Something to ease Docs Pain...

Gotta love cycling.  Experiences in big mountains, at elevation, leaves a mark.  Love the humor, albeit I am sure there is a bit of truth in it.  Glad to hear you finished safely.  Hope the rest did as well.

Thought I would share something that reduces your pain perhaps.  In a Tour marked with an unbelievable number of painful crashes, this one tops them all.  Cannot believe these men remounted and rode to the finish.

No matter how bad your 5 mountain passes hurt, Flecha and Hoogaland are going to sleep pretty poorly tonight, and not sleep as sound as you.  Glad you are back Scott and look forward to the stories...

Vive Le Tour!

Ride Report: 07.29.09

This morning was great. Good to see Tom Israel, Byron Toby, Rick Wolfe and Kevin Christian join the pack today.

Started with 10 to the 41 turnoff. 6 continued up, 4 turned around and did Turri home. Ben is the hero of this group for virtually riding without a seat all the way home.

New guy Kevin just thrashed the rest of us up the 41. Dude is strong! Brian and Todd hung with him the longest, but then he got away from even them.

By the crest, the group was split 4-2. Byron and Tom hung together and established their own pace. Meanwhile, Kevin just kept pushing the rest of us. We went 41 to the freeway then east through a bunch of country roads to Santa Margarita.

The rest of us took turns looking exhausted, but he sure looked unfazed.

I rolled up to my truck at Grace at 9:02. Great ride.

05.21.09 . . . . Madonna

I'm going to ride Madonna manana. . . maybe twice. Rolling at 5:45 AM from the Marsh parking lot. Gotta be showered for an appointment by 8:00.

Anybody want to join me or will it be me and my ipod?

Shooters Improved x2

The new trail below Shooters is now open. . . . smooth, fast, and fun. Great climb and amazing descent. It was definitely the missing piece. I must say, shooters may now be my favorite local ride.

Its quick . . . up and down from the Poultry Unit in less than an hour and half.
Its varied . . . great climb, now fast, smooth descent.
Its a a great, quick workout . . . you can spin it or you can mash it. Its as hard as you need it to be.

Caught it Saturday afternoon with Scott Morton, aka Doc . . . his first time up . . .

Watch out, he's hitting the mountain. . . solid!

And again this morning with Mark Ernstrom, aka Hobbit . . .

No dome protection this AM. . . don't tell his wife.

the crystal clear view from the hill

cool waterfall back there, but you can't see it

part of the new trail . . . pic doesn't do it justice

So what's your favorite local ride? (Check out the new survey in the right panel!)

And let's hear about some of those out of town rides, boys!

Tyler Goes Down

My sources tell me that our young friend and the future of OneSource Cycling, 13 year old Tyler O'Brien, laid down his new road bike on LOVR on Labor Day. I don't know all the details, but these pics have come my way. A bit of nice roadrash, but he's still smiling. Encourage Tyler when you see him.






All I know is I am not looking forward to my first fall on the road. It's not if, but when. . ..

Weekend Sneakers

We're all fighting to keep it together here at OneSource in these busy days. While some were away for the Labor Day Weekend, I managed to sneak a couple of great road rides.

The first was Saturday with Corey Carroll and Jeff Martin out to the end of High Mountain Road. Nice little coffee at Five Cities Starbucks BEFORE the ride (I love it!) then a nice pace out and back. No breakaways, but good solid riding together. Some great prayer at the turnaround and then we worked together on the way back, taking turns at the pull. Good times. My odo showed 46.



The second was out to Huasna with Doc Morton. My first time out there. Beautiful gentle ascent with a just a couple steeper climbs. The first time I've felt really good on the bike in a long, long time. The Rabbit was back to his old tricks, but just a bit. Doc was telling stories, pointing out dinos and wild pigs along the way. Pounded together on the way, 25 - 35 most of the way. I had 45, and Doc had 75.


(Doc, by the way, is riding longer and harder than all of us right now. He won't tell you, but I will. He did 75 by himself on Friday morning. The guy is solid and consistent. He will just grind out the miles, with or without the rest of us.)

Thanks for the ride, boys. I can't do tomorrow, because Gib is coming to give the boat a once over, but I'm shooting for Thursday morning, if it works for anyone.

08.27.08 Ride Report: the rabbit chasing skippy

Skippy went easy on me this morning. We met at Highland and Santa Rosa at 6:00 AM. I rode from Shell. Levi no-showed (again!). We rolled Turri. Ben slowed down when it was apparent I wasn't going to take his bait. Then we had a good ole time talking and praying. After Turri loop we climbed Prefumo and then descended into See Canyon and then split there in Avila, each heading home. He waited in all the standard places. My odo showed 52. Skippy must have had close to the same.

