Recap
starting weight: 214.5
ending weight: 212.5
total mileage : 242.8
total calories burned on bicycle : 16609

The last two weeks have been extremely busy with work related matters. I’ve shuffled some things around and should be able to increase my weekly mileage as I work towards the double century without too many more hassles.  Points of interest while cycling the last few weeks was a day where we rode to the top of Mt. Diablo via the North Gate entrance, rode down to the bottom of Mt. Diablo via the South Gate road and rode back to the top again.

Interesting site seen while cycling in the last two weeks, along with huge “herds” of turkeys, I saw two squirrels aggressively making an effort to bring new squirrels into the world.

Weekly Recap:
starting weight: 219
ending weight: 214.5
total mileage for the week: 107.6
total calories burned this week on the bicycle: 7365

Weekly Recap:
starting weight: 225
ending weight: 219
total mileage for the week: 74.6
total ride time for the week : 05:08:51
total calories burned this week on the bicycle: 5588

Monthly Recap:
starting weight: 242
ending weight: 219
total mileage for the month: 494.3
total ride time for the month: 13:20:05
total calories burned this month on the bicycle: 37,757

Overall it was a pretty good month, the total mileage on the Cannondale is up to 5,324 miles, and it is still trucking along just fine. I need to spend some time adjusting the front brakes, and tuning the shifting a bit but that’s normal stuff. Colin has been giving me a hard time about having a rack and a rack bag on my bike but that rack has been following me around for the last 5324 miles and it’s never complained once so I’m inclined to leave it right where it is.

starting weight : 229.5
ending weight : 225
total mileage for the week : 75.7
total ride time for the week : 06:29:05
total calories burned this week on the bicycle : 7987

Hopefully the weather will cooperate a little more this week and I can get out and put some miles on, if not, I’m right in the middle of Spook Country by William Gibson and it’s starting to get good! Well that’s it for the week, go ride your bike.

starting weight : 234.5

ending weight : 229.5

total mileage for the week : 138.6

total ride time for the week : 9:29:17

total calories burned this week while bicycling : 9273

I’ve started doing a bit of weight lifting and some core work in addition to my bicycling and boxing. With any luck this will help when the mileage starts to get longer. That’s all for the week, go ride your bike.

Not a lot to report this week about things other than mileage, and that I’m having a good time training at the moment. It provides a nice break in my day and gives me a chance to clear my head each day. I’m also focusing on my diet trying to shed some weight to help ease the effort required per mile, it seems cheaper than buying a lighter bike. So I’ll probably be giving information about that when I do these weekly updates.

Information of interest for the first week of 2010 were :

starting weight : 242 lbs (Unfortunately,  I weighed in the evening for the starting weight, and in the morning for the ending weight. This skews the results for this week, but all future weighing will be done first thing in the morning)

ending weight : 234.5

total mileage : 124.2

total ride time for the week : 9:40:14

total calories burned this week while bicycling : 8,622

When I went up to Washington to be with Mom and Dad while he was dealing with cancer my Dad gave me his old Centurion Elite, the frame is a little big for me but it actually fits quite well once I’m up in the saddle. So one day to get Dad out of the house we went over to REI in Redmond and picked up parts for the Yakima rack for the Honda and got parts for me to get the bicycle back on the road. I rode it a few times while I was in Washington but then Dad’s health really started to go downhill and leaving the house became more difficult to do. I brought the Centurion home and have been using it to do riding and run errands like going to the post office, it’s a good solid bike, very comfortable and has a rather unique personality after having spent the last few years on Cannondales.

Anyways, I popped up to BART and rode out to Millbrae and the rode down to San Mateo to Mike’s place and we went down to the bike path along the shore and rode south to Sun’s campus then across to Palo Alto for lunch. Then we went through Woodside and back up Canada road to a bike path and then dropped back down into San Mateo along what I think was CrystalSprings Road. We talked for a bit and then I headed back to BART on the bicycle to catch a train and get home.

It was a good day and I had a lot of fun, got a sunburn but I got to lose myself for a while and just ride. The best part was that when I got home Amy had found my cycling shoes so that search is over and I can get to doing some serious riding. I had a great laugh with Mike on the ride when I told him that when I was riding regularly I spent more time at gas stations than anywhere else. Gas stations being the best place to buy water and fuel for the next 20 miles, it brings back good memories for me.

