FOCUS

As a young buck, I loved climbing. Show me a hill, and I would attack it like a rabid dog, foaming at the mouth as I crest the top.  Now that I'm an old guy, I remember the thousands of ascents up our local mountains with fondness.

Sustained HR, with little variation in effort.

Regardless of pace, weather or social company, climbing a mountain or a mole hill is never easy, regardless of how good you (think) you are.  It's always a challenge to commit to a razor's edge focus for a prolonged duration, delivering a controlled maximum power output from bottom to top.

 

Consistency and knowing where - and how hard - to push is the key to success.  Whether you target a racy Strava-inspired climb, or aspire to crack the hour on your local ski hill, you need to be ALL in, mind, body and soul.  If we consider rider/bike/equipment weight relative to a reasonably competitive time (in our case, Cypress Mountain, typically measured from the 2km marker to the powerlines), a rider needs to dial in a wattage in the area of +/-335w to meet his or her objective.  Before you get carried away with thoughts of holding a measly 335w, keep the blog title in mind - Tall 'Skinny' Old Guy -  skinny being the operative word.  For those intimately familiar with their local climbs, breaking a mountain up into sectors is helpful, taking note of goal times (or speeds) for each of these sectors will help you keep focus and pace.

Pace notes help keep you on the straight and narrow.

Remember, weight is your enemy during any ascent, keeping it to a minimum is essential. Bring only what you need and no more - that means ¾ (or less) of a bottle for the climb!  If you're going for a time, the assumption is that your 'go-to' race bike will be used.  Before you set out, make sure the chain is clean, the drivetrain freshly lubed, brakes aren't dragging and tires are up to snuff, at the manufacturer's  recommended psi.  Why lose out on a precious few seconds from mechanical friction, right?

How do you tackle each sector of the mountain?  I've provided a few pacing strategies below that are Cypress Mountain-specific, but could be adopted for just about any longer climb.

For cyclists outside of Metro Vancouver, Cypress Mountain is a very steady climb, with four switchbacks over its 10.5km length, taking on some 660m of elevation over the course of the distance.

OK, let's get rolling! I've broken Cypress into four sectors, each averaging between 5% and 6% in grade:

2km Marker to the 1st LookOut (LO) 

a.)    2km to the 1^st LO time needs to be +/-11 minutes, noting that a really fast opening time may push you too far into the red in other sectors.  Target time +/-10:15 – 11:30 or +/-18 to 20km/h.

b.)    Gas needs to be consistently open through each corner, targeting a velocity of +27km/h around each of the first two switchbacks. It’s easy to back off in the corners for recovery – try to limit load drop.  Keep the gas open, as they say.

1st LookOut to 2nd LookOut  

Spikes show increased speed through corners.

c.)     1^st to the 2^nd LO is tricky, focus is very narrow with the undulations in pitch.  Don’t be afraid to get out of the saddle to maintain effort if you bog down, particularly in the first 150m of the sector where the grade increases. Target time +/-8:30 – 9:30  or +/-18 to 20km/h.

d.)    Once you come through the 2^nd LO, focus snaps back to maintaining a high speed through the corner, aim for +28km/h for this long right hand corner. At this speed, aero comes into play –  you should be in the ‘power position’ (hands on hoods, stretched, flat back).  

2nd LookOut to HairPin 

e.)    2^nd LO to Hairpin is deceptive. The rider’s perspective shows a false flat, but the pitch is a constant 4 to 5 degrees. Settle into a rhythm, and try to pinch some speed exiting the 2^nd LO corner, before the incline becomes significant. Target time: 7:15 – 8:00 or +/-16 to 20km/h.

f.)     As with each switchback corner, you need to maintain a high speed through each corner.  You can back off the gas, but do so sparingly, knowing the finish is near. 

HairPin to Powerline 

g.)    Hairpin to Powerline is nasty.  Focus becomes even narrower. Due to the grades, a brief, out of the saddle effort will be required to maintain a high load.  Watch the clock, with 2 minutes to go (~3:30 lap), begin to increase pace, with another concerted, out of the saddle effort with 1 minute to go. With 30 seconds to go, get out of the saddle, digging as hard as you can across the powerlines to the finish.  You will need to moderate the speed, using 2min, 1min and 30s markers as benchmarks. Target time: 5:30 – 6:30 or +/-18 to 20km/h.

h.) Focus from bottom to top is narrow, becoming narrower as you reach the powerlines.  As you crest the mountain and fall over in a mass of exhaustion, don't forget to take a gasp of air and look out over the Bay.  The million dollar view is worth the climb!

Easy peasy.  Now you have the recipe to out-climb your buddies. Like any great chef, how you conquer your local hill will require subtle tweaks in the delivery and make up of the recipe, but keep the basic ingredients the same, and you will meet the climbing challenge head on, and ultimately emerge successful.

Now, get out there and enjoy the slow burn!

Ode To A Coffee

After a series of sleepless nights, I bring you a quote from Talleyrand (1754-1838) that rings close to home this morning.

"Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love."

Somebody, please, bring me a cup, I've a mountain to ascend tomorrow, at sunrise.

It's ON!

