Year: 2009

Getting ready for 24 hours @ Targhee

24 Hours of Targhee is less than a week away and I’m so excited for the race to start I can barely sit at my desk. I’ve been training since last fall for this event. It’s the longest and most consistently I’ve ever trained for a single event and I’m looking forward to seeing if the effort results in a better performance than 2007.

I had a small setback in the form of strep (or some unidentified infection) I picked up in Kona. That kept me from any serious training for about 10 days. Hopefully, it was good taper time. I’ve also had a few problems with my 1997 Marzocchi fork. I spent some time working on it Saturday and hopefully it’s good for at least another 35 hours of riding.

I had a good training ride yesterday. I went out looking for climbs that would challenge me mentally and physically, as well as some practice on tight singletrack and rocky descents. I don’t do a lot of trail riding anymore and it’s always good to go scare the sh!t out of myself on the local trails before a race. I got in about 5,000ft of climbing in 4.5 hours, topping out above treeline, around 11,500ft, on the road to Trinchera Saddle.

While going tubeless has been a good thing, I’m not in love with my Crow tires. They worked well at 24 Hours of eRock, but lose traction too frequently on the local trails. Braking performance is especially bad on anything steep and loose. The Targhee trails are a little less technical than what I rode yesterday. Still, for the race, I’m going to switch to some tires that will hopefully hook up a little better on loose dirt.

Why not take the fight to them?

This is what I don’t understand. Obama has proposed a health care plan that is a continuation of the existing system with minor modifications. It seems that there is so little to argue about that the opposition has to incite their supporters by reframing things like end-of-life counseling to fiction like killing older citizens. They’re really afraid of single-payer health care. Why not take the fight to them and propose real health care reform; a single-payer system? Let them argue the point instead of their made-up boogie men. I think there is much stronger support in this country for real change in the form of a single-payer system than for expanding the health insurance industry. Why can’t there be debate in this country about the issues without diverting public attention with fairy tale trolls?

Kona bike course

I have a new appreciation for Kona Ironman finishers. A week ago Sunday I rode the bike course on a Specialized Allez rental. At first glance there is nothing particularly difficult about the ride. It’s fairly flat, out-and-back on good pavement and mostly very wide shoulders. The challenge is the unrelenting wind. It wasn’t too bad when I started, about 7 am. But winds were 30-40 mph for six miles in and out of Hawi, the turnaround point of the route. It was a bit calmer for a few miles. Then, after turning south onto the main highway to Kailua, I faced 15-20 mph winds for the remaining 40+ miles. I took a brisk 2 mile walk with my sister afterwards (which nearly made me puke because I’d eaten a bowl of cereal before I saw her lacing up her walking shoes). I don’t think there’s any way I could’ve run 26 miles.