Moving Indoors

After six long work days this week it was tough to get up and do the club ride. So I didn't. I lounged, browsed, stalled, read emails and thought about getting dressed to ride. Somehow I managed to have breakfast, coffee and waste almost six hours of the day...and it wasn't even noon. Now that I had wasted enough time to get in a long ride, I tried one of the things I stumbled upon while reading online forums.

One of the sites I visited made mention of another (yes, yet one more) site for cycling enthusiasts. http://trainerroad.com is for indoor cyclists on rollers or trainers. Obviously indoor training is not really all that necessary for someone like me that lives in Southern California but on this lazy Sunday morning I decided to give it a whirl.

I'm not a big fan of indoor riding because it takes a tremendous amount of concentration and because I get bored in no time at all. Of course, living in SoCal where we almost never have to use a trainer doesn't help since even on a lousy, rainy day there are still usually a few hours you can get to ride. It's not often I'm forced indoors, in fact it's more time pressure than weather circumstances that make me drag out the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine.

I've tried a few different programs in an effort to keep me doing what I should be doing to no avail. I've even tried watching action movies on one monitor and watching my workout on the other monitor. I almost completed a one hour workout but felt like I suffered ADD as I scolded myself for not being able to concentrate on one simple task for an hour.

http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/8672 is the link to the above screen shot.

All that said, the application that http://trainerroad.com designed seems to be the ticket. For once I can easily see my data on the screen along with the target data based on the workout I choose. The screenshot above shows the one hour workout, it automatically creates interval markers based on the goal and records my HR, speed, cadence and most importantly power (or in my case, the lack thereof). If you don't have a power meter the program will estimate the power based on the model trainer or rollers you have. Pretty cool stuff!

I have a wireless connection to my PC that picks up the signals, however you don't have to do it this way. You can simply hit play on the exercise and follow along however you want. These exercises can be power based or heart rate based.

Interestingly, you can drop videos such as http://sufferfest.com videos onto the trainer window and you can actually "chase" the pros. I haven't tackled this part yet, but I will; I just can't help myself when it comes to the latest technology challenges. I guess you could drop some porn in there... just kidding! It will be interesting to see if I can get some of the Tour de France recordings to play.

On My Soap Box

Whew! http://app.strava.com/rides/1904056 was a tough ride for me after my crash at the Cool Breeze. I didn't train and didn't ride very much in the last seven weeks, but I finished (albeit slowly). By the end of the ride it was more like just keep the pedals turning...

I completed the OC Gran Fondo on October 8 but probably won't do it again. With so many great roads in Orange County we rode almost 25 miles of bike trails that were narrow and had pedestrians on them. I passed one accident that happened at the crest of one of the may underpasses and at least two people were down with Santa Ana ambulances and fire/rescue on the scene.

After the Santa Ana River Trail portion, the climbing began. It certainly was an eye opener to hit Cannon at almost 10% from the north side after cruising for over 30 miles of nearly dead flat road. Then onto Santiago Canyon, Live Oak Canyon, Glenn Ranch, Saddleback Ranch and finally returning through Santiago Canyon in the opposite direction. This portion was 38 miles of very challenging climbing with very few breaks and was the best part of the ride. Just to make things tougher, the last part of Santiago Canyon had a significant headwind.

Even the descent of Jamboree was made tough by headwinds strong enough that you had to pedal downhill! After the mild ascent on Portola Pkwy the most annoying part of the ride began. The last fifteen miles was just riding around Irvine for the sake of accumulating miles. Traffic, traffic lights, go that way three miles, then turn around and go back on yet another bike/pedestrian trail. That's about 1/3 of the century on bike trails. Gimme a break!

And blame me for not reading before signing on the dotted line... One of the beneficiaries of the proceeds is the St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Irvine. It doesn't sit right with me that the Catholic Church with its millions of dollars (after all, they offered to buy the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove) and its issues with child abuse should be the beneficiary of any of my hard earned money. I'm generally not one to force my personal opinions out in public but this has been gnawing at me for a couple of days.

The OC GranFondo has potential since it seems I'm always traveling somewhere else to do a century. However, the route needs a lot of improvement. And what's the deal with two port-a-potties at SAG stops with one of them zip tied locked? This was the case at two of the SAG stops. There it is again... Gimme a break!

