Tag: beer

fitness, science, training

Getting Fatter Yet Fitter – What the What?

MR. Scale has been feeling the extra weight and yours truly has been noticing the gain in girth. Since the Tamarack Fire really…About 15 pounds gained since July. Ouch. Yet people are telling me I look thinner or more fit. What the what?

COULD it be muscle mass? Great question! And that’s the interesting (and good) part. It’s been trending up. Due mainly to more core work and strength training; definitley not from the copious amounts of tequila or cerveza.

NOR is it from the extra “work” post-dinner, including ice cream and other sweet treats. Step away from the fridge, Mark!

WHILE on the trainer last Sunday I experimented a bit and found that I was pushing more watts with less effort (and as it turns out a slower cadence) even though I’m more rotund. Now certainly that trend needs to stop but my big takeaway was that the hard work has been paying off, even though I’ve been putting on the poundage.

A selfie of yours truly, in the ToC polka dot jersey, on the bike during stage 3 of the FulGaz French Tour last year.

GET back down to my “fighting weight” and I should be even stronger and faster, right?

RIGHT!

AS long as I keep up the training and continue to increase that muscle mass (or at least don’t let it decrease too much). Notice the fit ball and Bosu ball? Key items that really help with my balance and core strength.

THE other key is rest.

Whoop’s strain gauge gives me an idea as to what zone I’m in or how much strain I’ve taken on that day.
Whoop’s recovery gauge gives me a sense of how hard (or not) I should push that day.
Whoop’s sleep performance screen gives me feedback on those z-s.

AND sleep training.

AS you may have read in a previous post my Whoop strap has really helped me focus on rest, recovery and sleep and that has helped me get more fit, also.

AND, when I do work out I’ve been overreaching (higher strain than recovery) more often after those restful days. That is optimal for increasing fitness says Whoop and I’ve certainly noticed it.

CHECK out this post, by the way, for more on that rest ‘thang.

PART of the recent weight gain could be attributed to my recent birthday. Last Wednesday I turned 58 and I went on a mini-vacation, which is why there was no post for you last week. Among other things (can you say Scoma’s?) I was able to partake of some Doobies. Brothers, that is. Was our (wife and Mom joined me) first concert since the pandemic began and it was awesome. Outdoors at the Shoreline in Mountain View and boy, what a show! Did you know the Doobs hail from San Jose, my hometown? Pat Simmons went to the same high-school I did.

THOSE boys may be old(er) but they can still rock, let me tell you!

ANYWAY, I digress. Apologies. Back to the story…

It’s also due to the business trip I took the week before. Couldn’t bring a bike and while I did miss that time, I did did hit the elliptical and did a bit of running (jogging, really) on the treadmill. That also makes a difference fitness-wise, at least that’s been my experience. Mixing it up makes the body react differently and gets some of those other muscles firing, too.

I was also able to pump some iron.

ALRIGHTY, then. Let’s bring it home so I can go get something to eat. 😉

YES, gaining weight is generally not good. If it’s muscle mass it certainly is, but if it isn’t?

ALL is not lost dear reader. Focus on building strength, mix things up somewhat, and most importantly get some good sleep and schedule those more intensive training days on days after which you’re nicely recovered.

THE proof is in the pudding. Mmm, pudding. That sounds good!

1/2 centuries or centuries, climbing, rides

L’Etape California – A Good Yet Hard Day on the Bike

A few of us California Alps Cycling members had signed up but we lost a couple, one to injury and one because he became a new daddy last year and so has not been able to put in the miles.

So, it was just Scott Keno and I representing C.A.C. a week ago Sunday (the ride/race took place on October 28th). I made the trek east from Markleeville and Scott made the trip north from Clovis. We met up Saturday at the Expo where we picked up our bib numbers, timing chips, t-shirts and schwag bag. John and Diana Velez, two hard-core local riders, and friends of Scott’s (and now friends of mine) also came by the Expo, along with their standard poodle, Studly (what a cool dog).

An image of Mark with a dog licking his ear.
Studly introducing himself to me, while his Mom, Diana, looks on approvingly.

