I've really been slacking off on the blog posting this year, mostly because of workload I guess. But that doesn't mean I haven't been riding! I've also been neglecting my mileage stats spreadsheet, which is a shame cause it's kind of like balancing your checkbook. Once it's out of date, you'll never get it back to its original state of accuracy.
Anyhoodle, since the Cinderella way back in April, I did the Wine Country Century with my buddies from NYC, but it was monsoon weather so R and I did the bailout route which still got us to 79 miles for the day. J was a machine and did the full century in the torrential downpour that seems to follow us where ever we ride.
After the WCC, it was time to start training seriously for the Death Ride. The weekend after the Wine Country Century, I did a nice ride up Mt Diablo to Juniper Campground. Last weekend we had a freak heat wave so I had to do a shorter mileage route but still managed to get some good climbing in. This weekend, I'm going to do two rides with some significant climbing:
Tomorrow (Saturday) I'm going to do the Mt. Tam loop, starting in the city and going clockwise. So, up Panoramic Highway to the junction, up to the summit, then heading north past Alpine Dam to Fairfax and then back down through the Marin valley to Sausalito. Should be 50-55 miles and 4500 feet of climbing.
Then on Sunday or possibly Monday, ride up Diablo to the summit.
Only 7 weeks left till the big ride.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Cinderella 2009 (64 miles)
This weekend was the annual Cinderella metric century. I think this is the fourth year I’ve done this ride, and while I usually ride this one solo, this year I rode with a colleague who is training for the SF-LA AIDS ride this summer. She was also nice enough to give me a ride to the starting line (in Dublin/Pleasanton) since I’m currently car-less. Thanks Sharon!
In order to beat the bottleneck at the parking lot, we headed out pretty early and were in Pleasanton by 6:45 or so. It still took 20 or 30 minute to wind through the parking lot maze, but we were checked in and on the road by about 7:30.
The temperature was surprisingly chilly when we started out.. a guy passing by said it was 42 degrees. I was glad I had brought my leg warmers and ear warmers, but was still a bit cold throughout the day. Other than the cool temperature, it was a lovely day for a ride. It was very sunny and just a moderate breeze blowing mostly from the north. This meant that when we got to the standard “wind tunnel” part of the route, it actually wasn’t that bad. That part of the route travels mostly west with a few northerly jogs, so there were short patches of dealing with the wind, but not too bad.
My challenge was my continuing problem with my Dolce saddle. You might recall that last month I had bought a new Specialized Ruby saddle and had been initially happy at the lack of soft tissue pain. But then my sit bones ended up sore after 30 miles. So… I decided I just couldn’t ride that saddle on the Cinderella. Instead I fell back to my Brooks saddle that I had taken off the Terry. The Brooks was fine in terms of sit bones… no pain there. But after about mile 20 I started feeling it in the soft tissue. It got a little better near the end of the ride (or maybe I just had enough nerve damage to no longer feel pain?) but it’s definitely not going to work out long term. Back to the drawing board saddle-wise.
Last year I completed this ride in about 4 hours and 40 minutes (that’s time in the saddle). This year I didn’t push as much, since I was riding with my colleague who’s a little bit slower than me, although not really by much. I felt great pretty much the whole ride, with a little fatigue setting in around mile 50. But my cycle computer tells that that I had 5 hours and 25 minutes of active riding time! Now I’m thinking that 10 minutes of that time was actually walking back to the car after the expo, but still. That’s pretty slow.
Speaking of the expo, our friends at Rivendell had a booth this year. I don’t remember seeing them there before. They were showing off a couple of new models including a replacement for the Bleriot called the Sam Hillborne. About $2000 for a complete bike, and it looked real nice. I think I convinced my coworker to go visit them and talk to them about a new bike.
This was weird: we were riding through rural Livermore in the early part of the ride when we passed by a police officer pulling a blue tarp over a dead horse. It was very strange.. this big animal near the side of the road, with its hooves sticking out under this tarp. I noticed broken car glass around the area, so supposed a car ran into the horse..somehow. Googled it and apparently a pickup truck ran into the horse that had wandered into the road.
