Ride information, Fundraising status, training log

 

Howdy folks, it's been awhile since I updated the blog. I had a nasty case of food poisoning (from Baja Fresh) and then sprained my ankle while running down some stairs. So I hadn't ridden my bike in almost three weeks. The physical therapists told me to ride my bike if I could, and so I have begun to ride slowly and it is actually quite painless. It hurts more to walk around the house.

Since the Tour de Cure is now complete, I have no reason to continue this web log. However, I will be continuing my reporting of our club rides and activities on another web log, so if you are still interested please point your browser to WheelyCool

posted by willis at 2:01 AM

 
Acknowledgements
I actually still got a pledge yesterday, and so my total money raised is now over $1800. Thanks to all of my sponsors:

Anthony Ancheta	Rhonda Larson
Lisa Anderson	Geoff and Christina Lee
Charles Argentine	Paul Legris
Jingfu Chang	Uncle Albert, Aunt Rita, Evans and Keri Leung
Rocky Cheuk	Helen Liu and Leander Leung
Jacqueline Crosby	Savanh Prasasouk
Julia Crosby	Patricia Short
Karen Dang	Yi Su
Quyen Dang	Ding Y Tam
Michael Doctolero	Didi Tanadjaja
Edward Espinosa	Jennifer Tasto
Kristin Favero	Victor Tong
Amy Ford	Valerie Vandervort
Dania Ghantous	Jonathan Wang
David Graul	Kathy Warne
Rizwan Hasan	Anne Wong
Steve Jones	Colleen Wong
Katrina Justin	Julie Wong
Kumar Kastury	Karel and Lily Wong
Rich Keenan	Wenise Wong
Clarissa Keenan	Bruce Wootton
Amin Kees	Jadia and Hon Ming Wu
Kana Komatsu	Wendy Yee
Gopa Kutty	William and Lydia Yee
Mi Lam

posted by willis at 3:10 PM

 
One week Later

About two days after the ride, I did an easy 8 mile ride, but the legs were definitely not ready for serious action. It took about 5 days before the legs felt "normal" again. During those 5 days, I had a huge appetite, and ate more than I ever have. My scale showed that I had lost about two pounds from the ride. I'm pretty thin already, so who knows where that fat came from.

Although it had some tough aspects, overall, the ride was a success and a great feeling of accomplishment. I'd like to do another century in another month or so, just to keep the training going, and I hope the Wheely Cool Velo Club feels the same way

posted by willis at 10:26 PM

 
Ride Report - Tour de Cure 2003

Let me just start by saying I had to wake up at 4:45am on a Sunday morning. I don't think I've ever done that. Even if I were driving up to Tahoe for a day trip snowboarding, I would still be able to sleep an extra hour before being rudely awakened by two alarm clocks. A major accomplishment in itself, but I woke up, somehow, and was plenty on schedule to do this torture test. I must have only gotten about 4-5 hours of sleep, just because I spent some time taping and bagging my shoes (the weather forecast was for rain in the morning). I was quite proud of the new bagging technique I ended up with, which I am sure would give me fully rainproofed feet. (see April 14, 2003 log entry)

Luckily, when we arrived at the starting point in Yountville, there was no rain to speak of. So I peeled the bags off of my shoes before we even started, so I didn't get to put the new system to the test this time. The start of this ride was in the California Veteran's Home Picnic Grounds. Bikers were everywhere, there were people directing us to parking lots, no lines at the registration desk, these organizers were doing a great job.

It was a bit chilly, but not freezing or raining, we all met each other on time, and nobody had forgotten to bring anything. Good starting karma!

Group Photo - Before the start of the ride
Left to right: Willis, Nick, Paige, Dave, Kevin, Dino, Ange, Brett
All Incyte or ex-Incyte employees. Except for the obvious red jacketed Dave, who is Paige's husband. (Dave actually is wearing his Wheely Cool jersey underneath the jacket). And maybe if you're a bike geek like myself you might be interested to know the bikes from Left to right: GT,Trek,Schwinn,LeMond,GT,Trek,Trek,LeMond. (it's more interesting to me than you can imagine, because we randomly got in that order)

Rollin' out
We started rolling at 7:15am, from the picnic grounds. And already Dave is showing off his bike handling skillz (or just the back of his red jacket). I really like the sight of a long line of bikers riding through a turn. It's like a huge snake moving through the grass. One of the benefits of wearing the same jerseys is that we can easily find each other in a long line of cyclists. Notice the broken yellow line in the road, it's very important because when we see it again, we will have ridden 100 miles.

Double Paceline
Within the first mile, a super fast double paceline formed. It was about 15-20 riders, and it was moving at a fierce 25-27mph. Although that may sound like schoolyard neighborhood speeds in a car, I usually only hit that speed going down gradual hills on my bike, and I definitely don't maintain that. This group was on some kind of mission, and it was obvious they were planning on maintaining that pace the entire way. The idea is that the person in front(in this case, two people) works a bit harder to break the wind and set the pace, allowing those behind to draft and hide from the wind. The percentage of energy savings is quite substantial when drafting behind someone. In a normal paceline, the front rider will break off after an agreed upon time, or when they're tired, and drift to the back of the line, and so the next person in line takes the burden. But in this case, there were 5 or 6 people at the front who seemed happy to do ALL the work, just rotating between themselves, and everybody else behind them just got to sit back and enjoy the pull.

