Downhill Improvement!

A short departure from my series on weight loss success stories...

Jonathan and I set out to break some records today on an after work ride. It is so great to be this close to some great trails. We came close to #1 Strava rankings. When he is serious about it, he wears his DH helmet.

Jonathan wearing a DH helmet for high speed today

My Strava shows that I currently hold second place out of 61 people for one of the DH segments. 

My Strava results for today's downhill segment

Not sure how long it will last, but I will take it for a minute at least. 

Jonathan was second out of 285 in one segment. On the same segment, I was 16th. He was third in another segment and had some chain ring problems. I was 16th in the same segment. He is so fast; he will be first by next week. 

There are times when I will have biked with Jonathan only for weeks at a time. I sometimes get discouraged by how fast he is downhill and how relatively slow I am. It is good to get more feedback sometimes. I will be doing a post on what he does to be so fast. He is a purist and a technician about it.

Making Friends -- The other Benefit of Running and Mountain Biking

When I lived in Camas, Washington I had a 16 mile commute to work which was usually done on a bike, even in the rain which was pretty much every day. Because Camas and Vancouver border Portland, the most bike friendly city in America, there were tons of cyclists commuting or just riding. My favorite commute home from work was to take the bike lane on the I-5 bridge from Vancouver to Portland, take the bike path along the Columbia River to the I-205 bridge, cross back over and head home.

The I-5 bridge bike path

The I-205 bridge bike path

I-205. The bike lane goes down the middle

It was hard to beat the views, especially in the fall, but the views were only one of the benefits of riding in the Northwest. Maybe the best part was the camaraderie among fellow cyclists. It seemed that when you rode by someone, you were instantly best friends for the sole reason that you were both on bikes and both had endorphins raging through your systems. I made several close friendships with people on my commute and during weekend rides. For example, because my place of employment was on the same road but farther than the hospital, I rode almost every day with a cardiologist. We got to know each other well through the spring and summer before his shifts changed. 

Road biking in Utah is a lot different. There is an elitist mentality that infects roadies here. It seems that you have to be wearing a full kit, carbon soled shoes with the proper logos, the right helmet and glasses, not to mention a bike that  must retail on or above $5000. When we moved from Washington and I took my first road bike ride in Provo Canyon then to the top of South Fork, then up to the Alpine loop, I waved at everyone and was full of cheery greetings. These were met with reluctant acknowledgement, mild annoyance, smirks and complete disregard. The only guy that returned a proper greeting was a shirtless guy on a Walmart bike smoking a cigarette. When I got home, I told my wife that I was going to be the happiest, most cheerful guy on any road bike in the state (not hard based on what I had seen) to see if I might rub off on people and show them a better way. So far I have been unsuccessful. 

Not so with runners and mountain bikers in Utah, unless the mountain bikers are actually roadies. At mile four this morning a fast runner passed me, waved and we chatted for a bit. His name is Seth Myer. 

Seth Myer -- A happy guy and a good runner

Seth is a fast runner and a great guy. I think he did about 14 this morning. I ended up at 11.1. He is the kind of runner that is consistently in good enough condition to run a marathon on any given weekend. I'm pretty sure we will end up at the same events more than once, and we will get to know each other better...or maybe given his clenched fist, he was getting ready to punch me. If you read this, Seth, please leave a comment. 

Near then end of my run, I saw my good friend and Cat 1 rider, Bryan Adams. 

Bryan Adams -- Pure animal and speed demon

Bryan is an animal on two wheels and in running shoes. He was on his way to the Altar, a ride I will cover in a later post. Earlier in the season, after a long day riding, he drove to the bottom of Bearclaw Poppy, turned on his Strava and let it rip. He ended up second overall out of about 1000 riders. I can only imagine what he could do on fresh legs. On that same trip, we converted him to slick rock riding. He wants to go again so bad he can hardly stand it. 

I suppose the message is to have fun and share good will. Unless you are a roadie, high endorphin levels have a way of bonding people together. Next time you are out, wave and say hi to everyone, especially roadies. They really need it. 

