Click on the map below to see the "geeky" details of my first Cat 5 Road Race. I won't know the results until tomorrow. I do know that I was definately not the slowest guy in the group. I learned a lot during this race and I look forward to racing smarter and hopefully doing better.

OUCH Time Trial Race Results

Well, I finished it, and my estimate that I could finish it in 90 minutes was right on. I finished it in 90:19.

Like I said in my last blog I was not planning on winning anything, but I wanted to see where I was at. The day was pretty muggy, but at least it wasn't pouring rain, although I probably would have welcomed a little drizzle for part of the ride.

I can honestly say I don't think I have ever sweated that hard for that long of a time. My HR was in the high 160's, low 170's the entire time. My plan was to be in the mid to high 170's the last few miles. I could not get my legs to go that hard when there were a few miles left. I was able to keep my HR around the high 160's and mostly low 170's. Even though I didn't do great, I am happy with my time as I did no training for the hills, so I think I could have done a lot better, maybe 5 or 10 minutes faster, maybe.

Overall, I had a great time, had lots of fun and enjoyed the event as a whole.

My buddy Tony did OUCH in 67 minutes, which put him as the 17th fastest of all the racers out there. Great job Tony!! I was passed by Tony (and many others) on the way up to the top and he looked strong and he was hauling ass. Tony's rabbit (Scott Springer) who started 30 seconds in front of Tony had just passed me when I saw Tony, so I gave Tony some info on where Scott was. Scott is a great TT artist, who holds a state TT record, so needless to say he is a good rabbit to chase. Tony was able to get within a few bike lengths of Scott, but Scott was able to keep Tony back, but Tony gave him hell.

My other buddy, Robert, who convinced me to do OUCH started 10 spots from the last person, or about 25 minutes behind me. The bummer for Robert was that as he was crossing the line, they were tearing down the timing tent, so we don't know exactly what his time was, but according to Robert it was about 96 minutes. Robert wasn't feeling so well for the last two weeks, and I wonder if he was feeling better and was able to get some training in to keep his legs fresh would he have kept up with my times, or possibly beat me. We have some more trips up there, so we will see how he does once he gets his legs back under him.

Damages:

Well, truth of the matter is when you do races your are openning yourself up to injuries and wrecks. You are pushing yourself harder than you ever do in training, no matter how hard you train, you always go harder when racing. And as far as wrecks go, well, those happen to. Usually you are lucky with some bumps, bruises and a little bit of road rash. Hopefully no serious road rash or infections from that road rash.

My damage is some muscle or tendon issues. As I am writing this blog I am sitting on two ice packs. I pulled some muscle I have never felt before. It is some muscle or tendon in between my sit bones and groin. It hurts to stand or sit, and I look like an old man when I get up or down from a chair. Tomorrow may be worse! I hope it is nothing major and a couple days of rest will get everything back to normal again. I want to get back on the bike soon, and I have a century (100 miles) ride this coming weekend. With Kristin's sprained ankle (it is black she sprained it so bad, and she is sidelined for at least two weeks) and my muscle problem, we are like an old couple now. However, I would rather we were getting sore/hurt from something we love than to be sitting at the house being couch potatos. I have gotten in to living an athlete lifestyle and being very active, and I really missed out on a lot when I wasn't doing anything, but I am working hard to gain it back.

I will post some data when I download it from my bike computer.

Oregon Uphill CHallenge (OUCH) Time Trial

As I mentioned in my last post, I am going to do something pretty gruelling this weekend (the weekend after STP). I will be competing in the Oregon Uphill CHallenge, also known as OUCH. The route is 3,816 feet of elevation gain in 16.5 miles. For those of you from Montana, or familiar with Going to the Sun Highway, this is more elevation gain than Going to the Sun highway from Lake McDonald. Also, the elevation is done in less distance than the ride from Lake McDonald to the top of Going to the Sun.

I have been training to go fast over flat roads for very long distances, so I have taken routes that intentionally avoid hills. This ride will be nothing but one big hill so my training has not exactly prepared me for this event. I plan on making the climb in under 90 minutes, which means my HR will be much higher than I am used to. I will not know exactly how to attack this hill, I am not exactly sure how I should be doing the negative split for this style of event, etc. We will see how this goes.

