A Look Back at 2015...

I figured 2015 was going to be a fascinating year when I bumped into Natasha in January. Not many people share my sense of unconventional adventure and general loathing of the ready-made tourism industry. But she did and that was awesome. What made it even more special was how quirky we both are, like the time she launched into a monologue about her bladder on our second date. I was hooked.  

Here's a brief rundown of some of our year's highlights: 

Exploring Panama
Panama is such an amazing little country. Of course everyone knows about the Panama Canal, but what many people don't know is that the north of Panama is absolutely gorgeous. You have the Bocas del Toro archipelago just off the eastern coast and then you have beautiful mountains in the mainland, topped by the mighty volcano, volcan Baru.

Our plan was to escape the cold of February in DC and spend a week exploring these areas. Given our restless nature, we spent almost every night in a different place and experienced everything from scuba diving (it sucks in Bocas, btw) to ziplining in Bastimentos National Park (ton of fun), to climbing volcan Baru. We stayed in a bed and breakfast, an eco-resort, a regular hotel, and kid-you-not an actual treehouse.  

Arriving in Panama city

Ziplining

Our legitimate treehouse

 

Perhaps the most physically challenging part of our trip was climbing volcan Baru. Now you can google the volcano and find a million different tour operators who will hold your hand all the way to the summit or better yet take you up there in a jeep. The hold your hand "adventure" is also on the same jeep trail.

Not a chance in heck that I'd be caught dead on such a trail. Fortunately an alternative route does exist but is really difficult to find. After hours scouring google for information, I gathered some basic beta from the two people on earth who had decided to post about it online. Basically, you have to drive all the way around the mountain to the other side where an obscure trailhead marks the beginning of the hike. Its pretty clear why this side is rarely used or marketed -- just look at the elevation profile on the sign at the trailhead. The jeep route starts on the right and our chosen route starts on the left. They meet up at the top. Need I say more?


So off we went one bright early morning, a bit later than an alpine start given Natasha had spent the entire evening spewing her guts thanks to food poisoning. I offered to postpone or cancel but she's one stubborn girl and refused to be distracted by minor life inconveniences such as severe caloric depletion or dehydration. Food and water -- way overrated...

The trail was quite well marked and steady at the beginning but very quickly turned nastily steep and littered with volcano scree. We didn't really see anyone on the trail except for a few locals who were surprised to see us there. But I can easily pass as a local and Natasha speaks fluent Spanish so we ended up having some fun conversations. We were so glad we weren't on the jeep trail.

The going was tough but we kept at it and were soon above treeline and into warm sunshine. 

Here, the going got really tough as each step forward was followed by half a step sliding back on the scree and we struggled for handholds on the steep terrain. After what felt like eternity, we conquered the major steep bit and could see the summit and made the final few boulder scrambles to the top.

Summit!

Summit Panorama

After a brief nap near the summit and some snacks that Natasha could hold down, we started our descent. Coming down was a real pain in the butt as we had no footholds and risked sliding all the way down the side of the mountain. But steadily we made it back to the car with some sore toes! Baru definitely belongs on the list of places to go but only if you climb the route we did. I have the GPS file handy in case anyone wants it.

Overall, Panama was great and we saw so much of it in just a week!

Two happy explorers

Pittsburgh to DC Bike Blitz
Recent Amtrak changes have made carrying bikes on trains much easier but back in May of 2015, there weren't many options. But there was one very attractive one -- the slow train from DC to Pittsburgh that allowed bikes on board. Well technically they provide these large boxes where you slide your bike in.

We wanted to ride from Pittsburgh to DC with panniers on bikes. This was my first real bike touring trip so I was stoked and happily carried most of our weight on my newly acquired rear rack on my self-converted old cross bike. Natasha was in charge of route planning and made a killer itinerary for us -- we really didn't want to do the conventional route of the GAP/C&O trail for several reasons. Chief among them were that everyone else does it so we should do something different, and also that riding on a rail trail is excruciatingly boring. Riding on an endlessly flat course with basically the same scenery (even if its great scenery) for miles on end just doesn't excite me at all. So instead, we charted out our own route on the road with ridewithgps. It was hard -- day 1: 72 miles, day 2: 101 miles, day 3: 107 miles. Did I mention the 20,000 feet of climbing?!

