tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65158535120500672782024-03-13T23:17:46.583-07:00Tom's Bicycle Thoughts & More...Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.comBlogger197125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-65069848250789885542024-01-12T10:59:00.000-08:002024-01-22T10:42:23.283-08:00Steve Hulsman R.I.P.<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">Steve Hulsman was tragically killed in a collision with an automobile on December 21st. </span><a href="https://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2023/12/23/man-killed-while-biking-in-west-seattle-identified-as-steven-hulsman/" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><span class="s1">https://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2023/12/23/man-killed-while-biking-in-west-seattle-identified-as-steven-hulsman/</span></a><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"> Update </span><a href="https://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2024/01/19/police-person-who-killed-steve-hulsman-was-driving-with-a-suspended-license/" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">https://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2024/01/19/police-person-who-killed-steve-hulsman-was-driving-with-a-suspended-license/</a></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">I think about Steve every time I ride, and often when not on the bike.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">I first met Steve around 2006 when he started to show up for the Hills of the West Coast ride that I had started in 2003. After coming on the ride for a while he began to unofficially help me keep the ride organized. Back then we were getting up to 35 riders, so his efforts were much appreciated! Eventually, we talked about him becoming a Cascade Bicycle Club Ride Leader. I don’t remember if he asked about becoming a ride leader, or if I suggested it, but I still remember the day we discussed it. Of course I encouraged him, and I became his Cascade Ride Leader mentor. He led the HOWC several times as part of the check ride process.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"> </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">After moving to Issaquah at the end of 2010, I continued to lead the HOWC with a start at Tibbets Park. Although Steve lived in West Seattle, he still made a lot of the rides. I was quickly becoming addicted to mountain biking, and after ten years of leading the HOWC I was losing interest in leading it. I suggested that Steve start leading the ride and he eagerly agreed.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">I went back through my cycling blog to read comments I had made about Steve. I thought I would share some of the words that for me really describe what Steve was all about. He was totally unselfish, and incredibly generous with a constantly positive attitude. That is what I will remember about him. That, and the fact that he never hesitated to go to the front and help out the group, no matter how long the ride, or how tired he might be. Steve had class. Steve (kneeling) at the Chelan Century.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhNt9Dknx6sEK-yCgeyAbH_fpvHSN8DHzz2xHg-VZNTMlofJCWhE8X52Bu6R014YAhJuYzNa-X-SFVIu-xfSbw9bQxYfjB4q7muSHv6VnHpzq_IHrgq39xGGegseQCP69laLkx3tIg-DGPJS7wD7Yn3r-DupMTtb3u24NGkGXB_BJbZQJLXWti-gqWLfiY" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1313" data-original-width="2048" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhNt9Dknx6sEK-yCgeyAbH_fpvHSN8DHzz2xHg-VZNTMlofJCWhE8X52Bu6R014YAhJuYzNa-X-SFVIu-xfSbw9bQxYfjB4q7muSHv6VnHpzq_IHrgq39xGGegseQCP69laLkx3tIg-DGPJS7wD7Yn3r-DupMTtb3u24NGkGXB_BJbZQJLXWti-gqWLfiY" width="320" /><br /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">From 11-14-09 </span><a href="https://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/11-14-09-hills-of-west-coast.html" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><span class="s1">https://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/11-14-09-hills-of-west-coast.html</span></a></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">Jeff led the ride today, but the true protagonist was </span><b style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">Steve H</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">., who went to the front and picked up the pace anytime we got a little too chatty. Warren was game as always to ride hard, but it was Steve who drove the ride. Rolling home up Lake Washington north of Seward Park, Steve was at it again. Since he had done so much work on the front already, we encouraged him to finish it out and pull all the way to the hill leading to the I-90 tunnel overlook.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">Steve’s almost always willing to sacrifice himself for the good of the group, and he said, “Sure, but you guys will just drop me on the hill.” To which I replied, “Don’t worry about that. We’ll make a deal with you—you do the pulling and we will ride up the hill with you.” A quick consensus formed that this was indeed a great strategy late in the ride. When we got to the hill, Steve just kept the hammer down, and no concession needed to be made. We did ride up the hill with Steve, but not at an “I’m cooked” pace. Steve third from left with me standing on his left.</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg1rBFqM3HVN5F80LhqYvyz7SudeDkRoZAS11NVnHChHKhih9BXljRI5_qWhtCJ6BrAdRzbQe-mVKlUChoDtUN_d2aH71LZSwhba46SWQpxPZ9k1NZrBoSyD0avYYRU3DsTBv7OI6NYmdTAMwx26V77vbH3LTz91r0dBDmQaO9i0ykn4tuhstnrdQwGhrs" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3648" data-original-width="5472" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg1rBFqM3HVN5F80LhqYvyz7SudeDkRoZAS11NVnHChHKhih9BXljRI5_qWhtCJ6BrAdRzbQe-mVKlUChoDtUN_d2aH71LZSwhba46SWQpxPZ9k1NZrBoSyD0avYYRU3DsTBv7OI6NYmdTAMwx26V77vbH3LTz91r0dBDmQaO9i0ykn4tuhstnrdQwGhrs" width="320" /></a></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">From 5-2-10: </span><a href="https://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/522010-howc-ride-report-soldier-of-day.html" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><span class="s1">https://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/522010-howc-ride-report-soldier-of-day.html</span></a><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"> </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">As I mentioned, I will be adding a new category to the header of this blog called “</span><b style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">Soldier(s) of the Day</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">.” Rather than publish the score of which riders climbed the fastest, I’ll be listing the riders who stood out by unselfishly helping on the ride. Today that was </span><b style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">Steve Hulsman</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">, just as it often is. Steve is always eager to jump on the front. So eager, as a matter of fact, that late in today’s ride, I would ride up around him to give him a break and inevitably, he would ride alongside of me instead of on my wheel. Maybe Steve subscribes to the triathlete in training mantra of, “</span><b style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">You may share my wind, but you may not take my wind</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">?” Seriously, Steve did spend time not on the front, but he was up there a lot. Given the amount of climbing we did today, there were not a lot of bona fide paceline opportunities, but for me that just made it even more obvious as to how much Steve was helping out.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">From 5-9-10: </span><a href="https://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/5-9-2010-hills-of-west-coast-mothers.html" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><span class="s1">https://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/5-9-2010-hills-of-west-coast-mothers.html</span></a><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"> </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">Last week’s Soldier became this week’s General. Steve led the ride to meet part of the requirements to become a Ride Leader for Cascade Bicycle Club, and he did a great job. Of course, having a group of experienced riders never hurts and we had another great group today. Steve did a nice job with the pre-ride safety talk, and as always, emphasis was placed on emphatically pointing out hazards to the riders behind you. Steve’s comment on the post read, “Thanks again Tom. That's quite a promotion in just one week. I'm afraid of what it will be next week... ;o)”</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">From 5-1-11: </span><a href="https://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/miles-61.html" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><span class="s1">https://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/miles-61.html</span></a><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"> </span></p><p><b style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">Soldier of the Day</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">: N/A as we mostly shared the front (but Steve H. gets a big honorable mention for singlehandedly pulling the group at the end of the ride from Cedar Grove Road all the way to Tibbets)</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">From</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">6-12-11 </span><a href="https://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/metal-cowboys-its-not-about-bikeat-all.html" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><span class="s1">https://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/metal-cowboys-its-not-about-bikeat-all.html</span></a><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"> </span></p><p><b style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">Soldier of the Day</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">: 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)</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">It’s ironic that I returned to leading HOWC rides from Issaquah in the summer of 2023, while Steve continued to lead HOWC rides from Seattle. I plan on leading more HOWC rides starting in the spring, and for sure, I will be thinking of Steve.</span></p>Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-71203510807862162972020-06-09T19:19:00.001-07:002020-06-09T19:19:03.883-07:00Mountain biking: To crash or not to crash broken right collarbone edition<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">It seems a bit tardy to call this a followup to my last post on my cycling blog! Four years ago to the day, I published my blog titled <i>Mountain biking:</i> <i>To crash or not to crash. That is (one of) the questions. Becoming a 75%er</i>:</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">It’s time for an update.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">After some 250,000+ miles of riding, including well over 35,000 miles on mountain bikes, I joined the Cyclist Broken Collarbone Club on March 16th. They say it is not if, but when, a cyclist will break a collarbone. It took a while, but I got there.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Every year, my number one objective is to not fall off my bike. I have not had a road bike fall since 2007 (knock on wood), but the mountain bike is a different animal. In 2017, I made it all the way until November before I took a totally innocuous little fall. I try and limit my descending speeds to within 75% of what I perceive as my limit, based on my skills, trail conditions including sight lines, how I feel that day, etc. I constantly work on developing techniques to enable me to ride smoother, and more in control.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">It’s not that I am scared of falling off, or even of getting hurt. It’s <i>time off of the bike</i> that I am scared of. The older you are, the longer the recovery. No matter how fit or genetically blessed one might be, it is a simple fact that older bones and tendons do not heal like 21 year old parts. The other sad part of the equation is that it generally takes three times as long to regain fitness as it does to lose it, and that also increases with age. In some cases, an older athlete may never regain all of the fitness lost during an extended period off of the bike. I love to ride my bike as much as possible. I love the feeling of being really fit. Being unable to ride for any length of time is just not acceptable. I hope to ride bikes until I die, but I know I will finish up on road bikes. I don’t have forever left to ride mountain bikes, so hurting myself and costing me precious time is not good.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">It’s a lot of fun nailing the perfect rhythm on a descent. The scary thing as it relates to my crash is that I wasn’t even descending, nor was I pushing the envelope in a tricky section of trail. I was on flat ground and not riding hard at all, traversing a short section of tree roots that I had ridden across a thousand times previously. I had just passed two riders. As I look back on the crash, I wonder if I was distracted somehow. Did I subconsciously think I knew the riders? Was I trying to conjure up a name? Was there something else that caused me to lose focus? I keep coming up with the same answer: I just seriously messed up somehow while riding a section of trail on auto-pilot. One should never put it on auto-pilot when riding, but it’s pretty damn hard to focus 100% of the time on a four hour ride. I guess I wish that I had crashed while doing something over the edge stupid, but I try not to ever ride that way!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Of course, mountain bike riding is inherently dangerous. Obviously, that is part of the attraction. I’m still searching for the “lessons learned” component of my fall, but the crash has only reinforced previous lessons learned. Falling off sucks, and it seems like a highly experienced and skilled rider should be able to avoid it. That would be a good thing, because highly skilled riders are usually going pretty fast when they fall off.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Against the “strong suggestion” of my surgeon, I have been riding my road bike for the last month, as well as the mountain bike on local gravel roads. It will interesting to see how I feel when I get back out on real trails with real risk. I will want to ride conservatively as I shake off the rust, but not tentatively. Full time concentration will be something I will be working on, but I have always done my best to keep my head in the game at all times.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Climbing has always been my favorite part of riding, but what goes up, must go down, and I’ve been able to go downhill pretty well without taking unnecessary risks. I will have to keep what is in the back of my mind out of my mind when I’m on the bike, and not let it creep into my riding. Relaxing will be key, as will not dwelling on the past. Perhaps my whole approach to riding will change. If so, I will embrace wherever that takes me.</span></div>
Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-55140622934401902092016-06-09T17:28:00.000-07:002016-06-09T18:20:54.404-07:00Mountain biking: To crash or not to crash. That is (one of) the questions. Becoming a 75%erWhen I was a little kid, I wanted to be a Formula One driver or a fighter pilot when I grew up. Not a police officer, fire fighter, or even an astronaut. Not even a rock 'n' roll star, although in hindsight I think that would have been very cool.<br />
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During college, I interviewed with the Navy regarding their fighter pilot training program. Notwithstanding the fact that I didn't like taking orders, flying fighters off of carriers seemed like a perfect way to spend some time after college until I figured out what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Looking back, I think I declined to pursue Navy flying because the military vibe was at a very low ebb at that time. More likely, I probably was concerned about my fate if it turned out that I wasn't good enough to make the fighter pilot cut. Spending seven years flying tankers or cargo planes would have been, for me, miserable.<br />
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I have always liked going fast, and have often been willing to pay the consequences for doing so. I had major shoulder surgery in January. The root of this surgery (the second time my left shoulder has been operated on) goes all the way back to a motorcycle racing crash when I was nineteen. Sure, years of wear and tear from golf, rock climbing, etc, have taken their toll, but I have not had a normal fully healthy left shoulder since that crash. Post-surgery, I endured three months of not being able to ride my road bike, and five months of no mountain biking.<br />
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Now that I have been back riding my mountain bike for a week, I find myself contemplating my riding philosophy going forward. My main goal at the present time is to protect my shoulder, as I certainly don't want to do anything to damage the surgical repair. I find myself riding conservatively, not cautiously, as that can easily turn into tentativeness, which is not good.<br />
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I probably should not even think this, let alone write it, but I have not had a DWI (Dismount Without Intent) while riding a road bike since 2007. Since that time, I have ridden over 60,000 miles. Prior to that, it was another 50,000 miles or so since I had a DWI. I have to wonder if it is possible to have a similar track record while mountain biking?<br />
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<span class="s1">I do cross country style mountain biking and ride a pure and highly focused XC race bike. With XC, the emphasis is more on climbing than descending. Cross country riding is certainly not as dangerous as Downhill or Enduro riding, but XC bikes do not have as much suspension travel, and therefore are less forgiving when ridden fast. There is not a lot of margin for error when ridden on the edge.</span></div>
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I spent some time working on descending with a few of the riders who attended our seventh annual Cycle U Chelan Skills and Hills Cycling Camp in May. The mantra I tried to convey is, "No one is paying you to ride fast downhill." The key to improving descending ability is to gain confidence through skill development. No matter how skilled a rider becomes, my mantra is a reminder to ride well within your skill level. Perhaps it is time for a keener focus on practicing what I preach?<br />
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Just like with alpine skiing, learning to mountain bike involves falling. Building skills requires constantly pushing the limit just a bit, otherwise, a rider is not likely to make much progress. Most of the falls a beginning rider takes are rather innocuous, unless a rider continually pushes way beyond their current skill level. Newer riders tend to avoid tricky terrain, and ride at slow speeds, thereby helping to ensure that most falls are not serious.<br />
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I don't fall off of my mountain bike very often, perhaps 2-4 times a year. The problem is that my falls are not usually the harmless type that a beginner takes. Having spent over 2000 hours riding mountain bikes, I am well beyond that stage. No, the falls I typically experience almost always occur when I am riding at "85-90%." Riding at 100% is for racing (a whole other discussion as relates to crashing), but a skilled and experienced rider is usually going pretty hard and fast at 85-90%. These falls hurt!<br />
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I could easily attribute my new found desire to not crash to age, but that's not it, as I was often pushing hard until my surgery. I am simply no longer willing to accept the consequences of falling off of my bike. Even though my shoulder surgery had nothing to do with mountain biking, going through the months and months of rehab has resulted in a new appreciation for the value in not injuring myself.<br />
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I have nothing to prove at this point of my life, to myself or anyone else. Nevertheless, I guess I am satisfied that I have a lot of great past results on Strava, and I certainly don't feel any need to push hard going forward. I'm not likely to improve upon any of my results that involve any downhill (or even flat) riding sections. Peer pressure can be a funny thing as relates to something like Strava, but I'm not feeling it.<br />
