Past performance is not a predictor of future results

Personal stuff, Ride reports (not Tu/Th), Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

Got a new bike computer, the Garmin 1050. It is *so* nice!!! Super-bright screen with greater contrast, easier for 68-year-old eyes to see, easier for gloved hands to work the screen, and displays relevant information regarding your fitness level and what might be done to improve it.

Cruising through the menus, I found one (that’s also available on the Garmin 1030 and 1040 I think) that gives your past best accomplishments, going back to the beginning of time (not really; goes back to when you first started logging rides with a Garmin). One of the items shown was 20 minute power, which, of course, couldn’t be measured until I got my first power meter. That peak 20 minute power reading was from October 13, 2013. So I had to go back and look it up, right? And the title of that ride…

First real ride with “Power” (Stages power meter)

That’s right. My first ride with a power meter demonstrated the highest-20-minute-power I’ve ever seen. Which means, basically, that it’s been all downhill ever since. I have no way of knowing when my peak power readings might have been; when I was 50 I had a bit of a second “peak” in fitness (the first being the years I raced, which prehistoric times… no power meters, no cell phones, no bike computers of any kind). But I do know that I’ve been on a steadily-downhill trend since 2013 at least.

The good news is that my Garmin-estimated VO2 max is coming off it’s low and back up to 47 (was 46 a few weeks ago) and hopefully I can get it up a bit higher as I get ready for France. I’ve also got another glass-booth breathing test coming up, where I’ll get an idea of how the lungs are working and push for more attention to the cause of my breathing issues.

Yesterday’s Kings ride- not too bad. I was feeling pretty good on Kings, possibly feeling the effects of taking Ketones about 35 minutes prior to the ride, rather than waiting until just heading out. As with most things, seems like I need a bit more time to warm up and for meds to take effect.

Also finally on blood pressure meds. Losartan, which will hopefully not have an affect on my performance like Amlodipine did. First dose last night. Think if I take it just before sleep, I can sleep through the worst of any side-effects.

Here’s that ride from 11 years ago-

To The Sea! And maybe Ketones really do work.

Ride reports (not Tu/Th), Tdf trip planning

We had put in place to ride to the coast so many times recently, and ditched out as we saw heavy coastal fog and had little desire to ride in the cold. This is Summer, after all. And even before Summer hit, it just seemed a bit strange to ride into cold fog when it was 75 degrees on the bay side of the hills.

But after watching the weather forecast update its Sunday forecast each day, each time adding a degree so what started out at 62 for Pescadero finally landed at 66, this was finally going to be the day. No chickening out. And looking at Strava, more chickening-out than I’d thought; the last time we did the full Pescadero/San Gregorio/Tunitas loop was March 17th!

Old LaHonda wasn’t pretty; Kevin rode away from me pretty quickly, but got held up by the stop light, allowing me to catch up…just barely. The light turned green very shortly after. A quick stop on the other side to view the coast, and yes, there was a bit of fog at the coast but it wasn’t the thick marine layer we’d seen so much of recently. All systems go!

While Kevin had an easy time up Old LaHonda, he began to struggle a bit on Haskins. Had to wait up for him a couple times. After that, I even pulled into the wind, something I haven’t felt comfortable doing for a while, thinking I needed to save strength so I could keep Kevin in sight for at least a few minutes on the climbs.

Pescadero. Their usual excellent Chicken Club sandwich (split between us), a gigantic and thick double-chocolate chocolate-chip cookie, coke for Kevin, Mtn Dew for me and… each of us downed a Ketone bottle. Vial might be closer to the truth; think it’s only 2 ounces, but those 2 ounces pack one heck of a terrible-tasting punch.

Kevin ate the entire cookie while I just ate maybe 1/4 of mine, not wanting to go into a food coma as we left Pescadero. And I think that’s what happened to Kevin; I definitely had the upper hand the rest of the ride, which is very unusual. Could also be that I respond better to Ketones than Kevin. The three Stage Road bumps all found me feeling pretty good, and plenty of times on Tunitas where I felt like I could actually ride with a bit of power when I wanted to. Didn’t ditch Kevin though; it wouldn’t be a good thing if he had a seizure without me knowing about it, especially if he was behind me.

Overall a nice ride, and feeling like I will survive the French Alps in a few weeks. Happy about my weight too, coming down to 161.5. My plan was to get to 161 on a day I’m not riding, and I’m getting closer to that than I thought I would. But before I could think it was time to celebrate, my phone brings up a “5 years ago today” memory. It’s a picture of our bathroom scale, showing 156 lbs. Not going to happen, but still, where I am is progress.