Did You Ride Today?

[CAMPYBOB]

Mattresses don't weigh all that much, but flying into one would totally screw up your ride. I don't think even Sagan could bunny hop a queen size.

84 degrees and sunny today with the wind at 7 to 9 MPH and the humidity through the roof. Rain moving in tomorrow morning and hanging around through at least Friday morning. Supposedly a nice weekend coming up!

23 miles of moderate climbing. About 1150' worth of vertical on a nice out & back. Almost all of that climbing is packed into the middle 15 miles of the course.

It's a fun workout that got my heart rate up to 180 BPM several times. Wheezing for air over the crests of a few of the climbs trying to get that humid air in.

Was on a record run going out and somehow lost two minutes going into the wind and never did make that all up on the run back to the car. Good workout though! And no one hurled a Serta at me!

 

[Uawadall]

A 6am ride, thought i'd break in the new set of Mavic Ksyrium's. First part of the ride is on the hillier side with a straight and steep downhill. I thought my last set of wheels were losing breaking power, but its just that downhill. I modulate the breaking, but the aero bike just wants to go fast downhill. The last few rides, i've noticed I can only slow myself down so much on this steep hill. The last 8 miles are so are on relatively flat terrain. I did a little sprinting at the end. 24.5 miles/1200 ft/18.2mph

 

[CAMPYBOB]

75 degrees and rain off and on all day. Fortunately, it dried off in time to get a short ride in this afternoon. The wind was a steady 14 to 15 MPH with gusts to 21 MPH so the drying was pretty good.

I headed out and not 5 minutes into the ride the drizzle started.

Oh well, let's ride!

The wind was stiff, but I kept the tempo up as the rain got a little harder...stopped entirely...drizzled some more...

Finished up with 12 miles in. Called it a day as the drizzle went to a steady state. More rain in the forecast for tomorrow and they are now calling Saturday a 90% chance of all day rain.

I was lucky to get this one in and only get a little moist! With the humidity up so high you probably would not have been less wet even if it had not drizzled!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

76 degrees, humid with moderate to heavy rain on and off all day. The wind was mainly 9 to 12 MPH, but gusts of up to 32 MPH when the storm fronts would move through.

I hit the trainer for 2 hours and 16 minutes worth of Zwift and 'climbed' the Alpe d'Huez. Yeah. That hurt.

Just under 4000' of virtual climbing. 39+ miles on the Garmin. Thank God I'm on that Kurt Kinetic Rock & Roll trainer! I stepped off with shaky legs, but my backside could have easily done another hour.

More rain tomorrow. Yay!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Rain all morning and into the early afternoon. The sun finally came out and between it and the steady 12 to 16 MPH breeze the roads dried.

The humidity was still up when I took off for a quick 20-mile loop. Legs were fried from yesterday's Zwift session, but they came around enough to do a fairly fast 725' of climbing and hammer into the wind a little.

The ride felt great and I would have loved to hang out for another 10 miles or so, but mowing called. The grass has NOT dried out much and the cutting was tough and slow going. I'll have to mow more tomorrow and more on Monday...damnit!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

83 degrees and sunny with a light 9 MPH breeze.

Just time for a quick 14-miles sprint after the chores were all wrapped up. A little more than 400' of vertical on a fairly fast course.

Speaking of things Italian...what do you think this little implement costs? I'm looking at one and am still in sticker shock after reviewing the quote.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

84 degrees and sunny with the humidity up there. Wind was again at 9 to 12 MPH.

Just time for a quick 26 miles with 1350' of climbing.

Kick ass workout! High tempo, high cadence climbing and pushed so stupid gears on the flats. For some reason I felt good just about everywhere on the course and the only problem was trying to get that heavy air into the lungs. Damn, was it humid!

A nice workout! Felt good.

 

[steve]

Nice and warm there mate!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Indeed. Unlike last Summer...which was cool and wet...this one has been nice and warm with a good bit of 'hot' thrown in with all the rain!

Matter of fact, it rained hard this morning. Maybe and inch to an inch and a half worth.