Total Distance: about 64 miles
Elevation gain: 23000 feet
Elapsed time: 5 hours and 15 minutes
In order to beat the bottleneck at the parking lot, we headed out pretty early and were in Pleasanton by 6:45 or so. It still took 20 or 30 minute to wind through the parking lot maze, but we were checked in and on the road by about 7:30.
The temperature was surprisingly chilly when we started out.. a guy passing by said it was 42 degrees. I was glad I had brought my leg warmers and ear warmers, but was still a bit cold throughout the day. Other than the cool temperature, it was a lovely day for a ride. It was very sunny and just a moderate breeze blowing mostly from the north. This meant that when we got to the standard “wind tunnel” part of the route, it actually wasn’t that bad. That part of the route travels mostly west with a few northerly jogs, so there were short patches of dealing with the wind, but not too bad.
My challenge was my continuing problem with my Dolce saddle. You might recall that last month I had bought a new Specialized Ruby saddle and had been initially happy at the lack of soft tissue pain. But then my sit bones ended up sore after 30 miles. So… I decided I just couldn’t ride that saddle on the Cinderella. Instead I fell back to my Brooks saddle that I had taken off the Terry. The Brooks was fine in terms of sit bones… no pain there. But after about mile 20 I started feeling it in the soft tissue. It got a little better near the end of the ride (or maybe I just had enough nerve damage to no longer feel pain?) but it’s definitely not going to work out long term. Back to the drawing board saddle-wise.
Last year I completed this ride in about 4 hours and 40 minutes (that’s time in the saddle). This year I didn’t push as much, since I was riding with my colleague who’s a little bit slower than me, although not really by much. I felt great pretty much the whole ride, with a little fatigue setting in around mile 50. But my cycle computer tells that that I had 5 hours and 25 minutes of active riding time! Now I’m thinking that 10 minutes of that time was actually walking back to the car after the expo, but still. That’s pretty slow.
Speaking of the expo, our friends at Rivendell had a booth this year. I don’t remember seeing them there before. They were showing off a couple of new models including a replacement for the Bleriot called the Sam Hillborne. About $2000 for a complete bike, and it looked real nice. I think I convinced my coworker to go visit them and talk to them about a new bike.
This was weird: we were riding through rural Livermore in the early part of the ride when we passed by a police officer pulling a blue tarp over a dead horse. It was very strange.. this big animal near the side of the road, with its hooves sticking out under this tarp. I noticed broken car glass around the area, so supposed a car ran into the horse..somehow. Googled it and apparently a pickup truck ran into the horse that had wandered into the road.
Total Distance: about 64 miles
Elevation gain: 23000 feet
Elapsed time: 5 hours and 15 minutes
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Walnut Creek-Diablo-Moraga Loop (40 miles)
Yesterday I spent about an hour and 160 bucks on a new saddle for my Specialized Dolce, so I was anxious to put it to the test on a longish ride. I’ve had a really hard time finding a replacement saddle that works for me on this bike. The saddle that came with it originally worked fine for a couple of years, but then started causing some discomfort during long ride... mostly soft tissue discomfort in the pelvic area. Thus began the search for a replacement saddle. I tried two different Terry saddles, neither of which worked, and then briefly tried putting one of my Brooks saddles on the bike, but that made the soft tissue discomfort worse. So, yesterday went down to Alameda Bicycle to check out the Specialized saddles, figuring that the original Specialized saddle had been the most comfortable of the lot. I tried a Jett first, and didn’t like that much, then tried a Ruby Gel and it felt pretty good on the spin around the block. Very firm but with a good cutaway so I didn’t feel any discomfort in the soft tissue area. Naturally it was the most expensive of the lot, because that’s how my butt rolls.
For this ride, I started in Walnut Creek and headed up North Gate. It was beautiful day for riding, light clouds, some sun, cool temps, but no rain. The ride up North Gate is pleasantly green from the recent rains, but alas very few wild flowers this season.