Undeterred, we boarded our train one long weekend in May. The train ride was long, I can't remember exactly how long but it was over 7 hours. But the train was nice and the seats were comfortable and we were pretty excited so it wasn't that painful.

Arriving in Pittsburgh around midnight

We had a hotel booked near the train station, which was convenient. The next morning after a hearty breakfast we set off initially on the GAP trail but with some road diversions just to add variety. The plan was to more or less follow this trail for the first day till Ohiopyle and then diverge onto roads completely. 

Merica, son!

On the GAP trail

We made it to Ohiopyle in good time and after a nice dinner settled in for a restful sleep. The next two days were going to be tough.

Indeed, the journey did not disappoint. Our planned route took us over what seemed like the continental divide with gravel roads and double digit gradients. Riding all of this with panniers took a lot out of me, as evidenced here:

Surprisingly, the next day both of us actually felt better and even a bit of rain did not deter us. Plus, my choice of bright yellow rain gear with a mushroom head provided ample entertainment for both of us. 

The plan was to ride past Harpers Ferry (where we had lunch) and then make our way to Point of Rock where we had a rendezvous with a friend who had graciously ridden out to accompany us back to DC. Man, the last few miles around Point of Rock are just excruciating. No wonder it has that name -- one bloody hill after another. To top it all it was 100 degrees out and we were boiling under the sun. 

Thankfully, our meetup spot was an icecream parlor and we happily scooped up some ice-cold calories before the last push home.

One of our many stops along the way. Notice my knee-high socks -- very fashionable indeed

Harpers Ferry

We rode the last 40+ miles at a pretty brisk pace and after an unwanted stop for puncture repair we pulled up to my house to end this epic trip. Here are two exhausted but happy cyclists:

Home. Finally.

Tour de France
Not the one you're thinking of but every bit as exciting, at least for us: Tash and Bilal do France

Wedding Bells in Mexico 
No, we didn't get married but it was Natasha's best friend's wedding. Marianna and Xavier were really nice and invited me to their ceremony as well and I was delighted to go as I've never been to Mexico. Another good place to practice my budding language skills plus I wasn't going to miss out on the chance to visit Mexico City where Natasha grew up.

The only downside of this trip was that it fell smack in the middle of cyclocross season and I was having a good time there with some top 10 finishes. But the last race I did before this trip I crashed and broke my rear derailleur so perhaps it was good timing after all.

Mexico City is huge! I guess the Spanish really like big things and the influence has stuck. This flag for instance, in the main city square, was humongous. The picture doesn't do justice but I'd reckon its as big as a house. 

Thats one ginormous flag -- lest you forgot you're in Mexico

Our timing was such that we hit the preparations for el dia de los muertos (day of the dead), which everyone in Mexico takes very seriously. Think Halloween but on steroids. We saw numerous intricate floats on the main reforma (main boulevard in the city) such as this one:

Of course, being bikers we utilized the local bikeshare and saw the whole city in a day. Thankfully we were out and about on a Sunday so many of the streets were closed to traffic.

After two days in Mexico City, we met up with the wedding party and headed over to the little town of Tepoztlan for the festivities. For the next few days we explored some local gems in the area such as a massive cave and some castle ruins. We also hiked up to the top of a local hill where a temple is located and found this massive tree along the way.

Inside the cave

And then it was time for the wedding. We clean up alright when we absolutely have to: 

But formal wear isn't really our thing so the evening quickly turned into this:

And shortly thereafter we were in our element:

What a fun wedding it really was! Mexico is great and I can't wait to go back there to explore some more. 

So there you have it -- 2015 in a nutshell. Of course there were numerous other happenings in 2015 such as a successful bike racing season, many fun training rides, and some interesting work travel. But its late and I'm tired so I'll leave you with this:   

Bike tour around France? No. Pittsburgh to DC in 3 days on bikes? Nope. Fun adventures in Panama and Mexico? Not a chance. Natasha's crowning achievement of the year was her successful cucumber harvest in the back yard. I haven't seen her this excited um ever! 

Tash and Bilal do France, 2015

This whole idea of riding around France with heavy panniers attached to our bikes only took shape following Natasha's incessant bemoaning over how much she misses Europe and how she hasn't seen her mom in a while (a few months but who's judging). Her mom lives in Brighton, England and we could have simply flown there but whats the fun in that? So we decided to fly to the south of France instead and ride up to Brighton on our bikes -- a bit circuitously through the Pyrenees of course!

