Monthly Archives: June 2011

The Tuesday ride really is faster (and age-related ramblings)

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Right now, I’m thinking I’m leaving for France just in time. The Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride is definitely picking up speed, in particular the Tuesday edition, which today saw a door-to-door average speed of 16.7mph. Typical winter average would be around 14.5, and anything 16.0+ qualifies as a hard ride. If we were going for fastest-possible time, I’m sure we could hit 17 without much trouble, but this ride has always had at least some social aspect to it, and as long as I’m part of it, always will.

We were missing both Kevins today; Kevin the pilot is back in Maine, and Kevin my son had a rough night, with something from the prior day’s wedding apparently not agreeing with his stomach. I could have gotten him up anyway; after all, I only got maybe 4 hours sleep myself, but decided to be nice for some reason.

Roll call? Yeah, good luck with that; anything over 4 or 5 and I’m likely to forget a couple. But I’ll try. Jim, Don (up from Southern California and a customer of ours from the way, way, wayback days), Chris, Eric, Karl, Karen, Marcus & Andrew from our Redwood City store. Not content to simply ride faster up the hill than his boss, he also carried a backpack with him. Sigh.

Fast but not deathly pace up the hill, which I’m thinking is kind of interesting as I type this, because this same pace just a month ago would have been unthinkable. 26:54, my second consecutive sub-27 time, so I’m reasonably pleased with my progress so far. Not that everybody else isn’t riding faster too, but at least I’m maintaining my relative position despite qualifying for the 55+ menu at CoCos Monday night afte coming back from my Mom’s wedding. Interesting stories I could get to on that another time (about two high school sweet hearts getting back together when 80 years old, meeting the other side of the family for the first time at the wedding, and thinking how I’d react if her new husband expected me to refer to him as “Dad”, something I doubt would be the case but be assured I’ve got a waiting response if he did!).

Chris… 37 I think… and complaining about getting old. He simply has no idea. 37. Do I even remember what it was like, being 37? Actually, I do. I really wasn’t in the best shape at that point, probably weighed more than I do today. It wasn’t until my early-40s that I started to get serious about staying in shape, and my goal was to be in better shape at 50 than I was at 35, a goal I believe I achieved. Would I do things differently if I was 37 again? Probably. But looking at Chris, the only real evidence of age is a bit of gray. Me, I’d take more gray in exchange for better lungs & muscles any day!

Getting back to the ride, perhaps the best part about it was getting back before the rain hit. Yes, rain. June 28th and it’s raining in Northern California???!!! From about noon-6pm, yes, it rained. But from 7:32am-9:27 (my door-to-door time for the ride) it was reasonably-warm and completely-dry. Hopefully France will be more of the same.

Hardest 73-mile ride ever? Bohlman/On Orbit/Black Road can do that!

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With the Tour de France trip just over two weeks away, it was time to throw something at Kevin (and me!) designed to test the limits, and this ride did. Not just because it had some tough climbs, but also because it never lets you develop a rhythm. You’re never feeling like you’re ready for what comes next.

91 degrees in Saratoga. A warm day for climbing!

Climbing Bohlman/On Orbit

We started out rolling through the foothills, from Redwood City through Woodside, Portola Valley, and eventually Los Altos, where we stopped for lunch and took care of a couple of computer issues in our Los Altos store. It was hoped that eating something a good half hour away from the first real climb would be a better choice than grabbing a bite at the base (in Saratoga). I’m certain that was a wise choice, but it doesn’t really matter how you prepare for Bohlman/On Orbit… it’s a leg-breaker. 1600ft of elevation gain in just 2.7 miles. Kings Mountain climbs the same amount in 4.34 miles. A couple of spots where it exceeds 20%. And it’s exposed, with temps reaching up to 90 degrees today. Ouch. But while we had to make one unscheduled stop on the way up (Kevin had another seizure, a common thing for him during intense climbs), we reached the top in good spirits, ready to take on the dirt road that bridges between Bohlman and Montevino.

The End is Near!

The dirt road that bridges Bohlman to Montevino

That dirt road is actually pretty nice, with visibility extending all the way to Monterey Bay. What’s not so nice is the descent on Montevino that comes at the end, a a road the drops quickly toward Lexington Reservoir and requires full brakes almost the entire way down. It is not fun! So you hit the bottom a bit fatigued and get a brief break from either descending or climbing of… about 1000ft or so. And then you make the right turn onto Black Road and it’s up, up, up and more up. We had a planned stop at the school, but a mile or so

Kevin cleaning up and cooling off

before that we had to stop for a rare flat tire (Kevin’s) before finally making it to the school. The big attraction to the school is water. Water to make Cytomax, water to pour over your head and whatever else feels like it could benefit. I also used the opportunity to send an email to Eric, one of our regular Tuesday/Thursday-morning riders who lives in the area, asking if he could leave a couple of ice-cold cokes by the roadside for us. It was a humorous suggestion, but it wasn’t long after we got going again that we actually saw Eric driving past in a car, offering us water and energy gel (we were OK at that point). Did he get my email or was it coincidence? I’ll find out soon!

