Century Ride | UltraRob's Adventures

July Century Ride

July 30th, 2007

Since the month is nearly over and I hadn’t done a century ride yet this month for the UMCA Year Rounder, I headed out yesterday to get a long ride in. Since I was ready about the time the Acacia Ride comes by my house, I decided I’d try riding with them at least up to the Air Force Academy. I was still tying the our new dog up when I head the whirl of bikes. I rushed to grab my stuff and start riding. By then they were out of sight. I knew my only change of riding with the group was if the timing of light at Garden of the Gods Road was just right. Sure enough as I got close I could see the group waiting. The light turned green just before I got there and I was able to catch onto the back of the group.

I was debating about going into the Air Force Academy and riding up to the bomber at least with other OTB riders. When we cut through the neighborhood behind the retail on Academy, I was having trouble staying on the back of the pack. I decided my best option was to go ride by myself.

I headed out across the south edge of the Black Forest. Even though it was before noon, there was an ugly thunderstorm to the south near Falcon. I headed north to Elbert and was a bit concerned about the weather. I enjoyed partly cloudy skies and hoped that I wouldn’t get caught in lightning later in the ride. Even after the hot weather the last couple weeks, it’s still green and looked like there’s been a lot of hay making.

I took a break at the convenience store in Elbert and then headed back south. Once I got back near the Palmer Divide, I could see there were still storms to the south. Once I got to the top of the hill, it looked good to the west and the thunderstorms appeared to be south of my planned route back on US 24. Although there were a few wet spots near Falcon, the sun was shinning.

From my house out to Elbert and back is just over 80 miles. I generally add some extra miles out on the plains but I wanted to get back close to home since clouds were building again to the west. I rode through Manitou and did a loop around my neighborhood to bring my ride to 100.4 miles. I did 3570 feet of climbing. My ride time was 6:42 for an average speed of 15.0 mph.

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Tags: century ride, cycling, UMCA Year Rounder
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Long Ride for June

June 25th, 2007

Unfortunately this month I’ve continued to make my ride for the UMCA Year-Rounder Challenge half my time on the bike for the month. I was partly to blame this month for spending too much time thinking about the Race Across America. Saturday I got out for 95 miles with 3540 feet of climbing.

On Friday I got my new Olympus Stylus 750 camera. I’ve been using a Stylus 410 but sometimes I want more zoom. We only have one digital camera so sometimes Julie ends up using an older film camera so it seemed like a good idea to get another digital camera. Some other endurance riders have gone with the Stylus 725 SW camera which is pretty much bomb proof but it only has a 3x optical zoom. The Stylus 750 has a 5x optical zoom. I’ve never had a problem throwing the Stylus 410 in my jersey pocket without anything to protect it so I don’t think I need the 725 SW. With both cameras you can get more zoom using digital zoom. The Stylus 780 is out but I couldn’t find any reason to spend $305 on it versus $170 for the 750.

Since I wanted to try out the new camera I took it along on a ride that I wouldn’t normally bother to carry a camera. I rode in areas where I ride fairly often and although it’s pretty, the views aren’t as spectacular as in the mountains. Here are some of the unedited pictures I took.

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Technorati Tags: century ride | Colorado Springs | cycling | UMCA Year Rounder

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May Century Ride

May 22nd, 2007

On Sunday I got out for my May century for the UMCA Year Rounder. I left around noon and rode up to Palmer Lake. I had planned on heading across the north edge of Black Forest and dropping down Elbert Road to US 24. Thunderstorms had built along the Palmer Divide and that’s not a good place to be during a thunderstorm. I decided it would be better to drop lower and go to Sedalia. I got rained on a little but not much. It was very green along 105 with all the rain we’ve been having.

I got in 102.2 miles with 6 hours and 33 minutes of riding which gave me an average speed of 15.6 mph. I did 4065 feet of climbing.

Technorati Tags: cycling | century ride | UMCA Year Rounder

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Second Century (Almost) of the Year

May 2nd, 2007

April has come and gone. Until Sunday my longest ride for the month was barely over 20 miles. My last long ride was the end of March when I rode from Avon to Glenwood Springs and back.

I’m still trying for the Larry Schwartz award in the UMCA Year Rounder Challenge this year. Last year I achieved the Platinum level in the UMCA Year Rounder Challenge which requires at least 5,000 miles in century or longer rides. For the purposes of the challenge, rides of at least 90 miles count since some organized centuries aren’t quite the full 100 miles. I’m pretty certain I won’t even reach the Gold level this year which is a total of 3,000 miles. The Larry Schwartz award is for doing a century every month. You can miss two months and make them up in another month. I didn’t ride a century in January or February so I can’t miss any more months.

