For the Glory!
Jun. 8th, 2009 04:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threadwalkerI spent last weekend at the Near Death Experience.
Cliff Notes:
1. It rocked.
2. I registered for the Death Ride.
3. Next year I'm going to go to another biking camp. It was an amazing experience.
The gory details of the Near Freezing to Death Experience. Aka
There's Snow in them thar Hills... and these here roadsides!
That area (South Lake Tahoe and the valley surrounded by Carson, Ebbets, Luther and Monitor Passes) is gorgeous. Snow topped mountains, green valleys, flowers blooming, meadows so luscious I wanted to jump out and run through them. I was hit between the eyes by the beauty as I was driving through the area and up to Kirkwood Thursday eve for the meet and greet.
On my way up Kit Carson Pass to Kirkwood, which is on the other side of the pass, I perceived snow on the ground. Not just on the mountain peaks, but by the roadside several hundred feet below the pass. I had to do a double take. SNOW?!?! EEK! My car said it was 40F out, which is about what Mt Diablo has been running early in the morning, but ... snow??? I left my awesome cold weather gloves at home... boo hoo!
I kind of freaked and marveled and tried to convince myself it was a hallucination. Then, still in shock, shared the happy news with friends. But wait, it gets better.
The Tribe
The meet-n-greet was awesome. The open bar gave me the liquid courage to register for Death Ride that very night because that's when the forms were passed out. Yup - even before we'd done any riding. Yay! I took a sip of wine and signed myself up.
I met some very nice people. All the coaches and the pros were friendly and approachable. Of the attendees, everyone else was a veteran rider of very high caliber and many had Death Ride experience. When asked what team or group I rode with, I filked a George Thoroghgood song and sang, "I ride alone.... with nobody else..." and ended up charming the controller of Kirkwood, who's a fan of Thoroughgood. So I was the oddity: no team, no group, no personal coach, no designer labels, and no previous DR experience.
No worries. I was there for me, not them. And for their part, everyone was congenial.
Ride Like the Wind
Friday was the first official day of riding. It was beautiful out. Coming up over Carson Pass to Kirkwood (from where I was staying in South Lake Tahoe), my car informed me that it was 36F out as the snow started to fall. SNOW! Now it wasn't just laying around on the ground, it was falling from the sky. I did a mental freak-out. Snow is for skiing, not biking, right?
I got to Kirkwood and joined the gang for breakfast, where we feasted on eggs and waffles and breakfast meats in front of a roaring fire while the snow slowly covered the ground, filling in the empty spots between the drifts that had looked like lonely islands on the previous day. It would have been a great day to sip a hot drink and watch the snow fall. Instead, we were scheduled to ride in it... or were we?
Fortunately, Cal Trans was running amuck at the top of Carson, so our playdate in the snow got delayed. Instead of going up and down Carson we biked Diamond Valley and around Woodfords down to the "Y" at Monitor and Ebbets, and then back. It was great. It was breath-takingly beautiful, below the snow line, and at least 50F out. I called HRJ that night and told her we needed a biking weekend in the area because it was so nice. (Need to look up the Alta Alpina bike club.. something like that)
Saturday - Never Surrender, Never Give Up!
On Saturday Ebbets pass was still closed due to snow and it was in the 40s as I was coming over Luther Pass. We all were supposed to convene at Wolfe Creek and then start up Monitor on our own. We had the schedule for the lunch break, so there was a cut-off time for doing the back-side of Monitor. I started about 40 minutes earlier than the suggested start time because I didn't want the clock dictating my day; I wanted to find my physical limits within the time limit.
I was pleased with my front-side climb. I decided that Mt Diablo is tougher. At the start of the climb I was asking myself, Why in the world am I doing this? To which I answered, "For the Glory!"
The back side of Monitor was the Devil's shear torture. The front took me about 90 minutes and it was beautiful. The backside took me 2-1/2 hours and it wasn't pretty; it was an ugly landscape (when I looked up at it) and the climb was brutal. I was going so slow from the headwind, I was barely moving fast enough to stay upright and the grade was 8% for several miles. There was little relief (leveling out infrequently) and the it started to rain 30 minutes or so into the climb. I was so hot, it didn't matter - I was totally unzipped with my layers flapping open in the rain. As I gained altitude, the rain turned to hail and when I got to the top the hail turned to snow (I finally zipped up). It was blowing from my left, so my left side got powdered in snow. But by then I'd reached the "false" peak (7.6 miles from the back-side base) and it was level-ish riding. I was so stoked to be up there, I didn't give a hoot for the snow and the cold. (though I'm told it was below 40F)
The whole time the SAG vans rolled by periodically, checking on me. I got a lot of encouragement from the Kirkwood staff, who told me I looked good (not that I was fast, but I had good form and consistent spinning) and that they knew I could make it. That meant a lot to me especially since I felt like I was out on my own most of the time - no coaches or company for most of that climb. ("I bike alone.... with nobody else....")
