Well, that was... wait for it... Hotter 'n Hell!

We spent the first evening at the HH100 Expo.  I've never seen so many bike vendors in one place before.  Lots of neat stuff, some of it really cheap, and it was just exciting to be surrounded by so much cycling culture.

Outside we found some dinner, Carribean chicken with veggies and rice, and sat down to watch the criterium race zoom past.  Those men and women are fast!  We were sitting a few meters from a really sharp 90 degree turn and so there were lots of crashes too!  I needed some more food so we got some home cooked potato chips with a kimchi/bacon/mayo sauce from the Gypsy Kit.  Awesome!

Yes, I'm feeding my face while the crit racers are riding in 100+ degree heat.

The next morning we were up at 4am and on the road for the hour long drive to Wichita Falls.  For the first time all summer I made it to the start line with plenty of time to spare.  There were thousands of riders and I tried to place myself near the back of my start gate.  That should have put me with riders that expected to finish in about 6 hours.

A local high school choir sang the National Anthem, a gun went off and there was a flyover by some small stunt planes.  It was another couple minutes before I made it to the start line and then things got interesting.

You never know what's going to happen with such a motley collection of riders, some with plenty of experience and some that look like they just bought their bike and kit from the expo the night before.

Here it goes:

Mile 5 - Someone crashed, again.  A few riders bumped together deep inside a group, and one lady started ping-ponging around before going down hard, with two or three riders behind her also eating pavement.

Smartest thing I've ever done, each
water point listed on my top tube.

In the first few miles I saw more flats and wrecks than in my entire last year of riding.  I didn't know what was going on but it seemed like everyone was crashing or flatting out everywhere I looked.  Lots of dropped water bottles for everyone to dodge or run over didn't help.

Mile 10 - There's a big turn to the left, across the railroad tracks.  Just before I got there I could hear bells ringing and saw a police officer waving his arms to stop riders but I was already too far into the tracks.  I looked up and saw the arm dropping and I ducked my head just in time to slide under.  I'm pretty sure someone behind me hit the arm.  Someone next to me breathed a sigh of relief, loudly, and started talking about how long the trains are down here and how lucky we were to have made it through.

Mile 15-ish - Someone just crashed right in front of me.  There was a group of riders that decided it was a good place to answer the call of nature and had stopped off to the side.  So a bunch of riders decided to join them, throwing everybody behind them into panic.  And of course, a couple went down.

Mile 17 - I saw a wicked three-person tandem bike.  Dad in front, mom is second, with a little girl in third spinning away.

Mile 20 - First water break!  I hit the latrine, then grabbed a cupful of watermelon and pineapple.  A shot of pickle juice?  Why not?

Somewhere in the next ten miles the course turns out of the wind and I started flying along, relaxed, just cruising at about 20 mph.  I kept trying to remember my promise to Char, not to break myself and to enjoy the ride so I held a little back but still kept passing people left and right.  I started to realize that I should have started much closer to the front of the pack to avoid some of the riders in front of me.

Mile 40 - Another stop.  I didn't have to pee again, which worried me.  Some wonderfully nice lady held my bike while I snagged some watermelon and a handful of baked goods.  Someone was teaching line dancing on a stage next to the water point and I found the whole thing hilarious.

Mile 50 - My heart rate monitor read my pulse as 30 bpm.  I'm pretty sure that either it was broken or that I was having a heart attack.

Mile 58 - Riding through the town of Burk Burnett was like being in a real race.  People were lining the streets cheering and I was flying along feeling quite full of myself.  Unfortunately, just outside of town, the course finally turned back into the wind and the pain really began.

Mile 60 - Gut check.  There's a shortcut towards the finish (75 miles total) or a turn left to Hell's Gate and the full 100 miles.  I was feeling horrible and stopped to stock up on anything I thought I could get into my stomach without throwing up.  Then I turned left.

False motivation all over my face.

Mile 69 -  Hell's Gate.  I was really starting to feel awful but the occasional tailwind (or at least lack of headwind) was helping me along.  More pickle juice shots, some oranges, and a pee break.  Definitely not hydrated but I was drinking non-stop and emptying my bottles quickly.

Mile 78 and 79 - Back into the wind with a vengeance.  Horrible.  Everything hurt and I could barely keep moving.  I was passing other riders, but it hurt to keep my cadence up.

Mile 84 - Last water point for me.  I could hardly walk, and the scorching sun was blazing hot.  I forced some orange slices into my mouth, finished an entire bottle of water and grabbed a cup of some green gatorade with ice.  Unfortunately, some jerk replaced the gatorade with pickle juice and I forced it down with a horrible twisted look on my face.  It tasted terrible but probably saved my life.  I followed it up with a cup of Fritos that was surprisingly awesome.

