Lazy Sunday

It's nice out today, so I went for a ride in the morning.  Had a great time.  Now it's time for a nap.  :)

Miss the Spin

Not much riding lately.  A quick glance at my bike log (downloaded from an onboard computer on the bike to my desktop computer after every ride) and I'm starting to worry:  a mere three rides this month.  Granted, a couple of rides were not logged because I've been riding naked (no computer; no telemetry) on the mountain bike, but that still doesn't make me feel any better.  

I did ride for a little over a week without pain--a rarity these days--and even though I felt sluggish from the decline in fitness, I actually enjoyed and realized how much I missed taxing the aerobic system.  Surprisingly, the legs felt great (strong), but the lungs were just a couple of steps behind.  No worries, I thought, until after a ride on Thursday.  Yep, the pain came back, so now I'm back at square one.

Off the bike--I've started to read again.  Right now I'm in the middle of Book II in Plato's Republic.  I've read most of the book, though out of sequence, for assignments in various classes, but the translations that I had were so poor that I never took the time to actually read it in it's entirety.  Recently I found out that I actually had a good translation all along--I just didn't know it--so now I'm just turning the pages as fast as I could.  

Aside from that, I'm about one listening away from finishing the audiobook of Sam Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation.  Last year I became a big fan of books on tape because I found out that I can 'read' and drive at the same time.  :)  Within the first week of my discovery, I think I inhaled a couple of books by Lance Armstrong, along with a series of lectures on the history of philosophy.  Yeah, pretty dorky, but fun nontheless.

Anyway, I'm hoping to ride myself back into racing shape in three or four weeks.  I might do a mountain bike race as early as next weekend up at Big Bear, but even if I do end up making it, I'm almost positive that I won't have a shot at placing.  That's alright though.  I will be happy just to be back on track.

Hills, Canyons and Pictures

I thought I would try something new and bring the camera along during the ride today.  It feels unnatural stopping for pictures, but I'll do my best to photo document each one of my favorite routes at least once and post them on here so you folks can see what you're missing out on.  :)

The route I rode today was a medium length loop--roughly 40 miles--through Carbon Canyon in Chino Hills.  The routine is that I leave my door step in Walnut, head over towards Mt. Sac and Cal Poly on Amar, gradually climb towards Phillips Ranch, make my way through Chino Hills, cut through Carbon Canyon and pop out in Brea, head north towards Diamond Bar then back to Walnut again.  Normally I'll do the loop clockwise, like today, but I'll also ride it backwards every now and then for variety.  The exact route will also vary from time to time, but the total miles tend to fall in the same ballpark.  

With a little more practice, I might be able to do a nice presentation with a photo essay and everything, but it's not going to happen today.  Instead, I'll just post a few teasers, and you can judge if it's worth checking out the rest of the photos that I uploaded elsewhere.

Carbon Canyon.  Charred from a fire just a couple of weeks ago.  In the Spring, the view from here can actually be pretty awesome--green in every direction .

My pathetic attempt at a dramatic sunset somewhere in the Brea Canyons

The rest:  

No Life 'Til Lycra

Three Week Vacation

From the online dictionary:

Lame
-adjective

1. crippled or physically disabled, esp. in the foot or leg so as to limp or walk with difficulty.
2. impaired or disabled through defect or injury: a lame arm.
3. weak; inadequate; unsatisfactory; clumsy: a lame excuse.
4. Slang. out of touch with modern fads or trends; unsophisticated.

If I had to summarize the last three weeks in one word, that would be it.

Training came to a halt because I've been plagued by a recurring pain in the left knee. Aside from having to the make the decision on whether or not to ride through an injury (and face the fact that I'm an amateur that doesn't get paid to do this), I also had a difficult time trying to figure out exactly what was causing the problem. It either had to be me, the set-up on the bike, or more likely a combination of both. What made it difficult to isolate the problem was that the pain would seem to creep up randomly.

Normally, what would happen is that I'd feel it coming on during a ride, and by the time I get home, I would struggle just to make it up the stairs. The swelling would get worse after the shower, then I basically have to either sit or lie still for the rest of the day or evening. Two weeks ago, I 'discovered' that icing the knee to reduce swelling will make it heal much faster, so that's what I started to do. According to the 'net, anti-inflammation medicine like ibuprofen will also do the trick, but I'd rather not go that route. Last year I broke down and took some pain medicine for a toothache (which required a root canal), but I still reserve pills for extreme cases. As for my knee, most of the time it would get much better the day after; but not always. It drove me nuts!