We spent a bit of time checking out the gear at the Assos truck where John, and the Assos boyz, turned me on to some cool bibs (I bought the Equipe and wore them on the ride the next day – man were they commmmffffyyyy).  The five (5) of us then bailed from the festival, but not before checking out some TDF history at the Expo’s museum (mouse over the images and the captions will pop-up. Dig that wool jersey!),

TDF Team Classification Trophy 1930 – 1948
Andre Darrigade’s TDF Green Jersey
Jens Voigt’s 2013 TDF Race Worn Jersey
Original TDF Stopwatch (1903 – 1914) and Hugo Koblet’s 1951 TDF Champion Trophy

and headed out for some pub grub and a few cervezas. Later that night, we met up with a couple more friends for some good eats at the Corner Tavern and Grill.

After dinner it was time to get the gear ready, put the chips and numbers on the bikes and our jerseys and get some rest.

The day of the ride started well. Nice weather – not too cold – and so we didn’t have to wear “the warmers.” I did, though, add a light base under my jersey and wore a neck thingy too. You’d think that since I live in the Sierra that I wouldn’t be such a cold-whimp, but alas, that’s not the case.

The start line a the 2018 t L’Etape California.

A couple pix from the start – That’s Scott doing “the Kilroy” and me chatting with another rider in that image on the right.

We took off with an escort (always cool) about 8:00 a.m. and after just a short bit of flat roads, the climbing started. For those of us doing the 90 mile ride, we had about 8000′ of climbing to look forward to and we did about 7000′ of that in the first 50 miles! As is the usual for L’Etape, the course was a difficult and challenging one but hey, as we’ve all heard, if it was easy, anyone could do it!

Three riders smiling for the camera.

This was my third L’Etape and I had a goal of placing in the top 200 riders, a ride time of 6 (six) hours and an elapsed time of under 8 (eight) hours. I felt pretty good about hitting those goals since I was peaking fitness-wise and I had a really strong rider to pull me (and push me, if you get my drift) around the course. And John met us early on and rode with us for part of the course too (that’s him in the middle of the above pic.).

Rider pointing to his location on the elevation profile of L'Etape California.
Yup, I was there.

For those of you who haven’t done a L’Etape before then you’re probably not aware that the TDF organization does a bit of timing on certain sections (KOMs) and on this particular ride there were three (3). Now this big boy is never in the top of those standings but it’s always fun to compare myself to others. Scott is a big boy too (not as big as I but not your “typical” rider) but we climb fairly well and always enjoy the looks we get when we pass smaller riders while climbing.

Anyway, as it turns out I was 221st out of 394th on the climbs (cumulatively), 27th (out of 38) in my age group (55-59) and for the “classic challenge” (.3 miles at 12% average but let me tell you there were some 18-20% pitches in there!) I came in 99th out of 207 riders! Overall, I finished 165th so really stoked about that! There were 295 participants on the 90 mile course so I’m pretty happy with that. Time on the bike = 6:14:20 (almost hit my 6 hour goal) and elapsed time was 7:08:01.  Click here to see my official results, and click here to see Scott’s. Note: he would have had some much better results if he wasn’t letting me suck his wheel all day long. Well, I did do one good pull towards the end of the ride. Thanks Scott for taking care of me. You are the man!

L'Etape Course Map and Profiles
The course map and my elevation, speed and HR profiles for the day.

Hopefully I didn’t bore you with too many stats and such. I was just trying to give all of you, especially those of you who haven’t participated in such an event, a good sense of the day. I’ll leave you with one last picture…

Me and Scott after finishing the 2018 L'Etape.
All smiles now that we have our finisher’s medals, which (GOOD IDEA) also double as bottle openers.

And bid you all a happy Monday and remind you to challenge yourself and ride safe.

Now Let’s Kick Some Passes’ Asses!™

community activities, giving back

Members of the Alpine Watershed Group and California Alps Cycling Do a Bit of Adoptin’

Last Saturday, Mike Barton and Rich Harvey, members of the Alpine Watershed Group, joined members of California Alps Cycling (yours truly, January Riddle and Patricia Schwartz) in an Adopt-a-Highway litter clean-up along Highway 89 in and around Markleeville. Brian Peters, Community Development Director of Alpine County, also gave up part of his Saturday to help out.

