Lewis and Clark Ultra race report.

May 29th 2010
Garmin File
Photo's from the race

Drove down to Battle Ground Friday night, between traffic and an accident it was a four hour drive. The race started at 6:30am, we arrived at the start about 10 after 6:00 just in time to catch the pre race briefing. My official start time was 6:37am. I had 20 minutes to get dressed and get my bike ready. At the last minute I decided to put on a windstopper jacket, I’m glad I did it stayed on for the next 9 hours. Racers started 30 seconds apart beginning at 6:30, at 6:37 I was off.

The first 3 miles are flat and being aero was nice, I passed a couple people that started ahead of me. Right at 3 miles you run into an 18% grade hill, oh hello nasty hill, I’ll see you again another 5 times on the short course. There were a couple 600’ climbs in the next 27 miles before we dropped down into the Columbia Gorge at mile 30. The rain was falling heavily for much of the first few hours. It was nice catching occasional glimpses of the river, Beacon Rock, and the Bonneville dam. At roughly 50 miles we headed north through the town of Carson. The next 15 miles was a gradual climb gaining a little over a thousand feet. The roads were quiet for the most part now that I was out of the gorge. Anessa and Hunter had stopped for breakfast earlier so I was on my own for about an hour and a half. One of the relay teams swapped riders around the 60 mile point and the fresh rider bombed past me, this was a low point. The gradual uphill that never seemed to end was weighing on me, getting rained on and working reasonably hard but only making 16 miles per hour.
In typical “Jason style” I briefly read the route description and knew there was a “big climb” around mile 70 but that was about it. Little did I know I was climbing a damn mountain pass, Old man pass to be exact. My biggest worry doing this race was cramps, prior to 2008 they had never been a problem but the last couple years they had struck at various running races. I am by no means a climber so I didn’t have to swallow much pride to take it easy on the climb. My 39/28 gearing worked well but I was still out of the saddle a fair bit. Time Station #2 was on top of the pass at over 3,100’. It was great to see Anessa and Hunter at the summit, I had a few orange slices at the time station and started the descent. The ride down Old Man pass was wet, wild, windy, and dangerous due to limited visibility at high speeds (49+mph).
(Picking this report back up on 10/2/10, I’m a total slacker)
The final check in station was in Cougar and went by w/o incident. At this point I had not seen another rider for probably an hour. I made my only big mistake around mile 120 in the town of Yacolt, I missed a right hand turn and ended up doing a 5 mile detour (check out the Garmin file). Once back on track I was feeling great and finished the 140 mile big loop strong. When I rolled into the high school check point the volunteers were chatting away and seemed a little surprised I was checking in. I used the rest room and chatted with Hunter and Anessa for a bit before starting the short loop(s). I had no idea where I was in relation to the other riders but I was enjoying be out there competing.

After 4 short loops I was ready to call it a day, there was less than 30 minutes left and I knew I couldn’t complete another full 10 mile lap. I was urged on by a volunteer to try to squeeze in a few last miles, and figured that was probably the thing to do. Anessa and Hunter were great when I asked them to follow me out on the course in about 20 minutes. I made it to mile 6 in 11:59 so I pulled over and waited for Anessa to pick me up. I reported my 6 miles back at the high school and then headed back to the hotel. Once the results were posted later I was shocked that I took 2nd place despite the extra 5 miles. I felt even better when I found out the guy who beat me is a pretty hardcore CAT3 racer who was intent on winning this race. His race report is here.
Not bad for a fat guy who bought his first road bike 10 months before this race.
Notes:
Food:
Breakfast consisted of a Starbucks sausage and egg breakfast sandwich, a chocolate old fashion doughnut, a small Super Food, and a Starbucks energy drink.
On the course I consumed:
• 3 King size and 1 regular snickers bar
• 8oz of Hammer gel
• 2 32oz red Powerade’s + 8 scoops of Carbo Pro
• 1 Almond Joy
• 2 Banana’s and ½ an Orange

What I will do different next year:
• No TT bike, road bike with semi aero wheels and clip-on bars.
• Don’t get lost!

