Boys' Night Out

Here was the plan.

Hike into the Great Gulf, camp out, climb up the Great Gulf to the summit of Mt. Washington (NH), slap on the boards & ski down the auto road (~ 6 mile run), then a pint of the good stuff.

Saturday morning: it's real cold.

Mistake no. 1: we have no snowshoes or skins for the boards (we were young & poor).

Lots of snow on the trail. We don't make it to the Great Gulf. We set up the tent along the trail and get into our sleeping bags.

Sunday morning : very cold. The thermometer says - 40 F. Plus the winds are gusting up to 100+ mph.

Mistake no. 2: we head towards the summit/auto road via a steep & seldom used trail (hey, we were young & dumb).

So here how the day goes: walk 5 feet, then sink up to your waist; walk 5 more feet, then get knock down by a 100+ mph gust of wind.

It's now 4 pm. We are still way below the auto road. Decision time - keep going or bivy out.

4:01 pm: We are digging into a snow drift.

The local news station reports that tonight will be a rough one. Our lady friends are worried since we were supposed to home hours ago.

Monday morning: it's a bit warming & no wind. We pack up and make it to the auto road by noon time. The boards are on & pointed down hill. About 2 hours later, 3 of us are eating 2 large pizza pies.

Traveling lighter and snowshoes would have been key.

Don't You Forget About Me

• Ever since Chouinard and Frost revolutionized ice climbing with their tools, the level of difficulty keeps going up and up.

• The current level of mixed climbing is way beyond me. It's amazing.

• You see, I'm just an old fashion ice climber who loves motoring up moderate snow & ice gullies.

• So while all these mixed climbs are totally rad, don't you forget about the ice gullies.

• If you are a Northeastern, this means a road trip to Huntington Ravine on Mt. Washington, NH.

• Trust me on this one, Mt. Washington is the home to the worst weather (http://www.mountwashington.org/). The weather here is down right dangerous. Usually about 1 - 2 people die a year here due to falls and/or exposure.

• Bad weather + a long history of accidents + relative remoteness = a recipe for FUN. It's always an adventure on Mt. Washington.

• So put away your mono points and leashless tools. Grab your 12-point crampons and curved ice axe. Don't forget your bivy bag, map and compass.

• And head towards these historical gullies.

• Pinnacle Gully is the classic NEI 3 climb - enjoy it.

• There is only one bad thing about climbing in the Mt. Washington Valley. I can never find a decent slice of pizza anywhere. Oh well, you can't have everything in life.

• One last thing, if you have some spare time, hit the backside of Wildcat with your backcountry boards.

BODY HEAT

Your body has a "set point" for weight, i.e., most folks stay within a certain weight most of their lives.

Your body has a set point for happiness. You're happy or you're not.

I have no facts or clinical trials to back this up, but I believe people have a set point for body heat (aka internal body temperature).

For me, it's 45 - 55F. At these temps, my motor hums like a well-tuned Lincoln, be it by bike or foot.

Some of my buddies prefer hot days. Some prefer cold days, and that's all right, too.

So what's the point Roman?

Well, here's the deal: plan your training & races (i.e., your peaking cycles) around your set point for body heat.

The cold folks may do well at CX. The hot people may excel at a summer time road running marathon.

Find your set point and stack the odds in your favor.

There Is Still Hope

In these days of overprotected kids, there's still hope.

I was walking my dog last week and I looked up a big hill, and saw two boys (~ 13 y.o.) with skateboards. This hill is long & steep with traffic, and a busy intersection at the bottom. The kids had no helmets or pads on (just like the good old days).

The first kid pushes off and comes flying down the hill, carving some big "S" turns. He makes the intersection no problem. The second kid thinks about it for a few minutes, sucks it up and launches down the hill. He has a lot less control, but makes it down without crashing. He also clears the intersection (barely).

I'm all for safety, but it's great to see kids go for it every now and again.

I gave them the thumbs up as I walk away.

100 x 2 = 200 miles

About 10 years ago, I was seriously thinking about doing a RAAM style / light weight bike ride across the USA. A credit card & fanny pack type of a ride. I even began to train for it.

