A Hill Too Far: Overreaching On Da Xue Shan

Yesterday I thought I would teach my legs a lesson they'd never forget and I was poised to climb Da-xue Shan (Great Snowy Mountain).

Recently, my training has focused on sustained climbing and endurance building. These two aspects of my cycling seem to have suffered the most during my down time from my injury.

I had a massive day last Sunday climbing in some high heat and then I spent the past few days pushing around boxes of books to move to our new apartment. Physically, I am beat.

My hips and lower back felt tight. My legs felt dead. I went in for a massage, and it helped a little, but my hips still felt wound up tight. I knew I was not up for what I had been envisioning as my assault on Da-xue Shan. It always feels so much easier in the imagination. I hoped after a few kilometers my legs would warm up and maybe that was all I needed. I was wrong.

I pushed along to the Hou-Feng trail feeling ok, but I overinflated my tires, so not as smooth as I would have liked.

The Hou-Feng trail is one of Taichung's showcased leisure bike trails that is coated with a speed-robbing coating that makes it feel like you are riding through Molasses Swamp at maximum effort. Maybe Taiwan is so technologically advanced, they have a secret plan to steal energy from cyclists and use it to power unicorn farms.

I huffed on through to Dong Hshih and began climbing Dongkeng St. toward the top of Da-xue Shan. The cross winds didn't do much to help things either.

I have done this route several times and this time felt only slightly better than the first. I just kept pushing and trying to play mind games so that I wouldn't think about the soreness. I thought Da-xue Shan would be great with its gentler grades than the Route 136.

It was getting late, so I turned around at 3300ft. Nowhere near my goal, but good enough for me. I was riding like crap anyways.

My body had an adverse reaction to all this. I had overreached.

Overreaching is the phenomenon in endurance sports where the body reacts to the repeated stresses of hard training with fatigue.

If the "bonk" is stage 1, and normal fatigue is stage 2, then overreaching is stage 3. The next step in the progression of feeling like crap from exercise is overtraining. Overtraining can last for weeks or even months and can severely limit one's athletic improvement. The body feels under assault and rather than strengthening to combat the physical stresses, it works to conserve and protect itself from those stresses. The last step on the scale may be pathological fatigue and illness.

I will dial it back a little to recover and keep the improvements coming.

The View From The Northern Cross Island Highway

Michael Turton posts on his latest Northern Cross Island Expedition. An excellent ride report with stunning photos. Give it a look HERE. I know for a fact that a couple of the riders who joined him were just getting started on bicycles only one year ago.

• A big congrats to Sean Smith, from Taichung's own Team Caffe Terry, won the Elite classification in the Alishan Challenge. Smith climbed 7541ft over the course of 47 miles in 2:45:29. Smith averaged 17.1 mph on his climb and walked away with a USD$22,500 purse. Not bad for a day's work.

• A new study shows Taiwanese women prefer walking to cycling. Whereas Taiwanese men are far more interested in showing off their gadgets. The New York Times reports this is not just a Taiwanese phenomenon.

The Tour de France will start the third stage in a couple of hours and I am actually pleasantly surprised by how the first two stages have unfolded. Stage 1 started out as a full stage as opposed to the routine opening Time Trial and it was marred by several incidents and a couple of decisive crashes that put Tour favorite Alberto Contador way back in 82nd place, while his main rivals made ground near the top. The first stage was won by Philippe Gilbert, who has just had a phenomenal 2011. Gilbert won the Tour of Belgium, Ster ZLM Toer, Liege-Baston-Leige, Amstel Gold , and La Fleche Wallonne among others.

The Stage 2 Team Time Trial was won by Team Garmin-Cervelo with Contador's Saxo Bank finishing in 8th behind his challengers in Team Leppard, Radioshack and BMC. Team HTC-Highroad, partially sponsored by Taiwan's HTC electronics juggernaut is also in good position to make an impact. What does all this mean? Not much as a lot can happen, but it does put pressure on the reigning champ, especially if the competition is in fine form and can avoid crashes or mechanicals.

Hammering Hills: Route 88, Highway 21 and Route 136

Nanyang Rd.

Sunday was another day of hill climbing. I have been gradually extending my rides and making them more difficult. One constant in my weekly riding schedule has been, and will continue to be, hill climbing. It is the first thing to go when you're not training and it is a really great way to get the lungs and the legs back from the dead. I decided today I was going to push my limits a little bit and ride some of my favorite local routes.

Bike Trail

I started out with a warm-up pace into Fengyuan. My Garmin was misbehaving, so I lost the complete info for my ride. It had me riding along a 246% grade from Taichung to Fengyuan.