I had cramps for the first time today. . . not those cramps. . . leg cramps. Never had them before. I'm guessing its some lack in my diet of late. Jens or Coach, have any thoughts?

I'm frustrated at how quickly I've lost my groove. Off the road most of July and half of August, but its not like I wasn't riding. Pretty consistent and hard mountain through July. A week of no cardio during moving madness and then a week of running at Hume. And yet, its like I've never ridden 50 miles before? What's up with that? Kinda got me depressed. Any thoughts?

So, the Lighthouse C. is on the horizon for me. I've got a long way to go, but Doc says he's going to get me there.

MDO: Skippy, Iceman and Icewoman

Riders: Skip, Iceman(Jason E.) and Icewoman(Anna L.)
Route: Up new ridge, down to manzanita to fireroad, up switchbacks to east boundary, down east boundary, up barronca, up ridge down new/old ridge.
Ride Highlights:
1. Watching Icewoman ride amazingly well after being off the bike with an ankle injury and bike makeover for what like a month or more???
2. Cleaning the bottom and middle sections of Barronca, had two dumb dabs up near the top!
3. Watching Iceman almost clean the creek crossing at the bottom of manzanita but getting eaten by a branch(studly 95% clean attempt... dumb branch!)
4. Runnin into Luke and his wife from Arts and listening to Luke try to convince Iceman that his Bionicon was his "cross country bike."
5. Post ride meal: Costco Pizza and Churros! Ok i had a chicken bake too, fatty i know!

Thinkin that Icewoman and Mrs. Torque should ride mountain together to start up the OneSource Women's Race Team.

skip

Rabbit and Skippy

So the ride was just as i remembered it... EPIC!!! Top 5 include:
1. Takin Rabbit down one of the Pick trails for the first time, great fellowship.
2. Almost being blown off the trail by a crosswind gust tornado madness.
3. Finding a new way to the super fast single track at the bottom of dairy creek.
4. Enjoying the downhill and creek section even more than last time!
5. Having no flats, issues and stayin safe on a beautiful morning!

Looking forward to exploring the other 2 routes we have never ridden from the Pick trailhead!

skip

Just da Brothas... from Otha Mothers

AMAZING RIDE!!! Here's the report:
Rolled out from Iceman's place out to Poultry Unit at Poly
Up Shooters (First time Big Ringing the whole thing for me!)
Over to the top of Pick and Shovel
Down the first section till just after the Big Drop In
Took a Right at the first trail
Then from there was a mix of rocky single track(shooteresque) and sand
We arrived down at an old rock quarry, then continued up a little fire road
Hit a sweeeeet single track down under overhanging oaks to the creek bed of the canyon (Lopezlike).
Attempted, Iceman cleaned many more than I did, multiple creek crossings while dodging cow patties.
Came out from the creek, hearded about 35 head of cattle to get to a gate.
Found a sweet fast flat single track through grass that took us out to El Chorro Park.
Back on the 1 to Iceman's place.
Ride time: 3.5hrs (had to call Luke at Arts for directions)
Mileage: 32ish.
I absolutely loved this ride, it's a must for the rest of the crew ASAP!!! The downhill from the top of Pick out to El Chorro seems to go on FOREVER!!! Way longer than any other i've done. Iceman cracks me up, he says he vaguely remembers riding it with good ol' Craig Hughes "back in the day." "Back in the day" for me is like a year ago! Iceman has technical skills I hope to match someday! Top 3 rides I've ever done.

Friday Report

Wet! Who knew it was going to be wet? Even rain a little? Didn't see that one coming!! But still, finished the ride with 7 riders total. Jens, Skippy, Rabbit (hmhmmm), me, Tom, Rick and Hobbit were in attendance! We rolled out nicely towards Los Osos, picked up the speed a little bit right before the off ramp. Nice speed up and over Turri where the Hobbit came out from the shire to join us after some mishap with his "alarm." It was a welcomed surprise to see him cresting the other side of Turri as we were coming up and over!! All were glad to see him, some didn't seem to notice that he was there. The ride finished strong with none other than Skippy dropping one last hammer before we split and went our seperate ways. As always, it was a great roll. Hope everyone made it to their proper appointments in the right time! When are we gonna see Jens go all out? I wanna see him drop it!!

Next up...Memorial Day with Skippy (the Godfather???)

just da bruthas Wednesday, 05.21.08 Ride Report

Torque just before the Morning Glory climb
about 5:45 or so, notice the moon in the background

It was just da bruthas this morning for the climb up through Stenner, then up Morning Glory and then Shooters.

I was tired after 4 cardio days in a row after 5 in a row last week and only a day of rest in 10. It is time for some recovery. It was still good to "show up", keep the consistency going and get it done. Chad was definitely feeling a whole lot better than I. I just let him go. . .

