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CURRENT ALMOST-DAILY DIARY
ENTRIES BELOW-
07/15/05- THE ALMOST-DAILY DIARY MOVES TO
FRANCE ON SUNDAY (7/17/05)!
Follow the link above for details
on my trip to the '05 Tour de France. Shortly this page will
automatically redirect people to that link.
07/14/05- BIG MONKEY OFF MY BACK
today, although I had to double-check things just to make sure.
Todd, Karl & Rob showed up to melt the asphalt on Kings this
morning, although it's possible the hot weather may have had
something to do with it. But hey, that's my story, and I'm sticking
to it. Karl was feeling good (hate it when that happens) with Todd &
Rob in tow, and me just hanging on. But while I lost a bit of ground
initially, I found that my legs were working a bit better than I
gave them credit for, and managed to catch back up to them near the
first hairpin, below the park. At the park entrance Karl moved over
to the right a bit, as if he was going to take a breather and wait
for the rest of us, maybe even act social. Nope. It was a feint, a
strategic move designed to fake us into thinking we could ease up
for a moment while he rocketed on up the hill. Why be an armchair
racer when you can actually go out and ride and make this stuff
up???
I wasn't feeling great, but it didn't seem like I was doing too
badly either, so I kept pushing myself, hoping to get a
low-26-minute time and avenge Rob beating me up on Tuesday. Todd was
hanging back a bit, taking it easy for the first half, and Rob
wasn't having quite as good a day as he had Tuesday, so it was just
Karl on ahead... way ahead, of course, but there was a slight chance
I might finish on the same day. Around the halfway point Todd woke
up and raced on past; fine, no way am I going to try and hold his
wheel, at least not without a bungee cord. But still, for the most
part, I kept my rhythm and didn't completely collapse after each of
the steeper sections. By the time I got to the final hairpin (under
the power lines) I was feeling pretty beat, but the legs were still
moving. I looked at my bike computer, whose stopwatch isn't working
correctly so all I had to go by was the elapsed time difference
between the bottom and whatever time it was at the top, and it
looked like I'd faded a bit and was going to barely get into the
26-something range, but I wasn't really sure; there wasn't a lot of
spare oxygen for the blood cells in my brain. I knew the time at the
bottom was 15:40, and as I approached the top I was showing
41-something. I finished at 41:28 on the clock, which didn't quite
seem to add up. Um, let's see... if it was 16 to 41, that would
be... um... 25?... then add 20 seconds to the bottom and 28 seconds
to the top and you get... 25:48??? I asked Todd to figure it out,
and he came up with the same thing. I still didn't trust it, so when
I got home I downloaded the info from the HAC4 computer and verified
it. Probably my first sub-26-minute time in 8 or 9 years. Perhaps,
just maybe, this thing about losing a bit of weight actually works!
And perhaps, just maybe, I'm ready for France. I'll find out on
Tuesday when, instead of climbing King's Mtn I'll be clawing my way
up the Col d'Aubisque. Details here, of course!
07/12/05- SOME CATCHING UP TO DO!
Both literally and... well, literally. I missed Sunday's entry, when
various obligations intruded almost hourly upon my opportunities to
ride, but I did finally get out on a quick 20-miler through Woodside
& Portola Valley. High point of the ride was probably when a car
stopped dead in its tracks, in the lane, in Portola Valley, nearly
causing a cyclist to run into its rear end. What would cause a car
to just stop like that, in the lane, an invitation for trouble?
Seems a deer was in the adjacent field, maybe 30 feet from the road,
absolutely motionless in a strange position as it was trying very
hard to deal with... well, let's just say it apparently wasn't
getting enough fiber in its diet. And yes, I had my camera with me,
and yes, even for me, there are limits to what I would and wouldn't
take a picture of. I did think about it though...
MORE CATCHING UP ON THIS-MORNING'S RIDE as Rob & Todd came out
to put the hurt on me. Todd's in another league, while I can usually
play for a while with Rob, but not this morning. He & Todd went off
the front early, although there was no way Rob was going to hold
onto Todd's wheel unless Todd was being exceptionally charitable
(which he wasn't). Eventually I caught back up to Rob, took a few
pictures, and then drifted back again, with Rob finishing the climb
at about 26:10 with me about 25 seconds behind. Todd finished a day
earlier, near as I could tell.
Pretty nice time to ride, before all the heat, but I think a
whole lot of other people were out trying to beat the heat as well,
since we saw 12 dogs being walked (Todd counted 'em), and a lot more
cars than usual. The warmer temps meant that I couldn't blame my
relatively-poor performance on the climbs on my lungs, which don't
work too well when it's cold, but if I think hard enough, I'm sure
I'll come up with some other excuses.
Oh, and for those who think I've got a warped mind sometimes, if
you check out the picture I think it's clear that I'm more tilted
than anything else.
07/07/05- DEFINITELY A CLOSE CALL,
but we'll get back to that one. Just Karl & Todd this morning, plus
a rabbit, John, who we often see riding past us at the start of the
ride (as we wait for people to arrive) on his way to Skyline. It was
not
an easy climb this morning; seems like my lungs just weren't working
(but at least my legs didn't seem quite as tired as they were on
Tuesday). We eventually caught up to John, but he really ought to be
riding up the hill with us, instead of ahead... he's nearly as fast
as we are, and my guess is that he'd probably hang with us just
fine! I made it to the top in about 26:45 which, a few months ago,
would have seemed pretty fast, but right now it's just a bit
disappointing after last-week's 26:05.
But about that close call. We're heading back on Manuella, with the
three of us going flat-out for the sprint to Olive Hill, where there
just happens to be an oddly-placed stop sign that cyclists routinely
ignore when making the right-hand turn. As we did this morning. As a
county sheriff's car is coming up Olive Hill. Todd & Karl didn't
recognize it until they were pretty much on top of the sheriff's
car, but I somehow had a bad feeling about that car and so was
slowing down quite a bit just as I hit the corner. When I saw it was
a sheriff's car, I could have come to a complete stop
(from a full sprint just nanoseconds before; it would have been both
possible and impressive!) but decided not to since I really didn't
want to draw too much distinction between myself and Todd & Karl. In
our testosterone-influenced state of mind, we just rode right on
past the guy, who called out on his loudspeaker "Next time could you
guys at least slow down a bit there?" I'll admit that I did feel
kinda bad...
07/05/05- GLAD MY WIFE WASN'T AWAKE
when I left the house, one-eyed, for the Tuesday/Thursday ride this
morning! During the night the swelling had gotten quite a bit worse,
such that my left eye had only this small slit to peer through. It
was a bit of an effort to force it open, but it seemed marginally
functional, so I figured I ought to at least head out to the start
of the ride and let people know I wouldn't be making it this
morning. Yeah, right. As I headed over Jefferson to the start, it
seemed like my body's main protestations were coming from my legs,
which were a bit sore after yesterday's ride to the coast. So what
the heck, maybe a bee sting could knock Jonathan Vaughters out of
the Tour de France, but it ain't gonna take me out of the
Tuesday/Thursday ride!
Todd, Karl, and Chain Reaction alumnus Richard showed up. I didn't
know what to expect of Karl & Richard; the only known quantity was
Todd, whom I knew was going to ride fast up the hill. About 26:30
later we were at the top, with Karl and Todd not too far behind.
This summer it seems like times in the 26-minute range have become
pretty much the norm for me, but I doubt I'm going to be able to get
down into the 25-minute area anytime soon, especially with the trip
to France coming up. Maybe next year?
Todd and Richard extracted revenge on me in the sprints (what did I do
though?) on what overall was a reasonably-hard but friendly ride. My
legs seem to differ on the "friendly" part though; this is the first
time in a while they've felt pretty sore. It's a good feeling.
07/04/05- A FUN RIDE TO THE COAST
on the morning of the 4th of July. Got up just a little bit
earlier than I'd like, as the group was heading out from Woodside at
7:30am. A different group than I normally ride with; Jen & Lisa &
Mark & Kevin (not Kevin K), customers from our Redwood City store
that asked if I might like to come for a ride with them. Sounded
good to me; after last-week's ride with the Alto Velo "A" group, I
figured something a bit more social wasn't such a bad idea. Besides,
since this ride wasn't supposed to be a hammer-fest, it gave me an
opportunity to use my handlebar bag and the "real" camera (yeah, I
know, in many circles a Rebel XT isn't considered close to "real"
unless it's got one of those expensive white "L"-series lenses
attached to it). Adds a few pounds, messes up the handling a bit,
but my trip to France is less than two weeks away!
We headed up Old LaHonda, down the other side to Pescadero (via
Haskins Grade, which always
seems longer than it ought to be), hoping to hit the bakery as it
opened. Unfortunately, while not a hammerfest, we still made pretty
decent time and got there well before 10am (whe n
they open) and had to make-do with the offerings of the store next
door. Not. Fortunately, a Jen & Kevin know the owners of the bakery
and were able to get a couple of fresh pastries via the secret door!
From there we headed to San Gregorio via Stage Road, with me
stopping at the place with MGM (Machine-gun Man) to get a few
pictures, and then racing (unsuccessfully) to try and catch back up
with the group. I got in a pretty hard ride with these maneuvers,
essentially doing a whole lot of intervals on most of the climbs
(since there's no way to get photos with the Rebel unless you stop
and set things up). We made the mandatory stop at the General Store
in San Gregorio (seen from the inside-out in the photo), where I
refueled with a Welch's grape juice before that final nasty piece of
Stage Road back up to Highway 1.
And then Tunitas Creek. Generally the nicest, nastiest grade up to
Skyline from either side. We came across one of our customers, Norm,
stopped by the side of the road on Tunitas, so I dropped back to see
if he wanted to ride with us back up the hill, but he seemed content
to be doing his own thing out there (and probably feared that this
group was more like our Tuesday/Thursday crowd rather than something
more closely approaching the norms of humanity). So once again I
raced back towards the group, just as a large yellow jacket was
racing towards me. Or, more correctly, towards my helmet, which it
bounced off and, mad as heck, landed above my left eye, where it
proceeded to either sting or bite me, not sure which, but the
results are always the same... massive swelling the next day. At
this point I was equally mad as heck and, after collecting my
Oakleys (which I'd thrown to the ground in an attempt to get ride of
the yellow jacket), high-tailed it back to the group. To say that I
was running on adrenaline was an understatement; Tunitas hasn't
seemed to easy in a very long time! Got lots more photos, but still
looking for that defining picture of Tunitas. One of these days...
By the time I got home the swelling was getting impressive, and my
wife seemed not-so-happy that I hadn't called her to pick me up. But
why? So she could have a reason to tell me I'm stupid? It generally
doesn't take a yellow jacket sting for that!
07/03/05- AT LEAST TWICE A YEAR YOU GOTTA
RIDE A MOUNTAIN BIKE right? So I got my Klein Mantra
out, the one which still has the racing number from my Sea Otter
outing on it, and did a ride in Arastradero Park with my kids.
That's really not such a bad place for playing around on a mountain
bike, and, who knows, you might get to see a rattlesnake (been
there, done that one) or a Mountain Lion (not yet). Took the kids
about half an hour to quit complaining about the hills and decide to
have fun, but once they did, they seemed to really enjoy it.
