Category Archives: Training Rides

Training Rides

Suffering in the name of progress

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The last time I posted I talked about being grateful for the pain because I was able to ride my bike again.  Well, I’m still grateful, but now it’s not just pain, it’s suffering on the bike.  And I have Strava to prove it.

Two weekends ago I decided it was time to do some serious climbing again.  I headed up Mt. Baldy road, hoping to make it to the Mt. Baldy Village – 2930 feet of climbing in about 9 miles.  And, to make things interesting, Jonathan and I decided to do it in the heat of the day to train for the heat we’d face in France.  Yes, mom, I am an idiot.

The road to Mt. Baldy Village is an unforgiving slog, with sustained grades between 8 and 11%.  And it was between 85 and 90 degrees out.  But I made it.  And celebrated with a beer while waiting for Jonathan who climbed to the summit.

Last weekend the weather was horrible and I stuck close to home, but still managed to climb about 2200 feet in about 45 miles.  It was cool out and other than my stomach muscles crying out (still not recovered from surgery) it wasn’t bad.  I was mostly tired, as it was the longest ride I’d done yet – right around 3 hours.

So yesterday I decided I had to go farther and higher, which took me back to Mt. Baldy road, but first I had to get there by way of Glendora Mountain Road and Glendora Ridge Road – 21.8 miles of climbing.  I wasn’t sure how my body would feel, as I had a colonoscopy on Friday, but I figured there was only one way to find out.   My goal was to make it to Mt. Baldy Village where I would wait for Jonathan, but I was feeling good and decided to go further up the mountain, about 3 miles.

After meeting back up with Jonathan, who summited Baldy, we decided to go back down Glendora Mountain Road and Glendora Ridge Road rather than just descend straight down.  This involved more miles, and more climbing.  And it was hot again.  But we did it, and when I uploaded my data to Strava I had a suffer score of 359 – something Jonathan did not know was possible!  It turns out my heart rate was between 159 and 176 for 3 hours.  Total time on the bike was 4 hours, 50 minutes, and we covered 53 miles.

This morning we decided to do a little more climbing close to home as we are having record breaking heat here in Southern California.  So we did a “usual” loop for us, down the coast and up a few local hills.  We climbed about 1600 feet over 44 miles and my suffer score was a mere 136.

I still have a ways to go to get back to where I was before surgery, but now I can at least ride long enough and hard enough to suffer!  And considering I couldn’t walk up the stairs without crying 6 and a half weeks ago, I can’t complain about my progress.

Recovery, Training Rides

Loving the ride and grateful for pain

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I am incredibly grateful to be back on my bike.  I have ridden outside 3 days in a row, and every ride has been so enjoyable.  I put no pressure on myself to go faster or harder, I just enjoyed being on my bike again, the scenery, even the other riders who wanted to draft off of me (but I did push myself a little bit to ride one of them off my wheel – what can I say, I’m still competitive).  I’m even grateful for the pain I feel from using muscles that haven’t been used for a while.

I was able to climb a little bit today – a couple of short climbs that maxed out at 6.5% – and it allowed me to get me heart rate up.  I felt silly breathing so hard on a climb that used to be just a warmup, but I stilled smiled because I wasn’t in bed or on a couch trying to recover.  I rode for an hour on Friday, (about 12 miles), 2 hours on Saturday (30 miles) and another hour today (12 miles again).  But with each ride I gain more confidence and more strength, and I’m grateful for every new pain I feel and every gasp for air I endure on the bike.

There’s a lot of very smart people out there who believe the key to success, happiness, etc. is having an attitude of gratitude.  I think they just might be on to something!  🙂

Recovery, Training Rides

Slow but steady

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After my doctor’s visit on Tuesday, I got the ok to ride “slow, like 15 minutes” from the doctor.  So on Wednesday, I did just that – 15 minutes on the trainer.  Thursday I increased it to 25 minutes and did a little bit of climbing to get my heart rate up and to see how I’d feel.  I was a little sore but otherwise felt great.

Today – I got back on my “real” bike and rode outdoors for an hour!  It was wonderful.  I took it easy – only covered 12 miles – but instead of worrying about how fast I was going or what my heart rate was, I just looked around and enjoyed my surroundings.   It was a little strange to ride with traffic after being away from it for over 4 weeks.  And trying to ride slow was a new experience – I’m used to pushing to ride harder and faster.

