Interruptions :-(

A day or two ago I started getting this feeling in my chest that leads me to believe I'm getting something, as in a bad cold or whatever.
Based on the "below the neck" guideline, I actually decide to NOT do my scheduled workout as it would likely make things worse, and certainly reduce my immune system effectiveness.
One incentive is the forecast for Sunday looks very good and I really, really need to get some sun and fresh air.
Experience told me to expect something like this but I still don't like it.
At least I'm not bouncing off the wall the way I would have been at age 30!
And the only reason this shows up in my blog is to brag on the decision.

Motivation - epiphany!

Motivation is "the act or an instance of motivating, or providing with a reason to act in a certain way. Synonyms: motive, inspiration, inducement, cause, impetus."

In simple terms, an epiphany is when a light bulb suddenly lights above your head. You suddenly 'get it', everything falls into place and you realize something.

My issue riding my bike has been developing over several years. In short, getting older and slower. At age 64, I can still ride my bike. Indeed, I think I ride well. That being said, every "off season" brings enthusiasm and anticipation for the new year and for 2012, several things added up to influence my plan for the upcoming season.
In June 2011, several buddies and I went to Colorado for Ride the Rockies. Riding is the primary purpose of the trip, but taking photos along the way is a big part of the plan too. That's what you can take home to remember the adventure. Immediately on returning from Colorado, I started accumulating the pictures and going though them one by one. There was a photo from the top of Tennessee Pass that stuck in my mind.

Pregnant?

Wow, is that me? My weight before leaving for the tour was only 161 pounds. At 5'10", I thought that was good.

Then in July during the Tour, the announcers gave information on Andeas Kloden, a guy whom I've had a lot of respect for. At 6' in height, his weight was 140. Really? How can a guy that tall weigh 140 and still be healthy?

This all stayed in my subconscious for awhile but eventually I became aware of the belly fat I was carrying around. OK - maybe aware is a bad choice of words. I certainly knew it was there. It wasn't noticed with normal clothes and a belt but in the privacy of my own bathroom, it was ugly.

Over the years I had read articles about losing muscle mass as we age but I thought a little strength training along the way would offset that to some extent.

This is where the "epiphany" part comes in. I had been proud to stay around 160 for the last 10 years but sadly, a lot of muscle was gone and a lot of fat was added. I had lost 10-15 pounds (going from 175 down to 160) back around the year 2000. Now it dawned on me (ie - the light bulb came on) that I was in a position to lose another significant amount of weight. I was excited - seriously! If I could go from 161 down to 140 (Kloden's weight), that would be a 13% reduction.

In late August - early September I started reducing my calorie intake. That was a big mistake in that we were riding the Enchanted Circle Century in early September and that calorie deficit would come back to haunt me. I finished the ride, but had no real energy and certainly didn't keep up with anyone.

That event plus the gruesome picture above became the "motivation".

It was a Joe Friel article on September 30 that really put me on track. A 750 calories deficit per day results in 1.5 pounds of weight loss per week. Do that for the next 14 weeks and 161 pounds becomes 140 pounds. The other key part of the equation is that during this period my power would likely decline and any training to maintain it would be ineffective. In short I just need to chill and cut the calories.

Today I'm at 146, which I'm personally very happy about since I went though the holiday period without total abstinance. I also knew in my mind that "weight" was not my real measure of success since strength training should be building some muscle which I really need. The measure of success is essentially getting rid of the belly fat and based on holes in my belt, it is going away!

Four more weeks should get me down to 140 pounds and I'll re-evaluate the plan then. I don't want to wait too long before ramping up my training for power. I'm sure you all know that for cyclists, it is all about watts/kg, so after reducing the kg, the next obvious step is increasing the watts.

That will be the subject of another entry in the blog!

USAPCC - Colorado August 2011

It is about 11:00am on Thursday when I get a call from our good friends who have a condo in Steamboat Springs. "Hey - why don't you and Linda come to Steamboat so we can watch the bike race and celebrate our anniversaries together on Monday." We're on the road shortly after 1:00pm!

The finish on Friday is in Steamboat. We eat lunch at a place right by the finish and stake out a place along the barrier after eating. It'll be awhile before the peleton arrives but there is a lot of activity to keep us entertained. Here are a few photos taken while we waited.

I'm practicing my "hands off the bars" winning finish under the finish line. If I do that while on the bike, something bad is likely to happen.

Paul and Clay

Phil and Clay

Linda and Paul

We watch Phil and Paul tape their pre-race interview. No, they didn't get it right the first time.

Saturday morning we go up Rabbit Ears Pass and find a spot before the summit. In a professional bike race, there are many, many vehicles that are in front of the riders. You know the riders are getting close when the helicopter is overhead.

Race Leader Levi and peleton on Rabbit Ears Pass.

We were somewhat surprised at how the peleton had split before the top of the pass which was only about 10 miles into the day. Anyway the major stars were easy to pick out.

