Been on the run a bit lately and finally settling down for a few rest days. thought I would catch you fellow degenerates up on my travels.
couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend a week at the Olympic training center in Colorado springs for a 7 day race training clinic.
I showed up at Pesqueebs airport but nobody was around. I think the pilot told me to turn off the lights when I left.
Luckily my bikes showed up (slightly molested by TSA) undamaged, and was greeted by the training center chariot.
I arrived at the OTC campus and was amazed they had staff on hand that wisked my bike box and bags to my room and and the professional level of the whole staff on scene.
I abruptly made myself known and created a stir
The campus was amazing and personally I was blown away by how the athletes were treated.
First item was to find the chow hall
Every single meal prepared by the OTC staff was un frigging believable! I dont think I have ever eaten so good in such a institutional style.
The whole week was a surprising wake up to all of the things I was taught and introduced to. I came with a fairly open mind but still didnt think there would be much to learn. I was wrong........
we did a few days on the track working on pursuits and 1k times and track tactics and then would go in a grass field and do bike handling skills and some other close contact racing skills. it was a blast. I have never fallen off a road bike so much.
We did alot of rides off campus and had some climbing clinics up gold camp road with other Olympic athletes and did some work out at garden of the gods. really cool place by the way
in all I was very impressed with the whole week. it took a while to get used to the elevation but I settled in just about the time I was getting ready to leave. It was also good to train with two other team mates who will be racing with me during the RAAM. but I would say the best part of the whole week was the day of descending instruction.
once I flew back I had to drive to tahoe for an event I was a part of so I decided to load the truck and make a good couple weeks out of it and call it Le' tour de torture, and get some more high elevation training in. So I loaded the truck with the bikes, some fishing gear and the usual road trip goods and hit it.
I had just did a handful of work on the truck in order to better my milage. I ended up gutting the stock exhaust, converter and muffler and went true dual 6 inch all the way back from the new high flow down pipe and did a new intercooler, cold air induction and new map and tuner for the ecm and delted the emissions, DPF and all the EGR stuff. I was pretty excited to see what she could do with another 110 horses and better milage, so I stomped on it going up the grapevine.
kaboom! I thought I blew a turbo, the blast was so loud every vehicle around me swerved. tons of black smoke out the pipes and no power......crap.
I got under the hood only to be blessed with a simple blown intercooler boot.
20 minutes later I was on the road again.
I serve on a board of directors for the fregoso outdoor foundation. it is basically a small non profit group for wounded vets to get them outside in outdoor sporting activites, sort of like the wounded warrior project but very small and personal. we ended up raising a ton of money for the foundation and had a great turnout. I was in rough shape the next morning.
I was also accosted by two cougars.....save that story for later
So now I was free to roam on the tour de torture. while I scanned my maps and looked for the highest elevation rides and summits in the sierra nevadas I smashed out a couple metric century rides on the American river bike parkway. Pretty cool two lane bike path that goes from old Sacramento up to Folsom lake. great people watching too!
Then I was off to lake tahoe. I spent a couple days in town and did two metric century ride around the lake itself all above 6,000 feet and then dug up the nerve to do the "death ride"
wow, was that a chore. I thin Ebbets pass was by far the most insane, I was reading 24% climbs on a few of the switchbacks and the traffic was stupid. but it was one hell of a ride.
I ended up taking a dip on the way up to the summit.....and yes it was cold as chit
this is a view on the descent of ebbets pass looking into the valley.
I then ended up in the markleeville hotsprings for a good soak.........remind me about that story later as well
In all the death ride was a total of 123 miles with 15,890 feet of climbing on the three major summit passes
Monitor Pass (8,314')
Ebbetts Pass (8,730')
Carson Pass (8,573')
I finished it (unsupported) in 11 hours
I took a rest day and vegged out in south lake and watched the eclipse on the beach and then set out for some more insanity for stage 6 of the tour de torture
I ended up riding Tioga pass from US395 to the guard and shack and a little beyond to olmstead point and back up and down. The top of the pass is just shy of 10,000 feet and is not a ride for the faint of heart. Climbing that SOB is pure hell, a constant grade with no chance of a flat spot or taper, plus it was hot as hell. I stopped at the half way point to snap a shot.
I didnt see one other cyclist the whole day. cresting over the top and down into yosemite was prety cool an catching a glimpse of half dome was intriguing but I knew the farther down I went the longer I would have to climb. I got back to the summit and started to descend. this was by far the best part of the whole trip. I ended up hitting 67 on the way down and it felt like glass, never touched the brakes once and the road surface was smooth and graceful. I passed every vehicle on the way down like they were standing still.
So now I am all amped up and back in the truck hauling arse to mammoth to get some grub and a cocktail when this happens.
Long story short.....purple heart plates + Iraq story + race across america story = verbal warning, handshake and a job offer.
So I get to mammoth ride the bottom of the mountain single track up and back into town get some grub and hit the road again.
I busted out the 29er here and there along the way but just had a good time jamming out on the road trip.
and by the way, my diesel mods have payed off, take that jimmydean and mooshoo
In all I rode 931 miles and Climbed 36,000 vertical feet all above 6,000 feet in elevation, burnt 19k calories, drove 2100 miles, consumed one gallon tub of perpetuem, 29 ounces of hammer gel, one gallon tub of recoverite, one case of muscle milk, two cases of clif bars, two boxes of shot blocks, three tubes, one tire one chain and a intercooler boot.