Fortunately the weather was nice on Sunday with a high of 81 degrees. Last Tuesday it had rained at my house with a little slush mixed in. At my work which is only a few hundred feet higher, it snowed all day with strong winds. Some areas to the north and east of Colorado Springs got over 2 feet of wet snow. Wet snow this time of year isn’t unusual but normally it doesn’t drift. My brother that lives east of town had 5 foot drifts in his yard on lat Wednesday morning.

With all the stress at work, I’ve had colds 3 times in the last 2 months and have been on antibiotics for over a week. was in last Friday to get my monthly Xolair shot for asthma and my blood pressure was slightly higher than a month ago. I think it’s about 30 points higher than normal.

I didn’t get out until early afternoon on Sunday for my ride. I decided to ride to Elbert and back since it’s pretty flat. I knew I needed an easy route to get in a long ride. In addition to not riding much and being sick, I spent 12 hours working on my garage Saturday.

It was a great day just to go out and spin for a while. For over the first hour, my legs were dead but they slowly came around. Even though it had been in the 60s the Thursday and Friday and almost 80 on Saturday, there was still a few feet of snow in some of the gullies near where Elbert Road crosses the Palmer Divide. The hills had white lines of snow drifts all over them. My brother lives just a couple miles from there. I got in 92 miles with only 2408 feet of climbing. My ride time was 6:12 which isn’t fast but probably not unreasonable considering everything.

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Technorati Tags: century ride | cycling | UMCA Year Rounder

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Details on Avon to Glenwood Century Ride Route

March 29th, 2007

Fonk asked in a comment on my Avon to Glenwood ride last weekend about the directions. By the Fonk was my crew chief for the Race Across America so a big thanks to him for using so much of his vacation to help me attempt to ride across the country.

I rode from Avon to Glenwood Springs last spring while training for RAAM. It was the first time I had done that ride. When I was training for the Fireweed 400 (I need to put more than the elevation profile on that page) in 2003, I had done a big Memorial Day training weekend. I had done the Iron Horse Classic from Durango to Silverton. I then rode on to my aunt and uncle’s house in Grand Junction and spent the night there. Then I attempted to ride on to Leadville which included the section between Glenwood Springs and Avon. I ended up bailing on Battle Mountain. It was getting late and I had ridden in rain for awhile and my rear shifter cable was sticking. I dealt with it until I started climbing up Battle Mountain and then every time I stood up it would skip. Anyway I got about 170 miles the first day and 150 miles the 2nd day.

Alright so back to directions on how to do the ride. We were staying right by the I-70 exit for Avon. I’m not sure the name of the street but it’s only a few blocks and a couple round abouts from there over to US 6. Most of US 6 doesn’t have much traffic but a few sections have a moderate amount. You stay on US 6 all the way to Dotsero. Just before Dotsero, US 6 goes under I-70 to the north side. Dotsero is just a few buildings so don’t expect much. Once you get past Dotsero US 6 becomes part of I-70. This is where the Colorado River comes in from the north. Just after crossing the river, the main road turns right and begins climbing. To get to the bike path, you need to continue straight on the frontage road. I think it’s probably a little under a mile from that intersection before the road ends. There’s a small parking lot with bathrooms.

The bike path through Glenwood Canyon starts from the parking lot. Once you’re on the bike path you really don’t have an option to go much of anywhere else. Although you’re right by I-70, it’s not as noisy as you might expect. In most places the highway is above you so you don’t hear the traffic as much. I’ve really liked Glenwood Canyon since I was a little kid. I think a big part of it was from hiking up to Hanging Lake. It is an amazing spot and a hike worth doing in the area. If you took a lock and some running shoes, you could do it as part of riding the bike path.

Just before you get to Glenwood Springs, you go through a tiny town called No Name. You actually climb up rather steeply from the river there and then descend back down to the river. Once you descend back down, you go around an I-70 tunnel. Once around the tunnel you go over I-70 on a bridge and come out by the vapor caves and hot springs.

There’s a little bike shop right after you come off the bike and it’s in the Hotel Colorado. They have only a small selection of parts and accessories but they rent bikes. Just a block down the street is Mountain Sports Outlet.

