Training

In December of 2010 I left the startup company I had worked at for several years in order to take a long over-due sabbatical. One of my goals for the time off was to focus on some of the sporting events I had in mind for the year, such as the Ironman 70.3 triathlon in April, and one of the week-long bicycle tours in Colorado during the summer. On a whim, I signed up for the Leadville Trial 100 MTB race about that time and was quite surprised when I made it passed the lottery in February.

For a while, I wasn’t really sure I was going to be able to do the race at all. I am primarily a road cyclist, and I hadn’t ridden a mountain bike in almost two years when I signed up. I knew Leadville wasn’t considered a very technical course, but in reality my technical skills were at the neophyte level and there just wasn’t the opportunity to do challenging climbing where in live in Texas. There are plenty of technical, twisty courses to ride in, but nothing with sustained, hard climbs. Even in the Texas hill country where the terrain changes to be rocky with lots of short, steep hills, the experience would not be anything like the Leadville course.

So from January through April I focused primarily on the 70.3 race. Cycling was my strongest sport, that received only basic attention while the swim and run occupied the rest of my training time. I wasn’t worry about having enough endurance or strength to train and finish the Leadville race after the 70.3, at least not at that time.

The 70.3 event did not go great. I have reoccurring issues with under-fueling for big events, and I ran smack into that early in the 70.3. After my swim wave had finished and I got on the bike, I felt sluggish and low on energy. I almost dropped out of the race then, but I stopped, ate a ton of fuel, and got back out there. It took 2 hours longer than I had planned to finish the course, but I did, although that did not give me great confidence on my ability to fuel myself through an 8-12 hour long event at race pace like Leadville.

After the 70.3 I focused primarily on road cycling training with power, building a stronger base for the Leadville specific training. I kept an eye out for mountain bikes, but at that point I still hadn’t even decided to buy one or that I was really going to do the race. In fact, after the 70.3 I spoke with the Leadville race organizers about dropping out, but they strongly encouraged me to go and give it a try.

About this time, I bought the movie Race Across the Sky about the 2010 Leadville 100 trace where Levi Leipheimer set a new course record. The movie was incredibly motivational – at first. When I started watching the movie, I had expectations that I would be able to finish the race near the 9 hour mark where you get the big gold belt buckle. After all, why not? My road biking that year had put me in great condition and I felt I could do it. After about 15 minutes of the movie I quickly changed my mind and decided the 12 hour mark would be a reasonable goal. By halfway through the movie I decided I would be happy just to finish, and by the end of it, I would be happy not to be carted away by ambulance.

As part of my time-off, I wanted to spend most of the summer in Colorado training and exploring. In mid-May, I left home for a road-rip out to Colorado. I meandered a bit and met some friends in Durango over the Memorial Day weekend for a great camping experience in the mountains. I also got plenty of chances to bike the US 550 “Million Dollar Highway” between Durango and Silverton for some intense training at altitude.

After the Durango trip, I made my way up to Grand Junction in order to bike the Colorado National Monument and then up and over Grand Mesa. I’ve biked these routes before and loved the scenery and the challenge they offered. Biking up Grand Mesa solo was a first for me. I was really happy that I was able to make it up there by myself without issue – it gave me confidence that my acclimation to the altitude and my climbing strength were improving nicely.

After Grand Junction I made my way to the Fraser Valley to visit with some friends there. My original plan for the summer was to rent a condo in the valley for a couple of months and do most of my training in the area.

One of the first things I did after arriving there was to take a mountain bike ride with my friend that lived there. I rented a cheap 26″ bike from one of the local shops and we went out for our first adventure. It was already a beautiful, early summer there, but the heavy snows of the season meant early June was still very much a muddy mess on the trails. A muddy mess can be fun, but it isn’t the best training material.

To make matters worse, my friend assumed my mountain biking skills were way beyond where they were at the time. This was my first time on a mountain bike in over 2 years and I had never once ridden one on a true Colorado mountain trail. So, of course, he took me on a technically difficult trail. I wound up spending a great deal of the ride getting off the bike to climb over rock gardens and to avoid the treacherous descents. At some point, I knew I could handle these trails, but as a first ride in a long time, it was extremely discouraging and didn’t help my desire to actually do the Leadville race.

After spending another week in the valley I realized my vacation budget had been blown for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was an unexpected and expensive repair on my truck I was using for the trip. It was enough to help me decide that riding Leadville wasn’t a great idea and that I should go ahead and head towards home and start looking for another job in time for the fall. No doubt, I was looking for excuses…

It wasn’t a great feeling making that decision, and leaving beautiful Colorado for a scorched and parched Texas felt even worse. Once I made it home, my enthusiasm for my workouts waned and I had a bad attitude about looking for jobs to begin with, but I knew I needed to start it.

About that time another friend in the Fraser Valley emailed me out of the blue to encourage me to do the Leadville race regardless of the cost. It was quite a surprise to get that email from her, as it was a bit out of character for her to email me on that kind of topic. But, she made some great points in that email, not the least of which that this was a great opportunity and the few thousand dollars one way or the other would not make a big difference in my life, but the experience of the race certainly would.

I made a deal with myself right then. If I could find a great job that either let me work remotely or that let me start after the race I would head back to Colorado and focus intensely on Leadville and enjoy the experience. At this point, it was mid-June and with only 2 months before race day I knew it would be a huge challenge getting the training and mountain bike time in that I needed.

By early July, I had found a job that would let me start after the race so I made my decision and bought the mountain bike I decided I would need for the race – a Specialized Epic Comp 29er. I at least was reasonable about the purchase and did not splurge on the carbon fiber versions of the bike.

Disaster struck in one of my first training rides, however. I was riding in Houston’s Memorial Park, in some of the moderately technical trails they have there. These trails have tons of short, steep 5′ to 10′ high hills with large roots and stumps to maneuver around. After about 90 minutes into one of my workouts, and about the point where I was getting tired and sloppy, I hit a root without enough speed so the bike stopped. To keep from falling over I clipped out and put my foot down, but I landed wrong and it immediately twisted on me as I fell. I heard a horrible sounding double-crunch and thought that I had broken my foot. It didn’t hurt very much, though, so I gingerly got back on the bike and cruised out of the park, only to have the pain intensify over the next several hours.

After a day it was clear I needed to head to the doctor, who got me in a few days later. At this point the pain was rather intense so I assumed my race chances were over. But he had good news for me – it was just a sprain and it was already healing well. He encouraged me to wear an ankle brace and keep riding immediately as the physical effort would help the healing.

Time was running out, so I knew if I was going to do this race I had to get my act together and get back out to Colorado with as much time as I could spare. In the end, I didn’t make it there until the first of August, leaving just under two weeks of training before the race. That would be enough time for a reasonable acclimation process to begin, and enough time to ride some of the Leadville course, but not enough time to really improve my mountain biking skills. I was hedging on the hope that the Leadville course was not all that technical and that it wouldn’t prove a challenge to me from that perspective.

I had some fantastic training rides once I got back to Colorado. I rented a condo in Winter Park and used that as my base of operations. One of my favorite rides during this time was the ride up to the top of Rollins Pass from the Winter Park side. This is an old unimproved road that lead to a railway station at the top of the pass. It’s passable with any 4×4 and a passenger car with enough clearance and driven properly, so it makes an easy mountain bike trail, other than the altitude. But a road like that lets you push the effort strongly as the grade is shallow enough that you can push the speed up without getting into the red zone too quickly.

I did this training route twice, and enjoyed it immensely both times. On the second attempt I went with my friend who lived in the valley and we had a blast getting to the top. On the way down we both bombed down the road, especially me as the full-suspension bike I had gave me a lot more capability going downhill. But, it doesn’t make the bike invincible, as I found out when I smacked into an old drainage pipe, dented my rear wheel, and flatted.

Early in the week before the actual race, my friend and I drove over to Leadville itself for a scouting ride on the race course. We started where the course transfers from pavement to the dirt just outside of town, and did the St. Kevin’s climb, Sugarloaf Pass, and then the Powerline descent. The descent down Powerline is considered the most dangerous part of the race, so it seemed a very smart idea to get some experience on that technical section of the course.

