Training for the SM100

It is the week leading up to the big race. I have done a fair amount of training but really don't know if it is enough. There is not much more I can do really other than eat right, hydrate well and try to get as much rest as possible. I will probably do some spinning on the trainer a little bit and do one more easy Poor Farm ride to make sure the bike is good to go. I recently had a brake adjustment and need to give it a little test ride before heading to the mountains for the big adventure.

While my attempt to ride from my house to VA Beach may not have worked out the way I wanted it to, I did get 70 miles or so of training in. And it was also good heat training. Over the years, I have found it much easier psychologically to go for a long ride if I have a destination. The idea of doing laps or just riding around the area is not very compelling to me. But if I have a destination with some purpose, I find it easier to get out there and ride. In fact, once it cools off some, I am going to try to ride my bike to and from work a few times. It is only 13 miles or so one way and once I figure out the logistics of clothing, getting cleaned up, hauling my food, etc., I will probably give it a try. But for now, I am focusing on this Sunday.

Before I talk more about this Sunday, I want to briefly describe a few rides I have done since my ride from Richmond to Ivor which is where I threw in the towel on the way to VA Beach.

After getting back from the beach, I did manage a few rides on the trainer that week. But my big ride was planned for Saturday. A friend who is doing the race, Clay, and I planned a trip up to Skyline drive to ride for 6 to 8 hours. Our plan was to ride from Rockfish Gap to Swift Run Gap which was about 80 miles. There would be lots of climbing but also some coasting. When we got up to Rockfish Gap, we encountered very foggy conditions. Here are some pictures from where we parked.

We got geared up and took off into the park. When we got the fee station, the fee taker told us she could not let us into the park with out the proper lights. I had a red blinking light on the back of my bike and a headlight inside my Camel Bak but Clay did not have lights. Fortunately, Clay did have a small light back at the car and I had duct tape. We rode back to the car, taped the light to the bike and then headed back up to the fee station. The fee taker let us in and in fact we did not have to pay because it was one of the fee free weekends at all the National Parks.

So off we went. After about 11 miles into our ride we stopped to eat some food and use the outdoor facilities. While we were sitting there munching on our bars and gels, the Park Police drove up. The officer rolled down his window and started asking us some questions. He was just doing his job but I thought his approach was odd. Here is the basic transcript.

Park Police (let's call him Ranger Joe): Where did you all come into the park today?

Me: Rockfish Gap.

Ranger Joe: Why?

Me: (not really understanding his question). We are training for a race.

Ranger Joe: Don't you think your safety is more important than any race?

Me: We have lights.

Ranger Joe: Do you have them on the front and the back?

Me: No.

Ranger Joe: Well, where are you headed?

Me: Swift Run Gap and back.

Ranger Joe: So you have a car parked at Rockfish Gap?

Me: Yes

Ranger Joe: Well I am not going to write you a ticket but I think you should head south. You are not allowed to bike in the park when there is low visibility without the proper lights.

Me: Well the lady at the fee station let us in.

Ranger: Well, she is not law enforcement.

After that I decided to just keep quiet. I could have argued a bit I suppose. After all, what is the definition of low visibility? How are we supposed to know this rule if it is not posted, etc. But I could see that he was going to kick us out the park so I just made one more comment.

Me: Sure puts a damper on things.

Then he took our license information and ran us for warrants. After all, two mountain bikers in spandex bike shorts are pretty dangerous looking. After that, he actually got the rule book out and read us the rules and explained how he actually thought the rules should be worded differently.

At this point, we were starting to shiver as it was getting cold. We had just done this pretty long climb and sweat a lot but now we were standing there starting to get a little chilly. Ranger Joe noticed and apologized and sent us on our way. When we got back to the car, we were a little bummed out. We packed up and headed for home. Of course as soon as we got off the mountain it was gorgeous weather. We ended up with about 22 miles or so that day. Not exactly what we had hoped for.

The next day I did a 3 hour ride from my house to the river and rode the trails downtown. The trails downtown are challenging but there are sometimes lots of people that you have to avoid and I am always on guard because there are some loonies down there. You never know what you are going to see.

