No wasted energy = more speed

Having the ability to burst into a higher speed to chase and/or drop a rider is no doubt a great feeling.
It’s a happy jolt when we call upon the body to power up with a burst of acceleration – and our reserve power, the gas in our tank, is right there, at the ready, answering the call.
The flip side of that, and we’ve all had this feeling, is when we call upon ourselves to step it up… and we find out pretty quickly that we don’t have it. Just not there. 
But chances are it probably won’t be there if we don’t have reserve energy from enough pre-ride sleep and rest, and from using our energy efficiently – by not wasting any -- while riding. Having needed rest is huge, because even if we know how to ride efficiently and conserve energy on a ride, if that energy level is too low to begin with, those techniques aren’t going to help much.

Energy conservation pays off
But after being fit and well rested for a ride, one of the biggest ways to keep from needlessly burning up energy, says at least one cycling coach, is to keep low in the saddle, down in the drops. There we can ride faster with the same pedaling effort against higher wind resistance.
That’s something we all pretty much get, but can sometimes forget. Sitting on the bike only slightly bent forward, but still nearly upright, is going to make the upper body a sail. Pedaling like that, we drain extra energy by pushing against high levels of wind drag that are minimized when we’re crouched low over the drops.
I tend not to ride low for extended miles, however, because sometimes the old psoas muscles in my lower back lock into that position if I don’t occasionally shift around in my saddle. One time while trying for an extra fast time on a long ride, I stayed low in the drops and pedaled hard all the way to the finish. As I pulled up to brake and punch in my time, my back muscles locked up. They didn’t really want to relax enough to let me sit upright without, hey, pain!
So, sure, I got a fast time probably because I was very aerodynamic through most of the 51-mile ride. But my back muscles rebelled enough to make me think about not doing that again! It took several days of stretching routines to relieve the back muscle tension.
Mind you, this may not be a problem for riders with no back spasm histories like I’ve had. You’ll definitely ride faster if you stay low in the saddle. For me, though, it’s a good idea to move to various positions in the saddle for short periods to keep the back muscles loose, even if it does slow me down a bit. Because a tight, stiff back pretty much has to be relaxed through a bit of physical therapy over a few days before the back is happy enough to ride again.
Efficient pedaling is another way to conserve energy, say the video coaches. And that, I have learned, includes keeping mindful of your toe position on the backside upswing of each pedal stroke. When we drop our heels on the backstroke, we lose momentum, disengage our lower leg muscles and waste energy. To keep that momentum on the upswing, we keep the heel up slightly and the toe down. That keeps the lower leg muscles engaged through the backstroke and boosts the down-pedal power of the opposite leg.
Sometimes when I’ve been desperate to power up with my pedaling, I’ve actually pulled up on the backstroke, which seemed to strain the ligaments connected to my knees. So I stopped doing that!

Other (sometimes) available energy savers
Other riders as well as wind can also help conserve a rider’s energy. When I’m tired and get passed by another rider, I try to catch his or her wheel and draft off of them to give myself a rest while maintaining a higher speed. Or, I can save energy while a tailwind pushes me at a nice clip.

Til next time, remember to pull on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then keep the rubber side down, ride safely, and don't forget: Have a blast.
-- Mark Eric Larson

How to tap into the energy within? Other riders

In the past few months since I’ve been at a grocery store job that requires a lot of walking, stocking shelves, lifting heavy boxes and kneeling on the floor, my  bike rides times have slowed a bit.
Also during that period, the weather has turned to biting cold. On one ride the average air temp was 44.8 degrees. Add in the wind chill from riding, and it had to be around 39 degrees at most. Ooooph, yep, that’s cold on the bike.
Both factors have worked to lower my energy levels when I go out on my stay-fit, 51-mile ride. It’s a subject I chatted up with another rider recently while at a turnaround rest stop. He noticed his times have slowed recently and it bothered him. Both of us are older guys, and to be sure, both of us don’t like the notion that age may be slowing us down.
“Well, the air’s heavier,” he said, recounting that his usual fast times are in summer when the air is dry and light – less resistance.
But for me, it’s a combination of some leg fatigue from work, cold heavy air, and ultimately less willpower to push for speed.
That’s the interesting part for me. Because if I have the will power to push for speed, I’ll ride faster. The question is, how much is slower riding a physical lacking of pedal power, and how much of it is plain old mental fatigue. When you don’t have the will to whip the horse, you’ll never know if you have the reserve energy to up the pace!
My conclusion is it’s a mental thing to unleash physical energy that you have, but you haven’t tapped into. The key here is the mindset when you ride solo in tough conditions. It’s  a whole lot harder to push for up-tempo speed when you ride solo. Like a lone breakaway rider from the pro peloton, your  all-alone mental/physical energy level is all you have. You’re essentially stranded on an island with no help. But when you’re prodded by other faster riders, the willpower to push the pace is easy and energy reserves come up from within. You feed off the energy of other riders, and get a boost.
This week I found that out, in spades.
My buddy John and I rode together and each of us pushed the pace, especially him. He finished the first 14.5 mile split at about a 19 mph-plus average speed, and because I was influenced by trying to catch up to him, I came across the end of the split about a minute behind him, getting an 18.5 mph average. I hadn’t had the energy to get a pace anywhere near that fast on several previous solo rides in the cold. I think I was doing around 17 mph average or less  for the split riding solo.
And on the return ride through the same 14.5-mile split, the last long leg of the 51-mile ride, we got some help from another rider, who drafted us going 20 mph for several miles. The guy peeled off on a crossing road, and at that point, John and I were primed at keeping the 20 mph pace we’d been pedaling with relative ease. We were rested from drafting the other rider, and we powered through the split, getting a pretty damn fast 19.8 mph average.
That was done in mid-50 degree air temp, and is a speed I’ve only been able to get solo in warm, dry air conditions.
So, with help, I fed off the energy of my buddy John and the other rider, and got the higher speed. If it had been a solo ride, though, I’m positive I wouldn’t have been able to muster the will power to push the pace to close to a 20-mph average.
It’s kinda weird. The energy gets shared and pulled out of you by other fast riders. But bottom line is, I had the internal energy to draw upon and connect. I just needed the shared energy of other riders to bump up my speed higher than on a solo ride. On a solo ride, even if the energy is there, and I think it is, if there’s not a mental command to power up – and if you’re cold and a bit tired, that can be difficult – you’re almost sure to ride at a slower pace than you’re capable of riding. Yep, it’s weird!