So the ride was most excellent and today I’m pretty tired but it was definitely a highlight of the last several months.

I went back and forth in my head on which bike to take and ended up taking the fixed gear but flipped it over to the freewheel side for some single speed love without all of the drama. After some logistical issues we finally ended up in the same parking lot and were able to eventually meet up using cell technology and successive approximation. Pleasantries were exchanged and we set off to the south.

Now it’s a funny thing, I haven’t ridden in MONTHS, except for a couple of mountain bike rides in Marin with the fellas out there and I’m just wanting to keep up with Mike. Mike has ridden the loop we’re going to be doing pretty regularly and has had 150 mile weekends at least once in the last 2 months. So I’m just trying to stay up next to him and keep myself from burning out. However every time I pull up next to him he goes a little bit faster, pretty soon we’re cooking right along.

We made pretty good time to the midway point for the day’s ride and then pulled in at a gas station and raided the convenience store attached to it and sat under a tree coming up with the next big idea that was going to make us fabulously frustrated in our inability to actually finish the project. (Always keep in mind that these are the same pair of minds that brought you cackl.com – I came up with the domain name, he did all the work ) Anyways we started back and Mike began to point out places that he had taken breaks before, the closer we got to being done the more he pointed out premium resting spots. “Joel, If you need a break, we can pull over here so you can recover”

Now I appreciated this but I didn’t want to be the one to take a break so I just kept trying to keep up with him and he kept going faster every time I got alongside of him. We finally made it back to our starting point and got the bikes put away and headed to Fuddruckers for a bite to eat before we went our separate ways. It was during this meal that Mike said “I haven’t ever ridden that trail that fast, but I was trying to keep up with you”..”Huh? I was trying to keep up with you!?”..I suppose that’s the danger of having unchecked feedback loops.

Please note: the events of this story might be slightly altered as I tangled with some Jagermeister, Black Horse, and Macallans last night and I think the three of them pretty much beat the hell out of me. Mike’s version of the events might be different and most likely a lot more amusing than my mine.

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”.

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 )

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.

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.

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.

In April, once I have my base established and have regained some speed and strength, I’ll do my first century. I’ve assembled a tentative schedule for the next 13 months after that. I’m going to be riding a century a month and working on building up my strength, speed, etc. Most of the centuries through the spring, summer fall, will most likely be supported centuries, but into the winter the century schedule gets very thin and there aren’t a lot of supported centuries so some of these will probably need to be self-supported rides. This isn’t really a big deal though, during training for my first century a few years ago, I was regularly riding 85-90 miles on a Sunday long ride.

Please note : I’m not saying that I’m going to ride a total of 12 centuries so that they average out to 12 months, but I’m going to be riding 1 century each calendar month ( or as close to it as i can be there is one century that I was considering counting for  July of this year, that actually happens on the last weekend in June, but that might change. )  The idea here is that riding 12 centuries during century season isn’t that difficult given that you can get the time to take off every weekend for a couple of months to get it done, but that riding a century each month will keep me in shape year round without having to get crazy in the early part of the year with “building up my base” again.

So that’s it, now you have something to hold me to.  One century a month – 12 centuries for the 12 months between april 2008 and april 2009. I’ll be posting weekly mileage/training reports, and monthly recaps and hopefully chronicling my experience during this endeavor. Rock on!

(btw : My goals for 2009 aren’t complete yet, but all of this century riding through 2008 and into 2009 is working towards a goal of riding a double century sometime during 2009. )

I haven’t ridden serious in months and was amazingly out of shape. I started riding again on January 20th so the numbers for January are small, things have been picking up the first part of February and if things continue I should be in pretty good shape. We’ll see.

Total Mileage in January : 152.59 miles

Multigear Mileage : 140.59

Fixed Gear ( track bike ) Mileage : 12

Looks a little grim when I look at what I was doing weekly when I did the Foxy’s Fall classic a couple of years ago. Gotta get back into that kind of shape.

I read an interview last year with a doctor who ran a marathon each month, and had been doing so for quite a few years. His point was that if you did a marathon each month you didn’t have to go through periods of ramping up your training for multiple months to get in shape for a marthon, you are simply always in shape.

