Tuesday Morning Cut

This week, the

Scott and BR Show

let go of Mike Carlson.

Sorry to see you go Mike.

Birthdays, Bake Sales, and Bonking!

In my last blog posting, I mentioned the fact that I have been working diligently on my fundraising for CAF. Needless to say, this is almost like a second job. I’ve been staying up late, getting up early (to listen to the Scott and BR Show), and visiting the downtown businesses for auction items during my lunch hour or before and after work. You may be asking, wow, when does he find time to train? Well, that’s the problem.

Since I have been busy fundraising, I have been neglecting my weekly training schedule. Because it was a recovery week anyway, I figured that I could use Sunday’s ride as a springboard and get back on track and ramp up with the rest of the QMDC crew and XX1090 Scott and BR radio contestants. Unfortunately, other factors came into play this week that severely limited my ability to ramp up in time for Sunday’s ride.

I decided to hold another fundraiser Friday at my company. I blended fresh smoothies during the lunch hour for everyone. I made 88 smoothies that consisted of frozen berries, yogurt, orange juice, and bananas. I must say, they were pretty awesome. Then on Saturday, we celebrated our daughter’s 4th birthday party. It was a great time and I spent my day outside at the park playing with a bunch of kids hyped up on cupcakes, cake, and juice boxes. If only you could harness all of that energy.

Since we were making cupcakes for my daughter’s birthday party, we decided to make some extras to sell at a bake sale during our neighborhood walkabout in order to help raise awareness and money for the Challenged Athletes Foundation. The South Park Walkabout is where the local businesses open their doors to their neighbors and invite everyone in for music, food, and good fun. During the week I also went around to South Park businesses to get gift certificates or products to put in a raffle basket. I raffled off the basket during the bake sale and it was a pretty good success. I would like to thank the following businesses for their donations that helped raise over $200 for CAF.

Grants Marketplace, Ginseng Yoga, The Daily Scoop on Juniper, Champagne Taste, Pixie Salon, South Bark Dog Wash, Mazara’s Trattoria, Plum Pottery, Citizen Video, Clarity Soap & Candles, Laila Salon, Pista Palace Bike Shop, and Icing on the Cake.

By the time Sunday rolled around, I was thoroughly wiped out, but still looking forward to the ride called “Kitchen Creek” in Pine Valley. It is my friend’s favorite ride and since he loves to climb, I knew I was in for some serious pain. Because Pine Valley is about an hour east of downtown San Diego, I had to get up pretty early and head out at dawn. Unfortunately, I overestimated the drive and wound up in Pine Valley at about 6:07am, with a 7am start time. Bummer. I keep thinking about what I could have done with that extra half-hour of sleep.

Soon, others started to arrive and we all settled in to our usual and customary habits of pre-ride prep. After getting geared up and ready to roll, Jim Carbaugh (last year's contest winner)gathered all of the Scott and BR radio contestants around for the Bike Pump Immunity Challenge. This has typically been a test where we are asked a series of questions about the Scott and BR Show or the Challenged Athletes Foundation. Then the contestant that answers the most questions correctly gets the pump for a week and has the obligation to add something to it.

This week was a little different. Jim told us that we were going to be doing a track stand in which each rider would have to stay balanced on their bike in one spot and whoever could do in the longest, would win this week’s challenge. Some of the riders had never done a track stand before, so I showed them how to do one. After balancing for a little while, I guess everyone decided that I could do it pretty well and no one challenged me for the pump, so I won. It will be fun to add my touch to the Immunity Pump and I already have a few ideas in mind.

When they called for everyone to get in their groups, I remembered that I had made a promise to myself to try and hang with Group 1 as long as I could, knowing that I could always drop back down to Group 2 if I needed to. Little did I know at that time that I would drop a little further than just Group 2. When everyone was ready, we were off.

The beginning of the ride heads east on Old Highway 80 out of Pine Valley to Sunrise Highway. Dale and Fred in the handcycles headed left and we headed right, to the famous “Kitchen Creek” loop. Kitchen Creek is an old fire access road that is well paved, but closed to traffic. After about a couple miles on the main road, you soon pass a locked gate that leads you to a secluded section of road that climbs up Mount Laguna with 3,500+ feet of elevation. About a mile before this section is where I was dropped by Group 1. I bonked pretty hard.