If you've got a mountain bike hanging around that doesn't see any
off-road use, you really ought to take it for a spin at Arastradero.
It's close by and easy to get to, being on Arastradero Road in Palo
Alto, between Page Mill and Alpine.
06/30/05- WHO ARE THOSE GUYS?
I really didn't know how things were going to go this morning, but
after Tuesday's fast (for me) ride up the hill, I wasn't expecting
people to be kind to me. But I also wasn't expecting to find Karl,
Kevin & Todd kicking back while I made tracks up the hill ahead of
them. At the halfway point (hairpin curve/switchback where it
crosses the creek) I may have been nearly a minute ahead of them,
but saw them coming after me on the straight piece where the road
gets wider, and from there to the top, I could look back and see
them slowly gaining ground, like the bad guys in Butch Cassidy.
Todd rode on past before the top, while Kevin & Karl stayed
mercifully behind, carrying on casual conversation as I was gasping
for air. Not as fast as Tuesday, but not really slow either, at
26:20.
It was a beautiful morning, without any of the heavy fog that made
Tuesday's ride so wet... and warm enough that I was remarking to
Todd that perhaps we'd be seeing some snakes sunning themselves on
Old LaHonda. Todd mentioned that he hadn't seen snakes lately, but
quite a few suicidal wild hares (rabbits) on his latest off-road
ride and, absolutely seriously, within 15 seconds of that remark we
had one pacing us for a short distance along the side of the road.
And then another, and finally a third.
For the next three weeks we'll be without Kevin, as he heads to
France for a long bike trip (SuperTour), but I'm sure Todd & Karl &
Rob will take turns beating me up. At least for the next two weeks,
after which it's my turn to head to France, but only for 10 days (of
which I'll be riding maybe just four). I'll be revisiting the Col
d'Aubisque, one of my favorite passes, carrying a bunch of camera
gear so I can grab some shots of the Tour de France as it rolls
through. That photo in the front window of our Redwood City store's
getting a bit old!
06/28/05- THE PAY-OFF FINALLY COMES.
And it was a long time coming... a very long time. Kevin,
Rob, Todd & once-in-a-while Bill on the ride this morning. Initial
thoughts that things would be civilized (since once-in-a-while Bill
was with us who, after all, had just finished the Climb to Kaiser,
about 17,000 feet of it) evaporated in a flash of vaporized tread as
Todd took off up the hill. Darn. And Rob & Kevin were hanging with
him. Darn again. And I didn't feel like falling off the back this
time. That makes it triple-darn. But I was somewhat encouraged by
the reading on the scale (showing the upper 160s for the first time
in a great many years), and after Sunday's formal training ride with
the AltoVelo "A" guys, I figured it was time to give it a go.
Eventually Kevin & Todd started drifting off the front a bit,
but pesky Rob was still with them. Dang (that's four "dangs" now, if
you're counting, which apparently I am). I was just a bit off their
pace, but no way were they going to move out of sight. Eventually
Rob faded just slightly, so I moved up ahead of him, but only about
50ft or so, and whatever pace I managed, he was still there, 50ft or
so behind. At any moment I was expecting that I might falter just a
little bit and watch Rob ride on past. It was one of those things
where you knew he was going to be either behind or ahead, but no way
were we going to be able to ride together. Besides, it's not too
easy to communicate with half-syllable grunts through the heavy
breathing.
I wasn't sure of my time splits, since the stopwatch on my bike
computer wasn't working (but I did know that I started the climb at
16:50 into the ride), but it felt like we were going for a decent
(for me) time. Without timing points, I just had Kevin, Rob & Todd
to use as reference points, but that worked out pretty well. I
finished at 26:05, my best time in a number of years (I'll have to
go over old almost-daily-diary entries to see just how long). And
now, of course, I'm thinking about all those places where I might
have made up 6 seconds so I could claim a sub-26-minute time (which,
of course, translates to 25-something, which sounds so much more
impressive!).
I should also mention that Todd's killer sprint capabilities
continue, which is a strong incentive for me to further improve in
that area. His acceleration is particularly strong just a couple
seconds into the sprint, so if I could just match that... yeah,
right!
06/26/05- I GOTTA GET A BETTER LEAD-OUT
TRAIN! This morning I rode the AltoVelo "A" ride, on
Kevin's (one of our Tuesday/Thursday regulars) recommendation. But
what am I doing on a semi-formal training ride? Talk about being
out-gunned! But Kevin said it was a friendly group, and he was
right. Friendly, but fast.
The route headed from Los Altos through Portola Valley, up Old
LaHonda, down 84 to San Gregorio, then back via Tunitas Creek.
Sprints were at the Portola Valley sign, the town of LaHonda, and
the San Gregorio/Stage Road sign. Most of the group was content to
let a few silly people go for the sprints, and I really should have
been one of those content people. But of course I wasn't, especially
since Kevin had told me about the sprints ahead of time and said
he'd give me a lead-out (a wheel to follow). OK, fine, I'm probably
more used to sitting on Kevin's wheel than anyone on the planet, so
as we near the Portola Valley sign (in a pack of maybe 40 riders) I
spot him coming up the side, grab his wheel, and see where it takes
me. Where it took me was pretty much the right place, but not nearly
a high-enough speed. There were at least four other guys who heavily
contest these sprints, and when I saw them coming around, I had
nothing left. And I'm sure it would have been a lot worse if the
best riders weren't at the Burlingame Criterium!
The ride up Old LaHonda was relatively uneventful, at least for
me, as I was pretty quickly on my own. And not because I was off the
front! Probably two-thirds of the group was ahead of me, but this
was going to be a long ride so I wasn't going to blow up on the
first climb. We re-grouped at Sky L'onda (not sure why the ride
doesn't go down the backside of Old LaHonda) and then rode a pretty
fast clip into LaHonda where the next sprint was waiting (I was
either 4th or 5th but again, not that many people were actually
contesting it) and then a very formal, very fast dual-paceline into
San Gregorio. The final sprint at San Gregorio was a tough one,
because with the continuing double-paceline, it was hard to get
yourself up to the front at the right time. Things finally bunched
up a bit though, and once again Kevin came by on the left, and once
again I latched onto his wheel for a ride that (once again) wasn't
quite fast enough to beat three other guys. It's possible I could
get the hang of it if I did this more often.
From there it was straight up Stage Road, down the coast to
Tunitas, and then up to Skyline... and again, at the tail end of
things. I'm not quite the climber I used to be, and ironically it's
partly because I haven't come to terms with my new, lighter weight-
which seems to favor standing for extended periods of time,
something I have avoided over the past several years when I
discovered that it was more efficient (at my higher weight) to force
myself to stay in the saddle.
All in all it was a very nice, very tough (for me) ride. And it
got me back just in time so that I could head up to the Burlingame
Criterium and learn a bit more about my new camera (Rebel XT) before
heading off to the TDF in a few weeks.
06/23/05- ANYONE WANT TO RIDE UP GODETIA?
Nice morning, a bit on the cool side, but hot on the road were Todd,
Kevin & Pete. Thinking we'd get away from the usual
take-no-prisoners up King's, we went up the back way, through the
park, connecting with King's about 1/3rd of the way up. Did that
moderate things? Not really. Todd was well-behaved, but still, even
though it takes a fair amount longer to go through the park,
everyone was under 30 minutes.
This morning was the first time I've felt pretty good since... maybe
early May? Instead of being in survival mode the whole way up the
hill, I was able to do three strong intervals, each time letting
Todd & Kevin get quite a bit ahead, essentially spotting them a
hundred yards or so, and then sprint like mad to catch back up to
them. That really takes its toll on you, but it's also
the best way to get stronger, faster. It forces you to recover
quickly, and gives you an idea of how fast you could
go up the hill, if you were in exceptional shape.
Skyline around Sky L'onda got quite wet, as the fog hadn't quite
burned off, and the wet roads & low visibility stayed with us on the
Old LaHonda section of the ride, with things finally clearing as we
headed down 84 back into Woodside. A nice, reasonably-civilized
ride, at least until I asked if anyone wanted to finish it off by a
little jaunt up Godetia, one of the meanest roads in Woodside.
Thankfully, no takers today.
06/21/05- *POOF* WHERE DID THEY GO?
Kevin, Todd & Rob this morning, with Kevin & Todd taking off
pretty darned quickly. I maintained contact for about three minutes
and then watched as Rob did his best to keep up with them,
eventually blowing up just below the park entrance. It really looked
like everyone, including Rob, was going to dust me this morning, but
with Todd & Kevin pushing a 24:30 pace, Rob didn't have much of a
chance. I tried to ride at a pace that I could sustain, and figured
I'd be somewhere in the 27s... it was a bit of a surprise when I
later looked at the HAC4 computer data and found that I'd ridden a
26:30.
I did bring my smaller camera and took some photos, but not much
chance to get pictures when Todd & Kevin are feeling good! Or I
could get better, but I don't think that's too likely to happen
right now; those mid-season centuries that I missed out on dropped
me down a notch or two. The only reason I'm hitting respectable
times up Kings are from losing a bit of weight, but my plan was to
lose the weight and get faster (as opposed to losing the weight so I
could ride just as fast without as many hard rides as normal). Which
brings us to the next couple weekends. This is normally the time I'd
be riding Sonora Pass, but I just don't see it this weekend. Maybe
next. Has to be soon though, as there aren't that many more Sundays
before I'm off to France again (yeah, that bike race thingee they
have going on over there).
06/19/05- SOMETIMES THERE'S A REASON IT'S THE
ROAD LESS TRAVELED.
No duh. Just got home quite late from a day trip to Nevada City, where
Jeff (the guy who's recovering from the nasty liver infection that
was first misdiagnosed as liver cancer) and I did a ride on the
local roads before watching the bike race. Roads? Well, it
might not have been so bad if I hadn't mixed up Red Dog with Dog Bar
roads. Dog Bar is a nice country road, not the greatest pavement,
but at least it has pavement. Red Dog? See for yourself! You're
cruising along a nicely paved road for a few miles, which then turns
to not-so-bad graded gravel & dirt, which then turns to very bad
gravel, when then descends into a little canyon and disappears
entirely! Well, not entirely. It reappears on the opposite side of a
steeply-walled creek bed.
The first photo shows the bizarre scene, an apparently-natural carved
out piece of earth, with a lot of recreational vehicles darting
about. [Later inspection of one of the photos revealed a sign
warning about "high speed equipment in operation" which might
indicate that this is/was a mine.] The road? It just stops. No
bridge. No trail even. You just hike down, cross the creek and climb
up the other side. In road shoes. With Speedplay cleats. Which don't
like sand & grit. With a bunch of ATV-folk looking on, wondering
what the heck we're doing out there. More on this adventure to
come! In the meantime, consider Red Dog Road in Nevada County to be
more appropriate for a mountain bike.
06/16/05- UGH. It was
difficult getting going this morning; the brown-out at home (that
knocked out my alarm clock, but didn't keep me from getting up in
time) was a metaphor for how I felt climbing the hill. Seemed like a
lot of power just wasn't there, the heart rate wouldn't tick up on
demand, you know, the sort of feeling you get when you watch people
riding on ahead and there's just nothing you can do about it. Ueyn,
Karl, Kevin & Rob this morning, with Rob getting much better at
holding a high pace for more than just a brief sprint. Dang. Ueyn
was, mercifully, suffering a bit from not having climbed anything in
ages, but that certainly didn't stop him from nailing each of the
sprints!
