Confessions of a Middle-Aged Cyclist

Moving!

2011-10-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

No, no, no, I am not moving locations as in physically, I am moving my blog to a new domain. So from now on find my blog at SacCyclistScott.com. Thanks!

Weekend Ride

2011-09-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

Well that is two 100 milers in a week. Saturday I did the Folsom Cyclebration Century with some friends from Cycle Folsom. Unfortunately I still don't have my road bike back yet, so I did the ride on my cyclocross bike, which isn't bad, it just isn't as light and "fast" feeling as my road bike. Still waiting on SRAM to get by brake/shifter lever replaced under warranty, maybe this week. Here is the elevation profile of the ride:

The ride guide says 8400 feet of climbing, but my Garmin showed 7070 feet at the end, but I don't really place much stock in the accuracy of either of them, any way it was a lot of climbing. I started at 7 AM with Mike Lemberg, a fellow Cycle Folsom rider that I have ridden with three or four times and know that he is pretty strong and we would be able to ride together most of the day. We started behind about 30 or 40 people, but pretty quickly realized that they weren't going to be moving very quickly, so we passed the very large group and slowing began picking off riders that had started before 7 AM, the first rest stop was at about 15 miles and by then we had picked up a self professed "wheelsucker" who we came to find out was named Tracy. Tracy is a lapsed cyclist that just came back to riding after being a runner for 20 years. We only stopped for a few seconds at the first stop, seems kind of crazy to stop after only 15 miles unless you just happened to forget to bring anything to eat or drink. Tracy, Mike and I worked pretty well together and by the second stop were in the "lead", not that this really matters in a century event, unlike a gran fondo type of event where they actually have a mass start and everyone has timer chips. But we continued to climb and work our way to the turn around point at the Bear River campground at around mile 55 or so, in other words right at the base of a nasty little climb. We did eat some pb&j and fig newtons at that rest stop before heading back. Funny thing, the elevation map above doesn't do the climbing justice, with the max gradient shown on there of only 5 percent it doesn't seem bad, but Baxter Grade between miles 29 and 32 has pitches of 15 to 18 percent and actually averages in the 8 percent range. I don't know how mapmyride does their averages on the elevation maps, if you do a map of the climb of just Baxter Grade you can see it, but when they do it over any greater distance you don't get a good feel for the steepness of it. On the way back Tracy struggled a bit, but we waited every once in a while and he would make it back. Mike and I stayed together the whole ride practically, I would drop Mike on some climbs, but not by too much and I would wait for him at the top, but he rode strong the whole way. I pushed a bit at the end up the Folsom Crossing Road climb and rode in to the "finish" by myself. Pretty anti-climatic as there isn't a "finish-line" and no official timing. I did the ride in under 6 hours and that included some loop backs to make sure I hadn't lost Mike and Tracy on some climbs, I think it would be around 5:45 if there was an official time, but it was 5:56 with my circle backs.

Just a funny, but not so funny is this bit of cyclocross from Star-Crossed this weekend:

So Joey's o.k., but I think Joey launched! @neilroad had a rather interesting conversation with @AdamMyerson about this on @TourChats tonight, it was too funny.

Folsom Cyclebration had both road and cyclocross as part of the festivities this weekend. I didn't race in either. The reason I did race road is because I haven't raced all year and I am just too scared to ride I guess. I would have done the cyclocross after the century if the Mens' B 35+ had been later in the day, but I was still riding when my category went off. I did see a bit of the women's race, and realized I haven't practiced any dismounts, except for Wednesday. My first race is supposed to be this coming weekend, but I don't know what the family has planned. I have to travel to SoCal to look at a hydropower plant/dam this week, so I am not going to have too much time to work on the dismounts, but who knows. We'll see. Until next time!

Nearly CX Season

2011-09-10T20:13:00.000-07:00

Well cyclocross is starting in Northern California, I am sure there was a race today, but not really into it yet. Several weeks ago we went camping at Samuel P. Taylor State Park in Marin County, beautiful place. I did a ride out along Tomales Bay and on out to Point Pierce, beautiful rollers all the way out. Just as I got back to the campground my right(rear) shifter just quit working, every time I shifted it when down the cassette until I was in my biggest gear. Luckily it was the end of my ride so I went to the small chainring and ground it out up to the campground. When we got home from camping I took the shifter/brake lever off and it shifted through the pawl just fine, but as soon as you put any kind of load on it, it wouldn't engage the pawl and thus no shifting, crap! The lever is less than 2 years old so I dropped it off at IKON Cycles to send it back to SRAM to hopefully get it repaired/replaced under warranty. That was two weeks ago and haven't heard anything yet as to the status, but I hope to hear something soon, if I was riding the Echelon Gran Fondo next weekend I would be really bummed, but I don't think I am bothering with it, so oh well. I have been riding my cyclocross bike as my everyday bike, just put on some of my road wheels and add some bottle cages and away we go. I am really hoping that my shift lever is fixed under warranty, I don't want to come up with four or five hundred dollars to replace this one, and there are some rides I would like not to ride the CX bike on, especially because my saddles are so different and the change has really made things a bit tender, as I am sure most cyclists will understand.

Well on to the next topic, Chris Froome, wow, what a great ride in the Vuelta! Really wish he could have taken the 13 seconds from Cobo today, but the stage today really didn't have the kind of punch that Froome needed to get the time. He did try for the intermediate sprint and the time bonus, but it appears that after the stage had started they changed the location from that in the race book, but even Chris admitted he had heard the change and just sprinted for what he thought was the intermediate sprint, but it was the 20km to go banner, oh well. Froome really did earn the 2nd place though with the great TT ride and then the great mountain stages and a mountain stage win! I am sure he is the first "African" that has won a grand tour stage, although born in Kenya he is more of a regular Brit than an African, although I don't remember which he considers his "real" home, there was an article in CycleSport America within the last two years about Froome and when he got signed by Sky from Barloworld.

Phillipe Gilbert, WOW, he has had such a great season! With the win on Friday he takes over the UCI #1 ranking from Cadel Evans and both will be on BMC next year. Makes me want to get a BMC team kit, although Garmin remains my team of choice, BMC is making it difficult to be "faithful" to just one team. I have never been much for HTC-Highroad/Columbia, although what they have done over the past five years since taking what was left of T-Mobile and racking up the most wins of any professional team and have a lot of respect for the riders and the team, they just haven't ever been my favorites. I read Cav's book "Boy Racer" recently and it was a good read, and a lot of his personality in the writing. I am looking forward to reading Cadel's book and David Millar's book soon as well. Seems like a lot of riders writing books now. I also read Joe Parkin's books while camping at Van Damme State Park about two months ago.

Well tomorrow looks like somewhere between 70 and 100 miles, don't know yet what I am going to feel like riding. I do know that I am not going to drive to Folsom for the 40 miler that the Cycle Folsom guys are doing, but I think I will ride up and do the 40 with them and that puts me at 70 miles after finishing that and then another 30 miles home. The problem comes from the fact that the 30 miles home will have at least 15 to 20 miles of headwind, but the winds really aren't too bad most of the time, but they seem to be picking up more now that we are headed into fall. I guess I'll just have to see what tomorrow brings. Until next time!

Curmudgeon, what me?

2011-07-15T22:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, I guess I am pretty set in my ways, I have certain things that I consider good etiquette when riding, several of which were violated today. First I would like to say I do like riding with other riders, the problem comes when I am joined by other riders who don't let me know they are drafting me. Now I don't mind other riders catching a draft, but when I don't know that they are there they are they are at risk for me doing something stupid and me crashing them or vice versa, or even worse I could let loose with a snot rocket and totally cover them! When I catch a rider when out on a training ride I usually don't end up drafting them, usually I catch them and then pass them, although I usually say on your left and pass on their left and leave them plenty of room so they don't end up getting spooked by me riding by. But if I do choose to draft I say, "on your wheel" or "do you mind if I sit in" and make sure I get a response otherwise I don't know if they truly know if they know I am there.

Now the same guy that ended up drafting me nearly took me out at a stoplight, several miles prior to the whole drafting thing. I was slowing, anticipating the light to change and suddenly a guy zips by on my right at we approached the corner, no warning no nothing, luckily I wasn't turning right otherwise we would have been a tangled mess. I don't know what possesses people; cyclists, drivers or pedestrians to do really stupid and risky things, but I seem to run into what I consider more than my fair share. Yesterday I was close to the end of my training ride and was coming up a small rise that was also on a corner and what should I see but a teenage girl riding no-handed with a cell phone in her hands apparently texting and drifting into my lane. Of course her attention was not on the road ahead, but her cell phone, my screaming of "hey, hey, hayyyyyyyyyyy" seems to wake her out of her texting reverie just in time to avoid a head on collision. My only thought was that she probably didn't learn anything from the incident and would end up one of those teenage drivers that gets killed trying to text and drive.

This leads me to the last item for which I seem to have a curmudgeonly attitude towards, riding in traffic with headphones on. Why would anyone willing inhibit the ability to hear everything around them, especially the large car or truck about to hit them? I like to listen to music, but I don't think that riding on a busy streets or places where you need to be able to hear to keep from getting hit or responding to other riders is a good idea, yet I see a lot of riders with headphones on. Not just in one ear, but both! I have even see guys put in their headphones during a group ride.

Well on to a more positive subject, Thor's win today on Stage 13! It was great seeing Thor not only make it up and over a big mountain, but to break away and chase down Jeremy Roy and go on to win! I hope that Thor stays with Garmin-Cervelo for the next season at least, but it seems like there are a lot of rumors about Thor moving to several teams. Well I am rooting for Tommy D and Cadel Evans for GC. It would be great for Tommy D to finish top 5, but tomorrow will tell who has the ability to take control. I think that the Schlecks will attack and I am all for Andy or Frank finishing on the top step, but I am really hoping Cadel gets the win he has been working so hard for.

Got to get to bed, 70 miles and about 7,000 feet of climbing for me tomorrow, then home and watching the Tour!

Tour de Crash!

2011-07-10T21:55:00.000-07:00

Well on Saturday I went out for a ride to Sutter Creek, I ended up with 92 miles and near 4,000 feet of climbing. Seems like I just ran out of gas in the last 30 miles, not a bonk or anything, just didn't feel that great. I guess the heat didn't help too much. Next weekend we are going up the Mormon Emigrant Trail/Iron Mountain Road from Sly Park up to Kirkwood, it is only 70 miles, but it is about 7500 feet of climbing, of course the climbing is pretty much in the first half and then just downhill. Going to be tough going.

What a day in the Tour de France, Stage 9 was just crazy. First with Contador getting flicked off the road all by himself and then the big crash about half way through the stage. Jurgen Van den Broeck, Dave Zabriske, Fredrick Willems and Alexander Vinokourov all abandoning due to broken bones. Vino looks to have a career ending injury, all the rest with pretty bad breaks. Hopefully all will heal fast, Dave had been doing so much work for Garmin-Cervelo, I know he will be missed. The break with Tom Voeckler, Jonny Hoogerland, Juan Antonio Flecha, Sandy Casar and Luis Leon Sanchez looked to be going all the way to the end until a French media car drove right into Flecha who, when he when down took out Hoogerland who flipped into a barbed wire fence. Voeckler did slow down and wait until he got confirmation that the Flecha and Hoogerland wouldn't be able to get back into the break. Voeckler of course worked his ass off to get the break to the finish in time for Voeckler to get into the yellow jersey. Sanchez had the sprint for the stage win, although that thing he does in memory of his brother who died is kind of weird or strange or something. Seems like riders have to have some sort of gimmick finish line ceremony any more, what happened to the simple victory salute? I don't mind riders doing the more elaborate things, I just wish I knew what the heck they meant.

Well at least tomorrow is a rest day, and I am sure Flecha will be back on Tuesday, Hoogerland I am not so sure. I hope the Hoogerland makes it back, but after seeing the photos of how torn up he was after the crash I wouldn't be surprised if he called it quits. He and Flecha did finish the stage, and the ASO did award both of them the spirit award for their courage in finishing. The driver have any recognition that he hit Flecha or so it seemed. I am sure the driver didn't mean to hit them, but the fact that the driver didn't appear to have the riders interests in mind and wasn't following the protocol for passing riders in the peloton was just unbelievable.

Time for some sleep now, until next time here is to wishing all the riders that were injured in all the crashes today a quick recovery!

Another weekend is upon us!

2011-07-08T21:51:00.000-07:00

Wow, another week gone by. The first week of the Tour de France, and what an exciting and dangerous week it has been. My favorite team Garmin-Cervelo has had a spectacular week with wins in the team time trial (Stage 2) and Tyler Farrar's sprint win on Stage 3. Thor Hushovd has been in yellow since stage 2, so all in all a great TdF for Garmin so far.

Just a crazy week of crashes though, and so devastating to both Radioshack and Quickstep. Jani Brajkovic is out with a concussion and broken collarbone, and now Chris Horner is questionable with the crash today where he sustained a broken nose and a concussion. Even of Chris continues he is now over 12 minutes down after being up in 13th at around 10 or 15 seconds back. Levi Leipheimer has had several crashes now, losing over a minute yesterday and now an additional three minutes today. Quickstep has lost Tom Boonen with his retirement from today's stage and Sylvan Chavanel, the current French champion hurt. Bradley Wiggins from Sky Procycling is out with a broken collarbone and for Sky he was their hope for the General Classification (GC), but Sky does have quite a few others that can get some stage wins.

Tyler Farrar winning Stage 3 of 2011 TdF

I am not sure why so many crashes this year. The roads don't look any more narrow than the past, but the peloton has seemed to be more nervous than the past and the wind direction changes seem to have played a part, at least in today's stage. Riders are taking more risks trying to get through small gaps for no real benefit, it is like they want to be around their team regardless if they are working at the front or not. One of the reasons I haven't returned to doing more races, besides being so busy, is that since I have had so many years since I have had a racing licence I am considered a Cat. 5 rider. In road races it is hard enough to be around a bunch of guys who have no real experience riding in a pack of more than 10 riders, let alone a criterium with a 100 rider field and guys trying to stuff each other into corners. After seeing all the crashes in the Davis 4th of July Criterium that I was a corner marshal for, I really don't have any desire to ride criteriums. I thought the Pro 1/2 race was pretty good with no pileups and generally pretty smooth riding, at least until the final sprint where a rider from Yahoo! was clipped and sent spinning. It was rather interesting in that midway through the crash he managed to stand up, unfortunately he had so much momentum he continued into the barriers without his bike. He appeared to be ok, but shaken up.

Even doing group rides there are so many sketchy riders and people who are "experienced" but really have no concept of pack riding and being able to draft properly. I have been lectured by several riders that I need to ride directly behind the rider in front, nevermind the fact the wind is head to cross or cross and if I ride directly behind I am actually getting very little draft. I know we can't ride echelon in traffic, but I tend to ride where the actual draft is, not just directly behind. Also, so many riders can't rotate though a paceline without hammering as soon as they are on the front. If you are trying to attack, attack, but if you want to ride as an efficient group pull though easy and just match the pace, if you want to increase the pace, but stay together, slowly increase the speed. And one more pet peeve, when you stand up when climbing please don't throw your bike backwards, as you stand you do it at the top of the pedal stroke so you don't shove your bike back into the rider behind you. Ok, I am done bitching for the night. It isn't like I am not guilty of some piss poor bike handling, everyone has lapses in concentration and most don't have devastating consequences, but I think in general everyone could do with some bike handling drills and nothing beats cyclocross for building some handling skills.

