On Bicycles, and.... what else is there?

The narrow lanes typical of the Spring Hill Road Race course ( Bo Hebenstreit ). Cross that line and the official runs you down in her SUV. Well, Spring Hill is done. I lasted two laps, then ran out of gas. This past week I hurt my eye with my contact lens (a scratch, perhaps) and haven't slept well as a result. Perhaps that affected my endurance. But really things weren't any better at Hamilton last week. I've just got to hope that these hard miles, something I've been sorely missing in my riding so far this year, will pay off. The Alto Velo A Ride. The Roaster's Ride. The House of Pain. Solid investments which I haven't made this year. But I admit that on days like this I find myself questioning if there's better things I could be doing with my time. Bike racing is merciless. You come prepared or you get chewed up and spit out, left on the side of the road to rot in the sun. The course is mostly a single lane (center line rule strictly enforced...

Spring Hill Road Race this Sunday.... I need to train anyway, so I may as well train in a race. E3: 4 laps @ 22 miles/lap = 88 miles total. Ouch. 3 bottles + EnduroLites + 3 gel flasks + something chewable, I think. Maybe 2 flasks + some Clif Blocks + an oat cake. I've never raced that far before. Since I demonstrated 19 mile endurance @ Hamilton, 5×/week improvement might be expecting a bit much...

500 meters to summit ( Veronica Lenzi ) After a crash truncated my Berkeley Hills Road Race , Mount Hamilton would be my first full road race of the year. After being off the bike Monday and Tuesday after Berkeley due to my bruised ribs, I had a solid 5 days and 240 miles of training, including Bike to Work Day on Thursday and one and a half repeats of Diablo in the East Bay heat last Sunday with my teammate Noe. But something was wrong. I've just not been feeling good on any rides this year. A solid recovery block was in order. So Mon through Thursday was Z1-Z2 only, with a 90-minute massage on Thursday. For the first time this year, I wasn't either tired, sick, or (other than residual bruising from that crash) injured. I felt good for the first time this year. Saturday, the day before Hamilton: a blustery ride in the gusting chill of fog-shrouded San Francisco. So much for heat acclimation.... but the forecast for Sunday was chilly-to-moderate temperatures. I was as ...

Okay, this blog post is way too long. But it was an epic day, so forgive me. Introduction Yesterday was Bike to Work Day . Sure, San Francisco Bike Coalition does a fantastic job of supporting riding to work in the City, while down south, the "Energizer Stations" set up by the Silicon Valley Bike Coalition are also fantastic. For many, just getting on the bike and riding those few miles or even one mile to work that would normally be driven is a big challenge. Hopefully for a number of these people 14 May was a stepping stone, a push over the activation barrier to more regular bike commuting. There's plenty of reasons biking to work is considered impractical. But if one's looking for reasons to drive one can typically find them, while if one's decided driving just an acceptable option for any of a large number of good reasons there is a way. If you've got a hammer, you tend to see a lot of nails. My normal modus commutus is to take my bike on Caltrai...

Berkeley Hills Road Race race: E3 result: DNF (crash) My goals for the race were extremely modest: help my teammate Ryan if I could, but otherwise, to just hang in there as long as possible. Sickness, travel, and a minor running injury have all worked against attaining any continuity in my training this year: for example, in April I rode one weekend out of four. And it showed: climbing power was a solid 20 watts lower than it was last year. But things were on the upswing: I'd finally gotten a hint of strength this past week. Thanks to Mr. C for the encouragement: I'd take Berkeley Hills one lap at a time. The first lap it was fairly easy up Mama Bear, harder up Papa. Three more times of this? I didn't want to think about that: just focus on eating, drinking, and avoiding the tail end of the pack. The second lap things were similar up Mama, then easier up Papa. Sure, I missed the neutral water, which meant I needed it the following lap. Needing water is always a dicey propos...

In 2006 I contemplated doing Berkeley Hills again after several years of essentially not racing. A few weeks before the race I asked Dan Smith , who wasn't yet my coach, at one of his High Intensity Training clinics how I should prepare for the race. He said I should focus on efforts similar to those in the race, preferably on the race course itself. That made sense, of course. Unfortunately I got sick immediately after so didn't do much preparation at all, and the race went poorly. On the first full lap I made it to over Mama Bear with the group, but got popped on Papa. Ugh. I hung in there and finished 29th out of 57 starters, finishing just ahead of Drew Landers of team DFL on the final climb (I later rode with Drew up Mt Tam and we sort of laughed about the race). There was one more rider behind us who finished: 26 riders dropped out. I could easily have been one of them: I was riding alone most of the race, off the back. From the 2008 race ( Veronika Lenzi ) Last...

As I sat shivering in the Marin Coffee Roasters in San Anselmo today, trapped in my soaked clothes, I reflected on the year so far. Since December, I've been sick 5 times and injured once. First in Laos, I got a bad cold, which I battled for a week before finally recovering during the final day of the Red Spokes tour, in which Cara and I were participating. Then there was that extremely tastt smoothy in Vientiane, which left me in bed for a day and a half staring at the ceiling fan in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Upon returning from that trip on Jan 6, Cara and I got sick again. Another cold, another week. My plans for the Austin Marathon on 15 Feb ruined, I decided instead to run the 28 Feb Woodside Half, a 12-mile trail run promoted by EnviroSports. A fantastic event, the extended decent through Huddart park trails left me with trouble in my left leg which continues still, although I've slowly improved. It's most noticeable when I stretch my hamstrings. But I feel it ridin...