Small goals make a big difference

As of 3/17/2013

Having a regular training schedule has given me real goals to achieve as I go.  I suppose that is the entire purpose of having a schedule like this one, setting those goals that make you feel like you have accomplished something throughout the week.  The fact that I have gotten to this point without outright dying is something of a pride point for me, now.  I was worried I wasn't going to be able to make it to each of the milestones that I have set for myself as I have gone.  And I have hit them and in some cases surpassed them.

This weekend was the 40 mile mark that I had been a little afraid of.  I was worried that 30 had been so difficult, that 40 would be murderous.  I had never ridden that distance continuously ever.  But, I had tackled all the other milestones with some degree of conviction and efficiency, so why not this.

While I had originally planned on heading out to Gresham on a well traveled bike path.  The mileage was there, but to be perfectly honest, I knew the route well enough that it seemed like it would be a titch boring.  Ira Glass playing in my ears aside, it just seemed like a route to make the miles and not to really enjoy the ride, which is-ultimately-what this should be about.  After discussing it with my girlfriend, she suggested that I instead head north into Ridgefield/La Center area.  There are backroads a plenty there and early in the morning I should have been relatively safe.

Safe though I was, I wasn't quite prepared for the large degree of rolling hills that I was going to have to deal with.  The back roads of the Northwestern part of Clark County are riddled with poorly maintained roads that will move from asphalt to concrete and back again with noticeable bumps in the transition.  Cracks are ubiquitous and as the roads are not as frequently traveled, the cracks are not sealed particularly well-if at all.  To add to this, this is all former/current farmland which is not always on the level, meaning I could (and did), work my way up a 9%-13% grade over .2 of a mile only to go down another one after a short level space.  I must say, though, that despite how potentially punishing it was, there were some truly beautiful sites that I got to travel along in La Center and in the crisp morning air, it was truly a treat. 

I should note that it is fairly important that you study your proposed route prior to embarking on it.  On a few occasions, I came to an intersection where I wasn't absolutely certain where I should go and had to look at my phone and try and bring up an active map of the area.  Well, should you be in a no cell phone zone, this is not going to be terribly useful.  In short, have a paper map with you.

Sunday, I headed out with a friend of mine on what would be a remarkable tour around the Portland area.  We left SE Portland and headed to Marine Drive, a road that closely follows the Columbia River and then rode our way to Kelly Point, which is effectively where the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia River are and enjoyed a brief respite before heading out to the St. John's Bridge, probably one of my top 3 favorite bridges in Portland.  The air coming off the Willamette was blowing us a bit, and as I had not retensioned my derailleur cables since putting the old brake levers back on Betsy, I was loosing a few gears on the rear cassette going up and around.  Thankfully, though, my brakes were in good working order so the decent was quick and safe.

This ride, really, ended up being such a night and day experience from my back road Clark County ride.  We traversed almost 43 miles and always had a shoulder, bike path or otherwise reserved lane that we could safely ride in.  Several parts of Portland, I am told, also have a magnetic switch at some intersections that if you ride your bike above it, will activate the traffic signal so you are not waiting for another car to come on and allow you to make your left.  While Vancouver might be a "bike friendly" community, Portland actually accepts cyclists as an integral part of it.

I am becoming progressively cautiously optimistic (yes, I am loading on the adverbs) on my prospects for STP.  The miles are coming easier and the real attitude shift that I feel daily makes me look forward to the next morning's ride.  This training, these goals have ultimately helped me start becoming a better, trimmer and more positive person, I believe.  And for that, I am truly grateful the goals I have set.

Mount Tabor, Arugula and a Great Training Week

Time to STP: 131 Days

In every place I read, it seems that there is a high recommendation to take at least a day off every week for recovery.  And while my chocolate syrup works wonderfully for recovery purposes, it doesn't fully rebuild me for the next day; invariably I need to contend with some soreness.  However, I haven't seemed to take a lot of the advice on this.  This is the first week in which I biked every day.  Out to my girlfriend's house, out to dinner.  Name it, I would bike there.  The only real exception was a 24 hour period when I didn't ride but ended up riding that night.  At this point, I am becoming somewhat comfortable with a constant state of soreness on my legs.  It is something of a comfort though.  I like knowing it is there, if that makes any sense whatsoever.  It makes me know that I am really working and that STP is within reach.

The week's morning rides were as expected and we are still having an unseasonably dry winter (knock on wood for me, will you?), but I spent the week getting in around 10 miles every morning, sometimes a little more which is a fabulous way to start the day.  Where my week was really quite something was yesterday, however.  

