sub20olh

AFLR

2011-07-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

Had the pleasure today of getting out for the "Apple Friday Lunch Ride". Nice ride with 6 of us, Magdalena, Stonebrook, Elena. I should ride Elena NB more, a good place to work on your descents without going way up the mountain.

27k of climbing in July. Good stuff. This has been a rough couple of weeks on the home front with my wife working, but have snuck in some riding including a route around SF going up some steep hills (was defeated on Dalewood - I was in full on paperboy and a car came up from behind and I had to bail). My weight is steady at 193.

I really need to find a time to go ahead and try to do a fast OLH.

Calaveras, 7/20/11

2011-07-20T13:25:00.000-07:00

Went to Calaveras this AM with Jason Thorpe and Dan Steffan.

We rode a brisk pace, including the climb over Dublin Canyon as a prelude. As we approached the climb I debated how to deal with it. I decided I wasn't really feeling "super" so maybe I'd try to follow Jason's wheel and then see how it went.

Instead we got to Geary and Dan, who was in front, slowed just a fraction and off I went. I actually felt pretty decent so I just kept going.

Result - 11:36 for the listed climb of "Calaveras, South to Summit" 2.8 miles at 3.8 percent grade, a PR by 25 seconds. Good stuff. I felt slow on the rollers following but that was a PR as well. Now, I haven't been out there since February and the PR was in November, but a PR is a PR. And it was a good overall workout - 50 miles in 3 hours including a coffee stop, with 2400 feet of climb.

Chain Reaction Shop Ride, 7/7/11

2011-07-07T21:42:00.000-07:00

My wife has been out of town for 2 weeks so I didn't get a ton of riding in lately. The first week I managed a few rides down to SSF or Belmont at snail's pace, having had enough trouble getting my son to daycare that I missed all the rush hour Caltrains and had an hour to burn. The second week I did almost no riding other than my typical commute, sneaking in only a trip to Los Altos to pick up my AV kit and getting a quick spin through Rancho San Antonio and going up Mora Trail (steep!)

I did get some good riding in on a Sonoma weekend in between her two weeks, doing 2 rides with my buddies. I decided that I would not attack unless attacked, and then I'd see what I could do. I felt *very* comfortable - amusing given I am always feeling dread on the SF2G rides which have gotten harder and harder and harder. On the small climb up Canyon Road @BOORider put in a dig to give some guff to a triathlete who was weaving across the road in his aerobars, I followed and was really feeling not too bad. Then Troy cracked, and I decided to see what I had left. Amazingly, my legs responded. Not bad.

The next day we went up Mill Creek Road and I had a similar strong day on that climb, including the super steep section at the top.

This week, I was able to get some riding in. I did a set of small hills on Tuesday - Jefferson/Page to Moody/Mora/Mt Eden. I did try to push the Jefferson climb and came up 3 seconds shy of the PR. Somewhat annoying since that was set the day before the Hamilton climb and I've been doing a lot of riding. Within the Strava Error seen on Dan's blog, but still frustrating. Then again I was going from a couple of weeks off.

One thing that's been interesting about this year's training, is that while various climbs I do have allowed me to track progress on PR's via Strava, I don't have a lot of comparison to previous periods of personal fitness. I have several sheets of paper in a box that have the PR's from the 2000-2003 era, where I was making steady progress before various life events slowed things down. But I hadn't really climbed any of those climbs other than the one OLH I did a few months back that showed me I was doing "OK". And that was done on a day I felt very very tired.

So this AM, I went on the CR Shop ride that goes up Kings Mtn. I hadn't been up Kings in the last couple of years. The climb seemed very very long - it's a lot longer than the climbs I typically do (Jefferson, John Daly to Highway 1 merge, Polhemous). I started out on the wheel of the shop owner's son Kevin, the shop blog seemed to indicate that Kevin was a negative splitter which might just be what I wanted to do. But about 1/4 of the way up I went ahead and rode past him - he dropped out of sight for a bit but lo and behold he was maybe 5 seconds behind me at the top.

Anyway, got to work and did the download. 28:28 from Tripp to the top. I was pretty sure that was in the range of my old PR. Got home, pulled out the old sheets of paper, dug around, and saw that my old PR was... 28:28. I think I could go faster, we started pretty slow. For reference in the same month as that PR, I did my OLH PR of 20:41.

Skyline ride, 6/14

2011-06-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

Did a solid Skyline ride today on the heels of a solid week last week with over 200 miles. Last week inlcuded the Thursday Pen Velo ride, was good to go mix it up on one of these informal race like group rides, to assess not only fitness (coming along ok) and comfort among the wheels (not so great - I messed up the turn from Sand Hill to Whiskey Hill pretty badly and wasn't doing the best job of making sure the rotating paceline on Canada went smooth).

So this AM's ride, there were 2 primary hard efforts, a trip up Skyline Drive and Polhemous Road - to which we added the steep rollers on Hallmark and Crestview on the end. I chopped some nice time off my PR for both climbs - from 8:42 to 8:23 on Polhemous thanks in large part to a nice leadout from James VZ, and took 5 seconds (2:14 to 2:09) off my time on the steep section. And I didn't even really feel that fresh.

Weight has stayed steady to maybe dropping a bit to 193. So we're doing pretty good.

Couple of tough rides this week.

2011-05-13T12:15:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday I got out and rode a few climbs in the South Bay. I went up Jefferson via Highland, which has been as close to a benchmark as I have, and managed to break the 10 minute barrier, lopping 5 seconds off my PR. I cruised through Portola Valley and since I was feeling good, took it hard across Arastradero and despite a headwind, took a few seconds off that PR. I ended up on Mt Eden and had a decent climb, cracking towards the top but was 30 something seconds faster than a year ago on a 4 minute climb. This all served to spin my legs up for Wednesday's main course.

On Wednesday myself and 7 other crazies hit the BART station at 5 AM and went out to Dublin to take on Mines Road and the backside of Mt Hamilton. I had done this ride exactly one year earlier so this would provide an interesting comparison. We rolled out towards Mines and hit the first climb shortly after the turnoff to Lake Del Valle.

I felt pretty uncomfortable on this one but that was OK because the pace was really quite fast. There wasn't a lot of chatting, and I was going to have to dig to stay with the group as we had assembled a really tough crew. I came over the top in 11:03, which is actually on the front page for the Strava segment (that won't last as there will be a lot of people riding this road very hard next week when the Amgen Tour comes through). Unfortunately this was 5 seconds off from the front 6 riders. I struggled to close the gap, and each time I got close, we'd hit some little roller and Brooks would hammer over the roller and open the gap back up. There are about a mile of rollers and by the end of them I was 20 seconds back. That meant I wouldn't see anyone for the next 15 miles or so. Fortunately Bret Lobree also got popped on the rollers so we had each other for company and even looked at a bit of the scenery. My time up that initial climb and rollers was 10-15 percent faster than the year before, so that's pretty good.

We regrouped at the junction and collected our thoughts for the test ahead. There are 2 little 1 mile or so pitches before the main event. The first one is a timed Strava climb held by Ammon Skidmore on last years ride where he really flew up this climb. Last year I was 9:12 on this climb, this year 7:27 despite misjudging the summit (my colleagues saw the true summit and attacked through the top). I felt pretty good on the second lead in as well, and we regrouped at the bridge.

I was feeling pretty worked at this point and when we started up the backside I threw in the towel and didn't try to follow the leaders. Nonetheless at my own tempo I did the 4.3 mile 8.4% climb in 39.32, 7 minutes faster than last year. I really felt undergeared (the leaders were all running compacts) - which meant I was VERY undergeared last year. I'm really pleased with this effort. Also pleased by chopping my time on the 19 mile descent from 59 minutes to 50 minutes. A lot of that was being better able to deal with the intermediate climbs but I didn't really lose sight of the lead group until said intermediate climbs. Overall a great day out on the bike and a confirmation of the hard work this year.

Back on the bike

2011-05-05T12:54:00.000-07:00

Had a nice trip to Illinois and came back rested. Last week had some amusing rides, I flatted early on Monday and had to shorten the ride, on Tuesday I put a nail through my rim and had to abort. I did get a brisk bayway in on Wednesday, but not much else due to some other issues with sick wife and dog and kid. Nonetheless I really felt good.

Monday I went up Mount San Bruno via the backside with the group and had a good climb. I led out the 2nd group up the road and despite taking the wind had a PR by 35 seconds. The ride stayed fast in the flats and I felt very comfortable.

Tuesday AM I ended up getting very congested and didn't even go to work. This was starting to get annoying, did all the rest but having all my riding sabotaged. Then I ended up having several beers with an out of town friend who came in for a visit. So what better idea than to get up at 6 AM the next morning and ride hungover and sick!

I did make it out, and we went back up Mt San Bruno, this time via Crocker and threw in the Pack Saddle dirt loop. Fun! Despite feeling like I had been beaten over the head with a stick I had a decent climb up Crocker and felt very comfortable with the fairly fast group, even taking a flyer on Bayshore at the end. Not the best of ideas overall but you only live once.

Today I got out and rode up Jefferson and on to work. 10:20 up Jefferson, 3rd fastest, despite the lingering cold and carrying a backpack with shorts and 2 "Epic Burritos". I sprinted up the Arastradero bump past Page Mill and PR'ed even with the pack, and did the same on the Dirt Robleda path. My legs feel great even though my head is a bit foggy. We're doing fine.

Weds 4/20 - easy SM to Work

2011-04-20T12:03:00.000-07:00

Took the train and did a quick easy 35 mile ride from San Mateo to work with the Google group, staying away from the front with great tactical astuteness. Put on knickers and brought out the Red Lemond to enforce "knocking around" feel and went out on the Moffett dirt as well.

Now, 5 days off! Well earned, 2135 miles year to date.

Tues 4/19 hard skyline

2011-04-19T14:52:00.000-07:00

Did a nice Skyline today adding in the Hallmark/Crestview climbs - series of steep rollers up above San Carlos. Great intervals.

In theory we weren't going to ride that hard, but we had Peter the Sandbagger, Xton the machine, and a surprise appearance by Space, and the riding was pretty fierce. But I felt very very good, able to pick up my speed, chase gaps, whatever. That's all good, but is that because we are riding slow?

The Strava log says we were going at a nice clip, thank you. The Hillsboro section was done into a stiff wind, and I went under 7 minutes despite being on the front until the last steep roller then being picked off by Peter attacking. We started out slow on Polhemous, then I went to the front and pulled the entire way up the flatter section, and PR'ed, including taking some time off the PR for the "steep section". We rode very fast on Foothill and this was not problematic. Faster and felt much much better than last week's OLH. Stress, then rest. Will perhaps get out tomorrow and then a vacation in Illinois where I will try to sleep a lot, stretch, and not get much exercise other than maybe a short jog or two. And try not to fatten up on my in-law's cooking.

4/15 - short spin from San Carlos to work

2011-04-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I slept in and did a quick spin on the Steven's Creek/Moffet/San Tomas paths with Ammon. Today in theory I was going to "ride hard" with the SF2G ride, there was a "fast" ride and an "almost as fast" ride leaving at the same time, but I was awakened at 5:30 AM by my son and really wasn't up to getting out, and I had to still clean my bike from Wednesday's festivities. So I ended up on the 7:44 AM Caltrain and tried to cut them off for a shorter but still hard-ish ride. I got off in San Carlos and started soft pedaling. Of course, this ended up such that the front group caught me right at Google. I said "Hi", and went back to the dirt.

197 miles this week per Strava and I feel very beat up. It probably would not be so bad if I were getting more sleep and time to stretch. I'm taking the weekend off, then planning to ride very very hard M/T/W because I am then going to Illinois to sit on the couch, sleep in, and eat Easter food (trying to limit the Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs). That should be a good rest to set me up for the next round.

Sub 22 OLH

2011-04-13T13:06:00.001-07:00

Went out for a ride this AM and included going up Old La Honda for the first time in 2-3 years probably. I met the group coming down from the city at the top of Jefferson, having skipped the 6:15 AM rollout to take Caltrain to RWC.

Frankly I felt pretty crappy from Monday's ride and not really taking it easy on Tuesday, so I was being a bit of dread. A really slow time would piss me off.

Found the group and we made it to the hill. I took off at the bottom but it just didn't feel right. There were several spots where I really felt like just giving up and crawling to the top, never really felt any snap. I pushed it in the flat section in the middle and into the first set of steep bits between there and the redwoods, and was punished for this. I was really reduced to crawling around the two "Upenuf" roads. Just felt crappy and slow.

Using the Garmin as a timer and relying on Strava for the update, meant riding the rest of the way home without knowing the result. And of course then it started to rain. Brooks, Thorpe, Beckett and myself slogged up to Page Mill, then Thorpe and I rode to 9. I was feeling very skittish about the braking and the wet roads so I took it very easy down the first half of Highway 9, then started to (A) Warm up and (B) feel the traction wasn't so bad, and picked it up a bit - it would have been fun if it wasn't so cold. From Saratoga to work was an exercise in hypothermia.

Got a Hot Chocolate, a shower, and some food, then went to get the "bad news".