Our bags piled up
and ready for pick up by CalTrans

We collected eight (8) bags of garbage including the following items:

  1. A cell phone (smart-phone) – a brand of which we had never seen.
  2. A cooler lid along with two (2) other lids from totes of some sort. Nope we didn’t get the totes too.
  3. A rolled up dollar bill. Someone was doing something illicit but I appreciated the tip nonetheless.
  4. A couple dozen cigarette butts. Really, people still do that?!
  5. About fifteen (15) or so beer cans. All but two (2) were either Coors or Coors Light. The other two were a Bud Light and a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Does this say something about Coors drinkers? You decide!
  6. Many, many mini-wine bottles. Mostly Sutter Home…again! Okay, what’s the the Sutter Home people?
  7. Quite a few plastice garbage bags (ironic, don ‘t you think?), a 10×20’ piece of black plastic, and
  8. A chunk of car bumper, a slice of roof rack and a headlight unit, sans bulb.

This was all collected along a three-mile stretch of the highway, from Camp Markleeville to Turtle Rock Park!

It was a good day of community service and a big ol’ C.A.C. THANK YOU goes out to all of our intrepid volunteers.

light sign typography lighting
Photo by Gratisography on Pexels.com

gran fondos, off the bike fun, rides

California Alps Cycling Members Hit the Slopes of Mammoth

Last Saturday, a few of us rode the Mammoth Gran Fondo out of Mammoth Lakes, CA. Members Mario Carmona and Chris Schull, along with yours truly (check out our Strava profiles on the CAC Membership page), rode from one of the southern points of the California Alps, still in the heart of the Sierra Nevada though, into the Owens Valley, and back.

An image of the route taken by a rider on the Mammoth Gran Fondo
Map of my “Medio route” at the Mammoth Gran Fondo.

Mario went for the Gran Fondo distance (i.e. the century) and Chris and I decided to do one of the shorter (the Medio, 70 miles) rides so we could drink more beer on Friday night. I had never been to Mammoth and so was pretty stoked to get a glimpse into what the place was all about. Unfortunately, due to my crazy schedule, we were only able to experience the vibe for a short time. Nonetheless, we made the best of it!

Chris and I arrived just in time for “beertails” and after meeting Mario at our hotel to give him his CA Alps Cycling jersey (yes, they’re in – if you pre-ordered one I’ll be in touch soon), we headed to Mammoth Brewing. Had some good beer and fine grub (those chicken tacos on naan were lip-smacking good) and then decided to make one more stop for a “beerpertif.” Yeah, I know, I’m taking some liberties with the english language here…Can’t help myself!

Okay, enough about the night life, which after all of our talk, really wasn’t much. We’re in our fifties (well Chris isn’t quite there yet but will be in a couple weeks) ya know and we did have a ride to do tomorrow. So, in the end, we were responsible adults and went back to the hotel fairly early so we could prep. our bikes for the next day.

We had brought plenty of cold-weather gear for the start, but as it turned out, the day was a bit balmier than normal. About 45-50 at the start with bright sun, as you can see from the pix below.

The blue in our jerseys works nicely with the sky, don’t you think?

After a short climb out of town we had a nice, long twenty (20) mile descent or so and then it was back the way we came, into the Owens Valley, back out to Hwy. 395 and then back into town. Here’s a few shots I took while on the bike:

Does this shadow make me look fat?

And here’s a bunch more from the Owens Valley, including a couple rest stop pix.

Looking towards Mammoth from near Lake Crowley – during the 2018 Mammoth Gran Fondo

As you can see, it was an amazing day. I still can’t get over the color of the sky in these images. Sometimes it looks almost purple. It’s that color that inspired us on the design of our kits.

I should mention that the organizers did a great job. The rest stops were well-staffed and stocked, and that made to order turkey and cheese sandwich really hit the spot. Thanks!

What else can I say? Another great day on the bike. Kudos to Mario (yup, he finished) and Chris (he had a rough day on the bike but perserved nonetheless) and hey, what the heck, I’ll give myself kudos too. Anyday on the bike…