Don't enter...The Bonkland Zone

A couple nights ago cycling buddy Pat offered to drive to Markleeville the next morning so we could ride up, down and back both Monitor and Ebbetts Passes. He had the notion of doing four of the five climbs in the annual Death Ride held in late July. Short notice, but it sounded good to me. I’ve been riding a lot, but not much climbing and no altitude. A definite challenge. I was in.

I left at 5:30 a.m. in the pre-dawn of Sacramento and met him at his house in El Dorado Hills a half hour later. By 8:30 we were starting the climb up Monitor pass in the cool high altitude of the Sierra. We got to the top after climbing around 3K feet, then flew down the other side to Highway 395. After topping off our water and having some food, we headed back up the 10-mile climb exposed to full morning sun. It was a cooler than the same ride I did last July. Nice and cool on the descent but much warmer on the climb with not a lot of wind. This climb is tough, with seven to nine percent grades. Because I’d started to cramp in my legs at the top last time, I drank extra water before the ride and took a couple electrolyte gel tabs. We watered up at the top, then enjoyed a fast, fun descent to the bottom of Monitor where we stopped at the truck to take a break, eat and drink.

At this point, the idea of going to the next phase of the ride -- all the way up the front side of Ebbetts -- seemed like too much ride to Pat, who pointed out we weren’t training for anything. We didn’t have to do this. He’s been out of the country for the past three months and is still working into shape. I’ve been riding regularly, so I figured going all the way up Ebbetts would be a good test. On the same ride last summer, though, leg cramps dogged me. This time my legs felt tired, with only very minor cramping. I was ready to test 'em again.

Pat rode til he reached seven thousand feet of climbing for the day, about one third up Ebbetts, and turned back. He didn’t want to push it too far since he was still a few weeks away from his strongest riding form.

I kept going, and remembered what a rider had said back at the truck. “Monitor is harder than Ebbetts, less average grade.” Both Pat and I looked at each other. We both consider Ebbetts a tougher climb, mainly because it throws very steep pitches at you with punishing regularity as you make your way up the mountain.

This was what crossed my mind as I pedaled up Ebbetts, calling on my will power. I had tired legs as I climbed, while the mountain kept demanding respect, seemingly saying,  “You better have something in your legs if you want to get to the top.” The steep pitches of Ebbetts will try to knock you out if you’re tired.

What I’ve learned climbing the 3,000 feet up Ebbetts, especially, is that there’s a big difference between pedaling with a pair of legs that have just pedaled 6,000 feet of climb, versus a pair of fresh legs. That sounds obvious, but for some reason, I entertained the thought after two big climbs, I might be looser and nicely warmed up for the third big climb! Such is the stuff of denial and self delusion to beat back any creeping doubts about doing this with tired legs.

But as I kept moving toward the top, and the pain was settled through me as I kept eyeing more long, steep pitches ahead, I fought back by flipping on the auto pilot switch in my head: It puts up a firewall to registering negative thoughts, such “Damn, you’re really tired…” or, “I thought I was farther than I am, when is this gonna end?” “You’re out of water,” and all the other little hardship acknowledging thoughts trying to bang through as I pedaled on.

I kept moving moving, moving, moving until that last severely ass kicking steep pitch at the very top. And there I was. Nine thousand feet of climbing for the day.

I sat on a rock and knew very well that I wasn’t going to ride down the back side of Ebbetts, then ride back up again to finish off the four peaks we’d yacked about doing a few hours earlier. That would be too much ride for me. I had hit my big climb limit within reason at three, and was more than ready to ride back down the front side of Ebbetts and call it a day.

At some point, I expect I’ll be able to push my envelop to do the four climbs. But if not, no big deal.

As Clint Eastwood so famously said in one of his Harry Callahan movies, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”

Yes, this is very true. Because if a cyclist, man or woman, doesn’t know his or her endurance limitations riding a bike, there will not only be more than pain, there will also be an ever so unsavory bonk, the ugly physical and mental breakdown that happens when a rider takes on too much ride for his or her fitness level. Like eating too much food on a plate, only to find oneself stuffed to the gills, and not feeling so hot and ready to hurl, bonking is not worth it! There’s a fine line between how much ride we can push ourselves to get improved fitness, and riding too far and into the unstable world of the bonkland zone.

