… data. I figure that if I am going to continue to do some racing then I need to get a bit more serious, actually do a training regimen, and then I might need some data. And then it gets down to a question of what data and which data collection device. Ugh!
I had been ignoring the issue for a number of reasons.
Holding off on spending $$$ until the taxman has come and gone (hopefully with no more of our $$$).
Waiting to get over my loathing of the PowerTap after dealing with The Wife’s early Pro model which has lots of warts.
Waiting to see how serious I will be at racing.
I am not big on collecting new toys.
But then last week ‘Uncle REI’ informed me of my yearly rebate, err, dividend which is a bit on the high side due to a number of purchases made for work. REI does not carry power devices, except the Polar, but they do have the Garmin’s (though they do not quality for the 20% off one item deal). Hmmmm, says I. That overcomes the first reason. OK, need some time to think this over. It would seem silly to get a Garmin if I were to get a PowerTap soon; no reason to lug both around. And though the new Garmin 705 works with the SRM it does not work with the PowerTap (PowerTap uses the early ANT protocol, not ANT+), so there is no way to get all the information collected in one device. And until the SRM comes off patent and inexpensive 3rd party knock-offs come out I will not go down that path. What to do, what to do?
While musing on it over the weekend I joined up for the Saturday PenVelo ride (thanks folks) and did a bit of an survey. Funny it was an even split among the participants, 2 for the PowerTap, 2 for the Garmin, the rest (20+) undecided (of course the real zealots were at Merco). So for now the data I collect will be speed and cadence (average and max) and will continue to wonder what I am missing, other than frustration.
The Wife and I will celebrate our anniversary in just over a month, and this weekend I started committing to the plan. Of course for those romantics with thoughts of fancy get-aways in some exotic or semi-exotic location they do not know The Wife all that well. This is the woman whom, when we first started spending time together outside of work, told me that she was not fond of girly gifts like perfume and jewelry but was rather more inclined to things like sports equipment. The first real gift I gave her was a complete gruppo for a bike she bought, and she was thrilled.
Our first anniversary fell just a couple of weeks before her first road race, the Wente Vineyards RR. But rather than sit on her laurels or train for the race she decided it would be fun for us to do a century ride together (actually it was supposed to be a 200K ride, but we opted at the cut-off to make it just a 100M event). For a while it looked like those plans would be rained on, literally, but the skies cleared and we had the first dry day in a week or two for the event. And it was a wonderful ride.
Our second anniversary fell near the time of Sea Otter, and the wife was committed to do the circuit race the Friday of that week. So our anniversary was a weekend together in Monterey with the circuit race and the Sea Otter tour (a century) as the bookends. Fortunately Friday and Sunday were good weather, but on Saturday ‘Laguna Seca’ was threatening to become a real lake again as the skies opened and the rain poured down. The Sea Otter tour was a fun group event with members of her team and club joining us for that nice loop of the northern end of the Santa Lucia mountains.
This year the anniversary falls just before the Madera Stage Race, so guess what we are going to do for our anniversary? I have a motel room booked in beautiful Madera and I am registered in the 55+ (open) category. There was some talk of me registering in the 35+ 4/5, but that field was full within a few hours of the opening of registration. The Wife still needs to register, but since the number of W4 entrants at this point is 0 that should not be a problem.
I wonder what we will do for the next anniversary?
The Wife and I did a trip to Portland in late June/early July 2006 for some personal business. Knowing we would be there for a week or so we packed the S&S coupled touring bikes and lugged them northward with us. We found Portland to be quite accommodating and were soon comfortable pedaling around the city and out into the surrounding countryside, often getting around faster on bike than we would in a car. While we were there we heard that one of the city council guys was doing a once a month get-together on the first Thursday of each month to show off one aspect of the community and that the one coming up during our stay was a bicycle show. That Thursday we went east from the city and rode a part of the Columbia River Gorge, returning to town to in time for the event. It was not hard to find the show, we just had to follow all the bicycles! There were so many bicycles parked in front of city hall that there was not room for any more; in some spots bikes were actually stacked on top on other bikes due to the lack of parking space relative to need. We ended up lashing our bikes up a block away, the closest spot we could find that was not already taken. Inside city hall it was a combination handbuilt bicycle show and beerfest, the latter sponsored by Chris King. We got to ogle some lovely work by the likes of Sasha at VanillaBicycles, Natalie at SweetPea, Joseph at Ahearne, Tony at Pereira, and quite a few others. Lots of eye candy for those who love a nice bike. We were left full of bike lust and an enhanced desire for custom rigs, in part to support some of these excellent crafts people.