What I need is for Ueyn & Todd to be out there at the same time,
watching each other, while I sit back and figure out which wheel to
suck.
And while I'm waiting for that to happen, we could also get rid of the
rain that started up again this afternoon. This is
June, right?
06/14/05- FULL HOUSE THIS MORNING!
Let's see if I can remember. Kevin, Karl, Todd, Rob, Pete & new-guy
Jeff. Seven, including myself. And what a nice morning to be out
there, with temps around 60 (ditched the leg warmers, didn't even
carry a windbreaker in my bag, yeah!). Todd, Karl, Kevin & Rob went
on ahead to play on Kings, while I did what I could to save face and
not totally suck. At least at this time of year "totally sucking"
means a time of around 27:30 or so, which I can live with. But what
I can't do anything about are the sprints when the "new, improved"
Todd shows up. He's probably hitting 24-25mph on the uphill sprint
past Star Hill, and I haven't had to do better than 21 so far. At
25mph, even though it's a significant grade, I'm going to have to
get onto his wheel (draft) rather than try and sprint parallel.
That's gonna be tough, since there's something that fuels me when
I'm alongside someone in a sprint, something that says "I can take
this one." But that's not going to be the case anymore, not as long
as Todd shows up.
Perhaps Karl summed it up best today. Todd got the jersey for Best
Young Rider, the Points jersey (sprints), GC (overall time),
Polka-dot (climber), Most-improved rider, and a couple others I
forget. Stanford seems to have been good for Todd.
06/12/05- PLAYING CHICKEN
but I'll get to that in a minute. Beautiful day, nice warm skies,
light winds. Great day for an afternoon ride, but went for the
"ugly" variant- north on Canada, up 92 to Skyline (unbelievable
traffic, by the way!) and south on Skyline on that long climb that
gets to you. The warmer weather brought a lot of salt into my eyes,
but the upside was that, for the first time in ages, it was warm
enough that my lungs were working great (none of that
exercise-induced asthma nonsense that has me breathing like a
freight train in the mornings!) so I could get my heart rate to
respond a bit more readily. One surprise- very few people ride in
the late afternoon. Why not? It's so nice that time of day; just
beginning to cool off a bit with gentle breezes, everything stands
out a lot more when the sun's not directly overhead... it just feel
good.
 Oh
right, the chickens. We've got some extra (actually, extra noisy)
chickens that just had to go. Not something my daughter was very
pleased to do (she's raised them as a 4H project), but a customer
told us about a neighbor of hers on Old LaHonda who might be
interested in adding a couple more to their collection. So I had to
time things such that I could meet up with the rest of my family
there, although I actually arrived quite a bit earlier so I spent
some time goofing off with the new camera (Canon RebelXT), shooting
pictures of cyclists coming up & down the hill. The picture on the
left is actually taken from the other side of Old LaHonda though
(the west side), just after it leaves 84 (you can see a cyclist in
the middle of the picture heading up 84).
06/10/05- SUMMER'S HERE, SO NOW I'LL
COMPLAIN ABOUT allergies! Well, given the choice,
I'll take allergies over rain, even though it looks like I'm going
to have to keep Kleenex handy for a while as I get used to a world
in which the only things more relieved than I to see the sun are
every single pollen-producing plant in the universe. It's not
global warming, or global cooling... it's global anarchy (as far as
weather's concerned)!
06/09/05- THIS IS JUNE, RIGHT?
At least the weather for the Sequoia Century was dry; this morning's
ride was something else again. Heavier than a fog or even a
drizzle... I'd say it was legit light rain that greeted Kevin & I as
we reached the top of Skyline. I knew it might not be nice up there,
but I refused to bring out the Iron Pig (my rain bike) in June. It's
gotta stop sometime, y'know? So in an extreme (for me) act of
defiance I rode my nice bike, the Trek 5900... at least partly
because it needs a complete drivetrain overhaul anyway, including
new chain, rear cassette and maybe even a chainring. This past
winter & spring were not kind to bikes!
At least it wasn't cold, yet not so warm that it felt particularly
humid. Almost pleasant, really. Still, I don't look forward to
another ride down 84 seeing spots of oil on the surface every five
feet or so. Wake me up when summer's finally here.
06/07/05- DON'T GIVE UP! But
I'll get to that a bit later. It was really, really,
really
tough swinging a leg over my bike and heading up the hill this
morning. I was definitely feeling the effects of the 11k feet of
climbing two days ago, not to mention the 123 miles. Getting on my
bike today reminded me a bit of the old racing days, doing stage
races, and how you felt on the 2nd or 3rd day at the starting line.
Kevin, Karl & Rob were at the ride this morning to make sure I
didn't chicken out. Kevin feigned feeling really slow (which
actually did turn out to be the case... for once), but Karl & Rob
were their usual energetic selves. I don't know how long it took to
get to the top, but I did eventually get there, along with Kevin. I
believe we arrived the same day as Karl & Rob, but I'm not
completely sure about that.
The run along Skyline wasn't quite as bad as I thought it might be,
although I didn't contest any sprints. I finally began to feel human
on the west side of Old LaHonda, where we met up with Milo, who'd
ridden the entire ride a few minutes ahead of us, apparently worried
that he'd get blown off on the main climb (which wouldn't have been
the case today).
By the time we got to the bottom of 84 (back in Woodside), I was
feeling pretty darned good, not at all how I felt just over an hour
before. I even tested myself a bit on that nasty little rise on
Woodside Road before you get to Tripp; my legs were back! So as Rob
& Karl rounded the corner on Albion and got ready for the final
sprint, I felt like maybe, just maybe, I could contest it. I knew
Rob would go early from the front, which would mean I'd have a bit
of ground to make up riding behind Karl. And that's what Rob did- he
took off quickly, seemingly catching Karl by surprise, with me a bit
behind, taking some time to get up enough speed to first get past
Karl and then set my sights on Rob. Trouble is, the Albion Road
sprint doesn't have a clearly-defined ending point. Most often it
ends when somebody calls it quits and gives it to the other person.
Since Rob had put a bit of distance between himself and Karl, and
may not have realized I was coming up from behind, I yelled out
"Don't give up!" to keep things going, which he seemed to do. The
ambiguousness of the finish makes it almost a game of chicken to see
who flies into the Albion/Olive Hill intersection first, and sprints
really shouldn't end that way, but, you know, that testosterone
thing... in the end, I got there first, but that might only mean
that Rob was more sensible.
Once again it's proven that riding a bike is one of those
uniquely-wonderful things, at least for the more experienced (OK, a
bit older) among us. You might not feel that great at the start of a
ride, but things almost invariably get better as you go on. All it
takes is a bit of patience. How many other things in life work like
that?
06/05/05-
SEQUOIA DOUBLE-METRIC DOESN'T DISAPPOINT.
It's hard, it's long, it's got one descent that's way too similar to
Tunitas Creek, and I survived. Didn't have the miles going into it
that I'd normally have, but I did bring along my secret weapon-  Todd.
He didn't mind (much) keeping the pace up and keeping me out of the
wind, allowing us to finish the
ride in almost
exactly the same time I did the year before. Lots of photos, including
many from my brother Steve, who was on Highway 9 getting shots of
quite a few photos of riders (they can be seen at the
bottom
of the Sequoia Century page).
400 pounds of ice, 600 sodas & Sal. Yes, we put up our "secret"
soda stop at the top of Bear Creek again, fine-tuning the recipe
from last year by adding some diet drinks (still hard for me to
figure out why, at 70-90 miles into a ride, somebody wants a diet
drink) and ice tea. Funny thing we learned- the people who want Coke
will accept no substitutes. Some seemed rather annoyed when Sal (who
was nice enough to give up his day to run our soda stop) suggested
Pepsi after we ran out of Coke. The Pepsi people, on the other hand,
weren't so picky... Coke was fine with them, but a Pepsi was first
choice. So perhaps, when you're trying to size up someone's
personality and willingness to compromise, you ought to ask "Are you
a Coke or Pepsi person?"
06/02/05- I'M GOING TO NEED A REALLY STRONG
BUNGEE CORD if
I'm going to keep up with Todd this Sunday (for the 125-mile Sequoia
Century). Todd flew up the hill this morning, with a personal best
of something around 23 minutes on Kings. But Todd's got an excuse-
he's young and trains seriously with the Stanford cycling team. So
what's with Preben then? Preben shows up once in a blue moon, but
today's blue must have been extra-special as I was barely able to
keep him in sight as he did a 26:14 up the hill. Not bad for someone
in his 60s, and takes away any excuse I might have for slowing down
as I get older! Kevin & Karl and I were there, but Todd & Preben
clearly stole the show. The youngest & oldest of our
Tuesday/Thursday-morning riders. Yikes, what have I unleashed on the
world?
05/31/05- LESS THAN A WEEK TO GO
before the Sequoia double-metric century, and I'm not really ready for
it. Just one century under my belt so far this year (the Chico
Wildflower in late April); since then my harder Sunday rides have
been replaced with easier ones where I've been working with my
12-year-old son to try and get him into better shape. But it's not
as if this will be the first time I've gone into a hard ride not
fully prepared.
Nor is it as if I haven't had some help from the
Tuesday/Thursday-morning guys, forcing me up Kings at a pace not
quite what I'd call leisurely. This morning was no exception; Rob
was the only person at the start, and about 1/4 of the way up the
hill he'd dropped me. Fortunately, I just barely caught up to Milo
(first time on our ride this morning, I think) about 3/4 of the way
up the hill so had some company for a short while. Since it had
cooled down a bit and was slightly damp, my breathing was pretty
ragged; Milo said that he thought a Mountain Lion was behind him
from all the noise from my lungs. It felt like 28 minutes up
the hill but, surprisingly, the computer says almost exactly 27.
On the first sprint Rob took off early & hard again, but this
time I didn't let him go. It's a very long sprint, about 1000ft up a
roughly 6% grade. If you possess the right combination of patience &
confidence, you can have a go at it, even if someone gets off to a
substantial early lead. And when you've done the hill a few thousand
times with a bike computer, you know what sort of speed you're
capable of (between 19 & 21mph). Fortunately, this was a 21mph day.
My lungs might fail me on long grades, but for intense, shorter
efforts, it's all about the legs. And I still have legs.
05/29/05- TESTING OUT THE NEW TOY.
No, not a new bike (although I'm still lusting after a 60cm SSL,
which, one of these days, will be mine!). This time a
new camera, a bit different than those I've used before. Finally
broke down and bought a DSLR, a Canon Rebel 350XT. What a nice
machine! And just a tad bit larger than what I've been using in the
past, even though this is about as small as a DSLR comes. About 3lbs
with lens, and just barely fits into the handlebar bag, so no, this
one won't be whipped out for shots while riding. Nor is it likely to
grace my bike on my next trip up Sonora Pass! But it worked out
nicely going up Old LaHonda, down the other side and then back via
84.
