Mike's Bike Blog

The drama for the Hugel started Thursday evening, for me anyway. At Ethan's soccer practice, I coach his U8 team, as we were working on shots I dribble down to the goal and fired off a shot. Not a hard shot, but a decent shot and as I plant my left leg and kick the ball with my right, but the muscle in my left leg shrieked with pain and I instantly knew something was wrong. I don't believe I pulled the muscle in my quadriceps, but it was strained none the less. It hurt to walk on it, on a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 being excruciating pain that warrants morphine it was only a 4.

When I got home I stretched it and used the foam roller on it. It felt alright on Friday when I tested it out, but that was on the flat road of Shoal Creek and Great Northern. I didn't know what to expect when the grade went past 12%.

One last thing that is a crucial piece to my ride was on Friday night when I was getting everything ready for the ride I come to find out I only had 4 Endurolytes! That's no good as I typically take 3-4 an hour. I barely had enough Anti-Fatigue capsules and Energy Surge.

Now for the ride, there were a lot of riders again this year and clogged the roads as we started rolling. Things started to thin out a bit once we hit 360. I worked a bit harder on this section so I could put some space between myself and a lot of people for when we hit High Road. My plan worked as High Road was not littered with riders, there were still a few stoppers and people pushing their bikes but at least there was more space to maneuver around them. My plan for the first section was to carry to bottles of Perpetuem for fueling and Espresso gel when needed for some added calories. I didn't plan on stopping at any of the rest stops but go the entire 38 miles and refill my bottles back at Zilker Park. This plan worked and my quad posed no problems at all during this section.

Loop 2 is the doosie for the ride with most of the climbing packed into this section. I'm not sure how many of the starters go onto even attempt the second part, but I'd say 3/4 of the people go home after the 1st part. The first real challenge is Smokey Valley with it's 24% grade and then up the remainder of Ladera Norte. It's quite the 1-2 punch. I made it up both with little difficulty. I opted not to stop at rest stop #3, the rest stop house, as I had enough water to get me to the rest stop at River Place.

Then came Beauford. Beauford gave me a near knock out blow. Right at the base my right quad started to spasm and cramp up. I think I was over compensating with my right leg to make up for the injury on my left. Boy did I pay for it. Whenever I would stand and put any power to my pedal my quad would hurt. Somehow I made it to the top. Courtyard came too soon though, the lower sections I was able to sit and spin at about 60 rpms, but the top section was more of the same. Courtyard tried to inflict it's misery on me. I so wanted to zig zag up it but there was too much traffic coming from both directions. I did try a little weave but it was more like a drunken stagger. At the top I stopped to relax the legs a little and to take 2 of the Endurolytes, which didn't kick in till I got to the top of City Park.

Onward I pedaled to the River Place rest stop. Once you get on Big View you go down it for a little bit, but at this point you don't go all the way down that's a special treat saved for the return. Well I somehow missed the bright orange arrows for the right hand turn off of Big View. I got practically all the way down to the bottom. I got all the way down to the base, where the steep grade warning sign is. NOT GOOD, I had to go back up and find the turn. Back on track I finally made it to the River Place rest stop. I refilled my bottle with more Perpetuem, I had packed up 3 bottle servings into ziplock baggies so I could refill. I stopped long enough to refill grab a couple fig newtons and chat with Andy Webb for a bit to swap stories of the ride so far. Luckily the rest of this outter section was good, I ended up dropping the 2 guys I was riding with at that point. One guy on Bullick Hollow and the other one on 620 near Steiner ranch on the return leg. I stopped at River Place again to refill my bottle again and stretch a little. I also downed my last 2 Endurolytes.

Since I didn't get all the way down to the bottom of Big View I decided I'd better get my monies worth and do the entire Big View. Plus I wanted to take the chance that the park at the bottom would have a bathroom. I could have made it the entire ride without stopping to use the restroom, but I want to go up Jester with as little weight as possible. My hunch paid off and the restroom was open. A small price to pay of climbing up Big View, plus I didn't want to cheat and not do the entire route, I want to earn my t-shirt. On the way to Jester there was intermittent cramping in both legs now. I would try to sit and not stand as much as possible.