Old La Honda - (Bridge to Mailboxes) 21:52

Once upon a time I set a goal of getting up in under 22 minutes, and if I could do it, I would buy myself a Seven. Coming off the Memorial Day ride - 350 miles in 4 days, then a day off on Monday and Tuesday, I went up on a Wednesday with perfect temperatures and nice rest, and summited in exactly 22 minutes. I rode down the hill, right to the bike shop, pointed at a Seven and said "I want one of those".

Today, cold, wet, annoyed, tired, unsnappy, underslept, at 8:30 AM, I went up 8 seconds faster. I won't complain. I doubt I'm under 20 minutes in perfect conditions but I won't jump in the grave yet.

4/11 Calaveras. 4/12 Bayway

2011-04-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

Monday I went out with Brooks Sizemore and did a rapid Calaveras run from Dublin to Nvidia. 2:18 clock time from West Dublin BART to work, no stopping to screw around, with a pack on. Very good workout, had to keep myself pinned to Brooks' wheel as best as I could - he sat up on the Calaveras climb so we could avoid any stopping and I had some trouble on the roller/technical sections headed towards Milpitas.

Tuesday I took it easy, slept in and helped with some laundry, then set out late to chase a slower SF2G group, catching them at the Water stop. They were in no hurry to leave, and we had a flat, so I stopped off at Redwood City to Caltrain to MV. A good restful ride in general.

In theory tomorrow we're going to go up Old La Honda itself, then head down Skyline to Highway 9 to descend to work.

4/6 - Jefferson and Los Altos Hills

2011-04-06T14:49:00.000-07:00

Our son was sick last night and we got very little sleep. I had to bail on a planned ride over to Pacifica and South to Half Moon Bay and up Tunitas Creek for the first time in who knows how long. I groggily got up at 7 AM and headed to the train, leaving my bag at home thinking about getting in some sort of ride.

I got off at Redwood City and rode 30 miles starting with the Highland/Jefferson climb, a climb I have been doing occasionally and is probably the best benchmark I have for climbing right now.

I decided to take it out in the 150's HR and then ramp into the 160s after the 5 way stop at Lakeview. Well, I ended up going right into the 160s and held it there the whole way. I do think I started out a little fast, but whatever, it felt good. I ended up setting a PR by a whopping 3 seconds - exactly 10 minutes. Over 10 minutes, 3 seconds could be anything. I really hoped to see a marked improvement given I have been riding a lot and am down a few lbs, but it was a strong climb and I'll take it. Certainly there is going to be some plateau anywhere. And it's not like I was really well rested!

It's supposed to rain Thursday, I'll see what I can do and hope to plan for some Friday riding.

4/3/11 - Solid Bayway

2011-04-04T15:01:00.000-07:00

Did a solid 55 mile Colmaway with a largish (18) group. The theory was a relaxed Monday ride, and on the whole it was, but with a group of this size you are bound to see a few instigations. Fun, and since it was warm I threw in the dirt sections around Moffett Field in tribute to the upcoming Paris Roubaix. Riding hard on the dirt really numbs my hands - those guys are incredible. A lot of the time all I needed was to shake my hands out but on the strada bianche I really needed my hands on the bars to keep control.

In theory we're going up Tunitas Creek on Wednesday so tomorrow will be easy or off.

3/31 - easy half bayway

2011-03-31T15:53:00.000-07:00

30 miles with the group from San Mateo to work. Felt pretty easy and breezy.
Hoping to go uphill on Friday.

3/30 - short easy rides

2011-03-30T15:41:00.000-07:00

Feeling tired which is good.

Short rides to and from train stations, and going out this PM to ride with the wife and tow Liam along in the trailer. Perfect. Strangely it adds up to probably 25+ miles.

Tuesday 3/28 - Skyline

2011-03-29T13:13:00.001-07:00

Did a reasonable ride on Skyline today. I really felt quite good. And we went pretty hard. 55 miles with 3k of climbing in 3.5 hours. There was only one real specific hard effort on a strava segment - the Hillsborough rollers segment, a series of rollers gaining 185 net feet over 2.4 miles.

I went to the front on the segment and felt pretty frisky so I pushed the pace. Towards the end, Peter Chang went by on the last tough roller (on his fixie) and I gave a shot at holding his wheel but had to stick to a rhythm. There is a T stop sign that would typically just be run, but Peter had to stop watching a car turning left onto Skyline, and we had to stop and regain momentum. I ended up 9 seconds off my PR despite this - but the PR was done sucking wheel, not leading out. Overall I spent a lot of time in the front and felt great. Good sign.

Tomorrow should be an easy day in general, but will probably be closer to a nonexistent day because I should do some daddy/hubby duty.

Monday 3/28 Base Bayway

2011-03-28T15:27:00.000-07:00

Actually been riding a bit. Going to start trying to put snippets up.

So far this year 1483 miles per strava, not including random unrecorded commutes.
57,335 feet of climbing - a ratio that is pretty low compared to "back in the day" because most of my riding is commutes that are either completely flat, or with just a couple of small climbs/rollers. Still, this is some pretty decent stuff.

In late Jan early Feb I managed some 200 mile weeks. This slowed down with various pressures at home/work plus a lot of precipitation. Maybe for the best, to take some rest. I feel like I've plateaued a bit despite having dropped another 5 pounds to 195, a number seen only once since I left college - in 2003 I got down to 191 and did a 20:41 OLH. It's hard to measure, I will go out and feel like I really nailed a certain small climb, then the GPS would later tell me "not really". But climbs like Polhemous can be subject to things like headwinds more than sheltered steeper climbs. And it's harder to really ramp it up when it's 48 degrees and sort of crappy. I'm definitely riding a lot faster than 12 months ago.

One thing that sort of makes the slog feel harder is that the SF2G rides have really turned into all out hammerfests with very strong riders - several riders have been placing in NorCal road races - including ones like the Early Bird RR with substantial climbs. So it's hard to feel upbeat when you are always getting your ass handed to you. But then you look at the logs and - "Hey, that was pretty damn fast no wonder it felt so hard".

Anyway, got out this AM about 5 minutes late and missed the train. Rode the 53 miles into work along the flat bayway, made a half hearted attempt to see if I could catch the group but it was not to be. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and am hoping to escape for one of the two planned climbing routes on the docket.

The weight loss has been attributable to one thing, pretty much - I gave up Soda Jan 1 - that's a lot of useless calories not in the system. Maybe when I really want to go after an effort I'll have a Coca-Cola and see how my body reacts to an unusual dose of caffeine and HFCS.

Mt San Bruno again this year

2010-12-22T12:28:00.000-08:00

This should be interesting.

Nicely, they have a Masters 35+ 4/5 category, perfect. Also nice, I'm 10 pounds lighter and have a lot more miles in my legs than last year at this time. Strava says 5,350 miles in 2010.

I managed to drop another 30 seconds off Jefferson/Highland the last time out. Strangely I don't necessarily feel very strong/fast a lot of the time, perhaps just tired because I am doing a lot of riding, but faster because I am generally more fit and 10 pounds lighter.

Off to Colorado for a week, and will pretty much be resting the whole week. Then the fun starts for another year.

Spirited SF2G plus a little dirt

2010-09-29T10:26:00.000-07:00

Managed to get out early today and do an SF2G ride. We rode pretty fast, unfortunately I couldn't qualify for the Philz to Waterstop Strava segment because after hammering up Bayshore I realized that my almost tardy arrival at Philz meant I forgot to turn on my Garmin. Nonetheless we rode pretty fast, leaving the Mission at 6:45 and getting to Google just a hair before 9 AM.

And we were the "slow" group - the regular "Hump Day Hammerfest" left at 7 AM.

As we approached Google, Darrin asked me if I "enjoyed the ride". I had. I felt good, we rode fast, the weather was perfect. Little did I know the best was yet to come.

Leaving Google, I checked out the new trail behind Moffett Field. This lets me get to Sunnyvale Baylands and then eventually the San Tomas Aquino trail straight to nVidia, basically off road from Google to work. And the first 3-4 miles are...

DIRT.

The view out there is pretty nice, and unique, this land has been shut for a long time.

I saw 4 other people on road bikes with 23mm tires out there, it's very rideable, a few spots with some gravel. I did almost biff it, but that had nothing to do with gravel - there was a wooden bridge just before a little singletrack section. I was watching the guy in front of me on the singletrack and failed to notice that there were metal gratings on the bridge. No harm no foul.

Someone has already created a Strava segment for this section - next time I won't stop to take a picture and I'll know about the tricky bridge.

Cut another 5% off Jefferson Time

2010-09-01T15:32:00.001-07:00

I did a 10:36 on Jefferson via Highland this morning, shaving another 5% or so off my time.

Jefferson via Highland

My legs are generally feeling better on an upward trajectory but there are peaks and valleys. Last Thursday I felt really good on an SF2G ride, Monday not so much. Overall I have noticed that I have been able to hold my HR at 160 for a longer time than say 3-4 months ago, and I see numbers in the upper 160s and even a 170 occasionally, whereas that wasn't happening. I'm not really a guru but I don't think you can train your HR to go up - maybe I was just kind of crappily sick, or I couldn't get my HR to where it needed to be due to other physiological reasons, but in general I feel better.

The effort up Jefferson was actually somewhat restrained, so to see a 30 second cut was very encouraging. Enough so I decided to ride up the bottom part of Page Mill, during which I of course felt like crap :)

Still on the steep part of the learning curve

2010-06-22T14:45:00.000-07:00

and that's good.

Shortly after the MDR I went on an SF2G Skyline ride, and the pace was certainly difficult, and I handled it fairly well. The next week we went out and did an attack on a set of Strava sprint segments on the Bayway, despite a headwind we almost took a couple, and I was able to contribute.

More measureable is this segment.

Jefferson via Highland

Right after the MDR I chopped off 40 seconds. I took another 11 off today and thought during the climb that I "didn't feel too fast today". Might have taken off 11 seconds just due to better pacing. Who knows. All these climbs done with a messenger back but no bike lock.

Sooner or later I might actually ride up to Skyline. For now, I settled on a shortish climb last weekend where we went 2.5 miles up Pine Flat, with me towing an extra 30-40 lbs.

MDR report

2010-06-01T12:32:00.001-07:00

I was picked up at 6 AM in SF by my friend Troy to go to the start in San Jose - aside from the fact the only feasible Caltrain to the start was at 4:50 AM or something, I was toting luggage along, so we carpooled. At 7:15 AM, I ran smack dab into a truism - the only sure way to make sure you remember all your key on-bike gear is to ride your bike out the door. I had forgotten my shoes in San Francisco.

After a quick call to my wife to verify they weren't buried in a bag somewhere, I started to think about my options. The obvious answer was "buy a new pair of shoes". Someone said something about a Performance bike nearby that opened at 9 AM - of course the ride started at 8 AM so there would be the little issue of how to get from San Jose to anywhere near my riding companions. I remembered the last time I had forgotten my shoes, a similar situation where I was in the South Bay, and my shoes were back home in SF. I ended up buying a new pair of shoes, using that opportunity to upgrade from SPD to Shimano's new road pedals.

This reminisence triggered a thought in my brain - the old pair of shoes was currently sitting in a box in my office in Santa Clara, 6 miles away. I had brought them down to use for a couple of spin classes and never brought them home! We threw my bike/helmet/etc.. in Troy's car, my bag in the SAG van, and I headed off to work, giving Troy the instructions that he should try to scrape me up some SPD pedals. When I got to work, I called him and he said "no dice, they all have Time pedals on their MTB's". I said "What about road cleats, does anyone have a spare set?", and got back in the car. Just before I got back, the phone started buzzing, I pulled over and Troy said "We have cleats, on a pair of shoes leaning on the garage. Do you have an allen wrench?" I said "see you on the road".

I got to the start at 8:05, just in time to catch the last SAG van. I told the driver to put my bike on the car, and grabbed the shoes. My old shoes were ancient, the kind with a faceplate required. While the faceplate holes matched the cleat holes, they were too recessed for the cleat screws to thread into! I took a quick look at the faceplate screws - they were just a bit longer. I MacGyver'ed them in, and was good to go! 10 miles in the SAG driver pulled over, dropped me off, and I managed to get back into the peloton, with the audible of the year.

The first day - San Jose to King City - went good, but the wheels sort of fell off towards the end, not enough long rides. Amusingly, I did end up with a Strava KOM on the Bitterwater Climb, only because the very strong rider with Strava on the trip - Dave Rossow - sat up on that climb. He pretty much took every Strava KOM segment defined on the entire route except for Cinabar Hill outside San Jose, a segment which he didn't know about and which gets a lot of Bay Area action. There are some very obscure segments out there and I figured I'd end up owning a few of them unless we had a monster, Dave has a 19:03 on OLH from the bridge to the stop sign so he was the man.

The second day - King City to SLO - was rough. I was pumped up for the "Quadbuster" segment, a climb I know well out of King City, but my legs were dead from the day before. Luckily I did manage to get in front of the tandem before the top and draft them to Lockwood, allowing my legs to warm up. The segments near Lake San Antonio and Chimney Rock road beat me up pretty badly, and I chose to skip Old Creek Road, getting in the van with my buddy TJ. In doing so I missed some pretty sweet riding, but my legs appreciated it.

