Joel Hainley : San Francisco Bay Area Software Consultant

I haven’t been doing enough bicycle riding for the last six months. Because of this, riding my fixed gear as my “daily driver” was becoming more and more difficult. So I decided to change my main cog until I get back into shape. While I was ordering parts I also put a freewheel cog on the other side of the fixed hub. Just in case there’s times that being able to coast would be useful.

After I put on the new cog I got a call to meet Frank for beers over at the golf course. I had a couple of other errands I had to run and thought it’d be a good test ride. After the beers, it was dark as I headed across town and picked up some materials I needed at home depot.  The Iron Horse trail runs right past the home depot, and there’s an access point very close to there. The only problem with the access point is that there’s not a lot of light at night to see what’s going on.

When I rode onto the trail through this access point I wasn’t able to see very well. So I was a little startled when I heard something running and realized I had scared a cat as it was running along the trail. Unfortunately, there is a fence along the other side of the trail with no way for a cat to get out.  So as I approached the cat it stopped running and turned around to start running back towards me. The cat then realized it was getting closer to me and turned towards the fence to try and get away.

It was at this moment that I realized that the kitty had two white stripes running down its black back and a very bushy tail. It was also apparent that as I was rolling towards him that Pepe was assuming a fully-defensive posture and charging the main guns. I realized in that moment two things, stopping would put me directly next him, and the only thing that I could do was speed up get as far towards the other side of the trail as poosible and hope.

Thankfully, that ended up being enough. I heard the spray hitting the fence leaves behind me as I swept past and spent the next few minutes laughing about the whole thing and thinking about how interesting it would have been to actually get sprayed. Not because that sounds like fun, but I was actually on my way to the BART station to catch a ride back over the hill towards home. It would have been hysterical to see how fast everyone in a BART car would leave if I walked on “freshly annointed”.

So I haven’t written about the CPMC since may. I finished the ride in May and was starting to feel that I wasn’t prepared mostly due to the fact that my recovery times from the century were about 1.5 weeks and then I had very little time for building more of a base before I had to taper down for the next century.

Between this and having a lot of work starting to come in, I chose to cut the challenge short this year and spend the rest of the year building my base back up to the levels I had when I was commuting every day. Unfortunately, I stopped riding completely for two months to focus on work which killed the base that I had.

I’m now getting back on the bike, and I’ve added a new element to my riding, a mountain bike. This has been a lot of fun, because I’ve been able to find some people to go riding with me on Wednesday evenings out in Marin and I’ve been getting great workouts while seeing some beautiful scenery.

So, the current plan for CPMC is to prepare to try again next year starting in January. I know this is going to be difficult because january to march are the worst months to ride in Northern California. I don’t mind the rain as much as I get tired of being wet for two hours a day while I’m training. ( then again, maybe that’s minding the rain )

Stage 2 of the CPMC ( Century Per Month Challenge ). This century didn’t come at the best time for me. I was right in the middle of finals for some classes I took this semester, in fact I had a final on Saturday and then another on Monday with the MSC sandwiched right in between. I also had a final the previous monday so I’ve been spending a fair amount of time hitting the books and haven’t had a good amount of time for training.

Two weeks before the century I bought some new tires for the bike, a new chain, and did some much needed maintenance. The chain had over 3500 miles on it definitely time for a change if it’s responsible for pulling me around. I found some Vittoria Randonneur tires at a sports shop in Walnut Creek, I had just worn out a Randonneur Cross and had good luck with it so I decided to buy a pair and start all over on the tire thing. I’ve still got a kevlar beaded tire that I can fold up and throw in my bag if I feel the need. I also finally got some saddle ointment for the brooks saddle and gave that a good wipedown.

Anyways, I got up at 5:30 or so and got ready to get to vacaville for the ride, for whatever reason I got out of the house a little later than I wanted to and was about a half-hour late getting started on the ride. Although I suspect that I was actually a little later than most of the people because I didn’t see many people on the ride and I was definitely at the back with the guys who were right at the edge of their abilities for doing this ride. Then again, given the amount of training I’ve done perhaps that’s where I belonged.

The ride started out very similar to Foxy’s Fall Classic, in fact, the metric century for MSC followed a large portion of the route for Foxy’s but the standard century went over to Yountville then up through the hills to reconnect back up with the route that goes up the road on the south side of Lake Berryessa. Now given that at least 50 miles of the route was similar to Foxy’s coupled with the fact that I really REALLY liked Foxy’s you’d think that I would have liked this ride.

I didn’t.

