Hydration Packs + Training + Buy my bikes!

I have a mix of things to word-vomit today, mainly to get my own head on straight.

Hydration Pack

When I very first started riding, it was on my 2007 Trek 4300 Disc, and mainly for a way to keep moving after I hurt my knee from ramping up my running too quick (8 miles every other day after only 4 months of running...dumb). At the time it only made sense to use my Camelbak that I had used to climb Mt. Evans the first time - I don't think I had even purchased a bottle cage for the bike. The Camelbak usage was further reinforced as I got into mountain biking with my climbing buddy Brett who also used a Camelbak. 

Me holding my original Camelbak in 2006

As time went on and I got more and more into road biking with bottle cages, my Camelbak usage slowly went to 0. I truly think this was mainly because hydration packs were considered somewhat of a "Fred" thing to do. 

Well late last year I was considering doing the long course for Odin's Revenge which is roughly 180 miles of gravel with no support. At the same time I was getting to know and ride more with my new buddy Rob Evans who almost always rides with a pack (sometimes with hydration and others not). This intrigued me, and he happened to have an older Osprey Talon 10 he no longer used, so I bought it off him (at a homey hook-up price) to give it a go. 

I ended up using that Osprey pack more than I would ever had thought, even when the ride length would have absolutely been just fine with a single bottle. 

The Osprey Talon 10 in use at Jackrabbit this year. Photo Credit: Rob Evans

Being able to carry 3 liters of water on your back, and then another 40 oz on the bike, has been extremely empowering for the length of rides away from civilization that I am comfortable with.

It's funny all this year I still hesitated to use a hydration pack for the Marathon MTB racing in the Psycowpath series as it still felt "fredish" to me. I would rather look "pro" (ha...what pro is this fat?) and have to stop every lap for a new bottle, then possibly fit in another lap as I don't have to stop. Sometimes my vanity surprises even me.

So anyhow the bite valve on my Osprey Talon pack got a hole in it, so I bought a new bite valve and insulated hose (for Frozen 40 and CIRREM) and went to fix it. Turns out my pack was old enough to have a different hose size than Osprey uses nowadays, so both the replacement bite valve and insulated hose would not work. *facepalm*. 

Instead of trying to make it work (well...I did try...with a drill...it didn't work), I took this as my opportunity to get a slightly larger pack for the longer gravel rides. I didn't want anything huge, but being able to stow extra food/clothing if needed was something I desired. So while I was down in Lincoln for the bi-weekly SMNDFBR, I picked up an Osprey Viper 13 in red from the good folks at Cycle Works. 

My new Osprey Viper 13 on it's maiden voyage. Photo Credit: Rob Evans

I'm not sure if the new hose size/standard at Osprey was a cost savings thing for them, but I swear it just works better. I am in love with this pack! So in love that I am now thinking about finding a smaller pack with similar water capacity for marathon MTB racing... maybe something like the Osprey Syncro 3. 

Funny how things come full circle like that huh? Granted, I'm still not going to ride with one on the road bike...#aeroiseverything. 

Training

So I started my 2016 season training this last Monday 11/09/2015. Lots of folks feel like this is a little premature, however I have some races in February (Frozen 40, and CIRREM) that I really want to be in good form for.

I have used Graeme Street's Cycle-CORE training off and on for 3 years now. Before I bought his training, I was listening to his Podcast the Everyday Cyclist. What really drew me to Graeme's training in particular was just how introspective and honest he is on that Podcast. When he is having a great year/time you can tell, and when he is having a shitty year he talks candidly about this. Simply put Graeme seemed like a real human being to me, and that's what pushed me to spend the money to try his training. 

When I initially bought his training it was the DVD set for Cyclo90-BASE. I would put the DVD on the big screen and try and follow along on my trainer with only a heart rate monitor and guesses to gauge my effort. I only did a few weeks of the 12 week program before I lost the discipline and stopped completely. Even though I only did a few weeks the performance bump was immediately noticeable, especially when climbing seated...I could feel my core providing that stable platform to help me over the climb.

The next time I started the training (01/05/2015) I vowed to do much more of the program. I knew I would need a better way to gauge my effort, and also keep me engaged period, so I looked into a power meter. As I was dejectedly thinking about how I couldn't afford a power meter, and probably pooping, I heard Graeme talk about TrainerRoad in one of his podcasts. 

Here you can see my setup for training

Intrigued I did my own research and found I could use TrainerRoads virtual power with my trainer for around $100 with my current setup. The cool thing about TrainerRoad mixed with Cycle-CORE is that based on your FTP you get a power profile to follow based on the trainer session you are doing. So now not only do I know my power output (who knows how accurate, but it is consistent so who gives a crap), I know where I need to be at that time in the session.

WOW, now I can feel how hard the training should be. Now I was consistently failing the training sessions like I thought I should be. Now I was way more engaged as I had real-time data in front of me. Pretty cool shit right there. 

Here you can see TrainerRoad mixed with Cycle-CORE at work

Well I made it through about 8 weeks of the training before I allowed life to get in the way and stopped. With only 8 weeks I was freaking flying folks. It has been sometime since I have been that confident on the bike - holy hell was that cool. In the Tour de Husker CAT 4 road race I was able to put in a large attack early on (eventually brought back), and then still manage to get third place. If I would have raced smarter I could have been sprinting for the win. I felt that good.

On my way to third place at the 2015 Tour de Husker. Photo Credit: Rod Adams

Well as per my MO I let my training go to hell after that and subsequently my performance did as well. Life is about continuous improvement to me, so the fact that I had doubled my training investment over the previous year was an accomplishment.

Well this year my goal is to make it all the way through all 12 weeks of the training. This just so happens to line up perfectly with my first race in February. My biggest challenges will be the IAAPA tradeshow next week, and the first recovery week in December. Coming back to the training after a week off is really hard for me, so I will need you all to keep me honest. So far I am on schedule this week, and really happy to be training again.

Buy my bikes!

Still for sale....

Cross Bike

Mountain Bike