07/19/2010 Morning Ride Photo

I thought I was riding into a Monty Python movie! Holy Grail anyone?

I took this on the return from my Taylor Street loop this morning. I was just heading up Mission Gorge road for some hill sprints...

I Have To Do Training Rides

Now that I'm not a daily bike commuter, I actually have to train. In case you've just stumbled upon this blog, I used to bike commute on my LHT 28 miles per day, 4 days a week. My employer closed the San Diego office end of June. I started working from home end of May. It has taken some time to get into a new habit of riding, but I'm starting to get better. If I'm out the door by 5 AM, I can get a decent ride in before I have to be at my desk at 8 AM. I have put together a very nice man-cave and since I'm alone, I don't have to worry about offending my coworkers!

This morning I brought the camera along for one of my training rides - El Monte Park Out and Back. Very flat, about 25.5 miles. Part of the ride is very rural, with almost zero traffic. This was a peculiar day, we've been having triple digit temps. My north facing thermometer hit a high of 106.6 degrees at my home.

Sun is arising!

Looking down the road, the sun just floods the road.

Sun still trying to get above the hills.

There can be turkeys out on the road. No, not people driving, the actual bird! Blurry photo, but you can see them flying over the brick fence.

More sun, it's gonna get hot today.

Long shadows on the ride back home.

I plan on taking a camera along on all my rides now. Just never know what deserves a photo!

-- SurlyRando

Rollers To Bonsall 200K - The Comeback Ride

Hard to believe it's July already! I've not done a brevet since Feb when I DNF'd the Dudley's brevet due to extreme weather conditions and the cold. Seems I've gotten a tad out of practice preparing for a brevet. Rollers doesn't have a bunch of climbing in it, but there's enough and it's very frequent that it makes it difficult to get in a good rhythm. Just when you settle into a pace, you have another hill to climb, and there are few really good descents to make up for the time! Here's a profile of the course:

And the course: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/san-diego/231127889389357225

Overall, 123 miles.

5:47 - I sat up in bed and saw that time on the clock! Man, I was supposed to leave 2 minutes ago!! Didn't hear the alarm - again. It's been happening for the past few weeks. I quickly got dressed, filled my bottles, threw the Surly in the randovan and made my way to breakfast. Luckily no one was in line at McDonald's that early in the morning. I pulled into the parking lot of the Old Towne Trolley Station only to realize I forgot my camera. Sorry folks, very few photos of this brevet. I took some with my phone, but it's too difficult to use while riding. I quickly mounted up and rode to the start at the Caltrans station about half a mile away. Upon arrival, there's the usual cast of characters - some I haven't seen since February. Seems they've all gotten trim and fit over these last 5 months. Congrats to Jaime on his Super Randonneur accomplishment!

At the start, everyone just milling around waiting for the RBA. Last minute changes to the route and some randos ended up at the old start.

We're off around 7:15 or so. Weather was cool and overcast, very nice riding weather. I decided to hit the ground running and take advantage of the coolness - riding with a purpose I say. That worked pretty good, cruising through the second control about an hour and fifteen minutes after the start. I didn't get a photo of the person manning the control - I always forget to take a photo of the first control!

Rolling right along to the third control is when things got interesting. I got my brevet card signed, water bottles refilled, and got back to riding within about 2 minutes. This time, I did take a photo of the two people manning the control, but forgot to ask their names! One of these days, I'll get it right!!

I left the control, pushing the downhill to Palomar Airport Road. Making the right, it's a decent climb to the summit of Palomar Airport Road. When I got near the top, something made me reach back and check my seat bag. I could feel it was unzipped and when that happens it means stuff has fallen out! I stop and hop off to take a look. Wallet - check, car keys - check, gels - check, bars - check, brevet card - NEGATIVE! My brevet card fell out somewhere between the summit and the previous control. Looking back down the road, I don't see anything obvious, which means I have to ride back to find it. Without the brevet card recording my times at the controls, this brevet wouldn't count towards my R12. The correct and legal thing to do is to go cross Palomar Airport Road and ride with traffic. Problem is, Palomar Airport Road is 3 lanes in each direction, with divider - no chance of seeing anything from the other side of the road. Luckily for me, there's a sidewalk all the way back to the control, so I take that instead. I'm sure you know what I'm thinking, the brevet card is all the way back at the control - sure enough, it's very close! I found it in by one of the bus stops on Carmel Valley Rd.