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I now have an unusual goal for the remainder of 2016. I am not going to fall off of my mountain bike. I figure that the best way to do that is to ride at a 75% speed potential or less. I won't ride with some of the people I know who ride fast all of the time, but perhaps I will enjoy riding with more people who never ride fast. I don't expect riding my mountain bike will be any less fun. I'm riding at less than 50% currently, and having a ball!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-23517212815274610652015-12-20T20:01:00.001-08:002015-12-20T20:01:38.946-08:00It's funny how things work out...for the best<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">I’ve spent almost 2000 hours riding mountain bikes on the local trails near where we live: Duthie, Grand Ridge, Soaring Eagle, and Tiger Mountain. I had never seen a unicycle on the trails until yesterday, when I encountered one at Grand Ridge. Today I saw another unicycle over at Duthie. What are the odds of this occurring, one in a million? </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">In any case, while I was riding today, I was thinking about fate, serendipity, and how what seem to be random events can link up and determine the future path one’s life will take.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">In 2009, author John Summerson sent a copy of his book The Complete Guide to Climbing (By Bike) to Cascade Bicycle Club:</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s2"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Climbing-Bike/dp/0979257107/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1450666149&sr=8-7&keywords=the+complete+guide+to+climbing+by+bike">http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Climbing-Bike/dp/0979257107/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1450666149&sr=8-7&keywords=the+complete+guide+to+climbing+by+bike</a></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"> At the time, I wrote a monthly fitness column for the Cascade Courier, and I was asked if I wanted to write a review of the book for my column. Had John not sent the book, or if I were not involved with Cascade, I would not have become enamored with the idea of a cycling trip to the Eastern Sierras of California. In June of 2010, David Longdon and I made the trip (I returned in 2014 with John Pottle), and a few months later we did a presentation on our adventures for almost 200 people at the Seattle REI: </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s2"><a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/search?q=sierras">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/search?q=sierras</a></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Had David and I not needed to fill up the gas tank on the way home we wouldn’t have stopped in Eugene, Oregon. David had lived in Eugene, and we took some time to have lunch, and do a walking and driving tour around town. I was so impressed with Eugene, upon returning to Seattle, I discussed with Tracy the idea of a potential move to Eugene some day. The very next weekend we drove to Eugene to learn more about the area. I took a bike, and one of David’s old friends was gracious enough to show me around on a ride. Over lunch, Ian and his wife were happy to elaborate on why they were so passionate about life in Eugene.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">A week later, had I not been out riding in Issaquah, I would not have had an epiphany about where we would choose to live for what we feel could be many years. As I was descending Mountain Park Blvd, laid out below me was the little downtown area of Issaquah. As I cruised by the fish hatchery and brew pub, I realized that Issaquah felt an awful lot like Eugene to me. Even better than Eugene actually, as Issaquah is nestled in the foothills, and Eugene is 3-4 miles from the surrounding hills, and of course Issaquah is close to one of the greatest cities in America. In addition, not only did we already live in the Seattle area, Washington doesn’t have a 9.9% personal income tax like Oregon! Tracy and I had lived happily in Downtown Seattle for ten years, but in late December of 2010, we were packing up and moving to a rented townhouse in Issaquah. </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">After a little over a year of careful contemplation, we found a “project” property, and spent a year working with an architect and contractor to turn it into exactly the kind of house we could live in forever.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Had Tracy and I not moved to Issaquah, I would never have considered giving mountain biking a try. Now I spend countless hours (well, almost 2000 anyway) riding the local trails. So in a way, reviewing that book became a life changing experience for me.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Speaking of Tracy…</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">In 1998, I was distracted and preoccupied with work related issues. Had I not been, I would have taken a typical planned vacation during “tax deadline” week in mid-April. At the last minute with no previous thought as to taking a trip, I entered “solo travel” as an internet search. The first site that popped up was Club Med. After a quick phone call (it was just easier that way back then), I had made arrangements for an all inclusive trip to Playa Blanca in Mexico. </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The following week I found myself in Playa Blanca. I had always wanted to try a Club Med trip, based on its 70’s reputation for decadence. What I discovered instead was a social environment where it was easy to meet people and make friends. Had one of the guys I was hanging out with not met Tracy’s roommate and her “group,” I likely wouldn’t have found myself meeting Tracy. Had Tracy not had a little bit too much to drink that night, she might have been a bit shy when we met. The next day at the pool, I might not have noticed Tracy if she had not decided to dive in to the water near where I was sitting.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Lest I forget, had Tracy not been a teacher on spring break during the same week, she wouldn’t have been in Mexico when I was. In fact, had her girlfriend not cancelled on her for their long planned trip to Hawaii, she wouldn’t have thought about Club Med, made the call, and found her way to Playa Blanca.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">It’s funny how things work out. Had I not reviewed that book in 2009, I wouldn’t have seen the unicycles riding on the trails yesterday and today. </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Had I not been too busy to think about a spring vacation in 1998, I would not have experienced the most significant turn of events of my lifetime. I wouldn’t be married to Tracy. We wouldn’t have spent the last 17 years together, and we wouldn’t be making plans to spend the rest of our lives together. Indeed, it is funny how things work out, and in this case, work out for the best.</span></div>
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<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-65278815622504618802014-10-31T17:00:00.000-07:002014-11-25T11:09:05.032-08:00Ride Younger and Don't Act Your Age: Bad Ass Birthday RideOctober is always a rainy month, but this year has been exceptionally so. We've had about two inches of rain over just the last 36 hours. On my birthday morning, it was still raining heavily. Some people like to celebrate their birthday by "riding their age" in miles on their road bike. I prefer doing something a little more challenging, although riding on the road in today's deluge would have certainly been more than challenging, and perhaps a little masochistic!<br />
<br />
I came up with a plan of riding my age in minutes of hard effort on the mountain bike. Given the mud and rain, I guess I could say that today's entire ride was hard, but I counted only the minutes where I was going hard physically. Going hard, but not very fast, is the best way to describe it. Because of the conditions, I decided to stay on the south side of Grand Ridge, as the north side and Duthie don't drain nearly as well. I expected today to be a solo odyssey, but I did see one trail runner. Dressed in pink, her smile told me that she was having as good a time as I was.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://app.strava.com/activities/214031542">http://app.strava.com/activities/214031542</a><br />
<br />
So the ride was almost a pure up-down-up-down-up-down kind of thing. It was either raining or "training" (previous rain shaken from the trees) for the entire ride, and the forest canopy was so dense I couldn't differentiate between the two.<br />
<br />
Cycling has proven to be an incredible Fountain of Youth for me. Over the years, I have done a really good job of ignoring the calendar and my chronological age. It's been more difficult this year, because I have finally allowed some shock to creep in about my age. But I am riding "younger" than I ever have, and I block any thought of my real age out of my mind when I am on the bike. I am the leanest I have ever been, my fitness level is very high, and I am climbing faster on the bike than I ever have before. Most importantly, riding a bike still makes me feel just a little bit like a kid.<br />
<br />
While I have a love-hate view of Strava, I do have to admit that it is good for several things that are very important to me. Most critically, I can compare today's me with last year's me on the same timed segments. Assuming I made a fairly consistent effort, I get a relative idea of my fitness between then and now.<br />
<br />
In addition, with the Strava leaderboards, I don't have to risk life and limb in a race or sketchy group ride to get a feel for how I am doing compared to a universe of local riders. It's possible to see how you compare to everyone, or just the people you follow, or those in the same clubs. With a premium membership, one can also compare their times with different weight classes and age groups.<br />
<br />
I take a look at the full leaderboards, and almost never even think to look at the age group leaderboards. After all, riding age is what counts to me, and I seem to have done pretty well at decoupling that from my actual age.<br />
<br />
Of course it is not if, but when, I will slow down significantly on the bike. I'll fight that as long as I can, by eating well and riding smarter. Hell, I'll just ride harder if need be to keep up with last year's me:)<br />
<br />
When the day comes that I start to look at the Strava age groups for signs of success (or an excuse for lack thereof), I will have thrown in the towel. Perhaps that day will come when I simply can no longer do well within the general universe of riders, or when I reach a certain chronological age number that I can no longer ignore.<br />
<br />
In any case, even if I have to resort to taking a peek at the age group boards, I will still be trying to ride as young as I can. My real riding goal is to keep my riding age around 50-75% of my chronological age. Of course that is subjective, and I am the only person doing the evaluation, but I'll be honest with myself.<br />
<br />
The importance of how strong I am on the bike will naturally diminish as I age. If all else, fails, I'll just revel in feeling a little bit like a kid when I am on the bike. After all, that is the true Fountain of Youth that riding a bike can provide.<br />
<br />
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<br />Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-10862551353020903452014-01-02T22:10:00.000-08:002014-01-28T22:30:40.583-08:00Two Car or Not Two Car: That is the Question<div class="MsoNormal">
Today, Tracy and I did something we have never done before.
We went for a day drive simply to drive, including a visit to Camano Island,
one of the rare places in the state of Washington we had not been to. We had no
end destination in mind. We didn’t drive to go hiking or snowshoeing somewhere,
or to shop at a Factory Outlet Mall! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We racked up 208 miles, first taking the highway to
Marysville, and then driving the full loop of Camano. We stopped for a nice
lunch in Stanwood, and then we went driving home on back roads that I knew from
cycling to be quiet, twisty, and hilly. We took Burn road from Arlington to
Granite Falls. To get to Sultan from Granite Falls, we took Menzel Lake Road,
Lake Roesinger Road, Woods Creek, Old Pipeline, and Reinert Road. From Sultan
to Monroe, we used Ben Howard Road. I can highly recommend all of these roads
as being fantastic for driving or cycling, although there are no shoulders. I
can’t comment about weekend traffic, but during a weekday there is very light
traffic through this area.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What might the impetus for the drive have been?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We spent a good part of New Year’s Eve buying a
new Subaru Forester Touring model with a safety package called the Eyesight
Driver Assist Program. This was our first car purchase since we bought a new
Forester in 2004. We now have two cars in the garage for the first time since
May of 2001. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, we didn’t “need” a new car at all, as our
Forester is still in perfect condition and only has 85,000 miles on it. We
barely have much use for even one car, let alone two! I didn’t really grasp why
we needed a new car, but Tracy had always had ten years in her mind as a
logical replacement time, and she drives the car 90% of the time. She just felt
like she wanted to get a new car, and the safety enhancements in the redesigned
2014 Forester were the icing on the cake.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The choice to get another Forester was pretty easy, as the
Forester suits our outdoors lifestyle perfectly; the one we already own has
been a great car. We didn’t have any interest in something super fancy,
although the Touring version of the Forester comes loaded with a lot of luxury
features in addition to the safety stuff. Actually, the major reason we bought
the top finish level Touring model was that the Eyesight option package was not
available on the less expensive models. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.subaru.com/engineering/safety.html#safety_eyeSight">http://www.subaru.com/engineering/safety.html#safety_eyeSight</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We certainly don’t need a larger SUV, and we never thought
about buying a regular passenger car. The fact that the 2014 Forester is Motor
Trend’s SUV of the year and Consumer Reports top rated and highest recommended
small SUV didn’t hurt either.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We could have opted for the higher horsepower Forester XT,
which also can be ordered in a Touring version. Tracy has zero interest in more
horsepower, and as previously mentioned, she is the one using the car most of
the time. Besides, the XT wheels looked really ugly to us, and that just
wouldn’t work! We never seriously considered the XT, and that got me to
thinking about cars in general, and how I use and view them these days.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was very fortunate to be able to “retire” from the
investment business at a pretty young age:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/picasso-was-born-to-paint-armstrong-to.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/picasso-was-born-to-paint-armstrong-to.html</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I met Tracy in 1998, and I moved to the Seattle area on
1/1/2000. Moving to Downtown Seattle in 2001 provided the perfect scenario to
test a one car strategy. I sold my remaining sports car, which had already
become superfluous due to sporadic use.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the time, Tracy drove to her full time job over on the
Eastside, but since moving to the Seattle area, I have never been a commuter. We
don’t have kids to haul around. On weeknights and weekends, the car remained in
the garage unless we went to the mountains or have a social event outside of
downtown. We walked everywhere, and I had a fixed gear single speed bike I used
for both fun and errand running. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The thought of adding a second car never entered our minds
when we left Downtown Seattle after almost ten years and moved to central Olde
Town Issaquah. I sold the single speed, but we still walk to the town center
from our house on Squak Mountain, and run errands on our bikes to the Farmers
Market and a few other places. One of the major location requirements for the
house was that it had to be a ten minute or less walk to town. I now ride a
mountain bike in addition to riding on the road, but I ride to the local trails.
We live a quarter mile from a hiking trailhead on Squak, and I still love to
walk as much as ever. I walk for both pleasure and to run errands, and I hope
to continue doing that (as well as cycling!) until I am a very, very old man.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tracy is now a part time education consultant, and normally
uses her car two days a week for work, except in the summer. I can use the car
most other days, but I find I rarely do so. Often I will think of a destination
cycling trip I would need to use the car for, consider the planning and traffic
involved, and wind up just riding out of my garage. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For me, the “pleasure” of driving is gone, and it is now
more of a burden…although I must admit I had a blast today on our drive in the new
car. We don’t have the fantastic deserted mountain roads that I drove in
Colorado, and we live in a wet climate, so there isn’t much of a reason to have
a special sports car or sports bike. I’d spend more time cleaning it than
riding or driving!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cars are meant to be used for transportation, and of course
that is always going to be their primary use. In my twenties and early
thirties, I also drove for pleasure and sport. I lived in Denver, and had a job
that required me to travel throughout the Rocky Mountain West. Rather than take
puddle jumpers, I explored just about every possible paved road using high
performance cars, including two Porsches. I was something of a “professional
speeder,” but in those days the Rockies were full of wide open prairie roads,
great mountain and canyon roads, and very few law enforcement officers. It was
a great place to drive fast before traffic became overwhelming.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I got older, I still used cars for transportation, work,
and convenience. I owned two cars most of the time when I was single, normally
a sports car for fun and a more utilitarian car I used just to get around. I
also often had a sport bike motorcycle as well! At some point, I started to
notice that instead of a convenience, cars were starting to become an
inconvenience, especially two of them. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not owning two cars for the past 12+ years has very rarely
been an inconvenience with our lifestyle. In fact, not having a second car has
felt less inconvenient than maintaining two cars would have been. Now that we
have two cars in the garage, we have decided to take a little time to evaluate
whether we want to keep or sell the old Forester. The potential lack of use is
a real factor. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Since 2001, I am not sure if I could recall more than a few
times when not having my own car inconvenienced me. Yes, it does mean that I
sometimes ride with friends when we leave town on a cycling expedition, but it
doesn’t happen often enough that I think I have been a PITA. Even if I consider
“elective” times I would have driven, not having a second car just has not been
an issue.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The “cost” of keeping the second Forester would not be very
high, and it’s not like we have any specific plans for the amount the car would
likely sell for. If we keep the car, we would likely keep it indefinitely, and
I doubt it would cost much to maintain a car that we would rarely use. What is
probably more significant is the psychological “cost” of keeping the car while
it mostly just takes up space in our garage.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I said, our pleasure drive today was the first that Tracy
and I have ever done together. As a matter of fact, I can’t remember a single
drive just for the sake of a drive after I moved away from Denver in 1994. When
I was growing up, we always had two cars. My father loved cars, and every year
we would trade the car that was two years old in for a new car. Every Sunday my
parents would take my sister and me for a drive. Suzy and I looked forward to
this treat. It was a pure pleasure drive that always involved a stop at a Dairy
Queen. For many years, I drove cars for pleasure. But when I moved to Dallas
where I lived for six years before coming to Seattle, driving for pleasure
ceased. There isn’t a whole lot of reason to get in a car and explore the Texas
countryside, and you have to search far and wide for the curvy and hilly roads
on which to use a sports car.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While I had always thought any second car, would be a fun
car, if I ever do get another sports car, it wouldn’t be a new one. I’d be
looking for a rare 1967 Porsche 911S. There would be no air bags or air
conditioning, and the windows would be crank powered. Or maybe I should get one
of these, especially if horsepower were important, as either option would have
more horsepower than our new car:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://powersports.honda.com/2014/cbr1000rr.aspx">http://powersports.honda.com/2014/cbr1000rr.aspx</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.bmwmotorcycles.com/us/en/index.html?content=http://www.bmwmotorcycles.com/us/en/bike/sportbikes/hp4/hp4_overview.html&notrack=1">http://www.bmwmotorcycles.com/us/en/index.html?content=http://www.bmwmotorcycles.com/us/en/bike/sportbikes/hp4/hp4_overview.html&notrack=1</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I doubt I would use a 911S or sport bike more than once or
twice a month, which is likely about the same as I would drive the old Forester.
