Monthly Archives: August 2012

Why routine is important

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My diary entries have been infrequent and inconsistent lately. Why? Because I’ve been spending too much time on planes and not enough time on a bike. By itself, that shouldn’t be enough to keep me off-line, but it’s the change from a consistent routine, something I’ve kept for years and years and years, that’s messing me up. My every Tuesday & Thursday-morning bike ride, no-matter-what… the no-matter-what part is a necessity, not an option. It’s an enforced structure that keeps my life in order. Change that structure, alter the routine, and things can go badly in a hurry!

30+ years of doing the same Tuesday-Thursday morning ride, and you’d think it would become monotonous, boring, something I’d want to change. But it’s not; rather, it’s a sort of anchor that holds my week together. A way to break up time into something longer than a day but less than a week; something that establishes a relevancy all my own. Can’t stay up late on a Monday or Wednesday night, because I get up early to ride the next morning.

But without that, with the traveling I’ve done lately, I’ve been staying up late when I shouldn’t, and literally getting quite a bit less sleep. And it’s not likely to get any better anytime soon; I type this on a plane heading first to Chicago, then on to Paris. 7 days in Normandy & Paris, seeing Mont Saint Michel, the D-Day landing beaches, Loire Valley castles (OK, it’s in France, so they’re “Chateauxs”) and then a couple days slumming around Paris. This (aside from the D-Day stuff) is obviously not my normal trip; no bicycling involved! It’s stuff my wife has wanted to see for years, so the absurdity of traveling to France in July and then again in August sort of makes sense. But it’s going to do a real number of routine and sleep. Strange, that. Most would think you would sleep more while on vacation; I sleep less.

I said no bicycling on this trip, but that may not end up being entirely truthful. If the opportunity to rent a bike and go on a morning ride while my wife is sleeping presents itself, it just might happen. After all, the Loire Valley is littered with bike paths! No challenging climbs, no heart monitor, and probably a pretty klunky bike. But if I can get out for even an hour, it might help me to resume some sense of normalcy. –Mike–

An explanation

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So that gross last photo, what was that all about? And no ride reports? Well I’m just now returning from the land of fried cheeses and brats and all manner of unhealthy things. In other words, the annual trip to TREKWorld, where we see all the cool stuff coming out.

And what cool stuff!!! The full Domane road bike line is a game changer. For the first time ever there is a bike that’s going to really set itself apart in the moderate price range- the $1300 Damone 2.0

Yes sure there’s some great $3k-$10k stuff, but that’s to be expected. I’ve never had a moderately-priced bike before that people are going to ride and say its over, this is better, no more shopping. It’s that good.

And finally a pair of cool entry-level cross bikes with disc brakes. Utility/rain/touring/cyclocross for less than $1300. Very cool.

A lot of the stuff we already knew, but sometimes it’s way cooler seeing it in person.

2013 is going to be a phenomenal year! Just hope I don’t go into it too fat & slow after too much flying and not enough riding. Time to go; about to shut the doors. Arriving SFO 1:03am. Riding tomorrow? Not likely. My son should be out there though. -Mike-

Working on the breathing issue

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This morning was only my second ride trying the Albuterol inhaler, an attempt to deal with my asthmatic wheezing lungs that have limited my climbing abilities lately.

Smaller group today so I’ll try a roll-call. Eric, Jim (a Jim who’s ridden with us just once or twice before), Todd, Kevin, Marcus, and at least one other guy. It was on the run through the park that I first noticed the difference in my breathing; I was still breathing hard and pretty fast, but without the wheezing at the end (each time I exhaled). I felt pretty steady, about 29 minutes flat to the top (not a bad time for me when going through the park), but it was warm enough that I can’t be certain it was the Albuterol or the temperature that kept my lungs working semi-normally.

