We did Tahoe Sierra 100 mountain bike ride on Aug 23. Some say it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the hardest mountain biking century in the country. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if it is true, but I know it deserves a ride report. However, some time has passed and I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find time to write, but more importantly, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know where to start. Then the Labor Day weekend arrived and we did the TAMBA Rose to Toad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ride, which in my mind, could be a world class MTB ride. The day after, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sitting on a Lake Tahoe beach when Mr. Mud took my visiting coworker out for kayaking. Perfect time for me to relax and start writing. Now, where to start… (Note: I only finished writing a week later in the car when driving to Oregon.)<\/p>\n
Lately, there was an MTBR thread<\/a> that I participated in (one might say, unwisely, but I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have enough zen in me to remain silent when seeing wrong information was offered with arrogance). In one post, the OP, whom I was in disagreement with, exclaimed \u00e2\u20ac\u0153anybody who doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t prepare, both physically and mentally, for a big, new ride, is also crazy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to think that the statement was not targeted at me. Most likely not, but I also know that the OP has pulled statements made by his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153opponent\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from elsewhere in order to support his own point, and I happened to have just posted in the Tahoe Sierra 100 thread on the same day that I went into the ride without having touched my mountain bike for a month, without having ridden any section of the route and consequently suffered cramps for almost half of the ride. Is he right\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u201d am I crazy? The question did keep coming back to me, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll start with this one.<\/p>\n I always think that I have Type A personality, which means that going out on big rides like these without proper preparation is against my nature. However, I have done it, again and again.<\/p>\n Take Tahoe Sierra 100 as an example, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t touch the mountain bike in the month prior. I should have because if I had done it, I would have remembered that the brakes need bleeding (or replacement since I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d bought new brakes a year ago) and the front derailleur is not working properly (half of the time I have to get off the bike in order to shift into the small chain ring by hand). The week leading into the ride, I was very busy with a visiting coworker whom I work closely with, so busy that all the liquid I drank during the day was one cup of coffee in the morning and another in the afternoon. I remember seeing the dark colored urine thinking oh, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so dehydrated and then I ran back to my office to continue working. Also because he, from India, was not comfortable driving, so he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t rent a car. I was chauffeuring him to market (he likes “fresh” fruits), dinner, and hotel before returning home very late every day. No time for any kind of preparation, mentally or physically. Three days before the ride date, two discounted transfers landed on our laps, and brought the ride back to our radar. I knew Mr. Mud always wanted to do the ride. I asked him, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153do you want to do this ride? do you think we are ready for it?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He replied, just like how he always replies to my questions of that sort, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153just ride it. It will work out.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And it indeed always did. BTW, when I say it did workout, I meant, we were able to achieve our goal and we did not become anybody\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s liability.<\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think preparation is important; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I myself need preparation. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just I seem to find proper preparation difficult to obtain, for me anyway. Maybe my time management skills are poor because most of the days, I simply cannot find time to fit training in. The only reason I manage going to the climbing gym two early mornings (I get up at 5am for it) a week is because I am a reliable climbing partner to my friend Leslie. And then I need the rest of the days to make up for the missed sleep. I am also battling some form of depression. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the crying type, but my depression does keep me up late at night doing nothing, \u00c2\u00a0lying in bed when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m awake and should be up and doing thing. \u00c2\u00a0It keeps me sitting in the chair longer than I should. Subsequently, there are always necessary things left unattended to and I feel guilty. The first thing to cut out when you feel guilty about inaction is exercises. Do others feel the same way? Maybe sometimes? Another symptom of depression is\u00c2\u00a0indecision. When I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t decide what I want to do one week down the road, I cannot make commitment; thus I cannot make plans. When there is no commitment nor\u00c2\u00a0plan, there is no preparation. Yeah, I know, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a\u00c2\u00a0problem. BTW, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m getting help from professionals about that, so I hope to improve. One part of dealing with it is to accept it and not hide it. That’s what I’m doing. Plus, I doubt I have one or two readers anyway.<\/p>\n While I have my own problem, I know many other peoples deal with all sorts of reasons that prevent them from proper preparations. Too often, I see people say\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would love to join this ride, but ___ has kept me away from training, so I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. Next year.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And next year is the same thing. I think this is where Mr. Mud and I might be a little different, or in some people’s mind a little crazy. Although there are sometimes other factors that stop us, e.g. time and budget, but we usually do no let lack of preparation stop us from attempting and\u00c2\u00a0achieving\u00c2\u00a0something big and grand, and often difficult.<\/p>\n In my observation, most people enter a difficult ride without the right expectation, and as soon as the going gets tough, they decide it is not the event they subscribed to and calling quit will cut their loss. Fair enough, and guess next time, they just need to do their homework better. And then there are people entering a ride knowing it will be difficult and\u00c2\u00a0still give up part way because they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think they have what it takes to\u00c2\u00a0follow through to the end. Speaking from personal experience, over the years, I have learnt that our body is capable of doing a lot more than what our mind believes it can, so it is our mind we need to work on. Most times, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really care how fast I go or if there is a purpose in the thing I do, because when my mind reaches its breaking point, I convince myself to let my body, no matter how tired and beat up it is, do its work, and so far, it has always pulled me through. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the game I play, anyway. Am I crazy?<\/p>\n Now onto the rides.<\/p>\n Tahoe Sierra 100<\/strong><\/p>\n The 2014 version is difficult. (They change it every year, and sometimes dramatically.) How can you say something being difficult without any\u00c2\u00a0comparison? Okay, here is a comparison. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done Hard COEre 100 (currently defunct as the ride creator took the ride site down). Coe 100: it climbs 22,000\u00e2\u20ac\u2122+ in 100 miles all on dirt, which TS100 cannot claim and is unheard of; it is so difficult that it took me 18 hours to complete; it is so difficult that in 2013 there were only two riders, Brian and yours truly, who completed the ride among all who attempted. \u00c2\u00a0Yet, the 2014 TS 100 was harder despite its meager 17,000\u00e2\u20ac\u2122+ of elevation gain. Why (for me, specifically)?<\/p>\n \n I learned my lesson from every aspect listed above. If I were to return, I think I can do better, esp. if I get to ride my mountain bike a bit more before the ride. However, we thought not to return again\u00c2\u00a0because we were appalled by how beatup the trails were and we would not want to partake in further damaging those trails again. That said, we were told that some years, this TS100 ride takes place before the Tevis Cup Horse Endurance Race and the trails can be in much better shape, like in night and day difference. Maybe we will return.<\/p>\n MTBR 2014 Tahoe Sierra 100 Thread<\/a><\/p>\n My Strava Track with comments<\/a><\/p>\n\n