I have a friend that works for Castelli and he is an avid cyclocross racer.  Cross, as you will read from the Wiki, was actually started in Europe as a way for the professional racers to stay in shape during the winter months.  I have heard him talking about it as long as I have known him and he has become something of a benchmark for me when it comes to cycling.  This guy is a encyclopedia (too dated?  Let's say he is a Wiki) of information on the cycling world, and pretty much my go-to when I want to know anything that I don't quite know where to look online.  Well, anyway,  we had been tossing around doing a ride together for a couple of weeks and it finally came together.  Saturday morning I headed over to his place and within minutes I learned about ways to replace presta valve stems on an inner tube (I feel I would need to draw a diagram), and then we headed out.  What he had planned for the ride was a tour throughout Southeast Portland taking us through Powell-Butte, the Springwater Corridor and everywhere in between.  At some point, we were going to drop by Apex, a local cash only fermented beverage establishment, and then head onto a very large hill so we could work on hills (and my standing fear of The Big Hill).  It was a true change-up from what I have been used to when going out and riding.  We went through city streets, over packed dirt trails, I learned some had signals that he says I would be seeing often in STP, and I learned about drafting (a practice I had read about, but since I don't ride in groups-had never employed [basically, you ride 3-6"'s from another rider and let them split up the air for you]).  We really went through such a great variety of places (followed along Johnson Creek which is so great, you need to see it for yourself) that it has inspired me to try to explore what else Vancouver has to offer.

After we had ridden about 22 miles, we stopped at Apex with a line going around the block.  No beer was worth the line to me, and it was only 11:45 and I wanted to get some more miles in, so we made a couple of quick turns and headed toward Mount Tabor.  Now, as we approached the "foothills" of Tabor, I looked on and said "where exactly are we going", he looks back and says "towards that clump of trees there".  I gulped.  I didn't know exactly how high it was, and I had hiked something similar on many occasions, but this looked positively daunting at least a couple miles out.  I know I sounded like I was complaining, and he heard it.  At one point he says "you said you wanted to ride your bike, right?".  I did.  I wanted to get to wherever we were and I wanted to challenge myself.  I think I tend to psych myself out some when I look at hills; not thinking of what I know I can now do, but instead thinking of what it felt like the first time I did them (I still hold dread for the Mill Plain/Grand hill).  But we headed on.  

Over a quick dirt path and then onto the paved road of Tabor we went.  It was steep.  Like, really steep.  Like 636' elevation gained in a couple of miles steep, which isn't much when you are hiking it, but add the fact that you are also pushing an additional 20 pounds of aluminum, steel, rubber and cabling and it all becomes quite a bit to handle.  He knew it was hurting and he knew that I, as a former smoker, was going to have some breathing problems.  And, it seems that a safe word had already been developed "arugula".  I say that, and we cut out and return home.  I breathed hard.  I geared down as low as I could (although my #1 cog wouldn't engage so I did this on the 2nd cog on the crank).  I pushed.  Sometimes painfully slow, but I pushed.  I looked at it and wanted to cry out the safe word.  I wanted to stop, but I knew...at what point do you give up?  When do you say it is too much when just a little more effort will take you that much further.  I couldn't say the word (I think it would have been a breathing issue, in part), but I didn't want to give up.  And I didn't.  I made it all 636 feet to the top where a remarkable statue resides.  I saw it briefly, and then back down the hill through a packed footpath we went.  If the ascent was the hard part , then the decent was the sweet victory.  We wound down the hill, cutting up the dirt, avoiding railroad spikes and getting a wonderful view of East Portland/West Gresham.  If I could, I would make the trip up tabor every weekend.

We made our way down the hill and to a local Stumptown (best coffee in Portland) at 29.52 miles ridden,  As we sat drinking our coffee and enjoying our pastries, my friend looks at my saddle, angled distinctly downword and says "we need to fix this".  You see, I had been complaining my hands were hurting on the decent.  This was in part because I was squeezing the crud out of my brakes (and the resulting mental strain that puts on you) but also, as it seems, because when your seat is angled down, it pushes you forward.  Go figure.  Your saddle should be level, ultimately, and mine was not.  A few quick turns of an allen wrench later, I was level (the clumps on your seat post not only adjust back and forth, they adjust angle).  My first big ride with someone else ended up being a total blast.

Today's ride was just a nice change-up.  Instead of the 30 mile loop that I had planned, I instead tried to revisit a portion of my old commuter route.  So I headed from home, over the interstate bridge and then detoured along Marine Drive to the I-205 bridge and bike path.  This ended up being a completely beautiful ride on a   a sleepy Sunday morning with the hill on Ellsworth in Vancouver really making me work.  All told, I only put in about 23 miles today, but I have to figure the hill work counts for something.

I have done some reading on nutrition ideas as well, and it has just backed up what we hear all our lives about breakfast: Eat a big one to carry you through the day.  Along with regular snacks, the idea is to stay full all day long and not eat too big of a dinner, because this will end up carrying you through the entire following day with hunger and screw up the way your body is processing food if you go the junk food route. Thus far, my oatmeal with soy milk morning has worked really well (and, as I just picked up a case of soy milk from Costco, I am good for a while).