Thanks to Bianchi but also a big thanks to A Road Bike 4U and Bike Religion.

Who sang the Star Spangled Banner at the start? That was awesome!

Riding A Slow Bike

Drawn by the climate, six years ago Gaille and I moved to Southern California. Just like the song says, "It never rains in Southern California...", OK it rains at times but it's really not much in the scheme of things.
I could go SCUBA diving at will and I could ride my bike to my heart's content.  I started riding my bike more and more in order to get my legs stronger for SCUBA diving. Little did I realize that the relative ease of jumping on a bike and riding anywhere was going to become the deciding force to make my cycling take precedence over my diving. So now that I've crashed hard (my new frame is due here in two days) you would think I would go and enjoy some time underwater. NO!!!!!!!!!

My Raleigh C200, an aluminum bike that has been through the wringer a few times is back in use. Somehow, I've changed the chain once; and nothing else. The cables are rusted, the sprockets are torn up. Teeth are broken off the chainrings and the wheels wiggle more than a bowl of jello.

This bike was born with 700x32 road tires. I switched them to 700x28 tires and it made a huge difference when I moved to riding heaven here in Newport Beach and thought I could keep up with the big boys. What was I thinking? So I bought a Giant OCR Limited and my Raleigh was banished to taking up space on the bike rack.

Drawn by the temptation of some local off road trails in El Moro Canyon I switched to some 700x42 off road tires a few winters ago and away I went. Wow! Slipping and sliding along I managed to ride a couple of miles before realizing my tires didn't have nearly enough aggresive tread and besides being pumped to 80psi was a recipe for failure. Lowering the pressures substantially, made a huge difference and I was able to ride another 1/4 mile until the chain snapped.

Luckily it was virtually all downhill to the car and from there I went straight to the bike shop, bought a new chain which I promptly installed and went right back to the trail I had just abandoned. This time I made it to the top of the canyon and only had to walk three, short and wickedly steep sections. Many lessons were learned that day; too many to mention. However, the road beckoned and I was back on my road bike soon enough.

The Raleigh was relegated to the bike rack once again until last winter. This time I went to the bike shop and bought some 700x48 off road tires that could be ridden on the street. I rode the canyon a few more times that winter and once again the bike was on lock down at the bike rack.

It would still be sitting there if it weren't for my stupid mistake on August 20, as I rode my carbon fiber Giant TCR into the side of a mountain. DUH! And just like that the Raleigh was back on the road, and trail. It didn't complain, although I did. I have one road bike and it was un-rideable so the C200 would have to do. Luckily my Raleigh has no idea what I think of it, although I must admit that once again it did everything I asked and then some. Over the last couple of weeks, I've done road rides, hill intervals, sprints, dirt riding, you name it. Of course these things have been done a lot slower than on a road bike but they were done nevertheless.

I started to write this about a week ago but I got caught up in search for a new road frame so it's time to move on since the replacement frame arrived Sept 12.

Thank you Raleigh for making such a great bike. There isn't a part on this bike that isn't beat up. But there it sits waiting for whenever I decide it's time once again.

I Fall, Go Boom

On Saturday August 20, 14 OC Velo riders set out to do the Cool Breeze Double Metric Century.
Within 100 feet of the start a rider got a flat! That right there should have been the sign of what the rest of the day would be like.  Of course being a bunch of macho guys that can't see the forest for the trees we didn't see this sign of impending doom. Not being one to sit idly by as others work, I took Bob's wheel and promptly changed the tire. I think it took longer to dig out the thorn than to change the tube.

Another 12 miles and Lee got a flat. As I was helping change Lee's flat, Kurt got a flat. Oh boy, if only we could see the sign in front of our eyes. We finally got to the first stop in Ojai and within minutes were on our way to the second stop alongside Lake Casitas. After the climb to Ojai, these were flyer downhills that quickly brought the average speed up to some real numbers. After Lake Casitas the road turned upward again and John got his first flat.

I commented that I wanted to take a picture but ran out of film... little did I know that John's ordeal with flats was far from over. After a few laughs about needing more film we headed off once again. We finally met in Carpinteria for a good rest stop. We had all agreed this was the point the club members would separate from each other as the faster guys were going to be substantially faster as the day wore on.