Trip Planning
Half the fun of such trips is planning them. Given that both of us are severely allergic to the tourist industry, we charted out our own route using ridewithgps with daily mileages, campgrounds to stay, places to stop for lunch, etc. We also decided that we'd spend our money on good food and not splurge on hotels, instead staying in campgrounds and sleeping in a tent. After much google OCD, I manged to find the lightest two-person tent in existence and after another round of OCD, managed to find the cheapest price for it. Anyone looking for an absolutely awesome two-person tent that is suitable for bike touring, look no further than the Terra Nova Solar Photon 2. Luxury tent this is not, but it weighs 2lbs and packs up into a tiny little ball. Given the real estate on our bikes was in high demand this was quite the space saver.

Other things that went into our panniers were sleeping bags, pads, pillows, and clothes. We packed light with only a couple change of clothes, an extra kit, fleece and rain jacket, lights, flip flops, and some lightweight loafers.

We didn't plan to carry any food with us apart from knickknacks we'd pick up locally. Our nutrition plan was simple -- eat a nice breakfast, a nicer lunch, and an awesome dinner. We were going to France after all!



With tickets booked and bikes packed in boxes, we headed to the airport to begin our 12 day romp around France...

Excited to be on a plane to France!

South of France and the Verdon Region
Landing in Nice, we were immediately greeted with a nice bike assembly workstation right next to the baggage conveyor belt. After a bit of technical haggles assembling the bikes, we finally got on our way out of Nice in the late afternoon.

Got bike?

This being summer, Nice was super crowded with tourists. The beaches were really nice but were packed with people so we slowly made our way along the coast to Cannes. Soon thereafter, we turned inland and immediately the climbs hit us hard.

This was a tiny spot on the beach that wasn't overflowing with people

A bit of background -- we had just gotten off an 8-hour plane journey, were sleep deprived and jet lagged, so yeah we were a bit tired. Anyway we had about 50 miles to do that day and turns out about 42 of them were uphill. Curses.

Riding uphill on a loaded bike is an adventure. While Natasha had her brand new shiny touring bike with a dinner-plate cassette on the back, I had a measly 12-28 in the back and was carrying about 40lbs of weight. So it was a slow uphill grind -- Froome-esque cadence I did not have!

With a few extra chest hairs grown, we pulled into our campground for the night. Campgrounds in France are no joke -- they're super clean, well maintained, with hot showers and an onsite restaurant. After showers and a nice meal, we settled in for a well deserved sleep.

Our general plan was to ride towards Mt. Ventoux as its been on my bucket list for a while. Unfortunately we were a bit too optimistic with our planning so ended up having to skip Ventoux in favor of reaching Nimes in time to catch our prepaid train to the Pyrenees. It was disappointing to miss out on Ventoux, but hey the mountain isn't going anywhere and we now have a reason to come back!

The next few days we wound our way across the Verdon Gorge and towards Avignon. This area of France is absolutely stunning. I had no idea before coming here that this region is so beautiful. Some of the locals we met were also surprised that we were bike touring there as not a lot of foreigners come to the area. Well I'm happy to report that we found a real cycling gem. You now know where you want to go for your next cycling vacation -- it is absolutely stunning out there.

Retirement home anyone?

Verdon Gorge

Avignon is a nice city and we spent an afternoon there catching up with Natasha's uncle and aunt and then made our way to Nimes the following day to start the second half of our journey. 

Avignon -- apparently the construction crew went on strike... a century or so ago

One quick note here about bikes on trains in France -- no one cares one bit if you bring your bike on a train. Every website we checked beforehand told us how stringent the rules are and how bikes aren't allowed on certain routes... total BS.. Apart from the TGV, you can simply roll your bike onto any train and basically leave it anywhere. On our last leg from Pau to Paris, the conductor even put our bikes in a sleeping couchette!