I am left to wonder whether there is a perfect equation that will help us determine
if keeping the old car is worth it for very occasional use, or if it would be
more of a burden just taking up space in the garage.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-17747683716486882502014-01-01T20:20:00.001-08:002014-01-01T20:20:49.628-08:002014: Starting Where I Finished…<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Climbing on
my bike. I kicked off the year by racking up 3228’ of the “up stuff” on a mountain
bike ride from home over to Duthie, around the cross country circuit, and then
back over Grand Ridge to High Point. I had 66,368’ of climbing last month,
which made December my biggest climbing month of 2013. I have now climbed over
500,000’ for seven years in a row, and 2013 was the first year I broke through
the 700k barrier, finishing with 706,466’. I do love going uphill. What goes up
must come down, and I love going downhill as well, although not to the same
extent. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Normally on major
holidays I like to ride my road bike on the blissfully deserted highways and byways.
But just like on Christmas Day, I felt the foggy New Year’s Day weather was better
tailored to riding the mountain bike. As I expected, the trails were a lot more
crowded on a relative basis than the roads would have been. Not that sharing
the trails with quite a few people was a burden at all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The trails
were in super shape, I felt great, and I rode very well. Winter is never a time
for going fast on the MTB anyway, and certainly not with crowded trails, so I
decided to focus on something else. My goal for the ride became greeting every
person I met with a unique salutation. Instead of simply saying, “Happy New
Year,” or “Have a great one,” blah, blah, blah, I cooked up something different
to say to every single person or group I encountered. Of course, most of the
time I did start with “Happy New Year,” but otherwise I went with whatever struck
me at the moment. It was a lot of fun to say things like, “You will be in the
sun at the top,” or to a child at Duthie, “That is a cool looking helmet,” or, “Those
are very handsome dogs,” or, “This beats watching football!” In any case, the
most fun part for me was coming up with something different every time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Today’s
project on the trail reminded of several times I have used a similar tactic to
distract me from being really fatigued. Saturday June 9<sup>th</sup> in 2007
was the fifth and crux stage of a cycling tour I was on. The tour was following
the spine of the Pyrenees Mountains. We were using the Raid Pyrenees route
(plus some bonus climbs) from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean. The
fifth stage was particularly arduous, starting in Bagneres-de-Luchon, and ascending
the Col de Peyresourde, the Col d’ Aspin (for which one of our cats is named),
and then the mighty Col du Tourmalet. From the top of the Tourmalet, it was
pretty much all downhill to Argeles-Gazost, the pretty ski village where we
would be spending the night. I say mostly downhill…unless you added the
optional HC climb to the ski station of Hautacam. This climb was immortalized in
2000 when Lance Armstrong stormed up it in an EPO powered rage and rode into
the yellow jersey, just as Bjarne Riis had done when he demoralized and cracked
the entire peloton in the 1996 Tour de France. Adding Hautacam to the already
steep (no pun intended) agenda for the day brought the total mileage to 91,
with 14,000’ of climbing. Of the 17 riders on the trip, I was one of only three
who tackled Hautacam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The turn for
Hautacam came precariously close to the day’s final destination, where food and
a cozy room awaited me. On top of that, it was an up and back unsupported
climb. There was no compelling reason to make that right turn and head up towards
the sky again. At this point, I was riding solo, but there was never any doubt
in my mind the entire day that I was going up that sucker. Well, maybe a shred
of doubt as I crested the Tourmalet in the rain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It was 3600’
of climbing at an average grade of 7% to the official top, but damn it anyway,
I decided to add 200’ of additional very steep climbing up to the upper parking
lot that was at the top of the bunny slope rope tow! Sometimes I wonder just
what it is that makes me do these things, especially when there is not another soul
around.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I was
already deep in the Hurt Locker when I started up Hautacam, and about halfway
up I was having serious doubts as to whether I wanted to continue. When you
start wondering what the point is of what you are presently doing, you know you
are starting to pop! At that stage of the climb, I started to see signs
festooned with the image of a cyclist announcing the gradient for the next
kilometer. These signs are common and normally entertaining on many of the
famous European climbs, but it was pure torture to see the 8%, 9%, and then
10+% numbers on the steeper second half of the climb. To change my focus and
outlook, I decided that every time I went by one of those signs for the next
kilometer I would think of some really special moment I’d enjoyed with Tracy,
who is now my wife. Kilometer by kilometer, the thought might have been
something sweet that she did for me, or a fun trip we had taken together. The
thoughts in my head helped to click off the kilometers, and before I knew it I
was done with the climb.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Another time
I was reminded of on today’s ride was my ascent of the Stelvio on Tuesday, June
17<sup>th</sup> of 2008. I was on a nearly three week cycling trip of a
lifetime with my friend Tim W. Tim’s wife was accompanying us and essentially
driving sag support for us. Sweet! The Stelvio remains the single greatest
climb that I have ever done, and it was an almost mystical experience that day.
We started the 16 mile/6000’ vertical gain/7.1% average grade climb in a
drizzle, but that didn’t last long. Soon we were in a steady downpour, and by
the time we reached the top of the col at over 9000’, it was snowing. Perhaps
the arduous conditions and the lack of traffic on a rainy Monday helped to make
the Stelvio the most incredible climbing experience I have had. In any case, it
was a hard climb. No, make that a VERY hard climb. Day after day of 10,000’+ of
climbing might have had a little to do with that, but even on a good day, the
Stelvio is a monumental piece of riding. Just ask the pros who ride the Giro.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It was a
stunning climb, but nevertheless, at some point, I knew I had to dig deep and
find some kind of bonus motivation to keep me going. The Stelvio is made all
the more special because it has 48 numbered switchbacks that zigzag back and
forth up a very steep face of the mountain:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/european-cycling-2008-tuesday-june-17th.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/european-cycling-2008-tuesday-june-17th.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Switchback #48 is low on the climb. In
general, the higher you go, the closer the switchbacks get. There was a lot of
distance between #48 and #47, and it gave me plenty of time to devise a
strategy to make the climb more enjoyable (survivable?).<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span>On the Stelvio, I tried to
reconstruct each year of my life that corresponded with the number of the
switchback. As the climb got harder as I rode higher, it became more and more
difficult to fill up each kilometer with specific memories, but I gave it my
best effort, and it really did help. It was an odd situation in that I wanted
the experience of the climb to go on forever, but it was a hard climb and I
needed to take my mind off of that as I also focused on enjoying the moment and
my surroundings. At around age 5 I gave up, and just focused on the matter at
hand.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Today I wasn’t trying to distract myself
from any unpleasant sensation. I was simply sharing how much I enjoy riding my
bike with everyone I encountered. It was fun being creative, and hopefully as a
sidelight, I added a little positive vibe to the image of mountain biking. So
once again, I found myself starting the New Year where I left off the previous
year…on my bike. </span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-86720002384886109622013-10-30T10:25:00.001-07:002013-10-30T10:30:28.905-07:00HIT...HAT...FIT...FAT...WIT...WAT<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">As I stare out the window into the early October mist, I am reminded as to just how frustrating it was to implement a consistent strategy for riding last winter. I design training plans for the athletes I coach based on their available hours, experience, goals, patience, and a myriad of other factors. Unfortunately I can’t control the weather, and the weather is often the most variable determinant of whether or not a training plan will yield the results we are looking for.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
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Last winter I taught a training plan clinic for <b>High Performance Cycling</b> team members:<br />
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<a href="http://www.cascade.org/EandR/Ride_HPC.cfm" style="color: #015782; text-decoration: none;">http://www.cascade.org/EandR/Ride_HPC.cfm</a><br />
<br /></div>
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<a href="http://www.cycleu.com/services/team/team_hpc.html" style="color: #015782; text-decoration: none;">http://www.cycleu.com/services/team/team_hpc.html</a><br />
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During the clinic, I discussed how to build the classic periodization style plan for the cycling year. Later in the spring (while winter was still raging), I came to the realization that I wasn’t even close to following the plan I had laid out for myself. Given my flexible time to ride and the possession of a “rain bike” (and willingness to use it), I knew that my athletes wouldn’t have much chance implementing the plans I had written for them. What good is a plan if it can’t be completed?<br />
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Normally our winters are mild enough for year-round cycling. Even so, there is enough variability that following an outdoor riding plan is challenging. This winter I'll be developing a <b>HIT</b> (High Intensity Training) program for people who realistically can ride between 4-6 hours per week (expandable with nice weather) with a maximum of four rides per week. The hard intervals that are part of a HIT plan can be done outdoors, but doing the workouts indoors makes a lot of sense.<br />
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A traditional volume based plan breaks down below ten hours a week. There simply is not enough training stimulus. At eight hours per week, a volume style plan can produce moderate fitness…and keep you there. In other works, the athlete plateaus and often gets frustrated with the lack of progress.<br />
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For people willing to tough it out through the winter weather for 10+ hours per week, I'll use a traditional periodization plan. Personally, I’m going with a HIT plan. Coming from someone who has spent a total of one hour on the trainer over the last three years, this commitment to indoor riding is quite a concession. I plan on doing a lot of hiking and snowshoeing over the winter, and spending less time on the road bike. I’m not sure how I’ll account for muddy <b>MTB</b> rides in my plan, but I’ll work around it.<br />
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In case HIT is copyrighted, I could call it <b>HAT</b> (Hard Ass Training), <b>FIT</b> (Fervently Intense Training),<b>FAT </b>(Fairly Aggressive Training), <b>WIT</b> (Winter Intense Training), or <b>WAT</b> (Winning Attack Training). On second thought, I’ll use HIT and run the risk of copyright infringement.<br />
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There have been a lot of studies over the last several years that demonstrate how effective a HIT strategy can be. Will it work as well as a classic plan built around volume of 12+ hours a week? Well, no, I don’t expect it to, but I suppose if you had no idea as to what to do with those 12 hours HIT very well could be more effective. Depending on the athlete, the goal for a HIT plan could be to prepare for a spring cycling tour or big event, <b>Cycle U Chelan Camp</b>, or to ride strong on group rides. For information about the science of HIT, search the internet for “cycling high intensity training.”<br />
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I think the key when time or weather limits training time is to maximize the quality and value of the riding that can be accomplished. With plenty of time for recovery, I intend to make every minute on the bike count this winter. Come spring, I’ll be doing those longer rides that I used to grit my teeth through over the winter.<br />
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Hey, if we get a week of dry 65 degree weather in the middle of winter, I’ll throw HIT out the window…for a week. I’ll get back to HIT when the next tsunami of rain hits, and I bet I won’t have to wait long.</div>
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Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-19457407107670230622013-09-23T17:35:00.000-07:002013-11-03T17:14:19.702-08:002014 S-Works Tarmac SL4 Contador EditionI named this bike ACE. A is for Alberto, C is for Contador (C could also stand for Clenbuterol, something nobody had ever heard of until he tested positive for it), and E is for the fifth letter of the alphabet, which is appropriate since this is my fifth S-Works Tarmac. Shortly I will post an article that discusses the differences between the bikes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiodq03sEzjDjjCyKoOnFw88I8g5TLBRw0Ff6ALKqt-J_vdTarXH4LnTxR00sDHbvE9JufwxrRLQcmC3JtIMGMXJTJFB5vxis0FjLk0iUc5JOAIv21ZXTLYdPaxgQ5s6BGmRRctVkuev28/s1600/IMG_4456.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiodq03sEzjDjjCyKoOnFw88I8g5TLBRw0Ff6ALKqt-J_vdTarXH4LnTxR00sDHbvE9JufwxrRLQcmC3JtIMGMXJTJFB5vxis0FjLk0iUc5JOAIv21ZXTLYdPaxgQ5s6BGmRRctVkuev28/s640/IMG_4456.JPG" width="640" /></a> It's not like I am a big Contador fan, but I just love the color scheme, and the fact that this bike has fewer Specialized logos than any of the bikes I've owned.<br />
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Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-21320511639963795562013-09-06T21:23:00.000-07:002013-09-09T16:13:51.136-07:00Faceoff: Garmin Edge 510 vs. Garmin Edge 500 review<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">People who
ride with me say that I have a GPS inside my head. I’ve ridden just about every
road one would care to ride not only in the Seattle area, but in the entire state
of Washington, as well as a fair amount in Oregon and California. My “GPS” has been
pretty effective, at least in King County. So I wasn’t looking for GPS help in
the form of maps or courses.</span><span style="line-height: 115%;">I started
using a <b>Garmin Edge 500 </b>a little over a year ago, almost entirely so that I could
try Strava. I quickly realized that I really didn’t know much about either GPS
devices or Strava. Strava is an interesting subject unto itself, and I intend
to voice my many opinions about Strava, both good and bad, in a future article.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 14px;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 115%;">I was hoping
that my Edge 500 and Strava could help me by simplifying personal data
collecting and record keeping for me. For over ten years, I have timed myself
on various local area climbs. My goal has always been to compare today’s me
against yesterday’s younger me, and tomorrow’s older me. This is a great way to
monitor both fitness level and/or the effects of ageing, and I encourage my
coaching clients to do this. With Strava, I figured that I could construct
segments on these climbs, and then I would no longer have to do manual split
times. There would be no more trying to remember if I stopped timing at the
mailbox on the right, or the speed limit sign near the top of the climb. Even
better, I learned that if I wanted to, I could make these segments private and
catalog only my results, so I would have a quick at-a-glance reference data
base. But for this to work, I would need reliable and consistent GPS data.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><b>If you only
use your Edge for road riding, go ahead and skip this whole next section on GPS
accuracy</b>, because it is most applicable to mountain biking in dense cover.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 115%;">In the 90’s,
what is called “<b>Selective Availability</b>” was used for national security purposes
to intentionally degrade GPS signals that consumer devices received. This
practice ended in May of 2000. I remember reading that consumer GPS in theory
would be just as accurate as military GPS. The official jargon was that “<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Users in the U.S. and the rest of the
world would now be experiencing the same basic GPS accuracy of 10-20 meters or
better.” That’s great, but not good enough for what I wanted to do, and quite frankly,
not good enough for Strava in general.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><br /><o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;">I read on and learned that “The actual accuracy users attain
depends on factors outside the government's control, including atmospheric
effects and receiver quality. Real-world data collected by the FAA show that
some high-quality GPS SPS receivers currently provide better than 3 meter
horizontal accuracy.” Now we are talking!<span class="apple-converted-space"> Of
course, the military still has the good stuff: “</span>Higher accuracy is
available today by using GPS in combination with augmentation systems. These
enable real-time positioning to within a few centimeters, and post-mission
measurements at the millimeter level.” OK, I don’t even want to know how much
that costs taxpayers.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;">In a nutshell, <b>my 500 worked pretty well on the road, but not
good enough to eliminate my manual split times, and not good enough for totally
reliable Strava data</b>. In defense of Strava, Strava can only be as accurate as
the data that it uses to do its comparison calculations. It is on the mountain
bike that the 500 let me down big time, with so much GPS tracking error that my
device was transmitting very erroneous information at times when I downloaded
files to Strava. Who knows what kind of results people using phone GPS are
getting, although based on files I have viewed, I suspect it is in line with my
Edge 500.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;">Early this year, <b>Garmin released the 510 and 810 devices with
touchscreens</b>. My initial reaction was that I would be so distracted by a
touchscreen that I would end up in a bad accident. After all, I don’t even carry
a “smart” phone. After talking with Garmin in June about my accuracy issues
with the Edge 500, I realized that I had to give the 510 a try. In addition to the US GPS system, Garmin has
given the 510 the ability to use <b>GLONASS</b>, which is the Russian satellite system.
