When life knocks you down: land on your back
7 years ago
Monday, March 15, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
First Down!
No, not football. This is a cycling blog, remember? ;)
I'm proud to say after todays ride, I've already crossed 1,000 miles for the year so far! Madness? Insanity? Obsession? All a definite possibility, I'll admit. Ok, so really with where I live, cycling is pretty much a year round sport. Most rides have started out in 40 degree weather or above, and on the colder days, the winter gloves and booties I purchased for the new year have really come in handy. Cycling is so much nicer when you can feel your hands and feet. Any way you slice it, its been a great start to my cycling season.
Profile from today's ride. 70 miles, roughly 6,000ft of vertical.
I'm proud to say after todays ride, I've already crossed 1,000 miles for the year so far! Madness? Insanity? Obsession? All a definite possibility, I'll admit. Ok, so really with where I live, cycling is pretty much a year round sport. Most rides have started out in 40 degree weather or above, and on the colder days, the winter gloves and booties I purchased for the new year have really come in handy. Cycling is so much nicer when you can feel your hands and feet. Any way you slice it, its been a great start to my cycling season.
Profile from today's ride. 70 miles, roughly 6,000ft of vertical.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
Out with the old...
That time of year again... since I started keeping track of my mileage 8 months ago, I've managed to rack up a grand total of 5,754 miles for 2009. That's quite a few, especially considering when my personal comeback to cycling started off with an "I'm not sure how long or how far I'll ride" attitude.
I'm happy with my cycling progress to date. Ok, so I'm not the fastest rider or the best climber in my club. I still feel I've accomplished a lot this past year. The main milestones for me have been my weight loss (50 pounds!), and riding a 200k solo brevet ride.
Here's looking forward to what I can do in 2010!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Chasing Rainbows and Club Rides
Saturday, I woke up to funky weather central. When I took the dog out at 6am, there was already a light rain, well, ok, not quite a rain, more of a persistent mist, falling. No problem, I said to myself, this will clear up as soon as daylight breaks. Needless to say that didn't happen. By 8:30am there was an on again, off again light rain funk happening.
Not to worry, I got suited up in my rain jacket and put aside the thought of riding my "retro" ride (which is the only road bike I have sans fenders), and pulled down my Salsa Casseroll (which does sport fenders, nice long full ones at that), and rolled out to the meeting point for the club ride.
As I rode into the parking lot, I started scanning for cyclists maybe huddling under the eave of one of the storefront. It didn't take long for me to start murmuring "Bueller, Bueller, Bueller?" to myself. It seems the rain had kept the hardy souls (or is that soles) of the rest of the bike club at home, safely snuggled in their warm beds. As I was just about to give up, the ride leader of the day, Mike, spotted me from his car. Turned out he had come down with a cold a few days earlier, but drove down anyway to let folks know he couldn't lead the ride today. Kudos Mike! At least you made it to the start when it was just too wet for others to come out and play.
After chatting with Mike for a bit, and offering some route suggestions for next weekends ride, which is another ride he's leading, I set off, a club ride of one, down the road. I decided to do the ride that had been planned for the day, which isn't terribly hilly, but enough to "stretch the legs" a bit.
I don't remember the exact time the rain cleared out for good, but I think it was around 10am, an hour after the official start time of the club ride. I know I noticed other cyclists on the road by then in groups, before that I only saw one or two other riders out. After a stop for some bad coffee (they really need to get someone new brewing the mud at at the cafe, the young gentleman behind the counter looked more interested in reading his guitar magazine than taking my money or doing anything else related to the business at hand), I turned back and headed home.
No, I didn't actually see any rainbows during my ride, but you know what? It was a nice ride anyway. I was prepared for weather that kept others indoors. And by the way, how much rain does it take to shut down a club ride? Less than 1/10 of an inch. Yep, thats it. Most people probably get more water on them taking a shower.
So fender up! Pull on that rain jacket (come on, I know you have one, we all do!) and saddle up! You never know if there will be a rainbow around the next corner waiting for you if you don't get out there.
Not to worry, I got suited up in my rain jacket and put aside the thought of riding my "retro" ride (which is the only road bike I have sans fenders), and pulled down my Salsa Casseroll (which does sport fenders, nice long full ones at that), and rolled out to the meeting point for the club ride.