The following Friday was my last day off for the summer. I had originally planned to do a day-trip to the beach with a friend but he ended up having to work. I was still going to go by myself but instead decided to go back to Skyline Drive and try another ride. So Friday morning, I drove up and parked in the same spot as before. This time around, the weather was different. It was not foggy and it was quite hot. I thought it would be cooler in the mountains and while it probably was hotter in Richmond, it was certainly hot enough on the mountain.

I rode from Rockfish Gap to the Loft Mountain Wayside which was about 25 miles with a fair amount of climbing but also some flat portions and little bit of downhill. When I got to the wayside, I used the bathroom and sat out on the deck and ate my PB&J and other snacks. I also bought some nice cold Gatorade which was really tasty at that point. I was drenched in sweat. I had some nice conversations with some tourists including some asian people who were asking me about the park. They told me they were tourists. They also said that they had not seen much wildlife. I explained that there was lots of wildlife around and if they got off the beaten path, they would see some. I told them that I have seen many black bears in the park. One woman's reaction to that statement was, "And you still alive!" Too funny.

After my lunch, I turned around and headed back to the car. I had wanted to go all the way to Swift Run Gap which was another 15 miles but I had already been on the road a long time and I was pretty hot. I did not want to get cooked again. Plus, as happens quite often on my adventures, I start to miss Melissa and want to go home and spend time with her. In fact, I often cut things short because I don't like to be away from her too long. For about 45 to 50 hours a week, we are apart because of work. When I have these long adventures away from home, I tend to think about her and what she is doing and decide to rush home. So after I turned around and headed home, I stopped by the grocery store, picked up dinner and some groceries and arrived home in time to have dinner at a decent hour and spend some time with my honey.

The next day I did a 3 hour ride down to the river. I did not leave until noon and guess what. It was hot again. Very hot! I did not feel all that great because of the heat. I did the standard river ride and then rode back. After that, I was pretty zapped.

I had one more weekend before the race to train. After consulting with my co-worker who is one of the top amateur cyclist in the region, I decided to go ahead and to another big ride on the Saturday before the race. I rode from my house to Poor Farm park in Ashland. It was a nice destination ride because the Patrick Henry Half Marathon was starting and ending at Poor Farm that day. I got a 6 AM start and took the long way to the park so I could avoid being on the run course. It was a pretty nice ride out in the country and since I got an early start, it was not blazing hot.

When I got to Poor Farm, I ate my PB&J and watched the leaders finish the half marathon. Later I would see some friends come across the finish line and even got a few good pictures of my friends and my boss who was running the race with his wife. By the time the race ended, it was hot again. After my boss came across and I congratulated him, I took off on the bike and headed for home. I took a more direct route home and crunched it pretty hard. I ended up with 47 miles which felt pretty good.

After the ride, Melissa and I had some lunch and went to a movie for a little change of pace. On Sunday, it was time to do the chores which included cutting the lawn and doing the trimming. It was so hot! I am really ready for Fall.

Well that about wraps up my summary of my latest training leading up to race week. Earlier tonight, I made a smoothy and put it in a bottle and then into the cooler with ice to see how it will stand up overnight. I want to be able to have my smoothy before the race and am hoping this little experiment works out.

I have made a list of things to do yet and things to buy but I am almost ready. My gear is hanging dry after a nice washing and my bike is totally dialed in. I have all my bike gear in a pile and will start packing up the car Thursday evening. Tomorrow I am going to a special showing being put on by Richmond Pro Cycling. They are screening "Ride the Divide" which is about a 2700 mile mountain bike race from Banff, Canada to the Mexican border. The amount of climbing in this race is equal to climbing Mount Everest 4 times. I figure this should be an inspirational movie and is just what I need before my adventure.

Happy Trails.

Crazy Idea?

If you have been keeping up with my blog postings, you know that we recently had a wonderful trip to Vermont where we did lots of mountain biking. As soon as I got home, I went ahead and signed up for the Shenandoah Mountain 100. I had been planning to do the race but had yet to spend the $200 to sign up. I had some great rides in Vermont and decided that now was the time and went ahead and laid down the cash and signed up.