The ride went fantastic. The St. Kevin’s climb was steep, hot, dusty, but relatively short. The gradient was such I could get a good strong cadence going without redlining too frequently. I didn’t know what to expect from the crowd on race day, but I felt like that climb wouldn’t do me in.

The climb up Sugarloaf Pass was a different experience. It was much more like the climb up Rollins Pass road that I had done the previous week, but grew more technical towards the top. It was rocky, with a gentle grade, and a lot of opportunity to go relatively fast.

At the top, things got more interesting. The dips and climbs leading up to the actual Powerline descent began to get more technical and were a new experience for me. We were going fast and it was very easy to get air and lose control without realizing it. I had to back off quite a bit and control my speed more diligently so I could take the technical turns and twists without careening into a tree or off a ledge.

The actual Powerline descent was an amazing experience. It was both easy and hard. The actual obstacles were minor, and bike handling wasn’t a huge problem, other than making sure your speed was controlled so you didn’t go flying off the line; the hard part was picking the line. With all the ruts in the road it was very easy to get trapped and one and either crash or get stuck. I went down a lot slower than my friend but felt it was something I could handle on race day, as long as people weren’t going too crazy around me.

It was now Tuesday and I had the rest of the week to taper, eat constantly, and get mentally ready for the big event. I felt I was ready, I felt I could do it, and I was really looking forward to the experience. If nothing else, the land around Leadville is amazingly beautiful Colorado high country, and worth the experience just to see more of it.

Pre-Race

The day before the race all the racers are required to gather in Leadville for a pre-race briefing and packet pickup. The briefing was covered quickly in the movie I watched, so I had an idea of what to expect, but it was a great experience seeing Ken, the race founder, speak to the crowd and get everyone motivated.

After the end of the pre-race briefing there was a follow-up briefing for first-timers. Here’s where I learned just how little I had actually prepared. The presenter talked about several parts of the course I hadn’t experienced. The Columbine Mine climb I knew about, of course, and knew it would be the hardest part of the race given the long climb and altitude involved, but what I didn’t know about was a section called “Little Stinker.” The presenter asked how many of has hadn’t ridden that part of the course, and the few dozen of us that raised our hands gave him pause to how unprepared we might be. As he described, and I later found out, “Little Stinker” is an extremely steep hill that requires quite a leap of faith to get down, even though it is not a very technical descent.

That night I did everything I could to eat well and get tired and ready for the race the next day. I had difficulty sleeping most of that year, and being nervous for a big sporting event always killed my ability to relax and get to bed. That night wasn’t much of an exception, but I did get about 5 hours total before waking up at 4am to have breakfast and head over to Leadville from Frisco, where I was staying.

Race Day

I got to Leadville before dawn and made my way to the starting line with the rest of the racers. It was an expectedly cold morning, about 40ºF, but nothing unexpected. I really wanted to avoid any nutrition issues on this race, given its length, so I made sure to drink sports drink for the hour or so before the race start.

My nutrition plan on the day seemed solid. I had made a couple of multi-hour bottles of Hammer Nutrition’s Perpetuem fuel, and would use that as my constant, primary fuel source. I had additional bottles prepped with my support crew at the various aid stations. I also had solid food with me, such as energy bars, sports gummies, and a few other things. I would eat as much as I could stand early on during the race, as I’d never reached the point of puking during a race, but I have bonked many times.

As the sun started to rise and the number of races in line continued to grow, the excitement and nervousness of the crowd was palatable. I didn’t feel that nervous; I felt well-trained, well-prepared and I had ridden some of the course. What could go wrong?

We started right on time, but it took about 3 to 5 minutes after the starting gun for my group to get to the starting line. I started about two-thirds of the way back in the field, thinking that would be the best place for me to be given my goal finishing time.

The ride through town was downhill, fast, and quite cold. A spectator had dropped a large American flag in the middle of the road and the entire field had to slow down and maneuver around it. This entire section of the race was great fun, but crowded enough there wasn’t much opportunity to gain a lot of position. I pushed my self a bit hard here just to warm up; by the time we reached the edge of town and went off road, the temperature had dropped to below freezing and I was shivering with the lack of body heat and the fast ride downhill.

Once we hit the dirt, things got a lot more interesting. There is a bit of a bottleneck as we turn off the main road, but everyone expected that and were polite about making room for each other. What did make this section challenging was the huge dust crowd that was being thrown up by the riders in front of us. They warned us about this during the pre-race briefing, but I neglected to bring a bandana to breath through. It was a complete mess. It was hard to see more than a dozen yards ahead of you and you could feel the dirt sticking to your nose and mouth, and no doubt your lungs were filling up with dust.

Luckily that section is short and we began the climb of St. Kevin’s quickly. I was surprised to find that the group of riders I was with took this hill much slower than I did on my scouting ride. In fact, it was impossible to push it and gain any position here as the crowd was too thick. I decided to lay back a bit, go as fast as conditions would allow without panicking, and save my energy for further in the race.

Once we reached the top of the climb, I was able to push the pace quite a bit more as I found a gap through a large group of riders. The trail that lead from the top of St. Kevin’s over to road around Turquoise Lake was fast, relatively easy, and had plenty of room to pass slower riders if needed. What I did find, however, is that I was busy enough that I didn’t have time to take in solid food in this section, or on the climb up St. Kevin’s. I kept drinking my Perpetuem fuel bottle and hoped that was enough energy for me later in the race.

Once we reached the road around Turquoise Lake, I was able to fly and gain a few minutes on the group around me by taking some risks on the descent down the road. I love descending fast on a road bike, but the mountain bike proves quite a bit more challenging, but the same principals apply. But, of course, what goes down must go back up, and about halfway through the road section of this course we had a long, steady climb to make. I got into a steady climbing cadence and kept the pace moderate, so I didn’t go red before the dirt climb up Sugarloaf Pass which was just around the corner.

Once we reached the dirt, I found it a bit easier to bring the pace up a bit. The grade may have been slightly less steep than the paved section, actually. But, I also started to feel a bit low energy so I took the time to eat an energy bar and a gel in this section. At this point in the race, the sun started to warm the sky, and the long, steady climb up the mountain started to make me feel a bit uncomfortable with wearing my jacket, but I didn’t want to take the time to strip it off then.

Towards the upper section of the Sugarloaf Climb, I really started to feel the race taking its toll on me, and so early! I slowed down a bit and ate some more, hoping it would kick in and knowing the climb wasn’t all that much longer, and the fun Powerline descent was just ahead.

Finally reaching the Powerline descent and heading down was a great milestone in the race. I knew now that the race would be mostly flat and relatively easy until the climb up to Columbine Mine. But what surprised me was just how much the crowd ahead of me kept me from going down Powerline at the pace I wanted. It was practically impossible to pass with the group I was in – although I did see one guy pass us in one of the large ruts that he expertly managed to fly out of at the end without crashing. The descent was a lot slower than I wanted, but I knew it was only going to be a couple of minutes delay, tops, so there was nothing to do but hang on and ride a clean descent, rather than taking crazy risks passing several people at once.

After the end of Powerline I was in unchartered territory. I hadn’t pre-ridden this section of the course and I had only a general idea of what to expect based upon the movie and reading the race materials. The road section out of Powerline was fast but surprisingly hard given the winds of the day. I stayed with a couple of pace-lines for as long as I could, but I quickly discovered I had pushed it too hard solo trying to catch up to one of the groups and I couldn’t hold the pace any longer. Instead of a good, solid 20 mph pace-line into the wind, I fell back to about 15 mph solo.

Soon we reached the dirt again, and with that the Pipeline aid station. My race plan had me skipping this aid station and heading onto the Twin Lakes aid station, so I went through here without stopping for any good or water – I still had plenty on me.

The race course after Pipeline was quite a surprise to me. I expected more road, but instead there was a lot of gravel road and plenty of single track to contend with. Some of single track was great fun, but I quickly found myself behind another large group of riders with no real way to pass. It’s hard to know how much this section cost me in time – probably no more than 5 minutes – but it was frustrating as I saw the clocking ticking for the first time in the race.