I can wait for the RAAM madness to begin! 21 days away!
couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend a week at the Olympic training center in Colorado springs for a 7 day race training clinic.
I showed up at Pesqueebs airport but nobody was around. I think the pilot told me to turn off the lights when I left.
Luckily my bikes showed up (slightly molested by TSA) undamaged, and was greeted by the training center chariot.
I arrived at the OTC campus and was amazed they had staff on hand that wisked my bike box and bags to my room and and the professional level of the whole staff on scene.
I abruptly made myself known and created a stir
The campus was amazing and personally I was blown away by how the athletes were treated.
First item was to find the chow hall
Every single meal prepared by the OTC staff was un frigging believable! I dont think I have ever eaten so good in such a institutional style.
The whole week was a surprising wake up to all of the things I was taught and introduced to. I came with a fairly open mind but still didnt think there would be much to learn. I was wrong........
we did a few days on the track working on pursuits and 1k times and track tactics and then would go in a grass field and do bike handling skills and some other close contact racing skills. it was a blast. I have never fallen off a road bike so much.
We did alot of rides off campus and had some climbing clinics up gold camp road with other Olympic athletes and did some work out at garden of the gods. really cool place by the way
in all I was very impressed with the whole week. it took a while to get used to the elevation but I settled in just about the time I was getting ready to leave. It was also good to train with two other team mates who will be racing with me during the RAAM. but I would say the best part of the whole week was the day of descending instruction.
once I flew back I had to drive to tahoe for an event I was a part of so I decided to load the truck and make a good couple weeks out of it and call it Le' tour de torture, and get some more high elevation training in. So I loaded the truck with the bikes, some fishing gear and the usual road trip goods and hit it.
I had just did a handful of work on the truck in order to better my milage. I ended up gutting the stock exhaust, converter and muffler and went true dual 6 inch all the way back from the new high flow down pipe and did a new intercooler, cold air induction and new map and tuner for the ecm and delted the emissions, DPF and all the EGR stuff. I was pretty excited to see what she could do with another 110 horses and better milage, so I stomped on it going up the grapevine.
kaboom! I thought I blew a turbo, the blast was so loud every vehicle around me swerved. tons of black smoke out the pipes and no power......crap.
I got under the hood only to be blessed with a simple blown intercooler boot.
20 minutes later I was on the road again.
I serve on a board of directors for the fregoso outdoor foundation. it is basically a small non profit group for wounded vets to get them outside in outdoor sporting activites, sort of like the wounded warrior project but very small and personal. we ended up raising a ton of money for the foundation and had a great turnout. I was in rough shape the next morning.
I was also accosted by two cougars.....save that story for later
So now I was free to roam on the tour de torture. while I scanned my maps and looked for the highest elevation rides and summits in the sierra nevadas I smashed out a couple metric century rides on the American river bike parkway. Pretty cool two lane bike path that goes from old Sacramento up to Folsom lake. great people watching too!
Then I was off to lake tahoe. I spent a couple days in town and did two metric century ride around the lake itself all above 6,000 feet and then dug up the nerve to do the "death ride"
wow, was that a chore. I thin Ebbets pass was by far the most insane, I was reading 24% climbs on a few of the switchbacks and the traffic was stupid. but it was one hell of a ride.
I ended up taking a dip on the way up to the summit.....and yes it was cold as chit
this is a view on the descent of ebbets pass looking into the valley.
I then ended up in the markleeville hotsprings for a good soak.........remind me about that story later as well
In all the death ride was a total of 123 miles with 15,890 feet of climbing on the three major summit passes
Monitor Pass (8,314')
Ebbetts Pass (8,730')
Carson Pass (8,573')
I finished it (unsupported) in 11 hours
I took a rest day and vegged out in south lake and watched the eclipse on the beach and then set out for some more insanity for stage 6 of the tour de torture
I ended up riding Tioga pass from US395 to the guard and shack and a little beyond to olmstead point and back up and down. The top of the pass is just shy of 10,000 feet and is not a ride for the faint of heart. Climbing that SOB is pure hell, a constant grade with no chance of a flat spot or taper, plus it was hot as hell. I stopped at the half way point to snap a shot.
I didnt see one other cyclist the whole day. cresting over the top and down into yosemite was prety cool an catching a glimpse of half dome was intriguing but I knew the farther down I went the longer I would have to climb. I got back to the summit and started to descend. this was by far the best part of the whole trip. I ended up hitting 67 on the way down and it felt like glass, never touched the brakes once and the road surface was smooth and graceful. I passed every vehicle on the way down like they were standing still.
So now I am all amped up and back in the truck hauling arse to mammoth to get some grub and a cocktail when this happens.
Long story short.....purple heart plates + Iraq story + race across america story = verbal warning, handshake and a job offer.
So I get to mammoth ride the bottom of the mountain single track up and back into town get some grub and hit the road again.
I busted out the 29er here and there along the way but just had a good time jamming out on the road trip.
and by the way, my diesel mods have payed off, take that jimmydean and mooshoo
In all I rode 931 miles and Climbed 36,000 vertical feet all above 6,000 feet in elevation, burnt 19k calories, drove 2100 miles, consumed one gallon tub of perpetuem, 29 ounces of hammer gel, one gallon tub of recoverite, one case of muscle milk, two cases of clif bars, two boxes of shot blocks, three tubes, one tire one chain and a intercooler boot.
I can wait for the RAAM madness to begin! 21 days away!
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