In just over a week from now, on Feb. 8th, the North American Handmade Bicycle Show opens its doors in Portland, moving north after running the first three years in San Jose. I wished I had an excuse to run up to Portland for a day or two; the convention center is a quick ride on the Tri-Met light rail from the airport. I’d love to ogle all the eye candy, do some interviews of builders, and get a sense of who is doing what. It is not just academic any longer. Sure it is nice to look, touch, and dream. But, The Wife has already gone on record as stating she would like a nice custom racing bike in the not so distant future so at some point we will need to talk to some of these builders. The Colnago I ride, which is a wonderful bike, is a tad too tall for me and at some point I will want to get a racing bike that is more my size. All the better to have it made by hand by someone with whom you can talk, convey your wishes, and, if the planets align, go riding with on an occasion or two. Anyone have some work to be done in Portland somewhere around the 9th of February? Give me a plane ticket, or two, and I will be there.
One of the skills supposedly covered this week in the Early Birds was to ride into and fill gaps in the pack. For me this week has been all about trying to ride in the gaps between storms. The National Weather Service doppler maps have been yellow and orange far to much of this week for me to get out for serious riding much of the time. I worked from home on Monday, then commuted on Tuesday through Thursday, but then opted for staying off the bike, and drier, when the heavy, sustained rain of Friday reared its head.
The small startup for which I work just got access to the ‘gym’ in the business park where we rent office space. I thought that taking a day off the bike on Friday and doing some weight work would be a good idea. Then I got into the gym on Friday. Let’s just say I have friends with better setups in their garage than is in the so-called gym. Oh, well, at least I did a bit of weight work and some work on the abs before using the shower, the only bright spot in having access to the gym. With access to the shower I can now do training rides on my way to work and not offend my co-workers.
Saturday was supposed to be more of the same weather; our friend (and teammate of The Wife) Erika decided to host a garage trainer workout party for the team but invited some of us with Y chromosomes to participate, too. I was thinking I would take the rollers and demonstrate my skills, similar to the guys in the video (yeah, right …), but the weather was clear, calm, and warmer than the past few days, all leading to the decision to do the workout on the road. It was great out, doing hill intervals until the legs felt like mush, then a nice tempo ride on a southern loop back home. The hills to the east, which had been covered in snow and clouds all week, were clearly visible with only a couple small patches of white stuff left near the top of Mt. Hamilton. I was wishing there was something left in the tank so I could go ascend that monster, but opted for home and lunch, instead.
The rain had started again on Saturday night, so I was expecting a possible ‘pass’ on the Early Birds, especially since ‘Meet the Teams’ was delayed a week so The Wife was not obligated to go and sit for hours under the big top while handing out food and beverage to potential recruits. Sunday morning we awoke to dry roads and partly cloudy skies, with nothing of interest on the doppler. So a quick, carbo dense breakfast and we loaded up and headed to Fremont. The Wife participated in the Women’s clinic while I socialized and watched the growing gray mass to the south. The rain held off … until about 30 seconds after my group started on the road. Perfect timing! Sheesh. The shower was brief and after a couple of laps the only weather issue was the stiff 15-25MPH wind out of the southeast. By that time I was in caloric deficit mode, having left home in such a hurry that I neglected to grab any extra food items, which meant digging deep into the reserves to stay with the yellow ‘mice’ who kept punching the pace up. In the end I was able to keep integrated most of the time (one brief bit OTB) and got a pretty good workout.
Next week I plan on returning for the last Early Bird of the year, in part to do some interviewing with some of the local teams to see if I stay with Team Unattached or opt for one of the more structured groups. The requirement for a Master’s program and that training rides be in the geographic area I live and/or work in has narrowed the field to three candidates. A fourth squad, the green and whites is out as the anti-social aspect of some of the membership which has made the team a bit of a pariah in the bigger community; wearing the green and white would make some of my friends loathe to ride with me and might harm some of my advocacy work in the region. So it is down to the black/blue/whites that carry the name of the largest city in the region (and which I must join, anyway, to ride in their twilight crits), the red/yellows which has the most extensive sponsorship (and biggest track presence of the three), or the red/whites which are centered near where I work. I had crossed off the red/white group, The ratio of X chromosomes to Y’s is way too close to 1, but two of my friends have reportedly committed to the team. Decisions, decisions. All to think about while I do circles of the business park.
Saturday I decided to test the lungs, the legs, the mucous producing machinery by doing a brief jaunt into the Los Altos Hills area. The legs were OK, not great, but the lungs were straining to find room for some air in between the resevoirs of mucous that had filled over the past two weeks. Even though I was riding tempo I kept the speed moderated, in part a concession to the lungs, in part to make sure I had control as I fired off countless ’snot rockets’. By the time I got home the throat was agitated, leading to a few good coughing fits through the rest of the day. Hmmm, perhaps it was a bit too soon to climb back into the saddle.