Basically from this point on, I was in survival mode. My body was shutting down and my legs just didn’t want to pedal any longer. I couldn’t just quit so I kept on going. I was sucking down water like a fish and it was at this point that I realized that during the previous day, I hadn’t drunken any water all day except for some coke, tea, and coffee (all caffeinated beverages which speeds up dehydration). This coupled with no training all week led me to feeling pretty depleted of everything I needed to tackle this grueling ride.

I finally pedaled my way up to the top of Kitchen Creek and met the Sag Wagon (WOW). Dan was there offering us his usual good cheer, food, and water. I really needed a lot of food and was able to choke down a few pretzels and part of a food bar. I also ate an apple in just a few bites. Then I was off again with some of the Group 2 riders.

I suddenly found myself slipping off the back of this group but was able to catch up to them at the local store at the top of Sunrise Highway. I bumped into a friend of a friend, Frank, who was wearing a polka dot jersey. We exchanged a few words before I suddenly had to excuse myself and fall behind again. Once you bonk, you can’t really recover. All you can do is hang on and keep a steady pace and pray that the ride will end soon.

Luckily, there was a rider in back of me, so I decided to wait and hopefully work together with him the rest of the ride. It was Mike Henderson. He had his helmet camera on and if he got any video of me, you can probably see the pain written all over my face. Mike and I hung together for the rest of the ride. It was the longest ride of my life.

Mike is a great guy to talk to and we soon found ourselves exchanging stories. I learned that he was in the Army which is where he met his wife of 23 years. He has traveled all over the world and has a down to earth quality about him. Suddenly, the ride didn’t seem to be so long and we soon found ourselves whipping through the twisty turns of Highway 79 and then on to old highway 80 towards Pine Valley. It was here that I started cramping due to dehydration and lack of proper nutrition. Mike was a trooper and stayed with me all the way back to the finish area. Thanks Mike.

Once back at my car, I quickly dumped water on my head, sucked down another bottle of water, changed into clean clothes, and then headed into the diner for some serious food. Unfortunately, the place was packed, so Kevin and I decided to head to a local taco shop on the way back to San Diego. I had to get back so my wife could work on a consulting project, and since the taco shop was on the way back home, we stopped for a quick bite. I found this little (now expanded) taco shop several years ago when mountain biking in Cuyamaca. The people there are always nice, the service is fast, and the food is awesome. Kevin started busting out his Spanish and soon had the girl behind the counter laughing. I didn’t even know that he spoke Spanish.

After eating as fast as I could, I headed back home to hopefully recover from the ride and watch the kids so my wife could work on a project she had. I felt pretty bad the rest of the day but finally started to feel better towards the evening time. Next week should be interesting because we have more hill training with some Torrey Pines hill repeats. I hope I recover in time.

Help me support CAF by clicking on the link below.

http://mdc2008.kintera.org/northup4CAF

Thank you.

07-20-08 QMDC Group Recovery Ride (2:30 40mi)

After last week's Anaheim trip, Sunday was a recovery ride for the QMDC/XX1090 riders. We rode the 40 mile Carmel Valley RSF Loop and pretty much stayed at a low cadence the entire ride. I decided it was a good time to move up from Group 2 to Group 1 to say hello to fellow XX1090 radio contestants (Sam and Matt) along with the QMDC crew (Mike, Lisa, Dr. Mitch, Kayvon - QMDC Chair, and others). Kevin, another XX1090 contestant, moved up to Group 1 with me and it was good to have a familiar face on the ride. Mike and Lisa Jennings were the group leaders for this ride and did a fabulous job in keeping us at a good pace and not letting us push too hard.

The purpose of this week's ride was recovery. We have been training over the past few weeks with an increase in distance and effort each week that led up to our longest ride yet, Anaheim. Now this week, we are back down and will start to ramp back up again over the next several weeks. Next week's ride is out East of San Diego called Pine Valley. It includes a section called "Kitchen Creek" that consists of a 11 miles of constant climbing. Ouch! Thankfully, we have this recovery week before the real fun starts.

During the ride, I had time to talk with Kayvon a little. He has a momentous task of being the QMDC 2008 Chair. He had some great tips and insight on fundraising that I have already started to implement and it has definately helped. Thanks Kayvon. A little later in the ride we made it to Stud Loop and then Lisa turned up the juice on us a little and we soon found ourselves zipping through the loop with lots of twists and turns. It was a fun ride.

I also met Summer on this ride. Summer has only been riding a year, is in Group 1, and is a very strong rider. She convinced me to ride with this group again next weekend at Pine Valley. Since the Group was riding in recovery mode, I am not sure how fast the pace will be, but I will do my best with the thought of being able to drop back to Group 2 if needed.

