Stupid Government

Merry Chrismahaunakwanzaa everyone! I hope this post holiday dispatch finds you comfortably situated after your respective holiday celebrations. Remember, the new year is fast approaching which means a whole new year for our awesome government to say lots of things and do very little.

Those of you who know me best know that I can be a bit opinionated when it comes to my feelings on various American issues; and that I often feel a bit, how should we say... dissatisfied(?) with the performance of our elected leaders. A recent "adjustment" in the nations Energy bill shows just how committed our politicians are to the environment, energy independence and of course the paramount issue of this blog, cyclists rights.

--The Senate recently stripped the bicycle commuter tax benefit from the Energy bill, while reinstating the Hummer tax benefit, which the House had removed from the energy bill.-- Click here for details

I don't know about you, but giving a 100% tax break to Ad men, "consultants", lawyers and doctors for "work vehicles over 6,000 lbs" doesn't scream "We need to break our dependence on oil". One would think that if our elected officials were truly committed to the environment, sustainable technology and energy independence they would all be jumping to vote for ANYTHING that would get our lazy asses out of our cars and onto something that has zero carbon emissions and other beneficial side effects such as, I don't know, good health? Not so much it seems, I guess big oil does still make the world (or at least America) turn.

Quite frankly I'm disgusted. I would hope that anyone who is able to read at a 5th grade level would be disgusted too. If you're as disgusted as me, and you have a little time between games of free-cell then write your senator. Don't know who your senator is? That's ok, I've included a link that lists the Senators by State in Alphabetical order (starting with Arkansas). Click here to find Senators by State

I think what our senators are really trying to say here is "We don't really care about energy independence and the environment since we can afford gas, heat and AC in our own homes thanks the the billions in handouts we get from Exxon and Halliburton, but we'll continue to give it plenty of lip service until Hollywood and the media determine that it's not a hot issue any more". I don't even want to surmise what their feelings are about cyclists rights, although I'll hazard a guess that it's probably on the bottom rung of things to discuss, if its even made it onto the ladder. Read more!

12-22-2007 Secret Slopes Ride

The first rule of the SSR is you don't talk about the SSR. The second rule of the SSR is you don't talk about the SSR. The third rule of the SSR is if it's your first time at the SSR, you have to ride it. I've begun to take a very "Locals only" attitude towards some of the routes I know as I don't want these already rough roads being heavily treaded on by people who don't appreciate such natural beauty. One of those rides I'm very protective of is what I call the Secret Slopes ride. It's a ride that is easily accessible, yet very lightly traveled. I think that many people know it's there, but few ascend it's rocky, unmaintained roads. This is fine with me. The fewer people on my routes the better. I won't provide route maps of this route, as my attitude is now "I'll tell you about it if you already know about it". However, here are some pictures from Saturdays Secret Slopes Ride.

One of the many winding ascents... they become descents later!

The Bend of Destiny

Through the hills

It's a magical place, populated by many giant Bonzai Trees.

Read more!

Wow.

I moved away from Lawrence Ks when I was 21 years of age. A lot of my friends are still there. A lot of them are in this video, which is funny.

Now I remember why I left Lawrence.

Enjoy

Read more!

One Down 15 To Go

And boy was it a tough one. Not because 100 miles is something that's hard, or that 6,000 feet of climbing is hard either, but the two put together at an average speed of 18 miles an hour is. Add in not eating right the night before, or the morning of and you have a bonkalicious recipe for leg burnin' disaster. Yes, I was poorly prepared. But I finished in under 6hrs and 30 minutes total time on the road so I'm happy. Total ride time was 5hrs. 45 mins. as I took some pretty subtantial breaks here and there. If you had seen me going up Encinal you wouldn't have known me. I was like a ghost, a sissy ghost, a wiped out loser sissy ghost who was crying for his mama. It was pathetic. Here are some lessons I learned on Friday, some I already knew but ignored... A mistake I won't make again.

1) Don't spend the first 20 miles off the front pulling at 23-25 miles an hour through Agoura hills

2) After spending the first 20 miles off the front, don't continue to take 3-5 minute Pulls on the pace line through Camarillo.