I have been thinking of trying this approach in my own training by riding a century each month. I think it’s easily doable and it allows me to add some variety to my training instead of always riding the same 20-30 routes. The only problems I can see with an organized century each month is that there are some gaps in the centuries around the winter. I imagine I’ll just have to do a few solo centuries in the winter to meet this goal.

We’ll have to see how that goes.

I now have coverage again and got out for a few days this week, I only put about 50 miles on the bike so it’s been a slow start. I am amazed at how quickly I lost my edge, I don’t know if I could ride the fixed gear to concord and back for a doctor appointment like I did two months ago. So I definitely have some catching up to do, i’ve got to get into better shape before school starts up again. The fixed gear is the transportation of choice for school days, so I need to be able to function after i ride it to pleasant hill.

The great thing about the riding this week? I got all of the tar/gravel off of my tires! See, I rode down Leland at the end of May and they were putting in some new AC, and the traffic was backed up. I jumped onto the sidewalk and rode down the sidewalk to bypass traffic, but at one point I rode on the new tar. This had the brilliant consequences of putting a 1/4″ to 3/8″ layer of tar and gravel onto my tires.

This had the effect of making my bike feel like what I imagine Fred Flintstone’s car felt like when he got used tires. It was bumpy as all hell, difficult to coast, etc. I tried to scrape it off while I was riding along with the bottom of my shoe, and it’d work ok, but the sticky tar would just pick up more gravel off of the road. Bumpity bumpty bump.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have luck scraping it off when I got home, and I couldn’t put the bike in the trainer like that because it would really screwup the trainer. I put the fixed gear in the trainer and rode that a few days, and that worked ok, but i would have preferred to have the cannondale for use in the trainer.

Anyways, the 50 miles this week wore off almost all of the tar. So i’m pretty much back to where I started from. Except now I’m really out of shape.

I’m going to start training for a double century ( 200 miles in a day ), this will get me ready for something I’m trying to do in the fall, plus it will probably help me drop my 100 mile ride times. I found a training plan for this and it projects about 16 weeks to get ready for a double. That will give me something to work towards until the middle of the summer. I’m not sure if I’ll do a double this year, but being in shape for one can’t hurt any.

The last two sunday mornings we’ve been conducting The Sunday Ride – East Bay Edition, however the East Bay Edition uses bicycles instead of motorcycles. It starts by meeting at the base of Mt. Diablo, at the Athenian School, for a ride up the mountain. Last week we turned around at Rock City. This week, I kept going after the others turned around. The plan was to ride to the junction, ( where the north and south gate roads meet, then head down the north gate road and home.

When I arrived at the junction, I thought I’d ride towards the summit for a while and turn around when I got tired. When I was within 2 miles of the summit I figured it was just as easy to go up as it was to go down.

When I was within 1000 feet of the top, i met “the ramp” or whatever it’s called. It’s STEEP. I’d heard some stories about the _the ramp_ over the last few months, so I was prepared for it, but perhaps I wasn’t as prepared as i thought I was, it’s a steep sumbitch. For example, i made it up a majority of the first leg of the day’s ride in my big chainring, had to drop down to the middle chainring for the last part of the second leg, and when I got to the ramp I wimped out and dropped to the third chainring and just put my head down and started pedaling. I pulled hard at one point going up the ramp, and the front wheel got a little light for a second. STEEP.

I made it to the top without walking and stood around for a few minutes and took in the view, made some phone calls, drank some water. You can see a lot of stuff from the summit on a clear day. It wasn’t crystal clear, but clear enough.

Once my CV system had caught up, I started back down the mountain, 10 miles of grabbing the brake. Not much fun. I hate going down mountains. A quick ride through walnut creek, concord, and then a quick hop home. Good ride.

I keep thinking i’m in good shape then I run into something like _the ramp_, or the back side of Morgan Territory, and it humbles me. However, it’s a great way to start a Sunday.

I was a little concerned about this ride, i didn’t get as much training as I would have liked, to prepare, and I was making seat adjustments the weekend before. I had a few pains in my knees on the rides and i was trying to find the right front/back position for the saddle. The Brooks sits a little different than the original saddle, and I got it as close as I could, but I could tell on 70+ mile rides that it wasn’t quite right. Making adjustments this late in the game is a little unnerving but I couldn’t see me completing DV if I didn’t get it sorted out.