The third day we did a loop out of SLO including the climb up Prefumo Canyon. Great climb. Very scenic, you can see Morro Rock from the top as if it isn't really 20+ miles away. There is a 1 mile or so rideable dirt section at the top, then a nice descent down to Avila Beach where we had lunch. My legs opened up on the climb a bit and I felt ok.

The fourth day - SLO to Santa Barbara - I actually felt pretty good. I had a decent run up Harris Grade, and felt pretty solid on the long long slog from Lompoc to Gaviota. Overall, it was a very good trip.

The MDR approaches

2010-05-25T15:15:00.001-07:00

For several years I participated in a ride from San Jose to Santa Barbara on Memorial Day weekend. After a few years off, I am going again. Not exactly carrying great form, and in fact I have no idea what will happen, but 4 days of riding is never bad.

In contrast to years past, I have done exactly one ride of substantial distance - a "pre-work" ride with Scott Crosby and Ammon over Mt Hamilton from the backside. I didn't feel great, the backside destroyed me, but that was probably on par with anything we'll do on this ride.

The first day is from San Jose to King City, going over Cienga Road and past Pinnacles. The second day, we ride from King City to SLO, via a lot of the roads near the Wildflower Tri course. After a "loop day" in SLO, we ride to Santa Barbara.

Should be fun. Strava gave me a kit for being "Bike Commuter of the Year" so I'll take that out and demo Strava for the masses - with this group that means a lot of KOM's are going to fall if they get onto the Garmin train.

Amusing Crash info.

2010-03-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.strava.com/rides/84696

You can zoom on the satellite picture, and see the speed bump, how far I bounced/slid, and the crawl over to the grass.

BIked to work

2010-03-26T12:36:00.001-07:00

Well, to the Caltrain, and from Caltrain to work. Not pretty, but substantially faster than MUNI/VTA...

A few days off

2010-03-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

Update: I have my bike back. I did in fact have to get my rear wheel rebuilt but the rest of the bike was ok. I actually rode it from 24th/Mission to home, up a couple of hills, and it wasn't too awful, so I'll be riding again soon enough.

And I know you've all been waiting for photos of the carnage!

Pretty serious bruising.

I complain about the hijinks/route on the Google ride but lo and behold when I go down myself, it is all my fault.

Going into the Foster City cutoff, there is a short section on a bike path. Yesterday I exchanged some texts with some riders on the road that I was trying to cut off at the water stop on the bike path in San Mateo. Turns out they were about 4-5 minutes in front of me and said they would soft-pedal until I caught up. So I dropped the hammer in pursuit.

On the short bike path leading into Foster City, I was smart enough to think "OK, this path ends with a bollard, have to set up the right line to get past it". Well, this in isolation was smart, what was not smart was thinking there was any point in taking that speed off the bike path. The bike path leads to a neighborhood which has a series of speed bumps, which I have ridden around/past/over dozens of times. This time, I just spaced it out, came off the bike path at speed and dug deeper. Instinct had me look up just long enough to see "no cars" and I put my head down. Within seconds I had reached the first speed bump, and was headed over the top of the bars with a loud crack.

Now that is stupid.

I have a pretty bad contusion on my right hip, and an upper back muscle strain. The contusion sucks but I have had one before and just as it starts to look really bad, it's ok to ride again. The strain is more limiting, it keeps me from bending over and will have to be in good shape before riding again because it limits shoulder checks.

The rear wheel which I just had rebuilt is pretty messed up and I'll probably need to have it rebuilt again. We'll also be looking at my fork for potential replacement.

Ouch. Haven gotten in 150 miles last week including some very hard riding on Tuesday this is a bummer, but onwards and upwards.

What if the Spectrum ride was run on a bike path...

2010-03-11T14:01:00.000-08:00

Then you would have the SF2G attempt to break the Bayway Commute Record

The record was in fact broken on Tuesday and I did take part.

We started with a lot of riders on what ends up being some pretty scary "terrain" but made it with only one casualty, a Zipp 404 wheel that was banged up pretty bad (see blog post) bunny hopping the curb where the little tiny ramp goes out of the parking lot in Hotelland.

I finished with the front group but have an asterisk. As we approached Coyote Point Park, we sort of swarmed around a white pickup truck and I, in the back, decided that I am too old for that shit and followed the pickup truck through the stop sign instead of preceeding the truck. 100 yards later I was 25 yards behind, I clawed back to within 5 yards but no closer. Fortunately this is at the start of the "Feral Cat Freeway" bike path around Foster City, I shortcut through Foster City and beat the group to Oracle. This added the benefit of not riding a short bike path in a 7 man group (including a tandem) on a narrow bike path with mixed traffic, allowing me to rejoin on the more drag strip portions of the course.

Smart riding would have placed me in the front of the bunch to be able to react to any shenanigans that the leader might try to foment regarding our applications of the CVC. Smarter riding meant that once we were into Menlo Park I limited my turns at the front to 15 seconds top.

Strava Log

I really suffered towards the end but stayed on with some pretty tough riders and a tandem with Crosby captaining and Faye Steiner providing a very capable stoker slot. 2 days later I am finally feeling normal after finding time to stretch last night.

Fixing Velcro Straps on Sidi Shoes

2010-03-06T17:56:00.000-08:00

I love my Sidi Genius shoes. Great shoes, and you can just keep wearing them and replace the various parts that wear out. Cleats wear out, put new cleats on. The rubber heel stops wear out, replace them (though they are a bit expensive and I wear them out fast, usually from running down the Caltrain platform to get a train). The buckles at the top of the front of the shoe are also replaceable.

However, I've had an annoying problem that I've let slide for the last year or so frankly, that isn't of the just unscrew the dead part and put in a new one. The velcro straps on my Sidis stopped velcro-ing.

After ignoring it for a while I decided to look around. Turns out the answer was pretty straightforward - this isn't the revelation that figuring out how to fix the stuck wake button on my iPhone was, but it's pretty useful.

Here's one of the offending non-sticking straps.

Materials. Little pack of velcro I picked up at a craft store for $3. The velcro has a sticky back, but the craft store lady and I decided I should also throw down some real adhesive as well. I used "Fabric-Tac", (the bottle cost $8) but after I was done, it was pretty clear that regular super glue would have been fine.

The problem was pretty simple to diagnose. The "furry" part of the velcro was the "defective" chunk. Both sides are synthetic - "Hooks and Loops" - so in theory this shouldn't happen, my understanding is the furry "Loops" side is more likely to lose its mojo. I've even read info on how to get the mojo back, but I just peeled the velcro off of the toe strap.

I cut a piece of furry velcro the same size as the old furry. I had already checked that the new furry velcro would stick to the hooks side. Stuck like glue.

I glued the new furry stuff onto the toestraps, let it dry, and trimmed the new velcro to match the toestraps as best as possible.

Worked like a charm.

Strava poaching

2010-02-22T10:58:00.000-08:00

On my commute from SF to nVidia, there are nine (maybe ten now) Strava Segments.
None of these are particularly interesting pieces of road, they just happen to be on
a route that dozens of people ride multiple times per week on their commute, specifically a lot of SF2G riders who are Stravans.

Examples:
SF2G Airport Sprint - a half mile chunk of pavement a jersey barrier away from US 101
Wailing Wall - pothole ridden strip of asphalt in between a trailer park and a sound barrier.

I can't think of any of these I would ride without a good reason. Commuting to work is a fairly good reason. So since we ride this crapola a lot, we have our fun seeing our times on the various parts of our humdrum suburban commute.

Recently it was noticed that a new name landed on the leaderboard of pretty much all of these random crappy segments.

Re: evil lucas

Scott Crosby wrote:

heh, so it appears Lucas P. is doing repeats of the strava sections to own
the leaderboard, that scoundrel. For the lagoon (theo) sprint for example:

3 Lucas Pereira Sat, Feb 20, 2010 17.6 143 108 (PM)
4 Lucas Pereira Sat, Feb 20, 2010 11.3 155 93 (PM)
5 Lucas Pereira Sat, Feb 20, 2010 19.9 146 158 (PM)

so he's going on weekends to attack all the records, pretty funny.

we came pretty close to getting that one today, but will have to step it
up a bit more:

1 Lucas Pereira Sat, Feb 06, 2010 32.3 177 478 (PM) 1:09
2 Scott Crosby about 4 hours ago 29.0 175 425 1:17
3 Christon DeWan about 4 hours ago 27.9 179 441 1:20

Poaching segments is hereby considered Bullshit, and we must now destroy
all these Lucas records.

-sc

As a new father who hasn't ridden on a weekend in months, I have to say I am pretty disgusted that someone would take their weekend and do sprint repeats past the parking lots and hotels next to the airport where the Anza Lagoon Sprint section is. Not to mention he rides the rest of our crappy commute to get there to do the repeats in the first place (at least he doesn't appear to drive), when he lives close to some of the best riding in the world.

As new segments get added, Lucas goes off to do his repeats on the new segment. There is a house of ill repute in East Palo Alto where unsavory folks tend to hang out. Perhaps we will add a new strava segment there and force Lucas to do endless repeats on the mean streets of EPA. Of course, there is always the less savory tactic of going out with a car and beating all of his sprint times by a second, forcing him to go back and try to re-earn them - this is considered cheating and will not stand.

Zipp CSC dead on arrival - spoke pulls through rim

2010-01-27T20:49:00.000-08:00

Tonight's events.

I rode from work to the train, 7 miles in 19:30. Pretty fast. If my rear wheel was in this condition at that point, I would not have ridden that fast...

One of the rear spokes has pulled through the rim.

After the ride, I took the train to SF. Certainly on the Caltrain there is some bumping, but my bike was pretty isolated on a rack with other "nice bikes". I rode
from the train station to meet my wife in Potrero Hill and didn't notice anything, nor did I notice the wheel ramming the brake while walking the bike to put it into the car. The bike was in the back of the Pilot sort of haphazardly. I just wonder, if you whack a spoke could it result in something like this? I'd be more accustomed to a spoke breaking, not pulling through the rim. Not that I haven't had a spoke pull through a rim before. Perhaps just par for the course for putting in a lot of miles at 210 lbs.

Aside from the curiousity of trying to figure out what happened, the next question is "what now?". I had this same thing happen to a machine built Mavic open pro built on an Ultegra Hub with double butted spokes. A rebuild would cost more than a new wheel (if you can buy a rim and build a wheel it's about 1/2 the cost of a wheel). But this is a $500 wheel. Where's the value? Hub? Spokes? Rim? Do I try to get this thing rebuilt? Or am I shopping for a new wheel? And if so, what wheel might avoid this issue? Don't bother saying Ksyriums - on my old Ksyriums I broke 5-6 spokes and with the last break I decided to throw in the towel. I rode to PA bikes, bought the Zipps, told the store to repair the rear Ksyrium so I could sell the wheelset to a flyweight. They called me the next day and said "The nipple has pulled through the rim..."

Sucked into the Strava vortex...

2010-01-11T21:50:00.000-08:00

After a year or so of resistance, I have been sucked into the vortex that is Strava

A data analysis service for Garmin users, the most interesting part of Strava is that you can produce "segments" or "KOMs", and every Strava user who has ridden that same stretch of road will now be compared on that segment.

For example, this little known climb

Two years ago my wife bought me a Garmin 705 and I told her to return it - I am a map geek and didn't need a GPS computer. I hadn't really noted that it was useful for tracking your rides, but until Strava became prevalent even the tracking didn't have that killer app feature that sucked me in. I picked up the new Garmin Edge 500 from Mike's Bikes ($40 off coupon in the "Green Zebra" coupon book) and away we rolled.

So now all my embarrassing efforts are up there for all to see.

Murph on Strava

You know you're a cyclist when...

2010-01-07T12:55:00.000-08:00

On the train today I was talking to the conductor about his beloved New England Patriots. He wasn't too optimistic - Welker is out, the Ravens are tough, they should have beaten the Texans so they could draw the Jets first, etc...

So we are getting off the train and he says "What do you think about this thing where they are talking about legalizing dope???". My eyes popped wide open - what! The NFL is just going to open the doors wide open on steroids! Holy Pantani!

He said - "Yeah, there's a guy over there with a petition, they're going to try and put it on the ballot!"

I looked over and saw a guy with a sandwich board saying "LEGALIZE MARIJUANA NOW"

Not DFL at San Bruno

2010-01-06T15:17:00.000-08:00

The results are in

29 0 John Murphy SAN FRANCISCO,CA 00:23:32.00 196340 123 Webcor/alto Velo

4 guys even less fit than me decided to enter. Had I done the smart thing and entered the 4's, I would have been 21/22, unless I managed to outsprint the guy who finished in 23:30.

Amusingly, my thought is that I went out "too fast", something I would not have thought was possible. When the pack started at a pace that wasn't completely leaving me behind, I moved up quickly to try to suss out a reasonable wheel to get on for the flatter section. Then I immediately cracked - before it got flat. Several riders passed me, and when it got flat the 2nd group was just 15 yards in front of me, but I couldn't close the gap (and provided a good bridge for someone who was on my wheel). If I had just settled in and calmly got to the flat section with the third group I might have gotten a better ride to the top, as it was I rode alone for a lot of the flat section and then got a ride from the guy who finished 27th (who put a minute into me on Radio Road).

