threadwalker

I'm still high on last weekend. Death Ride in 4 weeks. My game plan... is locked up in my head. But when reviewing it with the hubby, he had one question:

"Why aren't you trying to do all 5 passes?"

Squee... I love him. His thought was that I was there and I needed to go for broke and after hearing about my weekend and my schemes, he didn't see why I wasn't planning on doing all of it.

I love him so much! My biggest fan evah!

I will go for broke, but I was sharing my reasonable expectations, not my OCD driven schemes for taking over the world.

So.. if you are looking for something to do on July 11 and want to throw water on me, have lunch, maybe help apply some mole-skin and then root me on up the 4th pass, meet me in Hermit's Valley. I will be there between 11 am and 3 pm for lunch and then I will go back up to the top of Ebbetts and onwards To Glory!

(It's a big time window because I just can't be more specific. I plan on starting at 4 am and Monitor may take 6 hours OR it may take less if the weather doesn't suck. And Ebbetts took 2 hours on legs that got to rest more than 12 hours...so it's all guess work.)

To get to Hermits Valley that day, take Hwy 4 from the Arnold side. The roads will be closed from the other direction for the ride. And IF they open, they will be a mess.

The things I learned the hard way last weekend at Near Death Experience:

1. Be prepared. Pack all your gear, even if you think you don't need it. Warm gloves, light gloves, battery chargers, long shorts, short shorts, insulated pants, leggings, etc. Be prepared = happy rider.

2. High altitude biking is hard on the body. At home I start at sea level and go to almost 4k ft. Up there you start around 4k and go to anywhere from 7 to over 8k. The symptoms include diahrhea, dehydration, naseau, fatigue, headaches, ... I had all of them at some point. So I started drinking water as soon as I woke up and I took 2 asprin. I packed a tube of asprin on my bike for just in case. I think it helped. I stretched at the top of each pass and forced myself to burp when I had cramps.

3. There are not a lot of bathrooms in the area - almost none. All that water drinking = full bladder. Most of the men ran off to the bushes. I got over "it" on Sunday. I was the first there, pulled up in my car and pee'd like Niagra. Then I reparked.

4. See Number 3. Don't walk through puddles anywhere that looks like a rest stop. Especially if there are no other puddles. It's up there with avoiding yellow snow.

5. When you bike, your blood goes to your thighs. Therefore eat at the top of a pass so that your body will let your stomach digest while you descend. Otherwise you might get cramps like me.

6. Crack kills. When you bike, your blood goes to your thighs so don't plan to slip into your fitted jeans when you are done or, like me, you won't be able to pull them up over your thighs.

7. Have warm, dry clothes in your car. Being cold and soaked after a ride is miserable.

8. Glucose is good. It's like a little energy spike for your legs.

9. Facial wipes in your car are a good thing after a ride. How could I have forgotten that?

10. Rob taught some solid climbing techniques: ride in the saddle for 100-150 strokes, then rise out of the saddle for 20-30. If nothing else, the counting might take your mind off the pain.

I 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 ( hail and headwind and snow, OH MY! )

I'm in!
I'm registered for Near Death Experience which has a guaranteed entry slot into Death Ride 2009.

RAWR!!! Forward Momentum!

On I'm taking

learnteach's nickname for me and I renamed myself. (thanks to

hrj for suggesting it)

There was no crying over the costumes. I guess I was ready. I've started a gambeseon.

Sofa Surfing
I'm looking for crash space the following dates. Basically, somewhere to sleep. I can show up any time after 9pm and before midnight that works for you. Sofa or floor works (will pack mat for floor). I'd be up at 5:30 am and out the door by 6 am (to get to races by 7 am). So you can show me how to lock the door after myself since I'm thinking no one wants to be up at 5:30 on a Sunday except for Triathlon Junkies. I am not allergic to pets and used to have pets at my mom's place; mostly cats, sometimes we "borrowed" labradors.

It would be me, my sleeping bag, and my gear. (Can't leave gear in car - too tempting to steal. Gear = huge back pack and road bike). If you can spare the space and you are an hour or less from the locations, and don't mind the stealth visitor, shoot me a message.