Drove down to DV friday morning, drove through Kern River Canyon, past Lake Isabella, through Ridgecrest and into the desert. It was a nice drive with some great views, but I was glad to be out of the car. My parents came up to meet us and to keep Amy company while I was riding on saturday. We grabbed dinner, put a Stephen King book in the ipod and went to sleep listening to Dink talk about his job.

Up early saturday morning, instant breakfast and cheerios, air up the tires, stretch, make sure what i’m wearing is going to be the right layers for the day’s weather and i’m off for the starting line. Rode up and the 6:40 group was leaving so I just jumped onto the back of that group and headed out.

The ride from Furnace Creek Ranch to Badwater was a good warmup ( ~18 miles ), i had a little bit of knee discomfort to start the morning but that seems to be typical. Pulling into the first rest stop, i filled up one water bottle, stretched again and hit the road.

The second leg of the ride was pretty flat, it had some great scenery and just seemed to take care of itself, however I noticed that i was starting to go through my liquids at a much faster rate. Things were going along just fine singing 70’s show tunes to myself when out of nowhere, about 35 miles into the ride, a fixed gear passed me, “how’d she do that?”.

Pulling into the second rest stop, i drank down my second bottle, refilled both of them and jumped back on, no time for dallying I wanted to get to the turn around point as quickly as possible.

Riding out of the second rest stop I hit the grade up to jubillee pass within a 1/2 mile, it would be about 7 miles of climbing before I reached the summit. I started pulling, on the middle chain ring, but after a while dropped to the low one ( i have a touring rig remember ) and started spinning up the hill. Not terribly fast, but I didn’t know how I was gonna hold up later on in the ride, especially since I felt a bit out of shape to be doing a century. So I settled back for the climb and looked at the sights, about 3.5 miles into the climb when things started getting steeper, that fixed gear passed me again. It appears that I made it out of the rest stop before she did, she wasn’t even puffing up the hill just climbing. “Goodness gracious she’s in good shape”.

I made it to the top of the pass, refilled a bottle with some sort of supplement stuff from Hammer Nutrition and started back down. The down hill was fun and I was feeling great, I was over halfway and i was feeling pretty good, i remember thinking “well theride back will be a good solid ride, but it’s not gonna be too bad”. I hit the bottom of the hill and the bike pointed north and WHAM!, headwind ( 10-20mph ).

I pulled into the rest stop, refilled, had a snack and got back on the road, for the next 27 miles I battled that headwind. It was brutal, every time i got to the top of a hill and thought i’d get a nice rest going down the other side, it wasn’t to be I had to pedal downhill to make any headway. I just couldn’t get a head of steam going and just spent most of the time watching for the next hour marker so I could get off the bike and take a break.

When I finally pulled into the final rest stop, I had a 1/2″ of water in my last water bottle, and was completely wiped out. I had a peanut butter sandwich, a coke, and drank a bunch of water. I was dehydrated and feeling the workout the wind had just given me. The worst part, some smartass was flying a kite at Badwater, so I knew there was no respite on the final leg of the ride. 18 more miles of wind to go.
After a 1/2 hour rest, and my first pee break of the day ( see, it’s a dry place ) I headed out. At this point it was just stubborness that kept me going, the damned wind knew I wasn’t prepared for this ride, and was going to punish me the whole way back. Head down, and my jaw set, I eked out mile after mile, the views sucked now, no more shadows, it was just the same view mile after mile. In the desert you can see the road 10 miles away..it just keeps GOING AND GOING AND GOING…

I finally made it to the only stop sign in the entire 105 miles of the course, and promptly ran it, as I made a left turn towards the finish line. 1/3 mile later I see my mom, dad and Amy standing alongside the finish line waiting for me. I went and checked in, grabbed a couple of cokes and some oranges and headed back to the room for a shower and a change of clothes.

My Dad asked me that night at dinner, “you gonna do this ride again?”..”I donno, i’d like them to schedule the ride without a howling wind next time”.

The first ride was rather shaky, but i quickly got myself able to start, stop on the bike ( no track stands just yet ). Then I stood up on the pedals and rode up to the top of the street, tried to coast and it INSTANTLY reminded me that coasting is for wimps. Then headed back down the hill and got used to the idea of using my legs to slow the bike. The bike came with brakes which, while not being “pure”, is a necessity for me.