I did happen to ride one of Taichung's bike trails in Fengyuan City. I would rather ride the cobbles of the Paris-Roubaix.

Colorful Tower

From Fengyuan City I turned up the Local Route 88 a.k.a. Nanyang Rd. which peaks in Longjing, a higher summit than simply taking the Route 129. Even at 8:00am the heat was unbearable.

Looking Down the Route 88

Route 88 is a really nice climb, but a better descent as a couple of the ramps registered 20% grades. The pain is over soon enough and the road levels off high above the city.

Sky Rider... A shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man... who does not exist.

I bombed down to Route 93 at about 65kph. and stopped for some coffee with several other local cyclists at the great big 7-11.

Route 93 has a lovely technical descent down to Zhonghe Village and out to the junction with Highway 21 and the route over Baimao Shan (White Whisker Mountain).

Up The 21

The Highway 21 is one of my all time favorite roads. It makes a nice climb with the most scenic views or Heping Township, a largely Atayal indigenous area of northern Taichung.

View Near Top

The highest point on the mountain is 2808ft. but it is not a terrible ascent. I actually settled in to a nice rhythm all the way to the little cafe at the top, where I thought an iced coffee would do me right in that kind of heat.

I also had to stock up on water seeing as I had left a full bottle of water back at the 7-11 earlier and had to climb with nothing but backwash in my bottle.

Rest Stop

I was soon blasting down the other side on one of the greatest descents... EVER!

It is not uncommon to keep speeds around 60kph all the way down. The only real drag were all the hotshot riders on their Big Bikes (motorcycles). If those fuckers are so Lihai/厲害 (skilled), then why can't they stay in their lanes. Share the fucking roads guys. Share the fucking roads. I mean it!

Sorry, but really...

Iced Coffee

As I rolled through Guoxing I was facing a pretty good headwind. This made my enjoyment quotient on the Highway 14 plummet. I hate that road when it is windy. It just becomes too much work for that type of flat roller of a Highway. I then decided to take the Route 136 back over the mountain. This meant a third climb over 2000ft. for the day. The temperature was a broiling 40C/104F, but it sure beat a headwind.

The Other Side Of The 136

I pedaled squares all the way to the summit. It was agony. I was ready for a speedy descent. It was fine at first as I sliced my way through hairpin corners and dug into banked turns... until I was hugging the rear end of a Toyote Previa van. It was a slow coaster the rest of the way down.

I was beat. I had pushed myself to my limits and that was fine with me. This will make me stronger and take me one step closer to my goal of getting back to and surpassing my prior state of fitness.

I got home and cleaned up before flopping on the couch. Within minutes both inner quad muscles severely cramped up leaving me in agony for several minutes, frozen in the contortions of pain.

Strangely, my legs feel lively and energetic. I don't feel like I beat them to a pulp.

What doesn't kill you will only make you stronger.

Bike route 1084322 - powered by Bikemap

Taichung Ups and Downs

I found a little more time than usual yesterday, so I decided to look for a better hill training route.

I am still trying to build back up to a place where I can charge up the hills and have plenty of gas left for some speed on the flats and a sprint home. I would also like to do a few more hill century rides like these. Here, Here.

I figured I would have enough time to do an evening of climbing and get home in time for dinner.

I left along Wu Chuan West Rd. and through the Industrial Park. This makes a nice little climb through the back gate of the Tunghai Market and over to Taichung Harbor Rd. This is a better climb with less traffic than simply charging up Taichung Harbor Rd.

I then prudently bombed down the Highway 12 into Shalu. I had to slow down a little and remember how the roads worked. I wanted to go directly into Ching Shui and not back up the Highway 10.

The Highway 12 splits at the Highway 10 junction and, with some traffic heroics, you can make another easy descent into Ching Shui. At the southern end of Ching Shui, at the back of the town, you can go up on the Highway 10乙. This is a fun little ascent with a 5% grade. It has some switchbacks and some straight climbs. The Highway 10乙 goes past the Taichung Airport and links to the regular Highway 10, which goes directly into Daya.

I turned off to Highway 10 to go up to the Taichung Municipal Park. This is an excellent little climb with some flat sections on the top to spin the lactic acid out of the legs. The road ends at the highest reaches of Hsitun (Xitun) Rd. with a fantastic descent off the top if you can get it free of traffic. Hsitun/Xitun is narrow and packed with vehicles. Lots of fun, but dangerous.

I would normally turn on Wenxin Road, but I needed to stop by Mosaic and make one tiny adjustment. I left the Garmin on... whoops! Then I went home on Huiwen Rd.