This paceline formed so early on that I wasn't ready for it and was caught just looking around, a few hundred meters back, in my own airspace, pedaling vigorously just to maintain 18mph. We called it the "Peloton" and it was accelerating away from me. I noticed Paige, Dave, Nick, and Brett hanging off the back of it. Meanwhile Dino, Kevin and Ange were all spread out, much farhter back, pedaling on their own, just like me. I realized that here we were, only 2 miles into the ride, and the group was already going to be split up. That's not teamwork! So I jumped and moved up to where Dino was, and said "Hey we gotta get up with those guys.". Dino's response was less than enthusiastic, and he mentioned something about pacing ourselves, which was understandable, because they were definitely going much faster than alot of us had trained for. I could understand Dino and Kevin's apprehension, because the prior year's ride they both had bonked out and it sounded like an ordeal to finish. But I also knew that if we could join that Peloton, the ride would be much much easier.

I told Dino "Let's just bridge this gap and everything will be fine" . I don't remember if he said "OK" or "No thanks", but I stood up and started cranking to try to bridge the gap. It took quite an effort, as they were going about 27, so I must have hit 30mph just to catch them and I was expending valuable energy, but it really was worth it, because just as I pulled in behind Paige and Dave in the Peloton, everything got easy. The wind seemed to disappear, and it almost felt like the wind was blowing behind me. My pedaling was effortless and I was spinning really fast in a high gear, all the while being pulled along by this vaccuum effect. I couldn't even hear the wind in my ears, just the buzz of twenty bike chains and alot of chit chat going on. It was like a time warp, or a bubble. Whaetver it was, it was COOL! I must have said that out loud because Paige looked at me and said "Isn't this great?". I started imagining just how easy the rest of the ride will be as long as we stay in this vaccuum. But then I looked back to see where Dino was, and they were nowhere in sight. I started to think about "the team" but I also was loving the free ride, so I caved in and kept behind the draft, figuring we'd meet back up at the first rest stop. (Shame on me)

Twelve butts
As I took this picture from the back of the double paceline, the guy behind me in line said "I call that "twelve butts'". I guess that's about right.

The first rest stop came quickly, at mile 9. It didn't make a whole lot of sense to me why we needed a rest stop after riding only 9 miles, but the Peloton had come to a stop, so I used it as an opportunity to grab some energy bars for later. The stop was brief, and it wasn't long before the people in the main Peloton started to leave. I would have liked to join them , but neither Dino, Kevin or Ange had arrived at the rest stop yet, so Paige, Dave and myself said goodbye to the free ride as the train left the station. Nick and Brett, who we all kinda knew were planning on riding very fast, wanted to stay with the Peloton, so we said our goodbyes as they scrambled off to catch up with the pack.

About a second later, Dino and Kevin rolled right up to us, and then Ange showed up soon after. We chatted for a bit about how awesome the paceline was, and then decided to get moving again. Ange was riding the 50 miler and at her own pace, so she was still at the rest stop when we left. The five of us rode in a tight pack, but it was nowhere near the same pace as the Peloton.

Yellow Jersey Spotted
As we headed north up Highway 29, through the town of St. Helena, in our own paceline, we passed quite a few single riders, all going various speeds. Our average speed was about 18mph, nowehre near the blistering pace of the Peloton, but still respectable through the rolling hills of the valley. One guy we passed, wearing a yellow jersey, didn't seem very happy about us passing him, or perhaps he was defending his yellow leader's jersey. He really started hammering the pedals and kept jumping to the front of our paceline. So we drafted behind him for a bit, but every time we hit a small uphill section, he would slow down and we would pass him. Then on the next downhill section he'd go cranking wildly by us again. It was somewhat comical, because most people tend to agree if you wear a yellow jersey, people are going to chase you, so you'd better be good! I definitely think he was powerful, yet somewhat erratic in pace. Kevin kept referring to him as "Lance" and we had a good time toying with him.

Because of Lance's obvious dislike of inclines, Paige was looking forward to leaving him in the dust on the first big hill. But our plans were thwarted when Dave yelled out that he had a flat. So we all stopped and let Lance go on to his 5th Tour de France victory.

Flat tire
We couldn't have gotten a flat tire in a more scenic spot.

Rest Stop # 2 and 3
Because the route was designed as an out-and-back (rather than a loop) we would be hitting this same rest stop actually twice. So the first time around we could see all the food they were saving to put out for the return trip. It was tempting to grab a sandwich but they were trying to save them for later. My plan was to eat before I was hungry, so that I wouldn't run out of energy in the long haul. But all I could really feel comfortable eating was a banana and Clif Bar. We were only at mile 24, which is normally about when I eat an energy bar if I'm on a long ride.

Everyone was really friendly, and they had a pile of stickers and knick-knacks you could grab from. Only one porta-potty made for a bit of a line and long wait for us

straight lines

rows of vines

Bridge
This is for my upcoming coffee table book "The Bridges of Napa Valley"

Desktop Wallpaper

Look Ma, No Hands
I was getting brave with the camera and held it way over my head and shot straight down. You can see on my speedometer I was going 21.5mph at the time, and not holding the handlebars. Not too smart.

Paceline
Sideway and overhead view of our paceline. We're about a foot apart going 18-20mph. Efficient!

Self Portrait
While riding normal pace, holding the camera out in front of me. It's kinda got a Fear-Factor helmet-cam look to it. Perhaps this is what the bugs see right before they fly into my mouth.

Camera Shy?
Dave and Paige are perhaps jealous of my ride-while-you-look-backwards-and-take-pictures technique.

Kevin and Dino
I think Dino is pointing at the oncoming truck that I am about to run into...

Stretch?
I really hope Kevin is just stretching.

