I did it! I completed the entire Tour de Foothills Century 2012!

http://app.strava.com/runs/27459483/embed/b604f3dddceff5211824147d3dc08b73ddbcb077

That’s my Strava post to prove it. I’m sure you, dear reader, believed me instantly. But, just in case someone less trusting is viewing. Plus, I think it’s pretty impressive to look at. One hundred and one miles. Seven thousand plus feet of climbing. Nearly 7 hours in the saddle. That’s a lot of bike riding!

It was a good ride. It was cold. Very very cold. I doubt that it got above 65 degrees all day. In fact, coming down from Glendora Mountain Road into East Fork, I believe it was in the thirties. There was ice on the sides of the road in the shadows! I was entirely grateful to be wearing a good base layer shirt that I bought the night before, and a wind vest, as well.

I like to give props to companies and products that are doing it right. Craft makes the base layer shirt, a long sleeve crew neck “Zero” layer, I think. And Showers Pass makes the wind vest, an excellent product. It blocks the wind on my front torso so that I’m not dealing with freezing sweat after climbing up and then going down a big hill.

Unfortunately, my Oakley Jawbones (Racing Jackets?) did not keep my right eye/contact lens from clouding up. I put in rewetting eye drops several times to no avail. By the time I was in the last five miles it was brutal dealing with poor vision in my right eye. It’s uncomfortable and makes it so much harder to ride. That, fortunately, was one of the only very bad things about the ride.

We began the ride early in Upland, a 7:00 a.m. start. Cold that makes your fingers ache. But, after a mile or so, I started to warm up and I found my friend, Mike. We rode through Claremont, then into Pomona and San Dimas. The first big climb was Via Verde, which, while steep, is short. A fast descent followed, then some flats into Covina and Glendora. We made our way up to Glendora Mountain Road. Mike went his own way to ride the Metric Century. But, I had a date with a mountain.

I had ridden this road many times, at least the way up. So, I knew what to expect. Most of it is about 5% – 6% grade, but there are sections that hit 8% and 9% with slightly steeper road in a couple parts. It’s about 8 or 9 miles of climbing and the grade makes it hurt. At the top was a rest stop where I availed myself of some Fig Newtons, some banana, and refilled my water bottle with an electrolyte beverage. Next was a very cold, fast descent, hitting speeds of 30 miles an hour into East Fork. Then, out San Gabriel Canyon. The wind was blowing into the canyon and I was lucky to find a few guys going my speed to help block the wind and pull me a ways down the road.

We made our way into Glendora again to another rest stop. I found some other people I knew and followed their wheels into Claremont for the next big climb, Mt. Baldy Road. This is some of the steepest road in the area. At one point, my Garmin indicated 13% grade. Ouch. At nearly 80 miles, this is a cruelty that is almost uncalled for. I paused at the foot of the climb because my right calf muscle was threatening to cramp and that was not something I wanted to deal with. I ate some energy gel blocks (Stinger) and took some Enduralytes, just in case, along with several drinks of water. Then, I began my assault on the climb. I put the bike into my lowest “granny gear” and went to work. I passed one guy walking his bike and another vomiting over the guard rail. Nice. My muscles complained but never cramped and I made it up the hill okay. Another rest stop at the top was welcomed. I refilled my bottles again and headed down.

Another fast descent down Mountain Avenue and then Euclid Avenue to 19th. Here began my existential bike ride. For some reason, I had ended up alone. Either I had left behind anyone I knew, or I had been passed by them. In any case, I rode alone down 19th Street through Upland. Yes, there was a bike rider here and there, but no one that stayed with me, or vice versa. I headed down Victoria Loop and to Baseline. The wind blew against me, mostly at about 10 miles an hour, but with gusts that were more fierce. I was riding into the teeth of the West wind and it was not fun. Ninety miles on my legs, vision impaired by a cloudy contact lens, and now, irritable because I hate riding in the wind. It takes your spirit and stomps it. See, you’re putting a lot of effort into the pedals. The wind hits you and you feel as if you should be going 20 mph but you’re only going 10 mph. It makes you feel weak and puny. Wind is a highly underrated weather event.

