Long weekend, a few rides

The long holiday weekend allowed me to do more riding than usual. Friday and Saturday I went out riding around town. The winds were kicking up so the SART was not possible with the TT bike. The road bike would have to do.

Today I rode up GMR which I haven't done for a few months. It wasn't pleasant. Although it never really is since it's pure climbing. I was happy to see that my ride time was only a couple minutes off what it was about 4 months ago. I'm going to start riding GMR at least twice a month. The climbing will help me with strength training for my TTs.

We have arrived

Mike and I left home around 7 in the morning Thursday. We got to Phoenix 5 hours later. We stopped in Phoenix so I could see my cousin Tiffany. We don't see each other very often but talk and text message in the interim. Tiffany is probably the family member I'm closest to and the main reason being is because she's around my age and I don't have to put on a different face when I'm around her. I can just be me. She's excited to be graduating school in a month. Fun stuff, I wonder what it feels like to NOT have your face buried in books after work. I'll have to ask in a month. =) We arrived in Tucson about 4:30 pm, picked up our packets, bib numbers and swag.

It's windy as heck today. I want to say the wind is blowing around 20 mph. I hope the wind is absent tomorrow otherwise 80 miles is going to be a PITA. Alex never showed today. He is registered to participate but backed out last night when his brother flaked on him. I'll just summarize my feeling about this as irritated and leave it at that. It's no surprise to any blog readers that Alex has been flaking for one reason or another for months now. I know sometimes things are unavoidable but it gets old trying to include people and things keep coming up.

Tucson or bust!

I got the car mostly packed this evening for the drive to Tucson tomorrow. I'm stopping in Phoenix for a couple hours to see my cousin Tiffany on her lunch break. That will be nice. She's really the only family I talk to on a fairly regular basis aside from my parents.

My chest and shoulders are still aching from the gym on Monday. I was stupid to mess with my pre-race routine. I knew better but obviously had a total lack of good judgment. I hope all is fine for Saturday. It's one thing to sit on a bike, it's another to try and get out of the saddle rocking the bike back and forth with sore shoulders and pectoral muscles.

Departure time is between 7 and 7:30 tomorrow morning. I've gone over my list 3 or 4 times and it looks like I have everything I need. I will have my laptop with me so I will be able to communicate throughout the remainder of the week until I return Sunday afternoon.

Time for bed.

Typical Saturday update

No news about Brynne. I haven't seen her and nobody has called regarding her whereabouts. At this point I'm convinced someone took her in. People keep asking me at work and whatnot if I've heard anything or seen her. I realize people care and genuinely want to know about her. My problem is that I've internalize the whole thing the entire week. I've beat myself up about it the entire week. I took her off the street as a 10 week old pup and in less than a year and a half my complacency put her back on the street. The only way I've found to put my own mind at ease is to convince myself that at this point and until I hear otherwise, she's safe and loved in someone else's home with a warm bed and plenty of love and affection. If I hear anything, I assure you I will let you know.

I took the TT bike down to the Santa Ana River Trail this morning. In Claremont the wind was as calm as could be. When I arrived down in Orange County, the wind was a whole other issue. I would say it was blowing at a constant 25 mph. I tried riding for about 30 seconds and said to heck with it. I'm not getting blown off my bike with the disc wheel on the back acting like a sail. I packed up and went home. No wind back home still.

Apparently, later in the day one of the areas of the river trail was overcome with fire or smoke. I've heard that the Green River area was under mandatory evacuation. I'm glad I decided to come home.

I did a 20 mile ride today. Mostly the same route I take during the week. Tomorrow I may ride up Glendora Mountain Road in the morning. Next Saturday is El Tour de Tucson so I want to squeeze in miles and work before I have to be off the bike to rest.

I decided to join the local 24 Hour Fitness near my work. I'll be going and meeting one of the guys I work with. Gym days will be Monday through Thursday at 5 am for an hour workout. Yep, that means I'll be leaving the house at 4:30. My folks will likely just be arriving at work as I roll out of bed 3 hours behind them. I'm at the weight now (183 lbs.) that going to the gym to tone will show results very quickly. It will also strengthen my riding too which will be nice.

New shoes another personal best!

Ah HA! So that's how Dawn modified her posting date! =) Good to know that kind of stuff for when I want to post one day but am unable until later.

Mike, Alex and I all headed back down to SART again today. It was a nice morning. Unusual for late June I must add. The weather was cool and very overcast - a perfect day for riding!