With no respite from the headwind, I picked up another rider and we managed to take turns pulling each other through the scorching blast of hot air for about ten miles.  Misery mounted in both my legs and seat.  SAG wagons and pickup trucks were passing me with riders sitting in the back.  I told myself that I wasn't going to be one of them.

Mile 96 - My riding partner (I never got his name, we were both too out of breath to talk) pulled off at the last water point before the finish and I decided that I needed to keep going.  Acid was pumping through my veins and my head was a little iffy, but it was such a short hop to the finish that I had to chance it.

Mile 98.5 - Heading down into town, the wind was starting to be blocked by buildings and trees offered some shade when I heard the telltale wump wump wump of a flat tire.  I had just put a new tire on my back wheel earlier in the week but this time it was my front tire.  There was still some pressure and I couldn't hear the leak so I hit it with a CO2 cartridge and took off to try and make the finish line before it deflated again.

Mile 102 - After curving through town I finally reached the finish line.  I had hoped to finish with a grin and super victory pose, arms raised high in exultation of a wonderful ride, but there was a group of riders from the 100km in my way, the chip timing mats made me nervous, and I just wanted to find Char in the crowd.  I coasted across the line, barely unclipped before almost falling over and was done.  Physically and mentally done.

Smiling before I collapse on the ground in a sweaty, crying heap.

I'm not sure if I've ever felt so bad after a ride.  I have had long rides, hard rides, and hard long rides.  But today, the heat and wind together was enough to completely zap me of any remaining sense of humanity.  Char could barely keep me moving and force a little food in me.  I couldn't drink enough, and some Gypsy Kit chips (with no sauce this time) are the only thing I could stomach without wanting to heave.  (3,907 calories burned and no appetite, go figure)

My final time was just over six and a half hours with a moving time of 5 hours and 44 minutes.  Not my fastest 100 miles ever, but I'll take it.

It was, after all, Hotter 'n Hell out there!

Bucket List Item #273: Circumnavigate the Franklin Mountains

It was a ride that I'd been dreaming of since I bought my first road bike over three years ago.  It was also a ride that I'd been terrified of trying for just as long.

What's funny about that, is that I'd ridden almost every part of the route at some time in the last 3 years.  In fact, there was only about two miles that would be "undiscovered country" for me.

So, for one of the last items on my El Paso bucket list, I decided that I would circumnavigate the Franklin Mountains.
 

El Paso is roughly horseshoe shaped, with the Franklin Mountains sitting in the center of the city.  There are three passes over the mountains, Scenic Drive on the south end, Transmountain Road in the middle, and Anthony Gap to the north.  To do the mountains justice, I decided to skip the middle, and use the north and south passes when crossing over.


I rolled out just before sunrise with the air a crisp 43 degrees.  The wind would stay fairly consistent, about 10 mph from the north, for my entire ride.  I made sure to wear my heart rate monitor to help maintain a low heart rate and level of exertion.  Although the route was only 72 miles, I wasn't sure what unknown obstacles I might face, surprise detours, etc., and wanted to conserve enough energy to overcome anything.

The climb over Scenic Drive was uneventful, I stayed light in the saddle and wasted nothing summiting and coasting down the backside.  Almost immediately, the temperature dropped 5 degrees and I was incredibly grateful for the layers I'd almost left behind.

On the west side of the mountains, I zig-zagged through side streets, making my way to Mesa Street, for the crossing into the Rio Grande valley.  This was my first time on the major street and the reason I'd taken off so early.  Turning onto the road, I spied two other riders in front of me, just close enough that I could bridge the gap and jump onto their tail.

I was suddenly faced with an unexpected opportunity and decision.  Did I bridge the gap and join them along Mesa, save myself about 10 miles overall, and feel safer with a group for security?

I asked myself what a half-crazed, masochistic sasquatch would do.

I turned left on Executive and crossed I-10 into the river valley.

The temperature dropped another 5 degrees in the valley and I soon found myself along familiar roads.  My fingers were numb but traffic was still fairly light, with the first church goers of the day the only other cars on the streets.

Par for the course, another flat tire.

My first stop was the Johhny Lolitas coffee shop in La Union, NM, about 27 miles into the ride.  I pulled into their gravel lot and coasted up to the shop.  And that's when I noticed the goathead embedded deep into my front tire.

Perfect.

It was what I was most afraid of on a ride this long and so far from help.  Flat tires.  Well, that, and getting run over.  That's also not fun.