Did I learn my lesson and throttle back? You must be kidding! Sunday I got up ready to put myself out there in Early Bird #3, having missed #1 and #2 due to the combination of weather and the now infamous cold. But I needed to warmup first, right? And what better way to warmup for a few circuits of the industrial park than to ride 19 miles to the event? Little did I know what was in store.
The first surprise was rain; about 2 miles from home I entered the precipitation zone, light but steady, enough to get me and the bike thoroughly covered in that black, oily road run-off. At about mile 4 I seriously considered turning around and going back for the car, but was I smart enough to take the wise choice? Noooooo! Surprise #2 was a drive train problem, finally traced to debris that had gotten thrown up into the rear cassette. As the problem started I considered turning back and getting the car, but still I was not smart enough to follow my intuition. Surprise #3 was flooding on the approach to the Dumbarton bridge and the entrance to the bike lane on the bridge. I had to ford through water 2-3″ deep to get started on my way to cross the bridge, and by this time it was too late to consider turning back for the car. If that was not enough, right after crossing the bridge I realized my rear tire was going flat. When it rains, it pours, as they say.
By some miracle I did make it to the Early Bird with a few minutes to spare. And to add to the fun the first 7 miles of the trip back was straight into a stiff headwind. Mucous production seemed to have increased, and keeping that in check while riding in the pack was loads of fun; I am sure some of the other riders were amused at the long strands that kept dripping off the nose. And all that fun and games tweaked the throat even more, leading to more and longer coughing spells through the afternoon and evening. I am so ready to get back to my normal, healthy self. But moderate? What’s that?
I wanted to take a look at the San Bruno Mtn. course so The Wife and I took a trip north today to do some ups and downs on the mountain. After the rains of the past couple of days the weather was near perfect, and the views from the top were fantastic. I was wishing for a camera; San Francisco was looking lovely and you could make out all the details in every building. We started with a warm-up ride to the top, or at least it was a warm-up for me on the upper part. The Wife was not liking it so much, and for the first part I was having trouble getting the heart rate above 140 bpm or so on the lower sections. The final ride up I rode with a target time in mind, but I missed it by a couple of minutes. Of course about a minute of that was taken with waiting at one of the stop lights as some fool sat on the detector and refused to turn so I could not go through. And I blew out less than a half mile from the top; need to moderate that section a bit more. I set my target time with no knowledge of past times up the hill; I had been ignoring results from the past. After I got home I found that my target would have put me in the top 3 of my category (Cat ‘Old Fogey’) last year. A tad aggressive, but perhaps achievable. The more interesting revelation is that The Wife now wants to race it on Tuesday; she pre-registered right after we got home today.
Setting the stage(s)
The Wife was very upset that she could not participate in the fun at the Kern stage race last year; a friend chose that weekend for her wedding. The Wife did the Madera Stage Race as an alternative, but had committed to doing Kern in 2008. She wants to do Madera in 2008, too, as a warm-up. Last night I made room reservations for both events, so now the commitment deepens. I might do Madera, but a lot depends on logistics; how to get two of us to stages in different locations at the same time will be the issue. We will have to see who else is at Madera and what type of ride-sharing to the stages we can arrange. Madera is on our anniversary weekend; what a crazy way to celebrate!
We seem to have hit a theme; meet some nice folks (aka Alicat and Merkeley) at a distant location and do a nice rural ride. On the 23rd we met the ‘Dots’ at a location in the Santa Lucia Mountains west of Paso Robles for a pre-holiday exploration of some of the rural roads in the area. The Wife had chosen the route, a loop following Santa Rosa Creek down to the town of Cambria, following Highway 1 south to Cayucos, then going up along Old Creek and back to the top. Out of interest I mounted my trusty old Garmin eTrex Vista to the Colnago and recorded the route; GPS Visualizer cranked away at the data and shows what The Wife already knew: there were a couple of sections a bit steep for her liking!
It was a great ride! Santa Rosa Creek Canyon was spectacular in late fall glory, as were the upper reaches of Old Creek Canyon. The oaks were resplendent, having shed much of their bumper crop of acorns. We wove by orange groves, wound past pastures, spent a short bit of time along the coast, and sailed through avocado orchards. We eschewed the standard energy bars for delectable treats from a bakery in Cambria, and enjoyed the scenery and company. The weather cooperated for the most part with beautiful blue skies, temperatures warm enough, and even the wind demons moderated to a degree. At the end of the ride we had a nice time sitting around and talking over wine and tasty snacks. A hearty thanks to hosts Merkeley and Alicat, who even gave us a good recommendation for a fine Zinfandel (Turley “Dusi”) to pick up at the winery on the way out. More photos are in the gallery here.