About a third of the way up I came across a loose dog.. I guess it was maybe a golden retriever, but had a reddish coat. He had tags with contact info, so he clearly wasn’t a stray. I hadn’t brought my cell with me, but a couple of other cyclists stopped and the woman called the owner. Strangely the owner didn’t seem in any kind of hurry to come and pick up his dog! He apparently said to point the dog in the direction of the trail and say “Go home!”. Cyclist woman was all, “that guy’s an idiot”. Seriously. You live 10 minutes away, someone calls to say they’ve found you’re dog, and you can’t get in your fricking car and go pick him up? What the hell man? The cycling couple took the dog with them down the hill, I guess in the hopes of intersecting with the owner. Hope that worked out.
I continued up the hill with some aspirations of getting to the ranger station under an hour. 2 miles from the station I started shooting for 65 minutes. That came and went and I was just trying to avoid logging my slowest time ever. Which I did avoid, but only by tie-ing my previous worst showing: 72 minutes. Blech. However I will note that the last time I logged this time up Diablo was last year in May, after I had completed the Wine Country Century and when I really started my Death Ride training. So, I guess I’m right where I should expect to be. But still, disappointing.
After the ranger station, headed down newly repaved South Gate, which is truly luscious with its brand new asphalty goodness. From the bottom of South Gate, headed to Danville, through Alamo, Lafayette, to Moraga, where I turned around and headed back to Lafayette to hop on BART.
So, the good news with the saddle: I had basically no soft tissue pain with this saddle, which is great! The bad news is that my sit bones began to ache around mile 30, making the final 10 miles of the ride kind of painful. In fact I really could have put in a few more miles, but just couldn’t stand being on the bike any longer. I’m hoping that the sit bone pain will go away once I get used to the saddle. Otherwise, I’m going to be quite annoyed.
Animules: horses, one loose dog, one wild turkey
Total Distance: 40 miles
Elevation gain: about 2500 feet
Time in the Saddle: 3 hours 45 minutes
For this ride, I started in Walnut Creek and headed up North Gate. It was beautiful day for riding, light clouds, some sun, cool temps, but no rain. The ride up North Gate is pleasantly green from the recent rains, but alas very few wild flowers this season.
About a third of the way up I came across a loose dog.. I guess it was maybe a golden retriever, but had a reddish coat. He had tags with contact info, so he clearly wasn’t a stray. I hadn’t brought my cell with me, but a couple of other cyclists stopped and the woman called the owner. Strangely the owner didn’t seem in any kind of hurry to come and pick up his dog! He apparently said to point the dog in the direction of the trail and say “Go home!”. Cyclist woman was all, “that guy’s an idiot”. Seriously. You live 10 minutes away, someone calls to say they’ve found you’re dog, and you can’t get in your fricking car and go pick him up? What the hell man? The cycling couple took the dog with them down the hill, I guess in the hopes of intersecting with the owner. Hope that worked out.
I continued up the hill with some aspirations of getting to the ranger station under an hour. 2 miles from the station I started shooting for 65 minutes. That came and went and I was just trying to avoid logging my slowest time ever. Which I did avoid, but only by tie-ing my previous worst showing: 72 minutes. Blech. However I will note that the last time I logged this time up Diablo was last year in May, after I had completed the Wine Country Century and when I really started my Death Ride training. So, I guess I’m right where I should expect to be. But still, disappointing.
After the ranger station, headed down newly repaved South Gate, which is truly luscious with its brand new asphalty goodness. From the bottom of South Gate, headed to Danville, through Alamo, Lafayette, to Moraga, where I turned around and headed back to Lafayette to hop on BART.
So, the good news with the saddle: I had basically no soft tissue pain with this saddle, which is great! The bad news is that my sit bones began to ache around mile 30, making the final 10 miles of the ride kind of painful. In fact I really could have put in a few more miles, but just couldn’t stand being on the bike any longer. I’m hoping that the sit bone pain will go away once I get used to the saddle. Otherwise, I’m going to be quite annoyed.
Animules: horses, one loose dog, one wild turkey
Total Distance: 40 miles
Elevation gain: about 2500 feet
Time in the Saddle: 3 hours 45 minutes
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Chabot loop from Rockridge (about 40 miles)
Browsing through my old blog notes, I was surprised to see that I had never written up this route, since I used to ride variations of it fairly often. I guess I haven’t done this ride for a while, and after today, I think I remember why. It’s not a terrible ride, but it’s a bit utilitarian, not very scenic, a bit ghetto, and slightly annoying with the hill profile. On the up side, it’s an easy way to get in a 40 mile loop from my front door. This ride is based on the Oakland Yellow Jackets routesheet, with some minor modifications at the beginning and end.