As I rode into the parking lot, I started scanning for cyclists maybe huddling under the eave of one of the storefront. It didn't take long for me to start murmuring "Bueller, Bueller, Bueller?" to myself. It seems the rain had kept the hardy souls (or is that soles) of the rest of the bike club at home, safely snuggled in their warm beds. As I was just about to give up, the ride leader of the day, Mike, spotted me from his car. Turned out he had come down with a cold a few days earlier, but drove down anyway to let folks know he couldn't lead the ride today. Kudos Mike! At least you made it to the start when it was just too wet for others to come out and play.
After chatting with Mike for a bit, and offering some route suggestions for next weekends ride, which is another ride he's leading, I set off, a club ride of one, down the road. I decided to do the ride that had been planned for the day, which isn't terribly hilly, but enough to "stretch the legs" a bit.
I don't remember the exact time the rain cleared out for good, but I think it was around 10am, an hour after the official start time of the club ride. I know I noticed other cyclists on the road by then in groups, before that I only saw one or two other riders out. After a stop for some bad coffee (they really need to get someone new brewing the mud at at the cafe, the young gentleman behind the counter looked more interested in reading his guitar magazine than taking my money or doing anything else related to the business at hand), I turned back and headed home.
No, I didn't actually see any rainbows during my ride, but you know what? It was a nice ride anyway. I was prepared for weather that kept others indoors. And by the way, how much rain does it take to shut down a club ride? Less than 1/10 of an inch. Yep, thats it. Most people probably get more water on them taking a shower.
So fender up! Pull on that rain jacket (come on, I know you have one, we all do!) and saddle up! You never know if there will be a rainbow around the next corner waiting for you if you don't get out there.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
25.52795031055900621118
That's the average miles per day since I started keeping track of my miles this year on May 23rd. And while just over 25 miles on a bike doesn't sound like far to most of the cycling folks I know, over time it adds up. Total miles ridden since May 23rd....
4110
Thats getting up there. One of the folks in the Club that I ride with know mentioned he had around 6000 for the year so far a few weeks back. While I was riding before the end of May, I hadn't kept track of the miles until then. I had other things on my mind with my wife's health at the time.
Anyway, its been great. I would have never thought I'd have ridden that distance when I started. Heck, I didn't really have a plan when I started keeping track of my mileage at all. I do remember during that first solid week where I started keeping track, thinking "I'm not sure how long I can keep riding, but I'll ride today and see how I feel tomorrow". All of a sudden it was a week later, and I had ridden every day that week. I then forced myself to take a day off, and started all over again.
23 weeks later, I'm still going. Every day hasn't been spectacular, I'll be honest about that. There were certainly days where I had to talk myself into going back out, especially when it was windier than normal, or the weather was bad or on the way to turning bad. Those days I'd remind myself of what I thought at the beginning of my real riding this year... "I'm not sure how long I can keep riding, but I'll ride today and see how I feel tomorrow", a few miles into the ride, I'd wonder what all the fuss was about anyway. I was out there, riding along, and happy for it.
It looks like I'll be crossing 5k miles for the year at this rate, as long as the weather holds out. We're headed into the rainy season here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm prepared for the rain. Fenders, rain jacket, lights, etc. I know at some point the weather won't be great as I prepare to head out. As long as I think back and remember "I'm not sure how long I can keep riding, but I'll ride today and see how I feel tomorrow.", I know I'll be fine.
4110
Thats getting up there. One of the folks in the Club that I ride with know mentioned he had around 6000 for the year so far a few weeks back. While I was riding before the end of May, I hadn't kept track of the miles until then. I had other things on my mind with my wife's health at the time.
Anyway, its been great. I would have never thought I'd have ridden that distance when I started. Heck, I didn't really have a plan when I started keeping track of my mileage at all. I do remember during that first solid week where I started keeping track, thinking "I'm not sure how long I can keep riding, but I'll ride today and see how I feel tomorrow". All of a sudden it was a week later, and I had ridden every day that week. I then forced myself to take a day off, and started all over again.
23 weeks later, I'm still going. Every day hasn't been spectacular, I'll be honest about that. There were certainly days where I had to talk myself into going back out, especially when it was windier than normal, or the weather was bad or on the way to turning bad. Those days I'd remind myself of what I thought at the beginning of my real riding this year... "I'm not sure how long I can keep riding, but I'll ride today and see how I feel tomorrow", a few miles into the ride, I'd wonder what all the fuss was about anyway. I was out there, riding along, and happy for it.
