I'm at the airport now with time to kill so I decided I should put up a couple of photos from the Mountain Lakes Challenge, courtesy of Anthony King.  Anthony is posing with Mt. McGloughlin in the first photo while Jason leads Anthony and another of my athletes, Robert Miller, up the first climb of the day in the second.  Enjoy!

It's been quiet in this space lately, and I know I have broken the cardinal rule of blogging by not posting anything for two months (sorry Kenji!), but I hope the next couple of weeks makes up for that.  It has been a long road to the TransAlp, but in just two days we are flying to Munich to finally make it happen.  The new bike is ready, and despite a bad cold last week, the body seems ready as well.  I had the great opportunity to ride the Mountain Lakes Challenge in Ashland with a couple of friends last weekend, and that put to rest any doubts I had about my fitness.  With 2000M of climbing as well as cold and heat, it was a good warmup for the Dolomites.  I should also add that it was well-marked, well-run, and that the volunteers at all the food stops were friendly and full of local knowledge.  If you ever get a chance to ride down there, take advantage of it.  In the meantime watch this space for updates from Europe!

Lately here in the Pacific Northwest we have been having what could be diplomatically described as a "reluctant spring." Not only has it been damp and showery, but it has been colder than normal as well. Hopefully, this all leads to a nice, sunny, hot summer. In the meantime, however, we are all packing our rain capes when we head out to ride.

We have all got them - clear plastic rain capes with a velcro "zipper" and some cloth ventilation down the sides. They are cheap, waterproof and keep you warm in a pinch. Of course, they don't breathe, leading one friend to refer to his as his "personal terrarium."

These capes can take up a load of space in your jersey pocket if you don't take the time to fold them properly. People have always asked my brother Roo (who has recently been pursuing a hip hop lifestyle) and I how we get our rain capes to fit so snugly into our jersey pockets. Now you can find out.

Here is what one often sees these days:

Notice how the jacket it falling out of a seemingly overstuffed pocket. That’s a definite sign of not having read this post. Here is what it should look like:

Now, here is how to do it! First, make sure it is cleaned and dried after its last use. Then, lay it out on the floor with the velcro closed and the front-side up, as such:

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Then, fold each arm across the front:

Next, fold the sides over each other inwards towards the center. It should take two folds on each side to make it look like this:

Now, fold one side over the other…

Then fold this in half…

and half again…

And you are done! See:

Now you have a nice, organized and compact package that fits easily into your jersey pocket. All your friends will appreciate your style and when you got to get it out of your pocket mid-ride, it will easily unfold, ready for use!

Some time ago, I wrote a little bit about how I am trying to lighten my bike for the TransAlp this summer. Well, I am still on that quest, but it's also important to remember that there are parts of one's kit besides the bike that can benefit from lightening up. For example, higher end racing helmets, besides being better ventilated, are often as much as 50g lighter than the next model in the lineup.

The same applies to shoes, and perhaps they are even more important since they spend all their time being spun in circles. I realized the other day that I need new shoes, and so I set about finding a good set that fit. My old Specialized shoes have served me well these last years, but something about the varus tilt bugs an old hip injury I have. Before those, I went through about five pairs of Carnac shoes. They were excellent, but weighed a ton. The new ones are supposedly lighter, but I can't seem to find any to try on! So, this led me to my local bike shop, River City Bicycles, where I tried on several shoes, finally settling on a pair of Shimano R300s:

Never ones to give particularly inspiring names to any of their products, they nonetheless have made the lightest shoes I have ever lifted. That, and they fit perfectly right out of the box in addition to being heat-moldable.

Proper shoes are extremely important to a cyclist and good fit should come before light weight 100% of the time. Happily, these are, for me, the best of both worlds. A tuner's delight!

Speaking of tuning delights, Cycling Innovations is offering readers of this blog 10% off when they mention the discount code "adnan." They have a wealth of lightweight bits to enhance the performance (and the look) of your ride.

I absolutely loved this camp. Everyone who attended was fantastic and the group as a whole had a cohesiveness I haven't before seen in a camp. Here we are at the top of Tam:

Now, doesn’t that look like a happy bunch?

Day five was an excellent way to celebrate the end of the week with 150 hilly kilometers in the Marin County countryside. Our route took us through Fairfax and to Marshall-Petaluma Rd, which in turn took us to Hwy 1 and Pt Reyes Station before returning over Alpine Dam.

At one of our rest stops, Bob found a chainsaw in the bushes. He and Jason tried without luck to start it, but Jason insisted it was in pretty good shape and could be done with a little fuel!

We started one hour earlier than usual and finished with gelato in San Anselmo before heading back to the retreat for lunch and some down time. No one was in a hurry to leave and we all enjoyed another evening together just hanging out and reliving the best moments of the past week.

Here are some photos from the last day:

We have already booked the retreat for 2009 from March 24 through 28th. I can't wait!

It was another spectacular day in Marin today, with temperatures nudging towards 60 degrees and the skies clear and sunny. We took a relatively easy day and rode the Alpine Dam loop. The whole thing wasn't easy, though, as Guy figured he could better his best 20 min power from yesterday by actually trying harder today - and it worked! Not only did he improve on yesterday, but he went 20W better than last year and was one of only two people to take an extra distance detour to the top of Tam. Nice!

