Heather & Uhl Albert

Bogus Basin Hill Climb 2009

Uhl in Eagle, ID – Today was the annual Boise “world” championships, otherwise known as the Bogus Basin Hill Climb. After last week’s tough 1,000 Warriors race I figured Bogus would feel like a walk in the park. Well it wasn’t…it was as hard as ever, but in a good, make-your-legs-hurt, kind of way!

I ended up ignoring the SRM on my handlebars and pushing it to stay with the front group over Corrals. With a 7.5 minute wattage of 350 I was way over threshold. But having the group on the downhill probably saved me a good amount of time. I did slip off the back on the cattle guard hill then just rode a steady pace for the rest of the climb.

I didn’t have as much punch on the second half and was caught by Thomas L.. We worked together as we picked off a few other riders. He pulled a good part of the time. We caught another rider in the trees so we had three people when it flattened out. I think we all just wanted to finish with a good time so we continued to rotate. I ended up at the front with less than 1K to go so I pushed it pretty hard and no one came around me by the line…but the best part was we all broke an hour! My official time was 59:44.379 which was good for 14th place. Average power was 313 watts and normalized power of 319 watts.

For some reason I thought that was my first time breaking an hour, but after reviewing all the past year’s results, I actually did it in 58:44 in 2004. So now I have a new goal for next year: Break 58 minutes!

Results on Spondoro:
http://www.spondoro.com/results/HillClimb/2009/results.pdf

Hardest Race Ever Recorded

Uhl in Eagle, ID – Heather and I did the 1,000 Warriors race this past weekend and it was tougher than I thought it would be. I actually have proof that it was the hardest race I’ve ever recorded at a whopping 382 TSS! By the time I met up with Heather and we rode down to our pick-up location in Sandy, the total was 421 TSS.

I may have gone over those numbers last year in the 170-mile Tour de Park City or a few years ago at the 203-mile Lotoja race, but since my PowerTap wheel is heavy and un-aerodynamic, I wouldn’t use it for “A” priority races. But this summer I got a deal on a Cannondale SuperSix and a wired Cannondale Hollowgram SI SRM and built up a new race bike, so I no longer have to decide between light wheels or having a power meter! I also broke my high-speed record on the north side of Suncrest with a speed of 63.5 MPH! That road is just made for going fast as I set my previous record of 62.3 MPH on it years ago when we lived in Utah.

I thought doing a double Bogus-to-Pioneer would be enough to prepare me for this race, but ending a 96-mile race up a 7-mile climb that averages 8% grade and gets near 10% in sections while it’s 100° out, was painful! Rather than give a detailed blow-by-blow, I’ll just say that I made it to the Sundance climb with the group and climbed it well, but then faded quickly on the last two climbs: Suncrest and Snowbird.

Another Record Breaking EHB

Uhl in Eagle, ID – I guess I’m proving that the training principle of specificity really works. For as much as I do the Emmett–Horseshoe Bend loop, it may not be surprising that I broke my personal record…yet again! This time by a significant margin: I did it in 2:46:15 with a normalized power of 261 watts!

I think my form is finally coming around after a two-month plateau during the summer. While I had a good climb on Saturday’s Sweet EHB loop, when I did Bogus on Monday I didn’t have nearly as much power and was slightly disappointed. I probably needed more recovery before Monday's ride, but I wanted to make Monday and Wednesday my “hard” days so I’d have two days before Saturday’s 1,000 Warriors race.

I still would like to break 2:45 which now I know is realistic. I have a feeling after I taper for Bogus in a couple weeks, my legs will be much fresher, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. For now it’s time to rest up and get ready for the suffer-fest early Saturday morning…Cat 1–3 men start at 6:05 AM!

Sweet EHB

Uhl in Eagle, ID – I was planning to do Warm Lake Road ride today, but with the forecast for Cascade looking really cold with a chance of AM showers, I changed plans and did an Emmett–Horseshoe Bend loop instead.

I rode with Mark and Michael and we had a good time with all the wind! Going up Highway 16 was the worst part, with a strong head/crosswind. In Emmett, we made a new turn off Substation Road as Michael showed us his property there. With less traffic than the other two roads that take you to Plaza (and eventually the bridge) I think I’ll make this new turn part of my standard operating procedure.

We were treated to a nice tailwind for most the canyon and then made a stop in Horseshoe Bend. I decided to do the hill steady-state and managed one of my fastest times with the help of the tailwind. Power was about 10 watts off of my best time, which I acheived back in 2003 when I was in my best climbing shape. I had fun on the downhill and then cruised back into Eagle. The weather was perfect and it was a great ride.