Most of this week I have spent fundraising by writing letters, pounding the pavement, and obtaining gift certificates and other items from various businesses downtown for a big charity auction in mid-September in the Gaslamp District. Therefore, I have not had very much time for anything else much less post Blogs.

Stay tuned for more information about the charity auction in September.

Help me support CAF by clicking on the link below.

http://mdc2008.kintera.org/northup4CAF

Thank you.

Work, Donations, Fundraising, Training, and oh yeah - Vomit!

This week has been crazy busy with work, life, fundraising, and training. I have spent the past few weeks canvasing the downtown area in search of donated gift cards, free hotel accomodations, and products that I can use for raffle items. I must say that I have been blown away by the response I have received so far. Once I explain what I am doing and who I am raising money for, almost everyone has been willing to donate something.

This past week was my first raffle at work. I was able to obtain several donated gift items including gift cards for Beach City Market (thanks Brian!), free meal cards to Nordstrom Cafe (thanks Steve!), a free hair cut/treatment/styling at Salon De Marcus (thanks Marcus!), and an iPod Shuffle (donated by me). I had no idea what to expect since this is the first raffle I have ever done. Therefore I asked some individuals at my work that did have expertise in this area and with their advice and help, we were able to make $935 with this first raffle. Next week I am making Very Berry Smoothies for everyone followed up with a Healthy Tostada Luncheon the following week.

I am also collecting donated items for a big silent auction that will be held mid-September in the Gaslamp Quarter downtown. I should have a date and location selected by beginning to mid-next week sometime. Stay tuned for more information and a list of great auction items.

QMDC Wild Card "Vomit" Workout

With everything hectic this week, it wasn't surprising that I got out of work a little late and subsequently was late in getting to the Wild Card Workout (Criterium Training) hosted by John Welch, QMDC ride leader. After getting lost in the Mira Mesa industrial complex, I finally managed to hook up with the group just as they were stopping to re-group for instruction. The rules were easy. Ride in a line (wheel to wheel) and keep a constant pace throughout the loop. With nothing but right turns, how could we possibly go wrong.

At first everything went well. We split up into two teams of five riders each and changed pulls (person at the head of the line) after every lap. After several laps, John had us regroup and then mingled the two teams into one continuous line. We were instructed on how to change pulls and off we went again. Well, it wasn't a pretty sight. Some riders were pulling at 18 mph and then another rider would come to the front of the line and pull at 22 mph. Then another rider would pull at 16 mph, and so on, and so on. This variance in speed caused some riders to shoot off the front and others to drop off the back and then have to basically sprint to catch up with the rest of the group. What wound up happening is that we looked like slinky rolling down the road, stretching, then condensing, then stretching again.

John had us re-group and exlained the nuances of pacelining. He explained that even small variances in speed can cause a large gap in the back of the line by the time that rider has to increase their speed to match the rest of the group. Once we started again, we started to get the feeling for it and managed to do a couple of laps before we all slinky'd again. John finally had us stop and take a breather before doing our last workout of the night.

John then explained our last workout which was gong to be Jumps! This is where you ride at 90% of your max effort for 45 seconds, then ride at max (100%) effort for 15 to 20 seconds, followed by a rest period, then repeat the whole thing again for as many laps as you could do. Well, here is where I think I overdid it. (If you recall in one of my previous posts, I described Pat Jak's "Boot Camp" Wild Card Workout. During Boot Camp, Pat explained that it is good to pick one day out of the week for your max effort, whether it is cross-training, riding, or some other workout. I had picked Thursdays as that such day.) Since tonight was a Thursday, I started off hard right of the get go and pushed myself pretty good. I waited the 45 seconds at 90% effort, then catapulted myself to sprint and reach 100% effort. After a few laps of this, I felt I could give a little more during the last sprint, and so I did, litterally.

While sprinting the last lap, I suddenly discovered I had vomit in my mouth! Without hesitation, I quickly swallowed what I had brought forth and maintained the sprint. Pat Jak would have been proud. I coasted in to regroup wtih everyone and drank as much water as I could. Another successful Thursday evening workout.

Help me support CAF by clicking on the link below.

http://mdc2008.kintera.org/northup4CAF

Thank you.

07-13-08 QMDC Group Ride – Anaheim to Solana Beach (5:30 80mi)

We got our first glimpse of what is yet to come in October. Today was our first 80 miler that started in Solana Beach at 5:30am (which meant getting up at 4:30am). The objective was to take the train up to Anaheim and somehow find our way back home using nothing but intuition, luck, and a few Garmin GPS devices.