05/26/05-
CYCLING SOMETIMES LEAVES ME BREATHLESS. And I'm not
talking about how exciting and inspirational it is to get up in the
morning and climb up to Skyline. No, this morning it was literally
breathless as the deadly combo of a bit cooler temps plus the "A"
team showing up (Karl, Kevin, Julian & Ueyn) had me pretty gassed
going up the hill. No matter, I figure I can still take that first
sprint on Skyline, right? Uh... nope. Karl had the idea of taking
off way
earlier than normal, catching me off-guard and possibly taking
advantage of the fact that I time the start of my sprint based on
knowing how long I can go (so that I don't die before the finish)...
implying, correctly, that there's no way I could hold it from the
bottom all the way to the top. Darn, didn't think he'd figure that
one out!
05/25/05- THIS THREAD-OF-LIFE THING CAN BE
AWFULLY THIN, and
can sometimes break unexpectedly. I knew that Max, the wife of a
good customer of ours, was in the fight of her life, having been
battling cancer for a number of years. I last saw her at the Sea
Otter, where she was looking pretty good- really, just like anybody
else. Nothing to tell you that this was a person whose body was
turning against her will to live. She looked happy, very active,
and... she just looked great. But when I saw Tom, her husband, at a
rest stop for the Foothill Century just over a week ago, he told me
that she was back in the hospital again, and for the first time
having to breathe with the assistance of a ventilator... but
fighting having to do that every step of the way. I remember Tom
telling me that he didn't think this was her final battle.
This morning Tom came in to tell me that Max was gone. And I'm just
dumb-struck, not really knowing how to react. I remember 17 years
ago... 17 years ago today, in fact... when my father died. I still
came into work the next day, because I didn't know how to deal with
it, so I just went on as I knew how. Guess some things don't change.
05/25/05- STARWARS EPISODE III "REVIEW"
ON-LINE.
No, it has nothing to do with bicycles, but back in the day I used to
post quite a few movie reviews on-line. This isn't really a review
per-se, but a response to someone else's observations in a usenet
post. Rather esoteric ramblings (as if that would surprise anyone
reading these entries!).
05/25/05- ROLL CALL!
Ueyn? No here. Kevin? Not here. Karl? Not here. Rob? Not here. The
nicest morning so far this year, and I'm the only person showing up
for the Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride. Perhaps it was so nice that
everyone else had gotten up extra-early and did the Pete's 6am ride?
Maybe. Or maybe they heard that my legs were still a bit sore from
Sunday's ride, and didn't want to risk hurting me further. In fact,
I did feel pretty sluggish this morning, heading up
King's at what some might think a leisurely pace, yet it sure didn't
feel that way to me! However, I did get some company about halfway
up as I came across Jen, a local tri-person, who was heading up to
Skyline to meet up with some friends.
05/22/05- FINALLY, IT ALL COMES TOGETHER.
Beautiful morning, and the first time I haven't had to wear leg
warmers or carry a windbreaker in... wel l,
a very long time. Met up with Kevin & Todd at Roberts (Woodside),
and we headed up Old LaHonda, riding through a large group of
cyclists from Woodside who had left shortly before us. Kevin was
suffering a bit from a Triathlon he'd done the day before in Auburn,
but Todd... well, this was the strongest I've seen Todd in a long
time, maybe ever. Todd was being kind though, never making an effort
to intentionally drop me (which he certainly could have). We
regrouped at the top and headed down to LaHonda and then up & over
Haskin's Grade to Pescadero. At this point we picked up quite a bit
of company, as the Tour de Cure was running a 100k event over the
same roads that we would now travel. Even came across some of our
customers, including Burt M (shown waving in the photo) and then,
near the Flamingo house, another one who had the misfortune of
taking a nasty spill (and in need of a few minutes of my assistance
to make his bike workable again).
The intent had been to pick up some pastries at the Pescadero Market,
but we got there a bit too early and found them closed (the early
bird may get worms but no pastry!) so we headed off into a
nasty
head/sidewind north on Stage Road. Thank goodness for Todd; Kevin & I
were glued to his rear wheel. The headwind actually worked out well
for me, as I was able to stay with Todd on Stage Road's first climb,
and only came slightly detached on the second. This ride was just
what the doctor ordered; I hadn't had a really good, hard ride of
any length in quite some time, and was beginning to worry about how
I'd do on the Sequoia double metric in just two weeks.
We regrouped again at the San Gregorio General Store, a refueling stop
before the upcoming long climb up Tunitas Creek. Somehow my legs
still felt pretty good so we hit the final climb up to Highway 1
pretty hard, and found Sergei, a Chain Reaction alumnus who'd
recently graduated from UC Davis (and a Cat 1/2 racer) at the top.
This, I'm thinking, is a good thing... Sergei & Todd can ride off
the front on Tunitas while I enjoy a more casual pace with Kevin.
Uh... no. The first third of the climb, where it isn't too steep
(maybe 7-8%), I was still feeling really good and right there with
them. But, sure enough, when it got to the nasty stuff I was feeling
pain, and watched as they rode off the front. A bit. Seemed like
they just wanted to sit maybe 50-100 meters ahead, having a good old
time chatting about who-knows-what, while I'm doing everything I can
to keep going. It was probably one of my better recent efforts on
Tunitas, with my heart rate between 165-178 the entire distance. By
the time I got to the top I was pretty wasted, and basically limped
home after the ride down King's into Woodside. But dang, it feels
good to have legs that worked so hard they hurt when you
walk down steps.
05/19/05- TURNING BACK THE CLOCK ABOUT 32
YEARS
this morning, as the continuing wet weather meant yet another outing
for the Iron Pig (my rain bike), followed by a commute to work
because, after all, this was Bike to Work day. This is pretty much
exactly the same routine I had in high school during the summer- on
Tuesdays & Thursdays I'd have my ride up Kings and south to Sky
L'onda, although back then I didn't do the extra loop of west-side
Old LaHonda. And after that I'd ride to work... all on the same '73
Cinelli I rode this morning.
Nobody showed up but me; my guess is that, after the news last
night said the rain was going to be clearing out by morning, the
annoyance of waking up and seeing more rain was just too much. I can
hardly blame anyone for that, although I did see a pair heading
south on Canada as I was waiting for anyone to show up; one of the
two, a woman, exclaimed "This is fun?" as they rode past.
So what do you notice when it's raining (actually just a light
drizzle after a short time) and you're all alone? First, how few
cars there are. At times you go several minutes without seeing one
on Kings. Second, that it must have rained pretty heavily last night
because the creeks are really moving! Third, that it's probably not
the early bird that gets most of the worms, but rather the bird
that's discovered how many worms find their way onto roadways,
making for very easy pickings, when the ground's saturated. This
morning I witnessed that first-hand. Fourth, that the vegetation is
growing like mad. As I mentioned elsewhere though, if April showers
bring May flowers, what do May showers bring? My guess is lots of
poison oak.
Since I had the Iron Pig at the shop (that Bike to Work thing),
I finally weighed it. Weighed it with fenders, half a bottle of
Cytomax, frame pump, and a seat bag with a couple tubes and a
waterproof jacket (worn on the first part of the ride, before I
realized how warm it was such that getting wet wasn't that big a
deal). About 26.5 lbs. My Trek 5900, on the other hand, would
weigh about 20lbs similarly adorned (although without the fenders).
Still, it's not the weight that I notice most, but rather the lack
of STI shifting on the Cinelli that makes it so much less desirable
than my 5900. That plus the considerably-harsher ride.
05/17/05- THEY MADE ME DO IT!
Going into this morning's ride, I never would have guessed that I'd be
doing a mid-26-minute time up King's Mtn. Especially with a rear
wheel not properly tightened, so I couldn't stand up without it
rubbing. But that's what happened, as I tried to keep Kevin (older
Kevin, 49-year-old fast Kevin, not my 12-year-old son
Kevin whom I'm gradually introducing to the joys of cycling) & Karl
in sight. I didn't have a separate stopwatch going this morning, so
I really didn't know how fast I was going until I hit the top and
Kevin said they'd done a 25-something and I was about a minute
behind. I still didn't really believe it until I downloaded the data
from my bike computer and there it was- about 26:30 or so (tough to
get the start & end points precise) and a consistent heart rate of
about 165, not once dropping below 160. Ouch! But it actually felt
pretty good, almost in control. What made this so unlikely is that I
haven't had a killer Sunday ride since the Wildflower Century in
April, so I assumed I would be getting slower. Apparently not; the
key, it seems, is keeping the weight down. Guess that's one of those
"duh" things?
Rob took it a bit more sensibly up Kings, but later went on to run
me into the ground on Old LaHonda. One thing's for sure- I'm going
to ride at a lot more sensible pace on the Sequoia double-metric
century in early June. I won't have the base miles I did last year,
but I'll be going into it a fair amount lighter, which should help.
In fact, it was last year's Sequoia century that gave me the idea I
could not only lose weight on a ride, but keep it off... and managed
to do so. I lost quite a bit on that ride but, of course, most of it
was water. So what? I used the artificially-light scale reading as
my target, and over the course of the following two weeks, managed
to stay down at the new-me (about 8 pounds lighter) weight. Who
knows, maybe this year I can do it again! But I really should be
happy enough just that I didn't watch it climb back up this past
winter.
05/15/05-
ANOTHER TOUGH 30-MILER TODAY!
Got my 12-year-old son out on his second organized road ride, this t ime
the Foothill "Century" out of Sunnyvale. Not a terribly exciting
route; an unimaginative out-and-back on Foothill, Arastradero &
Alpine to the Windy Hill parking lot in Portola Valley. But quite a
bit more challenging than the Delta 35-miler a couple weeks ago, as
this one had (according to my HAC-4, which is generally accurate)
about 1150ft of climbing. That's about 1100ft more than the Delta,
and Kevin was feeling it, especially on that steep little pitch of
Arastradero between Foothill and Page Mill. That's where the picture
comes from, and, at the time, he was feeling as bad as he looks. He
really doesn't do all that well until the turnaround point (which
coincidentally is where the first & only rest stop is), and there's
no doubt in my mind that the shorter-distance rides need more rest
stops than they have!
But after a few pieces of a banana he was good to go, with the second
half of the ride a much more pleasant outing than the first.
He really doesn't like climbing, which is why I'm thinking it
might be time to introduce him to something real- perhaps Old
LaHonda. The idea will be to take it easy, with lots of breaks and
some sort of reward as he goes. My thinking is that once he knows he
can do a really big hill (even if it takes most of the day), he'll
have a mental edge that will make subsequent climbs seem a whole lot
easier. Either that or some wiseguy lawyer will see an opportunity
for a 12-year-old to sue his dad for extreme abuse.
05/12/05- I'M BECOMING ONE OF "THEM", AREN'T
I? Guess it had
to happen. Guess it probably happened years ago, only I'm just now
realizing it. I'm becoming one of "them." One of those "older" guys,
who shows up on a "training ride" with the younger guys, and
exploits whatever advantages might come my way because there's no
way I can keep up on longer climbs. So I've become that guy who
doesn't want to lose a sprint. An opportunist. The guy who knows
everything about the other guys he rides with (where they're going
to take off, how long they can turn a certain gear, how much speed
it's safe to carry down the hill with them behind you, and how long
to follow someone else trying to go around them).