John, Lee and myself set off for the last real big climb. In true fashion, I fell back as we started off. Whenever I come to an extended stop it takes me a really long time to loosen up and get going again. I was slowly catching John and Lee when I came around a corner and there they were just starting to change John's second flat. After a few laughs that weren't nearly as big as the first time around, we changed out the tube and motored on once again. At least now came the fun downhill. I live for the downhill adrenaline rush!

Click the picture to enlarge

Well sure enough, I had too much adrenaline coursing through my veins. A series of mistakes within the matter of a second or two and I was doomed to fail at navigating a tight left hander. At left, is a Google Earth shot of my impact with Mother Earth. Somehow I realized my impending crash and I planned rather well in a very short period of time.

Realizing my fate, I opted to go straight into the side of the mountain and decided to lift my front wheel as far as possible to lessen the angle. Yeah right! I slammed into the dirt berm at a high rate of speed and immediately went from 30 to 0 in nothing flat. I distinctly remember hearing a loud snap and then I went over the bars. I guess because I was holding onto the bars my arms didn't extend out in time. That ended up being a good thing as I would have probably broken an arm, wrist or maybe a collarbone.

Life slowed to a crawl; no, slower than a crawl. I was launched toward a nasty looking dead branch that was perched a few inches off the ground. Realizing the branch was about to impact my larynx I held my head up as high as I could and I did a "belly flop" into the side of the mountain. Two inches of dirt and earth material swirled around as I stood up. Actually it was more like JUMPED UP! I was alive and I shouldn't be. My first words were, "I should be dead", my next statement was "My larynx should be broken". Briefly, I flirted with death, but ended up cheating it. I am one lucky guy for sure. The crash into the side of the mountain left virtually no marks, a small bruise under my chin, a few scrapes on my arms and shoulders and a sinking feeling in my chest.

Click the picture to enlarge

Within seconds John and Lee stopped and asked all the pertinent questions, but my only concern was my overwhelming need to get right back on the bike and keep riding. That's a throw back to my car racing days. It was stupid then and it was stupid now.

I did get right back on that bike with its massive cracks that wended along the top tube, steerer tube and downtube. This was serious. John and Lee hung back and watched me wiggle down the road. They must have had some interesting discussions about how to stop this madness. Somehow with the Grace of God I made it to the next rest stop which was almost 12 miles away. My bike rode like a weeble wobble toy that we played with as kids. Everytime I pushed on the pedals the front end would go one way and I spent that entire 12 miles counter steering to keep the bike straight. I couldn't even use the front brake for fear of shearing off the entire front of the bike.

At the rest stop I proffered to quickly get some water and ride on. Thankfully (though not so at the time) Dave knocked some sense into me and convinced me to give it up and not be stubborn. It actually took quite of bit of cajoling to get me to throw in the towel. However, I have to admit Dave was 100% right. I was an accident looking for a place to happen and there were certainly enough opportunities that would present themselves.

A volunteer from Channel Islands Bicycle Club offered to bring me back not only to Ventura but to actually bring me to my hotel. Thank you Hector, us Puerto Ricans need to stick together this side of the Rockies. Someday I hope to repay your generosity though certainly not in the same manner.

There is a slight advantage to getting back before most of the riders; there's plenty of empty stools at the bar.

Kidding aside, there was another major incident on this ride toward the last few miles of the ride. One of the OC Velo members took a hard fall and had to be transported to the hospital. I won't write more than that because I don't know his status at this time and I'll wait for him to write his own story. Let's all hope that he is home and healing before long.

Lastly, this was the day of flats and incidents. SIX FLATS among four riders, one person transported to the hospital and my broken bike made for a day fourteen OC Velo riders will never forget. I wonder how many of us are planning next year's ride. I for one am ready to sign up right now.

Good Progress Bars

Sometimes I lose focus and perspective. I've done tons of rides throughout the year and I noticed that just prior to the Tour De Palm Springs in February I did some short hard intervals on Superior Blvd near home.

I completed that event in under six hours so why change a good thing. Today, by design in that I planned to do the same exercise and by sheer coincidence in that I did the same number of reps, I hit Superior Blvd again with all I had.