GLONASS has the same global coverage and precision as the US system:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLONASS">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLONASS</a><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: x-small; line-height: 115%;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: x-small; line-height: 115%;"><b>Using both GPS and GLONASS enables the 510 to “see” twice as
many satellites as the 500 at any given time. </b>When I asked Garmin about
increased accuracy, I was told, “Well, you basically have twice as many
satellites and twice as good of a chance of getting reliable data.” In reality,
the 510 has been more like ten times as good in terms of accuracy, especially
when riding my mountain bike. I would have considered a Garmin 810, but for
some reason Garmin chose not to incorporate GLONASS into the more expensive 810
that features full color mapping. I have a feeling I know why, but more on that
later. While I don’t use maps or courses on the road, the 810 could be really
helpful while hiking or mountain biking…if it had GLONASS to enable it to be
accurate enough for courses and maps to work well under heavy tree cover.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;">On my road bike, my 500 would normally display accuracy of
20-40’, which worked well about 75% of the time. I would sometimes have odd GPS
track results, and friends I ride with shared similar experiences. On the
mountain bike, the typical accuracy value for the 500 was 50-80’, which yielded
decent results at times. At other times, however, the 500 would get “confused”,
displaying accuracy numbers north of 200’. My resulting GPS tracks on days like
this might have well have had me riding in the next zip code. I showed up on
bizarre Strava segments, and more importantly, many segments I actually rode
were not even picked up.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;"><b>My 510 displays accuracy of 10’ or less a high percentage of
the time when road riding. </b>I can’t say how much less, since the value is set
with 10’ as a minimum, but it’s pegged on 10’ a lot of the time. I can’t recall
a single disappointing road GPS track since I have been using the 510. While I
still will do my manual splits for my most important climbs, I am finding that
I am getting Strava data accurate enough for me to make valid comparisons. It
is on the mountain bike, however, where the difference in accuracy between the
500 and 510 is quite dramatic. Typical 510 accuracy values are 15-20’, no
matter what kind of cloud or tree cover I am under. I don’t believe I have ever
seen a higher number than 30’, and I have been obtaining outstanding GPS data
as a result.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;">What this boils down to is that if you use your Garmin on a
mountain bike and want consistently reliable data, the 510 is the only way to
go. If you only ride on the road, the increased accuracy is nice, but
individual results can vary, and I know plenty of people who are happy with
their 500. If it were me, knowing I was getting much more reliable and a higher
level of GPS accuracy alone would justify a 510 for road only use. But what if we forget
about GPS accuracy and mountain biking, how strongly would I recommend the 510
over the 500? Very, very strongly is my answer.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /><b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">First,
the negatives</span></b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> from my perspective:<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;">I had
read complaints of poor user interface, false alerts, and touchscreen
inconsistency. </span><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;">I have not experienced any of the functionality issues early adopters initially
complained about, so I have to assume that they have been corrected with
firmware updates.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;">The 510
is slightly bigger than the 500 and weighs 23g more than the 500 (80g vs. 57g).
I actually prefer the larger size, as it gives me more flexibility in terms of
number of display lines, and text size. I don’t think I will notice the 23g</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Wingdings; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;">J</span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: x-small; line-height: 115%;">Even
though the 510 has a claimed 20 hour battery life vs. 18 hours for the 500, the
“effective” life of the 510 may be quite a bit lower, depending on how the
device is used. I don’t know if the color touchscreen sucks a lot of power, but
using two satellite systems at once (GLONASS can be switched off, but why would
I do that) and the back light full time (see below) does. This is why I think
Garmin didn’t design GLONASS into the 810. I have to figure that color maps
would be too much of an additional power drain.
Here are the battery life numbers: GPS use only: 20 hours, GPS and GLONASS:
15 hours, and worst case scenario of using GPS and GLONASS, with the backlight
on full time at the brightest level: 6 hours. Not a problem right? Well, it
could be…</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The <b>big negative</b>
and the one that could turn off potential buyers is that the <b>510 is not as easy
to read in certain light conditions as the 500.</b> I think battery life must have
limited the type of display they could incorporate with all of the new power
consuming features of the 510. While I have never experienced any problem even
while using the backlight full time, reduced battery life could be an issue if
you are a winter commuter who frequently rides six hours or more at night, uses
the backlight full time, and uses GLONASS as well as GPS. I can’t imagine many
riders fit that profile.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;">I leave the screen on full time while mountain biking, but I
don’t do six hour plus MTB rides. Other users have reported issues in bright
sunlight, but I have no problem at all seeing the screen in bright light
without the backlight, so I don’t normally use it. In certain light conditions
for short road rides, I sometimes leave the backlight on, which works well. At
other times, I set the backlight to remain on for 15 or 30 seconds any time I
touch the screen. In any case, shorter battery life or a more difficult to read
screen has never been a problem for me at any time. <b> I actually find the 510 easier to read overall</b>, since
the larger screen results in a larger font size compared to the 500 when using
the same number of data lines. Of course, I have not yet used my 510 on drab
lighted middle of the winter road rides, but since the light works perfectly
for me in the darkest of woods, I don’t foresee a problem. If you are a heavy
screen watcher, you will want to make sure to take the 510 outside and try it
with and without the backlight before you buy it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /><b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Here are
the positives</span></b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">:<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: x-small; line-height: 115%;">Significantly
increased accuracy give a rider peace of mind that his lung bursting effort
will indeed be picked up by Strava and the segment rendered correctly. As I
mentioned, I don’t use courses, but if I did, I would think the 510’s higher
accuracy would be valuable. Related to this, the 510 has the ability to zoom in
on a course, and according to friends that is a nice feature.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: x-small; line-height: 115%;">Much faster initial satellite acquisition thanks to GLONASS, normally a few seconds instead of up to a few minutes with the 500. </span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-size: x-small; line-height: 115%;">Now this
next one is a surprise to me.</span><b style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"> I far prefer the touchscreen</b><span style="background-color: white; font-size: x-small; line-height: 115%;"> (which works with
gloves) to the four small buttons on the sides of the 500. It is much easier to
swipe the screen without taking my eye off of the road (or trail!) with either
hand than to feel for those small buttons. The 510 does have three buttons
(including the power button), but the two most important ones (lap split and
timer) are located on the top of the unit, where they are much easier for me to
access. With the 510, you can swipe to move from a screen in either direction,
as opposed to using a button to move in only one direction with the 500. This means that if you are using
three screens, you can access any of them with only one swipe. In my opinion,
the </span><b style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">touchscreen alone makes the 510 a very worthwhile upgrade</b><span style="background-color: white; font-size: x-small; line-height: 115%;">. The color screen
and night and day screens are nice, but not a hugely important feature for me.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: x-small; line-height: 115%;">A rider
can have ten different bike profiles, but here is a <b>biggie for me</b>: the 510 can store<b> five different “Activity
Profiles,”</b> and you can customize data pages and lines, auto-pause, auto-lap,
heart or power training zones, page color, alerts, etc, for each profile. For
example, I use road, road with heart rate, mountain bike, mountain bike with
heart rate, and hiking profiles. I love this! No more rearranging data fields when I
decide to ride my mountain bike instead of my road bike, or use my heart rate
monitor. This is a great feature.<b> I also think I would get a 510 for this
feature alone.</b></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: x-small; line-height: 115%;">Many <b>new
programmable data fields</b> have been introduced with the 510. An example of two
that I particularly like is the ability to display your last lap time, last lap
heart rate or power, last lap distance, etc. With the 500, I would get done
with a hard climb, set a lap split, and then try and read a tiny number that
displayed for 10 seconds. That was a problem if I happened to be approaching an
intersection, or jamming down a trail. Now the info remains on the screen in a
font size I select, and I can look at it any time I want to until I set a new
lap split. <b>For someone who frequently uses the lap timer, this is a huge safety feature</b>. There
are some new course related data fields as well.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: x-small; line-height: 115%;">Not a
factor at all for me, but for some it will be: both the <b>510 and 810 can be
connected via Bluetooth to a smart phone.</b> You can invite people to view your
GPS ride track real time on Garmin Connect, and after you are done riding, they
will know you are finished, and you can have them over to watch paint dry.
Seriously, I do understand the <b>potential safety benefits </b>of this, especially on
the MTB. Just how long would my “dot” have to remain in one place before
someone called out the posse? You also can automatically post an update to your
favorite social media site to announce that you have left your garage and are
on your way. You can get weather updates on your 510, and it will automatically
send your file to Garmin Connect (but not Strava). You can also download
courses from Garmin Connect via the Bluetooth connection. I can’t imagine that
the connectivity feature would be reason enough to buy a 510, but if you are
already carrying a smart phone when you ride, the safety feature by itself
might be really important to you.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;">Included
with the 510 is a <b>lanyard</b> that you can install to connect the device to your
stem, or wrist if you are running or hiking. While I never had to look in the
weeds for my 500, I know people who have had to after they fell off of their
mountain bike. Besides, I will be a lot less likely to drop the 510 onto my
driveway when I remove it from my stem. This provides a little peace of mind,
and peace of mind is important.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">I no
longer use a power meter, but if I did I would appreciate the <b>510’s much
improved and more numerous (22!) available power data fields</b> including real
time TSS/ IF, and right-left leg balance</span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;">If you
are into this type of thing, the grade and vertical speed number accuracy has
improved, no doubt due to the increased GPS sensitivity with GLONASS.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;">The 510
is fully compatible with standard Garmin mounts, the GSC-10 speed and cadence
sensor and heart rate belt; as well as the nifty K-Edge out front mount. Garmin
will sell you the 510 head unit individually.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;">The
workout and training plan features have been improved.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;">There is
a largely worthless “Personal Records” display. Perhaps this will be improved
with a firmware change down the road.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">What’s the bottom line? Whether you ride road and/or mountain
bikes, the Edge 510 is a very well thought out device. If you don’t already own
an Edge, the only reason to even consider a 500 is if you find it more readable
in the light conditions you usually ride in. If you already own a 500 and ride
exclusively on the road, I’ve given you several reasons to consider a 510. If
you ride both road and mountain bikes like I do, in my opinion upgrading to the
510 is a no-brainer.</span></div>
Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-56350386938445363422013-07-04T16:02:00.001-07:002013-07-04T16:02:09.782-07:00RAAM: Chris Ragsdale's first solo Race Across America<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Local
endurance athlete finished his first RAAM eleven days ago. Here is his report. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">"Here I am 11 days after having gotten off the bike from Solo
RAAM 2013. Approximately the same amount of time it took me to finish the race.
It hit me in the shower that finally I feel ready to sit and tell my story.
I've been contemplating it for a week now. You know work, family, downtime,
chores, I'm still processing obviously. A lot can happen in 11 days and it
often does. This was my first time doing RAAM. I have done a lot of Ultra
distance racing, a couple dozen events lasting 24 hours or more. When
asked about those events people would say, what is it like out there? or What
do you think about? or How do you feel? I would say well it's crazy I go
through all kinds of feelings. That's the great thing about an Ultra
race. You're out there so long that you have enough time to feel every
way. I go through anxiety, fear, stress, I feel excited, aggressive,
angry, peaceful, fulfilled, supported, passive, and lost. Most of those things
and more run through my thoughts during almost all of my races. This race is
the equivalent of doing 10 in a row.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">RAAM is 3,000 miles and the clock never stops. The route this year
went from Oceanside California to Annapolis Maryland; we left on June 11 at
noon. Well, my start time was 12:53--we went off on a time trial start
process. So we each were brought up individually, names called out so the crews
and locals that were watching could put a face to the name. I had been standing
in the ocean a couple hours earlier with my friend and crew member Matt.
Now i'm standing at the start line of what would be the biggest event i'm
likely to ever take on. I was thinking about how grateful I was to be there.
Standing there I was present to how fortunate I was for having gotten to this
point. The race is a Big Deal to the minority who know about it. I've
been aware of it for more then 10 years. Had all kinds of thoughts about it,
everyone has their own. It's amazing, crazy, inspiring, even impossible.
For me it's a process. One that was about to go into its next phase.
I had decided shortly after PBP in 2011 that I thought I wanted to give
it a go, that finally I was ready. Over the next 2 years I organized, planned,
and had to raise enough money to make it happen. RAAM costs a lot of money. We
need crew people and resources to do it. Standard protocol is to feed and shelter
the people who have so generously volunteered to take 2 plus weeks of their
life off to help. I decided on a small crew to keep expenses and drama to
a minimum. For a 6 person 2 van crew we estimated our budget to be
$25,000. Sounded like a lot to me, I kept looking at our spreadsheet trying to
find ways to pinch here and there.. By May and some small miracle we had
managed to raise enough. I had also managed to land some sponsors.
Getting sponsorship is a difficult process. This is a small niche sport and
financial times are tight. Fortunately companies started to come forward:
Redpoint Coaching stepped up as Tittle sponsor, Volagi bikes, Assos, McHale
Performance and Byrne thermal, and Dumonde tech, and other companies had been
helping me already like Seattle Performance Medicine and Olson's. While I did
have some companies pitching in, a lot of the money that came in was from
friends and supporters. I asked for money to help make this event happen. I
simply could not afford to do it otherwise and more then 100 different people
donated, that is inspiring. Some donated multiple times. Looking back through
the list now I see how these people have come from all walks of life, many of
which have nothing in common with one another. They are my riding friends,
people from work, neighbors, strangers, people I knew growing up, and some
people I barely know at all. They made it possible for me to stand at the
start line, and I am eternally grateful for it. Gathered around the start line
I find myself more relaxed then I had thought. People were huddled around
racers in small clusters and the locals were lining the start to see what this
was all about. I had anticipated more people, a bigger stage. Entering the
start area I was more focused on the clock than the people, soon there was no
more thinking, planning, or preparing, only the doing. When the clock starts
there are no do overs, no time outs, what ever happens happens.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Led by a tandem and followed by Micky Dymond with a camera
strapped to his chest I take off. There is a neutral stretch down the trail
until we can really race. We chat, I don't remember about what but it's
pleasant and I notice the slight tail wind. Then I'm off alone for now, I will
see the crew about an hour into the race for the first time. It's business as
usual, the legs never hold me back early in a race, I can hardly tell they are
there. I push till the breath is noticeable and focus on it. I told myself this
race I wouldn't let the breathing get heavy early. A lot of racers use
power meters, some still watch the heart rate. I have always used the
breath, legs and head. Early on I focus on the breathing. Usually I keep it
heavy but controlled early in the race. This race I would keep it out of
the heavy zone, keep the breathing noticeable but not heavy. This method is
good for the first few hours, eventually the limitation becomes the legs. I
focus on keeping heavy pressure in the legs. Only letting up to relieve the
back and feet. Heavy pressure through the pedals, that is the pace. After a few
hundred miles the mind wonders. My pace is eventually driven by the amount of
concentration I muster up. How focused on the moment I can stay. Thoughts and
feelings coming and going constantly distracting my body from doing more
damage. Focus, stay in the moment, make a difference here, make a difference
now, re commit, re focus, a little more, right here, right now. I caught maybe
a dozen of the RAW racers before I got to the crew.I caught maybe a dozen of
the RAW racers before I got to the crew. The Race Across the West racers start
just before us but stop in Durango. It got hot much sooner then I thought, only
a couple hours in and it becomes the focus of my thoughts. Climbing Mt Palomar
I get passed for the first time. Reto, last year's winner, comes past me on the
climb at close to twice my speed. He smiles and I wave. I continue to look over
my shoulder. This year is supposed to be an epic battle. 3 past winners are all
here and a handful of guys who have seen the podium before are chasing them.
