I was feeling pretty jazzed about my first official century ride. I pulled up to about 100 yards shy of the starting line on the Laguna Seca raceway about 15 minutes before the soft-start. It took about +4 minutes for them to announce the start and we started rolling at 07:04. Around the first turn, I pulled up towards the front but stayed back to see how the other riders were going to behave.

A group of three broke away in the front and I decided to pull up and join them. As we left the track and started down the hill at Barloy Canyon Rd, the pace quickened. There was a Webcor guy and two other unattached riders. As we pulled up to the first hill, I maintained a hard pace and ended up in front. As we passed through Gate 1, I kept the pace up with my heart rate hitting 181 coming off the first small climb.

After Gate 2, I couldn’t maintain the pace to stay in front so I eventually dropped to fourth and settled in to a 21 mph pace and was feeling really good at that point. About 20 miles into it, I was still in fourth and started riding alongside another guy wearing a USA Cycling coaches jersey. Just after I turned onto G17/River road, I had a flat (boooo) on my back wheel. I watched a bunch of people go by. It took me 8 minutes to change the tube and get to the first rest stop (RS1/+575 ft/24.2 miles/1:21:53/hravg 155/spd 19.6).

I waited in line for the restroom (had to go since I left the raceway unfortunately) and cleared out the CO2 in my back wheel to replace it with air. Got underway in 13 minutes and off to Rest stop 2. I rode with a pack of 4 including Murat from Zack’s team, Squadra. The pace was good and the terrain was mostly flat. Arrived at rest stop 2 43.0 miles in without any problems. (RS2/+485 ft/43.0 miles/2:39:43/hravg 137/spd 17.3).

I stayed at RS2 for about 17:30 minutes and the sun was starting to come out. I was still pretty cold starting out. I didn’t remove any of my arm or knee warmers or my gloves the whole ride. I left RS2 alone and pretty much stayed by myself the whole way to RS3. The ride between RS2 and RS3 was the toughest in terms of climbing. RS3 sits atop the summit of Cahoon Peak at +66.6 miles in. I passed a lot of folks along the way including the USA Cycling coach guy from earlier in the day. I settled into a really good pace up the peak and by the time the sun was blazing down. I pulled down my arm warmers and was consuming fluids at a really good rate. I was happy I had refilled my bottles at RS2.
Overall I was pleased with my climbing performance. Up to RS3, I climbed 2505 feet from RS2! I arrived at RS3 without any problems and decided to do a quick refill of the bottles and split. No dilly-dallying. I was jazzed and feeling really good about finishing the rest of the ride (RS3/+2505 ft/66.6 miles/4:42:40/hravg 146/spd 13.1).

I only stayed at RS3 for 6 minutes and wanted to start on the downhill which was in a really wooded section compared to the climbing side of Cahoon before my body got too cold. I blazed on down the switchbacks which was CRAZY fun. I was rounding the corners in excess of 25mph on avg up to 44mph. There was little to no traffic and I passed two guys on the way down. At the base of Cahoon, it was pretty much a short flat ride to RS4 which marked the last big climb back to Laguna Seca. I arrived at RS4 without any incidents. (RS4/+325 ft/85.7miles/5:46:41/hravg 135/spd 20.6).

It was high time to pay a visit to the bathroom at RS4 and shed myself of any and all weight I could (cough) before the last climb. It was just starting to lightly rain and decided to make haste and get out of there as quickly as I could. I departed RS4 in 8 minutes without eating anything.

Now the guy at RS3 had described the final climb. And it was pretty big, but fortunately not as big as he had made it sound. About a mile after leaving RS4, I started the climb up Laurels Grade. It’s about a 4 mile climb at 10% grade according to the road signs (the guy at RS3 said 5 miles at 11% and I’m happy he was wrong). It was definitely a tough climb. I passed a pair of riders as I started the climb and another two riders before I reached the summit.

The whole climb up and all the way back to the race track, it was raining. It was still light rain and I kept my glasses on so that I could see well enough down the backside. Even though it was wet, it was pretty much straight down, so I eased off the brakes and hit 45.1 mph on the way down in the rain (crazy I know, but there was little to no traffic). I made it back to the entrance at 92.8 miles in and just about fell over when I saw the climb up over the hill to get back to the racetrack. Mister RS3 didn’t say anything about that.

I was pretty annoyed at this point since I was mentally unprepared, but I settled in for a very slow pull up an even steeper grade (11.5%) over 1 mile. I got to the top and the finish line was just around the corner at 94.4 miles. I finished the last leg and the race at +6:44:45. (Finish/+1430ft/94.4 miles/6:44:45/hravg 114/spd 10.7). I finished 19th place out of an estimated 90 century riders. Damn good for my first official century!

Overall I was pleased with my performance and look forward to improvement!!!

Special thanks to Damien for coming with me to the Sea Otter Classic and really being there to help me out emotionally. Thanks for all the picture taking (except for the ones where I look hella beat up and I’m trying to change into dry clothes, you bastard!) Thanks to Mike and Teri Sober for dinner the night before (mmmmm pizza for carb-loading). Thanks to Zack, Omar and Oralia for all the support and encouragement.

My longest ride was last Wednesday Mar 29th totalling 90 miles over 5 hours of non-stop riding (except for two 5 min stretch/water stops). I did this one solo after finding out my friend Jeremy had been killed. Boy… emotion is a terrific motivator. I weighed in at 194.4 lbs after this ride, which is down approximately 20 lbs since February 8th when the heavy dieting and training began. Where did Erik go!?!?

I would like to increase my average weekly mileage to 130mi/wk as a minimum, 150mi/wk as a goal for the month of April. Keep your fingers crossed.