Should I stay or should I go?
If while on a ride, you get caught in the rain what do you do? Look for a nearby sheltered area and stop, figuring it makes sense to wait until the rain passes through? Or do you just hang in there and keep riding?
I’ve done both. Once on a mountain bike ride at Lake Tahoe, it started raining hard, so me and buddy Marc stopped under a rock ledge to wait it out. But, there was a downside: It was cold just standing there, and it seemed to get colder the longer we stood. It lasted about 15 minutes, then we rode on, trying to warm up by pedaling harder.
Another time Marc and I got caught in a hailstorm coming down a mountain on road bikes. He pulled over, and got off the bike, and went under a big tree canopy. I decided to keep riding. I just wanted to ride through it, and figured it would be even more cold to stop and stand waiting for whatever time it might take the hail to pass through. I rode on, my hands and feet immediately numbed in the 30 degree air temp. But eventually the hail stopped, and the clouds pushed through, and the sun even came out. While it was very chilly staying on the bike through it all, I was glad to ride out of it and shorten my time in it.
I vote for keeping on the bike when caught in the rain. Don’t stop, power through. Rider buddy John agrees. We both have the theory that even if you get drenched and chilled to the bone by staying on the bike, you’ll be back home and warmed up sooner than if you get off the bike and freeze waiting for the rain to stop!

Til next time, remember to pull on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely, and don’t forget: Have a blast.
-- Mark Eric Larson

Murphy's Law? Goes with road cycling...

I shot the bull with a couple of fellow riders recently about the relative alertness required when riding a mountain bike vs. a road bike. John said he thinks road bike riding requires less attention than riding a trail on a mountain bike. He won’t even listen to music while riding a mountain bike for fear of getting distracted and crashing.
Jim, on the other hand, said he’s OK with hearing his music while mountain biking as well as road biking. To him, a road bike also requires close attention at all times. He said, that on a road bike, the second you look away, get distracted by a thought, whatever, is when you’ll either hit a chuck hole you didn’t see, a squirrel will dart in front of you, or you’ll have to correct course to avoid going off the pavement and into the dirt. Without fail!
We agreed, it’s like Murphy’s Law. You’ll get caught in a no-man’s land for a split second if you’re distracted. And sometimes you can get out of it, other times you can’t. Like these fun little road bike scenarios:
• You forget to unclip one foot before stopping. You stop, and you can’t unclip fast enough to catch the tipping bike. Result? You fall onto the road, clipped into your bike.
• You’re not watching the road in front of you closely.
Result? You hit a bone rattling chuck-hole BAM-BAM, that immediately spikes the irritation meter. Damn! I never saw that hole!!! Hate it when that happens!
Hey, gotta forget the jarring bang-bang smack up and move on. But it’s easy to kick yourself for letting it happen. Oh, and right after that if you hit another chuck-hole you didn’t see right, all you can do is let out a primal scream!
• There are small deep grooves at a railway crossing that you need to keep your tires from slotting into. You don’t. Result? You’re front tire locks in, and you’re thrown off the bike. Arrrrghh!
• You’re agitated thinking about something or someone annoying while riding along, and your not nice thoughts seem to attract a road hazard, bet it a twig or branch, a rock, or an unmoving squirrel in your path. You see one of the above at the very last milli-second and make a quick evasive move that in itself almost makes you crash.
 But sometimes you don’t react in time and you ride over a twig while leaning on a turn, causing the one or both tires to skip laterally, bringing a split-second loss of control.
Result? You kick yourself and mutter, oh that was stoopid, bro!
So it’s true what John said, that on a mountain bike there’s so much information to process, you have to pretty much be on red alert at all times. Mountain biking is a series of stop and go sprints and constant preparation for riding through whatever’s ahead on the trail -- just to stay upright.
Road cycling tends to be more rhythmic and steady, so it’s a lot more conducive to periodically zoning out. Instead of seeing what’s on the road ahead, we don’t pick up an obstacle until the last millisecond and sometimes make a panic move. Which, yes, can cause a crash.
It truly is like Jim said. The second you stop paying attention on a road bike, it seems, without fail – BAM!! -- something unexpectedly funky pops up. If we’re lucky it’ll only be annoying instant and not the cause of a crash! Yep, plenty of focus is needed while riding the road bike, too.

Sand riding experiment
Sand bogs down tires and quickly slows down most bikes, even a mountain bike with thick, knobby tires. So it’s usually something most riders either avoid, or ride through as fast as possible to keep from getting thrown off the bike. One rider buddy, though, who rides both a road bike and a mountain bike, told me he just bought another bike with four-inch wide tires. Whaaaat?
These fat boys, he said, are made for riding through sandy areas. When I saw him this past week he was about to find out if this rig and its wide tires work in sand as advertised. He plans on riding across the exposed sandy bottom of Folsom Lake, a large reservoir that these days looks like a moonscape. It’s almost empty because of the nasty California drought over the past four years.
He’s looking at it as an adventure in the making. Will the fat tire bike negotiate a sandy, shifting surface that hasn’t been packed down by vehicle tires of any kind? Knowing this guy, however his experiment turns out, he’s gonna have fun with it. Rock on, bro.

Clipping in, clipping out
Unclipping from pedals can be a dicey move – especially if you can’t get out of your clips the very second you need to, and you, uh, tip over. Some clips hold tighter than others, and the lateral movement needed to pull out of the cleat can do a nasty twist of the knee if it’s too tight. I learned the hard way to adjust my mountain bike’s SPD clips, which are kind of like old-style ski bindings, so that they’re fairly easy to kick out of. Other style cleats make unclipping very fast and smooth, which is ideal. But a fast and smooth cleat release won’t necessarily stop a tip-over every time. I’ve found, and other riders I’ve talked to about this have agreed, that whenever you need to clip out super fast, you’ll usually be leaning the wrong way, and your wrong-way momentum will bring you down, clipped in! Yep, Murphy’s Law applies to cleats. But hey, really can’t blame the cleats. It’s mostly the result of good ol’ operator error!

