2017 Ambassador Line Up

The dust has settled the acceptance (and rejection) letters opened and this is my Ambassador line up for 2017. I am fortunate enough to have many to continue their support from both 2016 and 2015. I hope it’s testament to their belief in me as much as it is to my belief in the products I represent! So in no particular order;

Headsweats; I love their products, I initially joined their team as a runner and I have used them exclusively for all my triathlons. Now I wear them under my helmet. They keep the sun off my head and the sweat out my eyes! Use Quadrathon25 at checkout for 25% off your order.

3T Cycling; 3T make some of the sexist and technologically advanced products in the cycling world. I have ridden with their components since 2010 and make a point of changing out any OEM or third party parts on any of my bikes for 3T parts.

Pactimo; in my opinion this is the best cycling clothing on the planet. I wore their Pro Ascent kit for every training and race last year. Including my Everesting ride where I wore the same bibs and jersey for over 24 hours with chamois cream and without issue! This is my third year with Pactimo. Use BA15STU for 30% off your first order.

SkratchLabs; this is the third year of working with Skratch. I have switched over to exclusively using their hydration products. Additionally I now fuel pretty much 100% by real food and portables. I’ll be going back to regularly posting recipes so stay tuned.

Thread+Spoke; if you ever see me in a Tshirt it’s a Thread+Spoke one! They make the best cycling casual wear.  Limited runs of of the coolest niche designer cycling focused Tshirts. Use Race20 for 20% off of order $45 or more.

So that’s it, now on with the year!

The Magnificent Seven!

While a lot of my training is spent on the trainer those days that I do ride outside I have a short list of things I never leave home without. This goes beyond that basics of some cash, a phone and a spare tube. None of them are super expensive or technical but from a lot of experience I have found that they are all essential to have.

RoadID App; Well to use this you do need a phone. It’s provides a "follow me" e-breadcrumb trail that you send to someone so they know where you are. Over several iterations the functionality has improved but at its basic level it provide telephone based GPS accuracy on your location. It works every time.

Pedros Tire Lever; just one, you only need one. These simply are the best levers on the market. They do not break and they do not scratch. They come in nice bright colors although as a traditionalist I choose the old school Pedros yellow every time!

 

Pump; I have an older Lezyne Carbon Drive Mini Pump. It fits in my jersey pocket easily, can pump up to 90lbs and weighs just one pound. I particularly like the hose attachment (Presta and Schrader) this avoids snapping off your valve when you’re fumbling with fitting it on.

Fly 6 and Fly 12 Camera/Lights; I pretty much always rode with a red blinky and sometimes a white one so adding these to my list of Go-To items was a no brainer. I only got them in September but so far I love them and I recently backed their Kickstart Campaign for a dedicated Duo Mount which will mount the Fly 12 with my Garmin. With the uptick in accidents and deliberate aggressive motorist/cyclist interactions the ability to capture things on camera brings a welcome security blanket in case something untoward should happen. A longer post on these will follow.
 

aLoksaks; perfect for your change, phone, credit cards and other little bits, it keeps them secure and dry. I use the one that came free from Skratch Labs when I purchased a sticker pack from them. This has to be one of the best freebies out there!

Nitrile Gloves; keep your hands, gloves and kit clean. Seriously there are a penny a pair and have saved my kit several times on the roadside!

 

Lipstick charger and 3” iPhone cable; they weigh nothing and can really save you in a pinch. Just keep them together and charged and you’re good to go. Personally I use Anker products, I lucked onto them through Amazon and found them to be reliable and road tough. Yes, I have dropped it a couple of times!

So, what are your Magnificent Seven?

2016 Ambassadorships

With March just round the corner, spring rapidly approaching and the race season underway I have pretty much locked down my Ambassadorships for the year.

Unless you’re new to the blog you will have noticed that there is a major shift and focus on cycling for the foreseeable future. I feel very fortunate that my blog has been the vehicle for many of these. Having blogged for over 9 years now I have a solid track record on Social Media. Of course the Social Media landscape has significantly changed in the last 9 years and to that end I am pretty active on Twitter and very active on InstagramInstagram.

So without further ado here are the companies that have invested in me and that I have invested in for the next year.

SkratchLabs; this is the second year of working with Skratch. I have switched over to exclusively using their hydration products. Additionally I now fueled pretty much 100% by real food and portables. I’ll be going back to regularly posting recipes so stay tuned.

TrainerRoad; I have been using TR since 2011 and this is the third year as an Ambassador. I have been using TR significantly more in recent years as my cycling is upped and I approaching my 600th ride with them. It’s a great tool, in fact it’s the best tool in my mind for structured cycling training. Interested in using it, hit me up for a 1 month free code.