It’s not the organizers fault but this weekend was the first HOT weekend of the year here in the lovely state of Northern California. The ride did a lot of twisty mountain roads that happen to be the roads that people drag their boats to the lake on. So I spent most of the day listening for either motorcyclists doing time trials on 1.5 lane roads, or the sounds of a boat trailer coming down the road and holding my breath waiting for a mirror or a part of the trailer to knock me off my bike. It never happened but I don’t think it was due to the skill of anyone’s driving, or my brilliant bike handling skills ( i don’t have any ), it was just pure dumb luck.

Now the difference between this and Foxy’s is, Foxy’s happens in October, there aren’t a lot of boats out on the water in October, so most of the traffic around the route at that time is motorcycles. Bicyclists and motorcyclists have an uneasy truce, the roads that are fun to ride your bicycle on, are the same roads that motorcyclists enjoy. While we’re both looking for the same thing “getting onto roads that dont’ have a lot of SUV’s with fake-titted, lipo-suctioned, late-30’s cougars talking on their cell phones, yelling at the kids and attempting to drive”, we just don’t seem to gel too well in most cases. I rarely tell the bicylists that I have a harley, and I never tell the harley guys that I wear spandex and ride my bicycle farther in a day than they have ridden their motorcycle during the previous winter. So we tolerate each other.

The ride could be great, I mean..a really enjoyable ride, but I’m just not sure it’s the right time of year for this ride. I’d love to see MSC put the ride on in January or February, but I imagine it’s hard to get a lot of people out for rides in winter.

Back to the ride. I pulled out at around 7am and felt like I had never ridden a bicycle before. I forced myself to spin for the first 5 miles until I had the blood pumping, then I grabbed a couple of gears and settled into a 14mph pace. I know, I know, I’m slow..I’m so far off  my mark..however, I was riding 12mph by the end of the day so I think I held up pretty good as far as pace is concerned.

I rode up to the first rest stop with a couple of side trips to take a leak along the way. I  knew the day was going to be hot and I wanted to make sure I was hydrated so I drank a lot the two days before. That ended up being a good decision because by the time I got to the end of the ride it was HOT. Hit the first rest stop got some more water a banana and was on my way again. Climbed over a hill and then rode into Yountville for the second rest stop. This one was in a park, very nice place. I don’t know that I’ve ever been in downtown Yountville before but it looked familiar, just like downtown Colusa. And to whoever the girl was that was at the rest stop that I couldn’t stop staring at..thank  you. I spent the rest of the ride thinking I’d catch you at each successive rest stop..it kept me moving.

The road out of the rest stop was really nice, but ended up connecting to 29. It was only a couple of minutes on 29, when I saw the turn for Oakville Grade with a sign (Trucks Not Recommended) I laughed and cheered I have ridden up that monster on my bicycle and my motorcycle and the engines in both of them groaned a little when I did it. Fortunately we weren’t going that way today, instead continuing on 29 until we hit Oakville Cross Road for a quick trip back across the valley. (Silver Oak Winery is on that road..Frank, next time you’re up there for a day of drinking and driving you have to stop there ).

From there we climbed up past Lake Hennessey a very nice road, although it was terribly busy. Then split left and road up along a river for a while, I think I’ve been on that road before on the Harley when Tina and I went riding for the day but I’m not  entirely sure. I know for sure the right we took that went way back up in the hills was new to me, that was a very nice road. I enjoyed this part of the ride the most until I got to the portion between the last rest stop and the end.

There was a water stop in the middle of nowhere, and I talked to the radio operator there for a couple of minutes, then headed out for the next rest stop which was lunch. That’s sort of an odd thing about this ride. The lunch stop was 68 miles into the days riding. That seemed a little long to me, like it might have been better to put  rest stop with some more substantial food items near Lake Hennessey but perhaps that wasn’t possible.

Anyways, they did have Coke’s at the lunch stop. Something Chico Velo missed at the lunch stop and at the end of the ride. I know people go different ways with caffeine when riding but I’m a big fan of caffeine and when I’m out of my long weekend rides I almost always stop at some convenience store and get a coke at some point in the ride. MSC got this one right..they also had peanut butter sandwiches..something I haven’t seen on a ride since Foxy’s..you HAVE to have PB sandwiches on these rides people.

Coming out of lunch it was a bunch of climbing, a water stop, and more climbing, and then rollers into the third rest stop.  I love and hate this rest stop it’s a park right along the river, really great spot, however when you’re all done and get ready to leave the park you make a left then climb a hill. I hated it on Foxy’s and I didn’t like it any more this time around. Instead of the left to head back to Davis that you get for Foxy’s you head straight on Pleasant Valley Road ( i think? ) and follow that all the way back into Vacaville and let me just go on record as saying that it’s a really nice enjoyable segment of the ride. I’d be inclined to park at vacaville and ride out to the park/river on that road and then back to vacaville again as just a nice relaxing afternoon on the bike.

