Well, I guess I’m going to find out. On May 28th, I and several friends will begin the ride to celebrate (lament?) my 50th year on this earth….the problem is that I’m not in any kind of shape to actually ride from here to Tahoe, so I’ll spend the rest of this month trying to get in to the kind of shape I need to be in to pull this off.
It was actually supposed to start last weekend with a 60 mile ride up in Chico with my sister and brother. Every year we get together for the Chico Wildflower ride and do the 60 mile “flatflower” loop which is a lot of fun, has gorgeous scenery and definitely has THE best food of all the organized rides I do. Unfortunately, my sister has an overuse injury from tennis and big back to back tournaments the next two weekends so she was hoping to take it easy. This combined with the fact that my brother hasn’t ridden at all this year and my basic laziness convinced us all just to do the 30 mile loop.
It was a great weekend though and hanging out with them and my brother in law the night before and all day on Sunday was way more fun than chalking up some random number for mileage.
So, this week I’ll try to get my act together and log some decent miles and elevation in an effort to coerce my body into some sort of shape by the end of the month. Tonight I’ll start with a ride up Mt Diablo. Granted, this isn’t much mileage, but it is almost 4,000 ft of climbing and the suffering that goes along with it should if nothing else act as penance for a winter of TV and couch surfing.
I’ll rest tomorrow, ride again on Thursday and then this weekend I’m going to try to do back to back rides. Saturday morning I’ll get out for an early ride and hopefully do at least 50 miles. Sunday we’ll be in Napa for the annual Tour de Cure which is another low mileage, but really fun ride we do with family and friends.
I guess the good news is that the anniversary of my half century on earth proves that if nothing else, at least I’m consistent. Its not that I procrastinate, I just prefer to put myself in positions where I’m forced to rise to the occasion…
One of my favorite quotes about procrastination is - "I love deadlines. Especially the whooshing sound they make as they pass by." ~ Douglas Adams
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
Time waits for no one, and it won't wait for me…
It’s fitting that this old Rolling Stones song is in my head since I’m now just over a month away from riding my bike from here to Tahoe to “celebrate” my 50th birthday and I’m in the worst shape I’ve been in over the past few years. Normally, by this point in the year I’ve done a couple of metric centuries and the Sea Otter Mt Bike race.
I realize the Sea Otter isn’t really training for a long ride, but the fact that I didn’t race this year is indicative of my current level of fitness….or lack of fitness would probably be more apt….
It’s funny that in year’s past I’ve blogged about being too busy to ride and always thought at that point, that I had never been busier in my life. And I probably hadn’t been. Unfortunately, in retrospect, those years past were actually less chaotic and less busy than the current year seems to be. I’m not sure if this is just things looking better in the rearview mirror or whether life really is more chaotic and busy than it has been.
Regardless, the reality is that I’m fat and out of shape and I have just over 30 days to get back in shape…..no problem right? My buddy Jerry has mapped out a route for us to Tahoe that will start in San Francisco and heads north…yep, north. I know, you’re thinking, like I did, that Tahoe is east, but we’re headed north to Guerneville then east to Winters, Winters to Folsom, Folsom to Blue Cyn then finally Blue Cyn to Tahoe.
I actually wasn’t too concerned figuring we only had about 350 miles to go and 5 days to get there. Average 70 miles a day. My longest ride this year is 58 miles which is almost the same as 70. And, maybe the route would start out easy and I could actually get in shape during the ride….um…yeah….not so much. Jerry’s first day is 95 miles…..the second day is 94 miles AND there are a bunch of hills in between the coast and Winters which is right on Hwy 5….
As far as days 3-5, well, I’m really not too worried about those since I’ll probably be dead by then….hopefully they donate my bike to someone deserving…
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Spring is HERE!!!....um…nevermind….
During the winter months, I can (and regularly do) use as the excuse for my added weight and lethargy (or do I have that backwards?) that it’s winter and thereby the “off season”. This combined with an innate ability to procrastinate my way out of anything has allowed me to maintain one of my highest weights (and largest waistlines) in several years.
The reality though, is that by the time winter rolls around, I’m ready to be off the bike and on the couch a little more than I am during the nicer months. In season’s past I’ve used skiing as a lame attempt to stay fit but this year it’s been so crummy, I haven’t even been motivated to do that.