And at &:20 PM it's raining again, really hard, right now! LOL!

I did manage to squeeze in a quick 17-miler when the roads were mostly dry, but even then the humidity was way high and the wind was a stiff 15 MPH with gusts to 24 MPH just to make a little more fun.

Radar looked like I had an hour to play with. Maybe a little more if the approaching front tracked off more to the South.

I stayed close to the truck on a short loop and only got 350' of climbing in on that flat terrain. The sky really looked nasty the entire time I was rolling and off the the East you could hear the thunder roll and see the lightning. Weird...the sky where I was riding actually improved in appearance! The sun came out for the last 2 miles back to the truck.

Got out of the shower and the phone was going nuts with weather alerts, lightning strikes in the area, flash flood watches...the usual **** we've put up with this year.

Next year, I really need to to get to Tenerife or Majorca for Spring training. I like Zwift, but the new Innsbruck course just doesn't compare!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

And...it turned colder! Damn! Only 71 degrees for a high today and the wind was crazy again. 15 to 17 MPH steady...and higher...with gusts to 30 MPH.

The forecast said only a 15% chance of rain, but there were black clouds overhead and a few rain drops hitting the windshield as I buckled up the helmet and clipped in. After a couple miles the rain drops stopped altogether and in another 15 minutes the sun was out for the remainder of the workout.

24 miles of alternately fighting the wind and then soft pedaling at 25 MPH. Only 700' of light climbing which was a relief from cutting into that wind.

I must have been working hard to hit 192 BPM over some headwind rollers that really don't amount to much ordinarily. Another hard and fun session. Beats the Hell out of Zwift!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

80 degrees and sunny with the wind a light 7 to 10 MPH.

31 miles with 1450' of climbing on a beautiful afternoon! Just kept the tempo fast enough to get the HR up and hold it just below race for most of the session. 177 BPM max. so nothing huge even on the stiff climbs.

Need more distance work this year...the exact opposite of the last three Summers. I hope to get a longer ride in over the weekend.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

80 degrees again and the sun was shining! The wind was also out to play at 14 to 16 MPH.

32 miles with 1150' of climbing. This route is normally quiet...low traffic. This afternoon it was as busy as I've seen it. Playing dodge cars one after another.

Still, a nice ride and after the three or four miles it took my legs to ignite it actually felt fairly fast. Again, the wind helped and it hurt. Plenty of staying low on the drops and going from spinning to grinding as the wind picked up or abated.

A nice workout with one really good hard 90-second blast put in that cleaned out the fouled plugs.

 

[Uawadall]

62 mile metric last Sunday, my only Metric of the year so far. I haven't been doing too many long rides. 17.6 mph/3300 ft. I typically like to avoid the big crowds at these events and rode with 1 friend. Felt good for the first 50 and held a 18mph pace with very little stopping at rest stops. The last 12 miles is where my endurance started to leave me.

About an hour after the ride, I hit a piece of Iron that connects to a drain on the side of a curb while driving and ended up getting 2 flat tires on the passenger side of my car. Had to replace all 4 and a rim to the tune of 811 dollars...... There went my power meter fund..

Stayed with a family member the rest of the day and rode 38 miles home. Commuted to work every day this week (not bad, 6.5 miles each way) and will hopefully get my car back today.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Good job on the metric, U! I did one today and had to fight a nasty headwind the last 30 miles. Fortunately, my conditioning carried me home and I was even able to keep the gearing up whenever the major gusts subsided or I got turned partially out of the damned wind.

Sucks to hear about your car! I wrecked a tire about a month ago on our craptastic roads, myself. That was bad enough just replacing a single tire!

80 degrees and overcast. The wind was kind of tough at 9 to 18 MPH and most of the day it was moving closer to the 18 MPH end of things.

64 miles with just over 2020' of climbing. Roared North with a nice tail wind and the turn East felt good. Then the pain started. The 30 miles headed South required staying low and keeping the power coming through the gusts. Running big gears was tough. I'ld just get rolling through on a down grade and either the wind would flatten me, the grade would pitch up or both. Even the short cross wind legs required concentration to gearing and power.

