A couple of set backs....

After our B&B weekend, Den fell quite ill.  I was thinking it was initially just a bad hangover, but it was actually a rather nasty stomach bug that had him tied to the washroom for 5 days.  Five days of NOTHING to eat, and barely anything to drink (couldn't keep anything in).  It was actually pretty horrible, and left him severely dehydrated and weak.  I think he lost 6 lbs.  By Friday he was able to keep a few crackers down, and was feeling like he was turning the corner.  He had missed a lot of riding that week, and really wanted to get back out there for his weekend rides.

I myself was having some trouble in the motivation department too.  I didn't ride Monday through Wednesday.  I have no excuse.  Thursday I went and ground out hills in my big ring for an hour, but that's all I did through the week.

Saturday we were scheduled to ride our bikes to the Boulder foothills and climb a local hill called NCAR.  It's called that because the hill leads to the National Center for Atmospheric Research.  It's about a 2 mile climb that varies from a 6-8 percent grade.  Den drove his car over to the foothills because he was still not feeling very strong/energetic after not eating for so many days.  I rode my bike over (about 18 miles from our house).  We rode up and down NCAR 3 times, and then I happily accepted a ride back to the house.  I justified it by saying that we need to spend some time with our kids!!!!  Those two have been ripped off in the family time department lately.

Sunday we hooked up with 2 of our neighbors and did a 60 mile ride.  Den rode strong until about the 50 mile mark, and then his legs started cramping up.  We figure it's a symptom of dehydration still.  Pretty great that he was able to do as much as he did though, and he did ride the entire 60 miles-we just slowed down to finish out.  I felt great and strong the entire ride.

Can I admit that I'm sick of my bike?  I like when we're out riding, but I hate that we *have* to do it so much.  I hate how much time it's taking from our kids.  I hate that it's our only focus lately.  So I handed off my cycling shoes to get repaired and I'm taking a few days off.  I won't be riding probably until the end of the week.  Den went out on his own last night and did a few hill repeats by our house.  He's lost his training partner.........which is probably just fine anyway, since it's supposed to SNOW again tomorrow.  What the heck is with this place?  Tomorrow is MAY!  This past weekend we were riding in over 70 degree weather and being careful not to burn.  Crazy.

I introduced myself to the Insanity DVDs yesterday.  The first DVD was definitely insane.  I might have set a new sweat record......and if you know me at all, that's saying a lot.  Who knows what today will bring?  My muscles are really sore from yesterday, so it'll be *interesting* to say the least......

Happy training to everyone else out there!

Approaching the NCAR climb.  Absolutely stunning scenery.

The NCAR building is up on the left of the picture, the road winds up and left.

No idea why, but I was hurting SO bad on the first climb.  Luckily the next 2 climbs weren't bad.  Weird when that happens.......?

The flatirons were such an amazing sight on the way down.......gorgeous views!

The NCAR hill gives great views over the city (and shows how darn flat it is when you look anywhere other than west!)

Compliments of Sunday's ride.  Never seen that happen before!

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday........nothing.

Monday was a great day to take off after 3 great training days on the bike.
Tuesday?  Hmmmm.  Two rest days in a row is probably OK, right?
Wednesday?

It's Wednesday night at 7:30pm and there is no motion towards the bikes.  It'll need to be a trainer workout.  I'm not thrilled with the prospect.  Please give me the motivation to get off this chair and out of this rut.  I can't let 3 days turn into 4.............we do not have the luxury of this many days off the bike in a week. :-(

Asbury B & B (bikes and booze) was a success

Despite the crazy snow dump we had a few days before everyone was due to arrive, the riding camp was successful.  We were soooo lucky that we had great riding days Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  We had no plans to ride on Monday, which is a good thing since it started snowing again and continued all through the day.  Today it's Tuesday and it is STILL snowing.  Winter wonderland all over again.  April 23rd.  Pathetic!!