Relief, but that means climbing Palomar Airport Road again! No worries, didn't cost me much time or bonus mileage. After this point, everything was going very well until I got to San Marcos and control #4. It's a 7-11 and I spot one on E. Mission Ave. I leaned the Surly against the window, dig my wallet out and proceed to go in to get a water and receipt. I look at the top of the door and it says 850, which I thought was odd. I go back to the bike to check the route sheet and I'm supposed to be at 7-11 at 260 instead! That's about a mile further away. No biggie. I bought a water, got my receipt and watered up. The next 2 hours or so will be warm as the sun has broken through the clouds and it's heating up. Fighting nice headwinds on N. Broadway, I turn left on Jesmond Dene Rd. I keep thinking about Julian Dean, the pro rider in the Tour de France. I stopped partway up Jesmond Dene for this photo of the Surly:

If you look at the vine that's by the back wheel, you'll see the very rare Surlious Brevetous plant! I couldn't believe my luck to find this plant! When it's mature, it's the same color as the Surly - amazing.

This is how I have the Surly configured for brevets. The very bottom water bottle contains powdered HEED. I use that instead of messing around with baggies. I have a new seat bag from Navarro which worked very well. It's a two compartment seat bag, the lower compartment I have 2 tubes, patch kit and spare route sheet. The upper compartment I keep my wallet, gels, bars, car keys that are attached with an internal clip, with plenty of room to spare. The other improvement I've done is with the handle bar. I double wrapped with bar tape which made this brevet probably the most comfortable I've ever had for my hands. In the top-tube bag I keep my electrolytes, antacids, partially finished gel pack, etc. Easy to get to.

Anyway, things were going very well until I made it onto Old Highway 395. I crested a hill, grabbed for a gel, and ripped the top off. I'm not one of those guys that can squeeze the entire gel pack in my mouth all at once and wash it down. I have to nurse it along, so when I take the top off, I try to only have a small opening to squeeze the gel out. As I crested the hill, I started descending rather rapidly - watching my speedometer hit 20, 25, 30, 32 - you get the idea. Well, at that speed, I NEED to have both hands on the bar!! The gel pack got trapped between my left hand and the bar. Every time I hit a bump, and if you've ever ridden on the 395, it's all bumps, I squirted out some gel! As luck would have it, the gel hit my front tire, then flung the gel back up hitting me in the chin! So, hit bump, squirt gel, get hit in the chin!! Just the way the wind was working and by this time I was up to 40 MPH! This was one of my favorite Hammer gels too - Espresso, which I couldn't let got to waste!! I simply opened my mouth and tried to catch as much gel as possible! It was like trying to eat straight from the cotton candy machine at the fair while it was on one of those spinning rides at 40 MPH!! From a distance this probably looked really odd because the thin stream of gel coming off the front tire couldn't be seen, my head bouncing all around with my mouth open. By the time I got to the bottom of the hill, I was out of gel, but I had caught most of it. Whew, energy is hard to come by on a brevet - don't want any going to waste!

I made it to control #5 and decided to get some solid food. I tell ya, a McDonald's cheeseburger and iced mocha coffee is pure jet fuel! This was the longest control I stayed at, about 15 minutes. After the cheeseburger, I left to head to Oceanside. There was a change in the route from last year which required me to make this loop then come back to the 76. When I got back to the 76 I realized where I was so I didn't read the route sheet. I made a right turn onto the 76 thinking there's no way the Regional Brevet Administrator (RBA) would have us take a left turn across the 76 without a light. I rode about a mile until the "divided highway" sign and figured I was supposed to take a left. Reading the route sheet, sure enough! So, I waited on the side of the 76 for break in traffic. That took about 10 minutes before I could sprint across both lanes and head in the right direction. When I got back to where I made the ill-fated right turn, I saw Elaine and Matt reading their route sheet. As I passed I was yelling out go left, but there was so much traffic noise they probably didn't hear me.