After everyone had passed and the road opened again, we went back toward Steamboat and took a back route toward Breckinridge for the finish. I was worried about road closures and us being a little late but also knew of a good place to watch.
The Triple Bypass ride also comes over Swan Mountain and crosses the road to Breckenridge at a signal light near a school. My hunch was that we could come through Frisco, park in the school parking lot and walk to the intersection. That's exactly what we did.

Andy Schleck first through corner on the way to Breckenridge.

Unlike riders on the TBP, these guys were NOT looking for a rest stop. They were flying to the finish in Breck only a few miles away.

Levi is also "on the rivet".

This guy overshot the corner and unclipped in case he lost traction.



Cadel (front) and George (4th) will soon catch up.

 Overall we had a great time. The crowds were huge and the level of excitement was very high. Also we had good weather, as in dry weather, which can be an issue after noon in the mountains.

Portland in August

Our week long trip to Portland in August was a shock. How to you go from 100 degree weather to 60 & 70 degree weather! I seemed to feel cold more often than not.

We took a weekend trip to Seattle, so I ended up getting only one ride in on Sunday afternoon.

The good news is the ride was epic Portlandia. Single speed bike (no - not fixed gear for me), no lycra, no gloves, and ordinary shoes.

We left the house and headed toward dorntown. That meant we would soon go over a bridge.



Going to downtown Portland over the Broadway Bridge.

 Yes, the food in Portland is great, including deserts, obviously. But that's another story.
Once we cross the bridge, we ride through downtown and back along the river on the Waterfront Bike Trail. Lots of activity on Sunday afternoon.




Clay posing along the lower deck of the Steel Bridge.

 The lower deck had been raised when we got to the Steel Bridge as a barge was traveling down the river. We waited a few minutes and noticed almost a hundred people had waited on the other side. Not too surprisingly, some of the people coming our way didn't understand this WAS a two way path meaning stay to the right. Ben's bell was ringing constantly which was a good alternative to me yelling.





Overlook after climbing back up to street level.

 After crossing the river we had a little climb. With only one gear, climbs take on an entirely new dimension.

The Portland veteran who guided the ride. Yes we are related.

We cruised back home after crossing the river and stopped at a bike shop to look for bar tape. We needed leather colored tape that wasn't real Brooks Leather Tape costing $70. There's a LBS on every other block in Portland and eventually we found what we were looking for.

The "Dream Bike".

A lot of time was spent on the "Dream Bike" pictured above. It did turn out really well. The overall concept was from a high $$ new bike Ben saw at Mellow Johnny's in Austin. Being a good Portlandier, he accumulated the parts and pieces for this project from Craigslist (old Raleigh frame he had powdercoated), Community Bike Shop, online retailers, Dad's garage, etc. That's the way it should work!
I thought I was a decent bike mechanic but putting on fenders and racks adds another dimension to a project bike. I was very impressed with my son's mechanical ability, especially since I usually only let him watch instead of "do" as he was growing up. This time he insisted on doing it himself!

This entry is 8 days after returning to Texas heat. I was somewhat surprised at how much heat acclimitization had been lost, but have been careful to build back up slowly. Hope to be good to go by the coming weekend.

Ride the Rockies Day 6 - Granby to Georgetown

Friday is a 49.2 mile (4,032' elevation gain) ride over Berthoud Pass, and a 485 mile drive home.
Since Granby had almost no hotel rooms, we spent the night in Winter Park. We needed to catch the shuttle early since we had a long drive home we wanted to get an early start.
I woke up about 4:00am and heard rain. Wow, that was the last thing I expected as the weather had been perfect all week. I checked the radar on my iPhone and see we were on the trailing edge of the cloud. Great! The rain was soon past.

Ready for shuttle bus to Granby and a cold day on the bike.

We caught the 6:30am shuttle and went north to Granby. Riders were already coming toward us and the road was very wet. We picked up our wet bikes from the bike corral, took care of some business, and got on the road back toward Winter Park.
We had heard that it had been snowing on Berthoud Pass and from the clouds/fog on the mountain, that was believable. Our route departed from the map again and we had a interesting detour around Tabernash. It's better than being on the main highway, but I wish they could have mapped it this way.

Roads were still wet from early morning rain.

Starting the climb up Berthoud Pass.

Climbing to the horizon.

Riders coming up while I'm taking pics. I pass them, they pass me, I pass them, etc., etc.

Foggy morning on the mountain.

Getting close to the summit.

Last rest stop of tour. It's almost all downhill from here.

I made it, one more time!

Perry is proud to be at summit.

Sam made it too.

Keith made it to top but had to hold my bike while I was taking a pic.

Looking back from the summit. It's a long way back down there.

Parking lot at top was still messy. Lots of snow left to melt.

Looking back down the valley toward Winter Park.

The climb up Berthoud Pass is one of my favorites. It's not all that steep and you can look back and see the road for miles. We eventually got to the top and took a few pics before we froze.
The descent off the pass was long and fast. The surprise was the headwind. Safety dictated we not bomb down the mountain.
We cruised down, go through Empire and eventually got on the road toward Georgetown that we've ridden often on the Triple Bypass. The good news is that it was all paved this year,
Not surprisingly, the wind was still in our face so the slight uphill to the finish was not fast.

