Sunday Bloody Sunday

Well...today I got introduced to a long slow distance ride J.T. Cody style. I ripped myself out of bed after a brutal shop ride on Saturday and tried to figure out what clothes to put on. I decided to basically throw everything in the truck. Leg warmers, arm warmers, skull cap, long gloves, short gloves, etc. After arriving at the Starbucks at 1604 & Blanco, I gave into peer pressure and stripped off the leg warmers, but kept the arm warmers and skull cap. I was glad I did...A large group of B-H, Solar Eclipse, and a few outta towner headed south...mostly downhill and with a nice tailwind. This was bitter-sweet, as we knew we would have to fight a headwind uphill all the way back. I got to see a lot of S.A. that I haven't seen in quite a while. It's kind of surreal rolling thru downtown on South St. Mary's when it's deserted on a Sunday morning.We kept cruising thru southern Bexar county toward La Vernia where the terrain turned mostly flat. Motorists were courteous and overly cautious for the most part, and our large posse waved with gratitude to all. The quote of the day...uttered by J.T. hisself was "I swear this road was paved the last time I rode it." Despite that, we only had 3 flats and finished up with 92 miles under our spandex. I wish I had some pics, but didn't think to bring the camera along. Thanks to all the B-H and Solar riders...esp J.T. and Skokie...we make a good team.

B-Day Celebration Week - B-H style

Friday am, in the mist and splatter we did a 50 mile, easy, ride celebrating Kim's Bday. Reverse medium-long shop ride we call it - counterclockwise on the map above.




Gadgets don't always work like we like them to. The Garmin altimiter seemed to be relaxing in the middle third of todays ride. Or perhaps we went straight upwards at about mile 40!




We celebrated 4 birthdays in a week (and 2 in the surrounding month) at the Melting Pot last week.




If you go to the Melting Pot for nothing else, at least do the chocolate fondue!!




Nathan was amongst the b-day celebrees, enjoying the night with Claudia.






Vernette was taking care of Craig, another celebree.

Matt was celebrating his 40th and Anna will celebrate her b-day in 10 days!!

Kim was celebrating her 40th - sneaking a kiss with Ken.

Turk picked up her 45th on Halloween, and she has stretched this birthday season to 7 weeks, a new record!!

JW and Will were simply celebrating Turkey day and the chance to eat yesterday...

Fun week and a half - 4 birthdays this week alone gave us lots of excuses to celebrate, plus B-H is not 7 years old. Hard to imagine.

This am, in the mist and water (and dirt.) 30 riders met at B-H to ride. We had 2 mishaps - one unnamed rider "slid into home" in front of the shop before the ride started. Another rider slid out near the end of the ride causing a bike breakage. We almost all got plowed down on 46 by a fast moving flatbed wrecker. Ah, the perils of having fun and staying healthy.

We also had a total of 6 flats (not surprising on the newly wet am.) All in all, though we rode gently and as cautiously as we can on some of our favorite roads with some of our favorite people. Lots of laughs, some new faces. Every body damp and muddy by the end of the ride.

Thank you for celebrations. Thank you for your support of Bicycle-Heaven. Thank you for cycling for passion, fun and fitness.

What are you running (riding) from?

This post is purely personal and philosophical, so if you are looking for sporting adventure report or are turned off or bored by this type of thing, please read no further.

My dad, Bill Slauson aka Opa, is a great man.  Like older, traditional father-son relationships we saw eye to eye on virtually nothing when I was in my teens and 20's and "knew everything."  My dad would say things to me like "nothing is ever as good as it seems."  Lots of things like that, his philosophies, and I resented them all and would throw them back in his face.

As I entered my 40's and become more introspective and reflective I realized how little I actually know and how much I learn every day by keeping my eyes and ears open and my guard down.  Naturally, I began to use the same phrases that Opa used 20 years earlier, because of course, he was right.  Now Opa and I see eye to eye on 90%+ of things.

