Quarryman Challenge Course Preview #2

Great morning for a run! I think many of us were a bit overdressed as we headed out to run the hills of Lemont. If you've never run this course, you're missing out. Some of the toughest hills you can find out in this area. Race day is May 9, 2009. If you're interested, you can Register here.

I think temperatures were in the low 50s when we started and reached low 60s by the end of the 10 mile run. Very little wind and beautiful sunshine made this a very enjoyable run.

Hope you can join us on May 9, 2009!

Solvang Training Camp - Day 3

These entries are going to have to get shorter! I just can't find the time to do this!!

OK, let's see - Day 3 - Mount Figueroa. This was slated to be the 2nd toughest day of the camp. We were climbing Mt. Figueroa which touts an 11.5 mile climb at an average 7% grade. What I didn't mention in my last post (because I was running out of time) is that when they were going over the agenda for today's ride, this brutal climb was the talk of the evening. People just kept saying how tough it was and that if you just stay clipped in and just keep moving the pedals, you'll be OK. Once you stop, you'd pretty much be done. For 11 miles?? Are you kidding me?

I woke that morning with a big lump in my throat. I did not want to ride. I was terrified. What if I couldn't make it up this mountain? Some of you may know this, but hills (especially mountains) are not my friends. Yes, yes, I need to make them my friends. This was why I came to camp, right??!?? Now, in Chicago, what we call hills are laughable compared to the hills and MOUNTAINS of California. What kept coming back to my mind was the race I did 2 years ago - Wildflower in San Luis Obispo. This half ironman started out with a terrible climb, but about half way through the ride, there's this climb they affectionately call "Nasty Grade". It was absolutely brutal. It's probably the reason I have no desire to go back and do that race. I remember just chugging up the hill for what seemed like forever (I think it was about 40 minutes), sweat pouring off me and just cranking on those pedals wishing for it to be over.

I shuddered to think of what an 11.5 mile climb was going to feel like. My roommate was also not feeling very confident about the whole ordeal. All the talk about it from the night before had us sick to our stomachs. We ate breakfast and headed out to the bikes. The experienced cyclists were talking, laughing, happy to be getting out for a third day in a row. I very quietly put my bag in the SAG vehicle and prepared my bike for the day's ride. "I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this" just kept running through my head. The morning was again, very chilly, but the SAG vehicles were going to meet us just before the start of the climb so we could take off the arm warmers, leg warmers, cloves, hats, etc. With all that climbing, we were going to get pretty toasty.

The groups started in a staggered fashion - 5 minutes apart - then we were to all meet at the start of the climb. Robbie Ventura was starting out this ride with us today and he had a way of taking my mind off the challenge at hand. Again, in the first 15 minutes of the ride, I dropped a water bottle. I guess having 2 pairs of gloves on makes it a little difficult to maneuver that bottle back into the cage! Thankfully, no one behind me hit it, so we just moved on. The 15 miles or so out to the start of the mountain was just beautiful. Very little traffic and the pace was easy enough that it actually gave me time to look around. It was easy to see why people would want to live there.

So now we get to the start of the climb. Every one started peeling off layers, but I had a bigger problem. I needed a bathroom break. Unfortunately, we were in the middle of nowhere, so I just had to ride up the road a little bit, get out of sight and go along the side of the road. (this pretty much happened every day of the rest of the camp) When you gotta go, you gotta go. I thought of my friend Bridgitt...she has no problems with this sort of thing.

The other groups started riding up within a couple of minutes of each other and again, organized chaos as cyclists searched for their bags in the appropriate SAG vehicle to put their extra clothes inside and grab whatever nutrition they thought they'd need during the ride. We filled water bottles and Gatorade bottles. Dave Noda was taking videos.

The groups lined up, fastest in the front, slowest in the back. I went to the back. The goal of today was not to do the climb fast, it was just to do the climb. I was extremely nervous about the hamstring because going uphill hurts. I did wrap the hamstring and put on compression shorts under my cycling shorts, just as I did every other day of the camp, but I was still scared about tearing it more or undoing all the progress I've made in the last 2 months. I promised myself I would NOT get out of the saddle. Yes, it sounds crazy, but I knew if I could stay in the saddle, I would save the hamstring. This is not a race...it's just a ride I need to finish.