Lots has been talked about with regard to my being here. Americans haven't
gotten a win here in a long time. I'm here to do my thing, my best, for me.
When the sponsors, friends, and media crews are all gone and I'm in my darkest
hour, that's what will matter. More than 30 minutes go by from when Reto passed
me and finally Wyss from Switzerland comes by, about as long again and Strasser
goes by. It's a long race but I thought they would be closer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In the desert the first evening, the crews change and I change
bikes.Terry, Louise, and Matt had started with me and they would now hand the
follow van over to Bob, Mike, and Sol. I hop on the other Volagi. I had
one set up close to stock with the disc brakes and lighter wheels and another
set up with traditional wheels, both had clip on aero bars. I went from
the climbing bike to the more TT set up with aero wheels. It's dark now but
it's also over 100 degrees. We haven't been racing long but it feels hard.
I get a leg cramp, that's odd, I never cramp, keep going. The first night
feels noisy, lots of racers, lots of crews, lots of questions. I continue to
feel things out. During the night we have to stop for gas and while doing so
Mike accidentally steps on a giant toad. We continue on, racers are strung out
like climbers on a mountain. Lights shining and evenly spaced this is a non
drafting event so we are spread out long. We have to stop again I'm not sure
for what, I'm only focused on how far the other lights must have gone. I chased
for 2 hours to find that when I caught them the lights were now out. The sun
was rising and gaps had grown. Soon I would have my first radio
interview. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I had gotten hooked up with Cardo radio systems. It's a small
device that goes on the back of my helmet and has a small ear and mic piece
that I can talk into. It is wireless to my phone and can be paired with
another unit worn by a crew member in the van. It allows me to talk hands free
to who ever is wearing one in the van or talk blue tooth through my phone to
anyone anywhere. So when I was asked to do interviews during RAAM I said sure.
My home town radio wanted to do a daily interview and so did George
Thomas with OTTP radio. I spaced them out by a couple hours and had them both
in the morning. The first was at 7am EST, the second was at 10am MST. All race
communications were to be done in Official time which was EST regardless of the
time zone we were currently in, we would go through 4 time zones. Try figuring
it out with no sleep. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The first morning was fun, changed clothes on the side of the road
and got ready for my first full day's work. I would see my old friend
Alan who had moved to Arizona. I told him I would be to Congress about 24 hours
in. He met me on the road before I got there. He had crewed before and he
knew the drill. We hugged and smiled and I rode on. Congress time station
had a pool, I wasn't going to pass it up. There were other racers there I
think, did I mention the pool. Shoes on and more food in the belly, I took off
and up the Yarnell grade. For a moment at the intersection they had recently
repaved the road and the Garmin read 126? Moments later it read the usual
110. I felt great on the climbs out of Congress, I passed riders, and enjoyed
the beautiful scenery, there was pain but I don't remember it. Pain is a funny
thing, It means different things to different people and it shows up in
different ways on different days. Most try and avoid it, some seek it
out. I usually make it present and then just acknowledge it, seek to understand
it. Where is it coming from? and what is it capable of? If I ignore it, it will
get bored and go some where else, maybe my feet or hands. It's like a game of
chicken. It can't possibly stay there forever, It will run and hide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It gets dark again, we are in the mountains still. I'm getting
tired, we had planned for our first stop about 40 hours in. It was just less
than that when I stopped, 90 minutes sleep in the van, time to go again. We go
through a large college town late at night, I'm sure we are lost. Soon another
crew exchange. At the crew exchanges I started binge eating. While riding I was
constantly eating, at least as much as I could. But when we would stop to swap
crews as a way to distract me from the ordeal they would give me gigantic piles
of food. I think they thought I wouldn't notice they were swapping if I was
distracted enough. And so it went, town after town, bottle after bottle. I
would ride to the next crew exchange. That is where the best food was. For the
longest time the plates of food would come every 12 hours. Eventually I had to
wait 15 hours until the good food. I was told by one RAAM vet that it was more
like an eating competition than a bicycle race. I think he was right, It's a
good thing I have a good gut. Never a single issue with the belly and proud of
it! My mouth however fought back, sores and achy teeth another new experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">After the first sleep we found a routine. 22 hours on, 2 hours
off, pretty much. Sometimes I was slow getting out of the van. Sometimes I
would sit a little extra at a clothes change. In eastern Colorado on day
4 I stopped for a shower. I know quite a few RAAM vets and I made a point to
talk to most if not all of them before taking this on. I would ask them
everything, some would have tons of advice others much less. One thing was
common: Stay On the Bike. Hmmm just noticed that's SOB. The clock never stops,
0 mph is tough to make up for. So I worked through things, I mentioned the pain
thing already. It showed up in the feet and then cramping, then the heat would
mute it all. It showed up in the knees and quads. There were times when I had
to push my leg down with my hand in order to keep things turning, it happened a
lot. The crew was great, they would work so hard to find solutions for
me. Sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn't. Get to Annapolis SOB <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">America is big, and the weather changes, those things I knew. But
if you never go inside, the conditions feel erratic, it changes so quickly. The
reality of that has never been more clear. In 10 days I experienced teeth
chattering cold to the point I could barely keep my bike straight and heat that
hurt my nose and throat to breathe in. The heat radiating off the ground
cooked my knees like potatoes in tin foil. I felt the sand ripping at my
skin and eyes in a sandstorm in Utah. I experienced the fury of the storms over
Kansas. And felt the calm cooling rains that reminded me of home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The people, one of the reasons this race is so amazing is the
people. At only 11 days after the race I am forgetting where the pain
was? and when? I'm forgetting what I was frustrated about and where we had
issues. I don't remember which State was on what day. Or what the height was at
the top of the hill. I do remember the guy in Ohio driving past me honking and
then rushing into a parking lot and running from his car to the street with 2
small signs that read <b>GO CHRIS. </b>I remember standing outside a
hotel with a man who wanted his picture with me, he kept asking questions and I
could see the inspiration in his eye. Coming over the top of the climb in
Indiana after having experienced a LOW and having a rider introduce himself as
Jim Rosa. We had met years ago at the National 24 hr and he had been tracking
me and drove down to support. Jim rode his bike up the climb and then turned
around when he saw me coming. We rode down together and he wished me well and
mentioned riding together years ago. He had put signs on the side of the
road on the descent. <b>Chris is #1, Top American, Go Chris</b> etc. I
remember the Crew. All of them doing everything they could to help me get
to Annapolis. Crewing is tough, I have done it, but never on this scale. It
takes a lot of patience and commitment. We were going painfully slow from one
side of the continent to the other and they kept with me. It has been 11 days
since I finished and it took about that long for me to get it done. That
feels like such a long time now and I know it was for them. They were driving
and shopping and prepping food and bottles, taking pictures and logging
spreadsheets for days and days and days on very little sleep. It was crazy hot
and that Van stunk like hell. That's how committed the Crew was and needed to
be for me to get to Annapolis. I can't thank them enough. The final days were
dominated by the thoughts of seeing my family. They were at the finish
line day's before me, never before have I experienced time in this way. The
beauty of the land around me and the caring support of the crew next to me were
a muted back ground to the vision of being with my wife and kids again. It was
all that mattered but I needed to take the slowest and most painful way to
experience that vision. It had to be done that way and it was torturous and
unlike anything I have experienced. I felt isolated and alone, there was
nothing anyone else could do. The only thing that made a difference was the
rotating speed of the wheels beneath me. And it felt as if there was tar in my
hubs. I simply couldn't go as fast as I needed to, the last days would take an
eternity. Since finishing the race I have dreamed about it almost every night.
Some times waking in the middle of the night " did I finish? did I make
it?" Are they nightmares or just reminders? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Mesmerized by the people and the process of RAAM at some point my
race became more about survival. It was focused entirely on managing my process
in a way that would have me Finishing in Annapolis. Strasser the Austrian had
distanced himself from the field by the largest margin ever. He would go on to
redefine what is humanly possible, crossing the country faster then it had ever
been done. If we pay close attention, things like that can impact all of us. I
like records, they set a frame work. Often when looking into an Ultra
race I will look at the record books. That is the frame work for possibility.
It is the measuring stick upon which I judge my potential. I'll go on to
train, plan, and visualize according to the best case scenario. I like that
process, I feel inspired, motivated. I've been fortunate over the years to have
created some records. On this occasion I was much closer to the back of the
race then I was the front. But my process was the same. Dream big, do what I
can in the here and now, focus my energy, believe, my thoughts and feelings
matter but the only thing that makes a difference is what I do about it. The
crew and I made it to Annapolis 10 days 23 hours and 20 minutes after taking
off from Oceanside. Official finishers of the solo Race Across America."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-87279373346156320982013-05-21T12:05:00.000-07:002013-05-21T12:05:19.854-07:00The "legal cycling rights way" is not always the best way<br />
Most of us know our rights as a cyclist. A friend shared a story as to why we sometimes need to think outside of the box, as well as why using a mirror makes a lot of sense.<br />
<br />
"Hey I had a great safety situation yesterday.<br />
<br />
You know Paradise Valley road out by Maltby and such? Well it’s two narrow lanes in the woods and the white stripe is the bike lane. Normally traffic is fairly light but I think there is a construction project for which Paradise Valley is a junction. I was coming up a rise and saw a dump truck in my mirror a ways back still. I could tell that we were going to reach the crest at the same time, give or take. As I approached the crest I could see over it to find another dump truck coming our way. All three of us were going to be at the top of the hill and the two drivers would be blind to each other until just shortly before they passed. Now, of course bikers have the right to be on the road—right? We also have the right to get the hell out of the way of colliding dump trucks! I stopped my bike, dismounted and scurried up the woodsy sloped shoulder to let the two monsters pass. It could have gotten really ugly if my presence had forced the driver away from me and into the opposite truck’s lane. So I decided to live and ride another day!<br />
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That was a first. I hope last."<br />
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Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-63235450326691200922013-05-03T10:23:00.001-07:002013-05-03T10:27:53.801-07:00In memory of Lance David, the cyclist killed Wednesday on East Marginal Way<br />
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When I read the article about this accident, I didn't see
many details of what happened to cause it:</div>
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<a href="http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020898284_bikefatalxml.html">http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020898284_bikefatalxml.html</a><br />
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I rode through this area hundreds of times during the ten
years we lived in Downtown Seattle. I've been trying to picture how this tragic
accident could occur, as more details have not been forthcoming. What we do
know is that the cyclist was very experienced. His name was Lance David:</div>
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<a href="http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020911068_westsidebicyclistxml.html">http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020911068_westsidebicyclistxml.html</a><br />
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Team HPC member John Pottle was good friends with Lance and
rode with him a lot. John emailed me to
remind me that while I didn't know Lance, I had ridden with him on a Hills of
the West Coast ride. John was on that ride, as was Team HPC member Greg Barton.</div>
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After I started writing my cycling blog in June of 2008, I
would write a summary article on almost every Hills of the West Coast ride that
I led, including 8/7/11, the day when Lance made the ride. I try to learn
something every time I ride my bike, and that day was no exception. I learned
from Greg that day, and I learned something from Lance:</div>
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<a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/hills-of-west-coast-competitonand-pride.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/hills-of-west-coast-competitonand-pride.html</a><br />
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In his email to me John wrote, "Your piece was a source
of great amusement to Lance and his friends - good natured ribbing only."