When I finally reached the Twin Lakes aid station I was exhausted and ready for a break, and ready for a whole lot of food. But, I knew I didn’t have time, and I was already pushing the 12-hour race plan right to the edge. I reached the aid station right at the 3hr 30min mark. The CTS staff at the aid station was stellar – they had all of my gear organized and brought me exactly what I needed with no delay. I think I was out of the aid station within a couple of minutes, tops, and I took that long just to grab and eat some extra food.

Now, it was finally time for the Columbine Mine climb. I knew this was a brutal climb, but I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t expect it to be too hard until above the tree-line. My training had taken me that high before already in the state, and it wasn’t much a problem for me, despite being from sea-level. What I encountered though, was a much harder climb, much earlier than I expected.

Interestingly, right about the time I started the climb is when the lead group was heading down the mountain, wow! That’s both an amazing, motivating feeling, and also a hint and just how slow you are compared to that level of rider.

The lower section of the Columbine Mine climb is a relatively well-groomed gravel road without many large boulders in the way, but the grade was rather steep. After about an hour of climbing, I was exhausted. I started to feel bonk-ish, even though I never really went all the way there. The steepness of the grade and the length of the race so far had taken their toll on me and I was finding it hard to push the pace. For the first time, riders started to pass me en masse.

About the 5hr 30min mark in the race, and around 10,500 ft of elevation, I couldn’t handle riding anymore and I jumped off the bike to walk for a while. I knew a lot of people walked up the Columbine Mine climb – but I didn’t expect that to happen so far down the climb. It was rather demoralizing to be getting off the bike at this point, and for a few minutes I thought of throwing in the towel. Luckily, I knew better, and Ken’s great pep-talk the day before at the race briefing made it clear giving up wasn’t an option.

Up and up I climbed. Around the point we reached the tree-line, there was Ken on an ATV giving the riders pep talks and help. One woman ahead of me needed water and Ken gave her some. He cheered on a few riders and when it was my turn, he said something to me that made me laugh out loud and motivated me a bit, at least for a few minutes. He said: ‘”you built all those muscles, now its time to haul them up this mountain!” A great, positive thing to say given I’m sure at the time I looked rather disheartened and exhausted.

After the tree-line the climb got serious. It was a true unmaintained jeep trail, with plenty of large, loose boulders to get in the way and maneuver around. And, of course, the most challenging part being that you now had two-way traffic on the road, so the uphill riders to really watch themselves and not get in the way of anyone speeding down the mountain.

On and on the climb continued. As far as the eye could see there were riders walking up the road. Every time I’d see a ridge thinking that was the peak of the climb, I’d see over it and find that the road was a whole lot longer than I’d imagine. The section above tree line was simply long, brutal and difficult. I was out of energy, I couldn’t eat and drink enough to make a difference, and the thin air made it neigh impossible to sustain any effort for any length of time. I tried several times to climb back up on the bike only to get back off after a couple of minutes.

Towards the top of the Columbine Mine climb the road flattened out and then began a short descent before peaking up at the aid station. I got on the bike here and made sure I rode all the way to the aid station on pedal power instead of walking. Once I got there, I immediately downed some hot noodle soup they had waiting for us – that was absolutely the most perfect thing I could have had after being so drained. It warmed me, the salt was desperately needed and it just tasted wonderful after a full 7 hours on the bike.

I sat there for 15 or 20 minutes, pondering my fate. I was really happy having reached the top of Columbine Mine, but the race was only half over. It took me 7 hours to reach the top, and unless I could pick up the pace for the remainder of the race I wouldn’t make the 12 hour cutoff time for a belt buckle. I could still make the race cutoff time, so I pulled my sore body up off the chair and decided to head down as fast as I could.

The descent down Columbine was fast and easy. I knew I wasn’t 100% in the best mental state at the time, so I didn’t go too crazy above the tree-line, and there were still plenty of riders still climbing up the mountain. But, once I reached the tree-line I found myself alone. No one else was climbing up and no one was around me descending, either. I had the entire ride down the mountain to myself, except for a couple of people I passed in the middle sections. That also gave me a clue on just how far back in the field I was – the riders that would have still been climbing hadn’t made the previous time cutoff.

When I reached the Twin Lakes aid station again the CTS crew was again super helpful, but when I asked them if there was any chance of hitting 12 hours they gave me the bad news. At that point, my heart wasn’t in the race anymore, but I still wanted to try and finish. But, I was exhausted, sore, dehydrated, hot, and felt a bit ill. I did get back on the bike after just a minute delay and began the ride back to the Pipeline aid station. Here, I had supplies waiting for me and if I could make that cutoff, I could probably finish the race.

This section of the race course was hot and I was by myself for a lot of it. I found a few riders here and there, but not many. I found myself not able to push the pace for very long at all. At the relaxed pace I could hold, I knew I’d never make the time cut-off at Pipeline. But, I kept pushing myself despite the sense of impending doom.

There’s not much to say about this section of the race – I went slow, and it was familar terrain after having ridden it earlier in the day. The one section that was amusing was the “Little Stinker” hill – seeing it from the downhill side made me wonder how on earth anyone could actually bike up it, even though I know people do. I hopped off the bike and even found the hike back up brutally hard. After though, I knew I was close to Pipeline and I looked at the time and realized I still might have a chance of making the cut off. I pushed the pace as hard as I could handle without going into the red, and made sure I kept taking in fluids and fuel so I could try and keep ahead of myself.

In the end, though, I didn’t make the time cut off; I missed it by only 15 minutes. I realized then how many opportunities I really did have to make up that time earlier in the race. If I had lined up in a faster group at the start, if I had been able to fly down Powerline, if I had been able to stick with the pace lines on the road sections, if I had been able to stay on the bike longer on the Columbine Mine climb, and if I hadn’t rested so long at the time – any of that may have made the difference.

When the race folks stopped me at the cut-off they expected the riders to be distraught. And, indeed, the riders around me were quite upset. I can understand why, that’s a lot of effort and time to put into the race only to have it end at the 70 mile mark. I had made my peace with that a long time ago, and frankly I was ready to be off the bike. I asked if they had any beer for me and that brought some laughter out of everyone.

At the aid station I took in what little food and drink they had left – they were busy shutting it down at that point and waited for my ride to pick me up. Several other riders asked me if I just wanted to ride to town with them, but by then I had no interest in getting back on the bike. Cooked does not describe the feeling.

In the end, I rode 70 miles in 9 hours 15 minutes, with about 8 hours and 50 minutes being actual riding time.

Not finishing the race was of course disappointing, but the race was so much more epic than I expected that really I was just happy to be there. I enjoyed the experience immensely. There was so much I learned from the race and how I performed. Most importantly, I found I enjoyed a mountain bike race more than even most of the road races I have been in before. Mountain bikers seem just a whole lot more laid back than roadies.

I hope to race Leadville again. I’ve already signed up for the 2012 race lottery, and I’m really hoping I’ll get a chance again so soon. I’m moving to Colorado in 2012, so I’ll have more time in the mountains to train, and with more focus on training for that race I’m confident I can finish and likely finish under the 12 hour mark. I think the 9 hour mark is still beyond my skill level, but maybe after a few more years of training I can improve enough to do so. Finishing this race under 9 hours is just very difficult.

One big obstacle for me remains, though, and that is my nutrition. I consistently have problems with not fueling properly on longer races. It’s worse for runs, but it shows up on the bike too. I’ve tried for years to get past this issue with only a little bit of success. Despite lots of expert help, there’s still a lot I’m not doing right. I suspect until I figure this out, doing well at big races will always be just beyond my grasp.

In 2009, the picture was taken in late June, after a winter of relatively little snow. This year, the picture was taken in mid June, after a winter of very heavy snow and a long, cool spring.

It is also clear from the pictures just how low the reservoir level was this year compared to the past.

Taylor Reservoir in June, 2009

Taylor Reservoir in June, 2011

Clouds make for more awesome pictures.

