Tues Sept 22

Breakfast 350 - scrambled eggs with a little parmesan, small smoothie.
2 fricking cokes - 240 (sorry Dan but it's less than 2 plus a kerns).
Lunch - 500 - "Gourmet vegetarian Mac and Cheese" from the nVidia cafe. Bringing lunch is going to be a must even if just for measurement's sake. It wasn't very cheesy at least.
Snack - 2 bananas. 200.
Dinner - 700 Mushroom Spinach Enchiladas
Beer 210 (Sierra Nevada Torpedo.

That's 2200. I didn't ride today. Of course, that's a sort of wack statement given that "not riding" means I just rode to and from the train stations to home and work, which actually ends up being ~20 miles. So on the whole, I was in a decent deficit for the day, probably more than 500 calories.

This exposed a little problem Weds AM. While I may want X amount of calories per day which is basically BMR + Exercise Cals - 500. But the timing is also important. Specifically it might be reasonable to eat the "Exercise Cals" a day ahead of time. This can be a problem if external factors torpedo your century ride after you've gone to Olive Garden's all you can eat Pasta.

Not "pre-eating" those calories when y ou do need them is a bigger problem. I got up, had a bowl of cereal, and went to the Google Ride. I expected a bit of dutch tempo, instead it was a fast tempo with several crazy surges on Tunnel, at SFO, Coyote Point, etc... Underfed, I was struggling with the surges, but by Palo Alto I was in a serious problem. I limped to Sunnyvale and stopped for food. The workout was probably less effective than it could have been and was definitely less fun with my stomach trying to eat itself.

Monday Sept 21

I'm going to try and shame myself a bit by posting training diary info.

My BMR is 2050. The goal is to go -500 Cals a day to shoot for -1 lb per week.

Mon - Sept 21. 90 min ride with Google people from Millbrae to PA. 1000 Cals.

Breakfast - Smoothie with Muesli. 260 Cal (60 Yogurt, 100 banana, 100 Muesli)
Kerns Juice - 210 Cal (!)
Lunch 2 burritos - 680 cal - 170x2 Tortillas(!), 100 Black beans, 100 Cheddar. 140 Coke.
Afternoon Coke 140 cal - I am weak and I need to bring fruit to snack on - 140.
Dinner 1/2 Boboli Pizza 825 - 425 crust, 300 Mozzarella, 100 sauce/veggies
Lemonade - 100
2215 Calories. Probably about right, It will be interesting, when I did this before I controlled everything very strictly, now I come home and my wife says "here's dinner", who knows if she dumped 1/2 cup of olive oil on the pizza. But we'll try.

I'm weighing in at 210. I need to get to 190 to hit 20 minutes probably. 210 isn't great but after 7 months of fatherhood and just getting off of 2 weeks on the road with no exercise, I'll take it.

Not exactly at sub 20 OLH but a nice ride nonetheless...

From sf2g mailing list...

From: Scott Crosby
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 12:47:37 -0700
Subject: wed. 9/2 SRLB bayway 07:00 RRR "drop to 4" format
hello favorable conditions!

- 70-81F
- 13mph wind out of WNW, aka perfect tailwind


"drop to 4" TTT format, 22-28mph, no attacks/sprints, smooth
pacelines/transitions, short pulls, max sustainable speed of
4th-fastest rider (whomever that may be).


while not a record attempt per se, the conditions should be right.
however, personally I am fat, out of shape, and lacking anything like
vim or vigor, so I will likely be dropped like a canada goose turd.


depart 7am sharp, arrive in time for breakfast.


-sc

7 AM! Now yer talking. Got the dog walked, helped feed the kid, the bike set up and off we go.

From: Scott Crosby
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2009 10:55:31 -0700
Subject: Re: wed. 9/2 SRLB bayway 07:00 RRR "drop to 4" format

au contraire monsieur Alténdeürf.


yes the pickin's did look slim at Ritual about 6:55 as M. Gaiman,
Eric, Hobinator, and yours truly sat slurping our macchiatos in grim
silence. but then, as if by magic carpet, the mighty septuagenerian
One-Kit Murph appeared as a green, threadbare apparition, and
announced his readiness to attack the much-feared Bayway Record. at
7:08, the TTT commenced.


it was then noted that all bikes present were raw titanium, aluminum,
or carbon, and paint was decreed bourgeois.


so there were 5, so one was in danger of eventual dropitude, but the
miracles did not cease, and we were immediately joined on valencia by
the powerful Mark and his associate Baris, who rode a blue(!) Fuji.
now up to 3 could be dropped in the name of Speed.


it was then agreed that discipline and short, acceleration-free pulls
in the 24-26mph range would be observed. ahh, it was a thing of
beauty. 7 riders in egoless paceline rotation, all pulls under 2
minutes almost without exception. only once did Mark's excessive
power and iron legs get the better of him, and he had to be reminded
that his teammates could not sustain 28mph for long.


arriving at Sun, Adam the Pole-Slayer was encountered, and his head
appeared unharmed. just afterward, Steve and Dan were subsumed, and
Steve on his sexy, gleaming white BMC cyclocross rig joined the team
for a couple-mile chat.


the group of 7 nearly arrived intact, but a looming black Escalade on
University shaved the hapless Eric off the back like a whisker, while
simultaneously Hobe's pedal spring gave up the ghost and he was forced
to limp home unclipped on one side.


Mark then reminded us this was no laughing matter, and drilled it on
Bayshore, maintaining a 26+ mph average for the entire length, with
brief assistance by the team. It was then that the average crept over
the golden average of 21.7mph, and all that remained was a strong
finish to Rengstorff.


final stats:


- 7 riders started, 4 finished in the lead group
- 1:56:51 elapsed rolling time (-27 seconds vs. previous record)
- 42.52 miles
- 21.8mph rolling avg speed


and despite having only one functioning pedal from EPA, Hobe still
broke 2 hours, with a 1:59 something. nice.


