The Mangler

This weekend I competed in The Mangler a 24 hour race in Hillside park in Anchorage, AK.  I didn't have a chance to pre-ride the trails but I don't think its that necessary in a 24.  The staging area was held in a field with most of the competitors making a tent city.  I setup a little area for myself with some help from my dad for my tent and supplies.  My original plan for this race was to 2 laps consecutive without stopping but I was going through my water bottles to quick for that.

The course was a 9 mile loop with about 900 feet of climbing.  It consisted of about 60% single track and the rest being double track.  It was a great mix between the two and the only part of the course I disliked was the new piece of trail they had cut.  It was extremely soft and I saw quite a few people go down there.

I felt good for most of the race saving myself on about 5 of the climbs by just pushing the bike up them.  After burning your legs climbing up your upper body got quite the workout on the long downhill at the end of the course.  My original goal was too do 100 miles during the race but I quickly found out that I would be able to do much more and set my goals on 100 miles before midnight.  I started slowing down though at around 8 pm and knew that it was going to be tough to hit my mark.  I ended up with about 75 miles around midnight 25 shy of my goal but a good effort.

As I finished my last lap at around midnight I overheard a few of the volunteers calling the paramedics.  I guess a girl who must of been a few minutes behind me was attacked and mauled by a bear.  They shutdown the race and the paramedics had to hike in with guns to go retrieve her.  It was a sad finish to a great race.  Everyone at the race was extremely friendly and it was  great place to try my first 24 solo.

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Kincaid Park / Tony Knowles Coastal Trail

Today as I previously had mentioned I headed over to Kincaid park to try my hand at some Alaskan singletrack. I arrived at the park about 9 AM and headed out with no map to speak of hoping to pick one up at a kiosk which didn't happen.  Luckily they had trail maps posted at most of the intersections since the trails were one-way. The park was built for nordic skiing but in the summer they are used by bikers and runners so there are no technical features to it.  The trails were still fun with no long climbs or descents but plenty of little power climbs and enough downhill to make it worthwhile. I didn't complete all the trails in the park as on my way through one of the loops I connected to the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail which runs all the way from the park to downtown Anchorage. 

The Coastal trail is a great paved trail that you guessed it follows along the coast. Off the trails I found many spurs that had little pieces of singletrack that was enjoyable. I rode all the way downtown to meet my Dad for lunch and then headed back down to Kincaid Park to ride some more of the trails that I skipped out on. By the time I got to Kincaid Park it was getting close to time for me to head out so I called my mom to pick me up so I could go pickup the dog.  All in all another good day racking up almost 40 miles and some great weather.

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Chugiak, AK

I arrived in Anchorage, Alaska yesterday at 1 AM in daylight. Being the day of the summer solstice (June 21st) I arrived on the longest day of the year. I had no problems bringing my bicycle onto the plane except for the $100 fee they charge on top of the $25 for checking two bags. I still don't understand the policy on baggage, some over-sized items they seem to be fine with not charging a fee for and others they hammer you on. Luckily my bike made it through the trip unscathed and weighed in at 55 lbs in the case with a few other items that I packed inside. 

I set the bike up on Sunday after getting some sleep that night but didn't ride it until today. I did some errands in town such as finding where my class is on campus and visiting the bike shop that is holding the 24 hour race on Saturday. It was a great shop carrying all sorts of high end bikes and equipment much better then the bike shops I have seen in California and on par with the few I visited in Colorado.

After running my errands I had plenty daylight left as it doesn't get dark here until 2 or 3 in the morning and even then its not really that dark so I decided to check out the trails by my parents house. I had been on them before on my parents 4 wheelers so I wasn't that excited about it but thought it would be a good check on my bike after the assembly. As I ventured out the trails really surprised me as I really found them enjoyable even though it had no singletrack but the views were great the weather was perfect and its always good on my mountain bike.

          

It was hard to navigate my way around as there are no signs posted and without a map of the roads or trails. I came upon a few dead ends after crossing the railroad tracks where I was met by a river. I thought about crossing it but a few rough looking individuals came through in there trucks so I decided to head back home the way I came. All and all I ended up with 15 miles in about an hour and a half. Tomorrow I will head down to Kincaid park and check out some of the singletrack in downtown Anchorage.

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Stopped Again

Today due to the heat wave that all of the southwest has been getting I decided to get out on the road bike and ride along the coast and once again try the famous Camp Pendleton ride again. I was hoping that the construction would be completed since the last time I tried this ride. Even though most of San Diego was getting blasted by the sun along the coast it was very foggy which the locals here call June gloom. This is what gives San Diego its mild temperatures that its famous for.



I was still hurting from my ride on the San Juan trails so I took this ride more as a active recovery ride and didnt push the pace too much. Kind of took in the sights as there were tons of girls in bikinis along the beach to look at. As I passed by the Oceanside pier the construction signs made it apparent that I would once again be unable to complete the ride. My legs were thanking me as they felt like lead trying to push my bike over 20. I sprinted on the bike a few times to get the illusion of a workout but was usually just tooling around. This will be my last ride until Alaska when I hope to get in one ride before my race.