 


Into the Heart of the Pyrenees
Our train brought us into the small town of Foix, at the foothills of the Pyrenees. This is a really cute little town with a nice castle but not much else. After a quick look around we started our uphill slog toward Masat, a small village some several thousand feet up. This was a grind but by this time we had both found our rhythm and happily ate up all the uphills. What was more scary was the 18% downhill we had to negotiate riding into Masat. The road was narrow and bumpy and I have canti brakes on my bike (which if you know canti brakes are simply a suggestion for the bike to slow down). So this was an interesting descent but we managed to come away unscathed.

In Masat we stayed in a local cycle lodge for the night. This was one of the nights we had earmarked to splurge on a nice bed in a hotel. It was definitely worth it and we enjoyed a great meal and some good company of other cyclists.

Unfortunately, this was also the day I felt really sick with a terrible saddle sore and the beginnings of a fever. However, after a good night's sleep and some aggressive saddle sore treatment we kept on chugging forward. I guess it helps to be stubborn at times!

Riding through the Pyrenees is surreal. Many times over the next few days we were above the clouds and the views were absolutely stunning. Every person we met, be it on a bike or in a car was super friendly. Most of the roads we were on didn't really have cars on them at all. I think we saw more cows than vehicles especially atop Col d Aspin where Natasha befriended one who didn't want her to leave!

Riding above the clouds

I just met you and I love you

We camped atop the summit of Col d' Ares the next night and then continued onto Luchon and beyond the next day. This included the climb up Col d Peyresourde which is really steep and the temperature was nearing 100 degrees. But we kept our steady march towards our ultimate goal in the Pyrenees -- Col d' Tourmalet.

It was hot...

...but Tourmalet beckons

For those who follow professional cycling, Tourmalet holds a special place as its one of the iconic climbs of the Tour de France. We arrived at the base of the climb the day before and started up it early in the morning.

Tent up, bikes put away, kits hung to dry, gf sunbathing... all is good in the world

The climb is steep with the gradient steady at 8+ % the whole way with many steeper pitches. But quite anticlimactically this turned out to be an easy climb for us because we had left all our weight and pannier bags at the campground. So we were climbing like everyone else -- super light.

The top of Tourmalet was a circus with so many cyclists and everyone wanting a picture next to the famous cyclist statue. One guy in particular (see below) insisted on taking picture after picture of himself, both alone and with others at the summit. Natasha and I took our picture, ordered coffee, consumed coffee, ate a croissant, and all this while this guy was taking pictures. Well good on him, he'll have about 60 of them to show his kids!

The attack of the selfie-man! 

Our day wasn't done. We descended back to camp, packed up and then continued on our way all the way to Pau. The last stretch ended up being quite exhausting as both of us were pretty tired. And to top it all, the campground we had earmarked to get showered and changed had closed down so we had to resort to stripping naked behind some bushes and dry cleaning with a towel.

R and R 
The final stretch of our journey was an overnight train from Pau to the ferry town of Dieppe.

Here we caught a ferry to England and rode our bikes early in the morning to Natasha's parents' house in Brighton. We spent the next four days simply catching up on sleep and calories before finally boarding a plane back home.

This was a most memorable trip and indeed the first of many to come. We're already busy plotting our next adventure!

The end -- a couple of tired but happy cyclists!

Crosstober

The end of endurance racing season in early October marked the beginning of cross season and a complete shift in gears. 45 minutes of redlining is so different than 8-10 hours of steady tempo and the training is different too. But slowly I've come to appreciate tabata intervals and microbursts as they do prepare you pretty well for cross racing! Very explosive and brutal, indeed.

I'm doing much better this year than last year and making steady progress towards the top 10. I've snuck in a few top 20s but the fields are competitive and I'm still missing some top end power and skill. But the beauty of bike racing is that you never stop improving.

Plus the post race rewards are definitely worth the effort! If you haven't a clue what I'm talking about just come to a cross race and join in the fun.

I spot a barrel... oh what could be in it?

We're bookin it outta here fast

Post race banter (and recovery)

 

You finish some and you DNF some...

Iron Cross was one of my target races this year and I was coming into it with a brand new super bike (Trek Boone) and some decent fitness. The day started off well with teammate Andy showing up at my house sometime around 5:45AM and keeping me awake for the drive up to the start line in Michaux.