I signed up for a somewhat hilly double century (200 miles) to test the waters.

Bike: My 1985 triple crank touring rig (now a single speed) - heavy, but reliable as heck.

Well, how did it go?

It took 13 hours & 20 minutes to cover the 200 miles. I was solo for most of the ride.

I broke the 200 miles down into 50-mile segments. For the most part, I felt pretty good up to about 170 miles. Then I met the "Man with the Hammer". The last 30 miles took me over 2 hours to complete. I could barely keep my head up.

I was like, "please someone hit me with a car & put an end to this suffering". It was rough.

After the ride I felt OK, but about 3 weeks later, my right knee blew out during one of my training rides.

Was it worth it?

Yes & No.

Yes - I realized that I'm not a RAAM type of guy. I'm into short & fast type of rides/races.

No - my knee still bothers me every now & again.

Did I learn anything?

Ultra distance events require lots of homework. You need the miles under your belt for sure.

But more importantly, it's one big mental test. If you got the brains, the muscles will follow.

Give ultra distance a try, at least once in your life.

The Beach Boys Revisited or Skateboarding on Eastern Long Island in the 1970's

I was driving to work one early Monday morning and a string of Beach Boys' songs came on the radio station. If you grew up near the ocean like I did, your first cassette tape was most likely The Beach Boys (or KISS).

I grew up surfing and boogie boarding like a mad dog. I was the first kid on the beach with a boogie board that I ordered from Surfing magazine. And of course, your skating was a reflection of your moves on the waves. This meant you spent tons of hours carving your way down big hills. Then as surfing became more aggressive, we took to the pools & backyard ramps.

Then hardcore punk hit the scene and "skate & destroy" type of skateboarding took to the streets, hell bent on breaking the rules and pissing people off, which is good, I guess.

But I miss the skate - surf connection.

Things are changing though. More long boards are now out there, ripping up the pavement in true surf style.

Snowboarding was the same way. Early snowboarders were just surfers & skaters who couldn't afford to go South in the winter. So, surfers and skaters took to the snow-covered hills in the winter. Then snowboarding got a "screw you" attitude. But like skateboarding, I think, more boarders are moving out of the park/half pipe and experiencing the joy of curving down the fall line.

I love the ocean. I love the waves. I always wanted my skating & snowboarding to have that connection to the water.

Read up on Gerry Lopez (soul surfer). He's the real deal.

Good vibrations everyone.

LiveStrong

Last week I did my Hospice clinical rotation, a very humbling experience indeed.

I spent about 45 minutes talking to a patient named John, who was a year younger than me and dying of cancer. John will not see November.

John was wearing a LiveStrong bracelet on his left wrist. It's kind of funny. When these bracelets first hit the scene a few years back, I think most people wore them to be fashionable and in their mind, be linked to Lance somehow.

But right in front of me was John, the real deal. A man who lost the fight.

I'll wear my LiveStrong bracelet with a little more thought from now on.

"The ones that you take for granted the most are the ones that you'll miss the most when they are gone."

The Tie that Binds

The tie that binds; the cord that connects.

Climbing partners are life-long friends, especially one's early partners.

The climbing partners that survived the "apprentice" years with you remain your closest buddies even if you don't climb with them any longer.

People who climb together have a certain connection that's difficult to explain to other folks.

Sure, climbing rock & ice is great fun. Traveling together to the mountains, the first beer after a tough day at the cliffs, seeing a woman on the rocks (in the early days, ~1980's, that was uncommon), all add to a strong friendship.

But it's the tough times that seal the deal.

Holding a long leader fall, surviving a 100+ mph winds/-40F below bivy together, wondering if the belay anchor is going to hold, down climbing in the dark with no headlamps or moon, this is what makes climbing partners stay "roped up" thru life.

So give your old climbing buddy a call sometime.

SLABS

May 1982 - "Catharsis" - 5.6 - Pok-o-moonhsine - New York

They say that you're a product of your 1st climb.

I love climbing slabs because it's all about technique. Solid technique leads to a strong mind, which needed for the long run-outs (a common feature to most slabs).