Headsweats; I love their products, I initially joined their team as a runner and I have used them exclusively for all my triathlons. Now I wear them under my helmet. They keep the sun off my head and the sweat out my eyes! Use Quadrathon25 at checkout for a discount.

Pactimo; in my opinion this is the best cycling clothing on the planet. I wore their Pro Ascent kit for every training and race last year. Including my Everesting ride where I wore the same bibs and jersey for over 24 hours with chamois cream and without issue! This is my second year with Pactimo. I’ll have a discount code coming up soon! They are still taking applications for this year through to February 29th.

Garmin; I continue the Ambassador relationship with Garmin for the second year. I feel very fortunate to be one of a very small select group of Ambassadors in the US. I have been using Garmin products since 2007 and now I don’t ride, run or swim without wearing or having a Garmin device tracking me!

3T Cycling; new for 2016. 3T make some of the sexist and technologically advanced products in the cycling world. I have ridden with their components (bars, stem and post) since 2010 and make a point of changing out any OEM or third party parts on any of my bikes for 3T parts. Specifically I am an Ambassador for their new Orbis II wheelset which are as fast as they are sexy!

I have a few other irons in the fire but as of this post these are the mainstays for this year.

Everesting Equipment List

This is a list post. It’s all the equipment list that I used for my Everesting ride, if you have any questions leave a comment below and I will do my best to answer.

Bike; a 2010 Cervelo R3, the R3 is their “comfort” bike, think Paris-Roubaix rather than Tour de France. The bike comes pretty well speced with a full Shimano Ultegra groupset and 3T cockpit and seat post. I have had this bike since new and other than replacing things that have worn out, cassettes, chain, bar tape I have hardly touched it in terms of upgrades. I had originally switched out the Fi`zi:k stock saddle for a Selle Italia model. This year that was replaced with an ISM Prologue saddle. I was riding in Speedplay pedals but switched these out for Garmin Vector 2s in September.

Drivetrain; for this ride I swapped out the 11-25 cassette for a 12-30, I also put on a Compact (50/34) Chainset, this change meant a shorter chain.

Wheels; after some research and before receiving my OrbisII wheels from 3T I opted for Shimano DuraAce 9000 C24s, lightweight and stiff. I was obviously more interested in the weight. Tire wise I had Continental Grand Prix 4000 IIS (23mm). Inner tubes were Avenir Lite 700x23x48

Lights and Power; I was fortunate enough that Garmin also sent me a Varia Light set. I was really impressed with these. I supplemented these with two Vomlite Cree lights on the front and a Magnus Innovation Bold II rear light. I had no expectation of any of these lasting through two nights. The Vomlites needed mains power so Becca charged these when she went home during the day, the Garmin and Bold lights were USB chargeable so they were charged in Base camp. I used an Anker PowerCore 10400 to charge my Garmin Edge 810 on the fly

Data Measurement; I mentioned I used my Garmin Edge 810, I recharged it once during the ride. I also had on my Garmin Fenix3, this was a backup. Like this 810 I charged it once during the ride and when I saw that the 810 would be good through to the end then I ignored it. It captured everything except the last couple of hours.

Clothing and Shoes; it was cold and it was only during the middle of the day that I was able to get the “warmers” off and get down to a Jersey, Vest and short fingered gloves, other than that I wore pretty much everything all the time! From the bottom up:

• Bontrager RXL Shoes
• Pactimo Alpine Toe Covers
• Defeet Socks
• Pearl Izumi leg warmers
• Pactimo Ascent Pro Bibs
• Pactimo Zero Weight Base Layer
• Pactimo 2.0 Jersey
• Pactimo Breckenridge Vest
• Pactimo Breckenridge Jacket
• Pactimo Cascade Jacket
• Pearl Izumi Arm Warmers
• Pearl Izumi Cyclone Gel Gloves (long fingered)
• Castelli S Uno Gloves (short fingered)
• Pactimo Neck Gaiter
• Pactimo Cap
• Pearl Izumi ear warmers
• Headsweats Skull Cap
• Louis Garneau Course Helmet

Miscellaneous;

• Oakley Fast Jacket glasses during the day and Perfomance Bike clear glasses at night
• TransIt saddle bag with spares
• Camelbak 21oz Podium Insulated bottle
• Garmin Edge/Varia mount
• Garmin GSC10 cadence monitor
• Serfas Bento Box to hold the Anker power

Food/Nutrition; Much of my food was from the Skratch Portables book. Becca cooked up a storm in the kitchen with baked eggs, French Toast muffins and Mushroom Swiss Fritata. Becca also made up Skratch Raspberry Bars. beyond that I was also stocked with Lara Bars, Chips and Bananas. Fluid-wise I lived on warm Skratch Apple and Cinnamon, I would get through a bottle roughly every hour. This was supplemented with Hot Chocolate, Mexican (real sugar) coke, chicken noodle soup and good old coffee!