The steep section of Radio Road showed my current weight level. 10 pounds lighter (and probably stronger) I would really muscle through that section, as it was I really suffered and they had to urge me to sprint through the line as I was being caught by one of the later groups. It was rough. But I got out there, and like I said, not DFL.

I celebrated with a nice present which I'll discuss next...

A little encouragement now and then is good...

2009-12-22T11:57:00.000-08:00

From: Daniel Hobe
To: Michael Gaiman, John Murphy

I equaled my best time on the Bayway supersprint. Today it was behind
Murph the whole way so I think we are tied as the leaders for that
section :)

http://strava.com/rides/55443/segment_efforts/450767

Mt San Bruno Hillclimb

2009-12-09T16:11:00.000-08:00

The Mt San Bruno Hillclimb is January 1, I actually re-upped my USCF license and entered the race. I made a minor error in entering the Masters 35's which will include Chris Phipps, instead of the Open 4's which will not, but I guess it only matters if I would have placed, given it's a mass start. I'm not in the best shape despite getting a few more rides in as Liam has been sleeping better and we've established a rhythm where my wife takes the middle of the night shifts, and I wake up with Liam, which is often 5:30 AM, I deal with him until ~6:30 and then slip off to get a bit of a ride in if I can.

I've always wanted to do this race, but Jan 1 is never the best time. We'll see.

Tues Sept 22

2009-09-22T15:36:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-09-02T13:50:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-08-12T12:33:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-25T22:31:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-07-23T14:24:00.001-07:00

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.

More riding in Healdsbug - Sweetwater Springs Road

2009-07-22T12:35:00.000-07:00

I got out on Monday for a short ride. I'm in Healdsburg and did a quick Eastside to Westside loop. I had a little extra time so I decided to check out the lower chunk of Sweetwater Springs Road.

Classic California riding.

The road has a slight gradient at the start, little traffic, a few cattle grates. If you go to the top it eventually becomes dirt apparently, but is manageable on a road bike, and you then descend down into Anderson Redwoods and come out in Guerneville. When I get the chance to do the whole thing I'll post some pics.

I couldn't go to the top so I turned around. At 30 MPH I came around a corner and the road was blocked!

I stopped and waited for them to go by. No need to try to get cute - once upon a time my buddy and I were driving around the Grand Canyon and he tried to shoot a gap in a set of cows and ran into one. Very unpredictable and they can be quicker than you think. A little over a decade ago, Pam Downs, a woman from San Jose ran into a bull on the Death Ride. I certainly didn't want to become the next piece of roadkill.

In fact, this is not the first time I have encountered such beasts on a bike ride.

This was the scene on the top of the Col D'Aspin in 2002. I went back in 2004, the cows are still there, trying to lick the salt of cyclist's legs.

After my ride I finagled a Healdsburg treat - blackberries from the side of the road.

The difference between me and Levi Leipheimer

2009-07-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

Or at least one of many differences.

One thing we have in common, we have broken a scaphoid (wrist) bone in a bike crash and have small titanium screws in said wrist. Don't try to catch yourself when you crash boys and girls.

The scaphoid is a small bone in the wrist known for not healing very well. Much like Levi, after my crash my wrist hurt but I figured I was ok. Hours later, we both ended up getting X-Rays. Unlike Levi, my fracture was not spotted by the doc. I'm guessing that Levi gets a bit more of a fine toothed comb going, and they look very closely at the scaphoid since it's a common cycling injury and not correcting it quickly would be devastating to his training. I wouldn't be surprised if they X-Rayed Levi the night of the crash, and when he woke up and it felt worse, he got it X-rayed again. These fractures are hard to spot early on.

My ER doctor gave me the standard "follow up with your orthopod in a few days" line and I ignored that - no fracture, I'll be ok. When it didn't heal in a month, I went back in. By this time the fracture was more apparent. The doctor pointed at 2 bones and said "Those are supposed to be one bone". In my attempts to do therapy on a sprained wrist I had finished off the fracture. Had I gone in the week after the break, I probably would have been in surgery much sooner or perhaps even avoided surgery. Levi might have been able to avoid surgery by wearing a splint but the healing time would be much longer and he wouldn't be doing this right now. With the screw in place, the bone will stay together and heal. A peon might try to avoid surgery (perhaps a good idea since surgery has its own risks) by wearing a split and seeing if the bone heals.

Since Levi got on it fast they did the surgery without a general anesthesia. Good for him. Going under isn't so bad, but coming out from under really sucks.

One other thing Levi has going for him as a professional cyclist is that if he needs a new cast, they'll just slap one on. While I had my cast on, I would try to ride on the spin bikes but I had to keep my heart rate down and have a fan directly on the cast. It still started to get pretty funky. I would do a very hard workout the morning of my doctors appointments because I knew that I could funkify the cast since it was coming off that day. If Levi is lucky he has not a cast, but a removeable splint so he can take it off and wash his arm.

One thing we both had going for us was that as cyclists, we ride with our wrists bent back, which is excellent for improving the range of movement of the wrist (he won't be in a cast as long as I was, so hopefully won't be as stiff). My wrist bends back pretty well, but forward there is still some limited range of motion. My surgeon said "The people who get that range of motion back are guitar players". Amusing.

Cycling Sonoma County

2009-07-07T16:13:00.001-07:00

I did manage to get away from my garden and ride my bike this past weekend.

ugh

2009-06-30T13:45:00.000-07:00

Liam was up and down a lot in the night, my wife sent me to get a bottle around 5:30 AM or so. I had a lot of work to do, I decided to get up and just go. Of course since it was 6 AM I decided to join the SF2G Skyline ride and stick around until I got tired, I figured around San Mateo.

Highlight - I didn't get dropped in Golden Gate Park.

I got dropped on the riser up to Ft Funston. This means riding alone on the flat section to Skyline. One rider actually was with me and on my wheel, when he finally came around, he dropped me. Turned out there was one other rider behind me, he came around at the top of Skyline, where there was a regroupment.

Got dropped just after Hickey. Regrouped at Sneath by actually powering through the descent to Sneath, but got dropped before San Bruno Ave and had to ride 280 alone. Twice. Trinh came from I dunno, a potty break or something and went zipping by me. Two riders came by halfway to Golf Course Road from Millbrae Ave and I sat in until the first little rise and was dropped. Everyone regrouped at the Sawyer Camp Trail and I said screw it and rode down to San Mateo and hopped the train - a place I clearly belonged more than in the peleton.

My least enjoyable day on a bike without a crash or mechanical. Ever. I think some dude on a folder dropped me on Central Expressway on the way to nVidia just to drive home the point.

The Seven - down again

2009-06-20T18:46:00.000-07:00

Thursday I got out early to meet the Google ride, not early enough for even
their posted 7 AM start from Ritual - I had to walk the dog. Yeah, that's it. That
or the fact that Christon had thrown
down the gauntlet for a try at the SF2G record. I figured I could hang on the flats
but would be very likely to get thrown on the short climb up San Bruno, and if
the lights didn't favor me it would be all over. So I met them at Millbrae to get
a rapid ride in, using Caltrain to bypass the first section of the ride. I hoped
to get a gander at the paceline from the train, to no avail.

I was not disappointed by the pace, a couple of very strong riders were dropped - no
doubt due to the matches they burned getting over the hills with the hard men. We sped
along towards Redwood City. I had to stay pretty focused to sit in but I felt ok, even
taking a few decent pulls.

One thing about the Bayway Google ride is that with all the stops and starts, traffic
lights, hole shots through poles, etc... that you can dropped and have to close gaps
quite frequently and you have to really pay attention. One spot I was particularly concerned about is called the "Bridge to Nowhere". You ride across a rutted dirt field, up a dirt ramp to a bridge over a creek, then down a dirt ramp that starts with a little dropoff. I have never really handled this section on my road bike with much grace, and the three riders I was with at this point are dirt junkies. I let them have a little space, gritted my teeth, and decided I better clear this one easily.

I cleared the bridge nicely. But I spent too much time congratulating myself, and that added to the gap I left open leading up to the bridge and I was 30 yards off with the hammer going down. I chased for a few miles then had to throw in the towel. Still, a very fun ride. I should have followed racing protocol - instead of dropping back and watching what happened, I should have gone to the front and let them deal with me being in front going over the bridge :)

On my way home Friday, I started having some trouble with my front derailler. I fiddled with the barrel shifter, but I couldn't quite get it working. I decided it was time to get the bike into BeSpoke to have it looked at. Half a mile later my right shoe was wobbling a bit. Pedal screwed in properly? Check. Cleat ok? Check. Fiddling with it a bit, I discovered that the crank was screwing out of the bottom bracket! Argh!

I walked to Caltrain, hitched a ride to BeSpoke, and dropped off the Seven. Fortunately the call came on Saturday that damage to the crank was minimal and the bike is dialed in again.

Epic Commuting

2009-06-16T15:42:00.000-07:00

Meet @Skid

Ammon is addicted to "Epic Commuting". This involves many things. Apparently high on that list is riding as much "dirt" as possible. Even if this involves getting lost or going down a dead end dirt path - you never know if there will be a hole in the wall at the end of that path.

He is documenting this epic commutes, which often involve going up 2 mile dirt roads (see: East Alpine) on his new blog - Epic Commute Blog

I was up early this AM due to our son doing a Dr Crankmeister, and caught the 7 AM train. I noted that Ammon was meeting people from that train at Millbrae and decided to do a little riding. I expected it to go a bit faster but sometimes time is the price to pay for exploration.

Note that Ammon was all kitted out in a skinsuit. This absolutely did not match his choice in footwear.

Nothing says Epic Commute like rocking a skinsuit and tennies on your fixie.

Nothing says non-Epic like catching a big ass nail in your tire and having to change a fixed-gear wheel.

Yes, I am still capable of climbing

2009-05-23T21:19:00.000-07:00

In the past 4 months I have ridden pretty much zero hills. In the past 3 months, I have ridden pretty much nothing but to and from work. That's still the better part of 20 random miles a day, but not exactly what the doctor ordered.

I managed to finagle a ride over Mt Tam today with a guy from the train, Louis, and his co-worker Ben. Up to Pantoll, over the 7 sisters and down Alpine Dam to Fairfax. The tempo was moderate, really, but I actually felt OK. Surprisingly, this is only the second time in my life I have ridden past Alpine Dam, and the prior occasion was from Fairfax to Tam. That is a super duper road, the descent into Fairfax is awesome. For some reason all my Marin rides have either led through Nicasio or the canonical route of up to Pantoll, down to Stinson, up Bo-Fax, Sisters, Mill Valley to Joe's Taco Lounge.

Since we ended up in Fairfax we had lunch at Iron Springs Microbrewery. Most excellent. I had a beer and slowly waddled to 101 where I caught GG Transit back to the bridge to meet friends. Frankly I should have just ridden but I was pooped so what the heck. At least I got out.

T minus about what, 2-3 years until we get Liam on a Like-a-bike?

Making do

2009-03-01T22:26:00.000-08:00

We have a new son, Liam and that's never great for training. Luckily this road is in my backyard...

DIY supported Century

2009-01-20T15:15:00.000-08:00

I've actually been riding a little bit but not enough to brag. I definitely got dropped this AM riding up Skyline to Hickey behind Trinh. But I'm at least getting outside.

This weekend I did a short ride in Healdsburg with our friend Jackie. This weekend was the Russian River Winter Wine Land event and we went to our vacation rental home in Healdsburg for the weekend to do a little tasting and cycling.

For $40, all the tasting and snacks for Saturday and Sunday, and we had my 8 months pregnant wife as a designated driver! Sunday we eschewed the tasting to go on the bike ride. As we neared the finale in Healdsburg I realized we still had our wristbands on from the Wine event, and we passed Wilson Winery and we could really smell what Wilson was cooking! Tri-tip sandwiches and chocolate brownies. We stopped, flashed our wristbands and settled in for a snack. Given we were 3 miles from our destination we also tried a little Bordeaux for good measure.

I'm thinking next year we go, check out the wines on Saturday and inventory the best snacks, then the next day do a snack run from winery to winery! The event easily encompasses a very nice metric century including Chalk Hill, East and Westside roads, Dry Creek Valley, Canyon Road, Geyserville, and Alexander Valley.

I am not a hard man.

2008-12-10T13:56:00.000-08:00

Message 8/243 From Dan Connelly

Wow! Those RM riders are hard core.

Forwarded from Roaring Mouse Cycling

Twin Peaks repeats, 6:30am tomorrow @ Cole/Parnassus. Bring your blinkie!

dp
******************************************************

Cold Valley at 6:30 AM to ride up Twin Peaks from the hard side, in the fog.
I'll take a pass. I did get up at 6 AM to ride but went with this monster instead. It was in the low 40's to high 30's at 6:30 AM at Ritual and nobody was there. I felt so crappy that it took me 20 minutes trying to remember the name of the road that is the little hill we climb (Cortland). Bad news. I was ready to blow it off when Crosby did indeed show up. Doh.

Scott rides like I ride - we will both ride at pretty much any pace - slow, fast, whatever. But if nobody is getting dropped, we'll ride pretty much full blast. I was freezing, underdressed, and now I had to ride hard the whole way and didn't have a 3rd person to pawn Scott off on if I decided to bail halfway. Great.