I am looking forward to watching the 8th Stage of the Tour tomorrow after my ride, I am going out for a ride to Sutter Creek with a couple of thousand feet of climbing to make things fun. Just riding by myself tomorrow, I haven't felt like I was going well at all this week, and haven't done my usual hours,so hopefully I am up for the ride tomorrow.

I am sure that tomorrow will calm the nerves in the peloton and the number of riders who are able to follow the lead will be reduced considerably. I don't know if Garmin has any riders that are going to go hard for GC this year. I am still hoping that Chistian VanVelde, Ryder Hesjedal or Tom Danielson will be able to ride into the top 10. Cadel Evans looks to be headed to a podium if he can keep up the pace in the mountains. So far Cadel looks pretty good and it seems to be his year, at least if he can stay out of the chaos. Trudi got the podium flowers from Cadel when he won Stage 4, I don't know if Trudi is the soigner that works with Cadel, but that is pretty cool.

Time to get some rest for tomorrows ride, ride hard and stay safe!

Davis 4th of July Criterium

2011-07-03T21:31:00.001-07:00

Well I guess I am becoming a professional corner marshal, I have corner marshal duties tomorrow at the Davis 4th of July Criterium. Going to be a hot one, forecast is for 104 degrees F, wish I was racing, but I guess that wouldn't be a good re-introduction into mass start racing.

Going to miss stage 3 of the TdF, but the DVR will capture what I don'g get to see before I leave in the morning. Stage 2 was great! Glad to see Jonathan Vaughters and Garmin-Cervelo finally get a stage win, hopefully the first of many! The first 5 teams were so close and BMC seems to have been inspired by Cadel's closeness to getting the yellow jersey. I am looking forward to seeing some really good racing in the next couple of weeks. Stage 1 was a rather interesting result with the spectator determining the result. I would say Karma if it had just affected Contador, but so many others are starting at such a deficit. Time to get some sleep, tomorrow is going to be a long day! Have a safe and fun 4th of July!

Tour de France!

2011-06-30T22:29:00.000-07:00

Well just one more day until the 2011 Tour de France begins. I was just thinking back to the early 80's when I got my Tour de France and Coors Classic updates by calling some 1-800 number and listening to a 1 or 2 minute report on the days stage. I think it cost like 50 cents per call and I was calling sometimes twice a day because I wanted to hear the latest news. I don't know if VeloNews lost money on those or if they made a ton of money off of them. The Tour is on TV now, well it has been for quite a while, but now it is on every day of the Tour and it is even in HD. I can bet my parents wished that the Tour was on TV, we had way too many dollars added on our phone bill with those updates!

This past weekend I didn't ride at all but went "camping" for Andrew's cub scout pack. I put camping in quotes because it was at the KOA campground in Lodi, and camping at a KOA is kind of like pitching a tent in a Holiday Inn parking lot. We even brought the Keurig coffeepot, so roughing it was not to the agenda for this trip. Since we were headed near Stockton I went ahead and ordered some wheels from Williams, some carbon clinchers, the 38s. Keith Williams was actually there and when over the wheels with me. When we got back on Sunday I immediately got some Vittoria Rubios on them and a cassette off of one of my other wheelsets, put the Williams brake pads on and took a ride around the block. I haven't taken them off all week. I have about 170 miles between Monday and today (Thursday) and they ride great. I on the other hand feel like crap, but it appears, at least from my ride times that I end up riding the same general times regardless of whether I feel good or not. I did take a picture of the bike with the new wheels on.

Well until next time!

Is it Tour de France time yet?

2011-06-19T22:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, another huge time gap since the last post. It was before the Tour of California when I wrote last, and I was planning on riding the second stage of the ToC from Squaw Valley to Sacramento. Well as most of you probably know the first stage around Lake Tahoe was cancelled and the second stage was shorted. The second stage ended up starting in Nevada City and still finishing in Sacramento. Well due to all the confusion we bailed on driving up to Tahoe with all the snow and freezing temperatures, really a bummer! But on Monday I did ride downtown to partake in all of the festivities of the ToC and watch the stage finish. Was pretty exciting and they had bike valets so you could leave your bike and walk around a bit. I found some friends from Cycle Folsom OZ Lee and Phil Blay and we along with OZ's wife situated ourselves at about 150 meters from the finish line, VIP tents line the finish from there, but we were also across from the jumbotron so we could see everything pretty well. Ben Swift won, the Team Sky train really working hard to try and contain things. Got a good 75+ miles for the day and had a lot of fun. I took the next day off as well and rode out to Jackson Highway and Ione Road to watch stage 3 go by. As I left the house I though maybe I won't get rained on. Well two minutes into the ride and the downpour started, by the time I got to the corner I was 20 miles in and was completely soaked. The rain and wind let up for a while when the race came by and began again as I headed home.

Well since then I have managed to ride over a hundred miles on quite a few Saturdays. I almost feel like I am cheating myself if I don't really do a long hard ride on Saturday, either mileage, climbing or both. Most rides around here are a minimum of 3,000 feet of climbing if you go over 80 miles. Did a short 67 mile, 3,000 foot ride on Saturday with the Cycle Folsom group as usual. Up to Newcastle and then Lincoln, going up to Sierra College Road by way of Twelve Bridges Road, a new route for me.

I wish I had more interaction with my club, although I did work as a corner worker at the Steve Dunlap Memorial Time Trial on June 5th. Of course I got the corner where they had to cross traffic turning left onto the clockwise loop. It was a rainy start and I managed to pick up a frog that hitched a ride on the top of my shoe. Of course I didn't notice it until I was in my car and it hopped away, never to be seen again. I tweeted about it and Jonathan Vaughters asked if it was on the bottom of my shoe, as I hadn't been specific as to how the frog made it into my car on my shoe. Well I cranked up the stereo in my car to help provide to "inspirational" music to the riders as they flew by. I can't believe how many riders have the money for time trial bikes. I can understand the the Pro and Cat 1 and 2 and even Cat 3 riders having one, most likely provided for by the sponsors, but even the Juniors had TT bikes. When I was an intermediate we didn't even had aero bars though. Lemond really started that trend, now everyone seems to have a bike with disk wheel. Maybe someday I may get one, but first I have another 30 or more pounds to lose.

Really wish Garmin would come out with the Vector powermeter, I have been waiting and waiting, but it looks like fall at the earliest and most likely going to be spring before I will be able to get one.

Went shopping today and got a BluRay player and Cathy got a copy of The Fifth Element on BluRay to go along with it. Don't know why, but it is one of my favorite movies. And for some more random stream of thought stuff I got presale tickets to the Foo Fighters show here in Sac! Cage the Elephant and El Mariachi de Bronx are opening. Of course I went and found youtube videos for both. I downloaded both Cage the Elephant albums/CDs or whatever you call them now from iTunes, and also found another band that I think I like called Crash Kings. Crash Kings, according to the bio and all the other info on them are a cross between Ben Folds, which I like, and White Stripes, which I also like, so put them together and I do like the mix.

Well off to bed, another long week of work ahead. We are trying to get the van registered out here and we have let it sit in the driveway too long. Got the battery charged and too it to be looked at, but since the battery was completely discharged it dropped all the engine diagnostic codes and so we need to drive it to get the codes to read again, but we can't drive it because it isn't registered, catch-22 all over again, crap! Well to bed!

Speaking of pounds to lose, I can't eat pizza anymore. I eat too much and it doesn't agree with me

Wow, Its May Already?

2011-05-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe that I haven't blogged anything since March 8th. I guess I have been pretty busy. My company, which has weathered the economy pretty well laid off some staff and on April 1 started a major re-organization, so I have been pretty busy with all sorts of things. Better than the alternative though. Most of our engineers that were let go have got jobs with smaller local firms, which is something I was worried about, I wanted to make sure that they all landed on their feet. I got to go to Dallas for the Geo-Institute conference, I am the incoming chairperson of the Computational Geotechnics committee, which means that I have more things to do outside of work now. Following the conference I gave a presentation at our Dallas/Ft.Worth office and then a presentation to the Ft. Worth District of the US Army Corps of Engineers. I think both went really well.

Unfortunately travel makes my training difficult, but I was able to go running a couple of days and was able to get back to riding when I got back.

Cathy has been having test after test and we still don't know what is going on with her, eventually we will find out, but this seems to be going on forever and I know she gets frustrated. They did find some growths on her thyroid, due to an MRI she had so we went to have a needle biopsy last week. This was a lot of fun since Cathy hates needles of any type and there isn't a good reason to have a local anesthetic since it would hurt just as much as the biopsy, so no numbing at all. They did manage to get some cells, hopefully enough to run their analysis.

We had another IEP meeting with Drew's school, it looks like they are going to give him some mental health services, which he desperately needs. His birth mother certainly didn't do him any favors. Her use of drugs and the fact her brother was diagnosed schizophrenic leads us to believe that we may be dealing with some similar issues. We know that this means we really need to make sure we get him all the help he needs and give him all the support and love we can. He is such a great kid and we love him dearly.

Had a great ride with the Cycle Folsom guys on Saturday, we did 50 miles with roughly 4,000+ feet of climbing. The amount of climbing will be similar to the ride I am going to do on May 16, which is Stage 2 of the Amgen Tour of California (ATOC). Stage 2 goes from Squaw Valley (Tahoe) to Sacramento, up over Donner Pass. It has nearly 5,000 feet of climbing, but drops a total of 11,000 feet so it is a net downhill stage. I can see why 5,000 feet of climbing can still be considered a sprinter stage though. The ride Saturday was really pretty easy, the climbs were tough, mainly due to my weight, but I recover pretty quick and at the end I felt like I could go for another 50 miles. This is good since Stage 2 is 133 miles long. Needless to say I will be pretty tired after that, but it really gives me an appreciation for what the professionals go through even on a short stage race like Paris-Nice or the Tour de Suisse, let alone something like the Tour or the Giro.

Speaking of the Giro, it looks like a really tough one this year. I am rooting for Vincenzo Nibali, but I could also root for Roman Kreuziger, although I don't like Astana. I am so skeptical about just about everyone these days, doping and all. The one team I really "trust" is Garmin-Cervelo, I think they are at least making significant efforts to ride clean. I think Tyler can win some stages, but I don't know if Le Mevel can do anything on the general classification. I think Leopard-Trek sent a team for stages as well, I don't see anyone that can challenge for GC. I really don't like Contador, I didn't like him before the doping accusation and now it is all the more reason to be weary of him. I think the Schleck brothers will do well at the Tour. Leopard is bringing Andy to the ATOC which will be great to see, and I understand why, the Giro is going to be a meat grinder of a race and with the Amgen it really isn't that difficult if you aren't riding it for anything other than advanced training. Who knows though it isn't like I talk to these guys and know their reasoning for choosing one race over another.

We (the Cycle Folsom guys) are going up to Tahoe on Sunday so we will be in town right after Stage 1, but we are sleeping in a cabin overnight and starting the ride about 3 hours before the pros. Hopefully that will get us into town before them, but they will be averaging around 26 to 30 mph on the stage most likely and we, me in particular will be lucky to average 18 mph, maybe I will surprise myself and be able to climb decent and keep the average up. We have to enter Beale AFB as a group, we have made special arrangements to get through the AFB which we exit at mile 90, only 43 miles more at that point.

I will post a post-ride report a day or two following depending on how I feel. Well I think I have covered enough distance for one post. Take care and keep riding!

Asperger's

2011-03-08T23:04:00.000-08:00

Well I guess I should explain the title, it occurs to me after nearly 44 years that I have an undiagnosed case of Asperger's, a form of Autism. My son Andrew has a form of Autism, he is very high functioning, similar to Asperger's, but not quite fitting the DSM-IV definition. I on the other hand fit the definition pretty well and I have also taken quite a few psychological tests in my life and they have always pointed to Asperger's. I can manage to talk to people, but I have a very hard time looking at people in the eyes. Crowds drive me crazy, I really don't like being in large groups. I have been able to give talks in front of large groups, but I do get very nervous, although I have been able to overcome my fears for the most part.

I think it has really affected me more now seeing how Andrew struggles to make friends and has such a hard time at school. It doesn't help that he has tourette's syndrome as well. Even the teachers at his school don't seem to understand about either one. Andrew kept getting in trouble with the teachers for making "noise", I guess they don't understand that tourette's isn't just people cussing uncontrollably, in fact it consists if both verbal and physical ticks that don't usually include any cussing, in fact Andrew's particular ticks don't involve cussing at all. When Andrew gets anxious or tired they occur more often, and now the kids in his class, also uneducated in Andrew's issues are making fun of him, which makes Andrew all the more anxious and not wanting to go to school. Andrew had another issue last week, he thought one of his classmates was being treated unfairly and told his main teacher that he was not a good teacher, and said that "he (Andrew) was strong and could hurt him (the teacher)", well the teacher told Andrew to give him his best shot. Well most people with Asperger's tend to take things literally, and Andrew hit him and was promptly suspended. Cathy had to pick him up from school and on they way home Andrew was so upset with things he tried to hurt himself by hitting his head and repeated saying he wanted to die. I can't explain how hard it is to hear an 8 year old say he wants to die, it makes my heart ache just thinking about it. Cathy managed to get him home where I was waiting with some of his medication that we have for dealing with these types of events. Luckily I was able to get him calmed down, but I know that there will be another time where we have to go through this again and it just breaks my heart to think about it.

Cathy went to the school the next day, once we deciphered what had actually occurred and explained that Drew is very literal and he was only doing what he thought the teacher had said he could do. I understand what Andrew is going through, I struggled with understanding peoples intentions most of my life, and still have a hard time sometimes when people aren't exactly straightforward. I feel so stupid afterwards when I miss the joke or real meaning.

When I was growing up I really preferred playing by myself and was usually content to do so for hours. Andrew likes doing the same thing for the most part, but also craves the interaction of a friend, but he can't quite relate, and gets frustrated when a friend doesn't want to do the exact same things as he does. I tended to read a lot and could talk for hours about things, as long as they were my interests. Andrew struggles with reading and learning in general, but is also willing to talk about his interests for hours, mainly Lego Batman. He is such a loving and caring kid and Cathy and I love him dearly. We just hope we can figure out how to get Andrew all the help he needs, so that he can have a full and fun life.

February Already!

2011-02-13T20:35:00.000-08:00

Well I am sure glad I got in around 80 miles yesterday, it as a beautiful ride with the Cycle Folsom Peloton group. We got a bit of climbing in and it was a great day, upper 60's, sunny and not very much wind. I actually rode in my shorts, I started the ride with arm and leg warmers, but it warmed up quick. After the ride the family and I went to OZ Korean BBQ for some terrific Korean food, of course I can eat Kimchi all day.

Too bad the great weather of the past couple of weeks comes to an end tonight, supposed to rain most of the next week with progressively more and more rain each day, but we need the rain. I am sure we need the rain, but I do hate riding indoors. I have the some of the Sufferfest videos, Angels and The Hunted, both of which are great and can sure lead you through 60 min or so in a fun way. I am looking forward to trying some of the others that they have.