The small shop didn’t have threaded CO2 cartridges and I’d used both of mine helping someone on the bike path. I don’t carry a pump so I wanted to get at least one before I headed back. He had a pump but the rubber seal seemed to have dried out over the winter. The first time I inflated his tire, it wasn’t seated right on the rim and blew out so I used my 2nd one. Mountain Sports Outlet still had a lot of ski and snowboard gear out but they also had a fairly good cycling selection too. I walked in and a guy asked me what I needed. He was very friendly and took me to where the CO2 cartridges were. They had both threaded and non-threaded CO2 and at a good price.

To get back to Avon or start the ride in Glenwood, just head back the other direction. The only potentially tricky spot on the way back is where you cross back to the south side of I-70 near Dotsero. That does appear to be the main road but you can also go straight on a frontage road that I believe eventually dead ends.

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Tags: century ride, cycling, Glenwood Springs
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First Century of the Year

March 25th, 2007

Until today I hadn’t done a ride over 2 hours since October. I’ve always thought I could do a century ride even if I wasn’t very fit. That doesn’t mean that I would enjoy it very much but I’d be able to finish. A lot of doing a long ride is mental even for experienced riders.

We’re staying in Avon for a few days. I’ve been doing the UMCA Year Rounder the last few years. Part of it is the Larry Schwartz award. To get it you have to do a century a month. You can make up 2 months. This was my last chance to get a ride in to get it for this year.

When I got to Glenwood Springs I was feeling really good. I figured by the time I got back I’d be really suffering. The last few miles I was really tired but never got to the point that I wasn’t enjoying the ride. I rode 109 miles and averaged 16.3 miles per hour.

Technorati Tags: cycling | mountain biking | UMCA Year Rounder

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Texas Hell Week 2007

March 16th, 2007

Hundreds of cyclists will be finishing up Texas Hell Week tomorrow. Bloggers Sascha and Steven have been writing about it. I wish I could have been there but it didn’t work this year.

It really started as a RAAM training camp. It used to be if you didn’t put in at least a 100 miles a day you were frowned on. There still are rides every day that a in the 100+ mile range but there’s also B and C rides that are around 60 and 40 miles respectively. Besides it being great training it’s a lot of fun. There’s very little traffic and interesting things to see. I hope to go again sometime and if you’ve never been you should plan to sometime.

Last year it was the best thing I did for training for the Race Across America. I got in 872 miles in 7 days. I had planned to ride another 100 miles on the 8th day but I was tired and it was raining when I got up. I decided the rain was a sign that I shouldn’t push it too much. You can check out my pictures from last year’s Texas Hell Week. On my page of pictures I also have links to my blog posts for each day that include the elevation profile for the ride.

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Tags: century ride, cycling, Hell Week, Texas Hell Week, ultra cycling
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Blizzard of 2006

November 3rd, 2006

Last week’s snow storm was called the Blizzard of 2006 by the media. The north and east part of the city got quite a bit of snow and there were high winds but where I live it wasn’t bad. Friday morning when I got to work, only a tiny part of the parking lot was plowed but the sun was out. Before the day as over it was 50 degrees. Saturday it got into the 60’s and most of the remaining snow disappeared.

Sunday was my last chance to get a century in for the Larry Schwartz Year-Rounder Century Challenge. I don’t keep very close track of my mileage but I’m pretty certain I hadn’t ridden 100 miles the rest of the month. I figured I was going to pay for doing a century as out of shape as I am but I’ve been doing endurance riding long enough to be able to get through a century with very little fitness.

Sunday was another beautiful day and before I even got out of town my vest and arm warmers were off. My left knee can get cranky if I don’t keep it warm enough so I left my knee warmers on. I just headed out US 24 to the east because it is well drained and even if there’s melting snow along the road, the road itself stays dry. The farther east I went, the more snow there was although there were a lot of bare spots because there’s nothing to stop the wind out there. In places there were still 5 foot drifts. In spite of the snow along the road, the were only a couple wet spots on the road. I think I saw the most pronghorns I’ve seen on a ride.

I rode a little east of Simla and then turned around and came back into town. I felt much better than I expected to and still felt good at the end of the ride. I rode 102 miles with 2343 feet of climbing and averaged 16.4 mph.

When I got back, I switched to my mountain bike and hitched up the Burley because Danielle had wanted to go with me on my ride. I took her to the BMX track just north of the skate park on Mark Dabling along the bike path. I’m not sure that the Burley is designed for going over tabletop jumps but Danielle loves going over them. They are a bit tricky with the trailer but doable with enough speed. She also likes doing the berms but I’m always worried about tipping the trailer but so far it’s stayed upright.