Where's my bag?
WHERE'S MY BAG?!?!

Actually we don't ride to the "finish" in Georgetowm but stop where the cars/bags/showers are. The sooner we get cleaned up and on the road home, the better.

Sam's neat  bike rack worked well.
No, those bike wheels didn't roll all the way back to Texas.
After the back door closes, the rack swings up right behind the vehicle.

Since we were among the early arrivals, the shower truck was not busy. We get through and hit the road quickly. We've already planned to go back to Idaho Springs for a final milkshake with Dave before he heads toward Wisconsin and we head toward Texas.
Fortunately we just beat the crowd to our favorite ice cream parlor, order our five shakes, and for me, pick up a little chocolate treat for the drive home.
It's been great seeing Dave again, but it's time to go our separate ways.
The trip home was uneventful which was a good thing. We arrive about 10:30pm, get everyone home, and consider the adventure complete.

Ride the Rockies Day 5 - Steamboat Springs to Granby

Thursday is an 80.4 mile (4,861' elevation gain) ride over Rabbit Ears Pass.

I'm still sleepy or not very excited about getting started. Let's go with sleepy.

View from Rabbit Ears Pass.

My hunch was that this would be the "Queen Stage", the hardest day of the week. After only 7 miles we  started the climb up Rabbit Ears Pass and had a 7 mile climb to the west summit. For me that was an hour of climbing. Six miles later we were be at the east summit.

Sam was a skeleton by the time he reached the summit.

Keith made the summit too. I've never understood the "bike over the head" pose but it seems to be popular.

View after the east summit was amazing.

This was part if our peleton and a few others on the way to Kremmling into a headwind.

The first part of the descent was steep enough for coasting but soon enough we had to pedal, primarily because of a headwind. Ugh. The road got narrow with almost no shoulder. The road seemed to bleed from the red paint marking the bad spots. The many, many bad spots.

Ron Kiefel & Clay in Kremmling

Eventually we got to Kremmling for an extended rest stop. It was getting hot and I wasn't looking forward to the last 27 miles uphill to Granby.

Near Hot Sulphur State Wildlife Area between Kremmling and Granby.
Peleton riding well with tailwind.

Our party of 5 left together and surprise, surprise, the southwest wind in our face to this point was now the wind at our back! It wasn't unusual to be riding along well over 20mph so the rest of the day went much faster than expected. It seemed to cool off a bit too.

This is the finish, at least for a little while.

It's not about the bike.
It IS about the milkshakes!

Riders finishing the day coming into Granby.

More riders finishing the day coming into Granby.

We came into Granby, made the short climb into the edge of town, and signaled a hard right turn. No it wasn't the finish, but it was "Jose's Authentic Home Style Mexican Food", a hole in the wall Mexican food, burger, pizza and milkshake place we had discovered in 2010! As we had our post ride recovery meal, we watched hundreds of other riders go on past, looking for the campgrounds. Hope they weren't too surprised by the wicked steep block long climb to the high school. Ha!

Ride the Rockies Day 4 - Steamboat Springs Loop

Wednesday is a 48.9 mile (3,226' elevation gain) loop ride from Steamboat Springs.
Since we were riding a loop and staying in Steamboat for another night, life was more simple last night and in the morning. No worrying about getting bags dropped for pickup by 7:15am (or maybe 6:30am) and we could leave late, say around 8:00am and still be back by noon.
The loop was great, as we had a long steady climb to Oak Creek, and five short, steep little climbs after that. The Oak Creek rest stop was the best of the entire week. It was at a park with lots of grass, lots of food and music, and everyone seemed to be in a very relaxed mood knowing it was a short day riding with much left to do in Steamboat when we returned.

Clay, Sam and Perry at first rest stop.

Keith, Sam and Perry at first rest stop.

Lots of "Triple Bypass" jerseys all week. This was also at first rest stop. Grass in park was great compared to gravel at most other rest areas.

Seriously, people were eating this stuff.

Near the top a a long climb after the rest stop. You could see the road going on forever.

Sam climbed quite well all week!

There were lots of opportunities for photos during the ride, and the casual pace encouraged me to stop more often than on other days. Also there were no thunderstorms looming which isn't always the case when riding in the mountains. Overall just a super 50 mile ride.

Had a great lunch at Winona's.

After we get back to town, we ate and went to the RTR campgrounds/headquarters to explore. We talked to manufacturers about wheels, tires and bikes. I also recovered my water bottles from lost and found. I'm 99.99% sure I was the only rider there who put socks over his bottles so that's all I needed to do to identify them.

Later we went back by Lyon's Drug but this time we split the milkshake three ways. Bad decision on my part, especially since the kid making the shake didn't quite fill up the canister AND gave me the smallest portion. Tomorrow I'll get my own shake, thank you.

Keith and Perry cleaned their bikes at a handy spot with a water hose.
The green sign in the window was for the morning baggage drop.

Someone called in a lightning strike, yet we weren't hearing thunder.
I think these guys were looking for something to do.

Late evening red sky and snow on the mountain.

Amazing sunset!