2 miles from finishing I felt rain drops hitting me. Of course. This Summer...it had to rain a little on a day the forecast said ZERO PERCENT chance of rain! Got back to the car and tossed the bike in the back seat as the rain picked up a little. 5 minutes later...it stopped.

A fun ride despite the wind and rain at the end of the ride.

Rain moving in tonight...are we surprised?...No!...and hanging around until about noon tomorrow.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

77 degrees this morning and humid after over night rain. The roads were still wet so I hit the trainer for 1 Hr. and 25 Min. on Zwift's Watopia and the Road To Ruins course plus a lap of the Volcano Flat circuit.

The legs were a little flat from yesterday's drive into the headwind, but they came around quickly. By the time the ramp out of the underwater tube came I was flying. Steady up the climb into the Jungle and then had a fast climb back out and flew downhill back onto Watopia.

With the wind going 8 to 9 MPH the roads dried and I headed outside. The temperature had climbed to 87 degrees and the humidity was really high.

Unfortunately, it looked like it could rain at any minute as dark clouds rolled through and the phone kept getting rain in the area alerts.

It kept getting nicer as the sun peaked out to drive the heat index up a little more. Sweating was fun though and it felt better that the 6 fans and a towel I had going for me in the basement this morning!

Romped for a alternately fast and then steady paced effort for 24 miles. Legs trashed, I headed for the truck. 650' of light climbing.

Everything was soaked with sweat. Shorts, jersey, helmet, gloves, socks, heart rate strap...all of it got a good cleaning. And that cool shower sure felt good!

 

[cyclintom]

I did a 45 mile nice easy ride yesterday. There was some 2,000 feet of climbing but it was either short if it was steep and shallow if it was long. I was riding with a friend who has been working really hard for the last two years and hardly ridden. Now that he has his business going smoothly he is trying to get in some riding when the markets are closed.

We ended up in Sunol which is at the top end of Niles Canyon. There was a place there across the street from the train station called The Bistro if memory serves. That place had the greatest breakfast sandwiches I've ever had. And they are bicycle friendly to the point where they have a pump and a water station available. Though it was early while we were there probably more than 20 riders went through there and many more were arriving as we left. I paid about $11 which in California is dirt cheap.

Riding back we took a short-cut that knocked about 3 miles off the normal route. Doing the 600 foot 5% climb wasn't made easy by a 20 mph headwind but it was certainly easier because I had no need to go fast. And yet I was going 2 mph faster than normal without working. That's probably because I was doing 5 mph slower than normal on the other parts.

I'm sort of in training for the Tour de Fuzz in Santa Rosa in another week and a half and I'm feeling better every day from riding my own pace and not being pushed by the rockets.

In the meantime I'm hoping that all of the parts show up for my new bike so that I can ride it there as a break-in ride. My friend started complaining about his shifting and I was telling him that Shimano stuff almost always shifts better than Campy. He said prove it so I rode behind him until I saw how it was skipping gears - then I took 2/5ths of a turn in the adjuster and he had perfect shifting the rest of the day. But he has some of those cheap steel cables instead of stainless and they really do need to be replaced.

Coming back we took a detour that was supposed to be easier but a grass fire had just started and above the grass is mesquite. If that fire got to the mesquite it would be hard to put out. Luckily I think that the five engine crews got it out because I didn't see anything about it on news this morning. High winds, steep hills, no roads and fire do not mix. So it's a good think they arrived in time. We got the hell out of there. If you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem.

When I got home it was 45 miles, 2100 feet of climbing and less than one mph slower average than normal. And no exhaustion at all.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Yesterday's ride for 08/27/2018. For some reason or other the thing would not submit.

91 degrees today with the humidity around 67%. Wind was 14 MPH and the sky was hazy with humidity, but sunny! I'll take it!

21 miles with just over 1200' of climbing. Lots of sweating while going up, not so bad blasting down.