Finally, with about a mile to go, I found some other riders and we made our way to the finish. Then, to my surprise, my wife and kids were waiting for me, my son handing me my “Finisher” medal. Very cool. I was exhausted. My back hurt, my knee hurt and I was bone tired in almost every muscle in my legs and arms. But, I was happy. I had done it.

As I think about it, I did it as much to lose weight and get in shape, plus enjoy bike riding, as I did it to do something impressive. I wanted to accomplish something. Maybe this is a kind of “mid-life” crisis where I feel like I need something to point to as an accomplishment. I don’t know. I know it makes me happy because my kids are proud of me. My wife is proud of me, too. And, I’m glad because she helped a lot by supporting and encouraging me. Plus, she dropped me off and picked me up that day, too. I did lose weight, about 20 pounds. I have dropped a few percentage points of body fat, too. I learned that I can endure pain and discomfort. And, I made some friends. It’s a pretty good deal, all in all. I’m glad I did it. And, I plan to continue riding. I’d like to do more centuries. Palm Springs has a nice ride, I hear, as does Solvang. One day, I’d like to complete the Death Valley century, too.

And, that’s the end. I guess, if you need a take away, it’s that setting goals can be very useful. I pushed myself to improve over time, and I persevered. I don’t know if riding bikes is for everyone. But, you can do it, if you decide to. I don’t think there’s anything terribly unusual about me versus anyone else. But, if nothing else, choose something you want to accomplish and then lay out an achievable plan to get it done. Thanks for coming along with me. Hope you enjoyed it.

I’m not an expert. But, I think my experience is valid and useful. When I started cycling at first, back in 2005, I was way out of shape. I was 35 pounds overweight. I rode my bike uphill, about 3 miles, up a sleight grade, nothing crazy. But, I was slow, going 3.5 miles per hour. I thought I would die. But, it was a start.

Look, exercise is hard and it often hurts. But, if I am eating too much, I have to exercise. I have to burn calories. If I am overweight, I have to burn more than I take in. You can lower your caloric intake and eat less and lose weight without exercise, but that’s way harder.

Exercise is actually a natural appetite suppressant, at least for most of the time you are working out. Of course, working out make you hungry, too. But, if you work out hard, you can eat more. That is a great thing about taking a long bike ride. After three or four hours of riding, I have burned over 1,000 calories. It gives me a lot more room in my diet for the day.

Another thing that helps is that I enjoy cycling. So, I look forward to the exercise and that makes it easier to continue doing it.

So, my first suggestion is to pick a form of exercise that you like doing. The second suggestion is that you commit to a reasonable goal. At first, I committed to riding my bike 3 times a week, minimum, for 30 minutes each time. Eventually, I increased that to 4 to 5 times a week and 45 minutes to an hour each time. If I missed my goal, I just started over. I didn’t give up just because I missed the goal. That was key, I think.

Another thing that helped was that I met some people that cycled too. Initially, it was mountain biking, but I also met road bikers, too. And, they were faster and had more endurance so I wanted to train harder to be able to keep up with them. I did the same thing this year and signed up for the Tour de Foothills century so I would have a goal to shoot for. But, mostly, the people become a kind of support group.

For example, they told me about doing interval training as a way to get fit with shorter workouts. Or, when I started getting cramps during longer workouts, my friend Mike told me about eating Tums or drinking pickle juice to relieve them. (Mostly, today, I try to drink fluids with electrolytes while riding, or eating stuff like energy gels or Clif bars.) Mike has been an invaluable resource, actually. I have learned a lot about cycling in general from him. From bike fit, to good equipment, to good rides, he has a lot of information to share. It’s good to find someone who can help you out like that.