From Rockridge the route follows the standard bike route down to uptown Oakland/Lake Merritt (basically following my commute route). Then around the lake, under the freeway, and over to Alameda. Alameda is a pleasant little island community that used to a big naval base in the bay area. I was pleased to see that they’ve added a dedicated bike lane on the approach to the bicycle bridge connecting Alameda and Bay Farm. Sweet! No more cutting across traffic and getting on the sidewalk to approach the bike bridge.
From the bike bridge I like to go around the miniature airplane airfield and head out towards the airport. There’s a dedicated bike lane that runs parallel to the airport access road, which is nice. Today it was a bit of a wind tunnel, with breezes blowing from the south. From the airport the route goes along busy boulevards of San Leandro, and at mile 20, starts a short climb up to Lake Chabot. The climb up Fairmont to Chabot is slightly longer than a mile but covers 500 feet in elevation gain, so it’s a bit of a pain.
After the climb, the first of two scenic sections begins: the ride alongside Lake Chabot. Unfortunately it’s all too short of a stretch, and pretty soon you’re back in San Leandro. Now from here there are a couple of ways to get back to Oakland. One is a straight shot through the San Leandro and east Oakland ghettos.. not very nice. The other principal way is to follow Mountain Blvd as it meanders along just at the base of the Oakland hills. This route is slightly less ghetto but annoying with the terrain. You’re constantly climbing short steep risers only to drop back down again, so you get the pain of climbing without the sense of accomplishment.
Past the Mormon Temple, at Park Blvd, instead of turning left to return to Lake Merritt I turn right to rejoin Mountain Blvd through Montclair, a really cute little town. Past Montclair, the road takes you to Broadway Terrace and Lake Temescal (cut through via the multi-use path). From here wind your way over to Chabot Road in Rockridge and you’re done.
Total Distance: about 40 miles
Elevation gain: 2300 feet
Routesheet (on bikely.com): Chabot Loop from Rockridge
From Rockridge the route follows the standard bike route down to uptown Oakland/Lake Merritt (basically following my commute route). Then around the lake, under the freeway, and over to Alameda. Alameda is a pleasant little island community that used to a big naval base in the bay area. I was pleased to see that they’ve added a dedicated bike lane on the approach to the bicycle bridge connecting Alameda and Bay Farm. Sweet! No more cutting across traffic and getting on the sidewalk to approach the bike bridge.
From the bike bridge I like to go around the miniature airplane airfield and head out towards the airport. There’s a dedicated bike lane that runs parallel to the airport access road, which is nice. Today it was a bit of a wind tunnel, with breezes blowing from the south. From the airport the route goes along busy boulevards of San Leandro, and at mile 20, starts a short climb up to Lake Chabot. The climb up Fairmont to Chabot is slightly longer than a mile but covers 500 feet in elevation gain, so it’s a bit of a pain.
After the climb, the first of two scenic sections begins: the ride alongside Lake Chabot. Unfortunately it’s all too short of a stretch, and pretty soon you’re back in San Leandro. Now from here there are a couple of ways to get back to Oakland. One is a straight shot through the San Leandro and east Oakland ghettos.. not very nice. The other principal way is to follow Mountain Blvd as it meanders along just at the base of the Oakland hills. This route is slightly less ghetto but annoying with the terrain. You’re constantly climbing short steep risers only to drop back down again, so you get the pain of climbing without the sense of accomplishment.
Past the Mormon Temple, at Park Blvd, instead of turning left to return to Lake Merritt I turn right to rejoin Mountain Blvd through Montclair, a really cute little town. Past Montclair, the road takes you to Broadway Terrace and Lake Temescal (cut through via the multi-use path). From here wind your way over to Chabot Road in Rockridge and you’re done.
