Tag Archives: Triple Bypass

Triple Bypass Week, Monday – The Drive to Wichita

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Pretty simple.

We drove.

To Wichita.

We detoured thataway in order to drop the puppies off at my parents. We couldn’t afford to board them for the week, and Mom and Dad were kind enough to take care of them for us. My parents rock. We stayed up a while chatting and introducing our puppies to their new puppy, Chloe. Squanto and Chloe got along great! They played and did their little butt-in-the-air slapping-the-ground dance with each other until we were in tears laughing so hard. Chloe and Tank… not so much. Tank really wanted to play, but Chloe didn’t care for him that much. There was minor growling and a little bristly fur, but after a while there didn’t seem to be any real threat, so we hit the sack, ready to make the long slow drive to Colorado.

Bypass Preparation Week Continued

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I’m sorry Kansas. I didn’t mean to make you cry. You’re beautiful in your own right… and no matter what anyone says, bigger is not always better in the hills department. Be happy with what you have, and others will be happy with you too.

We got to the ride start after stopping off at a coffee shop for some coffee and swag and hung out in the parking lot waiting for the rest of the pack to show up. One guy drove up in a silver Carerra with a bike rack on top. What a sight that was. He got out, an old wizened fellow with silver hair, stocky of build and yet with the definition of one used to long ride in a bike saddle. I have to admit, we did make a little fun of the fact that he drove a Porche to a bike ride, and with a bike rack, no less. As it turns out, however, he’s the Team Evergreen club president. Who’d've thunk it?

At 12:55 they called everyone together. There were about 30 of us, and they gave the typical “thank you for showing up, ride safe and obey the law” speech. The club president mentioned the growth of the Triple Bypass over the years, saying that it far outstripped what the original organizers had in mind, and that it was one of, if not the premier one day ride in the nation.

All I know is that it’ll be a defining challenge for myself and my brother.

After the short speech, we were on our way. All in all, it was, in a word, tough. It was a lot more effort than either myself or my brother anticipated, and we’re hoping it didn’t set us back too much the day before the Big Ride tomorrow. I think he’s more worried than I am. I’m used to riding day after day after day. Him? Not so much.

Not only was today more physically taxing, it was more mentally taxing. I think the reason, at least in part, is that we didn’t know when the climbs would end. They were steeper, and we didn’t know how long they’d go. Tomorrow, though we’ll be climbing hard for miles upon miles, we know going into it that we’ll be climbing for miles upon miles. We can steel ourselves before the first pedal stroke, thus saving us any mental anguish that comes from asking the question “When will it end?!” We didn’t have that today. Additionally, we rode considerably harder and faster today just to stay with the pack. Wise? Maybe not. But it’s what cyclists do.

We spoke with a couple of the other guys that are riding tomorrow, and they mirrored our sentiment that the climbs today were more difficult than, at least, the climb up to Juniper, the first peak we’ll arrive at tomorrow.

All the same, it was another gorgeous ride in Colorado.

Bypass Preparation Week

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Just a quick post to let you know how things are going.

Had some problems with the bike, and had to drop some cash to get it up to par. Problems included a bent rear derailleur drop out, and insufficient braking power. The rear derailleur is bent, but not so bad that it doesn’t work. It just doesn’t work perfectly.

My brother and I got out yesterday and rode about 18 mile from 7,500ft to *just* over 10,000ft. We both felt fantastic.

We got out again today and rode from about 10,000ft to 12,000ft, and then back down to 7,500ft. We still feel fantastic. Up above the timberline, we were loving life.

So far, though we can still feel the effects of altitude are minimal.

In short, thus far, this place rocks! Our hosts are incredible, the riding has been going great, and it is absolutely gorgeous out here. Riding in Kansas when I get back is going to be boring.

5 Days Until the Triple Bypass

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After a fantastic and raucous weekend, the GF and I are just about ready to head to the hills and face the incredible climbs of Vail, Loveland and Juniper passes. I’m not sure what the week will entail, aside from some high altitude light cardio training, some paint ball, and lots of visiting with my brother and my friends out there.

I’ll have my laptop with me, and a camera, both of which I intend to use. Last week was a really slow week for blogging, but aside from being rained out one day, a very good week for riding.

This week, I’m going to try to force myself to write more, but I may have to simply face the fact that I’m in a bit of a blogging slump.

Tonight we head to the parents, who are taking care of our puppies. Tomorrow we make the drive to Evergreen, CO, where we’ll spend the next three days acclimating at altitude before the big ride on Saturday.

Hell Week, Day One: No Edge

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I hit my long ride home last night. Not the standard long ride, but the hellishly hilly (at least for Kansas) long ride. It’s the last map there on my routes page, and is also up on mapmyride.com.

