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

What a wonderful feeling to discover that two previously unconnected domains are in fact connected. And what a glorious connection! Nothing new here. Bill Bushnell had it on his incredible ride atlas . Keith Vetter translated that to his brilliant Klimb . But heck, these days its even on Google Maps . But it's one thing to see lines on a screen. Numbers: distance traveled, feet climbed. Abstractions. It's another to actually be there, turn the pedals. Point A. Then Point B. Two dead-ends now very alive. Public or private ? Next question. Road is basically the same after as it was before. No harm done. You can't trust signs, anyway. From Loma Prieta Way ( Jores photo ) It's been a good week for me. Okay, so the power meter hasn't told me anything exciting. But not so long after racing Hamilton I raced the slopes of Diablo. The next day: I rode Alpine Dam to the Mt Tam summit. Then Umunhum on Wednesday with Dave, taking a half-day at work. The Ba...

There was a strong headwind on North Gate Road this morning. I'd swapped my Edge 24 "Mt. Washington" front wheel with its Veloflex Record time trial tire for my heavier but more aerodynamic Reynolds MV32-T with its Veloflex Carbon road racing tire when the Tufo sealant I'd injected into the Record clearly couldn't handle the 140 psi I tried to apply. With the wind, though, the Reynolds may have been the better choice, as it has proven solid aerodynamics, likely substantially better than the shallower Mt. Washington. Ron Castia and Tim Clark, each scheduled to start soon before me, were each missing. This was frustrating, as it meant I had no competitors in my field to chase. Not that I was going to catch Tim anyway. It's nice to feel the pull, though. That left only Nate English's push among the riders I knew, or knew of. Nate was starting 90 seconds after me. I hoped to avoid getting passed by him until I was within 3 km or so from the finish, the...

C4 has set us up with a nice alphabetical start list . My neighborhood: bib start first last cat team 321 10:55:00 Ron CASTIA Group 3 Master 35+ Cat 1-2-3 InfoVista Cycling Team 322 10:55:30 George CHESTER Group 3 Master 55+ Men Amgen 323 10:56:00 Tim CLARK Group 3 Master 35+ Cat 1-2-3 Red Dragon Racing 324 10:56:30 Ed CONDIT Group 3 Master 45+ Men   325 10:57:00 Daniel CONNELLY Group 3 Master 35+ Cat 1-2-3 Team Roaring Mouse 326 10:57:30 John CREAN Group 3 Master 45+ Men Fitness Journal 327 10:58:00 Carl CROUTCH Group 3 Master 55+ Men Peninsula Velo 328 10:58:30 Wes DALE Group 3 Master 45+ Men Taleo Racing 329 10:59:00 Bob EBE Group 3 Master 55+ Men Taleo Racing 330 10:59:30 Nathaniel ENGLISH Group 3 Pro Elite 1-2 Men ZteaM Fun times. If I can hold off Nate English, that will have been a super day. BTW, I just realized when using HTML tables in Blogger , the whole HTML table should be on one line: no newlines. Otherwise blogger will stack up the newlines be...

You've gotta love hillclimbs. Just ride up the hill, pure and simple. Fastest one to the top wins. This Saturday C4 Racing is hosting their annual Mount Diablo Hillclimb time trial: 10 km of pure pain. Unfortunately, they only get to run their race up North Gate Road, rather than continuing on to Summit Road, but still it's a very worthy course. 10 km = 6.2 miles with 1900 feet (580 meters) of climbing. Good stuff. Profile of the course, with data taken from MotionBased After licking my wounds from Pescadero with 2 days off the bike and 3 days of recovery rides, I should be ready on Saturday for my best effort, at least relative to my unknown current fitness. It's a tough field in the 35+ 1-2-3: Low-Key legend Tim Clark, Ross' Hillclimb winner in the category Kieran Sherlock, and recent 3→2 upgrade Greg McQuaid have all proven they can out-climb me. Then add former 35+ winner and this year's Mount Hamilton Road Race winner Kevin Metcalf... the field's o...

Michael Grundmann photo. I moved back to the Bay Area from Austin in late 2000. In early 2001, I was racing very well, having ridden solidly through the winter, reveling in the roads I knew from graduate school. I upgraded from 4 to 3 that year, in time to use my points from a circuit race I'd won in San Antonio the summer of 2000. I was 11th at Pescadero RR as a 3, riding strongly on the climbs on each of our two laps, coming unglued on the final descent when I was dropped from the lead group of 11. I held on for 11th, though. I also did well that year at the Pomona Valley Stage Race with an excellent opening hillclimb and surviving the splits on the circuit race. Somehow I managed to finish the crit in the pack, holding onto my GC spot. I set my PR up Old La Honda in 2002, 19:03. But the rest of the year was generally frustrating I was getting dropped in my races. Pomona was earlier that year, and I did poorly this time, getting lapped in the last-stage crit. In the fall...

Another Ross's Epic in the bag.... and again I was shocked at the brutal steepness of the final 1100 vertical feet. Partial results finally went on-line last night. I and many of the other day-of-registrants seem to be missing. I was number 119, second in the 35+ 1-2-3. Not a bad result for me: the category winner was Webcor/Alto Velo's Kieran Sherlock, an excellent climber who's fairly fit with a focus on time trials right now. Also up the road in my starting group were Rob Anderson, winner of the 45+ 1-2-3, a truly excellent climber, and John Bennett, a 3 riding for Whole Athlete. I was with these guys until close to the end of the first climb of 2000 vertical feet. I desperately wanted to hang with them, as it's a big advantage to be in a group on the 2-mile flat-descending section separating the two climbs. But I just couldn't stick. After being caught by the second group, I ride past the volunteer station at the start of the second climb. Curiously ou...

I just finished weenieing up by bike for tomorrow's hillclimb . One compromise: a Red steel 11-26 cassette instead of my Recon Al 12-23 . This costs me around 90 grams. Worth it, I think: those three extra teeth are going to be very precious on that last section of Pine Flat Road to the summit. A nice thing about training with a power meter: it really shows how my power falls off quickly, even at increased perceived exertion, as cadence drops below 60. No need for Armstrong-esque 100 rpm: 70-75 is probably my sweet spot. But get down into the mud in the 50's or even lower and the legs start to really burn without doing much useful work. Yes, that 26 cog is easily worth those 90 grams. I also moved the 34 ring from my Ritchey, replacing the 36 I had on the Fuji. 36-50 is a great combination, especially when combined with an 11-23, and one you can't get with the Vumaquad or with Extralight . Just not tomorrow. Not on this climb. They don't come much nastier th...

I've definitely seen tangible fitness improvements in May. For the first time all year, I've been able to train fairly consistently without sickness. Okay, so I missed some time after my crash at Berkeley Hills. Okay, so I missed some time when I scratched my eye with a contact lens. But after a nice "recovery week" of four consecutive rest days with a gradual transition back to training, I was feeling really good. And my three race efforts, although I had trouble at each of them, were of obvious advantage. But where do I stand relative to last year? Consider the maximal power curves, comparing data taken from a subset of rides in March to May 2008 to data taken from non-race rides in May and the first few days of June 2009: Starting on the left, I've clearly been sprinting well this year compared to last year. Moving right, I've done exactly one decent 5 minute interval, compared to a notable 200 second interval (3⅓ minutes) from last year. But in the...