I was convinced by a friend to do this last week, on Tuesday (three days after STP) and we would go out and see how we could do. Since I trained so well for STP my legs were hardly sore on Tuesday, so I thought this would be a good idea. I agreed to do it. We then went up and pre rode the course on Wednesday (4 days after STP) and my guess is that on Sunday I will be able to do OUCH in under 90 minutes, based on some other guestimates based off my Bald Peak hill climb times. We left right after work on Wednesday and climbed up the route, my first crack, with no warm up or previous knowledge, I was able to climb it in 94 minutes. I am now feeling confident I can make this climb in under 90 minutes. The other funny thing is that I will be doing this climb twice within the 8 days after STP. In addition, my buddy Robert who convinced me to do this, and I are going to do this climb every Wednesday night until it starts getting too cold and dark to do the climb.

It turns out that my other buddy Tony is going to be doing OUCH as well. He is a great athlete and he will probably do the climb in 60 to 65 minutes. It will be great to see Tony at the race, and it will be nice to have another friendly face there. Tony has been great in helping me figure out what I need to do for my first race, and giving me some great pointers. It turns out that Tony, and all guys who are at his caliber will be starting after me. What this means for me is I will be passed by these guys who fly up the hills.

I am not sure how well I will handle it mentally because I don't like being passed, but it does bring out the most competitive side out of me. The thing that will be really cool is watching these guys go buy me like I was practically standing there. That part will be really cool. These guys who are Cat 1/2/3's are in amazing shape, and watching them from the sideline has always been fun, and now seeing them in comparison to me, it will be very eye openning and motivating.

I will let you know how it goes after I am done with OUCH!

Seattle To Portland (STP)

Well, as many, if not all of you, knew that I was going to do STP again this year. STP is a 204 mile bike ride, from, you guessed it, Seattle to Portland.

Weaver and I have been training for this six months, and we were ready. For me, my only concern was that with the temps getting over 100 degrees the week before STP, I was concerned with the heat and being able to stay hydrated. This years STP was 14 degrees hotter. Last year was 74 degrees and this year it was 88 degrees.

Weaver, Kristin and I drove up to Seattle to day before and due to some scheduling snafu's we couldn't leave until 2:30 in the afternoon on Friday. That, in hind sight, was a horrible choice. We ended up in rush hour traffic the entire way up, and it took us two hours longer to get to Seattle. Then there is this entire other story about the tickets, which I won't get in to, but I will remember to never wait until the last minute to buy tickets.

Because of our scheduling snafu, we only got five hours of sleep, which was not ideal, but I don't think it had too much of an effect on the overall result.

Last year my average speed for STP was 17.1 mph, and I was hoping Weaver and I could beat that speed and I didn't really care by how much.

Weaver and I started out the morning a little late (again the tickets came back to bite me in the butt!!!). We started at 6:00 rather than 5:00. As I would find out later, this probably had a fairly large effect on my end results.

The first 100 miles was pretty uneventful, nothing exciting, everything went as it should. Kristin was doing a great job running support, and being our cheerleader, and we loved it. We liked it so much, at times we were counting how many miles it was to see Kristin, rather than talking about the next stop.

At the 109 mile stop, Kristin met me there with my Dad and Nancy. It was great seeing Dad and Nancy there, and getting their support too. At the 109 mile stop, Kristin met us with some fresh watermellon, which was AWESOME and a great treat after only drinking liquid nutrition (think Gatorade, but 10 times better!!!). It was a nice snack and I think we both ate a little too much because we both had a little bit of gut issues after this stop, but it was well worth it.

On the way to the next stop the heat really started to increase. As we were riding along, it was hot, but there were sections where it felt like someone put a big engine in front of us. I swear it had to of been at least 5 to 10 degrees hotter in some spots, and it really felt like that radiant heat you get off of cars exhausts (minus the smell). To top it all off, it was a really humid day, so sweat was not evaporating very well, so keeping cool was a little bit harder. At the next stop Weaver and I took a break under a tree in the shade to cool off. Kristin's car said it was 91 degrees at that stop. We took some of the ice cold water and poured it over our heads and body to try and cool down a bit, and then we were off to meet Kristin, Dad and Nancy in St. Helens.

