Suncrest was on the menu today

Adam invited us to a ride starting at the mouth of Suncrest today with the intention of riding around the point of the mountain, climbing the north side of Suncrest, riding down the steep southern face, then going home.

At least that was the intention. Ryan showed up and muscled his way, well, won a rock/paper/scissors session to make us go up the steep side of Suncrest right away rather than at the end of the ride.

As you can see below this climb has a bunch of sections over 10% grade, some reaching 14%, yielding an estimated grade of 8% for 3.5 miles.


Within the first 1/2 mile I start looking down at my bike, thinking there is something wrong with my gearing or I have a flat. I can't be in my lowest gear already. I am fit damn it. I have been working out all winter. What the f***?

A bit later I realize what the f***: I am running a 11-21 cassette with my 53-39 crank set. Yeah, I did it, I just blamed the hardware. In November I replaced the cassette with an older 11-21 because I was going to be doing FLAT base miles and that cassette is just not used anymore since I have a 53-39 crank set. May as well use it up during the winter. Therefore today's climb up Suncrest was done at 5 mph in a 39x21 gear. This was strangely reminiscent of a certain Little Cottonwood canyon climb during a certain 1000 warriors race. Don't do that.

Then came the downhill. Turns out I'm still a featherweight and I don't believe there is anything I can do to help gravity. I pedaled the whole way down at nearly my functional threshold power but couldn't be useful for anyone and could only keep up if I was in someones draft. Pathetic.

All in all the day was gorgeous, the company was great, and we got a few quality hours in. Tomorrow: Ski day!

Base miles milestone

1082 miles ridden so far for the 2010 season - my 2010 training season began November 16th 2009. I am not THAT much of a freak where I would have ridden 1000 miles in less than one month.

The 1082 miles translate to over 67 hours on the bike. Mostly indoor. One one hand I am starting to get pretty tired of my trainer and really want to ride outside. On the other hand I am increasingly enjoying being on the trainer as it is simpler than dealing with traffic, road conditions, and finding terrain to match the workouts. But, as I start more race-specific training the need for real mountains and real terrain also increases. Outside good.

1000 miles is a well known milestone to denote the end of a base period. It is recommended to get 1000 miles in before starting to beat the crap out of your body to get to the next level of fitness. Here comes the pain.

2 excellent rides this weekend.

If you didn't get to ride this weekend you missed out. Travis organized a great outing in Park City where he, Ryan, and I were treated to mostly blue skies and clean air for almost 4 hours. Then Sunday's ride was the almost famous Wardy Sunday at Noon event which yielded a group of 6 people. Nice stuff for January.

Those 6 hours on the bike allowed me to reach my 11 hour training goal this week, which is a relief as I didn't really think I was going to reach my goal as of Friday evening. And I am feeling better about riding in sub 30 degree weather. Sad, sad accomplishment.

Lastly I reached a weird milestone during Saturday's ride where I broke the 1000 watts barrier of power output. It was picture worthy. Saturday's ride also bumped my personal best 5-second duration power output to 963 watts. I have a long way to go to reach my season's goals but it's a start.

2009 to 2010

2009 in retrospective

Professional

Not the best year. Third or fourth attempt at managing people with the same result. Just not a manager and don't want to be one. Otherwise tired of being the bad guy; I just don't want to deal with grown adults needing supervision to do their jobs. Just let me solve technical problems and get out of the damn way.

Personal

Great. I am super lucky. I don't deserve it especially given how selfish I am.

Cycling

Good energy outlet. Great early season, unfortunate knee injury, shitty team dynamics. Wished I could have excelled.

2 new bikes: One was too tall, the other was stolen. Good and bad.

2010

Eat, sleep, work, train

Getting serious about competing on a bicycle. Spending approximately 12 hours per week training starting in November. Will win races, will excel, will destroy LOTOJA.

Olympics

1 month in Vancouver for some awesome Olympic experience. Too bad I wasn't chosen as a volunteer but I hope we make the most of it.

Home improvements

It's time to update the house with new carpet, maybe pergo-style flooring in the upstairs bathroom, new non-yellow canned light rings, and possibly new door hardware.