Hard ride Sunday = problems Tuesday morning

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Mike

Two weeks in a row confirms it; a tough ride on Sunday, with heat being the “x” factor that pushes things over the edge, means Tuesday’s ride doesn’t go so great. Thinking about it and talking it over with others, I’m pretty sure the solution is to get in an easy ride on Monday, one that doesn’t include nasty climbs or working very hard, just an easy spin. Is that even possible in today’s post-Strava world, where every aspect of your cycling is recorded and compared to prior versions of yourself (and others)?

“Strongman” Kevin (pilot) during a brief break in the action while George’s flat is repaired

Karl, Karen, Kevin (pilot), Joe, Marcus, George and I’m trying to remember who cut the ride a bit short and headed back down 84 while the rest of us did the west-side Old LaHonda loop? JR was there at the beginning but he was sticking to his regimen of doing intervals, not riding for time, so we saw him for just a short while.

Nice and warm so I was really hoping my lungs would do well today, but didn’t matter, my legs felt like mud. Got to the top in just under 30 minutes, a good two minutes slower than last week, and felt like twice the effort. I never really felt like I was “there” until almost the end of the ride, when I decided to go for and take the final sprint, and shortly thereafter thought this would be a good day to ride to Santa Cruz if not for that work thing that gets in the way. We’ll see what happens next week when I squeeze in that extra Monday ride to keep things loose.

This would be more artistic if the view to the left was a bit more stylish

Different crop, same photo. Try enough times maybe something will come out.

Later on it was time to refuel, so stopped by Peets on the way to work. They’re not super bicycle friendly; no bike rack outside, and nothing to plug the whole in your coffee cup so it doesn’t splash out on you on your way to work. The barista suggested using a second cap and turning it so the hole didn’t line up, and this did in fact work, but only after taking a couple of minutes working to snap the second cap over the first one without collapsing the cup. Why couldn’t she have volunteered a piece of tape to cover the whole? I’ll ask next time.

Toughest 75 miles last week, toughest 56 miles today, what’s next?

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Mike

What’s missing? Mr. Mustard’s hot dog stand, that’s what? 80+ degrees, dying on the climbs and you’re really looking forward to an ice cold coke… and it’s not there. Did I arrive too late?

56 miles should not have been as difficult as it seemed to be! It didn’t start so badly; a nice cruise south through the foothills with a stop at our Los Altos store to use the bathroom and check in on things (they looked busy, which is good!) and from there it was all downhill. Or rather uphill. Uphill being, in this case, Redwood Gulch and Highway 9. I had these fine ideas of trying to do the climbs seated, so I could get some decent video. What stopped me? 80+ degree temps, riding by myself, and there’s no way around it, I just don’t have what it takes anymore when it gets really steep.

But what made it worthwhile was knowing that, once I got to the top, Mr. Mustard’s hot dog stand would be there, with ice cold drinks and, yes, hot dogs. A hot dog has to be one of the worst things you could eat on a ride, but it’s not as bad as you think. The right place at the right time makes the difference.

Tried feeding it dollar bills, even a 10 but it just wasn’t hungry!

But Mr. Mustard wasn’t there! Just checked the time stamp on a photo I took… 4:44pm, and he’s usually there until 5. Thank goodness for the Saratoga Gap fire station just down the road, with its outdoor coke machine. Just a couple minutes north on Skyline. I am so looking forward to something cold to drink. Get to the fire station, feed it a dollar bill, and… it’s not taking it. I mean it’s not even making a noise like it wants to. Maybe quarters would work, but dollar bills aren’t today. Had to settle for making some more Cytomax, which probably was better for me anyway and I did, in fact, start feeling a bit more lively shortly thereafter.

What finally got me going was being passed by another cyclist, the only cyclist I saw on all of Skyline. For a (brief) moment I let him go and then thought hey, I don’t have to do that, I’ve got legs, so I chased him down and stayed with him the rest of the way. He did drop me pretty quickly descending 84 into Woodside though.

Overall glad that I got out there, but it will be nice when Kevin’s past his kidney issues and riding with me again. But I remain concerned that my “tough” rides are getting shorter and shorter… what’s next, a 25 mile ride that does me in? Hope not! –Mike–

Tour de France 2013- Planning for the Alps

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Mike

This is not going to be an easy year following the Tour de France. In fact, it may be the toughest-yet for me, due to the unexpected near-total cessation of train service in the Alps this year (due to a massive modernization project). The original plan, which has worked out very well for a number of years, was to work out of a single city for as long as possible, getting close to the nearby stages using the train when they weren’t close enough to ride to. So with that in mind, I set up reservations in Avignon (to see the Ventoux stage, which simply can’t be missed despite being out of the way and accessible only by car) and Grenoble, from which all of the Alps are, theoretically, accessible.

