I've written a lot in this blog about how great the riding is in the Chelan area. It's no coincidence that we hold the Cycle U Skills and Hills Cycling Camp in Chelan. I love riding there!
This Saturday (June 25th) I'll be in Chelan to ride my third straight Chelan Century Challenge. This event is absolutely one of the best in the Pacific Northwest. Here is what I had to say after my first Chelan Century:
http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/tour-de-chelan-century-challenge-on-6.html
If you do a search on this blog for "Chelan" or "Chelan Century," you will find that I have written in great length about why the Chelan area is close to perfect for cycling.
Team High Performance Cycling as well as Cycle U will be well represented on Saturday. I hope to see you as well.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
HOWC Ride Report Metal Cowboys: It’s not about the bike…at all (it’s really not about the bike)
Miles: 68 (70 with ride end bonus treat) Climbing: 3000’ (4000’ with bonus) Route: Tibbets—Issaquah-Hobart Rd—Landsburg—Cumberland—Veazie—Enumclaw (400th)—244th—Whitney Hill Rd—218th—Moneysmith—Thomas—Covington-Sawyer Rd—216th—Witte—Maple Valley—Maxwell—Cedar Grove—Mountain Park Squak bonus climb—Tibbets Participants: 10 Attrition Rate: 1 (a shocking complete detonation within the 1st mile; it looked like he was shot out of a cannon off the back) Soldier of the Day: Ian L for his incredible work on the front/Steve H for showing up and riding hard (4:40 Flying Wheels 100 yesterday and 70m more at a 20mph average speed today. Steve spent more time on the front than a lot of us, including me) Cima Coppi: 1st Ian L 2nd Garrett C 3rd Dan F
After a little bit of a herky-jerky start, we settled into a real groove on today’s ride. Riding south from Issaquah toward Black Diamond, one is basically riding gradually uphill the entire way. Additionally, there was a headwind the whole way south. The combination of the gradual uphill and headwind made it difficult for riders to maintain a consistent effort level when they got to the front of the paceline for a pull. Once we got the pace sorted out, things went along smooth as butter. Things are now starting to gel with the new Issaquah start. It’s amazing how much different today’s ride felt than last week’s somewhat chaotic effort. We rode hard today, but smooth enough that people didn’t yo-yo back and forth off the back of the group.
As with last week’s ride, today’s route lent itself to a significant amount of pacelining. We spent much of the ride on deserted smooth rural roads as we navigated a big clockwise circle around Black Diamond. There were still ample opportunities to go for it on many climbs, and things sorted out when the road tilted upward and we called for a re-group.
You know it's a hard ride when you spend 99% of the time in the big ring. I can only distinctly remember one climb where I used the small ring, and that was on the sustained 9% 218th climb up from Green Valley Road.
Since starting the ride in 2003, I have led 200+ HOWC rides. Yes, many of the rides are a blur and many don’t even register in my memory. That’s why I started writing the HOWC ride reports in this blog! While I certainly can’t remember many of the super strong riders who have been on the ride, one thing that does stand out are the people who absolutely fly up the climbs.
I’m not talking about the guy who shows up on the ride, pours his guts out on the road and hammers one climb before splitting. I’m also not talking about people who target the climbs, staying in the draft the rest of the time to save their legs. Rather, I am talking about people who are there on the first climb, the last climb, and every climb in between. The indefatigable Ian L took monster pulls on the front of the ride, including the last 5+ miles back into Issaquah. Normally you are yelling, “Hey, let somebody else have a turn!” because the lead rider is slowing down and doesn’t realize it. Not so with Ian, and I don’t think anyone was less than extremely happy that he did a lot of the work.
In addition to being a workhorse, Ian is also the second strongest climber I have seen on the HOWC, and that makes him the second strongest climber I have ever seen, period. (Only super-cyclist Chris Ragsdale is stronger IMHO, but we would be watching Chris on TV this summer if he had discovered cycling at a younger age.)
The three strongest climbers on today’s ride were all riding metal. Ian was on his steel Rodriguez, Garrett C was on a steel Bianchi with downtube shifters, and Dan F was on a titanium Merlin his dad handed down to him. If it were all about the bike, these three riders would have ranked toward the bottom amongst our heavily carbon-laden crew. No, it’s about something else. I was pleased that all three of our Metal Cowboys were riding with Campagnolo. (Oops…wait…that’s definitely about the bike!)