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Tags: century ride, cycling, snow
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Beautiful Day to Ride Through Colorful Trees

October 1st, 2006

After the cold snap the weekend of the cyclocross race, last week was a beautiful week. Saturday was the last day of the month and I hadn’t gotten in my century for the month for the UMCA Larry Schwartz award. To get the award, you have to ride a century each month of the year although you can make up 2 months. That means you could ride 12 centuries in 10 month. So far I haven’t missed any months this year.

Since my longest ride in over a month has been under 3 hours and most weeks I haven’t been getting in much more than 2 or 3 hours, I thought of doing a flat ride. With the aspen turned and winter coming, I decided I’d rather go up into the mountains because I can ride on the boring prairies all winter.

I rode up to Divide and there was a lot of traffic which wasn’t surprising since lots of people go see the leaves. I decided to take some country roads to the north that would have less traffic but didn’t go too far. Then I went south on Highway 67 toward Cripple Creek which is a popular area to go see fall leaves. The first few miles has a bit of a shoulder but once it starts climbing it gets narrow and winding. I didn’t feel it was safe to go on the narrower section and it was way too nice of a day to commit suicide. Even at over 9,000 feet, I was comfortable in shorts and short sleeves. I went in to Mueller State Park which has a good climb. I then headed back home. I only got in 92 miles with 5361 feet of climbing. 90 miles is enough to count as a century for the UMCA Larry Schwartz award. I believe this gives me exactly 6,000 miles in 35 rides for the UMCA Year Rounder Challenge so my average ride length is 171 miles.

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Tags: century ride, Colorado
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A Cold Wet Weekend

August 29th, 2006

Last weekend my friend from work had something come up so he wasn’t able to go to with me to ride from Twin Lakes to Aspen. The weather forecast didn’t look promising but we went and camped anyway. We camped a couple miles up the South Fork Lake Creek road which is part way up Independence Pass at about 10,000 feet. The trailhead for Since it wasn’t raining, I put on my cycling clothes and started riding up Independence Pass. Julie was going to wait for me at the top to see if I needed more clothes. It wasn’t long until it started pouring rain. In Colorado there is no such thing as warm rain and with the temperature around 40 degrees it was very cold. Julie had stopped part way up to see if I was warm enough. I was but I didn’t want to spend the day riding in the rain so I jumped into the car. Once I started driving, it wasn’t long until the rain turned a little slushy.

Then all of a sudden we got through the clouds and the sun was out and it looked like a nice day. I got back on my bike and rode up to the top. By then the weather wasn’t looking so promising to the west toward Aspen.

After a short break with Julie and the kids, I started the plummet into Aspen. The descent down into Aspen is one of my favorite road descents in the state. It drops 4,300 feet and most of it is in the first 16 miles. It’s not a road for someone that is scared of heights or big drop offs. There are a couple sections where there’s no center line because the road is really only wide enough for one lane. The uphill traffic has right off way and if you’re going down you have to stop if you can’t fit. I can remember when they did have a center line but even in a little car you’d do go to have one tire on the center line and the other on the white line. The road was wet so it was a bit less fun since I took the corners a little slower than normal and also had water spraying into my face. I made it about half way down before it started pouring rain but it had stopped by the time I got into Aspen.

I then started the climb up to Maroon Lake. Once again it started pouring rain. When I got to the Forest Service booth where they restrict people driving up to the lake because of limited parking area, the ranger suggested I turn around. I told her I’d be fine and kept going since Julie and the girls were taking the bus up and were going to meet me. By the time, I got to the lake it had quit raining and wasn’t too bad although I couldn’t quite see the tops of the Maroon Bells.

I then descended back into Aspen and waited for Julie and the girls and had lunch with them. After we ate, I rode a little ways down valley because I wanted to get in at least 90 miles so that the ride would count for the Larry Schwartz Year Rounder Challenge and I hadn’t gotten a ride in for August yet. I didn’t go as far as I had planned to because I could see the rain coming again. I wanted to get started back up Independence Pass so I’d at least have a chance at finishing the ride.

Of course going back, meant climbing back up the 4,300 feet I had descended earlier. I was still on the rolling section before the real climbing started when it started raining again. This time though it was a light rain and wasn’t too bad. I had climbed for a while before it stopped but with the climbing I was staying plenty warm. I just took the climb nice and steady. At the top I put my vest on but I was still getting a bit cold on the descent back down to the South Fork Lake Creek road. Just before I got back to the road, Julie came since she had stayed in Aspen for a while at the rec center. I went down the road a little and back up to make it a 90 mile ride.