2010 Vance Creek Road Race

3rd CAT5 road race! Expectations for this race were very low. Legs were a little weak from the TT the day before and a mile uphill finish does not suit a 205lb rider. Finishing with the main pack and maybe helping set up Travis and/or Rob for the final sprint would be considered a win for me. Rob got lost on the journey down to Elma and missed the start, he ended up racing in the afternoon with the Masters. Travis’s friend Nate that rode with us the weekend prior was also racing, it was cool to know a couple people in the field.

Start: I rolled out at the back of the 40 rider pack, after a few miles Travis and I moved up to the front 3rd of the pack. At the end of lap 1 of 3 (13 mile laps) I was situated near the middle of the pack. There is a 10%+ small hill in the final 200M that hurt and would hurt again twice more. Nothing crazy about lap two, Travis pushed off the front once and I followed. For a mile or two we were up front but never really clear of the field. About half way through lap 2 Travis flatted, I found out after the race that Nate had flatted on the first lap. At one point the only bikesale rider in the pack (Aaron) pulled up along side me. He let me know that all the other CAT5 riders on his team upgraded and this was “”my race”. I paused a bit deciding how big of an asshole I was going to be. I figure I must be the douche bag on the Orange Tarmac to the bikesale team. I decided to blow off the comment and let him know any race with a long uphill finish was never going to be “my race” I think he got dropped shortly after that and ended up finishing 2nd to last.

In the final 1km of lap 2 a Jr. racer who had been swerving all over to this point managed to go hard into the back wheel of the guy in front of him. The Jr. who was just left of me went down and managed to take 3-4 other riders with him. Thankfully I managed to avoid another CAT5 crash. I didn’t have much time to think about it because I was trying to haul my fat ass up this damn hill! I focused on the guys wheel in front of me and was determined not to lose it. When I popped up out of the saddle to get over the final kicker the main pack had split in two and I was stuck in the middle. For the next couple miles I worked hard to try to bridge up to the main pack but it wasn’t happening. I let off the gas a little and let the chase group that and formed pick me up. The chase group was totally unorganized but after about 8 miles we latched back on to the lead group. Inside the final 1km the front part of the group split apart, there was no way I was going to be able to match the speed of the guys pulling away. I did manage to hold my own though and actually pass a few guys in the final few hundred meters. I ended up 12th.

2010 Pedal Dynamics Time Trial

Let me get this out of the way upfront, I’m a total retard. Not that you need proof but here goes. Last Thursday 4/22 I met Rob on Mercer Island to get in a few miles on the TT bike and test out my new Giro Advantage 2 aero helmet. We were zipping around the Island when Rob threw his chain on the short steep hill on the SE side of the Island. I waited for him on top of the hill while he put the chain back on. He was in a tall gear so he said I need to go back downhill to downshift. I call down to him to lift the back tire and spin the crank while downshifting. I decided to demonstrate and promptly fell over. The lady getting her mail must have had a great laugh at the dumb ass on a TT bike outfitted with a disk wheel and rockin an aero helmet falling over. Ouch! I mainly tell this story to explain why when I woke up the morning of the TT I couldn’t turn my head. Damn my neck is sore! It’s not like riding 12 miles in the aero position really is hard on the neck though, right? Wrong! After taking a boatload of Advil before leaving the house it really didn’t turn out to be much of a problem.

The Race:
I ran this same course in early March and was really disappointed to only average 23.7mph. Report here: I had two goals for this TT, stay relaxed, stay aero! I think I did a pretty good job of both. Finished in 28:25 and averaged 25.3mph. A nice improvement over March despite plenty of wind and rain.

Few pictures of Rob and I here:

Weekly catch up.

