Total Posts: 637
17.2 Months Ago

Total Posts: 637
17.2 Months Ago

of the 4, but Dave ensures me that it is 4 as we were together for all

of them. I believe he is right , as I have some vague recollection of

climbing from the Santa Rosa side before recommending the ride to the

group

The 1st time... Dave, Tom and I started in Sonoma and went up over

Trinity. Dave flatted right at the Dry Creek turn off. He changed to

a new tube, pumped up, and BAM! another flat. I searched his tire

and found a piece of glass that his sponge like tires had picked up.

We made our way down Oakville, over to Silverado trail, then Tom and I

look back - - No Dave. We turn around, and he is sitting on the side

of the road changing his tube again. We determine that his tires are

far too pourus, and he buys new tubes and tires in St Helena. We

climbed Spring Mountain, and had a rough descent down St. Helena Rd.

Bonked in Kenwood, and Tom carried us home. Curse????

The 2nd time... I think it was Tom, Dave and me again. We decided to

do the route in reverse to get the smooth downhill. I really do not

remember this ride. Probably no flats.

The Third time... Brian had to get back for a soccer game.

Everything went well, until we passed a weed wacker on the side of the

road in Carneros. Lee got a flat. He fixes it, then puts it on and

BANG, the other tire goes flat. As I am up ahead, I snicker quietly

as to not upset anyone. Lee fixes his 2nd tire, then we start, and I

have a flat (A bit of carma for the snicker). We almost reach the 121

crossing and Lee is flat again. Brian takes off as he is super late.

and we all contemplate our luck. Curse????

The fourth time (last weekend)... 8 riders total. Good ride to St Helena. It is a good ride whenever all 8 riders make it down Spring Mountain without a

crash. There is one particular left hander that always seems to catch

everyone a bit off guard. It appears to start out as about a 45

degree turn, then part way in it goes into a 90 degree turn. Pat

yelled some explitive from behind me. Lee had no troubles, he was

like butter going through the corners. At the bottom of Spring

Mountain we passed by a weed wacker. After an extended stop at

Safeway, we prepare to leave, and Lee has a flat. We get less than a

block, and "FLAT!" is screemed from the back. Safeway is still in

sight. Dave this time, he decides to change and give his CO2

cartridge a little squeeze to inflate the tube a little. As he is

tucking the tube in, the cartridge starts to gurgle. The CO2 actually

frooze the entire inflation unit, and frooze it to Dave's stem. One

of the funniest moments happen just after this. Dave finally forces

the CO2 cartridge off and it starts gurgling louder. He yells, "It's

going to BLOW!" and he throws it into the bushes. All of us fall over

laughing. During this we all check our tires and a few of us have

thorns in our tires. We hit Silverado trail and I am behind Dave, He

asks if he is going flat?? I had been noticing this for a while and

was trying to determine if it was or not, but when he asked, I thought

it definitely was. Dave pulls a change, pumps up, then yanks his stem

off. The good part of this is we had some nice conversation with

tourists, and when we took off, we picked up a guy and a gal rider as

part of our pace line into a bit of a wind. We thought they were

together. So 10 of us held a pace line of 19 - 25 mph down Silverado

Trail taking 30 second pulls. THIS WAS FUN and FAST. In yountville

the girl pulls off and the guy stays. Looking at his bike (I think it

was a Seven) Sarah could of had herself a blue pen moment. Hope those

pictures were worth it - Sarah. Through Napa, Brian get's a flat.

Just to embarass Dave he pulls a 5 mintute change. We all return, and

go our own ways. (Run note - - Dave and I went off on a run, we were

both a bit tired, so we both lowered our lap expectations by one.

Dave went ahead of me. There was one spot were I was ready to head

back and I could see Dave could see me. So I wanted to look stong.

It was downhill and I opened up my stride. One, two, three -WHAM! I

got the worst Hansen (Hansen is a person we ride with who cramps after every ride, so we call a cramp a Hansen) in my Hammy. All the way from behind the knee to the glute. I stop immediately, bend over and stretch. Back up, one

step, and WHAM, it's back. Dave stops on the otherside thinking I

reinjured my calf. I stretch some more, and give him a fist pump and

start running again. He does the same. ) Could this ride be

cursed????

Lee said we are going to give the ride one more chance. We will leave

from Santa Rosa, take Calistoga to St. Helena to Spring Mountain Rd,

then turn North and take hwy 128 over to Chalk Hill. Because it is

such a great ride, we want it to not be cursed, so we will try

whatever it takes to make it work.