The one thing that no one was prepared for was how friggin cold it would be at the start -- 36 degrees with close to howling wind. We all froze our butts off waiting for the race to start and took off like banshees at the gun. Immediately the pace was brutal and I'm never good at redlining at the beginning of races so I let a big group go so I wouldn't bonk half way through the race. As an aside, I'm not sure if this is mental and perhaps I should just try to redline the first 30 minutes of a race and see what happens. 

The bike felt great and I started working with a smaller group and we kept the front group somewhat in sight. All bets were off as soon as we hit the single track at Lippencote, though. My bike handling has improved by leaps and bounds thanks to mountain biking so I managed to ride pretty much the entire section and gained several spots. Close to the end of this section I came across my teammate Tyler who had flatted and was trying to put air in his tubeless tire with a quarter sized hole in it. I urged that he put a tube in it and gave him my CO2 and inflator. Thankfully he recovered quickly and managed to finish strong.

After this brief stop, I managed to tag onto a super fast paceline led by some Rare Disease Cycling folks who were really pushing the pace on the road section. I was feeling pretty good here and even took a (brief) pull. The climb up to the WigWam run up is tough but the legs were responding well and my switch to Infinit for nutrition was working great.

The run up or rather crawl up on WigWam was a chore and I got a few twinges in my lower back by the time we reached the top. But my resolution at the beginning of the year was to not waste time in races so I kept on moving and just stretched on the bike. Soon I felt fine again and made good time to check point 2 which was also the start line. Made a quick bottle switch and was off for loop 2, still feeling good.

The bombing descent off the ridge on a dirt road was just awesome. I hit close to 45 mph there on my cross bike and passed many folks. The new bike just inspires so much confidence and the hydraulic disc brakes are phenomenal especially coming from cantilevers.

But all good things must come to an end. At the bottom of this descent (and thankfully not halfway through it), I realized my rear brake was completely gone. So I stopped to see what had happened -- turns out my left heel was constantly clipping against the hydraulic line in the back and had knocked the bolt loose that connected the line to the brakes. So all the hydraulic fluid had drained out, doh! This was such an odd thing to happen, one in a gazillion chance and it had to happen to me on race day. oh well.

I knew there were several more testy descents coming up and taking those on a front brake alone would be daunting. But I tried for a bit and took a (minor) header on a turn and just lost interest in the race. Sucks but I couldn't get myself to get back in the game with just a front brake and a history of some bad crashes. So I called it a day and rode gingerly to a radio check in and turned in my number.

Crappy way to end the endurance season but the upside is that I felt great and was about 13-15 minutes up on last year's time at mile 40. Importantly I was feeling good at mile 40 this year whereas last year I was already ready to bonk so more time gains would have been had later in the game had I continued. Oh well. There's always next year.   

Time to switch to 45 minutes of suffering for the rest of the year. Maybe I'll learn a thing or two about redlining the whole race!

Minor Hill Repeats: Shenandoah Mountain 100 Race Report

Pre Race: 
The race was on weeks before the SM100 even started. The pre-race race was to lose some weight and gain back some lost fitness. Basically, I raced the Wilderness 101 at the end of July a good 10 lbs over my race weight thanks to a buttload of work travel and jet lag induced unhealthy eating. I was also desperate to gain back some fitness after being off the bike while traveling.

So the pre-race plan was to live like a monk for a few weeks, eat healthy, and bank some saddle time. For the most part I did eat healthy and managed to drop 5 lbs by the race eve. I was still 5 lbs overweight but that's significantly preferable to being 10 lbs overweight!

In terms of training, I was behind so coach Eric Sorensen and I concocted a brutal weekend of training a week prior to SM100. Maybe too much too late but the counterfactual doesn't exist (for me) so I'm going to confidently say no :)

The weekend consisted of 5 hours on the road on Friday riding no harder than tempo to simulate pacing at the race, 4 hours of endurance riding at the Schaeffer Farm mountain bike race on Saturday (somehow I got 4th riding tempo which boosted my confidence), and 3 hours of Patapsco singletrack on my new awesome cross bike on Sunday. This 600 TSS weekend simulated the TSS I would probably accumulate in one continuous effort a week later (turns out my TSS for the race was 619, so a pretty accurate prediction!) 

SM100 simulation part 1, Friday: 5 hour road ride with teammate Homer

SM100 simulation part 2, Saturday: 4 hour endurance race at Schaeffer Farm

SM100 simulation part 3, Sunday: 3 hours on the new cross bike on Patapsco singletrack. Side note: hydraulic disc brakes rock!

