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.