Total Distance: about 40 miles
Elevation gain: 2300 feet
Routesheet (on bikely.com): Chabot Loop from Rockridge
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Time Trial: Old Tunnel Road
My three readers will recall that last week when I did my time trial route I was pretty disappointed in my time: 55 minutes elapsed from Claremont/College up to Grizzly Peak. This week I rode the same route on the aluminum frame Specialized Dolce, and my elapsed time was 49 minutes. This is much more in line with my expectations, and consistent with times logged last January at the beginning of the season.
6 minutes is a lot of time to shave off a 5 mile ride, and I know I didn’t improve my fitness in the past week. So, what happened last week? I think part of it has to do with the difference in the bikes. Artemis is a bit heavier and has much wider plusher tires. I think Artemis has 700x35s where the Dolce has 700x23. The two bikes also have completely different gearing, both in terms of the cassettes and the chainrings in front, with the result being that the touring bike has a couple more easier gears than the Specialized road bike. I think I may be hanging out in those granny gears a bit longer than I really need to, and that may account for the slower overall time. Next time I take the touring bike on the time trial, I’m going to try to stay out of my two easiest gears as much as possible to see if I can improve my time on that bike.
I was pretty happy with my time today, and it was nice to take the Dolce off the indoor trainer and get it out on the road for a change. I’ve been neglecting this bike a bit since I got the new touring bike in the fall, so it felt good to take it out for a spin.
Bike: Specialized Dolce
Total Time Clocked, from Claremont/College to Grizzly Peak: 49 minutes
Actual Ride time: unknown; probably 48 minutes
Total Distance: 5.4 miles
6 minutes is a lot of time to shave off a 5 mile ride, and I know I didn’t improve my fitness in the past week. So, what happened last week? I think part of it has to do with the difference in the bikes. Artemis is a bit heavier and has much wider plusher tires. I think Artemis has 700x35s where the Dolce has 700x23. The two bikes also have completely different gearing, both in terms of the cassettes and the chainrings in front, with the result being that the touring bike has a couple more easier gears than the Specialized road bike. I think I may be hanging out in those granny gears a bit longer than I really need to, and that may account for the slower overall time. Next time I take the touring bike on the time trial, I’m going to try to stay out of my two easiest gears as much as possible to see if I can improve my time on that bike.
I was pretty happy with my time today, and it was nice to take the Dolce off the indoor trainer and get it out on the road for a change. I’ve been neglecting this bike a bit since I got the new touring bike in the fall, so it felt good to take it out for a spin.
Bike: Specialized Dolce
Total Time Clocked, from Claremont/College to Grizzly Peak: 49 minutes
Actual Ride time: unknown; probably 48 minutes
Total Distance: 5.4 miles
Monday, February 16, 2009
Time Trial: Old Tunnel Road
The rained stopped for about 2 hours today, so I hopped on the bike for a quick ride up Old Tunnel. About half way up I decided to make this a time trial, and I'm afraid the results were pretty sad. 55 minutes to get from Claremeont/College to Grizzly Peak! Last January I clocked this at 49 minutes elapsed time (actual ride time is usually 2.5-3 minutes less due to 2 stop lights).
Now, I am riding a slightly different route up through Claremont, and that adds about 3/10 of a mile to the total. And I'm riding the heavier Tournado with the fat tires, but still. Looks like I've got a lot of training to do.
Bike: Artemis (Dahon Tournado)
Total Time Clocked, from Claremont/College to Grizzly Peak: 55 minutes
Actual Ride time: unknown; probably 52 minutes
Total Distance: 5.4 miles
Now, I am riding a slightly different route up through Claremont, and that adds about 3/10 of a mile to the total. And I'm riding the heavier Tournado with the fat tires, but still. Looks like I've got a lot of training to do.
Bike: Artemis (Dahon Tournado)
Total Time Clocked, from Claremont/College to Grizzly Peak: 55 minutes
Actual Ride time: unknown; probably 52 minutes
Total Distance: 5.4 miles
Monday, January 19, 2009
Tale of Two Climbs
Seems like forever since I've done a serious ride, but I was able to take advantage of the three-day weekend to get in two climbs: one up to the ranger station on Tam, and the other up to the junction on Diablo.