Well I am going to go back to watching the Grammy's and then go to bed, just thought I would share a bit before bed.

Why ride? Part II

2011-01-28T23:07:00.000-08:00

Well I guess I had better post something new. It has been a rough winter, not in terms of weather, but in my ability to ride. I managed to get a upper respiratory infection that lasted for about 6 weeks, really crappy. I can ride through a cold or some typical crud, but this time it was pretty bad and I was having a horrible time trying to breathe. At the tail end we traveled to Disney World for nearly two weeks. Disney is great, lots of fun, especially for Drew, but the food kills me every time. The fact is that Disney restaurants are great, at least the high end ones, and with a dining plan they all are affordable. The bad news is that they are great and I can't pass up good food. Consequently I managed to gain about 12 pounds between the lack of riding during my illness and the great food at Disney. Well as soon as I got back my doctor put me on antibiotics, steroids and breathing treatments. They appear to have worked, but I still feel like I have some crud in my lungs.

Well back to our story. After beginning riding with Adam, Kris and Fritz, I really caught the cycling bug. I was "training" 4 or 5 days a week. When I started Junior High at Boswell I met someone that really changed my cycling life, my science teacher. My science teacher, Jim Janelle, just happened to be a rather good racer and raced with a lot of great cyclists from the 70's and early 80's like John Howard and Bob Cook. Jim had ridden and won the Durango Iron Horse race and rode the first couple of Red Zinger's, before it morphed into the Coors Classic. Jim would ride with me before school most every morning. I can remember getting up at 4 or 4:30 AM a lot of mornings and riding to his house to meet him and go for a 25 to 40 mile ride. I don't think I ever had any real cycling clothes at that time, other than my cycling shoes and wool shorts. Jim actually gave me quite a few of his wool cycling jerseys, they were so cool. I remember that one of them was a Hammer Cycling/Cool Gear jersey, one of the ones from when he was on the same team as Bob Cook, who happened to win the Pikes Peak hillclimb quite a few times. Jim also gave me a ton of cycling posters from Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands, which I think my first wife managed to get when I left and couldn't take all of my "stuff" with me. Really wish I would have kept those, I had several with Eddy Merckx on them advertising 6 day races at Gent.

I started racing for the Mt.Oread Cycling Club from Lawrence, that was the only "real" local racing team, the Kaw Valley Bicycle Touring Club had local rides in Topeka, but not a racing team. Mt. Oread was sponsored by Nile Nims Cyclery in Ames, Iowa, Puch/Astro-Daimlier (sp?) and Rick's Bike Shop in Lawrence. Rick's was so cool, it was the best bike shop I had ever been to, at least up until then. Every once in a while I would convince my mother to take me over to Lawrence to just see what they happened to have in the shop, or sometimes we would ride over. I can remember getting a team jersey, this was before real lycra clothes, it was made from a fabric called Quiona or something like that, it was real shiny and looked cool. Since everyone was starting to get lycra shorts and I couldn't really afford them I took some dancing tights, much cheaper, cut them off and hemmed them up. Of course I needed to have at least two pair together for them to work, since one pair was just about see through. I used those all the time, but they didn't have a chamois in them. I used to do rides up to 60 miles in those and never had any padding. During the time I was racing for Mt.Oread I had to replace my Ross, which, as I said before was a little too big. Forget who told me, but I answered an ad from the KU newpaper that someone has a 19 inch Gitane for sale at one of the dorms. I forget how much it was, but I managed to convince my parents to get it for me. Being young and naive I didn't notice that the frame was bent. I managed to ride that bike for a year or so before noticing how bad it was bent. During this time I raced in races in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa, it was great. I managed to get rides with other people on the team to most of these, but my mother drove me to quite a few also. During this time I met Jim May through Mike, Judy and Adam I believe. Jim lived down in Newton I think, but Jim had a bike for sale, a gold, aluminium Alan, otherwise know as the screwed and glued frame. I again convinced my parents that I needed it and I built it up with a Campagnolo Nuevo Record rear derailleur a Suntour front derailleur and shifters. Back then it didn't matter which components were used, friction shifters worked with which ever derailleurs you had. I also got some Universal CX brakes. I also remember that I had a lot of Suntour freewheels, all 5 speed. As an Intermediate, what they call Junior 14-15 now, we were gear restricted, I know I had a 44-tooth big ring and a 42-tooth small ring, not a whole lot of difference. When I went to the Juniors, now Junior 16-17, I got to go to a 49-tooth big ring. Of course all of these were paired with a maximum 14-tooth on the freewheel.

I managed to go to the National Championships in 1982 as an Intermediate. I think Scott Moniger went as a Junior that year, along with Aaron DeWolf. I had to change clubs to get enough money to go, Mt. Oread didn't have enough funds to send me, but the Oz Bicycle Club from Wichita, Kansas did, so I changed clubs to Oz and changed to the Red and Green stripes of Oz/Coleman Industries, which Scott M and Aaron rode for as well. I remember David Brinton, Oliver Starr and several others that ended up being quite good on the starting line up in Milwaukee. The lake front course had been used for national quite a few times, it was pretty tough and there was a downhill section with an off camber turn that was really difficult in a pack. I managed to lose one of my water bottles on that off camber section on the first lap. On the third lap I flatted and my race was over, oh well, that is the way things work. I couldn't get a wheel from the neutral support so I just watched the rest of the race. David Brinton won that year. I watched the Senior mens race and it seems like Alexi Grewal yelled at the field most of the race, Greg Demgen won. I was great watching all of the guys I had read about in Velo-News racing. Although I qualified in the following year for nationals I never was able to go again. The following year was at Big Bear Lake I think, way to expensive to travel to. For Milwaukee I rode the train with Aaron, I met Aaron, who came in from Wichita, at the Topeka Amtrak station and we rode to Chicago and changed to a commuter train to Milwaukee. We stayed at the dorms at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, really cool for a 15 year old. One night we went for pizza at a place called Van Horn's Pub, it was really good pizza.

After joining the Army in 1984 I stayed in pretty good shape, although in the Army, at least at that time, everyone smoked, so I took up that filthy habit. I was still able to run the 2-mile under 10 minutes without much effort. I would start and stop smoking throughout my time in the Army. I managed to race some on both the road and track while I was stationed in Germany. I loved riding in Europe, I wish I would have had more time to train and race, although the 3 to 4 hours of PT (physical training) I did each day for my Army service helped keep me reasonably fit. I got to race for a small team out of Bremen for a while, but never got any really good results. I moved stateside to help train the "new" 10th Mountain Division in Ft. Drum, New York. I bought a new Cannondale in 1988 with Shimano Dura-Ace and was able to start riding again. When I left active service in late 1989 I moved to Olathe, KS and started back to school at KU and commuted back and forth from Olathe. I pretty much just went to school and rode my bike. I got into pretty good shape and started racing again for Tri-tech Sports, I managed to win a few local races, nothing big, but it was great. I was riding a lot and was in great shape. After my first year at KU I transfered to Johnson County Community College and was able to commute on my mountain bike. It was during this time that I was hit by a car and left unconscious in the road. I woke to cars driving around me as lay there, not a single person stopped to help.

Well that is it for tonight. I need to get to bed so I can get up early and get ready for a nice 80 mile group ride. Hopefully it won't be too cold or foggy. I have a new pair of bib tights to try out!

Why ride? Part I

2010-12-21T15:58:00.000-08:00

I guess I really don't know why I started riding my bicycle. I learned to ride fairly early, I had a tricycle, then a bike with training wheels and at some point the training wheels were removed. I am not sure when that happened exactly, I think somewhere between the time I was between 4 and 6 years old. I remember riding up and down our driveway in Topeka, Kansas and in our neighbors driveways and up and down our street. When I was 6 or 7 years old my parents bought me a yellow Schwinn Stingray. It had a banana seat and I thought it was pretty cool. Several of my friends had similar bikes, although Tim Moore had the coolest one, his was red and was a five speed, with a "stick shift"

This is what my Stingray looked like.

This is what Tim's looked like with the cool stick shifter

We rode those bikes just about everywhere we could. We rode in the First Congregational Church parking lot a lot of the time. We made ramps and jumped them and crashed a lot. We rode them over to the motorcycle dealership that was across Gage Street, which we weren't supposed to cross. We rode over to the trails behind Roach Hardware on 21st Street and one time all they way to White Lakes Mall. At that point in our lives White Lakes Mall was similar to going from one town to another it was a huge trip and one we didn't dare tell our parents about. It was only about 5 or 6 miles round trip, but it might as well have been 100 miles to us.

We rode those bikes to school just about every day and I know I took mine apart more times than my mother would have liked. We put playing cards on the spokes to make it sound like a motorcycle. I did all sorts of things with the handlebars, and eventually I turned it into a BMX bike, or course this was at the very beginning of when BMX was getting going and I thought I was pretty cool, but then other friends started getting the latest Mongoose bikes and all the other really cool BMX stuff.

About that time I went on a boy scout camping trip to Lecompton where we were supposed to ride our bicycles, but all I had was my Stingray, not exactly the kind of bicycle you want to ride any kind of distance with. But, as it turned out a friend of mine choose not to ride and he has a Schwinn Varsity to ride, similar to the one shown below.

Schwinn Varsity, 40 pounds of steel

That bike was heavy as can be, but I rode it all the way from the church parking lot to Lecompton and back, that is when I realized that I really wanted to ride. Before that ride I kind of thought of the bike as basic transportation, something that I would get rid of once I got a motorcycle or car. I never had thought about using it to ride such distances, it was hard, very hard, but it was great! For my twelfth birthday I told my parents that I wanted a 10 speed, as that was as many gears as they came with back then. I went to Clayton's bike shop over on 21st Street as many times as I could to look at bikes and over to Gran Sport on Topeka Boulevard. I bought Bike World and Bicycling magazines, and checked out about every book on cycling in the library.

I got a champagne "gold" Ross for my birthday, and within a month had changed a lot of the parts out on it, although looking back, the bike was too big for me. About that time Jerry's Bike Shop opened and I went in there to buy parts when I could. They were a little more upscale than Clayton's and some cool stuff. One of my trips into Gran Sport, which easily had the coolest selection of bikes in Topeka, I had found some brochures on the United States Cycling Federation and about bicycle racing. I think I wrote to them about racing and found some names of racing clubs. I also called the district representative for Kansas, Mike Hudson, he and his wife Judy both raced. My mother took me over to Mike's house over in Potwin, they had some really cool bikes and stuff and I was hooked. One evening I was in my driveway tinkering with my bike when Adam Gatewood rode up and introduced himself. I guess Mike had told Adam that I was interested in racing and that he should stop by my house sometime. Well it turns out that the VA hospital, which was near my house, was a great place for training, the loop around it was around 1.1 miles or so, a perfect criterium course. Adam had come by to see if I wanted to go for a training ride. I jumped at the chance to ride with some real racers. I dressed in my Dietto Peitro cycling shoes, wool cycling shorts and a shirt that I had been using for a jersey and when for a ride. I remember that Fritz Menninger and Kris Tilford were on that ride as well and we were doing sprints just about every lap. That is the first time I heard the sound of a silk tubular tire makes when sprinting, boy was that the coolest thing. I am not sure if Adam had his Colnago yet, but I remember he had a much nicer bike than I had, but it really didn't matter, I was riding!

Serious lack of motivation

2010-12-05T21:48:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe that it is December already. I raced in the Wednesday night cyclocross series race in Folsom. Boy did I suck, it was bad enough that I got a crappy start and had way to much pressure in my tires, but midway through the lap I got ran over. Some guy, who I never did figure out who it was, ran into me from behind on a slight rise and took out my ankle and my rear derailleur got bent. It was partially the hanger and partially the cage itself. I think I have everything bent back into place, but I haven't ridden the bike since I "fixed" it. Was supposed to race in Grass Valley on Saturday, but I have had a serious motivation deficit.

It is amazing how many of the people I raced with in the 80's are on facebook. Most of them took racing much more seriously and progressed into Cat 1 and 2 and professional racing, while I went into the military. Kind of strange how things happen. Don't know how things would have turned out had I went to school in the states instead of going to Germany. I did get to race a bit over there, but nothing too serious. Well now I know I'm not going to be very competitive, but I think now I can at least enjoy racing and not worry so much about making it or not making it.

We have decided not to move, yeah! It is such a relief to not be moving, but now we need to things sorted out in the house. Our rent is less and Andrew still has his pool and trampoline and the back yard to play in. Much better situation.

Another week gone

2010-11-12T21:50:00.000-08:00

Wow another week gone, it is almost the end of the year. The past couple of years have gone by so quick, with all of my medical problems and everything it just seems like a blur. It seems like just yesterday that I was watching the Tour de France and now Paris-Tours is long gone and we are in the middle of cyclocross season. I don't quite understand why the wheels of justice are grinding so slow on the whole Contador affair. I think just about anyone else they would have pushed this forward by now. It seems like most doping cases are over, at least the primary portion, at less than 6 months, we are now near that point and this doesn't look anywhere near close to resolution. It is really depressing to think that so many cyclists doped in the 80's and 90's. I know that even before the 80's the doping wasn't very, or should I say, as sophisticated. Look at Michael Pollentier in the 1978 Tour, where he was ejected due to a trying to cheat a doping control after winning the Alpe d'Huez stage. I don't know if they know what he was using that he had to have a condom full of urine to pass of as his own, but if you need to use someone else's urine to pass the test than you probably have something to hide. I think in the 70's it was probably steroids or amphetamines, there wasn't EPO or CERA or anything really close to that level at that time.

It seems like now that sports nutrition is just about at the level of doping now, there is so much literature about the use of nutritional aids that seem borderline, but are perfectly legal. I just don't think I take things that seriously, but it seems like there are quite a few cyclists that do.

Well tomorrow, after my three or so hour ride we head to San Francisco to spend the night on the USS Hornet with Andrew's cub scout pack. I guess there are 30 boys, but more than 90 of us in our group. Should be interesting. We bought some new flashlights, we needed some anyway for our camping trips. Andrew and I got headlamps, I really like those, they leave your hands free and light your way. Well I am headed to bed and will report how the Hornet went when I get back on Sunday.

What I need is a plan.

2010-11-08T21:02:00.000-08:00

I need a plan, a training plan. I am kind of floundering along with no specific way to achieve what I want on my bike. With work and life things can go along pretty flexible, but we generally know what to do and when to do it. There are certain basics that get us through. That is how I trained when I was younger, and it generally worked, but I wasn't really trying to become the next Bernard Hinault or Lucien Van Impe.

Hinault in LBL 1980.

My idol Lucien Van Impe, another polka-dot jersey in the TdF.

When I came back to cycling in the late 80's I was still young and lost my weight rather quickly. Now I can't seem to lose any more weight no matter how hard I try and I also can't seem to get any better, plateaus on both counts.

I have been looking at coaches, but most of them are way to expensive, $200+ per month. I am thinking about trying the "Everyday Cyclist", if I can get the money for it, even it is not inexpensive, but it is much less expensive than anything else I have found and I think it fits with what I am trying to do. They have a monthly fee that is less than $30 and they have a "plan" that members can buy that deals with the "off-season" and building fitness without burning myself out. I love riding, but some weeks, like those in the winter, I really don't have a lot of daylight in which to ride and work takes most of those hours. Between the plan and a powermeter I think I can make quite a bit of progress. I know I won't be doing 90 racing days a year, but I would like to do 10 or 20 races during the road season and 8 to 10 in the cyclocross season. I have learned through my last couple of races that I don't mind finishing toward the back, I have fun, but I would like to finish closer to the front and maybe be competitive at some point. Also, I would like to do Levi's Gran Fondo without cramping and go for a time around 5 or 5.5 hours, I think that is do-able.