Double Bogus to Pioneer

Uhl in Eagle, ID – To get ready for the 1,000 Warriors race in Utah in a couple weeks I did my second double Bogus ever. The first time I did it was with Heather in late May of this year when we needed some climbing miles. Today I managed to beat our time by 15 minutes and post a decent norm power for the 6-hour affair.

Here’s the the GPS data (no power) on Garmin Connect: 
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/10830023

While the Garmin reports elevation gain of 11,527 feet, that’s a little optimistic. My calculations based on just the peaks and valleys of the “real” climbs comes out to 10,000 feet of climbing in 103 miles. This compares to 7,500 feet of climbing for the 96-mile 1,000 Warriors race.

Record EHB

Uhl in Eagle, ID – Did my favorite local ride today, an Emmett–Horseshoe Bend loop. The forecast called for a strong northwest wind so I had a feeling I’d be able to use it to try to break my past record of 2:56:39 set back in 2006. As an aside, I did it in 2:53 once but that was on my TT bike, but that would be comparing apples with oranges so I don’t count it. So today I went hard the whole time and managed a time of 2:52:57 with a normalized power of 247 watts! Nice!

Warm Lake Road

Uhl in Eagle, ID – Heather and I just re-discovered Warm Lake Road last weekend when we went camping with some of her work colleagues. We brought our bikes but only rode up both climbs on either side of Warm Lake. Since Heather had some business to do up yesterday, we decided to come up, stay the night and then do a longer version of that ride. The road has been recently paved and is super-smooth with no chipseal…imagine that!

We stayed at nice little motel started out early this morning. While it was over 100° in the valley, it was only 52° when we started and just barely crossed 70° when we finished at noon. We mostly rode tempo, except for doing LT intervals up the two major climbs: Warm Lake Summit (elevation 7,291 ft), and Big Creek Summit (6,564 feet). We were cold for the first two hours of the ride and didn’t really go hard until we hit the Warm Lake Summit climb. Then we rode to the end of pavement (EOP) then turned around. On the way back we stopped at the Warm Lake Lodge to refill our bottles, then headed to Big Creek Summit where I did another interval.

Once it warmed up I felt much better and pushed it hard all the way until we were back in Cascade. It was a great workout! BTW, camera is starting to go on the fritz…if you noticed the horizontal artifacts on the EOP pic.

Here’s the the GPS data on Garmin Connect:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/10403980

For Sale: Yeti AS-X

Update: Yeti has been sold!

Uhl in Eagle, ID – I purchased this Yeti AS-X a few years ago but with my emphasis on road racing these last couple years I hardly ride it anymore. This is one great freeride bike. It’s perfect for lift-served mountain biking or just to use as a heavy duty all-mountain bike. It climbs well for such a beast of a bike…I’ve taken it up Hard Guy many times. Size is medium and I upgraded a few things from the stock build. Details and more pictures can be found on my For Sale ad on PinkBike.

Finally a Good One

Uhl in Eagle, ID – After a week of mediocre rides, I finally had a solid workout today. I headed west to ride part of this Sunday’s Idaho State Championship road race. I headed west on Chaparral and did six 30-second sprints with 90 seconds rest. They were tough, but I pushed through it and managed to produce consistent power across the set. Then I rode medium- to high-tempo as I rode the El Paso loop, jamming it up the hills and doing LT on the flats. I went back to tempo-mode as I returned back to Eagle through Hillsdale. With an intensity factor of .86 for a 3:20 minute ride, it was one tough workout!

Descending VO2s

Uhl in Eagle, ID – I did my first “real” workout since last weekend’s hard rides. Since I was on the rollers, I decided to do VO2s today. They’re good for indoors since there’s no traffic or intersections to contend with and can turn on the tunes.

Instead of doing a straight set of 4x5s or 5x4s, I decided to do descending VO2s; from 5 minutes down to 30 seconds with a 1:1 work-to-rest ratio. They went okay, but my legs felt a little blocked as I had not gone hard all week.

Garden Expansion

Uhl in Eagle, ID – I didn’t get to write about it this past weekend because I was too busy riding, but last week we made some improvements to our garden. Since the garden that came with our house was is in the corner, next to a six-foot fence, the area didn’t receive full sun. This meant that most of the tomato plants wouldn’t produce until really late in the season. And since we have no use for so much lawn, we decided to put a couple raised beds right on top a grassy area where the grass wasn’t growing very well, anyway.