Interestingly, it also has occurred to me that my circle of friends in cycling has given me a big boost in the sense that I have raised my expectations. I ride with people who regularly ride 50 to 100 miles without blinking an eye. They go up and down mountains. This is way different than hitting a bike path a couple times a week or riding around the block a few times. I ride 25 miles and then see that they rode 50 and I feel like I need to ride more. So, I think that is a good thing to have higher expectations.

And, then, there is Strava. I have way too much fun with that. I can see my ride on a map, see the numbers, and all of that. Strava is fun. And, segments give you a way to track your progress. If you ride or run, you should use Strava.

Summing it up, pick an activity you enjoy, set reasonable goals, and find some people to support your activity and/or participate with you so you will stick to your goals and raise the bar for yourself as you improve.

Happy Fall Equinox! I thought I would check in. I haven’t been writing much, I know. I guess I haven’t been sure I had much of anything interesting to say. I have been keeping busy, though. I am trying hard to provide some quality education to my students as well as training on my bikes to be ready for the Highlander Century in November. Plus, the normal, everyday stuff going on: helping kids with homework, spending time with my honey, and fitting in some relaxation time, too.

So, when I started riding again, back in June, I think, I was weighing around 195 pounds. Today, I am weighing more like 180. I’ve dropped a couple inches around my waist. So, that’s very good. I completed a “Century” ride called the Amtrak Century a couple of weeks ago. That was 94 miles at once. (We took a shortcut at the beginning of the ride.) I did over 60 miles a week or so before that, as well. This weekend I rode 58 miles yesterday and 52 miles today with about 3,000 feet of climbing each day. That’s pretty decent.

That’s my friends and I after the Amtrak Century a few weeks ago. I’m the one in the middle with the Dark Side of the Moon jersey.

I got a couple awesome accessories. I got a Garmin Edge 500 that is a GPS unit for cycling. It can tell me how fast I’m going, how far, my average speed, my heartrate, my cadence (how many revolutions my pedals are making), and, of course, where I went. I hook it up to the computer and upload the ride data so I can see all of that. I am using Strava track my data. It says I have ridden 485 miles so far in September. I have been riding my bike to work and back most days, as well as longer rides on the weekends.

In November, I will ride the Highlander Century. This will be about 100 miles of cycling with about 7500 feet of climbing. Not an easy day. But, I feel sure that my training will have me ready, though I may suffer and be slow on all that climbing. My Garmin helps a lot with this. Not only can I precisely check my mileage but it also allows me to see when I am really working hard, or just riding at tempo, because I can see what my heartrate is. I can also ride better because I can see when my cadence is too high or low and shift gears accordingly. For fun, Strava has segments on lots of rides so I can record achievements like Personal Records, for example, on certain portions of a ride. I created a few along my ride to work and back so I can track my performance and abilities. This helps me also to ride intervals where I go really hard for a portion of time and then rest by pedaling more slowly other times. I am under the impressoin that this is a good way to train and lose weight.

My other favorite new toy are my Oakley Racing Jacket (neé Jawbones) sunglasses. I have worn Oakleys for a long time. I know a lot of people think Oakleys are overpriced. Maybe they are, but my experience with them is that they are some of the finest sunglasses I have worn. My eyesight is fairly important to me. I want sunglasses that offer clarity and protect my eyes, particularly when cycling. I have gotten grit and dust in my eyes while riding and, as a contact lens wearer, this is very bad. Also, I have been hit by insects a lot. I’ve had had them hit my glasses, too. So, I think that eyewear is a very important piece of safety equipment.

I was wearing a pair of Oakley Half Jackets but I found I was getting cloudy eyes from riding. It was so frustrating! Every time I finished a ride I would have to take out my contacts. And, on the Amtrak Century, my lenses were uncomfortable and cloudy on the way home. Not fun. I went to Oakley and decided that the Racing Jackets were the solution. And, they have been! Maybe they look obnoxius (I don’t think so!)