Til next time, remember to pull on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely and don't forget…have a blast.
-- Mark Eric Larson

Driving to a ride with a roof rack? Uh oh...

When we need to put our bike(s) on or in our cars or trucks to drive somewhere to get to a ride site, we have three choices: Put the bikes on a roof rack, put them on a rear-mounted rack, or put them inside our car or truck.
As for roof racks, I’m pretty much over them for a couple reasons. One, it’s really easy to forget that you have your bikes on a roof rack. And that’s really not good. Because you have a lot less clearance with a bike on top, you can drive into low clearance areas with the bikes on top and BAAAMMMM!
Once I went on a group mountain bike ride and met at a foothills trailhead. One of the riders in the group, a guy that worked in the same office with me, was climbing a rutted pitch on the trail fairly early in the ride when his seat post suddenly broke off, seat and all! He got off the bike and saw that there was no fixing it, the post had snapped. He was faced with riding the rest of the super technical trail with a piece of round broken metal for a seat, or ride slowly, standing up, back to the parking lot and just wait for everybody to finish.
Which is what he did. The rest of us who rode on, couldn’t figure out how in the hell a seat post could just break off seemingly out of the blue like that without taking a sledgehammer-like hit.
When we got back, we heard the story. The week before, they guy had his bike on the roof rack of his buddy’s truck when they were on the way to a ride. They decided to stop to get a cup of coffee, and that required driving into a parking garage. The guy driving remembered at the last second that there were bikes up top on the roof rack, and hit the brakes. My buddy’s bike’s seat got wedged and torqued by the cement header over the garage entry. They backed out, checked the bike, and everything looked OK. But my friend’s seat post took on some serious force, and even though it seemed like no damage had occurred, the post’s tensile strength had been seriously compromised. Still, it made it through his ride that day, without a problem, so he didn’t know there was a looming problem.
But on the second ride after the stem was hit, when he sat down on it – the dude is 6 foot 7 and well over 200 lbs. – the seat post couldn’t handle the stress. Snap.
Then it happened to me and another buddy, after we had gone on a mountain bike ride and were almost home, coming off the freeway exit. A lane was closed off, but I told Kevin, hey, we can take a shortcut right through that parking garage.
Neither of us remembered we had our bikes on the roof, and BAAAAMMMM! He hit the brakes but the damage was done. The impact on the bike rack, bent one rail into a 90 degree angle and tossed my bike off. A cable lock kept it dangling, so it didn’t hit the ground. Kevin’s bike and rail was forced down onto the rear window, which popped on impact, turning the safety glass into gravel-like chunks.
We lucked out, both bikes were OK, no damage. The one rack rail was toast, as was Kevin’s rear window, which his insurance eventually replaced.
The cop that happened by while Kevin was on the phone to his insurer told us he’d seen roof-racked bikes get low bridged fairly regularly. So, no more roof racks for me. Plus they’re a pain to put on and off the roof. No longer happening.
Then there are the rear-mounted racks, which I’ve used on a buddy’s truck many times. He always put the rack on and took it off, so it was never a hassle for me, and it handled our bikes fine. But I also know that they’d be destroyed if ever we got rear-ended. So I’m about 50-50 on them.
Then there’s the put-it-inside-the-vehicle method of bike transport, which has become my favorite.
Why, you may ask? Mainly it’s safety and convenience. My buddy recent came to town to do some rides and my car was our mode of transport. I could have put one of the bikes on my roof rack and the other in the car’s expanded trunk with the rear seats folded down.
But hey, putting on the roof rack takes too much time, and then there’s the real potential of a low bridge smack-down of the bike. So no and no.
We took off each bike’s front tire, and laid one bike on its side. Then we spread a blanket over that bike, and put the second bike on top, reversed, back to front. We did so gingerly, so as not to bend derailleurs or spokes. And in very little time, we were good to go.
It worked out well. It’s my go-to bike transport solution. And the other good thing is the bikes are more secure covered up and locked inside the car than on a cable secured rack. Yep. It’s nothin’ but a win, win situation.

My bike computer’s battery died? Whaaaat?  
Somehow when I was recently recharging my Garmin bike computer, the thing was unplugged too early and it wasn’t fully charged when I took off on my next ride, a 32 miler.
The thing warned me the battery was low, but I figured I’d see if it would last for the length of the ride, then I’d recharge it. But it died with about six miles left in the ride. No biggie,
I rode home and plugged it in. But it showed my how much I look at the thing while I’m on the bike. When there’s just a blank screen, it’s pretty different. You can’t be preoccupied with the numbers on the screen. You tune into seeing surrounding landscape and ribbon of trail, you’re more present. But hey, I still can do that and check my speed and mileage on the computer. It’s a pretty well worn habit. So yeah, want the computer fully charged and working at all times! Isn’t that sort of like a weird addiction?

Til next time, remember to strap on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely and don’t forget: Have a blast!
-- Mark Eric Larson

Cold ride ahead? No problem!

It never fails when cold weather months come in. Even when it’s plenty cold outside – cold enough to warrant a coat, hat, possibly a scarf and gloves – there always seems to be someone out walking around in shorts. It could be snowing, raining, sleeting, or just plain crazy cold, and sure enough, there’ll be somebody in shorts.

Same on the bike trail in the cold. Always see bare-armed and bare-legged riders tooling along – grim faced, mind you – in air temps in the 40s and 50s. Hey, but they’re suffering weather they want to admit it or not.

So why freeze your nads off when you don’t have to? What’s the deal? Really don’t know the answer to that. Closest I can come to it is that it’s a macho thing.

Cold? Hell, it isn’t cold out (yes it is, it’s in the freakin’ 40s) the SUN’s out! Shorts are fine. Coat? Well, maybe.

But riding a bike in air temp that is in the 40s and 50s, is, because of the wind chilling that takes place, is more like dealing with temps in the 30s and 40s, almost naked. Crazy!

So whenever I see a bare-armed, bare-legged rider pass by when by any sane standards, it’s pretty damn chilly out, I wonder: Are you kidding? I know you’re freezing, it’s just not possible to not be freezing. Maybe it's a goofy way to prove they’re tough, or someone stole their warm cycling clothes and they really want to get a ride in without ‘em.