Fortunately, during one SAG van pass, someone loaned me a pair of winter gloves. Hail Gortex. (Lesson learned: Always Pack EVERYTHING!!! I will never leave my gloves behind again.) At this point I commented that my legs were getting a little fatigued and I thought I had miles and miles of climbing. But the SAG guy gave me the thumbs up and said I'd do fine. Voila! Turns out that was at the Monitor Pass peak marker. Woot! I gave a little arm-pump, yelled, "for the Glory!" and hit the road into the falling snow since the lunch stop was part way down the other face.
I'd done it. That was the hardest climb I've ever done. For the Glory!!!
I rolled into the lunch break, and only 3 or so people were standing around in the rain, but there were a bunch of bikes.
Where did they go? Apparently many of the tribe were huddled in the warm SUVs. Honestly, my limbs were a little chill, but my hands, feed, and core were warm, so I was good to go after a bowl of soup and PB&J. Even though they offered to shuttle me down with the rest, I finished out the ride down to my car. Woot! Rob, the head coach, said I must have been doing something right because I was the only one who rolled up smiling to the lunch break. I told him it was a matter of perspective: biking is better than being at work. Besides, I did it! I did it all! For the Glory!
Sunday - Ebbets the Cliff Hanger!
The snow cleared from Ebbets and once again we had a meeting place to start from. I headed out about 30 minutes before the designted start time and it took me 2 hours to get to the top. The ride was goregeous. A mix of forested hills, water ways of snow-melt, rock overhangs, and shear drop offs. Plus it was very narrow - not much more than a single lane for parts of it and there were cars passing me.
I got to the top 10 minutes before the SAG vans and I was wondering if they'd cancelled the ride. ("I ride alone.... with nobody else...") Turns out people were having a slow start. I was stretching next to a pile of snow when the magic van full of PB&J showed up.
I didn't know how far I was supposed to go down the other side, so I hung out with the Kirkwood SAG guy while we waited for the 2nd van to show up. I got some maintenance tips on my bike. Then I did the back-side of Ebbets. That was harsh. Good thing it was so beautiful. Fortunately, it was only 5.5 miles or so long. It took me between an hour and an hour-15 minutes. But it was pretty steep - I think chunks of it were 12%. (I have an elevation map around here somewhere). I got to the point where I was just counting off: 150 spins seated then 20 spins standing, repeat. Breath in, breath out. I couldn't talk and I didn't stop.
Downhill on the front face of Ebbets was scary with the narrow road, shear drop-offs to the side and at least 3 hair-pin turns where a miss would mean a several -hundred foot fall to your death. Period. Game over.
I made it to my car. For the Glory! I did 4 passes in 2 days.
Fabulous Coaches
I was hands-down the slowest person on the rides. The coaches periodically circled back to make sure I was okay. They were wonderful, checking in on me and encouraging me. I even rode with the pack for a while on Friday, which was a lot of fun. I was high on the vibe by the time we were done each day.
I could tell the coaches were doing a keen job of assessing and being very careful of how they asked questions - they didn't make assumptions. There was a certain pattern to the conversation and about 5 minutes after any of them rode with me, it went like this:
How long have you been riding? (18 months)
Do you ride in a club? (no, I bike alone...at 3:30 am or 5 am depending..)
How often do you ride? (7-10 hours a week)
Are you planning to do the Death Ride? (yes)
How much of it? (dunno. this weekend will help me with that)
No one was mean or rude. In fact, in their shoes, that's probably how I'd approach someone who was new, who could benefit from encouragement, and who was chugging along. I was the noob, I am the noob, and I've got no issues with that. Set goals and go for them. Be smart. Plan. While riding with the head coach on Saturday I was sharing some of my philosophy and he was really nice, gave me kudos for my mental space and then joked that I could coach next year. Heh.
On the last day of climbing on the back-side of Ebbets, some of them started to call me "d".. funny... very sweet.
In addition to the riding, there were various clinics each day - taking care of your bike, how to ascend, how to descend, heart rate monitoring, etc. It was awesome to be submerged for a few days straight.
Misc
No, F didn't make it. Work sabotaged him. I had this great, romantic get away.. for me. boo hoo!
The get-away had a great tub, which soaked away my aches every night.
Since I was travelling alone, I took a detour to the Folsum outlets... work clothes! yay!
South Lake Tahoe and the whole valley is beautiful. I want to go again.
I came home to chaos. Miss E spent the weekend vomitting and apparently there was no food in the house. It took me about an hour, by which I had my car unloaded, kitchen cleaned, dinner on the stove, and had a shower (remember, same day I did both sides of Ebbets).
Today my legs are killing me. I actually missed at step at the bottom of a staircase at work (death grip on handrail saved me). Today I'm going to skip my run and just take a walk after work.