Andrew is enrolled in the Elk Grove Unified School District, now the fun begins. Hopefully we can get the accommodations that Drew qualifies for with his IEP, but I am so skeptical of the school district and their motives. They make everyone fight for every last little bit and I understand that resources are limited, but how do we expect children to learn if we don't fund our schools. Even when Andrew as home schooled or when Philip was in private school I aways supported the public schools. I don't mind paying taxes, yes I wish I didn't have to, or that they would have a better accounting of how things get spent, but in the end I would much rather pay higher taxes if it allows children to get what is required out of school. I figure the better educated in general, the fewer people we will have in prison or doing other nefarious things.

The schools out here in California are soooooo messed up. The actual hours of instruction that a child in an "average" classroom gets is so small it is amazing that they learn anything at all. It is no wonder why the cashiers at Target can't count back change unless a machine tells them how much it should be. God forbid that we lose the ability to log on. Almost all engineering graduates now can't do a calculation without a computer. If they had to take pen to paper they would be lost. Even the calculators we are using now take away the ability to reason. I like slide rules, I think they made students learn order of magnitude estimation, significant digits. They forced you to have an idea of what the answer should look like before calculating it, and if it didn't calculate out, you went back and checked. It wasn't like I grew up in the 50's, 60's or even the 70's where knowledge of a slide rule was necessary to get you through your classes, I am still a little young for that, but I did learn to use a slide rule and even built an abacus when I was only 8 or 9 years old. Well time to hop off the soap box and get ready for some good sleep with the cool weather.

More Cyclocross Racing!

2010-11-06T21:09:00.000-07:00

Well I did my second race, third in the Sacramento Cyclocross Series. Was a rather flat course, but did have a few little bits of climb and one run up. The race this weekend was at Lembi Park in Folsom, California.

Lembi Park Course in Folsom, CA

The sand pit was the toughest part as it contained a kink to the right and there wasn't a good line through there. For 6 of the 7 laps I went to the inside, it was a deep rut, but it was easy to power through. Of course on the last time through I thought that I could take the outside line, but it really didn't work, I bogged down and fell over, allowing three people to come by at the very end, crap!

The field was around 40 or 45 or so for the Men's B 35+, felt like more, but I am not really used to riding with so many again. I would hate to see a 100+ person field, I would probably hyperventilate on the start line. I tend to start at the back of the pack and slowly pick people off as the race goes on. If I started from the front I might be able to stay up a little bit higher in the placings, but since I am just getting back into things I really don't feel the need to try and end up blocking people or crashing in front of others. My shifters are pretty messed up, I could only go between two gears most of the day, but it got me through. Also need to toe-in the front brakes so they don't squeak so much under hard braking. Hopefully I can change over to SRAM Rival and Avid Ultimate shorty brakes before next season, I really have begun to dislike Shimano stuff, after riding Dura-Ace and Ultegra stuff I have gotten used to my SRAM Force components on my road bike and they work so much better, but I don't crash on them as much as I do with my CX bike.

Andrew's bi-polar problems are rather bad lately, he can be suicidal one minute and completely fine the next. Early onset bi-polar or childhood bi-polar is different than adolescent or adult bi-polar and can cycle rapidly from manic states to depressive states. It is very difficult to deal with and can be exhausting just trying to not say something that will begin the downward spiral to a manic (angry) state. Andrew has real problems with my bad hearing. I often ask people to repeat themselves as I can't hear, but when I ask Andrew it often has the consequence of starting one of his manic states, this is particularly bad when I am driving with Andrew in the back seat. I can't hear things face to face, but when someone is behind me I really have a hard time hearing, hence the problem with the back seat. We moved all the knives in the house due to Andrew's latest outbursts, but I am hoping that getting Drew into a psychiatrist, not just the neurologist, will help us come up with a medication plan that will work, but it is always trial and error with medications for children and these issues.

We are also hoping that going to a special education environment will help with things, too bad the Elk Grove School District seems to not understand what the state laws are. South Sutter, our homeschool district has been great about things, but it seems like the EGUSD (Elk Grove Unified School District) can't seem to follow what is required by law and our IEP that we had to fight to get with them. We will see though, I just hope Drew will adapt, we have been giving him all sorts of prompts that this will be coming and that we won't be doing the homeschool thing, although we can continue to do some of the studies we started, regardless of where he ends for school. Cathy and I just want to have the best outcome we can for Andrew, he deserves it. Well going to get to bed and enjoy the fall-back portion of daylight savings. Goodnight all!

Howard Park CX

2010-10-24T22:15:00.000-07:00

Well my first race of the season, or for that matter the first race since about 1989 or so, and my first cyclocross since 1984. I really sucked out there, I didn't finish last I don't think, but I was pretty darn close. It was very sloppy out there and I managed to fall twice, but it was soft mud, so it cushioned my fall. In hindsight I should have run about 10 psi less in the tires, I ran 38 psi and it still didn't grip much. The reduction in tire pressure wouldn't have helped me ride any faster, I just need to work harder. I probably could have raced the Men's C race rather than the Men's B 35+, but oh well, it was hard but fun.

I used the Mad Alchemy embrocation, mellow favor, I think I need to use some lotion or something prior to set it off. After racing and sponging off it did start to warm more than it did during the race. But it was really hard to apply in the drivers seat of a Ford Focus with the door shut to keep out the pouring rain, boy do we need to get the van running again. Well after a weekend of racing and working on plotting response spectra and putting together plots and text for a report I am ready to go to sleep. Goodnight all!

New Cyclocross Bike!

2010-10-15T23:06:00.000-07:00

Well it finally came, my new cyclocross bike, a 2010 Rocky Mountain Solo CXR. It is great, at least looking at it. I got the bars and seat set up for my initial ride tomorrow, have to find some good areas to do some cyclocross training. Here is a picture of my new ride.

Can't wait to practice some dismounts and mounts and see if I can ride without falling over. There is a good series here, Sacramento CX Series and a really cool training series, Folsom Rodeo Cross. The training series is in and around the Folsom rodeo arena and is held at night, too cool. Got the course map from the website, looks like a pretty good course.

I am looking forward to riding CX again!

Gran Fondo!

2010-10-10T21:47:00.000-07:00

Well it is all over with, I finished Levi's King Ridge Gran Fondo 2010! It was the toughest day I have ever had on a bike. I had problems beginning on the first climb and they didn't get any better. My problems appear to be from some sort of electrolyte imbalance. It was pretty humid and I sweat a lot to begin with, but I usually suffer from salt being caked all over me, not today. I was sweating, but there wasn't any salt. I drank gatorade and other electrolyte replacement drink during and actually before starting. I noticed that my sweat didn't really contain any salt on the King Ridge climb and on the second "big" climb on Hauser Bridge Road I started cramping. I typically never cramp, and what was even stranger was the fact that I was cramping in my quads. Once I made it over the Hauser Bridge Road climb I was just hoping to make it to Portuguese Beach before the Coleman Valley climb, I wasn't even thinking about finishing at that point, I was just trying to make short term goals to make it a little bit further. My cramps were so severe that I couldn't really stand on the pedals. More than once I had cramps that made it nearly impossible to stop and get out of the pedals before falling over, I never did fall over, but there were several close calls.

Once I got to Portuguese Beach I ate some PB&J sandwich quarters and filled up on electrolyte drinks, just trying to stave off any more problems. I set off over Coleman Valley Road, this was mile 76 of 102.8 and I was hurting. I had quite a few stops and starts to get over the hill, but I made it and headed for Occidental as my next goal. Once I hit Occidental I knew there wasn't anything that was going to keep me from finishing. I had tweeted earlier on King Ridge that I was afraid that I might not finish due to my cramps. Cathy got the tweet and jumped into action getting our friends to tweet words of encouragement to me. Thank you to everyone that set messages I really appreciate them! I finally made it back to Santa Rosa and the finish at 6 hours and 38 minutes of riding time, 8 hours on the course, not too bad considering how crappy I felt.

Well I will put some more reflections on the Fondo and some thoughts on the cyclocross season to come. Goodnight!

The countdown!

2010-09-29T23:13:00.000-07:00

Well I have ridden both major climbs of the King Ridge Gran Fondo, both are quite difficult although the King Ridge climb is the worst of the two. Here are some pictures from Steephill.tv, a great site for getting video links to all the major races, plus lots more, like these pictures!

Beautiful view on King Ridge

Northern California from King Ridge

One of many looks uphill

Meyer's Grade looking at the Pacific Ocean

The King Ridge ride was done with some friends, and it was an epic day. King Ridge Road is very, very isolated and you need to be self-sufficient, there isn't cellular reception and there aren't any places to get food or water. Cazadero is the last bastion of food and drink before heading up and over. The ride to Cazadero from Occidental was very nice, a downhill from Occidental to Monte Rio at the Russian River and then an amazing tree line, covered, ride along the south side of the Russian River on Moscow Road. At Duncan's Mills you head north to Cazadero and then the pain begins, it seems pretty relentless, keep going up and up until you finally hit the top of King Ridge and proceed to go up and down along the ridgeline until you get to Hauser Road which runs into Seaview Road, where there isn't any view of the sea. Seaview eventually runs into Meyer's Grade on which there are signs warning of an 18 percent downgrade. These signs appear 3 times before getting to the actual downgrade, which is downright scary! After going down Meyer's Grade you go back up and then go down a series of hairpins on Highway 1, these are really fun, but you have to be very careful. The rest of Highway 1 is a roller coaster ride, fun, not to hard, but no shoulder and lots of really crazy drivers.

Last weekend I went one a ride from our campsite at the Bodega Dunes, just north of Bodega Bay. Cathy, Drew and I were camping with some friends from our homeschool co-op. I did this ride up and over Coleman Valley Road, it is quite a steep climb in parts, but it is relatively short and the up and down once you hit the crest isn't too bad. The worst part is that this part of the Gran Fondo is that the Coleman Valley climb is after nearly 80 miles. On this ride I just went through Occidental and back along Highway 1 to Bodega Dunes. While camping we hit the two best bakeries in the area, Wild Flour (also known as Freestone) Bakery in Freestone, just outside of Occidental and Gold Coast Coffee and Bakery in Duncan's Mills, both of these places have scones that are out of this world and Freestone has fougasse bread that is incredible, if you haven't had fougasse before you are in for a treat! Fougasse, at least the way Wild Flour makes it, has blue cheese and mushrooms, yummy!

This week has been crap! I didn't ride Monday, Tuesday I rode, but started to throw up when I got back, the rest of the day I really felt like crap. Today I worked extra hard so that tomorrow I can try and ride again, hopefully I will feel a little better. Like the title says it is a countdown until the Gran Fondo and I am down to just a little over a week, next week I plan on riding, but taking it really easy. Well, that is enough for tonight.

Almost Gran Fondo Time!

2010-09-16T20:27:00.001-07:00

Well it is almost here, Levi Leipheimer's King Ridge Gran Fondo! Last year around this time I was getting hit by a car, so I missed riding in the first one, but I had signed up for the Medio Fondo last year. This year I am doing the whole enchilada. Several of us from the Sacramento area are going over to Occidental to ride the northern portion of the Fondo on Saturday, about 70 miles or so with around 4,200 feet of climbing. I am really looking forward to the pre-ride. I just want to get a good feel for what I am up against on October 9th. I don't think it should be too much of a problem. I have plenty of miles in the legs, and I have been climbing much better, although I could still stand to lose 40 pounds. I guess I will have to continue my weight loss regime over the winter. I am planning to ride the Sacramento Cyclocross Series, well at least 6 of the 8 of the races. The first race in the series is on October 9th and the last one is around the time I am going to be at Disneyworld.

Last weekend we, Glenn, Gene and I, went over to the Napa Valley and rode out of Yountville, a really nice place if you haven't been before. We climbed Mt. Veeder, which is a rather easy climb, but still 2,400 feet of climbing. I think every cyclist thinks that they look a lot better when riding than they really do, I know I think that I look very professional when I ride and that everyone mistakes me for a much better rider. The fact is that I probably look like an overweight guy stuffed into spandex that is way too tight for my physique, but hey I like my delusions.

I know I am not in the best of shape, but I am far better off that I was two years ago, I just wish I could drop these extra 40 pounds. Hopefully I can make a concerted effort and start next season in much better shape. I also am hoping to get a power meter, I am looking at a Quarq, since it looks like the Metrigear Vector is not going to hit the market anytime soon. I just read Training and Racing with a Power Meter by Hunter Allen and Andrew Coggan, PhD, which really appeals to the engineer in me, lots of data analysis and such. Just the thing to really get into the science of training. Well starting to get really sleepy, so it is time to say goodnight!

People Suck! Music is good!

2010-08-29T21:52:00.000-07:00

Well I got back to riding on Friday after being in Albuquerque for two weeks, with camping at MacKerricher State Park north of Ft. Bragg, CA over the weekend. During my short ride, I was attacked by a motorist intent on doing me harm. The driver, in a white dually pickup and what I would find out was a fifth wheel trailer started by hitting me with is rearview mirror, he actually slowed down and made sure that his mirror struck my head. He then proceeded to slowly pass me and repeatedly struck me with his truck and then his trailer, finally causing me to have to ride down an embankment into a ditch. There were 3 or 4 other people in the truck with him and I guess it never occurred to them that doing what they did could have killed me, nor did they apparently care if I was hurt in any way. WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What had I done that would warrant a motorist trying to kill me? I don't run red lights or stop signs recklessly, I generally try and be courteous to other vehicles, unless they try and hurt me or if they are driving in a way that could hurt others, but I try not to antagonize them.

I guess I can chalk it up to the ignorance of the American people, and the kind of unthinking crap they believe now. Between behaving like idiots and thinking that texting and driving isn't going to hurt anyone I am beginning to wonder if the American people get how stupid they look. On Saturday we had another incident, this time driving. We were taking Cathy to the church and another texting idiot ran right though a stop sign and nearly hit us, and probably would have had I not laid on the horn, to which the other driver looked at us like we were the ones in the wrong. I can't understand why all the drivers seem to have such impatience, I can't see why they think that if they have to slow down around cyclists they are going to be so late for whatever important event (most likely nothing) that they can't possibly yield for a few seconds so that they don't kill someone and that cyclists are just obstacles in "their" way. Do they think we are just inanimate object that they can hit or run over and no one else will be affected? That a cyclist can't possibly have a wife and kids that would miss them? I read articles every day where another cyclist has been hurt or killed. Why does riding a bicycle have to be a life or death choice? I am just fed up with the attitude I get from people that think a bicycle is just a toy for a small child and not a vehicle that can be used for all types of transportation, as a viable alternative to driving. Ok, I guess that is enough of a rant at least for right now.

I have seen several good movies lately, "Control" a bio-pic about Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis and another bio-pic "The Flying Scotsman" about cyclist Grahame Obree, who set the hour-record and won the world pursuit championships several times and battling depression. I would recommend both of these to anyone who might or might not be a cyclist or a punk music fan.