Oh sure, I’ve gotten several rides in and for the most part they’ve been “ok”….I’ve enjoyed the camaraderie and on a few the weather has been good and the scenery even better, but to be honest, the passion for the ride just hasn’t really been there. I would have been just as happy hanging out with those same friends at a restaurant over lunch and a couple beers…
This past weekend though, all of that changed. Jerry had scheduled one of my favorite rides. The Morgan Territory loop. This 50+ mile loop heads out of Danville, through Concord and around the backside of Mt Diablo into a little known and lightly traveled area of the East Bay Regional Park district that seems so remote it could be in another state.
This Saturday, unlike the past 3 weekends, held the promise of a beautiful Spring day and although we started out cold, the day quickly turned into one of those clear, sunshine filled days that make you want to work in the yard, barbecue, go to the beach or even….ride your bike.
You could tell we weren’t the only ones recovering from long-winter-itis too as San Ramon Valley Blvd had about 10x as many cyclists as they did cars and the section of the multi-use trail that we rode was like playing a video game of "dodge the jogger-walker-runners".
In addition to the beautiful weather, the challenging route and the complete lack of vehicle traffic for a major part of the ride, I have another motivator for getting back on the bike….I’ll be turning 50 next month. And, while achieving the half-century mark is a milestone in and of itself, I have decided that in order to celebrate said event, I and several of my friends, are going to ride our bicycles from the Bay Area to Lake Tahoe over a period of 5 days.
Granted, for a lot of people this sounds more like a torture test than a celebration, but personally I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate an important occasion like this than to go out and do something most people think is REALLY stupid….afterall, you only turn 50 once right?
If you take the combination of the beautiful weather and the great scenery combined with the knowledge that I’m nowhere near in shape to ride from here to Tahoe …you get one of the best rides I’ve had in the last several months.
So, having had a great first real ride of the new season and fired up to get back on the bike in a big way, I was stoked to try to get out of work early a couple of evenings this week and get some more seat-time…..at least I was until I watched the news Sunday evening and saw rain predicted for the entire coming week……oh well, guess I need to stock up on cookies and figure out where I put the TV remote….I guess I can always get in shape while riding to Tahoe...
The reality though, is that by the time winter rolls around, I’m ready to be off the bike and on the couch a little more than I am during the nicer months. In season’s past I’ve used skiing as a lame attempt to stay fit but this year it’s been so crummy, I haven’t even been motivated to do that.
Oh sure, I’ve gotten several rides in and for the most part they’ve been “ok”….I’ve enjoyed the camaraderie and on a few the weather has been good and the scenery even better, but to be honest, the passion for the ride just hasn’t really been there. I would have been just as happy hanging out with those same friends at a restaurant over lunch and a couple beers…
This past weekend though, all of that changed. Jerry had scheduled one of my favorite rides. The Morgan Territory loop. This 50+ mile loop heads out of Danville, through Concord and around the backside of Mt Diablo into a little known and lightly traveled area of the East Bay Regional Park district that seems so remote it could be in another state.
This Saturday, unlike the past 3 weekends, held the promise of a beautiful Spring day and although we started out cold, the day quickly turned into one of those clear, sunshine filled days that make you want to work in the yard, barbecue, go to the beach or even….ride your bike. You could tell we weren’t the only ones recovering from long-winter-itis too as San Ramon Valley Blvd had about 10x as many cyclists as they did cars and the section of the multi-use trail that we rode was like playing a video game of "dodge the jogger-walker-runners".
In addition to the beautiful weather, the challenging route and the complete lack of vehicle traffic for a major part of the ride, I have another motivator for getting back on the bike….I’ll be turning 50 next month. And, while achieving the half-century mark is a milestone in and of itself, I have decided that in order to celebrate said event, I and several of my friends, are going to ride our bicycles from the Bay Area to Lake Tahoe over a period of 5 days.
Granted, for a lot of people this sounds more like a torture test than a celebration, but personally I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate an important occasion like this than to go out and do something most people think is REALLY stupid….afterall, you only turn 50 once right? If you take the combination of the beautiful weather and the great scenery combined with the knowledge that I’m nowhere near in shape to ride from here to Tahoe …you get one of the best rides I’ve had in the last several months.