The first angry ride on the Ghost took shape in the form of a prolonged hammer session out to Belcarra,

doubling back to Deep Cove, then rolling through the slopes of Lynn Valley.  All in, 125km and just over 2,000m of climbing.  How did the Ghost react to multiple locomotive-like efforts at 400w?  In a word, absolutely flawlessly!  In all honesty, sliding into the cockpit of the Ghost was like putting on an old pair of gloves - everything fit, even the ProLogo Zero2 saddle was comfortable over the 4 hours pain that was being dished out on a repeated basis.  Climbing?  Gotcha covered.  Out of the saddle efforts yielded immediate acceleration, no energy robbing flex at the bottom bracket or chainstays - stomp on the pedals and you are rewarded with instant acceleration!  Just the thing I needed keeping up to Saturday's musclemen (Yes, you, JI).  

So, climbing is spot on, but what about the descents, do the muscular fork legs, the beefy downtube and overbuilt bottom bracket area all combine to form a delicious recipe of stiffness and sure footed-ness as speeds increase? YEP!  Once the rollers of Belcarra are conquered, riders are faced with a long, winding descent, exactly the conditions required to test the new rig's stability.  Railing the big Ghost through corners was inspiring - the only thing holding me back was a lingering thought of self-assembly - are you SURE you tightened that stem bolt? - Apart from a moment's (mental) hesitation, the bike behaved as it should, rock solid as speed tickled 80km/h in the short descent back to Newport Village. Similarly, scrubbing off speed on the beautiful Easton EC90SL was smooth, easily modulated, without any drama (or squealing brakes) whatsoever.   Perfect.

So, a new missile to the arsenal. Bring on the Tuesday Nighters (said with all due respect).      

Menacing To Look At!

The bike is built, and unfortunately, due to a string of miserable weather and my inability to stomach riding in

Stare too long and this thing will kick you in the shins!

poor weather (years of rain and cold doesn't harden you, it does the opposite), I haven't had a chance to ride the Lector in anger (yet!).  What did I do instead?  Put the Ghost on the Computrainer and pushed through a favorite workout - multiples of 20 minutes at threshold, FUN  (not really).

Having raced for Giant at the peak of my illustrious career, my body has morphed to accommodate the compact geometry of their flagship race bikes.  Love it or hate it, the severely sloping top tube of the TCR line makes for a stout, efficient machine, at the mercy of fit.  It took many months to tweak the cockpit of my first TCR to find a combination of comfort and power.  Moving over to the Ghost, with it's impressively lengthy head tube, I found myself giggling at a whole new level of comfort.  While maintaining its aggressive look with a 'slammed' stem/bar, the seat to bar relationship is in another universe compared to the old race rig.  This can only be good, right?  Opening the chest to allow for deeper breathing, and decreasing the hip angle for better power delivery.  I'll buy that, but can you quantify this cockpit "improvement?"

Let's go back to the aforementioned Computrainer.  Moving closer to race season, the workout du jour includes a standard diet of 20 minute sets.  I've been struggling to push through 3 sets done at a successively higher load (320w > 330w > 340w).  The last set is particularly hard, requiring a very special combination of angry music and razor sharp mental focus (because hey, reality is, hot, crackling bacon is a mere 20 feet away).  The last few workouts were somewhat of a success, pushing to failure at 10 minutes and 12 minutes (of 20) respectively. Here's where it gets interesting.  Swing a leg over the matt (matte?) black machine, settle into a tempo and the first  two sets are banged out with relative ease.  For an old geezer with a new kid and VERY limited saddle time (and even less sleep), 340w comes with profound sweating and a little bit of swearing.  It's hard.  Minutes trickle by, BOOM, 10 minutes pass, now 12, OK, the fun begins.  I've just passed the previous gold standard (12 minutes), and strangely, while operating at about 90%, I'm feeling good. Let's go for 15 minutes and call it a day, setting a new benchmark to wrap the day's session up.  15 minutes rolls by, meh, keep pushing.  16.....17.....18....WHAT?  Can I finish this workout?  DONE! DONE and DONE!  Wowzers.  So maybe it's not the position, and it's the excitement of a new bike (or it is?).  Either way, I'm over the moon to have pushed through the mind-numbing and leg tingling interval, but now I'm even more excited to rail this thing on the roads!!!  

The Ghost Has Appeared!

The Ghost Lector Race has landed, and holyheck, what a rig!  A reasonably easy build (slap on the seat/seatpost, wheels and stem/bar combo and away you go!).  Once built, the Lector is an intimidating looking machine, draped in matt black paint with subtle hints of gray and splashes of red to keep things visually

interesting, the Lector is all business. 

BEEFY TUBING! Sculpted tubing resides everywhere on this bike; tapered top tube, stout chainstays, a bottom bracket that would look at home on the USS Enterprise and my favorite, fork legs that could have been modeled after Jessica Zelinka's gams - gorgeous and muscular!  This bike screams performance!

Component selection is top shelf, the Sram Red group has a tremendous following in the racing world, combining double-tap technology, and light weight. Carbon wheels, you say?  Yup, the Lector's got those too, in the form of Easton EC90's, wrapped in Schwalbe's premium race rubber, Ultremo ZX!  By now, it's late, I'm in the garage, wifey is probably asking where I am, and I need to go to bed!  More on this thing later.   Stoked?  Oh yeah!

Wow, it's been that long since I actually posted to this blog?  I've got some catching up to do!  So, new bike, new clothes, new kid (!!!) and a whole new level of excitement to get out of my garage (Oh the misery and the stink of it all).  Lot's to write about, but for now, it's coming up to the end of the day, it's sunny, and I have a bike to build!