The Surly Randonneur

2012 Rainbow 200K Recap - Brutal and Exciting

2012-01-23T19:37:00.001-08:00

Quick recap of the 2012 Rainbow 200K on January 21st. Weather reports were for rain, starting around midnight Saturday and continue on for the entire day. At 9 PM Friday night, I decided to put fenders on the Surly. This was probably the best decision I had made for this brevet.

Left Doyle Park promptly at 7 AM, well, the main group did - I hung around a few minutes to finish up a few things. No rain at the start but it started around mile 8 where I stopped under a 56 freeway bridge to put on my rain gear. That's the problem with rain, you have to pack two sets of gear - when it's raining gear, when it's not raining gear. It rained pretty much for the next 4 hours. Not hard, and luckily for me, being on the bigger side of small, I can keep myself rather warm without too much effort. After about 2 hours I had noticed riding uphill was turning into an ordeal. I stopped to check my tires, no problem there. Brakes weren't rubbing. I picked up the Surly and oh yeah, most of my gear absorbed water, let alone what I was wearing. Oh well, part of being a randonneur! The rain just bothered me going uphill, fenders and rain gear stopped it from becoming miserable.

Made it to the first two controls in decent time. After departing AM/PM on Mesa Rock Rd, it was time to start climbing Old Castle Rd. About 3/4 of the way up, there was this Pit Bull barking it's head off at the gate to the driveway of it's home. It didn't seem to want to go past the threshold of the driveway gates so I kept on riding . Once I got past, I heard this "tap-tap-tap" behind me. Checking my mirror, here comes Kujo in full gallop. I up shift a couple gears, stand up and sprint. I kept my eye on him with my mirror and stopped accelerating when I noticed the mutt no longer gaining on me. The dog pulled up about 300 yards from the driveway, turned around and went home. I sat back down and made my way to the top and stopped in a driveway, then slumped over my handlebars. Couldn't decide if I was going to hurl or pass out! Eventually I started feeling better and got back to riding. After the sprint though, I felt lousy for the remainder of the day. Trying to sprint with a heavy bike takes a lot of energy.

Heading into Couser Canyon, I bonked hard halfway up. I stopped for a few minutes, grab a gel and drank. Got back to riding after a few minutes heading to Rice Canyon. Part way climbing up to Rainbow, there was a short, steep downhill and I got surprised by a hairpin turn that was wet from the rain. I hit the brakes just entering the turn, rear wheel locked up, I slid across the double yellow line into the on-coming lane. Thank the Lord there were no cars coming. I wouldn't have had a chance and no driver could have reacted fast enough to avoid me. I was out of the saddle, let off the rear brakes and shot back across the double yellow line. Didn't crash during the slide so that was VERY good!

I continued feeling lousy at the Rainbow control. Got something to eat, then some hot chocolate. It stopped raining, so I pulled out a dry set of gloves, wrung my socks out, and prepared to freeze while my clothes dried out. Left Rainbow with two other riders, one of which gave me a demonstration on how to handle loose dogs.

Riding the San Luis Rey bike path was very nice. Probably the calmest time I've had on that path. Made it into Oceanside with a quick stop at a mini mart to refuel. It was starting to get dark but not too bad. Doing the math, I was going to be very close to the cutoff time. I was still feeling lousy and I knew I had Torrey Pines to climb. I kept up my fueling until Del Mar, when my 3rd incident occured.

In Del Mar, I had to cross the Jimmy Durante Blvd merge onto Camino del Mar. I misjudged the distance and my speed so I skipped off the guard rail several times before getting control of the bike. Was totally surprised and tried to avoid flipping over the rail.

Torrey Pines was waiting for me with a huge smile. It was dark, wasn't too cold out, so I took my time. Stopped a few times to regain feeling in my legs, topping out sooner than I thought. It's rather nice climbing long hills in the dark! Riding into UCSD with about 2 miles to go, I once again made an incorrect turn, but recovered from that as well.

Overall I had a great time. Much thanks to Elaine and Lisa for waiting for me then taking off allowing me to "catch" them after they waited once again. I finished the 122 mile route in 12 hours 50 minutes overall with a ride time of 10 hours and 5 minutes. Only about 30 minutes slower than my previous inclement weather time for this route. I was the last rider in, earning Lantern Rouge, 2nd award.

You noticed no photos? Decided to leave the camera at home with all the rain.

Montezuma Mesa Espresso 205K Permanent - AKA: My Wife MADE Me Do It

2011-03-07T20:24:00.001-08:00

I'm very dedicated to my goal of the R-12 award, but my lovely wife demanded I ride on March 5th. I was coming up with all kinds of excuses - the check engine light came back on the randovan. The check engine light came on the Taurus, lawn mower, and on the morning of the ride, the Surly. She even threatened to throw the Surly out the front door, then me, and lock the door behind. She wouldn't have anything about me worming my way out of riding this weekend. I HAD to go.

The 1st control is a mere 8.1 miles from the start. Quickly in and out departing on Friars Rd heading towards Mission Bay I see Team in Training out for their marathon training program.

Sue Krenn 15K has also started and Mission Bay is very busy. I pull up to the light E. Mission Bay Dr and another rider on a recumbant rolls up next to me. He asked me if I rode the Rainbow 200K, which I did. We chatted trying to get the light to change, but this was one of the lights the Surly couldn't get to change. Luckily a car pulled up behind us and tripped the light. The right onto Damon then Sante Fe which changes into the Rose Canyon Bike path. Making my way to UCSD, then up to North Torrey Pines Rd. A few miles and there's this nice downhill to the beach.

There's no way I'm going to one-hand ride down Torrey Pines. We'll be seeing this hill again on the way home.

Making my way up Coast Highway/101 is rather uneventful. The tough part is the near constant 15-20 MPH headwind. It was relentless for 50 miles! I made my way through Del Mar, Solana Beach, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Encinitas, Leucadia, Carlsbad. As I approached Oceanside, I somehow got mixed up with a group of time trialists! I've never tried to time trial on the Surly so I gave it a try:

I don't think I'd find that position very comfortable for a 200K, but it was fun while it lasted!

I make my way through Oceanside, find the on-ramp to 5N and keep heading north. The headwinds are still howling but I'm used to it. I exit into the rest area but ride right through. I hit the off-ramp to Las Pulgas, aim the Surly through the opening of the fence on the Old 101 and I get a slight break to eat and drink. Plenty other riders are out. I duck under the 5 and make my way through the various campgrounds, past San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant, and notice all the traffic on the 5. Beach traffic in March!

I finally reach Carl's Jr - the northern terminus of this permanent. I grab a chocolate milk shake and wash up. I took about a 20 min break and chatted with some other riders. I depart Carl's Jr shortly after noon and can already feel the tailwind!

Normally when you have such a long headwind and you turn around, usually the wind turns around with you and there's more headwind to ride back with. Not this time! I took full advantage of this tailwind!! Soft pedaling it was easy to maintain 20 MPH. That's rather fast for a 32 pound bike and the Surly surely rides very smooth at this speed. It seemed like a blink of an eye I was flying down south 5, not stopping through the rest area, back to Oceanside and the Coast Highway. Carlsbad, and the remainder of the beach cities are a blur. I stop at Swami's to refill my bottles and just keep going. It's not too much longer and I face riding up Torrey Pines hill at mile 103. It didn't look as steep riding down as it does when you're at the bottom of the hill and you have more than 100 miles in the legs.

Torrey didn't seem so bad this time. I actually passed a few riders on the way up, not that I was trying. I just got into my rhythm and up I went. Once at the top, it was riding past UCSD, Rose Canyon Bike Path, then back through Pacific Beach & Mission Bay. Stopped quickly at the 3rd and final control, then I left to ride through Mission Valley. Finally there was Montezuma Road.

No, I'm not talking about the opera or the fifth or ninth Aztec Emperors, I'm talking about a significant climb with only 3 miles left! Same with Torrey, it didn't seem so steep on the way down but man, it was tough on the way up! I could smell the barn so all I did was grind it out. You know what the most depressing thing about cycling? When you try to shift into your lowest gear and you find out, YOU'RE ALREADY THERE! It was one of those climbs at just that time of day. I was rather tired, traffic was busy, and the sun was setting. Soon enough I was at the top and looking for the Starbucks to finish off this permanent.

I arrived at the finish. Here are the stats for this ride:

Distance: 205K (128 miles)
Overall Time: 9:51
Ride Time: 8:32
Average Speed: 15.1 MPH
Calories Burned: ~6500
Calories Consumed: ~2000

This was my first 200K where I finished under 10 hours! One of the changes I made to the bike was a slight adjustment to my saddle. Since I've lost all this weight, I kept sliding forward on my saddle, then using my arms to slide back up. Doing that for hours on end really makes my upper body tired. I don't know if the sliding is really related to the weight loss or not. I slide the saddle about 1/4" closer to the handlebars. What a huge difference! My back, hands, arms, and neck didn't get near as tired. The other thing is, I think I'm using more of my legs. At the old position, my glutes and back of my legs would get very tired but my quads wouldn't. Moving the saddle forward, I could feel more of my quads getting used. Not sure if that's all in my imagination but I'm sticking with it!