There's not a whole lot to write about really. I felt really good on the bike. I've been keeping up with the whey protein after every ride I do. I feel I'm recovering faster so that is surely a good thing. I purchased new shoes. Now that I'm racing monthly, the Tri shoes I had were sapping power from my pedal stroke so I purchased a pair of Specialized Pro Carbon road shoes. I found them at a really good deal which makes them even sweeter. The shoes are so comfortable. I really was shopping for a shoe with a click strap to hold my foot in the shoe. When using the Tri shoes I lose power on the up part of my pedal rotation since they one have 2 Velcro straps and the leather is naturally somewhat elastic. The strap on the new shoes will hold my foot in place eliminating the power robbing elasticity. The carbon fiber mesh sole is also an added plus over the carbon composite sole on my previous shoes. I felt the difference right away as my downward pressure on the pedals seems more even and less effort.

I did break another personal best for the SART. Last week I set a new record at 1:54 - 3 minutes faster than I was doing before. Today, I finished the ride in 1:50 which is an average speed of 22.4 mph. Going into the ride, all I wanted to do was repeat the 1:54 time to show myself it wasn't a fluke or just a really really good day. In no way did I expect to beat it - let alone but such a significant amount of time.

Next goal? 1 hour 45 minutes! That's something that will take awhile I'm sure of it!

Riding on a whim...

I woke up this morning and watched a little TV before going out in the back yard with Brynne and changing the oil in my car. It was getting pretty toasty at about 8 am. After Brynne had her fun jumping in and out of her kiddy pool and doing laps like a crazy silly dog I finished the oil and headed back inside. It was 9 am and the A/C already had to be turned on since the house was so stuffy and retained much of the heat from Saturday's 106 high.

I decided to ride out as far east in Rancho Cucamonga before I entered the next city. About halfway out my saddle adjusted itself and the front came up uncomfortably. I pulled over, adjusted the seat and headed off again. I hate aluminum splines. The splines have worn themselves down over time somehow and I need to replace the seatpost. It's my road bike and I still ride it often enough that this will have to be done sooner than later. I got to the turn around point in Rancho and started working my way back. It was getting very hot out and none of the ride had any shade. I got 3/4 of the way back and used up all the water/electrolyte drink I had taken with me. When I got home all I could think of was getting a protein smoothie made and into my system to cool my core temperature down. Everything was fine, I just rode a little harder than I probably should have all things considered. Mike kids me that I don't know how to just ride leisurely. I always ride at the very least, a moderate pace.

I was surprised I felt as good today on the ride as I did. My body didn't seem to need any further recovery from Saturday's best time. I'm convinced the EAS protein powder I'm consuming after rides is really giving me that extra bit I need for total recovery.

Totally exhausted

Mike, Alex and I all headed down to the Santa Ana River Trail (I'm just going to start abbreviating this SART from now on) to ride 40 miles. The first 5-6 miles were hard for me. My quads again, were just on fire. I pushed on with the moderate pace and there became a point where everything felt comfortable. Cadence felt great, effort level felt great, I felt fantastic. The power meter was being flaky. I think the power sensor moved out of adjustment enough that it read intermittently. It's possible the battery may be suspect too. Since my chainstay is traingular shaped and the sensor sits on the peak of the triangle it's a precarious position.

On the way back up, as we passed the golf course (roughly 8 miles out of 20) I started feeling the lactic acid accumulate in my legs. Fatigue was setting in. I wanted to sit up and take a break so bad but knew that if I did that, I would lose any gains I would make by continuing at the current pace. I found some place to put my mind...some happy place or just more focused and determined and pedaled on sustaining the effort level.

Regardless of having power and cadence for the ride or not I still had time. Alex clocked 1:57 for the total ride and since we rode over to the bathrooms and water fountains down PCH I can take 2-3 minutes off the ride time. This leaves me with a total time of 1:54 - 1:55 which beats my previous best of 1:57.

I'm really excited to see the jump in performance. I wonder if I hit the next level or if taking the protien supplement after rides during the week has helped enough to be recovered for SART. Now if I could get my legs to stop throbbing with fatigue I'd be very happy. =)

The most surprising thing out of today was seeing Mike hang with us all the way down to PCH and finishing only a few minutes behind on the way back up. His personal best is now in the range of 1:57ish. Way to go Mike!!!

Santa Ana on Sunday, local ride today

Rachel and I went down to the Santa Ana River Trail Sunday. She did her 10 miles and I did my 40. My average speed was up half a mile an hour. Riding hurt at first like I wasn't recovered from Saturday's VO2 Max test. I'm not sure why I felt like my quads were on fire but I motored along and dealt with it until it went away. Perhaps it was just that after my VO2 Max test I couldn't pedal to cool down because the computer needed me still to calculate recovery time so I began cramping as the lactic acid kept building up but for a short time and couldn't go anywhere. In any case, whatever the reason I averaged a faster pace than previously so I'll just be happy with it. My previous pace average was 20.7 mph whereas this weekend's pace was 21.2 mph. Not bad especially considering the headwind down to the beach was a bit of a butt kicker.