That’s a picture I sent of a cheesy grin to my daugther and wife the other day while I was riding. Yeah, the glasses are big, but they work! I rode 53 miles today and my contacts are fine! So, to me, that’s money well-spent. The glasses have an odd little spoiler shape on the bottom frame and I sometimes wonder if that’s why my glasses keep the wind out so well. But, they don’t fog up too bad in the morning when it’s cool out, either, at least not so far. The lenses are great, too. They are made to create more contrast and I do think I can see better with them on. Also, the pros wear them so they kinda make me look more pro, I think. haha

One interesting development has been that I seem to have Exercise Induced Asthma. For years now, I would cough after riding. I thought, for a bit, that it was dusty out, or smoggy. I thought it was just a thing. Normal. But, it always happened and has still been happening. My chest feels tight and I cough after riding. Sometimes I cough at night, too. So, my doctor prescribed an inhaler with Albuterol to use prior to exercise and it seems to have had a positive effect. I still cough a little, but not nearly as much, if at all. I still get the tight chest feeling sometimes at night and I start coughing. But, I have a follow up appointment tomorrow so we will see what happens. I had an EKG, a chest xray, blood taken for testing, and a breathing test. Hopefully my doctor will be able to draw some conclusions from all of that.

My students this year are good. I like all five of my classes. I have three classes of Sophomores and two classes of Juniors. The vast majority are good natured and work in class. I have a couple kids who don’t work but they arent defiant about it. I am making a firm effort to always been up and about in the classroom. If the kids are working independently, I have to circulate to offer help and supervise, not sit at my desk. I think this helps a lot. I am using Class Dojo, a web app at http://www.classdojo.com that tracks student behavior and I like that, too. Overall, that has been goodd.

So, that’s where I’m at these days. Things are going well. Today is the Fall Equinox; the days will be getting longer now. The year is 3/4 over and the 1st quarter at work is almost done. Good time to check in with my four readers. Hope your time is going as well as mine, if not better.

I have decided to do as much of my own “wrenching” on my bikes as I can. Some things are a bit beyond me, yet. I won’t be doing any bottom bracket work, for example. But, I decided I needed to re-tape my handlebars on my Allez. It’s funny to me because I’m finding out all kinds of new things that are like, duh! Like, people get their shocks serviced every six months to a year. Or, they replace the bearings and relube their hubs at least once per year.

And, they replace the tape on their handlebars once per year, I guess.

Now, this might sound weird, but I was scared to do it. For some reason, it totally intimidated me. I figured there was some arcane, mystical weaving method to it that I would completely screw up. But, there’s not. It’s not complicated at all. And, in an ideal situation, shouldn’t take more than an hour or so.

The tape on my Allez’s bars bugged me from the beginning. It was white. Maybe it looks good, but it’s a pain in my arse. Because, if I get a flat, or my gears throw the chain (which happened far too often) and I got dirt or grease on my hands, it would seem that I could never get them clean enough after. Inevitably, my tape ended up looking dirty. And, I couldn’t seem to clean the tape, either.

Then, this happened. That piece of tape was always sliding over and exposing the bar beneath. Drove me crazy. I was always trying to pull it back over. Finally, the other day, it tore. So, I ordered some Fizik Microtex tape with gel. I also went on YouTube to watch some videos.

Can I just digress a moment to say how much the Internet has changed my life? Even back in 2006 when I was working on my bike, I don’t think YouTube had as many videos for how to work on your bike. Now, you can look up almost anything! Then, there’s the Park Tools site. Why even buy a repair book (of which, I have two), anyway?

So, this video was extremely helpful to me. Without it, I probably would have screwed it up way more than I did. So, far, I have done half of the bar. I did it last night, but it was getting late. It was bloody hot in the garage, too! Even at ten o’clock!!! So, I will try to finish tonight. I thought I would share a couple pics with you of the work, in case you’re interested.

Yeah, that tape is a little dingy, huh?

With the tape removed, I found that Specialized had added some kind of gel. It looked pretty bad, actually. KInda like snot, or ectoplasm. So, I removed that and the tape that still stuck to the bar.

