Bachelor to Bend Ride/Tour with Cogwild

This past Sunday, for my second day in Bend, I did Cogwild's "Bachelor to Bend" tour.  I am normally a bit leery (snobby?) about doing paid tours like this, because it seems that often enough you get more rookie riders, so the pace is slow and the guides have to do a lot of work beyond just showing you the cream.  Luckily, that was not the case, and we had a killer day!  I joined 9 other guys, and two guides (Jeremy and Pia).  Seven of those guys were a group down from Washington, and they all rode great.  Two of the 9 were a father-son combo, with the son out for only his second mtb ride every!  Totally epic for a 2nd ride.  It's good he was young, cuz, damn, most people as a second ride wouldn't have survived the 36 miles and 6 hours of riding we did.  We did have a few mechanicals (I managed to tighten a cassette lockring using my Leatherman needle nose pliers, worked quite well, so keep that in mind as a field-lockring tool :)  Nearly all of us ran out of water, but with just a couple miles of dirt road to go (i.e. after the main riding).  So, 125oz of water for me for the day, 1 sandwich (provided by Cog, and they were quite good, from a local bakery), 2 gels, and a bar, and some fruit and such (again provided by Cogwild).

One of the reasons I did the tour was that I wanted to ride Flagline, which opened the same day, and I didn't know the route, etc.  Not to mention, I had heard good things about the whole Bachelor to Bend ride/tour.  We did indeed hit Flagline, and it was great.  At the bottom of Flagline, we did a little side jaunt up to a killer vista, where you could see Bachelor, Tumalo, the Sisters, and more:
Great view of Bachelor on our ride
After that we hit South Fork, which I loved.  Pia led this out, and I jumped on her wheel.  The two of us just railed it, leaving the others behind.  I was truly loving this trail.  It's fast, mildly technical, twisty, and just so much fun.  Now that I've been up to the vista, really, the super choice descent would just be from the top of Flagline all the way down to the bottom of South Fork.  I think that'd be something like 6 miles(?) of top quality descent.  Superb!  I should note, Pia probably doesn't even weight 100lbs (seriously), but the woman can rip (and I'm quite sure she wasn't going all out).  From there we headed to Tumalo Falls for lunch.
Tumalo Falls, gorgeous
I really love Tumalo Falls, the 97 foot waterfall is truly gorgeous.  We stuck our heads in the river/creek, and then it was time to charge on.  Back along Tumalo, to Skyliners.  Somewhere along Skyliners is where Mark's cassette blew up.  Oh, and luckily we noticed his tire bead had started to come off a bit and was filled with a bunch of dirt.  A bit of maintenance, and we were on our way again.  We hit Whoops; if only I could ride it as well as Voreis and friends:
But, even for a crappy jumper like myself, it is still a blast.  I just don't do the doubles :)  The berms are awesome, and the smaller jumps are quite workable.  Finally it was back along Phil's to the Phil's trailhead and then a backroad/trail to Cogwild HQ for water, beers, and bike wash, completing a killer day!  It was time for me to drive back to Eugene, so I stopped for a fish taco and an Ahi burrito at Parilla, and then hit the road.  I had a really great weekend in Bend.  

Here it is on Monday night now, and my eyes have finally recovered from the very dry weather, and all the dust.  That appears to be the only lasting body blow, as my legs amazingly recovered great.  I did a 5k trail run this morning, and all felt good.  I'm pretty stoked on that, and it renews my belief that I do better with a bit more frequent rides & runs (i.e. it proves I shouldn't have gone so easy the week before the half marathon).  Initially on Sunday's ride, maybe at the vista or end of Flagline, my legs were feeling Saturday, but the descent down South Fork and probably then lunch, rejuvenated me, and by the end, I felt even stronger (not that I wasn't pretty knackered at the end of the ride, but felt pretty strong, just thirsty :) 

Filed under  //   Bend   cycling  
Posted August 16, 2010
 

MTB Ride on Phils, etc. in Bend

I'm in Bend for the weekend, where it's actually far cooler (86) than Eugene (100!!), to do some riding.  I woke up earlier this morning and got on the road at a good time, and was out riding the trails a little before 11am.  This made the temps very tolerable.  I had planned a general Phils, Storm King, COD, loop, thought it'd be about 20+ miles, and take about 2-ish hours of ride time.  Well, I was a bit off, and I wound up not even doing one section (VooDoo) that I wanted to hit.  But, 3 hours and 30 minutes, 2600' of climbing (pretty mild), and about 25 miles later, I was pretty cooked.  This was supposed to be a pretty easy ride, as I have the Bachelor-to-Bend ride tomorrow.