The ride ended with one of my favorite things, coffee at the Depot cafe:

We have a great group at this camp and everyone is laid back and fun loving. We are in for some serious fun tomorrow with 150kms, temperatures slated to be in the 70s, and gelato in San Anselmo at the finish. Nice!

There isn't much to report on the power meter front as testing with the Quarqs goes on. There are some lingering firmware niggles with the 705s, and the last update actually made things worse. Hopefully we will have that sorted tomorrow for the last, and longest, day of camp.

Don't touch that dial...

Today was a day all the riders feared - the Mt Tam Hillclimb course. At 12 miles and about 650M of elevation gain, it is a brute. Its only saving grace are the stunning views of the Pacific Ocean and Stinson Beach. I led the group out along the flats next to Bolinas Bay before they raced up to the top park gate. Hunter filmed each of the campers for some technique and riding position critique and we all met at the finish before riding slowly to the top of Mt Tam. From there spread before us an amazing panorama of the entire Bay Area from the Golden Gate to Mt Diablo. It was fantastic and a fitting reward for such an effort.

Tony from LifeCycle Adventures, who joined us today, will again join us with a friend tomorrow. It's always nice to have Tony along as he is a great guy who lives right here in Mill Valley and has lots of great cycling adventure stories to tell.

Tonight's sunset was fantastic, and Anthony King was lucky enough to get a shot of it from the retreat grounds:

Today was sprinting/leadouts/race finish scenarios day. It's always a day that is light on paper, but then heavy on the legs, especially if you are like me and can't sprint your way out of a wet paper bag. We rode out Panoramic and down to Stinson Beach before finding a small road to do our work. Everyone seems to get a lot out of Hunter's technique advice and today more than one camper told me how useful they found it. My favorite is always the race finish scenarios where we split up into teams and are each given an assignment. We "race" for about 5km and play out our roles. It is always great fun and an excellent way to learn the tactics of road racing.

The ride home down Hwy 1 was excellent and made even more so by the unexpected chance meeting with my sister Ayesha and my cousin's son Nicolai who is visiting from Danmark. They had gone on a trip to the Redwoods and were heading home when they saw us. It was good for the group to meet them as they will be our sag driver (and camp doctor) on Friday and Saturday!

Here are the bunch on the way home from sprinting fun:

I always love riding in Marin and the main reason is the scenery. Today we climbed in the valley fog, only to descend into brilliant sunshine. Between the sunshine, the eucalyptus trees, and the redwoods, it is an amazing place. Have a look:

Today we also had two Quarq Cinqo units running with Garmin 705s for testing. I don't know the results, but I do know that the files are still huge and that needs to change. I am exhausted, but will post some more tomorrow.

It has finally started and so far it is excellent! It was so warm today that I rode in short sleeves for the first time since last September. The great news is that the rest of the week is supposed to be even better.  What luck!

This year there are 11 full-time campers from all over the US and Canada, with just about all walks of life represented from flight nurses to race car drivers. It's a great mix and everyone seems to really get along well. I like to foster a sense of community in my camp and I think it is working.

We have also got some goodies from Jim at Quarq to test. Sadly, Jim and Mieke couldn't make it as it's busy times for them as the first of the new units are delivered.  For us to test there are two newly reconfigured Garmin 705s and two Cinqos - one we used in Solvang and a brand new one complete with fancy labeling:

Dang this job is tough.

Every year before Marin camp something seems to go horribly wrong with my bike, despite my best efforts to keep it in good repair. Last year, my left-side shifter broke, and every time I went to upshift, I would get poked in the finger by the sharp end of a misplaced spring. This year, something even worse happened - my frame broke. I have broken plenty of bikes in my time (10 now, I think) and I don't think it reflects poorly on the manufacturer of this one. My bike broke a rear drive-side dropout in the middle of a fast downhill sprint (I still won!). Happily, it was cleverly designed not only with a replaceable derailleur hanger, but an entirely replaceable drop out. Here is what it looked like before replacement:

Now, here is what it looks like:

No sweat! Of course, I would rather my bike not break in the first place, but in a couple of years of racing, this bike had seen a lot of hard miles and this was not the first time that dropout had taken a hit. So, I am grateful that it carried on as long as it did...and more grateful that when it broke, it was easy to fix.

I know I have been going on about stuff I have been doing, and I really want to write a somewhat useful article or two, but I will get to that. First, though, if you want to ride in the Northern California sunshine and stay at a first-class retreat, now is your last chance to sign up for Marin Training Camp. We have an excellent bunch signed up already and it is filling fast. On hand will be more test units from Quarq and maybe even Jim himself, if he manages to actually dig his way out of Spearfish. Perhaps more importantly, we will be teaching you how to maximize your use of your power meter and help you improve your racing skills and strength. It's a great way to start the season. Stay tuned for live coverage...right here!

In the meantime, this is what I did today: http://leitheiser.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/urban-guerilla-attack/