So, having had a great first real ride of the new season and fired up to get back on the bike in a big way, I was stoked to try to get out of work early a couple of evenings this week and get some more seat-time…..at least I was until I watched the news Sunday evening and saw rain predicted for the entire coming week……oh well, guess I need to stock up on cookies and figure out where I put the TV remote….I guess I can always get in shape while riding to Tahoe...Monday, March 26, 2012
Newton’s Laws of Motion
According to what I’ve read recently, Newton (the physicist not the cookie) came up with some laws that have been proven and supported. One of those laws, the Second Law of Motion, states that “The acceleration a of a body is parallel and directly proportional to the net force F and inversely proportional to the mass m, i.e., F = ma”.
Now I was never a good student, choosing instead to focus on the social and entertainment aspects of school instead of the traditional educational aspects, but from what I can determine, this means that a cyclist’s speed (acceleration) is directly proportional to the power (Force) they can produce and inversely proportional to their weight (mass) – And all of this is assuming no outside interference (wind, hills, draft, etc)
Well, with all the rain we’ve been having here in “sunny” California, I haven’t been out on the bike as much as I’d like. I have though been “fueling” for rides that never happen….which as you can imagine has increased my (m)Mass while not at all increasing my (f)Force.
Yesterday though, after church, the skies were only partly cloudy so I got my gear together, put air in my tires (they were low, not completely flat...it hasn't been that long), and headed out on the road bike for what I planned on being a fast, flat 20 mile loop that should get me home before the rains came back.
In planning most all of my rides, I try to include a decent amount of climbing. Its one of those things that, although it causes me much pain and suffering, I really enjoy. I like to climb. I like the way it forces me to focus on making circles and keeping my heart rate under control while preventing me from thinking about any of the other junk that is normally bouncing around in my head.
Yesterday’s route though was going to be almost completely flat so I figured I’d try to force myself into a similar state by ramping up my pace and hammering the whole route….unfortunately those stupid Laws of Motion that I mentioned above kind of got in the way.
At the end of last season, I found that I was able to maintain a pretty consistent 20-21mph rate on a flat road, riding alone and with little wind and including sections at 22-23mph. Usually this ended up generating an average of right around 20mph for a 20 mile loop. Yesterday though, after what seemed to me to be an all out effort, keeping my heart rate up and pushing hard, I got home to find that my 20 mile loop averaged 17.7mph per my Garmin.
Now, before you start calling me a fat slug, (which to be honest is the phrase I used after looking at my stats) I will say that the last section home, Mission Bl north to Industrial Bl. west was almost all either directly into a headwind or with a very stiff crosswind which were things that had a direct bearing on Mr. Newton’s laws (physicists call these mitigating factors)
The fundamental truth here though, ignoring my excuses, is that that the same force (f) applied to a larger mass(m+x) will produce a correspondingly smaller acceleration. Or more plainly stated, if I paid more attention to Mr. Newton and spent less time with Fig Newtons I’d be able to maintain a faster pace because my (m)ass would be smaller.
Now I was never a good student, choosing instead to focus on the social and entertainment aspects of school instead of the traditional educational aspects, but from what I can determine, this means that a cyclist’s speed (acceleration) is directly proportional to the power (Force) they can produce and inversely proportional to their weight (mass) – And all of this is assuming no outside interference (wind, hills, draft, etc)
Well, with all the rain we’ve been having here in “sunny” California, I haven’t been out on the bike as much as I’d like. I have though been “fueling” for rides that never happen….which as you can imagine has increased my (m)Mass while not at all increasing my (f)Force.
Yesterday though, after church, the skies were only partly cloudy so I got my gear together, put air in my tires (they were low, not completely flat...it hasn't been that long), and headed out on the road bike for what I planned on being a fast, flat 20 mile loop that should get me home before the rains came back.
In planning most all of my rides, I try to include a decent amount of climbing. Its one of those things that, although it causes me much pain and suffering, I really enjoy. I like to climb. I like the way it forces me to focus on making circles and keeping my heart rate under control while preventing me from thinking about any of the other junk that is normally bouncing around in my head.
Yesterday’s route though was going to be almost completely flat so I figured I’d try to force myself into a similar state by ramping up my pace and hammering the whole route….unfortunately those stupid Laws of Motion that I mentioned above kind of got in the way.