Day 6 – Granby to Georgetown

My last day of the tour went rather well. After reading Ingrid’s description of her day 6, I am very glad I slept in and avoided all the bad weather. I usually wake up around 5am while camping, but hearing the rain and feeling the cold is a great motivator for not leaving the sleeping bag. I didn’t make it out on the road until almost 8am on Friday, and by that time the rain had stopped in Granby and I never had any more for the remainder of the ride. It was still rather cool, though – when I made it to Winter Park the local banks showed 44 degrees on their clocks, and the sun never really peaked out of its clouds for the rest of the day.

Day 6 was one of those days that looked rather intimidating in the route map booklet. Berthoud Pass is not small, and I had driven it several times the week before the ride. Based upon that, I assumed it was going to be the 2nd hardest climb of the entire tour. In reality, it turned out to be one of the easiest. According to my gadgets, the climb from where the pass begins in earnest, just pass the Robber’s Roost campground, was 6.3 miles with a 4.3% average grade, climbing a grand total of 1821 ft. That’s really rather mild compared to many of the other climbs we did. Granted, it doesn’t tell the full story, as a lot of the climb occurred from Winter Park to this section of the pass, but that was even a shallower grade.

Chad on Berthoud Pass

Regardless, I arrived at the top a lot sooner and a lot fresher than I had expected. It was certainly cold at the top, but thankfully the ride organizers had one of the motor coaches waiting at the top for us with the engine running to help riders warm up some. A nice hot coffee from the lovely ladies at Gypsy Crepes, followed by the obligatory picture of the pass sign, and then a relaxing warm-up in the bus was a great way to chill out after the climb.

The descent down from the pass was one of my favorites. I knew the road well from having driven it so much the week before, so I felt comfortable going full speed down. The several 15 mph switchback corners make great bike turns, especially with the gigantic shoulders that exist on this pass. The road quality, which seemed rather horrendous in my truck, was fine and mostly smooth on the bicycle. And then there was the reality that the descent was just plain fast, with little wind, little traffic, and really long. I barely had to work all the way down to the intersection with I-70 at Empire, and even after that the “climb” into Georgetown was really more of a gentle rolling road and was a great way to end the tour.

Day 5 – Steamboat Springs to Granby

Snow on Rabbit Ears Pass

My day 5, on the other hand, was not nearly as enjoyable as the last day. In fact, it was pretty clearly the one “bad” day of the tour I had. Granted, it started out fantastic with the climb up Rabbit Ears pass. I treated day 4 as an active recovery ride, and that plus a good yoga session left me in great condition to tackle that pass, especially since it started so early in the ride. My legs felt great, my energy levels were dialed in just right, and the altitude was relatively low so I was able to get into a climbing zone and hold it, all the way to the top. Looking back at my ride data, I can say with confidence that this was my best climb up a mountain ever. It was great fun, and the views at the top of the pass were fantastic. Lots of snow left, but it was melting so fast that all the streams in the meadows along the top were raging torrents.

The quality of the ride changed quite a bit once we began the descent off the pass. Instead of a lovely, fast descent, we encountered a rather stiff headwind. It really limited my downhill speed and frankly mostly ruined the I expected coming down off that pass. Perhaps that, plus the reality of 5 days in a row of hard work, put me in a bit of a cranky mood for what was to follow.

Towards the end of the descent, I hear a shout behind me about a rider passing – my first reaction was “yes!” since rarely had I noticed riders calling out if they do pass on a descent. What followed was a pace-line of 6 riders, going at least 40-45 mph (I was descending at 35). Descending in a pace-line is a rather dangerous and stupid behavior on a group ride, but what most surprised me was that in the back of the pace-line was a rider with OFFICIAL taped to his bag and helmet. He made the classic newbie-racer mistake of cutting back over to the right when he thought he was well clear of me. In reality, his rear tire brushed my front tire and nearly caused me to wipe out. I was pissed-off enough when this happened to me, but then I saw the same scene repeating itself for the next half mile of road, as the same group would continue to pass small groups and then cut sharply over to the right immediately in front of the riders they were passing. Incredibly reckless and negligent behavior on a group ride, especially from someone who should have known better – you can get away with that crap on a closed-course race circuit, but don’t do it on public roads with 2,000 other riders.

There’s an well-known truism in life that it is your own reaction to events that matter the most, not the events themselves. Certainly my reaction to the above incident put me in a foul mood for the rest of the ride. The strong headwinds didn’t help. The bad road conditions and heavy traffic on US40 didn’t help, either. But all of the normal little acts of rudeness and lack of courtesy from other riders seemed twice as bad as they normally would have. I really just did not have a good ride all the way to Kremmling. At the aid station here, I took time to chill out (a cookie is always a great de-stressor) and forget about the events that had transpired so I could focus on the rest of the ride. It helped knowing that the road direction was changing, and we were going to have a slight cross- and tail-wind for the remainder of the ride.

In fact, that rest of that day was fantastic. The trip to Granby was fast and scenic. The canyon near Hot Sulphur Springs was a joy to ride through, as all of those narrow, tall canyons tend to be. Granby itself was my least favorite town of the tour, but great beer was drunk, and good food was consumed, and all troubles were put aside.

Looking Back…

Despite the speed-bump on day 5, this year’s Ride the Rockies was my favorite bike tour to date. My training and fitness was the best I’ve done yet, and the few weeks of time I was able to spend at altitude before the ride clearly made a big difference for me. The views were stunning, especially of the Steamboat Springs area, which was a brand new part of the state for me.

There are still a few little things I think the ride organizers could do better. Having some basic medical supplies at each aid station is just a no-brainer. People forget sunscreen, lubricant and anti-inflammatories, or sometimes they just fall out of their pockets. Having a few of those things available, or even if some of the aid station vendors would realize they could sell these things, would really help out a lot of people that run into a situation where they need some. Likewise, even though the organizers do a good job pushing safety, clearly this message isn’t getting through to a lot of the riders, and the ride officials.

This post also appears on the Denver Post at http://blogs.denverpost.com/ridetherockies/2011/06/22/looking-back-on-ride-the-rockies-2011/1304

This part of the valley is incredibly scenic, with lots of beautiful countryside, ranches, and luxury homes in the hills to gawk at.

I had decided to make this ride a true recovery ride and keep my efforts to a bare minimum – the aching in my legs made this an easy decision. The first section of the route was slightly uphill, but these hills were small enough not to require too much effort. I also stopped a bunch of times when great ‘picture taking’ opportunities presented themselves. This certainly helped keep the ride effort low.

Just before the first aid station in Oak Creek, we had a long, but gradual climb to make. This was the longest climb of the day, but as we learned later, it was by no means the hardest. In fact, after leaving aid station 1 we had a long, and somewhat steep climb to make – I felt sorry for anyone who overate at the aid station pancake buffet and then had to make that climb.

View after leaving Oak Creek

Once we crested this big climb, we were given a great view of the countryside and a nice long descent towards one of the local mines along Twenty-Mile Road. At this point, the roads became to decend, and it was easy to make good time. We did have a couple of small climbs – a small ridge line separating us from Steamboat Springs in the distance.

The climbs over this ridge were surprisingly tough. They weren’t all that long, but the grades were rather steep. There were several 10-11% sections on a couple of the hills, even though I think the average grade for the entire climb was more along 7-8%. It was impossible to stay in the recovery zone on these hills, but I took it as easy as I could and just enjoyed the view.

Chad Climbing near Steamboat Springs

The remainder of the ride gave us scenic roads on the outskirts of Steamboat Springs, with the same great views of the ranches along the hillsides. This really was a great route for our ‘easy’ day. The distance could have been shorter, but it was nice to get an easy 50 miles in without feeling like it was taking a lot out of you.

Hopefully all that active recovery will make the climb up the very steep Rabbit Ears Pass tomorrow go well!

This post originally appeared on the Denver Post at http://blogs.denverpost.com/ridetherockies/2011/06/15/the-easy-day-at-steamboat-springs/963/

Not so much, as it turns out. The day started out fast and fun, with great weather, calm winds, and a nice mostly downhill ride out of Edwards. Once we hit Wolcott, the climbing began with a nice 1,000 ft climb and then a fast descent through Bond and then ending at McCoy where aid station 2 was located.