Today I rode 22.9 miles around town. It's a decent little route. It's listed as "weekly longer route" on the right sidebar. It's funny how things tend to go in life sometimes. Yesterday I called my dad to wish him a happy Father's Day and we got talking about cycling, weather extremes and why people are compelled to drag their bodies through extreme heat and/or humidity...much less without causing injury to themselves because of it. I told him that any cyclist knows that as long as they hydrate and take in the appropriate amount of electrolytes and other fuels our bodies require and are physically fit enough to ride in weather extremes can do while keeping injury risks minimal. Yesterday we talked a bit at length about it as my dad was in disbelief and awe about the physiological capabilities of the human body and today I was out riding a pretty good pace in 99 degree weather. It's mildly entertaining how things in life work out this way.

As a side note, I've started mixing in whey protein with my OJ, banana, strawberry and blueberry smoothies after I ride. The extra protein after rides should aid in better and hopefully faster recovery times.

It's a little after 9 pm and I'm exhausted so I'm turning in. Good night!

New blog features and latest news

Lately I've been thinking about attaching a gadget to my blog page with direct links to ride routes I do. I've also been looking at the potential of recording routes and stuff via helmet cam. Although the helmet cam idea would be something I wouldn't be doing for some time.

Monday, Mike and I rode our short route after he got off work and as we came up on one of the intersections another idiot decided it was a fabulous idea to stick his aluminum crutches 3/4 of the way out the window of his buddies car as we approached. Mike almost ran into them and so did I. Some choice words were given to the ________.

I've thought about using a helmet cam on every road ride I do after Mike (my house mate) literally was run off the road and into a street sign Wednesday afternoon. I was about 20 yards behind him and saw a Scion xB with 3 teenagers whip around a left U-turn right in front of him causing him to take evasive maneuvers or collide with this vehicle which had no intention of yielding let alone stopping. Once I saw Mike was ok (he managed to stay on the bike), I sprinted across Puddingstone Dam to catch these guys but they simply didn't slow for any turns they were taking and split quicker than you can say "freakin' idiots!". The dam crossing is nice because I can hit 30 mph on the bike no problem since it's so straight and flat. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough. A helmet cam would have captured the incident and license plate of the vehicle so we could have turned it in to the local police department. I really hate idiot people behind the wheel of thousands of pounds of steel. What more can you expect from high schoolers out for the summer with their license and a new car I suppose though? sheesh

I did indeed earn my Associates degree at the end of May. I finished with a cumulative GPA of 3.86. I decided I only wanted to take one month off so I start classes again July 2.

Saturday I will be going into LA to get a VO2 Max test done so that I can know exactly where my limits are to start targeted training for time trials. I'd like to knock 3 minutes off my time within the next 6 months if possible. That would bring me to a 20k TT time of 29:45-ish. We'll see if I'm being unrealistic or not in due time.

I've been off the bike since Wednesday resting for the test Saturday and I will ride 40 miles on the river trail Sunday morning.

Saturday and Sunday

The rain finally lifted in time to ride Saturday morning. Mike and I rode Santa Ana again for 40 miles and my finish time was about 4 minutes slower than usual. There was a pretty good offshore breeze which made it a headwind all the way down to Huntington Beach which may have been the culprit. I also went out for happy hour (ok well 4 hours) with people from work Friday night. I'm sure that didn't help my ride either the next morning.

The plan for today was to get up and hike up Icehouse Canyon to Icehouse Saddle and then proceed to Kelly Camp for the remainder of the day with Rachel and Brynne. We were going to camp out over night, hit Ontario Peak and then return midday Monday. That didn't exactly go as planned. We got up there, made it about 3/4 of the way to the saddle and had to turn around due to slippery, slushy, and icy trail conditions. Oh, and there's nothing like hiking in the clouds having maybe 30 feet of visibility. Brynne was loving the snow and showed no signs of tiring. I was getting a bit tired since I haven't been hiking Mt. Baldy for some time and Rachel hasn't done it much at all, let alone with a full multi-day pack on. Rachel did a really good job going as far as we did. I'm super proud of her! She's been running to get in better shape and I'm positive that's paid dividends towards hiking better.

So anyway, who would have thought we'd have 6+ inches of fresh snowfall up on Mt. Baldy's sister peaks and trails this late in May??? I've attached some photos from today.