I’m honored to know that my comments were a source of amusement to Lance and
his buddies. In addition to John’s comments to me, I learned of another friend
of Lance’s when he posted a comment to my original blog. Clearly, Lance was a
respected cyclist and a good guy all around.</div>
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It’s always sad to read about a tragedy like this. Please be
safe out on the road.</div>
Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-19881953056863077552013-01-20T10:19:00.000-08:002013-01-20T10:19:03.386-08:00The Chill Factor<br />
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Back in November, I wrote a short article for the Cycle U Newsletter titled <i>The Art of Riding in a Straight Line. </i>I also published the article as a post on this cycling blog:</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/coachs-corner-tip-published-in-todays.html</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Being able to ride in a straight line sounds like pretty basic stuff; the kind of thing most of us struggled with and ultimately mastered when we were about six years old and the training wheels came off. Right? "Riding in a straight line" takes on a whole new meaning and level of significance when you are in a race, or in a rotating paceline at 22+ mph. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">David Longdon, Team High Performance Cycling Powered by Cycle U co-manager, has written a blog about wintertime group riding. In his blog, David offers some great safety advice. Of particular note is his concluding paragraph:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><i>Periodically there are reports of riders with abundant physical talent but limited group cycling experience at local races or group rides who do something that causes a crash or some other problem. The typical remedy usually includes yelling, harsh words, and hurt feelings. If this describes you, the best way to avoid such a situation is to swallow a humility pill then learn and practice the basics before jumping into the deep end of the swimming pool. Take a clinic at CycleU and see what the Online cycling forums have to say. Practice regularly. If you are joining a new group ride make a point of introducing yourself to the ride leader before the start, and let him/her know you are practicing your group riding skills. The ride leader may ask you to ride at the back of the group and observe, and maybe give you some tips about joining the fun.</i></span></div>
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<i>Whatever path you take, group riding is one of the most enjoyable facets of cycling and I encourage you to get the skills and find groups that work for you.</i></div>
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A rider could be the next Lance Armstrong (I have not come up with a replacement phrase for this yet!) in terms of strength on the bike. If his group riding skills resemble a bull in a china shop, admiration for this rider's fitness will be far overshadowed by the chill factor caused by his lack of skill. </div>
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David's advice is very good advice.</div>
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Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-74052446767016955772012-11-09T17:46:00.002-08:002012-11-09T17:46:19.285-08:00Coach's Corner tip published in today's Cycle U Newsletter<span style="background-color: white; color: midnightblue; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 15px;"><b>The art of riding in a straight line<b></b></b></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"> </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><i style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;">Coach Tom Meloy provides a few key pointers on how to ride in a straight line. </i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;">When you ride solo, wavering puts you at risk in traffic. With a companion, you can't ride side-by-side if you aren't steady and comfortable. And the fastest way to draw unwanted attention from experienced roadies is to wobble in the middle of a group. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;">You can quickly improve your ability to ride a steady line. These tips will put you on the straight and narrow. Relax. You need a loose, supple upper body. Be aware of tension in your neck, jaw and shoulders. If you're rigid, the bike will move in jerks and twitches. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;">Flex your elbows. By keeping your elbows slightly bent and loose, upper-body movements won't automatically be transferred to the handlebar. The road's bumps and jolts will be absorbed, helping the bike float over irregularities rather than flinch and dart. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;">Of course, staying relaxed is easy to say and hard to do -- like when you're riding between traffic and a ragged road edge. Concentrate on steady breathing to reduce the upper-body tension that pins your shoulders to your ears. By staying aware, you can make relaxation a habit. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;">Look up the road. Staring at the pavement ahead of your front wheel guarantees you'll ride like a kid on his first solo voyage. The farther up the road you look, the steadier your bike will be. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;">You'll soon learn the technique of "split vision." This allows your lower peripheral vision to monitor things like potholes and cracks as you pass them, while you focus on a swath 30 to 100 feet ahead. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;">Watch the line you want your bike to take and your wheels will go there almost magically. Look directly at bad things and you're likely to hit them. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;">Practice. Try these techniques by riding along the white line that separates the traffic lane from the shoulder. Relax, keep your eyes up, and see how long you can stay on that thin stripe. It'll feel smooth under your tires to let you know how you're doing. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;">To prove a point, also try to ride the line while looking down in front of your wheel. Wobble city!</span>Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-27674455577132038492012-08-24T20:56:00.002-07:002012-08-24T21:02:40.666-07:00Lance Armstrong: Best of the Best...Regardless<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">I wrote the article below on December 18th, 2008. Lance Armstrong had just announced his comeback attempt to win the 2009 Tour de France. It now appears that he should have stayed retired and kept his mouth shut. But hey, he has a big ego and he must have missed the limelight. Well, he's certainly back in the news.</span><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Lance Armstrong won seven </span><strong style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Tour de France</strong><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "> races in a row. No matter how you cut it, no matter how you view it, he is the best of the best of all time, regardless of how he accomplished it.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">From a competitive standpoint, it simply doesn’t matter whether he used performance enhancing drugs or not.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">It has been pretty well established, without naming names here, that virtually all of his main challengers in his seven tour victories were either directly or indirectly associated with some type of devious and clandestine plot to artificially increase their own chances of winning the tour.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Lance Armstrong beat them all convincingly.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">This is not intended for anything other than pure speculation, but the way I see it, there are three possible scenarios that explain his dominance in the Tour de France:</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><strong style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">1)</strong><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "> Armstrong is an extremely talented athlete, even at the rarified elite level, and he raced clean. His incredibly focused and specific approach to the TDF, his mental fortitude, his bike handling skills, his drive and dedication to be the best, enabled him to overcome the illicitly gained “advantages” that many of his competitors had. He also consistently benefited from not only the strongest team, but a team that was extremely well coached and dedicated entirely to his cause. Depending on the drug, how it is administered, and the doctor interviewed, one is led to believe that drugs in sports can give an elite endurance athlete anywhere from a 5-15% performance edge. Armstrong closed, and then </span> <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">exceeded that gap, entirely through natural methods.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><strong style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">2)</strong><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "> Every top level professional cyclist of the era was taking performance enhancing drugs. Armstrong had more talent than anyone else, still had the best team, still had the mental toughness, and therefore was able to dominate the 180+ person professional peloton and win seven Tours in a row. The “playing field” had effectively been leveled, and he still was the best.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><strong style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">3)</strong><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "> Every top professional was taking drugs, Armstrong still had the other advantages, and in addition to that, he had the best medical team.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Regardless of which, if any, scenario makes any sense at all, one fact remains. Lance Armstrong is the best cyclist ever to compete in the TDF, and then there are the others, all five time winners. Seven of a kind trumps five, and Armstrong’s tour victories came in the modern era. As in most sports, today’s cyclist athletes are more highly trained and talented, and consequently participate in a more competitive sports environment.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><strong style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Jack Nicklaus</strong><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "> dominated professional golf in an era during which it has been acknowledged that there were a few top level golfers who were quite a bit more talented than the rest. In fact, they were called the “</span><strong style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Big Four</strong><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">”, and there was Palmer, Player (this has to be the all time greatest name for a pro athlete!), Trevino, and Nicklaus. Most of the major tournaments of the day were won by these four, with Nicklaus being the most dominant. In today’s world, the Big Four could be equated with the “Big 100”, as the skill level is so elevated just to gain entry to the professional golf tours around the world, let alone win a tournament of any kind, that a type of parity has occurred.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Despite this perceived parity, </span><strong style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Tiger Woods</strong><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "> has managed to dominate the game like no one since Nicklaus, and he is well on his way to being the greatest golfer of all time. He is the Lance Armstrong of golf.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Most physiologists seem to agree that in terms of raw physical capacities at the highest levels of elite cyclists, differences of a few percent exist amongst the athletes. </span><strong style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Greg Lemond</strong><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "> reportedly had a Vo2 max of 90, and that number has been associated with </span><strong style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Floyd Landis</strong><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">. Armstrong’s team has largely been silent on this subject. After Armstrong retired, </span><strong style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Dr. Ed Coyle</strong><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "> published the results of a long term study of Armstrong’s physiology tests. These tests dated back to the early 90’s when he was first a member of the international peloton, and long before his cancer. Even with Armstrong’s well documented weight loss, Coyle’s tests revealed a Vo2 max of between 82 and 84 when Armstrong was at his peak.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">While this level certainly places him among the most physically gifted endurance athletes in the world, his aerobic capacity as measured by Vo2 max alone does not alone explain his dominance. Of course, there are many other physiological metrics critical for success, but Vo2 max has long been one of the gold standards, along with power at LT, that has been used to gauge an athletes’ odds for success.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">As I stated above, I don’t really believe it is important exactly how Lance Armstrong was able to win seven Tours in a row. He was the best of the best amongst a very deep, talented field, many of whom have been linked to drugs.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">I think he is still the best, and I think he has come back to prove it. At age 37, out of the game for almost four years, he has reentered the sport. He’s done so at a time when even the harshest critics of cycling feel that significant progress has been made in the fight against doping, and that the </span><strong style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">2009 Tour</strong><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "> should be one of the cleanest tours in the last two decades. The playing field should be as level as it has been in a very, very long time.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Why would he come back if he didn’t intend to race clean? Why would he risk his legacy when he has nothing to gain, and everything to lose?</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Just imagine if he wins the Giro, and/or the Tour de France. That will shut everybody up, once and for all.</span> </div></div>Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-73961884766243196272012-08-01T17:26:00.002-07:002012-08-01T17:29:33.546-07:00Article on Nutrition and Hydration in today's Cycle U Newsletter<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><b><span style="mso-bidi-mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin; background:whitefont-family:Calibri;color:midnightblue;">Nutrition and hydration for long-distance cycling</span></b><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background- background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color:white;"> </span></span><br /><i><span style="background:white">by Coach Tom Meloy</span></i><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background:white"> </span></span><br /><br /><span style="background:white">Before I address hydration and nutrition, note that a taper should be incorporated before a big event. While you can't do anything to boost fitness in the last 7-10 days before a ride, you can definitely boost fatigue. Rest two days before the event, drink a lot of water, and do a short ride the day before to keep the legs loose, perhaps using a carbo loading strategy.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><br /><b><span style="background:white">Hydration and electrolytes:</span></b><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background:white"> </span><span style="background:white">For the vast majority of athletes, the easiest way to improve training and racing performance is to consume more fluids. When you're well hydrated on the bike, your muscles function better and you are able to regulate core temperature better, which mean you can produce more power.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="background:white">The electrolyte repletion rate is generally adequate if 300-600 milligrams of sodium are consumed each hour in a divided dose format in the presence of other electrolytes such as potassium, magnesium, chloride, and manganese. Using Nunn or Endurolytes is one way to get additional electrolytes. Eating salty foods is another, as what the body needs most is sodium. People who sweat heavily need more sodium. Cramping during or after a ride is typically an indication that you didn't have enough sodium.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><br /><span style="background:white">Your body likes balance. Consuming too much water and no electrolytes during extended exercise is not good and can cause hyponatremia. Some still recommend drinking at least 20oz of fluid per hour, but this doesn't work for everybody.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><br /><b><span style="background:white">The best hydration strategy:</span></b><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background:white"> </span><span style="background:white">"Drink to thirst, salt to taste." For less stomach distress, drink in big gulps. Drink whenever you eat solid food on bike. Try a sodium enhanced sports drink like Gatorade Endurance or simply add a pinch of salt to regular Gatorade. I've found that if I don't taste the extra salt, my body needs it. If I taste the salt, I've been getting enough.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="background:white">As long as you are carrying the weight of two full bottles, I recommend both be filled with a sports drink, but this may be too much sweetness for some people.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><br /><b><span style="background:white">On the ride nutrition:</span></b><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background:white"> </span><span style="background:white">Aim to replenish about 30% or a little more of the calories you burn each hour. Over-consumption leads to gastric distress because your body can't absorb and process the fuel fast enough. For an athlete who is burning 800 kcal per hour (very high intensity pace), this would amount to about 240 kcal/45g of carbs (one Powerbar or Clif Bar). The body can process roughly 60 grams of carbs per hour. Endurance riding typically burns 500-600 kcal per hour.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><br /><span style="background:white">Overloading the system slows it down; starving it brings it to a halt. A simple rule of thumb is to eat one bar an<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>hour and have a sports drink in at least one of your bottles.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><br /><span style="background:white">A common mistake is to wait until two hours into a long ride to start eating. I like to see athletes start munching 20 minutes into a ride. Rather than eat a bar every hour, nibble on it every 15-20 minutes. You are striving for a constant flow of fuel.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><br /><span style="background:white">I'm a big believer in eating real food on long rides, but each athlete needs to find what works best for them. People have done the entire RAAM across the country on nothing but Hammer Perpetuem and gel, but not many people are as focused as those riders are! If using a "liquid food" such as Perpetuem, I've found chilling it in the freezer and using an insulated bottle makes it more palatable, as does adding a little gel for flavor.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><br /><span style="background:white">A little protein during a ride is fine but studies have not confirmed any real benefit. Be aware that too much protein tends to make one feel bloated during exercise. Eating four grams of carbs per gram of protein is a good rule (as found in a Powerbar or Clif bar).<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><br /><span style="background:white">After a hard ride, be sure to take in some carbs during the 30 minute window when your body is very receptive to restoring the glycogen in your cells. Chocolate milk, smoothies, recovery drinks, or regular sports drink all work well immediately after a ride. If you plan on another long ride the following day, eat more carbs than normal the rest of the day. If you are taking the day off, have a beer and reward yourself!<span class="apple-converted-space"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span style="background:white">Test everything out in training. If you decide you're going to need 50g of carbohydrate per hour, try it in training and see if it works, and make sure you are matching the training duration and intensity as closely as possible. Keep the nutrition plan simple.<span class="apple-converted-space"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span style="background:white">During ultra long events, variety is important because it keeps an athlete from getting complacent about eating. Overly complicated plans often cause more problems than they solve. Anyone who has completed a very long endurance event can tell you a story about a plan that had to be changed. When your nutrition strategy is simple it can be adapted relatively easily and remain effective.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span style="background:white">Suffering through a "nutrition malfunction" during a 100-mile training ride can be a great learning experience. It's a good idea to do a minimum of 2 "nutrition training sessions" per month and eat and drink as you would in your goal event, mimicking the intensity and volume as much as is reasonable. It is often during these sessions that athletes realize their nutrition selections are too sweet, too syrupy, difficult to open/eat at higher speeds, too dry to eat at high intensities, etc. If reaching into your pockets is difficult, consider using a "Bento Box" on your toptube.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Recommended training foods:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><span style="background:white">Fig bars<span class="apple-converted-space"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Bananas<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><span style="background:white">Boiled potatoes (in plastic bag with salt)<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><span style="background:white">Dry fruit<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><span style="background:white">Pretzels<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><span style="background:white">Crackers<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><span style="background:white">Sandwiches (PB & J, meats only on cold days)<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><span style="background:white">Energy bars (but not protein, zone or balance bars)<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><span style="background:white">Energy gels<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><span style="background:white">Fresh fruit (tends to be low-calorie so combine with other foods)<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><span style="background:white">Cookies<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><span style="background:white">General nutrition guidelines:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><span style="background:white">Consume high glycemic carbs during exercise and for 30-60 minutes afterwards (pretzels, baked potato, cereal and banana, white bagel, white spaghetti, pancakes).<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><span style="background:white">Eat moderate glycemic foods before exercise (muesli, whole grain spaghetti, sweet potato, banana, orange juice).</span><o:p></o:p></p><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 100%; "><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><br /></p>Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-24995187323396563772012-05-29T18:16:00.025-07:002012-05-30T21:12:35.488-07:002012 Cycle U Skills and Hills Chelan Camp Rocked!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoJXyXQDptrZ2yKlag-1cPWYKRKQdjTgf5FBUCYg3llyJdhgs4rHbL7JkxdChy-4U8CP3845J1klhf2NpF4fHoqr5MfYFJzoIiGxNIYeFjo4W6p5JGZcfFJnZmjC9qs7xFk5O_kDKJd80/s1600/5-17-12ChelanCampMeeting-1.JPG" style="font-weight: normal; "><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoJXyXQDptrZ2yKlag-1cPWYKRKQdjTgf5FBUCYg3llyJdhgs4rHbL7JkxdChy-4U8CP3845J1klhf2NpF4fHoqr5MfYFJzoIiGxNIYeFjo4W6p5JGZcfFJnZmjC9qs7xFk5O_kDKJd80/s200/5-17-12ChelanCampMeeting-1.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5748486066429059266" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoJXyXQDptrZ2yKlag-1cPWYKRKQdjTgf5FBUCYg3llyJdhgs4rHbL7JkxdChy-4U8CP3845J1klhf2NpF4fHoqr5MfYFJzoIiGxNIYeFjo4W6p5JGZcfFJnZmjC9qs7xFk5O_kDKJd80/s1600/5-17-12ChelanCampMeeting-1.JPG" style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">From May 17</span><sup style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: white; ">th</sup><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">-21</span><sup style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: white; ">st</sup><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">, we held our third annual </span><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">Cycle U Chelan Skills and Hills Camp</b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">. For the first time, we had a sellout of 35 riders. Two late minute injury cancellations left us with 33 riders at camp. Combined with Craig, Kristi, Mary, Chad, Scott, Tim, Christina and myself, we had a big group rolling down the road! Here is how things went, strictly from my perspective.