This is a cycling blog. Well, until today I guess. Today is when I start writing about a different kind of physical activity: hiking. I can also see another sport being written about soon, but I am getting ahead of myself.
This blog documents my journey as an amateur cyclist. It has been quite the progression since 2006.
From training an entire summer to ride 100 kilometers for the first time to riding 100 kilometers indoors as a training ride on a Sunday morning.
From getting dropped in a bike race in the first three kilometers to being on the podium more than once.
From doing a three day training camp as a season’s ultimate goal to riding the fifteen pro stages of the Tour of California and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge in the same season.
From learning how to change a flat tire to being the Chairman of a professional cycling team.
From training for over ten months to be able to finish the seven-day amateur race called Haute Route Alps to being the Chairman of the Haute Route cycling series in North America.
From wishing to ride a mountain bike with President George W. Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas to actually riding a mountain bike with President George W. Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. (And yes, the burgers at the local gas station are to die for…)
At times I wondered why I was documenting this aspect of my life but today I am glad I did. I now have access to a vast amount of information, thoughts and pictures about a defining aspect of my life covering a period of over fifteen years. More importantly, it reminds me of what type of rider I was when I got into cycling and what it took for me to get to where I am today. This is how I describe my humble beginnings in the world of cycling in my blog:
I think it was April 2006.
While I have always been committed to exercising, that year I decided to spend more time on my road bike. I had paid $1,600 for my new Cannondale so I thought I might as well use it (yes, I know, I can’t really get more than one good carbon wheel for that price nowadays – but that is a different topic). One day while surfing the Internet I came across the website http://www.trainright.com. It was the website of an organization founded by US National coach Chris Carmichael and called Carmichael Training Systems (CTS). It offered an entry level training package for either $39 or $59 a month which was computer generated. “Just what I need” I thought. “If it works for US pros it will work for me.” I spent the next two to three months religiously following my new training schedule.
In June or July of the same year, after a few months of training, I felt I was ready for my first group ride. One night after work, I headed over to the Eastern Townships to meet a group of cyclists who gather every Tuesday at our favorite Bromont ski/bike shop and ride in the area for a couple of hours.
And out we went. I followed the group for the first few kilometers. Then, being the gentleman that I am, I decided to take a pull and kept the pace up. Big mistake. I tried to recover at the back of the group but the damage was done. A couple minutes later I got dropped.
In less than a minute, I could see the pack already 250 meters ahead of me. Not only did I come in last but a woman my age riding an old and beat up mountain bike beat me. I was totally humiliated. The training program from a National coach might work for a pro but it wasn’t working for me, or so I thought. When I got home, I told my wife I was quitting cycling. She said: “Don’t be so silly, why don’t you hire a coach?” I did hire a coach. I trained and trained and continued to go from humiliation to humiliation, until a couple years later at a training camp in Tucson, AZ, while climbing the famed Mount Lemmon, I got to Mile 14 (Windy Point) first, with five minutes ahead of the next guys.
In just a short while, I went from having trained a full summer to be able to ride 100 km for the first time, to regularly riding 100 km indoors in the winter as a training ride. I went from humiliation to success and pride, while working 60 hours a week, having a large family with kids with busy sports schedules themselves.
If you want to learn how it’s done, read on!
My humble beginnings
I eventually developed a bit of an online following mainly because of what the blog is truly about:
The documented story of a workaholic, husband, father of six, grandfather of five, who makes the time and finds the discipline to achieve amazing cycling goals.
The Time Crunched Cyclist
A true time crunched cyclist.
The progression above is a function of my personality: “Everything I undertake, I do with extreme passion, commitment and dedication.” This is true for all aspects of my life: my marriage, my family, my friendships, my job and my physical activities. In one of my most popular post, I described it as suffering from the Law of Progression Syndrome (or LPS). This is what LPS is all about:
“Do today what looked like an unattainable goal yesterday.” If a century seemed impossible but you succeeded in doing it, then why not try two in a row. Get it?
Do you suffer from LPS?
One of the drawbacks of LPS is that you eventually run out of specific goals to achieve to continue feeding your LPS. This is what happened to me a couple of years ago. Since reaching the higher echelon of amateur and professional cycling, I have kept riding a lot and have stayed super fit, but my motivation to ride my bike four to seven hours a day for seven days in a row just isn’t there anymore. So last summer, when a friend of mine here in Vancouver, BC – where I live – told me he hikes three times a week with his friends, I asked him if I could join them one day. I saw this as an opportunity to exercise without having to be on my bike doing one of the few local loops or out-and-backs.