Signed up for a couple races tonight, the Pedal Dynamics 12 mile TT in Black Diamond on Saturday and the Vance Creek road race on Sunday. I really want to bring it on Sunday but I need some redemption on the Green Valley TT course. I raced 10 miles back in March on the same course and was very disappointed in the result. Whatever happens it should be a fun weekend!

Skipped work today to stay home with a sick 9rd old. After Mom got home I was able to get out for a quick ride. The rain was looming so I stayed close to the house and got a couple climbs in. I was thinking Zoo Hill but the legs were a little weak after yesterday’s 100 miler and I settled on Lakemont and Forrest dr. I also worked on sprinting over some short climbs, burn baby burn!

Garmin file:

4/18

Met Travis (from last weeks race) and his friend Nate in Woodinville at 8am. Nate was really strong (especially after finding out he had only been on a few rides this year) Travis is a monster! I did my best to hang on his wheel as much as I could all day, that was no easy task. About 85 miles in Nate and Travis headed back to Seattle over the I-90 bridge and I finished riding across Mercer Island and back to the house. At about mile 95 I had a TOTAL power outage, I needed calories pretty bad. I swung into Starbucks for a smoothie and finished with a little dignity.

Garmin file.

Olympic View Road Race 4/11/10

Pictures:

Garmin file:

Cat5 race report.

Note to self: Five beers on the golf course the day before a road race is a bad call! I hadn’t swung a club in almost six months due to a broken finger playing football in November and a serious ankle sprain in January. It was good fun and I played much better than expected after such a long layoff. That said, getting up at 6:00am and starting to drink beer at 10:30am the day before a race wasn’t ideal preparation.

The alarm went off at 5:30am this morning, boo I need more sleep after yesterday! And another thing, damn my back is sore as hell, wonder if that has anything to do with golfing, DONG.

The race starts in Brady, a small town 30 miles or so West of Olympia. Anessa drove and we arrived about 45 minutes before our scheduled 9:15am start time. Plenty of time to check in, use the rest room, and prep everything. Today’s race consisted of three 18 mile laps. The terrain was flat with several rolling hills but no significant climbs. The neutral rollout was only a few blocks so the race got started pretty quickly. Nothing to report on the 1^st lap other then the fact that the bike-sale team had eight riders in the race and one of their guys was in an early break away. When we crossed by the start someone at the timing tent yelled out that the gap was 1:16.

Lap2 – I really wasn’t concerned about the gap since we still had 36 miles left. I was generally sitting in the last 3^rd of the pack up to mile 20, I hadn’t seen much of Rob but I knew he was only a couple bikes behind. It was becoming clear that the bike-sale guys planned on controlling the front and keeping the pace down since they had a rider up the road. I wasn’t sure how many riders were in the break (I think it ended up being 5 riders after looking at Hunter’s video) I started chatting up another unattached rider (Travis) and in mile 21 we went off the front to try to close the gap. Travis was strong, we shared leading for several miles pushing it pretty hard. We were alone for 6-7 miles but never really got more than a few hundred yards clear of the pack. At one point my HR hit 189bpm, is that possible for a soon to be 37yr old? Up to mile 32 Travis or I were at or near the front of the pack, Travis tried hard to rally some others to get up front and do some work but there was absolutely no appetite for it. OK, I guess it’s a race for 5^th? I did think it was funny that while I was out front (and had been for a while) one of the bike-sale guys actually had the stones to tell me not to “change my shirt” if I was up front. This really pissed me off, I was simply pulling down my arm warmers. I let my F-U reflex go and told him if I was up front working I’d do what ever the fuck I wanted, there was no response. Around mile 32 I slid to the back of the pack and Rob was gone, he’s a total animal so I figured he probably had a mechanical issue.

