98 Miles High

On Sat, 04 Dec 2004 07:56:42 GMT, "Mike Jacoubowsky"
wrote:

I got an e-mail from this guy the other day. He's trying to break an
annual climbing record that he read about in Bicycling Magazine, and
he has a web site and upcomng book entitled "98 Miles High":
http://www.98mileshigh.com/index.shtml
"Coming in January, 2005 98 Miles High"

Terry: I checked the website and come away with only one thought- how can
anyone believe that an average of only 1417 ft/day could possibly be a legit
record?

And when you consider that, on my Tuesday & Thursday-morning rides (3300 ft
of climbing each time) into the hills, I see a few people out there
virtually every single time, doing their own rides... and that they probably
ride more often than just twice/week... I have a feeling there are a quite a
few people who "accidentally" chalk up maybe 500,000 ft (around 95 miles).

Mike,

Just take a look at the stats for this year for the Western Wheelers
(http://tinyurl.com/66jql); up through Dec. 3rd you have folks pushing
400K just on club rides; add in any riding they do that are not club
rides and they are probably up in the 500K category. (As a side note,
wonder if there is some family competition going on between riders in
the 1st and 3rd places on that list ;-) ).

I am not so sure I would want to ride *every day*; good to have a rest
day once in a while. 1417 ft/day gets him to the 98 miles only if he
rides every day for 365 days (ignoring the fact that this is leap year
and there are 366 days); if he ratchets down to riding 2/3 of the days
the climbing needed notches up to 2120 ft/day.

Of more interest is that the guy chose to go after the 'record' of
Bruce Brown from 2000; Brown claims to have broken that last year
(Bicycling, March 2004) and Jeff Alden of Portland claims to have
done so this year (Bicycling, Jan/Feb 2005). I think a bit more
research would lead all these folks to understand that these 'records'
are just self-promotion; lots of folks around here do such numbers on
an annual basis.

- rick

(SlowRider) wrote:

What a cool idea! That's the kind of thing that motivates me: set a
goal and then focus on it.

Having set a goal and completed it now, I highly recommend it to
everyone. Make up an audacious goal, then tell everyone you know
what it is. Then you will receive constant reminders from helpful
friends about yoru silly goal, disguised as requests for progress
reports. Speaking from experience.


Kudos to you -- 200 vertical miles in a
year is impressive. No wonder you're so darned skinny! ;-)

Thanks. I've always been skin^H^H^H^Hsvelte. Climbing just happens
to be something that comes easily, thanks to my being gravity
challenged.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

Rick Warner wrote:

And Terry, the 'other guy' who promotes his 'world record' is named
Jeff Alden and he has a letter in the current Bicycling touting that
he broke the (his) previous 'record' this past Sep when he went over
something like 404000 and change. Since the editors at Rodale keep
giving him a forum for self-promotion perhaps you should provide some
zip and tell them of your achievement.

Hmm. That's in Bicycling Magazine? Do you know the month of the
publication? I'll have to look for a copy, and try to locate an
e-mail address for the letters section.

I did a quick, conservative
tally, and I am just under 500K right now with most of December left,
and had almost 6 weeks off due to my collision with the wrong way
cyclist on the Wilkie bridge. Alden's records are so laughable since
you and know that 500K is pretty common in the area we live.

Yes, 500k is pretty common around here. Even 1M is not unheard of in
the racer dude/dudette crowd. One of the Alto Velo guys claims he
did 1M every year for 10 years or so.

I hope your Wilkie injury has healed well. Today I rode the Hamilton
Challenge backwards with 5 riding buddies. Some of them were not too
happy about the cold weather (31F on Calaveras Rd.), but overall it
was pretty nice. I still need to mend some ruffled feathers, or my
riding buddy list may shrink. We finished right before sunset. That
was probably my last 100+ mile ride for the year -- but you never
know.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

"Mike Jacoubowsky" wrote:

But I don't ride in the hills to accomplish any sort of climbing goals.
Rather, I ride in the hills because I don't enjoy riding on the flats.

I agree with this statement. I set a climbing goal because I like to
climb. The goal got me out of lots of flat rides that my riding
buddies wanted me to do with them. "Gee, I'd love to do a Canada Rd.
paceline with you guys today, but I have to make my vertical quota."

Mike, I still think you should do Everest Challenge next year. But
just for fun.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

Rick Warner wrote:

Just take a look at the stats for this year for the Western Wheelers
(http://tinyurl.com/66jql); up through Dec. 3rd you have folks pushing
400K just on club rides; add in any riding they do that are not club
rides and they are probably up in the 500K category.

Whoa, I just checked out the list rankings. I'm a miserable 17th,
but I have an excuse. I didn't do very many Western Wheeler rides
this year, because they weren't hilly enough. Plus I missed most of
the hilly weekend rides, because I was off training in the Sierra.
Yeah, that's it.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

And Terry, the 'other guy' who promotes his 'world record' is named
Jeff Alden and he has a letter in the current Bicycling touting that
he broke the (his) previous 'record' this past Sep when he went over
something like 404000 and change. Since the editors at Rodale keep
giving him a forum for self-promotion perhaps you should provide some
zip and tell them of your achievement.