In my mid 30's Opa said something to me which really bugged me, but I did not call him on it or fight him about it.  I did resent it and have reflected on it over the years.  Terri and I did a 1/2 Ironman triathlon in PA (near her home) and we invited Opa and my mom down to watch us (from NH.)  The watched the race and congratulated us on our performance.  Before we parted ways Opa said to me "I don't know what you are running from."  At the time was doing lots of marathons and triathlons, training riding and running every day. Doing what most of you reading this post do.

My initial angry reaction was that Opa just didn't get it.  I was old enough by now not to respond to it and create a rift.  I realize now that at the time I possibly didn't have an answer for him.

Opa spent 30 years in the Air Force.  The "family doctor" in the Air Force for the flying population is called a "Flight Surgeon or Flight Doc."  In the mid-late 70's when the jogging "craze" took off like wildfire Opa had explored this with his Flight Doc who said "Bill if you start jogging now, you will have to jog for the rest of your life!"  As though that were a bad thing and a negative reason which allowed one to not start exercising, because "you would have to do it for the rest of your life.  Again, when Opa told me this story I didn't debate it with him.  Internally, though I said "he was right and that is a good thing!!"

We have a curious notion in our society of what "defines" you.   People are defined, and feel defined, by their job or profession.  Call someone a bad husband or a bad father (or a bad cyclist) and no biggie, we can debate or ignore that.  But, call someone a bad teacher, or bad doctor, or bad plumber and their world will come crashing down.  Why is that?  Isn't it better to be a good parent, spouse or athlete than to be good at your job?  I mean yes you have to be competent so that you can perform your job to pay your family's bills, and support your hobbies, but why does our job or profession define us, both to our self and to outsiders?

I suspect those who are reading this blog, cycling, running, swimming athletes, understand or are on their way to the enlightenment of realizing that perhaps we are not defined by our job.  Perhaps we are defined by our relationships and by how we live each and every day.  How we spend each moment of our life and what that is setting up our future for.

Last summer I rode across the U.S. with my 15 year old son, Will (named for Opa btw.)  At the conclusion, my friend Jason (who had just had a son, Jonah) said to me "I want to do this in 15 years with Jonah."  My immediate reply to him was, "in 15 years I want to do this with you and Jonah!!"

I am 6'1" 205 pounds, BMI around 27.  I have been over 200 pounds since high school (up to 230 in the 2 years between when I substituted playing basketball for going out to lunch daily and started running/riding/swimming.)  Yes I am obese.  Could you imagine how obese I would be if I didn't work out nearly daily?  

My initial, internal response to Opa's question "what are you running from" was simple.  I am running from obesity.  Terri and I run from the bodily decay where you don't want to see your partner (or yourself) naked.  News flash, the clothes don't make the man.  The man makes the man.

I now perceive that I am also running and riding because it is a big part of what defines me.  I want to be able to keep up with my kids and grandkids, on a run or a ride.  I've ridden across the U.S. with my kids and want to ride across the U.S. with Jason's kids and my grandkids.  I want to minimize my obesity so that my wife doesn't mind me naked.  I want to set an example for lifelong fitness to my kids, my wife, my friends and co-workers.

Opa wasn't wrong, and he is a greater man than I will ever become.  Sadly, our generation and current society has a lot more wrong with it than his did.  But they weren't perfect.  Yes, once we start, we do need to ride and run and swim every day.  So that we can do it until the day we die.  That is what we are running to.

SA RnR Marathon "Mission Accomplished"

Friday am we did our last training run prior to Sunday's Marathon.  Unconventional getup, but effectively keeps the sun off my head.   Doug says I looks like I'm running around in my underwear.  

Jim runs with his Bike "specific" Garmin and a custom wrist mount that would make Opa proud.

The beautiful Turkey.  Ready for the big day.  Her best friend, her iPhone always at the ready.

Saturday night we got our equipment ready.  The "timing chip" was interesting, basically a piece of paper that you looped thru your laces.

30,000 people signed up for the inaugural San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon.