Speaking of music, I am been noodling on my guitars for several days. It seems like every time I take a few months without playing I come back playing better, really kind of weird. I am hoping to go to the Disturbed concert coming up, at least the lawn tickets are only $20, which isn't too bad, but the rest of the lineup for the concert is rather suspect, mostly metal that I really don't like too much. Well that is enough for one weekend, hope everyone has a great week!

Really?

2010-07-31T20:38:00.000-07:00

Well I went for my hill ride today, I hesitate to say mountain, I never can differentiate between the foothills and the mountains. The longest climb today is really the one out of Folsom , but it isn't too steep. The nasty climb is on Prospector's Road out of Coloma, it is up to 13 percent grade, it is only a little over 2 miles, but it is really hard for a fat guy like me, gravity is not kind. Here is a shot from my ride map that I made showing the Coloma climb:

Like I said, for the gravity challenged this hurts, 1,198 feet!

Before I got to this climb I did take some pictures which are just beautiful, I used my new Blackberry 9650 that I got from work.

View along Deer Valley Road

Thompson Hill Road South of Lotus, California

Another along Thompson Hill

Well during the climb of Marshall Grade on Prospector's Road I managed to think that I had another gear lower and tried to shift, this sent the chain into never, never land between the spokes that the back of the cassette, which managed to take me from 7 miles per hour to zero and I fell over without being able to clip out. Of course this was on the side where I baled earlier this week. When I crashed on Tuesday it didn't bleed too bad, but when you crash on the same spot again, it really bleeds! I didn't take pictures of that, I was too bummed to bother.

It appears that my fitness is much better, I didn't really get winded the whole ride, it was hard and there were some areas where I really was going as hard as I could, but I recovered quickly. My problem, at least in my opinion, is that I just don't have the muscle strength to push hard enough to go quickly. I was passed on Prospector's Road by three other cyclists, and they were all able to spin right along, where I was in my lowest gear and was just grinding along. The two issues I have are my core strength isn't up to snuff and I am just too fat, the extra 50 pounds is just too much for me to carry. Hopefully I will be able to drop some more weight, but I just haven't been able to. I keep a food journal and generally overestimate the number of calories I take in and underestimate those I burn during my workouts, but no luck. Well I will keep trying and get a stability ball to start doing some workout with my core.

Another month gone

2010-07-29T23:16:00.000-07:00

Can't believe that it has been a month since I last wrote anything worth posting, well I guess that is a personal perspective since who knows whether anyone really reads this. I got taken out by a rock on Tuesday, was going for my morning 3 hour interval training ride and I apparently tried to run over a very large round cobble that was sitting in the bike lane. I know just about every bump in the road on the way to the American River bike trail and so I made the mistake of looking down and wham, I tried to ride over the rock and it didn't like it and spit me out into the road, sliding on my brand new Garmin-Transitions team kit. It really sucks to ruin $300 worth of clothing in one simple crash. I don't ever remember tearing up wool shorts and jerseys like this. Oh well at least I had won these, I would have been even more upset if I had personally spent my hard earned money on them.

Last Saturday I did a ride up in the foothills with nearly 4000' of climbing with some portions up to 20 percent grade. Was just around 60 miles, really gives me an appreciation for what the pros do on a grand tour with day after day of climbing and mileage that far exceeds that of mine. I tweaked my rear wheel, a Fulcrum 5, during the ride. I don't know my own strength, on a 15 percent pitch I stood up and sproing, a ferrule on the rim pulled out, not much, but enough to throw the wheel out of true and make me weary of descending to fast, although I did get up around 45-50 mph (70-80 kph for those of you metric types) on some of the straighter portions. Nearly did a Beloki around one corner, but managed to keep myself upright. I guess that is one benefit of being 200 pounds, I go downhill fast, but I would trade that for being 140 pounds and going uphill quicker.

Speaking of weight, I record everything I eat, and usually conservatively, that is over estimating the size of the portions. But I continue to have difficulty losing any more weight, I seem to have hit a plateau that doesn't seem to want to let be get below 200 pounds. I have ridden about 9.5 hours since Monday and will do about 1.5 hours easy tomorrow and then about 5 hours on Saturday, and I try to not eat junk calories. I am just hoping that I don't have too hard a time on the Gran Fondo in October, I have yet to do over 6,000 feet of climbing or over 100 miles this year and certainly not together. I am starting to get worried about making it, especially with all the breaks that I will have between now and October. I do think I am getting fitter, my resting pulse is now down around 50 bpm and is running lower than previously noted for any RPE level.

Maybe tomorrow I will post picks of my road rash, it is looking much better. I also need to post a picture of me in my Davis Bike Club Racing Team kit, although looking at a picture of me in spandex may cause the reader to be rendered temporarily blind.

Maybe if I get stuck going to Albuquerque I can get my company to pay to buy a bike box and ship my bike to Albuquerque for the time I will be there. I will call it my high altitude training camp! I could try and climb to Sandia Peak, but the last time I made it up that 13 mile long monster I was much, much lighter, although I have seem some pretty substantial people pedaling their way to the top. Well I had better hit the hay as I have a company training tomorrow and would like to stay awake during it. Cheers!

Back in Kansas, on vacation?

2010-07-01T11:25:00.000-07:00

Strange as it may seem I am visiting Kansas on vacation. There are lots of reasons that I come back to Kansas, not the least of which is that my mother still lives here. So we are staying in the same bedroom I had growing up, although it is much nicer now that I am not a teenager and my mother has repainted and fixed up the room. We also had my 25th High School reunion for Topeka High School class of 1985, although I graduated earlier than that, it was my class that I was supposed to graduate in. All I can say it that some people never change or grow up for that matter. It seems like so many people, not just in our class but all high schools resort to cliques at reunions, instead of breaking out of that mold and getting to know some people that they didn't know as well in high school. It also seems like most of the people at the reunion were from out of town, very few people from Topeka actually came, kind of sad. Well that is over and I don't know whether I will bother with the next one, there are so many other things to do than spend it with some people who really don't care what is going on with you, not to say that everyone there is like that, but you get my meaning I hope.

Also being back in Topeka gave me the chance to ride with some people that I haven't ridden with in 25 years, although I wasn't exactly up to the task. I rented a bike from Sunflower Outdoor and Bike in Lawrence, a pretty good deal, but it wasn't exactly what I was used to, it was more of a touring bike. But beggars (renters) can't be choosers I guess, at least not here. I have managed to ride just about every day and I am hoping to take Steve Tilford up on borrowing Trudi's bike for a couple of days, it is much nicer than the rented bike. I did of course bring my saddle and pedals so I am at least somewhat comfortable. I forgot how humid it really was here, I knew it was going to be humid, but even on the "mild" days it is much more humid that I am used to.

The Tour of Lawrence is this weekend, I am hoping to go and watch at least. There are sprints downtown on Friday, a circuit race on the University of Kansas campus, 400 feet of climbing per lap according to the commercial on the radio, and a crit on Sunday downtown. I mainly want to watch the circuit race, it should be interesting.

I did find a picture that my mother had that I thought was rather interesting.

This is a photo of me in my Jerry's bike shop, Wheatland Cycling Team jersey at who knows what race. The Alan bicycle I bought from Mr. May from Wichita, can't remember his first name. He was killed by a car while on a training ride, an all too frequent occurrence it seems now a days. The Alan was kind of like riding a wet noodle, very soft, but really light. Boy do I wish I was that weight, 125 pounds, now. I would be happy with 150, 160 or even 170, but it seems like I am stuck at 200. I have been watching my calorie intake and mix of carbs, protein and fat, and on this trip I have ridden more than 200 miles in less than a week, which is more than I have been. I think my metabolism is plotting against me, or so it seems. Hopefully I can post some good pictures from the Tour of Lawrence before I head back to Cali on Tuesday of next week. Ride safe!

Great foothills ride!

2010-06-21T07:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, rode from Elk Grove, South of Sacramento, up to Nevada City today. It was about 78 miles with 4,200 feet of climbing, most all of which came after the first 25 miles. Got to watch some of the 50th Nevada City Classic, didn't stay for the Pro, 1/2 race, but it was cool. I am exhausted it was a hard ride, but I felt pretty good considering I still need to lose 50 pounds, which makes it rather tough climbing, but the intervals I have been doing appear to have done some good.

Getting ready to head back to Kansas for 2 weeks. I am looking forward to seeing my mother and all of my friends back there. Also looking forward to eating at Tortilla Jack's, not the most authentic Mexican food, but is some of the most tasty food ever. Also look forward to Hu Hot and several other places. Not bringing my bike back, but I am going to try and run every day, 6 to 10 miles ought to be good. I have to work while I am back in Kansas, but I do have at least 4 or 5 days of vacation, two weekends and one holiday during the 14 days I am gone. So all in all not too bad.

Tour de France starts while I am back, can't wait! Tour de Suisse had a rather interesting ending, I thought for sure that Robert Gesink would be able to dig deep and do a time that was good enough to maintain his lead. But, Frank Schleck and Lance Armstrong leapfrogged Gesink. I don't know whether Lance can win the Tour, but I think he will place well, either way it will be good.

Wow, I actually won something!

2010-05-25T21:22:00.000-07:00

Well I didn't win a race, but I did win a really cool prize from POM Wonderful. I re-tweeted their posts which contained a picture of POM in it and yesterday (Monday), I found out I won the grand prize from Friday's stage of the Amgen Tour of California. I guess I got a whole Argyle Club Sportif membership for the Garmin-Transitions cycling team and some POM products as well, really cool. I have contacted them, but haven't heard back yet, I hope this pans out, I could really use the kit. Garmin and Saxo Bank are my favorite teams so getting some kit from Garmin would be too cool. I'll post pictures when I get the kit.

I am really tired, since I have been so sick I don't have any real stamina for working more than 8 hours in the office. I think I am on the way to recovery, coughing has lessened and I can breath a little easier, just need to get back on the bike. Need to watch the food intake as well, I am eating well, but could do better at home.

The Giro has been awesome this year! Not predictable as it has been and the the stage with the finish on Zoncolan and the ITT on Plan de Corones were amazing. I can't imagine the pain on the ITT today, 12.9 km and very steep. I love the gravel portions, I guess growing up in Kansas riding on gravel is just a part of riding. I am already looking forward to cyclocross this next winter. Although Basso is coming off of a doping suspension I do think he is clean now and I hope he is at least on the podium. I think Cadel can put off the grand tour win if he continues to attack they way he has been, the critics can't fault him now! No matter how it turns out this years Giro d'Italia has been one of the best, at least of the last 10 years.

Great racing, weird week for dopers.

2010-05-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

Great racing today at both the Amgen Tour of California and Giro d'Italia. Both had tension filled racing that made sure we couldn't stop watching, this is what I love to see when I watch a great stage race, nothing that is taken for granted. Mick Rogers did a masterful job keeping his rivals in check and Levi and DZ kept Mick from becoming complacent. Congratulations to Mick on his great win at the TOC and I am looking forward to the final week of the Giro, I hope the fireworks continue with Cadel, Ivan Basso, Vincinzo Nibali and David Arroyo!

The other big news this week is Floyd Landis' news about his doping. Now there have been blog entries ad nauseam about it and that is usually followed be comments about how the blogger got it totally wrong and how he/she don't really understand/know what is really going on. In my opinion I think we just need to let things play out and let the chips fall where they may. Yes, Floyd's credibility may be suspect, anyone who denies something for so long would be suspect, but who knows for sure, I don't. I hope that what Floyd has accused in his emails and other writings isn't true, I would hate to see so many people "go down", but whatever happens I hope that cycling come out the better for it. Just look at the recent issue of Bicycling magazine discusses amateurs doping and the fact that it appears that most of the dopers are masters riders who are looking to hold on to that illusion of youth.

I have my racing licence, but I doubt I get more than 5 races in this year. I hope I can race more, but I have no illusions that I am not going to be a winner in my races, I will just be happy to finish. Yes I would like to win, but winning isn't always the result of being the fittest rider, but the fittest rider that can read the situation. My training this year has been pretty uneven, I have either been sick, like the past week, or rehabilitating broken bones that should have healed much faster, but I can't change those things and I just have to deal with them. I am sure that I will have other illnesses or injuries, but I will get through it.

Tour of California

2010-05-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

OK, well yesterday I made it out to see a brief bit of the Tour of California. I was great seeing Paul Mach off the front in a break, but the day was not all sunshine and fun. My allergies seem to have morphed into a sinus infection. Got some antibiotics and taking breathing treatments, but I still feel like crap. I had planned on riding up Howell Mtn. Road from St. Helena to watch the second stage of the TOC and then going to Santa Rosa for the finish, but I need to stay home and rest to get better. It just sucks that the one time a year we get a race this big and I get so sick I can't go enjoy it. I just hope I get to feeling better soon.

Back to the grindstone!

2010-04-28T21:22:00.000-07:00

Well I am working back in my office now which affords me the opportunity to ride my bike at least twice a day during my commute. My doctor gave me the ok to ride again a little over two weeks ago and I have been trying to take advantage of every day of good weather. The exception was today, it was rather cold, for this time of year, and rainy. I rode anyway. The ride in, in the morning was cool, but at least it wasn't raining. The afternoon was another matter, I was watching the weather/radar pretty closely and chose a pretty good break in the downpours. I managed to only get dumped on a little bit. Overall it wasn't bad at all. I guess I have become somewhat of a weather wimp. When I was in Junior High back in Kansas my science teacher was also my training partner. Jim Janelle, my science teacher, rode in the inaugural edition of the Red Zinger Classic that went on to be the Coors Classic, and in the Durango Iron Horse race. Jim and I would go out at between 4:30 and 5 AM in the Spring, this means we were riding in weather that averaged around freezing. I can remember taking hot baths to warm up after riding and get ready for school. Now I have problems riding in anything lower that 45 degrees or so.

Well it looks like the spring classics are over, I throughly enjoyed watching all of them on Sporza. I liked the results of all but L-B-L. Vino has never been a favorite of mine, never mind the whole doping issue. Steve Tilford has a good set of pictures and a link to Bike Snob NY's stories about Vino looking like Ivan Drago from Rocky. I never really thought about it until I saw the pictures side by side. Bike Snob takes it a step further and shows the the fact Vino doesn't have eyebrows is the problem. Either way I don't like Vino, his ego and all the whining he does.

Tour of Romandie is going now and I hope I can watch a few stages before it is all over. I am also looking forward to the Giro this year, of course the Tour of California will be good, and it is in my back yard, but the Giro is just so epic with its climbs in the Dolomites and all the tifosi. I really dislike the term epic, but somehow it really suits the climbs in the three grand tours. Well all these changes in the weather have made my collarbone hurt so I have taken a painkiller, and since I haven't been taking any for a while I am just about down for the count. Goodnight all!

Spring Classics and it is about time

2010-04-05T14:50:00.000-07:00

Well just one week left before my x-ray. I am so ready to be back on my bike! Five weeks without being able to ride, well, I could ride on the trainer if I didn't move my shoulder, but I have been very protective of my shoulder. I need to get on with some training, especially since I have my racing licence and want to put it to good use.