I lined up with a couple other women who I hoped to try and ride with today...11.5 miles is a long way to ride uphill alone. It was time to go and the fast people were off (Gordo, Gardie, Justin, Matt and several of the VQers). Within seconds, they were out of sight. Also within seconds, I found myself in my lowest gear! Wow, it didn't take too long for the incline to start!! I was now at the very back of the group. I think there was 1 guy behind me (he had a flat)!

I was riding next to Heather, my roommate for the trip, and we started talking. The road was a slow, steady incline, but we soon got into a rhythym and started talking. We talked about her upcoming Ironman, our spouses, our career paths...it made the time pass. We were both pushing each other, but not really racing. Just a smooth, steady climb to the top! I can't even remember how far we were into the ride, but the road became muddy. Not just dirt covered, but MUD! I guess there was quite a bit of rain the week before we arrived and this section of the road had not dried yet. Uphill and mud is not a good combination! If you didn't have the gearing right, you'd start spinning in the mud, losing traction, and go down. YIKES! I started slipping through the first patch of mud. Then I could see Robbie Ventura, standing at the side of the road, on a corner, taking pictures and yelling to us to get to the right. Apparently, the right side of the road at this point was dryer and easier to ride up. I saw some big ruts I'd have to get over, so I stayed on my path. My roommate crossed over easily. Robbie's still yelling at me to get to the right....so I turned my front wheel and tried to ride over the big ruts. Uh oh!!

I lost control of the bike. The ruts were deep enough to turn my wheel for me, about a 90 degree angle to the right...I was headed off the side of the road. I braced myself. I hit a small embankment on the side of the road and flipped over the handlebars landing on my right shoulder. My right side now is pretty much covered in mud, as is the right side of my handlebars. But I was uninjured and I popped up, picked up my bike and started walking it up the hill to find a place without the deep mud so I could try to get started riding again. I watched my roommate ride off up the hill and now I was left to ride alone. Robbie came over to see that I was OK, and I was just fine...he was nice enough not to laugh.

I got to a somewhat flat spot to try and get back on the bike. It was tough, but I did it and tried to clip in. I couldn't do it. Neither one of my feet would clip in. Apparently, I had gotten so much mud all trapped in my cleats, I couldn't get my shoes to clip onto the pedals. One guy behind me saw what was happening. He warned me to get off and fix it now because I'd never be able to make it up the rest of the hill without being clipped in. I think we were still less than half way at this point. Figuring he was probably right, I got off the bike to try and clean off the cleats. Robbie Ventura rides up and asks me what's going on. I explain it to him and he promptly asks for my water bottle and squirts my right cleat to flush it out. I still can't clip in. He does it again...this goes on for about 4 times then he finally gets off his bike, reaches down and forces my right foot onto the pedal. He then looks at me and says, "now DON'T unclip that foot!" No problem, Robbie. At this point, I don't think it WILL come unclipped! Robbie rides off (making it look unbelievably easy) and I'm on my way again. Left foot still won't clip in, but I keep playing with it. I didn't want to waste any more time....everyone had ridden off without me.

Now was the hard part. I could see no one in front of me and no one behind me. I just kept pedaling steadily, though not going very fast. I looked down to check my mph and...UH OH! No Power Tap head. Sh*t! It must've fallen off when I flipped over my bike. I thought about going back to get it...that was about 20-30 minutes ago. I then decided that to ride back to try and find it then go back and continue up the hill would take too long. I hoped that after the ride, someone with a car would drive me back to the spot where I fell so we could go look for it. I just bought this 3 weeks ago and it's not so cheap to replace! Now I was bummed because I just lost all my data for the day's ride. We were entering all our data for this contest based on KJs, winner to be announced the last night. Since I just lost all my information, there was now no way I could win. Well doesn't this just SUCK!

I kept thinking about the lost Power Tap head for the next 20 minutes or so. I would look ahead and see the windy, uphill road carved into the side of the mountain. I kept thinking to myself, "we're riding up THAT??" But by the time I got to the part I was looking at, it didn't feel any harder to ride up than what I was already doing. I could see a biker or two up in the distance and set my sights on trying to catch up. It was perfectly silent out there, the only sound was my heavy breathing to continue uphill. The wind was non-existent. The sun was bright, but not overwhelmingly hot. I was sweating, but I've ridden in much worse. Maybe it was the lack of humidity, but temperature-wise, I was comfortable. Climbing, climbing...ok, passing a guy. I try to make small conversation with him, but we're both breathing much too heavily for anything more than a couple of short words. I keep going and finally get to pass another guy. I think to myself, "Woo hoo, I am not last!" I wonder how long it is until we finish.