At the end of last season, I found that I was able to maintain a pretty consistent 20-21mph rate on a flat road, riding alone and with little wind and including sections at 22-23mph. Usually this ended up generating an average of right around 20mph for a 20 mile loop. Yesterday though, after what seemed to me to be an all out effort, keeping my heart rate up and pushing hard, I got home to find that my 20 mile loop averaged 17.7mph per my Garmin.
Now, before you start calling me a fat slug, (which to be honest is the phrase I used after looking at my stats) I will say that the last section home, Mission Bl north to Industrial Bl. west was almost all either directly into a headwind or with a very stiff crosswind which were things that had a direct bearing on Mr. Newton’s laws (physicists call these mitigating factors)
The fundamental truth here though, ignoring my excuses, is that that the same force (f) applied to a larger mass(m+x) will produce a correspondingly smaller acceleration. Or more plainly stated, if I paid more attention to Mr. Newton and spent less time with Fig Newtons I’d be able to maintain a faster pace because my (m)ass would be smaller.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Life is a lot like salmon fishing….
Several years ago now I and a buddy went salmon fishing with a guide. You know, one of those guys that has the really cool boat, all the awesome stories and for 150 bucks a person guarantees you’ll catch a fish big enough to put on your wall. (as if my wife would ever actually let me put a fish on the wall inside our house)
We met up at some small diner in the foothills where in addition to handing over our 300 dollars he allowed us to buy him breakfast while he regaled us with story after story of how this season was the best he remembered, and how he pitied the poor idiots that had to schlep into an office every day….(wait, did he just insult us, the guys paying his rent?)
Anyway, after filling our bellies with thick chunk bacon and home fries like you can only find in small towns up in the hills, we headed out to the launch, loaded up in his boat and headed up river at a rate that I’m pretty sure would be considered speeding on any highway till we got to the “exact spot”. And here we sat for most of the day baking in the sun and listening to stories about how earlier in the week people couldn’t keep the fish off their lines….until….All of a sudden my buddy Sean’s rod slammed down and his reel started screaming as line peeled off faster than a fat guy running towards a donut shop.
This of course triggered several responses. I immediately began to, a) hate Sean, b)work on a plan to knock him overboard and grab his fishing rod and c) build a story in my head as to why this was all justified. (yep, I’m a multi-tasker)
Sean on the other hand just started yelling and swearing and hanging on for dear life.
The professional, much to his credit, having seen all this before calmly released his anchor, started the motor and began following the fish downstream all the while telling us both to Calm the F%*# Down! (evidently he isn't opposed to cursing like I am)
Eventually, as I continued my plotting, Sean continued his hanging on and the professional continued following the fish, we hit a slow part of the river, guided both fish and boat into an eddy and boated the fish….a very nice 20+lb salmon.
So, what does a fishing story have to do with a cycling blog? Well, nothing really. It’s just that this past week has been kind of a rough one in our family for a lot of different reasons and this story popped in my head.
Life really is like salmon fishing. Sometimes, when things are cruising along all nice and calm there are things that happen that create huge amounts of stress and chaos. We in turn, can respond to those situations in a number of different ways…..scream and swear, plot and plan or we can untie the anchor, relax, hang on and see where things go….and to be honest, sometimes hanging on is all you can do….
We met up at some small diner in the foothills where in addition to handing over our 300 dollars he allowed us to buy him breakfast while he regaled us with story after story of how this season was the best he remembered, and how he pitied the poor idiots that had to schlep into an office every day….(wait, did he just insult us, the guys paying his rent?)
Anyway, after filling our bellies with thick chunk bacon and home fries like you can only find in small towns up in the hills, we headed out to the launch, loaded up in his boat and headed up river at a rate that I’m pretty sure would be considered speeding on any highway till we got to the “exact spot”. And here we sat for most of the day baking in the sun and listening to stories about how earlier in the week people couldn’t keep the fish off their lines….until….All of a sudden my buddy Sean’s rod slammed down and his reel started screaming as line peeled off faster than a fat guy running towards a donut shop.
This of course triggered several responses. I immediately began to, a) hate Sean, b)work on a plan to knock him overboard and grab his fishing rod and c) build a story in my head as to why this was all justified. (yep, I’m a multi-tasker)
Sean on the other hand just started yelling and swearing and hanging on for dear life.