Just as in golf or any other sport, you can’t buy a game. With cycling, it’s all about a rider’s fitness, aerobic capacity, largely genetically determined; age—face it-max heart rate and aerobic capacity decline with age; ability to grit their teeth and endure pain; determination; and weight, at least for climbing. Note that I’m talking about the rider’s weight, not the bike’s weight. A pound is a pound, but I’d rather have a lighter body than bike.
Dan was very impressive today, as he has been in recent weeks. Dan is a HOWC regular, and many times last year Dan and I climbed side by side. Not so this year, as he has upped his game and was in another dimension, leaving me in the dust. Must be that bike fit I did for him a few months ago. Just kidding! I complimented Dan on his form, and he mentioned that he did Ian’s Wednesday Bends ride almost every week. Yeah, I can see how trying to keep Ian in sight while hammering up six or eight steep climbs would help your fitness. Damn, I need to get motivated!
I tossed in a little bonus at the very end of the ride. I say tossed because I chose not to participate. I was too close to home and that was an easy out! While I took a right on Sunset and rode home through downtown Issaquah, some of the others headed up Squak Mountain, via the 1000’ 8% average grade Mountain Park Boulevard:
http://www.bicycleclimbs.com/climbdetail.aspx?ClimbId=36
Tough any time, Mountain Park Boulevard must have put a real capper on today’s ride.
Maybe I shouldn’t worry about getting motivated and just work on surviving. As we rolled into Issaquah, Bill L, a very strong regular HOWC rider, looked over at me and said, “The young guys made us work hard today, didn’t they?” Yes indeed they did. There is no way I would ride that hard on my own. Wait a second…I can kill two birds with one stone! With the return of the summer HOWC, I’ve not only found a way to work on my form, I’ve found the motivation to do so.
Young guys! What young guys?
Epilogue: As it turned, out no one went up Mountain Park. After I turned right on Sunset, I was sure that a few were starting up, but they must have been bluffing!
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Hills of the West Coast Ride Report...From Chaos Comes Order
Miles: 52 Climbing: 2647’ Route: Tibbets—East Lake Sammamish—187th—Rt. 203—208th—Novelty Hill—Trilogy Parkway—232nd—Old Woodinville-Duval—Cherry Valley—Kelly—Carnation—Fall City—Issaquah Highlands—Tibbets Participants: 14 Attrition Rate: 1 (mechanical) Cima Coppi: Ian L, and it wasn’t even close
Normally the first weekend in June is when we turn the intensity dial up on the HOWC. Today it appeared that we had some people who were expecting the full-on summer pace, even though I listed the ride as a “HOWC Lite” and described the route as about as easy as the HOWC uses. I’m struggling with what to do with the ride this summer, but I’ll get to that later.
Early in the morning the Issaquah Triathlon commenced. We had lucky timing, as we headed north on East Lake Sammamish just after all of the racers had made the turn at Inglewood Hill and were headed back to the south. One of the volunteers called out to us, “Good job, good job!” but I guess they didn’t notice our twin pacelines, because if they had they would have called out, “You’re cheating, you’re cheating!” Drafting is a no-no in a tri.
From East Lake Sammamish, we rode north up 208th, a climb that I did yesterday for the first time. A quite steep section through a tunnel of trees on 208th is reminiscent of the hairpin section of Zoo Hill, except 208th has a perfectly smooth surface. This is a great climb, and it pleases me that I can still make such discoveries around town. After 208th, we worked our way out to Snoqualmie Valley, and then rode a Cherry Valley-Kelly loop from Duvall. While today’s route was far from flat, good portions of the ride were perfect for pacelining, provided the group wanted to work to stay together. Given the lack of the normal number of hard climbs, today’s ride could have been one of those rides where everyone contributes and feels good about it.
With the ride start now in Issaquah new people are coming to the ride in addition to regulars, and that’s great. With this mix, there is bound to be an “adjustment” phase or learning curve until the newcomers feel comfortable with the ride protocols that have worked well on the ride for the last eight years. In addition, I’m riding on familiar roads, but with a different start point and sequence. I am not qui
With 14 people on the ride today, it was a pretty good sized group for a hard ride like the HOWC, at least if you want to have the ride go smoothly and be as courteous to car drivers as possible. The primary focus of the HOWC has always been safety, and I continue to stress that. Today’s ride never felt unsafe to me and we had a lot of very strong and skilled riders. Sometimes that makes for a smooth as silk ride, but not always, especially if there are different agendas and levels of “strong” amongst the riders. Early on, the ride felt quite chaotic to me. I had great difficulty getting all of the riders to work together as a group, and at times we had four or five splits on flat roads. Several people really wanted to push the pace.
