My cycling journal
From the monthly archives:
Ok, I’m a spreadsheet guy. I admit it. And according to my cycling spreadsheet, I’ve ridden my bike 3,097 miles this year. I’ve basically ridden my bike from San Diego to Boston. Wow.
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Here’s another one for you - so far this year, I’ve only driven my car 1,566 miles. So, I’ve [...]
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Their sinister pact was hatched a long time before I came zooming down the SR-56 bike path. It was a beautiful, clear day and I was riding right into their ambush at 22.7mph. After my century ride Tuesday, I was just out for a few recovery miles to the coast and back. But who can [...]
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I have a hard time making it to Julian. I’ve been turned around by weather, I’ve mega-bonked on the way home and been just plain-old, “I don’t have the legs and wont try”. In fact, the only time I’ve had a really enjoyable time getting to Julian and back was on a midweek ride with [...]
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Which is better - crossing a cattle guard at 8mph while climbing or at 39.7mph on the descent?
I think it’s best at slow speeds. My bike gets all hobbly-wobbly, the tires feel only half-inflated and I worry about falling over and disappearing into the grate who’s bars now seems to be more than 2 feet [...]
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I told Dave on the drive out, “If I don’t have good legs today, I just don’t have good legs.”
After spending the week in recovery mode (which makes me crazy), I was very much looking forward to testing myself on Palomar Mountain this morning. We choose a short course that allows us to maximize our [...]
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Plans are firming up for my visit to the Tour de France. Here’s the details:
Day 1 - Fly
Fly to Paris, get in a nice 40km ride to shake the legs out and help with the jet lag. I hear our hotel is very close to the Eiffel Tower.
Day 2 - Alpe d’Huez
Take the TGV (world’s [...]
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It’s really just common sense. You apply stress to your body (training) and then allow your body to heal in a way that it can handle the stress better next time (recovery).
My problem is that I love to train hard and to train often. It’s just fun. So I find myself (like last weekend) where [...]
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It was sometime in the ’80s, one of those really bright, clear SoCal days and my Dad and I were at the Schwinn store in downtown Orange. He was helping me get my first road bike, a Miyata Six-Ten, very similar to this one.
Note the panniers - this was a sturdy touring bike, designed [...]
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Coming off the tremendous high from last week’s Monster Climbs adventure, I was ready for long, hard rides this week. Unfortunately, my legs are not. I’m surprised at how long it’s taking for me to recover my A-game after the grueling punishment of last weekend.
I went out Monday for 20 miles of high-RPM / low-HR [...]
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Impossible. It’s just not possible to ride my bike 140 miles over 4 of the top 10 climbs in the US for a total of 23,000 feet of elevation gain in just three days. That’s over 4 MILES of vertical gain! Impossible.
Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men [...]
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