As I rode along alone it got me thinking. One of the reasons I'm hesitant on brevets longer than 300K is riding alone, but here I am with two people only about 10 minutes behind me. As I got to the San Luis Rey bike path, I stopped to refill water. Elaine and Matt showed up, I decided to ride with them. What's 10 minutes anyway? It was great riding along with others all through Oceanside then back to the finish. I go through a low period between 2 to 4 PM on brevets. I think it's mostly mental, but it happens. I've just learned to wait it out - drink plenty, eat, and don't stop unless I really have to. Being in a group this low period went by very quickly! So, thanks to Matt and Elaine for the mental assistance!

We arrived at the finish about 10 hours. Not bad I'd say! It's about 40 minutes faster than last year too!

Ride Analysis

This is the part you've all paid admission for! I like to analyze my rides to see how things are going. Some of you know I used to be a daily commuter, 28 miles/day for the last couple years. My employer has closed our local office, so I now work from home. This means I have to train! I've been able to get some good rides in before I have to be at my desk, but my overall mileage is about 25% less per week than commuting. I have been able to do the same distance in a single ride twice a week, and have incorporated riding more hills. I have plans on doing longish rides of around 60 to 70 miles every other Saturday. That's going to help, but I think the biggest improvements have been with my physiology.

I've blogged about changing my diet as that is the only way I've been able to loose weight. When I first started commuting, I weighed 187. Two years commuting 28 miles/day and I gained 20 pounds! I've been following the Paleo Diet for Athletes since November 2009. So far, I've dropped 15 pounds and 2 inches off my waist. Pretty good I'd say! It's clear diet plays a much larger role than training, exactly the opposite of when I was in my twenties. If you're not familiar with Paleo Diet for Athletes, essentially it's about eating only fruits and vegetables as your main carbohydrate source when not heavily training or on days off. Avoiding all processed carbs, grains, potatoes, beans, sugars, etc. Eating high quality protein, nuts, and good fats is essential too. When on long/intensive training rides or brevets, eating high glycemic foods is OK, including the hour "golden window" to replenish carbohydrate stores post workout. I must admit, I need to reread the book as I've not read it since last year.

What's the impact medically? Aside from the weight loss, my cholesterol numbers have greatly improved. I went in for a quick check with my doc last month and he noticed I've not had any blood work done in a couple of years. My overall cholesterol score dropped 44 points, all ratios, and blood sugar have come in very nicely too! I was borderline for a few years, but that's all changed now. There was one odd finding - I was slightly anemic. Following my docs instructions, I'm now taking iron supplements. I've not had another blood test done yet, it hasn't been enough time, but I think I've noticed a huge difference riding. Back in April, I was hiking the Grand Canyon and was totally out of breath after leaving the 3 mile rest house. It was a huge struggle for me to breath. This part of the Bright Angel trail is very tough, but I never struggled like this before. Couldn't imagine why either, I was down 11 pounds from the last time I hiked the canyon so it should be easier - right? Well, seems red blood cells are rather important to aerobic performance! So, in another month or so, I'll get my iron checked again and see what's going on.

This brevet was the strongest I've ever felt on the bike. I could ride fast enough to stay with others, which was an awesome feeling. I'm thinking being able to go on longer training rides during the week, ride more hills, and (hopefully) keeping getting leaner, my riding performance will only get better.

Until next time!