Goofy Stretch
Somewhere around mile 55, I think all of our shoulders were feeling fatigued. Dave started stretching his shoulders by flailing them in circles like Tai Chi. Then Paige did some, then Dino did some, and here, Kevin performs the ancient Bike Chi stretch for the camera.

First Lunch
After about 60 miles, it led us back to the rest stop which had the sandwiches. We spent quite awhile here eating "first lunch". The second lunch would be at the end of the ride and comprised of much heavier food items. Only after looking at this photo did I realize we were sitting at a table made from a wine barrel. Tricky!

Wheel Truing
While we ate lunch, this gentleman was truing his friend's wheel. Not an easy task even when you're at home with the wheel on a special stand. But on the road, while standing up, after you've ridden 60 miles, that's even tougher. We ended up riding with these guys for several miles. They both live in the Napa Valley and knew all the roads well, and surely ride them all the time, because after awhile, I couldn't keep up with them.

We left this rest stop at a very brisk pace. We were headed back to the start/finish, and there was a big tailwind behind us. So even without a paceline, each of us could ride 18-20mph without too much effort. So that's what happened for the next 15 miles, we all just kinda strung out along the road and rode separately. Kevin took a very fast pace and was keeping up with those two Napa locals. Just before we pulled into the next rest stop I think he slowed down so we all regrouped.

Bike Tent
This term refers to the method of standing two bikes against each other to keep them up, rather than laying on the ground. Sometimes it works, and sometimes the tent falls with a loud crash.

I finally started to notice that each rest stop had a certain theme to it. This one was the american flag theme, and they gave out little flag keychains.

bikes and vines
There is no shortage of vineyards in Napa Valley. But you can't lean your bike on a grapevine.

Port O Let
There's no real reason why I took this picture.

More wallpaper
It kinda looks like a cemetary, but don't worry, it's just grape vines.

Once we left this rest stop, the whole ride seemed to change shape. The miles were taking their toll and the weather decided to test us. The billowy clouds above us got bigger and a bit darker, and the wind picked up. Luckily we were still in a tailwind which, according to the Napa locals, was very unusual for this stretch of road known as the Silverado Trail. Although it didn't downpour on us, the rain clouds would pass over, and we'd get drizzled with rain every couple minutes. Not enough to get soaked, but enough to make the ground wet, with occasional puddles where drainage was poor.

Our pace was a bit too fast in my opinion, and around mile 80, I started feeling tired. I couldn't keep up with Kevin or Dave, and they started peeling away. Dino and Paige were in the same boat as me, so we three stuck together as best we could. My seat wasn't hurting, my breathing was fine, but I just couldn't push the same gears Kevin or Dave were doing, ther was just no more oomph in my legs. We were all spinning at a respectable 15-17mph, but that was with a tailwind, so who knows how slow we'd have been without the assistance.

Every couple of minutes I would look up to see the tiny figures of Kevin and Dave way way up ahead, going at it with the Napa Locals. I would sigh out loud or tell Dino how far back we are from them. Dino's gruff reply was "At this point, I don't care, I just want to finish" so you could tell he was hurting too. Paige didn't complain though, she just kept pedaling. Dino said that at one point he had a hallucination that he could read the small print "theSpeck.com" on kevin's jersey from 200 yards away.

(during this time, I was less than happy to take my camera out and waste precious energy on taking pictures, so there are no photos at mile 80)

Once Kevin and Dave were completely out of sight, I hit the mental wall. I asked Dino "When is the next rest stop??" and he said 4 miles. My own speedometer wasn't reporting distance properly so I had to resort to asking other people. It was frustrating to not know how many miles I had to go. I remember just lamenting over and over again about being tired, and I don't know what I was whining to Paige, when Dino raised his finger signalling 1 more mile to the rest stop. I was very relieved from that simple gesture, and Dino seemed quite triumphant as well.

We pulled into this final rest stop, where of course Dave and Kevin were waiting for us. I ate another Clif Bar and tried to regain my spirits. The theme of the rest stop was somewhat celebratory, and they were giving out Mardi Gras beads to wear for the final leg of 12 miles. I had overheard that a guy got stung by a bee in his mouth after it flew in while he was riding. Ouch!

For the next 8 miles we all rode together, as the course changed direction, into a headwind, and still with occasional showers of rain. It was here that I really started cracking. I kept asking people how many miles we had left. And I don't think I was polite about it. "How many miles?" "How about now??" it must have been annoying.

Road Spray
When the road is wet, your tires tend to kick up alot of muck and it gets everywhere, including in your face if you follow someone too close.

This was the only stoplight we had to cross for the entire ride. Unfortunately, there were no cars behind us to trigger the light, and our patience was short, so we had to run it (the road was clear)

In the last stretch of 4 miles, kevin and Dave once again shot way up ahead of us, about 200 yards. I asked Dino once more "how many?" and he said "two" so I decided, ok whatever I have left, I'm going to finish strong and catch them. So I shifted up two gears, stood out of the saddle and started cranking hard to catch them. It felt like I was riding through mud, with the headwind and fatigue. I could see their jerseys getting bigger, so it meant I was getting progress, but I had to sit back down. I figured two or three more attempts and I might catch them. The road was really straight so it was easy to concentrate on just catching them. I stood up for another brief effort, maybe twenty pedal revolutions, and had to sit down again. 100 yards to go. Stood up again.... this time really going for it, 75 yards, then 50, I can really see them now. And hey wait they're not even riding hard... they were slowing down! That whole time thery were just cruising, slowing down, coming up to the Veteran's Hospital, and there I was pedaling like crazy trying to catch them. Sheesh. Just as I pulled up with them we made the turn into the Veteran's home.