In other words, the little (& weak) guy can be a star on the slabs. No big arms needed here, just some strong calves that you already have from cycling.

Technique:

If you lean in and reach high for the holes, your heels will come up and it's "good bye baby, got to go." You'll be in for a nice downward slide for sure.

So it's simple:

1) lean away from the rock

2) heels down

3) don't over reach for the holes - think baby steps.

Also, slab climbing is all about keeping your rhythm.

"Objects in motion, tend to stay in motion."

In order to find your groove, you definitively need to climb with your eyes. Look at your feet & keep motoring upwards. Don't worry about the pro, it just slows you down.

Less Gear!

Another reason why I love slabs is because less gear is needed. Most slabs lack good pro, so just carry a light rack, which is always a good way to travel.

As I always say, "Faith in equipment replaces faith in oneself."

Finally, check out John Long's "Face Climbing" book. John is one of my favorite writers. He's has tons of great stories out there (check him out).

Have fun on the slabs & remember - heels down.

USE IT or LOSE IT (Part 2)

Yesterday I wrote about slimming down to increase speed.

Here's another tip -> have your bike go on a diet, too. Strip it down to the bare bones and convert it to a one-gear bike (fixed/ss).

More math:

Skinny rider + 1-gear bike = FAST (and cheap, too)

Roger that!

USE IT or LOSE IT

"I get embarrassed when I see how slim I was." - Eddy Merckx

In search of a light weight bike, some folks may spend $2000, $3000, $4000 or even $5000. If you got the cash and can buy a nice SEVEN or IF, God bless you.

But if you are like me, "baby needs new shoes" and you can't depart with 5 bills from your wallet.

No problem, I got you covered man.

It all comes down to basic math, or New math, depending on when you went to Grade school.

The equation is:

Total weight = wt. of bike + wt. of rider

The weight of the bike is a constant; the weight of the rider is the variable.

So no need to buy that new S-Works, just lose some weight.

This year I made a big effort to drop some pounds. I went from 165 lbs to 152 lbs.

Did my performance improved? Heck, yeah!

I was able to climb hills like I was wearing the polka dot jersey (not really) and run thru the woods like a deer being chased by my dog (not really). But I was faster for sure and felt better, too.

Look at Lance.

Pre-cancer: ~ 170 lbs and some change
Post-cancer: ~ 158 lbs or so

Enough said there.

How did I do it?

Well, I had a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch... (just pulling your leg).

This was (and still is) the plan:

1) I drank lots of water to feel full.

2) I cut back on my weekly intake of Pop Tarts.

3) I eased up on my beloved dark beer.

4) I ate only 1 P&J instead of 2 P&J's for lunch.

5) I swim lots of laps in the pool and rode Gelato (my Pista) most weekends.

You know the story: burn more calories than what you eat.

Output > Input

However, there is one downside to being mean & lean. Since I have yet to buy a wetsuit, I usually exit the swim leg of a tri shaking like Little Richard. But that's OK. I usually catch up to the wetsuit people somewhere on the hills.

Ease up on the ice cream this winter and you'll be 1 step of the pack come Spring time.

It Ain't so Regular (Route)

Every beginning rock climber needs a great first lead. One that's within their ability, but also has a good "sharp end" factor attached to it.

If you are a Northeaster like me, look towards the Adirondacks (ADK) for such a route.

The Regular Route (5.5, 700 feet, protection OK for a slab) is such a route. It's located on Chapel Pond, Keene Valley, ADK, Upstate NY.

Why?

Well, it's a nice long slab climb that's not too hard for a beginner, but the protection in some places is lacking. So, you get some fun run-outs along the way to keep you on your toes. And getting down from this route takes a little route-finding skills.

Slab climbing is all about technique. No strong arm bull crap climbing here. Keep your heels low and lean away from the rock. And when the pro is not there, keep your head together.

"Free your mind & your ass will follow."

At the height of my climbing ability, which wasn't much, I climbed this route by myself, only dragging a 9 mm rope & some webbing. What a great experience for a young kid that I was at the time. To this day, I still love this "regular" route.