One thing I’ve noticed is that my most significant performance improvements have occured after really long rides. I’m feeling stronger and getting faster. I’ve also increased my daily food intake although I’m continuing to follow the “approved” listed of food items from the original diet plan. One of the key factors has been elliminating excess sodium and all caffeine in my diet. I’ve also managed to cut back even further on the amount of alcohol I consume on a weekly basis. All of these factors have enabled me to make such amazing improvements in such a short time.

One anecdotal story I have to share occured last Saturday. I was on a 45 mile ride and around mile 37 a rider from Team Velosport passed me on Laguna Canyon Road. I didn’t change my pace immediately but he was about a bike length in front of me when I realized that he must have purposefully passed me up because his pace was about onpar with mine. So I decided to pull up and hang on his wheel for awhile. He looked back and I guess decided he didn’t like this casually dressed “weekend rider” on his wheel so he tried to drop me. I noticed this right away and was able to hang on with a bit of effort. He settled back in again and then checked back only to see me on his wheel still. So he tried again to drop me and this time he kept the pace up much longer. I wasn’t having any of that, so I kept up with him until he finally eased back a little.

I ended up staying glued to his wheel until he turned off at Cliff St while I continued on to head southbound on PCH. He looked at me as I passed by and I gave him a wave and smiled to myself thinking that I was able to hang on this guys wheel for 3-4 miles after a riding hard for 35 miles. Perhaps I’ll be ready to race before the season’s up afterall!!

Stay tuned for your next ride report…

Days to AIDS Lifecycle ride (530 miles-7 days): 61 days
Days to Gay Games IV: 97 days

My bestest friend, mentor and partner-in-debauchery, Zack, is one of the most remarkable athletes I’ve ever been close to. Watching him develop his cycling ability over the past 3 years, switch from triathlons to 100% bike racing has been an interesting metamorphosis to observe (albeit from the safe and comfortable, well-heated bleachers as I eat my proverbial snack-bar food and cheer him on, downing my beer and wiping my sloppy mouth with my other food-stained hand) (imagery great, huh?).

Sometime in July of last year I decided to give this cycling thing a try. So I went out and bought myself a really awesome road bike (Felt F60 for those who give a rats ass). Well then I got caught up in more travel for work (damn hurricanes) and then started this business (damn Laguna Beach-side office).. and well… I really never got serious about riding. I’d put in a few weeks at a time at a good pace and a good length and Zack even seemed surprised at my ability (probably given how grossly out of shape I was.. at least in my mind’s eye). But I just never “clicked”. Sure I wanted to be the next Zack on the bike.. but that’s just not who I am.. or.. maybe…. ?

So back to February 8^th (I just figured you needed the background story)…So on February 8^th I went on Ann Louise Gittleman’s Fat Flush Plan. Now for those of you who know me, you might be thinking “You’re not fat..” and those of you who don’t know me that well might be thinking, “Holy shit, how old ARE those pictures? Jesus Shamu… “ Well… I wasn’t fat, but I was surely not in competitive shape… So here we go…

Now for those of you who don’t know the Fat Flush plan… It starts off the first two weeks (It’s a staged diet) eating under 1800 calories (I think the book actually calls for less, but at 6’3″, I burn a lot just from gravity pulling my head towards the Earth’s core..).. anyway. So 1800 calories, NO sodium, NO caffeine, NO alcohol, high-protein, low-carb, low-fat, low-cal. Sounds boring? Umm yeah.. you have no idea. But thankfully I know how to cook and believe it or not (I can prove it to you sometime), I made this stuff taste good.

Ok… So meanwhile, back at the Bike Barn… I combined this new fangled diet with a rapid increase in cycling. I decided that 5x a week was where I wanted to be to reach the goals I wanted. “What goals? You’re a slob who likes to sit on the sidelines popping piroshkis (that’s a Russian beef pastry in case you don’t know) in my mouth cheering on Zack and other athletes”.. Yeah well.. I’m not going to get into the whole psychology of what I want and why because you’re probably already sick of reading this damn blog… Anyway…

Back to our regularly scheduled program.. So ok.. I’m eating efficiently, sleeping a bunch, cycling like no one’s business. So sometime in February I set a goal (put my money where my mouth is, more like it.. ) and signed up for a 100K (64 miles for you standard unit weenies) bike ride through Temascal Canyon (around Corona, Anaheim, etc) with the Orange County Wheelmen (their spring metric century). So that was last Saturday.

So 18 lbs and 6% less body fat later and my ass is in the saddle on this 100K adventure of mine. I learned things about my body (jesus I sound like a 13 year old boy touching himself for the first time.. ) that I never ever knew. I don’t think I can articulate it well enough, but let’s just say that never before in 31 years of life have I ever spent 4 hours working out non-stop (I ended up going 110K after I took a wrong turn.. oops). I felt amazing, accomplished and proud of everything I have committed myself to up to this point. Since that life changing decision back in early February, I’ve been averaging 100-150 miles a week 4-5x a week and I’ve continued to follow a modified version of that original diet (modified because I’d be dead if I exercised this much without eating more).

So what’s next for new and improved Erik? I am riding in the AIDS lifecycle (www.aidslifecycle.org/1457) in June… 550+ miles from San Francisco to LA over 7 days. I plan to do several century (100miles) rides over the coming months and would like to start racing sometime soon when I (and Coach Zack) think I’m ready.

Who do I have to thank? First and foremost, my coach, my mentor, and my best friend Zack for changing my life. I don’t know what the future will hold for me in terms of cycling, but the door has been opened and I’m learning so much more about my mind and body. This is a new adventure, a new place to explore and I don’t have to get on a plane or hop in a car to do it (just hop on my bike.. hehehe) Second, I’d like to thank myself for finding the strength, dedication and sacrifice to making this change.