The only real surprise was the run across Skyline, where I developed extreme dry-mouth, apparently a normal symptom of Albuterol, and it took a while for my frozen overnight bottle to thaw out enough to cure it. West-side Old LaHonda went well, again with signs that my lungs were working a bit differently. It’s going to take some time getting used to riding with something that, if racing, would require a TUE (theraputic use exemption) because it’s considered potentially doping. But I can deal with that. What’s going to be tougher is dealing with an extended period of time off the bike, as I’m heading to Wisconsin Sunday for business at Trek, and then a week off with the wife a few days after that. –Mike–

Fastest time between Kings & 84? Strava says so!

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20120809-225255.jpgIt was the best of times, it was the… ah, the heck with it, it was a fun bike ride, with a large group of cyclists, way too many to do a roll call for. You can see them in the photo above. It was also my first ride using an Albuterol inhaler, and might have produced my fastest time up Kings this year was it not for a stop about 3/4 of the way up to make sure Kevin was OK… he was standing by the side of the road, in post-seizure mode, about to get back on his bike. A couple of guys were with him, so I rode on, getting something like 27:45 instead of the 27:15 I might have otherwise had. Still a ways from a sub-27 time that lends some credibility to my efforts.

The right ride for the day (Old LaHonda/Stage/Pescadero/West Alpine)

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Where else can you get “Deer Approved Lettuce”? A burma-shave-style sign that appears after “Do vegetables creep you out?”

Sometimes it frustrates me that it takes so long to get things going for a ride on Sundays; the original idea is to get out fairly early (which, for us, would be 9am! Hardly early!) but then you get roped into heading down to Noahs and Starbucks for bagels & coffee, then Kevin starts playing whatever the latest video game is and can’t leave until he finishes some battle (Skyrim?). But it worked out well since the gloomy overcast burned off, allowing us to ride without leg warmers or jackets by the time we finally got out the door sometime after 12 noon.

A rare photo showing Kevin actually trailing me on a climb. Unlikely to happen again!

The route chosen wasn’t “fun” but it was the right ride for the day. The usual up Old LaHonda, but instead of heading out to Pescadero and then north to Tunitas and back, we went all the way out to the coast, south on Stage to Pescadero, then over Haskins Grade (in the “wrong”/harder direction) and up West Alpine to Skyline.

The run up Old LaHonda was Kevin’s fastest-ever, thanks to some good-natured taunting by Jeff Z, one of our customers, who had just recorded a time better than Kevin’s previous best. No longer! Kevin’s now in the mid-18-minute club for the climb up Old LaHonda, leaving me to believe he’s capable of something faster than he’s shown so far on Kings. Me? About 4 minutes behind. Thankfully, I did better later in the ride, holding my own on Stage Road, and even getting the best of him on Haskins Grade.

Kevin eventually got the best of me on West Alpine, but not by any great margin. So, I’m not dead. Not yet! Even Strava thinks I had some “accomplishments.”

Still here, just a bit behind

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Pretty heavy-duty roadwork on 84 as they’re preparing to install a rumble strip. A bit foggy at the start of the ride but really nice at the finish. Marcus and Kevin had a good time on the hill; it won’t be too long before Kevin’s giving Marcus a bit of a challenge!


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Great article on doping in cycling (by a “regular” guy, not a pro)

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VeloNews published an article well-worth reading about a Cat5/Cat4/Cat3 42-year-old who needed “assistance” to achieve his dreams on a bike. A guy who would never be competing at the highest levels, and yet was willing to spend untold thousands of dollars on equipment & training & yes, $1000/month on doping products. HGH & EPO.

Read the article here My response below-

It’s like a modern-day version of Paul Kimmage’s “Rough Ride” (an extraordinary read even if you can’t stand the way Kimmage has conducted his anti-drug crusade in the years since). It differs primarily in motivation; Kimmage simply wanted to keep up, while Anthony might claim that but sounds more like the type of guy who’s infatuated with his ability to out-smart the next guy, the sort of person who would have been an Enron and discovered hey, look at what happens if I control this variable… I can get rich!

So an extraordinary article, well-written, but I’m not as ready to cut slack to guys like Anthony as some others here. What he did in cycling is likely indicative of his actions elsewhere in life. Some go to jail, some get fined, all he got for this particular transgression was a two-year ban from his current obsession. He’s likely got others. –Mike–.