All that time away from the bike wasn't all bad though. Since I couldn't work on my fitness on the bike, I started to think of ways to improve my fitness off the bike, so I decided that it was time to finally put an end to my bad sleeping and eating habits. Without all the boring details, I'll just say that I'm surprised that I'm actually making progress. I still love my donuts and coffee, but I balance that out by eating more fruits and veggies, drinking more water and generally just putting more thought into what I buy at the grocery stores.

I should also mention that I think I have the knee problem finally figured out, and the solution is as simple as it is basic: Stretch before and after a ride! Ironically, I stopped stretching months ago because I'm big on warming up and cooling down when I start and finish a ride. Unfortunately, recently I've also picked up the bad habit of not warming up properly because I'm always running late for something, but at least that's under control now. I'm happy to report that I've been riding pain free for the past week, and I'm looking forward to picking up where I left off.

The First Century

A little after a year of riding, I finally rode my first century.  

I wish I could say I enjoyed it.

After almost a week off of the road bike (and three days of zero riding), I decided to go on a longer-than-usual ride yesterday.  The day started with a light to moderate drizzle, but I had a feeling that it would taper off and, sure enough, by the time I got to Chino Hills about half an hour later, I was riding on dry pavement.  My legs felt so fresh the whole way that I decided, somewhere in the hills of Carbon Canyon, it was going to be my first 100+ mile day.  No sooner than I had convinced myself that I was going to have a good ride, an all-too-familiar, nagging sensation suddenly crept up inside my left knee.

For the past four months or so, I have been plagued with a recurring tendonitis of the knee.  Usually the problem flares up when I'm near the end of a ride, when I'm exhausted, and I decide to push it.  My form tends to be bad when I'm fatigued, and before you know it, bam, the knee is toast!  This time, however, I stated to get the pain only about 20 miles into the ride.  I suspect it was a worn cleat that allowed for too much movement in my knee during the pedal stroke.  Ironically, the cleat got to be that way because of the aforementioned bad form.  Bummer.

Being the stubborn idiot that I am, and instead of doing the right thing by either cutting the ride short by taking a short cut or even calling for a ride, I decided to stick with plan A -- 100 miles, or roughly seven hours in the saddle.

The route I took was simple:  From Carbon Canyon, I went down Kramer to the Santa Ana River Trail, then followed that down to Huntington Beach.  Since I was doing something new yesterday, I decided to also ride all of SART (something I've always wanted to do) on the way back.

Normally it's a blast to ride on the SART because it's so relaxing.  Being that it's a bike path, there is no traffic to deal with.  But yesterday it wasn't so relaxing.  I was basically miserable all the way down to the beach because of my knee.  Part of it was the pain, but mainly it was from the frustration of having an injury, and knowing that I would not be able to ride as hard or as much as I wanted to this week.  

The headwind didn't help either.

In all honesty, the ride was mostly uneventful.  I met some nice people, I met some not so nice people, but I'm glad it was done because now I have a larger pool of experience to draw from.  I've known for some time now that I could ride a hundred miles in a day, but until yesterday, I haven't actually done it.  And when it happened--at the 100 mile mark--it was pretty anti-climatic.  I made a note of the street lamp that marked the spot, and I kept going.  Maybe with time it will ripen from being a spot to a landmark.  Who knows.  For now, all I can think about is how long it will take for the pain and the swelling to go away so I can get back on the bike!

For the record, I drank only 3 bottles of fluids, along with seven fig newtons and a banana during the ride.  Actually, I did make one significant stop at the 80 mile mark to take on food and a half hour rest.  In that pit stop, I had a chicken sandwich and a cup of coffee.  I normally wouldn't have drank coffee, but I went a little too long without eating actual food, so I was beginning to feel cold from the lack of calories.  I was afraid the cold might seep in too deep, but the hot cup of coffee fixed that real fast.  Aside from the knee problem, I actually felt really good after the sandwich and coffee.

Once I got home, the first thing after going to the bathroom was to download the data from the computer on the bike.  :)  After that, and a quick bowl of cereal, I headed straight to the jacuzzi.  Soaking in a tub of hot water is awesome any time, but yesterday it was pure bliss!  That was the perfect ending, and probably the only consolation, for a not-so-perfect day.

Well, it finally happened.  The big three 'O.  

Training has been going pretty well even though I managed to miss a day of riding today.  I had planned on doing the Bonelli ride tonight, but I ended up going to the bike store after work to get a pair of mountain bike shoes.  I committed to a ride in Fullerton tomorrow and do some mountain biking, but I still don't have shoes (and I hate riding without being clipped in), so all of today I agonized over whether or not I should get the shoes and skip the ride.  I skipped the Bonelli ride, and they ended up not having the shoe I wanted in stock.  Yeah, the story of my life.

