Time to dig out the winter gear…

Last night was the first post-end of daylight savings ride. (Does that even make sense?) With the end of daylight savings time, or the beginning of pacific standard time, or whatever, we had our first Lake Chabot ride that actually started in the dark.

It’s been cooler here in the morning and in the evenings, but the days have been just about perfect. So, I started out last night with tights, a long sleeve base layer and my gore jacket along with my half finger gloves.
The first downhill leads to an area that is always the coldest on the ride. This is followed by a nice little climb to get the heart pumping and some rollers to warm up the rest of the body.

After this, we cut through to the golf course and the big climb begins. Needless to say, after the first couple of yards up this hill, I was plenty warm. So warm actually, that I was struck by bizarre anomaly of being able to see my breath in the cold air, while at the same time wiping the sweat from my eyes. At the top of the climb, I was so warm I had completely unzipped my jacket and was pretty well soaked through. Which felt great for about 2 minutes….after which I was shivering and ready to get started again.

This cycle pretty much continued the rest of the ride. Hammer, hammer, hammer, sweat like crazy. Stop and start shivering.

It really was a pretty night though. The stars were gorgeous, the views of the bay from the top of the hills were beautiful and the weather was cool, but not freezing.
Although, the few times we did stop, reminded me I need to find my long fingered gloves, my thicker jerseys and my under helmet beanie thing. I’m pretty sure I have some toe warmers somewhere too and I remember being thankful for them on more than a couple of rides last year.

Afterwards, Nick had brought a pot of tortilla soup and we all brought other munchables (along with a nice assortment of beer) so as always it was an awesome night!
Of course when the alarm went off at 4 this am I felt like I had just lay down.

Fall sucks, but not really….

Ok, so I hate the fact that it’s now dark by 5:30 in the afternoon. Usually we start our Wednesday rides at 4:30 and have at least 2 hours to get in a nice long after work ride.
Last night, we started at 4:30 and by the time we got back to the cars at 5:30 it was already dark.
The upside to this time of year is that the weather is perfect! It’s not really cold yet, but it’s cool enough for arm warmers and cool enough that a nice long climb at a brisk pace doesn’t leave you feeling like a well used salt lick.

Last night we started at PW market in Castro Valley, rode up and over the Dublin grade at a pretty good pace then back. On the way back we did the first section of Sunny Slope which is a pretty decent climb, especially if you take it pretty fast.
Afterwards, there’s a nice downhill followed by the last climb up ECV Bl and back to the cars.
We hammered it out pretty good so although it’s not a long ride at 13 miles with about 1000ft of climbing it left me feeling like I had done something at least. All in all a nice Fall ride…..except that it was too dark to go longer….

The Gamble Paid Off…

Yesterday was the Giro d’Vino ride in Lodi. A bunch of us had registered for this a while back since it’s a great ride and one of the last organized rides of the year….
The only issue was that the weather guy was predicting rain this weekend and we weren’t sure if he was going to be right or wrong…..flipping a coin will usually be just as accurate as listening to those guys. We were betting he was wrong.

Saturday it poured all day. They said we received an inch and a half in a lot of areas and I was concerned Sunday would be more of the same. Still, after emailing and calling around it seemed that most of us were still game. We had a backup plan though, so if it poured we were heading for the Indian casino….

Well, Sunday turned out to be a perfect day! The weather was cool but not cold and the sun even made an appearance a few times throughout the day. The Giro d’Vino is a great ride through the wineries of Lodi, Clements, Acampo and the surrounding areas. It’s a really pretty area that I don’t think many people know about. There are a ton of nice little wineries tucked between Hwy 5 and the foothills.

Everyone that showed up met up at the registration (evidently some in our group decided not to chance it and were "at home having coffee" as we registered) and immediately split into two groups. One group was planning on doing the 50K ride with a goal of making sure they took advantage of the wine tasting on the route. The other group was doing the 100K with a goal of …well…finishing the 100K.

The route is a completely flat 100K so I took the single speed. The single speed was built up with a goal of being a nice riding, fairly lightweight, speed demon. This is probably my favorite bike and the one I prefer when we’re doing rides that don’t have ridiculous amounts of climbing.
Yesterday though, because of the weather, it was anything but lightweight. After mounting fenders, a rack and the music player,(gotta have music on these rides) it was quite a bit heavier than usual. Add to that the fact that since I was organizing our group and had a few new riders, my trunk bag was filled with rain gear, arm/leg warmers, first aid kit, 4 spare tubes, a bunch of gels and tools I’m pretty sure this thing was closer to 40 lbs that 20.

Well, the ride went really well and although the 50K and 100K routes split pretty early on, we still managed to hook up with the other group at two of the rest stops. Not sure if they were slow or we were fast, but it sure worked out nicely.