With the exception of some of the cold weather gear everything had been tested in the months prior. The wheels/tires were used for the Westlake Century and wheels and drivetrain was used for the Mike Nosco Memoroal Ride. The lights (except the Varia) were used at 12 Hours of Temecula.  

So as I said this is list post and this is everything I can remember.

Skratch Recipe of the Week; Sweet Cream Grits

Ingredients

• 4 cups water
• 2 cups uncooked grits
• 3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons raw sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Cream of Wheat is a great alternative to grits, but it does contain gluten

Method

• Lightly coat a muffin tin or ramekins with nonstick cooking spray
• Bring water with a dash of salt to a boil in a saucepan over high heat
• Add grits, stirring frequently for 3– 4 minutes
• Remove from heat to add egg yolks
• Return to heat and simmer on low until mixture thickens, then stir in raw sugar and vanilla
• Pour cooked grits into muffin cups or ramekins and let set for 10– 15 minutes to firm up
• TIP Serve up your grits like crème brûlée: top with additional raw sugar and place under the broiler until the sugar turns brown. Let cool before handling, this makes them uber yummy!

 

They are roughly 110 calories each! Be careful they are a little slippery and can be easily dropped when on the bike! That will make you sad…and hungry!

Skratch Cookies (Take 2)

I reviewed these back in April, you can read my review here. Skratch have a new take on them, check out their latest video.

Standby to crush your nuts!

Skratch Labs Recipe of the Week; Peaches and Coconut Rice Cakes

Another easy recipe, the truth is they are all pretty simple and that’s one of the joys of them!

Ingredients

• 2 cups uncooked sticky rice
• 3 cups water
• 1 teaspoon coarse cane sugar
• ½ cup peeled peaches (canned/tinned or fresh)
• ½ canned coconut milk
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon coarse salt

Method

• Heat oven to 350f
• Combine the water and rice in a rice cooker with a dash of salt and let cook
• While the rice is cooking mince the remaining ingredients, (I mis-read this and simply chopped up the peaches)
• Lightly coat a backing sheet with nonstick cooking spray or use parchment paper
• When the rice has finished cooking mix with other ingredients
• Line a small bowl with plastic wrap and press rice into shape. From experience you can press pretty hard was you want it to stick together and keep its shape
• Remove from plastic and place on baking sheet
• Bake for 10 – 15 minutes
• Let cool and wrap

Chopping the peaches meant there was really not enough peach spread through the mix and also that it was ultimately quite delicate. Next time I will definitely make sure I mince them. That said the taste was great, very light coconut with a sweet hint of peach!

Over to you!

Skratch Labs Recipe of the Week; Raspberry & Chocolate Rice Cakes

I’ve missed a week or two but this is a good one to catch up with!

Ingredients;

• 3 cups uncooked sticky rice
• 4.5 cups water
• 0.75 cup canned coconut milk (this is the canned version not the one you have on cereal)
• Juice of one lemon (or other citrus fruit)
• 1.5 teaspoons of coarse salt or to taste
• 6 ounces semi sweet choc chips
• 1 pint raspberries

Method;

• Combine rice, water, dash of salt in rice cooker and let cook
• When the rice is finished cooking transfer it to a large bowl and add the coconut milk. Begin adding the sugar. It should taste slightly sweet to you palate.
• Add the lemon juice to give it some zing
• Add the salt to taste
• Once the rice has mostly cooled, spread half across a 9” x 12” baking pan and press flat, sprinkle in the Raspberries and Choc chips. Gently press the remaining rice onto the berries to create second layer
• Let it set up, cut and wrap

I have made this a couple of times now and here are some thoughts.

• Don’t overdo the coconut milk otherwise it never sets
• Use whole coconut milk not “Lite”
• Putting in the fridge for 30 minutes makes it easier to set and cut
• Don’t make the rice layers too thick
• Choc Chips are optional, it’s actually sweet and sharp enough without them

Ok your go…

Skratch Labs Recipe of the Week; Skratch Cookie Mix

This is not so much a defined recipe but more of a base set of ingredients that you can add to to create your favorite cookies or bars!