Whoa! I felt pretty good for the entire activity but didn't realize the progress I made until I got home and downloaded the ride data.

Below is today's effort. Time to complete the thirteen intervals was 23:23 and as you can see was 27:08 back in February. To compare apples to apples is always a challenge. In February I wanted to maintain a lower wattage level, although I was pretty close to my max. Well, the same goes for today. I managed my efforts although I specifically planned on "kicking it up a notch".

So now I have a pattern, and a good one at that. One leg opener ride on Friday morning and that's it. Come Saturday morning, August 20, 2011, fourteen other members of OC Velo and myself will tackle the Cool Breeze Double Metric Century. Whew, that's a long name; then again it's a long ride.

Raising The Bar

I'm not a very powerful cyclist, I'm more like the little engine that could; I motor along at a reasonable pace for a ridiculously long period of time. The diesel engine that goes and goes, the Energizer bunny though I prefer DuraCell batteries. The...never mind.

After months of training and some concentrated effort,s I've raised my FTP from 210 watts to 220 watts. Oooooh! Well to me it's a big deal. Yesterday I rode to work and was within a few seconds of my absolute best time, which was with a significant tail wind. Yesterday's ride to work had virtually no wind effect so it was me, not Zephyrus pushing me along. And I arrived winded but not ready to fall off the bike like the last time I

Here's screenshot from the iBike software showing the effort. This is smoothed to 5 minutes which does a better job of showing the big picture.

Solid 

Today, Sunday the 14th I did a fairly hard ride with some friends. It was my last big effort before the Cool Breeze Double Metric and "things" have come together nicely. I did a hard ride, but didn't feel like I needed a day off afterwards and my heart rate stayed reasonably low. I'm ready. My best 30 minute effort came fairly late in the ride (see below) and that's a good sign.

A SportTracks screenshot showing my best 30 minute effort.

A recovery ride for the August 15th, some high intensity short intervals on the 17th and a short ride to open up the legs on the 19th.

Then it's showtime! My companions and I are starting out at 6AM and will probably be on the road for 8 hours of riding. After all, it is 130 miles including the ride from the hotel to the ride start and of course the return. Barring a disaster, I'll put up a report next week.

Cool Breeze Double Metric

It's coming!

On August 20th I will be attempting my first double metric century. It will actually be a bit more because we're riding to the start of the Cool Breeze Double Metric from the Marriott about 4 miles away. Total mileage should come in at about 128 miles. Whew! I say we're, and I mean the dozen or so members of OC Velo that have made this great event a club favorite.

I mapped out the course on BikeRouteToaster, my favorite way of mapping for upcoming rides. BikeRouteToaster has limited advertising and shows full screen maps. Its directions are spot on as are the climbing and time to finish estimations. You can't search for rides other people have planned out but you can keep a nice portfolio of your past and future rides.

For 2010 I did the century ride for the second time. While challenging, it wasn't really tough so I was challenged by a fellow club member to do the double metric. Come to find out nearly all the members riding the event (about 10) will be doing the double metric. Now that's peer pressure.

I've been riding quite a bit, building up a good endurance level and I'm finishing off the last few weeks with some high intensity intervals. There's no magic to successfully completing a long ride like this. Stay hydrated, eat properly and maintain an even pace for a seven hour ride. No jack rabbit starts, no racing for the City Line sign. The week before the event I'll taper a bit then I should be ready.

SHOULD BE. Training for a long event with the time constraints of work and life can be a real challenge. I'm very fortunate that my wife supports me 100%. After working hard all week I don't get a bunch of honey dos; I get quizzed as to my planned rides for the weekend. A guy can't ask for more than that.

Below are the elevation profile with about 6700' of climbing and a map of the area for the Cool Breeze Double Metric. It looks really tough but in reality most of these climbs aren't too difficult. The average grade for the bigger climbs is in the 4% range. Of course, like any other climb, there are sections that will reach into the 8%-10% range but these should be relatively short. It will be interesting to compare this projection to my actual climb data after the ride. I'll report back after the event.

The elevation chart for the Cool Breeze Double Metric.