My friend Dan helped out with building the frames—without a truck nor any wood tools, it would have been difficult to do myself. Then Heather and I stained them and filled them with the rich compost dirt we’ve been cultivating since we moved here. Any organic matter we discard in the kitchen goes into the compost bin and eventually churned into the garden. We didn’t have enough to completely fill both 5’ x 10’ beds, but it’s plenty for for the tomato, squash and watermelon plants we planted.

Tired EHB

Uhl in Eagle, ID – Well, I should have known better but I did an Emmett–Horseshoe Bend loop, even though yesterday’s ride was pretty tough. My legs weren’t too bad over the first hour, but by the time I was in Black Canyon, it was getting pretty hot and I could feel myself fading.

I wasn’t trying to make hard, I mainly just rode low tempo, but I always like giving it a go on the hill. But today I had nothing by then and just rode tempo. With a nice headwind, it wasn’t much fun. I did enjoy the downhill as usual and just paced myself back home. With another three hours of saddle time it gives me a solid 16 hour week. With my CTL at 102TSS/day, it’s time to let it drop a little bit over the next couple weeks leading up to Elkhorn.

Double Bogus

Uhl in Eagle, ID – To get Heather ready for Mt Hood, and me for Elkhorn Classic, we rode early today to get in some serious climbing miles. We did a slight modification of our new favorite climbing ride: Riding up and over Seaman’s Gulch to Hidden Springs, then Cartwright to Bogus Basin Road, up to the Pioneer Condominiums, and turn around and return the same way. But today when we rode it, we rode the Bogus to Pioneer climb…twice!

Since we knew it would be an epic day, we took it easy on the Cartwright climbs and just rode low tempo up Bogus the first time. Even so, it was still hard and when we got to the top I double-checked with Heather if she still wanted to do another one, and she confirmed she did. The second time up we pushed the pace and ended up splitting up a little ways up the hill. There were quite a few riders out and we saw a few of the competitors in the Camels Back Duathlon.

I pushed the Pioneer section of the climb as best I could and then refilled my bottles…again. Heather wasn’t too far behind and after she refilled, we headed down for the last time. It was nice and cool at the top and we really didn’t want to descend down into the heat in the valley below. The hill on Cartwright by the motorcycle park was even more painful than when we do Bogus only once, but somehow we managed to get over it in our 25s. Seaman’s wasn’t as bad, but we had a headwind the rest of the ride back to Eagle.

In the end it was a 104 miles with approximately 13,000 feet of climbing. I say approximately because Bikely, MapMyRide and my Garmin all report different elevation gains. Don’t know which one is “right” but all I know is that it’s a lot of climbing and we were both cooked by the time we got home!

Memorial Day Bogus

Uhl in Eagle, ID – Even though we just completed a two-day, three-stage race, Heather and I headed out to do Cartwright, Bogus to Pioneer, Cartwright. Yes, we love to suffer! But the weather was just perfect and we both beat our times (and wattage) from the last time we rode Bogus.

We did sleep in a little bit and didn’t head out until 8 AM. It was a bit cool heading out on Hill, but perfect by the time we climbed Seaman’s Gulch. My legs were hating the first few pedal strokes up that hill but it got better as we went along.

We really enjoy the nice, new pavement on Cartwright Road. What a difference nice asphalt and bike lanes make! The “wall” is definitely a lot less steep than it used to be, but it still hurt in my 39x25! On the motorcycle hill I “only” hit 51.7 MPH this time; the wind wasn’t conducive to a high-speed run today.

We both treated Bogus as one, long interval. Heather stayed with me for a while, then dropped off on the switchbacks. I felt pretty good and very comfortable on the bike but my legs started to fade as I approached the trees. I eased up through the flat section, then kicked it up again through the parking lot and the last section to the Pioneer condos. I just barely finished all my fluid by then, so I went straight to the spigot and refilled my bottles.

Top Five

Uhl in Eagle, ID – This afternoon was the last stage of the Treasure Valley Stage Race, the Nampa downtown criterium. Heather went off before me and it was an interesting race to watch with only six women. Heather was on the front a lot, but that was the plan. Heather really wanted to get a workout in as the Mt Hood Cycling Classic is only a week and a half away! Heather and her teammate had a plan for the finish, but it didn’t unfold as they wanted so neither of them won today’s stage. But Heather still won overall, in addition to racking up a bunch of cash primes.