Theoretically. We should have been able to take trains to places reasonably close to each of the stages, but that plan’s now shot. Here’s what’s in store for the Alps-
This is the most-heavily-affected stage. It’s a two hour drive, in good traffic, from Grenoble to Chorges, and on the day of the TdF, could be a whole lot longer. In all likelihood it could be a totally-jammed road, with time trials being very popular and there being so few roads in the area.

Time Trial, Wednesday, July 17th.The plan will be to drive from Grenoble to Veynes, about 100k and supposedly 90 minutes over very twisty roads. This is the toughest stage to catch, because there are so few roads into the area and it carries huge interest because it could determine the final winner of the TdF. It’s not very long, just 21 miles or so, but all of it up & down.
View Larger Map

The beauty of driving to Veynes instead of Gap is that we’ll be taking a route that virtually nobody else is. Traffic congestion should be minimal, and no problem parking at the Veynes train station.

From Veynes, we catch the 11am train to Embrun, arriving right at noon. We then try to intersect the course somewhere on one of the two main climbs, using local roads whose suitability is in question (but that’s never stopped us before!). For the return we ride 30 miles back to the Veynes train station to pick up our car, sine the last train out of Chorges (at the end of the time trial) leaves at 5:25pm, likely too early by half an hour or so.

Alpe d’Huez, Thursday, July 18th. Traffic isn’t an option for this one, it’s assured. There’s only one route from civilization to the base of Alpe d’Huez, a narrow road that starts in Vizille, about 10 miles out of Grenoble, and climbs relatively-gradually for 20 more miles. It would be nice to ride from Grenoble to Alpe d’Huez, but that would preclude doing anything but going up & back. The route below has us parking about 2 miles short of Bourg d’Oison (the base of the mountain), riding further up the valley and then taking one of the amazing “balcony” roads that intersects the main climb just a bit up from the bottom. Then we ride to the top and descend down the back side, the Col de Serenne, and back to the car where we will be waiting in traffic… forever.

Col du Madeleine, Friday, July 19th. Drive from Grenoble to Chamousset and do the loop shown below-

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Chain Reaction beats ShopX… proud of my team today!

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Mike

Passing ShopX on the climb

Sometimes it really doesn’t matter how fast you are, as long as you’re faster than the other guy. That was the case this morning when, on the climb up Kings via Huddart, we came upon and passed the group from ShopX. Never mind that they’d probably already ridden hard this morning, while we were just starting out. All that matters is that we left ShopX (and their former owner, Les) in the dust. Sort of. We did dispatch with Les and the guy he was riding with, while two others who were up ahead a bit pulled off to the side, obviously totally intimidated by us, but I’m sure their story is that they were waiting for Les. Yes, that would have been my story too.

We made it to the upper park entrance in about 9:40 which, for me, is pretty good. I was trying to stay in the saddle no-matter-what and doing a pretty good job of it. Why? To work on different leg muscles and try to get smoother videos. I managed to stay in the mix, as we rode yet again at a fairly civil pace. Who was with us today? Kevin (pilot), Karl, Karen, Eric, Joe (first timer, on his new Trek Domane!), Jan, Todd, Marcus & Mark. New-guy Joe did very very well, and I suspect he’s only going to be getting faster because he’s not only new, but also fairly young. Hate that!

Jan comes face-to-bumper with a car

A small bit of excitement on west-side Old LaHonda when, rounding a bend, Jan found himself coming face-to-bumper with a large truck. Fortunately everyone was going pretty slowly so Jan had plenty of time to get out of the way.

Overall a pretty tough ride, despite Strava giving a “suffer” score of just 91. Maybe Strava downplayed the toughness to make it seem like we were just coasting past as we went by ShopX?

Getting faster, slowly?

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Mike

What a beautiful morning, nearly warm enough, but not quite, to dispense with leg warmers. That’s coming soon, but it’s safe to say we’re now in prime-time riding weather. As mild as our winters are, I don’t look forward to November-March due to colder temps and wetter roads.

Large group this morning; I think just about everyone was there but my son, who will hopefully be back up and running for Thursday’s ride. Even Andrew from our shop came out to play, with his work clothes carried in a backpack (and he still danced away from me on the climbs). And Millo, where’s he been hiding? We knew he’d been riding with the older slower guys who leave about the time we get back, but he shows up today and he’s flying across Skyline! Training secretly is the only thing I can figure.

Towards the end of the ride, just after turning off Tripp onto Kings, Karl took off, getting quite a lead on us until for some reason I decide to chase him down. Nobody else came with me, not at first anyway, but eventually Kevin (pilot) rides up to assist with the chase, but it was too late, no way could I make a second go at getting back to his wheel. My victory was bridging up to it in the first place.