One other change I did was lower the pressure in my tires. Before I would run them near maximum of 115 PSI. I've been reading where lower pressures make tires roll easier and make the ride smoother. I didn't believe it at first but I gave it a 30 day try. I can say I don't think I notice the tires rolling easier or the Surly is easier to pedal, but the bike sure does ride much nicer! I've settled on 95 PSI in the front tire and 105 PSI in the rear.

So, that brings to an end --- oh, wait, there's more.

I had to ride home too. Oldest son needed the randovan for work with my wife and younger son at a track meet. That left me with no other option but to ride the 9 miles home. I hung out at Starbucks for about 30 minutes. I bought a Chocolatey Creme and a bagel. I donned all my night riding gear, powered up the lights and rode home. The ride home took me through La Mesa, past Grossmont Community College, then downhill to Santee. It was an awesome night to ride too. I think the 9 miles back home was as great as the 128 I just finished.

Another ride next month too. I've completed 3 out of 12 so far. Haven't decided on a route as of yet. I'm planning all my permanents the 1st or 2nd Saturday of the month. That way if something goes wrong on either of those weekends, I have two more Saturdays I could ride. Much thanks to Mike Berry for this new permanent. If you plan on riding it south to north, be sure to save alittle for the end. :)

Sunset Beach Safari 228K Permanent

2011-02-16T20:01:00.000-08:00

It's February and that means another brevet! Problem is, it's the Corona 300K and with all the time off I had over the fall, I wasn't too confident in riding that distance along with the 8000' or so of climbing. One of my goals last year was to work on the RUSA R-12 award. Since I had a 3 month gap, I needed to start over. I decided to ride the Sunset Beach Safari Permanent which starts in La Costa, ends up in Sunset Beach then returns. A permanent is like a brevet but can be ridden at anytime of the year with permission of the route owner.

I got started around 7 AM departing La Costa.

View of a lagoon, can't remember exactly where I was but somewhere on Coast Highway. Coast Highway takes me through Carlsbad and Oceanside. Once through Oceanside, there's an option to ride through Camp Pendleton or take the 5 freeway.

I decided to take the freeway!

Look mom! I'm finally playing on the freeway!

Riding the freeway isn't all that bad. It's very noisy and the shoulder is littered with all kinds of junk just wanting to puncture my tires. What's cool is semi surfing. If there's enough large trucks spaced just right and I have the Surly at just the right speed, I can use the bow wave of the truck to push up the speed!

One requirement of riding the 5 is that riders have to exit the freeway into the rest area. This is for safety as the on-ramp from the rest area is blind looking into the shoulder. It's not a bad thing to exit, good place to top off my bottles.

Surly taking a break.

After departing the rest area, it's about 4 miles until the Las Pulgas exit. Bikes must exit here.

Then quickly get on Old Highway 101 northbound. It's nice to be off the freeway. There are plenty of other riders out too, just not in this photo.

Pretty soon I'm riding past the San Onofre Nuclear Powerplant. It appears to be leaking something and I can feel a warm sensation. Oh well, I'm sure it's nothing...

Very nice paved road passing the plant.

Heading into San Clemente, then making my way north towards Dana Pt.

Dana Point State Beach

Uphill into Laguna Niguel. Laguna Beach is always jammed with traffic and this ride was no exception. Made a quick water stop at a local grocery store then started threading my way through Laguna Beach. Once north of Laguna Beach the road opens up nicely with a set of rollers but wide bike lanes.

Before I know it, I'm just a few miles south of Newport Beach. From here on to Sunset Beach, it's all a headwind! Plenty of traffic from time to time but not bad.

I happened upon this sports car at the Newport Beach Ferrari dealership. Yes, it's a Ferrari. The only thing I could read on the sticker was the price: $339,000. I didn't see any factory rebates or trade in allowance. It did say "DO NOT TOUCH" in very big letters across the top of the sticker. I didn't note what model it was so I emailed the dealership. No response so far.

Entering Huntington Beach

Making my way through Huntington Beach.

For some reason riding from Huntington Beach to Sunset Beach takes a long time. After 5 hours of riding, I arrive at my turn-around point, 7-11 16919 Pacific Coast Highway. I didn't stay very long, watered up and had some chocolate milk.

Southbound beach shot.

Backside of Laguna Beach -- getting ready for more traffic.

The southbound trip was uneventful through Dana Point & San Clemente. By this time of the evening, there are fewer riders out as well. Making my way down Old 101, I'm back on the 5 S. Problem this time was a CHP had someone pulled over. They were blocking the entire shoulder and I had no chance of "merging" into the slow lane of the freeway was just not an option. I was ready just to come to a stop and wait it out. As I approached, the car moved down off the shoulder, I rode past the officer, and he promptly stopped behind the car. I just kept riding on.

Once back in north Oceanside, I had to stop again for some food. I was really starting to tank and I still had 13 miles to go, but it seemed much further than that. Downed a cinnamon bun and I was off. Riding near the Oceanside Pier, the sun was beginning to set.

It's tough living out here...

While stopped, I donned my night riding gear. I was in very familiar territory but there was going to be some traffic as the night evolved. I had about an hour left of riding. I ride down Coast Highway for about 7 miles and make the left turn on La Costa Avenue. The temperature was dropping rapidly but I didn't have far to ride to the randovan. Soon enough, I was done!

This was my first, longest, and completed permanent! Here are the stats:

Miles: 141
Overall Time: 11:06
Ride Time: 9:06
Average Speed: 15.5 MPH
Average Temp: 72 degrees
Calories burned: ~7000
Number of Ferraris: 4 (not including the dealership)
Number of Lamborghinis: 2
Number of 1963 Jensen Healys: 1
Number of Mercedes: Who cares.
Number of Audis: See Mercedes
Number of BMWs: See Audis
Number of Surlys: 1

Planning my next permanent on March 5th. Stay tuned for more!

Facebook!

2011-02-07T20:49:00.000-08:00

Yes, the SurlyRando is now on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/surlyrando You have to send me a friend request, my Facebook account is all private.

No, this blog will not be shut down. It'll still be used for regular ride reports you've loved. I'm going to use Facebook for real-time ride updates including photos as I'm out on a brevet, permanent, or training ride. I'll continue on with twitter, but it's limited, and I think Facebook updates provides a better reader experience during a ride, with the blog going into greater depth post ride.

Mark

2011 Rainbow 200K - Welcome Back Ride

2011-01-17T20:25:00.000-08:00

Yes, welcome to 2011 and the start of brevet season here in San Diego! 2010 has left us and good riddance too. 2011 has to be better than last year, especially the last 5 months. My previous brevet was the Rollers to Bonsal 200K, then between getting sick, two trips to the emergency room two weeks apart, I amassed a total of 30 miles of training between Sept 28th and Dec 27th. I started training again the first week of January where I got 150 miles in that week, with a longest ride of 50 miles. I felt pretty good so decided to commit to the 200K, but with zero time pressure. All I wanted to do was cover the distance within the max allowed time.

It was nice to see the sun rise at Doyle Park in La Jolla. I could tell it was going to be a very nice day to be on the bike.

I brought all my cold riding gear with me but decided to leave most of that behind in the randovan. All I brought along was arm warmers and my night riding gear. It was probably the best decision I made all day - so far.

I wasn't the first to arrive, but I was pretty close.

I'm pretty sure we had nearly 80 riders at the start too. Great turn out! Got a chance to see friends that I haven't seen since last summer.

The Surly was configured just like normal. The photo isn't great since I used my phone and not a real camera.

The only changes to the bike was I rebuilt most of the drive train. After 11,000 miles of riding, I wore out the middle chain ring. It needed a new chain too and I decided to replace the cassette as well. The bike came with a 12-34 and I decided to go 11-32.

Promptly at 7 AM our RBA let us loose. As soon as I clipped in, I realized I was wearing my jacket! So, back to the randovan I go to drop off my jacket. When I turn around to leave, everyone is already out of sight! I mean totally gone. When I head down Regents towards the freeway it's sorta cold out, but not bad. I'll warm up in a few minutes as soon as I start riding uphill. It was a bit of a rough start as I was hitting every red light possible.

We made our way down the 5 to the Sorrento Valley exit and the temperature dropped rather quickly. I started second guessing my decision to leave my cold gear in the van but it was too late now. I'm not going back to the van.

Our first major climb of the day is on Del Dios highway. I was concerned that having a 32 rear cog instead of a 34 may come back to haunt me, but it didn't. I really couldn't tell any difference between the two. Maybe I should try a 30? Anyway, great views from Del Dios.

Rolling past the Lake Hodges Dam.

The route to the first control as uneventful. Temperature started warming up and I settled in to riding. I arrived at control 1 around 9:20. Not bad, I actually had to wait in line to get my brevet card signed! This was a first for me, I'm normally one of the last riders into any control. I found out there was about 15 riders behind me - not that I'm racing or anything. :)

Departing control 1 is the Twin Oaks Valley hill and a hill it is. This guy in a yellow car passed me going up TOV.

I rolled up beside him at the next light and inquired about racing for pinks. He was speechless. Seeing a guy wearing lycra and riding a Surly really makes a statement. He declined. Yeah, it's like that out on the open roads.