Day one of the camp we rode a 65 mile (105 km) loop from our house to a little town called Lyons.  It was a fairly flat ride.  Everyone did great, but there were a few grumbles towards the end about being ready to be done riding.  We had a wicked head wind and cross wind for most of the ride back.  The start of the ride was a tad cool, but while we were underway we were totally fine.  The sun was out and was doing a good job of keeping us warm.

Day one-ride to Lyons.  On Route 66!

Day two we rode from the house to a "famous" place called the Morgul Bismark loop. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgul-Bismark

Races are held there, and it was featured in a movie called "American Flyers".  It has some steep climbs, including 'The Wall', which is a gradual one mile climb that ends in a 12% grade.  In addition, we did some speed work on Cherryvale Road in Boulder (which might possibly be my favorite road to ride on here).  It has some great rollers and we were working as a team to get some good speed going.  VERY fun.  Everyone loved today's ride.  It was only 35 miles (56 km), but very fun.  Some gorgeous views of the mountains from there too.

Celebrating their first trip up "The Wall"

Day three we left the house (well, Siobhan, Graham and I did.....Chris and Den drove) to head to the foothills in Boulder.  It was a beautiful morning, and the ride into town was not difficult at all.  21 miles of bike lanes, beautiful views and easy riding.  Nice start!  When we arrived at the coffee shop meeting point, we joined up with the guys, and also Den's cycling coach Ann Samplonius.  She rode with us this day and took us up to Ward.  The climb to Ward is a 16 mile climb.....with the first 15 miles being not too bad (maybe 4-5% grade?) and the last mile is 11%.
http://303cycling.com/The-Climb-to-Ward-Boulder-bike-rides

It was actually pretty brutal.  There was a LOT of self talk going on there, and a lot of grinding it out on the pedals!  We all made it though, which felt pretty great.  Ward is so high up (9,450 ft elevation) that the snow up there was still deep and prevalent!  Didn't take long for the sweat we worked up to get COLD!  After fueling up, emptying out and filling up water bottles, we started our descent.  This was either the highlight of the day or the worst part of the day, depending on who you are (Siobhan hates descending.....and well, if you hate descending, this isn't your favourite position to be in......it's a LONG way down!).  Some of us took off and reached speeds of 50 miles per hour (80 km) going down.  Yeeeee hawwww!

Unfortunately, we stopped at the bottom to regroup, and I noticed I was in my big ring from the descent still.  Not great for the new climbing challenge ahead of us (up the back side of Lee Hill Drive).  I made a quick (slow) turn around to change into my small ring, and slid out on the loose gravel.  Darn it!  Took out my left elbow pretty bad, and minor cuts and bruises on both hands, and down my hip and left leg.  We still had work to do though, so I rolled my ripped shirt and pinched off the blood, and we carried on.  I'm thankful that I was going at that slow speed when I spilled.  A wipe out at 50 miles per hour would be a nightmare!

Yeouchy

At the end of that, we dropped off the rented bikes in Boulder, and went back to our place to celebrate a successful few days.  We *might* have played as hard that night as we rode the last few days.  Was a fun night, and capped off a great cycling weekend!

The gang, starting our climb

My view for a segment (taken by the GoPro....)

Looking good Team R2S!

Trying to give grade perspective.....

Does this climb ever end? No.  All up, no flat.

Almost there.  Hurting now!!! (or is that Hurling?)

How cold us it at elevation 9,450 ft?  Cold!!! Someone's not impressed!

 

Refueling (unaware that the GoPro was set to take a picture every 4 seconds.  We have no idea we're being recorded)

Cleaning out the ice from my cleats.  Cold up there!

Anne giving Siobhan a pep talk before descent.

Off Graham and Siobhan go.....one of the last pictures before the Go Pro exploded off my bike!

