Still on the steep part of the learning curve

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

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

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.

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

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

A few days off

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...

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.