It was quite a good ride though.  Got to do some trails I hadn't been on before, including lower Whoops (thought I did it all, but realized I didn't get up to the upper section, so bit bummed about that), and Storm King.  The rest I'd done before, and did manage to get to do Dirty Pirate again, which is good, and some more gnarly parallel chunk of COD (that I wound up doing both directions as I was thinking it was ELV).  I rode my Reign, which is a bit of a tank for this kind of ride, but wanted to suss it out for tomorrow, as everyone has said to use it for that, and my last time riding around Bachelor I did in the end wish I'd had suspension.  Still a toss up though, and I still really just need to sell the Reign and get a nice 3-4" travel 29er (think Tallboy or Jet9).

Nice to be on the bike, and on good trails too. Could have used even more rock, and a little less of the more sandy, buff stuff, but still good.  I find I really like coming to Bend.  Very vibrant town, lots of folks out and about, and there is just a vibe of energy.  Eugene just doesn't feel that way to me at all.  Sometimes it really makes me question our choice, and think we should have gone for Bend, but it's unclear.  Family is all in Eugene, and that is really very nice.  Also, I do not particularly like the desert aspect of Bend.  For now, I will just be happy to get over to Bend a bit more, seems like a good destination for riding, running, and vacationing.

I then checked into my hotel, showered, did a half-ass ice-bath (just cold water, no ice), went into town for some new running shoes (another post on that later), and then back to chill.  Made some coffee, had some chips and salsa, relaxed.  Then it was dinner time...

The hotel I'e got has a kitchen (stove, microwave, 'fridge).  I knew this, and had prepped some food, as we had just gotten our CSA box, had lots of food at home, and well eating out solo isn't much fun.  Besides, I probably had a better dinner than I could have most places...  I had artichokes, chicken and brown rice tacos (soft corn tortillas) with salsa, and a bit of cheese and crackers for appetizer :)  Pretty sweet.  I've got some salad and pre-cooked potatoes in the fridge for later if I want, but I'm pretty full right now.

Filed under  //   Bend   cycling  
Posted August 14, 2010
 

Learning to Go Hard

Something that's been playing on my mind a lot lately, is how I'm new enough to running that I don't really know my limits and thus understand how hard I can go for how long, and how long it'll take to recover (during the same run).  On the bike, I know this very well.  I know that if I hammer some hill, I know precisely how my legs feel, how long I can do that, when I need to let up, and then when I can do it again.  But with running, I don't.  Partly this is pure lack of experience, having seldom really tried to go hard for some particular distance.

Over the last two days, I've put in two solid road bike rides.  Both were short, only about 1hr 35 minutes.  The first day I did a ride I've done many times, which included the McBeth climb, and total ride vert of about 2400'.  I did this ride maybe 5-10 minutes faster than normal, which I believe was completely due to the fact that about halfway through it, I passed a guy on a TT or tri bike, who then appeared to jump on and start chasing me shortly after.  I turned around to see he was at the base of a short hill, when I was maybe halfway up.  It was game on!  

From that point on, I put in a solid pace, about as hard as I could go, but sustain for at least 30 minutes.  So, clearly not a sprint, and I was sitting the entire time, but a few mph faster than normal.  On the descent of the same hill, I dropped a water bottle (first time ever?), and thought he'd catch me, but he didn't.  Occasionally looking back, I could still see him, but by the junction on Lorane towards home, I'd apparently dropped him.  Was definitely a hammer ride, but felt good.