Lap3, final lap – In the first mile or two I hear “hey dr, J”, Rob was back? Somehow he had fallen off the back and managed to team up with an unattached rider who had been DQ’d for crossing the center line earlier. Pretty awesome that they clawed back into the pack. Nothing to note for the next 20 miles. At mile 51 I moved up to the front and pushed a little off the front for a very short stretch. The most significant hills hit on mile 52 and it blew the pack apart. Rob passed me halfway up the hill but I managed to stay with him. The 53^rd mile we raced past a cemetery and down a steep hill with a sharp turn at the bottom. Coming out of the turn I was out of position and near the back of what was left of the pack. I managed to hang on a wheel and move up a few positions.

The Finish – CRASH! With 200yrds to go right in front of me on my left a rider went down very hard, he was immediately hit by another rider who flipped over him. I swerved hard right (Anessa confirmed this later, she was relieved to see me still upright) a piece from one of the bikes hit me in the cheek. Well, this is the CAT5 crashes that everyone talks about. I yell out wholly shit Rob, I saw he swerved left and was also safe. I jumped back on his wheel and finished right behind him. I’ll update the post when the results are posted.

Great ride, sad that a team of 8 would protect a CAT5 break away 40 miles from the finish though. Even more sad that other than Travis not a single rider was willing to even try to do anything about it. It was great racing with Rob , hopefully he catches the bug!

Ravensdale/Cumberland road race report 3/28/10

First road race today!

I accomplished my primary goal of not crashing and finishing in the main pack. I started with the CAT5 men that left Ravensdale park at 9:30am. The starter told us the first mile was a rolling neutral start but it turned out to be closer to 3 miles. I can’t complain about the slow start though, the easy pace helped me relax a little bit.

The race got going in the 5^th mile, it was interesting that the pace would pick up and slack rapidly w/o much rime or reason. 7 or 8 miles in I moved up near the front of the pack for a while, never actually taking the lead though. From roughly mile 10 to 16 I hung out at the back of the pack with a guy from recycled cycles.

For several miles there was a solo rider leading the pack by several hundred yards, at some point before mile 20 he was joined by a second rider. The pack didn’t seem too concerned by this, I guess because they were in sight and not that far up the road. Mile 21! I got tired of hitting the brakes at one point so I decided to hit the gas! The right shoulder was open and well paved, I shot forward from the back of the pack. As I was passing the leaders in the pack the bikesale guys (a team that had 5 riders in the pack) yelled “break up the right side”. This made me puff up a little and I really hammered it as I went off the front, my HR hit 187bpm! I stayed away for 2-3 miles on my own. I got within 25yrds at one point of the 2 leaders but couldn’t close down the final gap. The bikesale guys gave me props for the “nice attack” as the pack gobbled me up. I actually had a tough time slipping back into the pack and ended up jumping on at the back, 3^rd to last in less than a minute. The 2 riders in the break away were caught right after me. The pace had picked up a bit and I had to fight to not get dropped for the next ½ mile.

As the race turned on to Kent/Kangley around mile 28 the pace really picked up. I was near the lead of the pack or actually leading from mile 28-30. The course takes a sharp left on to the Cumberland/Kanasket RD at the start of mile 31. I was leading at this point and gave myself a good scare entering the turn at over 35mph! I scouted the course yesterday and thought the race finished at Ravensdale park sooo that sharp turn and the climb that followed were a surprise. Right from the start of the hill I started getting passed. When we crested the hill I was still near the front (10^th or so) I was starting to catch my breath when I saw the 200M sign. CRAP, it was on and I was not prepared for it. My “master plan” was to launch an attack in the last mile so I wouldn’t be caught in a sprint, heck, I don’t even know how to sprint. Long story short I hammered it the best I could, passed a couple guys and got passed by a couple others.

End result I was 13 out of 29 finishers, just a few seconds behind 1^st. I learned a lot and plan on racing again in a couple weeks!

32 Miles

1:27:00 – 22MPH – average HR – 163bpm

Garmin File

Weekly recap

Got about 120 miles in on the Tarmac in the last 3 days. Since Wednesday I have also logged 13 miles running. Wednesday's run I managed a 8:42 for 5 miles, not great but it's fantastic to be running again.