Cliff Notes:
1. It rocked.
2. I registered for the Death Ride.
3. Next year I'm going to go to another biking camp. It was an amazing experience.
The gory details of the Near Freezing to Death Experience. Aka
There's Snow in them thar Hills... and these here roadsides!
That area (South Lake Tahoe and the valley surrounded by Carson, Ebbets, Luther and Monitor Passes) is gorgeous. Snow topped mountains, green valleys, flowers blooming, meadows so luscious I wanted to jump out and run through them. I was hit between the eyes by the beauty as I was driving through the area and up to Kirkwood Thursday eve for the meet and greet.
On my way up Kit Carson Pass to Kirkwood, which is on the other side of the pass, I perceived snow on the ground. Not just on the mountain peaks, but by the roadside several hundred feet below the pass. I had to do a double take. SNOW?!?! EEK! My car said it was 40F out, which is about what Mt Diablo has been running early in the morning, but ... snow??? I left my awesome cold weather gloves at home... boo hoo!
I kind of freaked and marveled and tried to convince myself it was a hallucination. Then, still in shock, shared the happy news with friends. But wait, it gets better.
The Tribe
The meet-n-greet was awesome. The open bar gave me the liquid courage to register for Death Ride that very night because that's when the forms were passed out. Yup - even before we'd done any riding. Yay! I took a sip of wine and signed myself up.
I met some very nice people. All the coaches and the pros were friendly and approachable. Of the attendees, everyone else was a veteran rider of very high caliber and many had Death Ride experience. When asked what team or group I rode with, I filked a George Thoroghgood song and sang, "I ride alone.... with nobody else..." and ended up charming the controller of Kirkwood, who's a fan of Thoroughgood. So I was the oddity: no team, no group, no personal coach, no designer labels, and no previous DR experience.
No worries. I was there for me, not them. And for their part, everyone was congenial.
Ride Like the Wind
Friday was the first official day of riding. It was beautiful out. Coming up over Carson Pass to Kirkwood (from where I was staying in South Lake Tahoe), my car informed me that it was 36F out as the snow started to fall. SNOW! Now it wasn't just laying around on the ground, it was falling from the sky. I did a mental freak-out. Snow is for skiing, not biking, right?
I got to Kirkwood and joined the gang for breakfast, where we feasted on eggs and waffles and breakfast meats in front of a roaring fire while the snow slowly covered the ground, filling in the empty spots between the drifts that had looked like lonely islands on the previous day. It would have been a great day to sip a hot drink and watch the snow fall. Instead, we were scheduled to ride in it... or were we?
Fortunately, Cal Trans was running amuck at the top of Carson, so our playdate in the snow got delayed. Instead of going up and down Carson we biked Diamond Valley and around Woodfords down to the "Y" at Monitor and Ebbets, and then back. It was great. It was breath-takingly beautiful, below the snow line, and at least 50F out. I called HRJ that night and told her we needed a biking weekend in the area because it was so nice. (Need to look up the Alta Alpina bike club.. something like that)
Saturday - Never Surrender, Never Give Up!
On Saturday Ebbets pass was still closed due to snow and it was in the 40s as I was coming over Luther Pass. We all were supposed to convene at Wolfe Creek and then start up Monitor on our own. We had the schedule for the lunch break, so there was a cut-off time for doing the back-side of Monitor. I started about 40 minutes earlier than the suggested start time because I didn't want the clock dictating my day; I wanted to find my physical limits within the time limit.
I was pleased with my front-side climb. I decided that Mt Diablo is tougher. At the start of the climb I was asking myself, Why in the world am I doing this? To which I answered, "For the Glory!"
The back side of Monitor was the Devil's shear torture. The front took me about 90 minutes and it was beautiful. The backside took me 2-1/2 hours and it wasn't pretty; it was an ugly landscape (when I looked up at it) and the climb was brutal. I was going so slow from the headwind, I was barely moving fast enough to stay upright and the grade was 8% for several miles. There was little relief (leveling out infrequently) and the it started to rain 30 minutes or so into the climb. I was so hot, it didn't matter - I was totally unzipped with my layers flapping open in the rain. As I gained altitude, the rain turned to hail and when I got to the top the hail turned to snow (I finally zipped up). It was blowing from my left, so my left side got powdered in snow. But by then I'd reached the "false" peak (7.6 miles from the back-side base) and it was level-ish riding. I was so stoked to be up there, I didn't give a hoot for the snow and the cold. (though I'm told it was below 40F)
The whole time the SAG vans rolled by periodically, checking on me. I got a lot of encouragement from the Kirkwood staff, who told me I looked good (not that I was fast, but I had good form and consistent spinning) and that they knew I could make it. That meant a lot to me especially since I felt like I was out on my own most of the time - no coaches or company for most of that climb. ("I bike alone.... with nobody else....")