At least once you’re past the school you’re not out in the open anymore, and the temps dropped from the mid-80s to lower-70s pretty quickly. You’ve still got some pretty steep sections, but not hopelessly-so, and there’s the promise of arriving up on top (Skyline) soon.

Mtn Dew never tasted so good!

You hit Skyline at about 2400ft; Kevin thought that was pretty much it for climbing, but not quite, you’ve still got another 700ft to go. We got there, but it would be lying to say it was easy. It was pretty much survival mode at this point, with the thought of an ice cold coke from Mr. Mustard at Saratoga Gap (Skyline & 9) keeping us going. Unfortunately, our delays caused us to arrive after Mr. Mustard had left, but it’s only a short distance further on to the Saratoga Summit Fire Station with its own coke machine, dispensing Mtn Dews for just $1 each. That plus a Honey Stinger Waffle were all we needed to refuel and motivate us appropriately for the mostly-downhill run on Skyline to Sky Londa and then home.

73 miles, about 7500ft of climbing, temps as high as 91. This felt like a much tougher ride than either of our recent 100+ mile trips to Santa Cruz! Are we ready for France? Almost. Not yet, but almost. –Mike–

Focus on the pride, not the shame (Kevin beats Dad up Kings)

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Those wise words from Jan (which I originally mis-quoted as the “accomplishment” rather than “pride”), one of several witnesses to the passing of the torch. Yes, today, June 23, 2011, Kevin dropped me on Kings Mtn. And it’s not as if he dropped me when I was having a bad day. He posted a more-than-respectable time of 26:30, with me trailing 10 seconds behind. Normally, I would have been very happy getting the 26-minute-monkey off my back. I’d been wondering how long before I got a decent (for me) time up the hill, and a bit concerned that my (up to now) slightly-slower rides with Kevin might have held back my shape a bit.

5 years of Kevin on Kings.

It was on June 10th, just two weeks ago, that Kevin finally got below 30 minutes on Kings. That was a big deal. Then a week later, he knocked off a minute and a half with a 28:16. I thought that was pretty darned good. And now this. 26:30. Probably close to my best time last year (but at this point, I vow to do better than that this year!).

Witnesses? Karl, Jan, Millo & Terry (whom had left a bit earlier and we passed near the top), Marcus. Eric, Karen, “pilot” Kevin & John were fortunate not to be there, fortunate because they don’t have to worry about whether they were witnesses to something that could put them in danger.

There was no question that Kevin had put everything into his effort; there wasn’t much left of him at the top, so little in fact that he couldn’t hang onto the group’s moderate pace across Skyline. He did recover reasonably well by the time we got to west-side Old LaHonda though, where he rode fairly strongly, but frankly, at that point, I exploited whatever advantage I had and rode on ahead. He still had enough fight left in him to try and take the last two sprints, and I still had enough left in me to not let that happen.

26:30. If he keeps this up, and if I get my act together, something in the 25 range is a definite possibility. For me, that would set the clock back quite a few years. For Kevin, who knows?

 

No leg warmers today!

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It was warm when we got up and even warmer at the top of this-morning’s ride. Very large group, too many to name, especially since I got delayed in reporting back after a (literally) hot & hectic day at the shop, followed by getting to babysit a few malcontent computers in our Los Altos store late this evening. I’ll try to get something detailed up on Wednesday, but for the meantime I can tell you it was very very fast for the first third of the climb, making me sure Kevin was either going to blow up or end up with 27-something, but of course the third option, having a seizure, was what happened. No biggie, just wrecked the time, great ride anyway. –Mike–

10,283ft, 105.6 miles, 90 degrees… not epic, but toughest ride so far this year

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With just over three weeks to go before heading to the French Alps, there’s no time to waste on “nice” or “fun” rides. Every ride counts, as Kevin (my son) and I prepare for at least one epic ride over there, the 100 mile Glandon/Galibier loop. Still, today’s ride ended up being less nice (although not really less fun) than planned, because this was our first ride in “normal” late-Spring early-Summer weather. Up until now, it’s been rare to see temps above the mid-60s for most of our outings, so it was a bit of a rude awakening to see what 90 degrees on open climbs would do to us.