We made it over the bridge in to Washington and we only had 54 miles to go. That is nothing, my legs were feeling strong considering I had gone 150 miles, and things were going okay. This is where it gets interesting. At about mile 160 things went south really quick for me. I started feeling really hot and I told Weaver I had to stop. I pulled over and got off my bike and I felt like I was put in a oven. I sat there for a minute or two and then got back on the bike and started going again. At this point I couldn't get my heart rate (HR) above 130 bpm without feeling really hot and sick. So I just soft pedalled for a while and then we pulled over at an unscheduled rest stop where I took some water and poured it over my head, and tried to cool down. After that I wasn't feeling any better, and I was still having issues. A few miles later I had to pull over again and this time when I got off my bike I felt like I was going to collapse, and I laid down on the ground for a good 10 or 15 minutes on some grass on the shoulder of some side road. Weaver said I was walking like I was ready to collapse. We got back on our bikes and rode in to St. Helens, about 10 miles, to see Kristin, who I had already called and said to turn on the car and get that AC cranking so I could cool down. That was a very long 10 miles to get to St. Helens. I was in bad shape, but it was funny, I was still passing a lot of people, and I was keeping a pace of 18 to 19 mph. It was a little frustrating for me knowing I was so strong, but I was suffering so badly. I knew that I am a heavy sweater, at 90 degrees I sweat at 4 pounds per hour (I know this from previous tests I have done), so I knew I was a candidate for hydration. I was drinking as much water as my stomach could handle. My stomach was so bloated I couldn't take in any more water. After making the long and dreadful 10 miles to St. Helens, I immediately got in Kristins car to cool down.

I was feeling very sick, I was having problems riding in a straight line, and walking straight was a challenge as well. After sitting in the car for a few minutes I realized that if I continued on I took a very real risk of wrecking, and considering the last 29 miles was along a very busy and fast highway, followed up by crossing downtown Portland. Anywhere I wrecked had the possiblity of hurting me worse with all the cars, and other cyclists, as well as putting other cyclists in danger. So I made the decision that finishing the last 29 miles was not worth putting my family to deal with a situation like Ryan McKnab. I got out of the car and announced that I was dropping out of STP. I made it 175 miles, but STP was stronger than me this year.

One of the interesting and most revealing things that came during this long ride, where I have lots of time to think through things, I realized something about true friends. True friends are the people who are there for you when you need them, even if it is at their own personal sacrafice or discomfort. When I was suffering, Weaver never left my side, never got in front of me and dropped me, he was there with me every second, when I stopped, he stopped and waited for me and gave me words of encouragement. This meant so much to me and really just goes to show who your true friends are. I know if I would have chose to try and finish, Weaver would have stuck with me all the way to the finish as well, even if it turned dark, he would have hung with me the entire time, which is so cool.

On that same thread, Kristin was awesome to be there for us and run support for us. She was a great face to see at every stop and she is a great cheerleader and a great supporter. She did awesome and I can't thank her enough. I am very lucky to have Kristin in my life, not only because she runs support for me, that is probably the easiest part. I have spent over 200 hours on the bike this year, which means lots of weekends and evenings where I was missing. She has never complained, and if I was slacking she would get concerned. It is so great to have someone like her around who supports you and tenderly kicks you in the butt when you start falling behind. She is great in understanding me and the goals I want to achieve and making her own sacrifices to help me acheive and exceed those goals. I can't even begin to say how fortunate I am to have her in my life. Actually, I have been very fortunate in all of my life. I have a great familly and my friends are awesome as well!

So, this is where my ride ended, I dropped at 175 miles. Up to that point, I was beating my previous best time significantly. Last year I averaged 17.1 mph, and this year I averaged 18.0 mph, which I know with weather like last year I could have easily finished.

After Weaver left us, we went down to the finish line, as he had 29 miles to go. We waited at the finish line for him to Finish with Dad and Nancy and we met Amy (Weavers Fiance') and Samantha (Weavers Daughter). It was great seeing weaver get to finish STP and achieve his goal, that was awesome. He worked very hard for it and I am glad he was the one who finished. After Weaver finished and he got his feet under him we all went to our cars and headed to go get some real food and had some Mexican for dinner and then Weaver and I went home and slept.

So, since I didn't acheive my goals for STP, I have picked a "punishment" for myself. More to come on that, but this weekend, I promise I will hurt more than I did at STP. Three lashings for me! Of course I will enjoy it too! I have been told I am sadistic. :)