Big Springs - The best ride in Utah Valley

Me on the first descent

It is time to introduce my trail rating system. I give a 1 - 5 rating for both work (uphill) and fun (downhill). A trail with a high work number and a low fun number is bunk. A trail with a low work number and a high fun number is nirvana. I know some aerobic junkies that really like to ride up hill and would prefer to skip the downhill. Van and Annette come to mind. Van is about 5'2" and weighs about a buck 20. He frequently wins the Snowbird hill climb in Little Cottonwood Canyon in northern Utah. Annette is about the same height, pure muscle and weighs about 90 pounds. Once on a bike ride in Southern Utah, there was a line of us on a trail with a pine branch overhang. One of the branches was in the way. Because it was thin and light, we all blew through it like it was not there. When Annette got to it, it threw her off her bike. Yet I digress.

The absolute worst trail I have ever ridden is called 'Moore Fun' in Fruita, CO. It is a five on the uphill and a one or less on the downhill. On this ranking, Big Springs is the best ride in Utah County. I give it a 2 on the uphill and a 4 on the downhill. Its only two flaws are that it is short, but you can always do it twice or three times, and it gets congested by other bikers, scouts, hikers and horses. 

You can get there by going up South Fork in Provo Canyon. About three miles up you will get to the Big Springs sign on the left. Turn right at the sign and go to the last parking area past the bathroom facilities. The trail begins on the west, center side of the parking lot. The trial can be ridden year round as I found out this winter. If you ride in the snow, you will have to give snow shoers and cross country skiers a chance to pack the snow down after a storm.

Big Springs parking area. The trailhead is behind the photographer. 

Not the route I take, but directionally correct

You can take most of the single track ride to the top in your middle chain ring until you get to a fork in the trail that forces you to cross a fire road to continue on the single track or to take the fire road farther up. Either way, you will need to use a lower gear at this point. If I am trying for a PR, I will go a little higher and push it. Most of the time, I set it in the granny gear and chat with buddies on my way up. I opt for the fire road option because the other way, although it is single track, is a pure grunt to the top.

Jonathan Johnson riding the upper section

Resting at the water stop

Great views and amazing background at the water stop

My riding and running buddy, Jonathan Johnson on the bridge

Jonathan riding over the bridge

About a half mile up, you will get to a large campground area with porta-potties and a drinking fountain that is fed from the spring. The water is great. You continue south on a double track trail, cross a bridge and continue south ignoring the turn-off to the left. This last section is granny gear worthy and not much talking is going on. At the sign, take a hard left and 20 meters later you are on the trail above and west of the spring. 

Go east on the trail over the spring area until it turns north over a small bridge. At this point you will want to lower your seat for an amazing descent though pines, aspens and meadows.  

There are several turns and forks. I describe my preferred route. At the bottom of the first descent, you can go left, but stay right and climb a short section. After some sweet, fast twists and turns, you will come to a fork. Stay left to go through a short meadow. After entering a wooded area and taking a sharp left, there will be a fork. Take the right fork. After about twenty yards, you will take a hard left and have to climb the most difficult trail section of the day. The short trail section is loose, steep and narrow. It can be ridden by intermediate riders and experts should be able to ride it every time. It will leave you breathing hard. The next section takes you through a meadow on narrow single track. You can rip through this as fast as you want. Some parts of the single track have rather high walls. If you cannot stay in the center, you may end up catching a tire on the track wall and tumbling. Fortunately the falls are pretty soft. 

Through the meadow

At the next fork on the north side of the meadow, turn left. Take the sort section of fire road, cross the larger fire road onto the single track, and at the fork, turn right to head back to the parking lot. You can pretty much let it rip, but you have to watch out for other trail users as this section gets the most pressure. 

There is a lot of wildlife. The coolest thing I have seen is a bull and a calf moose. I about had a heart attack when a grouse suddenly decided to take flight a foot away from me. I have come onto a herd of elk. Fortunately I was wearing my GoPro. See the video below. I have seen wild turkeys, deer, skunks and other critters. 