Finally, the bar was clean so I could start. I decided to even retape the brake cables. So, I did that with some “strapping tape.” Specialized had used some kind of thin, clear tape that looked cheap and left a nasty, gummy residue.

Here’s the bars with the strapping tape in place now. Much better.

The bar tape I bought was well-reviewed and seemed to be a kind of gold standard for bar tapes. I also saw Cinelli’s cork tape and Specialized Roubaix tape get favorable mentions. But, this Fizik Microtex seemed to be the one I wanted. I chose to get the gel, too, even though that got mixed reviews. I didn’t know my bars already had some gel on them, so this well help make that consistent. I don’t know that the gel will make any big difference, but it seemed like a good idea.

So, I got to wrapping. There’s lots of examples of how to wrap your bars, so I won’t go into it. But, I will say that it takes practice to do it right. I guess I could change them every six months, or so. It’s not as if the tape is expensive, between $12 and $20, more or less. I did well enough. I’m happy with it. It’s not perfect, but a least it doesn’t look dirty, probably won’t look dirty for a while, and there’s no more annoying gap where the tape isn’t laying right. I’m thinking maybe the person who put it on didn’t stretch it very much. I made sure to stretch the Microtex so it would lay nice and flat. Here’s the results:

I think it looks good, but not great. I also got my new torque wrench and used it to properly tighten my carbon seat post which I inspected carefully and did not find any cracks. So, the Allez is in pretty good shape right now.

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Back in 2005/2006, I had been cycling quite a bit. I was mountain biking and road biking, both. Probably I was on the dirt a bit more. But, I logged a lot miles, either way. It began when I realized I was over 200 lbs. and I just felt weak. Actually, that’s not true. What happened was I was teaching a Drama class and we were working on Improv. In an improvised scene, anything can happen. And, since the students always wanted me to act with them, I was in the scene. It seemed that every class had one or two kids that lacked a mental filter to keep them from saying something awful. I was on stage with one of those kids. I don’t remember her name, but I remember that she had an awful childhood, full of moving from city to city, mom going to jail, dad not in the picture, low income, that kinda stuff. I don’t think either parent were really there for her. But, she loved Drama, even though she had an attitude and a mouth on her. This day, she and I were arguing in the scene. She let it get personal and said something like, “Are you six months pregnant or something?” to me. I didn’t let it show, but it really bothered me. So, I got my dusty old hard-tail mountain bike out of the garage and started riding. I rode up Beech from Baseline to Summit. That’s 3 miles and uphill. Not terribly steep, but it’s up. I swear, I thought I was gonna die. I was struggling to go 3 miles an hour, as if I was climbing some peak in The Pyrenees. But, I knew this had to be done. I had always enjoyed riding bikes and got into it now and then. I hadn’t really ridden in five years or more at that point. Athletically, I’m not very big, although, compared to Jaquizz Rodgers, Reggie Bush, or Maurice Jones Drew, I’m tall enough to be a running back. In any case, I was never much good at most sports. I tried playing basketball (ha ha!) and soccer in high school, but only was good at Cross Country running. I wasn’t fast, but I always finished. When our team trained by running 10 miles in the Glendora hills, I recall the coaches remarking that, unlike several others, I had finished the run instead of quitting. So, I rode my bike. I made a goal to ride 3 times a week, at least 45 minutes each time. I held to the goal and eventually started losing weight. I bought a real mountain bike, a full-suspension model, and started riding local trails. I hooked up with new friends via http://www.socaltrailriders.org. They were faster and stronger. So, I trained more. I increased the distance I could ride. I found that dirt miles were harder because of the difficulty of the terrain. It seemed like 5 miles on the dirt felt like 15 on the road.