At CC/Valencia we picked up someone else from out of nowhere. Great. Someone going to Google so I can bail early. Nope. Theo works in Foster City. Perhaps slow the pace. Nope. Theo was up to the task on the three little pitches so he'll not slow anything down. Luckily he also took a few pulls. My legs finally loosened up around the airport, and the ride went pretty well. I did Scott do most of the heavy lifting, but it was a good 52 mile spin before work, coming in at 3:10 clock time.

Turkey Removal Program

2008-12-05T11:13:00.000-08:00

Pulled out the Seven yesterday for only like the 3rd time since I got it back. Rode to nVidia from SF, rounds in about 52 miles, taking just over 3 hours.

Google is cutting back so at Mountain View I bid adieu to Scott Crosby who had pulled me through the uncharacteristic headwinds instead of begging a breakfast from him. I then completely bonked in downtown Mountain View, tempting me to get on Caltrain to take me to Lawrence. Checking my watch it appeared I had 15 minutes to the next train, so maybe I could get breakfast too. Except there was a SB train already at the station, meaning Caltrain had taken a massive failwhale, confirmed with a quick twitter check. I soldiered on and collapsed on my desk.

I have been trying to keep up with a stretching program, but my quads are still sore from my run in Naperville. Nonetheless I am going to try round two of getting back into running this weekend, hopefully accompanied by a trip to a Bikram class.

how to work off that Turkey when stuck in Napertuckey?

2008-11-29T15:34:00.000-08:00

I'm in Naperville Ill stuck without a bike. But it's beautiful and 45 degrees, perfect weather for a fall run. I've not been running but with my schedule (and the hopefully impending rain in California) I am trying to rebuild my running base. My legs and weight are such that I need to build my running base very slowly or I will get some gnarly shin splints going, so I ducked out of the In-Law fest for a quick 3 miler today. Not bad. I'm going to try and work in some lunchtime runs at nVidia, sadly nVidia is far removed from the better trails over near AMD and my old job at Sandcraft. Anyone know good running trails near Central and San Tomas?

Time Trial and Tire Change Prep

2008-11-26T15:26:00.000-08:00

Leave work 30 minutes before train. Nominal time to train - 25 minutes. This is on Central Expressway which is flat, fast, not too many lights, good shoulder so you can get down on the bars and let er rip. But with an extra 5 minutes to spare - how to make for a good time trial?

Puncture! Also allows one to practice a fast tire change. Somehow I managed to make my train. I think the high intensity work of racing to Caltrain is actually pretty good stuff, but I need to do some stretching on the train or something, I am feeling pretty beat up.

I am picking up an insane amount of glass lately. I think the commuter bike needs to downgrade from the Conti 4000's to something more robust, it mostly gets used on Central Expressway and on the Google rides anyway.

Off to Chicago for the holidays, no bike so I am going to try and (gulp) run...

Nov 24 ride to work

2008-11-24T15:46:00.000-08:00

For some reason I always end up finding time to ride once the season is kaput. This has the downside that this is when the rain starts. In tribute I am shopping for a cross bike. No need to repeat the day when I decided I was training rain or shine, rode up Page Mill in the rain then crashed and broke my hip coming down.

I managed to get in a ride this AM from SF to work, minus the PA->Mountain View section plus an extra sprint from PA back to Menlo after I missed a train in PA. Despite fighting a cold I felt ok as the pace was not too brisk, and it was good to meet a new rider (Bruce I think) who had some serious mojo and was only slowed down by a broken spoke.

And I stuck to a banana/pomegranate smoothie for fuel, better than some lard infused muffin from the train station.

Onward and upward.

I am a fat slob.

2008-10-16T10:10:00.000-07:00

Training and diet have gone to hell. Occasional google rides sprinkled in but not much otherwise. Lack of cycling leads to bad diet. Work is crazy, wife is pregnant.

Resolved - no more cokes, better diet. Decided this AM I would get up and hop the 7:04 to Redwood City and ride some better roads than seen on the google rides, and eat a banana on the train. Of course wifey had eaten all the bananas and I missed the train. There is now a place at 22nd that sells stuff so I finagled a banana and took the next train, which only stops at Palo Alto. Did get a nice ride in from there. It's not like I turned a corner but it was a worthwhile day.

I've decided I need to diary more of this to put the fire to my feet, and do the RWC to Sunnyvale ride which includes Jefferson and the bottom half of Page Mill on the way to the office. This will be more effective than dealing with the crazy bike paths on the Bayway.

Good News, Bad News

2008-09-11T12:59:00.001-07:00

Good News. The new Seven has arrived!

Bad News. I showed up for the Google ride via Skyline today and was promptly dropped. Not even on the climb from John Daly - on the little roller coming up from Lake Merced. I made it about 3/4 the way and my legs went to zero. We have some work to do. These guys are pretty tough so I don't feel that bad. One is a lean and hungry guy who rides to work and back - SF to San Mateo - every day. One is a young guy who "just got into cycling 6 months ago" - clearly that was a change of pace from doing 2:30 Marathons or something. And the other guy - EACH of his quads is wider than his waist and he goes only by the name "space" (no capital letter). Severe.

Worst News. I started up from John Daly, with the terrific threesome vaguely in sight, figuring they would probably wait at Hickey and I could probably get a ride that I could handle through the rollers to Palo Alto. Then I punctured. I laid the Seven down and realized I had not moved my tool bag with tube and patch kit to my new bike, and had to call for the team car. Someone did ride by with a patch, but knowing I could flat again, still without gear, in an even more remote area that would probably have zero cyclists, I hung my head in shame and called my wife to come get me...

The Winters of my discontent

2008-09-03T14:38:00.000-07:00

Perhaps I am all talk. I have a pretty high batting average for the top stressors in life these days - we bought a Vacation Rental in Healdsburg which we had to set up and are now trying to manage ("Rural Realities" have hit hard). We then lost our apartment and had to move. Then I switched jobs. Oh, and my wife is pregnant. All good things (OK, moving sort of sucked) but stressful and not leaving a lot of time for riding.

Nonetheless I have probably managed to maintain some semblance of my early season form by getting up at o dark thirty and riding to work with the Google folks, and sneaking in a few Healdsburg area rides. Not the sort of hillclimbing that leads to faster times but keeps the base going. Also my wife spent her first trimester completely naseous so instead of us going out on brisk couples rides, we tried to keep her from getting sick. She's feeling better and is riding a bit, but now the issue is becoming the inability to lean over due to bulging belly and sore back. I'm trying to find a more upright hybrid we can use for a while, and a trainer.

I entered the Winters Road Race 2 weeks ago and found out that not only am I still off top form but my strategy sucks. There is a small hill, I decided to wait until the start and then go to the front and try to slow it down and then lag climb the hill. Thing is, the hill starts shallow enough that all I did was give a lead out to the strong men before they attacked at the steeper part. The hill has several saddles in it and had I sat in and not used my bullets I probably could have made it to more saddles and then maybe reconnected on the descent. Instead I was worked and got not much more than an entertaining training ride.

I am thinking of doing the Mt Tam Hill Climb just because it's nearby (if the aforementioned stressors don't render that impossible) but hopefully I will be able to get the training to tune things up a bit. The most important component should be diet, hopefully with the fresh produce coming from the garden/trees and us watching Jill's diet, I can make some headway there.

Blog split

2008-08-24T12:03:00.000-07:00

I have decided to make a new blog. This one was supposed to be about cycling training and the places to ride in the Bay Area, but my hippie holier than thou stuff started seeping in, and there was some stuff that was just way off topic.

So I have started The Holier Than You Blog

holierthanthou was taken by someone who isn't blogging. Peak Everything indeed.

Riding in Marin

2008-08-23T11:02:00.001-07:00

I have the week off, between jobs, so we headed up to Healdsburg Tuesday. My wife had some appointments so I went ahead on my bike.

Marin County has some good riding. It also has some very lousy, sketchy riding. Scenic, sure, but junk miles for training and sketchy. The problem is the lousy riding is in between San Francisco and the good riding further North. But I hate driving to the ride when I live in such a great place like the Bay Area where so much riding is so close. It's a waste and then there is always the day you drive to the ride, and forget your shoes. My biggest pet peeve is people who drive to group ride starts and then instead of us getting started, they have to change, pump their tires, check their headset, etc... When you ride out the door, you are ready to ride.

Tuesday I decided to solve the issue of both riding out the door, but skipping the Bridge/Sausalito/Mill Valley section of the trip to Marin (on weekdays the bridge can be extra sketchy as pedestrian tourists and cyclists share the same narrow pathway). I rode down Market St (sketchy, but in a "good way") to the Ferry building and took the ferry to Larkspur. 25 minutes and $4.70 (with my translink card) later I was in Larkspur. Along the way I got some fine scenery and had some snacks picked up on the way.

From Larkspur Ferry, follow the bike path West. There is a fork, follow it left over a wooden bridge and stay on the path to the end and onto a road. Follow the road to a T intersection, go left and you are on Magnolia in Kentfield.

I followed the remaining crappy miles through Ross, San Anselmo, and Fairfax and then rode up Whites Grade, to Nicasio over the little hill, then right on Lucas Valley and over that climb, and met my wife at Lucas Valley and 101. Wonderful riding, and now I'm in Healdsburg getting in some training and working in the garden.

Bike to Work Fast Day

2008-08-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow August 7 is "Bike to Work Fast Day"

6:30 AM Ritual Roaster, SF. Ostensibly the destination is Google, though a few of us have alternate destinations along and beyond that route. There are a bunch of people from Google that started a ritual of riding along the peninsula from SF on a daily basis - this ride goes almost every day, definitely every Friday (Friday is "No Rider Left Behind" day). Sometimes the route goes down Skyline but more frequently the route is along the peninsula with a hybrid of random roads, parking lots, bike paths, and even a "Bridge to Nowhere" in Redwood City that involves riding through a field, up a dirt ramp onto the bridge, and down another dirt ramp that starts with a small dropoff.

One of the stronger riders is moving and threw down a challenge - break the record. If I read it right the record is one hour and 57 minutes of "rolling" time (measured on a bike computer that stops when you do, at lights/etc...). Probably the best way to calculate the "record" because at some point the only way to improve the record is to take unneccessary risks at stoplights.

Should be interesting and fun. And painful - the lineup is pretty strong despite 1 or 2 of the heavy hitters being out of the country.

Intermediate points -

Millbrae Ave/Old Bayshore - probably about 7:15
Redwood Shores/101 - 8 AM or so.

more details at groups.google.com/group/sf2g

Vancouver and Whistler

2008-07-29T22:01:00.000-07:00

My wife and I took a vacation to Canada this past weekend. I hectically tried to pack my road bike just before the flight, decided to bail, then packed my road gear but not my mountain gear. Of course in Whistler there were no road bikes to rent and very excellent off roading. I made the best of it.

For 3 days we were in Vancouver. We rented some hybrids and rode around Stanley Park, a nice park poking into the sea/bay/sound/whatever. Check out the rig!

Vancouver was a very cycle friendly city, at least the downtown area. Not much car traffic, most of it pretty slow, some good bike lanes - it just felt super mellow compared to riding in SF. And when you are crossing a street you know if there is a bike lane from the street signs.

We hiked this trail, it was very technical. I considered riding it later when I rented a mountain bike, but wearing my Teva's and having not gone offroad in many moons I chickened out. I think it might have actually been easier than the ski run I did come down, which started out pretty mellow but ended with a steep descent with loose rocks ending with a sharp right. Next time I'll have proper gear and try out this technical run called "Old Timber Run".

This was a slightly more "technical" run I also didn't "find time" to try out.

I did go down the ski run a few times after riding a bit with my wife. The place where we were staying was on Kadenwood Drive which the ski run and Old Timber started off of. I also therefore rode up Kadenwood 4 times for a good workout. It would be an excellent climb (and fantastic descent) on a road bike. The last time down the ski run I saw another rider coming down from another trail. It was an easy trail with a winding hairpin. He got off his bike and cut off the hairpin on foot. I couldn't figure out why he would walk this clearly easy section (while I was navigating the steep part on my own trail). I looked up and figured out why he cut the trail. You probably can't see it from the picture, but there is a brown blob just above the hairpin bend. It was a bear, and he cut off the hairpin so as to not go whizzing by!

Word...

2008-07-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

"This is Stephan from BeSpoke Cycles. I just talked to Seven and they said the shape your frame is in it's best to just build you a new frame. If you want the same specs they'll start it right away, if you want to tweak it, we can do that, if you want a new model they will credit you towards that".

Word.

Cyclists...

2008-07-13T21:44:00.000-07:00

I got to ride the Alto Velo B ride this weekend. Living in SF it's hard to make it down for this (and I have to take Caltrain at 8 AM to Cal Ave and cut the ride off at Page Mill just to make it), but it's a great ride.

This weekend was Kings Mountain via Greer. Greer is a tougher substitute for the first third of Kings, but without cars so it's pretty nice. I struggled through this section trying to keep any of my colleagues in view. As we made the turn onto Kings I got a little wind in my legs and soldiered on. I rode past one rider who quickly slotted in behind me.