And so much about sprinting is confidence. You know it's possible,
and since it's a relatively-short effort, you can possibly pull it
off even on a day when you're not feeling all that great. Or, in the
case of Thursday's ride, even when you're riding the Iron Pig.
I certainly felt the weight of the Iron Pig on the climb, and
perhaps let it psyche me out a bit. But sprinting is all about the
moment. You swear you're not going to get involved; you're going to
sit back and watch everyone else. But it doesn't happen that way.
Inevitably Kevin starts to pull up the climb towards Skeggs, with
Rob & Karl close by. The speed's not slow but consistent, so instead
of falling back I'm pretty much right there. Then you hear something
behind you, or just to the left, and you go. You just can't help
yourself. Well, maybe you can, but I can't. There's that competitive
side that says, if you can't ride with the boys up the long climbs,
you'll try to extract a victory elsewhere. It's somewhat hollow of
course, since what exactly are you trying to prove by sprinting?
It's not as if it's a race, nor is it something you can benchmark
like your time on a climb.
But you're not thinking about that on the descent into Sky L'onda,
as you trail Kevin, Karl & Rob on the lead-in to the final sprint.
You're thinking instead that your reluctance to really push it into
the corners (because you're on the Iron Pig, which doesn't handle
nearly as well as the 5900), which has caused you to hang back a
bit, has put you into an ideal (and unusual) position. Nobody
expects that you're behind them, because you're usually up front at
this point. So you sit behind first Kevin, then Rob, as you descend
into the start of the uphill sprint. And Karl... he couldn't have
done a better leadout for me. Coming across him from behind was like
a rocket using a planet's gravitational field to boost its speed. If
you had to engineer a plan for how to win a sprint against superior
talent, this was it.
So, like I said, I remember people like me, from the way-back days.
I'm trying to figure out whether I should reconsider my earlier
analysis (from 30 years ago) that such people were sad examples of
those who can't, and try to compensate where they can. Whether I'm
like the guy I remember, when I was 16 and discussing with my racing
friends whether a SunTour or Campy rear derailleur was better, and
this older guy who couldn't keep up with us on the rides lectured us
about "not losing sleep over equipment." He had to find a way he was
superior to us, but all we thought of him was that he wouldn't be so
condescending if he could keep up. Those who can't do, criticize.
Or, perhaps, sprint.
05/10/05- IT'S ALL A BLUR SOMETIMES,
just one more day on the bike, doing the same route you've done for
30 years, up the hill,
down the
hill, looking for something to
differentiate one ride from the next. Or at least that's what  you
might think, reading my twice-weekly ramblings about the
Tuesday-Thursday morning ride. I thought about that on the way home
this morning, as I passed the starting point of the ride where,
about two hours earlier, we (Kevin, Kevin C & Karl) met and noticed
some of the exact same people passing by on Canada that we see every
Tuesday & Thursday morning, at the exact same time. Routine. Ritual.
Boring. But it's not, never has been, even after all these years.
Why?
Because I'm on a bike, that's why. Because it's my own two feet
driving me along. Because it's
something I choose to do, and
something that I've apparently decided is one of those things that
defines who I am. Because I notice new things each ride, or perhaps
a different way of looking at what's been there for years. Because
it's a social thing, riding with people who have become my friends
over the years. Because it's a private thing, an opportunity to
clear my head on a nasty climb if I want. Because I can compete with
myself, or with others, or not at all (rarely, but it happens).
Boredom is just something that I've never associated with being on a
bike. As for being routine, or ritualistic, so is waking up every
single day. The alternative is definitely worse!
So yes, my Tuesday/Thursday ride, over the same route, for all these
years, is routine. It is a ritual. But it's also fun, sometimes
exciting, there's always something new (if you care to look for it)
(and it's kinda dumb not to!), and it feels a whole lot worse when
something happens such that I don't get to ride. And if it hadn't
developed into a rather strict routine/ritual, I might have found
excuses for extended periods of time for why it wasn't "practical"
to ride. And then, at 49, I wouldn't have that feeling that I'm
stronger now than I was at 35.
So maybe you don't need to ride "more" as much as you need a ritual.
Something that you do no-matter-what. A bit of time, a couple days a
week, that everything else gets planned around. Once you've got that
down, adding in a bit more mileage on other days, doing Centuries
when the family permits... it becomes pretty darn easy. You've got
your base miles, but more importantly, you've got your mind. A sense
of self-definition that's constant, despite the world's attempts to
twist & mold things on a daily basis. MY NAME IS MIKE
JACOUBOWSKY. I'M A BIKEAHOLIC,
AND I DON'T WANT TO BE CURED!
05/09/05- DIDN'T RIDE YESTERDAY.
What more need be said? It would have been easier (not to ride) if it
had decided to rain, but, for the first time in as long as I can
remember, the skies actually passed up the opportunity to open up.
It rained elsewhere, and it always looked like it was about to rain,
but it didn't. Mother nature playing the cruelest of jokes on me,
knowing that, on Mother's Day, the chances of me getting out on a
ride approached zero, but giving me dark & foreboding skies to make
me feel like I wouldn't have been riding anyway... then holding back
on their promise of a drenching. It's unfair when it rains, and it's
even more cruel when it threatens to but holds back.
05/05/05- HOPEFULLY THE LAST RAIN RIDE?
Got to be careful, 'cuz I sure don't want to jinx things. The Iron Pig
(my rain bike) is riding a whole lot better now that it's got 175mm
cranks and a functional freewheel. Kevin & Rob joined me for this
morning's wet ride up King's, although Rob had actually left a bit
earlier, concerned that his old touring bike was going to hold down
his speed quite a bit. Riding in the rain is actually rather
pleasant, especially when it's not too cold... if only it didn't
wreck your bike! But I'm ready, really ready, really really
REALLY ready, for the rain to be over. I'm ready for a drought.
I'm ready to see the Northern California TV stations showing how
unpatriotic everyone in Southern California is, watering their lawns
& washing their cars when there's barely enough water to flush your
toilet. That's how ready I am.
But if I can't have that, at least I'll marvel at how all the
Redwood trees lining King's Mtn have an inch or two of super-bright
brand new green tips at the end of their branches. It really is
something to check out, absolutely striking in contrast to the color
of the older leaves/needles/whatever Redwoods have. I've never seen
it quite so noticeable; probably conditions are perfect at this
exact time for massive new growth. Should have brought my
camera, but didn't think there'd be much to see in the rain.
05/04/05- I *AM* DAVE STOLER!
Well, not really, but felt like it this evening as I had to bring my
Iron Pig (1973 Cinelli, now my rain bike) back into commission
because it's raining... again. [For those new to the game, Dave
Stoler was the young bike-racing geek in the movie "Breaking Away",
one of the all-time great films]
Had to work on it because the freewheel was near failure (very loose
and made constant loud cracking noises all the time). So heck, you
own a bike shop, replace the darned thing. Yeah, right. 120mm axle
spacing means you can use only a 5-speed or narrow-6, and narrow-6
hasn't been made for years, and I was out of 5s. Which meant...
gasp... I had to rebuild a freewheel. Haven't done that in...
well... three decades. But otherwise I couldn't ride.
So, with the shop wondering what the heck I was doing (particularly
since I'd fire anybody for offering to rebuild a freewheel for a
customer, given the amount of time it takes and the likelihood of a
ratchet spring failure), I grab a shoebox and get to work. Why a
shoebox? 'Cuz you need something to capture all the small parts in!
What's the worst part of rebuilding a freewheel? If you're 49, it's
counting the ball bearings in each race. Yuck. But an hour and a
half later I've got a rebuilt Cyclo freewheel that runs great,
repacked rear hub and, for a bonus, a new Phil BB.
But it really seemed like the soundtrack from Breaking Away ought to
have been playing in the background. I even told one of my guys
that, in real life, I *am* Dave Stoller. He said no, since I don't
(and never did, even when I raced) shave my legs.
05/03/05- 7 DAYS SINCE RIDING UP THE HILL
and I felt every one of them. Last week I missed Thursday's ride due
to the bicycle lobbying gig in Sacramento, and Sunday I rode the
100% flat 50k Delta Century ride with my son, so this morning's run
up the hill felt just a little bit rude. Probably didn't help that
I'm getting over a nasty cold too, but I'll use whatever excuses I
can come up with. Even carried a handlebar bag with my better camera
in it, and that must have added, what, another 15 pounds? More like
3.
 
It was the fast group today, with Kevin, Karl and Rob. I watched
them ride up the hill for as long as I could; they even waited for
me at the Park entrance, and then I got to watch them ride away yet
again. I eventually got to the top, and they were nice enough to
claim they'd arrived just shortly before. With me riding so much
slower than normal nobody was making much of the sprints, so I was
able to get a couple of nice shots on the run up to Skeggs.
Fortunately, I was able to keep off the weight that normally
accumulates (far too quickly!) when I deviate from my normal
routine. I've been known to add a pound a day at times- ouch! I'd
really rather not pack extra weight prior to the double-metric
Sequoia Century; with 11k feet of climbing, you feel it all. But
heck, that's a whole month away, lots of opportunities to ride
myself into the ground in the meantime. As long as it doesn't rain.
Please, no more rain. Ever. The wildflowers are blooming, the hills
are green enough already. Sigh. Has it really been 12 years since
we've had a drought?
05/02/05-
GREAT NEWS/WHAT SOME PEOPLE WILL DO TO GET OUT OF A RIDE.
Just heard that Jeff, my friend who had been diagnosed
with liver cancer... we're told that it looks more likely that he
has a massive liver infection. Not something you'd wish on anybody,
but a whole lot better than the initial diagnosis. To say that I'm
relieved is an understatement; presently, I'm suffering through a
bit of a cold, and, in a moment when I was feeling a bit sorry for
myself, it hit me that some people get sick and will never get
better. So will Jeff be riding Sonora Pass later this year? I'm a
bit doubtful of that, and I'm sure his wife would say no, Jeff's not
doing any ride with me, ever again (because the only rides we do
tend to involve rather nasty climbs). I'll take no for an answer on
that one. For now. But like I said earlier, Jeff's reliable if
nothing else.
05/01/05-
DIDN'T SEEM ME AT GRIZZLY PEAK? Probably because I
wasn't there! Today I chose to take my 12-year-old on his first
organized bike event, the 50k version of the
Delta Century (lots of pictures if you click the link). Not
quite as much climbing as Grizzly Peak (about 100 feet total,
including the two overpasses?), but a really nice day with a lot of
really friendly people.
04/29/05-
YES, MISSED YESTERDAY'S RIDE,
one of the few times that will ever happen. Instead I was in
Sacramento, meeting with various legislators regarding bicycle
matters. The new, politically-aware me. Well, sort of. I don't even
know who the mayor is in the city I live, but I know a fair amount
about who's likely to vote for & against AB523, a bill that sets
aside a whopping $7 million for municipalities to compete to get
funds for cycling projects. A virtual rounding error in a typical
major CalTrans project, and yet we have to fight like dogs to make
sure it's not reduced in the new budget. Also on the agenda were
bills to encourage cities to adopt a new traffic signal, where
appropriate, that has a separate green light for bikes, and another
that would prohibit charging cyclists & pedestrians tolls on
bridges. There were about 15 participating in the effort, led by the
California Bicycle Commission
(more details on the bills available on their website).