Pedaling, pedaling, I now see my roommate up ahead. She seems to be looking very comfortable and strong. One of the coaches, Dan, comes back and rides with me for a few minutes. He graciously gives me some of the water out of his bottle ( I had none left since Robbie cleaned my cleat out with it). I was really, really thirsty. Dan coaches me along, tells me I look strong and gives me a few pointers about climbing. He came at just the right moment when I started to doubt myself and wonder if I was ever going to make it to the top. He has such a positive, friendly attitude and it was contagious. He was only with me a couple of minutes, I explained to him what happened with my Power Tap and he said he'd talk to the SAG guys to see if someone could swing back and look for it. I was hopeful they'd find it.

I kept climbing...caught up to my roommate, we chatted for a bit, and I think we had just 3 miles to go. It was tough, but I had paced myself well. Once again on the streets were painted with the 2K, 1K, 500m and then 200m marks. I just kept on grinding out the pedals and then could hear the voices at the top of the hill. When you're out in the middle of nowhere and it's so quiet, the voices travel. So they always sound much closer than they are! You feel like you're pedaling forever after you start hearing them, but they slowly get louder and louder until you can finally see someone up there, waiting to cheer you in.

I think Dave Noda was up there, taking pictures and videos. It was awesome to reach the top. I was so proud of myself I nearly teared up. I made it. It took FOREVER, but I made it. My roommate then reached the top and I congratulated her. We were so nervous coming into this ride and now we were both exhilarated. I filtered through the bags laid out so I could put on some clothes. I hear the descent is very, very cold. We all gathered for a group picture at the top and then several of us were preparing to ride down. I went to the water bottles and began to work on that left cleat that I never really was able to clip in. Oh - yeah, I also had to unclip my right foot using my hand....it was in there so tight! I drank a ton of water, maybe too much, but I knew I was dehydrated. I filled my water bottles and prepared for the descent.

I won't go into a lot of details, as this post is already too long, but the descent was terrifying. I don't know what was harder, the uphill or downhill. It was scary fast and my hands and fingers ached from keeping pressure on the brakes the entire way. The road was rough and had potholes in spots and shaded. If you hit a pothole while you're flying downhill, you're pretty much toast and I was a nervous wreck. I was definitely one of the last people on the downhill, perhaps too cautious. I did learn later that someone flatted going downhill and took a nasty crash. I was happy to have not heard that before I attempted the descent.

The rest of the ride was nice, but hurt as my legs were wiped out. I got back to the hotel, took a shower and headed out for the "Skills and Drills" instruction. We rode out to a school parking lot where we were challenged with a variety of things - picking a water bottle up from the ground, riding in a small circle several times without putting a foot down, figure 8s, 90 degree turns and turning to look back without veering off the side of the road. All good things to know and they're tougher than they seem.

Dinner was shortly after that...with a recap of the day and the agenda for the following day. I was happy that the next day was scheduled to be a recovery ride!!

Solvang Training Camp - Day 2

Day 2 - Drum Canyon Time Trial. This ride started out with an easy (well, OK, it wasn't totally easy) ride, maybe 15 miles, to the start of the time trial. It was cold out for the start of the ride, maybe 40 degrees and very cold in the shade. Once I stepped into the sunshine, it wasn't too bad. Each camper was given a bag to put in the SAG (support and gear) vehicles. These bags could include extra clothes, nutrition and whatever else you thought you might need throughout the ride. Since I was wearing nearly every piece of clothing I brought, I put a couple of packages of Luna Moons and a Clif Bar in my bag and proceeded to throw it in my designated van. I felt very awkward when I got on my bike. This is not unusual, since I hadn't been on my bike outdoors since November. I felt a little shaky and riding in a group of people I wasn't used to riding with made me quite uneasy. I dropped a water bottle within the first 15 minutes of the ride. Thankfully, no one in the group hit it and we continued on.

We got to the start of this time trial and I was told it was flat for the first couple of miles and then it was uphill for the last 3 miles. The key (or so I heard) was to not blast out too fast because you'd be dying by the end of it. All the groups met up and the SAG vehicles pulled up. I was quite toasty now and seeing as this was going to be a hard effort, I stripped down to just a jersey and shorts. I even switched to half-finger gloves, so it must've been warming up! I saw one of the more experienced cyclists also putting both his water bottles in his SAG bag. Said he didn't need the extra weight. I didn't think a water bottle was going to make a difference, but I took one out and left one on the bike. The campers were swarmed around the back of the van, stuffing clothes into their bags and bananas and Clif Bars in their mouths. I put my stuff in the bag and threw it in the van as fast as I could. It was organized chaos and I wanted to get away from it as fast as I could.