The weather was perfect this weekend: sunny, warm, and clear. The unfortunate result of a drought that will probably produce lots of fires this summer, but for now it's great cycling weather. So, Sunday went riding in Marin with kc and his friend Roxanne. She's on the short side, but I was able to drop down the handlebars and seat post on the Terry for her, and that seemed to work well. That means with my growing fleet of bikes I can accommodate visiting cyclists from 4'11" to probably 5'9".
We parked near the multi-purpose trail in Marin City, north of Sausalito, and then did the Stinson Beach/Muir Woods loop clockwise. I've always done this ride counter-clockwise, but took a chance that maybe the climbing would be a bit better doing it in reverse. Following the route clockwise, you climb up through residential areas of Mill Valley, cross Panoramic Highway, then drop down to Muir Woods. From Muir Woods there's a bit of a climb (500') to get up to Highway 1 on the coast. That climb was a bit of a pain, and there were easterly winds up on the ridge, but going north on Highway 1 was pretty painless, and the view was great.
We stopped briefly in Stinson Beach before beginning the principal climb up to the Pantoll Station on Mt Tam. This climb is about 1500' over the course of 4 miles, but it's a great climb. It's very evenly graded, without any steep sections, and the second half is entirely shaded by forest. I felt awfully sluggish on all the climbs on this ride. Even kc was up ahead of me pretty much all day, which almost never happens. After the final climb it was a quick descent back to Mill Valley for lunch at the flatbread place. Yum, flatbread!
Route sheet: Muir Woods/Stinson ride
Total distance: about 27 miles
Total elevation gain: about 3000 feet
On Monday I BARTed out to Walnut Creek at a painfully early hour to meet ccb and his crew for a ride up to the Diablo junction. The temperature was cool when we started out, but it warmed up nicely and ended up being a great morning for a ride up North Gate. I rode slowly, but didn't feel as sluggish as the day before. Also my headache pressure wasn't as pronounced for the first time in at least 2 weeks (long story). From the junction, we headed down the newly paved south side and over to Danville for a java before heading home. All in all a good mid-January ride.
Distance: about 30 miles
Elevation gain: 2300 feet
The weather was perfect this weekend: sunny, warm, and clear. The unfortunate result of a drought that will probably produce lots of fires this summer, but for now it's great cycling weather. So, Sunday went riding in Marin with kc and his friend Roxanne. She's on the short side, but I was able to drop down the handlebars and seat post on the Terry for her, and that seemed to work well. That means with my growing fleet of bikes I can accommodate visiting cyclists from 4'11" to probably 5'9".
We parked near the multi-purpose trail in Marin City, north of Sausalito, and then did the Stinson Beach/Muir Woods loop clockwise. I've always done this ride counter-clockwise, but took a chance that maybe the climbing would be a bit better doing it in reverse. Following the route clockwise, you climb up through residential areas of Mill Valley, cross Panoramic Highway, then drop down to Muir Woods. From Muir Woods there's a bit of a climb (500') to get up to Highway 1 on the coast. That climb was a bit of a pain, and there were easterly winds up on the ridge, but going north on Highway 1 was pretty painless, and the view was great.
We stopped briefly in Stinson Beach before beginning the principal climb up to the Pantoll Station on Mt Tam. This climb is about 1500' over the course of 4 miles, but it's a great climb. It's very evenly graded, without any steep sections, and the second half is entirely shaded by forest. I felt awfully sluggish on all the climbs on this ride. Even kc was up ahead of me pretty much all day, which almost never happens. After the final climb it was a quick descent back to Mill Valley for lunch at the flatbread place. Yum, flatbread!
Route sheet: Muir Woods/Stinson ride
Total distance: about 27 miles
Total elevation gain: about 3000 feet
On Monday I BARTed out to Walnut Creek at a painfully early hour to meet ccb and his crew for a ride up to the Diablo junction. The temperature was cool when we started out, but it warmed up nicely and ended up being a great morning for a ride up North Gate. I rode slowly, but didn't feel as sluggish as the day before. Also my headache pressure wasn't as pronounced for the first time in at least 2 weeks (long story). From the junction, we headed down the newly paved south side and over to Danville for a java before heading home. All in all a good mid-January ride.
Distance: about 30 miles
Elevation gain: 2300 feet
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