-sc


ps - pics are foggy due to completely sweat-soaked jersey obscuring
iphone camera lens. backback is also fully sweated-thru, a first.

Words fail...

I sorted myself out this AM and caught a Caltrain to RWC, climbed Jefferson fortissimo, but it was 8:50 AM and I was pretty sure that it was too late to
catch the Googlers coming down the Skyline Route. I decided to go backwards as
far as Edgewood to see if I could find them.

Happily they came cruising along, and I rode with the bunch to Foothill, then
with Xton to Homestead and Sunnyvale/Saratoga.

Checking the "listserv" - which is ancient mariners speak for "Google Group" - I saw this had been "dropped" on me by the young lady being escorted down the peninsula by the hard men of the peleton...

OK, that was about the most humiliating experience ever.

Though I appreciate your chivalrously taking shifts babysitting me as
I rode 17.3 miles behond you.


Thank god I was faster than the alto velo dude, but then he is
probably like 70 years old and 300 pounds, so not a big
accomplishment. Thankfully, after a little oatmeal, my legs came back
and I was able to race all the riders on my path on the way back to
school, leaving me with one nano micro mini half of a shard of ego.


I think I'll hit the pool and see if I can overtake some old ladies to
cheer myself up.


F

Perhaps I will go out and have a sixer of Sierra the night before the next ride she decides to attend. My buddy Troy Evans can attest to what I can "drop" on anyone who tries to draft my wheel after a night of carousing. Fragrant it is not!

Followup from Scott Crosby

you better be, as I am generally the only one allowed to make fun of
murph, particularly involving his grim refusal to rock anything other
than a pre-war webcor/altovelo kit, which is a mite threadbare, if you
must know.

Guilty as charged, I did wear my older pair of shorts which are clearly no
longer passing the "Spandex lightbulb translucency test" without a pair of
khaki shorts over them. Into the dustbin they go.

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

From: Daniel Hobe
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 13:14:25 -0700
Local: Wed, Aug 5 2009 1:14 pm
Subject: 8/6 Bayway 7am RRR

Daniel Hobe First ride after messing my hip up so will probably be pretty chill. -

From: Scott Crosby
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 17:58:40 -0700
Local: Wed, Aug 5 2009 5:58 pm
Subject: Re: 8/6 Bayway 7am RRR

Scott Crosby i'm in for 07:00 @ philosophical pace.

Left Ritual at about 7:10 AM. Usually we leave around 6:40 and the goal is to make breakfast at Google - closes at 9:30 AM. On a good day, the ride rolls in around 9:15. On a very fast day, 9 AM. Around Redwood City, already setting a blistering pace it became apparent we might be able to make the magical 9:30 AM cutoff and the pace amped up. We rolled through the googleplex right at 9:30, and they headed off to breakfast and I headed off to limp the remaining 8 miles to nVidia.

Philosophical pace - it's just some people have different philosophies than others. Somehow "Bike to Work" has turned into the 6:30 AM version of the Noon Ride.

Riding in Sonoma with Ammon

Ammon Skidmore came up to Healdsburg today and we went out for a spin up Sweetwater Springs, the climb that I had ridden the bottom mile or so earlier in the week.

After the ride he turned me onto Trail Guru which allows you to track your rides while riding with your iPhone. Very cool, links the pictures you take while you are riding to the map. Free app for the iPhone. He was able to upload the ride within seconds of us returning to the house.

Pictures and info from the ride are here courtesy of Ammon Skidmore.

Mill Creek Road, Healdsburg.

Last night I had the opportunity to do a short ride from our house on Limerick Lane. Not wanting to go too far, I rode through downtown Healdsburg and onto Westside Road and then turned right onto Mill Creek Road.

Mill Creek Road is a dead end to cars that goes several miles into the hills West of Healdsburg. I had been up a mile or two when we were looking for property, but never taken the opportunity to ride to the end on my bike. The Sonoma County Bike Coaltion map listed the summit at 1320 feet, so I figured it would be a perfect workout.

The hill starts steep, 7-8 percent grades for a mile or so, then settles into a rolling uphill with many intermediate descents. You quickly leave the grape fields and go along a stream surrounded by Redwood Trees. It reminds me a lot of going up Steven's Canyon Road in Cupertino.

There are many houses tucked in the trees - people who clearly value a bit of privacy by living up here, but I had no problems with the few cars that were driving up the road. In fact, several miles up a guy in a truck pulled up next to me just as I was heading up a steeper pitch and asked if I needed a ride.

I stopped and chatted with him a bit, asking where the finish was. He said "About a mile but the next bit is REALLY steep. The road ends at address 10,000, you are at 8700 now. Good luck!"

He wasn't kidding. This next part did not remind me of Steven's Canyon - it reminded me of Redwood Gulch. 15-18% grade for the better part of a mile. A real grunter, right outside my door! A great find!

I did take the requisite picture at the top.



I was going to stop on the way down and try to get a photo of the steep bit, but I came off of it with so much speed that I didn't want to stop. The descent is tricky, the road is narrow so you need to be careful lest there be a car around a blind corner. The steep section is very twisty so I basically rode the brakes the whole way. And the pavement is pretty chopped up. And of course, since there are intermediate descents on the way up, there are intermediate climbs on the way down.

Check it out sometime. And please be mindful of the residents, hold your pee until you get to the bottom and use the bathroom at Mill Creek Winery.