The first time I was invited, being the competitor that I am, I positioned myself at the front of the group, right behind the leader who the other guys called “The Commander.” Not knowing anyone in the group except my friend, when a guy behind said “Why are we slowing down” I did not understand he meant “You guys are going too fast.” I instantly went ahead of The Commander and moved the pace up. Talk about poking the bear. The Commander and one other guy immediately started running. I thought: “Perfect, I’ll run with them and get a good workout in.” Within about a minute, I was hopelessly trying to keep up with them and had to conclude philosophically: “You have to be ready to lose to win.” And lose I did. Sounds familiar?
I ended up joining the group more frequently and enjoyed hiking the local mountains. In the winter, we often headed up the mountains to snowshoe. I also bought a gravel bike and started enjoying the local trails. My weekly training volume increased over time as I achieved the right balance between road cycling, gravel biking, snowshoeing and hiking.
And then my LPS kicked in again.
Another friend of mine took me on an amazing six hour hike from West Vancouver to a beautiful lookout called Eagle Bluffs, then up the top of Black Mountain and back down to West Vancouver.
What is not to like about a long and hard workout with amazing views? It reminded me of riding my road bike in the mountains for the first time and loving it. I knew I was hooked when I wrote the following title for this workout on Strava: “The coolest outdoor activity of my life.”
But, how was I going to feed my hiking induced LPS? I then came across a group called The Bagger Challenge. This is how the group describe itself:
Founded in 2009 by David Crerar, and run by Steve White since 2019, the Bagger Challenge encourages participants to explore and celebrate the glorious peaks of Vancouver’s North Shore, from the peaks of Howe Sound in the west to the Fannin Range in the east, and from the front-row peaks in the south to Capilano Mountain in the north. It has grown from 44 peaks in 2009 to 83 peaks in 2020. As of 2019, about 700 people have joined in this fun celebration of adventure, athleticism, and nature. The challenge led to the writing of The Glorious Peaks of Vancouver’s North Shore by Crerar, Crerar & Maurer: https://www.facebook.com/baggerbook
Good way to feed the LPS
As far as I can tell, the Bagger Challenge group is comprised of the typical mix of abilities and objectives that constitute all these types of groups: a few ultra-competitive baggers, a few baggers who are way over their heads and most people being somewhat in the middle of these two extremes.
While I have not yet decided if I am going to document my progression as a bagger the same way I did for cycling, I decided to write this post for two reasons: 1 – to explain why I am doing the Bagger Challenge, and 2 – to share my experience with my fellow newbie baggers.
Last week I hiked to the top of a Bagger Challenge peak called Mount Underhill. I wrote on the group’s Facebook page that I found the experience underwhelming. It reminded me of riding a bunch of junk miles to get to a rather unimpressive climb. The response on Facebook was swift: the consensus was pretty much that I was wrong. I thought: “That’s weird, how can I be wrong about how I view my experience?” That is when I first thought about writing this post. Maybe if people understand why I am doing the Bagger Challenge, they will better understand my comment.
So fellow Baggers, this is why I am doing the Bagger Challenge: “Because I want to tilt the odds in my favor that I will live a long life and that my quality of life of my latter years will be good.” Yes, to me, the Bagger Challenge is a Means To An End.
There is considerable research out there on the long term benefit of exercise. As an example, a 2017 study by Brigham Young University found that high levels of physical activity equate to a nine-year biological aging advantage. The study also concluded: “You don’t have to become an elite athlete to improve your longevity. Regular, moderate activities, such as brisk walking, have been associated with increasing life expectancy by several years. For example, 150 minutes of exercise or more each week increased life expectancy by about seven years over those who are moderately active. This benefit was seen regardless of weight, age, sex and health conditions.”
Nine more years? Sounds Iike a no brainer, does it not? I know I can die from a heart attack this afternoon or get it by a drunk driven tomorrow morning. My point is” “Why not do the things you can control to increase the odds of living a longer life?
So why the Bagger Challenge as the mean to exercising for health reasons? Simply:
- It is close and unique.
- I can do it with my wife, my kids and my friends.
