Saturday, December 29, 2007

2007 year end stats

Well, I've still got two more days to add to the tally, but the initial stats for calendar year 2007 are:

Total miles logged: 4199
Total time in the saddle: 372 hours

Woohoo! Next up, cycling goals for the new year...

Update: I managed to get in two more rides before the end of the year, so the final numbers for 2007 are 4241 miles and 376 hours in the saddle.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Grizzly Peak Pinehurst Loop (38 miles)

For today's ride I wanted something that would give me a nice climbing workout without having to travel too far. Luckily I've got the east bay hills pretty much at my doorstep, so I decided to do a ride that would provide a kind of hill interval workout. This ride is similar to the East Bay Hills Ramble Lite, except instead of entering Tilden via Spruce Avenue in Berkeley, you take Old Tunnel Road up to Grizzly Peak and then follow Grizzly Peak to Tilden.

The weather was in the mid-40s, so it was bearable out if not exactly what I would call comfortable. The only time I felt really, really cold was on the final descent down Old Tunnel Road back into Oakland. By that point my feet were numb (even with my half-booties over my shoes) and I was questioning my sanity a bit. Once I had a cactus burrito in my belly, I felt better.

The basic profile of the ride is:

1. Old Tunnel Road to Skyline: an easy-to-moderate climb averaging 4-5% grade over 3 miles.
2. 1st part of Grizzly Peak: flattish for about 2 miles as you cruise along the ridge
3. Climb to Tilden: a short, moderate climb up to the boundary of Tilden Park
4. 2nd part of Grizzly Peak: flat again for a couple of miles
5. into Tilden: flat to rolling through the park
6. Wildcat Canyon descent
7. Moraga Way: an easy gradual ascent, probably 2-3%, over 3 miles
8. 1st part of Pinehurst: flat to rolling, gradual ascent, 3-4%?
9. 2nd part of Pinehurst: moderate climb with a steep finish
10. Old Tunnel descent back to town

So there's a good variety of climbs interspersed with rest periods. You can check out the elevation profile for the route as well, but I've noticed lately that the elevation functionality on Bikely seems to be crapping out more and more. Like on this profile it looks like I drop off a cliff around mile 15 then spring back up to 500 feet around mile 20. Odd.

Animules: none; hibernation?
Total Distance: 38 miles
Elevation gain: about 4500 feet
Time in the Saddle: 3 hours 45 minutes
Route (bikely.com): Grizzly Peak Pinehurst Loop

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Death Ride

My boss' boss' boss, Paul, is a hard core cyclist. You know, the kind who goes up and down Mount Diablo two or three times in a row just for kicks. I usally say he's a crazy hard core cyclist, but when I'm considering doing something called the Death Ride, it becomes a kind of pot/kettle situation. Paul emailed me yesterday to encourage me to register for the Death Ride lottery, and after giving it some thought, I went ahead and signed up.

The Death Ride is a ride over 5 passes in the Sierras, just south of Lake Tahoe. The total distance if you do all the passes is 129 miles, with 15,000 feet of vertical climbing. But you don't have to do all 5 passes, and because the way the course is arranged with a bunch of out-and-backs from a central point, you could do just one or two passes and call it a day.

I'm pretty sure I could do at least one pass on this ride. Monitor Pass begins at around 5500 feet and peaks at 8300 feet, so total elevation gain is about same as going up Mount Diablo. Of course you're starting at a high elevation, so altitude can be a factor. I don't think I would do the back side of Monitor, which is the second pass, but I might try Ebbett's Pass, which goes from 6000 to 8700 feet, but is supposed to be quite a bit steeper than Monitor. The back side of Ebbett's is a shorter pass, so three passes might be within my reach.

The way this registration works is, you sign up now and then in February they randomly select 2800 participants. Then you have one month to confirm and pay the entry fee. So I may not get selected, but if I am I have a lot of training to do between now and July.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Indoor Trainer workout #1

It was a bit too chilly today for a real ride (at least that's my story), and so I decided to dust off the ol' trainer and take a spin inside where it was nice and warm and there weren't any holiday shoppers in their SUVs yelling at me to "ride on the sidewalk". And anyway, who doesn't love hooking a bicycle up to the trainer and doing the 'sit and stare' workout for an hour?

I own a couple of these cycling workout DVDs, which I thought would alleviate the boredom a bit, and they do, but I can only watch them once or twice during the off-season because the annoyance factor is so high. The host is kind of a Jeff Probst type (although with more credibility) who circulates among the huge spin class group with this peppy electro-muzac soundtrack playing in the background. The DVD case says: "Train your Aerobic Base with over 95 Cyclists from Ft. Wayne, Indiana!"

So I've devised my own interval workout, outlined below. If I were a writer for Bicycling magazine I'd throw out some pseudo-scientific sports mediciny explanation of the benefits of this workout. But I'm not, so I won't. I think I should come up with a name for my workout though.. maybe Cynical Intervals, or Cynervals.


Cynerval Workout #1

5 min: warm up spin

5 min: ok, warm up is over, time to crank it up a bit, but not too much! This is like you're on a nice wide multi-use path on a foggy day. The path is empty and there aren't any stop signs or lights, so you can just cruise along at a nice brisk pace.

10 min: intervals - 1 minute at your brisk spin pace, then shift into your biggest chainring in front and smallest cog in back. Pedal for 1 minute maintaining the same cadence. Repeat the intervals for 10 minutes.

5 min: spin

5 min: Get Off Your Ass intervals - Shift into your highest gear again and pedal out of the saddle for 30 seconds, then in the saddle for 30 seconds, out of the saddle for 30, etc.

5 min: spin

5 min: GOYA intervals

10 min: spin/cooldown

Soundtrack: Screaming Trees: Sweet Oblivion

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Walnut Creek-Mt. Diablo Loop (35 miles)

Well I've been wondering at what point it would just get too cold to ride. Today I discovered the answer is: at about 3200 feet up Mt. Diablo, just shy of the summit. I started out this morning knowing it would be cold and gusty. Weather.com had predicted highs in the 40s with winds 15-20 mph. But still, I was surprised when I started up South Gate and there were hardly any other cyclists on the road. Usually, Diablo is packed with all kinds of bicyclists, dozens and dozens of them. Today there were a few coming down the hill, but I only encountered a couple on the way up. Weird.

Once past the rangers station and on my way up summit road, it dawned on my why I had the place all to myself. It was fucking freezing up there! If it was in the mid 40s down at sea level, it must have been in the 30s up at 3000 feet, especially with the wind chill. I turned back with about a mile and half to go till the summit, and then shivered my way through a frigid 10 mile descent.

So, a good ride, but probably my last ascent up summit road until spring.


Animules: one gray fox crossing South Gate road
Total Distance: 35 miles
Elevation gain: about 3200 feet
Time in the Saddle: 3 hours 25 minutes

Saturday, December 1, 2007

November mileage stats

November mileage: 291
November Time in the Saddle: 25 hours