Training Week June 23-29, 2008

Monday – Easy 30 minute spin
Tuesday – GG Park Sprints – 1:45 with hard efforts
Wednesday – Off
Thursday – Lunch: 45 min spin class moderate. PM: 1:45 Park ride moderate
Friday – Off
Saturday – Easy 1:45 morning park ride with a few openers
Sunday – Burlingame Crits – 60 min w/u – 40 min 35+ race (flat in last lap – 76th), 10 min break to swap numbers and tire – 60 min P/1/2 race – sat in mostly, tried to bridge up to a break with 5 laps to go, sat up last lap – 75th. (20 min cooldown) – 3 hr day.

Weekly total – 9.5 Hours

Pulled over by the SFPD

Last night’s Tuesday GG Park hammer ride was going along just as it always does, we were about halfway through and really pushing the pace up JFK. There were about 12 of us, strung out single file and I was leading when I heard a car horn blaring behind us. The first thought that comes to my mind is “we’re going 23 and the speed limit is only 25 and this f-er wants to pass, I’ll just speed up”.

So, I attack and get up to 27 or 28 and notice that no one’s coming with me, but I keep going until I hear the police siren, so I pull over to the right side of the lane, but don’t slow down right away until I realize “Oh, sh*% he’s pulling ME over"

Man was he pissed! He thought I was trying to get away from him and demanded to see my license. As I fumbled through my pockets looking for it, then realized that I didn’t have it, the rest of our group rolls up and stops. I became all humble and apologetic, telling him that I didn’t realize he was behind us since I was in the front and couldn’t hear him and that I thought it was OK to ride in the middle of the road since I was going the speed limit. The cop was starting to calm down and was just telling us to stay to the right and that he wouldn’t site us all for blowing through the stop signs..
Then this ZteaM guy whose name reminds me of an intersection

starts arguing with the cop about how we’re like a bus and since we’re EXCEEDING the speed limit we’re not holding up traffic (I’m thinking, DUDE, don’t argue with the guy, it’s not helping!)

Luckily he let us go with a warning and we were back to our usual mayhem within 5 minutes.

Training Week June 16-22, 2008

Monday – 45 minute spin class moderate
Tuesday – 1:45 – GG Park Sprints – hard
Wednesday – 45 minute spin (class was full, so went later and did Zone 1-2)
Thursday – 1 Hr with 4 x 5 minute moderate hill reps behind UCSF
Friday – 45 minute spin class easy
Saturday – 45 min AM ride on Tour de Nez Course. 45 minute ride warm-up on course, 55 min race, 20 minute cooldown.
Sunday – 90 minute warm-up, 24:30.1 Mt. Diablo TT, 20 min cooldown.

Weekly Total: 10 hours – 2 short races and no long ride.

Two more seconds

Being on the podium is great and everything, but it gets to be a little frustrating just missing out on the win. Dan and I broke away about halfway through the Tour de Nez 35+ race and worked it pretty good togther. It came down to a sprint, something I need to work on.

Photo credit to Patrick Cummings - Reno Gazette Journal

I thought the course was a lot of fun, twisting and climbing through the North Star village. I hope to do it again next year.

Yesterday was the Mt. Diablo Hill Climb TT.

Good News - My time was 24:30, a PR by 1:15!
Bad News - I lost to Innes by 1.3 seconds, so I was 2nd again in the 35+.

The legendary Ned Overend at age 52 killed it in the P/1/2 with a time of 23:40!

Training Week June 9-15, 2008

Monday – Off
Tuesday – GG Park Sprints – 90 min with hard sprint efforts.
Wednesday – 45 min spin class at the Y - moderate.
Thursday – Easy 75 min park ride.
Friday – 45 min spin class at the Y – moderate.
Saturday – Pescadero RR – 35+ 1/2/3. Thanks to my awesome Morgan Stanley teammates for a great leadout into the final climb, but I just couldn't hold on for the win and finished 2nd to Special Agent Dan Bryant.
Race was about 3:20 for 75 miles. Total riding about 4:15.
Sunday – Off – slept in and rested – wanted to go to Nevada City but hate driving and a nap on the couch seemed like a better idea.



Weekly Total: 8.5 Hours

Big in Japan

Goodbye matabo!
Reminds me of the Alphaville song.

Cars, Parking and Gas

It's that time of day when the SF parking patrol comes by to ticket and tow those who are too dumb to realize that when a sign says no parking from 3-7 PM they mean it. The tow truck always sets of the car's alarm and it's a real distraction.








Here's the bus zone that I look down at from my cube with a view.
I'm glad I don't have to drive to work.




Those parking control vehicles kind of remind me of the Smart cars, but they're not nearly as cool.

Man if I had one of those parking would be a whole lot easier in my neighborhood.

Before I get one though I'd have to make sure I could fit a bike in the back.

I'm sure it would use a lot less gas than the Silver Bullet I currently drive, but it won't be able to take 4 guys and 4 bikes to a race. I don't really drive anywhere except to races anyway.

Speaking of gas, I got one of those e-mails trying to convince everyone that if they boycott Exxon and Mobil they'll be forced to lower their gas prices to $2 a gallon. I really don't think that would ever work, but I'll avoid Exxon and Mobil since I usually get my gas at Arco if I can anyway.

I'll be driving up to Bend next month for the Cascade Cycling Classic, so I hope gas doesn't go much above $5 a gallon by then. Not many masters enteries so far. Maybe high gas prices are keeping people away. Luckily I have a place to stay, so the gas will be the most expensive part of the trip.