The bad news we heard about a rider crashing and later dying on a descent yesterday seemed to affect everyone I saw descending. There seemed to be a little reluctance to go as fast as the previous two days. It might have just been my own perception and awareness, but in general everyone seemed to be a lot more cautious than I have seen before.

After leaving aid station 2, we began the biggest climb of a day, a nice, long, winding climb along highway 131 heading towards Toponas. The terrain changed from high desert to a slightly more lush wide valley, with plenty of aspens and wildflowers to color the landscape along the way. This climb was really a lot of fun – the grade was just right, steep but not too steep, and it was long enough that you just needed to find your zone and keep the pedals turning.

There was a short descent after this hill towards Toponas, and this is where the trouble began. The mostly westwardly winds seemed to get stronger, and became a headwind for most of our route. The speeds coming into Toponas were much slower than I expected and once we reached aid station 3, we knew we were only halfway done with the day.

I took a long break at aid station 3, and indulged in some Nutella and banana crepes from one of the ride vendors. I’m sure it was an excessive amount of calories, probably more than I burned on the entire ride, but it was completely awesome and total worth it.

I wasn’t looking forward to the remainder of the ride, as we were going to have a headwind almost the entire way. But, I had a couple of guardian angels that showed up and made the next 20 miles amazing. A couple on a tandem that I had been hopscotching with all day passed me on a windy straight-away, and another rider and I latched on and used them as a nice, big windshield. I stayed with them until aid station 5, going at least 5-10 mph faster than I would have been able to maintain alone.

Stagecoach Reservoir

The Stagecoach Reservoir where aid station 5 was located is gorgeous, and frankly, so was the remainder of the ride coming into Steamboat Springs. This was my first time ever in this part of Colorado, and the first time to Steamboat Springs. The route through the lush valley coming into town was gorgeous, and hats off to whoever picked the route, and to making sure all the road obstacles were well marked. It remained windy, but luckily the downhill grade was enough to overcome it and I maintained a nice, fast pace coming all the way into town, even with the few rolling hills along the route.

This turned out to be my longest day in the saddle thus far at 5 hours and 45 minutes. I also wound up doing quite a bit more work than before too, pedaling out 2,977 kilojoules of work compared to 2,500 on the previous two days. Maybe that crepe wasn’t too many calories after all.

This post originally appeared on the Denver Post at http://blogs.denverpost.com/ridetherockies/2011/06/14/day-3-the-hardest-day/871/

I decided to skip breakfast at camp and opted for the famous pancake breakfast at the first aid station – this may have been a bad plan. The first 13 miles were the hardest of my day – moderate cross- and head-winds the entire way, and a gradual climb with no respite the entire way. Couple that with tired muscles from day 1 and it was a rough way to start out the day. I wasn’t the only one who felt this way – I heard lots of complaining along the way, and some short tempers compared to day 1.

The pancake breakfast hit the spot as it always does, and gave me enough energy to head directly to Leadville and bypassing aid station 2. The ride into Leadville was surprisingly easy compared to the first 13 miles. The road grade seemed more gradual, the winds miraculously died down completely, and the temperatures were perfect.

The road quality in this section was the main issue, as we had little to no shoulder and a sandy margin beyond that. Oh, and of course the altitude continued to creep up and we did a large part of this section over 9,000 ft, eventually reaching 10,200 ft in Leadville proper.

After a nice break in Leadville, it was time to leave town, go on a short, fast descent, and then make our way up Tennessee Pass. This climb was fantastic. The road grade was very gradual making the climb up to 10,424 ft a pretty easy one.

The descent down from Tennessee Pass was fast, mostly straight, with only a little road traffic to contend with. This descent ended too quickly though, and then it was time to climb Battle Mountain. At 59 miles into the ride, and the hardest climb of the day, this climb wore a lot of us out. It was much steeper than the other climbs up the day and the temperatures had warmed enough by then to make shedding clothes a necessity. The road was narrow, rough, and with lots of traffic, but the views were spectacular.

After Battle Mountain, we had a fast 15 mile descent into Minturn, followed by another descent along US 6 into Edwards. That section of US 6 was almost entirely downhill, but there was some occasional strong winds that made the descent quite a lot of work.

The overnight setup in Edwards is nice – maybe a bit more spread out than we’d like, but everything is nice and clean. I made sure to visit the yoga class this evening to help work out some kinks after a couple of hard days of riding. We’ll see how that helps with day 3 trip to Steamboat Springs!

This post originally appeared on the Denver Post at http://blogs.denverpost.com/ridetherockies/2011/06/13/windy-climbs-on-the-way-to-leadville/764/

Chad at the top of Cottonwood Pass

The weather looked perfect starting this morning so looked like a perfect opportunity to finally get a chance to see what this pass really looked like and how fun the descent would be.

Like everyone I talked to, this morning’s cold weather really made getting out of the tent and going difficult. I waited, as snug as possible, until the sun finally made it over the mountains before venturing out. I still managed to get on the road by 7:30am so not too much time was lost waiting.

Taylor Reservoir as seen from Cottonwood Pass

The ride down to Almont was amazingly fast, and a great way to start the day. Likewise, the ride through Taylor Canyon has great – perfect weather, gentle climbs, and little traffic to contend with. Once we made it over the Taylor dam we were blessed with one of my favorite sites in Colorado – the Taylor Reservoir with the mountains beyond it.

The climb up Cottonwood Pass itself was great fun. Even though it’s a dirt road, it’s in such good condition that there’s very little lost traction to contend with. The weather on the climb up was cool, but not too cold – perfect climbing weather. Even though Cottonwood Pass is one of the highest, the road grade coming from the Taylor Reservoir is rather gentle and makes the climb a lot of fun.

Granted, once the we cleared 10,000 ft it was really hard to keep the pace up as before. I got into a groove and kept it there, just happy to be there and enjoying the climb in great weather.

The best view of the day came just before reaching the stop of Cottonwood Pass by looking back down and being able to see the entirety of the pass road and the Taylor Reservoir in the distance.

And finally, the descent (but not before indulging in a quesadilla!) – fast, smooth, and a blast. Car traffic was well-behaved, it wasn’t raining, and the wind was mostly playing nice, with only a few big gusts to contend with.

Day 1 – what a gem.

This post originally appeared on the Denver Post at http://blogs.denverpost.com/ridetherockies/2011/06/13/day-1-what-a-gem/422/

Land's End as seen from the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway

The effects of the higher elevation on me are different than I would really have expected. Yes, if I jump right into it from sea-level, I’ll get the classic headaches and a bit of dehydration. But more surprising is how it effects my riding. I don’t see increased heart rates, and I don’t see a longer time to recover after a hard effort. What I do see, though, is a precipitous drop in power output compared to riding back home. After a season of training, that’s quite frankly annoying to see performance drop just because of a few little, er, massive mountains.

Still, it’s great fun climbing up these things, especially given back home in coastal Texas I can ride for 70 or 80 miles and see a grand total of 150 ft in elevation gain. Climbing 5,000 or more ft a day really lets you know your body had some hard work to do, and the feeling is incredible.

The high point of Rim Rock Rd in the Colorado National Monument

I’ve been lucky enough this spring to be able to spend some extra time in Colorado and do some of my favorite rides: Durango to Silverton, the Colorado National Monument, and a loop up Grand Mesa. These are amazing rides, especially so for someone like me who doesn’t live in the state and has few chances to ride them.

The first day of this year’s Ride the Rockies is the day I look forward to the most, thanks to Cottonwood Pass. I rode up Cottonwood Pass back in 2009 on another tour, and it was fantastic fun, despite the heavy rain, fog, and new freezing weather we had the entire way up. I didn’t get a chance to ride down into Buena Vista because the ride course was shut down, something I’m hoping to correct this year.

Garmin Edge 500, Garmin ForeRunner 310XT and CycleOps PowerTap CPU

Starting in February, 2010, I added a power meter to my cycling gadget list, and the ForeRunner proved a great partner to cycling with power, especially when compared to the PowerTap CPU unit that came with the power meter. I found the ForeRunner easy to use, accurate, and the integration with both Garmin Connect and the software solutions from TrainingPeaks more useful and easier to use than the other options.