Fortunately, during one SAG van pass, someone loaned me a pair of winter gloves. Hail Gortex. (Lesson learned: Always Pack EVERYTHING!!! I will never leave my gloves behind again.) At this point I commented that my legs were getting a little fatigued and I thought I had miles and miles of climbing. But the SAG guy gave me the thumbs up and said I'd do fine. Voila! Turns out that was at the Monitor Pass peak marker. Woot! I gave a little arm-pump, yelled, "for the Glory!" and hit the road into the falling snow since the lunch stop was part way down the other face.
I'd done it. That was the hardest climb I've ever done. For the Glory!!!
I rolled into the lunch break, and only 3 or so people were standing around in the rain, but there were a bunch of bikes.
Where did they go? Apparently many of the tribe were huddled in the warm SUVs. Honestly, my limbs were a little chill, but my hands, feed, and core were warm, so I was good to go after a bowl of soup and PB&J. Even though they offered to shuttle me down with the rest, I finished out the ride down to my car. Woot! Rob, the head coach, said I must have been doing something right because I was the only one who rolled up smiling to the lunch break. I told him it was a matter of perspective: biking is better than being at work. Besides, I did it! I did it all! For the Glory!
Sunday - Ebbets the Cliff Hanger!
The snow cleared from Ebbets and once again we had a meeting place to start from. I headed out about 30 minutes before the designted start time and it took me 2 hours to get to the top. The ride was goregeous. A mix of forested hills, water ways of snow-melt, rock overhangs, and shear drop offs. Plus it was very narrow - not much more than a single lane for parts of it and there were cars passing me.
I got to the top 10 minutes before the SAG vans and I was wondering if they'd cancelled the ride. ("I ride alone.... with nobody else...") Turns out people were having a slow start. I was stretching next to a pile of snow when the magic van full of PB&J showed up.
I didn't know how far I was supposed to go down the other side, so I hung out with the Kirkwood SAG guy while we waited for the 2nd van to show up. I got some maintenance tips on my bike. Then I did the back-side of Ebbets. That was harsh. Good thing it was so beautiful. Fortunately, it was only 5.5 miles or so long. It took me between an hour and an hour-15 minutes. But it was pretty steep - I think chunks of it were 12%. (I have an elevation map around here somewhere). I got to the point where I was just counting off: 150 spins seated then 20 spins standing, repeat. Breath in, breath out. I couldn't talk and I didn't stop.
Downhill on the front face of Ebbets was scary with the narrow road, shear drop-offs to the side and at least 3 hair-pin turns where a miss would mean a several -hundred foot fall to your death. Period. Game over.
I made it to my car. For the Glory! I did 4 passes in 2 days.
Fabulous Coaches
I was hands-down the slowest person on the rides. The coaches periodically circled back to make sure I was okay. They were wonderful, checking in on me and encouraging me. I even rode with the pack for a while on Friday, which was a lot of fun. I was high on the vibe by the time we were done each day.
I could tell the coaches were doing a keen job of assessing and being very careful of how they asked questions - they didn't make assumptions. There was a certain pattern to the conversation and about 5 minutes after any of them rode with me, it went like this:
How long have you been riding? (18 months)
Do you ride in a club? (no, I bike alone...at 3:30 am or 5 am depending..)
How often do you ride? (7-10 hours a week)
Are you planning to do the Death Ride? (yes)
How much of it? (dunno. this weekend will help me with that)
No one was mean or rude. In fact, in their shoes, that's probably how I'd approach someone who was new, who could benefit from encouragement, and who was chugging along. I was the noob, I am the noob, and I've got no issues with that. Set goals and go for them. Be smart. Plan. While riding with the head coach on Saturday I was sharing some of my philosophy and he was really nice, gave me kudos for my mental space and then joked that I could coach next year. Heh.
On the last day of climbing on the back-side of Ebbets, some of them started to call me "d".. funny... very sweet.
In addition to the riding, there were various clinics each day - taking care of your bike, how to ascend, how to descend, heart rate monitoring, etc. It was awesome to be submerged for a few days straight.
Misc
No, F didn't make it. Work sabotaged him. I had this great, romantic get away.. for me. boo hoo!
The get-away had a great tub, which soaked away my aches every night.
Since I was travelling alone, I took a detour to the Folsum outlets... work clothes! yay!
South Lake Tahoe and the whole valley is beautiful. I want to go again.
I came home to chaos. Miss E spent the weekend vomitting and apparently there was no food in the house. It took me about an hour, by which I had my car unloaded, kitchen cleaned, dinner on the stove, and had a shower (remember, same day I did both sides of Ebbets).
Today my legs are killing me. I actually missed at step at the bottom of a staircase at work (death grip on handrail saved me). Today I'm going to skip my run and just take a walk after work.