The weekend following our Vermont trip we had plans for a Quackenbos weekend at VA Beach. All of Melissa's family would be there and the trip would include some time on the beach. I like going to the beach a lot but in this case, I was worried about missing out on a weekend of training. I can do short rides during the week but the weekend is when I get most of my mileage in. On our way home from Philly, I had a crazy idea. I thought maybe I could bike from our house to the beach. Could that be possible? I had Friday off but we were not planning to head down to the beach until Saturday morning after Melissa's swim. If I rode my bike down on Friday, she would then follow on Saturday with the car for the Sunday trip home. Melissa thought it was too far and said as much. I wondered though.

When I got to work Monday, I got caught up on a few things and got some tasks running before doing a little research on the trip. I started where all good research projects start-Google. Google Maps has a new Beta service that will actually plot a bicycle route for you. Presumably this route would be on roads hospitable to bikes. When I first googled the route, I came up with a distance that was too far. But then I realized I had not done it correctly. When I Googled the route from my house to Melissa's parent's house, I came up with 126 miles. I have ridden 100 miles on my mountain bike in one day in the past and I did 150 miles over two days one time. But 126 miles would be the farthest I have ever gone in 1 day. Could I do it?

After thinking about it for a day or two, I decided I was going to try. I had to buy some extra gear including a waterproof map holder thingy that attaches to the bike, some lights, and a few extra tubes. It took me a couple of days to get everything sorted out with the directions, etc. And I was even up until 1AM Thursday night putting everything together. Please note, this is not recommended before a big ride. It is best to get plenty of rest.

On Friday morning, I got a later start then initially planned because I was up so late the night before. I started the morning with my pitcher of fruit smoothie, another banana and a granola bar. I loaded up my pack which was stuffed to the hilt and actually quite heavy. I had emergency gear, bike lock, food, water, extra Gatorade, Blackberry, bathing suit (Melissa was going to meet us at the beach on Saturday), lights, duct tape, wallet, extra tubes, patch kit, tools, extra batteries for lights and Blackberry, and probably a few other things.

I headed out with my load on my back and started to make my way towards downtown Richmond. I felt sluggish and seemed to be laboring more than usual. Turns out my back tire was low. I stopped once and pumped it up some but as I rode it slowly lost some air. When I got to Brown's Island, I stopped again and this time changed the tube. It actually did not take too long. Now I was ready. I continued on my route and crossed the James River and zig zagged my way through town. There were lots of turns on my route and that slowed me down quite a bit as I had to find my way through town.

Without going into too much detail, I made it through Richmond and then through Hopewell and made my way down to route 460. My plan was to take a break when I hit 460 and get more water and rest a bit as the trip down 460 would be long, hot and there would be lots of traffic. I have driven 460 a few times and I had recalled that there were places to stop along the way. However, when I got to 460, there was nothing. Just road, some farms, some industrial areas and lots of trucks. I had also run out of water although I did have a bottle of Gatorade that I was nursing. As I made my way down the road, the 18 wheelers were zooming by. I had to concentrate on staying just to the right of the white line so I was in the small shoulder. But sometimes there was debris or road kill that I had to dodge. One thing that really started to bother me besides the heat and sun was my rear end. It was really starting to hurt after the many hours on the bike.

At one point, I saw a sign that said "VA Beach-85 miles." That was a bit demoralizing as I realized that I still had a very long way to go. It was going to take me a lot longer than the 12 hours that I thought. As I made my way down 460 I was wondering where I would be able to stop and refuel and rest. I had a few Hammer Nutrition Bars while riding but I really needed more water. I saw a sign that for the Virginia Diner in 12 miles. Well I guess that was something but it was farther than I really wanted to go before getting more water. Oh well. I just kept pedaling.

Finally I saw a sign for McDonalds in 1 mile. Hurray! I stopped at the McDonalds, locked up my bike and went in and bought a bottle of water. I sat there and drank my water and got on my Blackberry to send a few emails. I had made it to Waverly, Virginia so I sent that update out to Melissa and a few other friends and family. I must say I was getting some strange looks from other patrons in the McDonalds. They probably did not see too many people with spandex bike pants, bike jersey, etc. Plus, I really reeked. I could smell myself so I know that others probably could too. After cooling off for about 30 minutes in the AC, I went to the nearby gas station and bought more water. They did not have the Gatorade that I liked but at least my Camel Bak was now full of nice cold water. After getting the water, I went and found a shady spot and ate my PB&J, an orange, a Hammer Gel, and a Luna Bar. I noticed there was a 7-Eleven a few blocks down. After I was done eating, I went down to the 7-Eleven and got my Gatorade, checked my route and then I was off again.