Home stretch!
We rolled in to the Veteran's home at 2:20pm. And guess what? It's the same broken yellow line, 100 miles later. Since we started at 7:15am, that comes out to 7 hours, 5 minutes total time. Most everyone's computers had calculated actual riding time (not including rest time) to be under 6 hours. So I was very glad to hear that I had accomplished my goal of sub-6 hours for this ride.

Parting shot
My camera is really picky, and sometimes if I don't use it properly, it saves the image wrong. I was trying to restore this image, but ended up with something much more interesting... Perhaps this is what Dino was seeing at mile 80.

posted by willis at 12:44 AM

 
Tour de Cure 2003
I'm currently working on the full ride report (with pictures), so for now here's a group photo we took just before the ride:

posted by willis at 12:52 AM

 
Actual Jersey

They did a great job and with fast turnaround, I highly recommend:
posted by willis at 11:57 AM

 
Last training ride 4 days to go until the Tour de Cure, and today was our last training ride. I might do a quick spin on saturday but that's about it as far as training for this century. All the training is done and now I just have to eat right, stay healthy, and wake up on time!

We got our team jerseys in today. They look really wheely cool. I'll post a picture soon. We'll also take a team photo at some point during the event. There are ten people on our team, which is about average, except for a few big companies like Genentech, who have 52 people on their team.

I also received my information packet and bib number in the mail. They gave me a yellow colored bib and number 26, which means I'm in the top fundraising group for this year. How about that.
posted by willis at 2:13 PM

 
Back from Yolo County
The student competition is over, and I can finally relax now. The turnout was great, and there were alot of spectators as well. All of the competition took place on the UC Davis campus, which made it great for publicity and gaining student interest. There were some really uniquely designed vehicles this year, and all the students seemed to have a great attitude towards the competition and each other. Plus the other judges are great to hang out with, so we have a good time, even though it's alot of work to do for a weekend. Although I was too busy to take any pictures, there will hopefully be some on the ASME website soon. Here's an article from the Sacramento Bee about it.
The single most difficult thing for me to do is wake up at the crack of dawn to get ready for the races in the morning, and I had to do that on both Saturday and Sunday. I'm hoping that I can keep the early hours going for the rest of the week, so that by next weekend, it'll be easy to get up early enough to drive to Napa for the big ride.
I managed to get some riding in on Sunday afternoon, after I dropped two other judges off at the Sacramento airport. I figured there would be plenty of country backroads to ride in that area, and that's exactly what I found. I bought a map of Yolo County, parked, changed in my car, and hit the road, hoping to be in the saddle for at least four hours, before the rain started (The sky was perfectly clear all morning).
At first, it all seemed too easy. I went north on a road called E8, which was flat, straight, and empty of cars. I was cruising at what must have been over 20mph for the first half hour. I can only estimate my speed because my speedometer has not been working since that last ride in the rain. I thought I could beat Lance Armstrong with the pace I was going, and it was effortless. I attributed my speed to the flat terrain, compared to all the foothills we ride in Palo Alto.
But the real reason why I was going so fast became evident once I made a left turn and headed west on E10. Several times I almost got blown over by massive crosswinds from left to right. I had a tailwind the whole time! (So much for my race with Lance!) and now I was being punished by gusts trying to blow me into the ditch on the side of the road. My front wheel acted like a boat rudder in a strong sideway current. Every time the wind picked up it would push a torque on the front wheel and throw me off line towards the side of the road. So I would countersteer and lean into the wind to compensate, but the wind would die down and then I would swing back to the middle of the road... towards the passing cars. Not good.
This went on until I hit road 87, to go back south. (Out there a loop is actually a rectangle) then the fun began. So if I had a tailwind going north, and a crosswind going west, now it was time to face the music and hit the headwind. This was truly payback for my free ride northbound, because the wind was keeping me in a very low hillclimbing gear and I may as well have walked. It was at this time that the sky started turning grey and I became very paranoid of my situation.
It just suddenly struck me that I was at least 25 miles away from my car, riding a bike in the middle of nowhere, nobody knows where I am, I didn't have my cell phone because the battery had gone dead, without raingear when it was about to start raining, and had carried only enough water really for a 40 mile ride. How stupid!! My nervousness compounded itself when it seemed like a guy in a truck was trying to hit me as he crossed the road. I guess they've never heard of Critical Mass in the boondocks. There were tons of empty beer bottles thrown on the sides of the road. I started to picture redneck type guys throwing beer bottles at me as they drove by, or getting bitten by a rattlesnake (I rode right by a huge one) or haviing my bike break down and having to walk back in the rain. It all just got ugly in my head real fast. And so I resolved get back as soon as possible and keep more alert of my surroundings, to quell my paranoia.
Several stressful miles later, I did make it back to the car without mishap, and even before the rain started. But I did run out of water at one point, so I really slowed down, to try not to get dehydrated. The workout was essentially over at that point, but that was fine with me. All I had wanted to do is sit in the saddle really. Turning the cranks was secondary. total ride time was 3:15 and I estimate from the map it was 50 milers.