Riding the 52

State Route 52 is about a mile from my home. After the expansion of the freeway, a bi-directional bike lane was created on the north side of the westbound lanes. I finally decided to give it a ride this morning. I have a 200K brevet this coming Saturday, but still wanted to get out for a short ride and this was perfect. Starting at the base on Mast Blvd, the summit has about 550 feet of elevation change over 2 miles. There was plenty of trash and other debris in the bike lane and since it was commute time, plenty of freeway noise.

The summit

Looking west down the hill. It was breezy with drizzle.

Looking into Oak Canyon - spent many years trail running through here. Always wondered what it looked like from the bridge above.

Spring Canyon - another place I've run the trails.

During commute time, have to watch for the end of the bike path. It's a blind corner with a big curb right before the stop light. Cars will not see you, they're all focused getting on the freeway, drinking their coffee, talking on the cellphone, putting on gender neutral make-up, and finishing getting dressed.

Bike to Work Day 2010

Despite my previous post that I'm no longer a daily bike commuter, I decided I was still going to ride anyway. I still have to commute to my home office, so why not just make it a 37 mile loop? I departed for the first pitstop at 5 AM. Boy, it's nice riding that early, almost zero traffic!

I arrived at the CALTRANS/REI pitstop in Old Towne San Diego promptly at 6 AM. They weren't fully ready, still unpacking stuff and getting things organized. These were the only photos I took. I was the second rider to sign in. I grabbed my free t-shirt, a few Clif bars, a bottle of something and took off for the next pitstop in Mission Valley.



This is by far the tastiest pitstop! Not only is this the Art Institute, it's also a culinary school. Some very tasty treats out, which explains a nearly full sign in sheet when I arrived around 6:40 AM. After checking in here, I left for Grossmont College.

After making my way through Mission Valley, I did notice a few more cyclists on their way in to work. I rode the same route I would commute to work. If this was your first day as a bike commuter, keep going - it's a blast! Mission Valley is very flat, but once I made it to the east end, it's all uphill to Grossmont College.

I arrived at Grossmont College pitstop around 7:15. My climbing is getting better that's for sure. I was the 4th rider to sign in. It's not a popular pitstop so I really appreciate Augustine and his assistants manning the booth. Augustine and I chatted about bike commuting, he was originally from Long Island and was a bike commuter there. He told of another commuter that was struck by a car during BTWD! From what Austine knew, this rider suffered a broken femur and separated shoulder. While in the emergency room, he made his wife ride back to Grossmont to get his free t-shirt! I hope all is well with this commuter, I didn't get his name. Augustine took the photo above of me standing next to the Surly. This is the only photo I have with my ride.

Here's a photo of the pitstop. Man, I have to learn to get everyones' names! Sorry about that, next year - I promise!

My ride when I got home. Total ride, 37 miles with plenty of climbing. I thought I had enough time to make it to the El Cajon pitstop, but I spent too much time chatting with Augustine so I went home to start my day in my new office. This was a fun commute! Nice morning ride that didn't require a jacket.

Until next year!

Final Day as a Bike Commuter

Hard to believe, but this post is not a late April Fools Day joke. The company I work for is closing the San Diego office. No, I'm not out of work, I'm now a full-time work from home employee. I started bike commuting in January 2008 on a Trek Hybrid bike, but within a few months I upgraded thanks to former President Bush's stimulus check and bought the Surly Long Haul Trucker.

A few times a month I'd take a walk to the local mall and hit my two favorite places - Starbucks for an iced green tea, no water, no sweetener and Rubio's Fish Tacos Especials.

The night before, I added up all the miles I've commuted over that 27 months. I typically rode Monday through Thursday. Fridays I was a teleworker, I worked from home. The whiteboard in the cube I stored my bike, I left a little note for the movers:

This is where I stored the Surly during the work day. An empty cube was a perfect place to park the beast. It was safe, I never had to worry about it chained to something outside.

