Did You Ride Today?



Only did 13 miles today plus indoor HIIT sessions. Didn't ride / train the past week. I had to drive family around and then relatives from SoCal took a vacation here and had to drive them around too. They were miserable with the heat and humidity and that was expected!

I go racer boy on the decent pretty darn aero . Sure I keep them elbows in! No time to rest there.
The event not a race but I always compete against myself and try to meet the projected time I will complete course.
I'd realized short of the liquid IV in the watebottle and a honey stinger gel - did the 38 miles on empty stomach otherwise. No breakfast at all . And stated the liquid IV about 45 minutes in .

The coasting thing - It kills my cadence avg for purpose of garmin data - so I try to pedal and rarely coast downhill. Just not thru the tight turns I'm not going to go slow on decent , cant have others around me that I don't trust . So I just bomb it , very few want to hang in .They drop off quickly . If I have to emergency brake for a vulture on the road turkey , or large animal ( there was a large dog loose on the course that day ) that gives me a little emergency space of someone not being on top of me or on my wheel.
I keep aware who is coming up . Which was this one dude , I was grinding up this 15% grade and he just flashed past - double my ground speed. Just wow. What a badass.
Only other person to pass that AM was a slender young lady with a nice road bike , suspicious sound - she had a rear hub motor . She said " don't feel bad, bro -it's electric !" & " btw 2 miles to go". LOL

I am too foolishly proud to stop for actual rest , resulting in flopping like a fish on the asphalt on that last grade. People came out to see what I was doing on the ground - " I'm okay , just a wuss"
I called out.

No need to stop unless you have to do #1 or want to eat a proper meal. Just coast on the descents and easy pedal on the tailwinds. You can also stretch your muscles on these by sitting upright. They give you the equivalent of rest stop without actually stopping unless your saddle is so uncomfortable, you need to get off the bike as well.

Your core muscles is probably shot from not giving it rest. When the core muscles is tired, the legs stop recruiting your glutes and hamstrings on the downstroke and let the quads do most of the work. The quads get quite sore and fatigue sooner.

You get less bang for the buck putting in the effort in the descents because of the high amount of drag. Making descents one of the best opportunity to stop pedaling and give all your muscles rest and even stretch out as an option by sitting upright. Tailwinds give best opportunity to sit upright and stretch. Do these and you might reach the top or make it home sooner, better your previous times even if you're slower on the descents IF you have lots of climbing in your route! More importantly, avoiding pain if possible.
 
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Easy relaxing 20 ride trying out the new Bryton GPS 320 (about $100) works like a Garmin but less expensive. I like it. And new GPS mount and light mount $12. I'm a budget rider. AND the little black rubber cover for the GPS $10. Yes, I'm a California boy.
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This is from a few weeks back. My friends aren't too quick about posting pic. :D

As you can see, most my ride partners about 160 pounds and I'm always the big guy.
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Rode Saturday in Modoc county near the Lassen county line . Some car camping some rides and a couple 7K runs. Took the hybrid /citybike for the roads up there ( 38c semi slick tires), seems like every 100 feet is a big seem in the road.

Monday a brief training ride @ local wine club / trail system on the MTB. Some punchy climbs but very little vertical.

Cobbswheels has some decent advice. I prefer my way as far as
You get less bang for the buck putting in the effort in the descents because of the high amount of drag. Making descents one of the best opportunity to stop pedaling and give all your muscles rest and even stretch out as an option by sitting upright. Tailwinds give best opportunity to sit upright and stretch. Do these and you might reach the top or make it home sooner, better your previous times even if you're slower on the descents IF you have lots of climbing in your route! More importantly, avoiding pain if possible.
 
rode a short little training ride tonite before dark here by home. 3 cars passed me on the route , an out and back.
Just 6 miles out and 6 back on the the peninsula of the lake - about 1850 feet of vertical . Felt like 850ft because of the view. Was so warm and dry. Got a big climb Sat am in East bay , another 12 mile 3500 ft climb. Bike running real good.
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Solo 40 miles from Pico Rivera to the
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Azusa mountains playing around with the Bryton GPS. Nice day but windy. I barely survived. Amazing to me that the socks were 3 pair for $2.99 at Walmart about 2 years ago and they're still the
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best. Not t mention marked left and right so I don't get confused.
 