The professional, much to his credit, having seen all this before calmly released his anchor, started the motor and began following the fish downstream all the while telling us both to Calm the F%*# Down! (evidently he isn't opposed to cursing like I am)
Eventually, as I continued my plotting, Sean continued his hanging on and the professional continued following the fish, we hit a slow part of the river, guided both fish and boat into an eddy and boated the fish….a very nice 20+lb salmon.
So, what does a fishing story have to do with a cycling blog? Well, nothing really. It’s just that this past week has been kind of a rough one in our family for a lot of different reasons and this story popped in my head.
Life really is like salmon fishing. Sometimes, when things are cruising along all nice and calm there are things that happen that create huge amounts of stress and chaos. We in turn, can respond to those situations in a number of different ways…..scream and swear, plot and plan or we can untie the anchor, relax, hang on and see where things go….and to be honest, sometimes hanging on is all you can do….
Monday, February 27, 2012
When Did I Become “That Guy”?
We’ve all ridden with “that guy”…you know the one. Basically a decent enough guy, but out of shape and overweight and armed with all of reasons (or excuses) as to why this particular ride is so hard…
My derailleur is acting up, I’ve been sick lately, I haven’t ridden that much, I’m in a recovery period right now, I broke my collarbone, etc, etc….
He’s always polite, and is always apologizing for being the last one up the hill and making everyone wait….but to be honest you’re really just sick of him and wish he’d get his fat azz off the couch and on the bike more so he could save the excuses and stories.
Well, the week before last I came to a startling realization….I’m THAT GUY!!!! Yep, me….somehow over the past few months through a rigorous regimen of eating as if I ride every day while hardly ever actually doing any riding, I’ve reached a new pinnacle of fatness and out-of-shapeness….
This, combined with my first Thursday ride on the SS since I broke my collarbone back in August reduced me to the dead-freakin-last-fat-guy-up-the-hill status.
Oh sure, I had all the excuses primed and ready to go when I finally caught up to everyone at the top of the first and longest climb of the evening, and the guys were all very nice and sympathetic and actually seemed to not mind waiting on me but I know…..I could see it in their eyes…..I could tell they were all thinking it…..”Rich if you’d just put down the box of Krispy Kremes and ride once in a while we wouldn’t be standing here cold and shivering while waiting for your lardass to catch up”
The rest of the ride was more of the same….the short steep climb at the half way point, the long climb up from the stone bridge, the road back to the parking lot, every single climb of the evening ended with me arriving red-faced and on the verge of hypoxia and them all patiently waiting…politely humiliating me with their kindness and platitudes.....It was humbling to say the least.
I guess though if you want to find a silver lining….and I’m definitely a silver lining kind of guy…..the humiliation has since been used as motivation. I’m down from my 3 year record weight of a couple pounds over two hundred and I’ve managed to run or ride at least a few times a week since. In addition, I no longer shove everything I see down my throat as if I’m riding 5 days a week, I’ve been doing my exercises and I actually feel like I may be getting back into shape. Of course, round is a shape, just not the shape I want to see when I look in the mirror.
I’m hoping over the next couple of weeks to drop “that guy” and not see him again for the rest of the season….
My derailleur is acting up, I’ve been sick lately, I haven’t ridden that much, I’m in a recovery period right now, I broke my collarbone, etc, etc….
He’s always polite, and is always apologizing for being the last one up the hill and making everyone wait….but to be honest you’re really just sick of him and wish he’d get his fat azz off the couch and on the bike more so he could save the excuses and stories.
Well, the week before last I came to a startling realization….I’m THAT GUY!!!! Yep, me….somehow over the past few months through a rigorous regimen of eating as if I ride every day while hardly ever actually doing any riding, I’ve reached a new pinnacle of fatness and out-of-shapeness….
This, combined with my first Thursday ride on the SS since I broke my collarbone back in August reduced me to the dead-freakin-last-fat-guy-up-the-hill status.