Disturbing picture yes, but hey you all have to see all aspects of the big day!!  Vaseline is used to prevent chafing.  We paid the extra money to park at the Alamo Dome and were bussed to the starting line on Broadway on a charter bus.

We were given a bag which we could leave at the start and pickup at the finish.  You'd think that might be risky with 30,000 runners, but as with everything they had this down.  A "bag-tag" was torn off your race number and there were 30-40 UPS truck waiting accepting these bags alphabetically at the start.

The racers were assigned to "corrals" based on their projected finish time/pace.  We were in corrall 15.   This meant our projected pace of 10 minutes per mile (4:20 finish time) was the average expected pace.  There were 30 corrals of 1,000 runners each.

We had made it to the start line in time and were waiting our start, so Terri was all smiles.  She had been nervous the day before.

Matt was around downtown and wished us well at the start line.

It took 90 minutes to launch all the corrals (3 minute gaps) so we were standing at the start line for 45 minutes prior to our start.  Terri has by now fallen asleep.  The guy to the far right looks like he's next.

Finally we were at the true starting line and almost ready to Git 'er done.

I was confident, course I love pain and suffering.

The map of our day, pretty much seeing the highlights of San Antonio downtown, the missions and the San Antonio "river."

People were able to track our progress live at the Race website. Notice that we started out near our project pace of 10 min/mile, and slowly fell off from that, but not too badly.  We were happy with our effort.

 

My heart rate data and the course profile.  Consistent thru the day.  The spike at 7 miles was when I stopped to pee in the porta potty and had to chase the Turk down.  The spike at the end was when we picked the pace up to finish off the day strong.  Terri was not pleased with the last 100m climb just before the finish so I grapped her hand and dragged her up it.

Notice the consistent downward "spikes" in HR each mile.  These were our 1 minute walk intervals.

You can tell by our pace (in aqua) that we were consistently yet gradually slowing down thru the day.

Another view of the day.  The markers indicate the 1 mile intervals.

One of the top highlights of our day.  Jaime's kids Easton and Saris with custom signage - "Go Turkey" for Turkey, and "Go Diego Go" for Jim.

Terri's phone died during the race, but a very kind couple at the finish line took our photo and emailed it to us!!

And a nice picture of our Team Mate Juan Salazar crossing the line.

Safely home, with our finishers medals and our smiles.

The Turk scored one of her coveted "Space" blankets.

Now she's ready for the evening festives.  The Cult are the headliner band at the Alamodome.  after all this is the ROCK AND ROLL Marathon.

Jim's got the C&W concert sign going.  Hey I don't get out much, gimme a break.  A concert is a concert you know.

The Cult were awesome.

And after Terri's "Prosecco" bath and a nap we made it!!

What a great, great event.  This was my 10th marathon and 4th for Terri.  It was the largest, most fun and best organized, by far and away.  30,000 runners for the inaugural San Antonio Rock and Roll marathon.  This contrasts to 1,500 or so that Jim ran with at his first marathon, also the San Antonio marathon, 10 years ago.  

We woke at 5:45 and didn't get out of the house til 6:30 for our 7:30 start.  Traffic was at a standstill nearing the Alamodome, but we got there in good shape.  We had paid the extra money (well worth it) to park there, the finish line.  We were then bussed to the start.  There were hundreds of busses taking runners to the start - most coming from the AT&T center which was the official parking spot.  We hit "bus gridlock" about 1 mile from the starting line and the start was 5 minutes away so the bus let us all off.  We ran to our "corral" and Terri wants credit for 27.2 miles of running, not just the 26.2 miles of the event.

I quickly dropped off our bag at our designated UPS truck and hit the portolet 1 last time and we made our way into our corral.  We still have 30-40 minutes to wait til we were to start, so calm fell over the land and I wasn't in trouble for getting us there late.

