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

Zombie Runner 's retail store is across the street from my office. I often go in there for a pack of Clif Rocks, the occasional running supplies, just to look around, or a cup of their excellent cone-filtered decaf coffee. Don Lundell, a founder of the company, is usually the one handling the coffee orders, which he does while working on the web site, which is responsible for most of their business. Don is an accomplished ultra-runner, and always offers excellent advice when I chat with him. His perspective is interesting, as he views 50 km trail runs as just training events, the distance not a particular challenge. In fact, he encouraged me to run one at a time when I was feeling intimidated about 30 km. "It just requires a change of attitude," he explained to me. Be willing to walk up hills, and be willing to take walk breaks down hills. Well, I wasn't quite ready to make the leap to 50 km, let alone 30 km. But for the 20 km I had planned, I did follow ...

I don't use my PowerTap on hillclimbs because it's too heavy, and I don't use my PowerTap in mass-start races because sometimes you've just got to dig deeper than you think you can. But for Terrible Two, I decided within the last few days I wanted it. Sure, hauling that 1020 gram wheel up 16 thousand feet of climbing was going to add work, and work equals time. But a double century for me isn't about minimizing work, but rather in minimizing work done over threshold. And to keep my enthusiasm in check on the early climbs the power numbers would be useful. Additionally, as a diagnostic tool it would be really valuable. I wanted to compare the power I could sustain on later climbs to those I was able to hold on the earlier climbs. Now, I've already documented here my torque measurements suggest my Powertap reads low. The steeper the climb, the more low it reads. This error is on the order of 10 watts or so, so view numbers reported here with that sort o...

2010 profile from race-winner Bo Heberstrat My last report ended as I left the lunch stop, one of my quickest stops on the route. It's easy to lose a lot of time at lunch, although skipping it means you need to be especially careful to stay on top of calories and hydration while on the bike, especially if (like me) you haven't been doing the big-mile rides you would have preferred to have done before this event. Skaggs Springs I passed a sign which said Camp Gualala was in 25 miles, Stewarts Point in 35. I remembered Gualala marked the beginning of the steepest climb on the Terrible Two, the Rancheria climb. But I forgot what came in those 25 miles to Gualala. Of course I could have checked my route sheet. But it was jammed in a pocket of my vest, which was jammed in a pocket of my jersey. And what was the point? Whatever was there, I would ride. And what was there was tough. First, the nine miles to the first water stop after lunch was an 1800 foot climb in two segmen...

Chuck Bramwell data from slightly shorter 2003 route Pre-Ride The start of the Terrible Two is incredibly organized. How do you possibly open "reg" 20 minutes before it's mandatory for riders to be at the start line ready to go? Well, the answer is you lay out each rider's number in alphabetical order on tables so each can pick his up without waiting in a line. Then you have a separate table for pre-ride drinks, another for gel flasks from sponsor Hammer Nutrition , and a third table for bagels. And have a big box of pins. It all went well, and I felt like I had plenty of time in hand having ridden the 1.5 miles from my hotel to the start to arrive at 4:55 am. On the start line, I was slightly chilly but not too bad. I had on a mesh tank-top, a long-sleeve undershirt, arm warmers, a short-sleeve jersey, a vest, shorts, and knee warmers in addition to socks, shoes, and short-fingered gloves. This seems like overkill, but I really don't like the cold, ...

The Terrible Two this year was held for the 35th time. The Terrible Two was without much doubt the most difficult double century in the United States until Scott Halversen introduced us to the Devil Mountain Double . Now it's a continual debate which is the tougher of the two. Terrible Two wins on the steepness of the climbs and on the potential for hot near-solstice weather, while the Devil Mountain Double has more sustained climbing and less daylight. I first tried the Terrible Two in 1999, when I flew in from Austin for the pleasure. I'd participated in part of the Texas Hell Week that year, a March endurance training camp of eight days at close to 100 miles per day. I'd also been doing long weekend rides including Texas Randonneur Brevets. These long miles plus the near-daily exposure to Texas heat really gave me a lot of confidence I'd be able to handle what T2 had to offer. What I didn't expect it to offer, however, were flat tires. Two flats, p...

I've been making granola a lot lately. Here's my recipe. Make sure to carefully follow each step exactly as written. mix the following in a bowl some oata a syrup source, for example one or a combination of honey, molasses, maple syrup, agave nectar, balsamic vinegar a bit of oil, for example canola oil, olive oil, peanut oil, sesame oil, or almond oil some dried fruit, for example cranberries, dates, raisons, chopped mango optionally some chopped nuts, for example cashews or almonds, or a nut butter like almond butter, peanut butter, cashew butter, or tahini (sesame butter). I prefer raw nut butters to toasted. optionally, some egg or egg white to clump things, but not too much some extra flavor, like vanilla, spices, soy sauce, Liquid Amino, or hot sauce (it's good, really!) distribute on pan cook @ 320F = 160C until done, but not too dry (15 minutes, or maybe less if had the vision to pre-heat your oven ). If feeling inspired, mix it part way through. cool...