Unfortunately, in the chaos that yet remains my Monday morning routine, I left my Edge 705 at home, so I wasn’t able to record the ride. It felt a little like going commando, but without the fun.

The ride itself was a focused ride. I forced myself to pay attention to my cadence and heart rate. Since I didn’t know exactly what they were, I went by gut feel. Who knows how well I did, but I was pretty wasted when I got home. I’m not sure how much of that was effort and how much was not eating enough through the day. Around 20 miles, I was feeling a little beat, so I stopped to get a Gatorade. That brought me out of my funk, and I was able to head into the winds without much difficulty.

There were quite a few fellow cyclists out, but not a one of them was going my way.

This morning I opted for the standard ride in. The main reason was not being wasted and too sweaty by the time I got here. I’m going to pick up some fruit and pasta at lunch, and set myself up with a nice snack about an hour before I leave.

Prep Week for the TBP

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After a long weekend involving lots and lots of fun with the rest of my team in Omaha, NE, and some far less fun work unclogging and replacing the downstairs toilet, I’m back and ready to really kick it up a notch this week.

Over on my commute routes page, I’ve laid out the route I intend to take every day this week. ~35 miles home every day, today through Thursday, and nearly the same loop again on Friday. In the mornings I’m going to buck up and take my 15 mile route into work, going well out of my way out to Lackman before doubling back and heading back into Overland Park.

It is going to be an exhausting week, but it’s designed to break me down. Next week I’ll be in full recovery mode with little to no exercise while my body repairs itself for the Triple Bypass, by which time I’ll be the stronger for the effort I pour out this week.

I’ll probably be posting some pretty boring stuff this week. Dry accounts of how I’m feeling, how the rides went and the like. I want to be able to look back and see exactly where I was and how I felt about it.

I don’t expect much in the way of commuter or lawn mower racing posts this week, but you can always hope. ;)

A Ride in the Dark

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Friday night I participated in my first June Moon ride. It was fantastic. I met Noah (who has some great, as always, pics from the ride up on his site) and Chris at their apartment complex, from where we made our way down to the Wendy’s parking lot at K10 and Woodland.

There were 9 of us all told. I felt more than a little like a noob, there amongst the likes of CommuterDude, Noah and BadgerLand, all of whom have been commuting for far longer than I. But cyclists are, by and large, a very friendly bunch, and we all got on great. We hung out there for a while, showing off our bikes and drooling over other bikes. There were all manner of rides, from beater mountains, to beater roadies, to fully decked out commuters (yum!) and racing bikes. We took off at 21:00 sharp for parts unknown (at least to me). My trusty 705 recorded the ride, and you can see the results on motionbased.com.

It’s been a long time since I’ve ridden in the dark, and though my light hadn’t been charged in a few days, there was plenty of light from the rest of the (extremely) bright headlights the rest of the troop were sporting. The air was calm, the stars were out, and all in all, those 50 miles were some of the most a fantastic, relaxing, invigorating and encouraging I’ve ridden in a long time.

We had a close call near Cedar Niles and 87th, as a family of skunks scurried off the road into the underbrush as the peleton passed. There was some residual aroma, but it was their natural state… no one was sprayed, thank the Gods. At this point, the light was really failing, and the collective brightness of our lights was readily apparent. I can only imagine how we must have looked to motorists, nevermind anyone who happened to be on their porch as we passed. What a sight we must have been! From there it was full speed ahead as we descended down what, in the dark, felt like a never ending hill. It was fantastic, made all the more exciting by the fact that, at those speeds, our lights were barely enough to illuminate stopping distance.

In spite of our daring-do, we arrived without incident in De Soto, and took a brief break while we refueled. Noah continued to snap pictures, one of which was of a bug splat on C’Dude’s glasses… Frankly, I’m not surprised he got hit. The bugs were out in force. I probably swallowed half a dozen or so. Who needs gel pack when you have flying insects?

On the way back, it was more climbing than descending, which is where the encouraging part of the ride factors in. I got to talking with Badger about him riding the Triple Bypass in ’05. He had a few tips for me, which I took to heart. Given my performance on the relatively trivial hills on this ride, he was part of the group that voted in favor of my being ready in a few weeks. Whether they’re right or not, it’s bolstering to hear someone who’s ridden it think so, anyway.

Right around where we saw the skunks on the way out, we finally caught full sight of the barely waning gibbous, thereby making the ride a complete success. At that point, we lost Badger, and I picked up my pace a little bit. 35 miles into the ride, and my legs were feeling fantastic. At Woodland and Prairie Star Parkway, Al and I kept going straight to hit the Wendy’s parking lot from the backside, while the rest of the group took a right to hit it head on. Ours was a full sprint from Prairie Star all the way to Wendy’s, and it felt great!