The HOWC usually works best with 10 riders or less. With more than that the ride becomes difficult to “manage.” By manage, I mean not only keeping track of people, but ensuring that everyone feels safe and has a good time. If someone shows up who is obviously in over their head, I deal with that as well. If it gets to the point where I am devoting more energy to thinking about the group than pedaling, I know that something is going wrong.
I had promised several people in advance that we would adhere to the advertised “Lite” pace of 20-22mph on the flat. For the first half of the ride I tried hard to make that stick. I always figure my primary responsibility is to the people who came to ride how we said we were going to ride. But the ideal on these rides is to work out a way that allows the largest number of people to have the most possible fun. Compromise is inherent to that strategy, and sometimes the compromises have to be adjusted on the fly.
We stopped several times for short “meetings” to talk about how the ride was going, which, quite frankly, wasn’t that great. We discussed the pace of the ride, and an option for riders who wanted to ride harder to break off from the group and ride on their own. No one wanted to do that, and I only brought it up as a suggestion; I didn’t consider it the best solution. After some on-the-road-thinking, I decided to resort to a riding style I refer to as “remote re-group” riding. After we were in the Snoqualmie Valley navigating was straightforward with few turns, and it was easy to stop and explain directions for a re-group 3-5+ miles down the road. So that’s what I did. Splits immediately formed, but now I didn’t have to worry about people getting lost or feeling like they were going to be dropped despite being able to ride the stated pace. 
Disorder became order, and everybody seemed to relax and enjoy themselves after we went to the remote re-grouping strategy. Although it meant a lot more (albeit quick) stops, it was definitely safer and easier for cars to get around us, and everyone got to ride as hard as they wanted to. I know that we will get back to the point where many of the rides operate like a well-oiled machine like we did on so many of the Downtown start rides over the last few years. It just takes time for new groups and people to gel.
Regardless of who shows for a ride, unless we are on a deserted road I plan on breaking up large groups into multiple pacelines spaced 100-200’ apart, with each paceline consisting of 6 or seven people. Not only is it easier for cars to pass us, it makes for safer pacelines. You don’t have to be a math whiz to figure out that the more people who are riding very close together, the greater the chance for a big accident. In addition, shorter lines means the riders rotating off the front are out from the line and exposed to traffic less on their way to the back of the line. Of course, two or more groups mean more groups to keep track of, and I can only be in one group at a time!
So the feel and flow of the 2011 Issaquah HOWC has yet to take form. It’s my “job” to define that, and as I mentioned, I am not clear on things at this point. First of all, I do not feel as fit as I need to be to run the ride at the super hard summer pace, especially without the help from other ride leaders that I have come to depend upon. I suspected that I wasn’t as fit as I normally am at this time of the year, but riding a few HOWCs with friends I ride with a lot confirmed it. I’m not as strong as normal in early June, but many of my friends are. How did everyone (but me) manage to get so flipping fit with the awful winter and spring weather we had? Have they been riding the trainer 14 hours a week all winter when the weather was crappy? J)
We’ve only had four HOWC’s, the first taking place on May 1st, and none of them climbing based. I’ve missed my normal April/May HOWC hard climbing “build,” and that leaves me with tough choices. While I think I am probably strong enough to hang with the pace on a full on summer HOWC, I may not be strong enough to enjoy leading it. It’s bad form if the leader of the ride is one of the hangers-on. The solution to improving my fitness is obvious to me but will be difficult to achieve.
Looking out my window, I see some of my favorite climbs on Squak Mountain. What I need to do is ride a hard HOWC every weekend, and then pound up those Squak climbs mid-week. Yeah, that’s the ticket; do some Vo2 max pace climbing, because that is what I will be doing a lot of on the HOWC. This means a hard ride on Saturday or Sunday and again on Wednesday, and rest or mostly short easy rides on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Given that this is the time of year to just get out and ride, I’m not sure that I am willing to make the sacrifice. I’m leaning towards saying “screw it,” and just riding however and whenever I feel.
And then there are the distractions. Living a three minute walk to a Tiger Mountain trailhead, and being able to ride to Grand Ridge singletrack in about the same time does present a dilemma. I have so many options, and only so many B.T.U’s of energy available! There is nothing stopping me from going out for an after dinner hike or MTB ride, or at any other time for that matter. Choices, choices, and more good choices; what a nice problem to have.
Hey, I’m riding for fun. I always tell the people I coach to write down their goals. Maybe my only goal this year should be to have as much fun as possible. I think I’ll write that down and then figure out how to accomplish it as I ride.
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