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.

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.

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!"

Going For It!

Going for my 200k ride today. I had hoped to do it last weekend, but with wind advisories, and a bit of a cold snap, I thought it was best to hold out for better conditions. Today the forecast calls for a high of 70 degrees, and wind at 10mph, but not really until mid to late afternoon. In other words, great cycling weather!

I've played around a bit with re-routing the ride for a door to door 200, but I think I'll stick to the 200k permanent that JoBob already mapped out.

For those interested, I'll be tweeting my location from various rest stops as I go along. Since this is an "unofficial" 200k (not being sent in to the RUSA), I won't be bothering with making sure that I have all the receipts, etc. I'd need to send in as proof of riding the course, instead, I'll be using the DroidTracker app on my android phone to mark my location when I check in, so you can follow my progress on twitter.

East Bay 200K RUSA permanent

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Back to where I began

CCC - Collier Canyon Up & Down

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Yesterday, I had the opportunity to ride the Collier Canyon Loop with the Cherry City Cyclists again. When I first started to pick up on my mileage this year, I was out for one of my normal rides when one of the club members, Dale, rode up beside me, introduced himself, and told me of the ride he was doing with the club that day. I decided to tag along, just to see how far I could hang with the group. I finished the ride with them, some 60 odd miles later, off the back of course, but had been able for the most part, to keep up.

3000 and some odd miles later, there I was again, on the same ride, chatting with Dale about how this was a repeat of that first ride several months ago. I did better this time, but still finished off the back, but this time I blame it on the heat and the climbing I did on the previous day, rather than my overall fitness level (hey, thats my story and I'm sticking to it!)

As always, had a good time. Unfortunately the tables and benches were gone from in front of the Wendy's we use as a rest stop on the ride. Oh well, maybe at some point they'll show back up again.

Crossing 3k

During a club ride this morning, with the Cherry City Cyclists, it happened. No fanfare on the road, no medal suddenly appearing on my chest, but sometime during the ride, I crossed over 3,000 miles ridden in roughly 3 1/2 months of keeping track.

The club ride this morning went a bit shorter than usual, due to the weather, we decided to skip the bit that lead out into Fremont for coffee, and just head up Palomares after adjusting the coffee stop to the Niles Cafe.

 

Roughly 35 miles in length, 2k of climbing according to bikely and my gps, a lot less according to mapmyride. Anyone know which site is more accurate for elevation data?

Southern End -- Part Deux

 

Saturday, I Rode the southern end of the East Bay Permanent again. This time, starting at the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station. I finished up at the Orinda BART station 75 miles and 7 hours and change later (6 hours and change on bike). I kept my rest stops short, but sane. Refuelling along the way with a banana and naked juice that I brought with me. Kept the electrolytes/fluids topped off with Cytomax.

Overall, there wasn't any particular spot that put the hurt on me. While I was tired at the end, and really felt the effort the next day, I'd say I finished the first half of the route rather well. I think I can do the whole route in 11 - 12 hours right now, which is well within the time limit of 13 1/2 hours for a 200k randonneuring event.

As you can see from the pic above, there's quite a bit of climbing on this course. The first half seems to have the most of it, with just about 4,000 ft of climbing by the 75th mile marker, the whole course has 5,500 ft or so. 

I'm feeling good about attempting the full course in a few weeks time, until then, keeping up my routine, going out and club rides, and staying loose on the bike.

RoadIDont

I'm sure you've seen ads for RoadID identification wrist tags by now. It's a good concept, and has been marketed the hell out of. They raise awareness of having I.C.E. (In Case of Emergency) identification that's less likely to get taken or detached from you in case the unthinkable should happen when your you're out on your ride.

I ordered one back in May when I started putting on some serious miles this year. Still, in retrospect, a good idea, especially since I ride solo a lot. The downside to their wrist id, is that after less than 90 rides, the type on it has really faded to the point of being something that I'm not willing to bet my life on in case someone has to read it.

I've replaced the tag on the RoadID with a "collartag" from BoomerangTags. Their small size replaces the original RoadID tag just about perfectly. Its made from stainless steel, and the information is stamped deeply into the metal, rather than printed on it. It gives me a much better peace of mind than the RoadID tag that it replaced.

So, if you're looking for repacement tags for your RoadID, or lookng for a solid tag for your own I.C.E., I highly recommend the collartag by BoomerangTags. I know I'm happy with mine.

tweet!