On a good day Jester can be difficult, even when fresh. I said a quick prayer to get me up to the top, oh yeah, I'll call on the big Guy in times of trouble. I sat as much as possible which was a bit past the strip mall, actually to a drive way, I think it's an office complex. I stood and managed the pain switching back to the saddle to relieve some of the pain. Didn't help much. It wasn't pretty, but I was able to get to the top.

All I had to do was get my tail the last 10 miles back to Zilker Park. This proved to be a hard path to the finish. Once I got on 360 I had a complete full on cramping. It was so bad it was not something I could get through or at least want to get through. I immediately pulled over at the Buddha Temple driveway to catch my breath. The pain subsided after a minute and I pushed on. The rest of the way was kind of a cat and mouse game to see how hard I could ride without red lining and overdoing it. I was able to catch and pass 4 or 5 riders on my way back to Zilker Park.

What when right:

• I bettered my time from last year. This year I had a time of 7 hours, with a 7 hour 31 minute duration. Compared to 8 hours 24 minutes of active time and a total duration of 10 hours.
• I vastly minimized my rest stop time, I went in with a goal of only stopping when needed and not sit around at the rest stops. I had more time spent at stop lights then I did restng at the rest stops.
• As long as I didn't have to stand I had ample power and my endurance was spot on and felt I could have kept riding.

What went wrong:

• Not enough electrolytes. It was way too hot, 80 degrees. In retrospect I should have brought along Heed which does have some electrolyte components. Not sure if it would have been enough but might have minimized things. Yes I could have taken in some Gatorade or Pickle Juice, but 1 it's not advised to mix Hammer products with a simple sugar drink like Gatorade. Since I had not tried either scenarios during a race is not the time to experiment.
• Forgetting to press start  on my Garmin 705 for 2.5 miles into the ride.
• Last year I had a lot of lactic acid build up, it would hurt on the down hills and my legs would get tight. This year I had no lactic acid build up in my legs, again which leads me to believe to think my conditioning was way better and I was better prepared for the ride.

STATS:
1st Loop (38 miles)
Average Speed 18
Max Speed: 43.6
Average/Normalized Power: 184/260 watts
Ascent: 4064 feet
kJ (Calories): 1344

2nd Loop (71 miles)
Average Speed: 15
Max Speed: 45.7
Average/Normalized Power: 167/229 watts
Ascent: 9708 feet
kJ (Calories): 2887

Footnote: The above accents would mean a total climb of 13,771 feet. However when I run it through some software that supposedly throws out bad Garmin data it comes out to 10,050 feet. 209 is the total number of times while in my 25 and knew I was in my last gear but still tried to shift to an easier gear to  see if I miraculously had one more gear to help spin up the hills.

The first real test to Hugel comes at High Road. It is a short but steep hill. The hill itself I don't find to challenging, it's early in the ride so the legs are fresh and have had ample time to warm up. However, I suggest surveying who is around you when you approach the end of Toro Canyon Rd. Last year when I hit the base of the hill and looked up it was total chaos. People up near the top were zig zagging from shoulder to shoulder, riders were falling over or stopping, chains were breaking. It was a mess. Be ready for this and if you can time your approach do so. If you are weary of the riders in your group it might be advantageous to get some distance between you and them.

One other thing to look out for on High Road is this section is a lolipop route, you come down Toro Canyon take a right onto High Road, go up it, it loops around in sort of a circle and comes back out on High Road. Thus there is potential for mishaps if riders coming down Trail of the Madrones Rd. fail to stop at the stop sign and cross in front of riders going up.

On Saturday I set out for one last Hugel tune up ride. I wanted to get in some hills and distance for final preparation for the ride. The Gawd Dam Loop is my own creation that basically follows the traditional dam loop, but I throw in a sprinkling of the Hugel route hills of Bluegrass, Beauford, Courtyard and Cuernavaca. I also threw in Alexan just for fun.

The Garmin reported back 5695 feet of climbing in 59 miles. It took me 3 hours 17 minutes of riding time. I stopped for 10 minutes, that includes 1 water stop and stop lights. I averaged 17.9 mph for the ride. Most of all I felt great the entire time even going up the Austin cobbles of Beauford. I also did this ride with my 11x23 cassette, not really the gearing I'd want to do the full Hugel with. Next week I'll switch out my cassette and put on the 12x25. I have been contemplating purchasing a 11x26 for my hill and all around cassette and leave the 11x23 for most racing. One last noteworthy piece to the ride was on the home stretch on 620 I opened it up a bit for a 5 minute interval I still had enough to average 23.9 mph and maxed it out at 30.8 mph.