Film from a couple of rides

The only serious mishap I have ever had came from a sting of some flying thing. I was descending at twilight when something stung my ear. By the time I got in the car I was itching everywhere and starting to swell. I called my wife to get my epi pen (that I should have been carrying) ready. I got home, jabbed myself with the epi pen and headed to the instacare. When I got to the instacare and took my shirt off, the Doc on call looked at me and said, "Wow, we can't stop that here. You will have to go to the hospital." Long story short, the ER gave me an IV concoction of Benadryl, Pepcid and a steroid and 20 minutes later I was cured, but sleepy. 

Trail conditions are perfect by Friday this week, just wet enough to be grippy, but not too muddy. Get out and ride!

Endurance Limits -- Glycogen and Electrolytes

In 2005 I had just gotten into road biking. Two years later I would be doing several centuries and double centuries including the Deperado Dual and Lotoja, but in June 2005 I was a know-nothing newbie that was quickly increasing mileage from ride to ride but not wisdom. I was completely unprepared for what would happen one day in June as I attempted an 86 mile ride from Cedar City to St. George, Utah. I had really never experienced what it was like to run out of glycogen stores and to have a severe electrolyte imbalance.

Early that morning I skipped breakfast so that I could save time and arrive in sunny, St. George before the day got too hot. I packed two water bottles and planed on refilling them and buying a snack at a gas station that was about 30 miles away. I got to the gas station before it was open and had to settle for hose water from a nearby house. I hoped that the water coming out of the hose was potable. You never know in farming communities and rural areas. Sometimes the water comes from a ditch or worst, but I had no choice. I had worked up a good, hard sweat riding up, over a mountain pass with two more passes in front of me. It did not occur to me at the time that sweat is not just water, it is water, sodium, potassium and several other minerals that bodies need to function.

My friend Chad and I rode together to the beginning of the next hill. His stomach was upset due to his breakfast. For a while, I was glad I had not eaten. I was feeling good, so I took off, leaving Chad to work on the hill alone. By the time I got to the top I could not see Chad anywhere. I waited at the top for about five minutes then left to go down the steep road to the bottom of the last climb, Veyo Hill. By the time I got to the bottom of Veyo, I was feeling weak and light headed but didn't think much of it. At the top of Veyo, I hit a wall. I could not pedal even one more time. I pulled over to the side of the road, awkwardly fell off my bike onto the gravel and within minutes was seeing purple dragons coming out of the bushes toward me.

Veyo hill is a painful part of the St George Marathon. 

I was hallucinating, cold, disoriented and nauseous. When Chad came by ten minutes later, his gastric difficulty had passed and he was feeling great. I told him I would need a ride to even move in any direction. Since my wife was meeting me in St. George to drive us home, I had her drive to my location. I think Chad continued down the hill to finish the ride. It took ten minutes to stuff my bike into the back of my 4Runner, a task which should have taken two. I was light headed every time I stood up for the next 36 hours, and I wanted to quit riding forever.

Glycogen

Carbohydrates are converted to glycogen stores then to glucose before being used by the rest of the body. The two most common storage reservoirs are muscles for muscle use and the liver for use in the rest of the body. Complete glycogen depletion from extended endurance exercise is called "hitting the wall." There are four ways that hit can be forestalled.

1. An athlete can consume carbohydrate calories before the endurance event to "top off" glycogen stores and during the event to replenish the depleted stores. The latter is difficult because body processes are limited on how fast they can convert carbs to glycogen to glucose. 
2. An athlete can train her body to burn a higher ratio of fat to glycogen.
3. The body can be trained to increase intramuscular stores by going through processes of depleting and carb loading.
4. Heart, lungs and muscles can become more efficient through training thereby requiring less glycogen to cover the same distance.

In an effort to quicken the carb digestion process, some formula companies, like Twin Labs, have developed nutritional drink additives with multiple sugar sources that are supposed to allow the body to process a higher amount of total carbs and thus replenish glycogen reserves sooner. 

The hallucinations I experienced were due to complete glycogen depletion in my liver and muscles. My body was then looking to my brain for additional glycogen. It is a scary thing that I don't want to experience again.