I ingnored it and went inside to thaw out and get some coffee and sugar into my system.  The proprietors are fantastic local bicycle advocates and a standard breakstop or start/finish point for rides on the west side.

Warmed up, I got to work patching the front tire.  That's when the massage therapist showed up.

Oh, the people you'll meet.

She offered me a ride, gave me her card, offered me a massage, offered another ride, then made me promise to give her a phone call if I ran into any trouble.  And that's when I realized that I had left my wedding ring at home, gloves were off, and sleeves rolled back.  Maybe she was drawn to my animal magnetism or the pheromones of athletic effort.  I like to think that I look real good in my cycling kit.

Specializing in relaxation, deep tissue, myofacial release
and scar tissue release.

I can dream, can't I?

The ride up the valley and then east to Anthony Gap was peaceful, quiet and scenic.  I found myself mostly alone on the road with only the occasional cyclist heading opposite to wave to.  It was at this point in the ride, while pedaling through barren, winter slumbering pecan orchards,  that I realized I was truly committed to finishing this ride as planned.

There's always that moment in longer rides, especially so in this one, that you realize that you are totally committed to finishing what you started.  It may be that you have gone too far to turn around, that it's easier to just finish the route, or maybe you've already reached the halfway point in an out-and-back course and you have no choice but to finish.  Either way, there's no quitting and you start counting down the miles, instead of counting up. 

The climb up Anthony Gap is a solid 5 miles with a few grades that peak over 10%.  Once I crossed the summit, most of the remaining mileage would be slightly downhill, albeit, some of it with a challenging crosswind.  It was on this climb and descent that I encountered my first traffic issues.  Drivers in El Paso don't seem to be mindful of anything around them, and even exhibit erratic and homicidal tendencies.  I found myself fighting to maintain a safe bubble around me while cars passed well within 3 feet.  More than once oncoming traffic decided I was not an obstacle to their passing slower cars.  I finally had to push the image out of my head of colliding head on with little more than carbon fiber and styrofoam between me and 1,000 lbs of speeding aluminum.

One more reason I'm glad to be leaving El Paso behind.

Turning south onto War Highway (connects El Paso to White Sands Missile Range) I finally found my first bit of clean shoulder to ride on.  I try to measure how safe a shoulder is by how much broken glass, twisted metal and shredded particle board is waiting to kill me.  In a 72 mile ride, this was the only 4 mile section I felt comfortable riding.

Go figure.

I left the War Highway behind and headed east, only stopping to find a quiet, inconspicuous bush and eat some delicious peanut butter bars.  (Mom's recipe with Charla's twist)  The rest of the ride was familiar turf, and once I turned south I could ride the tailwind the 18 miles to home. 

When I pulled into my driveway, Charla was waiting for me.  My legs were shaking, my arms were tired, and I was short of breath.  I definitely didn't eat enough on the ride, and probably should have drank more water.  But I was finished, with only one flat out on the route to slow me down.  (later that afternoon, I would check on my bike to find both tires had slow leaks and were completely flat)


I've ridden longer rides and I've ridden harder rides.  But this ride will always be singular in my memory for what it signified in how far I've come as a cyclist.  Three years ago, a ride this long, covering so many different areas around town and so far away from my support base was beyond intimidating.

Only in perspective does it now seem hardly terrifying at all. 

 My biggest rides of the last year have all led me to this final test of my commitment and development as a cyclist.  The Death Ride was over 230 miles in 3 days (111 miles on the longest day), the Chile Pepper Challenge was a fast 100 mile bike ride, and the climb up Haleakala Volcano started at sea level and climbed straight up to 10,000 feet.  All have given me the perspective to recognize that nothing is impossible once you have committed to achieving it and put in the preparation to do so.

Circumnavigate the Franklin Mountains, check!

I Wanna Go Fast!

I get asked all the time, "How do I get faster?"

Well, being the wise sage that I am, I suppose it's time to provide some wisdom to the masses.

Truth is, I'm just learning to get fast myself.  If I was an expert I'd already be in the Olympics and on your cereal box!

But I do know some fun tools that have helped me progress from the slightly pot-bellied, lethargic, couch potato to the stunning, statuesque, Adonis-like semi-amateur-professional triathlete you see before you today.

To get faster you must first realize how fast you are now.  Very zen, right?  Here are some good ways to start.

I am a huge fan of Strava.  Swedish for "strive", it's an easy to use and highly useful website/app to track activities and analyze feedback.  I use it record my rides and runs and compare my progress with past activities.  It gives me data on elevation changes, total distances, splits, and even calculates calories based on my physical stats entered into the database.  My favorite part are the race segments.  After completing an activity you can go back and create a segment on the route you just completed and compare yourself to everyone else who passes through that segment using Strava.  Doesn't matter when they pass through, so you can "race" against other athletes and compare your performance anytime.