Back to the trainers

The weekend was great for riding.  We finally got to meet and ride with Den's cycling coach.  We met up to do some more climbing in the local foothills/mountains.  Climbed for about 13 miles that day, then turned around and set a new downhill speed record (again) for me.  Broke 80km/50 miles per hour.  Then, another brutal climb up the back side of Lee Hill Drive in Boulder, before screaming down the hill again and finishing the ride.

Lee Hill Drive in Boulder is a significant hill for us.  When we first came out to do some house hunting and were looking in Boulder, one of the houses we wanted to see was up Lee Hill Drive.  It's a winding, steep climb up into the mountain.  The hill was filled with cyclists and we were in absolute awe that they could climb it.  It didn't help that we were out of breath just walking up a flight of stairs at the time (ahem....still are some days!).  That elevation/altitude thing is real, especially when you just step off of a flight from sea level.

Because of that day, Lee Hill has always been in the back of our minds as the ultimate test of cycling fitness.  We have yet to climb it from the front side, and I don't even think we're ready for that yet.  As I said above though, we did a bit of climbing on it Saturday from the back side, and that was punishment enough!  Some day we'll do the front side......

Sunday we were supposed to get out to ride, but the winds were unbelievably crazy.  We passed.  I've been blown off the road by wind three times in Colorado already (never before that).  That's enough, thankyouverymuch!

Den did some treadmill work on Sunday instead.  I sat on the couch and ate bon bons. What?  Balance, right?

Monday it snowed all day.  I don't even want to talk about it, it's so crazy.  Snow in April.  Really?  What kind of madness did we move to?  Last year in March and April we were in shorts.  This is our second snow dump in April so far this year.  Not impressed.

So the trainers came out again last night, much to my chagrin.  At least it's nice to have an option to train when the weather doesn't cooperate.

This is the view outside of our window right now.

We have 4 friends flying in, starting on Wednesday of this week (that's tomorrow).  We're hosting a cycling camp.  A TRAINING camp.  To say that this snow dump is ill timed is an understatement.  I'll be hugely bummed if this ruins our weekend.  I know we'll have fun regardless (wine anyone?), but it would be nice to get some great cycling in too!

Let the pictures do the talking

Brutal hard workout tonight!!!

Went for a bike fit today.  A Retul bike fit, to be more precise.  Man, the guy was good.  He made MANY adjustments on my bike, and made a new saddle recommendation.  I have a feeling I'm going to be MUCH happier/more comfortable on the bike.

Sensors all over me to feed the computer my movements and see how close they are to the recommended set up. Very cool.....

Cycling weekend

It was a cycling weekend!

Sunday we climbed up to Jamestown again, and added a little extra climb in on the way back.  It was a beautiful day, but not long after starting, we realized we had a nasty head wind to contend with.  For the first 5 miles, it was coming directly at the side of us.  At one point I let out a 'girl scream' because I was 95% sure I was going down.  It blew me off the road and I was completely out of control.  So scary!  I managed to fight my bike back onto the road and keep it upright.  At that point, we weren't sure what we would end up accomplishing.

At the 5 mile marker, we turned to begin our ascent.  Now we were taking the strong wind right in the face.  It was definitely adding insult to injury.  Climbing, AND a head wind?  Not fair.  We decided right then and there that we would only be able to do 1/3 of the climb, and then turn off and loop back to the car.  We were getting passed constantly.  Boulder is filled with professional cyclists.  To them, this climb is nothing.  It was embarrassing to get passed like we were standing still!  We fought the wind (slowly) to the turn off, and then I made the call-Nope, let's keep climbing as long as we can.  This was our technique the entire climb.  We set a goal, made it to the goal and decided that we should press on.  We realized at this point that it was mental strength getting us up there.  On ride day, you can bet there will be times we want to give up.  We need to learn how to press on, regardless of obstacles.

