This was the last weekend of official Death Ride training. After this point I'll be doing easy workouts and easy rides for the most part, gearing up to July 11th.
On Saturday, I had planned to do two times up Diablo North Gate to Juniper campground, and then one leg up South Gate to the junction. That would have given me about 7000 ft of climbing. But it was so hot on Diablo on Saturday, I had to cut my ride short. The air temp was 97 degrees, and the asphault felt way hot than that. I could feel the heat coming up through my cycling shoes on each pedal stroke. Anyway, I did one trip up North Gate to juniper, then once more up North Gate to about where the ranch is, just before the switchbacks. I figure that's around 4500 ft.
To supplement, I did 1.5 times up to Skyline today, total of about 2000 feet of climbing. It'll have to do. Just like last year, I wish I had done more training, especially during the week. But work craziness really got in the way.
Climbing up North Gate on Saturday, listening to my ipod, I had a great idea: my mother gave me this battery operated speaker set for an ipod. I'm going to take this with me on the Death Ride, strap it onto my trunk bag, and I'll have tunes to keep me going. I'm already putting together my Death Ride playlist, and it's going to rock!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Diablo junction x2 - almost
This morning was once again overcast, so I headed out east to find some sunshine. I debated doing a couple of different rides (possibly Morgan Territory) but in the end decided to go back to Mt. Diablo. At this point last year (May 25th in fact) I rode up to the ranger station on Diablo twice, so I figured this would be a good milestone for me to hit this weekend.
The weather was perfect: sunny, warm, slight breeze, just great conditions for a ride. Going up North Gate I tried to push myself a little bit more than I had on Saturday, particularly on the final third with the switchbacks. I ended up making it to the junction in 76 minutes, which is still hella slow but not as epically slow as the 83 minutes it took me on Saturday. I'd like to get that down to 65-70 minutes in the next 6 weeks.
From the junction I headed down South Gate and then turned around at the base and came back up. I didn't quite go all the way back to the ranger station, but rode as far as the Rock City flats before turning around and heading to Danville for a snack. Energy level was ok; I certainly felt fatigued but probably could have made it to the junction. What ended up bothering me was my lower back. So I need to get back into doing some exercises to strengthen my core a bit. Other than that, it was a good ride. I'm feeling a little bit better about my chances for the Death Ride after this weekend's training.
The weather was perfect: sunny, warm, slight breeze, just great conditions for a ride. Going up North Gate I tried to push myself a little bit more than I had on Saturday, particularly on the final third with the switchbacks. I ended up making it to the junction in 76 minutes, which is still hella slow but not as epically slow as the 83 minutes it took me on Saturday. I'd like to get that down to 65-70 minutes in the next 6 weeks.
From the junction I headed down South Gate and then turned around at the base and came back up. I didn't quite go all the way back to the ranger station, but rode as far as the Rock City flats before turning around and heading to Danville for a snack. Energy level was ok; I certainly felt fatigued but probably could have made it to the junction. What ended up bothering me was my lower back. So I need to get back into doing some exercises to strengthen my core a bit. Other than that, it was a good ride. I'm feeling a little bit better about my chances for the Death Ride after this weekend's training.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Recovery ride - Orinda/Danville/Lafayette (30 miles)
Today was my recovery day between climbing days, so I just took it easy and did a flat spin from Orinda to Danville and then back to Lafayette to catch BART. About 30 miles total. In Danville, KC and I stopped for lunch at a place called Pete's Brass Rail and Car wash that has neither a brass rail nor a car wash but good burgers and several draft beers. We were the only ones sitting out on the patio, what with the marine layer still hovering all the way out in Danville of all places. When a few other folks did show up they actually turned on the heat lamps. It was cold.
Tomorrow, if the cloud cover is still around, I'm going to skip Mt Tam and head east to find some sunshine.
Tomorrow, if the cloud cover is still around, I'm going to skip Mt Tam and head east to find some sunshine.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Diablo to the summit
Today I had planned to go over to Marin and ride up Mt Tam, but I woke up to a thick marine layer, which would mean freezing temps over the Golden Gate bridge and a cold cloudy ride up Tamalpais. No fun. So, change of plans: instead I took BART out to Walnut Creek for a ride up to the summit of Diablo. This was my first ride up to the summit this season, and I felt pretty darn good. Although, I'm riding super slow these days on the Tournado, at least on the initial 6.5 miles up to the junction. Here's the data:
Last year, riding the Dolce:
5/11/08 - Up North Gate to the junction in 72 minutes
5/25/08 - 69 minutes
5/31/08 - 66 minutes
6/7/08 - 63 minutes!
3/8/09 - 72 minutes (ok, a bit slow, but early in the season)
5/23/09 - 83 minutes, a full 20 minutes slower than my best time last year in June
However, my times past the junction up to the summit aren't that bad. They're just a minute or two off my times last year. So I think what's happening is: when I climb I tend to spend a lot of time in my easiest gear, and my easiest gear is a lot slower on the Dahon. So, on the more moderate portion of the Diablo climb, I'm riding slower but probably more relaxed than on the Dolce. On the steeper parts above the junction, I really used to struggle on the Dolce but on the Dahon I can continue riding at a more relaxed pace and use some of the energy I conserved on the first part of the ride. So, all in all, it's not a bad thing. But it means that I may need to account for a slower pace on the Death Ride.
Riding up North Gate it was cold and blustery, but at about 2700 feet I emerged out of the cloud cover and it was sunny and warm the rest of the way up. You can see the marine layer hugging the hills to the west from Juniper campground (3000 feet):
At the summit there were lots of cyclists. One obnoxious guy was loudly telling everyone that he was training for the Death Ride and that it takes a *real commitment* blah blah. Dude, everyone's training for the Death Ride. Yawn. Another guy came over to compliment me on my Tournado. Everyone likes the old school stylings!
Ride Stats
Total miles: 38 miles
Total elevation gain: 3940 feet
Last year, riding the Dolce:
5/11/08 - Up North Gate to the junction in 72 minutes
5/25/08 - 69 minutes
5/31/08 - 66 minutes
6/7/08 - 63 minutes!
3/8/09 - 72 minutes (ok, a bit slow, but early in the season)
5/23/09 - 83 minutes, a full 20 minutes slower than my best time last year in June
However, my times past the junction up to the summit aren't that bad. They're just a minute or two off my times last year. So I think what's happening is: when I climb I tend to spend a lot of time in my easiest gear, and my easiest gear is a lot slower on the Dahon. So, on the more moderate portion of the Diablo climb, I'm riding slower but probably more relaxed than on the Dolce. On the steeper parts above the junction, I really used to struggle on the Dolce but on the Dahon I can continue riding at a more relaxed pace and use some of the energy I conserved on the first part of the ride. So, all in all, it's not a bad thing. But it means that I may need to account for a slower pace on the Death Ride.
Riding up North Gate it was cold and blustery, but at about 2700 feet I emerged out of the cloud cover and it was sunny and warm the rest of the way up. You can see the marine layer hugging the hills to the west from Juniper campground (3000 feet):
At the summit there were lots of cyclists. One obnoxious guy was loudly telling everyone that he was training for the Death Ride and that it takes a *real commitment* blah blah. Dude, everyone's training for the Death Ride. Yawn. Another guy came over to compliment me on my Tournado. Everyone likes the old school stylings!
Ride Stats
Total miles: 38 miles
Total elevation gain: 3940 feet
Friday, May 22, 2009
Death Ride training
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.
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.
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
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