Morning Glory is a beast! It's long and technical. Done it before, but neither Chad or I cleaned it today. I think this is one "ride from the house" SLO trail that is yet unconquered by the crew. I think we need to keep riding it. . . regularly. I want to learn to clean it. . . but probably most realistic with a set of new tires (I'm about due!)

The downhill was also long and fun on the Enduros. My new shocks were feeling puuurrrfect. My hands were starting to ache by the bottom.

By this time, I was finally starting to feel warmed up and middle ringed Shooters. . . . maybe for the first time. I can't remember. Down to the railroad tracks and then over to Poly Canyon and down the fire road. Niether Chad or I could remember going straight down . . . we usually go the single track along the other side. The fire road was fast and fun. Home by 7:40.

About 19.5 in all, but half was climbing. Several deer. Windy at the top of the grade, but otherwise warm and gorgeous (right, Skippy!).

Not sure where everybody was this morning, but you missed a great ride. . . . thanks, Chad, for being there. See you Friday. . . for the roadie!

Atascadero 50 and training thoughts

Had a real nice ride today. The weather was great. Some nice pockets of warm air as we traversed through the county. The climb up the grade was good with a little headwind. Kept gaps to a minimum and regrouped at Santa Margarita park and ride. Construction on Camino Real mostly complete so no hold ups but section with very small shoulder. Good push up 41 and fun descent. The paceline into MB could have rotated a little more frequent and smoother but we will get there. Rabbit led out nicely to the city limit sign. Levi tried to come around at the end but I think I still pipped him at the end. Added Turri to make sure we got in 50. Enjoyed the ride and conversation.

One topic that came up was the use of HR monitors for training. I have used HR monitors for over 20 years in my training and a power meter last 2 years. 3 main ways of assessing riding effort. Power - watts, Heart Rate, and Perceived Effort. Power is the most accurate but difficult to measure, HR is easy to measure but is somewhat slow to change to efforts and dependent on several physiologic factors, Perceived Effort has actually been shown to correlate fairly well with the other objective measures but obviously is not as accurate or scientific. The purpose of measuring effort in endurance sports is to tailor training to improve overall endurance and focus on strengthening specific parts of our muscular endurance system. By focusing and training in certain HR or Power zones we can improve different aspects of this system such as overall endurance, muscle endurance, sprinting, etc. By using these monitoring methods one can tailor purpose in training rides to emphasize or develop these aspects of muscular endurance, allow adequate recovery and rest. Much of the specialization in training methods including periodization I feel is largely dependent on overall training time. For those of us working/family dudes who can only train 3-6 hrs/week, the need for this specialization is less. Going hard during most rides is ok and the natural recovery from limited training probably avoids overtraining and is the most effective way to get and keep the highest fitness. Obviously we will be limited to how much endurance we may develop but can often keep at a quite high fitness level. (won't be able to go hard for a 3 hour road race). If longer training is available then the need for periodization and specialized efforts of training are needed to see the maximum improvements in fitness and to avoid overtraining. It is interesting and makes group rides sometimes difficult as some of us may be trying to accomplish different goals for a given ride even though we are riding together in a group ride and certainly the natural tendency when we get together is to go hard.

The best general resource I have read on cycling training is Joel Friel's book The Cyclist's Training Bible.

I will post more on training zones in the future but here is the links to his websites.

Ciao

David

http://www2.trainingbible.com/joesblog/blog.html

http://www2.trainingbible.com/index.aspx

There are some free resources from some of his books.

05.07.08 Ride Report

Four of us for the ride out at Montana De Oro this morning. Tork and Skippy rode from SLO, Levi and Rabbit drove. We headed from the truck at 5:00, up the new trail (name?), all the way out to Manzanita, down Manzanita to the fire road, up the switchbacks to the top of East Boundary, down to the fire road by the campground, up Baranca and then out to some uncharted territory way over by the Horse Camp. Came out on the road by the day camp and back down to the truck by 7:40. Home by 8:30 after dropping Skippy and Levi at home.

We'll call it 3.5 ups. I, personally, was ready for more!

It was gorgeous, still and warm out there today, but I'm glad I wore my knee warmers because of all the overgrown brush. A few falls amongst the crew. A few adventures. Lots of sand. Fun to find some new stuff. Skippy was longing for a rear shock on some of it. Lots of wildlife: A deer, lots of RABBITS (my favorite), 3 foxes and a R.O.U.S. (Rodent of Unusual Size, not sure what it was. Looked like a beaver, but that couldn't be.)

3 things I liked about this ride:

1. Middle chainringing all of Barranca for the first time.

2. Knocking my knee so hard that I almost hurled.

3. Blowing both my shocks.

4. Wild Kingdom

Here's some sample pics from the 30 we took this morning available over at the flickr site.