Now, at this pace I think it's less "Drafting" than just letting someone else set a pace so you don't go too slow or don't race out too fast, but whatever. I found a good rhythm that left me feeling I might just crack at any moment but knew that I probably wouldn't. That's a good intensity climb. My friend stuck close to my wheel when I sped up, and when I slowed down he refused to pass. Amusing. As we hit the steepest section with just under a mile to go I utilized the compact crank on my Ritchey (the Seven still being MIA) to try to stretch it out a bit. But lo and behold as we got to 20 yards from the top, he decided to race to the line and went by me. Cheeky!

So eventually we end up at Roberts. He sees me and the following conversation ensues.

"So you're the guy who pulled me all the way up Kings" (and I nipped you at the line)
"Yeah, well, I was about 5 seconds from falling apart the whole way up" (thanks for not coming around and taking a turn)
"Me too, I thought about pulling but I was in the same boat, you almost dropped me near the end" (what do you think, I'm stupid? If I pull you drop me. I'm the king of all wheelsuckers.)
"I'm paying for it now, not enough riding" (I'm out of shape but will now train hard for 2 weeks, come back, and drop you like a wicked stepsister).

Awesome.

SFBC responds to Caltrain's Draft Bicycle Master Plan

2008-07-07T22:23:00.000-07:00

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's comments on Caltrain's Draft Bicycle Master Plan

I went to the SFBC Bikes On Board subcommittee meeting tonight. SFBC is trying to collect some data on bike usage on Caltrain in order to address perceived inaccuracies in Caltrain's data. I got a look at the data organization tonight but the data is far from broad - most of the data is from two riders who are in the committee. Please feel free to add to the data set by collecting data from your Caltrain rides.

Incident report link here

Mendocino County Line

2008-07-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

OK, let's get back to bike riding. This weekend I had the occasion to do some bike riding near the Mendocino County Line - which by the way is a fine song by Willie Nelson. In this case I was on the Sonoma/Mendocino line near Cloverdale. Excellent stuff.

Last year I did a loop starting in Hopland Ca with my wife, we rode primarily Mountain House, 128, 253, and River Road. Mountain House Road, not to be confused with Mountain Home Road in Woodside, Ca., is an excellent cycling road. Ever since that day I wanted to go back and knit the road together with routes a little closer to home (though I will mention that riding CA-253 from Boonville to Ukiah is really really really cool. A climb followed by a descent that is in my all time top 10 descents - just steep enough, just twisty enough, butter smooth pavement).

Anyway, I left Le Tournesol in Healdsburg and headed North on West Dry Creek. I went over to Cloverdale on Dutcher Creek Road (top notch) and into Cloverdale on Asti Road. I cut east on Crocker, onto River and then *North* onto Geysers Road. (South is a wicked climb for another day). Geysers North from Cloverdale is a classic Northern California Road, along a river, slightly rolling. Good view of an interesting Railroad tunnel, and you can see 101 on a ridge above. Problem - Geysers dead ends into 101.

I rode 101 - Bike legal as it is the only road to Hopland here - all the way to "Old River Road" and into Hopland, a town that surely announces you are no longer in the Bay Area but truly in the beautiful strangeness that is Northern California. 101 was not bad here - the shoulder is great and there isn't that much annoying traffic. You just have to adjust to it.

Out of Hopland I rode Mountain House. This is a rocking road. A few miles of mostly upward rollers, then a nice tecnical descent down to the Mountain House itself, a strangely out of place estate in the middle of a valley in the middle of nowhere. From here you climb 2 or so miles to CA-128. Make sure you have water, it gets hot. I think it's 10 miles from Hopland to 128 and I saw exactly one car.

The last rise up on MH I really started to flag, but knew happily that it was mostly downhill to Cloverdale. The road is flattish for a bit, then a short quick descent, about 1/2 mile of sweet technical road, then it flattens out again. I figured I was in for a bunch of rollers all the way to Cloverdale. The next mile is very annoying, high traffic and marginal shoulders - 101 is much safer than this in reality. But then you come out to a very nice well paved descent, very technical and you can outrun most cars if you have nominal descending ability (my ability is at best nominal). This dropped me into Cloverdale at the World Famous Hamburger Ranch and Pasta Farm, where Jill and I had our Wedding Rehearsal Dinner (OK, there was dinner, but no rehearsal). I took a weenie out - I had the SC transit schedule in my pocket and took bus #60 back to Healdsburg.

The major problem was I didn't bring my camera. So instead, here is a picture of the harvest from the Peach, Plum, and Apricot trees at Le Tournesol.

Unfortunately we ended up with about 15 plums, and we fed about 200 of them to the bluejays, moles, and racoons. ^@%!$#%&^$#@!!!

Next year I will be ready with nets and be more knowledgeable about when harvest starts.

Visitor Parking

2008-07-07T11:04:00.000-07:00

I rode over to visit someone today at another local company. I pulled to the front of the building and looked for a bike rack. No dice. Some benches, might catch some crap for locking to that. I see the Security guy on this Segway looking thing, ride over and ask him about where the bike rack is. He has no idea - "Maybe in the parking garage on the other side of campus?" This is BS.

I ask him if I can just lock to a pole, he says "I don't care". I see a very good candidate - a BS Car Centric "Visitor Parking" sign. I'll show them!

Unfortunately I was so fixated on my anarchist "Stick it to the Man" bent by locking my frame to the pole that I neglected to think about what the bushes might be doing to my tire.

A very sad day...

2008-06-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend in Tahoe. I had my Seven with me but didn't get a chance to ride as we were doing a lot of painful errands. It was probably a good thing.

We got back around 1 PM and I got on the 1:07 Caltrain. Gotta love Silicon Valley. 15 minutes later I was getting off the Caltrain at Bayshore, there had been an "incident" at San Bruno. Given I had Cubs tickets for tonight work was a wash. Best to just ride home.

As I headed through Noe Valley I decided it was a good day to snap some shots at Bespoke Cycles, the new bike store in Noe. I could also ask the mechanic about a click I had been hearing in my bottom bracket. We quickly determined the problem :(

A very gnarly crack across the top of my bottom bracket. It actually goes around the back side of the seat tube - the mechanic spotted it from the opposite side of that shown in the photo.

Good thing it was found now and not while descending Kingsbury Grade.

RIP my friend.

Caltrain's Bicycle Master Plan Will Leave You Behind

2008-06-23T15:07:00.001-07:00

Caltrain's Bicycle Master Plan Will Leave You Behind
If You Don't Speak Up Now!

Due to the overwhelming success of Caltrain's bikes on board program, an increasing number of bicyclists are bumped every day as bike-cars quickly fill to capacity. Unfortunately Caltrain's Draft Bicycle Master Plan does not address present or future bike-car capacity needs. In fact, the plan does not even acknowledge there is a capacity problem. Instead, the plan focuses exclusively on improving bike parking at the ten most popular Caltrain stations. Dont take our word for it, review the plan yourself at: http://www.caltrain.com/pdf/bike_master_plan_key_findings_public_presentation_6-08_v2.pdf

Caltrain is Digging in Its Heels
Caltrain held three meetings in June to collect public comment. You can read bicyclists alarming accounts of these meetings at ...

http://www.sfbike.org/caltrain_bob

We need more voices to add to theirs!

Submit Your Comments by July 3
Submit your comments to Caltrain at bikeplan@caltrain.com and cc bikesonboard@sfbike.org to help the SFBC in its effort to work with Caltrain to draft a real Bicycle Master Plan (not just a Bicycle Parking Plan). Please spread the word among cyclists!

New bike?

2008-06-23T10:06:00.001-07:00

I eyed the blue giant commuter style bike as I prepared to detrain at Sunnyvale. Double sided pedals, flat on one side, SPD's on the other, with a WARNING sticker partially worn off inside the cleat position of the SPD. Not only no noticable scratches on the paint but it was pretty shiny. The cogs were all sparkling clean. The waterbottle in the cage had all of it's logo showing fresh, and
no grungy stuff inside. No stickers, etc...

I looked over the rider briefly, new shoes, new helmet. I could not resist and said "New bike?". She turned her head, looked at me, smiled, "Since Thursday".

It was nice to have a conversation on the train about something other than getting bumped... EDIT: I will go home and tell my WIFE about the new bikes I am seeing on the train, and there was a giant commuter bike that I should get HER because it looked pretty cool and would be good for knocking around Healdsburg when we go to OUR house.

Bogus

2008-06-18T10:23:00.000-07:00

I had a bogus morning.

Thursday I have stated that I am going to ride both ways to work - 45ish miles each way just to avoid the zoo that Caltrain is sure to be with free rides, publicized way in advance. Unfortunately that might be on the heels of riding all the way both ways today.

I told my wife last night that if we woke up early - and we've been waking up at like 5 AM every day lately as the sun blasts into our bedroom window, that I would join the Google ride down the Peninsula this morning. She said she was interested in riding after work, and I commented that I would be more than willing to ride in the AM and still ride after work with her, and I received general blessing to get up and ride.

I did inded wake up very early, but rolled around until about 6:10 then jumped up, frazzled. I needed to be out the door at 6:20, I threw on my kit and put whatever I needed into my messenger bag. I got to Ritual Roasters early enough to get some banana bread, but I discovered that I had left my wallet. I said hi to Trinh from Google, and dug an ancient emergency clif bar from my bag to get me started while I pondered a day without my train pass or money. I then also realized I forgot to bring the leftovers from GFC (Good Frickin' Chicken) that I had planned to eat for lunch, which would have been very handy on a day without my wallet.

Nobody showed but Trinh. This was a bad sign. Trinh has been showing storming form lately and I have not rounded into shape at all. This was shown early as we went over Cortland and San Bruno, but with those little rollers out of the way I humbly settled into 2nd wheel and hung on for dear life. He sat up a few times so we could chat about various roads I like to ride when I have some actual fitness - Skaggs Springs, Morgan Territory, etc... and I cursed that I was going to have to ride all the way to Google behind this monster - with no other riders I didn't want to abandon Trinh, and besides - I didn't have my train pass! One thing however - I could probably talk him into letting me load up at the Google Cafeteria, which would be very useful given that I was going to be in huge caloric deficit and had no money!

Shortly after Coyote Point, Trinh muttered something about "Going this way" where there is a fork in the path. I thought he had found some new route, I followed him and said "What's the deal?" He said "I'm peeling off in San Mateo". "New office?" I queried. "New Job". Ah. Great. Now I had no money, no train pass, and nobody to draft. Wonderful. I set off to slog on southward.

Let's see, what else. I got lost in Menlo Park trying to find the bike bridge to Palo Alto. I sat up a bit on Central so that I would meet a Caltrain at Mountain View and hope someone would emerge from the train that I could draft off of, no such luck.

On the bright side, I found 6 quarters in my desk at work so I could get a gatorade. I have no idea how I am going to get home, maybe my wife will meet me in Redwood City or somewhere for a ride and we'll (gulp) get in "her" car.

There - got my whining out of the way. If this is a "bad" day, I have a pretty good life. I did have my Ipod water bottle speaker thing going and was doing some good karaoke down the frontage roads in Menlo Park.

ADDENDUM. Opened my email.
"now I have a call scheduled for 5:00 pm....it will be better to just take it than to push it off to tomorrow." So much for a ride home - guess I will just have to ride my bike!

Caltrain Bike Plan meeting.

2008-06-16T15:10:00.000-07:00

I am going to the Caltrain bike Plan meeting tonight in Mountain View, 6 PM at 500 Castro St. This is about a 20 minute ride from my office. Caltrain will parade their bike master plan which includes all sorts of wonderful things like bike racks.

Irony - I will be leaving my bike in the office, taking the shuttle to MV Caltrain, walking,
go to the meeting, walk, train, MUNI. There is no way I'm leaving my $$$ Seven
locked up on the street for the duration of the meeting. While this clearly indicates I *can* get to/from work without my bike, it sucks. For the 6 PM meeting, I will get on a shuttle at 5:07 PM. This arrives MTV at 5:27, and I get to sit around. It takes me 15 minutes to ride - less time than the shuttle and no flexibility. Most people would take a little bit longer than 15 minutes, but the flexibility is key to keeping the idle time down.

Had I thought about that this AM I would have checked my bike at Warm Planet. Of course, I would have then skipped SB 220 and 322 and wasted 30 minutes to take the train that meets my company shuttle. These little things are the tipping point between a "reasonable" commute experience and one that completely sucks. My wrist was broken for 3 months in 2005, I was on MUNI and the shuttle for that time - I never got bumped from the train, but it was more miserable than being bumped.

Speaking of bumps - GGT 72X from Santa Rosa to SF bumped 7 passengers - sans velo - at Rohnert Park. There were a few seats open, but not 7. The waitees were gambling that there might be more room on the 72 arriving 5-10 minutes later. Good luck to them. The bus riders in Sonoma County are starting to get as surly as the Caltrain bikers, with no relief in sight.

In Wine Country

2008-06-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

My wife and I went to Healdsburg this weekend, as we do most weekends. We recently purchased a house up there that we are trying to rent out as a vacation rental. We really enjoy Healdsburg, it's a gorgeous place with a great mix of good wine, great food, fun events, and most importantly excellent cycling. The cycling drew me to the area, starting with 7 years ago when I did the "Terrible Two" - a very difficult 200 mile event that will be going again this weekend starting from Sebastopol and climbing 18,000 plus very steep feet as it explores Sonoma County. I will be taking a pass on the TT this year, but I'm getting in some good riding up in Sonoma.