In June, 2010, I rode the wonderful Ride the Rockies event in Colorado and used the ForeRunner 310XT to track the entire week of riding. One problem I discovered in an event like this is that the ForeRunner did not have enough onboard memory to store the entire week’s worth of riding. I discovered this before the trip and so I lugged a small netbook around with my camping gear just so I could download data after the rides. Not quite the best way to unplug on a holiday.

When Garmin announced the Garmin Edge 500 Cycling GPS
it looked like a great solution for use on my bike. Since it was cycling specific, it had a few more features designed for cycling, whereas the ForeRunner 310XT was definitely intended to be used for multi-sport activities. Since I’m always in need of a new gadget to play with, I went ahead and bought one and started using it for cycling in August, 2010.

I’ve found it to be as good as promised, but there still are times when the ForeRunner 310XT is a better choice. In the rest of this post, I’ll show you the various differences between the two devices and how one might be better than the other depending upon your circumstances.

Memory Capacity

As the memory limitation of the ForeRunner 310XT was the first thing that made me interested in the Edge 500, it’s good to start here. In my use, I’ve found the ForeRunner only has enough onboard memory to store between 24 and 36 hours of workouts – certainly not enough for a week long cycling tour. Garmin doesn’t provide specifications on how much actually memory is installed on this device, so it is a bit of a mystery to the actual capacity.

Meanwhile, the Edge 500 has 56.4 MB of flash based storage, at least according to my Mac’s view of it. I’ve got every cycling workout since I started using the Edge still stored on it – about 50 hours worth so far – and the device still has 48.7 MB of storage free! This is an amazing amount of usable storage and means even the most active cyclists will find they have room for months of data without issue. No need to take a laptop with you on holiday!

Advantage: Edge 500, handily.

Data Transfer

The data transfer mechanism is very different in the two devices. The ForeRunner 310XT uses a wireless ANT+ based data transfer mechanism, while the Edge 500 appears as a simple USB flash drive to your computer.

To exchange data between your computer and your ForeRunner 310XT you have to use a ANT+ dongle provided by Garmin that connects to your computer’s USB port along with a software application that provides drivers for the dongle. It works, and depending upon your computer configuration it is easily a setup-once-and-forget operation. You don’t need to plug in any more wires, and you just bring your ForeRunner 310XT within a few feet of the dongle and you are good to go.

In practice, though, this approach was not perfect. I found during my cycling holiday that a cheap netbook did not have enough CPU performance to reliably handle the data transfer job if it was not plugged into A/C power. That was a surprise and made downloading data from the ForeRunner a hassle during my trip, since I did not frequently have access to A/C power while camping out.

By comparison, the Edge 500 requires you to use a USB cable to physically plug the Edge 500 unit directly to a USB port on your computer. The Edge then shows up as USB flash disk, so once you are done you have to eject the device to prevent your computer from complaining.

Because the Edge 500 uses a direct USB connection, it is much more reliable and faster to do any data transfer than the ForeRunner 310XT. The USB cable is not really any more or less hassle than the ANT+ dongle, so you aren’t gaining a lot of advantage by having a wireless based data transfer mechanism.

Advantage: Edge 500, but just so.

Charging

Directly related to the data transfer mechanism is how the devices are charged. Both devices can be charged via a USB connection to a computer, or using a USB to A/C adaptor, which Garmin provides.

The primary difference here is that the ForeRunner 310XT requires a large binder-like clip that grabs onto the unit and touches two electrical connectors on the rear of the unit. Meanwhile, the Edge 500 simply uses the same USB connection for data transfer. This means a lot less bulk when traveling.

Garmin provides an excellent A/C adaptor system that includes several international wall-plug adaptors as part of their standard kit for both devices, so you’re set for all kinds of power scenarios.

Advantage: Edge 500.

Battery Life

How about battery life? Garmin says the ForeRunner 310XT’s battery life is up to 20 hours, and the Edge 500’s is up to 18 hours. In my experience these estimates are spot on. Both units battery life means you can get a few days worth of use before you need to recharge, but if you are traveling you should plan on bringing a charging solution with you.

The Edge 500 clearly consumes more power than the ForeRunner 310XT, and given that, Garmin provided more software features to help. The Edge 500 is very quick to auto power-off if it is not receiving any data, and this helps avoid unnecessary battery consumption if you’ve stopped to take a long break or after finishing a ride.

Advantage: ForeRunner 310XT, but just so.

Display

The display on each device is similar, but there are numerous small differences.

The ForeRunner’s display is covered in glass – which I dropped and broke once, resulting in an expensive repair bill – while the Edge’s display feels like a type of plastic, but I’m not 100% positive on that.

Display Comparison of Edge 500 and ForeRunner 310XT

Both units provide a high-contrast, easy to read display, with an optional backlight. Both units are exceptionally easy to see in outdoor light, although they are both prone to glare if the sun hits them at just the right angle – just like every other cycling computer I’ve ever used.

Each unit provides multiple pages of data, and multiple data items per page. The ForeRunner limits you to 4 data fields maximum per page, with 4 total pages, plus a workout specific page. Since the ForeRunner 310XT is a multi-sport device, each sport setting has its own independent set of customizable pages and data fields.

The Edge 500’s display is slightly taller than the ForeRunner’s, and as such you can have up to 8 data fields per page. This also means that for those pages with few fields, you can make certain key data items very large and easy to read. The Edge 500 limits you to 3 pages of data, with one additional page for workouts.

Advantage: neither. Both devices are champs with slight benefits to their intended audience.

Workouts

Another software feature that is different between the two units is the Workouts feature. Both units have the ability to program complex workouts with a variety of steps, targets, repeats, etc. Both let you create courses to follow, and set alerts for time, distance, calories, or heart rate; the Edge 500 also adds support for cadence and power alerts.

The ForeRunner 310XT, however, has a great shortcut for creating interval workouts. With a quick, easy-to-use 2-page setting wizard, you can select intervals that are time or distance based, along with recoveries, and then choose the number of repetitions and if you want warm-up and cool-down intervals added. For a lot of workouts, this is all you need.

Programming the more advanced workouts in either device is not very difficult, but it’s enough steps that many people will just avoid doing it altogether. Programming these workouts is easier if you use Garmin Training Center and then download the workout to the device, but this software isn’t the best quality itself and I find myself just programming the workouts directly on the devices.

Advantage: ForeRunner 310XT.

Mounting Options

The ForeRunner 310XT is a sports watch, but there are a few different bike mounting options available as well. I’ve found when doing multi-sport activities it’s better to just leave it on your wrist, but when primarily biking, having it mounted on the bike was a better option.

ForeRunner 310XT Quick Release Kit

The bike mount option I used for the ForRunner 310XT is the Garmin Quick Release Kit. This kit replaces the watch strap of the ForeRunner with one that includes a mounting bracket that then snaps into place on an adaptor that mounts directly to your bike with twist-ties. The replacement watch strap wasn’t as comfortable as the original strap that came with the ForeRunner, and it increased the width of the device slightly, but overall this is a very good mounting solution.

Garmin also sells a Forerunner Bicycle Mount Kitfor ForeRunner devices that lets strap the device to the mount directly. I haven’t used this option, but it’s a convenient way of solving the mounting problem as well.

Edge 500 with Quarter Turn Mounting Kit

The mounting solution for the Edge 500 is similar to the Quick Release Kit option for the ForeRunner, but attaches to the bike in a very different way. The mounting bracket itself uses high-quality bands (ethylene propylene diene monomer, a synthetic rubber!) of various sizes to secure the mounting bracket to the bike. The Edge 500 comes with a handful of different size bands and two mounting brackets, so you can easily attach it to multiple bikes. Moving a bracket to a different bike takes just seconds, but you can always buy another quarter turn bike mount kitif two mounts are not enough.