The Bud's ride, or Bonelli ride, is a fast paced training ride through and around Bonelli Park.  When I first got my bike last year, I did the ride a couple of times and couldn't even latch onto the main pack.  Joining a moving peloton safely is not really that hard, but you do have to know what you're doing.  A couple of weeks ago I was a little late to the ride, and the group had already taken off.  Being the smart cookie that I am--after learning my lesson on the Montrose ride just a month or so ago--I decided to let the pack catch me instead of me catching the pack.  It worked well, and I ended up having some sort of a breakthrough that day.  Like I said, last year I couldn't even get ONTO the ride (as a matter of fact, one of those times there was a group of juniors [cycling term for kids] out on the course doing their own thing, and I couldn't even hang with the 12 and 14 year old boys and girls.), but a couple of weeks ago I actually hung on for a couple of laps!  That was a big surprise to me.  By my own estimate, I thought maybe I would be able to do one lap with the pack by the end of this summer, but I ended up going the long route with the pack on the first lap, took a shortcut on the 2nd, then finished the last lap on the long route again.  It was later on that same week were I noticed a mentality change:  Maybe I shouldn't short change myself so much and start setting the bar a little higher.

Speaking of goals, I'm going to shoot for over 200 miles a week from now on until the end of summer.  Right now I'm anywhere between 100 and 170.  Getting the miles in is easy, but the hard part is I have no clue how I'll ever have time to mtn bike (my new favorite hobby, if you can call that 'new' since it's still biking.  hee hee), or do normal things, for that matter.  Hopefully those of you that end up reading this will understand if I ever have to pass on your invitations to do all sorts of fun stuff.  It's kinda like the t-shirt I recently saw:  I can't, I'm Mormon.  :)  I'm not Mormon, but I get irritable if I ever miss a race, training ride, or just a ride.  I'm still so new at this that if I just miss a couple of days of riding, I can tell that my fitness has dropped.  That happens to all trained cyclists, but neophytes tend to suffer more from it.  Until I get to the uberstud status, I'll just have to make sure I keep building my fitness instead of playing catch-up.  You understand.

Race 1-5

A month ago I started my first race on the bicycle. Up until January of this year, I've done all of my riding by myself, so I don't know how my fitness compares to others'. In January, I did my first group ride and was blown away by the pace. After that ride, I knew that I would not be competitive until next year at the earliest, but I didn't want to sit out completely until 2009, so my goal for this season is to have some low pressure fun with no expectations and gain as much race experience as I can.

Race 5 Today 4.27.08 Chuck Pontius Memorial Crit Valencia, CA

22nd out of 44

In bicycle racing, racers are categorized by ability/experience, with a novice starting out as a Category 5 rider, and the uber fast veterans are either professionals or Category 1 riders. I am a cat 5. :) I should have enough race starts (10) by June of this year to upgrade to category 4, but I might wait until I get a couple of top ten finishes in cat 5 before I apply for an upgrade. Interesting side note: Zack Morris (yes, that Zack Morris.......of Saved By The Bell fame) races locally and just upgraded to a cat 2 this year.

After what I learned in the last two races, I made a couple of changes for how I wanted to approach the race for today. I yo-yo'd up and down in the pack a few times during the race, but for the most part, I made sure I stayed near the front. Hanging on during the race is not a huge concern for me anymore, but the pace will usually pick up during the last lap or two, so I still have a chance of getting dropped by the pack during those surges. Today was different, and I responded well during those late race surges, and I was about 8th or 9th wheel going into the 2nd to last turn. Up until that point, I rode a decent race by staying protected (from the wind, by riding behind other riders and letting them do the work) and being patient (learned this one in race 4) until it was time to unleash the fury. :) Unfortunately, when that time came, there was no fury. After riding motorcycles, I have the tendency to take the shortest line possible when a turn is involved. Today I took the shortest route possible--the inside line--around the last turn, but it wasn't the fastest line. The rest of the pack drifted wide to carry more speed into and out of that corner, and I can't believe I made such a silly mistake by not doing the same. To make matters worse, the lead out rider for one of the guys in contention for the finish ended up running out of gas right in front of me, and the slight hesitation in my spin to avoid and get around him was enough to kill my drive. I went from being in about 9th position going into that last turn (and I was feeling pretty fresh at that point) to being 22nd to cross the finish line. Bummer. If I can help it, I won't make that mistake again. On a positive note, it was reassuring that I was able to keep up during that surge in the final lap. That's new for me, and I hope that will become a regular thing from now on.