So, pick up a copy of Don Mellor's guidebook (Don was my original climbing instructor way back in 1982) and hit this route, beginner or not. Make sure it's in the Fall when the leaves are bright and the air is crisp. Weekends are a bit crowded these days, so be there on a weekday.

And don't bring a big rack. A small rack of nuts, hexes & some Friends will do. And like any ADK climb, bring lots of webbing.

Towards the top, I recommend you follow the left facing corner.

And if you are not a beginner and have some experience under your chalk belt, this is a great girl friend (or boy friend) route.

Enjoy.

Blurred Vision

Be it a local mt. bike race or blowing thru rush hour traffic in mid-town on your fixed, racing is a blur. Your little world becomes fuzzy as you are flying thru trees or passing cars. You're not making the best decisions. You're like, "screw this, I'm just going to bomb this hill without hitting my brakes" or "I'm going to past all of this traffic by blowing up the double yellow line." You're taking risks and you just don't care if self-damage occurs.

May be your brain is starved for O2, so it's not functioning properly. Who the hecks knows?

I personally love that "racing blur" sensation. That's why I race.

It's like you are almost in another time zone. You don't remember much about your surroundings. All you remember is the hard, physical effort of pushing yourself.

I'm not sure if this makes sense to most people, but if you race or try to outrun the traffic, you know what I talking about.

Just keep your head up.

Freedom

One of the great pleasures in life is the joy of being fit.

Fitness is freedom.

It's the freedom of setting the pace during the Sunday morning group ride.

It's the freedom to attack on the hills.

It's the freedom of traveling great distances.

Fitness doesn't cost you a dime, but it don't come cheap my brothers and sisters. You need to invest time and hard labor into your craft in order to soak up the rewards.

The old school of thought was to have an off-season, mostly during Dec. thru Feb. But I say, one should strive to maintain fitness throughout the year. Yes, your fitness levels will be higher during your peaking cycles, but try not to get into that off-season mode of non-training.

"It's better to burn out than to fade away." Neil Y.

Yes, burn out is a real concern. That's why it's important to have many tricks up your sleeve.

What's my favorite sport/activity? It all depends on the season at hand. When the sun is high & bright, I'm on my bikes. In the cool Fall months, I'm running thru the woods & climbing on boulders. And when the snow hits the mountains, the boards are out of the shed. And all throughout the year, I'm swimming endless laps in the pool.

Fitness is a hard fought battle, so don't lose it during the so called off-season. Keep sharp throughout the year and mix it up to avoid burn out.

An Intimate Affair

I love crashing thru the woods on my Gary Fisher rigid hardtail, but something is missing.

There is not a direct connection to the dirt.

Trail running is an intimate affair. Slow speeds (relative to a mt bike) and feet-to-dirt are the main factors for making trail running a different experience as compared to the mt. bike.

With running, especially on a very technical trail, your mind-to-feet sensors are usually at overload status. Your brain is processing thousands of commands within seconds. But at the same time, your brain is also soaking up all of the smells & sights that surround you.

With big tires & full suspensions, the lay of the land is lost for the mt. biker, but not for the trail runner. Since every grain of soil, rock and root is touched upon by your feet, a greater sense of the environment is realized.

Throw on a pair of running shoes, hit the trails and get closer to the dirt (this may even improve your mt biking). And in the process, have tons of fun while running thru the woods (& rivers, etc.).

Boom Boxes

iPhones - iPods - MP3 Players - whatever.

Remember the days when big, bad Boom Boxes ruled the streets? That was cool. With a Boom Box, you could stake out your own little space with your music.

People walking by, for good or bad, had to listen to your music. This usually lead to a conversation between strangers. With iPods, people don't talk to each other anymore. They just walk right by with their ears plugged up listening to some downloaded song instead of supporting their local CD store and staring at their cell phones hoping that someone calls them. It's kind of sad in a way. Everyone is in their own little, non-interacting world.

The only social-able group left are smokers.

A few years back before Joe Strummer passed away, someone asked Joe how he would make the world a better place to live. He basically said, "Turn off the fxxking TV, grab a glass of beer and head towards the streets. Talk to your neighbors, talk to strangers, get to know other people." That's good advice by me.