The start and first 10 miles were amazing.  A virtual sea of people as far as you could see ahead and behind you.  At many spots so many spectators were lining the road you felt as if you were pushing thru throngs on the Alp d'Huez.  Each water stop had water, Cytomax, and hundreds of volunteers.  There was never any letdown in race support.

Lining the course were a dozen or so bands and the were all excellent.  There were 5-6 "medical" stations which all were equipped with whatever ails a runner.  I took advantage of the Vaseline after a few miles, as I had missed an area which was chafing.

After 10 miles I noticed Terri slowing ever so slightly, no biggie.  The 1/2 marathoners split away from us so our crowds were lessened.  Still, there were so many people to run with and we were constantly passing or being passed by other runners that the miles were ticking by.  I remember my first marathon, where there might have been 1500 runners.  I was all excited, was running a little late, didn't eat breakfast (figured there would be all sorts of support on the road.)  After 8-10 miles I saw few runners behind or in front of me.  A small boy (randomly on the roadside) handed me a lifesaver in a wrapper at mile 16.  That was my race support!!

We mentally divide the marathon into 2 races - a 20 miler, then a 10 k.  Terri was doing well and I was encouraging her (we had great time training and running together contrasted with the last marathon we ran together 8 years ago which was probably the closest we've come to divorce.)  She was really starting to tire when lo and behold at around mile 23 Kim and Ken showed up on the MTB's and rode in the last 3 miles with us.  That was just what we needed and allowed the last few miles to pass quickly.

The last special thing for us was about 1 mile from the finish, Jaime and his 3 kids Saris, Easton and Baden were on the side of the road with special signs for us.  Terri went to give the kids a hug so we stopped for a minute (Kim commented to her "you just lost 15 places!!")  :->

Great day.  Perfect weather (cold and clear started running in 40 degrees, finished in 62.)  Great course and event.  Now we may attempt to tackle next year's version in under 4 hours to qualify Terri for Boston.  Please join us next year!!

"We Own the Night"

Doug and Jeff Campbell heading up Kyle Seale.

Nate, Jim and Jeff.  Jim and Jeff had a bit of an advantage riding road bikes, with Nate and Doug on cross bikes.  And they took advantage of their advantage.

"Nice" little ride Tuesday evening thru Northwest SA.  Starting at Babcock/1604, steaming up Kyle Seale Parkway to Babcock, up Scenic loop to Boerne Stage Rd, back across Cross Mountain, a little diversion in Grey Forest, up Monarch into Helotes then back to start.

The climbing begins early on Kyle Seale.  Continues on Babcock, respite down Scenic Loop.  Climb up Cross Mountain to again recover on Scenic loop.  One last tough little effort in Helotes.

You can see from the heart rate data that we made a few efforts to drop each other (pretending we weren't natch.)

It had been over 5 years since I had done a "Tuesday nite with lights" ride.  One of the last times I did this ride, descending towards the end of Kyle Seale a deer ran into our group of 6 riders, jumped over Nathan (clipping him with his knees) and kicked Skokie in the kisser (chipping a tooth and cracking his helmet.)  No one crashed, very surreal.

The neighborhoods and traffic have picked up alot since then so the likelihood of deer is diminished.  The likelihood of suffering on Kyle Seale has not changed at all, I am somewhat happy to report.  It's amazing how hard that stretch of road can be.

Riding at night with lights is one of the coolest ways to cycle.  It is paradoxically safe as there are fewer cars on the road, you can see and hear them better, and with today's light technology they can't miss seeing you!  It is a nice change from riding during daylight that it can refresh your training for sure.

We only had 3 riders (Doug, Nate and I) Tuesday night.  (Jeff Campbell rode us into the ground Thursday nite in the above photos.)   I went really hard on Kyle Seale (the best way to not get dropped is to control the pace.)  Towards the top I took a 30 second phone call so Nate and Doug picked up the pace giving me the chance to go that much harder to catch back on.

Heading up Babcock was more of the same.  No one would admit it but the guy on the front was riding hard to dissuade the others from coming thru faster.  By the end of Babcock Nate heard the familiar Slauson grunt signaling that I was using the last of my tricks to stay in contact.