I got to the start line where one of our support crew stood there with a watch, starting cyclists about every 20 seconds. The rep from Saris was at the front of the line coaching us through resetting our Power Taps so we could accurately record the needed information (average watts, time and kjs). I was happy that I had attended his talk the day before because I knew how to reset my info.

Before I could even get nervous about the ride, it was my turn. I took off but made sure not to overexert myself in the first couple of miles. I can also tell you that it didn't feel all that "flat" to me. I was passed more times than I care to recall, and then the uphill started. I down shifted. Then again...and again...soon I was in my lowest gear and I had brought a 12-27. You've got to be kidding me! I was going so slow! I checked my rear tire several times...I was sure it was flat. Nope. That's just me going slow. Passed again...and again...I stop counting the dudes passing me. The road winds and, in true IMWI fashion, around every curve, it goes uphill even more. I start to wonder if this is longer than 5 miles because it sure is taking me a very long time to ride this! (for the record, everyone went under 30 minutes) This was taking FOREVER! Sweat was pouring down my face and I was so happy I took off all those extra clothes. It was so quiet out there, I could hear myself breathing loudly with each pedal stroke. It was extremely difficult not to get up out of the saddle, but I didn't want to further damage the hamstring.

Finally, there was a mark on the road indicating that I had just 2K left. What felt like a half our later was a 1K mark. Jeez, how much further is 1K? Then I could hear a cow bell and Robbie yelling and cheering people to the finish. Sounded like it was just around the corner. Up, up and yet further up the road was going. There were hairpin turns and I could hear the voices, but come ON ALREADY, where ARE THESE GUYS!?? How much further? Just as the road began to get steeper, I made another turn and I could see Robbie Ventura standing in the middle of the road. He would start yelling the names of the cyclists as they got close to the end.

The finish was rather uneventful because it ended on a slight uphill, so no one came flying through. There was a small collection of cyclists about 200 yards up the road discussing the ride and comparing wattage. I slowly rode past them to begin the descent. We were warned the night before that the descent was fast and dangerous. The road was rough. There were many potholes and lots of shade on the road so, in many cases, you couldn't see the pothole until you were just about to ride through it. They say not to be tense as you ride down, but that was near impossible. My hands were on the brakes almost the entire descent. Any time I took one hand off, just to stop it from cramping, I picked up too much speed, got scared and had to put my hand back on the brakes again. Many of the more experienced cyclists flew right past me, sometimes scaring the crap out of me not just because they were going so fast, but they came a little too close.

My hands ached by the time I got to the bottom. The SAG vehicles were down there waiting for us so I put my extra water bottle back in, grabbed something to eat and went back to my bike and waited for the rest of the group to join us. We were to finish with an easy ride home which I didn't find so easy. The group took several stops along the way to let everyone catch up. It was now pretty warm outside and the scenery was beautiful. All of us were happy to be outside on our bikes!

As soon as we got back to the hotel, I dropped my bike on the designated rack. I had just 10 minutes to go up to my room, put my swimsuit on and jump in the van for the swim workout. It was now 12:45pm. The swim was crazy. There were about 20 of us packed into 3 lanes. I ended up getting into a lane that was a little too fast for me, but it felt nice to try and stretch out after that tough ride. When the swim was over, we weren't even given enough time to shower and we were being hustled back into the van.

Back at the hotel, I got out of one van and into another to be carted over to my massage. (I will write a whole other entry on the massage!!) A group of us got our massages and got back to the hotel. It was now after 4pm - the cut off time for entering all our ride information!! I quickly logged in and uploaded my info from the day.

I then washed all the cycling clothes I had worn that day and took a quick shower. Then it was time for dinner. The day flew by and there was absolutely no down-time. I hoped the rest of the camp wasn't going to be quite as hectic. The dinner was in the same room as the first night, again, buffet style. There was a re-cap of the day, a small presentation and then an overview of the next day's events. I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the dinner/meeting. We had a brutal day in store for us and I fell asleep the instant my head hit the pillow.