After my trail running adventures this spring, yesterday was my first bike race of the year. And after my race, I was tired, very tired. First, I hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before. I went to bed later than I'd planned, engrossed by Dashiell Hammett's excellent Thin Man . Still not too bad: my 5:30 am alarm would still be good for almost seven hours. But I awoke 90 minutes earlier from a dream in which I'd missed my start time due to clumsily trying to inflate my tires (is there a Freudian connection to this? I've never read Freud). Then I couldn't get back to sleep because I realized shifting problems I'd experienced on Friday had been due to an incompatibility between the Recon aluminum cassette and the Wipperman Connex Chain. The Wipperman is almost 30 grams heavier than a SRAM 1090 or a KMC X10. 30 extra grams? That wouldn't do at all. So I got up, drank some tea, and replaced the chain with an old SRAM that was laying around. ...

In stage 4 of the Dauphine Libere today, Danny Pate (Garmin-Transitions) and Stephan Denifl (Cervelo) escaped 30 km into the stage and by km 78 they had an impressive gap of 6:10, according to the CyclingNews live report . They arrived together at the bottom of the terminal climb to Risoul, a "beyond category" climb. Watching Eurosport on my laptop, I tracked the time gaps to the main field. I subtracted reported distances by 200 meters based on the evidence of riders crossing under banners. One thing to understand on time gaps is the gaps obviously can't be calculated into the main field passes a fixed point on the course, but the gap is reported for the distance remaining for the leaders. Despite this asynchronicity, it's still interesting to track time gaps to see the chances the break has of staying away. Time gaps for stage 4 of the Dauphine Libere for the two leaders Initially it didn't look so good, as they were losing time pretty much at a rate which wo...

Well, The People have spoken. Smart Voter has some really nice results listings. A few comments on proposition results : 13 passed. I suspect a lot of remods are now going to be classified as "earthquake safety upgrades". Seems like an accounting nightmare. Oh, well. 14 passed. There is hope for the Republican Party! This may be the end of the socially radical wing of the "conservatives" (cough!). Katherine Roberts has pointed out there's nothing conservative about the right-wing. Moderate Republicans, like Tom Campbell (who polled ahead of Carly Fiorina only among "liberal" Republicans in California, but would have gotten my vote as a Democrat) will have a chance. And fiscally irresponsible Democrats like Barbara Boxer and Nancy Pelosi will face more competition. All good. But that in the primary that each voter gets only one vote brings up some interesting game theory questions. For example, consider the Senate race. Suppose I support...

Finally, I'm almost ready to vote tomorrow. The Democratic Central Committee is the most complicated race I'll vote for, with thirty candidates for twelve positions, for which I can vote for up to twelve. Here's the list of people who, whether through Smart Voter or through my conversations with others, have convinced me to vote for them: Stuart Smith Scott Wiesner Hope Johnson Rick Hauptman Leslie Rachel Katz Tom Taylor Paul Currier Chuck Hornbrook Keith Baraka seems to be on the AIDS Lifecycle ride at the moment, which I consider super-cool, but he's got to give me more than that and being a firefighter for my vote. There's also the school board, but I'll leave that one to parents of children. I figure they have a deeper vested interest there. My sister gets angry at me whenever childless I offer anything resembling an opinion on child-rearing. I couldn't possibly understand! That leaves only the Board of Equalization and the Insurance Commissioner ca...

Once again, tomorrow is election day, and with a low turn-out expected (30% or so), every vote is even more critical. Sample ballots and lots of info are available from SmartVoter . Aaron Peskin ready to run One of the more obscure, but still very important elections is for members of the Democratic Central Committee. Aaron Peskin , who termed out of the Board of Supervisors, is running. But I'll vote for the cows when they come home way before I'll vote for Aaron. Aaron seems to be racking up the endorsements in this race, but no self-respecting fan of bike racing, or for that matter of public events in general, should ever support him. To quote Wikipedia : Peskin was instrumental in canceling the San Francisco Grand Prix, a world-class bicycle race held in the years 2001 to 2005, because the race's backers owed the city money. Critics of Peskin alleged that the race was cancelled because it inconvenienced his North Beach constituents. 2004 San Francisco Grand Prix, o...

Here's the US senate candidates for the democratic party in the 2010 California Primary: Barbara Boxer : No way I vote for her again. She's completely dropped the ball on reducing military spending. Consider her poor (for a democrat) 60% rating for 2009 from Peace Action West: their report is here . Most notably she voted against a proposal by John McCain to reduce purchases of the entirely useless F-22. National security is under way more threat from our appalling federal deficit than it is from a lack of overpriced fighter jets. She (along with Feinstein) gotta go. Brian Quintana : Website is full of usual platitudes. "More funding for this", "more funding for that". Yadda yadda. "More funding" isn't something which is available when you're battling a $1.5T deficit. Let's see some 2010-compliant positions. Micky Kaus : Gee, the guy doesn't even have his own dedicated URL. But he's willing to go against the party lin...

Bicycling is fun and all, but it's time for me to do my duty as a voter and finish reviewing the propositions on the ballot of the June election. I already reviewed California state ballot propositions . But wait, there's more! There's also San Francisco city & county ballot propositions . Proposition A : A parcel tax for schools. I vote no, because parcel taxes are the most regressive tax on the books. A Pacific Heights mansion pays the same tax as a a humble cemetery plot. I'll always vote against parcel taxes. Proposition B : A 400 million dollar bond? This looks like a bond with the title and summary carefully designed to include as many buzzwords as possible: "earthquate", "safety", "fire", "water". This seems like a boondoggle to me. Maybe it isn't. But the burden of proof is against expensive bonds in a debt-strapped economy. Proposition C : This would give the Board of Supervisors a role in selecting the...