rotation.  On technical climbing sections, that’s very noticable, and at times a bit frustrating, as you lose some of your stomping power waiting for the hub to engage, especially while trying to get over a tricky rock or ledge.  If you wanted better, Chris King makes beautiful hubs with engagement in 5 degrees.  For over a decade, they were indeed the King.  But now Industry Nine has come along and done them 2 degrees better, with engagement in just 3 degrees.  Oh, and these new hubs are even lighter than the King hubs…simply amazing.

My only concern about the new hubs is that I can’t get the rim I wanted to lace them to.  That would have been a Mavic XM 819.  Why that rim?  Because it’s a UST rim, and thus well suited to going tubeless.  Instead, I’ll be learning how to get the equipped DT XR 4.1 to hold air without tubes.  DT provides a tubeless kit, which I’m getting, and hopefully it works better than I’ve read from some reports.

The final bit of fun, required by the new wheelset, is that these are disc brake wheels.  My bike has always had V-Brakes, so along with the new wheels comes new disc brakes.  I chose the Formula Oro Puro disc brakes, because they are light weight, and they have received nearly perfect reviews from everyone that’s ever used them and offered up an opinion.  The Formula’s are a relative newcomer, just like Industry Nine, so I guess I’m on the bleeding edge with regard to my new brakes as well.  Hopefully all installs well, here in a month or two.

For now, I’m going to focus on a bit more road riding.  I took the Orbea out for 45 miles yesterday, and a brief 26 miler today.  I like riding my road bike, I just don’t like riding it while having to share the road with cars.  Yesterday’s ride felt very good.  Much better than the same ride from 3 weeks ago, so it looks like I must be getting a little bit more fitness, which is certainly nice.

If you are at all interested in what’s going on at Interbike this year, the guys at Speedgoat have got a spectacular blog running this year.  I’m subscribed to their blog, and have been blown away with all of the great industry info they’ve been publishing.  I think I’m most interested in more news about the new Pivot, which is a new bike built by Chris Cocalis formerly of Titus.  Since I ride a Titus Racer-X, custom designed by Chris himself, what he’s doing with the Pivot has definitely caught my attention.

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I had intended a nice long mountain bike ride today, until I went into the garage and realized my mountain bike was still over at Robert’s house after he took it up to Pinetop and back for me last weekend.  Unable to give up the notion of riding today, and unwilling to go over at 6:30am and potentially wake Robert up, I broke out my road bike.  It needed some dusting off (literally).

It took a few minutes to find a spare tube, inflate the tires, lube the chain, and generally feel like it was a good idea to ride I bike I hadn’t ridden in over a year.  In the end, I wasn’t on the road until after 7:30.

I decided to ride the ride I almost always ride on the weekend with my road bike.  Up to Cave Creek and back.  Google maps says the route was 43 miles.  If you haven’t used Google Maps lately, you should.  It’s become a sweet tool, and I think it’s now better than Mapquest.  Mapquest had some extra features for a while (like having multiple stops), but Google Maps is all the way there, and then some.  The feature I like the best is the ability to drag a section of the route around.  It’s hard to describe, so just go to Google Maps and play with it.

43 miles on a road bike isn’t supposed to be that hard…especially for someone planning to do 52 miles on a mountain bike in a month.  I finished the ride, but at the end, I was definitely spent.  What I learned today is that I’ve got a fair bit of work to do in just 30 days, if I want to complete the Tour of the White Mountains.  Lofty goals are a good thing, right?