Strategy

Glycogen strategy is essential to any endurance event. I calculated that the day I biked Lotoja, a 206 mile, single day event, I burned around 14,000 calories. Of the 14,000, I believe my glycogen stores were the equivalent of 4000 calories. This left a 10,000 calorie deficit to try to intake throughout the day. I knocked out 2500 calories the morning before I got on my bike. From then on it was a race to pound calories all day. 

Lighter people have a huge glycogen advantage in endurance racing. That is why the average tour rider is scalpel skinny. They don't even do pushups for fear of any gain in grams. If they have to push more weight up a hill, they will burn through glycogen faster.

Rasmussen was winning the tour before testing positive for drugs.

Frank Schlesk, useless in a street fight, but he sure can ride.

As part of the strategy for endurance events, it is wise to train your digestive tract to fully function during athletic exertion. It is easier to do during a bike event than a run event. When my marathon running wife went with me on her first 100 mile bike ride, she was shocked at how much I and everyone else ate at the lunch stop. I pounded a large hoagie sandwich, two bags of chips and two large cups of full sugar coke. The most she had ever consumed during a marathon was a few gels, an occasional orange slice and Gatorade. A long distance runner should never say, "hate to eat and run." The opposite is a matter of event survival. 

I make my own gel concoction to be consumed during events that last up to eight hours. It has the advantages knowing every ingredient and it is a lot cheaper than factory produced gel packs. If you know me at all, you know I dig the second part. Here is the recipe:

• 1/2 C Brown Rice Syrup
• 1/2 C Honey
• 1/2 Banana pureed
• 1/2 tsp Salt 
• 1 TBS Molasses
• 1 TBS Hydrated Chia seeds
• 6 Dates pureed

Brown rice syrup contains both fast and slow burning carbs. Honey is about in the middle. The banana contains potassium and improves the flavor of about everything. Salt, sodium, the most important replenish requirement. Molasses contains glucose, fructose, raffinose and other polysaccharides. It also contains potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium. Pretty cool, right? The the hydrated chia seeds are fluid sponges that ease water absorption and the dates are yummy superfood. 

When I feel lazy and rich, I buy and consume factory-made gels. My favorites are anything by Hammer Nutrition and Chocolate Accel Gel. It tastes like chocolate ice cream, no kidding. It also contains a shot of caffeine which is the topic of another post. 

Electrolytes

Electrolye imbalances have several unpleasant results as indicated in the table below.

I like the article, Electrolytes: Understanding Replacement Options, by Shawn Dolan. The table above comes from his article.

Electrolyte replenishment for long endurance events is a serious matter. If you are the kind of person that leaves a salty residue on clothing after an hour of exertion, you need to be more serious. I am a sweater. I completely saturate baseball hats, shirts, and any hydration pack that I might be wearing when I go long. During super long events of more than 6 hours, once my sweat dries, my shirt can practically stand up by itself. My preferred replenishment method is spiked water and salt tables. There are many effervescent hydration tablets that do a great job. I like these as much as any others. You can find them cheap sometimes at Nashbar.com.

It will take time to learn how much electrolyte stuff to consume. I suppose there is some scientific way to figure it out, perhaps by taking blood and urine samples every few miles, but this is unrealistic for most of us. Go run or ride long, keep track of the temperature and what you are wearing and test. 

Please let me know how you beat heat, sweat and glycogen depletion by leaving a comment below.

Mountain Bike Equipment Tips 1.1

Equipment tips 1.1

Buy ergo grips. You will love them.

Want to save money on gloves and don't care about image, go to your local Harbor Freight, spend $11 on utility work gloves and you are in business. These are some of the best bike gloves I have ever owned.

Egg beaters are the best. You will always come out of your pedals when you want to and never when you don't. They are one of the only pedal/cleat combinations that work great in muddy conditions.

CO2 cartridge pumps are light, small and convenient. You can carry one in your saddle bag. The only downside is that you will be paying about three dollars per inflated tire. It is worth it to avoid a lot of time pumping. You are out there to ride, not to have a zen moment with rubber, air and moving a piston with your arm 150 times.

Bandanas are great. Used as a helmet liner, they delay sweat flow to your face. They can be used to clean stanchion tubes after a ride, and can be used if you forget tp, and oh, are they stylish depending on the age of the rider.