Saturday, August 2, Pacific Grove/Monterey Meaning I need sleep space for Saturday night for a swim clinic in Monterey Bay on Sunday, August 3, that has 8 am start time.

Saturday, August 9, Santa Cruz Need crash space Saturday night for the Santa Cruz Tri on August 10. Start time 8 am. (Santa Cruz Tri) Feel free to come mock... err "cheer" if you have nothing better to do and you're in the area. Salt water stings, friends do not.

Deathride 2009

Deathride 2009 is on the calendar. Registration is not open yet, but it will be soon.

Can I get ready for this in 1 year? July 8 seems like a distant date. But if that's true, why am i breaking out in cold sweat? Because it's really not that far off. 130 miles, 15000 ft elevation, high altitude biking, miserable weather... wow! I just got excited! I mean... really, I had a little adrenaline surge. I guess there's no question. I do it. I'm totally going to bore everyone to tears with bike-chat pretty soon. I will make an effort to keep it to a dull roar.

My 5-year plan:
I want to maintain 3 tri-s a year plus: Deathride in 2009. A marathon in 2010. Deathride in 2011. Marathon in 2012.

Ironman (Vineman) in 2013? Lucky 13?

And then what? Only time will tell. So far, though, that's my 5-year plan. Everyone needs a plan.

P.S. Found missing banana in bottom of purse. gross. skin not intact! No more stashing snacks in purse.

There is nothing quite like physical exhaustion to take the edge off of stress.

I got in from the gym at midnight feeling utterly drained and exhausted; 2 hours of running and super sets. I pre-packed my bags and laid out my bike gear and then crashed in bed. Sally and I did Wildcat Canyon this morning. Brrrrr! But we did it and I got to what I think of as "my rock" (the one I bled on last week when I fell) in 42 minutes. I am now at one with my universe and too drained to feel upset by too much.

Although Barry came into the office today to say, "Wow, you don't look like shit today. I gotta say, you looked terrible last week and you didn't laugh at anything. You look much better today."

yeah... hmm... thanks. So the yard stick is how not-shitty I look? Good thing I like Barry.

( the down side of Wildcat Canyon )

Death Ride
No, I'm not even going to TRY to talk anyone else into actually doing this ride. I don't want to turn all my friends against me. Although I did note that the volunteers are called "Skeleton Crew". I almost fell out of my seat laughing - that's too cute. But if my plans work, I will be campaigning for a pit crew to feed me PB&J at pit stops and root me on. There will probably be bribes offered.

tri-training - bike and SHIRTS!!!
With Death Ride in mind, I think my current tri-training routine is going to be Wildcat Canyon (40 min of climbing; total ride 1 hr 20 min) on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and then on Sunday 3 Bears (Everyone else calls it 3 Bears, I don't know why, but it's the same 2.5 hr ride of rolling hills from Orinda to Concord I did a few weeks ago). Any joiners welcome.

I got a link for making custom shirts and tank tops. I need to float this by Andrew and anyone he may have talked into joininig our Shark-athlon, "Forward Momentum" shirt would be cool with "Don't look back" on the back. And a "Roadie" version for our Loyal Support Network. Maybe we could do a space-pirate motif. Or dead man dancing thing. Or just a black dot with white skull and cross bones.

( F's take on Death Ride )

Yeah, the detox definitely worked if my brain can whirl away on all this other stuff. Hurrah for physical exhaustion.

Now THAT is an f-ing awesome jersey!!

http://www.deathride.com/

Interesting warning from web page... hail? snow? pre-dawn hours? cows?

I'm intrigued. (pasted warning below) I can't figure out if you just register or have to win a qualifying race. (You have to qualify for the Hawaiian Iron man and for Escape from Alcatraz.) F is going to kill me if I sign up for this and then hurtle off an edge of Ebbets pass. He may get super cranky if I register at all if it seems dangerous. I need to survive my shark-athlon in September first, but this. looks. interesting.

(quoted from web page)( Read more... )

Current Music: AC-DC

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Entries tagged with death ride

Meet me in Hermit's Valley on July 11.

Hard Earned Lessons

For the Glory!

Near Death Experience

Put Up or Shut Up

stress detox and Death Ride 2009

Death Ride

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