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San Juan Trail

My original plans for the day were to head up to San Bernardino and ride the SART but didn't feel like driving for 2 hours by myself to ride the trails. Also a little heat wave has been rolling through so I wanted to say closer to the coast. I heard that the San Juan Trail was one of the best in the area also so I decided to try my hand on it instead as its located in Orange County which is closer. I got there about 10 AM with 2 cars already in the parking lot and started my long, long, long climb up to the top. Its about an 7.5 mile climb to the top before you get any sort of downhill that allows you to let up. I felt good for the first 2.5 miles of climbing cleaning all but one of the switchbacks. I then started to get tired and the trail was pretty rutted forcing me to walk a few of the steeper sections.

The trail was exposed the whole time except for a small portion of it around the 8 mile mark when you come into a small meadow. I stopped there to cool down in the shade as I was draining my camelback quicker then I planned for. I had thought about turning around since I was low on water and only had a few ounces in my water bottle left. I decide to stick it out as I knew my climbing for the day was almost over. I headed out again walking quite a bit of the trail as it was extremely rocky and I was feeling mentally tired. I hadn't brought any gels and I needed some sugar because I was bonking.

As I started my decent I was feeling good but crashing a few times. One of them causing me to go over the bars into some bushes that ripped my shorts exposing my ass. Luckily I had just passed two girls on the trail and was hoping that would be the last bit of people that I would see as I still had a few more miles to go. I made it down without mooning anyone and quickly threw on a pair of shorts I had brought.

My overall feeling off this trail is that the downhill wasn't all that great as it was extremely rutted and too many switchbacks so that you can't sustain speed. I will not be back to ride this trail again unless I need to work on my climbing more but with Elfin Forest nearby I doubt that.

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MCAT

Well I have signed up for the MCAT come September 6th so today with all the study material I bought I studyed some. The chemistry aspect is not too tough as thats the freshest subject in my brain but biology which I took 2 years ago and physics are a little tough. Im hoping by doing the flash cards everyday for a few hours and then the practice tests towards the end it will payoff. This is the way I have been studying all throughout college, learn the material then take practice tests a few days before, hopefully it works out. Its not a revolutiontary method of studying just what works, for me at least.

One thing about registering for the test and buying study material I noticed was the cost associated with just applying to medical school. It was around $250 for the test and I spent $150 on study materials plus it will probably be much more to apply to the schools. This is a small taste of why the rich get richer in this country. If I would of taken an MCAT prep course I would of been looking close to two grand for that also.

Enought about that stuff, I have been also messing around a lot lately with all my freetime and watched what I believe to be every bit of The Flight of the Conchords youtube video's and let me tell you they are hilarious. Here are two of my favorites:

Flight of the Conchords- Business Time

Elfin Forest / Fathers Day

It's Fathers day so I started out by helping my soon to be father-in-law by cleaning the pool.  It was tough going though as a bunch of the yellow spots just haven't been coming off.  So I got a little hand brush and went to work on the problem spots.  It helped out some but it was still very noticeable.  So Mr. Bill decided to head down to the local pool shop with a water sample.  The pool shop said it was a yellow algae in the pool and gave him some chemicals that will hopefully rid us of the algae.

After the few hours I spent doing that I got the mountain bike ready to go to Elfin Forest.  I knew that it had a tough climb and my body was feeling spent from yesterdays mountain bike ride and the pool scrubbing but I know I needed it.  It was slow going and every time I thought I cleared a technical section of the climb right around the switchback would be more rocks that would cause to dab or lose my balance.

                         

After following the way up trail to the top I split off onto the equine trail which had a nice little downhill run followed by more switchback infested climbing.  At this point I reached the top that had quite a nice lookout over North County where I stopped to take a break.

                      

I took the Mariposa trail next that connected on the the fireroad that runs along the top of the mountain here next to the reservoir.  I missed my turn and got lost searching around for my way down.  I knew that I had to take the way up trail back down, which wasn't that nice due to all the hikers out and around.  I only ended up with 7.5 miles but it felt like much more.

                    

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La Costa

The day started out with an appointment to see Levyland a house that Sarah and I are renting to have our wedding at.  We wanted to go over a few things as were starting to iron out some of the details of the wedding such as seating.  Since the day before we went talk to one caterer and they started to talk about our seating arrangements.  Were actually thinking of seating everyone in the driveway under the canopies of the trees with tables like below.

                      

Im still kinda of torn between spending all this money on the wedding and using it for something else.  Part of me says this is one of your most memorable parts of your life so why not have fun and having some extra cash in your pockets isn't what life is about.  The other part says that we should be using this on our first house together.  I think that at this point were both pretty excited about having a wedding.