Here are a few things I learned from this ride::
1. If you ride more than 40 miles, plan for a water refill somewhere along the way.
2. If you ride alone in an unknown territory, in the middle of nowehre, without backup, expect to be really freaked out.
3. tailwind + loop = headwind (eventually)

posted by willis at 12:49 AM

 
HPV Challenge
In other bike-related news, this weekend I will be a judge at an annual student competition. Twenty universities from across the country will be in Davis for three days, showing off their design projects and competing in speed and endurance events. I have a special interest in the HPV challenge because I competed in it myself when I was in college. In my opinion, this type of project is very beneficial for developing an engineer's practical skills. You learn to work as a team to design, build and test something in a high stress atmosphere, culminating in a competition against peers with different resources, abilities, and attitudes. Almost like a real industry experience. I really learned alot about myself from this competition and I appreciate it enough to volunteer my time towards it. (It will be an exhausting weekend)
I'll have to find time to ride 75 miles somehow on Sunday afternoon, after the event is finished. It will probably be in the Davis area. This is the LAST weekend before Tour de Cure and I still haven't gone more than 60 miles in one day. On most hills nowadays, I find my lactic acid threshold is really high now, I haven't gotten the burn in a long time. I can climb hills without fear. I have high confidence in my legs and aerobic capacity, but not so much with the saddle and shoulders being tired or sore. That just takes time in the saddle.
posted by willis at 1:03 AM

 
Training Ride : 52 miles Double Tiburon Loop
This past weekend I met up with Dino, Paul, and Brett to go from San Francisco, across the Golden Gate to Saulsolito, and then loop through Tiburon, twice. I felt great the whole time and got to practice some moving camera shots. The funny angled shots were taken while holding the camera while riding and not looking through the viewfinder!

PDRM0665.JPG	PDRM0666.JPG	PDRM0667.JPG
PDRM0670.JPG	PDRM0671.JPG	PDRM0673.JPG
PDRM0691.JPG	PDRM0692.JPG	PDRM0693.JPG
PDRM0695.JPG	PDRM0699.JPG	PDRM0700.JPG
PDRM0705.JPG	gazebo_big.jpg

posted by willis at 11:57 PM

 
New Jersey Design
Here's what I came up with for the Wheely Cool Velo Club bike jersey. I'll be placing the order with velowear in a couple of days, and we should have them just in time for the ride.

posted by willis at 8:04 PM

 
18 days until Tour de Cure
Yes that's right, the ride is on May 4th, just around the corner. Am I ready? Well let's just say I'm not UNready. Who knows. This week has been pretty low effort on the training scale, partly because of the wet weather and partly because I celebrated my 33rd birthday, a couple of times. I thought it would be one of those birthdays that sneaks by without notice, but my family and friends had other ideas, and I had multiple helpings of birthday meals, snacks, cakes, and good company. So I have that to be thankful... Training will resume this Saturday as the Wheely Cool riders do a 65 miler in Tiburon, rain or shine!
An interesting update came from the Tour de Cure organizers. The ride will NOT be 103 miles, but only 100 miles. Bummer! I was SO LOOKING FORWAARD to riding those 3 extra miles at the end of the day! (note sarcasm) The reason for the route change is due to conflict with a Cinco de Mayo celebration in a town we would pass through.
posted by willis at 11:18 PM

 

Training ride : Primavera 26 miles
Four of us Wheely Cool Velo Club riders were planning on riding Primavera today, sponsored by the Fremont Freewheelers as a training ride. The plan was to do a metric century of 100Km (62 miles). We all knew the forecast was to be rain, and nobody was 100% confident that we would actually end up riding. I was moderately determined to get some miles in whether it was raining or not, but I have very little experience starting on a ride when it is already raining. I've been caught riding outside when it starts to rain, and then quickly gone home, like any normal human being. But to voluntarily subject myself to cold wind and soaking clothes just seems whacko.
Since I was so unprepared for the cold weather riding up Mt. Hamilton, I wanted to get some clothing that would work for wind and rain. I spent a few minutes online researching what types of clothing people wear to ride in the rain, and then went down to REI to see what they had. About an hour and a hundred bucks later I came out with a rainjacket, waterproof gloves, a bataclava, thermal tights, and a powerbar.

For the feet, they do sell special booties for biking, but the reviews online were mixed. I read about people putting ziploc bags over their socks and stuffing them into the shoes. For the most part that worked for people, except their feet tend to build up sweat and get wet that way, which is fine as long as the wind doesn't get in there to chill them. So I decided to fashion my bags on the outside of the shoes, using the Ziploc bags and Wonder tape (PVC pipe wrapping tape) They looked pretty silly once installed on my feet, but I didn't care as long as my feet stayed warm.

