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CCC - Collier Canyon Up & Down

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

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.