I started riding my bike to work. This made a huge difference. I was riding further and faster all the time. My friends took me on the trails in the Angeles forest. I got tired of having people wait for me all the time, so, I pushed myself even more. Weekends were long rides, weekdays, training, riding hard to and from work. Where once I was going uphill at 3 miles an hour, now I was going 15 miles an hour, uphill, carrying a change of clothes and my work laptop. I got a bike trailer and towed my kids with it.

At the peak, I was able to ride a full century (100 miles) or 30 miles on the dirt. I rode the Amtrak Century from Irvine to San Diego. That was amazing! I remember finishing the ride with a lap around Sea World and couldn’t believe I did that! I also rode The Cannell Plunge which was about 25 miles of very challenging trail. Heck, I did it twice, and it was much easier the second time around!

People weren’t waiting for me any more. I wasn’t the fastest, but I wasn’t the slowest. I had to wait for other people. It was nice. So, what happened? Well, the short version is I got divorced. For one thing, it took a lot of emotional energy to deal with the divorce. It sucked because cycling is something that helped me a lot during hard times. In fact, the day after my ex-wife told me she hated being married to me and that she was only staying with me because we had kids (that was a pretty big shock to me as I had thought we were in love — oh and that’s an awful reason to stay married, by the way) I had taken a long mountain bike ride by myself into the hills above Lytle Creek. I was devastated, occasionally sobbing aloud, but also soothed by the dirt, the wind, the trees, and the rustle in the bushes. I often had seen red-tailed hawks riding the currents during my rides and today I found one keeping me company. A mile up the trail, a single hawk feather lay in the trail center. I picked it up and kept it. It seemed, at the time, as if even the hawk wanted me to feel better. But, the divorce was nasty and consumed great amounts of time and money, far more than was necessary. I rode less. On the days I had my kids, I didn’t want to ride so I could spend time with them, be there for them. And, on the other days, I felt to tired to put miles in. I would ride now and then, sporadically, but not enough. My job at work made it tough to ride there anymore. I needed a car, also, to pick up the kids from day care or from their mother. So, bicycle commuting made less sense. Recently, I found that my weight was up again. It wasn’t a news flash. But, once I hit 197, I knew something had to be done. I was using the elliptical but it was boring and I wasn’t doing it enough. I was eating too much. And my bikes were gathering dust. I pulled out my old commuting bike, my first mountain bike now outfitted with fenders and a rear rack, and I went riding again.

So, for a month or so now, I’ve been riding again. I have been riding to work and back, hooked up with my old friend Mike to ride some dirt, too.

I made a goal. I’m going to be able to ride a century again by November. I signed up for the Highlander Century as part of the Tour de Foothills. I think I can do it. I am going to be riding as often as possible. I’m planning to ride to work again, and to do longer rides on the weekends. I want to ride the Palm Springs century, and hopefully the Death Valley century, too. Riding has been going okay. I didn’t lose as much as I feared I did. My legs are coming back and I rode with the Cycling Connection on Saturday. I wasn’t terribly fast, but I completed 43 miles and didn’t feel too bad afterwards. I can average 13 miles an hour coming home from work, which is pretty good. If I try, I can make the round trip to and from work in an hour and two minutes. That’s pretty good for now. I really like cycling. I like the feeling of doing something that not everyone can or will do, whether it’s riding 100 miles at once or riding a dirt trail that is too challenging. I like the feeling of the wind in my face, my legs pushing the pedals, and feeling that power translating out the back wheel. I like seeing the city from two wheels. I like the endorphin high you get during and after the ride, when all feels right with the world. I like the simplicity of the bicycle, a machine unrivaled in its efficiency. I like riding a bike around. I have even been teaching myself to work on the bike. So far, I have overhauled hubs, overhauled the rear shock on my mountain bike, trued my wheels, cleaned and lubed my chains, changed tires and tubes, changed seats, adjusted my deraileurs, and so on. It’s not much but I’m getting there. So, this week, I will be riding to work Monday through Thursday. I will probably take Friday off, but I’m planning to ride again on Saturday, hopeful a long ride with the Cycling Connection. I’ll let you know how it goes.