This weekend was a lot of work - we have 13 or so fruit trees which are coming into fruit - Nectarines, Pomegranate, Pears, Almonds, and zillions of apples. We even managed to get 10 or so tomatoes to start fruiting in our vegetable garden - I'm trying to learn gardening so that we can have produce coming in most times of the year for our renters to pick. It's hard trying to figure it all out - we have table grapes that are fruiting but not nearly as much as the random grapevines on the fence. The question is - are those any good? To this city boy they might as well be poisonous if I don't know any better. Unlikely - but they might not be a variety that tastes good.

Anyway, after hours in the yard and fixing a broken faucet, we did get out for a ride on Saturday. We did a loop of Eastside and Westside roads (I think this is the east and west sides of the Russian River). Nice roads with low traffic and only a few rolling hills. Jill's a little under the weather so we took it nice and easy. On Sunday I broke free for a loop north of town, through the Dry Creek and Alexander Valleys, and over Chalk Hill Road - the bane of triathletes doing the Vineman Triathlon. This drops me into Windsor where I can return on Los Amigos Road. This picture is of the Dry Creek Valley just off of Lytton Springs Road.

Sonoma County has it all for cyclists. Beautiful winding roads, low traffic for the most part, awesome scenery, Bear Republic Brewery for post ride libations. I skipped the Racer 5 IPA as I headed home where my wife was being a good sport and had made dinner. We managed to integrate some of our garden - Cilantro from the garden for the Spanish rise, and Fresh Rosemary from our Rosemary Bush for the Chicken. Our Lavender is blooming like crazy and I read about someone making "Lavender Chicken" but my wife was cooking - so she made the rules and the Lavender was vetoed.

Montebello Road

2008-06-13T10:37:00.000-07:00

Ah - back to Cycling. Back to climbing.

I joined my friend Geoff and a couple people from bikeforums.net for a climb up Montebello Road yesterday. Ivan (also from Alto Velo) and Becky joined us at the last minute.

Montebello is an excellent training hill but I find it works better when you are in better shape (or at least have gearing that matches your shape). When I am not in top form, the 39/27 just isn't quite enough for the couple of steep sections at the bottom. I know I am going well when I can mow through that section seated. Not yesterday - I had to grind grind grind out of the saddle in more than a few spots.

The climb is 3 parts - 2 miles at the bottom which are quite steep and not a lot of recovery. Then there is one blissful flat mile which is also shaded. Then you pull out of the shade and climb at a little less grade for 2 miles - the last chunk has some steeper sections as you go past Ridge winery. There are a couple of stair steppy pitches towards the very end - when you can see the big American flag flying by the house at the top you know you've got it and can attack for the top.

It was super hot yesterday which did add to the misery but the bottom line - I need to get my diet started if I want to get the form turned around....

A new day...

2008-06-11T10:03:00.001-07:00

Yesterday my commute was not fun, as you can clearly tell. This was on the heels of Friday (fatality - this stuff happens) and Tuesday (mechanical). A new day, and I calmed down. I was bumped off the 7:59 from SF this AM, and I took it with my more regular simple resignation. My friend Joe had met me for that train and we decided to take the 8:19. He grabbed his bike back from Warm Planet (he detrains in Redwood City, the 8:19 only stops at San Carlos so he'd need his bike).

The 8:19, of course, had a mechanical. Given that the replacement train was bound to depart late, we tucked it in, re-checked his bike, and got on the 8:44 which would deliver him to Redwood City sans bike and me to Sunnyvale (closer to work).

I got so wrapped up in the bike capacity issue and the poor handling of it, that I got off track of the general concept that Caltrain needs some more funding - now. I definitely want them to get a little smarter - but the system is breaking down. In addition to 14 train cars going out of service, the number of mechanicals seems to have gone up lately (granted this is just anecdotal). They are squeezing everything they can out of their gallery cars in the promise of "electrification" - who knows if that will ever be funded.

Ridership is through the roof. There are stats from (I think) February that support this, but anecdotally I believe that it has gone way up in the last 4-5 months. February is a bad month to measure, the rain chases away not just the cyclists. If you take MUNI or VTA to Caltrain, rain is a good reason to "Just Drive". Capacity for special events (basically Giants games during commute hours) is completely maxed out.

The value to SF and the Peninsula of Caltrain is very high (in my opinion, anyway). It is attracting many new riders right now. The long time riders are putting up with the disruptions because we have already decided that we don't want to drive, for various reasons (can't afford car, hate to drive, environment). And even disrupted service now is substantially better than it was even 6 years ago.

The new riders however, are just being thrown over a tipping point, most likely for gas prices. I can't really vouch for traffic congestion since I haven't driven the 101 during rush hour for but I doubt it is at the level of the dot com days. Regardless, those new riders will react poorly to bad experiences. "We" need to keep those riders on transit. This means keeping the service level up to at least current standards.

Of course even if the trains run on time, there is the issue of how to get the riders on board. That is why bike capacity and handling that capacity cannot be ignored. The diehards will figure it out. Some buy folders. I am probably buying a used bike from Walt's and locking it up at Sunnyvale and praying it doesn't get stolen. I'm going to go to the Caltrain bike master plan comment and make sure Caltrain is acutely aware that bike racks won't cut it for most people because they cannot afford to have their bikes stolen. I saw a longtime cyclist on the train this AM, she had thrown in the towel and was going with a skateboard. That won't work for me - I'm too klutzy, and skateboarding down Central Expressway just doesn't sound too fun, let alone motoring through SF. But new riders are being turned off by being bumped, and if they try to drive, the parking is limited.

My worry is that throwing money at Caltrain might not do the trick, of course, but if Caltrain does need the money, it will take a while to get, the campaign should start tout de suite.

That said...

2008-06-10T16:26:00.000-07:00

I'm going riding with my wife tonight - RWC Caltrain at 5:25 plus however late that train is :(
Caltrain ranters on the peninsula feel free to join in for a rant fest! I'm rolling the Webcor colors per usual, slow tempo. When all fails - go for a ride!

EDIT: I did go on the ride, but I was late because I was bumped at Mountain View from the 5:03 train. I had to wait for the 5:37, and made it on but 10 others were bumped. That train then bumped 10 at Menlo, and 10 at Redwood City...

Caltrain is falling apart. My view on the 8:44

2008-06-10T15:36:00.000-07:00

Let's get right to the meat.

The 7:44 and 8:44 trains are a disaster. They are always late. This delays the 7:59 and 8:59. Why are they late? Dwell time is through the roof. Caltrain is surely blaming the cyclists. The conductors are surly. What is going on?

Gas prices have attracted a lot of new cyclists. The trains are packed. The new cyclists aren't really well vetted in the etiquette, they board and then block the vestibule, don't have tags, run to their bike at the last minute to de-train. These problems didn't exist as badly in the dot com era because with all trains stopping at all stops, the load was more distributed and people offloaded in pieces instead of all at once. And there was more padding in the schedule with all the stops. Caltrain, in my opinion could fix this stuff with some simple modifications.

The problem with the 8:44 is thus. It's loaded with bikes for PA and Cal Ave. And I do mean LOADED. This is the most popular train of all from what I can see. The previous train is a local to PA, and no other train stops at Cal Ave, a very popular spot. The next train stops at Menlo - some cyclists are smart enough to know that it's 5 minutes from Menlo to PA, but surprisingly most don't. I've seen PA cyclists bumped off the 8:44 wait for the 9:07 local! Or they go home and drive - even worse.

When the train gets to PA and Cal Ave, there is no way we can hit the dwell time. So many riders are getting off at PA that it takes too long. Also, riders from the other half of the split local are transferring at PA instead of Redwood City, because trying to board at RWC means you will get bumped. If you wait on the split to PA, and board there, you can get on because so many people are getting off. The train is still half full, mostly with Cal Ave bikes. The people boarding are mostly going to San Antonio and Sunnyvale, split local only stops. They can't rack their bikes because the outside bikes are all Cal Ave. The Cal Ave riders are now scrambling on because they know what a disaster getting off at Cal Ave is. So we get to Cal Ave and miss the dwell time as well. Disaster. This train is always 10 minutes late. I used to be able to set my watch by Caltrain. No more.

How to deal.
1) Do the needful to put 2 bike cars on this train EVERY day. I hear all the stories about rotation of train sets. This is a known problem train. I'm not saying put two bike cars on all trains. Just make sure there are 2 bike cars on the trainset that needs it. That is the 7:44 and 8:44.
2) Add Cal Ave to the 7:19/8:19 train. Cal Ave is a very popular stop that could use more service. I'd personally remove Menlo Park. Menlo has bullets before and after serving that population. Burlingame is another candidate. Even if the overall passenger demand for Menlo is higher than the cyclist demand, spreading the cyclist demand will get Caltrain back on time which is a win for everyone. Those who lost a train will adjust.
3) Either add a 9:14 SB bullet to PA, or switch the pattern of the 8:59 to go to PA instead of Menlo. Caltrain did all this analysis to select the bullet stops for the "A" pattern, yet they run 3 on the "B" pattern and 2 on the "A" pattern. I think the ridership and SB commute patterns would justify a 9:14 bullet and then run the 9:37 as a full local, just running the :07's as skip stop to San Bruno and the :37's full local.
4) Take advantage of the twitter feed that Ravi Pina has setup to alert cyclists to 2 bike car trains 30 minutes before departure. This is enough to sero-sort cyclists to the 2 bike car trains and spread the load.
5) For crying out loud, find the money to improve the electronic signage. The story I am told is that all signs must show the same message - they can't run individual messages. Who in the hell did they hire to do this job? Signboards like that were done as a senior project by 20% of my graduating class at Illinois - in 1986! They should be able to indicate what train is coming and what the bike car setup is. If the cyclists KNOW there are 2 bike cars, they can line up distributed and dwell time will be reduced. As it stands, the engineer holds up 2 fingers as he pulls into Mountain View, but it takes us forever to get to that train car because of the crowds on the platform, saving zero time.
6) BIKES BOARD/DETRAIN FIRST FROM THE BIKE CAR. This will get the non-cyclists to use the other doors. The nature of the bikes is that they back up in the vestibule which delays boarding. If all the cyclists were smart enough to board the rear first, it would not be so bad, but some don't know any better and some don't care (it's really nice to have your bike by the door when we arrive 22nd St at night, detraining there is a nightmare). This is a simple idea that I think would pay huge dividends. But all Caltrain can come up with is "ENTRY/EXIT" signs for the bombadiers that don't make one lick of sense and have been universally ignored.

This costs Caltrain very little money and would have huge impact, IMHO. Certainly with conditions improving, Caltrain would attract more ridership and much like widening the freeway, the problem could reappear. But to do nothing is ridiculous. I defended Caltrain tooth and nail for the last few years because I had seen them make big changes for the positive (24-32 bikes per gallery car, Baby Bullet I, Baby Bullet Reinvention) but they are sitting on their butts right now at a time when service is being demanded.

Some of these examples are specific. Some are not. None have made it into the tiny brains of the Caltrain staff, which I am now convinced is really into big capital projects (Ponderosa, Baby Bullet, Bayshore (waste) Station, new platforms at Burlingame, PA, Cal Ave) all of which have paid big dividends but could care less about simple things that would make service so much better. I almost doubt anyone working for Caltrain other than a conductor would even understand my analysis of the 8:44, let alone come up with it themselves. The conductors? Maybe 50/50. But they don't get to vote.

Opinions?

Caltrain is falling apart - History

2008-06-10T15:24:00.001-07:00

My beloved Caltrain has fallen and it cannot seem to get up.

Where to start. I've been a regular Caltrain user since I moved to SF in 1998. Back then, there were 24 spots per train on the bike car. The AM southbound schedule was 7, 7:05, 7:30, 8, 8:05, 8:30, 9, 10. That's right, after 9 AM - wait an hour. Bumpings of cyclists became rampant as the dot com ramped up and traffic on 101 got horrible. Somewhere around 2000 they went to 32 slots and this improved the situation, but the situation with bumpings resolved itself when the dot com went dot bomb.

Caltrain "reinvented itself" in 2004 adding the Baby Bullet service. This was mostly an addon to current service. It was nice when you could get on a bullet, but they made the silly decision for a 6:11 and 7:11 bullet - who works in Silly Valley starting at 7 AM? And these trains had only 16 slots for cyclists - making them not really an "express" in that if you wanted to take the train, you had to show up so early it wasn't any faster.

In 2005, they went to FIVE bullets each way and got rid of the 6:11 and added a second bullet pattern, including an 8:59 bullet. Now that is the Silly Valley Sweet Spot. We could travel in leisure and not worry about too many bumpings, especially for someone like me who uses SF and Mountain View instead of midline stops like Redwood City or Palo Alto. One concession, getting on at 22nd St is a pure gamble, and unlike back in the day when getting bumped just meant riding to 4th to get on the next train, the next train leaves so soon you can't make it in time. So you wait for the next train and get bumped again. Then the NEXT train doesn't even stop at 22nd. Get on at 4th, get off at 22nd on the way home.