It has been rather rainy and relatively (for Northern Cal) cold here, but we really need the rain, it has been unbelievably dry here the past couple of years and it will be good to have at least a normal amount of rain. The midwest and southwest have already got into the 80's, but it is struggling to get to 60 here. I am sure that it will be ridiculously hot here before I know it. I need to drop at least 40 to 50 pounds so I can climb halfway decent, but it should come off quickly once I can start riding with regularity. Even before I had my surgery I wasn't riding every day since it was still a little cold out and I wasn't really able to ride too hard.

Fabian Cancellara did a spectacular job in the Ronde van Vlaanderen yesterday. I watched on Sporza live, and then watched the VersusTV 2 hour program later in the day. Can't wait for Paris-Roubaix on the 11th and then the Amstel Gold Race on the 18th. Of course the Tour of California will be starting May 16, can't miss that since it is in my back yard practically. I want to ride the first and second stages at some point, nothing like riding the actual stages to get a good perspective on what they will be going through. I can ride the distances just fine, it is just the pace and climbs, although they aren't very big, that do me in.

Home alone!

2010-03-13T18:05:00.000-08:00

Well it is Saturday and Cathy and Andrew are in San Francisco enjoying the sights with Phil and Andrea. Lucky me I get to be at home. Doing laundry with one arm, still healing from surgery, so I can wash the laundry but can't get it back upstairs to fold. Oh well.

Had a great Italian meal last night, seafood risotto with halibut, salmon, shrimp and spinach with a chardonnay-lobster cream sauce and fresh tomatoes at Il Forno Classico in Gold River, CA. Very good, would have had some wine, but wine and painkillers don't mix. Tomorrow grilling outside for a crowd from church, I will be making some fresh salsa for the chips.

Tirenno-Adriatico looks like it is getting good, and Michele Scarponi, last years leader, is in the lead again. Paris-Nice looks like Alberto Contador is going to win, as he took a good win on Stage 4, but Valverde is only 14 seconds back and Roman Kreuzinger and Luis-Leon Sanchez are 25 and 26 seconds back, respectively. I would love to see some real competition on the last stage tomorrow. Milan-San Remo is next weekend and it looks like Tom Boonen is on track, while Mark Cavendish hasn't got his form as of yet. Dental surgery will set you back, and it kept Mark of his bike most of January. I can sympathize, being stuck not being able to ride due to my collarbone surgery. I think I will go crazy if I can't get out on the road soon. I am hoping that my x-rays on Tuesday will show the bone growing together, if nothing else I will at least get rid of the staples.

Beautiful weather out today, Northern California does have some pretty nice weather, just don't like it when it gets over 100, but at least it isn't humid. Looks like another fondo, the Echelon Gran Fondo in Napa is set for May 23rd. Maybe I might try it, the 100 miler only has about 3000 feet of climbing, if I get a chance to ride pretty soon. I just don't want to push the recovery too fast, it's not like I "need" to be ready to ride at any particular time. Riding again soon will do the most for my metal well being.

Well hope the weather is nice where you live, or bundle up and get out and ride!

Who know fixing a collarbone would hurt so much?

2010-03-07T22:10:00.000-08:00

I would like to start this post with a couple of pictures of me as a young cyclist. First a picture of me riding during the Cottonwood 200. This was taken after the first 75 mile day, I was so amped about finishing the first 75 miles that I had to do laps around the campsite two wind down. Ah to have this kind of energy now, I was 12 or 13 years old.

The second picture is when I was 14 years old, and was riding for the Oz Cycling Team from Wichita. We were sponsored by Coleman Industries and Conventry Cycles. Scott Moninger and I were riding for the same team, I had to switch from Mt. Oread so that I could afford to ride Nationals in Milwaukee.

Boy does my collarbone hurt, nearly a week after my surgery to put my collarbone back together. I now have a pin inside the ends of each of the bone segments a plate across the top of the whole thing and screws, seven I think, holding the whole thing together. I am blaming all this hardware for any weight gain during my recovery. The weather outside has been great, just wish I could be out riding, but I am listening to my orthopedist and am not going to attempt anything until I get the go ahead. Hopefully I can start some excersize to get my upper body strength back. The weather will probably be back to rainy when I am ready to ride again, but at least it will be pretty warm.

Watching Paris-Nice was great today! It was good to see Levi Leipheimer doing so well so early in the season, I hope he can win Paris-Nice, although I have no idea if that is his goal. Too bad Gert Steegmans joined the broken collarbone club this year, it appears that the list is getting rather long and the season has just really getting ramped up. Gert looked to be Team Radioshack's "classics" big gun, and I am sure his talents will be missed, but the do have a pretty strong team.

Spring has sprung?

2010-02-14T22:31:00.000-08:00

Well at least springtime temperatures are here in Northern California, and I have ridden for a whole four days it a row. Leave it to me to get the training ball rolling well just before going out of town and then having surgery. Well at least it appears like I will be ready after my collarbone heals from the surgery, too bad I had to wait 5 months for them to decide to fix it. I think I should be able to get back to riding in about two to four weeks post-surgery, I am hoping for the two weeks but I am prepared for the four weeks. I will however need to get back to work rather quickly following surgery.

I hope to take advantage of the nice weather here before heading off to Denver and then on to West Palm Beach. I guess I am doing a weather tour of the US. Slight chance of precipitation in Denver on Friday and Saturday, but when I fly to West Palm Beach on Sunday the forecast looks pretty good. I hope I can get out a run at least a few days while in Florida, don't want to lose too much fitness, it will be hard enough with the food selections that I will have available. I have chicken and fish dishes selected for the lunches and dinner meals for the conference meals. I will have a one or two mile walk to the conference site in Florida, the main hotel was full and the conference is going to be at a convention center anyway.

Just in case those of you who know me from my cycling past and present don't know, I am a geotechnical engineer. In other words I play with dirt and rocks, at least that is how I typically explain what I do. I work in an office most of the time now doing numerical simulations of the construction and seismic deformations of dams, levees and other structures that interact and/or interface with the ground. I play with computers and am in charge of a group of engineers that works at the high end of engineering, that is high risk structures. I am a geek, which is why I really get into the science of training for cycling. I hope I can get my coaching credential this year, not like I have time to do much coaching, but I would like to be able to have something besides my years of cycling experience and all the reading on physiology and training methods to be able to point to, and who knows I may learn even more.

Well enough blogging and Olympics watching for the night. Have a great week everyone and Happy Valentines Day!

Broken Collarbones for Everyone!!?

2010-02-09T20:39:00.000-08:00

Well it looks like I am on good company when it comes to broken collarbones. It appears that so far this year Kurt Asle-Arvesen (Team Sky), Steven Cozza (Garmin-Transitions) and Gerald Ciolek (Milram) have all broken their collarbones. Of course they will have surgery almost immediately and be back on their bikes within a week. Here I am 5 months after my collarbone is just now going to get "fixed". I know I am not a professional bike racer, but I would like to be back riding and be somewhat pain free. Right now I am still hurting, not constant pain, but still hurting. Sometimes I think there is some rotator cuff damage as well, it locks up sometimes and that really hurts.

Well the season appears to be well underway, with the Tour Down Under finished, Tour of Qatar and Challenge Ciclista a Mallorca both going on now. I am really just waiting for Milan-San Remo, I think it is the really start to the season and is at least at a reasonable time into the season that you don't have to spread out your peaks by months and months. I am also pleased that Ricardo Ricco won't be riding MSR, I don't think he should be riding again, given his attitude toward doping and the fact his girlfriend had a positive dope test in the past month.

Well the crazy times continue at work and I better get some sleep to be ready for tomorrow. Cheers!

Too Busy!

2010-02-06T22:08:00.000-08:00

Seems like it has been weeks since I was on the bike, but it has actually only been a few days. One of my rides last weekend my sensor for my cadence/speed when into my spokes without warning and made the most horrible "sproing" noise as it went flying. It broke the mounting for it, so I am looking at an expensive replacement, oh the fun of cycling. Riding with just my heart rate and no cadence/speed info reminds my of training in the 80's before the Avocet computer, where everything was just based on how you felt and then measuring your route on a map or in a car and noting what time it was when you left and when you returned. Kind of a liberating experience, but very dis-satisfying for my inner geek.

My youngest Andrew had pinewood derby today with his cub scout pack. As with most kids starting in cub scouts, I had to do a lot of the more dangerous work on the car, but trying to make sure that Andrew had a hand in just about every step. The car set a new speed record for the track a scaled 227.3 mph, one fast hunk of wood. I just hope that he doesn't expect to win every year, but it was sure nice to see how happy he was getting a trophy for the first time. Wish I could have witnessed it first hand, but today was our church vestry retreat, so I was in planning meetings all day. I think we have a great group on our vestry and we made some good goals for the next year. It is tough with a church that is re-growing after a rather large exodus of parishioners, but I think we are all here some a reason and hopefully we can make a difference in our community.

I have some trips coming up for work, both Denver and West Palm Beach. I love geotechnical engineering, and these are great events to catch up with friends from across the states and the world, but they are exhausting, but they always act as a catalyst to new ideas, and get me energized about work. I have papers that I have contributed to that we are trying to wrap up for several international conferences, one in Chile and another in London. Doubt that I will be able to attend either, but it is always good to be published. I think my next international trip will be for either the Tour de France or the Giro, sometime in the next two or three years. Andrew will be 9 or 10 at the time, so hopefully he will get a lot out of the trips, not just the cycling, but the culture and history.

We this has been a rambling journey through my scatterbrain thoughts, maybe I can get some real cycling insight on my next post, the season is really getting going now and even our season here in NorCal is already in full swing. I will be forced off of the bike for a couple of weeks starting right after my latest trips, I have surgery scheduled on my collarbone, finally! I think UC Davis really got things wrong after my accident, they said I only had a "simple" fracture and that I didn't need to go to an orthopedist to follow up, just my gp. They never sent the x-rays to my gp either, and then when my gp had me take x-rays to see how things were healing we find out that I have lots of bone fragments and they aren't even touching. Now 5 months after my accident and after trying a ultrasonic bone stimulator to try and get things back together, it is now down to getting surgery to get things put back together. They are going to try and use cadaver or synthetic bone for the bone grafts so that they hopefully won't need to use bone from my hip, but either way I just want it to stop hurting. I am scared to ride a lot of times because I don't trust drivers to see me or even if they see me to not hit me. It makes riding a rather tense time if I am on "public" roads and not bicycle trails. I haven't been able to train consistently or do any basic weight training since my shoulder hurts and it hasn't healed at all. Well, cheers and here's to getting past all of this!

February? What happened to January?

2010-01-26T21:53:00.000-08:00

Well this month has just about passed me by. Northern California has just about been underwater for over a week, but we really needed the rain. Now all the plants will bloom in the spring and give me the worst case of hay fever ever! Things are shaping up to be very busy this year, at least in terms of work. I guess I can't complain, with so many out of work I have an abundance, but with that comes stress. All the more reason to ride more often. I have managed to get on the indoor drainer (that is trainer) for at least an hour the past couple of days. I find it really hard to be motivated about doing anything other than basic mileage on the trainer, I should do some basic interval workouts, and maybe I will get to that, but I would much rather do those outdoors.

Andrew had his first Tiger Cub Scout meeting last night, ah the fun of herding cats, a group of 7 year olds is very hard to deal with. I hope Andrew can get into Scouts, I think he could have a lot of fun. We have pinewood derby next weekend, I am not sure if I am up to putting one together, but we will see this weekend if I can get it done. Wow, just checked a website for pinewood derby stuff, I didn't know people took these things that seriously. Well I have my work cut out for me.

Is it really 10 days into January?

2010-01-10T20:59:00.000-08:00

Well I am back from our family trip to Disneyland and I am done with the vacations for a while. We had a great time, great weather and the fireworks on Friday were spectacular. We drove down Hollywood Blvd. and went to Beverly Hills and Santa Monica Pier on Saturday before we headed home to Sacramento. I really need to get back into a routine with my eating and riding habits. I tried to eat as healthy as I could at Disneyland, but that can be rather difficult at times with some of the great food they have at Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney. The pasta jambalaya is very tasty.

Up here in Northern California the weather is warm compared to most of the country and we don't have tons of snow on the ground, but this is what should be the rainy season, but we haven't been getting rain like we should be. It rains just enough to be annoying, but not enough to help us with the drought conditions. I would like to ride outdoors, but I guess I am just a bit nervous riding in the wet, it didn't bother me when I was younger, but now I get skittish about it. I have found that I can't stand riding an indoor trainer, but if the weather situation doesn't improve I will need to start riding more indoors. I just don't like riding inside, even if I watch something on the big screen it just seems so much like working, not like riding outdoors where I can lose myself in the ride. I still have to concentrate, but when I am outside it just seems like I'm not really working.

If you want some good cyclocross entertainment check out the CycloCrossChannel on YouTube, here is a link to the first of two videos for the Belgian Cyclocross Championship where Sven Nys makes an incredible comeback after some first lap mistakes. You can see most of the World Cup Cyclocross races on the CycloCrossChannel. Have fun and get out and ride!

Captain's Blog

2010-01-01T22:46:00.000-08:00

Not really, just thought it sounded funny, not like a million other people probably thought of it first. It is the first blog of a new year, yea 2010! Although my knee is still hurting like crazy, riding doesn't seem to hurt at all, unless I get out of the saddle, then we have massive pain. So the key is just sit and spin. I did happen to finally get my fat butt out of the chair and ride today. Didn't think it was going to happen today, it rained last night and off and on all day today and I really have to be motivated to ride in the rain, at least cold rain. But I guess it is all relative, I would ride when it was 40 degrees and raining in Kansas, here I think it is too cold at 50 degrees, weird.

I do need to get into a routine and get my season, like I am a real bike racer, planned out. Somehow it seems kind of funny to plan my training when I may have 10 or so races or rides like Levi's King Ridge Gran Fondo this year, but now that scientific training is the norm it really appeals to the engineer in me. It seems so funny that in the 70's and early 80's the training wasn't so much based on science as it was on feeling and intervals were not as regimented as they are now. I have a heart rate monitor, but haven't made the leap to power measurement. I guess the the cost is what really prevents me from taking the plunge, a 1,500 dollar wheel or 3,500 dollar crankset are a bit much for an "average" cyclist. I am hoping that the new Vector from Metrigear will cost less than 1,000 dollars, although that is still some serious money, I think that the benefits of being able to direct my training would help immensely. Any time savings would be great since I am not a professional cyclist who doesn't have unlimited time to train, although even if I was a pro, I can imagine that it would help keep me from wasting time on training that isn't targeted on my weaknesses.

I did get a couple of new books, I got a Barnes and Noble gift certificate from my aunt Sue, thank you Sue! I got "The Ultimate Ride" by Chris Carmichael, another training book, and "Uphill Battle" by Owen Mulholland, about some of cycling's greatest climbers. I love the history of cycling and reading about some of my cycling heroes. I hope one of these days I can meet Lucien Van Impe, I can remember reading about him in Bike World and Velo News in the 70's and imagining that I was a great climber like him. I doubt I will ever climb as well, I hope I can lose enough weight to climb some of the foothills and mountains around here with some speed.