</span></a> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333">My objectives were to do what I could to make the camp run smoothly, do coaching clinics, ride with everybody, and do some on the road coaching. Sounds pretty simple!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333">With such a large group in 2012, I decided that we should offer two different routes, each tailored for a specific type of rider. None of the riding around Chelan is “easy,” so o</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">ffering a </span><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">Chall</b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; "><b>enge Route </b>as well as an <b>Expert Route</b> wasn’t hard to do. Each day we offered the two routes, and as I hoped, the group self selected with about 50% of the riders on each route, with a few more than h</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">alf doing the Expert Route on certain days.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span style="font-size: 100%; background-color: white;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio0uNM58mIe9VYIYlPQ3KJYN7ZEkVTtMKzadm4WXj6E2ieljkOvavt3vtlrdTdQ2LxjDiX0tguw88J2CIxC1No1z7M82igkcHDi5p9w_k9-ciUrHK8AEHvmRfFOj0rjnf4lNLKdm0Hq08/s200/5-20-12ChelanCampSundayDinnerRickSherry.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5748486732016650274" style="font-size: 100%; background-color: white; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px; " /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333">The Challenge Route </span><span style="background-color: white; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; ">group was comprised of great people with widely varying skill, experience, and fitness levels. Every day a super nice group showed up excited about cycling. It’s always a pleasure to be around people who are eager to learn and enjoy themselves while doing so.</span></p><div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333">I knew man</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">y of the people in the Expert Group, because I had recruited heavily from both Team HPC and with cycling friends I have ridden with for a long time on the Hills of the West Coast and other rides. This cast of characters was pretty familiar to me, and many people had ridden with each other before.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; "><span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">We had a pre-camp meeting on Thursday evening at <b>Vin du Lac Winery</b>, and I can’t thank owner <b>Larry Lembecker</b> enough for the tremendous hospitality he showed us. We n</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">ow have a long term camp sponsor that we are all very happy with. Kudos also go to <b>Jessica</b> from <b>Clif Bar</b>. We were up to our eyeballs in fine nutrition products that supplemented all of the great </span><span style="font-weight: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">“regular” food we enjoyed. At the meeting, we went over the daily routes, and discussed the protocols we would be using for the SAG vehicles, meals, etc.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333">On Friday, I rode </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">52 miles with the Challenge Group on the </span><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">Navarre Coulee</b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; "> route. Those of you familiar with the </span><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">Chelan Century Challenge</b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; "> know it as the third loop:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333"><a href="http://www.centuryride.com/index.php?page_id=301"><span style="color: #015782;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">http://www.centuryride.com/index.php?page_id=301</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333">The Expert Group did 70 miles on one of my favorite routes through <b>Pateros, Brewster, and down McNeil Canyon</b>:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333"><a href="http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1141472" target="_blank"><span style="color:purple;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1141472</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333;background:white">While I hated to miss this route, I really enjoyed riding with the group on the Challen</span><span style="background-color: white; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; ">ge Route. I worked my way forward through the riders, pausing to ride with each individual rider or group. Along the way, I got to know our new people at camp, as well as catch up with some returning riders from past camps.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333;background:white">On Saturday we did the</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333"> <b><span style="background:white">Manson Loops</span></b><span style="background:white">. I truly like riding up in the hills to the no</span></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">rth of Lake Chelan. It’s easy to imagine that you are in</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; "> </span><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; "><span style="background:white">Tuscany</span> </b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">or the</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; "> </span><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; "><span style="background:white">Lake Como</span></b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; "> </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">region of Italy, but always looking down at Lake Chelan and beyond to the high peaks. It doesn’t hurt that there are just about zero cars anywhere. We did part of loop one from the Chelan Century, but added a few climbs for goo</span><span style="background-color: white; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; ">d measure:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333"><a href="http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1141647"><span style="color:#015782; text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1141647</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333;background:white">I might as well have been in Italy, because I still don’t know where I am going up in those hills, despite the fact that I have been up there a bunch of times. Without superb guiding from local knowledge guru’s</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333"> <b><span style="background: white">Scott</span></b> <span style="background:white">and</span> <b><span style="background:white">Tim</span></b><span style="background:white">, many of us might still be up there!</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333;background:white">Today I would see how I would fare with the Expert Route group, and I knew most </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">of these riders were focused more on serious riding, and less on chit-chat. Despite that, there was tremendous camaraderie amongst the bunch. Coincidentally, it was my turn on the front just as we swung off and started the first climb up</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "> <b><span style="background:white">Boyd Road</span></b> <span style="background: white">for 7 miles to</span> <b><span style="background:white">Echo Lake Ski Area</span></b><span style="background:white">. There were about 17-20 people in the group. I focused on putting out a steady and solid effort, not sure of how many folks would</span> "<span style="background:white">attack” at the bottom of the climb. In my little mirror, I saw people falling back, and after a short time it was just</span> <b><span style="background:white">Jon</span></b> <span style="background:white">and me. After 5 minutes or so of leading Jon up the hill, I asked him if he felt like taking a turn on the front. While Jon was</span></span></p><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEaqSq9id_R4ffhzutqwJ_N1HD2K0UKvXVU0uI7EzOpi2G-ph2DFfWOYYmKC4xOqVBi6C9YqnsUoKySY-KmTLxkTj8SKaEWG96BOpFFFVpCOvnLMm0gVUqOBMPp0dPqHorPDEnfjlCf04/s200/5-20-12ChelanCampSundayDinnerMelAdam.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5748487661024776834" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px; " /><span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: white; ">up there, <b>Adam</b></span><span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: white; "> </span><span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: white; ">and</span><span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: white; "> </span><b style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: white; "><span style="background:white">Derek</span></b><span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: white; "> </span><span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: white; ">joined us. I then went back to the front, and ultimately it was just Adam and me, each of us quite content to be off the front and not testing each other.</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; "><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333">After a fabulous descent, we started the next climb on <b>Upper Joe Creek</b>. This time it was Adam on the front, with me on his wheel. Once again, the two of us found ourselves riding along off the front. Adam tested me with a few little accelerations, and I du</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">g in and held onto his wheel. After a few of these, I swung out and rode alongside Adam. Eventually, and about the same time, both of us seemed to realize that neither one of us wanted to kill ourselves trying to drop the other. As we chatted the rest of the way up the climb, other riders may have closed the gap a hair, but no one was near us at the top. Having ridden with Adam a fair amount on the </span><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">HOWC</b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">, it was nice to get to know him a little better.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; "><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">On the way back to Manson, we split into smaller groups and did some nice pacelining. I’m not sure how many pe</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">ople tested themselves on the very tough </span><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">Union Valley </b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">optional climb. Coming as it did almost within eyesight of the motel, I thought it prudent to skip it, as the next climb would be </span><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; font-weight: normal; ">McNeil Canyon</b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; "> in the morning. I have been up McNeil quite a few times so I knew what to expect, but many of our riders knew only of McNeil’s reputation as a fearsome climb.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">We had a massage therapist with us in camp this year for the first time. I think Christina was probably more tired than any of the riders, as she was booked solid.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333">Sunday was the <b>Queen Stage</b> of camp, the crux section of riding being the roughly 6 mile climb to the <b>Waterville Plateau </b>via McNeil Canyon. All 33 riders were to tackle this one, and there were quite a few nervous riders, and not all of them were in the Challenge group:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333"><span style="font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; color: rgb(1, 87, 130); text-decoration: none; "><a href="http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1141697" style="font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1141697</a></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333">The Expert Route would total about 70 miles with stops in Waterville for lunch, down <b>Waterville Canyon</b> back to the <b>Columbia River</b>, and the back from <b>Orondo</b> up the east side:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333">The Challenge Route took the riders for a rectangular tour of the <b>Waterville Plateau</b> after summiting McNeil. This would give these riders a chance to descend McNeil, something the Expert Group had </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">done on Friday’s ride.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333">After riding out to McNeil with the front of the group, I waited at the start of the climb for people who had been riding in the Challenge Route group. </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">Because McNeil Canyon is so hard, finishing with 2 miles at an average grade of over 10%, many riders were visibly apprehensive (for good reason!) as they started up the climb. My plan was to play cheerleader and coach on the climb</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 100%; ">.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "> I had been rehearsing my lines, “Doing great! Looking good! Keep turning the pedals ov</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">er!” I don’t know if my encouragement did any good, because after all everyone still had to push their own pedals. I did see a lot of smiles, which should be on the </span><b style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">McNeil Endangered List</b><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "> for so few riders do this on the climb. I was mostly riding with individuals, as almost no one was trying to stay in a group on the climb. I’d ride a bit and then wait for the next person to come along.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333">After a while, I rea</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">lized that the gaps between riders were much larger than I figured they would be, and I wound up waiting around for too long. I decided to do an about face with my tactic. I headed uphill and put my head down, riding pretty hard. I began catching people I had ridden with lower on the climb. Instead of pausing and riding along, I kept on going, giving encouragement as I went by. I must have pretty good fitness, because for the first time, McNeil felt like only a hard climb, and not like a </span><i style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">really </i><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">hard climb. I felt great on those two final very hard miles.</span></p></div><div style="font-weight: normal; "> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333">At the SAG stop on top, I joined up with the Expert Group, many of whom had started out together. A pretty brisk paceline soon took form and I settled in for the ride south to <b>Waterville.</b> Our initial group of 10-12 soon became 5-7, and once again, frequently it was just Adam and me riding by ourselves at the front. Just as the day before, I had great energy on the bike, something unusual for me, as I normally don’t recover well. Instead of the usual one <b>DOB</b> (Day off Bike) after a period of hard riding, this year I have been taking more blocks of 2-4 days of rest (much of the time weather imposed, I must admit). Perhaps this style of days of hard riding with a lot of rest is enabling me to recover better. If so, I look forward to my next long alpine tour!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333">At times, the pace </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">would ease, and the group of us would find ourselves socializing in the </span><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">MON</b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; "> (Middle of Nowhere) on the plateau without a car in sight (literally) for miles and miles. Whether we were riding hard or cooling our jets, it was fantastic riding and I was glad to be a part of a great group. </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">At the Waterville lunch stop, we encountered </span><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">Reg</b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">, who had started early and rid</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: white; ">den 20 miles before McNeil. He would add a few more after we got back to Chelan to get his 100 in for the day. I wound up riding down </span><b style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: white; ">Waterville Canyon</b><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: white; "> with Reg, and then along the east side of the Columbia River back to Chelan from Orondo. That’s what is great about a cycling camp; one can find just about every combination of riding company out on the road. I’d done my “coaching” for the day, and seen enough paceline wheels. It was time to take it easy and ride side by side most of the way back to Chelan with a good friend.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333">Later on Sunday, we had our big group dinner at <b>Vin du Lac</b>. Larry raffled off b</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: white; ">ottles of wine, and </span><b style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: white; ">Cycle U</b><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: white; "> raffled off prizes, making sure that everybody got something. Nice!</span></p><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIjIm1-9vaFFT5Z94xugFtWi7bAay1CGx9IBJxjTNEE1Cne0GcI4X8WdajjoWx0T9A-sUgTd6kRWQ-Q1MvfzNSvqh0gy6lJyskmx4henxj_xS_AzI2ZDdRlXRWljR0qZPila4VK4b5E4Y/s200/5-20-12ChelanCampSundayDinnerMary-Fiona.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5748493612347928082" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px; " /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">On Monday, I offered to drive SAG so that both </span><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">Craig</b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; "> and </span><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">Mary</b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; "> could ride. Mary had worked tirelessly all weekend at camp, without getting a chance to ride with the group. I could tell that Mary really enjoyed herself on the ride. Driving SAG was fun, and I enjoyed it almost as much as riding.</span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333">The Expert Route was the Navarre loop, the same route I had</span></p><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIoJgGlskwOCTrktQWhXi5RT0vps9s5-g95i-UMEnLT9E1s6QPy5aV20GCjcnkuZ_dj8BO5OdlLnlncqTB9p27QUa01TFntZ-MbnGIqyQlkL0VvtkOSfsN4lJ1btg4Urx2u0LJd6M91uY/s200/5-20-12ChelanCampSundayDinnerNealBDCake.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5748492369272729682" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px; " /><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: white; ">done with the Challenge Group on Friday. The Challenge Route was a very scenic out and back rolling route along the south lakeshore of Lake Chelan, all the way to where the road ends at </span><b style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: white; ">Twenty-Five Mile State Park</b><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: white; ">.</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333">So far in 2012, I’ve done most of my hard riding on the mountain bike, and a fair amount of endurance riding on the road bike. It’s a combination that appears to be working well for me fitness-wise, and it’s a lot of fun to swap back and forth between road and mountain bike riding.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333">Now I just need to spend some of that hard riding mileage riding up some of my favorite timed climbs on <b>Squak Mountain </b>roads to see if I am actually going better than normal at this time of the year. I’m looking out my windo</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#333333;background:white">w at Squak right now, and later in the year we will be living on Squak Mountain in the house we are remodeling and building an addition onto. Maybe that will motivate me to get on up there, seeing as I won't have a choice!<br /></span><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-weight: normal; "></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: normal; "> </p></div>Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-76731990179928326792012-03-15T17:58:00.001-07:002012-03-15T18:00:34.207-07:00Woo-Woo Chelan Camp is at 26 riders!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJPc3n45QrxvJ2Qya2qeUghPfC7XsVlPD8JUai0qv15LrJfbhT5eGpU_zUUsx_shO6AcjR2kPYwfJsw7nFagc10gPafTX0LzxXBZgWGuiFtY64Om8CF8SjdbDDC-7bifjApzKsvae7IQk/s1600/IMG_8377.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJPc3n45QrxvJ2Qya2qeUghPfC7XsVlPD8JUai0qv15LrJfbhT5eGpU_zUUsx_shO6AcjR2kPYwfJsw7nFagc10gPafTX0LzxXBZgWGuiFtY64Om8CF8SjdbDDC-7bifjApzKsvae7IQk/s320/IMG_8377.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5720293504717016274" /></a><br /><span >It's official. We are at 26 riders, so everybody gets the price break of $700. What a screaming deal this is! We're going to cap the camp at 35 riders, so if you want to make it to Chelan, sign up soon.</span>Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-90494320003150333242012-03-14T12:08:00.002-07:002012-03-14T12:11:20.310-07:002012 Cycle U Chelan Skills and Hills Camp<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbVbeh0J3xbOyiBuyZzSogZFabD4bLkmS40tHcU9WDXCDjtUtVM_3uO9ZWcqDL_4uOJU3jMrx47Gnz0SqOIybF4fk-Lk0LDBjx54BASr2JEWVrSVIvc7Xr3gRX6iLn99E0sAGA4TahxGM/s1600/IMG_8365-1.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 158px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbVbeh0J3xbOyiBuyZzSogZFabD4bLkmS40tHcU9WDXCDjtUtVM_3uO9ZWcqDL_4uOJU3jMrx47Gnz0SqOIybF4fk-Lk0LDBjx54BASr2JEWVrSVIvc7Xr3gRX6iLn99E0sAGA4TahxGM/s320/IMG_8365-1.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5719832190395697250" /></a><br />We are going to have a blast at Cycle U Chelan Camp from May 17th through May 21st:<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.cycleu.com/">http://www.cycleu.com/</a> </div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-54447430649348726642012-02-01T11:39:00.000-08:002012-02-01T11:49:12.756-08:00Team High Performance Cycling Kick-off Meeting and Meet the Team Ride<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt; background:white"><span style="font-size: 12pt; ">This Saturday from 3-5 PM we have the annual Team HPC kick-off party at Cycle U in West Seattle:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt; background:white"><a href="http://www.cascade.org/EandR/Activities_Calendar_RDetail.cfm?eventID=17194">http://www.cascade.org/EandR/Activities_Calendar_RDetail.cfm?eventID=17194</a> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt; background:white"><span style="font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">The following day we have our first 2012 Meet the Team Ride:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt; background:white"><a href="http://www.cascade.org/EandR/Activities_Calendar_RDetail.cfm?eventID=17219">http://www.cascade.org/EandR/Activities_Calendar_RDetail.cfm?eventID=17219</a> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt; background:white"><span style="font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">Forget about Super Bowl weekend. It even looks like the weather will cooperate with our Team HPC weekend extravaganza!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt; background:white"><span style="font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; ">I am the team's Cycle U Head Coach. I'm also a team co-manager, along with David Longdon. Check out David's blog post for more info and a photo of some of us in our team kit: </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt; background:white"><a href="http://blog.seattlepi.com/velocity/2012/01/31/saturday-feb-4-high-performance-cycling-2012-kick-off/">http://blog.seattlepi.com/velocity/2012/01/31/saturday-feb-4-high-performance-cycling-2012-kick-off/</a> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt; background:white"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt; background:white"><span style="font-size: 12pt; ">I hope to see you at the Kick-off and/or the Meet the Team Ride.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt; background:white"><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt; background:white"><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-70541533365996888062011-12-31T18:03:00.000-08:002011-12-31T18:12:32.736-08:002011 Cycling in Retrospect...with Introspection<p class="MsoNormal">At the very end of 2010, after ten years of living in Downtown Seattle, Tracy and I moved to Issaquah as part of an experiment. The City Mice became Mountain Mice:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/mountain-mice.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/mountain-mice.html</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal">We’ve now been here a year, and we are staying. Issaquah is a spectacular base of operations for both road cycling and mountain biking:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/eastern-horizons.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/eastern-horizons.html</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I wasn’t focused on the raw numbers for 2011, but here they are: 8450 miles (quite a few less than I normally manage) and 532,284’ of climbing (over 500k for the fifth year in a row; not a goal, but maybe it should be). Quite a few of those feet of climbing were on the mountain bike, and I should apply a correction factor of about 2:1, because that’s about how much harder climbing on a mountain bike is than on a road bike.