3) Don't "Pick up the Slack" for the Jack holes taking 30 second pulls, saving themselves for the climb, because you feel obligated to since the guy who did RAAM is doing it.

4) Don't eat only Clif blocks and Rice Krispy treats.

5) Don't have 4 vodka cranberries the night before a ride.

6) Don't feel like you have to be in the lead group.

7) The noodle content in a bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup is not enough to constitute "Carbing up"

8) 7-11 muffin's are not a substantial breakfast

9) Do not drink a Monster energy drink 5 minutes before you roll out.

I will say this, John and Kevin were awesome. Kevin was on a 4 man RAAM team and is a freakin' monster. John stayed back and rode with me as I dragged my pathetic ass up and over Encinal and Mulholland. There were times on Encinal where I wanted to throw in the towel, thanks to John I didn't.

All in all it was an awesome ride! Thanks Planet Ultra.

Read more!

2008 + Route Profiles = Awesomeness!

Now that I've figured out how to add pictures the way I want (yea, I'm an idiot, I've been on blogger for how long now?) Here is a sampling of the routes for next year. This isn't all the rides, just some. The Planet Ultra Rides aren't up yet, I'll add those soon. And to start the season, I'll be getting ahead in 2007.

Planet Ultra Christmas Century, Dec. 15th 2007

Stage Coach Century, January 12th

Solvang, March 8th Breathless Agony, May 3rd 2008 Ojai Valley Century, May 31stThe Death Ride, July 12thLighthouse Century, August or September... Spooktacular Century, October something

Read more!

Pictures!

I've been wanting to put pictures on this thing for I don't know how long. So here are a couple. This is Griffith park, one is of the view, the other is of the fire damage from May.



These are from a ride I did on December first. They were taken by David Root, a Cat 1/2 racer from Portland who was in town visiting his sister. Thanks David!

Read more!

End of the Year is Drawing Near

2007 is drawing to a close. 2008 is rapidly approaching and things have begun to line out pretty nicely. Depsite not being anywhere near the fitness level I had planned to be I still feel pretty good about my plans for 08. I don't think the major events are out of reach as I still have 4-5 months worth of solid training time to prepare for the big climb rides. Now what I really need to do is focus through the holidays and make sure my peak fitness hits at the end of April/beginning of May. I'm feeling pretty good about how things have progressed in general, and despite there being a number of distractions over the past month (work is busy, trying to move the office, new technology...) I still am feeling extremely focused on my goals. I can't wait for the 12th. Despite the Stagecoach century being one of my easier centuries it really represents the starting line. All of 2008 feels like a race to me, with Stagecoach being the first stage. I'm trying to decide what I'm going to do to represent all of the events together. I thought about writing the name of all 15 events on each race bib, and then crossing them out as I go. I also thought about putting little "100" stickers on my bike. I don't know. I can't decide. All I know is I'm ready, and not ready. I'm ready to get this shit started. Lets go!

A couple of side notes:

I finally bought a Garmin, it's awesome. greatest thing ever. I've been logging miles in it, however I forgot to turn it on the last ride I did, and then the next day's ride was a bomb with 3 flats in 30 minutes. I threw in the towel.

The Jersey's have been ordered and the proof has been approved. The proof for the bib shorts was wrong but since I'm the only one ordering the bib shorts no one else should care.

Do not offer me a beer if you see me out. I'm trying to limit my consumption of alcohol to cut body fat in preparation for this effort, and being a good Buddhist I cannot say no to hospitality... so please, do not offer me beer. (you can however offer me Mexican food or Sushi).

Some of you have ordered Jerseys sight unseen. I cannot thank you enough.

so Thank you thank you lots.

Read more!

Purpose, Framework, Whatever You Want to Call It.