Whatever, while I like to be warm enough to ride comfortably in cold weather, there’s truly a happy medium. Too many layers and you can get hot. But layering with an undershirt, and a jersey works, as does a pullover long sleeve jersey, as does a windbreaker. When it’s cold but not crazy cold, arm warmers are an option to go with short-sleeved jerseys.

Other than keeping your torso and arms covered, the key to staying warm includes keeping key nether parts from the freezing air: The head, the ears, the fingers the legs and the toes.

The head and the ears kinda go together. If it’s super cold I wear a scull cap under my helmet, and it covers the tops of the ears, which is big for heat retention.

Long-fingered gloves get the nod for super cold rides, but I like having the dexterity of half-fingered gloves. So I’ll usually wear them unless it’s just ridiculously cold.

And a couple of things keep the toes and feet warm. Some riders wear foot covering booties, and others just a toe cover. Beyond that, wool socks are good for full-on foot warmth.

Bottom line is to keep enough heat in a cold weather ride so that you’re comfortable, not in cold torture mode.

Cold, low energy: Slog time

I went on some some cool weather rides this week, after months of warm to hot weather rides. I found a couple of factors along with the cold that made for slowish, slog-like rides of 30 to 50 miles. If my energy level is low to begin with, for whatever reason, be it lack of sleep or physical tiredness from a lot of activity, a ride in the cold weather makes it hard to get warmed up.

I recall from past cold rides that I would ride as fast as I could at the start to try to get a lather going and some energetic rhythm in the pedals. But on these past early cold season rides, I haven’t had the initial energy to fire off from the start. It just hasn’t been there, and the cold seemed to be clamping down on my leg muscles. So for me at least, having plenty of energy at the start can get the pace going, and that can minimize the effects of the cold as an obstacle to establishing a nice crisp rhythm. Energy level is often different in some degree, every time out on the bike, so it’s a matter of working with what you have that day.

So a low energy level in cold weather, for me at least, means the ride’s probably going to be a bit of a slog.

But once a few cold rides are under the belt, I’m betting just being conditioned to them will result in higher initial energy levels. As long as I get enough sleep in before the ride, that is!

Paint job ruminations

I find the various paint jobs on road bikes and others fascinating. Because when bikes of different brands cost relatively the same for that weight and component mix, there really isn’t a huge edge, technically, one holds over the other.

So what makes somebody buy one brand of bike over another?

I think it’s the paint job. A rider is definitely going to buy the brand of bike of his price range that has the coolest paint job. But the thing is, there are trends in bike paint jobs, just like in clothes. So what is the coolest paint job one year, may become quite passé in another year or two, when an even cooler paint job is selling bikes. A few short years ago, bikes with lime green, blue, white and black paint combos were all the rage because Peter Sagan, on of the most popular cyclists in the pro peloton, rode a Cannondale Evo pained with those colors.

After that, I noticed road bikes with a flat black base finish and gray lettering became the big look. That I really didn’t get, because, hey, isn’t a bike with some cool color combinations more interesting than flat black?

Among the latest new trends in bike paint jobs is a base of flat black with neon yellow logos and lettering. Cippollini bikes sport this look, and I gotta say, they look very sleek. It will definitely help those bikes sell. At least until the next way wicked color combo comes along to sell another new line of bikes!

Til next time, remember to strap on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely and don’t forget: Have a blast!

-- Mark Eric Larson

When on the bike? It's good to be seen...

Blinking red rear bike lights are a good idea to put to use, mainly because without them, you may not be seen by another cyclist, or worse, a car coming from behind.

I mostly ride during the day, but just because it’s a sunny day, doesn’t mean you couldn’t use a flickering red light on the back of your bike. In the fall months, especially. Shadows are longer and darker and when we ride into shadowed areas on a roadway, we can be invisible to a car.

My riding buddy Brian pointed that out to me on a recent ride. I told him I recently rode into a shady area of the bike trial I frequent, only to look over to my right to see a large deer standing at the edge of the trail. The shade had made this huge animal invisible. As I rode by, I could have touched the deer. It didn’t move a muscle. I was glad it didn't, since it could have bolted right in front of me and I could have T-boned the big beast. And I’m worried about hitting squirrels! How about a big freakin’ deer! Uh, no thanks.

Brian rides with a USB chargeable red tail light on his bike, which he sets to a blink to be more visible in traffic and in the shadows. After our ride, I was convinced to go buy one and put it on my bike. There’s about a quarter mile of heavy traffic I ride through to get to and from the bike trail I often ride on, and having a red light flickering under my seat can only help attract drivers’ attention that I’m also using the lane they’re in.

I also bought an LED headlamp for my mountain bike helmet, since I sometimes ride that bike at night coming home from work. The first time I rode home in the dark – the ride is only a couple miles or so – I rode down a familiar back alley to connect to a neighborhood street, but suddenly realized I was riding in complete darkness.

Now that’s a freaky feeling. It reminded me of the time I was mountain biking down a trail on a hot summer day in the Sierra foothills a few years ago and there was a tunnel to ride through that went under a highway. It was bright and sunny, and I rode into the tunnel at a pretty good clip. It was suddenly completely dark, and I was riding on squishy sand. This was weird, because my eyes didn’t adjust too well to the darkness because I was wearing sunglasses. I looked ahead to see a patch of light at the end of the tunnel, and pedaled hard to get to the end. I made it, but was a bit rattled by just having pedaled through a space/time warp of sensory deprivation! I remember thinking if I dumped the bike in that tunnel, who knows what was lurking in there in the cooler air. I was thinking rattlesnakes in my worse case imagination! That just made me pedal faster.

But back to the headlamp purchase for night rides on my mountain bike. A co-worker who rides a lot at night suggested getting a hiker’s or miner’s headlamp style light which is attached to an adjustable headband. This guy doesn’t wear a helmet, so he pulls it over his forehead. He said it works well because the light illuminates wherever he looks while on the bike. That’s a good option to not only light the path of the bike but any areas you want to see peripherally, which a bike-mounted light may not do as well. I stretched the headband over my mountain bike helmet and so it’s night ride, road ready. Probably won’t use it till spring, though, when night commuting isn’t so freakin’ cold!