Yes, there's not doubt that erring on the side of caution to stay out of that wobbly, swirling, semiconscious world of pain, is a good idea. But to do that, I tell myself to keep Clint’s wisdom in mind.

Removing, reinstalling you pedals easily, correctly

If you’re taking a trip and don’t want to ship your bike, just remove your pedals, and pack them, your cleats, biking kit, helmet, etc., so you can put your pedals on a rental bike at your destination for an exploratory ride. Here’s a great video on pedal removal/installation. Check it out!

'Til next time, always remember to strap on a helmet before every ride. Then it’s time to keep the rubber side down!

-- Mark Eric Larson

Mark Eric Larson has written two books of essays, "The NERVE...of Some People's Kids," and "Don't Force it, Get a Bigger Hammer. To read, visit: 
http://www.scribd.com/Mark%20Eric%20Larson/shelfHis blog of personal essays is at: http://marksmuzings.blogspot.com/

Ticketing cyclists to slow 'em down? Good luck!

The American River bike trail, a phenomenal regional asset though native riparian forest, gets a lot of weekend use. That’s when all uses converge: Bicyclists of all levels from kids on trikes to office organized road bike pelotons riding at high speeds. Add in walkers, joggers, distance runners, dog walkers and baby strollers and you have a bike trail with hopelessly clogged lanes. Because of all the traffic, and the occasional fast road bike riders, Sacramento County has decided it will deploy officers armed with speed guns to enforce a 15 mph speed limit on all cyclists.

The idea is to make it safer for everyone. And no doubt, that’s a good motive to sell, since crashes, including head-ons, have been on the upswing on crowded weekends. Complaints have been primarily over bike club pelotons riding through crowds at speeds estimated at up to 30 mph. The idea is to get those fast riders off the trail and on to open roads, said chief ranger Stan Lumsden in the newspaper story on the planned enforcement.

The county thinks it threw a bone to cyclists on the trail last week by erasing most of the stop signs on the trail, giving cyclists the right of way instead of telling them they’re supposed to stop. But let’s be real, that change will have no effect. The original stop signs were never heeded by any cyclists in the first place! Because when there is no cross vehicular traffic, it makes no sense to stop your bike. Why would anybody riding along do that? So, of course, nobody ever has. Brilliant county move!

In the newspaper story, Lumsden declined to reveal where on the bike trail the speed guns would be used by county rangers. Cyclists that get clocked on the guns over 15 mph will get a $50 fine for the first violation – after a warning. And if they get stopped after that, it’s $100 for a second violation within a year.

One cyclist interviewed in the story said this amounts to fast riders being forced onto highways where many drivers are more often than not, unwilling to “Share the Road” with them. But let’s face it, most serious road cyclists don’t even bother riding on the bike trail on weekends. On weekends, it’s all but impossible to have an unobstructed ride on the bike trail. It’s a carnival obstacle course with accidents constantly waiting to happen. I’m among many cyclists I’m sure who make it a point to stay off the trail on weekends.

A complaint voiced in the story was that the enforcement program is only a new revenue source for the county, and that resources should be redirected to anti crime measures on some of the seedier parts of the bike trail.

But even if this is an earnest attempt by the county to make the trail safer on weekends, it doesn’t appear to have been thought through.

So, just for a minute, let’s assume it’s a crowded Saturday morning on the trail, and a ranger lurks in the bushes armed with his trusty radar gun. He or she clocks a cyclist at 17 mph. Then what? Does he or she hop on his or her motorcycle to chase down the speeder? Or jam on his or her electric bike? Or his or her road bike?

Now, think about it, if the trail is crowded, he or she will be faced with having to move fast to get on the trail and speed after the law breaking cyclist to make them stop and receive their warning or ticket.

