It was eventually going to happen

I took off my mavics and put my Reynolds on the bike. The weight savings was significant. My bike weighs 15.38 lbs including my garmin unit.

I wanted to see how these wheels climbed and descended. I took off for a long ride on Wednesday in the middle of the day. I left from my house and went up the alpine loop Provo side. The heat of the day was taking it out of me. I wanted to get in a big ride because I was driving to Seattle the next day.

As I was coming around the last sweeping right hand hairpin turn just above Sundance, I wrecked. I was taking it easy and not pushing the speed. As I was coming around the curve, a car was coming up and cutting in close to the inside of the turn. Being a bit startled, I jerked in towards the shoulder. Somehow in doing so, my bike slid out from under me and I was on the ground. I was no longer traveling in a nice arc, but I was now sliding in a straight line towards the car. The rear wheel of the car was coming right towards me. I thought I was going to get hit and I was sure my bike would be run over. Amazingly the car missed me and the bike. As I skidded to a stop in front of the barrier on the other side of the road, I jumped up, being juiced up on adrenaline. I took an assessment of the damage. My right but cheek was now hamburger. My right tricep was road rash. The chamois pad saved me from a lot more damage. The lady driving the SUV stopped and offered a ride to the bottom. I declined, straightened the crooked brake hood, hopped on my bike and started down the hill. A few things became very clear - Every spot that where I had road rash now stung as the cool wind hit them. My bike was functioning fine except for the ripped up bar tape--no big deal.

I road down to Timpanogos park showing off my bloodied cheeks to everyone that I passed. By the time I got to the park, I decided to stop the misery and have my friend pick me up and give me a ride home. The adrenaline had worn off and I was feeling the pain. The fun was only just beginning. Scrubbing out the dirt and gravel was an incredible experience. That night was one of the worst nights of sleep I had ever had. Any movement I made hurt.

The next day was the drive to Seattle. In summary, it was long, painful, and I had a ton of puss oozing through the gauze pads. Changing the dressings has been a joy, re-inflicting pain on myself over and over.

Seattle has been nice, but I am in doubt about the Tour of Park City on Aug. 2.

In the doghouse

Friday night was spent at the Father's & Sons campout with my two boys.  We had a fun time.  It is always a lot of work and effort, but it means a lot to my boys.  We went fishing and caught several fish.  My oldest son (8), learned how to cast (let me clarify--it was with a spinning rod.  True casting will come later with a fly rod.  The spinning rod thing is only temporary).

My brother Zach, who lives in Pittsburgh attending dental school, was in town for a class reunion.  He stopped by Saturday afternoon.  It was nice to see him and visit with him. 

Saturday night I went on a ride up the loop on Provo side.  Very few bikers, but a ton of traffic. As a result,  I took it a little slower on the way down.  It felt good to open up the lungs and to wake up the legs again.  These vacations make it hard to maintain a healthy diet and regular bike rides.

Before my ride on Saturday, my wife told me that she and her friend (who was visiting from Eugene Oregon) wanted to go to the mall.  I said no problem.  As soon as I started my ride, I totally forgot.  As I pulled in at 8:45 pm, she quickly let me know that I was in the doghouse.  I had totally spaced it.  I'm still trying to dig out of my hole.... I think it is going to take some time.

Back in the saddle

No one was killed.  No serious injuries. No fights broke out. We even had a good time.  This is the order that I go through to judge a successful Varsity Scout high adventure.

We spent the last four days at flaming gorge boating on the dam and rafting the river.  I floated the "A" section of the river three times.  The caddis hatch just before dark was incredible.  The boys went down in rafts and inflatable kayaks while I was in my pontoon boat fly fishing all the way.  What a gorgeous place. 

While I was gone, I had racer's fix my bottom bracket.  I hope to get out on a ride shortly to see if the creaking sound is gone. I am down to crunch time for my training and events.  The tour of Park City is coming up quick.  

I am a huge fan of the Tour de France.  I have to say, what a disappointment to hear of Ricco and others who have been caught doping.  

IKEA and some ramblings

Friday, I rode from my home in Lindon, up Provo Canyon, over the loop, down AF side, and back to my home.  It was the perfect time to ride.  Sundance had some delicous smells drifting across the road--Bacon being the dominant smell.  It was almost a 40 mile ride.  Lots of roadies out enjoying the ride.  At the summit of the loop, I met a guy who has just opened a bike shop in Saratoga Springs--Epic Riding.  Nice guy. He carries Giant and Scott.  He also shared some good tips for LOTOJA.

Friday night I went with my family to IKEA.  What a mistake.  Talk about a place packed

 with things that your wife thinks she needs and you know better.  Luckily we escaped with only a few pieces.  The cashier asked if we had seen the car that ran into the building.  So on the way out we took a look.  I have no idea how it happened, but there was some serious damage to what appeared to be a new SUV.

I rode Saturday with my friend Matt.  We left from his house in Cedar Hills and went up the loop AF side.  I can't believe how many cyclists were going up the road-train after train.  We rode with a bunch of guys including one rider decked out in fat cyclist apparel on a ferrazi bike.  