Hit 48 MPH on a three tun descent that's fun to honk down and tossing the bike around.

Oddly enough the roads were not melting! It's supposed to be 90+ again tomorrow and more sunshine. My guess is I'll hit some tar bubbles for sure.

Hardly any traffic out. Must be too hot to do much of anything.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

91 degrees, a little humidity and sunshine today! The wind was a steady 17-18 MPH with gusts to 29 MPH. Yeah, very Belgian-like wind!

Perfect! Let's ride!

34 miles with just over 1000' of climbing, so only gently rolling with a couple of short, stiff little climbs to tackle. I hit the last climb in the big ring and sailed over the top. Power numbers looked good. I must have been working well into the wind this afternoon.

A very good workout and a nice ride.

 

[cyclintom]

Did a harder ride today. Though it was only 37 miles if had over 3400 feet of climbing of probably 6%+ up to 10% over short lengths. I wish I could get a better altimeter/speedo. I have three of them and on the same course they all have slightly different distances and climbing.

I wonder if anyone knows an app in which you could load a century course and it would tell you where to turn? Without my glasses I can't read a course sheet and have to depend on following riders. For the next couple of centuries though the riders are going to be really FAST and the routes rather complicated.

Anyway, I waited 15 minutes past when I expected everyone to show up and no one did so I guessed that they had decided to go elsewhere so left. I got all the way to Moraga and got coffee and a roll, sat down and the whole group showed up. They were delayed at the main starting area and were late starting.

Each time I'm doing this route I find myself riding it faster and faster. This must be my late season surge. The final climb of the day in which I'm so tired I only look down at the front wheel and hope no one is parked in the bike lane, I rode up a gear higher than normal and without excessive fatigue. Going through the stop lights I was catching the end of them and sprinting up to 25 mph. Usually in the last two blocks from my home I am riding at 10 mph and that was no different. But I had some leftover pasta that I immediately ate and didn't have any sore muscles today.

I used to weight in at 210 lbs which I thought of as normal for 6'4" but after I recovered from the concussion my doctor said to keep my weight to 180-185. The one difference I notice is that the size of my quads are not nearly so defined. But I can still pedal circles. Upon looking the book weight up I discovered that even heavy builds aren't supposed to go over 190 lbs for my height. This must have changed while I was out of it.

My left eye is not clear. While with glasses I can get along without them I can't read the speedo very well. I had an eye exam the other day and I confronted the doctor since when operating to replace that darkening lens he started cutting before the anesthesiologist gave me any pain killer. I jumped though I tried not to move my head. But it turns out that that had nothing at all to do with the eye problem. When I received the concussion I hit the ground hard enough on the left side of my head that the eyeball slightly tore away from the optic nerve. It grew back but left a very small scar which is causing the problem. He said that he could operate to try to correct it but that it might make it worse. The thought of having my eye operated on again without any real hope for improvement is something I don't care to do.

You see what you guys are going to have to face as you age? And I am exceptionally healthy and mobile from riding so much.

Ride on.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

90 degrees again today with hot sun from morning until mid-afternoon. The wind was up all day and was 14 to 20 MPH steady when I threw a leg over with strong gusts up to 31 MPH.

Did I mention the humidity was nuts with expected rain moving in? Yeah, sweat while standing still.

The sky had turned from sunny with white cumulus clouds to..uh...is there tornadoes in the forecast? dark blue / black. Really nasty looking.

I decided to stay close to the truck...good move. With 8 miles in the first drops hit me and within 30 seconds I was in a wall of water. Fortunately, I was tossing the bike in the rear seat and dove into the front seat, both of us mostly still dry.

Hit the A/C and waited 5 minutes just for the rain to slack off a bit. Couldn't see **** with the wipers on High.

And...I earned the '5 Mile' Garmin badge. Yay!...I think.

In that short sprint my helmet, HR strap, gloves...all of the gear was soaked through with sweat! LOL! Not hardly worth going outside! I should have headed to the basement and done 1-1/2 hour on Zwift!