Blather on Bicycling

Slow Poky

Brian Sather — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 04:05:30 +0000

I shouldn’t have bothered bringing my TT bike. We time trialed on a road about as smooth as Foothill but guys were going fast, even on road set-ups. My legs were meat. I couldn’t get my bike going. Maybe I won’t have to race the crit tomorrow.
Bob’s top 4 of 5. Motor Bike won. I’m devising some plans to slow them down. Tell Motor about some new hiking trails to explore so he gets off his bike more. Med school ought to slow down J-Rose so I’ll not worry about him. I’ll have to continue to scout the other guys and figure out what will slow them down.

Poky-man

Brian Sather — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 22:39:37 +0000

I’ve got some free time between races right now over here at the Gate City Grind in Pocatello, Idaho. This morning was a road race in a strangely familiar place. My olfactory senses finally triggered my memory when I smelled human feces. Before I moved to La Grande, I also interviewed here and one of the houses the realtor showed us happened to be on the circuit we were racing. Apparently, they hadn’t gotten the septic problem fixed yet either. I wonder if I would have gotten into bike racing if I had moved here instead of La Grande?

The road race this morning was on a pretty benign course but riders kept attacking the whole race. My legs felt lifeless. Perhaps they didn’t like the 140 mile loop Rad Doc and I did Thursday. It only had 11,000 feet of elevation gain. I offered to do a less demanding ride but Rad insisted it would be good physical therapy for his freshly broken collar bone from his Elkhorn crash. (more…)

2 Grams

Brian Sather — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 07:23:03 +0000

I’ve continued to lose weight over the last few weeks, but the final couple grams proved to be the hardest. After Waitsburg, I mentioned that I lost about 4 pounds of body weight. This put me right on my target for body fat, and I’ve maintained that very well since then.

My next step was to make some bike changes. A new fork, crankset, and saddle dropped my bike well below the UCI minimum. And, it is riding very nice right now. Body weight, check; bike setup, check; where do I look to next to drop some weight? (more…)

Motha Nature

Brian Sather — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 06:54:18 +0000

I had to go double check my calendar before I sat down to write. I wasn’t mistaken, it is definitely June. While the bastardly conduct of O. M. Winter is well documented, I haven’t been talking about the bitchitude of spring. For weeks, I’ve had flashbacks of living in the misery of the Wet Side. Mother nature was at it again this week with an onslaught of potential misery.

Act 1 (Monday): I was turned around by snow and tree shrapnel across the road on Larch Mountain. A cold descent followed. It reminded me of getting turned around by snow on Mt. Spokane a few weeks ago. O. M. is still haunting me. (more…)

To My Bitches

Brian Sather — Wed, 07 May 2008 06:52:02 +0000

Little more than a week ago, my voice remained the only sound that could be heard echoing off the halls of this website. I had been meaning to send out a message to Reader prompting him to react to my entries. This is how my post would have read:

Yes, I’m talking to you. Yes you, the one in front of the computer screen. Don’t point your finger at your chest and glance behind you, like someone else is there. That’s right, I’m talking to you. I know you’re there. I’ve been tracking you with statistics. You visit my site regularly, even when I’m not posting. Why are you such a passive visitor to my site. Since I’m receiving no feedback, I’ve resorted to my own list of potential reasons for your silence:

(more…)

Ramping It Up

Brian Sather — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:06:08 +0000

Recently I came to the conclusion that I haven’t been training enough. I seem to have been mired in a performance plateau that stretches back as far as last year: not getting better, not getting worse. One thing that I believe has improved greatly is my recovery on a day-to-day basis and also between intense efforts during a race. This is good because Joiel identifies recovery as the key difference between the elite riders and everyone else. I think some of this has to do with my emphasis on more rest this year and higher intensity training.

So am I really in a plateau? Exhibit 1 was Foothill road yesterday. It had me bent over coughing up lung residue for a couple hours. Nothing crushes you like The Hill. My time wasn’t that great either. On the other hand, it is hard to tell how much slower the new boulder seal is compared to previous years. I had postulated earlier that it was a minute slower. Other than Timberston and myself, no one else has been doing to it give a reference point to previous years. The local “racers” aren’t nutting up and riding their bikes. The rest of the day I tried to grapple with my Foothill deamons. Then, I turned my attention to my long climb field test scheduled the next morning. (more…)

Raining, 2 Cats, and 2 Dogs

Brian Sather — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:15:03 +0000

On Sunday morning, I kept my continuous streak of bike races alive for 2008. I rolled out of bed at 4:30 and fired up the internet for some live Paris-Roubaix watching. This was to be my first race at home for a long time. I’ve done 9 races this season already, and spring is just now starting in La Grande. Since Cherry Pie I’ve been away every single weekend, driving for hours and hours. Throw in a 20 hour trip to SoCal and you end up with one fatigued me. All last week I was in a foggy state of delirium that started when I got back from Willamette. So today’s race was kind of refreshing.

