Tour de Big Bear

In much of the spirit of this blog this year this race report is neglected and late and anyway it wasn’t a race and yawn and blah and whatev’!

The morning was cold, 55F, it got hotter during the day and topped out at 104! That’s what my Garmin said, although I think that’s actually a temperature taken when the bike was sat in the sun, which it was…a lot! More of that later. The start was staggered based on your distance as we were signed up for the century we were the earliest to go. We set out conservatively, a combination or pacing, the unknown factor; the altitude and not wanting to end up in a pile up in the first five miles meant that discretion was a good plan. The first climb was uneventful and it was an out and back, we skipped the Aid Station at the turnaround which was busy and bustling, the return was also uneventful and then at the next Aid Station we stopped for a strip of bacon and a pee. At that point we were around mile 25, it’s taken 1:35 and everything is just hunky dory!

The next 15 miles are flat and fast and I tagged onto a couple of faster riders and we zipped around Baldwin Lake for another 50 minutes. From there it’s uphill for 7 miles to the top of the first summit; Sugarloaf Mountain at about 8500’. This was the 70 mile ride turnaround point. Becca decided to stop here…I was not so sensible. We agreed to meet up in a couple of hours after I finished the 30 miles out and back.

The downhill went down and down and down for 2000’, basically lower than the start point! A couple of short sharp, well not so short climbs and descents for a total or 10 miles and I was faced with the ascent back up Sugarloaf Mountain, so in total this was 15 miles of climbing! I started out fine but two miles in I bonked hard. My HR was north of 160bpm for 35 mins non-stop which for me a real no-no on the bike.

I took several stops to get it back under control and finally topped out where I met Becca and we nursed our way back along the last 25 miles to the finish which included a doozy of a climb; a 15% residential road. That being said everything was better after a stop for 1,2,3…4 ice lollies!

We we one of the last riders in and the sweepers were on our tails, but we finished with a smile and we headed home for burgers and beers!

Extremely organized and well put on this ride really is a lot of fun but don’t underestimate it is best described as ball busting…see you next year!

And that was that!

TDBB Week 8 (Rest Week)

Ok well with a couple of weeks…of not blogging there has been a fair bit going on!

Not least of all a two week, three destination vacation which included the target ride of the Tour de Big Bear but before that let me brig you up to speed with the last week of training.

While the training plan was actually a 10 week plan I started a week late and so it became a 9 week one, that actually worked out pretty well as the rest week worked out to be a fake taper week. So Week 8 was low in volume and miles and basically each workout was on a trainer in a hotel jacked into my laptop following along to Trainer Road…boom that was it!

I packed my bike, my trainer and my boogie boards!

That led into the Tour ride at the weekend, more of that in a longer post of course!

TDBB Week 7

Week 7 in the bag. Another solid week, mileage jumped up from the prior week as my body adjusts the increase in volume of training and this week I broke through the 10 hour barrier again. This pales in comparison to Ironman volume from last year where I maxed out at around the 18 hour mark, that being said but I am happy with it. As usual the week was a muddle and I did miss one Sufferfest ride but I added in two commutes; it’s a 28 mile round trip and a 1000’ of gain each way so I wasn’t too worried and it allowed me to ease off a day before Sunday’s big ride.

Saturday night was another opportunity to catch IRL (In Real Life) with an online friend when TribeccaTo was extended an invite to see The 39 Steps by Louis, I have known Louis online for the last couple of years and although we live in the same town it was a chance to meet him in person and in fact watch him act in the plat. The play was awesome, a 4 man production that covered 150 characters! It was packed with laughs and was a romping good show, if you are local I recommend you catch it before the limited run ends! We stayed locally and that cut our drive on Sunday morning by half.

Sunday’s long ride was a change from the proposed Mt Baldy Road and instead TriBeccaTO and I opted for the Glendora Mountain Road to Mt Baldy Village, a longer in duration overall climbing with 16 miles of climbing in total but not quite so severe.

It’s by far the longest climb I have ever done with over 5000’ of gain, so I was a little worried about what to expect but it went really well, I paced myself pretty solidly and although I was tired at the end my fueling and nutrition went well with the standard issue Hawaiian Sweet rolls with PB&J doing the business! The weather certainly helped with low flat cloud for the entire ride. Suffice to say the scenery was amazing even with the low cloud and it’s somewhere I would love to go back and explore some more. I decided to switch out my cassette to an 11-28 and that helped although strangely the spacer between the new and old cassette was a different thickness and in addition to not giving me as clean a shift it also scratched the hell out of a brand new Ultegra cassette (argh!)

Here is the elevation profile and links to the data;

Garmin Connect and Strava

One problem I am having is a twitchy HR strap, it could be a weak battery but it is frustrating as I am able to get a clean set of data, it’s making me rethink going back to a power meter which of course digging deep into my pockets and when you’re remodeling a kitchen it’s a matter of priorities!

