Going viral

I thought I'd just ignore a low level viral infection last week. It started with a little sore throat, but I didn't feel that bad. So I just did my normal riding for the week. I wasn't recovering from the very hard effort at Old Caz, but didn't think too much about it. I had thought that I would do the Poor Students Road Race on the following Saturday, but woke up feeling a bit worse for wear so I skipped it. Lucky thing too as I could barely manage an easy two hour cruise that day. The next day, Sunday, I woke up feeling truly wretched. I should have guessed I was getting sicker on Saturday as my mood was so piss poor all day. Mood is a good indicator for me if I bother to pay attention to it. Yesterday was bad as well, but today on Tuesday I'm feeling a bit better so I think I'll ride tomorrow - easy.

Old Caz Hopper - 2013

The course has changed since I last did this event in 2007. It had also gone from a free to a fee status. The turnout was massive - over 300, and the clear cold weather meant there would be ice as well as mud. I started towards that back as that many riders of mixed skills in an open event looked like trouble waiting to happen until they got spread out by the many climbs. Trouble didn't wait around and on the first real curve on Bitner Rd at least 50 folks went down on the black ice in a little shady hollow. I picked my way through the debris- very happy to have the 2.0 Supersonics on my MTB. The typically grippy Continental rubber compound didn't seem phased at all by the ice. This was to be tested multiple times in the first section of the ride. After a bit of climbing we went down Willow Creek Rd. The dirt descent was fun if chilly. The bottom section of this road had lots of ice and claimed lots of victims, but my tires once again held tight and I was able to roll through at full speed without a wobble.
The next section was Hwy 116 up along the Russian River. Folks were flying up this smooth pavement in pacelines, but I decided to take an easier approach this early in and went piano in this section. The next climb on Duncan Rd. is short and brutal followed by some dirt with one crazy washout that actually had a rope in it to assist the climb out. Back to pavement and then the long and at times steep climb up Old Cazadero. The dirt descent off this was the best part of the ride for me with the MTB allowing amazing speeds and the jumps providing plenty of amusement - maybe a bit too much on the one I landed into a big mud hole. The crossing of Austin Creek at the bottom of this descent allows you to soak your shoes so you can have numb feet the rest of the ride. I hooked up with Ken and Grayson at this point - old Napa riding buddies. It was both good and bad. The good was seeing them and feeling part of a community of riders. The bad was riding at the tempo of the 8-10 man group we were in as we tore along the pavement towards the final climb back up Willow Creek. I like pacelines, but in retrospect should have either dropped off the rotation or out of the group entirely. I ended up toasting my legs and regretted it as they began cramping about a mile from the top of the climb.
All and all a good first competitive event for the year. I finished, and not DFL either. I choose the right whip for the event. While most went the cyclocross bike route the full suspension Santa Cruz Superlight with very light race tires performed like a champ. It both kept me off the pavement when things got icy dicey, but probably most importantly it insulated me from the impact of the rough roads and trails allowing me to finish with only my lower body in agony instead of the full Monty.

Race Rigging

Getting the rig ready to race is always a pleasure especially if you're not pressed for time. I took the morning off today as I knew I was going to be working till 8:00. I took the big heavy tires off the Santa Cruz that had been on there forever and put on some new shoes - very light 2.0 Continental Supersonics. You know you've put light tires on when the factory packaging says these are designed for speed and will wear faster and get more flats than standard tires (trans. don't bitch about it!). I took the opportunity to clean and lube the entire drive train and tune the brakes while I was at it. The front tire did not want to go on but finally submitted. The whole process took about two hours and I still had time to eat breakfast make some smoked trout pate and get showered and shaved before I had to go to work. Only thing left to do tonight is pack the gear bag and ready for the Grasshopper Old Caz.

Flat

Flat is what my legs were yesterday. I started the strength phase of the gym work a few days ago, and my legs are feeling it. I wanted to do 3+ hours with a significant climb, but I was feeling gassed on the rollers and instead of feeling better as the ride entered its second hour I was feeling worse. This is a reliable signal from my body to pack it in. A flat is what I got about a 1/4 mile out of town on the way home. It was fortuitous in some ways as I noticed that the vulcanization on the tire sidewalls was shot, which I assume means the tires are overdue for a change. I went and spent that $100 today. That means $800 in tires this month. $300 each for the moto and the car rear tires as well as another $100 for new MTB skins earlier. Oh, well they last a long time once they're on. While I was changing the tire on the side of the road two gals rode by separately on bikes. One of them looked pretty pro. Neither said a word. If they had been guys I would have thought, "Rude". But with girls you never know.

Sierra Madre Epic

A few years ago I did a loop that included the long climb up then closed Sierra Madre Rd. It had recently burned over and they had closed the area to protect it. It was an eerie ride. Not much had grown back at that point so there was a surface of the moon quality to the landscape. I had never been on the roads before so there was that nervousness about what lies ahead. I was doing it solo which added to the tension. That day turned out to be very hard, and running out of water and fuel 15 miles from the end wasn't much fun either. But I have thought about that road since then and returning to ride it which I did with my buddy Karl yesterday. We got a reasonably early start at about 10:30. The day was cool - mid 40s with some high clouds. This ride is an epic extended dirt climb. The road is now open and we saw perhaps 6-10 vehicles in the 4.5 hours we were out there. It opens the climbing account with an hour and a half of steady to steep climbing ending at a saddle where there's a radio antenna. I managed to gap Karl a bit in this section - not intentionally, just riding my own pace. The views from this part are great. It then continues climbing but not as steadily for another hour and a half till you hit the highest part of the ridge at 5,500 ft. There were many sections with snow and mud on them. These proved a challenge going up from an effort and balance point of view and going down from a staying upright point of view. Just before the very highest point of the ridge after we'd been climbing for close to three hours, I called it quits. I couldn't face another muddy snow covered slog to the next dry section. We turned around and an hour and a half of slipping sliding and bone jarring riding later we were back to the car - shot and satisfied.

New Year, New Year's Day Ride

I woke up with more than a rumor of too much fun the night before, but more apropos with sore hips from working in the kitchen for hours and hours prepping for a dinner party for twelve. If we didn't have a thoughtless house guest banging around the bath and kitchen six hours after lights out I might have gotten a couple more hours sleep. All cavilling aside, I cinched up my belt at around 10:30 in prep for the scheduled launch at 11:00. I needn't have rushed as Karl was late as usual, and needed to fuss with his rig a bit more once he arrived. No worries - it was a cold morning so it allowed a bit more warmth to build. We rode up the Old Stagecoach Rd. then dodged across the freeway to start climbing East Cuesta/Mt. Lowe. The climb was very hard with my left knee and right hip acting up for most of it. We persevered and got to the very end of Mt. Lowe. It was a gorgeous day, and I've never gotten that far on that road. We were trying to hook into Burrito Crk. Rd. and then down and out Rhigetti, but missed the turn and ended up descending the very rough Reservoir Cyn. Rd. This is steep and the surface is mostly "cow cobbles" and it ends up spitting you into a mud wallow at the bottom so it's less than ideal. About half way down the descent Karl noticed that he'd lost three of his five chain ring bolts - oops! He got the remaining two tightened and amazingly finessed it home. All and all a very good start to the year. The bike and especially the shoes took a lot of clean up after.