Ingredients;

• Skratch Cookie Mix
• 1 egg
• 1 stick of butter
• Optional…anything! That said I used fresh raspberries in a mid layer

Method;

• Preheat oven to 350f
• Mix the ingredients until they form a ball. I started with a hand mixer and ended up using my hands
• Halve the mix and spread evenly across a 9” square dish, lined with Parchment Paper for easy removal
• Throw in the raspberries and spread evenly, don’t squash! 
• Add the second half of the mix, I actually rolled this out using Parchment Paper and rolling pin so I didn’t squash the raspberries
• Cook for about 30 minutes, until knife comes out clean, I ended up under-cooking these a little but the end result is a super yummy sweet (and a little salty) gooey cookie!
• Wait till cool, cut into squares and wrap

Obviously unlike other recipes the key ingredient here is the Cookie mix. Don’t panic! You can buy this directly from Skratch themselves, you can buy it over Amazon and you should be able to find it in local stores (think running/biking) rather than grocery.

The joy of this is that you can make it pretty much what you want it to be. Don’t like raspberries but prefer chocolate chip…no problem, howabout date and walnut; you betcha, cherry and coconut; easy peasy, green peas…well maybe not but they are a great source of protein! Anyway you get it…pretty much the sky is the limit!

Here is Chef Lentine showing you how it’s done…

Do these work? Can you eat cookies and run…well yes you can! I ran 18 miles at the weekend fueled on these and with French Toast Bars (recipe to follow) no problem!

So now over to you…your turn!

Santa Barbara Nine Trails 35 Mile Run

I am little late in writing this report but here goes…

Details; Distance: 35 miles. Elevation gain: 11,066’ Elevation Loss: 11,037’

• Garmin Connect File is here
• Strava file is here

The Santa Barbara Nine Trail 35 Mile Run is located about an hour’s drive North from home so Becca and I opted to stay at home and have an early start of leaving the house around 4am to get there in time for the 5am check in and 6am start. We managed that and were even able to stop of at a gas station to avail ourselves of the facilities, coffee will do that to you!

Check in was uneventful and low key, in the end there were 56 runners who started and 8 who didn’t, it’s not a big race for a reason. After taking “roll call” we were ready. There was some discussion about where to actually start and with a general consensus of “here’s good” we all took a vow not to do anything stupid. With that it was time to turn on my head-torch and we were off.

Before I get into the race report a word on logistics.

• I had divided the race up in my mind and in the planning into four quarters. The route was strictly an out and back and so the quarters were the Aid Station at Gibraltar Rock, the turn-around at Romero Canyon and finally the return back through Gibraltar Rock on the way to the start. The geography and route lent itself to this and each quarter was going to be around 8 miles.
• To that end I had created ZipLoc bags which were a full replen of everything that I needed every 8 miles and with Becca driving between the locations I could just empty my pockets and grab and a bag and go.
• Each bag contained; 2 Quick Crusts, 2 Banana bread portions, 2 PowerBar or HappyTot smoothies, 4 serving of Skratch Lemon and Lime, roughly 980 calories. Each 8 mile section would take 2.5 – 3 hours so roughly 300 calories per hour of more or less real food.
• I wore my Ultimate Direction Wasp Pack full of ice/water and carried a UD Fastdraw Handheld that I would top up with water from my pack and add the Skratch too, this keeps my pack bladder clean. I also carried some Chapstick, Bodyglide, ibruprofen, SCaps AND Ricola lozengers…oh and some TP, ‘cos well you know I like my socks!
• I was wearing Saucony Inferno shorts and matching Tshirt; the shorts are short and I like that. On my feet I wore Saucony Peregrine 5 shoes. On my head my Headsweats Loudmouth Trucker cap and a pair of Oakley sunnies and my head-torch was a Peztl RXP.
• I also had my trusty Garmin 910xt and was wearing Becca’s 920xt which was Live Tracking my race during the day. I also had my Garmin Vivofit

Ok now on with show!

The first couple of miles along the Jesusita Trail roll along following and crossing a creek, you then start climbing up to Inspiration Point. It was dark for most of the climb and so people were being fairly easy at least where I was…at the back. It was an easy pace, run where you can and fast-walk the rest. I just tucked myself in and followed the feet in front of me. This is a section that I had run twice before so it was very familiar I got to the top, about 3.5 miles, in 55 minutes. This was definitely faster than previously. Unlike before there was no stopping to admire the view. It was straight down the other side following Tunnel Trail. This was pretty uneventful is easily runnable. I was bowling along nicely without any issues.

 

I followed Ann for the first 8 miles…she’s a total badass and training for UTMB!