It looks like I'll be crossing 5k miles for the year at this rate, as long as the weather holds out. We're headed into the rainy season here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm prepared for the rain. Fenders, rain jacket, lights, etc. I know at some point the weather won't be great as I prepare to head out. As long as I think back and remember "I'm not sure how long I can keep riding, but I'll ride today and see how I feel tomorrow.", I know I'll be fine.
200k recap
Its been two hectic, busy weeks since I completed my 200k. Final stats for the day:
Miles: 130 by the time I got back to the house, 126 miles during the course.
Total Time: 12 1/2 hours
Riding Time: 10hours and change
Climbing: 6552ft
Finishing in one piece: Priceless :)
I got a later start than I had originally planned, due to missing the train I was planning to catch to the start by a few minutes. I remember thinking "great, I haven't even started, and already I'm a half hour behind schedule". Fortunately I was able to put that thought out of my head rather quickly. This was a solo randonneuring type of event, not a race. Heck, it wasn't even an "official" randonneuring event. I'm not a card carrying member of the RUSA, or any other randonneuring club.
The start was foggy enough at the start that I did run my lights for the first 10 miles or so, from the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station to Sunol. I took advantage of the facilites there, and topped off my water. Not that I had gone through that much yet, but I try to make it a habit of getting water when I can on the road.
The climb over Calavares was quiet, and downright other worldly at time with the fog slowly lifting. There were a few cyclists on the road, mostly coming from the Milpitas side. I didn't break any speed records with my climbing, but I wasn't shooting for that. I had a lot of ground to cover the rest of the day, and didn't want to burn through my reserves this early in the course.
Heading north after the climb through the urban sprawl of Milpitas and Fremont was uneventful, thank goodness. There was a bit of on ongoing construction that I had to go through on East Warren, under the freeway, but the traffic was light at the time, so not a big issue.
Heading back into the hills I rendered the first bit of assistance to another pair of cyclists during the day while climbing up Palomares. Between the two of them they had already had six flats during their ride. I gave them a few extra patches and offered a tube, but the tube was a bit too large for the 700x23c tires that they were running (I was rolling on 700x28c tires on the bike I took that day). I wished them well as I continued up and over Palomares and dropping into Castro Valley.
The next two climbs, Redwood Road and Pinehurst started to put me into a bit of hurt. I'm not sure how much climbing I had done so far, but it certainly did start to have an effect on my legs. I geared down and recovered as much as possible during that stretch. Kind of a futile attempt, but I knew once I crested Pinehurst, I could enjoy small rollers on the way into Moraga. It was on the climb up Pinehurst that I met another pair of cyclists, one of which was having a tough go of it over the climb.
After a few words with he and his friend, his friend proceeded on, to get back to the car and head back to give David a lift home. I stayed with David and paced him up the climb, trying to keep him talking and his mind off the climb. At the top of the hill, I let him go, telling him it was mostly downhill into Moraga from there. He had recovered enough by that time that he shot downhill towards his final destination, Orinda. I savoured the downhill, having ridden close to 70 miles at this point.
There's not much to say about the run out to Martinez from Orinda, except for the most part, its downhill. The route does pass by the San Pablo Dam Reservoir, which helps break things up a bit, and there is a bit of climbing over Pig Farm hill, but I didn't find it that difficult. By the time 5pm rolled around, I had almost 100 miles on my legs for the day, and most of the climbing behind me. All I had to do was the last 25 miles back into Pleasanton.
I did say MOST of the climbing was behind me. The last climb of the day, while not very long, really hurt! I was on the verge of cramping, in spite of my effort to keep hydrated during the day with a combination of plain water and cytomax, mostly cytomax. I kind of expected it, honestly. I had ridden this part of the course about a month and a half before, and it hurt put the hurt on me then too. I geared down and slogged through this part, getting off the bike and walking for a bit as needed.
During the final miles down Danville/San Ramon Valley Blvd., day turned to dusk, and into night. I was well prepared for a bit of night riding, with reflective clothing, two rear tail lights, and two front headlights (one handlebar mounted, and one on my helmet). It was a rather nice end to the day actually. In case you're really interested, the tail lights I run are planet bike superflash, and the front lights are a dinotte 200L on the handlebar and a princeton tec eos on the helmet. They do a good job of lighting up the road.