Tech fiber clothing gets perma-stink after a while. Sweat stink molecules and bacteria are able to hide in the tight fiber of the tech fabric. Soap and hot water don't have a chance. People have suggested and I have tried about everything from borax to peroxide to freezing my clothing. Bleach works best for me. Every 10 rides or so, it helps to bleach your clothing. It makes clothing fade faster, but you are not trying to win a fashion show anyway...unless you are a roadie.

Don't spend money on stuff that does not have a clear advantage. A $75 pair of bike shoes will do everything a $300 pair of shoes will do. Comfort is one of the only considerations.

                                     $75                                                             $300

That goes for helmets too. The difference between a $25 Walmart helmet and a $250 is ventilation, sometimes comfort and style. The safety is about equal. If you don't mind sporting the Bell or Schwinn label, save your money. 

$25

$250

If you have any equipment tips, please leave a note below. I will include them in 1.2

Gooseberry Mesa

Not much can beat Gooseberry Mesa. I prefer a few trails in Fruita Colorado and Gooseberry's less famous sister mesa, Little Creek, but other than that, it is better than anything Moab or anywhere else I have ever ridden has to offer. The incredibly rugged and beautiful, mostly slick rock terrain makes for epic riding. The ride is a 5 out of 5 on the technical scale and about a 3 out of 5 on the aerobic scale. It requires constant focus, all of your bike, all of your skill and a lot of experience and muscle. It can be ridden all year round but with difficulty December through February. I have ridden it every month of the year and have only been turned away once due to too much snow on the road.

The trail is marked with white and green spray paint marks to show the path. The marks can be trusted. In fact, deviations from the path, though allowable, can prove to be anywhere from difficult to dangerous. 

Treachery

My wife has forbidden me from taking newbies or unknowns to Gooseberry. The ban started when I took a new guy in my neighborhood who owned a Lightspeed, full suspension, titanium mountain bike. With a bike like that, he had to be a rider, or so I thought. Turns out he was a roadie who had money to burn and wanted to ride occasional trails, and he overspent. Within a half mile of starting the trail he had fallen six times. He was riding high in the saddle like roadies do and could not manage the complicated, unforgiving undulation. On his last fall, he broke his wrist. Welcome to the neighborhood, buddy.

The second incident was a broken toe. The third was a broken rib, and the worst one was a dislocated shoulder. I took an experienced friend, my 14 year old son and a very athletic couple, Bill and Sonny. Within the first half mile, Bill wisely evaluated the trail and concluded that it was too much for him. He opted to go back to the car. The rest of us went on and had a great ride until we got to an obstacle in the hidden canyon portion of the trail with an enormous penalty. Mountain bikers say that an obstacle has a high penalty if the cost of not nailing it would result in pain or breakage. My friend and I had done the obstacle before and had told my son and Sonny that they would need a lot of momentum in order to clean it. My son opted out and Sonny decided she was going to try it. She made it about 7/8 the way up a very steep bowl, fell backward and sideways, tried to catch her fall with her forearm and pop. She was writhing in pain holding her shoulder which was now a lot closer to her collar bone than it had been. My son and friend stayed with her, and I high-tailed it out of there to bring a vehicle in as close as I could. While I was gone, two off duty paramedics happened on the same trail section within a minute of my leaving. They laid her down in a rock, moved her arm and pop, it went back in. We were able to drive Bill's SUV to within 500 meters of her location. She walked out and Bill drove her to the hospital.

I carry a larger than average first aid kit in my pack and have patched up a lot of people on the trail. It is not for beginners and I wait to take my kids until they prove they are proficient in certain skills.

Other than that, I have left blood and skin all over the trail. I have unintentionally taken home cactus spines and gravel that I couldn't remove from my skin while on the trail. If it is that treacherous, why do I go back?

Trail Perfection

I have ridden a few times with Quentin and make it a point to visit his shop on the way to the trail

This is a particularly juicy section. You can see the white dot in front of the rider's tire then further up the rock. For me, it takes the right gear, balance, torque and line to clean it from bottom to top. For better riders, it is no big deal. 