The Cool Breeze Double Metric starts in Ventura, enter Ojai Valley then works its way over to Santa Barbara, eventually returning to Ventura via Hwy 101.

Face It, Intervals Have A Purpose

I've gotten into a rut recently that I didn't even realize it was happening. With long work hours, I'm generally pretty exhausted by the time I get home. Sometimes I ride to work and back, but that's 18 miles each way. It necessitates getting up by 4:30AM to be ready to go at 7:00AM. Leaving at 5PM to ride home makes for a very long day and the ride home is more a chore than a pleasure. But I digress, again.

I realized that I was just doing long steady state rides and not mixing things up with intervals of any kind. It shows in my riding as I can ride for 5-6 hours at a time and hold a reasonably good constant effort. However, the first hill I get to, I get spit out the back on group rides or if I'm alone I simply go into my comfort zone of lower L4 zone.

A friend in Ohio encouraged me to mix some intervals into my training rides. I knew he was right, I knew all by myself this was the right thing to do, but somehow I kept on talking myself out of hard intervals. It was too late, I was too tired, I had to get up early... anything but I had to just do the darn things.

I hadn't ridden since Sunday due to long work days so as I pedaled away from home there was an enormous sensation of stiffness as my legs just didn't want to cooperate. I forced myself to climb Superior up to Hoag Hospital and that helped for sure. Then somehow as I headed up PCH for the Santa Ana River Trail things started to come together. I did my first interval and had quite a bit of soreness but the ride back to the start spot for the second interval went smoothly.

As they say, "Carry On". Seven intervals later I had a tremendous sense of accomplishment and still felt pretty darn good. Here's the ride in Strava



And here's some power detail as seen in SportTracks.

SportTracks and its Almost Unlimited Resources

SportTracks is a pretty amazing program. It allows and encourages people to create plug-ins which expand the usability and versatility of SportTracks.

For example, I import my iBike files directly with a plugin created by http://mechgt.com/st/. This developer has also created plug-ins for training planning, training load analysis and many more. Here's a screenshot within SportTracks that shows the bike speed and relative wind speed. This is from the actual wind speed data as recorded by the iBike, not an approximation from weather stations. Of course, you can zoom in to any one section for more detail.

There is also a very powerful plugin called Training Analysis from Old Man Biking (I love the name) . OMB as he is affectionately known has created numerous plugins for many different purposes. Far too many to mention, be sure to browse his website and give some of them a try.

Here's a chart that shows me getting very close to my maximum heart rate on the last repeat. I hit 178bpm which is just 3 beats shy of my max. At that point I called it a day since one more effort would probably have gotten me half way up the hill and waving a white flag. As you can see I'm not very strong, but my focus isn't as much on strength as it is on health. But that's for another day.

Below is a graph overlaying power on a 16 second delayed heart-rate graph. You can see from about mile 48 to 54 my HR start to gradually climb as my power holds fairly steady or even decreases slightly. Yes, I was slowly tiring and working harder to produce the same power.

I'm a data hound as you can tell. I like looking at big pictures and learning from all the data thrown at me. Today's technology allows us to do things we couldn't have imagined even a few years ago. And through all of that I have to constantly remind myself to "SHUT UP AND PEDAL!"

Sharing Rides Can Be Humbling and Rewarding

Many cyclists talk about this ride or that ride and generally brag about how strong they felt doing some intervals. They, myself included rank a ride and think, "That was so good, I doubt anybody could have beat me up that hill."

And then along came Strava. In a unique mix of cycling analyis and social networking Strava has hit a home run with a fine balance. Not too much info where it gets boring, and not too much socializing lest we forget why we uploaded in the first place.

Here's a ride I did after work a couple of days ago. Overall, the ride was one of my better ones because I kept on pushing myself heading home. It's that horse going back to the barn syndrome. However, my two hard efforts fell short of my best effort and of course I'm dreadfully slow compared to some of the really strong riders in this neck of the woods.



I upload my ibike files to Strava or you can upload Garmin files directly. If you need some help uploading files to Strava, or just have questions just shoot a comment over. For those of you with smartphones Strava has both an Android and iPhone app that uploads automatically to their website. Cool stuff.

Of course with an iDash from Velocomp you can upload your data with power info. It's the best of data analysis and cool factor all in one.