Yesterday I did a similar distance, similar vert climb, but not quite so hard.  During this I spent a lot of time thinking about doing hard efforts, and how to figure out how to do that during runs, in particular during races.  Usually on the bike, there are parts of a ride that this is easy to do and break into a particular chunk: a climb, or trying to drop someone who's behind you on a flat, or going hard to the next road you'll turn on, etc.  But, while running, about the only time I've really ramped up pace is when I've run downhill a bit, recovered, and am feeling fresh, and just feeling like turning it up a notch.  This doesn't usually last very long though, I'd bet the longest I've pushed a hard pace is maybe 1/3rd of a mile.  Partly I'm just not comfortable doing it, or rather, it feels odd.  It doesn't feel bad, it's just that my legs/body aren't used to it.  So, in part, I think I simply have to start doing it more.  Racing will be a good way to force the issue, but even there, I'm not typically racing a particular person, or care about that, so haven't.

Alas, for the upcoming Haulin Aspen half marathon, I'm currently strategizing that I'll do the first half of the race at my "usual" pace.  This is also the expected hardest half of the race as it has all the vertical gain.  But descents are usually where I can open things up anyway, and I think I'll be able to sustain a faster pace for longer and not run out of gas.  So, we'll see.  My goal will be to really try to put in some speed during the last half, when I can.  I don't expect to blitz the entire last half, but will conciously try to run faster than normal whenever possible.  Hopefully I can do that without bonking.

Filed under  //   cycling   running  
Posted July 21, 2010
 

Heat and More Heat

We've had a heat wave here in Eugene this past week.  Nothing like the temps of the last place I lived (Rocklin, CA), where things routinely hit 100, but still, quite hot for Eugene (upper 90's).  On Thursday I went out for a run in the morning, wanting to beat the heat.  I went in the morning, and it was only about 80 degrees.  However, I was definitely feeling it.  I had a bit of residual tiredness from Tuesday's run on top of that.  I had wanted to do a bigger run, around 10 miles, but it became evident early on that that wasn't going to happen.  I wound up doing 8.5 miles, and finishing a water bottle before the end of my run (have never done that before).  I was completely soaked in sweat by the finish.  And, upon arriving home, checked my weight, to find I was 4+ pounds down from the morning!  That includes having had more water in the car on the way home, and when I got home.  Ya, dehydrated for sure.

On Friday, I planned to take the day off, due to the very high temps (was supposed to hit 98), and the dehydration and such from the day before.  But, I was just restless, and had to get out.  So, in the middle of the afternoon, I went for a short road ride.  Temps ranged from 95-99 during the ride, depending on where I was.  I even chose to do the McBeth climb simply because it was tree lined/shaded, as compared to nearly every other road I could do on a shorter ride.  Strangely, this heat didn't bother me nearly as much.  On the bike it helps that you have a 15-20mph "wind" simply due to riding, but I was surprised the heat didn't get me as bad.  Coming back up McLean on the way home was quite hot, but all in all, not bad.  

Saturday I did wind up taking off, had a nice family day.  Weather cooled down a bit into the mid to upper 80's.  Spent some time outside, but just hanging out with my kids and relaxing.

Sunday I got to get on the mountain bike, and went off to do Goodman-Eagles again.  I started the ride at 11am, and it was in the mid-70's.  But man, I don't know if it was more humid in amongst all the trees or what, but it became a serious sweat fest.  It was in the 80's by the end of the ride, but even 20 minutes in I was sweating heavily.  This is a solid ride, with 2500 feet of climbing in the first hour and 15 minutes, getting up to the Eagle's Rest summit.  I hadn't really realized it was that much, and that helps explain why it's a pretty solid ride for a shorter ride (total ride time is 2 hours).  Met Ken and Scott at the base of Eagles, and then led them up to the top.  We hung out and talked for a while, about the relatively unknown, yet somewhat epic surfing on the Oregon coast, Eugene's difficult job market, and so on.  Then it was time to head down.

Somewhere on the first segment down, I had a very hard rock-to-rim hit on my front wheel.  At the base of Eagle's I thought it was fine.  Checked the wheel, tire, etc., all seemed ok, and I've had these before, so wasn't worried.  But, riding a bit more, realized the tire was going flat.  I stopped and assumed I just needed to inflate it a bit, it'd probably burped or lost a bit, and the tubeless sealant just needed a bit of air and a spin, etc., so I told Ken and Scott I was fine.  Of course though, the sealant didn't seem to be doing the job.  This sealant is quite old (more than 7 months), so I figured it'd probably just run dry or what not.  I inflated a bit, gave a spin, and figured I'd ride a bit more and see if I could get it to seal up.  But nope, a short ways later, air as getting low, and I pushed it too far, rolling the tire and sliding out.  At that point it was time to put a tube in.  To continue the good times, the tube I had was a 26" tube, so it took a bit of work to get it stretched around the rim, and then a lot of work, oddly enough, to get the tire back on (I hadn't recalled these tires being so tough to mount - maybe they too were feeling the heat).  Finally, I got it all put back together and headed down again.