As you would imagine, we felt GREAT when we reached the top.  Just a 2 minute 'stuff food in our mouths' break, and we started the descent.  Shortly after starting to descend, a team of 4 professional cyclists passed by us.  They were tucked in, giving it their all to get down the hill the fastest.  They were peddling their hearts out too.  As they passed me, I decided to tuck (try to make myself as aerodynamic as possible) in and gain some speed.

Seriously.....the most hilarious part of the entire day was watching as I came up from behind and completely caught them off guard.  They keep looking over their shoulder like "WTF?", and then peddling more to go faster.  I had to use my brakes to stop from overtaking them (not a word of a lie).  They were the cocky kind of riders.....after they passed us, they expected that they were in front and didn't even attempt to stay to one side of the road.  They were all over the road, thinking they were blazing the trail down.  Then comes me.  I set a new personal downhill speed record that day.  79 kms an hour, or 49 miles/hr.  Crazy fast.  (Now, my new goal is to break 80kms some day.  Den says there is a good opportunity to do it on ride day).

After the descent, we had another climb ahead of us.  As we headed up the road, we saw it ahead in the distance....and I'm not going to lie-it was totally intimidating.  Our mantra that day was to overcome mental fear though, and we pressed on.  It wasn't pretty.  We were almost ground to a stop at one point, but both of us climbed that sucker too......and boy did it feel good to get to the top and know it was nothing but downhill from there on in.

YAY!

Pictures NEVER do the inclines justice....but you can sort of see the road curving up to the left in front of us

Up early for a training ride

Today it's Broomfield to Lyons.  We need to head out early (7:00am) because we need to be back for Maddie's volleyball games.

I'm starting the ride with two sore knees (one brought on by running, one brought on my cycling I think.......I'm hoping my bike fit on Thursday will help solve that), really sore leg muscles from the plyometrics I did on Tuesday(!).....or maybe it's the volleyball that I played on Thursday.  Haven't played in YEARS, so it worked different muscles.

Oddly, not too much of it seems brought on by cycling, which is primarily what I've been doing.  We did a nice easy spin for an hour last night, and my legs were sore from the outset!

There is a lesson in there.  I might need to back off when I'm not riding......or I'll never make it to ride day.  Den thinks my ailments are hilarious (especially when you add in my poor balance, sometimes sore back, my head that aches when the weather changes (from surgery still), etc).  SUCKS GETTING OLDER!

Oatmeal has been downed.  Bikes are ready.  Kids are still sleeping.  The sun is up (although it's not warm yet...) Off we go!

Update:

So as we're riding today, this post was going through my head.  What a WHINER I am.  Yes, I had lots of aches on the ride today, but on a positive note:

We got up and did 50 miles today.
The sun was shining (OK, so it shines a lot here......but still.  SO nice!)
We rode into Lyons and had an awesome cappuccino before turning around.
Although I had pains, my body let me do the ride (!).
Best of all.......as is the case with EVERY ride, we were so glad we went, after we were finished!

The town of Lyons.  So cool/different there.  Beautiful too.

Exciting Saturday night.  Oooooh, the knees are hurting!

The cost of doing this ride

The costs associated with doing the Ride2Survive are adding up.

• It costs $400.00 to sign up for the ride ($200 each). This is necessary to cover off any costs associated with the ride (ie: transportation, food, etc) so that we don't take any funds from the donations we get.  We are SUPER strict on using 100% of the funds that are donated towards cancer research and not admin, etc costs.
• We typically donate $500.00 ourselves.  We want to put our money where our mouths are.  How can we in good conscience ask others to donate if we are unwilling?
• Bike fittings for both of us: $550.00 ($275.00 each).  If we weren't doing the ride, we wouldn't get them done......but we don't want to chance being uncomfortable on our bikes when we have to spend 17 hours on them.
• The gas alone to drive up to B.C. and back will probably be $300.00 (guessing?)
• A hotel one night on the way up $125.00
• Dog in a kennel for the week.  Cheapest: $140.00

Without even factoring food on the road, or the costs of a trainer (optional), or the cost for new bike saddles ($350.00- for seats on our bike-you could argue that we don't *need* them, but again.....17 hours on an uncomfortable saddle?)