The Wife and I decided to head north on Sunday, to Coyote Point for the 5th race of the Bay Area Super Prestige Series, as our weekly long ride together. It is a bit of a boring trip, 10 towns in 26 miles of flatland riding, and the first 21 miles is the same as the first 21 miles of my daily commute. Since it was certain that we would be going home in the dark, at least in part, we prepped the touring bikes for the trip. To make mine heavier I added the large saddle bag that I filled with extra water bottles, lunch, jackets, tools, and a lock (in case we decided to stop someplace). The ride north was, as expected, a bit of suburban drudgery. For me the question revolved around whether I could make it or not; in a fit of klutziness, I tripped on Saturday and bruised my right knee. The pain had kept me up a lot on Saturday night, and as we started I felt the pain on each stroke. But the constant, low intensity spinning was good for it and by the end of the day it was feeling much, much better. Without much of interest on the route we used the time to practice our paceline skills.
We arrived at Coyote Point as the Men’s B race was starting. We had hoped to cheer on Jenny in the Women’s C, but then we found it started at 9:30 AM and decided our cheering would be in spirit, not in person. As soon as we arrived at ‘the point’ we grabbed a place to sit and ate our lunch while watching the happenings around us, our attempt to refuel and lighten my load. It was then time to move around and to say howdy to a few friends. We checked in with Mason, Kim (aka Kimmy Gibbler), Jen, Yvonne, and a few others as the Women’s A, B, and Master’s groups were gathering. And then Michiko rolled up, looking remarkably refreshed for someone who rode La Ruta not that long ago. We said a few howdies, then rolled down to a good vantage point to cheer and watch as the women started doing battle on the course. Lots of cheering in what seemed like an all too short race (easy for me to say from the sideline). A few goodbyes, then another suburban roll as we tried to race the setting sun on our trip home. The sun won, but we had our (generator powered) lights to help us find the way … and keep the drivers informed of our presence.
I was a bit lax on the camera thing, but there are a few pictures here; Michiko, of Team Unattached (yeah, TU!) seems to be the most common subject and she groaned when she learned these would be on-line. At least she got a buck for her efforts on Sunday!
A nasty cold virus thing took a hold of my body last week and I spent a few days trying to fight it back and get back to health. Thursday I skipped the bike commute, Friday I worked from home. Saturday I went out shopping, then worked at home the rest of the day, skipping a ride for some time spent in the garage on the rollers.
By Sunday I was ready to get back on a bike. Fortunately we had made plans to meet Alicat and Merkeley Bike in Gilroy for some riding. The Wife had been tasked with developing a route, and she had decided on a couple of loops into the hills on opposite sides of the valley. Gilroy Hot Springs was the first loop, and the weather from town around the loop was perfect: clear, temperatures in the low 60’s Fahrenheit, moderate winds. The ride to the hills as mellow, punctuated with the smell of the pepper trees lining the roads. Only issue I had on that loop was trying to keep pace with Merkeley up the hill with only about a half a lung of respiratory capacity due to the effects of the virus. Amazingly, for a such a great morning we encountered only one other rider on that loop, a guy from Morgan Hill who was doing the loop counter-clockwise, like us, then going back around clockwise to get the double dose.
The second loop was across the valley and to the north, a trip around Chesbro and Uvas reservoirs, or more correctly the damned up areas that will be reservoirs when it finally rains. We had to do ride through a bunch of flat, semi-rural area to get to that loop, traversing a good chunk of Gilroy, San Martin, and part of Morgan Hill on the way. As we approached Chesbro reservoir the weather shifted, the skies became overcast, the temperatures dropped a tad, and the wind picked up a little. It felt as if it would or could rain at any moment, and indeed one section of Uvas Road seemed to have been under a recent little rain shower. With a number of golden-yellow trees, the weather, and some lingering wood smoke near some of the residences it was feeling very autumnal.
It was a great ride; nice scenery, pleasant weather, fantastic company. Only sour note was the tire slice flat Merkeley suffered in the last couple miles as we traversed Gilroy suburbia on our way back to the cars. We were glad that The Wife had selected a meeting point near a restaurant (was it really coincidence) so we could refuel before driving back north to home. Now I need to finish shaking this cold and get back out for more rides like that!
I had been ignoring the issue for a number of reasons.
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