Things actually went smoothly for both groups except for the one incident where Greg, feeling like he didn’t want to pedal anymore tried to attach his bike to mine for a tow….he quickly learned the error of his way as he went into the dirt like he’d been thrown from a bull. He claims I did it on purpose ….I of course deny that… no one can prove I pointed out the Goldwing to distract him, then immediately grabbed my brakes….

All in all it was a great ride. We had several personal bests in both groups and a for a couple of the riders this was almost 4X their longest ever ride.... Afterwards the organizers fed us well and we relaxed and listened to the Vine Dawgs (http://vinedawgs.com) while we enjoyed a pretty good bottle of wine.

Wow, almost a month without a post…

So, I logged on today to realize that it’s been almost a month since I’ve posted anything…..
Too be honest, I can’t believe October is almost over. It seems like this month has just flown by.
My wife and I were actually talking about whether or not we’re hosting Thanksgiving dinner in a few weeks and it dawned on me that Christmas is right around the corner as well…..insane!

The first part of the month has just been so-so as far as riding goes. I’ve been trying to get out at least once per week for the mt. bike ride at the lake, but other than that, I haven’t been riding much. Just not really motivated…..
This past weekend we did Mt Diablo, and when we split at the second ranger station, I wasn’t even tempted to try the summit. Weird, normally I’m all about suffering, but Saturday, I just wasn’t feeling it.

Last night we did the Cull Cyn out and back 2x…the first time, we really tried to hammer it and to be honest, it about killed me. My legs just kept saying “hey now, knock it off and take it easy….” If Jack hadn’t been behind me, I probably would have slacked off but he kept on coming so I had to keep pushing.

The upside of Fall is that the lake loop is almost all in the dark now which definitely adds to the fun factor. Plus the weather has been amazing. It’s beautiful during the day and cool in the mornings and evenings. I’m guessing as it gets colder our socializing after the loop will dwindle considerably.

I really do need to get some miles in though since I’ll be doing the Giro D Vino in Lodi in less than 2 weeks. The good thing is that although it’s a metric century, it’s completely flat. http://www.deltavelo.com/giro_d_vino.html
It’s a fun ride and goes through some really pretty countryside. Plus every rest stop is at a winery. Last year a few of us were cruising along chatting and not really paying attention when we realized we had missed a turn and had no idea where we were. The really funny thing is that when we stopped, there were at least a dozen or so people that had followed us off course – lemmings, all of ‘em

Even an idiot driver and an angry bug couldn’t ruin last night’s ride….

My buddy Jack and I decided to ride the zoo loop last night. It’s a really nice 26 mile loop since its local and can be done before dark even as the days get shorter. It’s got some nice climbs and some really long fast descents. Plus the weather was perfect, warm but not hot.
The only downside is there’s a section towards the end of Redwood rd that is kind of narrow and in the evenings, there can be a lot of cars. Last night was no exception.

Jack and I were cruising along and while we were riding side by side when we could so we could talk, every time we would hear a car coming we’d get back to single file. (it drives me nuts when I’m in my car and cyclists are riding 2-3 abreast and hogging the road)
Everything was fine until we got to a point where we saw 2 cyclists coming down the hill with 4 cars behind them. They were moving along at a pretty good clip since it was downhill, but evidently it wasn’t fast enough for “the idiot” in the Infinity at the back of the line because he decided he needed to pass the 3 cars and 2 cyclists in front of him.

The problem was, as I explained, is the road is kinda narrow there and when he passed them, he came within a foot of embedding me and Jack into his nice chrome grill. (it was an aftermarket mesh looking grill)
Now normally, I don’t notice the cars that go by us, but since I got sooooo close to this one, I did notice that “the idiot” was driving an Infinity G35 with nice rims and an aftermarket mesh grill. I was particularly interested in the grill since I was picturing us embedded in it.

Anyway, after narrowly avoiding a certainly painful and messy meeting with “the idiot” (did I mention that Redwood rd is a completely winding road with NO straightaways for passing) we continued the climb up to skyline. From there the road continues to climb until you reach the top which has the most amazing views of the bay area. Most of Skyline is a divided road with a planting area and path in the middle. Sometimes we see people walking, we’ve seen people on horseback and last night we saw a really nice 3x3 buck just grazing in the middle of the road.(seeing wildlife is always a highlight on any ride)

The nice part about the climbing is obviously the downhill that follows. So, last night when we hit the downhill I really let it out and was zipping along at about 35-40 mph when BAM! I get hit with something in my lip. Two things register at this point, The first is that whatever it is, it’s alive and fuzzy because it’s now stuck in my lips and the second thing is that it’s FREAKING STINGING ME!!!!!!
Well, although the whole incident of it hitting me, me feeling it and me spitting it out all happened in the span of about one second, my amazing powers of deductive reasoning kicked in and I figure out that this small fuzzy thing that stings must be a bee and he's probably pissed (I know pretty impressive the way I deduced that ain’t it)