The route was similar to the classic Woodside/Santa Cruz run, where you head over Old LaHonda, Haskins Grade to Pescadero, Gazos Creek to Highway One and then South to Santa Cruz and back via Highway 9 and Skyline. Except that instead of heading into Santa Cruz we rode up Bonny Doon Road to Empire Grade, then down Jamison Creek, up China Grade and then connected to Highway 9 at Waterman Gap.

Despite an issue with some pain in his right leg, Kevin got his best time yet up Old LaHonda (23:23), but the run south on Gazos Creek and Highway One was a bit slower than normal. Looks like something’s a bit tight and he might have to do a bit of pre-exercise stretching in the future (a foreign concept to me; I’ve never done any formal stretching ever, preferring to work out my kinks on the bike… this is not a recommendation for others!).

Lunch at Davenport’s Whaler Cafe was a bit more eventful than usual, as a couple of hungry cyclists (us) ordered more food than we had money for (they take only cash there). $34 worth, and we had $27. I didn’t think about the expense of the imported (from Mexico) Cokes, made with real sugar. The guy said no problem, bring $7 back next time since he’d seen us before. So we paid what we could, knowing that we were now flat broke on “real” money, which would mean no “Mr. Mustard” stop on Skyline… not a good thing! Thankfully Kevin had noticed an ATM machine, and got $20 cash to make good on our debt with a few dollars in reserve.

I should mention we weren’t the only people with Chain Reaction connections at the Whaler Cafe; inside was a guy with his son who’d recently purchased a Trek Madone from us and outside were several more “Dads” out on a one-way Mountain View to Santa Cruz ride on their Chain Reaction bikes.

The bottom of Bonny Doon is so peaceful, pleasant even. And someone has written on the road, “Good 4 You.”

From there it was the long hot run up Bonny Doon, a far tougher climb up from the coast than Tunitas, particularly when combined with Empire Grade. Why the Tour of California rated Bonny Doon a Cat-3 and Tunitas a Cat-2 escapes me; Tunitas is a shaded, cooler climb with a gnarly middle section but a very easy lead-in and finish. Bonny Doon, on the other hand, is torture on a hot day, a rude awakening as you escape from the cool coastal fog into hot dry air. Not hot really; never above 90, but compared to what we’ve had lately, that was plenty warm enough.

 

Bonny Doon shows its true colors very quickly, and very nastily. On a hot day, this is one tough climb!

The other issue with incorporating Bonny Doon into your “Santa Cruz” run is that there are no services between the coast and Skyline, because you’re bypassing civilization (the various towns along the lower flanks of Highway 9). So you’re just out there on your own, in some ways miles from nowhere, on a road that just isn’t very friendly when you’re not at the top of your game. On the other hand, it’s nice to do something different, and the views along Empire Grade are pretty amazing, plus you get to experience the Jamison Creek descent (which is so steep you can’t even approach white-knuckle speeds) and the fun climb up China Grade.

Make sure your brake shoes are in good shape before descending Jamison, because you could easily lose 1/4 of their life in just one descent. If wet, it’s possible that you might not even make it to the bottom before they’re gone (but anyone descending Jamison Creek in the rain needs to have their head examined, if there’s anything left of it after attempting the descent).

Once at the bottom of Jamison Creek, you turn left on 236 and after a mile or so, right on China Grade. But before you get to China Grade, there’s a golf shop/bar on the left side of the road where you can buy a coke and fill up with water. Very friendly people; today, as we were looking for a place to park our bikes, a nice woman in motorized golf cart drove up to us and suggested we just park our bikes up on the porch. We explained we were just there to get some water, which she said no problem and pointed to the ice chest/water cooler on her cart which she nicely let us fill up from!

China Grade, while steep, is only a mile and a half long and completely shaded, so it’s actually a much more pleasant grind that anything on Bonny Doon. Unfortunately, at the top it connects back up to 236 which is in the process of being chip-sealed (oil & gravel), making a mess of our bikes and taking all the fun out of riding that section of road. Thankfully that goes on for only a couple of miles, after which you connect to Highway 9 at Waterman Gap for the 6-mile run up to Skyline. Kevin claims he doesn’t like that stretch of road, but he rides it like he owns it, attacking it pretty hard despite just recently looking like he’d be asking for a sag wagon.

 

Mr. Mustard, serving up ice-cold drinks and hot dogs, at Skyline & Highway 9 every weekend.