After our trip to Levyland I headed over to El Camino bike shop so that they could slide my grips on using an air compressor and crimp my cables.  I had finished bleeding my brakes the other night so I was ready to get in some mountain biking.  They did it at no cost but I dont really like the vibe in there especially the vibe Jose puts off.  After that I rode my bike over to the La Costa Trailhead.  Its really a fun trail not very big (6 miles) but there are rumors of it connecting to Elfin Forest which would make it all that much better.  

                        

The climbing wasn't too bad it just kept switchbacking all the way up Denk Mountain.  A few parts I dabbed and didn't clean it but was just happy to be on the bike.  At the top I ran into a nice lady who showed me around as most of the trails are intertwined.  She was a great rider and was actually doing a much better job on the downhills then I was, hopefully it was just me being rusty.  I bit it on both of the downhills, once by washing my tire out on some sand and the second was a OTB from a rock.  All in all it was great to be back on the Merlin riding some trails.

                      

The Ranch

I decided to head through Rancho Santa Fe today and hit up Del Dios Highway and climb up it, something I haven't done yet.  For you who don't know Rancho Santa Fe is the most upscaled community here in San Diego.  I believe at one point is was the richest neighborhood in the country but with the woes in the housing market here in San Diego Im sure it has taken a bit of a hit also.  You cant see many of the houses though as they are usually accompanied by a gate with many acres.

                      

On my ride I got a call from the lady handling the claim for my bike.  I had got a call from the culprit the other day but he didn't want to give me the insurance info for the car he was driving.  I guess though he was more friendly with the insurance companies and said he would get them the info in the next couple of days.  I have already paid out of my pocket all the money to fix my bike so hopefully I can get reimbursed soon.

                       

Also on my way back on El Camino Real I was getting ready to take my left onto Garden View when a huge F-250 blew buy me to stop 50 yards ahead at the red light.  I sprinted to get there before the light turned green and what do you know he has his window rolled down.  I told him that he was suppose to give me at least 3 feet while passing.  All he had to say to me was that he saw me and not to worry about it.  I told him that I could feel his side view mirror come too close for comfort to which he replied ride faster.

Im getting excited about Alaska and reading this post on MTBR is not making it any easier.

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Coolngreen

I wasn't up for a long ride today and I know that I haven't been doing many intervals lately so I decided to head over to Coolngreen which is a street in our subdivision that has 16% grade for maybe 50 yards.  I did 3 sets of 5 climbs up it each lasting about 30 second with about 1 minute of rest between each interval and 5 minutes of rest between each set.  I thought I was going to puke after the first set and almost called it quits after my second set.

                      

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June Gloom

Today I decided to head out on the famous Camp Pendleton Ride from Swamis even with the weather being pretty bad with the infamous June gloom.  I had printed out the directions and taped them on my top tube as I have been doing for all my rides but didn't pay any real attention to them.  When I got down to the coast it had me confused and wondering where to go.  I called Sarah as a last resort even though she is very bad at giving directions.  I knew at some point I had to cross across the 5 but was unclear with the directions.  She wasn't very helpful and I ended up finding it out on my own.  On South Pacific I found that it was under construction and no allowing through traffic so I was unable to get to Harbor Drive and decided to turn around and head home.  On the way I decided to make it an active recovery ride and just spun my legs out.  One guy ended up passing me and I chased to stay with so as to push myself.  I still ended up with 40 miles so all was not lost.  When I got back home I was locked out as Sarah had left for work.  Her mom showed up 20 minutes later without a key either.  So we sat outside freezing waiting for her Dad to come and open the house.

                      

Same Route New Way

Before I get to bored of the monotony of riding my same few routes that I have adopted from Swamis I decided to do go ahead and try them all in the reverse direction to change it up.  I started with the long route going through San Marcos first onto a nice climb on Old Castle Road thats not quite as bad as Lake Wohlford but taxing none the less.  On the way there I saw quite a few RAAM riders and there support vans.  I stopped at my usual spot up on top by Lake Wohlford where i chomped on some blueberry poptarts.

                    

I grabbed my usual orange but it wasn't as tasty as my first one, they never are.  The ride hurt much more then usual, don't know if it was harder this way but I liked the descending down Lake Wohlford instead of climbing it with all the traffic on that road.  The climb up Old Castle Road has more shoulder which is needed more climbing.

                      

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Bleeding Heart

Well today I called around to a few of the bike shops in town to see if any of them had a bleed kit in stock that I could buy and if not how much would they charge to bleed my new front brake.  None of them had any in stock and they all charged about $35 with a few day wait.  So I decided to resort to the internet to find one to buy, and what do you know the flea market that is ebay had one for $20 plus $5 shipping.  So with that taken care of I was off to go on a road ride.

                        

Its much the same route that I have been taking since moving back to Encinitas.  Taking Levante Street to Rancho Sante Fe to Elfin Forest to Del Dios to the coast then up Birmingham and back home.  Its a fairly scenic ride but the offshore wind really slows you down in the direction I do it.  I think the next time I try this route I will have to try it counter clockwise.  Out of the 10 or so riders I saw all of them were doing it the opposite direction.

                       

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