Here's a nice reminder of what my ankle looked like back on 1/9/10.

Took advantage of day light savings and got a ride in after work to night.

Monday 3/15 ride

Sunday 3/14 ride with Werner and Rob.

Got in 52 miles yesterday and squeezed in a apple cinnamon roll at the Black Diamond bakery too!

Saturday 3/13 Jill team ride.

Team Ride, 2 laps around Mercer Island. Jill pulled for the 1st lap and I pulled for most of the second lap. Glancing at the power data I probably put out 40 additional watts per miles pulling, it's good to be in the draft!

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Training Ride

Black Diamond Bakery training ride

Ice Breaker Time Trial

3-6-10 - So, today was my first bicycle race... It went OK. The event was the Ice Breaker Time Trial in Black Diamond. The Time Trial format is pretty simple, ride a specified distance as fast as possible, you against the clock. Today's race was 10 miles on the SE Green Valley rd, 5 out, 5 back. I "raced" the course back on 2-21-10 after a 96 mile ride the day before. I averaged 23.7mph that day, I was working hard but I thought if I was fresh I could get it closer to 25mph. WRONG. I was WAY to amped this morning and went out WAY to fast. 187bpm hr in he 1st minute can't be good, can it? :-) I ended up fading pretty bad on the second half or the race (albeit slightly uphill) and only finished a few seconds faster then my training ride on the 21st.

Overall I had a blast today and look forward to improving for my next race!

Here are some stats today broken down by mile.

Werner and I warming up in the JFT2 tent before the race.

Choppy race video.

Chilly Hilly 2010!

Hunter and I rocked the Chilly Hilly today. We totally lucked out with the weather, it wasn't so chilly but it sure was hilly!

Pictures

Garmin ride details.

Update from the last week:

Had a good commute to work on Friday 2/19. Little slow coming home (15.2mph) I had the saddle bag loaded down though.

Saturday 2/20: Had a great ride with Aveen from Jill's team. We started out from the Eastgate Sbux @ 7:15am and I pulled into the house at 3:00pm. This time did of course include a sit down breakfast at the Black Diamond cafe. My GPS puked itself on the "course" I created and downloaded to it so no good power/hr data. I didn't need any data to know I was pretty pooped by the end.

Here's a link to the ride route.

Sunday Morning 2/21 I checked out the Ice Breaker TT course in Black Diamond. The weather was perfect when I started the course around 10:00am. I didn't feel like I had much power after the long ride the day before but I did average a respectable 23.7mph over the 10 mile course. The Felt felt great! Man I love riding that thing on a flat road.

Garmin Ride data.

Hunter shot this video of me with eating a GU!

Here's a shot that captures my riding "style" :-)

Later Sunday afternoon Hunter and I rocked 20 miles on the Cedar river trail. it's the perfect trail for us on the tandem, wide and flat! The weather is looking good for this coming weekend so we'll be rockin the tandem at the Chilly Hilly!

Tandem ride data.

More boring bike stuff

Dear silly Surly hipster boy, did you really try to hold me off across the I-90 bridge tonight? You should know better :-) Took advantage of today's great weather and additional daylight and rode home around the south end of Mercer Island.

Saturday 2-13
Got in a nice 60 miler with Rob and the team today. Rob and I were out at 94 Stewart the night before with the Ladies and Charlie Woods but still met up at 7:30 the next morning!


Sitting at 260 miles so far in February.

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Commute - Tarmac

275 Watts on my commute home, highest average yet!

Won tonight's drag race up 36th ave se! :-)

Had another great ride today. After yesterday's outing I tried some Endurox R4 recovery drink (before my usual alcohol filled recovery drink) and I think it might have helped the legs today. About 10 miles into today's ride I was putzing along when a couple club riders zinged past me near the south end of MI. I picked up the pace and sat about 5 bike lengths back for a couple miles before passing them back. I pushed the pace for the next 3 miles (over 300W average) with them happily sitting on my wheel. On the only real climb on the East side they attacked and put a little distance on me. They worked well together and held me off till the end of the island, I just couldn't close the last 15-20 seconds on them. Next time! :-)

Today's Ride


Weekly Recap:

Distance: 134.9 miles
Only commuted 1 day but made it out on 3 training (fun) rides. Loving this dry warm weather we've been having.

um, is it Spring?