Next week will be business as usual, I'll have hill repeats and intervals just no rides over 3 hours. I will pull back the week before Hugel, the number of intervals will be cut down along with the time. Since Hugel is not one of my A priority events I won't be doing a full taper. I'll just take a week of tapering to lower the fatigue and be fresh and ready for November 14th.

As you may recall from a recent post for preparation for the Tour das Hugel I wanted to go from 177/174 pounds to 165/170 pounds. I'm happy to report on yesterday's weigh in I tipped the scales at 168. That aspect of my training is coming along perfectly.

I've been able to do this by cutting out not necessary calories. Since I already eat fairly healthy to begin with I cut some calories out of each meal. For instance at breakfast I would have 2 bowls of cereal and a skim milk latte. That would be about 500 calories. I've cut the latte out and on a recovery day or a complete rest day I only have 1 bowl of cereal. Actually I look at what my training for the day will be and that will dictate how many calories I will consume. If I know it will be a lighter day than I try to pull back the calories a bit.

Other ways I've cut calories is by watching the amount of bread that I eat. An example is we had tacos one night and 1 flour tortilla is 130 calories. I can eat 2 easy if not 3 tacos. After 1 taco instead of having another tortilla I opted to wrap it in lettuce. 15 calories for the lettuce versus 130 for the tortilla, plus I cut out other crap that is processed in with the flour.

I believe it is these 2 combinations of cutting some calories overall plus cutting back on days I don't need to consume a full plate of calories is having the effect I'm after. It hasn't been that hard either, I'm not walking around hungry.

The other side of Hugel training is riding up as many hills as possible and I've been doing that as well. I've got my 11x23 cassette on for an added resistance training. I've been doing repeats up Far West and Mesa along with some sweet spot intervals in between. Last Sunday Dan and me did a little hill ride. We started off on the road between Hippie Hollow and Bullick Road and climbed that one and then took the LCRA access trail off of 620 down to the river and up and back up 620 to Steiner Ranch Road. Back up Steiner Ranch Road and ended the day with some hard pulls back on 620. We finished with about 2800 feet of climbing in 2 hours.

Don't get lulled into the rest stops for an extended period of time. The rest stops above Oak Knoll, at the house and the River Place will be inviting. The River Place rest stop will have warm potatoes with cheese and bacon. No food has ever looked so inviting than the warm cheese goodness on that brisk November day. Just stick to your plan, get water and get out. Take 5 minutes, maybe 10 tops. Don't stay any longer and let the lactic acid build up in your legs. 

Popped into the Hugel site to find it's been renovated and the first thing that caught my eye is that the date has been "officially" set for 11/14/09.

I feel better going into it this year, last year I just wanted to get through it, which I did. I'm not going to put any time goals for the ride, however I want to not suffer as bad and at least beat my 8 hour 24 minute time.

My training plan for the next 2 months for Hugel will focus on hill repeats and endurance. I did a tune up route to gauge where my legs were at today with Andy Webb. We did Smokey Valley, Ladera Norte, Far West, Mesa and Mountain Climb. Plus the ride with Jeff through Bastrop State Park entailed 3300 feet of climbing. Both of these rides my legs felt great and is hopefully a good indication of where my training is at. I'm confident if Hugel was tomorrow I'd be able to get through it again, with probably less suffering. Since my legs are up to the challenge there's one thing I want to focus on and that's to drop some weight. Right now I go from 174 to 177 pounds. If I can get down to 165-170 for Hugel that will help my power to weight ratio and not carrying the extra weight up the hills will be a good thing.

To lose weight I'm not going to significantly cut calories as that will more than likely leave me without the energy to complete my training. Instead I'm going to create a small caloric deficit of 200-300 calories per day. I already eat pretty good so at first I thought this would be hard, but it seems like it will be doable. For example I did not have a Latte in the morning. By cutting it out that's about 180 calories right there. For dinner we had pork tacos and spinach salad. By not having tortillas I was able to cut 330 calories there (110 calories per tortilla).

Using the daily plate, it says my daily intake goal is 2599 calories to lose 1 pound a week and 2,099 calories to lose 2 pounds a week. Whose with me for this year's Tour das Hugel?