Edge 500 Bike Mount

The design of this mounting system is simple and elegant. The bands are extremely strong and pliable enough that stretching them to secure the mounting bracket is trivial. The back of the mounting bracket rests on either your bicycle stem or handlebars using a rubber piece that keeps it from moving. Once it’s attached with the bands, the mount just isn’t going to go anywhere.  The Edge 500 slides into the bracket quickly and once its turned, it also isn’t going to fly off, even on the bumpiest of routes.

Edge 500 Bike Mount using the ForeRunner 310XT's Mount

One nice surprise is that the quarter-turn mounting bracket design is the same between the ForeRunner 310XT’s Quick Release Kit and the Edge 500′s mounting brackets. On my road bike, I’m actually using the bracket that came with the ForeRunner’s kit instead of the Edge 500′s rubber band brackets – but only because it was already attached. There is a small screw in this mounting bracket that lets you change the orientation of the attached device, and this is one difference between the two different devices. It only takes a couple of seconds to change this, and chances are good you won’t be going back and forth between the two devices if you happen to have both (I only use the ForeRunner 310XT with its original wrist strap after buying the Edge 500).

ForeRunner 310XT Bicycle Mount

The quarter-turn quick release mounting design is a great solution for putting either of these devices on your bike. It allows them to be installed and removed in about a second without having to fuss with any tools. I especially like to take off the devices whenever at a rest stop – a $200+ bike gadget that’s so easily pocketed is going to be tempting for the unscrupulous out there.

Advantage: neither, both have excellent, and compatible, options.

Training with Power

Both devices have great support for receiving data from any ANT+ enabled power meter. Over time, the firmware has been updated on both and support for showing more power data has been added. As of version 3.00 on the ForeRunner 310XT, and 2.40 on the Edge 500, the following power-related data fields are available:

• Power (current power measurement)
• Power – % FTP
• Power – 30s Avg
• Power – 3s Avg (my personal favorite)
• Power – Avg
• Power – kilojoules
• Power – Lap
• Power – Max
• Power Zone (current power measurement)

I tend to ride with my display set to show the 3-second average power, the cadence and the current lap time. This keeps me focused on what matters most during training, but hides all the other data that might be distracting, but it ultimately depends upon what kind of ride I am doing at the time.

If you are interested in training with power, but don’t yet know much about it, start by reading Training and Racing with a Power Meter. Training with power is great fun, but the bottom line is that you either need to be analytical (okay, a bit of a geek), or have a coach that uses your power data to keep track of your progress. Otherwise, you aren’t likely to realize the benefits of the tool.

Advantage: both devices are equally capable.

Bottom Line

Both devices are excellent at what they do, and either is a powerful training companion. If you are just a bicyclist, and do no multi-sport activities, then the Edge 500 is the right choice for you. If you are into multi-sport, the ForeRunner 310XT is all that you will need, but the Edge 500 does have a few advantages, such as the large memory capacity.

The Edge 500 is also a little bit cheaper than the ForeRunner 310XT, especially if you already own a compatible heart-rate monitor or power meter.

Garmin Connect screen shot

A lot of folks are buying Garmin sports devices these days so that they can upload and share their data using Garmin’s excellent Connect website. If you haven’t tried Garmin Connect, go there and give it a shot. It’s worth the price of admission and continues to get better as Garmin adds features, albeit rather slowly.

I’ve done this event for several years now, and each year I meet folks who haven’t done the ride before and have a ton of questions about how best to prepare for the ride. I’ll try and address some of the more common questions I’ve heard over the years in this post, and give some pointers to where you can find some more in-depth information.

Most of the people that ride in a MS 150 are doing so for the charity, and haven’t been traditional athletes in the past. Alternatively, they have been athletic, but in sports such as running and not bicycling.

Q: Do I need to be in shape before I start training?

Not really, no. If you literally are starting from the couch, start with 15 or 20 minute rides, or whatever is comfortable for you, until you can ride at least 30 minutes without stopping.

I would suggest that you be able to ride for an hour on your local bike path before doing any organized training rides, as you’ll get more benefit from the training rides in this case. Most organized rides have rest stops every 10 or 20 miles – 45 to 90 minutes for most riders. If you can make it an hour on the bike already, then you have a natural progression point on the longer rides since you know you can stop and take a rest.

A large part of your training will actually be for the muscles in your core, arms, and so on to get used to holding your body up during these long bike rides. While the cardiovascular component of the training is key, most novices will find this is secondary to getting your body used to being on the bike for hours. The cardio will come all on its own.

If you don’t have the ability to get on the bicycle during this very early period of training – say, because the weather outside is frightful – then consider doing spinning classes at your local gym. They’re a great way to get bicycle fitness quickly, in a safe, warm and dry environment.

If you’re more athletically inclined and like to push your limits, the same holds true. You’ll spend more effort getting your heart rate high than the novices, but a lot of your training is still about time in the saddle. Likewise, if you’re already athletic, the training will be easier, but you are still working on training your body to sit on a bicycle, so be patient and don’t push the time too quickly.

Q: How much do I need to train?

Every year I meet riders who do absolutely no training at all for this event. Clearly you can finish an event like this without training, but these people always feel like hell: if you’ve ever heard the term “suffer-fest” than this is a prime example of that in action. Most of us would rather not suffer quite so much to participate, so some training is in order.

At a minimum, you will want to do one long ride every week you are in training. You should plan on spending 10 to 12 weeks training before the big event. At least one weekend riding two days in a row would be a big help. If you can manage 3 to 4 rides per a week you see tremendous improvement.

Yes, you can miss a few rides and still ride the big event comfortably. And yes, you likely will miss a week or two – stuff, especially bad weather, happens. It is a little hard to get the gumption to go ride in the cold and rain if you are new to riding in the first place.

For some perspective, for the first several years I rode the MS 150 I did around 600 miles of training over about 40 hours. That’s only between 3 and 4 hours of riding per week on average!

These days I do 1,200 – 1,500 miles of training over 75 to 100 hours of riding. More training has prove expectedly better in both comfort and performance, but you don’t need to ride anywhere near this much to have an enjoyable event.

Q: How long will the ride take me?

This is one of those questions that has a clear “it depends” answer. It will depend upon your fitness, how hard you push yourself during the ride, what the wind and weather is during the ride, how busy the ride is and how hilly the ride course is.

To narrow it down a bit more, though, let’s consider your average speed. Most true bicycling novices seem to average around 14 miles per hour. If you’re tall or already athletic, the average might be higher, and if your shorter or not athletic the average might be a little lower.

It takes just over 7 hours to ride 100 miles at 14 mph. Chances are good you will stop 4 to 5 times during a 100 mile ride with this skill level, so factor in another 1 to 2 hours for he breaks. The slower you are, the more often you’ll need a break, and the more sore you will be as the day goes on. On the flip side, the fastest riders usually finish the first day somewhere between 4 and 5 hours.

Don’t worry if you wind up being slower than this – a great many riders take a lot longer to finish, and you can always get a ride from the support team if you wear yourself out before making it.

One key point to take away from the the expected time for the ride: when you train, you are really training more for time than you are for miles. If the most you ride in training is 3 hours, but it takes you 10 hours the first day of the event, you will be very sore and grumpy when you finish.

If you aren’t happy with your average speed you need to approach getting faster in two ways: training that is focused on improving speed and power, and riding in a group, or pace-line.

The training aspect involves training more days per week, usually 3 to 4, for a short-duration but at a high-intensity. If you know what interval training is, this is what we’re talking about, and we’ll discuss further in this post.

As far as pace-lines, that simply means riding closely behind a group of other bicyclists as it gives you a significant aerodynamic advantage. You will spend a lot less energy going fast than  you would as a solo rider, and pace-lines typically rotate so that riders never spend too much time at the front, doing extra work. You may be able to add 5 mph or more to your average speed simply by riding in a pace-line. Pace lines are tricky and dangerous, however, so you need to be confident in your bike handling skills before doing so – please.

One final key point about speed: aerodynamics starts to play a big role once you go over roughly 15 mph. Above this speed threshold you will need a more aerodynamic position and lots of leg power to increase your average speed significantly. If you are a novice rider, don’t be discouraged if you don’t see average speeds much about this threshold, it is not very uncommon for recreational riders to speed most of their time at this speed or below.

Q: How should I actually train?