- I can make it competitive if I want to earn bragging rights.
- It is challenging.
- I get a chance to learn new skills.
Those who have trained for any type of competition, be it a 10 km, a marathon, an Ironman or a local Gran Fondo will spot the obvious omission on the list above: “Because the Bagger Challenge provides me with a goal.” It is one thing to say “I am training” and quite another to say “I am training for X.” Define X as you wish. I was professionally coached for over ten years and know countless amateur athletes who have a coach.
It is a very well known fact within that community that having a specific goal provides increased motivation to exercise, and that goal should be an event goal. You are more likely to run your first 10 km event if you sign up for it, tell your friends and get a training plan for it than you are to lose five pounds if you tell yourself on January 1st: “I would like to lose five pounds.”
For me, X is doing all the Compleatest Peaks (as defined in the Bagger Challenge rules) in 2021. I have no desire to do earn any Water Bags, True Bags or Gift Bags, again as defined in the Bagger Challenge rules. I have no desire to do all the spring peaks in the spring. If my goal is to climb 73 peaks around Vancouver, BC in 2021 and I announce it publicly, then I increase my motivation to achieve this goal and the derivative will be increased fitness and in the final analysis, one more step towards staying healthy. It is no different than when I wrote in February 2012 “Why I Am Riding Sixteen Out Of The Twenty Stages Of The Tour De France” and went out and did it (and then some).
The second reason I am writing this post, as mentioned above, is to share my experience with my fellow newbie baggers. This second reason is motivated by a response I got from a fellow Bagger to one of my posts on the group’s Facebook page. I wrote about the importance of consistency of training and the need to train between hiking to a Bagger’s peak. One of the responses was:
I love the idea of bagging new peaks to me, and I don’t want newcomers intimidated that this is solely a group for people who oh I dunno cycle over from White Rock, then do 3000m elevation gain to summit 11 peaks, and then cycle back to Langley.
I thoroughly understand this point.
As mentioned earlier, I have done multiple multi-day cycling events, including seven-day events which involved over 850 kilometers of riding and over 20,000 meter of ascent. The most famous of these cycling events are from Haute Route, a sporting events management company based in Lausanne, Switzerland. I had the pleasure and privilege of running their operations in North America between 2016 and 2019.
When cyclists ask me to define the profile of the Haute Route riders, I always give the same answer: at the front, there are a handful of ex-pros racing the event, at the back there are a few people trying to complete as much of the distance each day as possible given their ability, and in the middle, the vast majority will finish each stage but they are not truly racing or racing at all. They likely challenge themselves and their friends here and there, but in the end, they are mainly there to finish and say: “I did the Haute Route.”
To me, the Haute Route peloton is 100% comprised of winners, riders who pushed themselves, no matter their ability and fitness level. Hiking is like cycling: “It never gets easier, it only gets faster.” On a 150 kilometer bike event or a hike with 1,200 meters of ascent, the only thing that differentiates us is time to the finish line, and quite frankly, those who take the most amount of time are the true heroes to me. The Bagger Challenge reminds me of the Haute Route and the profile of the participants is pretty much the same in terms of ability and goals.
I did events which consisted in a small group of cyclists riding the same stages as the pros during races in the US. One good example of these events the eight stages of the Tour of California in 2012. One of the privilege we had was to stay in the same hotels as the pros and we got to have dinner with them. I remember them well telling us: “You guys are the true heroes. Your peloton consists of 25 riders and ours has 150 riders. You spend five to six hours a day on your bike and we spend 3:30 hours on our bike. You get up at 5 am to get to the finish line before we catch you and we get to wake up at 8:30 am.” This always stayed with me.
Closer to home, there is a hike I really like doing in North Vancouver. With my 22 year old son, it takes us 2:05 hrs to do the hike. With my wife, it takes us 3:20 hrs. Is her accomplishment lesser than my son’s? I do not think so.
So Baggers, never lose sight of why you are doing the Bagger Challenge and keep in mind: “Your goals and achievements are just as worthy as everyone else’s.” Take it from me who is someone who has spent the last fifteen years writing about this topic, participating in, organizing and managing multi-day amateur bike races where I have the pleasure to interact with thousands of amateur athletes. I understand your profile, I understand your challenges, I understand your ambitions.
Just get out when you can, move around and stay active and healthy.