Photos from this years Tour Das Hugel have been posted. Here's some of the ones of me, further proof I road the Hugel:

© 2008 Daniel Norton - Thanks to the great motion blur I look fast. This is going down Westlake Drive.

© 2008 Daniel Norton - Cresting Ladera Norte.

Makng my way up Jester

© 2008 Daniel Norton - On top of Jester. It's only 7 miles back to the finish from here!

Let me start off by saying I DID IT! This has been a year in the making. It was last November when I first heard of the Tour das Hugel. At that time my longest ride was only 40 miles and I'd only had a road bike for a few months. For the past year it has been a lot of climbing repeats. I built up my mileage and have done 3 century rides this year. This past year I've climbed 207,664 feet in preparation, I rode most of the course hitting all the hills except for The High Road and Bullick Hollow. I did decide to ride the new bike, forgoing common sense. I knew I could get through everything in the first leg with the new bike. It was the second part that had me worried as I wasn't sure how I would be able to handle the steeper climbs without my triple that was on the old Fuji.

The start was windy and chilly, it never did warm up the entire day and the wind seemed to only get stronger. This was the windiest ride I'd ever experienced in Texas. There was more wind for the Hugel than my ride when Hurricane Ike blew through Austin.

The first leg, 38.8 miles was a blast. From the start the pack split into at least 2 segments. The first being the real hammerheads, the guys that were actually racing. I wound up into the second pack. When we hit The High Road this was a recipe for disaster. There were riders in all directions about an arms length apart. As we start the climb up High Road a rider on the right side almost goes down as he hit his wall. A few seconds later the rider right in front of me comes to a complete stop. I quickly avoid him, I think the person behind me might have hit him or he went down before he could unclip. I heard the tell tale signs of bicycles hitting the pavement. I passed a lot of riders on High Road. The High Road climb is .6 miles and the average grade is 8.6% and it maxs out at 19.1%.

When I rolled into the rest stop on Barton Springs I hear someone behind me say "I can't believe you bought that bike" I turn around and tell him "I didn't, it was given to me". At this point I notice he has the same exact Orbea Orca as me. I then proceed to tell him I won it in a contest. I fill up my bottle. He was riding with 2 others, they all had New Revolution kits on. One of the others had the blue Orca. I rode with them throughout the day.

At the end of first leg I felt great, I finished the first 38 miles (4118 ft. climbing) in 2'39:32. Back at Zilker Park I refilled my bottles, reloaded my pill capsules with Hammer Endurolytes and Anti-Fatigue pills and pushed off for the second part.

Part II

On Stratford my left calf started to have a twinge, I couldn't tell if it was a cramp or a muscle strain. It never outright hurt during the day, but it was a dull annoyance. For me the separation of if I could complete the ride was Smokey Valley. If I could get up Smokey Valley without the triple than I should be able to clear everything. As I rolled up to Smokey I was with a couple other riders, they really slowed as we got 1/2 way up so I accelerated around them, looking up there were about 3 or 4 other riders on the steepest section doing the zig zag. In fact almost every hill I saw people doing the zig zag. It really took a lot for me to get up Smokey Valley, at the top I wished I had a 26T cog (I'd later wish for a 27T). A wish I pondered at the top of Ladera Norte as well. However, with the confidence that I could tackle Hugel with the new bike a relief swept over me.

The next biggest challenge was Beauford. I hate Beauford, it's not the steepest or the longest, but the grooves and bumps just makes it downright nasty. I was with the New Revolution guys and a couple others. On Beauford it was the only time someone passed me on a climb. A fellow with a mountain bike drive train passed me with his triple. I caught up with him at the bottom of Jester waiting for the light on 2222. I chatted with him about his set up, he had a 12-28, he was regretting not putting on his mountain cassette (12-34). The next challenging hill for me was Courtyard. It took a lot out of me to get up Courtyard, in fact I had to take an impromptu 5 minute rest stop at the top.

After Courtyard I think I went numb. The rest of the hills didn't seem to hurt anymore, I just rode. Rest stop 4/5 on River Place had boiled potatoes! They had ones drenched in cheddar cheese and one with bacon! I opted to try the cheddar cheese ones. I did pull the cheese off before consuming them. Warm potatoes on a cold day really hit the spot.