I don't see how we won't end up out of pocket over $2,000; even without factoring the extra costs in.

So that is the financial cost.  Then, there is the time commitment 'cost'.  This is HUGE.  The training required to be able to do this ride, or even attempt to do the ride is humungous.  We trained on Easter.  No-we didn't have to.....but there are limited times during the week that you can get out for several hours to ride......and we need to do it MULTIPLE times a week.  We will be gone from our kids a LOT over the next few months.  There is no way around this.  When we get closer to ride day, every weekend we'll be gone one of the days for basically the entire day (between 5-7 hours on a single bike ride, every week for several weeks).  There is no denying that there is a 'cost' to our children.

My mind has been swirling over the last few days about these things.  The time.  The money.  The commitment it takes to do this.  The fact that even though I like riding my bike, that doesn't mean I want to ride it every second day for hours.....or feel guilty about missing a ride.....or have every thought consumed with making sure we get enough training in.  It's a LOT to take on.

But then, I think about the cost of NOT doing the ride.  More families hear the news that their daughter, son, husband, wife, father, mother, grandparent have cancer.......and all of the stress, agony and uncertainty that goes with that.  I remember what it felt like the first time we heard it with Den, and I remember that in that moment, we would have given ANYthing to make it go away.  Honestly, anything.  Nothing else seemed to matter once we found out he was battling cancer.  And then I think about what it was like a few months ago when we thought there was a possibility that it had come back.  - as sadistic and negative as it sounds, I have to tell you that I had envisioned myself as a widow.  My mind went there. But we are the lucky ones.  The ones that get to live productive 'after cancer' lives.

The 'cost' of doing this ride doesn't seem as big once you factor in the cost of NOT doing it.

Kicking it up a notch

*Someone* was having a hard time with motivation to get out training.  That same *someone* had a birthday recently.  So I bought him a cycling coach as a gift.  Three months of coaching.

Wow-the switch has flipped.  He is a riding machine now-on his bike most days of the week.  He did 3 workouts on his trainer, plus 3 outdoor rides this past week.  His coach sends him his required riding, and he uploads all the data so she can see what's going on.  It's WORKING!  She's a retired professional racer.  Raced for 20 years and has a passion for teaching.  So far we love her.  Her name is Anne Samplonius.  After I found her and decided she might be the one (based on a little bio on a website I found, and her philosophy on coaching), I was chatting her up and she said "Did you pick me because I am Canadian?".  I HAD NO IDEA.  Pure coincidence, but cool all the same!

As an added benefit, I go along for her suggested rides outdoors.  We did a fairly short ride on Friday (24 miles), a faster paced ride on Saturday with a group (38 miles) and then a hill training session on Sunday (27 miles).

Yes, we trained on Easter Sunday.  Now *that's* dedication!  And since it was our hill training ride, we rode 8.5 miles up the side of a mountain.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  My favourite ride so far, despite the climbing.  Funny thing about the climbing though.......when you look up this particular route online, it ranks it a 2 star ride (out of 5, for difficulty).  I didn't find it that hard, but honestly-it makes me shudder what a 4 or 5 star climb would look like.  YUCK!

Of course......descending after all that climbing is super fun!  I got up to 38.4 miles per hour (62km/hour) and Den was over 40 miles per hour (65/66km per hour).  It's not a record for us, but it was fun none the less!

As an added bonus......burning those calories (darn boy burned twice what I did!) made eating the kids' Easter candy less guilt ridden!

At the top of the climb was a tiny little town called Jamestown.  Lots of hippies around, strumming their guitars barefoot in the park! :-)

Dinner with the family that night.

Our email went out for donations a few days ago too.  Hoping we can meet our target!

http://ride2survive.kintera.org/2013/teamasbury