I arrived back at the finish to find that Fenton’s had already left ( they were giving away ice cream ) had some tri-tip and a bunch of water, packed my bike and headed for home.

Total Mileage for the day just a little over 98 miles.

Chico Velo’s Wildflower Century was the start of my quest to ride a century a month for the next year. My cousin lives in Chico along the park and offered to let me stay at her place Saturday night so I went up Saturday afternoon. We stopped by the registration desk the night before so I was able to pickup my water bottle, t-shirt, bandana/map, wristband and other stuff. CV had some stuff sacks made up with the wildflower logo on them which was a very cool idea. Then I took her out to dinner, we visited for a while then I went to bed so that I could be up early and ready for my ride by 6am.

Waking up the next morning, I had my usual pre-century breakfast of cheerios and instant breakfast and decided to ride over to the fairgrounds instead of just picking up the ride as it passed close to where I was staying. I was a little nervous about the ride I’ve been really busy with work and travel and haven’t had a lot of time to train so I was a little concerned about how things would go. So I came up with a gameplan, “ride slow until after lunch”, I wouldn’t start pushing until after the hills were over and I was into the flats.

I rode to the fairgrounds, then did a u-turn and dropped in behind a group of people heading out, forcing myself not to pass them, to simply hang out and enjoy the ride..100 miles to go. I whistled Leave It To Beaver most of the day. The first climb after leaving town was up some dying road which reminded me of some of the worse parts of Morgan Territory road. Back down highway 32 to head towards Honey Run Road was fun..I passed lots of people while coasting. I carry spares of a lot of things on centuries mostly out of habit, because when I train, i tend to train alone, and I’m always trying to be sure I can make it home without having to call in a favor to get picked up in some remote part of the bay area. Carrying spares and some cytomax packets ( in case they run out..like adventure corps did in Death Valley Spring last year..nothing like riding into the last rest stop and finding out they only have coke and electrolyte tabs for your break ). All of the stuff I carry gives me a little more weight to pull up hills, but makes the downhills more fun! ;-).

Honey Run Road was humbling for some, I saw a joker riding a multi-gear that didn’t have a gear bigger than my fixed gear and was struggling up Honey Run. It was nice and cool going up Honey Run Road, and since I had my game plan I dropped to my climbing ring and just whistled my way up the hill. Looking at the views across the valley and the occasional view passing me .., “lots of purdy girls on this ride..might have to do this next year”

Arriving in Paradise I sent a note to Dad telling him I had reached the top of Honey Run, last time him and I rode up this hill I was 9 years old, he still twitches when we talk about it. I rolled into the first rest stop and had to deal with a few logistical things, water, food, bathroom, and I saw a few Diablo Cyclists in their jerseys standing around. I almost talked to them, I’d like to start riding their wednesday evening ride up Mt. Diablo with them but I’ve been too busy with things to really commit to that.

Most of the rest of the ride before lunch was characterized by “heat, climbing, heat, climbing”. Table Mountain was only nice when I realized I was the top, the climb wasn’t bad, but the heat sucked. There was a Ham sitting at the top assisting with communications for the ride, but he looked a little lost among all the cyclists and I was afraid if I started a radio conversation with him I’d be there two hours later.

It was a coast into lunch after that, then it was a coast into the farmlands, and from there it was sorta like before lunch except it was, “heat”, “wind”, “flats”, “heat”, “wind”, “flats”, I perservered and finished up the ride at just over 8 hours of riding time for the day and a little under 9 hours of total time for the ride. Total mileage was just over 103 miles.

The first full month of the year back on the bike. I did some decent riding this month, but I’ve also been doing a fair amount of hiking. Between the hiking and the long rides on sundays I haven’t been riding the fixed gear as much. I am starting to feel a bit stronger and my speed is picking up. I’ve also picked up a spinning workout that lasts about an hour that I’m trying to do once a week to give me a chance to really workout my cardio. I think I’m going to be getting a heart rate monitor so that I can focus my workouts and get more out of the time I spend on the bike.

Total Mileage in February : 310.99 miles

Multigear Mileage : 299.99

Fixed Gear ( track bike ) Mileage : 11 miles

It’s a good start and double of what I rode in January. However, I’d like to get to about 500 miles a month by April that’ll give me a good amount of mileage for each week but allow for me to have really focused workouts.