TVO downhill is a blast. It's straight, very nicely paved, and all I have to do is point the bike downhill. I know some riders can reach 55 MPH plus on this downhill. The terminal velocity of the Surly is about 48 MPH. I've run out of gearing to peddle, it's all up to gravity now. Believe me, 48 MPH is plenty fast enough.

I made it to control 2 exactly in an hour. I was there less than 2 minutes before departing. I didn't even get off the bike. Now, this is where the fun begins!

Leaving Deer Springs it's a slight downhill to Old Castle road and the uphill really starts. Temps are in the 80s and it's feeling like a spring day in the middle of January. I knocked out Old Castle rather easily, which surprised me. Heading down the backside on Lilac Rd it's another chance to fly. The approach to Couser Canyon Rd is at the bottom of this downhill and the turn is less than 90 degrees. I came in alittle too fast and alittle too late. I force as much weight on the outside pedal as possible and just lean into it. I'm watching as the rocks come real close to my right side. I miss skipping off the rocks by about 6 inches. I guess my cycling skills have rusted some since I was off so much. No problem, shake it off and start climbing. Couser is tough. I'm guessing it's around 12-15% grade. The good news is, it's not all that long, maybe a mile? I crest Couser and start flying down the back side too. This road is two lane, little to no shoulder, and no guardrails either. I came around a tight turn and was surprised by the road being wet. I thought, here I go. I was probably 30 MPH, came into the turn and just reacted. I tried to balance my weight as much as possible between the front and back wheels, then stayed off the brakes! That's the important part I think. Hitting the brakes would have probably caused me to skid. The Gaterskins held just fine but I won't try that again.

Once back down on the flats, it's an easy ride to Rice Canyon, and another tough climb. By now the temps are up to 88 degrees. I'm still feeling pretty good by this point. Last year I was totally hammered at this point in the ride. I was surprised to reach the top so quick. It was tough, but not what I remember last year.

I made it to control 3 in Rainbow. This is the final control for this brevet. I stayed about 10 minutes to refill my bottles and to hit the men's room. I got cleaned up and left. There's a slight climb going over East Mission. Temps are holding at 88 degrees but once at the summit, it's a nice downhill to the 76. I came to the 76 and 3 other riders pulled up behind me. The 76 usually has a ton of traffic and it's made worse due to the construction. Safety in numbers as they say so I stayed with the other 3 while going through the construction zone.

I quickly made my way to the San Luis Rey bike path. It's a very nice bike path, not too crowded, very nicely paved. The only problem is the headwinds! It's always a headwind and makes it seem like I'm riding up a nearly infinite hill. The path looks like this:

I roll into Oceanside and decided I need to take a short break. I stopped at Pappy's Liquor store and grab a chocolate milk. While drinking about 5 other riders pass me. I didn't stay too long, about 15 minutes and hit the road. The next 18 miles look like this:

It's one of my favorite routes to ride. Crowded with people, cars, dogs, cats, gerbils, and a sundry of other unleashed animals, I have to pay close attention so I don't hit anything.

It's starting to cool off and I put my arm warmers on. I look at my watch and start thinking I could possibly finish in daylight! Wasting no time I cruise my way to the final climb of the day, Torrey Pines hill. I just went for it and when I summited, I realized I'm not going to make it before dark. I stop at the top of the hill and put on my night gear and flip on the lights. No biggie. I make my way to the finish in due time - still missing the turn on Voight Dr at UCSD just like I normally do. It was a great day to ride and I'm very happy to be back on the bike.

Here are the ride stats:

Mileage: 121.55
Overall time: 10.5 hours
Ride time: 9.33 hours
Calories Burned: ~7000
Calories consumed during ride: ~2500
Total Elevation: ~8700 feet

I finished this ride nearly 45 minutes faster than last year. Wait, am I sure? Why, what happened? I've barely trained this past 6 months! My ride time was 3 minutes faster than last year so it looks like I've really not lost anything due to all the time off from training. I also did much better at the controls not spending so much time, plus I didn't stop as much during the ride either. Long story short I've lost 17 pounds since last July. Currently I'm weighing in at 177. Now the hard part starts, keeping the weight off!

Until next time, thanks for reading!!

3H Ride - Heat, Hills, & Headwinds

2010-09-26T18:34:00.000-07:00

I have a love, hate relationship with riding to Dudley's Bakery in Santa Ysabel. It's our turn around control during the annual San Diego Randonneurs' 300K. The last time I was at Dudley's was during a 200K permanent back in August. Both times, I quit. Man, I hate quitting a ride! It's for one reason or another. The next day when I reflect on the reasons why I quit, those reasons don't seem like such a big deal.

Since I'm not bike commuting to work any longer, I actually have to get out and train. I don't ride as many miles training as I did commuting, but it's not by much. I've been able to extend my training rides to 25-30 miles a few times per week, then every other Saturday throw in a longer ride of at least 80 miles. My goal is to maintain this "training" program for the fall and see how well I do in the upcoming brevet season starting in January 2011. I do have goals of completing a 600K ride, approximately 372.822 miles in a single weekend.

As most of you know, I had several trips to the doctor and emergency room throughout the month of August. No worries now, everything is fine, but it has been a bit of a recovery to get back to training. This ride culminated in my first full week of training rides and it didn't disappoint! Here's the profile for this ride:

Alarm goes off at 5 AM. I have to take my new medication 30 minutes prior to eating anything. This means my pre-ride fuel. So, I just go back to bed and think about the day until 30 minutes are up. My plans are to leave at 6 AM to head to Dudley's Bakery. It's an awesome drive, and breathtaking ride from our home. It's 40 miles away and all uphill. I live at about 250' above sea level, Dudley's is around 3000'.

I'm ready to go and step outside. I'm instantly greeted by a stray pitbull out on the sidewalk. As the door closed behind me, I had my bike between me and the dog as I'm standing on the porch. We both just look at each other. I know what you're thinking - did I lock the door before walking outside? Oh yes I did! Mr pitbull starts growling and gives me somewhat of a weak bark. So what do I do? I growl and bark back even louder! Dog turned tail and ran back down the sidewalk. Now I'm thinking - is it gone, or laying in wait? I walk the bike out to the street and no signs of Mr pitbull. I think I'm safe! It was a cool moon to get the ride started.

I make my way to the base of the first climb out on highway 67 headed towards Ramona.

The sun starts rising and I grab a self moving portrait still riding up the 67. Shortly after this video, I had a bee fly down my jersey. When this happened, I was going about 35 MPH on a downhill. I looked into my jersey and saw the bee. I grabbed it with my left hand making a little pouch to keep it away from my skin. I squeezed the heck out of it to kill it, all the while keeping an eye on the 60 MPH traffic on my left, one hand on the bars - all at 35 MPH. I safely come to a stop at the bottom of the hill, which bummed me out because there's nothing like a bunch of kinetic energy to help get me over the next hill! I flick the bee out and I squirt water on the spot where the formerly alive bee resided. The bad news is the venom of it's stinger was in my jersey which proceeded to irritate me all throughout the ride.

I've lost a bunch of weight since I change my way of eating back in November 2009 and it's reflected in my newly found uphill speed!

It doesn't take me too long to make it to Ramona and make a pit stop at Stater Bros market to refill my water bottles. I don't stay long and depart Ramona.

Departing Ramona takes me onto the Old Julian Highway and up through the back country. Not many cars, plenty of motorcycles.

The problem is, Old Julian Highway is all uphill, and it continues.

Nearing the end of Old Julian Highway is this way cool horse ranch.

Old Julian Highway intersects with the 78 which used to be the 67 in Ramona. Old Julian Highway has way less traffic than the 67/78, but it's a tad longer.

There's still more uphill to go with not much longer until I cross 3000' in elevation.

With just a little more uphill I can see Dudley's in the distance with a nice downhill approach too!

Still feeling pretty good at this point, I arrive at Dudley's Bakery.

I hang out at Dudley's enjoying the air conditioning and of course I bought a cinnamon bun! I ate about half and got some plastic wrap from their deli to wrap up the leftover. I down a water bottle full of water then refill both - one with water and ice, the other with my fuel mixture, water and ice. From my door to Dudley's took 3 hours and 27 minutes. Not bad for me! I decide to get going.

Not too long after my departure the temperature starts to climb.

I make it back to Ramona and stop at Stater Bros again to refill my bottles. The thermometer on my bike was reading 105. It's mostly flat to the 67, but there are a few roller coaster short hills before the decent into Lakeside. This is where the fun began.

My departure from Ramona should have been uneventful. It's a fast decent back into Lakeside with a few small hills thrown in. By this time though the temps had reached above 110 degrees and I was riding into a 25 MPH headwind. Needless to say that really zaps my energy! I decided to climb the first small hill and find some shade in a drive way. I stop and notice I have a thorn in my front tire. I pull it out and can hear the faint hissing that it made it through to my tube. 15 minutes later I have a spare tube in and I'm back on the road. The temps by this point was 115 on the bike thermometer with the headwinds even stronger. I make it about 8 miles down the road and my bike starts having this funny bounce to it. I know exactly what this means, I have a flat in my rear tire! I pull over at Scripps Poway Parkway, but there's zero shade. I pull out my 2nd tube and notice that the stem has dirt on it. Now I'm thinking - did I leave an unpatched tube in my seat bag? I look over the tube and see a patch, so I'm crossing my fingers there's not a second hole in this tube. I'm totally baking and I have the final decent into Lakeside to deal with.

