Miserable Mountains, Gimmicky Gadgetry, and Hellish Heatwaves,

Well, it's been a while since we last blogged together. Not to worry, I have been thinking about you and I have many things to tell you. When last we spoke I was preparing to tackle the Mountains of Misery. A 101 mile ride with 10,000+ feet of climbing. This eventful ride takes place in Southwestern Virginia very close to Virginia Tech. Before I get into the gory details of the ride let me first give thanks to the people who made the ride possible. First and foremost, my wife for being understanding during those long weekend hours I spent on the road and in the gym. She was quite helpful, being very supportive of my training and I can't thank her enough. I also want to thank my buddies, Jeff and Chris, who did the ride with me and made a long day in the saddle not only tolerable but enjoyable. All these accolades beg the question, "How miserable was it?" Surprisingly, not nearly as miserable as I had anticipated.

The day started out ... COLD! Evidently its cold early in the morning in the mountains. I was decked out in my King of the Mountains climbing outfit for the day and the only thing that kept me from freezing my gonads off was the, imagine this, constant climbing. We went barely 200 yards before the first climbing started. As we were climbing for the first hour I saw an old guy (not me or my buddies) weaving up one of the easier climbs. Since we were less than 20 miles into the ride I couldn't help thinking, this guys is in for a BAD day.

After climbing more or less steadily for the first 20-25 miles we hit what is probably the highlight of the ride, in terms of fun, a 7 or 8 miles switchback descent. It reminded me of being in France and swooping down the Alpine descents. At the bottom was one of the friendly rest stops stocked to the brim with everything a hungry century rider could want. Fruit, PB and J, water, Gatorade, all kinds of stuff. This was also the point where you had a fateful decision to make, 101 or 124 miles. I looked incredulously at some of the riders who followed the 125 mile sign and set off in the other direction. The next 30 miles or so were rolling hills but very manageable. This despite the fact that my riding partners were by this time cursing me out for convincing them to do this ride. I would have felt worse for them, except that I DID NOT convince them to carry enough gear to sustain a small army. Granted my jersey pockets were stuffed with food but I think Chris had a KFC restaurant in his back pack (more on that later...).

At mile 55 or so you hit the last rest stop before the first BIG climb. Now I have done some big climbs in my day so I should have remembered that some of the worst climbs start with the what seems relatively easy slopes. So when I began cruising up this first BIG climb I should have been suspicious. NOPE, I just kept going at a good pace oblivious to what might wait ahead. The slope curved slightly to the left and into the trees, still cruising, up ahead I started to see people walking hmmm... Slope now turns slight right OUCCCCCHHHHHHH! in what seemed like 2" the slope went from 4-5% to 12-15%. Talk about leg burning! I saw (no lie) in the 10 feet in front of me, about 10 people walking, 2 people fall from the sudden slope increase, and a carbon fiber recumbent rider stuck in the middle of the rode unable to get started again. So now I'm dying, trying to avoid the mayhem in front of me (did I mention I only had a 39x27) and then this guys comes cranking by me, hits the now STEEPER part, gets a cramp and rides right off the rode! No he wasn't hurt, but it gives you an idea of how hard this particular section of the climb was. Luckily there was a rest stop right over the top. This was the only rest (other than the finish) that I REALLY REALLY needed. About a minute of 2 later Jeff and Chris roll over the top cursing me for the next, oh, 10 minutes or so.

Luckily for us the next 10 miles or so are downhill or mostly downhill and it also took us back past the start line. Chris who by now has been complaining about feeling dead decides to put the rucksack he was carrying on his back in the car. Feeling 10 pounds lighter he began to feel better (imagine that...). This was the very deceptive / demoralizing part of the ride. From mile 80 to about mile 90, some of the steepest climbs in the entire ride reside. These would have been bad enough in a 40 or 60 mile ride but at mile 80 they really sap your strength. I felt proud that I got over all of them but I would pay later.


Mile 90 to 95 is kinda cool. Mostly downhill, you would think this is good except for the fact it makes you climb the last 5 miles out of the hole you just descended into. The first mile or so, not so bad..... the next 2 miles, uh tough, but manageable. The last 2 miles, I think I have blocked them out like any bad experience. It took me 30 minutes to go the last 2 miles. It was also the only climb I really had to stop and rest on. I really needed out about another 30 gear inches or so. What the made the entire experience worthwhile was

1) Getting my shirt
2) Getting a massage at the finish.... (the food was pretty good too)

What sucked...

1) Some guy did it in a bit over 5 hours ( 8.5 hours ride time for me).
2) Jeff and Chris couldn't get shirts to fit them (somebody copped em first)

Would I do it again? Ask me in a year.....

Gadgets......

I love gadgets. I am a geek I confess. Bike gadgets are some of my favorite gadgets but I must confess they have a history of letting me down. So it was with some trepidation that I purchased the Garmin Forerunner 305 (on sale at REI). The forerunner is a GPS enable running / bike computer. It will tell you how far, how fast, your pace, your heart rate, your elevation gain/descent while running or cycling (you can also get cadence with an accessory). It also comes with some cool software to let you download all the information onto your computer. So here is my impression so far.

The Good

1) Its much smaller than the previous Garmin GPS running computers. Still a bit bulky, but significantly better than previous models.

2) The software works really well. Downloads are easy and the information can be viewed graphically to impress your friends!

3) The GPS mileage is much more accurate than guessing how many miles you ran.

4) One option allows you to pace yourself or race against yourself, very helpful for speed work and tempo runs.

5) There a bunch of other features I haven't even tried yet but they look promising, such as creating workouts with the software and uploading them into the watch for use when you train.

6) The battery seemed to last much longer with the newer model.

7) You can now record a brick workout with 1 device!!!! YEAH!

8) Moving the watch from the bike to the my arm for the run is easy with Garmin's multi-sport accessory.

The Bad (minor stuff mostly)

1) Heart rate is VERY VERY small and hard to read making it practically useless when running.

2) With so many functions it can be tough to remember the correct sequence of buttons to press to do something.

3) If you forget to switch sports on the watch your run can end up looking like a REALLY slow bike ride (which I did once by accident).

Even with those minor problems I think the Forerunner is worth the investment.

Another gadget I've been playing with is training peaks software which is supposed to give you all kinds of revolutionary information about how your training is progressing. I will give a complete report once I have used up the 14 day free trial.....


The HEAT IS ON!!!!!!

During the mountains of misery ride we were blessed with near perfect weather. However, the last few days have been anything but! I went running Saturday and didn't stop sweating until almost Sunday! Sunday, as luck would have it, I was doing the Bicycle Place ride so at least the ride was done by 10:30 AM. With less than a week until my last scheduled triathlon of the season I plan on waiting out the heat even to the point of getting on the treadmill if necessary. This next race is somewhat special since this race was the first triathlon I ever did. I hope to better my course time, at least in the swim, since that is by far my weakest link in the sport and the one I have the best chance of improving on. I'm just hoping the weather cooperates.

Until we get some relief from this heat.....

Stay frosty......

Peace & Luv,

Rob