The energy was high as we waited for the train to arrive to take us to our destination. As we stood and chatted with each other, I was reminded of why we were doing this. I had an opportunity to chat a little with the two gentlemen (Dale and Fred) that ride the handcycles. Fred and Dale were featured in the short video posted in last week’s Blog post. You could tell by the gleam in their eyes that they were both eager to get started and told me that it would take them about 7+ hours to ride down to Solana Beach.

The train finally arrived and everyone jumped on board. On the ride we all had a chance to talk some more and get to know each other a little better. I think we all appreciated the calm before the storm as everyone geared up for long ride in the saddle. You don’t always get a chance to talk to everyone other than quick little side bars about this or that. Most of the time I am sucking wind and hanging on to the leaders and they pull the bicycle train along.

During the train ride I had a chance to talk to several people I hadn’t met before including Jim and Colleen. Both are extremely nice people and were excited about today’s ride. I also bumped into Mike and Lisa Jennings, two of the Group 1 leaders. I walked into their train car just as someone (name hidden to protect the innocent) was starting a joke. It went something like this:

A gorilla and his buddies are sitting around the zoo bored one day when one gorilla says to the other, "Wouldn't it be funny if I snuck up behind the "King of the jungle" and slipped him the old
sausage?"

So the gorilla sneaks up behind the lion, grabs him by the hips, and starts thrusting as hard as he can. Then he pulls out and runs away.

The lion, however, doesn't think it's so funny. He lets out a mighty roar and takes off after the gorilla. Now, the gorilla can't run very fast and the lion is catching up with him, so he ducks into the guard station, knocks the guard out cold, puts on his clothes, picks up a newspaper, sits down and holds the paper up pretending to read it.

Just then, the lion comes busting through the door, sees the gorilla behind the desk, but thinks it’s the guard.

"HEY, YOU!" he says, "DID YOU JUST SEE A BIG GORILLA COME RUNNING THROUGH HERE?"

The gorilla says. "Um - do you mean the one that just screwed the lion in the ass?"

The lion sits up with a start and says: "Holy Crap! You mean it's in the newspapers already?"

It was a good joke!

A little farther into the train car, I spotted Carl who told me that Scott lost his ticket in the bathroom downstairs. We joked around that the train conductor would toss him into the cargo hold downstairs. Luckily, Scott found his ticket and could resume the trip to Anaheim in style (in a seat instead of the cargo hold).

I remembered to bring my camera again and started snapping shots on the ride up. Unfortunately, the batteries were low and ran out soon thereafter. Luckily, Jeffrey Essakow brought his camera and let me use it during the ride. I was able to get several shots and videos. Once I get them from Jeffrey, I’ll post them to this Blog.

Once we got to Anaheim, unloaded the bikes (thanks to Dan from Wheels on Wheels), and geared up, Scott Kaplan made an announcement about the XX1090 Radio Contest and brought out the Immunity Pump to give to the person with the highest score on a test that was given to the contestants on the train ride up. The winner was Carl, who now has to decorate the bike pump and bring it back for next week’s recipient. Knowing Carl’s dry sense of humor, it should be memorable.

The ride started out with the group 2 leaders Kevin, Pat, and Mike organizing a search and find of the bike path that would take us to the coast. After a couple minutes, we finally found our way and were on the bike path heading southwest along the Los Angeles Aqueduct. The pace was pretty mellow since the bike path was narrow and there were other cyclists, joggers, and walkers. Once we hit the coast, it was time to refuel at the SAG station, then off again in search of our route home.

We headed down the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), passing sites such as Newport Beach, Newport Bay, Corona Del Mar, and Laguna Beach. The terrain was littered with rolling hills with plenty of fast descents and climbs. The views were breathtaking but I was only able to catch glimpses here and there. The ride leaders did a great job keeping Group 2 together and kept the pace steady.

The group got split up a little bit rolling down through Capistrano Beach. After checking in with Pat, I decided to go catch up to the Group 2A riders. Kevin, Scott, Mike, and a few others followed. We hammered down Capistrano Beach and just saw the Group 2A riders head into the housing area of San Clemente. After a few dizzying turns, we found Group 2A and a little later, the rest of the field caught up as well.