Nice ride and pics there Mr Beanz! . Does the new cycling computer compatible to load trail forks maps , and also does it give turn by turn? Haven't had a chance to learn that unit. Just the ones I sent back ( Garmin) Today still sore from Thursday night gravel ride , so today went out for a quick early road ride. Was warm. Some nice views and accent of steep little portion with ribbed roadway.

Just 1600 ft of vertical on this ride.
Only 3 cars and 2 dogs and their owner passed me on this out and back / loop very close to home.
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Nice ride and pics there Mr Beanz! . Does the new cycling computer compatible to load trail forks maps , and also does it give turn by turn? Haven't had a chance to learn that unit. Just the ones I sent back ( Garmin) Today still sore from Thursday night gravel ride , so today went out for a quick early road ride. Was warm. Some nice views and accent of steep little portion with ribbed roadway.

Just 1600 ft of vertical on this ride.
Only 3 cars and 2 dogs and their owner passed me on this out and back / loop very close to home.View attachment 6572View attachment 6573View attachment 6574


Nice pics!

I purchased the Bryton 320 as it's exactly like the 420 but without mapping because I'd never use it.

The 420 is about 30 bucks more but I went without mapping because I like basic simple.

I believe the 420 will download maps from strava and other sites. Then turn by turn via bread crumb mapping. That's what they call the simple line maps.

The 700 (?) Is a bit more expensive but nice looking maps.
 
Really nice pictures! Nothing as good to post. Here it's just crowded nightmare with rude and inconsiderate people on the road, badly damaged and dirty roads, and polluted skies. Makes riding relatively stressful. Might just ruin your appetites!:D I just do it purely for exercise and to keep my reflexes razor sharp. I badly needed the exercise for health reasons and cycling is the only tolerable exercise I can keep on doing.

I did 40 miles yesterday, after two weeks (?) of no cycling and 3 weeks of very little cycling and training altogether. I got sick from flu and then food poisoning from contaminated food. Home treatments only, no meds. Thought I'd die but surprised that I recovered. The first hour of ride didn't feel any different but after that, my legs started getting sore. I didn't mind the pain and still feeling nice and just kept on going trying to maintain pace. First time I became sore during a ride in a very long time. Wasn't the pain that cut my ride short but increasing volume of traffic from cars and peds as I took a ride in the afternoon. Still too sore to do full capacity indoor training today so I did only 50% capacity training. Same high intensity but shorter durations. My quads are most sore and still sore. Glutes and hamstrings recovered quickly. Core muscles didn't get sore at all.

I have actually re-purposed my cheap and super wide commuter saddle. I stopped using it due to issues affecting overall comfort and efficiency. I thought instead of just letting it gather dust unused, I decided to experiment on it. Tore off the fake leather cover and carved a new saddle shape from its thick foam. I simply took away parts of the foam that's giving excess pressure to the crotch, hamstring, and inner thighs with additional changes in shape to arrest all lateral/fore/aft movement to avoid chaffing and improve pedaling efficiency. A significant amount of foam and weight was taken off the saddle as a result. It tested it on yesterday's ride with board shorts, no pads, no cream to see how much comfort had improved or not. So far, all the issues have been resolved and I never knew what it truly meant to be comfortable in a ride until now. I even removed the seatpost suspension because I no longer found it useful and has become useless weight. So now my bike only weighs 32 lbs totally empty and 36 lbs loaded and it used to be 42 lbs loaded when I used to bring four bottles of water on rides.
 
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Glad you sound to be getting better cobbwheels.
But hard to believe not gr8 views in the P.I.

Wife raves about the views there but hasn't ever "been back" . But I can imagine the lousy roads. Many here hadn't been paved since the subs went in in the 60's . those I will only ride on my hybrid with 38's at 40PSI but not my road bike with 28's.

Saving the road bike for better surfaces.
 
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Glad you sound to be getting better cobbwheels.
But hard to believe not gr8 views in the P.I.

Wife raves about the views there but hasn't ever "been back" . But I can imagine the lousy roads. Many here hadn't been paved since the subs went in in the 60's . those I will only ride on my hybrid with 38's at 40PSI but not my road bike with 28's.