So I was all set, and all I had to do is wake up on time... and so there was problem #1. I ended up sleeping late after fashioning these ziploc foot bags, and so woke up late. Actually I was awakened by Paige calling to tell me that she and Dave did not want to ride in the rain. I peeked outside and the ground was wet, the clouds were moving fast, and it would surely rain more. So what should I do? I was all geared up for rain, anxious to see if it worked, not to mention the $35 entry fee already paid, so I decided to call Kevin and see if he was going to ride. I ended up waking him up, and he said he would sonsider riding but only the 26 mile option they offered, which started later. That sounded ok to me. If the rain would be torture, it would only be for a couple hours at most before it would end. So I got ready and jumped on my bike. Since this event was in Fremont, it was nice to be able to ride to the start, rather than drive. I also figured it would be a good acid test of all my raingear. I figured if I got soaked and cold just riding to the start, I would turn around and go home.
It was not actually raining when I left the house, but the road was wet, and the fiirst dampness that hit me was the road spray from my own wheels flinging water up into my butt. Not a good feeling. It's like you wet your pants, but you know you didn't, but it's there, wet, and you still have to sit. That took a few minutes to get over, but it was tolerable as long as I stayed in the saddle, keeping tthe draft off the wet spot.
I met up with Kevin at the starting line and we checked in, got our numbers and maps, and headed off on the route. There were very few cars at the lot, so it meant alot of other people were not willing to brave the weather. There were only a handful of riders on our route, since it was the "Family fun" route and started later than the long rides. Once we started rolling, Kevin said he was already too warn, and I admit the bataclava was a bit too much, considering it wasn't raining. A small group of riders that passed us at a brisk pace. Kevin and I tried to keep up with them, but I just wasn't able to hang with their pace, so I dropped back. It was convenient because they seemed to know where to turn at each intersection, so we didn't have to look at our maps. The problem was they ended up going on one of the longer routes, which we thought they had closed after a certain time. Once we realized this, we had to turn around and find our way back to the short route. At this point the skies opened up and the rain started to fall on us. Lightly at first, but then it turned into a total downpour. Amazingly, all of my raingear was working, and I felt dry and warm in all the right places. Even the shoe bags were working, except water had somehow infiltrated one of my bags, and so one foot was wet. Warm, but wet, like squishy. I asked Kevin how his feet were, (he had the cycling booties) and he said his feet were sloshing in water. So I didn't feel too bad since I had at least one dry foot.
It rained on and off for about 30 minutes, and we just kept riding. We didn't run into many other cyclists on the route. At the rest stop, we saw a lady who had apparently gotten soaked in the rain and was now sporting a big plastic garbage bag with holes cut out for her arms and head. It was a great bonding moment as I showed her my ziploc bag shoe covers. The rest of the ride was fairly ordinary but the rain did stop. Kevin kept a fast pace and I had trouble just keeping up with him. I think I never feel strong in high humidity air, I'm not sure why. The distance was pretty small and the ride should have felt easier than it did.

Once I got home, after I took both shoes off, sure enough one shoe was soaked completely, but the other one was completely dry. This is a picture of the insoles from the shoes, and you can see the wet insole is a much darker color from the water

posted by willis at 12:57 AM

 
Today's group ride was fun. We call the route "Crazy Eight" because it does a figure eight loop around the Los Altos hills and has about 6 hills in it, including one really steep road where you absolutely must stand up off the saddle to keep moving. There were seven of us on the ride, a pretty good size pack, including an ex-regular rider, Nick, who had gotten laid off from the company last November. Nick is a very strong natural athlete, and is also very competitive. So whenever he rides with us, he is always challenging on the hills and pushing the pace. It's great to have him around because he brings a lot of energy with him and most of us rise to the challenge. He just signed up for the Tour de Cure so will be meeting with us weekly to train.
Today's ride started at a leisurely pace, as was agreed upon by all at the start that it would be easy. But after the biggest hill was conquered in the middle of the ride, things started to unravel, and Nick got into his ways of aggressive riding. On a long descent down, Nick had shot way ahead of us, and Dino, Kevin and I are about 200 meters back, just cruising. Dino mentions to me is that his intent is to challenge Nick on the last two hills and "take him out". (Dino and Nick are always going at it) Sounds like a good plan, but I said "Yeah well you're gonna have to catch up to him first" and Dino nodded in agreement. So I jumped ahead and yelled "PACELINE" as I shifted up two gears and started cranking. The cool part was they both actually knew what I had meant and dropped in right behind me in a single file line. After about 10 or 15 seconds of really hard pedaling I ease up on the pedals and drift to the right, and Kevin zooms past me on my left, followed by Dino in his wake. I only needed to spin up alittle bit to match their pace and fall in behind Dino's wake. After another 15 seconds, Kevin would drift to the side and Dino was in front, with me behind him, and the rotation kept going. It was a perfect execution of a paceline and we were maintaining at least 20mph in the headwind, with only one guy really pushing hard in front, and the other following in his draft. We caught up to NIck right at the start of the hillclimb where Dino was to challenge him. And so Dino started his charge up the hill, and I decided this interval would be at 100% effort, so I stuck right behind Dino as we both passed Nick midway up the hill. As soon as we were satisfied that we both smoked him I decided to shake Dino up even more by charging ahead of him with all I had left. I kept in a high gear and really went for it up the hill to the top. I knew he wouldn't stand to let me win this sprint since it was his idea in the first place, but what the heck. I could hear him counter and try to swing up alongside me, but I went all the way into my reserves and kept cranking hard to keep him behind me. It worked, and I was first to the top, but once I eased off the pedals to wait for everyone, I could feel the lactic acid burn in my legs. The lungs were still good though. I was breathing fairly easy, too. But I knew also that I should not sprint anymore today.
Afterwards, Nick said to both me and Dino "Thanks, you made me feel old" .So we got a kick out of that. The rest of the hills I took slow and easy, while NIck and Dino battled them out some more. And on the last 3 miles or so, the skies opened up started sprinkling on us. It was very chilly. When will I learn my lesson?? Check the weather, get some warmer clothes.
posted by willis at 3:09 AM

 
2nd Pledge Goal Reached!!
Thanks to all of your help, I have raised over $1700 and reached my second pledge goal, woo hoo! This makes me an official "Champion" fundraiser and my name will appear in the top fundraiser list for next year's Tour packet. So far I have done two rounds of emails. I have yet to start making phone calls, so perhaps it's possible to raise even more money. The response has been overwhelming, and I am grateful for your support, as well as happy to be involved with this benefit.
I have decided that my next benefit ride will be for Cancer Research of some sort. And although in the US, more people die from Diabetes each year than from Cancer, it seems like Cancer is still so mysterious and misunderstood.
posted by willis at 2:14 AM