I put the bike back together and hit the road. I'm flying down the road into Lakeside. The headwinds are even stronger and the temps are still showing 115. As I ride the flats into Lakeside, I'm feeling nauseous and have a slight headache. I know exactly what this means. I know there's a Circle K about a mile down the road and I stop. I grabbed some cold Gatorade, refill my water bottles with ice and water. I spend a good 20 minutes there rehydrating and cooling off.

I leave the K and head home. It's about 8 miles to get home, it might as well have been 100. I slowly ride through Lakeside still fighting very hot headwinds. I'm running through my head which route to take to get home that has the fewest hills. Problem is, there's a lot of traffic on the flatter route, plus it's about 2 miles longer. I decide to ride the safer route with less traffic. I make it a couple of miles, but have to pull over and cool off in the shade of a driveway for 5 minutes. Once I feel good again, I head back out. Smaller hills that normally don't present much of a challenge to ride up now might as well have been Mt Everest. Every turn of the pedals sends searing pain up my legs. I can't take a deep breath due to the hot air. I make it to one of the local junior high schools and grab some shade for 10 minutes under a tree. Temps 109. I drink about half of what's left of my bottles and feel better. I head back out onto a smallish hill that leads me to a nice downhill for about 1/2 a mile. I catch the light with some speed, make the right turn onto Mast Blvd with enough momentum to carry me over another smallish hill. At this point, I'm about 2 miles from home. I can barely manage 15 MPH going downhill, then uphill, then downhill. There's a smallish hill right before my street that looked nearly vertical. It was all I could do to make it up - but I did.

I made it home about 90 minutes longer than I wanted, but I was very determined not to get defeated by this ride. I quickly got inside and jumped on the scale. I lost 6 pounds, no wonder I felt lousy!!

Here are the stats from this ride:

Mileage: 80.33 miles
Elevation Change: 2500' (approx, not cumulative)
Overall Time: 8 hours 40 minutes
Ride Time: 6 hours 23 minutes
Calories Burned: 3966
Weightloss: 23 pounds ( Since November 2009 )
Average Speed: 12.55 (mi/hr)
Temp high: 115
Temp low: 58
Tubes used: 2
Bees in jersey: 3
Maximum speed of an unladen European Swallow: 25 knots

It was tough - but I wasn't defeated...

Rough Ride - Plenty of Turkeys on the Road

2010-09-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

Normal training ride out to El Monte Park, except for all the turkeys out on the road.

Watching the sun work it's way around the peaks.

All in all, nice ride.

Cowles 3-Way

2010-09-18T12:35:00.000-07:00

Team Geezer went out for a 10 mile hike 3 ways over Cowles Mountain this morning in preparation of our Grand Canyon hike that's fast approaching in 35 days. I've been working with my new Flip Mino HD video camera. I normally bring a digital camera along for hiking and riding, but that just seems so old fashioned these days. Video is where it's at! I've put a protective silicon skin on the Mino in case I should drop it. I have run into a few challenges though.

One thing I've noticed with the camera is that if I delete the video files using my computer, the camera won't reset how much recording time is available. I use Ubuntu as my OS of choice and the Mino shows up as USB drive. The installed software on the Mino that would automatically run when inserted into a computer running Windows won't work under Ubuntu.

The other thing I've noticed is that uploading videos through this blog causes YouTube to issue an error message part way through the conversion process. If I upload the videos straight into YouTube, the conversion process doesn't emit any error messages. I just have to copy the URLS to each video. Not a big deal.

We started the hike at 7 AM from Mesa Road in Santee under very heavy marine layer conditions, which made the hike have some really cool video opportunities. Keeping up with my bionic partner can be challenging! Before we knew it we're at 1592 feet above sea level, the highest point within the City of San Diego.

On our way to the Beckhelm Lookout, AKA Pyles Peak, we passed this interesting formation Herb and I dubbed the Albino Rainbow. It's probably some kind of fresnel lens made by the mist in the air with the sunlight coming from behind us refracting into that shape. But I digress, I'm not a physicist...

With all the mist in the air from the marine layer, several spider webs had caught some of the mist. This guy meant business with his web!

As we made our way back to the summit of Cowles, the marine layer was just starting to dissipate.

The surrounding peaks were poking through the top of the shallow marine layer.

Another 360 degree view from the summit of Cowles.

Departing the summit, we hike the most popular trail on Cowles Mountain. Lots of people and dogs make it very crowded, it's by far the most popular and the shortest route to the summit. Once at the top, I took another 360 degree video showing how the marine layer had dissipated out into the Pacific Ocean.

All in all, I'm really liking the Mino. It's easy to use and works a tad faster than a regular digital camera. I think it takes better video than some digital cameras take photos. I can always grab a still out of the video if I needed. Two hours of video can be recorded.

The hike went very well. 10 miles with about 4800 feet of climbing in 3 hours and 47 minutes. Our next adventure is the Palomar 12 Miler in two weeks! This will be our final prep hike before our Grand Canyon trip October 22nd.

Until next time...

New Bike Videos

2010-09-11T18:46:00.000-07:00

I used some of my American Express Card reward points to get a Flip video camera. I normally take a camera with me on every ride, but thought it would be fun to take videos instead. The Flip takes real nice videos so I thought I'd try it out on my morning ride.

I left Santee at 6:10 AM. Not much to video as the marine layer was in full strength. I just rode through Alpine and was heading east on Alpine Blvd to Willows Rd. That was my turn around point for this ride. Thought the sun reflecting off the power lines was rather cool looking.

It's exactly 20 miles to the turn around from my home. It's all pretty much uphill to this point. Which means...

20 miles downhill!! Yes, this is an unedited video!

If you receive this blog via email, you won't see the videos embedded in the email. Click on the Surly Rando link at the bottom of the email that was sent to you from Blogspot.

Houston: We Have A College Student!

2010-08-30T07:02:00.001-07:00

Had to get up and film the new SDSU student's departure this morning.

07/19/2010 Morning Ride Photo

2010-07-19T18:03:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-16T19:04:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-11T17:29:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-07T07:38:00.001-07:00

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

2010-05-24T20:25:00.001-07:00

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

2010-05-21T19:54:00.001-07:00

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

2010-02-07T18:08:00.001-08:00

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!

Rainbow "Best Weather in the Nation" 200K

2010-01-10T18:12:00.000-08:00

The San Diego Randonneurs started their season January 9th with the Rainbow 200K, probably the only January brevet in the continental United States that required sunscreen!

I sat in the new (to me) SurlyVan contemplating even wearing a jacket. It was cool, around 46 degrees. So, I threw caution to the wind, left my jacket in the van, donned sunscreen instead. I put my arm warmers in my jersey pocket just in case.

Plenty of people for this brevet, plus we had several riders from Seattle too.

Some parts of the first two hours were on the cool side, but not bad. Up we go! Bill and (I think) Kathy leading the way uphill.

Still riding up the dam hill!

Lake Hodges in the morning. Beats yard work any day!

Entering Harmony Grove, riding through Elfin Forest.

42.8 miles Control #2. I missed taking a photo at Control #1 - 29.9 miles. I was tied up with a very slow leaky front tire, so I changed it out while it was daylight and my hands were warm. You never know when the weather could change and become like last year!

A one, and a two – there's much more riding to do! (Sorry Mr Welk, I couldn't resist.)

Entering Valley Center, where all the uphills live!

To prove we needed sunscreen, I stopped near the summit on Old Castle Road. Clearly visible on my new cycling computer is the temperature – 82 degrees! Notice, no shoe covers either – it was a grand day to ride.

Up Couser Canyon – yeah, right, I'm gonna ride 20 MPH up Couser!

67.4 miles Control #3, a hair past halfway.

Heading back down 395 to the coast. Blue California skies.

More uphill on E Mission Road...

Just leaving the McDonalds in Bonsall. I was starving and needed something solid to eat. My fuel of choice? Cheesburger and iced coffee. Total rocket fuel!

The sunsetting as we approach Oceanside. Last year, I arrived after dark due to many issues along the route.

Oceanside Pier – this is what brevets in January are all about here in San Diego!!

Sunset & surfing...

It was on uneventful ride to the finish. I finished nearly 2 hours faster than last year. So, I did some analysis to see what I did to make improvements. My total ride time was 11 hours and 8 minutes. Riding time was 9 hours and 24 minutes. Not too bad, but trying to get my control time down.

Analysis

The first thing that was different was the weather. Last year, it rained nearly the entire time, but this year was awesome! I bought fenders in anticipation of a rainy ride, but didn't need them. Figures. Southern California will be in the worst drought ever because I bought fenders for the Surly.