Riding through the forest on the upper stretch of West Old LaHonda

Toughest 75 miles ever? Alone against the wind…

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Mike

Classic Tunitas Creek switchback

My son was off doing paintball with friends, the Primavera Century had already filled up, so I was on my own. I needed miles, badly. Last year I’d done the Santa Cruz loop, all 114 miles of it, by mid-February. This year I’ve been tied up with work (yeah, you own a bike shop and your bike riding time is limited by work just like everyone else), my membership on the board of the National Bicycle Dealer’s Association, the usual family stuff. whatever. So what else is new?

But today I was going to get in some miles, a fair number of them, at an easy pace. That was the plan. So I went to mapmyride and put together the ride you see below. The typical “Coastal Classic” but with an extension at the southern end (the Cloverdale/Gazos Creek loop) and a bit tacked on at the north, accessing Tunitas Creek from Los Lobitos Cut-off. 75 miles, about 7500ft of climbing. Tough, but doable.

I didn’t count on coming across a guy named Twain as I pushed through Mountain Home Road in Woodside, near the start of the ride. A guy who rides Old LaHonda in 18:30 or so, vs my 22 on a good day, and kept me company on the way up, severely taxing my pathetic lungs. Nice guy, but just a bit too fast for me, and left to my own devices, I was thinking more in terms of a “relaxing” 25 minute time, now 22:30 and breathless. But I brought it on myself by initially passing him on Mtn Home; he rested on my wheel for a bit, came around, and it was all I could do to hold his wheel. I had my chance for a “relaxing” ride and blew it.

It’s true, the dollar isn’t a strong-enough currency!

I also didn’t count on 5 or 6 hours in bright sun and warm temperatures, something I haven’t seen in quite a while. That, too, took its toll on me. Nor a flat just a couple miles outside Pescadero, caused by a prior casing “patch” using a dollar bill that somehow provided rough-enough edges to eat a hole in a tube. And yes, I’m beginning to wonder why I don’t carry C02 like everyone else, so I can get back on the road more quickly.

Mastadon and Triceratops doing battle outside Pescadero

But in the end, it was the wind that made this an incredibly-tough ride. Nice tailwind most of the way south from Pescadero to Gazos Creek, but I paid for it dearly on the way back. It didn’t take more than a few miles heading north (from Gazos Creek to San Gregorio) before I was thinking, is this even possible?

Add streetcars and it’s 1890 all over again

But there’s this strange thing the past couple years with me and headwinds. They just don’t bother me like they used to. Don’t get me wrong; one of the reasons I’d never consider a cross-country ride is a fear of long straight roads through endless cornfields, battling a headwind for hours, perhaps days on end. That won’t change! But for 10 or 20 miles, I can handle them, keeping up a moderate speed even.

Tailwind down the coast, now the hard part turning onto Gazos Creek

On a related note, I passed two riders during times of heavy headwinds, and suggested they draft off me. For some reason that was a completely-foreign idea to them; they just didn’t get what I was offering.

But it was very nice when I finally got to Los Lobitos Cutoff and only had to deal with climbing. Any concern I wouldn’t have anything left was erased as I found a bit of power in higher gears, and I could “rest” at will, choosing anyplace I liked to ease off for a few seconds before putting more power to the pedals again. Still, it was nice finally getting to the top of Kings and knowing that all of the tough stuff was behind me, leaving a fast descent on Kings (possibly could have been one of my fastest if not for a really-slow-moving MiniCooper I caught up with about 2/3rds of the way down the hill).

Hours later and I still feel like the ride did me in. As I mentioned, the sun was likely a factor, and that’s something I’ll get more used to as the season goes on. The wind was the biggest issue, and a reminder that it would have been nice to have someone else along with me. But that’s OK, this was an opportunity to blow out the cylinders and get things moving again, if possible. And I think it is possible.
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Interesting riding someone else’s bike

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Mike

It’s a tough job but someone’s gotta do it. We have a customer in our Los Altos store who recently added a Domane 6.9 to his stable, a gorgeous bike with full DuraAce 11-speed Di2 electric shifting and carbon wheels. He was having issues with not enough braking power and some noise from the front, and, since he rides a 60cm, as do I, my brother thought it made sense to have me try it on the Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride and see what’s up. The braking issue was simple; the brake pads were set so close to the wheel that you couldn’t generate much power (the stopping force is much greater as the lever pulls in further towards the handlebar). Loosened up the cables a bit and voila, brakes back up to full power! Noticed a little squeaking, which was later taken care of by tweaking the pad angle just a bit.