I just added a feed over to my twitter account (at least thats the plan, hope it works). You can follow posts on the blog via twitter at http://twitter.com/6x18

901!

That's not a typo about some jeans, that's the number of miles I rode in August! Being consistent really adds up! It also brings me over 2600 miles since the end of May.

100k+

One of the rides I'm hoping to ride this year is the East Bay 200k Permanent Route by Jo. Although I think the route is on hiatus at the moment as an "official" permanent of the RUSA, I have the route map and have been training for the course. Sunday, I rode the northern section, riding over to Redwood from my house and finishing in Dublin at the BART Station. About 80 miles by the time I got home

Total ride time 7 hours and change, so definitely on track for a 13.5 hour finish for the full permanent, pace wise. The only place that really put me into any difficulty was the climb out of Martinez. I'm not sure if it was the climb itself, or just being a bit tired at that point that was the problem. However, as I'm fond of saying "I haven't met a hill I can't walk". So a bit of walking, refueling, and recovering during that stretch.

I've done the southern section of the ride a few weeks back, going over Calaveras and Palomares after starting out on the Sunol Ride with the Cherry City Cyclists (I split off in Sunol), and riding over the Dublin Grade. My legs were really feeling it coming over Palomares that day.

Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to ride this route this year. I've been looking forward to it for quite some time now. Early October is my "target date" on this one.

A nice warmup...

Since I have a longer ride planned for tomorrow, today was a moderately long ride (about 40 miles total, ignore the distances on the map, I rode to and from the start). This ride starts in San Leandro, goes through Castro Valley and back through San Ramon and finally Dublin (all locations in California).

A pleasant enough route, if you get started on it early in the morning. Otherwise traffic gets a bit heavy on Crow Canyon, which has quite a few areas with either no shoulder to speak of, or a very narrow shoulder.

Crow/Dublin Canyon Loop

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All in all a pleasant ride, one of my usual loops. Depending on who you believe, bikely or mapmyride, total elevation gain is between 1800 and 1100 ft.

What's in a name?

Or why 6x18?

That's a very good question. Maybe I should back up and explain a bit. Back in the early to mid 90's (19, not 18 ;) ) I got bit by the cycling bug. Hard. I rode everywhere, for everything. I commuted, I rode with local clubs, I even did a few bicycle tours along the California and Oregon coasts (highly recommended thing to do, I might add). Around the beginning 2000, I drifted away from bikes and cycling for a number of personal reasons.

Days turned to months turned to years. I became more sedentary. The weight slowly started building where once I had well defined muscles. My bikes sat, unridden in the garage. About three years ago, I tried to get back into my cycling groove, but I was really forcing myself. Forcing oneself to exercise is seldom something that lasts. I tried to encourage myself to ride by updating my bikes. It helped a bit, but in the end I was doomed at that attempt. Oh, I rode, just not really for the joy of riding. I was riding out of a sense of obligation. I did loose a bit of weight, but not a whole lot, and of course it came back on once I got off the bike again.

Fast forward to the beginning of this year. My wife fell ill. From January until May, she was hospitalized three different times for differering reasons. I started to ride to visit her in the hospital. It gave me purpose in the morning. A sense of peace, being at one with myself. I was riding for me, even though I didn't realize it at the time. That was my time. No calls to make. No doctors to speak to. Just me.

My wife came home shortly before bike to work day after her last round in the hospital. I stayed with her as she got settled in, and felt more comfortable being home again. On bike to work day, I took my bike out for a ride and hit a few energizer stations in the process. A week later, I realized I hadn't had a day off the bike since then, so I decided to take a day off, so not to overdo it.

What started out with a reluctant "I'm not sure how long or how far I'll ride" attitude, over time became a routine, and eventually, a personal commitment. 6x18 refers to riding 6 days a week, at least 18 miles each ride (the 18 is the mileage on my normal route that I was doing at the time).

Since the end of May, I've ridden over 2,500 miles this year. I've lost over 40 lbs to date, and am at a point where I'm comfortable with where I am weight wise and am leveling out at 170 lbs. currently. I've also joined a local bike club, the Cherry City Cyclists (a great group of cyclists) to keep me spinning down (and up) different roads on their club rides. I feel ten years younger, maybe more. I know my blood pressure and heart rate are way down.

So lifes good. Thanks for reading, and welcome to my humble blog, 6x18. Now you know what the name's about.