I finshed up back at the BART station just past 8pm, and got lucky with being able to roll onto a train for my return trip as soon as I got up to the platform.
Well, thats it. A long way to say "woohoo! I made it!"
Miles: 130 by the time I got back to the house, 126 miles during the course.
Total Time: 12 1/2 hours
Riding Time: 10hours and change
Climbing: 6552ft
Finishing in one piece: Priceless :)
I got a later start than I had originally planned, due to missing the train I was planning to catch to the start by a few minutes. I remember thinking "great, I haven't even started, and already I'm a half hour behind schedule". Fortunately I was able to put that thought out of my head rather quickly. This was a solo randonneuring type of event, not a race. Heck, it wasn't even an "official" randonneuring event. I'm not a card carrying member of the RUSA, or any other randonneuring club.
The start was foggy enough at the start that I did run my lights for the first 10 miles or so, from the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station to Sunol. I took advantage of the facilites there, and topped off my water. Not that I had gone through that much yet, but I try to make it a habit of getting water when I can on the road.
The climb over Calavares was quiet, and downright other worldly at time with the fog slowly lifting. There were a few cyclists on the road, mostly coming from the Milpitas side. I didn't break any speed records with my climbing, but I wasn't shooting for that. I had a lot of ground to cover the rest of the day, and didn't want to burn through my reserves this early in the course.
Heading north after the climb through the urban sprawl of Milpitas and Fremont was uneventful, thank goodness. There was a bit of on ongoing construction that I had to go through on East Warren, under the freeway, but the traffic was light at the time, so not a big issue.
Heading back into the hills I rendered the first bit of assistance to another pair of cyclists during the day while climbing up Palomares. Between the two of them they had already had six flats during their ride. I gave them a few extra patches and offered a tube, but the tube was a bit too large for the 700x23c tires that they were running (I was rolling on 700x28c tires on the bike I took that day). I wished them well as I continued up and over Palomares and dropping into Castro Valley.
The next two climbs, Redwood Road and Pinehurst started to put me into a bit of hurt. I'm not sure how much climbing I had done so far, but it certainly did start to have an effect on my legs. I geared down and recovered as much as possible during that stretch. Kind of a futile attempt, but I knew once I crested Pinehurst, I could enjoy small rollers on the way into Moraga. It was on the climb up Pinehurst that I met another pair of cyclists, one of which was having a tough go of it over the climb.
After a few words with he and his friend, his friend proceeded on, to get back to the car and head back to give David a lift home. I stayed with David and paced him up the climb, trying to keep him talking and his mind off the climb. At the top of the hill, I let him go, telling him it was mostly downhill into Moraga from there. He had recovered enough by that time that he shot downhill towards his final destination, Orinda. I savoured the downhill, having ridden close to 70 miles at this point.
There's not much to say about the run out to Martinez from Orinda, except for the most part, its downhill. The route does pass by the San Pablo Dam Reservoir, which helps break things up a bit, and there is a bit of climbing over Pig Farm hill, but I didn't find it that difficult. By the time 5pm rolled around, I had almost 100 miles on my legs for the day, and most of the climbing behind me. All I had to do was the last 25 miles back into Pleasanton.
I did say MOST of the climbing was behind me. The last climb of the day, while not very long, really hurt! I was on the verge of cramping, in spite of my effort to keep hydrated during the day with a combination of plain water and cytomax, mostly cytomax. I kind of expected it, honestly. I had ridden this part of the course about a month and a half before, and it hurt put the hurt on me then too. I geared down and slogged through this part, getting off the bike and walking for a bit as needed.
During the final miles down Danville/San Ramon Valley Blvd., day turned to dusk, and into night. I was well prepared for a bit of night riding, with reflective clothing, two rear tail lights, and two front headlights (one handlebar mounted, and one on my helmet). It was a rather nice end to the day actually. In case you're really interested, the tail lights I run are planet bike superflash, and the front lights are a dinotte 200L on the handlebar and a princeton tec eos on the helmet. They do a good job of lighting up the road.
I finshed up back at the BART station just past 8pm, and got lucky with being able to roll onto a train for my return trip as soon as I got up to the platform.
Well, thats it. A long way to say "woohoo! I made it!"
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