After about a hundred stop signs and turns, we found ourselves heading down through San Onofre State Beach and into Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base – HUA!. Now, there is nothing more exciting that not knowing if your bike ride will cross paths with a tank. Luckily, the tanks weren’t running and we passed through Camp Pendleton without too much difficulty. Deeanna unfortunately was stung by a bee in the back twice. Shortly after that I got hit in the chest by a bee and decided to zip up my jersey rather than risk one playing tag with my skin.

The pace definitely picked up a lot through Camp Pendleton and we soon found ourselves in Oceanside Harbor – familiar territory. We held a cautionary pace through Oceanside due to traffic. It didn’t stop Jeff from almost becoming a trunk ornament though. Luckily, his brakes worked and he was able to avoid an unpleasant situation. We then proceeded down through Carlsbad and then on to Pacific Highway again – hammer time.

Once we turned the corner onto the PCH, it was hammer time again. The pace was blistering right off the bat and I almost didn’t catch the Group 2A split. It took everything I had just to hang on, which I did until the last stretch through Encinitas. My legs were cooked by then and they were twitching from cramps up the last climb into Solana Beach.

Kristine Entwistle and the SAG support crew were already standing by with much needed food and drink. It was pure heaven. After rehashing the ride and changing into fresh clothes, it was time to head home. Today we were able to put down an 80 mile ride which was no easy feat. Come October, we will have 7 straight days of 80+ miles. By then, we will reach our goal of raising 1 million dollars. Please help us reach this goal.

Help me support CAF by clicking on the link below.

http://mdc2008.kintera.org/northup4CAF

Thank you.

07-06-08 QMDC Group Ride - Del Dios Bonsall Loop (4:30 67mi)

The pace and tempo definately picked up during the Del Dios Bonsall Loop ride. It was 67 miles of pure grit with some challenging uphill sections and narrow, twisty flat sections. It was so incredible, that words aren't adequate to describe it. Therefore, I am letting this video do the talking. Enjoy!

Torrey Pines Hill Repeats, Repeats, Repeats…

Torrey Pines is probably one of the most beautiful stretches of beach in Southern California. With its rugged coastline, and awesome hiking trails, it is easy to see why so many San Diegans visit this awesome beach. Thursday was no exception. The weather was perfect and a little cool once the ride was over. The marine layer was coming in pretty thick and it definitely kept the temperature perfect for hill repeats.

After breaking my core in Pat Jaks Boot Camp, I thought there was nothing left to break, right? Wrong! Thursday saw us out at Torrey Pines State Reserve for a new training ride of hill repeats. Now, my interpretation of repeats means two or more of something with two being the minimum (or sometimes maximum) number you need to do in order to consider something repetitive. Well, I think our coach Mari Holden had a higher number in mind.

Mari is the QMDC Trainer who has put together an impressive, but grueling 20-week training program to whip us all into shape for the 600 mile ride down the California coastline in October. Mari has an impressive competitive cycling resume and currently sits on the Board of Directors at USA Cycling, the United States Cycling Federation, as well as consulting for Giant, Castelli and Time. So to have Mari training us is a true honor.

Here are just a few of Mari’s Achievements

• 2000 Olympic Silver Medalist Women's Time Trial
• UCI Road World Champion - Time Trial
• US National Road Champion - Road Race
• 5 time US National Road Champion - Time Trial

Getting back to the training – the number Mari had in mind had been six. The objective was to ride up the outside hill (N. Torrey Pines Road) first, then come down the inside hill (Torrey Pines Park Road or old highway 101), then back up the inside hill and down, then back up the outside hill, and down the inside hill. Well, let’s just say that all in all we rode up the outside hill and inside hill a total of six times.

Mari set us out at about 9.5 mph up the first hill and with each time up the hill the group spread out more and more. Mari was great in that she always stayed back and made sure that everyone was ok and got up and down the hills safely.

About half way through is when my legs started to break down. With each time up the hill, the speed increased and increased until we were finally giving it a constant 90% effort. Matt (a.k.a The Hammer) dropped the hammer a couple of times up the outside hill and just smoked the rest of us. He even rode up the inside hill on his big ring, which was pretty impressive. Honorable mention goes out to Scott Bailey, a Qualcomm employee and all-around good guy. He rode pretty strong and made his presence felt the entire ride.

In fact, everyone rode pretty well and we all ended up back in the parking lot in one piece. My legs felt pretty good afterwards, but we’ll see what effect this training has had on them come Sunday for our 60+ mile ride. Some of us had to get back home to be with our families, but I know of a few riders that stayed behind to swim in the ocean and enjoy the scenery a little. After all, why ruin a perfectly good sunset.