There is a lot going on right now. Things are really shaping up for next year quite nicely. I've registered for my first 3 rides (the only 3 with registration that's open at this point). I'm beginning to get really excited. After the rides with Jerry and during the week of the fire I decided to give myself a little couch time. It was great. I needed a little rest. I let my mind spread out a bit and let my legs soften up some. I made some decisions about my training and figured some new strategies out that I think will make a difference for the really tough rides. The biggest adjustment though is the framework for this grand effort next year. I made a decision to do this thing over the next year as proof to myself that I could. That was it. However after reading all the e-mails that have been going back and forth at PAA, and the articles in VeloNews about bike/car incidents I decided I needed to give this effort a greater direction. I decided that all of this, these 15 rides, would be a memorial to those who can't ride. This would be a dedication to those who are no longer with us, not because of disease but because of the carelessness of others on the road. When I was 18 I was hit by a car, hard. I was lucky. I lived. Not 2 years later a guy was riding down the street a couple blocks from my house when he was run down by a cement truck. He died. People are killed on their bikes all too often. It's time that we as riders come together as a community and stand up and say "Hey, we're here too. See us, respect us, give us the space we deserve." On each of these rides I'll be wearing the same jersey, I've included a picture of it below. If you see me, say hi. The jersey is my dedication to those who aren't with us anymore. And it's a reminder to all the drivers on the road, Please, share Read more!

That was fun.

Today's ride was another Jerry Sanders special. It was freakin' awesome. We started at the Vons parking lot off of Mulholland in Agoura Hills. We rode north to Burbank and then over to Topanga via some side streets. We hit our first climb, Santa Susana after setting a fair pace up Topanga. My legs felt great and was leading the group for the first half of the climb. At the halfway point though the group split, with Jerry, Terry, Chris and one other rider going off the front. It was fine, I was trying to pace myself early so I could compete on some of the later climbs. We made our way down Los Angeles Ave, and when we got out to some of the rollers we I decided to initiate a break. I set a goal, and got to it. I was able to stay away from the group for the first roller, and that's what I wanted to do. the climb on Moorpark was great too, I was able to stay on Terry's wheel, and then I was able to stay within a few seconds of him and Jerry on the Potrero Canyon climb as well. I wanted to stay with those two for at least a couple climbs and that's what I wanted. On the last climb I was left behind, and then on 7 minute I just took it easy. All and all the ride was fucking sweet. It kicked my ass, totally kicked my ass. I don't care though, I think I'll go do it again soon.

My training isn't going exactly as planned, but I'm not to worried, not yet at least. I'm getting in good mileage and I'm getting in good amounts of climbing as well. I'm also getting a good workout by riding with the guys from the club. Most of these guys are a lot faster than me, and it really forces me to push it up and put myself beyond my comfort level. This coming weekend I'm going to try to get my mileage back up above 90, while adding some serious elevation. I think I'll try that Angeles Crest/Little Tujunga/Sand Canyon route I made up a while back. That should be good about now. Read more!

(Poorly) Paved Metaphor

I rode some this weekend. It was fun. I rode with other people. That made it more fun. It's nice to be on a ride and not have to talk to yourself to have a conversation. Being on a ride with other people also tends to make the ride more enjoyable, especially if it's a group of people who do what you want them to do. In this case I wanted this group to ride faster and harder than I normally do, so I would be put out of my normal pace and forced to work. That's what they did. it was great. The route was pretty awesome too. Although I could have done without some of the long false flats on the route I understand what Jerry was trying to do with it. The climbs were pretty awesome as well. There was a nice climb up Davenport north of Santa Clarita, and then there was Sand Canyon and Little Tujunga. I've done both of those climbs before, but not in a long time. It was great to reacquaint myself with some old friends. The best thing about the ride was getting to see how I stood up against some of the other guys from the club, despite not finishing the ride (I assisted our SAG vehicle in finding Brad, who had a bit of a technical problem on Little T)I still felt great and felt even better after the ride. the coolest was that all of us were PAA riders and it was cool to see 8 guys out in the kit rolling down the road. I think I'm going to have to go do a modified version of Jerry's route soon, maybe this weekend.