 
Training Methods
I have done a 100 mile ride before (more than 10 years ago) and trained by just riding when I felt like it. The unstructured approach was probably good enough considering my age at the time and schedule. So this time around I'm a bit older and wiser, so I have been following an actual plan. I bought a low cost heart rate monitor and use that as way to measure my performance and effort level. I find it also keeps me somewhat focused during training, by giving me quantitative numbers on how my body is reacting to the stresses of exercise. As I train more and more I can associate how I actually feel to what my heart is doing and so it gives me a guage to work harder or eeasier to meet my goals.
Monday: Early evening RUN, 2-3 miles at 75% effort. This is mainly to recover from the weekend ride, but also to keep developing my aerobic capacity. THis light workout also gives me feedback on how I feel for the next day's ride, which will be more intense.
Tueday: Noontime group RIDE, 10-17 miles, 85-95% effort. Because we ride in a group we often challenge each other to the top of a hill, or sprint to the finish of the ride. The other people in the group don't know it, but I use this as a form of interval training, which is good for increasing my ability to delay lactic acid buildup in the muscles (the burning sensation) on hard efforts. So depending on how many sprints or hills the route might contain, I will start the attack or sprint at a time such that I will be at the 85-95% effort for several minutes. I do not go above 95% effort though. Then I slow back down to let my body recover for several minutes, and repeat the process a number of times. The group sees this as me being an aggressive rider with a big ego, trying to maintain dominance over the pack, but really I'm just doing my intervals. Sometimes I win the sprint because they let me go, and sometimes they challenge back and win because I ease off to stay in my zone and finish the interval.
Wednesday: Early evening RUN 2-3 miles at 65-70% effort. This is to recover from the previous day's sprints, and also to keep developing aerobic endurance.
Thursday: Noontime group RIDE, 10-17 miles, 95-100% effort. This is similar to the tuesday Interval training, except I go all the way to maximum effort, and for shorter durations per interval. In this setting, I will try to win the sprint to the top of the hill by maxing out all power and really pushing hard. This hopefully raises my maximum leg strength, kind of like weight training. Fortunately in our group, sprints rarely go unchallenged, so it's alot of fun too.
Friday: Rest
Saturday or Sunday: Long RIDE, Mileage increases each week working towards target date (May 4), so in six weeks, and starting at 25 miles, then each week increasing to 30,40,50,60,75 miles the week before the Tour de Cure. To build endurance, the effort is below 65%. This also is important to prepare the back, neck, shoulders and seat for the long hours in the same position. If I do incoporate hills in the ride, I make sure to not attack them and stay within 65% effort.
posted by willis at 1:13 AM

 

Bicycle Specifications
Frame: 2001 GT Bicycles ZR 2.0 (7000 series aluminum) Component Group: Shimano Dura Ace 7700 Transmission: 53/39 front, 12-25 back, 172.5 mm crank length Frame size: 56cm Computer: Shimano Flight Deck 6500 Saddle: Selle Italia Max Flite Gel	Fork: Reynolds Ouzo Pro (carbon fiber) Wheelset: Velomax Ascent Comp (clincher) Tires: Vittoria Rubino Pro 700x23c Pedals: Shimano Ultegra 6402 (Look compatible) Weight: 18 lbs