I rode the majority of the ride with two guys who were putting down a good pace.  One was on a litespeed and the other on a specialized.  I'm so bad with names, I already forgot their names.  The guy on the litespeed put the hammer down right after the last hairpin turn.  I worked hard to keep up with him.  

My friend Matt came rolling in shortly thereafter.  We did take note of the orange lamborghini cruising around the loop.

Monday I'm heading out to the green river to do some fly fishing.  We'll see how much fishing gets done--the Varsity Scouts are coming along.  

Dust off the mountain bike

I woke up this morning sore and tired.  I knew I needed to do a ride today, but I sure didn't feel like it.  After an internal debate, I decided it was time to mix it up.  I dusted off my mountain bike and headed into work.  I haven't ridden my mountain bike in over a year.  The idea of riding a high mountain trail sounded refreshing to me.

I had to go into the office to do some work prior to my ride.  It was one of those undesirable mornings where problem after problem came rolling in.  I'll spare the details, other than to say, I'm fed up with banks and their auditors.  I will be the first to admit that banks were too liberal but they have over-reacted and gone to the other extreme.  I do believe that there are banks that want to start lending again in a conservative fashion, but the auditors are forcing banks to tighten up on the purse strings.  In Utah, last year there were dozens of grade "A" banks (as determined by the auditors).  Now, there is only one bank left the state with an "A" grade.  Enough venting.

I had a nice easy ride up south fork and a ways up towards the pass.  It was fun riding a mountain bike again.  I could tell that I was very rusty and hesitant on the downhill.  One the way down, a stick flipped up into my spokes.  Luckily it snapped without snapping a spoke or flipping me over the handlebars.  It, however, did break the zip tie holding my brake line.  I realized that every time my fork compressed, the line would now dive into the spokes.  I didn't have anything with me to fix it and I wasn't hot on the idea of walking down the trail.  I finally peeled off the manitou sticker from my shock and used this to secure the brake line--shown in the picture.

Tomorrow, the gym.  Friday and Saturday, plans call for some rides to push my limits.  One will be a longer distance--the other will be hills.

Product Review eLoad Heat Endurance

I've used the mandarin orange of the eload heat endurance formula for a several weeks. I base my review on a comparison to previous products that I have used such as Nuun, Mototabs, and Gu.  Here is my un-scientific review

Pros

• The mandarin orange flavor tastes like a real drink.  You have had those drinks that taste like chemicals.
• The powder completely dissolves quickly
• Has a bunch of potassium and sodium.  Other drinks may have this also, but as I have used this on longer rides, I find that I am less prone to cramping.

Cons

• The powder is not as convenient as tablets like nuun. 
• This may be a bit picky, but I had to dump out half my cannister to get to the measuring scoop.

Summary

I will continue to try other products, but this is the what sits best.  A cannister is somewhat expensive priced at $44 but will last for a long time (bikesomewhere.com).  

Tour de France

The tour has been awesome this far.  I was hoping the american Will Frischkorn could pull off a stage win. Who is this guy?  Click here for his profile.

One of the best parts of the tour was watching the badger, Bernard Hinault, shove a protester off the podium.  I'm sure that youtube has the video of it.  There is apparently still a lot of fire left in the badger.

Provo Canyon Triple Play

I had a nice ride yesterday.  I decided to tackle Provo Canyon's three canyons.  I left from my provo office and went up the alpine loop - provo side.  I saw half a dozen roadies.  

Next, I went up South Fork.  It was an easy climb after the alpine loop.

Last was squaw peak.  It felt very hot climbing squaw peak.  

Almost 55 miles, and just under 4 hours of riding time.  I felt a lot better than when I did my big ride last week.  I attribute it to having the right drink and the fact that it was around 10 degrees cooler.

I did stop to admire and snap a picture of a buggy.  It looked like it was broken down and abandoned.

I rode with Levi today

Yes, you read right-- I'm not kidding. Well, I may have only rode with him for 100 feet.

Let me back up and start at the beginning.  I took off around 11:30 from my office in provo (I turned down an invite to golf for this ride--good thing).  I took it easy up the parkway to Sundance canyon.  It was hot and I was suffering.  I rested for a few minutes at Sundance and then started back up the road.  As I was passing the firestation, I saw 4 riders coming out of the Sundance parking lot.  I wondered if they were coming up the loop or heading down.  A few hundred feet later, I looked back and they were coming up-and they were coming fast.  My ego required me to kick it into gear.  Even with my acceleration, they caught me at the first sweeping right curve.  In their acceleration to catch me, the four had become three.  I was feeling the heat and I thought to myself, "how embarrasing to be caught by these guys."  As they came up on my left side, we exchanged hello's.  I, of course, first checked out their bikes.  My eye went to the middle guys bike.  It was a Trek, in Astana colors, with a name by the seat post that said Leipheimer.  I did a double take--Astana socks, Astana shorts, Astana jersey of the current US cycling champion, and then the face.  Yep, it was Levi.  I about fell over.  I can't even tell you who the other two guys were--they may have been famous, but I was so shocked to see Levi.  I grabbed my iphone and tried to catch up to them for a picture.  I snapped a quick one that actually turned out ok, and then I fell off the back and gasped for breath.  I yelled out something like "Go Levi!!!, We'll miss seeing you in the Tour!!!"  Cheesy, yes, stupid, yes, but heck, my brain activity levels were being severely affected by the lack of oxygen and altitude.