Oh sure, I had all the excuses primed and ready to go when I finally caught up to everyone at the top of the first and longest climb of the evening, and the guys were all very nice and sympathetic and actually seemed to not mind waiting on me but I know…..I could see it in their eyes…..I could tell they were all thinking it…..”Rich if you’d just put down the box of Krispy Kremes and ride once in a while we wouldn’t be standing here cold and shivering while waiting for your lardass to catch up”
The rest of the ride was more of the same….the short steep climb at the half way point, the long climb up from the stone bridge, the road back to the parking lot, every single climb of the evening ended with me arriving red-faced and on the verge of hypoxia and them all patiently waiting…politely humiliating me with their kindness and platitudes.....It was humbling to say the least.
I guess though if you want to find a silver lining….and I’m definitely a silver lining kind of guy…..the humiliation has since been used as motivation. I’m down from my 3 year record weight of a couple pounds over two hundred and I’ve managed to run or ride at least a few times a week since. In addition, I no longer shove everything I see down my throat as if I’m riding 5 days a week, I’ve been doing my exercises and I actually feel like I may be getting back into shape. Of course, round is a shape, just not the shape I want to see when I look in the mirror.
I’m hoping over the next couple of weeks to drop “that guy” and not see him again for the rest of the season….
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Giving Back….
For the past couple of years our riding group has been involved with a really cool charity. Turning Wheels for Kids (http://www.turningwheelsforkids.org/). They assemble and donate bikes for under privileged kids that otherwise wouldn’t get a bike.
The majority of the giving happens at Christmas time following the Big Bike Build, but from what I understand, there are bikes given out at other times of the year as well.
This year though, several of us are taking our involvement to a deeper level as we’re helping to launch the Tri-Valley Chapter of Turning Wheels for Kids. Our goal is fairly aggressive in that we’re hoping to buy, assemble and donate 400 bikes this coming December.
I’ve always believed in the phrase that for those to whom much is given, much is expected and I really enjoy being able to help support causes or charities I believe in. I feel like my family has been abundantly blessed and giving back is the least we can do. This though, is a whole new experience for me. I’ve never really been involved in something like this, at this level. The planning required and the fund raising to be done seem almost overwhelming when I sit down and look at the list. The good thing is though, that I’m not alone. We have a very smart, committed group of people that are going to work to pull this off. And, of course, we have the resources of the founding Turning Wheels board to help us get this thing rolling.
It’s actually pretty exciting to be a part of something like this although I know it’s going to be a lot of work and a really great learning experience. We’ll be reaching out to local corporations as partners, working with various groups for both donations from them and others who will be asking for bikes to be donated and all the while focusing on helping kids get a bicycle…..what could be cooler than a bunch of cyclists helping get kids on bikes of their own?
Stay tuned, as things move forward you’ll be hearing more about it here….
The majority of the giving happens at Christmas time following the Big Bike Build, but from what I understand, there are bikes given out at other times of the year as well.
Our involvement to date has been at the Big Bike Build which, in addition to doing something good, is a tremendous amount of fun. This year, I think they said there were 900 volunteers who helped assemble and give away 2400 bikes. It’s an amazing site. You walk in the morning of the build to an empty building with nothing but boxes down the middle aisle. Then at the end of the day, the boxes are gone and replaced by 2400 sparkling new bikes….
This year though, several of us are taking our involvement to a deeper level as we’re helping to launch the Tri-Valley Chapter of Turning Wheels for Kids. Our goal is fairly aggressive in that we’re hoping to buy, assemble and donate 400 bikes this coming December.
I’ve always believed in the phrase that for those to whom much is given, much is expected and I really enjoy being able to help support causes or charities I believe in. I feel like my family has been abundantly blessed and giving back is the least we can do. This though, is a whole new experience for me. I’ve never really been involved in something like this, at this level. The planning required and the fund raising to be done seem almost overwhelming when I sit down and look at the list. The good thing is though, that I’m not alone. We have a very smart, committed group of people that are going to work to pull this off. And, of course, we have the resources of the founding Turning Wheels board to help us get this thing rolling.
It’s actually pretty exciting to be a part of something like this although I know it’s going to be a lot of work and a really great learning experience. We’ll be reaching out to local corporations as partners, working with various groups for both donations from them and others who will be asking for bikes to be donated and all the while focusing on helping kids get a bicycle…..what could be cooler than a bunch of cyclists helping get kids on bikes of their own?
Stay tuned, as things move forward you’ll be hearing more about it here….
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