I spent the next few hours supporting my husband on his climb to Mt. Baldy.  While driving on a long, curvy mountain road I actually got yelled at by another cyclist.  I was coming around a blind corner – slowly, with my bike on the bike rack – when I came upon 3 riders riding 3 abreast coming at me.  Both I and the riders were startled.  I was even more startled when one of them yelled at me to slow the f–k down.  I was already going less than 20!  I really wanted to shout back to suggest that riding 3 abreast on a blind curve on a narrow mountain road was an idiotic thing to do, but decided to be the bigger person and drive on.  Unfortunately it’s hot heads like that who give other cyclists a bad name.

While I waited for my husband to finish riding, I sat in the park and read a book.  I can’t remember the last time I did that!  But it was awesome.  I figure I may as well take advantage of a beautiful sunny afternoon by doing 2 things I thoroughly enjoy – reading, and being outside.  Soon enough I’ll be back riding Baldy and wondering where I left my lungs.

 

 

Training Rides

And so it begins…Breathless Agony Part 2

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As Yogi Berra said, “It’s like deja vu all over again.”

We are registered again this year for Breathless Agony, 114 miles with 12,000 feet of climbing.  And I’m again questioning why I am going to put myself through this (with my mom’s voice in my head answering, “Because you’re an idiot.”) We rode it last year but were only able to complete 60 miles, as Jonathan’s back decided to give out on that day.

We’ve been training fairly steadily through February (Jonathan a little more than me), and we’ve set at least one PR nearly every ride.  We are certainly stronger this year than last year at the same time.  But we have a ways to go before being “Breathless Agony” ready.  Unfortunately for me, that means revisiting my old friend Mt. Baldy, ranked as the 20th most difficult climb in the U.S.  My legs and lungs hurt just thinking about it.

The good news is we’ve got our fueling figured out.  No more worrying about what to eat the night before, the day of, during the ride…after last year we’ve got it dialed in.  Our breakfast is the same as any other day, and we use bars to fuel on the bike if/when we get hungry.  The only challenge I currently have is I can no longer tolerate Quest Bars – a low carb protein bar that had been my go-to bar.  The bars contains sugar alcohols and my stomach has decided it will not deal with any more sugar alcohols.

I’m on the hunt for an alternative, and right now the only thing I’ve found is a new bar by Atkins that contain no sugar alcohols – their Harvest Trail bar.    I guess it’s back to using more Super Starch and ketone supplements, too.  Oh, and Slim Jims, my personal favorite.  I just love the heckling I get when I have one sticking out of my jersey.

Training Rides

Shut up knees

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Jens Voigt, a much-loved professional cyclist who is now retired, made famous the phrase, “Shut up legs.”  He would say this when he was pushing the pace and fighting the pain in his legs.

Today, while running 6.5 miles, I soon realized “Shut up knees” may become my new mantra.  The last 1.5 miles involved some pretty intense knee pain, so I channeled my inner-Jens and told them to shut up.  I’m sure I’ll pay for it tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.   But it’s all part of the “fun” journey to running a half marathon, and later, competing in an Ironman.

So I will embrace the pain, complain a little (ok, maybe a lot), and keep pushing my body beyond what my mind wants it to do.   Assuming I can get out of bed tomorrow…

Training Rides

An unplanned reward

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I had no intention of getting a new bike.  I was only going to the bike shop with Jonathan to look at some Zipp wheels that were going to be on sale at the “once in a lifetime sale” at our local bike shop.  Well, he took too long and I started looking at bikes.  And this little gem caught my eye:

Sweetness

And it was on sale.  And they were willing to take more off if Jonathan bought a new sit of wheels (which he did).  And I was willing to justify it as a reward for completing LOTOJA 2015.  So I went home with my new bike.

However, now that I have this new S-Works Tarmac, I have to ride like I deserve it.  It’s no starter bike – pros race with this model.  So it’s basically full gas, every ride.   And no getting dropped.  Ever.  If I start to get tired or have a nagging ache or pain, I have to remember Rule #5.  I can’t repeat it here or my mom will fly down to SoCal from Nebraska and wash my mouth out with soap.

But I’m very happy with my new ride, and have set some PRs with it already.  Looking forward to many more.

 

Training Rides, Uncategorized

I did it!!

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LOTOJA promised to be 206 miles of beautiful scenery, hot temperatures, joy, and pain.  It delivered on all of those.