      
       Sand on the trail

A great mountain bike ride in the Lake Tahoe area is the Flume Trail on the northeast rim of the lake. It has spectacular high up views of the lake and surrounding mountains, which is a big reason to ride it. But the one thing it also has is trails that are softened up big-time by decomposed granite, better known as sand.

Most of the sand on its trails isn’t too deep, only a little squishy at worst. But I remember a part of the ride that had a stretch of sand that really tested the ability to stay on the bike. It is at the end of a fast descent from the mountain ridge above Marlette Lake. Most of that trail is hard packed and good for traction. But near the bottom, you get to a part where your bombing pretty fast, and it’s suddenly a sandy, somewhat sideways slanted part of the trail. If you don’t keep your speed through it, it’ll dump you off the bike.

My buddy John told me he hit that very spot and made the mistake of hitting his brakes. He took a nasty fall when the bike bogged down in the sand, and he went flying. He got skinned up pretty good, but John, being the resilient and optimistic guy that he is, insisted that all things considered, it was still a great ride.

But bottom line, sand can throw you off the bike in a heartbeat if you don’t keep your speed all the way through it. Sometimes you can, sometimes not. But the using the brakes in sand? Uh, don’t do it, the bike’s almost sure to go down.

        Slog rides are good? Yep

I’ve recently had a lot of what I call slog rides. You know, the ones where everything’s working against you. Wind, low energy, detours. But those rides, even though they’re slow, are productive pedal times. You get your ride in, and you work on your mental and physical toughness by slogging through all the obstacles. You’re building a foundation for riding through a bit of suffering. It’s good conditioning and makes it easier to handle any mentally and physically tough situations that sometimes pop up in any ride.

        

        Til next time, remember to strap on a helmet every time you

get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely, and don't forget: Have a blast.

-- Mark Eric Larson   

Ridin' with the bros: Priceless

Some of the best times on the bike have been on rides with buddies. But like everything in life, they come and they go. Several years ago I mountain biked with a couple of workmates on a regular basis. On Saturdays we went all over Northern California, finding trails, riding them, shooting the bull on the way to each ride and comparing notes after.

But then different forces pulled us apart and the mountain biking trips were suddenly over. I ended up riding alone on the local bike trail, which is pavement, not dirt, but much less of a logistical challenge than driving to some remote mountain bike trail.

I ended up on a road bike after my mountain bike was stolen out of my garage, and that led me to a new group of buddy riders, beginning about five years ago. With a core group of about two to three other guys, we did great rides in the Sierra Nevada, climbing most of the passes around Lake Tahoe, and also great climbs in the Bay Area: Mount Hamilton, Mount Diablo, and Mount Tamalpais. But once again the buddies eventually split for jobs out of state or out of the country, and riding for me once again returned to a solo pursuit.

Yes, you may be thinking, hey, if you want riding buddies, just join a local cycling club. Or do some organized rides. Both are very good suggestions, but the big group rides aren’t for me. Riding with a couple buddies that are at a similar fitness level on the bike works best for me. Mainly because I like riding away from traffic as much as possible and away from big clusters of other riders. It just feels freer and more like an adventure to me that way.

The last two weeks, though, my old road cycling buddies have visited and we’ve gone on some of the rides we used to do fairly often. And it was a great time. Just the chance to take a nice ride, catch up on whatever’s going on in our lives, what our plans are, etc., is the best part of riding with buddies.

This last week, while riding a 30 mile loop with about 3,000 feet of climbing in the Sierra foothills, we touched on all kinds of subjects: How knowing a ride’s climb and descent patterns will help you get into the right gears early enough on sudden steep pitches, and how not knowing them, can suddenly catch you in too high a gear, lead to a panic shift and thrown chain, or even an embarrassing tip-over. We talked about Syrian refugees, work schedules, life in the bowels of a dry-docked ship south of Cairns, Australia while replacing clogged up seawater and oil pipes on its engine, how to get rid of a super funky stench emanating from under the house (bleach was our conclusion), the benefit of getting a new chain and cassette with a better low climbing gear, how we got out of times when we were stranded with a crippled bike out in the middle of nowhere (mechanical), bike crash stories, close calls with vehicle stories, the theory on which width of road bike tire offers the least wind resistance (25mm, not 23mm), the benefit of putting a blinking red LED light on the back of your bike – even on day rides when shadows can hide you – to help drivers see you better, etc.

Beyond our chatting, the the ride itself was great, with not too tough climbing and great, fast descents where you let the bike go as fast as it wanted to.

We also met an older rider from France at the top of the climb. We had passed him on the way up, and I noticed he was struggling in what seemed to be a way high gear for the climb.

“Maybe he was just trying to get a better workout,” my buddy Brian theorized.

When he rode up to us while we ate snacks at the top of the climb, he got off his bike with bent legs, and he didn’t look comfortable.

“Are you having leg cramps?” I asked him.

“No, my legs just don’t work that well,” he said, laughing.

I was ready to offer him some electrolyte gel caps, but he didn’t need ‘em.

We shot the bull with him – he told us he was from France  --
 and he was interested to learn that 10 years ago, Brian had biked up the Alpe d’Huez, one of the major mountain stages of Tour de France fame. He told us he has a house nearby and was nice enough to take a group buddy photo of us. He exchanged contact info with Pat, my other riding buddy.

A couple of years ago, Pat met a couple from Bordeaux, France, while doing missionary work in Africa. They invited him to visit and go riding in that area, but so far, nothing has come of it. But, hey, who knows, maybe there’s a riding trip to France somewhere in the future. And while we’re dreaming, a riding trip to Majorca. And Corsica. And Italy. Oh, yeah gotta dream big!

I miss my riding buddies that have come and gone, all of them. Absolutely great dudes. But there will be more, I’m sure. Just gotta keep riding and meeting more cyclists who enjoy the camaraderie of sharing a great ride and lively conversation.

Til next time, remember to pull on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely, and don’t forget: Have a blast.

-- Mark Eric Larson

Hey, let's climb big...suffering's fun!