At the end of the day, I finished packing up my office. I probably had 40 pounds of office stuff: laptop with docking station, keyboard/mouse, clothes, food, shoes, project documentation, and a few books thrown in for good measure. This was probably the heaviest I've ever loaded the Surly. The Transit rack I've used all this time was up to the task, just barely. It's stamped for 50 pound max load, but I don't think I'd put that much on it. The rack was moving around a bit while I rode home. During the ride home, I did have to use the 32 up front climbing Mission Gorge hill. Got dropped by some dude riding with 2 flats, but I didn't care. I was savoring my final ride home.

Safely arrived at home, I parked the Surly like I normally would. Sat down and took the photo below. About the only changes to the bike I've done over these 27 months was to add the Topeak Road Morph G, Shimano generator hub powering a B&M LED light. This bike never left me stranded on the road. It rode flawlessly for over 10,000 miles. The only thing I've ever had to deal with was the occasional flat.

I used bike commuting as training for brevets. Nowthat my commute is measured in feet, I'll have to ride in the mornings. I'll have no problem getting 2.5 to 3 hour rides before heading to my new "office". I'm thinking morning rides on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday during the week. For the weekends, every other Sat 60-80 mile rides. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays I'll be doing light upper body. My goals for 2011 is to earn Super Randonnuer  and I know I need to work on climbing. With the time I've mentioned I have available per week, how should I train? If you'd like to put together a training program for me, please post your training ideas as a comment to this post.

Thanks!

SurlyRando

Dudley's "Sopping Surly" 300K

The San Diego Randonneur's held their Dudley's 300K brevet this past weekend. It was a ride to behold!

I spent some time thinking about riding tactics for this brevet. Last year, I had no idea what to expect. This year was different. I knew I had my fueling down, limit my time at controls, and if you've read my previous posts, I have been loosing weight too. You can tack on a -2 pounds since the January brevet!

My plans were to "ride with a purpose" to get up to the control at Dudley's, then do my best to push the descent back to Lakeside. My goal to Dudley's was to get there by 3 PM, then if all went well, I should make it to Lakeside by dark. Once there, make it to the Alpine control for a nice meal and hot coffee. From Alpine back to the start involves 15 miles or so of uphill, then a screaming in the dark descent back to the 94. I had planned to push all the flats too, and take advantage of them to fuel better. It was freezing cold last year, but mother nature had other plans for us this year!

The one thing to understand about San Diego weather, is that when the weather person says there's a 70% chance of rain, 9 times out of 10 they are wrong, plus there's a 50/50 chance of the weather going either way! I'm sure all the statisticians in the randonneuring world are scratching their collective heads on that one!

I can't put the description of the rain into words any better than my great friend, Forrest. Turn your speakers on and give a listen! Yes, it was just like that, plus throw in some fog, and I swear I saw a few snow flakes too! Could have been oxygen debt though....

This is my new configuration for the Surly. I've added Cascadia Hybrid fenders, Shimano hub generator, and B&M IQ Cyo R headlamp. The lighting configuration has been fantastic for commuting, it's better than just about any battery powered light I could find. I'm not talking comparing a HID light that only lasts a couple hours on a charge either. I can feel a difference between riding with my non-hub wheel compared to the hub generator. The cool thing is, I can't tell any difference between having the light on or off. Being an LED headlight, it doesn't have the current draw as a bulb head light. LEDs are way more efficient than bulbs.

In the early darkness just before our 6 AM start, our newly fearless RBA gives us some final instructions before our departure. Plenty of people show up despite the weather forecast.

All huddled in the dark. You can see the parking lot is all wet from the rain. Shortly thereafter, we're off!

The Welcome to Jamul sign surprises me in the dark...

Looking into gloomy skies. It was going to get a lot worse as the day rolled on.

Look at the intersection of Otay Lakes Rd and the 94. Darkness is receeding, but no rain.

Starting our climb up Honey Springs Rd.

More Honey Springs... It'll be fun on the way down !!

Heading into Harbison Canyon, right turn Clyde.

The camera couldn't keep up with my Surly speed.

Will the real Harbison Canyon, please stand up?

Alpine! 