The question is, would Kevin be flying up Highway 9 if not for a date with Mr. Mustard? After a long grind there’s nothing quite like an ice cold coke (just $1) and/or… heaven forbid but at the time it sure tastes good… a hot dog. Yes, we had hot dogs on a bike ride, with 35 miles to go. Seems like that should be about the worst thing you could eat, but somehow, it works. I’m not suggesting you try it yourself, but when the alternative is a Clif Bar or Shot Blocks, well sure, those work, and maybe they’re even better for you, but at that point in the ride, you deserve what you want.

After that we had a brief stop at the nearby fire station to mix up some more Cytomax and then headed north on Skyline for the quick ride back home. You’re less than two hours from Redwood City at that point, even though it seems so much further. Skyline heading north is a pretty pleasant run, maybe 45 minutes from Highway 9 to 84, with just a couple of small climbs along the way. We arrived home at 6:10pm, just a bit later than planned, and about 9 hours after we’d left. Not as fast an average speed as prior rides (14mph) but definitely a lot tougher going, and definitely needed prior to France. –Mike–

No more 6:45am wake-up on Tuesday & Thursday mornings!

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Before Kevin (my son, not the pilot) started riding with us, I had it timed where I could wake up at 7:05am and have plenty of time to get out the door by 7:30 and make it to the 7:45am start. When Kevin got out of school a couple weeks ago, he wasn’t quite up to speed for our ride, so we would leave about 5 minutes early and get a head start up the hill. Add to that 5 minutes another 10 minutes to get him going in the morning, plus factor in a bit slower pace getting to the ride, and you’ve got me getting up a fair amount earlier than I’d prefer. That was then; this is now.

In the space of just a couple of weeks Kevin’s times have improved so much that he can now start the ride with the group, and we’ve refined the “getting going” process to the point where it doesn’t take him too much longer than me. Yes, he has to eat something before we set out the door (for me, rides shorter than 50 miles don’t require anything more than Cytomax), but the move from cereal to a clif bar has both improved his riding and gotten us out the door faster. Next week, 7am is going to be early enough! Whether we can get to my preferred time of 7:05am I’m not sure of, but I can live with 7. So much better not seeing a “6″ as the first digit on the clock.

Kevin quickly getting off his bike as a seizure begins

Today’s ride was, once again, a bit more “eventful” than I would have preferred. Since it was a Thursday we did a ride up through the park; the park run kills me but Kevin (and everyone else) did fine. All remained well until we got to the steeper middle section (past the half-way hairpin) when Kevin, riding strongly just ahead of me, suddenly pulls up lame and drifts quickly back. “Seizure?” I asked? Yep. I quickly turned around, told him to get off his bike, and he was shortly on the ground. Karl, Jon & Eric rode on while I tended to Kevin for what had to have been his fastest-ever seizure & recover… looking at the video I shot, it was almost exactly one minute from initial onset to down on the ground to back up on the bike again, riding strong. Within about 5 minutes we’d caught up again to the guys, with Kevin none the worse for wear.

We met up with Millo at the top and had a good run across Skyline and down to west-side Old LaHonda, where Karl set the pace, just like old times, with me trying to hang onto his wheel. He was being kind today and didn’t try too hard to shake me, with Eric, Jon & Millo chatting & riding “casual” a bit behind, and Kevin in the middle. Main thing for Kevin to work on now is sprinting; he’s having a tough time getting up to and maintaining speed on the Albion finale.

Eric was right; Kevin doesn’t need to start ahead of the group anymore

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Up to last night Kevin was still thinking he wanted to head up the hill a couple minutes early, and even as we rode out to the start, I wasn’t sure if he was going to come to a stop or keep on riding. But today, June 14th, 2011, Kevin stopped and became one of the gang.

Karl, Marcus, Eric, Kevin, Karen, and of course young Kevin on the ride with me this morning, a morning that started out gray and cool but once we got a bit higher than the park we were in bright sunshine and moderate temps. I warned (young) Kevin that the group tends to start out fairly fast on the climb, faster than he would normally start, and I was a bit worried he’d get quickly blown off the back. My fears about the speed on the first part of the climb were well-founded, as we hit the first timing point at 3:05, a very fast pace… yet Kevin was still there. We hit the park just past 9 minutes, an indication that, if Kevin held up, he’d be beating his prior best time (from last Thursday).

At the park we did the mandatory re-group thing, except that I had to tell Kevin no, don’t circle, just keep going (because he was going for time, after all). If there was a part where he slowed down and took things kinda easy, it came right after the park. Thursday, he’d held between 9 & 10mph on that stretch, and today, he was pulling 8 or so. Reassurance the kid is mortal. But, he didn’t collapse, he was recovering, gradually picking up speed and continuing to get solid times at the various reference points. I think it helped when the faster guys, who had held back for the regroup at the park, passed him a bit further up and provided wheels to follow.