But What About The Bubbles

I've posted a couple of cycling stories but nothing about my SCUBA adventures, mainly because I haven't been diving much lately. It's no one's fault but my own really.

I've seen some amazing things underwater, especially at night. I need to get back into it and I may have to talk myself into going diving more often than a couple of times a year. The Southern California coast offers excellent diving both right off the coast, the Channel Islands, oil rigs and even some challenging ship wrecks.

There's no doubt I'm a warm water diver, who isn't. But I don't have issues with colder water until it drops below 50F. That's where I draw the line. So I guess I need to replace the underwater lights that were previously stolen and get my butt down to the shoreline. Somewhere there are critters waiting to be spotted in the most unusual habitats.

Can you see me now? Catalina Island at about 110ft of water.

My air tanks are full, are there any excuses left?

One Thousand Feet At A Time

Why on earth would someone climb the San Gabriel Canyon Trail from Azusa, CA to Angeles Crest Highway? Easy, there are gates blocking you from experiencing the lure of stunning scenery, difficult yet rewarding climbs and heart stopping descents. Of course you have to go!

These pictures are a compilation of six or so trips to the top of San Gabriel Canyon. My first trip to the top was in April 2010 with John Corta and Victor Boradora. These guys are the typical skinny cyclists every clydesdale like me fears and loathes.

Below, it's a shame some of the elevation signs have been stolen because there's a tremendous sense of accomplishment when you see one coming up and then just ride right past it.

Only the beginning...

The air is going to start getting thin real soon.

This one is special. Only one more marker and that one's been stolen. The crest is at  6600ft.

The view from 5000' looking back.

At 6000' we had to tiptoe through a rockslide, though no worries.
It was all good after crossing 25 yards of freshly cracked mountain side.

Somehow I've never taken a panoramic shot from the top of Angeles Crest. It's stunning because to the east you can see clear across the high desert to Victorville and beyond. Walk to the other side of the road and you can see the steel and concrete of Los Angeles and if you're lucky you might get to see Catalina Island.

On July 15, 2011 I made my most recent climb with a relative newbie. Guy wanted to go to Crystal Lake which is open to the public. Yes, San Gabriel Canyon road is now open to within 4 miles of Angeles Crest.  Hopefully the last part will be finished before California runs out of money as this is one of the most beautiful climbs in Southern California.

No Flats

After replacing two tires within 55 miles because of a massive cut from glass, today's ride was a pleasure. Considering that my training load is very negative, I was actually able to increase my CTL while not making my TSB more negative. Now to maintain that balance. Two climbs up Newport Coast with the second one pushing fairly hard (for me). http://app.strava.com/rides/956073# shows the ride. Here's the profile from SportTracks, one of my favorite analysis programs.

The Cool Breeze Century is about a month away and I plan on doing the double metric (125 miles). That will be my first attempt at that distance and I'm clearly focused on the task at hand. I sure hope my riding partner for the Double Metric, Lee Berman is as focused as I am. It seems that lately he spends more time at Disneyland than anything else.

But I digress. Actually, I'll end it here. Lots more interesting stuff to write about another day.

No Bubbles

It's been quite some time since I've been diving and it's my own fault. Two years ago both my UK Light Cannon dive lights were stolen. It happened on a trip to Cabo San Lucas and more than likely one of the TSA employees took them out at XRAY. Unfortunately, I didn't notice the lights were missing until two days after arriving as I prepared for my first dive. Too late according to American Airlines, you have to file a claim within 24 hours.

To this day, the thought of having to go out and buy two more dive lights (OK, at least one and a small backup) bothers the daylights out of me. The only other thing I ever had stolen was a Ford Bronco that looked just like OJ Simpsons at about the same time that drama was playing out. Maybe that was a blessing, not a loss.

I've gone diving since then, but only occasionally. I'm brooding and need to get over it. Maybe posting about it will release me, nothing else has.

What Else? My First Posting

Late to the party am I, yet here I am all dressed up not knowing what to do next.

Maybe I should have been better prepared, but for what?

So I need to ride my bike and don a SCUBA tank or two.

They both go places, although not all that quickly in today's hurried world.

I guess that's why it took so long to get to the party.