After a little while on the road, I came to another 7-Eleven and ran into a trail fairy. My friend Rachel works in the area and she knew I was making my way down 460. I stopped and sat in her car to cool off some more and she went into the store and bought me some chips. I sat with her and talked for a while with her AC blasting in my face. That really helped and I felt pretty energized. So off I went on down the road.

However, after another 20 minutes or so, I started to get a bad headache and started to feel pretty weak. I knew that the heat was getting to me. I also recognized the early signs of heat exhaustion and decided I probably should give up my quest. I came to a gas station in Ivor, Virginia and called it quits there. I was a little more than half way there. I called Melissa and gave her the address of where I was and she was able to punch the address into the navigation system and come get me. While I was waiting for her to get there, I sent some emails, drank some Gatorade, sat, stood, paced a little and watched people come and go into the gas station/truck stop. I got some funny looks for sure. One person asked me if I was taking a break and I told her that I was done and had called in the Calvary. In fact, I was cooked.

Melissa arrived and I changed into some dry clothes. I ate some chips and drank some cold water that she had brought to me. It was a nice enough drive home and on the way to our house we happened to pass right by our favorite Thai place so we called in some carry out and picked it up and took it home. When we got home, I devoured my food, took a shower and went to bed. My adventure had been cut short but I did get about 70 miles of riding in which was good training for the SM100. Also I got some good heat training in.

I did end up with some sunburned legs but overall I recovered pretty quickly. Thai food and chocolate milk can do wonders. The next morning, we got up at 6AM, loaded up the car with our weekend stuff and headed to the pool. I did not swim but I did time Melissa after she warmed up so I was good for something. And then we drove to the beach and had a great weekend with the Quackenbos family. It was great to see everyone and see how the children have grown.

When I got home, I looked at the proposed Google route some more and realized that the proposed route would have taken me on some very busy roads. I have researched the route some more and it looks like there is a way to get to the beach by bike that is safer than the Google route but it would require even more mileage in order to stay off the major highways. Looking back, it is probably good I stopped because the route would have been too dangerous.

Vermont Trip-Part 3

On Tuesday morning, we got up early and headed down for our breakfast. I usually don't eat all that much for breakfast. In fact, I usually have a banana, a yogurt (with no HFCS of course), and a granola bar. However, I was getting used to having a big breakfast already. You can't beat fresh cut fruit, fresh granola mixed in yogurt and blueberry pancakes.

After breakfast we drove about 45 minutes to a place where we rented two kayaks for our float trip on the Clyde river. The float trip was part of our pedal and paddle package and consisted of a lazy kayak trip down a very calm river. In fact, it was really more like a big stream rather than a river. We took our time and slowly kayaked down the river. The water was kind of low and there were some fallen trees that we had to maneuver around carefully. But we managed to stay dry for the whole trip. It was very quiet at times and we felt like we were out in the middle of nowhere. Floating down a river can be very peaceful and a great way to see wildlife. We did not see much on this trip until the very end when we saw some loons on the lake that the river dumped into. It was neat because at first we thought they were strange looking ducks. It was not until later when we past by their nesting areas that we saw the signs and realized what we had seen.

Here are a couple of pictures from the float trip.

After our float trip, we had a light lunch at the restaurant at the Inn and then got cleaned up and ready for our first afternoon at the spa. Melissa had the 90 minute hot stone massage while I had the traditional 60 minute full body massage. My massage was pretty good. I give the masseuse an A. He really opened up my tight areas including my legs which still don't have full range of motion.

After our massages, we had another wonderful dinner at the Inn followed by some leisurely walks around the area. We scoped out some of the trail heads on the other side of the road and watched the sun go down from on top of the hill overlooking the Inn. Below you can see a couple of photos from our walk. In one picture, you can see the Church that we came across the day before on our bikes. We tried to do one of those silly pictures like people do with the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It did not quite turn out but it is still a neat view.