Once I had acclimated to the bike, I made sure that things were screwed down and tire pressure was good and headed to work. Got to my first sizable hill and really had to dig in to get up the hill. Once at the top of the hill there was a nice stretch of road and I was able to start hammering and the bike responded instantly and took off faster than Barbaro ( RIP ) on EPO.

I made it to work, then to class, then home without much incident, a few spooky moments as I am not used to riding a bike you’re not allowed to coast on, but overall it wasn’t bad, in fact, it was kinda fun. I can see why people get addicted to them, they have a different feel than a regular bike, a really connected feeling.

I haven’t been eating as many carbs for the last few weeks and it’s had a huge impact on my riding. ( no i’m not on a low/no carb diet, i’ve just been eating less overall, but i think it’s the lack of carbs that’s killing me ) Basically i’ve felt like a slug out on the bike the last few weekends. I only rode 45 miles last weekend, over Kirker Pass Rd, through to Walnut Creek, then up to the junction on Mt. Diablo and back down. I rode SO SLOW.

This weekend wasn’t much better, I started off at a better pace, but by the time I got to Morgan Territory I was beat, and only made it 3 miles up the south side before I realized that I had better reevaluate my plan because I was heading for a 100 mile day if I stayed true to the plan I made when i left. Now this didn’t scare me that much, but it would mean that there’d be a lot of riding done in the dark because I didn’t get started till late and I wasn’t riding too well. So i abandoned the plan. Ended up with an 82 mile day. The strange thing was that at about mile 63 out of NOWHERE came “the freight train”.

The “freight train” is a term I used as a kid when i’d be on these LONG rides and I’d be pushing a headwind, uphill, and have to get into the drops and pedal my ass off for a few hours. It’s just making the pure effort, no thought about when it’s over, you’re just a machine beating the hell out of the pavement, and the wind.

Anyways, most times that i have these days where I feel like a slug I can actually get myself into a state, fire up the “freight train” and start eating miles. The last two weekends it’s been rough.

I’m tired, and blithering so i’ll shut up now.

Overall the ride was a huge success, I have a bit of knee pain today, mostl because when it’s cold it’s hard to keep the body limber during rest stops, the rest stops on the route were easily the longest i’ve stopped on my over 50 mile rides. As a result of this i kept having to get _re_warmed up. Well during one of these I probably pushed a little hard right out of the rest stop. There was a hill and it was warmer than it had been, and people kept getting in the way, so I attacked the hill, probably wasn’t the best idea. I think things will be fine in a few days, then I can get back to commuting.

I think that’s it for centuries this year, there’s a ride in Solvang that might be a good ride in November, but that falls among some important birthdays so I probably won’t commit to anything. So if nothing else comes up maybe I’ll do the Century in Death Valley in February, that could be a lot of fun 8-).

Ride distance for yesterday : 106.77 miles

Ride Time for yesterday : 7hrs17minutes.

NEXT!

I woke up around 8:30am Sunday morning, my birthday, ate some breakfast, then suited up and hit the road. I’d been training for this ride for the last few months, and even though i had this nagging cold i was gonna give it my best shot. I wasn’t worried about the mileage ( 72 miles ) as much as I was worried about the altitude, and the cold bug I had picked up.

The temperature was rather low so I wore a flannel over my cycling jersey as I pedaled west out of South Lake Tahoe, CA, for a clockwise trek around the lake. I hit Emerald Bay about an hour later, and was up and over that in no time. I had a few more hills to deal with and was afraid to really push hard on the hills because I wasn’t sure what was coming, and i was still leery about the oxygen and the headcold.

After the second hour i started to feel pretty warmed up and ready to start pushing, I was averaging around 17mph through the flat areas heading into Tahoe City then hit some hills and decided to start pushing a bit. Nothing broke. So I kept at it, and was hovering around 3 hours at the 40 mile mark when Amy caught up with me.

A quick refuel, some discussion about logistics and she was off again and so was I. I found the hills I had forgotten about from the ride 23 years earlier. The climb from North Shore to hwy 50 isn’t steep but it’s a LONG sumbitch, this was the part of the ride that was nearly my undoing when I was 10 years old. I just grabbed a comfortable gear and pedaled. Not trying to break any records, just pedal.