This was basically a low-key version of the big DC Bike Summit, and
a whole lot easier to sink your teeth into. For the most part, the
staffers we met with seemed both interested and supportive, a stance
probably helped by the fact that so many were products of UC Davis,
where cycling is a way of life. One thing did come up though; to
some, cycling is something you do when you're in college, but once
you get out into the world and get a job, that part of your life is
behind you. Rather sad, that.
 04/27/05
addendum- DOES BICYCLING AS A
CURE HAVE
ITS LIMITS?
I hope not. This morning I got word that Jeff, one of the
guys I ride centuries with from time to time (and one of the guys
silly enough to have ridden with me up Sonora Pass) was just
diagnosed with liver cancer. He'd been feeling like he had a bad
case of the flu for the past week, and eventually went to the doctor
when he wasn't feeling any better for way too long a time. For a
cyclist, feeling bad for 5 or 6 days is way too long a
time. Just not normal.
He was supposed to ride with me
on the Wildflower Century in Chico; the photo on the left is him on
last-year's ride. It's easy to get great pictures of him; he's
always smiling, always friendly. Only now he faces a challenge
that's a whole lot tougher than Sonora Pass. But he's tough, and
he'll be back. He's nothing if not reliable, and I'm counting on him
to be back on the bike, sooner than most would think. Because, as
I've said so many times before, bicycling fixes just about
everything. I (literally) pray that I've been right about that!
--Mike--
04/27/05- SO WHY DID I TAKE THE TRAIN
INSTEAD OF DRIVE? I type this as I'm on my way to
Sacramento, for a bicycle lobbying effort with the California State
legislature. Somehow I figured driving wouldn't be appropriate, but
as I tried to figure out how to get there, without taking a bus for
part of the trip... let's just say mass transit in the SF bay area
still has a long way to go. I had to get on a local (CalTrain) train
from Redwood City at 4:21pm, switch trains in San Jose for a 5:40
departure, and if all goes well I'll be in Sacramento at 8:40pm.
That doesn't sound so bad, but the next later option would have had
me on a bus from San Jose to Oakland. The whole thing seems a bit
bass-ackward anyway, going south first before north. The return
tomorrow night is still problematic; the train leaves Sacramento
about 8:40pm, and I take it as far as Richmond where, at 10:20pm I
transfer to BART, which I take to Oakland, where I transfer to a
different BART train which will take me to the Millbrae CalTrain
station where I catch the 12:20am train there. I *may* be home by
1am.
BUT... if I were driving, it would be a bit over two hours, alone,
in a car during heavy traffic. Instead I'm sitting sorta comfortably
on a half-full train, with a laptop open on one tray and some food
on the adjacent seat's tray, checking to see if it's remotely
possible to connect to an unsecured wireless network while traveling
at 70mph. Answer: No. By the time you recognize its existence and
try to connect, it's gone. That's OK, it's still given me a chance
ot catch up on some "lost" emails that I never got around to. Now, I
wonder if there'll be a signal I can snarf at the hotel? In the
meantime, having pulled into Davis and thinking maybe long enough to
steal a signal, everything's encrypted... including the mysterious
SSID "ILoveDavisLumber." OK, glad somebody does. Well, we're finally
hauling along, passing cars on nearby I88 as we head onto the Yolo
Causeway just west of Sacramento. Almost there.
04/26/05- SORRY 'BOUT THAT ONE, ROB!
Rough morning today as the legs just didn't seem to have it, and the
"A" team (Karl, Kevin & Rob) showed up. I struggled up King's,
watching the three of them from a safe distance for a bit, and then
*poof* and they were gone. By the time I got to the top Kevin
had already ridden on ahead, detouring slightly to his house so
he could change his rear wheel (it was skipping pretty badly on the
cogs). We headed down Swett Road a bit to meet him, which meant
having to climb back up to Skyline, right to the place where our
first sprint starts. Yuck I'm thinking, I'll just sit back and suck
wheels today and let someone else take it. Unfortunately, that
particular sprint takes place in slow motion and it didn't' take
long to see that Rob, who'd taken the lead, had maxxed out. What the
heck, no matter how bad I feel, you just gotta sprint, right? So I
found some reserves and got to the top first. But that wasn't where
I fouled Rob.
It was on the final Skyline sprint, where you're heading into
SkyL'onda up that last little climb, that I would have been
disqualified in any race. It was a pretty fast run up the hill, and
I just wasn't holding my line, apparently cutting over a bit (at
about the same time I found my front wheel up in the air for a
moment). This really wasn't my day; I don't intentionally act like a
dork in a sprint, but today that didn't matter. A bit later, on Old
LaHonda, Kevin and Rob wanted to make sure nothing like that
happened again so they just took off, leaving me well behind. Karl
was nice enough to keep me company (and he's got enough racing
experience that, if I took a bad line again, he'd probably just hook
me and take me out!). Still, a nice morning to be out, and I did
feel a whole lot better at the end of the ride than at the
beginning.
 04/25/05-
WILDFLOWER
CENTURY PAGE NOW UP. Photos aren't great due to weather
conditions, but you can also view photos
from the '04 ride (without descriptions) which followed the same
course.
04/24/05-
WILDFLOWER CENTURY PART TWO.
Last year was the first time I'd ridden the Wildflower Century in
Chico; I'd heard about it for years, but never made the long drive
up there. Had a nice ride, but it was a pretty hot day (got up to
about 94 if I recall correctly). This year was quite different, as
it threatened the rain pretty much the entire ride (a thread that
fortunately wasn't carried out) and temps ranged from 48 to 70...
not bad weather for me at all. I'll get a page up shortly with
photos and yes, I did come across quite a few of our customers,
including Howard & Peggy & David. Overall it was possibly the
easiest century I've ever done, possibly because it's the first one
I've ridden since last year's Sequoia Century, after which I worked
to lose a bit of weight. Definitely makes a difference!
04/21/05- WHAT A DIFFERENCE TWO DAYS MAKES!
On Tuesday it was just Kevin riding with me up the hill, and very
slowly at that. And with Sea Otter just a couple days prior, it's
not like my legs felt like doing anything more than a slow ride
anyway. But today the "A" team showed up. Kevin, Karl and Rob.
Yikes! And nobody even participating in the normal ritual of making
excuses ahead of time for how they're going to ride slowly because
of this or that. Serious bad news. But for some reason my legs
responded, my lungs began to work and I didn't get totally blown
apart halfway up the hill. Sure, towards the top Kevin & Karl passed
me, but I felt like I could just keep cruising along, never hitting
that point where you're thinking that, if you keep this up for
another 30 seconds, you're going to collapse. To bad I didn't have a
timer set, as it was probably my best time up the hill for the past
couple of years.
Of course there's a price to be paid for going hard, and I was
quite fearful it would be paid for on Old LaHonda, especially when
Rob chose his usual spot to take a flyer. But for whatever reason
Kevin & Karl didn't respond so we bid Rob adieu and continued at a
civilized pace to the top, giving Rob the KOM (King of the
Mountains) points. Not a problem, Rob earned it, as I'm sure he was
pushing himself quite hard, believing that we were just behind him
all the way to the end.
By the way, I learned that Karl had also ridden in the 45-49 age
class at the Sea Otter Mtn Bike race. Only he rode expert, not
beginner class, and did two laps in a time of only 3:03, good enough
for 9th place and a huge amount of respect from anyone who's ridden
that course. Well, from me anyway!
 04/20/05-
SEA OTTER MEMORIES. Geez, a
bit early to be reminiscing about a race that was just a few days
ago isn't it?
But I'm already suffering withdrawal. For me, doing a mountain
bike race is so much better than doing a normal off-road
ride. Why? Because things happen so fast I don't have time to
think... don't have time to get scared and think about all the
reasons why it's a crazy thing to be doing. No time to think about
the fact that there's no way I'm good enough to make it up that hill
without getting off the bike. No time to think about the sand bog
that you come screaming down the hill into, the one that
demonstrates why they use sand traps to stop runaway trucks on steep
grades.
Plus, in a race, there's nobody with a radar gun ticketing you
for going over 15 miles per hour. That seems like such a ridiculous
thing; how can you not go faster than 15 miles per
hour if you're having fun off-road? But then you look at the HAC-4
printout from the race and realize that your average speed is well
under 10 miles per hour, and the time you spend above 20mph was
pretty small. Top speed around 30, but I'm sure that's from a
computer malfunction, 'cuz no question about it, I was doing at
least 60 a couple of times! Well, it sure seemed like it.
And that final climb, the one where I managed to pass a whole
lot of people (mostly because it was on a fire road so wide that
even I could get past people)- the one time where I felt like my
equipment was holding me back, as the old Klein Mantra's rear
suspension wouldn't let me stand, and my grips were slowly sliding
off the bars... now I want revenge! I want to do better. More
racing. This is totally crazy stuff coming from a die-hard
roadie who has no off-road skills whatsoever, but perhaps that's
part of the attraction. I have no history to hold me back, no
memories of how I might have ridden many years ago. Nothing to make
me feel bad about being in a "beginner" class. And there is
something fun about competition, whether it's with yourself or
against others.
If not for the Wildflower Century this weekend I'd be quite
tempted to ride the Napa mtn bike race on Sunday. This is such
strange stuff to be thinking... did somebody spike my water?
04/19/05- BACK TO THE ROAD RIDING AGAIN.
Not that my life as a mountain-bike-rider is entirely
over; past history suggests that I'll probably ride next year's Sea
Otter event again, and quite possibly with very few off-road rides
in-between. But for today it was back to the road bike, meeting up
with Kevin (who still doesn't understand why I don't ride the Sea
Otter road
race instead) and heading up King's. Nice, easy ride this morning,
without Karl to push the pace or Steve to make sure no sprint
opportunities are passed up. We'll probably do a harder ride on
Thursday, and then Sunday I'll be up in Chico for the Wildflower
Century... assuming the rain in the forecast has been replaced by
something more favorable by then. Sure, I don't miss the
Tuesday/Thursday morning rides no matter what the weather, but
somehow I don't feel like driving 3+ hours so I can ride 100 miles
in the rain.
04/17/05- MID-LIFE CRISIS PART TWO- MY LIFE
AS A MOUNTAIN BIKE RACER! Fear not, the Universe has
not tilted on its axis, and I won't be replacing the
Tuesday/Thursday-morning road ride with a mountain bike option
anytime soon. But I did live up to my ill-timed comment last year
(ill-timed in that there was somebody around to hear it) that even I
could ride the Sea Otter course and survive... and ride it I did.
And, truth be told, it was pretty cool.
110 people had signed up for the 45-49 beginner class, and according
to the official results, 89 finished. Unfortunately it is
called a race, and that generally gets me going. I thought I'd be
immune, since it was a mountain bike race, and I'm not a pretty
sight on a mountain bike. But there I am on the starting line,
noticing my pulse was quite a bit higher than normal as I looked
forward to my first mountain bike ride in a great many months. Oh, I
didn't mention that? I'd thought it would be a good idea to get some
off-road rides in, but somehow never got around to it. In fact,
until two days before the race, I didn't even know which bike I was
going to ride- my seriously-retro Trek 9800 first-year carbon
hardtail with a 7-speed drivetrain, or my neo-retro Klein Mantra
dual-suspension from 1999? Well, since I couldn't even find my 9800
for a while, the Klein Mantra was the choice. Hey, why not? Old bike
for an... oh no, don't want to go there. Anyway, as long as you lay
off the front brake (otherwise it tries to dive head-first into the
ground) and don't stand up while pedaling, it works great!
