TD Training Entry #10: Good Riddance Texas Summer!

At long last….FINALLY…this outrageously scorching south Texas summer has begun to relent.  After weeks upon neverending weeks of sweltering murderously under Satan’s 105 degree breath, we poor Houstonians are mercifully experiencing downright frigid 85 degree days. 

Trying to train for the Tour Divide beneath this blanket of summer suckishness has been pure torture.  For the last three months or so, I’ve had to sneak all my riding in before 12:00 pm or after 7:00 PM…any time in between meant death!  What makes it worse is knowing that cyclists who live in awesome areas like Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, etc are riding every day in spectacular weather with stunning scenery all around them.  I ride in a flat, smoggy, Old Testament inferno! 

During the summer months, I relied more on the blessed climate controlled atmosphere of the gym for my training.  And as I’ve come to realize, I sometimes get better workouts at the gym than I do just riding my bike on my woefully unchallenging training route.  Grinding out miles on a spin cycle set to maximum resistance = brutal!

I’ve just made myself chuckle a bit…one year ago, my “woefully unchallenging” training route was a malicious journey which never seemed to end, and which left my body fatigued for a couple days afterwards.  After all, I was starting from complete scratch as far as being in riding shape or having any endurance experience.  Now, I ride the same training route as more of an afterthought.  When I graduated to the long, technical climbs of the Texas hill country, I experienced a new level of pain and fatigue!  Huffing and puffing up those vicious slopes, my legs, my lungs, and my inner being cried while I projected outward false manliness.  Now, months later, I’m rockin’ those same climbs with genuine glee.  

So I’ve come a long way, but still have a long way to go.  I’m still looking for my first 100 mile day, but, due to the heat, I have not been able to get more than 60 miles in at once.  This past weekend, though, with temperatures plummeting into the high 80’s, my buddy Pat Smith and I made our best attempt.  Pat has recently committed to winning the Tour Divide in 2010, and boasts that he will (and I quote) “slaughter Matthew Lee’s record by several days, because that’s how he rolls.” 

Kidding of course, he is not so brazen.  He only said he’d beat the record by “several hours.”  Point is, he’s basically coming from the same background as me…lives in flat Texas, no endurance riding experience, more interested in swilling beer than electrolyte doping…we’re damn near the same guy.  So last Saturday we made the two hour-ish drive to our nearest hilly training ground, Huntsville State Park, with the idea that we’d get 100 miles of climbing in over the course of the day.  I thought that even if it took me 16 hours, I was going to get in my 100 miles of climbing. 

Well, that was a tad ambitious.  We have definitely come a long way in our training, but we rudely discovered that we just ain’t that good yet.  In our defense, we had to overcome a brutal mugginess in the atmosphere….it had rained for several days before we got there, and the wet ground combined with zero wind and an 85 degree temperature just “sat” on top of us as we churned out miles.  It was so humid…like swamp humid…I felt like I was dragging Jabba the Hutt’s pedestal behind me.  Nevertheless we rode, and on the Huntsville trails, you’re mostly either climbing or descending, and we’re talking anywhere from moderate to highly technical trails.  I daresay the miles here are considerably more difficult than most of the farm road miles we’ll be pulling on the TD.  Or maybe I just really really hope that.  

At mile 35, Pat had had enough.  He packed up and left, leaving me there to will myself into riding the remaining 65 miles alone.  I punked out after another 5 miles or so.  Even though I felt like I could ride quite a bit longer, it just got pretty boring pretty quick riding the same trails yet again, alone.  I’ve read in blog after blog that the Great Divide route can get pretty boring for long stretches, so I really tried to muster the heart to continue, just as I will undoubtedly have to do on the TD.  But my heart said “screw that, let’s go home to wifey-poo.”  FAIL!  

So I didn’t reach 100 miles, but I find solace in one thought.  One year ago, Pat and I would not have lasted more than a few miles out there at Huntsville, and even that would have left us physically devastated.  Saturday, we did more climbing than either of us had ever dreamed of, and though tired afterwards, I could have done more, and was ready to ride again the next day.  So the training is paying off, and I’m feeling better and better about our chances of enduring the 2010 Tour Divide!

So, my goals for the next several months are:

1. Get the diet under control!  Despite all my riding, I still have too many upper body man handles!  The extra weight might make for great Tour Divide training, but I seriously do not want to carry all that meat with me on the Divide!  I go through periods of eating great, then mess it all up by eating junk food for a few days.  My metabolism is accursedly slow, so I cannot afford to keep slipping up.  I RACK DISSIPRIN!

2. Take the Advanced Bike Mechanics training class at REI in October.  Pat’s doing this one with me.  Later I’ll take a wilderness navigation course as well.  Time to become experts!

3. Work on my aerobic capacity, or VO2 max, as it’s called.  I feel I’ve been doing a terrific job of getting my legs stronger via weight training, spin cycling ,and high intensity riding.  In fact, my legs have become extremely sexy, and women want them badly.  But I feel that I’m still getting winded too soon during long climbs.  Especially when I see an experienced rider cruising easily past me up a hill while I huff and puff in amazement.  The Mountain Biker’s Training Bible by Joe Friel has been a great source on this, and on all my training.

4. Start amassing gear.  I’ve nailed down pretty much every item I need, and I need a lot.  We are talking about some very serious coin here. Crazy, nutty coin. And with real life expenditures constantly draining my wallet, (Hello $1000 vet bill! Howdy $520 car repair bill!) it is very difficult to justify buying things like a waterproof bivy sack and a handheld GPS.  Have something to loan or donate?  Give me a shout.

5. Keep on riding!  I WILL get my elusive 100 mile day in!  Even if it has to be on flat ground!  Now that the temperature isn’t sucking the very soul out of my body, I swear I will do it!

And now on to some pics!  These really aren’t that good…we’ve been concentrating on training more than picture taking.  But here ya go.

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