Up Scenic loop the pace was a bit more docile and we went right on Boerne Stage Road.  Unbeknownst to Doug and Nate if they had gone left, up Teuton Bouregard, they would have dropped me, I really had dug deep early in the ride.

We hammered it a bit over Cross Mountain, then left on Scenic Loop with little attacks on the risers back to Babcock.  Descending Scenic Loop was all Slauson, of course.  We took Kane's favorite little rolling diversion thru Grey Forest rather than just roll down Scenic Loop all the way to Helotes.

When we hit Helotes, there was some discussion of adding Tower View (didn't seem to be much interest) so we tackled Monarch instead - the next "best" thing.

Great ride, dense training, fun riding at night.  What more is there?

1:06, 50/50

Jim and Doug get ready for their 8:48 start on Saturday.  Jim rides the Felt B2 Pro with clincher HED Jet rear disc and HED 3 front tri-spoke.  Doug rides the Cervelo P2SL with Zip Sub-9 tubular rear disc and front Zipp 808.  They certainly can't blame their equipment for their performance today!!

Silver Anniversary edition of the local Tour de Gruene  26.5 miles of River Road, Rollers, wind, suffering and fellowship.  The highlighted section represents "The Big Climb" on the course.

Jim's data recording today from the wireless SRM and Garmin 705.  Compare the rough tracings to the recording from a month ago when Jim and Doug recon'd the course.

Today's stats 23.7 mph, 251 Watts average, avg HR 178, avg cadence 87.

Then 20.2 mph, 215 Watts average, avg HR 172, avg cadence 82.  Reasons for improvement will be discussed later.  You can clearly see the power curve (lowest in brown) falling off dramatically a month ago and falling only a little bit today.  His heart rate (uppermost in red) did not fall off which shows you why it's best to race and train using power.

Garmin view of the whole course.

"Part 1" River Road to the base of the climb.

Part 2 "The Big Climb"

Part 3 descending back into Gruene.

Lance readies for his start in yesterdays individual TT.

Race face on.

Craig Ayers says a prayer before his "race of truth" yesterday.  The above photos of Craig and Lance were taken by and are reproduced with permission of Chris Ayers, aka lb, Craig's son.

Cyclingnews photo of Lance in action yesterday.  He did a 33:14 16 mile ride, his goal was under 33 min.  He's got the front wheel right, the Hed 3, if he had run the HED disc on the rear, a la Jim, he easily would have met his goal.

The Tour de Gruene medalists received a custom medal, which will be coveted for years to come.

Particularly by Bicycle-Heaven medalists Craig Ayers and Addison McCauley.  This team improved their time by some eight minutes compared to last years race!!

Final picture of Turk's birthday week.  The cougar with her cubs at brunch.

25 years of the Tour de Gruene have now passed.  This years event was especially memorable as it celebrated its silver anniversary and Lance's 2nd comeback to pro cycling.   A previous running heralded Lance's 1st comeback nearly 12 years ago.   Very cool event, particularly as many Bicycle-Heaven racers (John Myrhe, Craig Ayers, Addison McAuley, Doug and Jim amongst others) get to see their results listed on Cyclingnews.com since Lance was racing!!

Jim and Doug have targeted the race for months.  There was recent worry on the team (by both riders) because Jim and Doug's fitness have been going in opposite directions the past couple of months.  This was evidenced a month ago when they did a couple of training loops on the course.  Jim could hardly hold Doug's wheel on the flatter sections and blew off the back whenever the road tilted upwards.

Fast forward to today.  Today was 50/50 for the pair.  Doug paced the little rises and the big climb, Jim would pace the flatter sections and downhills.  The rode in perfect harmony.  Recall that performance equals ability plus determination.  We'll Jim's ability was a bit higher today due to all the bike changes he made in the last month.  Doug's ability was a bit lower today due to all the cyclocross racing and training he has done recently.  This brought the pair even on ability, which is right where a two man time trial team wants to be.