My old cycling buddy, Marc, was in town for a few days on his way to volunteering for a wounded veteran fundraising ride. So we planned a couple of our favorite rides of yore. And both involved a lot of climbing.

I haven’t done enough climbing this year, only managed to do the great Mt. Diablo several months ago. All my other rides have been on the relatively flat local bike trail. We set out for Markleeville to ride up the west slope of Monitor Pass, then come back down to ride up nearby Ebbetts Pass. Combined, the two climbs offer around 6,100 feet of climbing in the thin air of 5,000 to nearly 9,000 feet of altitude. I wasn’t exactly in climbing shape, so I tried not to think about riding into those somewhat daunting stats.

As we started up Monitor, there was no gentle easing in to the climb. It’s immediately steep, and for long, steady, upward grinding stretches. Suddenly, you’re shocked into a rhythm of deep breathing and pedaling, an absolute requirement to keep moving up the mountain. I remember thinking that after the first steep stretch, the road turns left for a short time, then left again, where it flattens out a bit. That’s the place, I told Marc in halting speech, I would stop to take a break. That first long, steep stretch of Monitor, especially if, like me, you aren’t exactly in climbing shape, will test your will. And when you’re not in top shape, it definitely takes a steely will to keep it going. That is pretty much all that keeps you moving up the mountain. Helping us as we built up a lather, was a welcome bit of brisk headwind breeze that cooled us down. And the partly cloudy skies were much preferable conditions to riding under a windless, beat-down, blazing sun.

By the time the steepest part turned into a more forgiving false flat stretch, our engines were powered up. My pedaling cadence picked up on the flat and I forgot about stopping. I wanted to keep my momentum for the series of steeper parts ahead. I roughly remembered where the tougher parts are from earlier Monitor climbs and it helped me amp up and power through their pain caves with managed suffering.

I built a strong cadence and broke ahead of Marc. And, at the finish, I hammered hard to beat him. The dude rides every day and is bit more fit, so he pretty much let me win. I can’t tell you how many times he has nipped me at the finish of a ride! So hey, even if he let me win, which he all but said he did, I’ll take it!

We rode back down the mountain, a fun, fast descent with mostly wide curves. You can let the bike go at one point where the road flattens out, and bang along at nearly 50 mph for a short bit. I hit 46, and it was a true blast.

Turning left at the base of Monitor, we headed up the long approach to Ebbetts pass. The two-lane road gains altitude over a series of rollers along the east fork of the Carson River. A wildfire in the area this summer blackened large swaths of trees on each side of the river, denuding foliage that won’t protect against mudslides when it finally does start to rain.

These rollers are a vigorous warm-up for the serious up-mountain climbing that starts after a few miles. Ebbetts and Monitor are part of the famous Death Ride, which has riders go up their fronts, down their backs, and back again, then head to the finale climb on Carson Pass. In my book, the front side of Ebbetts is the toughest climb of them all. Mainly because it pounds you with a series of very steep, long pitches, that seem to come in waves the closer you get to the top. I remember my first time up Ebbetts, and after grinding hard for some time, I wondered, oh man, when it does this thing end?

But once you get familiar with the route, as with any others, you can ready yourself for the toughest parts.

Marc wanted to show me the truck that had gone over the cliff a few years earlier at the second big hairpin turn on the mountain. The cliff dropped a long way down. We saw the crumpled remains of a small white pick-up truck wrapped around a big fir tree, way, way down below near the valley floor. Marc said the driver survived by jumping out the driver side door before the truck became airborne. No need to try to retrieve the truck. Too expensive all around. Marc said they drained the gas out of it and let it rest.

Marc pulled ahead of me, and was out of sight before too long. I didn’t care. Just wanted to keep moving up the gnarly mountain!

I rode up a steep pitch only to hear a lot of cowbells ringing. As I turned into a flat spot ahead, believe it or not, two guys on horseback were herding cattle across the road. This is a mountainside in the forest! Whaat?!!

The cowbells jangled as the big black beasts trotted along, and when a few saw me ride up they bolted wide-eyed uphill off the road and into the woods. Sorry cowboys, just riding through. They never said a word, just kept trying to herd. OK, this had to be the last thing I expected to see climbing Ebbetts. A car coming down the mountain later flew by. I wondered if the herd of cattle was out of the way.

Marc beat me to the top easily. After a short rest we rode down, in what is one of the most fun descents ever. The road had been recently repaved and was free of cracks and sand that used to be slick spots, so the good traction allowed more speed. On that day, Marc and I concluded that the two climbs we had ridden were no doubt absolutely world-class quality rides.

A couple days later we climbed Mt. Hamilton in the mountains west of San Jose. This is a gradual climb, but about 20 miles with many switchbacks amid classic California wilderness, so it takes awhile. The pavement was new, the air temp was mild, so conditions were perfect on this ride too. The last time we rode this a few years ago, it was broiling hot, and we suffered mightily from running out of water.

The descent, part of this year’s Amgen Tour of California, was technical, but plenty of fun.

When we finished, we’d climbed 5,148 feet, bringing our two-ride climbing total over three days to 11,300 feet. It was great. Gotta do more climbing rides, yes, oh yes!

Til next time, remember to pull on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely, and don’t forget to have a blast.

-- Mark Eric Larson

Hate a rider for passing you? Nah, just ride hard...

Most road bike riders like to test their capabilities. They like to ride as fast as possible most of the time. I’m in that group. I think it’s fun to test myself physically on the bike.

But sometimes, competitive fires among riders can raise hackles, stir animosity. It shouldn’t, but hey, it can flare up occasionally in the heat of battle for the upper hand. As in, OK, who is the faster rider, me or you?

This past week my first 51-mile ride started out fast on my first long split, a 14.5 miler, but my last three splits were slow, slow, slow. After several days off, my legs were pretty tired in the latter part of the ride.

On my second ride the next day I also had a fast first split, then decided to concentrate on improving my speed over the day before, on the final three splits. I knocked about three minutes off the first half of the ride – 25.1 miles – and maintained that as I started the final 14.5 mile split. At that point I figured to just keep as strong a cadence as possible and I’d beat the previous ride’s total time. It took some concentration because I felt the cumulative effect of having already ridden 35 or so miles at an up-tempo pace.