Think about it. This is is anything but a safe scenario. This could lead the ranger into an accident trying to avoid a stroller, a dog, a slow rider, or something else in the lane, while on the fevered chase. If this happened, and injuries resulted, the whole program would be called into question as attempting to improve safety, with unsafe actions.

“Park ranger runs over three power walkers in pursuit of speeding cyclist” the headline would say. “Cyclist escapes.”

So if I’m a radar-equipped ranger hiding in the bushes, to avoid that ugly headline, I’m going to wait until the path is free and clear of crowding to clock a rider going by faster than 15 mph. So if this is the case, the stupidity of this whole program is revealed. Riders that get clocked, stopped and fined, will most likely be riding on an open trail causing no danger to anyone. And how are they supposed to ticket a speeding peloton of riders? Chase them down (good luck), then command them to stop with a siren or a bullhorn? Then set up a card table alongside the trail and have all the peloton riders form a line so they can get their tickets?
If the county, and the rangers thought this through, maybe they wouldn’t be trying out such a joke of an attempt at improving safety on the crowded weekend trail.

Hey county, hey rangers, here’s an idea! How about doing something that actually makes a crowded bike trail safer? Like giving late weekend mornings, early afternoons to multi use of the trail, and early and late weekend hours to cyclists without any unenforceable, ridiculous speed limit enforcement. That would, uh, make a little better sense, no? Other good ideas could also work.

But then, government policies aimed at things like improving public safety rarely employ simple logic. These are bureaucrats that really don’t care. They just want to point to something they’re doing to make it look like they’re doing something positive, even if the action is doomed to failure. Meanwhile, all this is tough luck for serious cyclists riding the trail without a radar detector.

Haarrrumph! It’s time to organize and let these park rangers with their seriously misguided solution hear some sensible alternatives that will actually improve public safety conditions. Maybe solutions that don’t include handing out tickets that rip off riders while supplying revenue for, who knows what, radar guns? Staff birthday parties? This is wrongful bashing of cyclists using what is supposed to be, uh, oh yeah, a bike trail!

And now, a tip for cyclists

Ever have your rear derailleur get out of whack, so your shifting gets rough and balky? Check this out, it’s a great tip to follow before heading to the bike shop to get charged for something that is often an easy self fix:

Until next time, remember to strap on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, you know the drill. Keep the rubber side down!

-- Mark Eric Larson

Mark Eric Larson has written two books of essays, "The NERVE...of Some People's Kids," and "Don't Force it, Get a Bigger Hammer. To read, visit: 
http://www.scribd.com/Mark%20Eric%20Larson/shelfHis blog of personal essays is at: http://marksmuzings.blogspot.com/

Time to rip n' rock, n' beat the clock...

Time is a tyrant in all our lives. Not only is it always aging us, it tells us what we need to do and when to do it. And usually, we buckle under and follow the schedule put before us. We go along with the program because, as far as we can tell, things will work out better for us if we do.

But more often than not we bristle under the daily dictates of time, and feel like slaves to it. We can’t help but think of what else we’d rather be doing if we weren’t on anybody’s schedule but our own.

(Hey, I’m going to go on a bike ride!)

So when we’re able to experience the oh, so rare time when we feel like we’ve gotten the upper hand with time, we feel pretty good about ourselves -- if only for a little while. Then, BAM! a few minutes go by and it’s on with the schedule!

I regularly do a ride from my home that is 51 miles round trip on a bike trail along the American River. It totals about a little over 1,000 feet of climb, so it’s mostly flat. And I’ve come to treat this ride as my personal time trial. It’s a way to stay fit when doing my favorite kind of riding – climbing – isn’t in the cards.

Going for speed keeps the boredom at bay for this trek, which lately I’ve been doing a couple times a week.

Wringing as much speed as I can out of this ride makes me concentrate all the way. The payoff is a great workout, and once in awhile I beat my previous best time. At those times it feels like an accumulation of hard work paying off.