posted by willis at 11:25 PM

 
Training Ride : 40 Miles Mt. Hamilton Climb
Today's ride was something I've been meaning to do for a long time. I remember my family going on a day trip up to the top of Mt. Hamilton to visit the Lick Observatory. I must have been 8 or 9 years old, and I bought one of those rotating star charts from the gift shop. I never figured out how to use it and threw it around like a frisbee... but it was fun that way. I remember the drive up was stressfull. A narrow, winding road up the mountain and long lines of cars and we would pull over to let them pass. My sister may have gotten car sick on the way up. There was snow at the top and we piled as much of it on top of the car as we could, hoping it would survive the trip down so we could have snowball fights at home. Whose bright idea was that? Everyone in that parking lot was doing the same thing. Talk about the blind leading the blind. The snow stayed on the car for about ten minutes at best.
There were six of us this morning, Me, Kevin, Paige, Dave, Paul, and Brett. It was a bit chilly at the bottom but we all dressed well enough for THAT temperature. It was to be an 18 mile climb up to the Observatory, and then 18 miles back down. About halfway up, we all realized it was getting colder, the higher we got. (fancy that) I had wished I brought some extra plastic bags to stuff under my jersey for warmth, but luckily people had littered and I found a couple bags on the side of the road, so I stuffed em up my shirt. It helped tremendously, and I guess it's always good to pick up litter, right?
The climb was steady and not too steep, but always up, with only two descents along the way to give us a break. The first casualty was Paul, who had ridden 40 miles yesterday (ouch!) and although we encouraged him to keep trying, he had to turn back down early. Otherwise we all kept the same pace up the hill which was great, especially since Brett was on a mountain bike with front shock and knobby tires! (Not an optimal setup for hillclimbing, but he still did well) 6000 feet of climbing later, we reached the summit. Ah but it didn't come at mile 18 as I anticipated, but rather mile 20! So I kinda lost my motivation when my odometeer read 18 miles, yet the observatory was nowhere in sight, except for a windy road to climb. Dave was pushing the pace at the front and climbing like a billy goat, and I was really anxious to end this whole climbing business, so I kept up with him for awhile, until my legs were just fatigued from turning switchback after switchback and not seeing the summit. Although my muscles were not burning, I just had no more energy in the reserves. I think the term is "bonking out" My heart was racing. I looked at my heart rate monitor and it read 232 bpm. I laughed and told Dave I should be dead by now. Surely it was malfunctioning. But since the air was thin and I was obviously tired, I was more than willing to believe I was overworking myself and should just slowly crawl to the summit. I told Dave I was "done" and slowed way down, and he kept on charging to the top. We all eventually made it up, and just like I remember it, there was snow in the observatory parking lot. It was 37 degrees F and foggy. We took a break inside the observatory to warm up and eat a bit.
Although I did not bring my camera this time, so I cannot share any photos of the view, I bought a print from the gift shop, which was taken from the telescope, of the Amdromeda galaxy: It's a cool print, but the other reason I bought it was so I could stuff it in a bag and shove it under my jersey to keep warm on the descent down the mountain. When I told this to the cashier, it turns out she was a cyclist too and so she was really understanding and actually gave me a big plastic bag and extra newspapers and even cut up a cardboard box for me to make a combination photo protector/wind barrier. Actual device shown here: I suppose I could have also bought a Lick Observatory sweatshirt to wear instead, but this method seemed more like something I would do. We also found some plastic bags in the trash cans to wrap around our socks because all of our toes were numb from the climb. A group of tandem riders had just come up the summit and asked if the plastic bags in the shoes really worked. We only gave vague answers and wandered back to our bikes. Do not take advice from a guy with a cardboard box stuffed in his jersey! Any smart person would have brought the proper clothing with them for such a climb. Dave called me "sponge bob square shirt" or something like that.
On the way down, after about 100 yards of fast decent, everyone had come to a stop and it was obvious that nobody could stand the cold blast of wind for very long. My cardboard contraption was only marginally effective. Although it blocked the wind from my chest and stomach, it deflected and focused the wind right into my crotch and legs. And it did nothing for my hands, face and arms, all three things are critical for going downhill safely. once my arms got to a certain level of coldness shivering would set in, and I'd be wobbling all over the road, trying to negotiate tight turns in the switchbacks and avoid the oncoming cars. The road itself is also very uneven, so it was hard to keep the tires stuck to the road while cornering, as well as keeping the handlebars steady while shivering. We made several stops along the way down, to warm up, regroup, and complain about the coldness.
About halfway down, we got to really warm up again, because if you recall, there were two descents on the trip up, so now we had two ascents to do before any more downhill. It was nice to not have cold wind blasting us, but climbing ugh! I was exhausted and really hungry, so it was a blur to me if I enjoyed that part (probably not) The final half of the descent was the best though, because we were low enough altitude that the temperature was bearable and the sun was peeking out of the clouds. So we hit some good speeds, and made it back to the cars safely with smiles. Total riding time was 3:20. Overall time? who knows, daylight savings time really confused my schedule today.
Overall it was a fun ride and even though it was only 40 miles, the climbing made it feel like 50 miles of effort to me, which fits right into my training schedule for the Tour de Cure. Next weekend: 60 miles. My legs feel good and my lungs feel good, I just need to carry more food, eat more often, and carry more clothing if it's chilly and high elevation.
posted by willis at 12:35 AM

 
Training Ride : 40 Miles Tiburon Loop
I woke up at 7am on a Saturday to meet Dino up in the SF Marina. If you know me, you can understand how difficult getting up that early is for me. But it was worth it because the weather was perfect. Unfortunately, all my pictures are from the beginning and end of the ride. I have to learn to take the camera out more often. But it's kind of a compromise since it's quite a challenge to trying to ride at a brisk pace and take pictures. The loop itself had many rolling hills and a moderate climb at the end. I kept my effort below 70% and felt good. There were hundreds of road bikers on this route, but they all seemed to be going the opposite direction we were. Is there something we don't know??
Riding across the Golden Gate Bridge

View of San Francisco and Bay Bridge from Saulsalito

After the loop, riding back across the GG is crowded!

Dino in the "old" Incyte cycling club uniform

Dino is riding a Trek 5200, which is what Lance Armstrong rode to several Tour de France victories

Back at the Marina

I'm riding my new GT ZR 2.0 which I assembled myself

posted by willis at 2:31 AM

 
Fundraising Status
Well my original goal was to raise $500 for the American Diabetes Association. With all of your help, I have currently raised $1527.75 ! That far exceeded my original expectations and it is great knowing so many people are willing to give to a good cause, especially in this questionable economy. Thank you to all for your support. As a result, I have decided to raise my fundraising goal to $1700, which would make me an official "Champion for Diabetes" and entitles me to a few gifts, like the spiffy Tour de Cure jersey I'm wearing in the picture. The "Champion" jersey is actually a bit more flashy looking than the regular jersey. So I feel somewhat special.
As I start this second round of fundraising, you can check back on the official Tour de Cure sponsor page to see if I make this new goal, and you can once again see if the little red thermometer bubbles over! And also whose names end up on the scrolling marquee. Fundraising is fun! Feel free to tell your friends and pass this web link around. If you have already pledged via credit card through the web page, and would still like an official receipt for your charitable contribution, let me know and I will send you one. If you have notified me of a pledge, and would like to send a check in, please make it out to the American Diabetes Association and send me a note if you need my mailing address. If you would like to pay cash, "under the table", send me a table so we can do the transaction there.

posted by willis at 2:14 AM

 
New web page
Hello and welcome to my update page. Thanks to the folks at blogger.com I can somewhat-easily publish these web pages with updates on my progress.
posted by willis at 12:19 PM