Order of improvements:

1. I started working on making the engine lighter. I don't know if a pound of rider weight, equals a pound of weight lost on the bike. I think a pound of rider weight is better. Essentially all I've done to loose bodyfat is to have natural carbs only – from fruit and veggies. I've cut way back on processed carbs from grains and dairy. The first week I started eating this way, I felt lousy. Headaches, sensitive to light and loud noises, a tad grouchier than normal. It was weird. I kept bike commuting and was expecting to run out of gas midweek, but that didn't happen. By the end of the second week, I started feeling much better. I've been averaging about a pound a week lost. I only indulge in high glycemic foods during a ride, not inbetween. I started right after Thanksgiving. Lets see how it keeps going. I'm down just over 7 pounds. I'll blog more about my progress as the brevet season rolls on.

2. I brought slightly less fuel. Normally I'd arrive at the finish with 3 or 4 bars/gels, Shot Blocks, etc. This time I came home with just one of each.

3. For hydration, I made sure I had emptied both bottles before arriving at a control. Forced me to stay better hydrated during the ride.

4. I figured how to read a route sheet! I only missed one turn by 40', right near the end.

5. I started riding the hillier route to work each day. I've worked my way up to riding over Mission Gorge hill 3-4 days per week going to work. I have to ride a much shorter/steeper hill on the way home. Planning on working my way up to riding both ways over Mission Gorge hill. I figured out a much better cadence for me when climbing. I would spin above 85 RPM going uphill, but I found out if I choose a slightly higher gear that will give me a cadence around 70, I have a much easier and faster speed going uphill.

New Technology

I added some new technology to the Surly. My wife got me a new cyclocomputer, a Trek Incite for Christmas. I like the Cateye Strada Wireless, but really wanted some additional features like cadence, temperature, and larger display. The Cateye was great during the day, but difficult to read at night. The Incite does altitude - but it's not accurate at all, plus it'll do percent grade, and has a backlight. I didn't use percent grade during this brevet, but I'll check that functionality out. Once I got the roll out test done and figured out a new wheel size, it's pretty accurate. Over the 121.8 mile route, the Incite was just .28 miles short. Not too bad for mechanical distance measurements.

I've replaced my old LED Cygolite 100 with a new Shimano DH-3N70 generator hub powering a Busch & Müller Lumotec IQ CYO R. It's a fantastic combination. I can tell a slight difference between the stock Surly front wheel, and Salsa rim with the generator. I can't tell if the light is on or off when riding. Huge difference in lighting, I have way more confidence in riding downhill in the dark.

The aforementioned fenders. I bought a pair of Planet Bike Cascadia Hybrids. I've had the chance to use them during two smallish rains we had a few weeks ago. I have to ride past a quarry on my way to work which means even the slightest rain turns the bike lanes near there into a muddy slush that just coats everything. Having fenders on really keeps things clean.

Thanks!

Much thanks to our new RBA – Dennis, and his fine crew at all the controls. Great job, you all make it look easy! It was a great day, and a well organized brevet.

Next up is the Dudley's 300K brevet on February 6th – you riding??

Rollers to Bonsall 200K - The Rehydration Ride

2009-07-21T18:44:00.000-07:00

Arriving at the start around 6:30 AM on Sat July 18th and there were plenty of people getting prepared for our departure. Our newly fearless RBA, Dennis, gave us some last minute instructions, and off we went!

Riding our way through Mission Bay. Not much traffic, just getting settled in.

We made our way through Pacific Beach, then up through La Jolla and on our way to Miramar.

Typical Mira Mesa traffic

Entering Rancho Penasquitos

The budding metropolis of Olivenhein
Encinitas - it's starting to get warm out.

Carlsbad - getting warmer!!

On the way to Control #3 at mile 44.6, I got royally dropped on a climb to the Aspiration Learning Center. The guy was riding a beach cruiser, with a bucket of golf balls, and a few drivers in his rack. I wasn't simply passed on a hill, I was totally dropped - much like Alberto Contador can do to Mark Cavendish on a climb! Once he goes clear, I hear this high pitched whine! Oh, it's an electric assist bike!! Whew...

Cal State San Marcos.

The temps are starting to climb! I'm dumping as much water over my head and back as I'm drinking. It's easily approaching triple digits. For once, I feel really strong. In my previous rides, riding in the heat hasn't been good to me. Leaving Control #4 up over Jesmond Dene, it's extremely hot on the Dene climb. It's easily triple digits, it feels like I'm riding in an oven. I stay hydrated and dump some water over my head. Luckily, there's a slight headwind to help keep me cool.

Old Highway 395, alongside the 15 heading into Murietta Hot Springs

Taking a left off the 395 to head towards Bonsall.

I stopped under the 15 freeway bridge to chat with a couple of riders. They told me the temp on their bike computers was 106! I knew it was hot, but oh my!

Almost there!

Once again, I didn't get any photos of a Control. I'll have to remember next time. I'm thinking it was the heat and the fact that wearing a helmet is really just a grade or two below of just riding with a styrofoam cooler on my head.

Leaving Control #5 - very slow moving traffic on the 76.

Simulating what my vision looks like after riding in 106 temps!

San Luis Rey bike path. Plenty of headwinds to contend with, but it's way cooler.

Riding with Mike.

San Luis Rey River

5 freeway and beach traffic.

Leaving the bike path and riding past Oceanside Pier. Must be a 20 degree temperature drop.

After all day feeling like a hamburger under a heat lamp, the beach feels fantastic.
Leaving Oceanside, I rode through the coast towns of Leucadia, Encinitas, Solana Beach and Del Mar. Probably not in that exact order! :)

Torrey Pines hill. The last hill of any significance on this brevet.

Torrey Pines didn't seem so bad this time. I'm pretty much toast by now, just doing whatever it takes to keep turning the pedals. I'll have to ride through La Jolla, then back through Pacific Beach.

Almost done! About 5 miles left.

Once again, I didn't take a photo of the final control! I'm blaming it on the heat! I'm done, that's for sure. I don't feel totally hammered like I have in the past and I think I have the reason why.

Post Ride Analysis

I'm an IT Professional, I have to analyze, it's part of my genetic code! :) When I first started riding brevets summer 2008, I used a rack and trunk bag to carry stuff I thought I needed. After a couple of DNFs, I had a couple of people tell me I was carrying too much stuff. I wore a camelbak too, great for hiking the Grand Canyon, not so good on a bike. Here's the analysis of my previous total riding weight:

Previous Config
Surly: 29 pounds
Rack/Trunk/Fuel: 5 pounds
CamelBak: 8 pounds (100 oz + weight of backpack)
2 waterbottles: ~2 pounds.
Rider: 203 pounds
Total weight: 247 pounds going down the road!

New Config
Surly: 29 pounds
2 waterbottles: ~2 pounds
Rider: 196

Fuel: <1>

Total Weight: 228 pounds.

So, 19 pounds less! I lost another bike worth of weight, or to put it into perspective, I stopped riding a tandem alone! I think the main reason why the heat didn't bother me as much is I bought a rusa.org jersey. It's very thin compared to the jersey I used to wear and made a huge difference. Cycling has been a surpise for me body weight wise. Since I started commuting daily to work, 28 miles per day, I've gained 17 pounds since I used to run marathons. After the DNF on both the 400K and Loop 1 on the 1000K, I changed my diet to use fruits and veggies as my main source of carbs. I then heard about the Paleo Diet for Athletes, and gave that a read. Seems I've discovered that on my own. I does work to loose weight. I've not had any issues commuting daily and doing a brevet. So, time will tell to see how much weight a can drop. I do have a record of weighing 179 a few years ago. I'd flip if I could reach that once again. I also changed my ride day fueling too. I've read all about Hammer Nutritionals and their guide to fueling, but I must say, I've not had great results by following their directions. I like their gels and Heed, but Perpetuem eventually leaves me nauseaus. I had Perp with me, but by the time I got to Swami's I tossed what I had in the trash. I drank water for the rest of the ride. My pre-ride meal consisted of a regular egg muffin sandwich and and iced coffee within 30 mins of departure. Talk about jet fuel, I rode without any issue for almost 5 hours. I grabbed a similar snack at 7-11 too. I should have refueled in Bonsall, but I didn't feel like I needed to. Skipping the fuel made itself very evident once I got back to La Jolla and was riding to the finish. This was by far my best ride to date! I chopped off nearly 3 hours of my previous 200K time. I know brevets are not races, but it's nice to ride a 200K briskly. Thanks for all the help from Mike B, John M, Kelly D, Robert L, and George V on how to improve my riding! Also thanks to Dennis for his first Brevet. Great job!

Up next in Aug, 300K. I might stretch that out and try to break 200 miles in a single ride.

Bike To Work Day 2009

2009-05-18T20:31:00.000-07:00

Just some photos of Bike to Work Day, 2009. This year went much better than last year. Long story short, last year, my work security badges fell out of my trunk bag, and I had to ride my route back home to try and find them. Luckily, I sure did. They were run over, one was all broken into pieces. Thankfully, none of that happened this year!

Being the overachiever, I made it Bike to Work Week instead! Logging 152 miles for the week that included not just commuting to work, but also making it to two of my oldest son's swim meets that were held on top of some fairly solid hills, into headwinds, AND upper 80 temps. Never a dull day on the bike, that's for sure!