I caught up with Amy around 55 miles into the ride, and told her to just head back into town I wouldn’t need any more refuels for the rest of the ride and she could get tickets for the comedy show that night. Quick refuel, pedal pedal pedal…

I remember thinking that the few completely flat training rides i took were good preparation for these hills, because they weren’t especially hard, but required constant pedaling. You can’t coast in these situations, just keep pedaling, it’ll be over eventually.

So I hit hwy 50 and was coasting down the road at about 40mph with no cars really passing me or anything, nothing really crazy to report about the rest of the ride. I hit some hills that required me to work a little, and hit stateline passing traffic like it was standing still ( it was ). Rolled up to the hotel room with a total riding time of 5hrs 27minutes.

I’m pretty happy with my performance, I hadn’t intended to be doing this type of riding again when I bought this bike, but it’s just sorta happened. I like to think I started riding longer distances on the weekends to make the commutes to work easier, but I think there’s a large element of enjoying riding. I’d like to try some longer distance riding at some point. Who knows, maybe next year i’ll ride to Tahoe, then ride around the lake. That could be fun.

I’ve been riding the bicycle regularly since the end of June and have now logged over 1000 miles. I rode 88 miles this last Saturday, not very hilly though. I’m preparing for a ride around lake tahoe ( 72 miles ) in october, and then the next weekend a 100 mile ride in the davis area. The training has been pretty straighforward, i’m no longer taking bart to concord, but am riding down highway 4 and getting about 18 miles a day of riding in. There’s a few good hills and some good flat stuff, so i’m getting a great bit of training in every day. I tend to push myself during the week, and then just go with what’s comfortable on the weekends. That said, I did 77 miles in a little under 5 hours on saturday, then met up with Amy in Pleasant Hill and rode back to Baypoint with her.

The century ( 100 mile ride ) in october is my big ride for the year i guess. I don’t think i’ll be doing any more centuries during 2006 but that could change. I’m going to pull back on my weekend mileage a bit, and try to increase my speed and do some more interval training on the weekends, but I also need to spend some time riding with Amy and help her get some mileage under her belt. That’s hard to do when i’m going out and riding 75-90 miles on the one day when she can go riding with me.

Some people have made comments about how fast i’ve been able to get back into high mileage riding, however I have a few responses to that.

1. I’m commuting to work every day ( or at least 4 days a week ) on the bicycle, and though it’s only 13-18 miles per day depending on the route, riding every day has a dramatic effect on your strength/stamina.
2. I’m not just riding to work, but pushing myself towards my limits every day of my commute. I don’t get a lot of miles on my commute so i’m trying to make the most of them by really pushing myself.
3. 100 miles is not really high mileage. It’s a good goal but it’s not that far. Look at the double centuries, randonneurs, brevets, Firecreek 508 and other high mileage rides. 100 miles is a great goal, and a good amount of distance for your first year of riding, or even your first 4 months back on the bike in 22 years.
4. I’ve been here before, i was riding centuries when I was 9 years old on an all-steel “girls” bike. It’s amazing what the body remembers, and how easily it jumps back into old routines.

Let’s see what else has been going on. I’ve been working on a C# windows application using windows forms for a client. I have been trying to figure out the best approach to using MVC in C#, the approach that I ended up having to use in VB6 is not really applicable/possible in the windows forms world. I’ve almost got it figured out but it’s required me to dig back into my texts and relearn everything i thought i knew about MVC. I might put together some more notes here when I get things where i’m happy with them.

Someone gave me a 14-day free trial to eve online. The game is really cool, but it’s apparent that one could lose a lot of time playing it.

Let’s see what else….oh been doing some work with Smarty on php, i kinda like it. When it was first mentioned to me, i didn’t see that it was terribly useful, and to some extent it wasn’t with the framework that i’ve put together for php, but at the same time, extending the framework and little bit and dropping it in there, makes the separation between developer/html-monkey that much clearer.

I’ve also been doing some work with Mysql5. I’ve used mysql for a few years off and on, written a bunch of apps on it, but have always thought of it as a hobby database. Postgresql is the clear big dog of the open source db management systems. However, mysql, for whatever reason, has a lot more traction, i don’t quite get it, but whatever. So i’ve been spending some time getting up to speed on mysql5 because it’s now starting to have some interesting features, although they are still FAR behind postgres on the extensibility front. Not to mention the command syntax for the cli is easier in postgres ( fewer keystrokes ).