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">During 2011 I counseled many athletes in my role as a cycling coach. Some were very fit and experienced people looking to take things to the next level, while others were simply trying to become athletes in their own eyes. I worked with a group of three women in their 50’s that were total cycling neophytes:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/no-training-wheels-required.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/no-training-wheels-required.html</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">No, I wasn’t out saving the world, but it is incredibly rewarding to collaborate with people who are passionate about something and willing to work hard to improve. It’s a great feeling to help people achieve goals and to share in their sense of excitement and accomplishment.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">To improve at anything, one must have both the proper physical and mental approach. I looked to my friend and local elite ultra-endurance cyclist Chris Ragsdale for some tips:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/coachs-tip-mental-milestones.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/coachs-tip-mental-milestones.html</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">In May, I ran the second annual Cycle U Chelan Skills and Hills Cycling Camp, and we had 23 riders. Despite some uncooperative weather, the camp was a huge success:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/attending-cycling-camp-can-be-great-way.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/attending-cycling-camp-can-be-great-way.html</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">2011 was a year during which I think I truly sensed my own mortality for the first time:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/its-hell-getting-older.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/its-hell-getting-older.html</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The major trigger for the visit to an Orthopedist concerned my right hip. For the last five+ years or so I have had some hip stiffness, but over the summer the stiffness got worse and I was sometimes in pain.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">It’s hard to control all the variables and isolate what might have caused my hip to get worse. I took up mountain biking on a friend’s borrowed bike with a frame one size too large for me. I was riding a lot, and falling off a fair amount as a newbie. I sprained my right ankle jumping off of the MTB one day, and the right ankle sprain seemed to coincide with the right hip getting worse.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">For the first time in my life, I had a doctor tell me that I had something that not only could not be 100% fixed, but that the best outcome I could hope for would be to “stabilize” the condition. Health-wise, I’ve been very fortunate, part by design, and I guess part by luck. I’ve never really been sick, I get a cold every three or four years, and I have had one minor arthroscopic surgery on my left shoulder.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">To hear the doctor’s prognosis was rather shocking news, but I am happy to report that so far, Dr. Doom and Gloom’s forecast has not been accurate. My right hip is significantly better than it was in the summer.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Just as with the cause, it’s hard to isolate and analyze the variables that might be responsible for my hip feeling much better. Per the doctor’s recommendation I am taking glucosamine and I doing both stretching and strengthening exercises the PT showed me. I’m doing lower body work in the weight room. My new mountain bike fits me perfectly and I have gotten a hell of a lot better riding it.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I guess I could sprain my left ankle to see if my <i>left</i> hip developed pain. I could stop taking glucosamine and trade for a mountain bike that doesn’t fit me. Stopping my exercises would be easy to do. In any case, even if I do one of these things I still won’t know exactly how it would affect my hip because the other variables would still be intact. So I can’t take a chance; I’ll stay the course.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Perhaps the best adage of life is, “Don’t believe everything you hear.” I might add, “Or see, even with your own eyes, or read, even on the internet.” I intend to listen to my body even more closely than I already am. In fact, my body may be the only thing I wind up listening to. You damn well better believe everything you feel. From a friend in Northern California comes this very sad story:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://bikecal.com/asp/columns-detail.asp?w=b&bRecNo=258">http://bikecal.com/asp/columns-detail.asp?w=b&bRecNo=258</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">As always, my number one goal was to have fun on the bike(s), and I achieved that. I had a serious goal of becoming proficient on a mountain bike. Mission accomplished in my mind, but there is so much more to learn! Perhaps my lack of “discrete” goals for 2011 could be in part due to working with many people who had very defined goals. Now that I think about it, my major focus in 2011 was to help other people achieve their goals; I just didn’t realize it at the time. Or maybe I was choosing to live vicariously through others. Chris Ragsdale would be a great place to start:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/chris-ragsdale-right-stuff.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/chris-ragsdale-right-stuff.html</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Looking back at all of the blog posts I wrote this year, I realized that I spent an inordinate amount of time dwelling on motivation (or lack of it), the absence of a competitive fire, and my general apathy towards riding really hard.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">During the year, I came to realize that I was just not into riding hard on the road bike. Normally I challenge myself to set new PR’s on five local climbs as a way of convincing myself that I got another year smarter, but not older:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/taking-care-of-business.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/taking-care-of-business.html</a>, </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">In 2011 I couldn’t mount the enthusiasm to even have a go at one climb. Not riding super hard meant that I never really got super fit, but I don’t know how fit I was or not because I lacked the motivation to find out. I struggled to figure out the reason for my lack of motivation (and competitive fire, normally itself a motivator):</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/hills-of-west-coast-catch-22.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/hills-of-west-coast-catch-22.html</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">And I tried in vain to come up with sources of inspiration as well:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/hills-of-west-coast-idolization-or.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/hills-of-west-coast-idolization-or.html</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I searched for a higher meaning of competition and pride from a fellow Team HPC rider who happens to be a double Olympic gold medalist:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/hills-of-west-coast-competitonand-pride.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/hills-of-west-coast-competitonand-pride.html</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I thought maybe a solution (or at least explanation) could be derived from Tour de France actions:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/hills-of-west-coast-tour-special.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/hills-of-west-coast-tour-special.html</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">But then I remembered that these guys are likely aliens from another planet:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/2011-chelan-century-approaching.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/2011-chelan-century-approaching.html</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">One thing I knew for certain is that I couldn’t blame my inadequate or antiquated equipment:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/metal-cowboys-its-not-about-bikeat-all.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/metal-cowboys-its-not-about-bikeat-all.html</a></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal">Finally, I looked to more esoteric explanations. It just couldn’t be me, could it?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/hills-of-west-coast-fun-or-focus.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/hills-of-west-coast-fun-or-focus.html</a></p><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I guess the bottom line for me in 2011 was just a general unsettled feeling, and a laissez faire attitude towards riding. I focused a lot of energy riding the mountain bike, and on coaching cyclists when I wasn’t riding. I had a blast doing so, and I have no feelings of remorse.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Tracy and I are getting married in March. We’re looking to build or buy a house in Issaquah. We’re digging in. 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mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:shapedefaults ext="edit" spidmax="1026"> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:shapelayout ext="edit"> <o:idmap ext="edit" data="1"> </o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">Back in early 2009 I wrote about why I am so loyal and passionate about Campagnolo, the iconic Italian manufacturer of premier bicycle components. For me, it's not just about the gear, it's about the history, culture, and commitment of the company to a way of life:<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/campy-only.html">http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/campy-only.html<br /></a><br />This month's Bicycling Magazine takes an in-depth look at Campagnolo and finds much to admire about the Italian Way:<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.bicycling.com/print/56888">http://www.bicycling.com/print/56888</a><br /><br />Campagnolo has resisted the sell-out and remained private. They have bucked the trend and not outsourced and off-shored their manufacturing. Campagnolo employs well paid skilled craftsmen and remains family owned. Can the company survive in this era of cheap global labor and mass production?<br /><br />Some forward thinking economists maintain that they will not only survive, but that the Campagnolo old school way may thrive in the modern economy. Perhaps even mighty Boeing can learn a thing or two from Campagnolo about manufacturing?</p><p class="MsoNormal">On a sad note (at least for me), Campagnolo has released their electronic shifting groups:</p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/campagnolo-unveils-eps-electronic-systems">http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/campagnolo-unveils-eps-electronic-systems</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">It's much better looking than Shimano Di2 (but still ugly), and at least Campy has engineered some "feel" into the shifting buttons. 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name="Colorful List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="19" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="21" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="31" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="32" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="33" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">As I stare out the window into the early October mist, I am reminded as to just how frustrating it was to implement a consistent strategy for riding last winter. I design training plans for the athletes I coach based on their available hours, experience, goals, patience, and a myriad of other factors. Unfortunately I can’t control the weather, and the weather is often the most variable determinant of whether or not a training plan will yield the results we are looking for.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Last winter I taught a training plan clinic for <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">High Performance Cycling</b> team members:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <a href="http://www.cascade.org/EandR/Ride_HPC.cfm">http://www.cascade.org/EandR/Ride_HPC.cfm</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <a href="http://www.cycleu.com/services/team/team_hpc.html">http://www.cycleu.com/services/team/team_hpc.html</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"></span>During the clinic, I discussed how to build the classic periodization style plan for the cycling year. Later in the spring (while winter was still raging), I came to the realization that I wasn’t even close to following the plan I had laid out for myself. Given my flexible time to ride and the possession of a “rain bike” (and willingness to use it), I knew that my athletes wouldn’t have much chance implementing the plans I had written for them. What good is a plan if it can’t be completed?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Normally our winters are mild enough for year-round cycling. Even so, there is enough variability that following an outdoor riding plan is challenging. This winter I'll be developing a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">HIT</b> (High Intensity Training) program for people who realistically can ride between 4-6 hours per week (expandable with nice weather) with a maximum of four rides per week. The hard intervals that are part of a HIT plan can be done outdoors, but doing the workouts indoors makes a lot of sense. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">A traditional volume based plan breaks down below ten hours a week. There simply is not enough training stimulus. At eight hours per week, a volume style plan can produce moderate fitness…and keep you there. In other works, the athlete plateaus and often gets frustrated with the lack of progress.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">For people willing to tough it out through the winter weather for 10+ hours per week, I'll use a traditional periodization plan. Personally, I’m going with a HIT plan. Coming from someone who has spent a total of one hour on the trainer over the last three years, this commitment to indoor riding is quite a concession. I plan on doing a lot of hiking and snowshoeing over the winter, and spending less time on the road bike. I’m not sure how I’ll account for muddy <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">MTB</b> rides in my plan, but I’ll work around it.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In case HIT is copyrighted, I could call it <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">HAT</b> (Hard Ass Training), <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">FIT</b> (Fervently Intense Training), <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">FAT </b>(Fairly Aggressive Training), <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">WIT</b> (Winter Intense Training), or <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">WAT</b> (Winning Attack Training). On second thought, I’ll use HIT and run the risk of copyright infringement. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">There have been a lot of studies over the last several years that demonstrate how effective a HIT strategy can be. Will it work as well as a classic plan built around volume of 12+ hours a week? Well, no, I don’t expect it to, but I suppose if you had no idea as to what to do with those 12 hours HIT very well could be more effective. Depending on the athlete, the goal for a HIT plan could be to prepare for a spring cycling tour or big event, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Cycle U Chelan Camp</b>, or to ride strong on group rides. For information about the science of HIT, search the internet for “cycling high intensity training.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I think the key when time or weather limits training time is to maximize the quality and value of the riding that can be accomplished. With plenty of time for recovery, I intend to make every minute on the bike count this winter. Come spring, I’ll be doing those longer rides that I used to grit my teeth through over the winter.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Hey, if we get a week of dry 65 degree weather in the middle of winter, I’ll throw HIT out the window…for a week. I’ll get back to HIT when the next tsunami of rain hits, and I bet I won’t have to wait long.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6515853512050067278.post-68794666521705593072011-09-18T13:57:00.000-07:002011-09-18T14:00:04.395-07:00Chris Ragsdale: The Right Stuff<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> 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mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black">Back in June, I told Chris Ragsdale that I thought he would win the 2011 edition of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Paris-Brest-Paris</b>, a 1200km (745 mile) event held since 1891. PBP is one of the most famous ultra-cycling events in the world:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black"></span><a href="http://www.paris-brest-paris.org/pbp2011/index2.php?lang=en&cat=accueil&page=edito"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin">http://www.paris-brest-paris.org/pbp2011/index2.php?lang=en&cat=accueil&page=edito</span></a><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black"> PBP is held every four years, and officially it is a Randonneur event, not a race. PBP actually was a race until 1957, and amongst the lead group not much has changed.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The competition is intense and ruthless, and a “win” is a very, very prestigious addition to any rider’s palmares.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black"> For the nitty gritty details of this year’s PBP see Chris’s own account, as published in David Longdon’s recent blog:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black"></span><a href="http://blog.seattlepi.com/velocity/2011/09/02/ragsdales-paris-brest-paris-report/"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin">http://blog.seattlepi.com/velocity/2011/09/02/ragsdales-paris-brest-paris-report/</span></a><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black">Toward the bottom of the page is a link to a post-race interview with Chris. At around the</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin"> seven-minute mark, the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Master of Type II Fun</b> (the kind that is only fun well after it is over) is asked if he will be back. His weary answer, "Give me two weeks and then ask me."</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin">For a really interesting “on the scene” perspective on Chris’s ride, see this report from </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black">Damien Breen, one of</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin"> his European-based crew:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black"></span><a href="http://in-the-saddle.com/2011/08/31/crewing-at-paris-brest-paris-2011-the-agony-the-ecstasy-the-falling-asleep/"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin">http://in-the-saddle.com/2011/08/31/crewing-at-paris-brest-paris-2011-the-agony-the-ecstasy-the-falling-asleep/</span></a><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin">Out of 5500 people who started, Chris finished 20 minutes behind the “winner” in 5<sup>th</sup> place with a total time of 44 hours and 36 minutes. He managed this despite the fact that he rode 40km (25 miles) more than the winner. Do the math. If Chris doesn’t go off course due to a battle-fatigue induced rookie mistake, he would have ridden the other riders right off of his wheel and won the race, as he was almost certainly the physically strongest and mentally toughest rider there.</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black">Did I pick Chris to win because he is by far the strongest rider I have ever known? No, of course not.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>How would I compare Chris Ragsdale to other elite level riders I know nothing about? It means nothing if I say, “Pick the strongest riders we have ever had on the Hills of the West Coast ride, and Chris could ride all of those riders off of his wheel and into the next zip code if not county.” You can’t compare top level elite athletes to mere mortals. Chris Ragsdale must have a heart that could have propelled <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Secretariat</b> to the Triple Crown.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black">Did I think Chris would win because of his track record of winning multiple <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">US 24 Hour Championships</b> or because he holds the world record for 1000km? Well, certainly his record doesn’t define Chris as a dark horse. Whether the European riders knew it or not, Chris was almost guaranteed to be a formidable competitor, but I had no idea as to just how strong the other riders would be. I truly believed Chris would win the race because of a very intangible factor.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black">When I was twelve years old and learning to play golf, I had a chance to meet <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Jack Nicklaus</b>. Watching Nicklaus address a golf ball in a meaningless pro-amateur event was an almost mystical experience. He just had a certain aura about him. There was a quiet confidence paired with an absolute focus. Case in point:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Nicklaus was chatting with my friend Pat, who was caddying for his father while his dad was playing in Nicklaus’s group. But when he prepared to hit his drive and then stood over the ball, everything changed in a split second and there was this steely look about him that I have never forgotten. It didn’t matter that it was a pro-am; he had the same look of concentration as if he were trying to win the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">US Open</b>.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black">For lack of a better term, I’ll just call this aura the “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Right Stuff</b>.” I think certain athletes must be born with it, as how else do incredibly talented professional athletes differentiate themselves when they all possess amazing and comparable skills? </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin">Just as with <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Austin Powers</b> and his Mojo, it must be possible to “lose” the Right Stuff and only time will tell if someone like Tiger Woods can get it back. At seventy years of age, I doubt that Nicklaus has lost it.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin"></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black">With many top athletes, it seems like a certain “attitude” comes with the Right Stuff, but with Chris Ragsdale, there is no conceit or arrogance. When I saw Chris in June he looked even leaner and fitter than usual, and he had this certain look in his eye when I asked him about PBP. When I told Chris I thought he would win PBP, Chris humbly mentioned that there would be many world class riders at PBP and he hoped to learn from them. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>A lack of cockiness might differentiate Chris from many famous athletes, but without trying he just exudes a confident aura.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black"></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin">A few weeks ago, Tracy and I went to the opening game of the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Issaquah High School</b> football season. Neither of us had been to a high school football game since high school! We got there late, and sat in the visitor’s stands right behind the away team’s bench. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin">Toward the end of the first half as Issaquah racked up a 48-0 lead, I said to Tracy, “You never know if somewhere on that visiting team is a kid who still thinks his team can win, is determined to do so, and who still intends to win. He’s not down on his inept teammates, and is focused on winning singlehandedly if that is what it will take to enable his team to win.” If there were such a person on this team, a budding superstar in the making, he wouldn’t consider whether winning was possible or impossible, and he wouldn’t quit trying until the final whistle. You never know where people with the Right Stuff may be lurking.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin">People are asking Chris if he will be back in four year’s time to give PBP another crack. Who knows, but I doubt it, because I think by then Chris will have something else to focus on. That would be <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">RAAM</b> (Race Across America), possibly the most prestigious ultra-cycling race in the world. I’m betting that Chris will win this grueling race in his first or second try.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin">Why do I think Chris will win RAAM? Because he has the Right Stuff and he is not about to lose it.</span></p>Tom Meloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14150217101772664704noreply@blogger.com0