Archive for September, 2008
Everest Challenge
Franz| September 22, 2008 10:36 pmby Franz Kelsch
Five us (Eric, Doug, Kley, Luke and myself), all finished the Everest Challenge. Doug took my photo (above) after finishing the event. Doug came in 2nd place in the Masters 55+ and I can in 5th place with a total time of 14:47:48 (see official results). Kley and Luke competed in the Masters 45+ category. Eric was riding in the non timed category.
The Event
This USCF two day stage race is the California/Nevada State Climbing Championship and is considered the hardest two day USCF race. It was the most difficult cycling event I have ever completed, with over 200 miles and 29,035 feet of climbing.
DAY 1
Saturday we left the motel in Bishop and drove 6 miles north to the ride start. It was a bit cool, around 49 degrees. I decided to put on knee warmers, vest and arm warmers. The Masters 55+ started first at 6:45 along with all the female Pro/CAT1-5 racers. There was 11 men and probably 50 women racers. For the first 8 miles it was a neutralized start, so the pace was only about 18 mph on a mostly flat road. With the cool air I wanted to go faster to warm up. Doug was riding beside me and shivering so much his bike was shaking. Then the climbing started and the faster riders took off. I stayed with the leaders for awhile but I had already decided to keep my heart rate below 158 due to the two day event, so I backed off a bit. I mentioned to Doug that the guy up front was the one who won last year so he started to chase them.
From the very beginning I felt my legs were sore, even though I had take a couple of days off the bike. I think I did too much training in the week before the event. I realize that I had already climbed about 25,000 feet in the 7 days prior to starting the Everest Challenge. That would mean by the time I finished the two days I would climb almost 55,000 feet in 9 days. I think I should have tapered more.
I was riding my newer bike with a double crank. The first climb was up to Mosquito Flat. At 10,250 feet it is the highest paved road in the Sierras. It was cool for the entire 22 mile climb with an average grade of 5%, maximum of 11%. I reached the summit at 9:50 am. The descent was fast (over 41 mph) but still cold so I was glad I had worn what I had on. We biked over to the second climb up Pine Creek to 7,420 feet. On the climb I was passed by the first Pro/CAT1 male riders who had started 55 minutes after we did. It was the easiest climb of the day, with an average grade of 7% and nothing over 9%. I reached the summit at 11:55am and my average speed from the start was now up to 13.2 mph. It was now getting warm so after the descent I stopped to take off some clothes.
I reached the 3rd climb at 12:38 pm. This is a 20.4 mile climb up to Bishop Creek at 9,835 feet. It averaged 6%, but the last mile had some sections at around 15%. I was doing the math in my head. So far I had biked 6:04 so I was thinking if I made this climb in under two hours, I would be able to finish in around 8 hours. Certainly I could climb 6,000 feet over 20.4 miles in 2 hours, right? Wrong! It was a long climb with virtually not portions that leveled off to provide any recovery. The legs started to yell at me, enough is enough! The last 3 miles had some very steep sections which tested my tired legs. I started to cramp and had to stop for a couple of minutes before I could go on. I was a bit disappointed in how I did until I heard from others who seemed to have suffered also. Even Doug said he had cramped on that part. I finally reached the finish line at the summit at 3:13 pm. My average heart rate was 145 for the day and I had averaged 12.4 mph. You can see from the graph below I was keeping my heart rate out of the red zone through out the day. My total time from the start was 8:26:40, which was 5 minutes faster than my calculated best possible time.
DAY 2
I was determined to do Day 2 smarter. They were handing out filled water bottles on Day 1 but I had mistakenly taken some water bottles that I didn’t want to give up, so this meant extra time when I had to stop to refill my water bottles. This time I took other bottles that I was glad to get rid of. I also skipped the knee warmers to avoid the wasted time to stop and get off the bike to take them off. The biggest change however was I decided to use my old bike with a triple (which I had luckily brought along). The climbs on Day 1 were fine with a double (except the last part of the last climb) but I knew that tired legs would not work as well.
We got up at 6 am, loaded the car with everything, since we were checking out. It was a 16 mile drive south to Big Pine for the start. The temperature there was colder than for Day 1, at 42 degrees. We started again with the women racers at 6:45 am.