By now though, the mojo, the flow, was gone.  I was riding somewhat lamely, and just had to take it down a notch or two.  No way I was going to catch back up to Scott & Ken.  Oh well. Made it back, and it was still a good ride.  I just can't seem to catch a break on Goodman's in terms of unusual mechanicals.  But, this is also a sign that it's time to do some real bike maintenance.  I need to put the new pedal spindles in, new sealant in the tires (and maybe replace that front one), a good cleaning and tune, etc.  Regardless, it's great to be riding my mtb again, and I hope I can continue to get some good rides in.  And now, on Monday, it appears our heat wave has left us for the day.  We'll see if I get out today though, busy day, and I'm a bit tired.  But, given that I see we're supposed to see temps back in the mid-80's again this week, I might have to get out there...

Filed under  //   cycling   running  
Posted July 12, 2010
 

Enjoying Running, Missing Riding

I've been running consistently for a couple months now, post ankle breakage.  I've really been enjoying it.  My fitness and running have both been improving nicely, and I've done some races for the first time in my life.  What I haven't been doing much of is cycling.  I've done all of one, or maybe two mountain bike rides this year, and maybe a half dozen road rides, if that.  I both miss riding, but also don't so much, which is a really weird thing for me, given how long I've been riding and that I consider it my one true passion, sports wise.

Part of this has been my seemingly increasing disappointment with the lack of good close trails for mountain biking.  Road riding here is pretty good, although I'm a bit bored with it at the moment, and road riding has always been more of a fitness thing for me.  Trail running has become somewhat of a stand-in for mountain biking.  It at least gets me on trails, which is really where I want to be.  But, I feel like I'm losing riding, and I'm not sure what to think about that at the moment: I'm both quite mad and frustrated about it, but also sort of feeling like it's just this moment in life.

What I'm holding on to right now is that I'm pretty excited to go run - I really want to run, and run most days.  There are days when I really need a rest, or I'm having some ankle or other joint pain from a longer run, and need a break, but most days I want to get out there.  That is super healthy in my mind, and I'm glad to have that.  One thing I'm slightly worried about is that I've started to yearn for other trails to run, aside from the Ridgeline trails (which are awesome, but I'm the kind of person that really needs variety).  I'll be heading to Pisgah soon, and I'd like to see about running on some of the mtb trails, like Goodman, South Willamette, Salmon Creek, Brice, and so on but darn it if those aren't a good 45+ minute drive away, and just become the same problem as mountain biking...  Once I have to spend nearing two hours in the car, it just becomes a real buzz kill, not to mention it all of a sudden turns into a minimum of a half day time hit.  One of the reasons I took up running was to have a short time commitment workout.  When I was only typically running 3-4 miles, that worked out great, I could be  home and showering within an hour after a 5k-ish run on my local Ridgeline trails.  I guess the good part is that I can now run 1-2 hours, so driving a ways for a run isn't quite as bad if I do a longer run.

I look forward to doing some good mountain bike rides this summer, but I just don't know when those will be.  Summer is already getting busy, I don't have much budget or time to travel beyond what we're already doing, and the trails that really get my blood running are 2+ hour drive, or a day's drive (Tahoe) away.  Hopefully the trail running will keep me busy with some trails and help alleviate the pain of not getting to mtb much.  I just hope it's not something that I'll wake up one day and realize was a poor stand-in.  I really don't think so though.  I typically have WAY too big a grin when I'm done with a run, and am having a lot of fun seeing where I'll be able to take my running - getting into longer distances, and improving my abilities.  Now to figure out how to squeeze a run into a very busy day today...

Filed under  //   cycling   running  
Posted June 29, 2010