Anyway, the rest of the ride went without incident, we finished the downhill, went through the zoo, through San Leandro, up Lake Chabot rd and back to the start where we congratulated ourselves on not becoming a hood ornament for “the idiot”.
All in all though, it was a great ride. We couldn’t have picked better riding weather, the views from the top of skyline were a little hazy but still gorgeous and the pace kept us working near, but not over our limits.
(Although, when I went home, my lip looked like I'd been punched and required benadryl and ice to bring it back to normal size)

What a nice ride…..

I took a ride the other evening with a buddy that has been off the bike for a while. Knowing this, we set out with the goal of a nice relaxed ride. And we accomplished that. We took it easy, we saw wild turkeys, we chatted the whole way out and back and we generally had a nice relaxed ride followed of course by a couple of beers back at the truck.

The next day we were talking and I commented about how much fun it was to just cruise along, relax and enjoy the ride to which he responded “..of course it was, you know Rich you don’t have to kill yourself on every ride…”
Obviously this comment left me dumbfounded because I had never really thought of that. I mean, after all, riding is exercise right? And the goal of exercise is a certain level of fitness right?

I spent a couple of beers I mean hours thinking this over and came up with the following formula:
Level of Fitness(X) = Intensity of Exercise(IE) x Amt of Time Available(ATA)

Therefore X=(IE)x(ATA)

Now, if you assume that a basic level of fitness requires at the very least 1 hour, 3x per week, then you factor in the fact that each week has only 168 hrs.
Factor in the basic assumptions that you need to sleep 6 hours a night and most of us work 9 hours a day.
In addition our spouses and families demand to see us somewhat regularly. If you own a home then the project and chores need to be done and if you hope in any way to have a social life or friends then there’s the basic life requirements on your time….

After you incorporate the following other variables into the equation (W) work, (L) Life, (P) projects uncompleted, (K) kids and (S) Spouse, the equation ends up looking like this:

X= (IE) x (3/168)X((ATA)-(W+L+P+K+S)
X= -4

Now granted, I wasn’t a math major, but I come up with somewhere around -4 hours at the end of every week and I haven’t even begun to figure in eating….

Now, although my buddy was right and riding is fun…..I don’t think there’s time for fun in my previous equation…

The Happy Sad Camping Trip...

This past weekend the entire family (inc. dogs) went up to Silver Lake for the end of the season camping trip.
It was a Happy Sad camping trip.

The weather was really nice, warm but not hot during the day and cold at night. The lake is pretty low, although the Silver Fork River was flowing nicely.

Deb and I and the two dogs headed up early Friday since the campground is first come first served and we actually made it out of the house by 7:45 which was only 15 minutes later than our planned start time.
Of course by the time we stopped to do the grocery shopping and at Walmart for a couple of items, we didn’t get into camp until almost noon.
Also of course, things never go quite as planned. Our goal was to get camp set up followed by a nice nap on the new cots. What we didn’t realize was that after the last camping trip, one of the tent poles got put away with Michelle and Chris’ tent so our nice nap on the new cots wasn’t going to happen. That’s ok. A truck with a camper shell and a couple of blankets works just as well.(although it’s a tad bit more “cozy” with the both of us and our two large dogs)

The kids, who thought they’d be up there about 9ish, finally rolled in about 11 and we got to work setting up the tents (afterall, grandpa’s bedtime is usually 9)

Mornings camping are my favorite time and Saturday morning was one of the best. We all got up, got the fire going, made a pot of coffee and started on a nice big breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon….with a few sweet rolls thrown in to tide everyone over. (probably not on the AMA’s heart healthy diet sheet)

The day ended up being a great day, we got a little hike in, the boys did some fishing (you’ll notice I said fishing and not catching….no catching was done this weekend) and everyone had a nice relaxing day that ended with s’mores around the campfire.

I titled this blog the Happy Sad Camping trip for a reason though. This trip was set up as the last family trip of the year before the youngest heads back down to UCSC for the school year and that feeling definitely came through on Sunday morning as we packed up. I could tell Deb was feeling it and as I sat there having my coffee, it dawned on me that, like my oldest, my youngest is going to move out someday and these times will be fewer and farther between.

Deb and I are really blessed in the fact that it seems both of our kids actually enjoy hanging out with us. And, to be honest, we mostly like them as well. So, since we’ve already found with Michelle that you can’t lock them away and keep them to yourselves, we’ll be moving Christina down to Santa Cruz this evening and she’ll start on her last year of college. Oh well, it’s not that long till Christmas break…..