At the end of the final 14.5-mile split is a straightaway that I always treat as a chance to get to the top gear, stand up on the pedals and finish at as high a speed as I can manage. It’s the ride’s final burst of high-octane energy, the classic sprint finish.

As I rounded a right turning curve before the approach to the final straightaway, a guy passed me on my left, very close, nearly cutting me off as he turned in front of me.

So there I was, just about to gear up to do my routine sprint and this guy passed me, pretty rudely, I thought. But maybe I was wrongly offended. I had a pretty fast pace going, and this guy blew by me with what looked like dismissive body language. Whether that perception was accurate or not, it jolted me with a mainline shot of adrenaline. I jumped on it, geared up fast and hammered with all I had. This guy spurred me in the side toward an extra fast finish. I really wanted to pass him back before the final sprint.

It wasn’t long before I did just that, and as I passed the guy on the left as the path veered left, I could hear angry yelling from him, but I couldn’t make out what he said. I was too busy churning out my high gear momentum to the finish.

I decided not to stand up, since I could feel my quads on the brink of cramping. I knew if I stood up, they could lock up and in the past that has caused me to fall off the freakin’ bike! So I stayed seated and pedaled as hard as I could through the final 100 or so yards of straightaway, topping out at 25 mph. Usually, I only hit 20-22 mph, so I was a little amped.

I crossed the split line and turned off the path to the bridge leading home. The guy I passed caught up to me on the bridge where I rode slowly to recover. He muttered an angry expletive (the four-letter word for solid waste) as he passed by. I watched him ride ahead, shaking his head side to side as if he couldn’t believe what I had done to him.

I was completely surprised by his anger, and didn’t have a response. Was I supposed to stay behind him? Was he mad because I passed him back? If so, why? I just kept riding and watched him turn off the bridge while I rode straight ahead on my way home.

I really couldn’t understand the guy’s reaction. Whenever I’ve passed somebody and they re-pass me and I can’t stay with them, I don’t have any anger toward them. I just tip my hat to the fact that they’re faster that day. Good for them.

The next day a theory dawned on me why the guy was mad. He probably felt I passed him too closely. Maybe I surprised him, maybe his reaction made him nearly go off the trail into the dirt, maybe he had to slow down to recover. He was angry because he felt he’d been disrespected.

If so, it definitely wasn’t intentional. I never sought to brush him off the path by passing close to him. I just worked hard to pass him and build my sprint down the straightaway. His pass of me no doubt got my attention. It made me want to pass him back. So I did my best to do so.

All this raw emotion erupted from some serious competitive fires lit by two guys passing each other and each taking it a little too personally, each feeling rudely blown off by the other.

But I figure, hey, when we’re out riding, trying to pass and keep ahead of another pretty fast rider happens on occasion. And, we win some, and we lose some. When we win it’s a fun little victory, and when we lose, so what? A big part of riding a road bike or mountain bike is testing ourselves. How fast can we go? Are our bike handling skills good enough to ride our mountain bike through some super technical trail without getting thrown off the bike? We like to find out by testing ourselves because it’s fun.

But it’s important to take the high road, and tip our hat to whoever beats us in these little speed or bike handling rivalries. Getting angrily offended over losing these little competitions, well, feels too much like whining. And whining because of losing? Really? Hey, losing is our friend. It humbles us. Losing makes us better next time.

Anyway, whoever you were the other day, thank you. Thanks for motivating me to finish out a pretty crisp final split. It helped me knock seven minutes off my total time from my ride the day before. It was a tough ride, but the overall speed improvement felt great.  And hey, you helped me get there. Just hope you knock off cursing riders that offend you because they beat you. It’s just a waste of time, bro. Instead, let it motivate you to ride better next time. ‘Nuf said.

Til next time, remember to pull on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely, and most importantly, have a blast.

-- Mark Eric Larson

Sudden scare on the bike? Don't panic, adjust

You flinch at the sudden deafening roar of a Harley gunned while in the echo chamber of a freeway underpass you’re riding through.

A squirrel darts in front of your front tire, you’ve got to miss it.

Or, riding into a blind turn, a truck appears out of nowhere, blocking the trail, and it’s all you can do to keep from crashing into it.

Sudden things happen while we ride, and the best thing we can do is to stay steady and ride past the obstacle, if at all possible, or make a safe controlled stop.

I had a high school teacher who gave the best life advice I’ve ever heard to this day. It’s very simple, but brilliant: Don’t panic, adjust.

That also applies when we’re on the bike trying to avoid some surprising obstacle that pops up. Adjust by calmly maneuvering the best way you can through the chaos, stop if necessary, or just keep on riding.

Not always possible, for sure, but still, a good way out of some scary situations.

I just did a ride where I seemed to be constantly dodging things here and there all ride long, for 51 miles.  About 15 or so squirrels scurried across the path in front of me at various times, a startled deer launched its panic escape, it’s back hooves kicking dirt onto the trail in front of me. Then, out of nowhere, a park ranger driving a pickup, floored it onto the trail, spewing plumes of damp dirt as it turned onto the bike trail right in front of me. I saw this just after riding into a sharp curve that was shrouded by tall, thick brush.

In October, I expect the squirrels to be out trying to gather nuts for the winter at fever pitch. They run across the bike path with no awareness of passing cyclists that could run over them. Or, on one of their ill-advised path crossings, they could get caught between a bike’s wheel spokes, and crash the rider and snap a bike frame in the process. It sometimes happens. So I’m on the lookout for them this time of year.

But when, out of the blue, a white park ranger pick-up truck pulled onto the trail as I rounded a blind curve, well, it was a scary surprise, to say the least.

“Whoooah, whoooa!” I gasped. I eased on the brakes as I veered right trying to avoid the truck as well as the soft dirt on the shoulder.  Hitting the truck, or a braked bank on the soft dirt along the trail would have thrown me off the bike.

“Sorry sir,” the ranger driver said as he drove past, smiling. I barely managed to safely ride through, and it was all over in about three seconds. But man o’ man, I talked to myself as I rode on, realizing, hey, if I’d been riding a second or two faster, I would have smacked into that truck and...