Ride to Red Rock

So after Steelhead, we had planned a quick getaway to Las Vegas. I've been to Las Vegas many times, but I've never really ventured off the strip very much. Over to the Hard Rock once, down to the Stratosphere once, but I've really spent most of my time up and down the "main" strip. This time, however, I was given a tip about doing a bike ride to Red Rock Canyon.

It was the night before Steelhead and Chuck mentioned it at dinner. I grabbed my phone and ran out of the restaurant to call my brother. He was leaving for Vegas the next day and I wanted to be sure he packed his bike stuff. It must've been 7pm and he was getting on a 6:30am flight the next day. I was lucky enough to get a hold of him, he said it sounded great, he'd pack his stuff.

We called to make reservations the day we got to Vegas. It was me and 3 guys over 6'3" and they sounded a little concerned that they weren't going to have 3 bikes large enough! I also asked that they put on an extra water bottle cage. Vegas was pretty hot and we didn't bring camelbacks or anything to carry fluids. The woman on the phone told me that we should not be drinking alcohol today or tonight (we were already several rounds in at Harrah's Carnival Court when I made the reservation). We were to meet at the Mirage at 8am.

I came back and announced to the group that we were booked. We celebrated by ordering another round of alcoholic beverages. I was concerned about everyone going out that night and trying to get up on time.

Rob, the guy from the bike store, picked us up and drove us out to the start of the ride. We put on my pedals I had brought from home (thanks to a tip from Chuck), made some small adjustments to everyone's bike for fit and we were off! This was an unguided ride, meaning it was just us. We got dropped off and we were free to do our own thing at our own pace. I was assured we wouldn't get lost and I hoped Rob was right!


I had to make a quick pit stop before we got started so we rode up to the visitor's center. And I do mean up! The center wasn't more than maybe 1000 yards away, but I was already breathing heavy before I got there! I went to the Women's restroom....locked. Uh oh. Not exactly any forest or bushes out there that you can do your business and be unseen (not that I'd do that anyway) and for a second I thought I'd have to do the whole ride with a bladder that was about to explode. Thankfully, the one of the other guys had to go, so we rode over to another building and found some open restrooms. Whew. That would have been a very uncomfortable ride!

Everyone was fresh and ready to go, albeit a little hung over and I'd say a little dehydrated. Up, up, up the road went. By the time we reached the mile point, I was already wondering if this was going to be fun for everyone, particularly the Saint. This was more difficult than I thought. We stopped at the first few "scenic points" so I could take some pictures and we could catch our breath and recoup. It was beautiful. And so very, very quiet. There was the occassional car with tourists inside, but this was a very desolate area. We joked about how there were probably bodies buried out here in the desert, a la "Casino".

We continued to go uphill for the next, I don't know 8-9 miles? Sweat was pouring off all our faces and we wondered why we were doing this to ourselves. I kept reminding everyone to drink. Although it was hot out there, the humidity was rather low so it didn't make you very thirsty. The bottles of water they gave us were also warm, which was a bit of a bummer.

Finally, we were at the highest point, though none of us knew it yet. We only knew it when we stopped for a quick break to drink, then headed back on to the road. We started flying down the road at high speeds, high enough to make me feather the brakes a bit to slow down. There was some gravel on some of the turns. Everyone had smiles on their faces when we reached the road that would dump us back into town. We stopped again for a quick regroup, drink of water, laughed and talked about how fun the downhill was, then we were on our way home.

The next stretch was on some newly paved asphalt. It was a great, smooth ride, although now we were riding next to traffic. There was sufficient shoulder to make it rather safe. This section seemed mostly flat, with a few gradual uphills going over a bridge (I think). But the heartrates remained low and as we rode back into town, it was all downhill. In fact, I don't remember ever riding so long where I didn't have to take a pedal stroke. I only needed to pedal a few strokes to get started after we had to stop at traffic lights. Oh, and this street had a bike lane almost all the way down. As soon as the bike lane disappeared, we jumped on the sidewalks. I didn't think it would be very safe to ride on that road without a bike lane and we were pretty close to being back at the bike store.

Everyone had a great time. For me, it was the highlight of the trip. If I could have changed anything, I would've made the ride longer. I also think I'd prepare my riding partners that the first half of the ride is TOUGH. Very tough! But it's worth it. We got back to the hotel, cleaned up and met again back at Harrah's Carnival Court to celebrate with a few cocktails!