'On a final note, I have now officially registered for what will be my first organized group ride: The Monster Cookie Metric Century.  100km (62 miles) sponsored by the Salem Bicycle club.  It falls right in line with when I need to do my first 60 mile ride and will be a great education for riding in a group.  It is just a couple months away and I am looking forward to it.

And I tackle the training schedule

Time to STP: 134 Days

As you know, I have been training actively for about two months at this point, but I have finally started falling on the basic training schedule guidelines put out by the Cascade Bike Club. 

Because I have gone so long without seriously riding, and because I am nervous about hitting up STP without dying in the process, I basically put all my free time into riding whenever and wherever I can.  This starts with moving up my alarm clock in the morning to 4:59 (I contend that there is something psychologically different about waking up at that hour versus at 5:02) so when I have my kids (I am a part time dad and have them for a week at a time), I can get up and ride while they are sleeping and be home before they wake to shower and have my first cup of coffee.  I also have stopped driving to my girlfriend's house (or anywhere else that I can help it) and instead ride there in the evening when I don't have my kids.  It gives me about 6.5 miles if I go there as directly (and safely) as I can, and more if I want to work in another mile or two during the day.

As a result of this, I think I am getting into a better habit of general training for interval purposes and I have recently decided I would try and really concentrate on my cadence as well.  The bike computer I bought is finally set properly, so I can more closely monitor how fast I am going.  My goal is to maintain around a 14mph average wherever I go with the idea that I can complete each leg of STP in about 6 hours or so (my 30 mile ride day last Sunday took me just over 2 hours, so I am optimistic).

I have also discovered increasing problems trying to find ways to stay local and meet my mileage goals.  While I intend on starting to bike to and from work towards the end of March (around 16 miles round trip), the big weekend rides are going to be difficult to do with the limited resources that  I have available to me (I do have the entire Internet, true, but sites like Bikely.com do not have a lot of resources for the Vancouver area).  So, in an effort to get in my mileage requirements and learn more about the nuances (and rules) of group riding, I plan on doing a Metric Century in April and then a full century ride in June.  STP is just over four months away and I want to be as prepared as I possibly can.

I have also, just in terms of suggestions, have found that Ride Oregon is a remarkably useful website for a variety of reasons and have started frequenting it more and more as I learn more and prep up more. 

As I prep up my menu for next week, I will post a few more recipes, as well.  My morning breakfast standard, instant oatmeal, has been modified for the last couple of weeks.  I have continued with the low sugar oatmeal, but now make it with organic soy milk.  It is quite tasty, fills you up and provides you with a wide variety of nutrients.  For those of you that want a nice and healthy snack during the day, I recommend picking up some dried soy beans or some edamame (which you can find in the frozen food isle).  It really takes the edge off hunger and gives you a healthy dose of protein for the day.

Finding a route

Time to STP: 160 Days

As I am now into my second real week of training for STP (although, I am operating ahead of their proposed schedule), I have found it increasingly difficult to find routes around Vancouver to use for training. At least ones that logically lend themselves to riding a bike and not having to dodge cars or (by extension) suck exhaust.  As such, I just started taking the little information that I know about distances in the city and started looping them around, trying to find a place to meet my daily mileage requirements.  This, I have learned, is not the most efficient way of doing things.

What I have started to do now, is use Runkeeper's website to create routes, which allows me to track mileage along the way as I create it.  Also, I am able to modify it, even if I have it all mapped out, to include additional mileage.  With the added satellite view, it makes things a good deal easier.  I knew I was going to cycle both days last weekend (I have been using the stationary during the week up until this point) from two different start points and I knew the kind of mileage that I was hoping to achieve (as close as I could get to 15 miles each day).\

It is a wonder how your sense of perspective changes, truly.  A couple weeks ago, I was riding in 27 degree weather and when I went out Saturday and Sunday morning, I was astonished at the balmy 40 that it was (read: much sarcasm). While the training information I have found has really encouraged riding relatively flat rides with at least 1 hilly ride a weekend, I have found that I just like to mix it up for the sake of not being bored.  Saturday's ride as well as Sunday's were a nice combination of those things (with Sunday finding me tackling the dreaded Mill Plain hill again).  However, on both days, I ended up shorting myself some on mileage.  Saturday was around 12 and Sunday was around 13.  25 miles for the weekend isn't bad, but wasn't quite what I was hoping to accomplish. 

The two day training schedule from last year.  A good guide regardless.

 

The schedule also suggests just riding in the middle of week and the weekends.  I am hoping to mitigate some of the heavy weekday riding by doing several smaller rides during the week either before or after I go to work.  Does anyone have any experience prepping for a century that they might be able to suggest?  A friend of mine recommended beer and burgers as a good offset.  I don't disagree with that, but I also know (through some more reading) that I would benefit from increasing my veggie and fruit intake more.

 

Also, on a more personal note, I regressed on smoking this weekend, back on the wagon today.  I really need to just kick that demon to the curb.