Reminded that you can’t take this too seriously!

So this week was a tad less than 150 miles but I broke through the 10,000’ of elevation mark, which is a first. This coming week is a rest week, followed by a week on vacation and then it’s race (ride) day, it’s not a race and people shouldn’t race a century ride IMHO!

Some photos from the ride, including the almost flying car!

Glendora Mountain Road VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Onwards!

TBDD Week 5 & 6

Week 5 is in the rear view mirror, way behind me so I don’t have much to say about it now. I followed the plan and that was that really, miles were down as I cut out the commuting. I took one ride on the mountain bike and was humbled as I had to dismount and walk up “Heart Attack Hill” in front of a local girls HS Cross Country team!

Whatcha mean you have to walk up 21%?

Week 6 was a bigger and better week; more mile more elevation, it’s creeping back up slowly. My knee/hammy is just what it is it’s rolling along around 90%...that’s good enough for now, I had a massage yesterday and that helped.

Mostly a week on the trainer so the two rides that were on the road had to count! The first was an extended local loop with a couple of short Cat 4 climbs, no problems there and plenty of Strava PRs! And I even nabbed a Top10 overall! I was happy with the average speed of this too.

The second on Sunday was an all-out roller coaster in the Santa Monica Mountains. It ended up being not as long as I expected in distance which meant I missed my weekly mileage goal but I was happy with the elevation gain, lots of seated climbing.

My Honey was kicking butt too and she is riding a freaking Tri Bike!

I am running a 12-25 in the back and thinking a 12-27 or 11-28 might be a better choice, not sure about that yet and I think this coming weekends ride will help make up my mind, we’ll see! The plan is to head to Mt Baldy where you can see the Tour of California most years…I think this is going to hurt…

Ok that’s enough graphs, here’s a video!

 

Onwards and upwards, not in that order!

TDBB; Week 4 (Rest week)

Week 4 was a rest or step back week, so I took full advantage of that, in fact I probably took too much advantage and missed one Sufferfest ride but managed to swap it out for a commute so it wasn’t all bad. The digits and gain are pretty low and I was tracking to a target of only 100 miles when I managed to tweak my knee/quad, it feels more like a tweak than overuse as one minute it was fine and the next it hurt. So in addition to the missed ‘fest I cut short my Sunday long ride and then have babied it for the last couple of days, so we will see how it feels by the end of the week. Just short of 500 miles in four weeks is a good start and actually for June its more mileage than I did in my biggest month when I was training for IMAZ…of course I was running and swimming at the same time then too!

Beyond that nothing much to report, I dropped my Cervelo off for a service at a LBS; new bar tape and a new chain, the old one had over 3600 miles on it and with the increase in miles it would have needed replacing in a months’ time! So for this week I am on the TT bike and I’ll be hopefully taking a stab at commuting on trails using the mountain bike, I have ridden most of it…well maybe about 80%  and I can guess the rest of it. It looks like this from Google Maps;

Wicked good cartography skills (and no, I do not work in a Mortuary!)

I have made it to the arrow in about 50 minutes before so I am thinking it will probably take 2-2.5 hours one way so let’s see how that all plays out with my knee!

Other than that the wheels keep turning!

TDBB; Week 3

Week 3 was big! One extra day of riding and a few more miles…here’s how it shook out!

Monday – rest, ahhhh!

Tuesday – Triple day, to and from work commuting and once home the bike straight went on the trainer for Sufferfest Local Hero, by the end of the day I had accumulated over 3 hours and just under 50 miles!

Wednesday – my local loop, as mentioned last week I need to extend this to 75 minutes

Thursday – back on the Trainer for 50 minutes of the Sufferfest Wretched, this ride is a race sim described as “A pure, attacking, climbing, fighting Tour de France stage”…I would agree, here is the TrainerRoad output!

Friday – I managed to extend my local loop to 75 mins well actually 86 mins (whoops my bad) with the addition of a couple of Cat 4 climbs it’s now a real treat…so I just need to get faster to get it to 75 minutes! The good news is that Grades up to around 7% are becoming very doable…beyond needs some more work!

Saturday – off, boo yah!

Sunday – TribeccaTO was racing the Breath of Life Tri in Ventura, about 30 miles from home, so the plan was to Sherpa for her in the morning and then ride back home, I set off and only made one bad turn, the first 38 miles were pancake flat along the coast on many of the same roads that I trained on for IMAZ last year. Then I turned inland and upward, upward and upward; two Cat 2, one Cat 3 and two Cat 4 climbs and I was home, 63 miles, over 4 hours in the saddle and 3600’ of gain. My legs checked out around mile 52 so that’s a good benchmark for the weeks to come. I am definitly feeling stronger but have some ways to go yet!

Here’s the digits;

Week 4 is a rest/step back week so everything will be down…including my weight which is creeping south!

Onwards!

