12 days until RAAM

The days are ticking away much faster than I would like. I am anxious but nervous that I haven't gotten everything handled before my departure on June 12, 2007. It is a two person team not solo but I'm still concerned that I haven't put in the requisite miles needed to complete the event. By the way, we are not trying to compete in this event we just want to finish

Breathless Agony Picture

Picture from Breathless Agony on the Oak Glen Climb MAY 5TH 2007

KOM Series Breathless Agony & Heartbreak Double Century

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I want to thank my sponsors for all their support this season without them I wouldn't be able to race as strong as I have been. Thank you. Here they are in alphabetical order:

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Accelerade- Sports Drink with Protein a must for Ultra Cycling-- Chris Facas

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Bonk Breakers-Peanut Butter and Jelly nutrition bars very tasty --Jason Winn

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Cervelo Bikes-- Truly the best engineered and best riding bikes in the world- Phil White

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Finish Line- Your chain is the life of your bike lube, clean it. Love your bike clean it too--David Clopton

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Kenda Tires-- You must ride the C2C tire developed especially for RAAM- Jim Wannamaker

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I have been training and working so much lately I haven't been able to issue my race reports as promptly as I used to. But here I am posting about two events that are part of the Planet Ultra King of the Mountains Series. There are three events are:

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1. Mulholland Century Challenge although I did the Double Century and then the Century the next day.

2. Breathless Agony
3. Heartbreak Hundred which I did the Double Century


So first I will talk about Breathless Agony. 114 miles and 12,000 feet. Of which 11,000 feet in 73 miles. We climb to a max altitude of 8,443 up to Onyx Summit. I had a a great day on the bike. My goal 5:45 and top 30. I did even better than I expected. In training I had done the course in 5:51 so I thought 5:45 was doable. I finished in 5:40 and 21st place overall and 7th out of 144 in 40-49 age group.

Next was the Heartbreak Double Century 202 Miles and 17,000 feet. I had a bad day on the bike. It was my worse race day on the bike this year. I went out with the lead group and suffered quite a bit. By mile 25 I was dropped and 6 riders went away. It continued to get hot during the day and I knew I was heading for a meltdown eventually. It happened sometime before the lunch stop. I was overheating and feeling miserable.
Mile 104. 6 --At the lunch stop I soaked my head twice once when I got in and once before I left.

I stopped consuming calories after my first century. I then started drinking sodas. I had a Mountain Dew at lunch.
Mile 119--Vanilla Cola at the base of the Heartbreak climb.
Mile 126.7 --1 bottle of water
Mile -171.4-- I had 1/2 an Orange Sunkist (knock-off).

The last 30 miles I hooked up with another rider who helped me get through the next 14 miles and then I helped him get to the finish. I was not feeling good all day and lost valuable time climbing Old Ridge Route --two years in a row I have faded there.
My goal was sub 14 hours I finished 13:28 for 5th place. I'm quite happy with the end result but the process to get there was one of the most challenging days on the bike in recent memory.

29,200 feet of climbing weekend

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First let me thank the people that make it possible for me to race my bike:.

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Chris from Pacific Health Labs

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David from Finish Line

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Jason from Bonk Breakers

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I just got back from a weekend of EPIC climbing in the Santa Monica Mountains. I did the Mulholland Double Century on Saturday April 14th 203.7 miles with 17,000 of climbing.

On Sunday just because I was already there I did the Mulholland Century Challenge. 110 miles with 12,000 feet of climbing.

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I arrived in Calabasas, the race start, late Friday night. I missed a couple of turns because I was on my cell phone and trying to drive. I should've know better. I hate driving in Los Angeles and one missed exit can cost you 1/2 hour of travel time. I had dinner with some friends and then it was time to do bike prep. It's ironic that I work in a bike shop and I don't have time to work on my bike until the night before the event .

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There were two ride start times for the riders doing the Double Century. The first start time was 5am and the second start reserved for the faster riders, 6:15 . I elected for the 6:15 start. I believed I could ride with the lead group for a little while and then get dropped. The plan worked until Mile 40 when I dropped my water bottle and had to stop to pick it up. The lead pack just kept going.

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This wasn't a bad thing. I was feeling really worked riding with the lead pack. Actually I was quite surprised to see how long the lead pack stayed together. Once I was dropped I started riding my own race. The Mulholland Double Century course is very difficult because the climbs are so steep. There aren't any long climbs-- I think the longest climb was 5 miles.

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I felt good all day. I stayed on top of the fueling and supplements. I knew that I faded last year after mile 150. So this year I was forcing myself to drink. It really worked because I felt great. I went liquid fuel all day and had a lull but overall it was a good event.

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The next day, Sunday, I did the Mulholland Century Challenge. 110 miles 12,000 feet of climbing. My challenge was getting enough calories in me on Saturday night so that I could replenish my glycogen stores and be ready to go again. I felt sluggish at the start but as the day wore on I started to get in my groove. But then as the elevation gain continued to accumulate I really just wanted to finish. I wasn't having fun anymore. But I got through with a little, ok a lot, of help from Brandy as my lovely SAG.

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The hardest thing about these two events is the steepness of the grades. There really isn't anything that is 6% that climbs for 10 miles. Many climbs are 8-10% with some being as much as 15-20% for at least a mile.

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I have decided not to do Devil Mountain Double because I really need to focus on training for RAAM. The round trip driving to and from San Francisco is time I could be riding my bike. Brandy made that little observation so clear to me. She's good at that. Devil Mountain Double Century and its 18,000 feet of gain will have to wait another year.

Camp Pendleton Ride

My typical routine on Wednesdays is to train a client in the early morning and then go do hill repeats on Torrey Pines or Soledad Mountain. But today my client cancelled, he is feeling under the weather, so I thought I would try the Camp Pendleton Wednesday Ride.

Well it was quite humbling. I hung in for a good while but eventually due to poor positioning...I got dropped. I know a little better when to turn it on and when to suck wheel. It is a good fast ride and I should do it more often.