On Wednesday morning, Melissa took a break from riding and decided to chill out and also go for a swim while I went on a ride on my own. I started out across the street on "Bob Magill" and did a whole bunch of trails including some good climbs. I was taking the opportunity to really push myself and do as much climbing as possible. In fact, I ended up riding lots of what Melissa and I did the other day except in the reverse direction so that I did lots of climbing, some of it pretty steep.

After my ride, we had lunch and chilled out for a while before heading back out on the bikes for another afternoon ride. The weather was perfect again. We did some nice trails with some technical climbs and tricky descents. We took our time and picked our way over the roots carefully. Again, Melissa did really great. These trails were more challenging than anything else we had ridden in Richmond and Melissa really stepped up to the challenge.

Again, after our ride, we dinned on fresh and yummy food followed by another walk around the area. I was really getting used to leisurely walks through the pastures after dinner rather than watching TV. It got me thinking about getting rid of our FIOS TV and just getting free broadcast television. That is another topic for another day and is a project I am working on.

Thursday morning I went on another solo ride while Melissa took a break from riding. She did some site seeing around the area, visiting a nearby village and then we had lunch followed by our second afternoon of spa treatments. This time, Melissa had foot reflexology which I would later find out was a bust as her therapist really did not know what she was doing in the feet department. My treatment on the other hand was excellent. I had neuromuscular therapy which turned out to be so good that I am going to see if there are any other people in our area trained in that particular discipline. The therapist was able to find all my problem areas and release the tension that I did not even know I was carrying. At one point I had mentioned that my ankles have always been tight from a lifetime of soccer. She had me on my stomach holding my ankle with my knee bent back towards my rear. She pressed with her other hand on a particular place on my hip and I could feel my ankle release all this tension and loosen up. It was amazing. If I could afford it, I would go once a week to someone with this skill. But alas, my money tree that I planted in the back yard has yet to be fruitful.

Can you guess what we did on Friday? More mountain biking of course. Melissa and I did a shorter ride in the morning and then I went on one last epic ride. The lady at the Kingdom Trails association gave me some routes that would prove to be challenging. When I told her what I had ridden thus far and how I had ridden it all up hill, she pointed me in the direction of a trail called Burnham Down. Of course instead of doing what she suggested, I front loaded the ride with a bunch of other trails and climbs just to maximize the workout. When I got to the Burnham Down trail which was a double-black diamond trail, I noticed the trail sign said Burnham Up. So there was a little sense of humor here. The climb was long and challenging but lots of fun too. There were all kinds of neat obstacles, bridge work, holes, roots, and hills. It was long but the payoff in the end was a very long downhill on Moose Alley and then some great riding through some meadows and fields of corn. It was a truly epic ride and a great way to end the week. Below are a few pictures I took along the way.

After all that riding, we went back to the River Garden for dinner and had some more delicious food. We went with the specials again and were not disappointed. It was all so very good.

After dinner we walked around a little again before starting to get packed up and prepared for our early morning departure. On Saturday, we bugged out after breakfast and headed south towards Philly where we would be staying the night again at Melissa's sister's house. We had a pleasant drive through Vermont but when we hit NY, we picked up a fair amount of traffic. Back to reality it seems. But we made good time and got to the Redilla's house in time for dinner and had a nice evening visiting. We even showed them some of our pictures on their Wii. We were pretty tired and still had another 5 hours to drive the next day so after picture and tv we went to bed and slept quite well.

On Sunday, we took off early in the morning and had a relatively uneventful trip back. In fact we were making really excellent time until we rounded the DC beltway to get on I95 south. This is what we faced.

Finally after about an hour in bumper to bumper traffic, it let up and we made it home without any more hiccups.

All in all, the trip was superb and it got us thinking about a summer home in Vermont. We will have to wait for the money tree to sprout but maybe someday.

Finally, I wanted to include a link to this video from the Kingdom Trails website that gives you some idea of where we were and the trails that we got to ride.

Vermont Trip-Part 2

As I mentioned, we arrived early at the Wildflower Inn well before check-in. We had just spent a rather rainy night in the tent and then driven a couple of hours and were anxious to get cleaned up and settled in. The person at the front desk at the Wildflower Inn took our name and cell phone number and said she would alert the cleaning staff to give our room a priority so we could check in as soon as possible and that she would call us if the room was ready early.