So, turn off your iPods for a while.

Dust off your old Boom Boxes, drop in a good tape, pump up the volume & head to the streets.

Remember Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing"? Now, that was one bad-ass Boom Box.

Mental Toughness

What separates the contenders from the pretenders?

Mental Toughness.

Training methods, nutrition and equipment all have reached very high levels these days. As a result, there's a lot of good people out there on the starting line. Each time I move up to a new age group, I always say to myself, this is the year that I'm going to bring home some hardware. But then some guy at the top of my age group spanks me so hard that I go home with my tail between my legs.

Years ago, you may be had a handful of people who could put the hammer down. The rest of us were just there for the beer. Now, only a few of us bring beer coolers and the rest of the field is so serious.

Who gets to stand on the podium?

It's the mental toughness (MT) factor.

It's not that mental edge, visualization or "the zone" bullshit. In my mind, MT is all about pain. Physically, most people who train hard are fairly similar in terms of physical output. It's about; "thy who suffers the most, wins" or as high school track coach used to say, "gut it out you wussy". Even if you are in top notched shape, it's still going hurt. As Greg Lemond once said, "It doesn't get any easier, you just get faster."

It all comes down to this: who has the highest pain thershold? Who can endure more pain than the rest of the field?

How to improve?

Learn to accept pain or at the very least, get used to it. And if you happen to enjoy pain, then most likely you'll be putting the hurt on everyone else.

In the past, great mountaineers (e.g., R. M.) used to train for winter ascents by taking ice baths and running bare-handed in the middle of the winter carry snowballs. They were trying to simulate the pain that they would be feeling on the actual climb.

How to perpare for suffering on the bike? Go out for a fast ride with the big boys and try to keep up. Or my personal favorite, go out for a long ride and carry no food. Bonk, but keep pushing through that wall.

"To such an extent that racers include a blowup in their training. I remember Fignon, three days before the World Championships, setting off to do three hundred kilometers alone, with a cereal bar. He went out to meet the Man with the Hammer. If Fignon needs it, just about any clown, like me, can use a blowup too." - Paul Fournel, "The Need for the Bike"

As they say, "what doesn't kill you, will make you stronger".

Feel the burn and push on through.

Get Up, Stand Up for your Hills

How to get up hills on a 1-gear bike?

Lets talk physics.

You got your potential energy and you got your kinetic energy. Potential energy is really energy based on the position of the object to do work whereas kinetic energy is energy when the object is actually in motion. For example, a large boulder sitting on top of a cliff has the potential to roll down the cliff and cause some serious damage to the climbers below. The rolling boulder itself is the kinetic energy.

Physics was not my strongest subject in school, but you get the general picture of energy.

Getting up hills on a 1-gear bike is all about converting that potential energy into kinetic energy. As you approach any hill, you need to increase or at the very least, maintain your speed as you begin your ascent. In other words, you need to carry your momentum all the way through and attack the hill with speed, which makes sense because momentum is just the product of mass times velocity (p = m x v).

On the road this is pretty easy to do, just crank it up and go after the hill like it’s your long lost girlfriend. Hopefully, you are topped out before oxygen debt kicks in. On the dirt, it’s a different story. It’s not always easy to build up momentum before you attack a hill. That’s why reading the terrain on a 1-gear mt. bike is so important and takes some experience to dial it in. You need to know when to rev it up and when to coast through. This makes riding single speed mt. bikes fun and challenging, too.

Free tip # 1– people talk about weaving your fixed down a hill like a salmon ski racer in order to slow down. But I say, weave your way up a hill to make it easier. Think about hiking up a mountain. Most mountains have switchbacks to make the climb easier. So on a tough hill, cut across the road to reduce the steepness of the climb. Also, practice coming out of the “S” turn at a sharp angle and you’ll pick up a little speed to see you through the next turn (kind of like pumping your skateboard on the flats to maintain speed).

Al Gore is Right

I was never a big Al Gore fan, but he’s onto something – global warming.