Training for an athletic event uses a technique called periodization. Big word, but a simple concept: train, and then take a break. This concept applies to your day to day training and to how the training is structured into weeks. Likewise, if you are a more serious athlete, your entire year is broken down this way as well.

The idea behind periodization is that you stress your body by training and then let your body recover with rest. Your actual grains from training occur not during the actual training time, but during your rest time. Rest and recovery is really, really important for athletes. As a novice, getting enough rest will likely not be an issue but just keep in mind that is an important part of the whole training process.

Training is usually broken down into 4 week blocks. In the first 3 weeks of each block you increase the time and intensity you spend training, slowly. In the 4th week, you do a recovery week where both the intensity and time are reduced. This cycle repeats so that you arrive at your event date in both peak fitness and with little fatigue.

Let’s consider a simple 12 week training schedule with only rides during the weekend:

If you have more time to train, you can consider adding 3 to 4 total rides per week, such as this schedule shows:

These sample training plans are just that – samples. I am not a professional coach, so there are likely numerous differences in the training plan compared to what a professional coach would provide you. However, they are very similar to training plans that you would receive from a coach or find elsewhere online.

The more hours you spend riding, the more important those rest days and recovery weeks really are. Up to about 6 hours a week, you will naturally get enough recovery time just by taking days off. But, if you only do your riding on back-to-back days, or do other work-outs besides cycling, keep in mind that your body needs recovery to improve.

Another real factor in your training plan is that life happens, and often schedule conflicts arise. That’s okay – as long as you don’t miss too much, and do most of the long rides, you will have an effective training season.

If you are more athletically inclined than the average novice, and interested in boosting your speed and power, then the workouts I’ve suggested for during the week will change in their structure. You will need to do intervals of various finds to increase the intensity of your workouts.

For those so inclined, I would recommend checking out The Time Crunched Cyclist: Fit, Fast, and Powerful in 6 Hours a Week by Chris Carmichael. This book is a quick read and will give you a great way to gain a lot of fitness very quickly. If you need more, I’d consider finding a coach that can help you create a training plan tailored to your individual needs.

Q: How can I make time for all this training?

A single long ride a week is all you need to do in order to finish the MS 150 comfortably, so your time commitment isn’t great if you view it from that perspective.

If you want to be faster and more comfortable, you’ll want to train more per week. The best bang for your time is 4 rides per week. More than that and you will improve, but at a much reduced rate of gain (if you’re mathematically inclined, you’re looking at a classic logarithmic scale).

For most of us, finding time to ride during the week can be tricky. If you’re training for a springtime ride you’ll be dealing with a lack of daylight hours in which to ride. Riding before or after work hours may be the only time you have, but doing so can be dangerous given the lack of light. Additionally, if you ride on the roads, keep in mind people are much more tense and distracted when commuting to and from work, not to mention commute times simply have a larger number of cars out on the road. If you can, ride during lunch time or on a bike path.

Another option for your intra-week rides are spinning classes at your local gym. Spinning can be a great way to get an hour long bicycling workout with very real dividends to your performance. However, not all spinning instructors know what they are doing. You’ll want to find an instructor that understands road bicycling and interval based training. If his or her spin class is all about going as hard as possible for an straight-hour, look for another instructor. If the instructor doesn’t understand that very low and very high cadences are bad for your knees, find another instructor.

Q: I’m really nervous about riding a bicycle on the road. How can I be safe?

It’s perfectly normal to be nervous about riding on the road. In fact, it’s quite a healthy thing to be so. There are a tremendous number of resources available online that discuss the safety issue. See this one from the National MS Society, for a reference.

From my perspective, the key points about this issue are:

1. Ride on a bike or multi-use path instead of on the road during the week until you gain experience.
2. On the weekends ride early. Traffic starts earlier on Saturday compared to Sunday, so plan for that.
3. Organized group rides are typically in rural areas and the numbers of riders increase visibility for all, but don’t get a false sense of security from this.
4. Ride on roads that have plenty of room on the shoulders, or have low enough traffic that sharing the road is not an issue for vehicles.
5. Realize that YOU are ultimately responsible for your own safety.
   1. Take a safety class.
   2. Ride defensively. If you’ve ever taken a defensive driving class, you know most of the key points, and they apply just as well to riding a bicycle.
   3. Pay attention!

Ultimately, it is important to know that statistically you are pretty safe riding your bicycle, but always, always keep safety in mind.

Q: Do I need to eat on training rides?

Yes, you will. Nutrition and exercise is a huge, complex subject, but as with most things the basic rules are pretty well understood so you don’t need to over-think it too much.

If you are riding for an hour or less, then you really don’t need any extra calories or food. Ideally, you will have eaten a meal or snack no more than about 3 hours before the start of your ride – yes, that means you should have something for breakfast before those long weekend rides.

Once your ride time exceeds an hour to 90 minutes, you’ll want to take in some sort of calories. Yes, you can ride without doing this, but your body will naturally cause you to perform at a lower intensity if you do this. You’ll want to plan on consuming between 100 and 400 calories an hour of energy, depending largely upon your body size and how intense you ride.

The basic reason for this is that at higher intensities your body requires more carbohydrate based energy sources than fat based. Your muscles contain a substance called glycogen that is good for about 90 minutes of carbohydrate based fuel, whereas everyone’s body contains enough fat to provide energy for a really, really long time. If you’ve heard the term bonking what that is referring to is your body getting low on glycogen reserves and your brain deciding to shut down other activities so that it has enough energy to function. It sucks when it happens and you’ll know it if it does.

It takes a little time for your body to process food or drink that you consume and provide it to your muscles. This is one reason why fast-absorbing sport drinks are effective for high intensity exercise – they don’t take long to get into your system. On the flip side, there is only so much of that stuff you can drink before your body starts to disagree with it.

You’ll have to experiment a lot to find out what works best with you. Some people are just fine on sports drinks alone. Most people, though, like to have some solid food the longer they ride. The longer you are planning to ride, the more important it is to take in food earlier in the ride than you have expected. You’re eating for 2 or 3 hours from now, not for the next 15 minutes (that’s what sports drinks or gels are for). I personally am a huge fan of Clif Bars and Hammer Nutrition’s Perpetuem products for my longer rides.

As a habit, I always carry a couple of gels or bars with me when I ride, even if the ride is fully supported. It’s nice to have a backup. Any organized ride is going to have an amazing assortment of snack foods at each rest stop, but always have a backup.

And yes, if you are trying to lose weight during your training season, you can easily overeat at these rest stops. If you drink 16 oz of sport drink per hour, and then stop and have a couple of cookies and a piece of fruit, you’re likely consuming more calories than you’re burning. Naturally, this depends entirely upon your size and how intense you ride.

Bottom line – yes, you need to eat during your rides, and yes you need to do it earlier than you think, but you probably also don’t need to eat as much as you would like to.

Q: Do I need a road bike?

No, you don’t, but it is a good idea. Yes, you can ride a mountain bike or fitness bike, and you’ll see many people out there doing exactly that. But, the bottom line is these bikes are not going to be as comfortable as a road bike for these longer rides.

Do keep in mind that road bike doesn’t necessarily mean a race bike. Yes they will look similar to a race bike, and many people that do these rides use race bikes, but there are many bikes out there with more relaxed geometries than a race bike made for the 20 year olds with 4% body fat. What they do offer, however, is multiple hand positions and a more aerodynamic riding position than a mountain or fitness bike.

If you are going to ride a mountain or fitness bike, I’d suggest at a minimum getting skinnier tires and bar-ends to provide yourself with more hand positions.

And the most important thing about the bike you use? Make sure it is fitted correctly to you.  Don’t skip this part! I see a ton of riders ever year with saddles too low or in poor positions and that can really cause you a lot of discomfort as the hours go by.

Summary and Follow-Ups

So the lighting quick summary of all this information is simply to get out there and ride. Ride every week and ride a little bit longer each week. Try and take advantage of all the organized and recommended rides in your area and make some new friends.

If you have any questions about your MS-150, or other century, training, drop a comment and I’ll try and address them. Likewise, any corrections or clarifications do the same.