 Rice cakes, gels, and Skratch hydration worked well for me at Wilderness so I didn't mess with the formula. I added some pistachios to Allen Lim's rice cake recipe and they turned out to be quite delicious.
 

Rice cakes, yum!

The one big change I did make from Wilderness was to switch over to bottles instead of a camelbak and to strap my spare tubes, CO2, etc to the bike. Both these systems worked great and I didn't have any significant back pain throughout the race and it was much easier to monitor hydration and refill bottles at aid stations. I feared it would be difficult to drink from bottles on singletrack but it really wasn't that hard -- its a 100 mile race so slowing down for a few seconds to retrieve a bottle didn't hurt one bit.

Race Day: 
I drove down to the Stokesville campground/start line on Saturday afternoon and setup camp. At packet pickup I ran into Erin Conner and her Sticky Fingers teammates and they were all super welcoming and invited me over to hang out at their camp. That didn't last long as I was in pre-race jittery mode so soon retired to my tent.

I must have the worst luck in the world because I ended up camping right next to the loudest snorer in the world and I had forgotten ear plugs! So I was up well before the wake-up gong went off, but on the bright side had enough time to make coffee and eat a significant breakfast.


   

All geared up

Cheat sheet with elevation, distance, and aid station markers

The race started off a bit fast as usual, but my plan was to ride within myself and certainly keep heart rate below threshold on climbs. I felt really good for the first 45 miles or so and rode tempo, catching a few trains here and there on flat sections. The first three climbs all had significant hike-a-bikes but I was in a forward enough position to be able to ride big chunks of the trail, which saved quite a bit of time. 

Around aid #2, I caught an experienced racer, Marc Genberg, and wondered if I was riding too hard. But he reassured me that the remaining climbs weren't as difficult. That's hard to believe with an 18 mile "death climb" on the horizon! 

Turns out Marc was right. The death climb is actually the easiest of all the climbs on this course. Its long but its steady and you can get into a rhythm. The upper reaches get a bit steep and unending but by the time I got there I was having other far more pressing issues. Turns out I simply stopped eating around mile 40 because I couldn't stomach anything anymore. I also fell back on electrolytes and binged on a handful of salt tabs all at once which likely caused even more distress in my stomach. 

By the time I was on the death climb, my stomach was in serious revolt and I couldn't keep my HR up beyond 160bpm. But I found a couple other riders to pace with and we chugged along albeit pretty slowly.

Finally aid #5 showed up and I took an extended break here, mostly because of an urgent need to use the port-a-john. But finally I felt a bit better and managed to eat a bit of pringles and drink some coke.

The climbing wasn't close to being done yet but I managed to get my HR up a bit again. Got some more pringles and scud fries (yum!) at aid #6 and headed out for the final climb. By this time I had lost hope for a 10 hour targeted finish but was gunning to make it to the line by 11 hours. I really attacked the last descent (even when it went uphill, go figure), but missed the 11 hour mark by about 4 minutes. 11:04 is still a decent time and good marker to beat next year! Almost 13,000 feet of climbing is a big day on any bike.   

 

HR and elevation profile for the race. Note the dichotomy of avg HR in first and second halves of the race. I paced well in the first half but bottom fell out in second half. Nutrition and hydration? Fitness? Heat and humidity? Maybe all three?

 Post-Race:
This was only my second 100 miler so a lot  to learn still. As another experienced racer, Greg Rittler told me, it take a while to learn how to pace these races. I think I also have to learn how to eat throughout the race. I think I'm going to try liquid nutrition (infinit) in training and see how that works for me.

I also need to work a lot on my descending skills. I think most other people had way too much fun on the fast curvy descents, whereas I was on my brakes a lot of the time and too timid on many of the faster sections. Practice, practice, practice!


Finally I'd like to give big shout outs to the entire Sticky Fingers crew. They took such good care of me the whole weekend, got me water and other adult beverages after my finish, helped me patch up a small wound, and were super fun to hang out with. Sincere thank yous to Erin, Honey, Dierdre, Angela, Megan, Dave, Bec, Tim, Larry, Isabel, and Faith (pls. excuse if I missed anyone!). You guys rock!

Back next year for SM100 part deux.