TK - (AKA JC#2)

Total Posts: 719
17.2 Months Ago

Total Posts: 109
17.2 Months Ago

Total Posts: 667
17.2 Months Ago

HAHAHA

JC#1

Total Posts: 571
17.2 Months Ago

Last year about a week before my triathlon I decided to get a good practice tri in. I went to a lake that I had not been to before for the swim, about two minutes into the swim I about drowned because there were so many weeds that grabbed my legs. So I thought OK I'll just do a good long Brick... I got on the bike and about 3 miles into it I got run off the road by some a--wh--le! I called my husband to pick me up because I didn't have a spare with me. He wanted to just take me home but I thought "I have to get something out of this day!" I ended up running about 3 miles, but was so focused on how bad my day started that I didn't even enjoy it.

In the end it was OK because the day of the triathlon I had my best time ever!

So far this year no horror stories... I do have about a month left...

;-)

Total Posts: 349
17.2 Months Ago

I was a wuss and did head up front crawl for the first 100m or so (losing the rest of the group in the process). When I finally put my face in it was painful. Eventually my face went numb, at which point my coach stopped me to give me some pointers - I tried to answer him and felt like I had a mouthful of novocaine, my lips so numb I had trouble talking.

The rest of the swim was actually quite pleasant. (Which makes me think I seriously need an intervention!!)

Total Posts: 202
17.2 Months Ago

I have no real training horror stories YET but maybe we should also start a thread on the funny things you see along the side of the road while we run and ride!!!

Total Posts: 637
17.1 Months Ago

Always carry extra tubes on long rides at least 2 if there are others and at least 3 if you are solo.

Do not ride your tires too long where they become pourus and start picking up debris from the road (We found rocks, glass, and thorns in Dave's tires)

Do not try and do a partial pump of the CO2 cartridge. If you need a little air in there, your lungs will inflate it enough to avoid a pinch.

If you solo a long ride, bring a GOF pump in case you run out of cartridges or freeze your trigger.

Nicole - You have to do the downhill part to understand. It is all fresh pavement - technical, fast, beautiful, long.

Is it insanity if a different persons suggests the ride each time?? Perhaps as we keep saying, "OK!".

JC2

Total Posts: 202
17.1 Months Ago

Total Posts: 637
17.1 Months Ago

Or you can hope for someone nice, like Jim Campbell, to come by and help you. I seem to recall he was quite philanthropic and at the IMFL in 2006.

Looking forward to hearing your race report next week,

JC2

Total Posts: 349
17.0 Months Ago

1 - Pace Work (aka "Listen to the coach")

At Thursday's run we did a 1-2-2-1 workout, where we did loops of 1km, 2km, 2km and 1km at 10km pace on 3 min recovery. My 10km pace is about 50min so I should have been doing 5min/km.

I was feeling really good - fast, strong, smooth - and went out fast on the first loop, finishing in about 4:50. Tried to slow it down but did the next two sets at an even faster pace. For the last 1km piece I was feeling awesome, I set a good pace to start and kept picking up speed as I went and finished in about 4:36, way under the time I should have been at.

It felt great at the time but I paid for it, on my Friday morning run I felt sluggish and was hurting. I was miserable all day at work and had trouble getting going in the pool that evening. On Saturday's ride I felt like I had flat tires - it was so much effort to get my legs moving.

Lesson learned: Do pace work at pace!

2 - It's all mental

Sunday morning was a rough start: I was still tired from Thursday, it was cold outside, the rain was coming down hard and heavy and I wasn't looking forward to a 3 hour run. It was a challenge to get out of bed and out of the house. I hit road closures on my way to meet my training partners and got in a worse and worse mood. I was the first of my group to arrive so sat in my car and glared at the blocked off street, half focussing on the aid station and line of volunteers.

It took several minutes for the words "aid station" to sink into some rational part of my brain. I realized the road was closed for the Scotiabank half marathon and if I hustled I could see the lead runners. I ran up to the road, just missing the lead runner but managing to see #2 and #3.

I stood in a bus shelter and chatted with a couple of women who were out to cheer on their kids. I yelled and cheered and clapped as runners went by and my friends finally had to call me on my cell and ask me where the heck I was.

My friends and I decided to run backwards along the half marathon course to cheer on the runners and look for anyone we knew. We were yelling and clapping and cheering and telling everyone: "It's a lovely day for a run!" "Don't you love liquid sunshine!" "You can't get any wetter!" etc. People were smiling and laughing, probably at us more than with us, but our efforts were appreciated. I got such a kick out of watching the race and encouraging the runners that I was in a great mood for the rest of our run and my swim after.

Lesson learned: It's all mental.

Now I have to figure out how to get myself into that good headspace when I'm down. In my half iron race this month I was seriously down on the run and almost completely out of steam at the halfway mark but when I realized I had a good chance of getting a PR if I could put in a strong finish to my run I suddenly found the energy to get myself back on track and in the groove. I have to figure out how to do that, I guess there's some reading and research for me to do in the next few months.