The 2/3rds timing point (the 1.41 mile marker on the wide-open stretch) was hit at 19-something, so I knew that he was still moving. Possibly towards a 28-something time. Even the nasty steep stuff about a mile from the end was handled pretty easily (by him, not me; for me, the steeper stuff is a bit of a pain when I’m using the video camera, because I have to stay seated when I really want to stand!), and at the archery range hairpin it looked like he was still in the running for 28-something. But he’s not wired quite like I am; at some point, if it’s looking like 28-something, I wonder if it really makes much difference if it’s 28:52 or 28:30… because what I’d really want, and couldn’t have, would be 27-anything. For Kevin, he approached the last quarter mile like he was running from a fire, pulling out all the stops and finishing with a 28:16. A full minute and a half better than last week. There was no chance he could get 27-anything, but he wasn’t going to settle for 28-something, he was going to get the best-possible 28 he could. Maybe it will be different when he becomes more familiar with the reference points and what times mean at each, but for today, I can’t imagine him riding any harder than he did.

The rest of the ride was pretty much the normal Tuesday pace, which means a bit tougher than Thursdays (but not quite as tough as a typical Tuesday because George was on vacation). West side Old LaHonda was warm but not toasty, and no notable car incidents (other than the turkey who passed a few of us on a corner as we began the 84 descent, but proving there is some justice in the world, that same car got stuck behind another car the whole way down, with us sitting a short distance behind).

Kevin still can’t sprint well when he’s dead tired; turning off the warning signals telling you that your legs are about to melt is something he still needs to work on. But he’ll get there. –Mike–

West Alpine video now up

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This is from yesterday’s (6/12/2011) climb up West Alpine Road, one of the classic Bay Area climbs. Fantastic ride and can be part of a pretty short (under 40 miles) ride from Woodside. Below is an example of a 35 mile ride starting & ending in Woodside. A very challenging 35 mile ride to be sure, with two good climbs (Old LaHonda and West Alpine). Food & water is available in LaHonda, but once on the West Alpine climb you’re on your own, so bring two full water bottles. –Mike–

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Beautiful day for a bike ride! Yet again, more eventful than planned.

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We didn’t really have a solid plan for today’s ride; the past two weeks we’d done 100+ miles and knew that wasn’t in the cards today. Not that there’s anything wrong with riding 100 miles, but Karen (the wife) made it known that she’d like to do a short ride with me as well, and that’s tough to pull off arriving back home around 6pm (not to mention that, once home after 100+ miles, you really don’t feel like getting back on the bike again).

But even without a formal plan we still had the idea of heading out to the coast, the usual Pescadero/Tunitas loop, a ride that you just kinda fall into. And we probably would have done that ride, had Kevin not had a fairly significant seizure heading up Old LaHonda, the type where he loses consciousness for a short amount of time (about a minute and a half) and as he comes out of it, talks about wanting to head straight back home after finishing the climb. This is where I win or lose the “Dad of the year” award, depending upon your perspective, because I wouldn’t have any of that; I knew that in less than half an hour Kevin would be completely back to normal, and that continuing to ride gets him back to normal much faster than taking a rest.

It was very unfortunate that he got that seizure on Old LaHonda because he was doing really well, probably heading towards a personal best on the climb. But we got up and over the other side, where we saw one heck of a lot of gray. Fog. Like we haven’t seen enough gray this past few months! So when we got to LaHonda, Kevin suggested that he’d like to try for a good time (meaning a fast ride, not partying) up West Alpine, and then drop down Page Mill and head to our Los Altos store, where his sister (Becky) was working today, and then wind back home through the foothills. Works for me!

Amazing how much difference 20 minutes can make. From feeling exhuasted and wanting to go home to flying up West Alpine. And fly he did; 45 minutes, 51 seconds from bottom to top. I was impressed, especially as he got faster as he neared the top. I don’t think I’m going to be doing the Sherpa-thing this July in France; he’s going to be carrying his own stuff!

I’ll have a video up shortly, this time with first movement of Beethoven’s 6th Symphony. It’s taking me a bit to figure out how to time things correctly and make cuts according to the music. Eventually the plan is to have 5-10 minute videos of each of our major climbs in the area. Don’t expect much, but hopefully you’ll recognize things and maybe have a laugh (at my expense).

Oh, right, the stats. 60.7 miles, 5800ft of climbing (plus another 12 miles for the short ride with the Wife, and about 880ft). –Mike–