In addition to the 5 bullets, there is a limited stop run that gets me from SF to MTV almost as fast as a bullet. The locals are a "split local", bad on one hand in that one doesn't stop at MTV, but the other one gets to MTV in an hour. The downside is that some stations are now infrequently served - down to once per hour for places like SSF and (inexplicably) Cal Ave. And if you are going from Belmont to Sunnyvale, you have to transfer - but while this sounds draconian, the run from Belmont to Sunnyvale is now *faster* than it used to be - because Caltrain removed the (rarely used) Atherton stop. Life was good, ridership was up.

Then gas went to $4 a gallon and it all went to hell.

Bike Shops

2008-06-09T14:11:00.000-07:00

I love bike shops. I can hang out in a bike shop for hours. And I like discussing the difference between bike shops. Different shapes, sizes, interests, good points, bad points. I won't always like the end result but the process is most of the fun.

There is a new store in Noe Valley, I walked in yesterday and checked it out. Review will be forthcoming. For now, 2 shops I use with some frequency.

Warm Planet Bikes - 4th/Townsend, SF. Operated by "Kash", someone whose writings I've been able to review on the sfbike mailing list (open with care, it's frequently off topic and there is plenty of ranting). The major plusses - opens at 7 AM, closes at 8 PM, and will VALET CHECK your bike for free! As a Caltrain commuter this place is a huge plus. Check your bike and take the train. Check your bike and have them work on it while you are at work. Flat on the way to the train? Having what you need at the train station is a big bonus. Kash's operation definitely is focused on the commuter. All the bikes in the shop are folders and there's no racks of spandex jerseys or Sidi Shoes. Look instead of fenders, locks, lights, racks. This shop is about using your bike to get the job done. The first time I went there I asked for a 700x23 tube, Kash replied "Presta?" I laughed - "Is there any other kind?" Of course there is but I definitely live in a Presta world. But Kash didn't have a 48mm stemmed tube! That has been corrected, but he doesn't have my favorite T9 lube (I just don't like Tri-Flow). This store is indispensible and I'll give them whatever business I can.

In Sunnyvale is Walt's. I used to *hate* this store. It was by the Caltrain, which was great to get a tube in a pinch but all the bikes were junk, the store didn't carry much useful stuff. I sort of thought they basically catered to 12 year olds and people who could not afford cars. A group that needs to be served, but I had not much use personally. Certainly I would not leave my bike to be serviced there.

What a change a few years can make. The shop has been remodeled, the bike range has been expanded, from low end utility bikes to high end road bikes. A much better selection of clothing, tires, helmets, tools, etc... I got my T9 lube there today. The best part? They have an *incredible* selection of used bikes.

There was a very cool old school Puegeot with downtube shifters, 7 speed for under $200. Raoul from the Caltrain tells me they have a "loft" with all sorts of treasures. All the bikes look to be in very good shape, if a bit vintage. Nice. Their service has upgraded very well, I highly recommend this store.

Multi-Modal Commute Madness

2008-06-02T15:33:00.000-07:00

My wife and I spend most weekends in Healdsburg, at a place we rent out to vacationers. We're just ramping up so vacancies mean nice weekends for ourselves. Usually we just stay up Sunday night, and in order to let my wife sleep to a decent hour, I ride out the door at 5 AM to start a commute to Mountain View.

Sonoma County bys #60 picks me up at the end of Limerick Lane at 5:10 AM, headed for downtown Santa Rosa. It has 3 bike racks. The 5 AM bus is definitely a thing populated by regulars. 2 guys from Healdsburg who have their bikes and must work construction somewhere off Shiloh Rd in Windsor. They look the type to be driving a pickup, not a hardtail MTB with panniers, but there they are, toolbelts and all. More likely a couple of DUI's than a couple of tree-huggers, but I won't look askance at anyone in the army. An older Asian woman who rides from Windsor to Santa Rosa, and transfers to Sonoma to volunteer at the hospital. My next door neighbor who I pass as she walks to the bus stop, flashlight on, on her 2 bus route to work in Sebastopol. Last week, a wrinkle - another cyclist! Third rack filled, I had to strap my bike in the wheelchair slot - at least SC transit allows this. This morning I chose to ride 25 minutes to Shiloh Road and board where the construction guys get off - of course one of them wasn't working today.

In Santa Rosa, it's GG Transit #72, a plush bus with room for 2 bikes in a sliding bike rack in the luggage bay. Luckily I've never been bumped - yet. This bus winds through SR, Rohnert Park, and Cotati, then expresses to the GG Bridge. I usually get off at Embarcadero and Bay, avoiding downtown SF's slowdown on the bus. Today, the locking luggage bay refused to *unlock*. I reboarded and said "I'll ride with you to the yard and we'll figure it out". After the last passenger got off at 2nd and Mission he said "let's try it here". We banged on it and finally dislodged my bike.

A sketchy ride down 4th St to Caltrain, where I waited in a huge line to buy my June Pass. The full up 8:44 bus to Sunnyvale. A 3 mile cruise to AMD. 5 hours! Ugh.

Normally this commute is 4 hours - traffic was awful in Sonoma and Marin today, and the luggage bay fiasco cost me 30 minutes in the end. We really need the SMART rail to pass, a bus isn't driving, but it still gets stuck in traffic. Not a big deal either way, I get a good nap on the way to SF, and breakfast and a paper await me for the Caltrain. And I was on my bike for 45 minutes. Beats the hell out of being in the cage.

Sub23OLH

2008-05-29T11:52:00.000-07:00

Went out with some friends Wednesday night to get a baseline time for Old La Honda. I wasn't sure how this was going to go, I told my friend Dan I would be happy to be under 24 (in true Sandbagger fashion). Knowing I was not on top form, I decided I would run out the first couple hundred yards in 39/23, then get into 39/27 where I belonged and stay there instead of blowing up in the 25. I kept that strategy until the 2nd Upenuf Road where I knew I could start blasting into the 25 and eventually the 23 for the last couple of shallow bends.

Time - 22:57

Have not weighed myself but I am probably around 210. Getting to 190 should be 2 easy minutes, and the process of getting to 190 should require enough training for another 50 seconds. 8 seconds can be had by jettisoning the pump and the water bottles :)

It's a good baseline to start with, back in 2001 I told myself I could but myself a Seven if I got under 22, at that point 24 was my record. So I am clearly not dead yet if I consider myself "out of shape" and am a minute faster than I was after 3 years of trying to figure out how to ride a bike (I bought my first road bike as an adult in 1998).

Pine Flat Recon

2008-05-27T10:52:00.001-07:00

There is a race called "Ross' Epic Hill climb" in a few weeks. Don't know if I can make it, but I have wanted to do the climb - Pine Flat Road - for a long time. Well, I still want to do it sometime...

Last year my wife and I were riding through Jimtown and decided to check it out, I told her I would ride up for 20 minutes and then come down to collect her. This past weekend we, along with my buddy TJ and his girlfriend Theresa, decided to go back up. Here is the recon...

At the bottom there is a sign that says "Windy road next 12 miles". I sort of hoped this included some gravel section that is not part of the climb proper. No such luck. You ride up a rolling gorgeous climb for a little over 8 miles, not very steep, several rolling/short downhill sections. You then hit a meadow - which I assume is the pine flat. This takes you for a mile or two, you do down a short steep downhill section and then it gets rough. Steep, then steeper. At this point I was riding with a woman from Santa Rosa I picked up on the climb, but decided to go back and find my cohorts. TJ was in the meadow and we headed back up. I saw my SR friend riding down and figured we were close to the top as we struggled up a very long steep section. She yelled "good luck!". Finally I came around a bend and it flattened out, but I could see in front of me an even worse steep section and could not discern where the finish was. I was shot from the prior 1/2 mile or so at 15% and didn't really feel like going after the 18% looking stuff in front of me. TJ and I decided to bag it and descended to Jimtown for snacks.

This would be a very rude awakening at the end of a race - I am sure everyone would ride the first 10 miles very hard, then BOOM.

Life back to normal.

2008-05-22T15:04:00.000-07:00

For 5 years, I rode from San Jose to Santa Barbara every Memorial Day weekend with a group of about 45 friends. Last year I went to the Giro instead, and didn't get my mojo back together for the trip this year. But I did manage to get up and ride from San Jose to Morgan Hill with them this morning. A good way to shake off the cobwebs from Tuesday, and a lot of perspective upon seeing a photo of David Ritter's post surgery stitches from his gnarly crash last week.

We rode down Camden/Almaden/McKean/Uvas, I returned via Oak Glen and back through Uvas. Nice riding but crazy wind. I rode with the front group a while and was doing ok but someone dropped a HR monitor and I got gapped going around him, just as the pace lifted. I closed the gap once, but the last 2 riders got gapped and I couldn't get around them due to a car passing. I don't have a 2nd gap close in my right now with that sort of crew. The "no car" photo is from Oak Glen Road, a very nice road around Uvas Resevoir.

I had to get a photo of a realtor I saw on Sycamore Road. There were a few things about the scene that amused me. A realtor driving a Prius? Realtors are very image conscious about their cars - I know from experience. So now the Prius is "accepted" amongst the realtors - at least in the Bay Area. Anyway, he was posting a "Price Reduced" sign on the for sale sign. This is in Morgan Hill, a bedroom community for the Silicon Valley, and out on Sycamore you can get all sorts of land for "cheap" but must suffer a hellish commute on 101/85 to get to work. Prices are being reduced in MH just like our friends out in CC County? Gas Prices? Prius driving realtor? I just found it an interesting juxtaposition. And you thought this blog was going to be about bike racing.

I certainly realized everything was back to normal when I approached a section that was narrowed to one lane while PG&E trimmed back some trees. I looked back and saw an SUV. I signaled my intention to take the lane and the driver signalled their intention to not allow this by hitting the accelerator. I backed off and flipped her the bird. Yes - things are back to normal, post incident.

I was hit today...

2008-05-20T22:42:00.000-07:00

A few times this year people have asked me what I was training for this season. I have always found that happily I can always answer this question "To be in shape". No specific race or event goals. I usually try to go to the Terrible Two, but I would hope to be in shape to do that event at any given time, at least in the summer. Somewhere around 30, I left behind trying to do well at some race and thus needing to do my workouts, to enjoying exercise on its own merits. Not to say I am not hyper-competitive, but there is a reason I don't have power meters or a computer on my bike. I just like to ride. Period.

This has come into play more now that I ride a lot with my wife - she is a good rider, handles her bike well, and is strong enough to get most places but we don't put the hammer down. I enjoy these rides as much as any in a fast paceline or up a steep hill.

However, I decided this year that I would put a goal in front of myself. Much like my Aussie compatriot Jonathan(known for his Tolstoy like messages as well) I decided I wanted to break 20 minutes on Old La Honda. My prior best - 20:41. My ace in the hole, I did that at 195 lbs. With a reasonable training load, if I could get down to 190, I would hit it easy. It's a good goal for me because it doesn't require training for a peak on a specific date, so the slings and arrows that work, life, injury, might throw at me can be accounted for.

I decided to open a blog to track this quest with a bit of personal ego by making it public. I put up a strawman first post, and was going to announce the quest once I settled a few things down so I could get a good baseline - a time up the hill, current weight, etc... This task slipped along as life got the better of me, though I have gotten in some riding.

Well, it starts tonight because if you wait too long, you never know when it might be too long. I met my friend Joe in Redwood City and rode up Edgewood Rd to meet my wife. I have ridden up this hill at least 30 times. There is heavy traffic but a very wide shoulder. I probably feel as safe on the upper slopes of Edgewood as I do anywhere.

Nearing the top, as Joe related some anecdote to me, and I laughed, I was thrown violently forward and to the right. I rammed into Joe and then it was over. I was standing over my bike but only in mild shock. Before I could even do a systems check I knew something was wrong, I watched the car driving away, heard Joe saying something about "Check this out" and carrying the passenger side mirror. I realized my right shoulder was sublexed and set about quickly getting it into joint before the capsule had even more time to get irritated. I then took stock.

I had been clipped by a Honda Prius going about 45 mph and didn't even go down. The rearview mirror put a nice scrape up my left thigh, I injured my shoulder ramming into Joe's backpack. I was riding at least 2 feet to the right of the white line, granted I was overlapped with Joe's rear wheel but still well on the shoulder. A second's inattention by a driver, perhaps assisted by gusts of winds in the canyon let her drift onto the shoulder. 6 inches more and I get hit by the right front fender instead of the mirror, and am most likely not typing this blog entry.

I walked up to the driver who had stopped at the first pullout. She was very upset, very apologetic, quickly offered all her information, told me to go to an ER (I skipped it, having been through this injury before - if it doesn't settle down overnight I'll get it looked at). Strangely I just told her thanks for stopping, got her information, said "please drive carefully" and we parted ways. I can get worked up for an entire day over someone who does something intentionally stupid on my commute to the train, this woman had just screwed up and she knew it, that was enough for me I guess. She's probably more upset than I am, thanks to the fact I am ok.

But now - game on. That hill is mine now. One more Coke tomorrow morning to settle my nerves and the race begins....

I am going to break 20 mins on Old La Honda this year, dammit.

2008-05-02T15:09:00.001-07:00