TDBB; Week 2

Week 2 was a build on week 1, similar schedule but with a little more load and volume.

Monday – off, yes I have this nailed now!

Tuesday – Sufferfest Blender, just to remind you your day off was well and truly over, this is 1:43 minutes of trainer bliss! 3 Interval Sets; Set 1: 5 x Mixed Longer Intervals Threshold/VO2 Max, Set 2: 18 Short/Intense Power at VO2 Max and Anaerobic Capacity and Set 3: 3 repeats of 4 minutes Threshold (RPE 7-8/10)/ 1 Minute Recovery

Wednesday - I was out early carving up a local loop that I have mapped out, this needs to be extended as it should be a 75 minute ride and I am getting it done in around 64 minutes, I have some ideas on where to extend to add a Cat 4 climb into the mix!

Thursday – commuted to and from work for an extra 28 miles and 200’ of gain

Friday – Sufferfest Hell Hath no Fury, UCI Carbon Chicas, whipping my ass for 1:12 and another 20 miles in the bank

 

The Sufferfest - Hell Hath No Fury - Trailer from The Sufferfest on Vimeo.

Saturday – off…phew!

Sunday – Long Ride, headed out with TriBeccaTo and added another 49 miles with 3200’ feet of gain!

All in all a solid week and good build from week 1

I also upgraded my Membership on Strava so I get some fancy HR stuff like this, I am still playing with it for now;

The goal for next week, stick to the plan, add 10% more mileage and start throwing in some big hills

Onwards!

TDBB; Week1

Ok Week 1 is in the books. Nothing to troublesome but like most training weeks I had to mix it up to get it to all fit in, this is how it all shook out;

Monday – off, check, managed that no problem

Tuesday – The Sufferfest ; Angels, this is all about climbing, a short warm up and some over/unders and then it’s 3 x 8 minute climbs

Angels Ad from The Sufferfest on Vimeo.

Wednesday – Tempo ride; I rode a local loop that has an easy start, some rollers in the middle and then a short sharp climb towards the end. As it’s local it’s something I can rinse and repeat and measure some progress against

Thursday – off, if you say so!

Friday – commuted to work. I am co located between two offices, one is 50 miles away and the other 14 so with a bit of planning I can ride to the local one and use their showers etc. to clean up, there are a couple of nice hills going either way and it’s a good way to get some extra saddle time in without having to do it at 5am or 9pm! This is the ride to work, obviously the ride home is just the reverse

Saturday – The Sufferfest; The Hunted, another climbing ride the meat of which is a solid 20 minutes

The Sufferfest - The Hunted - Trailer from The Sufferfest on Vimeo.

Sunday - a new loop which connects some of my old cycling rides for a 35 mile ride, followed by another 7 miles on my mountain bike as a cool down riding along with TriBeccaTO as she ran. This is the longer ride some nice hillwork in there.

So the totals for the week;

Time	8:32
Distance	121.2
Elevation gain	6,076

No real problems with this, it’s just about time in the saddle and riding terrain which matches the Tour…hills! The only real challenge is that we are currently having our kitchen remodeled and so a lot of the kitchen is in the garage so there is a far amount of set up the trainer and the break down the trainer, it’s a short term issue as a we are getting towards the end of the remodel but it reinforces the “have your kit ready” to use!

Finally no week goes by without something new a shiny catching my attention and this week one of these arrived on my doorstep.

I have yet to unbox it due to the complete lack of space in garage but it will make carrying the mountain bikes an absolute doddle!

The next challenge…

So next up on the agenda is something a little out of the blue, I have signed up for the Tour de Big Bear. It’s a Century ride which in its self is not too onerous, what will be the challenge is that it is at altitude, mostly around 7000’, the website blurb is;

The CLIMB – 100 miles – 7425’ Climbing

Southern California’s most challenging century, this course will duplicate The Grand Tour route over the new bridge, across the Arctic Circle to Snow Valley, back across the Arctic Circle, across the north shore of Big Bear Lake and Baldwin Lake, up and over Onyx Summit, but will extend down the backside of Sugarloaf Mountain into the spectacular Santa Ana River Canyon.  The ride continues down past the Seven Oaks turnoff and turns left and loops up along the edge of the San Gorgonio Wilderness and Jenks Lake.  The return up the backside of Sugarloaf Mountain will test even the most seasoned climbers with a 15 mile ascent before reentering the Big Bear Valley and continuing toward the finish line. Just when you think the climbing journey is over, its back up into the hills as you climb to upper Moonridge with the last short ascent up at about 15% grade at mile 93!!

I obviously need to work on my cycling fitness and need to get some serious miles on my road bike. Given the restrictions I have on time I am using a plan published by The Sufferfest, the only modification will be extending out the long rides on the Sunday to get me some serious saddle time. I am almost at the end of Week 1, I will be posting updates and you can follow my progress on Daily Mile, Garmin Connect and Strava!