Da Hurt



Lord knows I’ve suffered.  I ran an Ironman marathon on a broken femur – very nearly ended up with a hip replacement over that – I carried on a conversation with my dead father at 26,700 feet on Manaslu, but I do believe that bicycle racing has taken me to a new level of sufferage (I don’t think that’s a word, but I like it so I’ll keep it).

High school wrestling might have demanded an equal amount of suffering had I been driven or disciplined enough to find that dark space, but alas I wasn’t, and consequently here I am paying the price of a misspent youth – but that’s another story.



Confused at 26,000 feet

Most forms of adult racing – road running (10K, marathon, etc.), trail running, triathlon, and the like are what I would classify as “run your own race,” style events.  Now obviously if you are running the Olympic trials in marathon or pushing past someone in your age group in order to qualify for Kona all bets are off, but for the most part this style of racing is go as fast as you can and leave it at that.  Bicycle racing has very little to do with how fast you can go and very much to do with how fast everyone else is going.

Gimping across the line at IM Canada

I can’t think of another racing event that requires every competitor to stick together.  If you get dropped off the back of a bicycle road race, with the exception of a minor miracle, you’re done, you have no chance of winning, or even placing.  Imagine running a 10K road race where everyone has to stick together: go off the back and you’re pulled from the race.  Think of all the tactics that would now come into play.  For example a fast sprinter but a weak distance runner might sprint for a mile attempting to shell as many strong distance runners off the back as possible: anyone who can’t hold a sub five minute mile pace, if only for a mile, is out.  This is exactly the case in bike racing.

This is where the suffer part comes in.  During a bicycle road race riders launch attacks.  Most of these attacks are strategic, in other words a good strong rider will attack when many, if not all, of his fellow racers are totally gassed, at the top of a hill for instance.  My past two road races have incorporated big hills and at the crest of the hill, just when I’m about to catch my breath the fast riders take off.  At the point of maximum suffering I have to find that little bit more strength to enable me to go with the group.  The kicker on all this is if you fall off the back of the group you are now chasing the pack, sometimes all by yourself.  So now you’re working even harder than the guys sitting in the group who can simply roll along with the strength of the pack: suffer now in order to avoid suffering later.

During the course of a typical road race you are going to experience two maybe three occasions where you have to push yourself beyond what you ordinarily thought was possible, you have to suffer more than you previously thought you could.  In my lifetime I’ve experienced nothing like it.

The Edge of Possibility

This is what it's all about

So I won the lottery and got into the Leadville 100 mile mountain bike race.  The race works like this: finish in nine hours and get a big belt buckle, finish in twelve and get a small belt buckle, go over twelve hours and you get a fat DNF.  Twelve hours for a 100 mile effort on a mountain bike at altitude (+10,000 ft) is a big ask, sub nine hours – that’s the edge of possibility.

I would equate a sub nine hour performance at Leadville to a sub three hour marathon or a sub ten hour Ironman – just on the right side of possible for the mortal athlete.  So my question is: is it reasonable for a forty eight year old man with low to moderate technical mountain biking skills to set an 8:59:59 goal for Leadville.  No it’s probably not reasonable, but I’ll do it anyway.

It will take some serious effort for me to simply finish the race in the allotted twelve hours much less nine, so I’m going to have to develop an equally serious preparation program.  I see preparation as a five pronged effort: fitness, body weight, technical skills development, acclimatization and maintenance of good health.

Watch the blog as I brainstorm over each of these “five fingers” of my training program.  Feel free to comment as I’ll need all the help I can get.

Rain

After a beautiful run of spring weather the rain has returned to Seattle

Hard Advice

"You can't find enlightenment on a full stomach"

-Doug Scott (mountaineering hard man)

Doug Scott descending the Ogre with two broken legs

Heaven on Earth

As I was driving along listening to a radio story about gay marriage I had a sort of epiphany: there are two kinds of people in this world: those who believe heaven comes later and those who believe that heaven is right here and now.  Personally I view life here on mother earth as heaven and that every day is a precious gift not to be wasted.

If someone feels like their life is best spent with a partner of the same sex, who am I to say otherwise.   Life is short and we all deserve some sort of happiness.  This is where the life is a prerequisite for heaven versus life is heaven points of view diverge.  A proponent of the former would argue “hey my book says that homosexual behavior is wrong so keep that stuff to yourself, suffer through this earthly life and your reward will be in heaven,” whereas a subscriber to the later would say “all that we know for certain is the here and now so make the most of every day – live the life that makes you happy.”

Some would argue that the second approach is a recipe for hedonism, but I would argue the opposite: once you begin to view life as a precious gift you begin to realize that everybody has received the same gift and that everyone’s gift needs respect.  Recognizing life as a gift breeds compassion.  Viewing heaven as a reward, on the other hand, provides the powerful with a mechanism to exploit the weak – march a bunch of kids off to war, strap a bomb vest onto some teenager, exploit some child – what the hell they get to go to heaven when it’s all over.  No thanks.  Not for me.

Everyone deserves some kind of happiness and if happiness involves a same sex partner, who cares – certainly not me.

New Boots

I've been out looking for a good compliment to the new double-knee cotton twill everyday pants that you can wear on a bicycle pants that I introduced at the Seattle Bike Expo last weekend and I think I've found the fit.

I've been digging the crepe-soled moc toed work boot for decades.  Back in the eighties I had a pair when I worked construction - I think I got them at Montgomery Wards - I gave them to my roommate after the county required us to wear steel-toed boots.  I try to buy American whenever possible and nearly everyone knows that Red Wing makes a super sweet version of this style, but at $225 I had a hard time jumping in.

Thankfully I just found Thorogood Boots.  At $140 the cost of entry isn't too crazy.  I found mine at Whistle Workwear, I had to get EE's in order to walk out of the store with a shoe box in hand, they are a little wide but that's the price you pay for impatience.

The boots are comfortable and sturdy and I think that they are going to break in well.  I think that they might work well for dry weather hunting, perhaps the crepe sole will be a little quieter than the clunky logger boots that I traditionally wear out in the field.  The Thorogood's go well a pant with a little wider cuff.  My double knee twill pants (watch www.greenliteheavyindustries.com for the DK Pant) have an eight inch cuff and that seems to work perfectly.

2013 Bike Expo

Spent the weekend at the Seattle Bike Expo, this was my first experience actually getting out there and selling product.  I really worked hard on making a nice booth; something that showed I’m willing to go the extra mile.  I think that the work paid off.

My buddy Joe came down to help me man the booth, I was on my own for a little while Sunday afternoon and I’m telling you it sure is good having a friendly face to talk to and to have someone manning the battle stations while you rush off to the bathroom – once again too much coffee.  Joe is a great salesman and I learned a lot just watching how he interacted with the customers.  He was cool, enthusiastic and confident without being pushy.

Saturday was a long day: 9-6; we arrived at 7:30 and so Joe and I were on our feet for eleven plus hours.  Sunday was 10-4, given that we’d sprung forward the night before I was happy for the late start.  By the time four o-clock rolled around I was done – physically and mentally.

My son helped out Sunday afternoon and he was awesome.  I certainly wouldn’t have been out there talking to customers when I was fifteen.  I would have been hiding out somewhere no doubt about that.

All in all it was a great experience: made some sales, got some awesome feedback, meet some extremely cool people.  This doing your own business thing is a real rollercoaster: one minute you’re totally stoked that you did the right thing, the next minute you’re head in hand asking “what the hell was I thinking?”  Right now I’m in the totally stoked mode.