Had a great team ride today. A lot of the team showed up for the first 20 or so miles and 2 sets of hills. The third hill (Licorice Fern) was no joke, 2+ miles of climbing with the top section pitching up to about 20 degrees. It was so fun Eimhim and I did the top loop twice :-). We came back via Issaquah-Hobart and dropped the hammer on a few sections of E LK Sammamish. Ended up getting in 57 miles and 4K of climbing in great Spring weather.

Time: 3:38:11

Power: 240W average

Avg Speed: 15.8 mph
Lots of climbing

2/5 After work ride. Was able to take advantage of the great early February weather!
Ride details - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/24017467

Time: 1:22:06

Avg Speed: 18.7 mph

Power 269W

Jill's team ride

Pictures worth a thousand words.



Garmin Connect - Today's team ride

Felt a little weak today but still had a great ride. 202 had some standing water so there was a lot of spray (see picture)!

Made my goal of riding 400 miles in the month of January!

MI Tandem ride with Hunter

Had a great tandem ride with Hunter this afternoon. We tried to wait out the rain but after lunch we gave up and rode in the rain. Hunter did great, very little complaining. We stopped and had a couple Soy green tea latte's at the MI Starbucks.

Hunter on the East Channel bridge.

Mid ride warm up break!

Quick Monday ride

Had a lot to do at the office this morning so I was up and out of bed by 5:00am. That's just crazy for a work day! Anyway the weather was great so I was able to get a quick ride in on the Tarmac. Funny note, about halfway into the ride the left brifter came so lose it nearly fell off! My multi-tool was not the right tool for the job but it worked in a pinch.

Despite the short ride my average power was 268W, seems good? It's fun setting a baseline for future measurements. I must say the climb up SE 26th almost seemed reasonable today.

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Tarmac after work ride - 268W average

1/23 & 1/24 Weekend rides = 7hrs - 91 miles - hills!

Did my first rides with the new powertap this weekend. The data from Saturday's ride didn't update to garmin's website properly but came out ok in training center.

My legs didn't have much after yesterday's 5hr team ride. Average power was 225W I don't have a baseline but it doesn't seem bad for how shot my legs were.

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Sunday MI ride (Tarmac)



Saturday's club ride was a bit slow for the first couple hours but picked up A LOT when we started doing hills! This was my first time up saddleback and Zoo hills. Average power was only 210W but most of this came late in the ride.

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Saturday ride with Jill and team

Powertap!

Got a nice deal on a new 2010 Poertap Pro+ with ANT+ (wireless).

I installed my 11-28 cassette off my RS10 wheel, swapped tires, and then tossed it on my Tarmac. I then fired up the Garmin Edge 500, put the Tarmac on the trainer and POW! Doing a 5-6 hour ride tomorrow so I should have some great Power/HR/Cadence data to share.

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Felt MI loop (disc)

Took the Felt out for the first time in a few months Monday evening. Tried out the new disc wheel, it felt great!

GPS Details - Took the Felt around Mercer Island on a windy day (disc)

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Sunday Ride

It was great to be back on my bike today. Nice ride around MI on the Tarmac.

GPS data for today's ride.
Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Sunday Ride

Tandem Ride

Had a great 8 mile ride with Anessa and Hunter today. Hunter and I were rocking the tandem and Anessa was on her new CX bike. This was my first real exercise since spraining my ankle last Saturday night running a race at Bridle Trails.

New back hoop for the Felt

Spent last night putting my new (new to me) disk on the Felt. This was the first time I had ever changed a Cassette, nothing to it! Can't wait to get out and time trial on this bad boy!