It’s amazing what you can get done in a single day when you’re not away racing. I watched Paris-Roubaix live, rode my bike for 3 hours, washed and vacuumed my truck, fixed a toilet, went to Wal-mart, and ordered a few parts for my new bike build project. That now takes care of all the second priority items on my list, so now I can get back to racing again next weekend at Tour de Waitsburg Waitsburg. (more…)

Hors Cats

Brian Sather — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:08:32 +0000

Muscles screaming, tendons aching, agony, pain. I’m describing the feeling in my arms as I tried to “clean” the steepest climb I’ve ever been on with a road bike. My arms ended up being the weakest link as I clutched the hoods more to stay upright, rather than leverage. The road is called Los Gatos (pronounced with a deep smokers voice and drums in the background). It is the equivalent to our Morgan Lake Rd., except less than half the distance, paved, and equal the pain.

I ended up on Los Gatos by accident last week. Every time I had visited the Murrieta, CA area I was astounded at the number of very steep paved climbs that avail themselves on just about every ride; yet, I kept hearing about a road that was VERY steep. Locals talked about it with a Shagri-la type of reverence. My brother said he thought he had discovered it one day when he started riding down a climb and dismounted on the descent because it was too steep. He turned around because he feared having to go back up. I was told this is the climb Floyd broke his hip on while descending. (more…)

Slambiguity

Brian Sather — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 05:31:14 +0000

There I was, soloing off the front of the pack on my way to victory. . . or was I bridging up to the lead group. I had no idea at Slambiguity Road Race 2008. I felt good during the attack and solo effort, and I was closing on the guys in front of me until I ran into some wicked leg cramping and had to shut it down to survival mode. This kept me in no man’s land–or was it no woman’s land?, or was it out in the lead?–the remainder of the race. I finally resolved the issue after I crossed the finish line and scurried around asking the finisher in front of me if any of them were Cat 3. There was one, so second place it is. Before deciding to go over to the race, I told El-Train that I didn’t like the idea of an ambiguous race, but thought it would be a good tune up for Willamette Stage Race next weekend. The race was a bit harder with all of the categories combined, so it ended up being a good workout and I liked racing with the guys/gals. Plus I added an extra 1.5 hours of riding because the conditions were so balmy in Boise. I even got a sunburn to bolster my So Cal exposure last week. (more…)

“I Like What You’ve Done With Your Hair”

Brian Sather — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 05:56:15 +0000

This weekend included a stopover in Echo for a TT on the way over to Banana Hammock. The Echo course was Foothillesque with the wind. Take a look at Lap 2 here, which was some serious wind powered speed: average of 36 mph for 5 miles coming back with 45.6 max on a minor downhill. What? I had a pretty good 12 minute dig on the final lap of today’s Banana race. The gravel, the crumbling pavement, and the suicidal riding by the 3s made that race scary! The only thing scarier was my ride down Union Highway last week. I don’t think I’ll ever ride that road on a bike again. Rad Doc’s approach to Union is best: Foothill > Hotlake (gravel) > Curtis (gravel) > Miller. Rocks kicking up on your road frame is well worth avoiding reckless traffic on a highway with no shoulder and poor pavement. (more…)

Foothill Being Foothill

Brian Sather — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:17:20 +0000

After the carnage, I found myself in a zombie-like state at the finish with Mt. Whits. My foggy recollection has us discussing how calm and nice it was in that very spot. It seemed impossible that just around the corner there was a shit storm of raging wind. (more…)

Foothell

Brian Sather — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 05:46:05 +0000

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times, it is Foothill. This morning I went out to “preview” the course in anticipation of our first attempt in 2008. On what seemed to be an innocuous day I found myself subject to Foothill’s typical vengeance. Even though it was early morning, I was fighting a wicked headwind going out and I also experienced an unanticipated ice patch that didn’t deter me. Over the years, Foothill has taken my sweat, tears, and blood. However, it was ironically nice to be out riding on Foothill again. (more…)

Mountain Out of a Molehill

Brian Sather — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:10:29 +0000

Cherry Pie is the first big OBRI race of the year. Usually, it is a few weeks too early in the season for me to confidently race, but I was feeling good about early racing this year. I’m normally not superstitions, but I do believe in supernatural forces. The week before, I had some good omens. For one, pavement finally became exposed and I got my first road rides of the year the week before. Then, while hot tubbing with my little boy on Thursday night, we happened to look up and saw a hole in the clouds that was perfectly shaped like heart directly above us. It was so unmistakably distinct that it must have been a sign from heaven, especially given the date. (more…)

Anticipating Life After Death

Brian Sather — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 07:07:59 +0000

O. M.-

You’ve been up to plenty of mischief this week. Even as we speak, you are misbehaving. Surprisingly, you’ve turned out to be a good training partner this winter. Yesterday, your consistent head wind provided excellent resistance for my 12 minute intervals. Your hard packed white surfaces have provided nice smooth riding. However, I’m getting tired of your shenanigans. (more…)

Wanna Ride?

Brian Sather — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 07:10:52 +0000

This morning Hunter was a one lane highway. This had me parking in snow drifts every time a car approached. One SUV pulled up and rolled down its window and said, “You’re crazy.” I paused and then inadvertently replied, “Yes I am.” This isn’t the first time I’ve been offered a ride recently. A special note to area drivers: While I appreciate the intentions, please don’t roll down your window exposing me to the interior of your cozy, warm-beverage-sipping capsule. I prefer that you keep a physical barrier between your world and mine. (more…)