This year's Sea Otter was a great course for people like me, as they
removed one of the more-technical sections and the final climb was
on a fire road. Nevertheless my heart rate may have been higher on
some of the descents than on the climbs as I worked not just to keep
up with those ahead, but to try and keep from being run over by
those behind. At times I was in way over my head, but the same basic
rules from road biking apply- if the other guy can take that line
through, then so can I. Confidence is everything.
I was doing my best not to hold people up, and had probably found my
place about midway through the field. On the other hand, when we got
to the climbs I tended to move up pretty quickly, even on the fairly
technical ones... just put it into a really low gear and get way way
way forward on the bike and go. Of course, that led to
my only two kabooms, as it doesn't matter how good you're doing if
the guy in front of you suddenly stops to dismount and walk!
Truthfully though, I really had no idea how I was doing relative to
the rest of the field, but there remained the possibility, however
slim, that it wasn't as bad as I thought going in. So, when we came
to the final long climb, the one everyone seemed to fear, I just
said to heck with it and went. I don't think anybody passed me on
that climb, aside from two junior men who had started 10 minutes
later than our group and had caught up... and I passed a whole lot
of people. By the time we got to the part where you do the final
half mile or so on the paved race track (a strange way to finish a
mountain bike race!), there were more riders in sight in front of me
and I just decided to give it everything all the way to the end,
passing everyone I could. Some part of me thought of this as being
not particularly sporting, but it was, as I said, a race, and I
wasn't going to finish with anything left in the tank.
In the end I finished in 24th place, much higher than I expected.
That's probably not a good thing; I don't need encouragement to take
up something silly like mountain bike racing. Heck, I haven't even
done a road race for a number of years! But it was a lot of fun, I
did survive, and my time would have been good enough for 10th place
in the class I race in next year (50-54). But of course I am greatly
humbled by Todd, one of our staff in Redwood City, who placed 6th in
the 19-24 Expert class with a 2-lap time of 3'05". Another of our
Redwood City guys, Jason, rode in the 19-24 Sport class and placed
15th in his 1-lap race with a time of 1'34". My time for one lap was
1'48". I can't even imagine where I'd make up 14 minutes on that
course, not to mention have the strength to do a second lap! And
speaking of intensity, my average heart rate was 160, substantially
higher than 140-or-so average on the Tuesday/Thursday road ride
(probably because I can actually relax and rest when descending on a
road bike, while off-road I'm more tense descending than doing
anything else!).
04/16/05- KEEPING SECRETS FROM THE DIARY
is not something I usually do, but I've kept this one under wraps
for a while, just in case things didn't work out. You see, last year
I visited the Sea Otter mountain bike races, watched some of the
cross country event, and was overheard telling someone "This doesn't
look too technical; maybe I could even do it." Yeah, right, me the
die-hard roadie, one of the ugliest things ever seen when off-road,
doing a mountain bike race.
But, here I am in Carmel, the night before my 9:25am start for the
beginner men's 45-49 cross-country race. 19 miles, 2700ft of
climbing, and who knows how much walking! And I'm doing everything
right, with new shoes I haven't worn before, a bike I haven't ridden
in two years (my Klein Mantra, which my brother had borrowed;
normally I ride a neo-retro Trek 9800 carbon bike that dates back to
1993 or so).
Don't look for photos taking during the event; I'll have my hands
full trying to stay out of people's way when they're passing me!
04/14/05- UEYN'S BACK!
Just Kevin & I at the start this morning, although we picked up Ueyn
partway up Kings. Of course, he'd already done the "morning" ride,
starting at 6am... and of course, Kevin had already been swimming...
these guys really make me look like a slacker, sleeping in until
7:05! Nice morning with great views, but dang, isn't it a bit late
in the year for 39 degrees?
04/12/05- NO LAZY START TODAY
as I find Kevin, Karl & Rob (recently recovered from a broken
collarbone) waiting for me. A bit colder than it ought to be, which
doesn't do wonders for my breathing, or it could just be that, with
this group, I'm looking for whatever excuses I can find!
Karl pushed the pace up the hill, using today as his "hard" day
prior to the Sea Otter Road Race he's doing (along with Kevin) this
Friday. I held on for... well, not very long. Then Kevin went past,
and it wasn't long before I was barely hanging onto Rob's wheel, and
then following it the last half of the climb from maybe 10 yards
back. And this is what I do for fun? In some strange way, yes.
Trouble is, I don't know when to give up, so if I can't climb, then
I just gotta go for the sprints, as unlikely as it seems that I
might prevail, especially after we picked up a bit more firepower at
the top of King's, where Steve joined up with us. But somehow I did
manage to hold them off on the first sprint just past Swett Road
(which means that Karl probably wasn't trying) and then again at
Skegg's. The nice thing about sprints is that they don't last too
long, so the fact that I don't breathe well when it's cold isn't
such an issue. Or maybe hearing my heavy breathing when it's cold
intimidates everyone else?
But overall another nice ride, on a very nice day (nice because it
didn't rain, which seems highly unusual lately, and has greatly
lowered my definition of what "nice" means!). And, at the end of the
ride, a reminder that cycling is something you never have to give
up, as we came across Fast Eddy and Sean... that would be 73, soon
to be 74-year-old Sean, who was going to head out with the remnants
of our group for another 30 miles or so, at a pretty hard pace.
Unfortunately I had places to be, people to see, so I bid them adieu
and headed back home. Life is both good and apparently long on a
bike!
 04/10/05-
STARTED OUT AS A LAZY SORTA DAY
Sunday, with no early-morning pre-church ride, just a vague plan to
get out later with the kids and encourage them to ride a bit. But of
course one kid's complaining about an upset stomach, and the other
isn't willing to wait around, so my wife & daughter go out and do
the Bicycle Sunday thing, while I have to suffer at home watching
OLN's coverage of the Paris-Roubaix race (where George Hincapie took
2nd place, go George!). Eventually my son did feel better, so we
rode out to Woodside and north on Canada Road and back. Even though
Bicycle Sunday had long since ended, there was little car traffic on
Canada, and no zig-zagging little kids & rollerbladers either.
Oh, and did I mention how nice it was to not have to wear leg
warmers & long-fingered gloves, nor worry about rain? We've earned
this nice weather!
But 12 miles isn't quite enough for me, even on a lazy day, but it's
6pm so you're racing the sun... what to do?
 Easy.
No, hard. You head out to King's but instead of heading up towards
Skyline, you stay to the left and go up Entrance Way, which is steep
enough, but also the back route to the nefarious Summit Springs
Road. The meanest, nastiest little climb in the Woodside area. How
nasty? In just .69 miles it gains 500 feet (from Trip Road to where
it dead ends).
If you haven't tried it, well, it's not one of those things that
should be on your list of things to do before you die, but if you
really want to know what a steep climb is, it's worth doing...
especially since it does end after a mercifully-short
distance (although it won't seem like it at the time!). Plus, it
dead-ends into a pile of dirt. Somehow seems appropriate.
Best way to do Summit Springs is to start at Trip Road; it's about
halfway between Highway 84 (Woodside Road) and Kings. Looks innocent
enough at the bottom, but gets serious very quickly. Many will bail
out at the 2/3rds point, where there's a road that goes off to the
right that connects up to Kings (via Entance Way, as mentioned
above). But it's the very last part of the climb that's to die for.
04/07/05- I'M READY FOR SOMETHING
DIFFERENT.
Like no more rain. Ever. The weather.com forecast said it was likely
to rain in the morning, but I went to bed not really believing it;
the skies were pretty clear, not much breeze, and besides, doesn't
the water run out eventually? I didn't have have my rain bike
available, as it's in severe need of a new bottom bracket and hub
overhauls. But I wake up in the morning to wet streets and a light
misty drizzle. OK fine, I can put up with that.
Still, it takes quite a bit longer to run down the extra stuff you
need to bring when it's raining (different jacket, shoe covers,
glove covers, hat for under the helmet, etc) so I arrive at the
start about five minutes late. This is well beyond my normal
punctuality (+/- about 30 seconds or so), prompting Kevin to give me
a call from his cell phone, making sure I wasn't wimping out.
Darrell was waiting with him, making it three of us, which usually
means a fairly fast ride. Why? Because even if one person isn't
feeling that strong, the other two are probably going to push each
other. When there's only two, things tend to be a bit more civil.
But fast ride it wasn't, at least not up Kings Mtn, as Kevin truly
was looking dead today, and not trying to hide it. I made sure to
keep him in sight while Darrell went on up the hill (it's not a
whole lot of fun if you're alone and get a flat, and wet roads make
flats much more likely). At the top Kevin had had enough and headed
back down, which, a few minutes later, might not have seemed like a
bad idea for myself and Darrell either, as it started raining. At
first it was the sort of thing where you weren't sure if it was
really rain or just stuff falling from the trees, but that sorted
itself out pretty quickly... nearly all of the ride up on Skyline
was in a fairly heavy and pretty cool (43 degrees) rain. Just what
my non-rain-bike needed.
But it did feel very good to be out there, even though I hadn't
slept well the night before (that sleep stuff is over-rated), and
did a decent job of keeping up with Darrell. All in all a very
pleasant ride, although I'm willing to bet it would have been even
more pleasant if it hadn't been raining!
04/05/05- LIES, LIES, & MORE LIES.
I should be used to that by now. When Kevin says he's feeling
sluggish, don't believe him. I was looking forward to a civil ride,
the type where you can possibly carry on a conversation while
climbing the hill. And, for a short while, that looked possible.
After all, it was just me & Kevin (& King's Mtn). I started up
relatively slowly and, at first, Kevin did look like he was dragging
a bit. But then, shortly up the hill, there was Karl. I don't know
if he came from the top-down or what, but he was waiting for us,
looking like one imagines a shark does while circling its prey. And,
what do you know, Kevin suddenly starts feeling a whole lot better.
And I'm hoping that we're going to stop at the park entrance, so
Kevin can water a tree. Not today.
Normally
I'd be game for a hard ride, especially after a good ride on Sunday.
But this morning, I was having a really tough time getting any sort
of rhythm going on the climb, and my heart rate just wouldn't come
down to where it ought to be for the (lack of) effort. I pretty much
stayed with them, but even during the first half of the climb, where
I was just a bit ahead, I was tortured continuously by the sound of
their voices in casual conversation, while I'm gasping for air. By
the time I got to the top I'm thinking "OK, so what's all this stuff
I write about, where maybe you start out feeling dreadful but things
get better as the ride progresses? I'm ready for better, but not
feeling it!" Karl makes matters worse by pushing the pace south on
Skyline up to the base of the first sprint; he later explained that
he didn't know I'd been blown off the back- he was just trying to
make sure I was a bit winded before that sprinter's hill.