The neutralized start took us 3 miles back over highway 395 to where we started towards Palisade Glacier, starting at 3,940 feet and finishing at 7,800 feet. It was a tough climb, averaging 8%. I noticed immediately that I could not get my heart rate up as high as the prior day, a clear sign I was fatigued. It was warming fast so the cold temperature was not much of a factor for long. It was a beautiful hill to climb, especially up near the turn around point, which I reached at 8:20 am. There was a water stop there but I was prepared and didn’t need to stop riding. I just threw my empty water bottle into a bin and took a filled one and then off down the hill. When I reached speeds of around 40 mph, the bike started to shake a bit, which is why reason why I don’t like to descend on my old bike, so I had to brake to keep the speed under 40 mph.
Once I reached the bottom, it was biking the 3-4 miles back to the start for the easiest climb of the two days, up the Death Valley Road to 6,545 feet in 8.5 miles. With an average grade of 5% it seemed like we were not really climbing. I did not see any riders in front or behind me so I started to wonder if I had missed a turn. Then the lead rider from the men’s pro racers passed me. I reached the summit at 9:53 and did a slow turn around without dismounting, grabbing another water bottle and a Cliff Bar, which I ate on the way down. During the descent it was now clear we had actually climbed quite a bit since I was able to get up to about 31 mph.
After passing the start once again, I turned right to head up to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. It was a 21 mile climb up to 10,100 feet with an average grade of 6%. But the bottom third had a long section with 9-12% grade so I was glad I had the lower gearing and really use it. This was the last climb of the event and seemed to go on forever. Even though I was putting in a full effort, my heart rate would only go above 142, compared with Day 1 when I was holding back to keep it below 158. I already knew the top 3 miles would be tough and they didn’t disappoint. The grade was averaging 10%, but sometimes steep. Even some of the young racers that we just now catching me were not going past me very fast as they were grinding it out. It was one of the hills where you can look up and see the miles ahead and wonder how in the world will you ever make your way up to the top. After a brutal climb to within 1.5 miles of the finish the grade did become a tad easier but was still hard. I crossed the finish line at 1:06 pm, with a total riding time of 6:21:08. My average heart rate had been 138 for the day and I have averaged 10.4 mph. You can see from the chart below the lower heart rate compared with the first day (click to enlarge)
Overall
Overall for the 2 days, I finished in 14:47:48, coming in under my goal of 15 hours. I was amazed I was only a single minute off my estimated best time. I am pretty sure I had the best time for anyone 60 or older, but they don’t have that category anymore. The last time they had a category for 60+, the winner was 40 minutes slower than my time.
I am happy that the event is over but did really enjoyed it. We had fantastic weather and the support at the event was as good as it ever gets.
Next up is the Furnace Creek 508, in less than 2 weeks!
Hot Ride to the Junction
Franz| September 6, 2008 10:00 pmby Franz Kelsch
It was only 5 days ago that we were in Utah and I rode up Alpine Loop to see the snow from a recent storm. I did not take a jacket and was very cold on the way down. Today’s long ride out to the junction was HOT HOT HOT. Kind of like out of the kettle into the fire.
I was leading a long ride for the bike club. The official start was in San Jose, but I figured starting from Morgan Hill would be the same distance, please riders said they were going to meet us along the way. To meet meet the timing I would have had to start biking from home at 6:30 am, but it was still dark so I asked Ann to drive me 6 miles towards Morgan Hill and I started there, at about 6:55 am. It was warm enough, despite the early hour, that I did not need any arm warmers. Ten minutes later I met Gary F and we rode together up Monterey to Bailey. We then made our way over and did the first climb of the day, Metcalf. I did the climb slower than usual because I had a long ride ahead. We had to wait at the top for any riders to show up and then only two did.
We then started down the backside and were met by Russ and Joe F. Not long after that Cindi S. was coming the other way and turned around to join the group. We made our way of to Quimby for the second climb. Quimby is a nasty climb of nearly 2,000 feet with some sections that approaches 20% grade. I had not really tried to time the climb up there for years so I did push a bit harder to see how I was doing compared with several years ago. Since those prior times were all set on a short ride, I felt good with my time which was less than a minute off my best time ever and better than I ever did in 2004.