Sunday was supposed to be a mid distance work out that turned into a recovery ride, that turned into a short climbing, mid intensity ride that turned into a bit of a "Deep Thoughts with Jack Handy" moment. I decided to do the secret ride as I had slept in, ate a big, fat, late breakfast, and had to go to a birthday party at 2p.m. I rolled out at noon and headed for Griffith Park. On the secret ride there is a spot where I like to stop and look down on Burbank. So I stopped. After watching a funeral for a minute I realized that this place in the road, and specifically in this ride, is a lot like my life. The first part is flat and easy, with a few rolling hills here and there. the second part is all up hill, with sections of varying difficulty, but nothing I couldn't overcome as I've made it to this point. Turning to look up the road you see that it bends around a sharp switchback, pitching up steeply, and then disappears behind the trees. It looks very difficult, but I've done it before, and I know with no doubt I could do it again. This place in the road became an incredibly powerful metaphor.

I've done this ride many times and have always cursed this last switchback. Yesterday, though, I smiled and laughed as I passed it on my way to the top the hill. Much like this ride I see the next switchback in the climb that is my life as the toughest. I've seen a lot, but nothing like what I have planned for the next decade. As I look ahead in my life, much as I looked ahead on this climb, I realize that the greatest difficulties are yet to come over the next 10 years, but with them will come the greatest rewards. The top of the hill isn't far, and anyone who has done this ride knows not only how great the view is at the top, but how awesome the descent can be! Read more!

Lazy September

Now that it's October I can start writing (and riding) again. for some reason, September turned into Lazy September; similar to Lazy Sunday, only for a whole month. I did go out and ride some, most notably on that day we got a bunch of rain. I did some other mid week training rides, but that's it. Total for the month was just barely over 200 miles. Below is the map of the rainy day ride. It was awesome. Awesome and wet. The only thing that sucked was my shoes turning into reservoirs. I love my shoes, but they have minimal ventilation. Because of that, they hold water like a cactus.


October started on the right foot though. I went out last night and did almost 30 miles and a little bit of climbing. Hill repeats in Griffith Park are always fun. I like it. It never ceases to amaze me how the entrance to the park above the freeway is always ten degrees cooler than the surrounding area. I don't know why, and I had never noticed it before until my friend Paul pointed it out to me. Last night it was a little chilly, and I got a bit of a bronchial cough towards the end but that's alright.
Read more!

My failed attempt at Hwy 39

This weekend was to be Epic. It wasn't. Christian and I had planned a ride that would take us from the Rose Bowl to highway 39, and then up the road until it intersected with Hwy 2. It's an epic climb with great views and a pretty steep average grade. The first part of the climb lulls you into a false sense of security with it's moderate grade and rolling down hills. But once you get past the Arrow Highway Bridge, it's all uphill.

We started the ride at 8:30. We rolled out and set a moderate pace through the 5 towns we would pass through on the way to our destination. I flatted within the first mile, changed it, and was back on the road. The ride was fairly uneventful until we got to the climb. We hit the canyon and set a moderate pace up the hill. It was beautiful. The weather was perfect, not to hot, and there was partial cloud cover most of the way up. We got past the Bridge, refilled our water and were on our way up the main part of the climb. I was feeling pretty good, I set a constant pace with a cadence in the upper 60's in my 23. Christian and I were matched pretty evenly as we crossed the first of the two bridges in the park. We pulled over to take a breather and eat real quick and as we started again I realized I was going flat again. At this point we had exhausted all our spare tubes, and we weren't going to risk being caught out in an area with no cell reception, few to no cyclists, and limited supplies. So we turned around.

By the time we got back to the park we were both glad the ride was over, however as time passed I could feel that I was extremely disappointed. I had dreams about the ride, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I woke up. I've been to the top before and its a pretty amazing experience. The whole climb is about 30-35 miles, and knowing that you rode your bike, uphill, for that long is pretty rewarding. I guess I'll just have to go up and try again next weekend.

Here's the map of the failed attempt.
Read more!