Fortunately I caught up at the top of that hill, and from there on
started feeling human again. The second sprint (at Skegg's)
surprised me, as I managed to get past Karl somehow, and the final
sprint was all mine as Kevin was nice enough to go around me just
before the start of that last hill before Sky L'onda, giving me an
exceptional draft to help launch me the final 200 meters or so. The
rest of the ride was uneventful but beautiful, as everything is
incredibly green after the recent rains. I ended the ride a bit
earlier than normal, with that nice feeling in the legs that yes, I
did something. And an added bonus is that the scale is saying nice
things too. 172lbs, 7 to go. Don't know if it's realistic to
actually get to 165 or not, we'll see.
04/03/05- REVENGE OF BRUNO.
In advance of his latest TREK-Travel gig, Bruno, our Redwood City
service manager, is back on the bike in a serious way, trying to get
ready for those mountains in France. This morning he decided to take
it out on me again (he rode on our Tuesday/Thursday ride earlier in
the week), but for what? Have I been that bad a boss?
The torture began with the hour of the ride- I was to meet him at
8:30am at Arastradero & Page Mill. Hey, that's not so bad. Except
for the beginning of Daylight Saving's Time, that is, which made the
meeting time effectively 7:30, and since it takes a bit over half an
hour to get there, it meant getting up at the equivalent of
6:20am... and I am so not a morning person! And for a ride up Page
Mill, probably my least-favorite climb, at that.
But Bruno's one of the good guys, and with a spot of foul weather
scheduled to hit a bit later in the day, it seemed like a morning
ride made some sense. As usual, Page Mill had its way of getting to
me, but Bruno was relatively kind, not taking too much advantage of
the fact that I don't have all that much power anymore on the really
steep stuff. It was actually a pleasant ride to the top, with the
relatively-cool temperatures (45 degrees near the top) keeping me
from overheating, although my lungs don't work so well when it's
colder.
After heading north on Skyline we dropped down the west side of
Old LaHonda, admiring the views and avoiding the horse poop in the
middle of the road. After a quick run back up to Skyline we had
breakfast at Alice's- their Sunday "Ducatti Special" (two eggs, two
pieces of French Toast and two pieces of bacon). Given what we
presumably smelled like we sat outside, thankful for the space
heaters (and, in my case, hot chocolate; I doubt Bruno's orange
juice did much to take off the chill).
41.5 miles, 3734ft of climbing (HAC-4 bike computers are pretty
cool), 16.3mph average speed... but more importantly, someone to
share the ride with and getting to see an awful lot of our
customers out on the road.
03/31/05- THE TALE OF THE TAIL.
What a difference a couple of days makes. The skies cleared
beautifully, warmer temps returned, and my primary bike (Trek 5900)
responded beneath me as if I was in control. At the start of the
ride I found Bruno waiting, a friendly-but-scary face to see (as
he's climbed Alpe d'Huez in 54 minutes, putting him in rather elite
company). He'd noted the passing of another cyclist, older guy on a
red bike- that would be Steve L, getting a head start up the hill.
Shortly after Darrell (whose name I've spelled Daryl in the past)
arrived and we took off.
With Darrell along we had at least one climber who was going to push
the pace up the hill, so I hit the bottom hard, even harder than
usual, to see if I could hold him off for a bit. Nothing doing, and
not for a lack of trying on my part. At the first timing point my
computer was showing 2:28, the sort of pace you might do for a
one-way suicide mission that you don't plan to return from. Darrell
was still there. So I backed off a bit (not that I could have done
otherwise) and figured I'd shut down a bit and regroup with Bruno...
only Darrell stayed within reach, and I hadn't completely hit empty,
so I kept going with him up to the park entrance. I figured he'd
slow down there a bit and we'd wait for Bruno, but he didn't... he
just kept on going. With Bruno's quick arrival I continued on up,
surprised that there was anything left in my legs, and equally
surprised that Bruno wasn't passing me. But he was just a bit
behind. That uncomfortable sort of behind, where the slightest
faltering on your part gives the other guy the mental edge to pick
it up and go flying past. I remained content to ride at a steady
pace, a whole lot slower than at the start, and not expecting
anything better than a mid-27-minute time for the climb, if that.
A bit past the halfway mark we reached Steve L, and shortly after
that Kevin showed up, riding down the hill to meet us. Darrell was
still a bit ahead, and Bruno... always just a bit behind. Lurking. A
vulture looking for weakness in its prey. But my legs kept going. By
the time we got to the final hairpin (at the archery range, where
you pass under the high voltage lines) it looked like I could, with
a strong finish, hit something around 27 minutes. This surprised me,
as I hadn't been riding for time this morning, but the motivation
was there as I was being pushed from behind (by Bruno's relentless
presence) and pulled from ahead (by the clock). Entering the final
straightaway I got to watch Darrell finish in around 26:20 or so,
and I managed to drag myself to the top in 26:55. Bruno was only 25
seconds behind, and I don't honestly remember if Kevin was ahead or
behind, but since he only rode 1/3rd of the hill, does it really
matter anyway? Steve was maybe a minute or two behind Bruno, saving
himself for whatever sprints might come later.
A nice cruise south on Skyline, followed by a fast westward run on
84 (thanks to the mild offshore flow!) to West Old LaHonda. No total
carnage this time, just partial as Kevin & Darrell rode off the
front on the return section, with me in the middle between them and
Bruno & Steve. Hate it when that happens; if you give up, you risk
shutting down adn getting dropped like a rock by the guys behind
you. But dang you feel lonely out there, so you chase, and chase,
and on the twisty stuff through the trees actually make some ground
and catch up right at the end (no doubt because Kevin and Darrell
were probably taking it easy on that part).
When we got back to the start we met up with 73-year-old Sean, the
speed demon who proves that age need not be an excuse for slowing
down. Kevin, Steve, Bruno & Darrell all headed south with him for a
few more miles, while I counted my blessings for surviving a
relatively-fast ride and headed on home, but not before spotting a
low-flying and rather large red-tailed Hawk circling overhead. Not
today. Today I felt at least somewhat alive. Today the Hawk will
have to stalk someone else.
03/30/05- FIRST DAY OF SUPERSALE A SUPER
SUCCESS!
Well, we survived it anyway. Sales are always pretty tough on me, as
I have to get price changes into the computer, print up sale flyers,
publicize whatever needs to be publicized on the website, help get
all the banners hung up in the store (can't have a sale without
looking like a used car lot, y'know?) etc. Sleep is over-rated. Or
not. Right now, it seems strange to think I'd want to get up early
tomorrow morning and ride, but once I get on the bike, once I turn
the pedals over for the first time as I immediately climb away from
my house... the world will be a better place. It always is.
03/29/05- WHAT HAPPENED TO TUESDAY?
What happened indeed! A day late getting Tuesday's ride up, as
things kind of got away from me with all the preparations for both
SuperSale (which started today) and our 25th Anniversary Sale (which
starts on Saturday). I did ride Tuesday morning... sort of. First,
seems I didn't hear the normal part of the alarm, and woke up
violently 10 minutes later to the really annoying noise it makes
when you sleep through the first part. Plus, it's raining. OK,
downstairs to drag the Iron Pig (rain bike) out of the garage, the
rain bike that's been getting more than its share of use this year
and showing signs of a few too many wet rides and too few hours of
maintenance. But despite the fact that it's raining, it seems almost
pleasant out there.
Too bad the bike was anything but pleasant. Every turn of the cranks
elicited a very loud crunching and sometimes crackling noise, as
whatever's left of the bottom bracket bearings are deforming and
breaking up. By the time I (the only person on the ride) get to the
base of King's Mtn, it's difficult to believe the cranks aren't
going to completely seize up. Still, I ride down Greer Road,
thinking... well, not sure what I was thinking, but it seemed like a
good idea to stay off the hill as long as possible. But
realistically, there's no way this bike's going very far. So I
reluctantly turn around and head for home. Reluctantly because it
really did seem like a nice day for a ride in the rain. 53 degrees,
light wind, little traffic. Sigh.
03/27/05- THAT'S ONE NASTY HILL.
But what is it about Page Mill that makes it so tough? There are
many other similar climbs in terms of elevation gained and distance
(Tunitas Creek comes to mind). But there's something about the
bottom part of Page Mill that keeps you from setting a pace, keeps
you from settling in, at least until you get to the park entrance
about a mile or two up. About 35 miles this morning, out through
Portola Valley, up Page Mill to Skyline, north to 84 and back down
into Woodside. Curiously, almost nobody else on the road. I would
have thought quite a few others woudl be doing what I was- trying to
get in a nice ride before church or family obligations on Easter
Sunday.
03/24/05- IT STOPPED RAINING!
It almost felt wrong to be riding without rain, but sure felt great
to be off the Iron Pig (my rain bike). The roads were still a bit of
a mess in places, but not so bad that I wished I'd had my other
bike. At the start were Jason, Todd & Karl (yeah, fast Karl), and we
picked up Kevin along the way. Karl took off hard on the climb up
King's, with me trying to grab his seatpost to keep up with him. We
waited for the rest at the park entrance, where I was really hoping
that Kevin might have to water some trees, giving me a bit more than
30 seconds to catch my breath. It appeared that Kevin & Karl wanted
to have fun seeing if they could melt their rear tires on the climb
so I watched them ride off, spotting them a bit of distance (more
than I should have) before sprinting to catch up. At that point I
then waited for Todd and we rode up together for a bit, and then
about halfway up the hill I connected with Jason and sent Todd on
ahead. I make it sound like I'm in control of things when I say that
I sent someone on ahead; a closer approximation to the truth would
be that I couldn't keep up.
Jason rode a much stronger second half of the climb; I don't
think he really knows yet how strong he is. When he figures it out,
I'm sure I'll be seeing his backside!
It was quite a bit cooler up on top; 41 degrees at one point,
making our group look pretty impressive as we exhaled clouds of
condensing air. But 41 degrees and dry is greatly preferable to 44
degrees and raining, so no complaints!
The west-side Old LaHonda loop was ridden at a
surprisingly-civilized pace, which was a great relief since it was
now just Kevin & Karl with me, Todd and Jason having continued down
84 for a longer ride out to the coast. All in all, a great day to be
out on a bike, and the first
time I really felt like myself since my week layoff in Wisconsin.
First time the scale showed something I wanted to see too!
03/22/05 2:08pm- WHO'LL STOP THE RAIN?
That's (predictably) the song on the radio right now. Maybe they'll
follow it up with Supertramp's It's Raining Again. Last I saw, we
were supposed to be having scattered showers, gradually breaking up
and maybe even a chance to see the sun.
Late-breaking news- 5:38pm There's a hole in the sky with
something blue showing through! Actually a bit of contrast; no
longer is the entire world shades of gray. Hope springs eternal!
03/22/05- SO YEAH, IT DID REALLY DUMP ON US
but I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Kevin & Ueyn showed up
at the start, for a drizzly run 3/4 of the way up King's. Then it
stopped drizzling. By the time we got to the top it was, as
predicted, really dumping. Low-visibility dumping. Worse, we picked
up Karl (traded him for Ueyn, who had to head back down the hill to
get to work), who didn't seem to be any slower despite not having
ridden over the weekend (he was his team's masseuse at the San Dimas
bike race), so there was no letting up on the pace.
By the time we got to west Old LaHonda I was pretty fried, and got
to watch as Kevin & Kar |