It was a really nice way to shake up the legs a bit and get back into sustained climbing. i highly recommend this route for anyone in Taichung who is looking for a short, hilly training loop.

Tour de France and Some Taiwan Cycling Events

Michael Cannon Astride His Speedone

This weekend kicks off the 98th edition of the Tour de France, the peak of the professional cycling calendar. After last year's bore fest I am not looking forward to it as much as I was the Giro. With Alberto Contador riding with a vengeance following his positive test for clenbuterol and the doping ban he has hanging in legal limbo, I am just hoping the Schlecks from Team Leppard (Yes, I know.) or some brighter dark horses can make Contador and his Saxo Bank comrades work a little harder for le Malliot Jaune.

Honestly, after watching the Spanish rider eat up the competition in the Giro d'Italia, I wish everyone luck.

Tour de France:

Brought to you in part by EPO.

VeloNews has a stage by stage breakdown and Contador to be, what Professional Wrestling might describe as the Foil of this Tour. MSNBC chimes in on why Contador sucks.

Cavendish is going green.

BIG George make his 16th Tour appearance.

Cervelo will use the TdF to unveil their new carbon fiber S5. According to Cervelo's new marketing literature, the "S" stands for Supercalifragalisticexpialadocious.

Official TdF page.

Meat Is Murder! David Zabriskie of Garmin-Cervelo hopes to use Tour results to tout the benefits of the vegan lifestyle.

Despite his retirement and an aggressive doping investigation leveraged against him, Lance Armstrong keeps busy at shoring up his golden image.

Cycling Tips keeps tabs of the incestuous relationship between media and sport.

Tour de France viewing online can be found HERE.

Taiwan Events:

The TUAA Alishan Challenge is this weekend. Good Luck! I wish I could join.

The Iilan Road Bike Race will also take place 7/2/2011.

Bikeman's July Events Calendar (Chinese)

Never Stop Wuling Challenge 8/21/2011 (More events listed in Chinese)

Wheels Of Knowledge: Kaohsiung College Offers Credit For Biking

The National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology (NKFUST) Dept. of Liberal Arts and Humanities is offering a course entitled, Bicycle Theory and Practice, with the aim of teaching social awareness and cultural understanding, while teaching a practical set of skills.

According to the course instructor, Tsai Hsin-chieh, the university has provided several free bicycles for students to ride around campus. Tsai would like to combine the school's goals with the concept of bikes and provide a course to better integrate the school's aims for its students.

Professor Tsai's plan requires students to "adopt" two bikes on campus with the course which is divided into three parts: (1) maintainance- which involves fixing school bikes. (2) Teaching students how to ride safely. (3) Planning a bike route. The students are required to plan a ride around the island of Hsiao Liu-chiu 小琉球 at the end of the semester as their final exam for this course.

Students are also required to record a journal of their experiences.

Tsai hopes that through taking action on their bikes, his students can better combine theory and practice in a more practical manner and help to better their community as well.

..............

Yes, I like making up excuses to get paid to do what I like doing in my free time as well.

Also:

• As The World Terns: Josh Hon talks about a rift in the family.
• Seattle Police Department bike patrol stands up for nose-less saddle.

Taiwan's Bicycle Tourism... What's Next?

Joyce Enjoys Riding The Roads

Jack Becker, the Director of the 2012 Velo-City Conference, is in town to attend the Bicycle-Environment Friendly City Conference at the Chung-hua University in Hsin-chu, where he presented on cycling tourism. Check his blog for some early impressions: HERE

This got me thinking of a little something I just read from Ryan Anderson over at Savage Minds, the Anthropology blog. Anderson writes:

I often wonder about the future of places like Las Vegas, Cancun, and Nakheel, especially since many international organizations (like the UNWTO) promote tourism development as a sustainable, surefire solution for socio-economic development. What will Vegas–or Cancun–look like in 100 years? What purpose will these places serve, and how sustainable will they actually be in the long run?

Many countries around the world continue to promote and finance ever more tourism development, in hopes that these investments will create long-lasting social and economic benefits. At least, that’s how the narrative goes. But what kinds of social spaces and places are being created under the guise of tourism, and what futures do these places face? What are the lasting social, political, and economic effects of these spaces?

Yes, what will become of these tourism bikeways and their infrastructure once the Chinese have biked them and gone home?

• Taiwan's government now offers a downloadable e-book to help tourists and cyclists navigate Taiwan. I fear this will be ripe for misuse, but hope it could be of help.

Also:

Congrats to all the RAAM finishers and competitors. Still, you're no Jure Robic!