Regarding the bike in general, wow, what a difference in normal setup between my Madone 6.9 H1 and the new Domane. Way shorter top tube on the Domane, and way higher. I compensated as much as I could by installing a slightly-longer stem, inverting it (so it’s as low as it can get) and “slamming” it (just one thin spacer underneath, all the rest on top) and it was still a good 2 or 3 cm higher than I’m used to, and nearly 2cm shorter. What effect does that have? Plenty. I’m sure, given a bit of time, I could get used to it, and in fact, later in the ride, it wasn’t so bad. But until then, it at least gave me the best excuse in a long time for climbing really slowly. You don’t realize how much difference it can make; when you’re used to bars a certain height and move them higher, climbing, particularly when standing, feels markedly different. Overall, making the move from a Madone H1 to a Domane is going to require bumping down one size for the frame and probably adding 3cm (!) to the stem. Good news for someone who feels too stretched out most of the time. It was an excellent exercise and helped me to spot a fit issue today with someone picking up a new bike (Domane 5.2) really fast. Should have done this long ago!

As for the ride, we saw the return of Mark E., along with the usual suspects, Todd, Karl, Karen, Kevin, Jan, and, at the very end, we came across Pilot Kevin returning from a different ride. “Serious” training apparently. Guess I’ll have to look at his Strava account to see what he’s up to! As I mentioned it was a pretty leisurely ride up the hill for me, losing sight of the last person ahead around the half-way point. Got to admit it’s times like those that you’re really looking forward to “topping out” on Skyline, the main part of the climbing behind you, and looking forward to the beautiful views of the coast.

One thing different was that, with the higher handlebars, I found myself in the drops (lower part of the bars) for a while heading down west 84. The others must have thought they were hallucinating, as I’m almost always on the top part of the bar, even descending.

: Kevin & Karl on West Old LaHonda

: Crowded Olive Hill Road on our return

That age thing and women

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Mike

Yesterday before work I’m at Peet’s, getting what I needed to get before a busy day at the bike shop, and there’s Karen, whom I’ve known for quite a few years but not seen in a while. She’s a bit younger than me but not much, and wearing her age very well. With her is a friend, name not recalled, but I’d leave out particular anyways in this case. Karen thinks I look good, lost weight, whatever, doesn’t mention that shiny area on the upper back of my head (aka bald spot). She and her friend are into running, and it’s obviously kept them in very very good shape. This isn’t a mutual admiration society, because looking at me, there’s not that much to admire. But her friend, who’s looking a lot more like 38 than anything close to mine, thinks maybe she remembers me, or someone with my last name, from high school (San Carlos). So I ask the obvious question. “What year did you graduate?” And it’s like no, no chance whatsoever of going down that road, that’s not a question she would ever answer.

??? I don’t get it. This is three happily-married people (we’ll make that assumption because it’s the safe thing to do), and nobody’s hitting on anybody (which I wouldn’t encourage but is it so bad to wonder if it could ever happen or that you’re so over-the-hill that you don’t catch your wife’s eye much less anyone else’s?). So why is someone who might be 50-something and looks 38 worried about clues to her age? The mysteries of women & men. It’s not so bothersome that I’ll never understand. It’s that it appears I’m not meant to understand.

Time stands still

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Mike

wolh_wide_1200
This is what I get to look forward to, twice a week. It never gets old. Unlike me. Maybe that’s what makes it so special. Time stands still. The view from this spot hasn’t changed since… ever. OK maybe 60 years ago you wouldn’t have seen the road on the other side, and there a couple of houses if you look really closely. But for the most part, this is a timeless landscape that I enjoyed in the way-back days, and my son will enjoy for the next 40 years.

A quick ride report- typical Tuesday morning group, but atypical pace. Complete lack of testosterone today, enough that I could almost talk riding up Kings. Probably helped that my son wasn’t there, stoking somebody’s desire to go faster. Funny thing about an easier pace though. For some reason you get hungry, almost to the point of bonking, which never occurs on a fast ride. Good to know there are still things to figure out after riding seriously for 40+ years.

Record day today, but not on the bike

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Mike

It was a pretty short ride today, partly due to a failing faucet/valve on a bathtub (love working on plumbing at 12:30am, but did find a use for duct tape as a temporary fix), and partly due to Kevin still not being on top of his game. Just up Old LaHonda, south on Skyline, down West Alpine and back 84.

The records were in Los Altos, where our Spring Bike Sale numbers were literally twice our prior biggest-day-ever. We feel a bit like Sally Fields when she won the Oscar for Norma Rae and exclaimed “You like me! You really like me!” It’s going to be a tough act to follow, that’s for sure. –Mike–

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