Training Kick Off

Over the past few months I've steadily been upping the mileage and difficulty of my rides to prepare for 2008. This last weekend however was my official training kick off and man it was great. I had chosen the Coolbreeze Century (albeit the metric) as my training kick off a few months ago because it's a ride I love and it fell at about the right time (about 4 months off from the first official century of 2008). I'd toyed with the idea off and on about doing the full 100 but hadn't upped my ride mileage to get ready for it. I'd done the full 100 before, so I knew I could, but I wasn't sure as to my fitness level and if I would be able to handle it now. The day before the ride I caught the 100 mile bug really bad. Although I didn't come out and say that I was definitely doing the full 100 I had made my decision. I re-arranged some travel plans and began preparing mentally and organizationally.

I hooked up with Sebastian at 4:30 a.m. to drive up for the ride. We talked about the ride, what we expected and the weather. We parked got registered and got ready. We rolled out at 7 a.m. with his team (TNT) and much to my chagrin Andy Popinski. We made our charge out of Ventura and down Emma Wood. we paced up the freeway and then I pulled away until the exit so I could eat and drink since we weren't stopping at the first sag stop. We ascended the first climb with ease and I rode away thinking they would catch me on the descent due to my relaxed pace. I ascended another climb, caught a different group of TNT'ers and watched a girl crash hard on the tarmac. I hung with her and her group to make sure she was alright while at the same time waiting for my group.

It turns out my group had stopped for a while so they took a bit, but once we were going again we were really going. we were setting a tempo around 20 mph and were well on our way to sag 2. we hit Ortega Ridge, the 2nd climb of the day and the group splintered. I made it to the sag stop followed shortly by the rest of the group. We exited the rest stop and began the penultemate climb of the ride. This is what makes this ride worth it for me. I remember blazing through these roads in 2005 and how much I loved it so I was chomping at the bit as we left the rest stop. Andy and I played a little cat and mouse up the first few parts of the climb and then after a quick regroup we hit the rollers above Santa Barbara. these are fast, lightly traveled winding roads. I went and went, guided by a local around various hairpin turns until we came the major descent. By this time I had lost the group, and decided to just continue ahead to the lunch stop using other riders as my guide. This WAS the part of the ride where I got lost in 05, so I was careful through here this time. I made it to the lunch stop without incident. for anyone who hasn't been there Stowe Park is beautiful. I waited for the group, then got a light lunch and refueled.

We rolled out together after lunch and took an easy pace to rewarm the legs. we kept this pace through Hope Ranch and much of Santa Barbara. Towards the end of the road in Santa Barbara the faster members of the group were let go, so we set a pace between 20-22 mph and paced our way to rest stop 4 (which was the same as sag 2) We made quick work of sag 4 and rolled out. I forgot to eat, so I cracked a bag of blocks and chowed down before we hit Ortega hill. I had issued a challenge with an associated bet. We'd pace up to Ortega, and it would be "may the best man win". We hit Ortega and to my surprise the organizers had changed the route to not include it, but instead to use the flat bike path that bypasses the hill! what a bummer! I was the only one to go over the hill, and received shouts of encouragement and laughter from the group of guys who were behind me in the "Breathless Agony" Jerseys as we both exited our paths onto the flat stretch of Ortega road. The shouts spurred me on and I went full sprint to hot dog those guys a little bit, forcing a chase over the freeway and onto the last stretch of road before sag 5. We took it easy to sag 5 to conserve energy for the very fun, very fast last 12 miles of the ride. I passed on the celebratory Popsicle at sag 5, opting instead for the watered down lemonade and a quick conversation with the Breathless Agony guys. Now it was time for the Freeway.

Our plan for the 101 was to set a pace of 27 mph and to paceline the whole way. Easy enough right? Wrong. By the time we got to our exit Gavin and I had rode everyone else off our wheel. We regrouped on Emma Wood Dr. and proceeded to act like jack asses the rest of the way into Ventura. We crossed the line together, our group of 5 plus Hank, the guy in the ONCE jersey. All in all it was an awesome ride.

I will edit this post as I receive pictures.