Well we have had a pretty good time the last couple of weeks with Philip out here from college and Andrew sticking to Philip like glue. Drew really misses having Phil around and I am so glad that Drew gets to spend time with his big brother. We got a letter from one of our Korean sons Hae Chan, who is just about done serving his time in the Korean military. I am looking forward to Hae visiting us when he comes back to the states to go to school. Maybe he will go to school out here in California, although he was going to school in Missouri. You know you are getting old when a daughter of some friends, friends you on Facebook. Back when I was getting into cycling Mike and Judy Hudson were the USCF district representatives, they put me in touch with the resources of the day to help me along. Without Mike and Judy I don't know if I would have felt as welcomed into cycling. Heidi their daughter is now married, I can remember when she was born, boy that makes me feel old. Zach their son is a stuntman and has been in quite a few films, just amazing.

Doctors and New Years Wishes

2009-12-30T14:52:00.000-08:00

Well I have had two sets of x-rays on my collarbone, both showing that healing isn't progressing as it should. So my orthopedist has ordered an EXOGEN Ultrasonic Bone Healing System to help get the growth started. I am hoping this helps get things going. I also tweaked my knee last week running, I had the doctor take a look at my knee while I was there. I may have a torn meniscus, but I am hoping it is just an irritated tendon or something, but he scheduled an x-ray just in case.

I did get some shoe covers, full-fingered gloves and a Pearl Izumi headband for Christmas, so now I can ride in the cold. Although I don't know if I will be riding much until my knee feels better. I am hopeful that next year works out better, no surgeries, collisions or otherwise painful problems.

The photo is from Cor Vos courtesy of PezCycling, it is Hinault in the 1980 edition of Liege-Bastogne-Liege, what a classic, classic. I am looking forward to the new season and all the Spring classics! It will be interesting to see if Edvald Boasson-Hagen can win another classic like the Ghent-Wevelgem this year and shown below in another Cor Vos photo.

Medical Update and other Ramblings

2009-12-21T22:43:00.000-08:00

Well I had my 90 day x-rays and orthopedic appointment. Sorry to say it was just like I had thought, very little healing and my bones at rather odd angles. So I get to use a bone stimulator (ultrasonic osteogenesis stimulator to be exact), it my insurance will pay for it. I should find out within a couple of weeks. I guess no aggressive weightlifting for me. I did manage to run 6 miles today, good break from cycling and works different muscles. I can bet I will be sore, but I did run last week as well. Unfortunately it hurts my shoulder no matter what I do, I just have to minimize the amount of pain.

I did find the cyclocross channel on YouTube, they have Sporza broadcasts from Belgium of most of the World Cup cyclocross races. The Kalmthout round this past weekend is very good, and very cold, with snow, ice and general misery. But if you like to watch cyclocross this is pretty cool. Well I am hoping that the weather stays dry for a couple of days so I can ride at least a little bit. Happy Christmas Everyone!

Itchy

2009-12-20T21:10:00.000-08:00

Well I am having problems with being itchy. To most people my itchiness must seem rather silly, but for some reason when I am having problems with itching it is just crazy. I itch so bad I can scratch all the hair off of my arms along with some of the skin. It doesn't affect me to often, but when it does it is crazy, I have to take more benadryl (diphenhydramine) then most people could stand. Often when I am having a really bad attack I may take 12 to 16 in a day, just so I can function. That is if you could call the zombie state which ensues a functioning state.

Mind you this only effects my forearms, typically the right forearm more than the left. I have been to doctors and dermatologists, but they have never came up with a reason. I have tried various topical creams, but none have really worked and most have caused more problems. There have been several bouts which have landed my in the hospital and required intravenous benadryl to stop it.

I did get in a good 2.5 hours on the bike yesterday, it was about 50 degrees or so and overcast, but my feet froze. The rest of me was fine, but I need to get some shoe covers to keep my feet warm. There were quite a few people out riding, not to many on the Folsom South Canal, but on the American River Trail there were a lot. Why is it that some cyclists are just assholes about everything. I went to pass a slower duo of riders and said, "on your left" to let them know I was passing and to try and let them know before I went by them, but all I got was a bunch of smartass (actually dumbass) comments shouted at me. I have been yelled at by triathlete people for drafting them for a split second before passing them. The only reason being I didn't have room, or we were going though a series of turns, which I might add are tricky enough on a "regular" road bike, but they are doing them on a tri-bike with aero bars which give them little control in the corners. But I am the asshole for following them for 5 seconds before passing, what a bunch of primadonnas. For those who don't know the American River Trail is a multi-use trail, bikes, walkers, runners and horses (in some areas). This trail is great for being able ride without the hassle of cars, although there is always a battle for supremacy between the cyclists and the runners. Of course there is quite a range of experience level among the cyclists that use the trail, and I generally give a wide berth to those who look like they may not be the most expert of cyclists, but I think they have just as much right to ride as any of us. I seem to be in the minority from what I have seen, wish more cyclist were just a bit nicer while riding. Well that is my suggestion, ride nice or go home!

Two Weeks Until Christmas

2009-12-13T14:45:00.000-08:00

Well it is less than two weeks to go until Christmas, looking forward to see my son Philip home from college, but I really seem to get tense during this time. Too much stress from work and too much stress from 7 year old with nothing but time to drive me nuts. Great kid, but when Christmas gets close he gets to be a bit hard to handle. Planning on an hour long ride on the trainer today, still raining outside. I think I'll watch some of the 2005 Paris-Nice while I ride, the year Bobby Julich won.

Wish I had the time and resources to go to bicycle races with my family every weekend. Although that assumes that they would like to go. Andrew enjoys going to cyclocross races, but only because he gets to play with other kids when he goes. Not that he likes to watch the races themselves. Drew has some balance and fine motor skills deficits, so he hasn't mastered riding his bike without training wheels yet. I hope this spring we will be able to get him on the bike w/o training wheels.

Quite a few people are discussing the Sky versus Garmin teams for the Tour de France already, debating the strength of each team. I like Bradley Wiggins, not that I have ever met him, but like I said before I think he didn't do right by Jonathan Vaughters and his team.

I have put together a list of wikipedia entries for the major races, or at least the ones I could remember for your reading enjoyment:

La Primavera
Milan - San Remo

Cobbled Classics
Paris -Roubaix
Gent-Wevelgem
Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders)

Ardennes Classics

Amstel Gold Race
La Fleche Wallonne
Liège–Bastogne–Liège

Other Classics
Clásica de San Sebastián

Paris - Tours

Giro di Lombardia

Stage Races

Tirreno-Adriatico
Paris - Nice
Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
Giro d'Italia
Tour of California
Tour de France
Vuelta a España

Formerly Contested Races
Grand Prix des Nations

I will continue to add to this list and publish a nearly complete list. At least with the wikipedia entries there are more historical facts and a list of past winners and links to the actual race website if the race is still being contested under the original name.

More randomness!

2009-12-11T22:36:00.000-08:00

Another day another indoor riding day. Cold, relatively speaking, and rainy whether here in Northern California. Changed the rear cassette on my Fulcrum wheel to my Mavic training wheels so that I wouldn't ruin my good set of tires.

Oh, for those of you who haven't seen the new Radioshack Trek Madone, here you go:

Still like my Wilier better, but wouldn't turn these down if someone happened to offer me one, like that would happen.

To bad Bradley Wiggins left Garmin-Transitions, Jonathan Vaughters had really taken him so much further than he had previously gone. Looking forward to Christian VDV going for a podium spot in the TdF next year. I hope he has a great season! It is hard to believe that the cycling season is almost non-stop now, seems like the season just ended and now we are getting ready for the Tour Down Under in about a month, January 17 to 24, 2010.

For your viewing enjoyment -

Wheel Change -

Full Moon

2009-12-05T21:25:00.000-08:00

Full moon last night, I should have known with the drivers behaving they way they were yesterday during my ride. I guess I am pretty gun-shy about riding around cars, a lady started to cross in front of me, just like my accident, I yelled because I didn't know if the lady was going to hit me. But she kept coming, why do people wonder why we yell at them, we can't read their minds and we don't know if they really see us or not. She yelled at me, "I see you", but this is after she nearly runs me over, WTF? Why not wait to turn until I clear the bike path across where they are turning, instead of turning right at me and just stopping short of hitting me? I am glad the American River Trail and the other "multi-use" trails are around, but I can't ride on the trails all the time. Just have to ride defensively and try to be as safe as possible. I need to get some more obnoxious yellow jerseys and jackets so people can see me.

I can't believe that teams are already getting prepared for next season, I remember in the 70's and 80's that teams didn't really have training camps like they do now or if they did they weren't until February or March. I remember that the Cassoday Road Race was the official start of the season in Kansas, I think around the end of March. Much before that and it was too cold, even then you had to have a wool long sleeve jersey and wool tights. I think my shoe covers were just several socks that I cut for my cleats and used duct tape to try and make the opening a little more durable. But toe clips always cut of some circulation so my toes always froze. Northern New York was even worse, I can remember getting snow on June 1st one year, but at least I could cross country ski right outside my house up there. I am thankful that I live in Northern California now, I am close to skiing country and can ride most of the year. Speaking of which, here are some pictures of the Sacramento CX:

SacramentoCX

Second ride

2009-11-24T22:56:00.000-08:00

Well the second ride was just as good as the first, awesome bike! I would like to say that Ikon Cycles was great in setting up the bike, please support your local shop as much as you can. I know that mail order or should I say internet dealers offer some things at a reduced cost, but if you are buying a high-end bicycle, support your local economy and get fitted in your local shop.

I am hoping that I can resist indulging too much on Thanksgiving, not alcohol, just food. I don't drink, except the occasional glass of wine, and by occasional I mean once every 6 months or so. I do love Pinot Grigio. There are too many good foods at Thanksgiving, who can resist the green bean casserole, au gratin potatoes, sweet potatoes and stuffing. We are doing hummus and nan, which I love as well. I am going to attempt to make hummus from scratch along with the tahini to add into the hummus. I will let you all know how this turns out.

On the cycling front it looks like Astana might not get its Protour licence after all. Personally I hope they don't, not because I want their riders to lose chance to ride Protour events, I just don't think Astana will take care of most of their riders. I'm not a Contador fan, but he would do much better on a different team. I really want to see what the Radioshack team kit will look like, maybe after the Tucson training camp we will get to see. I hope Cadel Evans gets the support he needs at BMC, I think he has a TdF win in him, and he deserves to get at least one win at the TdF. At least he appears to be attacking now, not just sitting back and letting the race come to him, time will tell though. I am really looking forward to the new Vector powermeter by MetriGear, less than $1,000. Not like I can afford it or anything, but it finally has the chance to bring the use of power meters to the masses and doesn't require a crankset that cost over $3,000 or a specific set of wheels.

Well deadlines loom at work, and I should get some more work done before bed. Cheers!

Finally a ride on the new bike!

2009-11-23T22:05:00.000-08:00

Finally had the time, weather and a shoulder that could take the ride to go out on the new bike. Boy was it terrific, I have never had a bike that fit so well and performed so well. I wish I could have had an all carbon bike before, my Specialized had a carbon fork, but it is amazing how responsive the bike is. Well got to get some sleep.

Indoor Training

2009-11-21T15:00:00.000-08:00

Just finished my first ride since my collision, 35 minutes on an indoor trainer. Did some single leg work, boy is that hard. If I could I would buy some PowerCranks, but I don't have that kind of money. Single leg work does a good job though.

Drew and I are headed to the SacramentoCX series race tomorrow in Discovery Park. It will be Drew's first bicycle race and hopefully he will enjoy it. Wish I was riding, but maybe next year. Cathy and I are planning to go to both the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia in the next couple of years and I just hope that Drew can enjoy racing half as much as I do. There are so many racing options for Cyclocross in Northern California, just about every weekend somewhere close, Folsom had a race last weekend.

I wish there was a bicycle club out here that I liked. I haven't really got a good feeling about any of them, not like Mt. Oread, Lawrence Bicycle Club or Wheatland Cycling Team back in Kansas. I think I will race under the Wheatland colors this year, but we will see if I can find a team out here that I can hook up with. The Davis Bicycle Club has a good team, but I don't live in Davis. I would like to be able to do club rides with the team. The only two teams I have tried to contact are Rio Strada and Sacramento Golden Wheelmen, and only Rio Strada has responded. Maybe I can have meet some of the Rio Strada people and see if I would like to race with them. I will post some pictures of the race tomorrow.

Friday Night Fun!

2009-11-20T19:44:00.000-08:00

Well I finally got enough time to blog again. It has been a crazy week with fragility analysis review for the Sacramento levees and the I-405 project down in Los Angeles (Santa Monica). I got my new bike:

2010 Wilier Izoard with SRAM Force, 3T Stem and Bars, Fulcrum 5 wheels, Sella Italia Gel Flow Team Edition. I can't wait to ride and I think I might be able to try, it all depends on the weather though, it rained today and is a bit chilly, but it could be a lot worse. If nothing else I will be riding my MTB on my trainer tomorrow. I need to get back into the swing of things, all this time off of the bike is not good. I haven't gained more than a couple of pounds, but I don't want to fall into the trap of not riding again. I spent to many years not doing anything and I still have 50 pounds to lose.

I like the fact that I can work from home most days, just wish I could move my office here completely, but I do need to spend some time in the office. I wish I felt better about riding into the office, I am downright scared to ride with these crazy drivers. Just read the link Ted King posted about the guy who shot at a cyclist and only got 4 months, http://bit.ly/1ekP0J. It is unreal that people hate cyclists for even riding on "their" roads, it doesn't matter that there is a bike lane or that we are actually saving gas and not polluting. To the driving public we seem to be an obstacle in their way and they don't care how they get around us or through us. Dave Zabriskie founded an organization called Yield to Life that tries to get the message out to both cyclists and drivers about using the roads together. There are good quizzes that every driver and cyclist should take, I wouldn't be surprised if most people knew the answer to even half of the questions. I do get upset at motorists, I try not to, but when someone runs me off the road or nearly kills me I have a hard time. I am going to start carrying pen and paper to write down peoples licence plates, but most police don't think crimes against cyclists matter at all. My case in point, there were several witnesses to my collision, but the police didn't take down anyones name, not a single one. It is like it really wasn't a big deal, never mind that it shattered my collarbone. Well enough of a rant for tonight, please Yield to Life!

Bad news on the medical front, at least for now.

2009-11-06T23:55:00.000-08:00

Well went to the orthopedic surgeon on Tuesday and he said that I was set for surgery on Thursday, until he learned that I didn't injure it the week before, but once he learned it was injured 5 weeks ago he said he wasn't going to operate. I, of course, didn't ask any questions. The doctor said that he would look at x-rays in 7 more weeks, but wouldn't operate unless it didn't heal in 6 months. I am not quite sure what to think at that point. I am going to get another appointment to see if he can explain why he wants to wait so long to before trying to fix things. I am scared that if I try and ride again and I fall I will do irreparable damage to my shoulder. I certainly don't want to wait six months until I ride again. Maybe it is because I'm not down to 150 pounds and don't look like a bicycle racer yet, I don't need to get an operation because I don't look like I might need to worry about hurting it again. Well more tomorrow!

Sunday afternoon, and I am working!