In the past I've avoided Bullick Hollow because there's no shoulder and there can be a bit of traffic on it. Bullick Hollow is 1.1 miles with an average grade of 3.2%, max is 18.7%. The traffic wasn't a problem, I'll have to add it to my routes. When I got done with the Dam and heading back on 620 I half jokingly thought this was my bailout point as I was only about 10 miles away from home. I had come this far and the only thing between me and finishing was Big View and Jester.

I was not looking forward to Big View, but I knew the initial part was the worse. All I had to do was get through that and then the rest wouldn't be that bad. I was in the zone, Big View posed no threat. All that stood between me and finishing was Jester.

At the bottom of City Park Road I turned right onto 2222, obviously the wrong way. I had to turn around. 1/2 way up Jester I briefly contemplated stopping at the outhouse to pee, figured losing the 10 bottles of water I'd consumed would help with the climb. I passed on the pit stop and went right up Jester. I conquered the worst of the worst. I'd done it faster in the past, but no other times had been sweeter. Now all that was left was to get back to Zilker. Something that was easier said than done.

The last 7 miles really seemed to drag, 360 was slow and just like the entire day it was windy. My Garmin started warning me that it was low on batteries, this had me worried as I wasn't exactly sure of the way back to Zilker Park. I missed the turn on Wilderness and went all the way to Bee Caves. I pulled out the cue sheet and I had somehow printed out the initial one that had an error, it was the one that omitted Wilderness. I went down it anyway and did find my way back.

In the end it took me 8'24:11 to complete the entire 110 mile Hugel. I climbed 12,815.5 feet. One of my biggest takeaways from the ride, I hated the downhills. Towards the end when I would be coasting down the hills my legs would tighten up, the initial spinning up would hurt. I much preferred to keep my legs moving. The organizers and volunteers put on a great show. This was one of the best supported rides I've ever been on. Remarkable seeing as there is no entry fee. I surprisingly feel pretty good today, my legs are a little tight, my left calf hurts a bit walking up stairs. My goal for next year is to finish fast enough to get a medium shirt.

The Tour Das Hugel organizers have posted the route for Saturdays ride on the Hugel yahoo groups page. No big changes from the 2007 route, the order has changed for a couple hills Adorondak Trails has been taken off the route this year, but the entire length of Big View has been added. This year's route appears to be about 107 miles, 1 mile more than last years route. If anybody is planning on doing the ride but are not part of the yahoo group leave a comment and I'll email the 2 PDFs to you.

The countdown to the Tour Das Hugel has began, the ride is this Saturday. Last Saturday I did a couple laps on the Volente Loop, plus I threw in 3 climbing repeats up the Twin Creeks hill. In total it was 3700 feet of climbing, a pretty good tune up. On Sunday I was going to for an easy ride, but it turned out to be a little more energy intensive than what I had wanted to do. The ride down 620 turned out to be harder than I was expecting to ride due to the wind. None the less it was a good ride.

Everything seemed to be coming together, legs feel great, however, this morning I woke up with a head cold. As the day progressed the aches and pains started to settle in and it seemed to be turning into the flu. I was planning on taking this week somewhat easy anyway so I should be good. I can concentrate on recovering from all the training along with water loading.

If you're not familiar with water loading, it is mainly making sure that I'm not dehydrated before I even start on Saturday. An interesting "Did you know?" is that most people are dehydrated and don't even realize it. When we are in a chronic state of dehydration our bodies try to compensate. I try to drink enough during the day normally, but this week I'll make sure to drink appropriately. Just so you know you can't just drink a gallon or two the day of your race or event, like everything it will take a few days or weeks for your body to react.

Starting tomorrow I'll start the loading process with Hammer Race Day Boost. I had great success with Race Day Boost coupled with Hammer Anti Fatigue Caps when I did the Outlaw Trail 100. Race Day Boost has antioxidants and glutamine which will hopefully help in my fight with the flu. According to Steve Born at Hammer Nutrition, "One of the benefits of glutamine is that it helps support optimal immune system function, which is highly desirable during your taper, a time when many an athlete finds themselves getting sick."

On another note, I got word from Tyler that my Orbea Orca is ready and Orbea should be shipping it out tomorrow. I doubt I'll get it in time for Hugel, but even if I do I probably won't ride it. I don't want to be introducing new variables at the last minute, I know all the nuances of the old bike. Like I said I'll be surprised if it gets here in time anyway.