Unless you ride a lot, I don't see how you can understand the draw Gooseberry is for so many riders. The fact is, even with cactus spines, scrapes, cuts and bruises, there is serious elation. I will try to be a little zen here. Unless you are Quentin Morrisette, owner of Over The Edge bike shop who treats it like his own little fun house, Gooseberry requires every bit of your bike, brain and body. If you lose concentration for a second, you could end up at least sprawled out over the landscape and maybe impaled or broken. 

    Quentin's first rule of biking with him, "Don't follow Quentin." Good advice.

Because the trail requires all three, bike, brain and body, to the nines, there is a high level of satisfaction when they all work perfectly to get you over a difficult section. Multiply that by a few hundred sections and you get serious elation, not to mention the brain chemistry I mentioned in another post. If you want to get the best tour of Gooseberry possible, go with Quentin on one of his rides there. Just don't follow his line. 

Cool Plant Life

All year round you can break off a piece of Brigham Tea (Ephedra nevadensis) and chew on it during your ride. It has been used for 5000 years to reduce cold symptoms and seasonal allergies. It is reported to be good for asthma, arthritis, it is a bronchial dilator and on and on.  The ephedra in it seems to have a stimulant effect that might boost you at the end of a ride. 

Few things can beat the kiwi-like flavor of prickly pear cactus fruit. You can find it all over the mesa from late September to through October. During that time, I take a pocket knife to cut spines off and peel the outside away. 

Cool Wildlife

As I have ridden the mesa, I have seen (and in the case of the first, almost run over) desert tortoises, rattlesnakes and one of the biggest mule deer I have ever seen. There are spiders, hawks, occasional eagles and lots of rodents. 

The views of Zion National Park are amazing. 

Go there, but be warned. It could end up being a day that ends in the emergency room. And under no circumstances should you ever take your significant other or good friend or in-law until you are confident they can ride it. 

Utahmountainbiking.com has a great description of the ride, where trails intersect and how to get there. 

Mountain Biking 101.1

In case you were wondering, this video will help you understand mountain biking. After the video, I give my own analysis.




Mountain biking is one of the best exercises you can do. It is far safer than road biking in that there is a much lower possibility of death. Unlike running, it is gentle on joins and feet. It does not get much better.

In the interest of full disclosure, I do need to state that I have had the following experiences:

1. I separated my shoulder while trying to cut a tree in half. It did not require surgery.
2. I was unable to drop off a ledge because of a rattle snake that was in the way.
3. I have endo'd multiple times.
4. I have hit my head so hard that I nearly passed out.
5. I have been dehydrated to the point of suffering chills in 90 degree weather.
6. I have hit my shin with my pedal so many times I have permanent scars.
7. I have had my calf impaled by a chain ring.
8. I have bled, been bruised, scraped, poked, jabbed and smacked more times than I can count.
9. I have taken a handle bar to the chest and have had trouble breathing for several days.
10. I have been impaled by a very large cactus. 

That said, the trade off is more than worth it. Here are ten rules for mountain biking that will help avoid some of the pitfalls and increase success.

1.  Power is safer than timidity. People get in trouble when they are timid, hesitate and go too slowly. 

2.  When you are going down a steep hill, only feather your front brake. If it is really steep, do not use your front brake at all. If you do, you will endo for sure.

3.  Take kids frequently and remember, it is all about them. This will pay off in the moment and later.

4.  When a kid crashes hard, get them back on the bike again as soon as possible.

5.  Go with good friends. Focus on them and the riding will take care of itself.

6.  Enjoy the scenery.

7.  Go with people that ride better than you do and try to keep up.

8.  Spend as much time with your cute wife as possible. Make her riding experience as good as possible.

9.  Don't shift when your chain is torqued. Anticipate the need to shift and shift while you are free spinning.

10. There is no need to wear a kit, shave your legs, have a cool jersey, have carbon soled shoes, wear the right sunglasses or have an expensive helmet. Just put on some shorts, a T shirt, then go grip and rip. There is no need to be this guy:

I will continue the list later. This should get you started; now go ride!