My start time was 7:09 am, and Jonathan’s was 6:39 am.  We rode 30 miles to the first rest stop before meeting up.

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There was drama from the very beginning in my group.  About 10 miles in, one of the riders flatted and because we were riding single file in a tight group, that caused some chaos but thankfully no one else went down.  5 minutes later another rider dropped her water bottle.  This could have been very ugly, because if you hit a water bottle with your bike tire you are going down.  Again, we were lucky that no one hit the bottle.  A short time later a deer crossed the road.  We slowed down, waited for the second, but no second deer appeared.  The rest of the way was uneventful, but cold.

I made a friend in the first 30 miles.  It was a woman in my age group  (35-45) who was also riding in her first Lotoja.  She was struggling a few times to keep the wheel in front of her so each time I pulled her up to the group so she wouldn’t get dropped.  This kindness would pay off big time for me later.

Jonathan and I met up at the first rest stop and were able to hook on to groups or form our own for the next several miles.  Unfortunately the heat soon set in, just in time for the climbing.  We climbed about 7500 feet in unusually warm temperatures.  We saw people walking their bikes, lying down on the side of the road, and some just calling it quits.

Unfortunately about 130 miles in, the heat got Jonathan, too, and he had to pull out.  I was left on my own for the remaining 76 miles.  Thankfully, there were 2 ladies who were my angels that day.  The first one was Lonnie.  Lonnie was in our small group when Jonathan had to pull out of the race.  She and I chatted for a while and I explained that this was my first Lotoja, and that my husband just had to quit.

She was a little older than me, but said she had completed Lotoja several times.  This year she was on a relay team so she wasn’t completing all of the legs.  I asked if she’d be willing to work with me until the next rest stop – about 30 miles – as it was the section with a nasty headwind.  Her reply was music to my ears, “I’ll do everything I can to help you.”

The two of us hooked on to a few groups, but they weren’t going as fast as we (really, I) needed to go so we ended up leaving them and doing the work ourselves.  Although she was very slight in build, she gave me enough draft so I didn’t have to work 100% of the time in the wind.  It made a huge difference as I was trying to conserve as much energy as possible.  We parted ways at the rest stop and I thanked her profusely for helping me.

This was the last rest stop that  my support crew (now my mom, sister and Jonathan) could meet me on.  It was a very quick stop, as it was 5:35 pm and I had to ride 43 miles before dark, or 8:30 pm, whichever came first.  With over 160 miles in my legs and no help from Jonathan, I knew this would be tough.

Enter “angel” #2.  About 10 miles in, I was riding by myself, unable to stay with really fast groups and passing slower groups as I knew I couldn’t finish in time if I stayed with them.  I heard a familiar voice, and I knew it was the same woman I started the race with and helped stay with the group early in the morning.  She was riding by herself, but looked really strong.  More importantly, she was determined to finish before the cutoff.

I asked if she’d like to work with me, as my husband was no longer riding with me and she was happy to do it.  We shared the work for about 20 miles, sometimes hooking on to some men’s groups but most were going to slow for us to finish on time so we’d leave the group and go alone.

I was fading fast and the same woman I helped that morning, whose name I learned was Virginia, ended up doing a lot of work when I was struggling the last 15 miles.  I was still able to share some of the work, but she did the lion’s share and we crossed the finish line together, with more than 20 minutes to spare.  It was a great way to finish the toughest ride I’ve ver done.

As I crossed the finish line, nearly delirious with fatigue, I could clearly hear my husband, mom and sister cheering loudly for me as my name was called over the loudspeaker.  It was surreal.  Once you cross the line they immediately herd you into a separate area to remove the timing chip from your ankle and give you your much-deserved medal for finishing.  Below is a picture of me trying to get my cleat covers on after finishing.  I am smiling!  Below that is a picture of the medal.  I have a lot more to share, but will save some for the next post!

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Training Rides

Back to training for Lotoja and figuring out what to eat

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We are back to business, training for our 200+ mile ride September 12, Lotoja.  Prior to France we were focused on climbing, but now we have to switch to riding for distance, with climbing included, as Lotoja will included about 8500 feet of climbing over the 200+ miles.  And yes, it’s all in one day.