Hmm. That's in Bicycling Magazine? Do you know the month of the
publication? I'll have to look for a copy, and try to locate an
e-mail address for the letters section.


Nobody wants to admit that they subscribe to Bicycling Magazine. But I am
not so proud.

In the letters to the editor section on page 12 of the current issue is this
letter:

"He's so high
Thanks to "Setting the Record (Not Quite)
Straight" (March 2004), I set out this season to
break the record of 404,000 vertical feet in one
year. Mission accomplished September 2: 404,500
feet in 5,513 miles of riding (132 riding days) so far.
Jeff Alden, Portland, OR

Think you can top Jeff? Let us know:
or 135 N. Sixth St.,
Emmaus, PA 18098"

Alfred Ryder wrote:

In the letters to the editor section on page 12 of the current issue is this
letter:

"He's so high
Thanks to "Setting the Record (Not Quite)
Straight" (March 2004), I set out this season to
break the record of 404,000 vertical feet in one
year. Mission accomplished September 2: 404,500
feet in 5,513 miles of riding (132 riding days) so far.
Jeff Alden, Portland, OR

Think you can top Jeff? Let us know:
or 135 N. Sixth St.,
Emmaus, PA 18098"

Thanks Alfred, you saved me the cover price of a Bicycling mag.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

Mike, I still think you should do Everest Challenge next year. But
just for fun.

Terry: It *could* happen. It probably shouldn't happen, but it could.
Depends upon how my summer goes, and how things are at the shop. If I could
cut back from a 6+ day workweek, who knows? The biggest danger though would
be that little bug inside my head that might try to get me racing again.
That's a bad bug to have, particularly at 48. Puts you into a very fast
category of rider (Masters 45+), that is often faster than the younger guys.
People who have either retired or semi-retired from fiercely-competitive
business endeavors and now turn that drive into racing bikes. Ouch!

Plus, there are still quite a few people who would enjoy little more than
running me into the ground on a climb, just because they can. Couldn't have
happened back in the day, and as far as I know, I was always gracious about
it (or at least tried to be), but now they can get their revenge.

Besides, if I were that driven, I'd be out on my bike now, instead of taking
care of stuff like decorating the Christmas Tree (nobody else can reach the
top) and setting up network cameras at the shops so we have photos of anyone
trying to break in. Ah, the joys of owning a business...

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com


"Terry Morse" wrote in message
...
"Mike Jacoubowsky" wrote:

But I don't ride in the hills to accomplish any sort of climbing goals.
Rather, I ride in the hills because I don't enjoy riding on the flats.

I agree with this statement. I set a climbing goal because I like to
climb. The goal got me out of lots of flat rides that my riding
buddies wanted me to do with them. "Gee, I'd love to do a Canada Rd.
paceline with you guys today, but I have to make my vertical quota."

Mike, I still think you should do Everest Challenge next year. But
just for fun.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

On Sun, 05 Dec 2004 22:26:02 GMT, Mike Jacoubowsky
wrote:

Mike, I still think you should do Everest Challenge next year. But
just for fun.

Terry: It *could* happen. It probably shouldn't happen, but it could.
Depends upon how my summer goes, and how things are at the shop. If I
could
cut back from a 6+ day workweek, who knows? The biggest danger though
would
be that little bug inside my head that might try to get me racing again.
That's a bad bug to have, particularly at 48. Puts you into a very fast
category of rider (Masters 45+), that is often faster than the younger
guys.
People who have either retired or semi-retired from fiercely-competitive
business endeavors and now turn that drive into racing bikes. Ouch!

Plus, there are still quite a few people who would enjoy little more than
running me into the ground on a climb, just because they can. Couldn't
have
happened back in the day, and as far as I know, I was always gracious
about
it (or at least tried to be), but now they can get their revenge.

Besides, if I were that driven, I'd be out on my bike now, instead of
taking
care of stuff like decorating the Christmas Tree (nobody else can reach
the
top) and setting up network cameras at the shops so we have photos of
anyone
trying to break in. Ah, the joys of owning a business...

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com


"Terry Morse" wrote in message
...
"Mike Jacoubowsky" wrote:

But I don't ride in the hills to accomplish any sort of climbing goals.
Rather, I ride in the hills because I don't enjoy riding on the flats.

I agree with this statement. I set a climbing goal because I like to
climb. The goal got me out of lots of flat rides that my riding
buddies wanted me to do with them. "Gee, I'd love to do a Canada Rd.
paceline with you guys today, but I have to make my vertical quota."

Mike, I still think you should do Everest Challenge next year. But
just for fun.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/


48 is not too old for much. I am 56 and still enjoy a lot of the
20 somethings sports. Old is in your head.
Just go out and do it.


--
Bill (?) Baka

Bill Baka wrote:

I did that ride [Hamilton Challenge] in one form or another and
it will wear down almost any cyclist. Have you tried the one that
carries you over Mt. Day for an extra 1000 feet or so?

I don't know where Mt. Day is. As it was, we only had enough time to
finish in daylight. We spent too much time at the 3 stops trying to
get warm. That route is a lot more fun when it's warm. Regardless of
the weather, the climb up the backside of Hamilton is one of my
local favorites. It reminds me of a mini Alpe d'Huez: long, steep,
consistent, with multiple haripins and nice vistas.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/