I went to the first Pit Stop held at Grossmont Junior College in East San Diego County. For some reason, I forgot to take a photo while there. I arrived around 7 and the only one there, with 6 people signing the roster. Once done there, it was off to the Pit Stop in Mission Valley. A very nice downhill from the college down to Mission Valley. More traffic than I was expecting, but the ride was uneventful.

The Art Institute of California in Mission Valley Pit Stop is a gastrointestinal delight! By far the best food spread of the Pit Stops I made it to on Bike to Work Day. A good half dozen commuters were on hand refueling.

I left Mission Valley for Old Town San Diego Pit Stop held at the Caltrans building and sponsored by REI. REI still had some water bottles left and tire tools. So, I was early enough to get some cool schwag. Channel 10 News van was there too, but they were packing up. Oh well, I'll have to ride faster next year to get myself and the Surly on television.

That's it for Bike to Work Week/Day 2009! Until next year...

Grand Canyon 2009

2009-04-27T18:47:00.001-07:00

Yes, we finally made it to the Grand Canyon! Our goal, descend South Kaibab, cross the Colorado twice, then ascend Bright Angel Trail. How did it go?

It actually started out kinda rough for me. Herb and I arrived at the parking lot in front of the lodge and grabbed our gear. When I walked up the little driveway to the bus stop, I immediately sat down. My heart was pounding, I was dizzy and generally not feeling too good. I decided just to stick it out and see what happens. Could be the altitude....

Our course on the map.

You got it?

Here we are at the start taking pictures of each other taking pictures of each other, taking... Well, you get the idea.

This is at the top of South Kaibab Trail. It's roughly 6.9 miles and 4700' of elevation loss down to Phantom Ranch. The view from the trail head:

There are some directions to follow in case there's an encounter with a mule train:
Spectacular views looking south:

Plenty of warnings... We didn't listen...

Herb making his way down:

Most of of South Kaibab Trail looks like this:

We still have a ways to go:Still great views:

Colorado coming into view:

About halfway down:

This phone predates twisted pair! Emergency use only!!

Mule train!

Still great views:

Colorado getting bigger!

Black Bridge coming into view. We still have a ways to go to get there.

Very close to Black Bridge!

North view from Black Bridge:

Looking south from Black Bridge:

The Colorado was flowing pretty good.

We're at the bottom!

A flat easy hike to Phantom Ranch:

We've arrived! No fanfare, and I'm very surprised at how empty Phantom Ranch is. About a dozen or so people just hanging out, the cantina is empty. Herb and I hang out for about an hour. They make great lemonade, and only change $1 for a refill! That washed down some peanut M&Ms nicely. Herb has his patented peanut butter and banana sandwich with that awesome lemonade. We hung around for about an hour, then headed out.

Great shot of the American Flag with the Grand Canyon as a backdrop:

Taking a right:

Walking around the Ranger House, we saw a sneaky deer looking for lunch. Not afraid of us at all.

Silver Bridge comes into view:

Looking south from Silver Bridge:

Looking at both bridges from Bright Angel Trail:

Colorado is really flowing from the north:

Another way to see the Grand Canyon:

There were more than a few waterfalls on this trip.

You can see the force of this waterfall, look at the center of the photo. The water was flowing hard enough to create a mist.

We've started our ascent on the Bright Angel Trail. We just hiked the trail in the photo below. We've only covered about 2 miles of the Bright Angel.

The Bright Angel looks mostly like this:

Another waterfall, the tallest one:

Our arrival at Indian Garden:

Indian Garden is about 4.6 miles down from the trail head. First stop on the ascent that has water, great place to rest. It's not going to get any easier. Some additional views:

That's about it for the views on Bright Angel. From here, it's a hard grind all the way to the top. It's best to break up this trail into pieces. From here, just concentrate on getting to the 3 Mile Resthouse. It's going to be a climb. Herb still smiling! Bright Angel continues deep into the foreground.

The thing about the Bright Angel Trail is the canyon walls:

Spectacular views looking back down at Indian Garden:

Yes, we hiked the trails you see in the above photos. I didn't get any photos of the 3 and 1.5 mile Resthouses. By this point, I'm getting a bit hammered. The trail really pitches up once we left 3 mile Resthouse. We really start to see some carnage on the trail. We can't tell who's hiked up from Phantom Ranch, or who's just hiked down from the trailhead. Some folks are really bad, we hope they make it. Herb and I push on. This is the first time I've used hiking poles, and they really make it easier to climb. The motion is much like cross country skiing, get in a rhythm, push off with arms opposite legs and up you go! Once leaving 1.5 mile Resthouse, it's only - wait for it - 1.5 miles to the top! It's still a VERY TOUGH 1.5 miles. With about a mile to go, we can finally see the top, the building with KOLB Radio:

An attempt to get all of Bright Angel into a shot:

That little green squiggle in the middle of the photo is Indian Garden. Bright Angel is more visible in the lower right corner. Awesome view near the top of Bright Angel:

After five and a half hours of hiking uphill, we've reached the top!

Getting to the car proved a challenge. Herb demonstrates the reverse Grand Canyon shuffle:

I never thought a 95 Camry would look soooo good!

So, this brings us to a close for Grand Canyon 2009! The only negative with this trip was the severe wind. At times, I needed to lean 30 degrees into the wind so I didn't get blown over! It really whipped up the dust in the canyon.

The photos above are not all the photos I took during this trip. You can see all the photos here.

"Hammering" Hemet 400K

2009-03-01T19:31:00.000-08:00

This brevet was the best 200K I've ridden so far! What?? The Title of the post is "Hammering" Hemet 400K. That means I DNF'd this brevet. More towards the end of the post.

A hardy group of randonneurs and randonneuses showed up for the event. We're all gathered at the start in La Costa, a small somewhat coastal suburb just north of San Diego.

Our nearly fearless RBA Mike - in the red/white/blue jacket - along with Greg - the tall guy right behind Mike, gives us some preride advice.

This is Nick, we partnered for the ride and is a plank owner of the 100 Watt Club.

Promptly at 7 AM PST, we're off!

Brief look at the San Dieguito Reservoir...

Our initial start of the 400 was a loop taking us toward the Pacific Ocean heading north. One of my favorite places to run and ride.

Cruising into Cardiff By The Sea. Nick had his 200 watt hammer out and it was down!

Pacific Coast Higway, or Historic 101. It's a great route to walk, run, bike and drive.

Spent many years buying my running shoes and just plain hanging out at Movin Shoes.

Making our way through Encinitas...

This building will look very familiar to my in-laws...

Oceanside Pier.

Making our way towards Fallbrook.

Nick still has his 200 watt hammer out! I didn't want to seem rude by not taking my turn at the front, but it was all I could do to stay with Nick. For the better part of 30 minutes, I was registering 20 MPH on the Surly. Normally going that fast on my bike is tough to do. The sweet spot for the Surly is about 17 MPH. Anything faster than than really takes a larger effort. We're riding through downtown Fallbrook.

This sign is at the top of the first climb on De Luz Rd. I work for Harris Corporation, so I thought a photo was warranted. De Luz Rd was a decent climb, a warm up for what was to come later in the day.

Nick informed me we had a bunch of small roller coaster type hills on the descent from the top of De Luz. He was correct. Being one of the larger riders on a heavy bike, I rode like mad on the downhills and used my massive amount of momentum due to my mass and used that kinetic energy to help me over the hills. That worked very well! Score one for the big guy! Thanks for the tip Nick!

Promptly at the bottom of De Luz Rd, we make a right turn onto De Luz Murietta Rd. As soon as I made the turn and started to down shift for a hill, I dropped my chain. Not sure how that happened, but I hopped off and fixed it. I use a dry lube on my chain so it was nice not to get a bunch of chain lube on my fingers. I snapped a photo of Nick flying around the corner, with absolutely no regard to personal safety!

There are a few water crossings on de Luz Murietta Rd. It was recommended we dismount and walk our bikes across the water. Well, I kinda forgot that and just rode through all of them! It wasn't so bad, the water was less than an inch deep and barely flowing. Not too much icky green stuff on the concrete either. We continue riding up our second climb of the day and it went very well for me. During the 300K I heard of other riders finding a rhythm when riding uphill. I'm not sure if pedalling madly for 30 seconds then coasting 10 seconds counts as a "rhythm", but that's how I would ride uphill. This time, I played with my gearing to find one where I could spin continuously and an even cadence. Boy, was that so much easier! I'm still rather new to this cycling stuff, I still have a lot to learn.

Once at the top of De Luz Murietta Rd, we turn on Rancho California Rd. It's our 3rd climb of the day and it's no slouch either. It's much warmer out and this hill is fully exposed, no shade. Same technique as De Luz Murietta, I just find a gear to keep spinning the cranks. Part way up, I stop for this photo. It's pretty warm, I'd say up in the mid eighties, and it's funny to see snow at the higher elevations.

Cresting the first part of the climb up Rancho California Rd, there's a small descent then yet another uphill.

At the summit, very nice view of the Temecula valley, snow in the mountains and warm, dry temps in the valley.

This is Antelope Road that runs alongside the 215 in Riverside County. I've driven past this sign numerous times in nearly 17 years of marriage. My wife's family lives in Las Vegas...