I felt much better about being caught by other riders when I realized that it was a podium rider from the TDF last year.  These guys were fast and I'm sure that they weren't even pushing it.  It was awesome to see--They operate a totally higher level.

The fourth guy caught me near Aspen Grove.  He was decked out in bicycling magazine attire and riding a Cervelo.  He had an accent and moved on quickly trying to minimize his gap with the other three guys.  I didn't see the group of three again, though the Bicycling Mag rider came back down Provo side from the summit.

Now for the boring ride report of the rest of the ride.  I made it to the summit and decided to give the AF side a shot.  I descended the AF side and took it easy all the way to the toll booth (I guess that's what you would call it).  All the way down it was quite depressing to think, I have to go back up this...Crap.  I thought about riding through town and back to my office, but decided to stick to the plan.  I flipped around and the booth and started going back up.  I stopped a few times to dip my head in the river and to refill water bottles at Timpanogos Cave.  I suffered but kept going.  It was slow going up.  I have to say, it was a mentally challenging ride for me.  Right after the tibble fork turn off, you see the road rise up in front of you and you think, that hill is going to hurt.  Your eyes automatically look up higher on the hill side and in the distance you see the road cut into the hill that you have to climb--pretty depressing.  

I limped over the summit and descended down Provo Canyon.  I wanted to stop and get a snowie at Vivian park, but I needed to get back to the office.

60 miles, 4 1/2 hours of ride time, a Levi sighting.  It was good ride.  I pushed my limits today. 

On a side note, I had sport beans, honey stingers, and nuun on my ride today.  I'm sticking with the sport beans (orange and watermelon) and the honey stingers, but I'm done with nuun.  The eLoad heat endurance is a better way to go.  I will give a detailed review later with my reasons.

Ride report on the Tour of Utah

Below is a report from Seth Bradley who just completed the alpine/suncrest/snowbird climb.  This guy is a cat 2/3 rider.  I'm getting very concerned about the Tour of Park City and the Tour of Utah / 300 warriors.  The report below describes the majority of the 300 warriors route.

Today was isometric sets in the gym.  Tomorrow will be a ride.  I plan on going up the alpine loop/provo side, down to the AF guard gate, and then back up to the summit and down Provo side back to my office.  It should be a good ride.  I used to say to my friends, if I could go up and down the alpine loop twice I should be ready for LOTOJA--I would actually back off that statement now as I feel that I need a lot more preparation and training.

Let me Preface this by saying I am not a climber but I would like to be when I grow up, although I do think I could out climb Rick. I left my house in Sandy at 5:30 and met up with 15 other riders and we left Draper at 5:45. We rode south around the point and made our way down to the base of Provo Canyon. We stopped at the gas station at the bottom of provo canyon, more for a bathroom break than to really fill up anything. We took our time going up the bike path to Vivian park and made our way up to the Sundance turn off. Once we started up the climb, the temp was perfect. My goal was to keep my climbs 10 beats below LT and I was successful. The few real climbers in the group hammered up it and were out of site by the resort, but I figured I was not going to be the slowest up the climbs so there was not much point in me killing it to wait at the top.

I took some pictures and enjoyed the ride.

We all regrouped at the top and made our way down AF canyon and on to Suncrest. It was starting to warm up a bit at this point as suncrest is somewhat exposed, but the temp was still fine. I took this climb mellow as well and did not push it. We got together at the top and refilled waterbottles and had some creamsicles at the market on top of suncrest. At this point, some of the guys had to start getting back home and other guys were trying to make excuses to get home. Someone got a flat and went home, but a handful of us pushed on. We got to the mouth of little cottonwood canyon around noon, give or take a few minutes and again the climbers took off. A few others turned off right before the mouth. One guy got dizzy and light headed and turned around half way up the canyon.  Of the 16 guys that started, only maybe 5 rode the whole thing. I don't know if I could have pushed it up that last climb even if I wanted to.  It ended up being 98.5 miles and 9000+ feet of climbing. That distance is a little misleading since the last 10 miles of that was downhill back to my house.  The Real kicker was the weather. My legs felt fine since I kept my HR down the whole day, but sweating that much, and the heat takes it out of you in a hurry.  I really feel sorry for the Pro riders who don't start until 10 and will be riding at race pace after having already done 3 hard days and having another day still to race.  When I got home I was lucky enough to get a quick nap and my legs felt fine the next day, but the heat takes it out of you.  One of the other guys I ride with a lot who is a climber Lost 4 pounds on the day and said it was harder than LOTOJA.  For me it was a different kind of tired than LOTOJA but I usually take that ride mellow as well.

I would suggest starting as early as possible to beat the heat. Either that, or have a team car follow you with ice cold water to pour over your head.  It was fun and I am looking forward to 300 warriors but praying for an overcast, 65 degree day on August 16th with no headwinds.