My favorite part about the app is the simplicity of using it.  I hit the record button, do my ride or run, then hit the stop and save buttons.  Done.  I can play around with my phone or computer later on to analyze to my heart's content and I never feel overwhelmed with the amount of data or features.

Of course, there are some that abuse the segment chasing features on the app, leading to some very serious and even deadly consequences.  Some great articles about the deaths and insanity caused by misuse of the app can be found here and here.

Another great tool I discovered in the last year, is to get your metabolic rate and VO2 level tested.

Your metabolic rate is how fast you burn calories when resting and working out, and helps build a nutrition plan to fuel your athletic pursuits.  Your VO2 level measures your oxygen intake and how you process lactic acid and will give you the "workout zones" for your cardio measuring to determine when you are pushing yourself, and when you are just sandbagging.

The only way to get faster is to work outside of your comfort zone and push your limits, so you need to establish what those limits are.

Charla and I are fortunate that we can get tested on the local military base at the Army Wellness Center, for free.  Usually, testing like this costs quite a bit which is why so many amateurs don't partake.  There are devices and online tools that can help you determine your own VO2 level and metabolic rates, but I highly recommend seeing a doctor or professional sports physiologist to get a more accurate reading.  Your body will thank you later.

What my heart rate monitor usually says.

Our next step was purchasing heart rate monitors for training.  We found some inexpensive sets on Amazon.com from Timex.  Each comes with a chest band monitor and a wristwatch display.  The wristwatch also has the basic Timex stopwatch modes so it doubles as a regular workout watch.  Supposedly, these work in the pool, but I haven't tried them out yet.  One hint, use a little Body Glide or anti-chafe ointment for the chest band if you're going out for a long run.


Our testing gave us 4 zones to work with.  Resting, Endurance, Threshold, and VO2 Max.  Using these zones we can determine how hard we're working and how hard we need to push ourselves to either get faster, or recover. 


Basically, it works like this.  In the Resting zone, you're not really doing anything and can do this all day long without fatigue.  You should probably get off the couch and start moving eventually.  If you're riding your bike, you need to quit drafting off everyone and start pulling your share.

Go Squatch, Go!

In the Endurance zone, you are working but not producing more lactic acid than your body can process.  You can keep this pace for a long, long time.  You're probably running a marathon (slowly) or pedaling on a relaxed group ride.  At the upper end of this zone, you will eventually get tired, but it will take a long time.

In the Threshold zone, you are producing more lactic acid than your body can handle and you're going to tire out in a few minutes.  How many minutes depends on how deep in the zone you are and how in shape you are.  I can run about 7-10 miles with my heart rate in this zone, but I'm also part animal.

If you drop back into the Endurance zone you should recover somewhat and keep going for a long time.  The pro-cyclists that you see in the Tour de France typically push themselves into the Threshold (or beyond) to sprint ahead of the pack or catch up with a breakaway, and then drop back down to just inside the Endurance zone to keep racing.  They can do this all day long because they train for it and it makes them seem insanely fast.

Above the Threshold zone you are approaching your VO2 max and will drop dead very soon.  You're probably sprinting in a 100 meter dash or outrunning a T-Rex.  If you don't slow down, you will fall down.

The Threshold zone is great for building some speed and endurance.  You will get faster and develop slow twitch muscles to support your endurance.  Pushing your VO2 max will develop your fast twitch muscles, give you super speed in short bursts, increase your ability to recover from a hard workout and will hurt a lot.  Good for you.

Learning more about your bodies abilities is a good first step into improving upon what you can already do.  Know your limits, then push them.

Then, you have to have a plan.  You need to find a goal to work towards.  It can be a specific race, event, obstacle course, or distance that you want to accomplish.  Don't focus on anything banal like a pants size or weight class.  We're here to get fast, not diet.  Those tips are for another blog.

Backwards plan off your goal.  Think about all the steps and obstacles you have to overcome before you hit your goal.  Common wisdom says not to increase your weekly total by more than 10%, so always plan plenty of time before you hit your goal to incremently lengthen your run/ride/swim.  I don't always follow that rule, but then, I also don't respect any of my physical limitations.

There are all sorts of programs and training schedules to pick from.  And, it doesn't matter which one you choose, just so long as you stick with it.  The key is to know yourself, what you're capable of, and where you want to be in the end.

Know your limits!

Respect your body, work towards your goal, and stay motivated. 

And don't get eaten by a bear!  Seriously.