Race 4 4.20.08 Torrance Crit

Went off the front of the field with 6 laps to go because I got antsy, and it came back to bite me at the end. The gap I had on the field was tiny, and it only lasted for a lap. I ended up getting dropped during the final surge because I couldn't recover fast enough after that boneheaded move. I think I finished ahead of a small handful of riders, but I was probably in the neighborhood of 40th place. Aside from the official results, this was the most fun I've had in a race so far. I practiced moving around in the field and had some success, also there were some high speed turns that caused the rear wheel to either slide or even chatter if you are not smooth with the power delivery. All in all, I learned a little more about my limitations, gained confidence, and had a blast.

Race 3 4.6.08 Anthill Crit Irvine, CA

DROPPED. Didn't warm up enough, bad preparation during the two weeks leading up to the race, and I didn't do a good job of staying out of the wind. I barely made it half-ways before getting pulled from the race. Official result = DNF. Did not finish. Can't sit in the back at this place and expect to do well.

Race 2 3.23.08 Ontario GP

30+ 4/5 - Fun course with 7 turns, and with a proper drive, the last couple of turns are fast and FUN! Originally I signed on to do this (for any cat 4 and 5 rider that is at least 30 years old) plus my normal cat 5 race, but I started having a pain in my left knee towards the end of the race, so I played it safe and skipped the second race. The riding seemed smoother (less of the heavy, abrupt braking into and during turns, and smoother, predictable lines during the corners) just like I expected. I hung on okay throughout the race, but couldn't keep up the pace during the last half lap. Finally I was dropped just before the last turn, and I cruised in for a 48th (out of 52) place finish. Not that great but, hey, I'm new. :)

Race 1 3.16.08 LAX Circuit Race

Too much fun! With just 3/4 of the first lap completed, I found myself in an early (read: stupid) breakaway. There are cones placed on the two ends of the hot dog shaped course letting you know where to turn, which a few of us did, but the rest of the pack kept going and turned much later. Without trying, I ended up with a gap and a lead on the rest of the field, so I decided to go for it. :) I hit pretty close to my maximum heart rate while trying to get away, but the attempt was doomed from the start. I barely have the fitness to hang on in the back of the pack, so I'm definitely not fit enough to even lead the field. By definition, a breakaway has to go at least as fast as the field to remain a breakaway, so I, along with a couple of other knuckleheads got caught a little less than half a lap later. Throughout the rest of the race, I was just in recovery mode. I sprinted for a twentieth-something place finish out of thirty-some riders, which was respectable for someone doing their first race.

Leather For Lycra

For those that I don't regularly catch up with, early in 2007 I decided to put the brakes on (for good) motorcycle racing. Most people wouldn't put too much emphasis on quitting a mere hobby but, then again, most people also don't allow themselves to be entirely consumed by just their hobbies -- like I do. Frankly, I don't miss the actual racing because I was not all that competitive (okay, that's laying it on kinda thick. I sucked!), but I do miss the people, and I also miss the excitement from the anticipation of getting out there. As much fun as I had during those two or three years, the sport is just not for me, so the leathers went back into the closet for a nice, long and well-earned rest. The race bike was found a new home, and I couldn't be happier with how that chapter came to a close.

Without motorcycles to eat, breathe, and sleep, it didn't take long for my attention to shift elsewhere. In March of last year, I bought my first road bike (bicycle) and immediately started to rack on the miles. To this day, I still don't know if I am the competitive type, but I know that I love to push myself to be the best that I can be at whatever I decide to do, so naturally, I wanted to train and race on the damn thing. :) It didn't matter that I more or less led a sedentary life almost immediately after becoming a teen, and it didn't matter that I couldn't jog half a block (true story) without my lungs feeling like they were on fire and were in danger of exploding. Bike riding is just fun and, besides, I wanted a new project. What I suspected at the time but couldn't know for sure without actually going through with it was just how rewarding cycling can be. In fact, cycling is so much fun that you are now reading this because of it.

Like most people that write, the motivation is a selfish one, and I'm no different. In my experience, if I keep up with documenting something (like keeping a logbook for the miles I ride), I tend to stay more focused and motivated. If there is a number I set today, I want to beat it tomorrow. But if I don't write it down, then the motivation to best it won't be as strong. Being the data whore that I am, I already keep track of all the miles and other relevant data that I ride and gather during those rides, but a journal might be better suited for keeping track of other things (that aren't numbers) that I pick up along the way. Whether or not you will find my experiences entertaining to read about, I can't say, but at the very least you'll know what I'm up to because we all know how often Tom goes MIA. :)