We headed into East Burke a couple of miles away and went to check out the Kingdom Trails Association office where we could get our maps and passes to ride the mountain bike trails in the area. We did not get a pass but did get some maps. We also asked the bike dude working in the office there where we could get a relatively economical lunch. He told us of a place about a block away which we could walk to. We ordered our sandwiches and just as we started eating, the Wildflower Inn called and our room was ready. It was only about noon so we were really lucky.

After lunch we went back and checked into our room which was really nice. It had a great view of the meadows and mountains. There was a nice queen size bed and a little kitchen area complete with stove, sink, microwave, fridge, cookware, real plates and real silverware. If we wanted to shop and cook a little, we could easily do that to save a little money during the week. We did not end up doing that but we did use the microwave a couple of days to heat up some dinner leftovers. The option to cook was there but who wants to cook on vacation? Not us. Below are a couple of pictures showing the view from our balcony and from the bathroom window. (Please note, if you click on a picture it will open up bigger and then you can click Back to get back to the Blog).

We spend the rest of the day getting cleaned up and settled in. We checked out the whole area around the Inn including taking a look at the cows, checking out the sauna and pool and just walking around enjoying the cool weather. It seemed cool to us compared to Richmond where it was over 100 degrees and very humid. Below are a few pictures of the area around the Inn.

Before you knew it, we had to think about dinner. We made reservations for the River Garden in East Burke. The restaurant ended up being superb. The food was so fresh and delicious and plentiful. One thing that struck me as we were in town for dinner was all the bikes and cars with bike racks. They were everywhere. We were in a mountain bike haven. We were staying right in the middle of some of the best mountain biking trails on the East Coast and it was exciting to be there with so much time to ride and also relax and of course not work. Here are a few pictures of the restaurant.

After dinner we walked around and checked out some of the trail heads. All of the trails are marked with a red sign with black lettering and a symbol that indicates the difficulty of the trails. The trail difficulty varied from a green circle which was easy to a blue square which was harder to the black diamond which was for experts. There were also some double black diamond trails as well as some triple black diamond trails. Below are some pictures of the trail heads signs that label the trails. Did I mention that there are over 100 miles of trails? Here are just a few of the signs that we encountered during the week.

As Sunday drew to a close, I was feeling quite relaxed and definitely in vacation mode. With no television in the room, we read our magazines, looked at the maps and planned our week. We really only had a few things on the schedule. We had a three hour kayak trip that was part of our paddle and pedal package as well as two afternoon spa treatments just down the road at the spa. Other than that, we had not really planned anything other than biking, eating, and relaxing.

Monday morning we got up and waltzed our way down to breakfast which was included in our package. We had fresh cut fruit and granola mixed with yogurt from the cold bar and ordered eggs and/or pancakes. Each morning we had the fruit, yogurt, and granola and whatever the special was for that day or we just stuck with blueberry pancakes. After our Monday breakfast we went down to the Kingdom Trails Association headquarters and bought our day passes and got some suggested routes to take.

After we drove back to our room and got saddled up, we headed out the door. The trails were really excellent. We went through some rolling meadows before ducking into the woods. The trails were well marked and they had a really excellent flow. We ended up riding for about 2 hours before breaking for lunch back at the Inn and then a 1 hour nap and then back out to the trails to ride for another 2 hours. Melissa really did well. The trails were somewhat technical and there were some climbs that I am pretty sure were longer than anything she has ever done before. She rode them all like a champ. I am really proud of her. We had such a nice time out there and got a super workout. Below are some pictures from the chapel that we encountered towards the tail end of our Monday afternoon ride as well as few other pictures from the trail.

After our ride we had dinner at the Wildflower Inn which was also really excellent. I felt like I ate so much. In fact, that seemed to be the trend for the whole week. Bigger than usual breakfast, a decent size lunch, and a huge dinner. I thought for sure that when I got back to Richmond, I would find that I had gained weight. In actuality when I did get back and weigh myself, I had lost a pound or two. Not to give anything away but I did end up riding over 17 hours total. More on that later.

Well that about wraps up our first few days in Vermont. I think next time I can wrap it up in one file segment. I hope you enjoy the pictures. More on Vermont to come.