The ride to Hemet was mostly uneventful. After leaving the Temecula control at mile 77.5, I went through a bout of nausea and generally not feeling all that great. I know I've overfueled combined with the warmer temps, it's too much for my system. I know what to do. I take a few antacids and just drink plain water. The road between Temecula and Hemet is very flat, so I pick a good gear to pedal easy. About an hour later, I start feeling much better and pick up the pace arriving in Hemet. Here's a video taken by no other than the author of Ravages Of Aging blog, Herb Kimpel.

Herb and his lovely wife Sue drove up to meet me in Hemet. I've known Herb and Sue for over 20 years and Herb is the Godfather to our oldest son. Great shirt Herb! We'll be conquering the Grand Canyon again on 04/26.

I spent about 40 minutes in Hemet getting into my drop bag for more fuel and warm riding clothes for the long evening ahead. This is my first real break all day. I've been riding about 9.5 hours with minimal breaks. I drink up, Herb bought me a tasty turkey wrap from the market. I hit the facilities and get cleaned up ready to ride. The bad news is, Nick had to drop just prior to Hemet due to bad leg cramps. So, this meant riding the remainder of the brevet alone. I'm the last one to leave Hemet and there's some tough climbing still ahead. I bid Herb and Sue a goodbye, they take my drop bag with them. Thanks!

Like my other brevets, when the sun goes down, the camera goes away. The ride towards Sage Road is uneventful and the Surly starts to point uphill. The weather is still very nice out so I've not dressed in my cold weather gear. The sun quickly sets and I stop to put on my helmet headlamp. There's plenty of cars and trucks on Sage Road. I come around a corner into a wide swath of deep sand. The Surly starts to slide out from under me, but I keep pedaling, up out of the saddle and keep it upright. After my fall on the 300K, which took 3 weeks for my shoulder to become pain free, I don't want to go down again.

Sage Road is the longest climb so far during this brevet. It's a relentless grade, with sharp turns. I keep having very close calls with cars and trucks, some trucks have wide towing mirrors and trailers. I get buzzed 3 times and there's no where to go. Some spots on Sage Road have almost zero shoulder, with ditches, ravines or if there's a shoulder, it's covered in sand.

I make it to the fire station and pull over to get my cold weather clothes on. Temperatures are starting to drop. The fire station has an outdoor speaker and I'm listening to the dispatcher announce car accidents. I'm done getting dressed and hit the road once again.

I'm about 2 miles from Wilson Valley Road and another truck/trailer combo starts to pass me. It's on older Ford diesel with those wide, steel tripod mirrors sticking waaay out. So far out I feel the breeze going by my left ear. There's no shoulder, nothing but a drainage ditch to my right. The kind of drainage ditch that's lined with big, pointy rocks. I do my best to hug the line as the trailer goes by me. As the tires of the trailer pass, I'm over just a tad too far and I feel my back wheel slip a few inches off the pavement. Somehow, I manage to keep the Surly upright, keep pedaling, and get the back tire up on the road. The truck goes by me and I pedal out into the lane. I get off the bike with my nerves totally shot - I've had enough. There's no cell service where I'm at, I'm alone, there's too much traffic and a narrow road with some sharp blind corners. I walk for a couple of minutes then get back on. I told myself, if I see the support vehicle, I'm done. About 10 minutes later, I see a vehicle going in the opposite direction and it had a distinctive silouette. Sure enough, the same vehicle passes me going uphill and I see a bike in the back and familiar license plates. It pulls over. It's our RBA! Good timing too, as I'm done. I still feel great actually and my riding has been the best I've done so far. I'm at 127.2 miles, so it's a great 200K, I'm about 200 yards short of turning on Wilson Valley Road.

We load my the Surly up and I jump in. I'm not disappointed that I'm going to DNF, it was still a great ride for this newbie randonneur. Mike informs me it's going to be some time before he can take me back to the start. Not a problem, I'll help support the riders that are ahead of me. We drive for about 20 mins and catch up to a pair of riders, one on a recumbant. It takes us another 45 minutes at 50 MPH to catch a group of riders. I'm totally amazed at how fast they are going! I think there was 5 or 6 in the group, and it was very easy to see them on the road. With all of them in a group, they look much larger than a car, they are easily spotted.

We pass them and continue on. We catch up to another solo rider and he's also flying along. It's amazing to watch.

Mike and I turn around and find a wide pull out on the 79. We set up a stove to make some hot chocolate, tea or noodles. The temperature is on the cool side, but not as cold as we were originally expecting. Mike and I hang out, hot water at the ready and the solo rider we passed stopped for some water. He sounds great and moves on. The larger group of riders are flying as we've parked on a downhill. They go right on by, thanking us for the offer. Mike and I decide to have some noodles and hot chocolate so as to not waist the hot water. We break up our roadside camp and drive on into Santa Ysabel. We make right onto 78 south heading towards Romona, then a left onto Old Julian Highway. Off in the distance we see a few riders on the side of the road. It looks like they are fixing a flat, but they are just doing a clothing change and taking a hit of Redbull. No problems, Mike and I drive on. This group splits and there are a few riders up the road. We pass them and head into Ramona. It's late and we grab some food at McDonalds.

We had down Highland Valley Rd and see another rider up the road. After checking with him if he needs anything, we pass and move on. Hopping on the 15 south, Mike takes me back to the start.

DNFs are normally a big bummer, but I'm not thinking this one is. I've learned a bunch more on how to ride. My time for the first 200K for this brevet is 90 minutes faster than the first brevet and it had 2 more climbs. I've learned I pack way too much fuel. I've used the Hammer Nutrional's Guide to Success. The one thing I've learned is I don't fit their profile for my weight. I seem to tolerate about half the amount of calories per hour than what they recommend. We're all an experiment of one.

The other thing is weight. The Surly is a heavy bike compared to what others ride. With an empty trunk bag, equipped with lights and cyclo computer, it weighs in at 37 pounds. Thing is, I bought this bike for daily commuting first, randonneuring second and I have no thoughts of getting a different bike. So, what will I do? First thing is, carry less stuff. On all my brevets this year, I've carried stuff I've not used. Too much fuel mainly. I'm going to look into a lighter trunk bag too. That could save a few pounds right there. Mike commented on riding a heavier bike, but what about the rider?

The odd thing is, I've gained 12 pounds since I quit training for marathons and started bike commuting. The really odd thing is I burn over twice the amount of calories going to and from work per day than I could ever burn running, with the exception of running 20 milers. I think I've figured out why this is happening and I've changed my diet to try to loose 10 pounds. It'll get me near my running weight, but 10 pounds is 10 pounds. Instead of getting a new 27 pound bike, how about a lighter rider? If my hunch is correct, I'll blog when I reach 10 pounds lost and explain what I did.

Thanks to Mike, Greg and the gentleman that was at the Hemet control for helping support this brevet. Much thanks too to Herb and Sue for coming out to Hemet, taking my stuff back home, and Herb's offer to come out and pick me up when I decided to DNF.

With this DNF, I won't be attempting to ride the 600K on 04/04. I think for this newbie randonneur, the best thing I can concentrate on is being able to ride a strong 200K. Once that base is accomplished, then move on to the longer brevets. I've only cycled for a year now, still plenty of training and learning to do!

-- Thanks for reading.

Versus/Cox Amgen Tour of California Cutoffs?

2009-02-23T06:48:00.000-08:00

Did you notice any problems DVRing the AToC on Cox last week? From about stage 5 onward, anytime I DVRed the race, usually the afternoon 2 hour rebroadcasts, the broadcast ended about 15 mins before the actual finish of the stage. I tried manually extending the stop time, but that didn't help either. The DVR would promptly end right at 2 hours, with the peleton in full charge to the finish. The first few stages that were broadcasted were just fine.

Not sure what the problem was, but it was very annoying. Oh, hopefully Cox Communication will deliver Versus in HD soon! Watching AToC in 480p is getting painful.

All-in-all, it was a fantastic race, especially Mt Palomar. Next year, I'll be out on the road to watch - if the Amgen management staff will use Palomar for 2010.

Dudley's 300K or the "No Pain, No Elevation Gain 300K"

2009-02-01T17:24:00.000-08:00

OnBike Productions along with Asphalt Technologies is proud to present the Dudley's 300K - AKA No Pain, No Elevation Gain 300K.

It was a great day for a 300K in the San Diego area. The start was slightly cool, humidity on the dry side but all in all a great day to be on the bike for an extended period of time! The Surly was all decked out ready for the ride.

A great group of riders assembled for this 176 mile ride.

Promptly at 7, with limited fanfare, our nearly fearless RBA said, "we're off"!

We hit the streets of Chula Vista in style.
Great views, pretty much right from the start.

Watching the sun rise from a Surly. It's a beautiful thing.

Making our way to the 94.

Then on it.

Taking the right onto Honey Springs.

Quickly the climbing starts with the sun starting to blaze.

Hitting Deerhorn Valley soon enough. Didn't see any deer.

Getting to Dehesa was uneventful, but that quickly changed.