Saving the road bike for better surfaces.

I'd vouch for her opinion decades ago! :D Far fewer buildings, less smog, smoother roads, and most importantly, less traffic, and everyone is nicer too, including motorists. I did long rides in a road bike back then as a 12 yo kid. I didn't even wear helmet because the motorists are just nice. Unlike today, they're out to kill. Not because they're distracted by their phones, but respect for one another have left this country years ago.

I think some of the views are still great in places hundreds of miles from big urban areas. I simply don't have any idea because I've never made such ride. I could never get the opportunity so all I can be is the big city and the mountains around the city where there's still smog and heavy traffic. The best way for me to do it is take the bus/boat to somewhere far away and I'll probably need a folding bike for that. Just dreaming of it for now. No plans of actually doing it.

I feel better now thanks but still getting random headaches. Not bad enough to stop me from smoking the trainer though.
 
Did 20 miles today with 1,650' climbing in 105 F heat index with 62% humidity. To test my modified saddle in steep climbs. The saddle is too ugly to post a picture.:p But after slicing off some of the foam bit by bit after every short test ride until it felt right, It ended up looking like an old, worn down Brooks commuter saddle. It worked unexpectedly well in the climb and I even did my personal best on the route.

Came across many riders stopped at the side of the road in the shade. They seemed suffering from the heat. One of the perks of being marginally underweight as myself is able to keep cool with ease. I didn't even notice the heat. But I probably won't be underweight if I had more food to eat! Not having enough food to eat is probably more of a good thing for me as I have hypertension. So far, I'm able to keep my blood pressure normal without any medication simply by exercising and under-eating.
 
I've got idyllic conditions in compare cobbwheels ! . I do not envy those heat and humidity numbers!

Last night did a 17 mile out and back with a loop out on the scenic route. Was after 6:30 pm just 4-5 cars the whole ride. About 1600ft of vert but just mid 80's and low humidity. Just an hour and 14 minutes on the bike avg speed 13.5

Also I have fallen underweight again and agree it is very easy to stay cool . I was in full tights and long sleeves yesterday of course neck gator and skull cap. Some call me crazy , I'm just toasty .
But I tend to typically do very short rides avg 1 hour 30 minutes tops but with some vert.

lots of turns!
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I've got idyllic conditions in compare cobbwheels ! . I do not envy those heat and humidity numbers!

Last night did a 17 mile out and back with a loop out on the scenic route. Was after 6:30 pm just 4-5 cars the whole ride. About 1600ft of vert but just mid 80's and low humidity. Just an hour and 14 minutes on the bike avg speed 13.5

Also I have fallen underweight again and agree it is very easy to stay cool . I was in full tights and long sleeves yesterday of course neck gator and skull cap. Some call me crazy , I'm just toasty .
But I tend to typically do very short rides avg 1 hour 30 minutes tops but with some vert.

lots of turns! View attachment 6577

I don't usually notice the scorching heat unless I'm in a climb and there's a tailwind at the same speed as my climbing speed, resulting to 0 mph airflow!! No wind is fine. A little bit of headwind or crosswind on a hot climb is ok too. A very strong tailwind would be best.

Anything under 90F and dry I'll feel that as pretty cold. Not that I wouldn't like it. Colder is still better to me. My endurance / fatigue gets better the colder it gets probably because I breathe with less effort in the dense cold air but my average speed tends to be better in scorching temperatures which is probably due to the thinner air and less rolling friction.

I've ridden in <60F temperatures before up in the mountains during the very short cold season were I feel like I'm freezing and yet, I found it comfortable. So if I have a choice, I'd go for cold anytime! But I'm okay with scorching hot too. I'm ok up to 110F heat index in 80% humidity as long as I can feel some wind. I'd still be alive at even higher temperatures but I'd be uncomfortable and probably get a mild headache after the ride.
 
cold is 50 and below for me . The windchill of riding fast in the cold !
When its too cold I ditch the bike and become a runner! way less miserable than winter cycling IMO

Funny as I age ( almost 60 ) fewer can run fast . I prefer the 5 K cause I can typically place.
 
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