If gas keeps going up I'm sure we'll see a decline in the number of racers at all the remote places we race (which is most of the races we do anyway). That's the only thing that makes me sad about high gas prices.

Training Week June 2-8, 2008

Monday - 45 minute spin class – easy
Tuesday – 3.75 hour Marin/Alpine dam/Tam ride with Zteam. Moderate/hard
Wednesday – easy 30 minute spin class
Thursday – 1:15 on TT bike, some moderate intervals
Friday – easy 30 minute spin class
Saturday – AM – Easy 1 hr park ride, PM – easy 45 min ride in Truckee on TT bike.
Sunday – Sattley TT – Didn’t feel great : 54:27 for 5th in 35-39. 2:30 total riding.

I didn't really know what to expect in the TT, but after last week in Davis I thought I could place top 3. I was disappointed to be over 2 minutes down on Bosch who won and Innes who was 2nd.

Total: 11.0 hours.

Felt kind of run down after Tuesday night.

Time to put away the TT bike until a week or so before Cascade.

Read the sign!

I see these signs all over the city, but I don't think a lot of drivers have ever taken the time to read one.  It's a pretty dang simple concept,  if a bicycle is in the right lane going slower than the auto traffic and you want to get by, then simply change lanes and pass.

Don't sit behind me and honk your flippin horn!

Sometimes I feel like deliberately riding my bike up and down one of these streets just so I can point out the sign to everyone who honks.  Maybe some of them will read the sign and figure it out.

Now back to Animal Planet.

VOTE Today

I voted at my local neighborhood Starbucks. I don't think there will be too many people voting today. I was only the 3rd person to vote in my precinct this morning. There are just a couple state propositions, 98 & 99. Prop 98 would phase out rent control and I live in a rent controlled apartment, so I voted no. There are also about 10 SF propositions, and the guy who sits next to me at work has a cousin who's running for Judge, so I voted for him.

Spin Class at the YMCA

I never get to ride a real bike on Monday, Wednesday or Friday unless it’s a holiday or I’m on vacation or something. For the last 10 years since I’ve been married Tuesday & Thursday have been my designated workout nights in GG Park and on M-W-F I do what I can at lunch downtown. As a runner I had 2 lunch runs. I’d either go east & south past SBC park or north/west toward fisherman’s wharf. If I felt like making it harder there was always the deHaro St. hill past the sweet smelling Anchor Brewing Co.

But since running and cycling don’t to mix real well (for me at least), the lunch runs have all turned into lunch spins at the YMCA.

Here Dan and I strategize attacking the rest of the class.

Yea, fun! (not really)

Training Week May 26 - June 1

Monday - easy 30 minute park ride

Tuesday - park sprints 90 minutes

Wednesday - off

Thursday - 75 minutes light intervals on TT bike

Friday - easy 60 minute park ride

Saturday - 1:45 easy ride with a few hard efforts

Sunday - 75 min w/u 41 min race 5 minute cooldown - 2 Hrs Total

Weekly Total - 8 Hours

Dunlap TT

This was my first ITT on a real TT bike, so I was anxious to see how I would fare against my usual road competition in a flat TT.  John, Eric and I arrived a good 2 hours before our noonish start times so we had plenty of time to get in a long warm-up on the trainers.

I hate riding on the trainer, and I really hate riding the TT bike on the trainer, but it had to be done, so we got in our hour plus and rolled up to the start.  

When my 1 minute man started I started my stopwatch, which is the only source of data I use when I ride.  A minute later I was rolling and waiting for that first turn at 1.4 miles.  On a course like this the only things I have to look at and motivate me are the riders ahead and the turns on the course.  I had estimated and memorized anticipated time splits for each turn based on an aggressive 28mph pace.  

After about 10 minutes I could tell I was reeling in both my 30 second and 1 minute riders and soon passed them both.  That was a real confidence boost.  When I made the 2nd turn at mile 6.9 I was hoping to be around 14:45, but looked at my watch and saw 16:00.  

Dang, how can I have lost over 1 minute yet still be catching guys!  I took a quick look over my shoulder to see if Joel (who started 30 seconds behind me) was coming, but didn't see him.  On the 3.5 mile westward leg of the course i could feel an increased headwind, so I decided to go harder.  After a while I could see another couple riders ahead, but for some reason the person wasn't pedaling.  As I approached I realized it was a woman from the 3-4 group, not one of the masters guys.  At the next turn I was about 1:25 behind my projection and was surprised that I had only lost 10 more seconds to my projection.  The next stretch of 2.5 miles felt the fastest (must have had a tailwind) and I started to gain some time.  I passed a few more women and 1 guy from my race who had started a few minutes ahead of me and then made the final turn to the finish.  I was thinking that I was going to be about 90 seconds slower than projected until finally remembered that I had started my watch 1 minute early!

Sweet, I wasn't going as slow as I thought I was and I only had about 5 minutes to go so I went as hard as I could.  The last 3K really ticked by slowly but I finally made it and crossed in 41:31 (31K - 27.8 MPH).  After I finished I waited for a minute and no one else crossed so I knew I had at least beat the 2 riders who started behind me.

I was real pleased with my race, but not sure how the time would hold up.  The results confirmed what I expected, Billy Innes won (again!!) about 38 seconds faster than I was, but I was fast enough for 2nd so I wasn't disappointed.   

Next week is the rematch at nearly a mile high, so we'll be going a little faster and breathing a little harder in the thin air.