Somewhere along Willow Glen Rd during a smallish uphill, I could hear that all too familiar grunting and the quick tipity-tap of claws on asphalt. Sure enough, I look behind me, and Benji is in full chase! I figure, just how fast can Benji go anyway? So I upshift, and stand up for the sprint. Well, little Benji made it about halfway up my back wheel with that look of determination to grab my left ankle. I upshift again to continue pouring on the speed. I put some distance on my Hollywood hound, but the snorting and tapping of claws get even faster! That pooch had another gear! Well, so did I. I reach down to slap my bar-end shifter into the next highest gear. I fly up over the summit and start a small descent. I can hear the snorting and claws on asphalt diminishing. Score one for the Surly!

A nice descent into Alpine.

After Alpine, I'm making my way to the first control at El Monte Park. When riding a brevet, you get to see the strangest things.

Great views riding into control.

Arriving at El Monte Park, mile 55.1.

While at control #1, I spend my time getting water. For this ride, I'm experimenting with using a CamelBack for water only and use my bottles on the bike for fuel. I'm using Hammer Nutritionals HEED and Perpetuem. I was very happy and surprised that the CamelBack didn't cause additional strain on my back and shoulders. Because I had 100 ounces of water on my back, it was very easy to stay hydrated. Using the CamelBack will become part of my brevet equipment.

Leaving control #1, we ride through Lakeside heading towards the second climb of the day. By this point, it's rather warm out, I'd say upper 80's. Turning right on State Route 67, we start a significant climb towards Ramona.

Keep going up....

More...

Ditto.

Is that the summit?

No, keep pedaling!

And pedaling...

I've got to be careful and watch my uphill speed.

Still pedaling...

The summit appears!

Finally, arrival in Ramona.

Winding my way through Ramona, there is more climbing to do before reaching the 78. It's hot, a tad miserable but I push on. I reach the 78 in due time.

I'm at mile 90.3. There's still some more climbing to do before reaching control #2 at Dudley's Bakery.

Finally, after a long afternoon in the saddle which was mostly pointed uphill, I see the control off in the distance.

My arrival happened soon enough with the nice downhill. Dudley's Bakery is a cornucopia of carbohydrates!

A control can be run out of a vehicle too. Tina makes some of the best soup for a brevet. Tom was there too somewhere helping riders.

A couple of riders enjoying the control.

I spend about 40 minutes at this control getting water and refilling my bottles. I thoroughly enjoyed Tina's soup and homemade bread. Thanks Tina and Tom for a great control.

It's around 4:45 PM and I'm leaving a little later than I'd like. I wanted to descend the nearly 50 miles back to Lakeside with some sunlight. It's a lot of downhill, I can go faster with sunlight than I can go with all my lights on.

At this point of the ride, I stow the camera. I only have about an hour of daylight left and trying to take pictures in the dark would be too dangerous. Plus having the flash go off would really ruin my night vision, or the night vision of other riders. I grab all my cold weather riding gear and stow it in my trunk bag. I bid farewell to the control hosts and start my ride back to the finish.

Just because I can take anymore photos, doesn't mean it's going to be a boring ride!

I start the downhill back to Ramona riding down the same route I rode up. I'm pushing the Surly for speed. If you've ever ridden a Surly and pushed for speed, you know Surly's aren't really known for their speed. I did a downhill speed test on a long straight downhill near where I live, and 42 MPH was it. That's down in the drops and with no gears left, nothing but gravity.

I push the Surly through turns the best I can. What's really cool about this bike is I pick a line and just go with it. If there's a bump in the road, the Surly just floats right over it. Nothing skittish happens with the bike. I know I've run over a bump, but that's about it. I feel the frame flex some, but that's it.

It's dark before I know it, and I meet up with another rider, Dennis. We decide to stick together for the remainder of the ride, and he tells me he's trying to catch Nick up ahead of us. I met Nick at the start of the ride, but we got seperated around mile 40.

Dennis and I ride through Ramona together and we see Nick up ahead. We pull over and Nick's changing into his cold weather gear at the corner of 67 and Scripps Poway Parkway. There seems to be a unanimous decision that I lead the group down the 67 to Lakeside because I have the most lights. I told them both I'm not a fast descender in the dark, and I kept my word. I'm on the brakes most of they way down the hill to Lakeside. This side of the 67 is a mess, lots of debris on the sholder and it's narrow. We make it to the bottom, Dennis and myself decide to put on our cold weather gear too.

Another rider, Mike, catches up with us and we all stay together through Lakeside. We make the left turn onto Alpine Blvd to ride uphill once again to control #3 at Carl's Jr on Tavern Rd in Alpine. On the way up to Carl's I get passed by George and Brandy on their tandom. They had an excessive day on the bike with one mechanical after another.

We finally get to Carl's and there's Mike, George, Brandy and Dennis all chowing down. I'm at a crossroads. I've read it's best not to have solid foods on rides, but I've had about all I can handle of gels and Perpetuem. They're great products, but after 14 hours on the bike, I'm totally burned out on what I've been fueling with. So, at great gastronomical risk, I order a chicken club sandwich. I'm not a big Carl's fan, but oh this was heaven on a bun. I was very happy and suprised I didn't have any issues. Probably because I had a descent with low intesity to let things digest, plus it was cold out.

We hit the bottom of Japatul Rd and start uphill once again towards Lyons Valley Rd. Up and up we go. It's very dark out, almost midnight with clear skies and luckily, very few cars. Mike and Dennis go up the road while Nick and I stick together. About halfway up, we start taking short breaks every mile or so. During one of these breaks on a steep part of the road I have my first incident with the Surly. Nick clips in and rides up the road about 50 feet, and I try to do the same thing. I have the Surly in the lowest possible gear. When I try to take off, I only move about 2' forward, then veer out into the road, all the while trying to get my left foot clipped in. Well, I can't seem to do that, I can't find the handle and I realize I'm going down as the bike leans towards the right. Sure enough, I'm falling over to my right and can't get that foot out of the pedal. Realizing this, I rotate my shoulder so I'll land on the meaty part of my back. A few colorful metaphors later, I'm layed out over the double yellow line staring up at the sky. Nick hears me, stops and looks back down the road. He asks me if I'm ok, which I am, and I tell him I'm just taking a break looking at the pretty stars. Then it hits me, I'm right in the middle of the road and one of these vehicles could be driving up right now!

Nearly 6000 upright miles on the Surly and I dump it on a brevet. I get up and realize my right elbow is bleeding some inside my shirt. Nothing crazy, and nothing else feels broken. I get back on the bike and realize the saddle has been knocked out of whack. I thought the seatpost was just twisted, but no, the rails on the saddle are bent! Upon closer inspection, I have a slight tear on my saddle too. So, without further ado, I pull out my multi-tool and realign the saddle, get back on and go. I check I can get switch through all the gears, brakes are working, trunk bag is secure and decide it's safe to ride to the finish.

Nick and I stop once again, but this time he wants to push on by trying to walk the bikes uphill. I can't walk very well in my shoes, so I try to get back on the bike. I still can't get my left foot to clip in. I double check the pedal and my cleat and all looks fine. I think about my dilemma on how to get back on the bike on steep roads, then it hits me. While walking, I spin the cranks and upshift a few gears. I get back on and this time when I mash down with my right foot, the Surly jumps up the road about 10 feet, giving me enough time to clip my left foot in! Ah, the epiphinies one gets after 150 miles of riding!

Nick and I mount our steeds and start riding once again. After a few minutes we thought we saw Dennis on the side of the road, but it was Mike. His derailleur hanger broke! This is the definition of sucks. Only 20 miles left on the ride with a bike that can't be repaired. Next time Mike!

Nick and I get real close to the summit and in the distance we see Dennis' rear lights flashing. I turn my headlamp to spot and light him up. We're there at the top and this means we really have nothing but downhill to the finish!

We start our descent and quite honestly, it's a blur. My right shoulder and elbow is sore, the cold is affecting my hands through my long gloves. It's difficult to stay on the brakes on the descent. My fronts continuously squeal as picking up speed happens very quickly. Before I know it, Nick and I are at the bottom of the hill, turning left on the 94. At the corner of Otay Lakes Rd we see Dennis' lights once again. We ride together back to the finish. It's the coldest it's ever been during the evening hours. 9 miles later, we're stopped at the red light right near the finish. Dennis tells us he's been riding with only one eye because one of his contacts fogged over! It's 1:55 AM according to the clock on the bank. The three of us discuss we have another hour before the final control officially closes. We decide to finish without doing any bonus miles. It's almost 2 AM, we're all cold, tired, very hungry and ready to call it a day.

I'd like to thank all the support folks to helped make this brevet enjoyable. Thanks to Mike and his band for designing such a challenging route. Thanks to Dennis for waiting on us 100 Watt Club riders, and to Nick for teaming up and pushing on to the finish.

My Response to the 62 Minute Jog

2009-01-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

My first video and direct response to Ravages of Aging 62 Min Jog

I know, too much talking, not enough scenery. I actually videoed the entire run, about 45 mins worth and nearly 750MB AVI file. I edited with Avidmux on Ubuntu Hardy Heron.... YouTube only allows a max filesize of 100MB or 6 mins. Enjoy!