At the bottom of Tunnel Trail you pick up a short connector which winds its way up. Finally you join “Rattlesnake”, named for its shape that takes you around the Rattlesnake Canyon Park and you climb out of the canyon onto Gibraltar Road. It was a pretty steep climb but there was three of us in a small group chatting when we could and that made the time and miles go by. From here you run down the road for a mile and then drop into Cold Springs Trail. Becca met me on the road and we ran down. At the car and Aid Station I was about 8.5 miles in and was feeling great. We had started in the dark and it had been cold. A lot of the running so far was in the shade and it was perfect. I got to the car in 2:24, about 5 minutes ahead of my best case schedule and 35 ahead of my worst. I filled up again, emptied the crap out of my shoes and was off.

The next 2 miles was straight down and I dropped 1000’ into the bottom of the canyon. There I crossed a stream and started the long series of ups and downs that made up the middle half.

At the top of Cold Spring Trail…runable rocks!

I knew from running it the week prior that this was going to be hard, while the climbs weren’t long, they were steep, and the well named section called The Wall averages only 16% but some parts of it were at 40%. This 17ish mile section accumulates over 6000’ of gain. The temperature was warming up but it was nothing major at this point. Around mile 14 I saw the race leader who was at that point 8 miles ahead of me…yeah 8 miles! Finally I rolled into the second Aid Station and the turnaround.

Coming in Romero Canyon Trailhead and happy to be there! Photo credit Michelle Evans

Becca was there all smiley…she was having a blast! Again I filled my pack up with Ice and grabed my lunch bag. I was 17.5 miles in and had 4:50 on the clock. So far so good.

Halfway refill and we’re off again!

I had no illusions of negative splits, the sun was getting higher as was the mercury. The climbing out of the canyons was hot and hard. Some folks say the day topped off in the early 90s! I wound my way back and was very happy to see Becca and her new friend Nancy pop out of nowhere carrying ice. I refilled as best I could I headed back to Gibraltar Road. I was playing cat and mouse with a few other runners but as always with ultras the runners are spread out so thin that you can go for hours without seeing anyone!

The Ice Maidens…this way or that?!?

I climbed the 1000’ out of the canyon, much of this was in the shade so the temperature was manageable. My plan of carrying water and then refilling my bottle was working really well and there was never any moment when I was out or even low on water. The solid food was working well although the Quick Crusts I found to be a bit dry. The bread pudding was very moist and was very easy to swallow.

At the Aid Station I plonked myself down in the shade and was handed an Otter Pop…yummy! Then an ice cold towel…even better! I cooled down and Becca filled up my pack and bottle. There were a couple of other runners who were suffering.

Hot and hilly, Otter pop and cold towel for the win!!

They left before me but I would catch a couple of them up during the last 8 miles. Becca walked most of the way with me along the road to the next trail section and here I dropped back down into the canyon. The penultimate climb out truly sucked. Hands on knees in the baking sun sucked. One guy about 100 yards in front and one behind me were struggling just as much. It felt like it went on forever, in reality it was six tenths of a mile and lasted 35 minutes!

The line just below the horizon is the road…suckage up and down!

At the top I was treated to a mile and a half of rocks to scramble down…more suckage! Finally at the bottom I caught a small group of runners who were all pretty much flat out, issues varied from overheating, a twisted ankle and the ever popular drank too much water too soon and threw up. I filled up a bottle said thanks and bye and was outta there…a great opportunity to claim back a few places! Tunnel Trail seemed like a paved road and only took 20 minutes to power walk out of. From there it was the 3.5 mile meander down to the start.

Last little hill and we’re done!

In the last mile I swore someone was on my tail and so I picked up the pace as best I could determined not to be passed with less than a mile to go. Becca ran out from the finish and then followed me back for the last quarter mile and finally I emerged onto the road and was done. 11:12.

A little spacey but otherwise ok!

So much went well with this race, my fueling and nutrition were spot on, I was never close to bonking and the Skratch worked a treat. The heat was a factor and a race this early in the year after a reasonably mild winter was going to take its toll. The hills were hard and the race website states that this runs like a tough 50 miler which is a very true way to look at it. I had added plenty of hill training in the first three months of this year, I passed 50,000’ of gain late in March, but the extended climbs that the Front Range of Santa Barbara provide are just not repeated where I live. This reinforces my mantra to “train the terrain”!

Despite a few lows, which is to be expected, there was never any consideration of DNFing. As with most races of this distance and duration it’s about moving forward. Sitting down on the side of the trail does you no good, nobody is coming to get you!

Despite the low keyness of this event it’s well organized and a firm favorite of many local runners. Everyone is super friendly and all in all the day is a total blast…put some hill-work in and you can have a blast too!

Finally a huge thank you to Becca for sherpaing all day…it’s fun but exhausting! She’s my rock and a rock star!

Leona Divide 50m in three weeks!