After Doug and Jim's training ride last month, Matt, Doug and Rick made a big adjustment to Jim's position on the bike.  He's ridden the TT bike a half dozen times since then, making minor adjustments each time.  Positioning changes were the biggest factor today, ensuring the right balance of comfort and aerodynamics maximizing Jim's power capability.

Going into the race, the team's plan was for Jim to sit on most of Part 1, up River Road, then to set the pace up Part 2, the Big Climb, then to see who felt best coming back down to Gruene (Part 3.)  Doug had found last month that Jim was OK until he got his (Doug's) heart rate over 168, then Jim would pop.  So, they put a heart rate monitor on Doug's bike for today so he could watch that when he was at the front.

The plan changed quickly today, as Jim found himself pulling thru more and earlier than he expected on Part 1 so he knew he was riding well.  Without need for discussion the team adapated.  Doug ended up pacing the big climb and Jim only had to tell him to ease off twice.  Doug found Jim doing OK up to a heart rate (Doug's) of 174, above that Jim would slide off the back a little bit.  Coming in was Jim on the flats and downhills (headwind section, natural for the bigger rider) with Doug leading up the risers.

The team lost 60 seconds when with 1 mile to go they were stopped by the train.  No matter, their goal was to be below 1:10 and their official time of 1:07 and actual time of 1:06 was well below that (Lance and his partner did 56 minutes in comparison.)

Jim's favorite part of the ride (besides climbing off the bike at the end) was Michael Wayne Stephenson beating him with one of those blowup things they give you at a Spurs game to make noise with as the team was on the big climb.  Jim also had a smile for B-H team president, Rob Kane, as he saw another version of Rob's favorite article of cycling clothing today (the Long-Sleeved cycling jersey.)  One of the riders they passed was wearing a sleeveless jersey with arm warmers!!  Coincidentally, today's men's winner of the New York City Marathon was wearing a cycling singlet with arm warmers!!

Well, this ends Jim and Doug's cycling season together.  Jim and Doug don't get to race together a lot, but they are natural together.  Jim is now concentrating on the San Antonio marathon in 2 weeks and Doug is gearing up toward cyclocross nationals in 6 weeks.  After that they will get together and start planning next year which will definitely include Ft. Davis, and possibly the Tour of The Gila, or Mt Hood.

Bicycle-Heaven is sad that Doug starts a new job tomorrow.  We do wish him the best and will see him on the bike!!

Thanx for reading.

Happy Halloween Birthday To You

Oct 31.  Halloween.  The one night a year the Turk takes off her mask.  Here she poses with Matt and Anna's professionally carved pumpkins!!

We met at the bike shop for a 2 hour ride.  

Doug had to work (on his last day >-: )  

Rick rolled with us for an hour.

Terri apparently wants to take her purse on the ride.  West can fold a pair of jeans like no other man.  RP is up to something back there in his new "Golden Tunic."

I don't know what Jenny and Matt were up to in the back of the shop.  Monkey pawin' a Cervelo maybe.

We rolled across 281 out Stone Oak.  Rick is smartly placed on RP's wheel.  Craig and Jenny are hitting it hard.  Wes and Terri are commiserating about something, lolly gagging off the back.

We rolled back down Blanco Road towards Timberwood Park.  Essentially doing a short shop ride with a Leroy Scheel-Amman add-on.

Jenny wore her "devil horns."  Naughty, naughty!!!

We lost Rick at the 1/2 point.  Terri, Craig and RP brought up the rear.

The map of todays ride (minus the last 3 miles as my computer ran out of juice.)

For the interested, Slumber Pass between Timberline and Heavenly sky is the "highest point of the ride!"

Terri and Jenny immediately got into the Prosecco to celebrate the ride and the Turks birthday!!

Then the whole crew got in on the act.

Happy Halloween!!  Happy Birthday Turk!!  Officially a "Cougar" now, for sure.