Didn’t even want to speculate how bad it could have been. But when you look at like this: One second of wiggle room was the difference between a bad crash, and avoiding one. It makes you pause for a little bit. You know you just dodged a big, deadly, bullet.

I thought about hanging a U-turn, riding hard to chase down the ranger/driver and tell him he just about killed me, and what was he thinking? Didn’t he look to see there were no approaching riders before he gunned the truck onto the blind corner? Man, I couldn’t believe it.

But, nah, I just rode on.

I told myself it all turned out well, so just leave it alone, let it go.

Then, later in the ride, another park truck passed in the opposite direction, and it said “Park Ranger,” on the side, like this was the big boss at the wheel. At least he gave plenty of room to ride past his truck. I thought about doing another U-turn, catching up to the boss and telling him what happened, and that maybe he should have a talk with a certain driver/ranger about how not to kill cyclists.

But I didn't. I just rode on.

I was OK. I just wanted to let it all go. So I did. And said a little prayer of thanks to the sky.

But at the end of the ride, after escaping a series of close calls, mainly with squirrels, I was pretty much emotionally drained from continually riding in a state of high alert. Hope I got my ration of close calls out of the way for awhile with that ride. It was ridiculous how many times I had to make evasive moves.

But to survive sudden scares on the bike, remember, hold off from making a jerky, erratic move or a panic brake, both of which can make you crash in a heartbeat. Instead, work calmly toward an escape route with the bike, and that can include a firm, but controlled stop.

I know, this isn’t always possible, even when you stay relatively calm, sometimes a crash is gonna happen.

Just keep in mind: Don’t panic, adjust. Words to live, and ride by.

Til next time, remember to pull on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down and ride safely. Just don’t forget to have a blast.

-- Mark Eric Larson

Getting passed rudely...uh, motivates

A pair of not so friendly riders passed me on a recent ride, while I rode with rusty legs and lack of sleep. Their brusque “outta our way” arrogance as they passed inspired me to pick up my pace and try to stay with them. I finally got it going enough to catch up and passed them back, maybe with a little of my own attitude. Then after I rode ahead of them for awhile, one of them decided to do a stealth pass of me on my right. I was already close to the right edge of the trail, and he almost scraped against me as he passed. I think he was offended at my unexpected earlier pass and he wanted to startle me, just a little hostile payback. I just kept riding and he and his buddy really hammered it, going about 20-22 mph. They opened up a lead of about 50 yards. I caught up to them at the end of my first split, where they had stopped to catch their breath. They pretty much blew themselves up from a long stretch of all out sprinting. Yeah, these dudes rode fast with attitude, good for them. But hey, they were done. I rode on. Have a good day, boys.

Yeah, lighten up…

On the way back, there was a steady headwind and it was pretty warm. I was tired from not enough sleep and rusty legs, so it was just a matter of keeping a reasonable pace in tough conditions. A woman flew past me on a tricked out Cervelo, bent over time trial handlebars. Oh, I thought, if I can catch her wheel, I can keep a better pace without killing myself. So I jumped on it, and caught up to her. She blazed right along, so it wasn’t easy to keep up once I was on her wheel. After about a half mile she slowed down and waved me ahead. She was annoyed and said in a bored tone, “I’m doing a workout, and I don’t want you on my tail.”

I just rode ahead, didn’t say anything. But I wondered why she didn’t wave me ahead when I first caught up to her. Anyway, she didn’t look like she was having any fun at all. Cranky! I’ve been there, and it’s a bad place to be mentally. It happens when you beat yourself up in a workout, even though you really need to rest. And it makes you angry, because the workout is just a relentless self-inflicted painfest, and you’ve already had enough, you’re physically and mentally burned out. Hey, I’ve learned when the body tells you to rest, it’s a good idea to listen. If you don’t, you’re just beating yourself up, wearing yourself down to the nub. And that doesn’t make you more fit, it just breaks you down.

Time to rest, lady. Enjoy the workout, don’t hate it. If you hate it, you’re burned out. Time to chill.

I could have said those things to her, but hey, I got the distinct feeling she didn’t want to listen to some clown’s workout advice!

Squirrel wars

I’m always on the lookout for squirrels, since they commonly run across the bike trail, and sometimes get hit by riders. I asked a trio of riders I came across the other day if they’d ever hit a squirrel. One of them said he had. Another rider had just told him that a squirrel got caught between the spokes of his front wheel, and it snapped his bike frame in a couple places as he tumbled off to the side of the trail. The guy luckily only scraped up his shoulder, but he needed a new bike.

This guy said even after he heard that story and saw a picture of the broken frame, he was pretty sure the odds of a squirrel getting caught in his front wheel were pretty small. Even though the guy told him, hey, if there’s enough space between your spokes, it can happen.

So this guy, not long after, was riding along and BAM!, he flew over his handlebars with his arms straight out like Superman to break his fall. He did a face plant, however, he said, landing on his cheek. OUCH! He got up to see that a squirrel had – you guessed it – got caught in his front spokes, and it had snapped his front fork in half. Before that happened, he said, he would ride the flats along the trail like a time trialer, head down, almost never looking too far ahead.

But now? He looks ahead for squirrels – and chuckholes.

I told him and his buddies that I hiss really loud, like a big bad snake might, whenever I see a squirrel ahead of me. I’ve found  that most times – not always – that scares them and they take off, usually in the opposite direction. Some squirrels, however, are oblivious, and either don’t move at all, which is good, or they run right at you, which is not good. They’re fevered little squirrel brains are busy with thoughts of gathering nuts or the urge to mate, so you can’t predict when they’ll dart at your bike as you ride by.

Uh, hello…

I had a bizarre feeling on the bike the other day from another wild animal, this one a whole lot bigger than a squirrel. As I rode through a shady part of the trail, I had the sudden feeling of a presence to my right, so I looked over. And there was a big deer standing quietly in the shadows right at the edge of the trail. I rode by, and it didn’t move, but it felt like I was about three feet away as I passed by. Whoah! Glad I didn’t run into that big beauty. Made me think that yes, it could happen. OK, let’s just hope it never does. Avoiding maniac squirrels is about all I can take…

Til next time, remember to strap on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely, and don’t forget… have a blast.

-- Mark Eric Larson