Saturday we set out for a 102 mile ride.  There wasn’t much climbing, only about 3500 feet, so that meant we were doing most of the work ourselves – there were no long descents.  We are back on our ketogenic diet, and had coffee with butter and coconut oil for breakfast along with bacon and eggs.  We set out with 2 Quest protein bars each, and we drank 8 oz of water with KetoCaNa prior to starting.  I took some extra KetoCaNa powder with us but we did not end up needing it.  We also did not start with Super Starch, but again, we took 2 packets with us just in case (we did not end up needing it). We also took a small bag of salted nuts and snacked on those throughout the ride.

We finished in just over 6 hours, averaging 16.5 mph. My legs were REALLY sore afterwards.  I was using different muscles than I had been training for long climbs with, and boy did I feel it.

The good news is our nutrition plan worked well – we both ate our bars, and snacked on the nuts, but we didn’t feel we needed anything more than that.  We were very hungry at the end, however, and had a very satisfying burger (no bun) and salad at the end of our ride.

We’re trying to figure out what we will need to eat to make it 12 hours on the bike, so our next training ride this Saturday will involve more experimenting as we’ll go slightly longer – closer to 120 miles. My initial thoughts are using Quest protein bars, Super Starch snack bars and powder, KetoCaNa (no more than 3 servings), and perhaps some beef sticks or something more substantial about 6 hours in when we start to feel truly hungry.  I think the hunger is largely psychological because if we are in ketosis we should be able to go that long with minimal food, but for now it’s how we are feeling when we ride so we will need to prepare accordingly.

Training Rides, Uncategorized

A big first day of riding in France

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So much for easing into it here!  We started with the famous Alpe d’Heuz climb.  It has 21 switchbacks and you climb 3675 feet in 9 miles.  It definitely wakes the legs up!  Below is a picture from the finish line that they use in the Tour de France (unfortunately a group of guys showed up right when we were trying to take the picture).  And after that is a picture of Jonathan and me with the Village of Alpe d’Huez behind us.

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But the fun didn’t stop there!  We climbed another 3000 feet, including the Col de la Sarenne.  We have some tired legs, but really enjoyed the amazing views!

A view from the summit of the Col de la Sarenne:

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And us looking down on Bourg d’Oisans from our “balcony” ride, which is in essence a very narrow road carved into the side of a mountain with amazing views!!

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Training Rides, Travel and food

The countdown has begun

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We leave for our cycling trip to France in one week.  7 days of riding, none of which I would call “easy.”  Here’s a quick summary of what Jonathan has put together (he was hired as a guide on this trip through his website, France Cycling Tours):

Day 1:  Le Tour de Lac Verney – Should be a nice, easy warm up day.  Should be…

Day 2: – Alpe d’Huez & Col de Sarenne Loop  – I’m very excited to climb the famous “Alpe d’Huez.”

Day 3: The Road to La Berarde – can’t wait to taste the crepes again in this adorable little town.

Day 4: The Giant of Provence and Gordes de Nesque – This day scares me.  Mt Ventoux (The Giant of Provence) is a beast.  But I can’t go and not try it…

Day 5: Villard Notre Dame / Villard Reymond Loop

Day 6: Le Mollard or Vaujany – Supposed to be an “easy” day but I’m not sure I trust my husband!!

Day 7: La Marmotte Route Loop, the Col du Glandon Loop, or the Varcours Loop – A whole lot of pain if we do one of the first 2.

In total, we’ll ride about 300 miles and climb 45,000 feet.  What a vacation!  I’m going to need a week to recover from this…

I have a list several pages long of things to pack – most of it is food, though!  And in a stroke of irony, we checked with the owner of the gite we are renting in France to see if there would be a French press in the gite for us to make coffee.  No press, just a very American-looking coffee maker!  Add French press to the list of items to pack, along with a blender (the gite didn’t have one of those either, but that didn’t surprise me).

Our training has gone amazingly well.  Gone are the days where we just don’t feel great.  Instead we feel stronger with each ride, we are eating less before and after each ride, and have steady energy throughout the ride and after.  I think we are both far more confident in our ketogenic diet now, and trust that we will get through long rides with minimal food.  This past weekend we skipped breakfast altogether and just had coffee with coconut oil and coffee before doing hill repeats on Saturday.  We both had personal records on the climbs we did so I’d say it was a successful experiment.

I will be taking the KetoCaNa (a ketone supplement discussed in an earlier post) to give us an extra boost and to make sure we stay in ketosis after being tempted by delicious French pastries!

When we return we start training in earnest for Lotoja – 200 miles of fun in one day.  Can’t wait!