Skippy feelin' it!

Looking toward the climb . . . can you see us?

What are you doing, Tork?

2 ups and its not even completely light yet

Pick n Shovel

So I first must admit some failures... after my instructive plea to bring tubes, i of course forgot one and flatted on Pick and had to hike down the bottom half of it to grab one from mark (thanks bro!). Also i forgot to designate someone to bring a camera, but marky did take one shot of sean using his phone that will hopefully show up sometime soon... Besides that the ride was super fun and beautiful and we took some little "shortcut" steep steeps everywhere we could which was great too. Personally i was glad we didn't get lost and i'm lookin forward to wednesday at mdo!

Huasna Recap

This is how a ride should start and end...

who's yo daddy?  ....er who's yo brudda?

Friday morning turned out to be a beautiful time to take on the Huasna valley! No wind, warm sun, beautiful oak studded hills, deer, even a pack of wild pigs were all seen once we arrived in the Huasna valley/township -- I even pointed out a house or two that I recommended that Sarg. should make an offer on... His reply: Yeah, yeah, I need to sell a few more garages... 

Jens Santa Rita Ride Report

Well One Source was well represented today on my first official ride.  The team was fit, fast and in good form.  The rollout along Hwy 1 was pleasant with appropirate bantering much of which I couldn't quite make sense of.  The rotation of a 2 person paceline does need some work.  Think parting of the red sea through the middle.  No harm no foul.  Santa Rita creek was in glory with only 2 cars the whole ride.  Got to hear the Witch actually breath a little hard toward the top and all the gaps were very respectable.  The descent was great with high speed into Templeton.  Sean set up the key climb perfectly with a short pull just before, unbenownst  to him.  I thought I might have dropped the Witch at that point but he was stuck to my wheel like glue.  Templeton rollers a little broken up by the road work but good efforts there.  Normally we would have gone straight at Rocky canyon and 41 but had to detour through Atascadero.  The Witch and Levi decided to pick up the pace into Santa Margarita but Jens of course was attentive and did take the imaginary sprint.... no city limit sign at Santa Margarita.  The descent of the grade was fast with a tail wind, Jens max speed 51.2 mph.  A great ride with a great team.  You all are roadie worthy.

Peace

David

Check Yourselves, Boys!

Amazing ride today out at Lopez. Stay tuned for a full ride report from Lance Pantz.

If you were there, give yourselves a once over. I just pulled a tick out of my side. Hopefully I got it all.

SLO to Lopez 04.25.08

This morning was a great time on the bike, in such perfect riding weather! Tim will be posting the evidence with the pictures he took while we were out there. It was a slow start, which chad was really excited about, and unfortunately Mark got two flats within 15 minutes of getting going. Gee, I wonder if that will influence his decision making on whether or not to get a new bike? (Which is the survey question of the day....see right column)
The addition of the camp climb(out the back of Lopez, up to the hill top) was great and is sure to become a staple of training rides to come. Amazing Chad had a sprint left in him at the top of that thing! (The new Bliggity Bling bike didnt hurt that cause!) Everyone road strong today. I believe the total was around 38 miles and we paced just under 20 mph. Ben is looking especially strong and it has been determined we are all riding for Ben! He is the youngster with tons of enthusiasm and the future of team OneSource!

Hey Steve, great to see you this morning! ......Moving on.......

Last item - Everyone on a team must have a nickname, right?
Here are some I have heard thrown around.

Chad: "The Witch" (The guy doesnt need sleep or much of a regular routine like the rest of us, yet he come out and blows everyone away at will!)

Tim: "Rabbit" (Always shoots off the line at any starting point way ahead of everyone. Gives us a good laugh every time)

Ben: "Skippy" (I think coined by Tim) "Pukey" (Ala winning his first race ever after puking)

Mark: "Hobbit" (Need I explain?)

Sean: "Mr. Clean" (Thank you very much!)

Lance: "Sir Lance a Lot" (That is just what I have called him for a long time)

Jeff Martin: "The Ghost" (Not with us physically, but we know he is in spirit!) "Coach" would work too. (Jeff - We expect many international cycling news posts out of you!)

Todd: ??? Has he had anything tagged on him yet? "Wheezer" (Playing off of the asthma)

Scott Morton: ??? ("Doc"...?)

Peter Kardel: ???

Steve Leonard: ??? (Sleepy?)

Lets see some posts here with some nickname suggestions!

Next ride is Monday morning.......on the dirt. (Todd, Steve, etc.. Let us scrounge up some mtb bikes so you can join!) Word on the street is that Sir Lance-a-lot will be rejoining us on Monday after a much needed break with the addition of a beautiful little girl to his family! Lance, you are the maestro for Monday mornings ride. What'll it be?

Have a great day!

Sean