With my Garmin bike computer, I break the ride into seven splits, and keep track of my times individually and cumulatively as I ride.

Last November I rode my fastest round trip by eight minutes, in 2 hours 43 minutes or so. It was a cold air day, and I remember crediting my speed to pedaling as fast as I could to keep warm. This riverside ride, which goes northeast on the way out and southwest on the way back, often features tailwinds, side winds and headwinds, and only rarely, little or no wind at all.

After getting that pretty fast time in November, I figured it would be really hard to beat. All the splits were fast (for me), and getting them to all line up like that takes strong legs, and no small amount of luck. The first split and the last are identical two-mile stretches through signaled intersections and traffic and a crowded college campus on the way out. And coming back it’s the reverse -- through the campus and then traffic. When those two splits are slow, which many times they can’t help but be because slowdowns are necessary, the total ride time isn’t going to be in the faster range.

Most times these stretches take between eight and nine minutes to wade through.

So depending on my time after the first split through traffic and wandering phone addicted students, I can tell whether I have a fighting chance of a strong overall time for the ride. If I finish the first split at 8 or 8:30 minutes, I dig in to make time on the next split, which is 14.7 miles. Then, getting a good overall time means riding fast splits, one after the other, which is easier on some rides than others.

Variables affecting speed after the first split are the relative freshness of my legs, wind, and temperature. When the air is cool, I usually ride faster than when it’s hot. (Maybe that wouldn’t be the case if I hydrated correctly. See below) And I can trim down time if I happen along another rider to trade drafting with.

A couple of weeks ago I strung together fast splits all along the way, and to my surprise, whittled my 2:43 personal record time to 2:41, a 19 mph average for the whole ride. I was helped by a tailwind on the way out, and not much wind on the way back. I had started at noon, later than I usually do, and noticed the wind was higher on the way back when I left a few hours earlier. I wasn’t able to draft behind anybody, but my legs felt relatively strong.

So after that ride, I thought, hey, no way am I ever gonna beat 2:41. But “never say never,” is what I need to remember!

This week, I did beat that time, by 40 seconds, tucked just under 2:40, a 19.1 mph average for the whole ride. I looked at my split times, all of which, for me at least, were very fast.

But I found the key to the extra speed was in the 8 minute first split – which is much faster than I usually ride it -- and the 7:40 minute last split, which was by far the fastest I’ve ever ridden that split. Most times, those are between 8 and 9 minutes each way. But there was a good reason! School was out at the university, so instead of having to weave my way at half speed through clots of phone-stoned students, I sprinted through. I picked up the 40 seconds needed to beat the overall time on the last split. Love to break down the ride data. It tells the whole story.

So now it’s clear. If I want to beat 2:40 for the full ride, the campus will have to be closed, just for starters! Then, I’ll need fresh legs keeping a strong cadence on the flats and small rollers, a little help from the wind, aerodynamic form in any headwinds, and the fastest climbs and descents I can manage. So there will definitely be some luck involved, no doubt. But I won’t say it can’t be done. It can!

But to break your own course record, when you know it will be a tough nut to crack, maybe even too tough, will definitely make your day.

It is on that ride, when everything falls into place for speed, a new personal record will be made! No small feat! Because when we manage to do that, we can be sure of one thing: We’re riding at a high personal fitness level. And whose to say we can’t ratchet it up even higher? That’s a sweet feeling to have on the bike, no?

Drink up!

I talked last time about remembering to drink enough on a long ride, hot or not, which is something I often forget to do. I’m slowly learning to remind myself to drink enough water. Here’s some good info on the subject. Love this guy’s accent!

Til next time, remember to always strap on your helmet before every ride. And then, you know what to do after that: Keep the rubber side down at all costs!

-- Mark Eric Larson

Mark Eric Larson has written two books of essays, "The NERVE...of Some People's Kids," and "Don't Force it, Get a Bigger Hammer. To read, visit: 
http://www.scribd.com/Mark%20Eric%20Larson/shelfHis blog of personal essays is at: http://marksmuzings.blogspot.com/