What does a single-speeder like me know about global warming? The answer is lots. I won’t bore you with the details, but I spent ~ 3 years drilling and analyzing ice cores from Greenland and the South Pole (http://www.ccrc.sr.unh.edu/). And the fact is, Earth is heading down a rough road. Throw in the future lack of oil into the mix, and we have a world of trouble ahead of us.

I’ll probably be dead by the time the world implodes, but future generations will have a lot to deal with.

The ice core data show that man is impacting the atmosphere and the planet is slowly warming – no debate there. As that continues to happen, all sorts of shit will hit the fan - Mad Max part II. Water will become more valuable than oil.

What will affect the Earth the most, in my opinion? Well, as the temperature begins to increase, huge amounts of fresh water (from the melting polar ice caps) will be dumped into the world’s oceans. In very simple terms, the oceans affect the global climate. So, you start messing around with the oceans; you’ll change the global climate for sure.

Look at the company Patagonia; they are slowly shifting from an alpine company to a surf company – less ice, more surf (http://www.thecleanestline.com/).

Can “one gear conquers all” save the world? Sure it can. By living simply, you can do a lot to slow down global warming. We are all consumers. The question is how can we each reduce our own footprint?

For me, it’s simple. I live in a modest house, keep my thermostat at 60°F & use no AC in the summer. Yes, I drive a car, but I bike to work about 7 months out of the year. I do other things like try to buy locally, use an old-fashion push lawn mower when possible, etc., but the most important thing that I do is THINK before I buy. It takes lots of energy to make & ship stuff, be it sneakers or CDs. So before I buy something, I say, “do I really need it?”

“Wear it out, make it last, make do or do without it” – An old New England saying.

Does one suffer from the lack of crap? No. By reducing the crap in your life, you become more focused on the things that really matter to you. Reduction is clarity. Think about a fixed gear bike. All the unnecessary parts are stripped away and you just focus on one thing – pedaling. How great is that?

Do your part to prove Al Gore wrong.

Reflections on a Fine Adventure

About this time last year, I along with two buddies rode our bikes from the Bay Area down to San Diego, CA. Two of us (Casey Shimizu & Roman Holiday) rode our single speed bikes. A few weeks later, I wrote a short story called “Never Pass Up a Clean Bathroom”, which was posted on October 31, 2006. That short piece of literature was a first hand narrative of our travels over five days.

Looking back on that trip after a year has passed me by; I have realized that our bike trip was much more than just pedaling our way down the coast.

Way back in 1984, when I was just 21 years old and obsessed with rock climbing (and pissed off with my ex-girl friend), I stuffed $300 (all of my savings) into my wallet and headed West on a Greyhound bus (sounds like a country song). About 4 days later, I was sleeping on pine needles in Yosemite Valley. I had a photocopy of a map from an old National Geographic magazine & enough oatmeal to last me the summer. I was set for life.

I spent the summer living on about $3 a day (it was easy to skip out on campground fees back in those days when you were a backpacker). Living so simply allowed me to climb, hike and enjoy the mountains everyday – no distractions. That trip drove home my love for the mountains that has been with me my whole life. Yosemite Valley is firmly implanted in my brain forever.

OK, back to present.

Our 2006 “One Gear One Coast” bike trip is also firmly implanted in my brain cells for similar reasons. Casey Shimizu and I decided to stripped away all of the bullshit and just focus on the ride – no distractions.

So, we packed lightly and rode simply.

This allowed us to solely focus on the movement of the bike through some incredible scenery.

Most of those five days of traveling down the coast are really just a blur in my mind, but certain sections of the trip still remain very clear in my memory. Times when work is rough, I often think about us three hammering our way towards San Diego as I also think about my many “sleeping under the stars” nights during my summer in Yosemite.

At the end of the day, only four things really matter in life - family, friends, health and memories. So get on that bike and go. Keep your trips simple. Memories of fine adventures will last you a lifetime.

For Casey Shimizu’s description of his single speed adventure, please read “The Original Ride” - http://straightchain.com/information.php?info_id=5&osCsid=1ed203f12633be1452b2fa9bf80bca96