My race also had a small field; only 11 starters today. That was fine as this was a pretty technical course; lots of turns and bumpy pavement all around. We started out steady with Team Bob’s Bicycles setting tempo. From time to time, there’d be a surge in the pace, but then it would settle down again. The first few of them, my legs were really feeling yesterday’s road race.

It got better after the first 20 minutes, so then I decided to attack. Well, “attack” may be too strong of a word. I just rolled off the front as the pack slowed on the back stretch. Since I was so far down on GC, no one chased so I quickly got a good-sized gap. I put it in TT-mode and just rode the corners as smoothly as possible. Riding solo and picking your own lines, you can pedal through every corner.

Treasure Valley through Stage 2

Uhl in Eagle, ID – The road race was long and hot by the end, but I finished! We got to the start area early and being in farm country, we got to watch a crop duster to its thing. We started with eight miles of neutral which just delayed the pain to come. But with a small field, everyone was content with keeping things together until the hill(s). It’s really a double hill, just like Chicken Dinner; a more gradual one on Deer Flat, then Perch is the steep one. Even before we rode up Perch, everyone agreed to have a pee-stop. Since I didn’t have to go, and I knew how bad Perch would be with 5 lbs of water on my back (no feed support) that I just rolled through and got a head start on the hill. Well, I wasn’t even but 1/3rd the way up, when the climber-types just sped by me! I managed to stay with the group, but so much for taking the hill “easy” the first time. Next time I’ll “roll through” faster so I have a bigger gap!

Then things basically stayed together and on the headwind section along the Snake River the whole group just pacelined. Then the second time up the hills I was dropped early on Deer Flat. I just paced myself over both and could see that I wasn’t too far off by the time I crested by the landfill. I time trialed for the next five miles and managed to catch them before the steep downhill by the river! That was my big accomplishment for the race. I knew if I didn’t catch by then, I would never because the pack will always be faster than a solo rider with a strong headwind like that. So I integrated back into the front group which was down to about 10 riders at that point.

1,000 Warriors Registration Ends Friday!

Uhl in Eagle, ID – Race the hardest stage of the Tour of Utah, hours before the Pros take to the course. It's about 100 miles with over 10,000 feet of climbing. If anyone breaks the pro's times, they get $1000! But don't do it for the money, this route takes you over the best climbs in Utah. I know, I've done all three...just not in a row! Should be epic!

• 1,000 Warriors web site
• Race flyer (PDF)

YouTube Video of the Course

First Full Bogus

Uhl in Eagle, ID – Did my first full Bogus climb today and it was tough. Heather and I were debating about doing a “Big Loop” but opted out after yesterday’s harder than planed workout along with lots of house work. We thought a shorter, but lots of climbing, ride would be better.

We rode in on Cartwright and rode Bogus Basin Road all the way to Pioneer then came back on Cartwright as well. We were really pleased with the work they did on Cartwright as now most of it is nice smooth asphalt with a decent shoulder. I also forgot how steep the hill before the Owyhee motorcycle park was as I hit 55 MPH on the descent!

Then on Bogus we rode tempo to the bottom of the switchbacks, then I started an interval to the Pioneer condominiums. The first half was okay, but by the time I reached the trees my legs started to fade. I only averaged 272 watts for the 85-minute interval, with a normalized power of 279 watts. Yesterday’s ride took more out of me than I thought. I waited a short time for Heather then we had fun on the descent. On the way home on Cartwright, when we hit the first big uphill by the motorcycle park, we were both really glad we didn’t do a Big Loop. In the end it was solid 70-mile ride with 9,000 feet of climbing.

Indoors Outdoors

Uhl in Eagle, ID – I did a half hour on the rollers so I could get some intensity before heading out with Heather, Dan and Kurt for a nice 3+ hour outdoor ride. Did a short set of 4x3-minute VO2s on the rollers then headed outside and rode mostly tempo. We rode west out through Middleton, then north on Old Hwy 30 then returned on Oasis, Hollow and Galloway. The weather was nice and cool for most of the ride and the wind wasn’t too bad. Solid ride.

4x4 VO2s

Uhl in Eagle, ID – After hardly riding the last couple days I ended up doing a nice set of VO2s today. I only did four 4-minute intervals as that’s all I had in my legs. The ride was just over an hour but I didn’t want to do any more than that anyway since I’m still TSB negative. The weather looks good for this weekend so I plan to rack up some serious TSS before tapering for the Treasure Valley Stage Race next weekend.