El Monte park, our first control at mile 55.1. It had started raining, but as I was at the control filling up my bottles, we could see a huge cloud burst race towards us! Total buckets of rain coming down. I decided then to get going, I didn't even stay a full 5 minutes.

Hard to see the rain in the photo, but you can see all the water flowing across the road. I've quickly learned to LOVE my fenders! Very little dirty water splashing up on my feet, bike, back... You get the idea.

Starting the climb up the 67. A river of water flowing down the road. No choice, gotta ride up!

Rain, fog, and traffic - not a real safe combination. Drivers respect the Surly and give me plenty of room.

My approach into Ramona. The fog just got thicker but the rain stayed pretty steady. Best thing to do was to keep all my lights on, and peddle!

This photo is on the home stretch to Dudley's control at 96.1 miles. A LOT has happened. From about mile 80 until Dudley's was a huge sufferfest for me. Like Forrest said, the rain was sideways. High, cold winds, roads filling with water. I had been riding rather hard so things were starting to hurt. I kept pushing the pace to get to Dudley's but there wasn't much left in the engine room. The winds almost blew me over twice, luckily away from the ditches on the side of the road. My left foot went numb, I couldn't wiggle my toes at all. Even though I had rain gear on, I was soaked to the bone. No matter how hard I rode, I kept getting colder and slower. My arrival at Dudley's was over 2 hours faster than last year! My original plans were to just stay long enough to refill water, get my brevet card stamped and don my cold weather gear from my drop bag. Problem was, I was so cold, I was shaking. Not the slight shiver, but whole body kinda shaking. I knew what that was as I've had a small hospital stay for hypothermia when I was in the Army. As soon as I got my drop bag, I went to the men's room to dry off as much as possible. I put on all my cold weather gear and got a coffee. My original plans of 10 minutes, turned into 15, then 20. It took 30 minutes for my shivering to stop, but I knew it was important to get my core temp back to normal before leaving. I put my feet in some plastic grocery bags given to me by another rider, and got some other great advice from another rider too on keeping warm in bad weather. I went outside, refilled my bottles, and felt generally pretty good. The rain had stopped, so I figured, if it didn't rain anymore, I should be good to the finish. Well, that wasn't in the plans! I departed Dudley's and about a mile down the road, the skies opened up again! I was blasted for the next 5 miles, and once again, soaked to the bone. I made the left turn onto Old Highway 80, I was back to shivering again. It got so bad, I almost dumped the Surly! I was pushing the descent to get back to lower climes, then had to come to a stop because the road had flooded.

I've learned to watch flooded roads for a few minutes to see just how fast the water was flowing. This one wasn't all that bad, about 6 inches deep. I road through it easily enough, then took off. I made it back to Ramona quickly, and made a stop at McDonald's. I was back to freezing, all my cold weather gear was soaked, my left foot back to numb. I still had the descent of the 67 coming up, with the darkness looming, and all the shaking I wasn't sure I could ride in all the traffic. I took a deep breath, went inside, and got another coffee. I went to the men's room and tried drying my clothes off with the hot air hand dryer. The floors in McDonald's are radiant heat floors, they heat the entire building by warming the floors. Walking around in my socks really warmed my feet up, plus left wet footprints that customers were pointing out and laughing. I spent another 30 minutes there, and I couldn't get the shaking to stop. It was dark too, started raining again, and plenty of traffic on the 67. I decided to DNF there. I called the RBA to let him know, then called my wife to come get me.

I rode 112 miles, and the BEST brevet I have ever done. I may not have finished for credit, but I made huge improvements in riding. I made it to Dudley's at 2:36 PM, nearly 2 hours faster than last year. My climbing hills has gotten way better too. Probably because of the weight loss, and general change in diet that lets me build muscle. I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing with my diet for now, it's working. I don't think I do too bad since the only training I do is commuting 28 miles to work each day. I have added more hills to my commute, and have some plans to add more as I keep getting lighter.

Until next time!