I knew after this I would need a recovery ride, and Jerry had mentioned he was going to do the Love ride on Sunday. "Great" I thought, "I'll hang back with the older guys and take it nice and easy". Wrong and wronger. There were no older guys, and there was no taking it easy. My recovery ride turned into a big effort ride and I'm definitely feeling it today. The map below isn't totally accurate, but I was feeling lazy and didn't feel like mapping a new route. I simply didn't go through the Rosebowl, opting instead to just go down Verdugo. Total mileage was about 32.

Read more!

Oh yea...

I did a ride a the weekend of the 3rd. it was awesome. Here's the map. Read more!

Thanks for making me feel like a Jerk

Something happened yesterday that involved myself (a PAA member), and another PAA member. What resulted was a harsh discussion about manners. Despite trying vigilantly to defend my brethren I left the conversation agreeing with the other Party.

I have read all our e-mails about the rose bowl, impolite drivers, thoughtless pedestrians and government agencies and how there is some dubious conspiracy against us, those who choose to roll in the two wheeled mode. I agree wholeheartedly. I also read these e-mails and often get a sense that we think of ourselves as saints and that we do no wrong. Again I have agreed in the past, although after last night not as much anymore.

When riding for training purposes in areas like a bike path I used to call out "left side" or "passing" or something like that. Until a couple times where I did that and the person I was passing then lunged left and nearly caused me to crash. Since then I've decided in most cases it's best to keep my mouth shut, slow down a little and give the other bicyclists plenty of room. I've always thought this to be the best policy as a bike path is a public area, and not my personal time-trial training course. Common Courtesy right? Apparently not.

It has been a long time goal to get my friend and her kids to ride bikes. I've loved riding my bike since I was a kid, so it has always been a little strange to me that these kids don't ride much. Finally after two years of prodding I got them to ride with me on the bike path by Griffith park. The younger one isn't too confident, so it's been tedious to keep him on the bike for the past month. So when a PAA member breezed by us giving him barely a foot of space when the other side of the path was completely open kind of pissed me off. He was only one of 5 "serious cyclist" who did that to us. there where some who even chose to pass as there was oncoming bicyclists, passing between us and the other party, going nearly 25 or 30 miles an hour, with no warning or slowing what so ever. I discussed it with my girlfriend nearly the rest of the ride home and we agreed, some cyclists are assholes. What frustrated me was the fact that I know the rider from PAA who I'm talking about. I've met him and he's a really cool guy; and in person, every one of you I've spoken with is pretty cool. What frustrated her was that it makes her feel unsafe, less safe than the hobos in the river make her feel. I understand that most of us are very skilled and deft at maneuvering around groups like this, but consider the other party for a bit. Shenanigans like that make her a lot less comfortable on the path, and make her not want to return. I shudder to think what would happen to our sport if we scared every mother and child off the road. Granted these kids may only be two more kids on a bike, but that's two more kids on bikes than before, and that's two kids closer to complete two wheel world domination... which I'm all for.

we've done everything we can to teach these kids proper bike path etiquette, common courtesy and manners when bicyling, thinking that these are lessons that they will take with them beyond the bike, into their driving years, and into life in general. I pray that when they get older they are not the drivers, pedestrians or government officials we so vehemently deride in our posts. And when I hear my friends nine year old say "why are riders like you such jerks" I can't help but think they are going grow up despising "riders like me" and I 'm pretty sure that all of us here, especially those with kids know what I'm afraid of. We talk day in and day out about the state of affairs in our sport, about PR in Pasadena and about all the things that affect us as cyclists now. But what about the future of the sport? What are we doing, publicly, to make sure that not only our kids, but all kids get on a bike and stay on a bike until adulthood?

What I took away from this experience is this: Despite it being a stupid ass song from the 80's, children are our future. so getting kids to ride bikes, and showing them how to ride properly and courteously should be ALL of our responsibility, if for nothing else than the future of our sport.

The bike path is a public place. Lots of families bring their kids there to teach them to ride since much of L.A. is unsafe for children. Cyclists like me go there because much of L.A. is unsafe for cyclists, however it's not our sports private training ground. When you see kids, give them lots of space, and slow down... it's not a fucking race. Read more!