Quimby Climb |
||||||
|
Distance: 4.2 miles, Climb: 1,975 feet, Avg Grade: 8.8%
|
||||||
|
Time from Ruby to Summit
|
||||||
|
Date
|
Time
|
Weight
|
Max HR
|
Avg HR
|
Ft/Min
|
|
|
Single
|
Tandem
|
|||||
|
9/6/08
|
35:42
|
139
|
167
|
156
|
51
|
|
|
5/20/04
|
36:40
|
|||||
|
6/12/03
|
34:47
|
172
|
165
|
57
|
||
Russ and Gary had gone ahead of me but the others were all behind. There was not waiting at the top of Quimby by the leaders so I headed down and to Mt. Hamilton road where I caught them getting water. We then had the long climb up to the top of Mt Hamilton. It was already getting hot. We passed Louise M. on the way up, she had started the climb earlier. Russ had reached the summit before anyone so Gary and I stopped just long enought to fill our water bottles then head down.
Due to the heat our plan was to turn around at the bottom and make the climb up Mt. Hamilton before it got too hot. Gary, Russ and I stopped at the Isabel Creek to wait for others. Then we started to talk about going to the junciton, per the orignal plan. No one else showed up so we headed out to the junction, not realizing how hot it was going to be.
I had a simple lunch, a turkey sandwich and some potato chips. Russ and Gary both had a big lunch with a lot of french fires. I thought I could never eat all those fires and climb up the backside.
We didn’t take too long to eat because we knew the temperatures would continue to rise. We each bought a Gatorade to stick in our back pocket because we knew that two water bottles would not be enough to make it back to the summit in this heat. I ended up drinking mine on the spot then filled the bottle with water to carry.
On the way back we saw a couple of cyclists headed in the same direction, pulled off the road resting in the shade. One yelled out that it was 112 degrees. I check my cyclometer and it was reading 112, although it tends to read high when in direct sunlight. But then my body was in direct sunlight!
The three of us were biking together until the last climb before we descending back to Isabel Creek for the start of the big climb. Then Russ started to move ahead and Gary started to fall behind. As we started to climb up the backside of Mt. Hamilton, I slowed was gaining on Russ but I could no longer see Gary. I caught Russ as we approached the spring at the 3 mile mark (3 miles from the top) so we stopped there to splash some water on ourselves and cool off. We waitd for awhile and still no Gary. I started to worry about him since he is a faster climber than I am.
A van was now coming up the hill so I flagged it down to see if they had seen a cyclists. As it was stopping I could see that Gary was in the van. I guess he had some issue so the driver offered to carry him to the top. Russ and I got back on our bikes and finished the climb to the summit. There we found Gary laying on the ground. He had become dehydrated, was cramping and even had the chills. I rush up to get him a cold drink and then he used some water to cool himself off. We knew we needed to wait for him to recover.
Eventually he wanted to go ahead and bike so we all started down the hill. Then it was a climb back over Quimby. After reaching the San Jose Valley we could really feel the heat again, after a bit of cooler temperatures at 4,000 feet summit of Mt. Hamilton. Russ headed his own wan and Gary and I headed back to Morgan Hill. Gary was not feeling well so we stopped at a McDonald’s to cool off and have some drinks. I wanted him to have more time to hyrate. We filled our water bottles with ice and water there and then headed back home.
I dropped Gary off in Morgan Hill and then biked home. It was past 6 pm when I finally finished. I had biked 135 miles and climbed nearly 13,000 feet. My HRM showed only 11,900 feet, but last time I did this same route it was 12,700 feet. We’ve been under a high pressure system resulting in a reduction of accumulated gain. I will use 12,800 since I did an additional climb up Santa Terresa to Miller this time. This was therefore the most climbing ever on a training ride.
If I had done all five passes on the Death Ride, I would have biked 6 miles less and climbed 2,000 feet more, so this was some training ride.
This is the profile of the ride.