More bike awe was had, and farewells were said, and Noah, Chris and myself made our way home. Parting ways near Monrovia, I saw a fox in the road on Neiman between 75th and 79th. He was probably dining on some fresh road kill before I startled him away from his meal…

“A cyclist!” he thought. “Well, what next? I have heard of strange doings in this land, but I have seldom heard of a cyclist riding about after midnight! There’s something mighty queer behind this.” He was right, but he never found out any more about it.

Just a few more minutes and I rounded out an even 50 miles as I rounded the corner before easing into my driveway. It was after 12:30 and I was fulfilled, but ready for bed.

I’m more determined than ever, now, to acquire for myself a commuter bike that I can trick out with fenders and bags and lights and all that jazz, and yet still maintain that nice roady feel.

See the posts by CommuterDude and Noah for other takes on the ride…

Burnout

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My brother wrote me this morning to tell me he’s feeling burnt out. He rode the Tour of the Unknown Coast and Larch Mountain (Holy Elevation Gains, Batman!) over the last couple of weeks, and is feeling it now. He’s a mountain biker at heart. Single track. Mud. Loves it. Riding the roads isn’t his choice, but he’s doing it for us and being able to say we rode the TBP together. Still, he’s burning out.

I had a little burnout this morning, myself. In fact, I drove to work today. I know… I know… I’m not proud of it, but that’s burnout for you. The steady hefty northerly yesterday on the (northerly) way home just sapped me mentally and physically. I didn’t have it in me to ride. I’ve been tired all week from my ride on Sunday, and was up late last night at the pool hall playing (any guesses… ?) pool (FTW!) and boozing it up. Between the wind, the tired, and the boozy pool, I needed a break.

I’ve burned out from working out at the gym, and just quit going. But that’s not an option here. I have real and difficult goals to achieve, and there’s no backing out now. I have to keep it up. I have to find a way to deal. We both do.

Some of my ideas are:

I need move my weekend training rides to Saturday, and rest on Sunday. Riding on Sunday only to get up and ride into work is tougher, I think, than getting up on Saturday after working all week. It’s worth a shot.

I’m keeping my route variety up. I rarely take exactly the same route anymore. I switch things up, even just a little, with a side road here, or a parking lot there. Just enough to help keep the spice in the relationship.

I’m listening to my body. When it’s tired, I take it slower, and when I have the energy, I use it. The risk is falling into complacency and becoming lazy. Have to watch that.

I’m enjoying other interests, aside from cycling, and I’m not making training the central most part of my life. Keeping things in perspective is important.

Any other ideas? What do you do to stay alive and well in the saddle?

Taking a Peek Back at April

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Commuting to Work

Great month for commuting to work. I took three VPN days and two drive days, but other than that, I was steady. I rode my Kona even on the day I had to wear a suit and give an InfoSec presentation to the Board. To date, I’ve saved $165 by riding to work instead of driving. It’s not monumental, but it’s not bad, either.

Training

April was a much better month than either March or February, and slightly better than January, but I absolutely have no choice but to make May and June stellar. The highlight of April was tracing the Spring Classic ’08 route from my house. A good ride, that one, especially considering I did it the day after helping the GF’s parents move. I was tired, but I was determined.

Errands

None to speak of. Still sans chain, so we’ll see how May works out. Thing is, I don’t get out much for errand type things, and when I do, they’re typically pretty far away. Anymore, the GF has taken it upon herself to get a lot of errandy things done, and while she does like to ride, she’s not the dedicated masochist that I am.

Mileage Goals

Here’s where April really stands out. I had 499.83 miles (*just* shy of 500!), which was 121% of my goal for the month. I brought my overall deficit down from 225 at the end of March to 135 at the end of April. I still have some ground to make up from February, but with the increase in training, I expect to see that disappear in a few of weeks. My daily average of 25 miles was also much better than previous months.

Fitness

One thing I haven’t really looked at is the health benefits of all this riding. I know I feel better, am generally more awake and alert, as well as more assertive and steadfast in all things, but where’s the hard evidence that all this stuff is paying off? How do I know I’m actually doing myself any good?

Here’s one way… When I started, my average HR was sitting at around 164bpm, while my average speed was somewhere in the neighborhood of 15. At the end of April, my average HR has decreased to about 154bpm, while my average speed has increased to 17(ish). In the middle of that, my average cadence increased from 79 to 81. I’m faster at a higher RPM with less real effort. That’s solid.

I don’t know what my resting HR was at the beginning of the year, but right now it’s at around 58. Again… solid.

Memorable Moments

  • Tortuous hills on 135th right after leaving Olathe Lake on my Spring Classic Absentee ride.
  • Getting a flat on the way home from work. My first.
  • The first time I turned a simple commute into a leg busting hill fest, while at the same time going from 9 miles to 16.
  • Realizing that I wasn’t as tired after 16 hilly miles in April as I was after 7 flat miles in December.
  • New tires.