2009-11-01T19:21:00.000-08:00

Well it is a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Northern California! Too bad I have work to do. I made my reservation to Los Angeles for Tuesday. Our client wants to not only meet, he now wants me to make a presentation. Not like I had any extra time to put together a presentation in addition to trying to get things reviewed for all the other projects I am working on. But at least Andrew is watching "Gremlins", which I really don't care about, so it isn't like I really need to watch it. I guess it should keep me focused on my work, as you can see from my post I am diligently working.

Can't believe Cadel Evans is going to BMC next year! I know Silence-Lotto wasn't up to the task for Le Tour, but will BMC be able to support him much better? George H. is good, but he is getting older and I thought he didn't want to do the tour again, but I didn't get that first hand so who knows? Allesandro Ballan may have been a world champion, but I haven't ever seen him ride to his potential in anything else. Karsten Kroon and some of the others should be pretty good. Added some cycling links to some of my favorite cycling websites, just in case you need more things to look and waste your time.

Wish I could get out to some cyclocross races, I know there are some

Work is going to kill me!

2009-10-31T21:58:00.000-07:00

Well I have to fly to LA on Tuesday, actually somewhere between Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, but is all LA to me. This trip will follow my trip to the orthopedic surgeon on Monday. As a result of the new x-rays my doctor had the orthopod call me and tell me I had to have an appointment on Monday. I finally got to see the x-rays for myself, boy is my collarbone f'd up. There are several distinct pieces and they are not together. My guess is that they will want to plate and pin it or use rods through the bone, either way I will have even more time off of the bike. I got my new helmet, a Lazer O2, really nice. I would say it is the best helmet I have ever owned, comfortable and easily adjustable, at least at home, we will see how I like it riding later.

Put some street tires on my MTB to make it more suitable as a commuter, I have some new lights and I am going to put more reflective bits on it to make me more visible, not like I ride at night or anything, but I don't want anyone to have an excuse. Jonathan Vaughters will be speaking in Mill Valley, that is near San Fran if you didn't know, next week. It is a benefit for the high school MTB league in Northern California. I would love to go, but I just don't have an extra $75 or time to go. Work is starting to consume my life again. If I could ride back and forth to work I think I would feel a lot better, but that isn't going to happen in the near future.

Got a really cool thermal bike mug from ElevenGear, they have some really cool stuff. I went to their website after getting something from them at Levi's Gran Fondo and wah-la a new thermal bike mug in the mail.

Medical update

2009-10-27T22:10:00.000-07:00

Forgot to mention, my doctor finally got the x-rays from the UC Davis trauma center. The intern at UCD told me that I shouldn't need a follow-up with orthopedist and that is was a simple break. Well I got a call from my doctor saying that I needed to come in to have some new x-rays done because the break was actually multiple fractures, and that it may have not healed correctly. I went in for my x-rays this morning the the x-ray tech cringed when he looked at my x-rays and asked if I could move my arm. They have said that I may need to have to re-break my collarbone and pin it if it hasn't healed properly. I can't seem to get a break (other than bones). I am wondering when I will be struck by lightening, seriously, I am getting a complex. Now I am finished for the night.

All work and no play

2009-10-27T21:49:00.001-07:00

I got such a headache, too many major projects demanding my time, and dealing with people who have no idea what they are doing. I am beginning to think it is amazing that we graduate as many engineers as we do, it seems like most of them were absent a good portion of the time they were in school. Either that or they partied so much they killed all the brain cells they had used to learn engineering in the first place. A requirement of a doctorate is a lobotomy, at least that is what it seems to require, all common sense must be eliminated. Maybe if I had finished my dissertation that would have doomed me to the removal of my common sense.

Ordered my new bicycle last week, before I headed to Disneyland, I can't wait for it to be built. Disneyland was fun, but the food wasn't near as good as Disneyworld in Florida. I think Epcot makes the experience that much better.

Looks like the Giro will be great next year, too bad the Tour of California and the Giro are at the exact same time. I understand why they moved the ToC to be more of a Tour de France warmup instead of a pre-season race. I think the ToC will be fun to watch and I can at least attend the ToC, but they still haven't really included the Sierra's yet, if they really wanted to make the race harder they could do so easily. Just riding in the foothills is difficult enough, but I know there are quite a few hard climbs around Tahoe and even the Levi's Gran Fondo route is more difficult than some of the current stages.

We enough random thoughts, time to sign off for the night.

Another day another dime?

2009-10-19T22:28:00.000-07:00

Well I went into work today, as opposed to working from home as I have been. Only problem is that I have a completely different posture when I am at my desk at work, compared with how I work at home, sitting in a recliner with a laptop on my lap. At home I don't put any stress on my collarbone, at work I hunch over my desk putting too much stress on my collarbone. I can't wait until this thing heals!

I am going to order my new bicycle tomorrow, I don't know how long it will take to get the parts and everything. In the past I guess I have bought my bicycles one piece at a time or complete, so I haven't had to wait to get everything together. I may go crazy waiting, but it isn't like I could ride with my collarbone hurting so much anyway.

I seem to have more conference calls than I know what to do with, I guess I am really back to full strength from my colon surgery, because I am starting to work closer to 50 hours a week. It is better to have too much work than not enough, there are a lot of people out there that don't have any job to go to. I think that is why I don't mind paying taxes, that may sound strange, but without taxes we couldn't help out those people who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. The same goes for education, I would rather pay more taxes if we could get people educated, then we wouldn't have as many people going to prison. Well enough of my rants for tonight. Got to get some sleep, have a big drive to Los Angeles tomorrow night.

Veruca Salt waiting for a bike

2009-10-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

Like the title says, I feel like Veruca Salt waiting for a bike, I want it now! But, I am just waiting for my check to get here so that I can put my down payment down on my bike. I know that I want to use the SRAM Force component group and 3T handlebars and stem and most likely I will get a Wilier Izoard Frame, but I don't really have a preference for seatpost. I think that I will probably get Fulcum 5 or 7's, but I also like the Williams wheels, they are built in Stockton, CA and really are close in weight to the rest of the wheels out there and they are really reasonably priced. I will be happy with either set, I just want to get back out and riding. Seats are ridiculously expensive now, I have seen some up to 400 dollars. I guess things have gotten quite advanced, but 400 for a saddle?

I went to Seattle on Thursday and flew back on Friday. Forgot how beautiful Seattle is, lots of green and lots of rain. Too bad I didn't have time to go anywhere but the hotel and the office. Our office is in Redmond which is where Microsoft headquarters is located, and boy are there a lot of Microsoft buildings. Had a good spinach enchilada for lunch, should have had some fish, the Mexican scallops looked really good.

My son Andrew had an appointment with the doctors this past week and we again are working with a diagnosis of PDD-NOS in addition to ADHD. Andrew is such a great kid and we love him so much, I just worry about him, I want him to have the chance to do whatever he wants. I hope that we can get his bike sent from Kansas at some time, he has just about outgrown his bicycle that he has now. I hope he can enjoy cycling, I just worry about all the nuts out there who harm children and all the idiots that can't drive in a straight line. At least there are some trails I can take him to ride on. I remember riding my Schwinn Stingray all over Topeka when I was his age. We would do all sorts of stupid things making jumps and doing wheelies everywhere. But it was great being able to go anywhere we wanted with only our legs powering our adventures.

New Bike Soon!

2009-10-13T18:47:00.000-07:00

Well my insurance adjuster from Allstate got back with me today and I will be reimbursed for my bicycle that was totaled in my crash. I am so glad! I was very worried that I wouldn't be able to buy a bike that was comparable to the one I had. I am going to be buying my bike from the shop that did the post collision inspection of my bike, IKON Cycles. I think it is important to use local shops as much as possible for making major purchases and for maintenance, at least the stuff I'm not equiped to do. But I do like working on my own bikes, it makes it a much more personal experience riding something that you take care of. I do use internet "mail-order" places for a lot of things, but feeling welcome in a local shop is an important cycling experience.

I have a doctors appointment on Thursday to have them x-ray my collarbone. It still hurts quite a bit, I haven't made it through a whole day at the office yet. I am working until the pain gets to much and then working from home the rest of the day. I'm just thankful for having a job that allows me to work from home when I need to.

I think I am going to go nuts if I have to wait too much longer to ride, but I know that I can't rush my recovery. Just miss the ride to and from work and the long rides on the weekend. At least now I am closer to getting a new bike and getting back to riding again.

Bike Shopping and Work

2009-10-11T19:22:00.000-07:00

Well I went to several different bicycle shops over the weekend. One in Davis and one in Fair Oaks. Both were very friendly and had some really cool bikes, Scott, Pinarello, Felt, Specialized, Look, Colnago, Trek and more. The bike shop that is looking at my bike to see if it is salvageable has told me that it is totaled, so my insurance company is going to pay for it. It is covered under my renters insurance, not my car insurance. Kind of strange, but I'm not questioning it. I won't spend any money until I get a check in hand. I am kind of partial to the Wilier Izoard, but with the components I want it is too expensive. The Trek Madone 5.5 Project One bike is pretty nice and I can get the price down to something reasonable. I also need to get a replacement helmet, jersey and gloves as they were all destroyed in my accident. They had to cut my jersey off of me.

I am hoping that I will be able to start moving my arm more, I can't quite do too many motions that don't cause pain, but I think the bone is healing. At least my bones don't grind together any more. I will have a check up with x-rays taken this week to confirm.

Frustrating times at work, I spend a good portion of my time reviewing engineering analysis and there are certain steps that need to be performed in a certain order to build quality into the process, and the one thing that really upsets me is when people don't ask for intermediate reviews so that the final review is not a big deal. This is the exact situation that occurred this past week. Along with the additional problem that the peer checking hadn't been done, so not only had I not seen the analysis before, they were expecting me to do the job of the peer review and the senior review, which is not the proper way of doing quality control. There, just had to vent a bit. I have been working at home since the accident, but tomorrow I am going to go into work. I will have to drive the mini-van since isn't an manual like my car is. I tried to drive my car, but I don't have enough strength to shift very well, so it is better that I take the van.

Got some really nice emails from my mom and two aunts giving me some encouragement. It is really difficult to be off the bike for so long given how much I have gone through in the past year. Just over a year ago, October 9, 2008, my colon perforated. I have had diverticulitis since I was in my early 20's, but it has only flared up maybe once or twice a year. Well starting about a month before my perforation I was having constant flare ups and even the day before the perforation I had a CT scan with contrast and the doctor said it was looking better. The next morning at work I was just walking from my office to someones office, can't remember who, but all of a sudden I doubled over with pain.

Of course being a guy I just drove myself home and kept telling everyone that I must just be constipated or something. Well, by 6 PM I had a fever of around 103 degrees and was feeling awful. My doctor just happened to call and check on me and told me to have my wife get me to the emergency room. I got there none too soon, as I would find out later that I was very close to dying. They took me to emergency surgery and I woke up the next day with a colostomy bag. Talk about a shock, I lost 9 inches of my colon and now I had a shit bag. Following surgery I had two pulmonary embolisms within two weeks that resulted in the doctors putting me on coumidin, a blood thinner. So, instead of having my colostomy reversed in 3 months it put it out to six months. A good result of the surgery is that as a result I lost about 40 or so pounds and I really needed it.

Since I hadn't ridden in years, I was very overweight, in fact morbidly obese. I was approximately 285 pounds before my surgery. Between my surgery and the restrictive diet that resulted I lost the 40 pounds prior to my second surgery. I had my second surgery, to remove another 4 inches of colon and get rid of the colostomy, on April 13th this year. When the operated this time they also took out my appendix and "fixed" several adhesions and hernias. Thus I felt like someone had taken a cricket bat and beat me. Well as soon as I could I started working out by walking, building slowly I was up to 6 miles a day of walking by mid-May. That is when I started riding my mountain bike every day. I started with around 10 miles a day and pretty quickly got up to commuting to work every day. Once I got down to 220 pounds I changed to my road bike. I was commuting every day to work and was up to 50 miles per day on the weekend. After signing up for the Gran Fondo, I started to increase my miles and was riding up in the Sierra foothills to get some climbing in. As I previously wrote, I was hit by the car one week before the Fondo and two weeks shy of my one year anniversary of perforating my colon. I am down to approximately 200 pounds, but I am still shooting for 150 pounds. Well I am sure that if you read all of this you must have nothing better to do, but I do appreciate you reading my story. Hope everyone has a great week.

Cheers! ;-)

Good News!

2009-10-08T19:50:00.001-07:00

Well, got some good news. My insurance will cover the cost of my bike. I have it into the bicycle shop to evaluate the damage. You never know with carbon fiber and aluminum, I took a pretty good hit so it may be beyond repair. I know my Ultegra STI shifters are toast, and they don't make replacements for the 9 speed stuff any more, so I will need a new drivetrain if nothing else. Insurance will also cover the cost of my cycling clothes that were torn up in the crash.

If nothing else I am yet another cyclist that proves the fact that helmets save lives, at least mine saved me from traumatic brain injury. Every day I see cyclists that ride without helmets and ride the wrong way (against traffic), it is like motorcycles though and some people just don't realize what could happen if you hit your head even at low speeds.

I am hoping that if my bike is totaled that I can get a Wilier or Colnago with SRAM Force components. I was hoping to get one when I got to my target weight, didn't plan on braking bones to get one. I just want to get back out on my bike and ride, if nothing else get on my mountain bike, there are so many good places for both road and mountain biking here. Close to the Sierra foothills and the coastal mountains.

Let me get a plug in for the bicycle shops I use: Performance Bicycle (kind of like the Target of bicycle shops, good quality and low prices) and IKON Cycles, it is a really good local shop, very small, but very good and friendly.

I think one of the biggest complaints I have about bike shops and some cyclists is the attitude. They act like they were never beginners, that the always were or are professional class cyclists and he shops don't have any tolerance for anyone that doesn't fit their image of what a cyclist should look like. I do shave my legs, this doesn't mean that I think I am a pro or even a good amateur, I just think it is better if I crash. If someone else doesn't, shave their legs, I don't think that they are any less of a cyclist, but if you were to go into one of "those" shops the people wouldn't wait on you. I am happy to help an overweight cyclist, maybe my help will allow them to reach their goals or make their riding more enjoyable. Well that is my soapbox for today. Good evening!

Just another day

2009-10-07T13:29:00.000-07:00

Well another day working from home. I guess I am lucky that I can do what I do from the comfort of an armchair. I am just depressed about the fact I am without bike and that I probably won't be able to afford a new one. I would have thought by this time in my life I would be able to afford these types of things.

Of Cars and Bicycles

2009-10-06T19:42:00.001-07:00

Well I had a run in with a car on Friday Sept. 25th. As usual the guy said he didn't "see" me, which is hard to believe as well lit as the area is and the fact that I had a neon yellow jersey with reflective bits on it, my shorts and my gloves. Well of course car beats bicycle, I may look like I weigh as much as a car, but I don't. I landed on my back, shoulder and head, destroying my jersey and helmet, not to mention my bicycle. My insurance will most likely cover the cost of my bike, too bad bicycles cost even more now. If I ever recover anything due to this crash it will be years before I get anything to cover the replacement of the bike. In the mean time I want to ride, I have my mountain bike, and that will work for commuting, but not for any longer rides over the weekend. I guess I will try and explore some singletrack up in Folsom, I hear they have some good riding up there. The biggest bummer is I couldn't ride the Gran Fondo last weekend. I did end up with a good picture with Levi.