Ride report: Cat-3 Distance Training #2.5 (1/30/2010)

Go, riders!

Life sometimes throws us surprises, and today we had a whole giant heaping big bunch of surprise. On the plus side, we had beautiful sunny skies and seasonably warm temperatures, despite the forecasts of scattered showers. On the minus side, however, we had several incidents during today's ride, and many of the 24 of us who rode today (myself included) have some interesting stories from the road.

Most importantly, we had a crash early in the ride. One rider went down in a solo incident along McClellan Road in front of the school at about mile 7. Fortunately, some nasty bruises and pain appear to be the extent of the injuries, and the rider got a ride home. Also fortunately, because the incident occurred on a popular cycling route, other non-ALC riders were on hand to stay with our rider until help arrived.

The second failure of the day turned out to be mine. As I rode in to Rest Stop 2 in Los Gatos, I noticed that my rear wheel was sticking somewhat seriously. I hadn't noticed anything before, so I'm guessing it happened right there or in the small pothole that I had hit just a little bit earlier on Blossom Hill Road. At first, it looked like my rear wheel had somehow gone seriously out of alignment, but after a few minutes, we discovered something much more serious: One of the spokes had essentially drilled right through the wheel, ripping a hole out the other side!

Needless to say, this made my bicycle unsafe to ride so much as another 6 inches, let alone the 4 miles to the nearest light rail station. I was able to get a ride back to Mountain View, but this was the first time in my five years of ALC training rides, both as a rider and a leader, that mechanical failure prevented me from finishing a ride. Yes, that's somewhat disappointing, but I'm also quite lucky that nothing serious happened while I was riding, and that it occurred in an urban area where I had a relatively easy way back home.

That said, I'll apologize to everyone for not having a SAG (Support And Gear) vehicle on today's ride. I usually try to have one, but because today's ride was rescheduled from last week, many of our usual suspects weren't available. And, wouldn't you know it, the one day that we really, really needed a SAG vehicle, we didn't have one. I can't promise one on every ride, but I'll be redoubling my efforts to get as many rides covered as I can. (Ride leaders: Anyone want to switch from ride to SAG on an upcoming ride, like next week? Let me know.)

Other things happened today as well. We had several flats, most likely because of the wet pavement and (apparently) a lack of recent street-cleaning due to the storms, leading to lots of glass along the shoulders and in bike lanes. And a few folks ended up riding bonus miles after missing a turn. If you're not already doing so, please take a few minutes when possible to study the route sheet before every ride -- along with a map if possible. I'll always send out route sheets in advance, but other rides might not make this information available in advance, so do the best that you can. These rides are plenty long without bonus miles!

The most common thing that happened today, however, was that the ride was simply just too long for a few folks. Between the storms and other life events, it's been a tough season for a lot of us to get into training. Many of us decided to chop a few miles out of the middle and take a shortcut to Rest Stop 2. I commend you for doing so, because that means you were listening to your body and acting appropriately. (I also commend you for letting a ride leader know you were doing this, because we always need to know whenever someone goes off the designated route.)

Don't be discouraged; it's still only January. (OK, not for much longer.) Also, don't forget the Sunday Cat-2 training rides that run every week out of Sunnyvale. You'll find many of the same smiling faces from our rides, and the distances are a little bit shorter (but usually have a few more hills than we do). Tomorrow morning's ride is 25 miles; if you're reading this on Saturday night, it's not too late to RSVP. (If the bike shop somehow gets my wheel rebuilt in the next two hours, I hope to be there.)

A few folks apparently didn't eat enough, and they ran into trouble during the ride. The body can bicycle on stored energy only for about two hours before you run the risk of bonking; you need to eat and drink properly at rest stops to provide enough fuel to make it through the longer rides. And you need to have a good breakfast before riding ... those bagels before the ride aren't just decorative; they are, just like air pumps and tire irons, a tool for you to use, especially if you're showing up on an empty stomach.

There's information about nutrition and hydration on the ALC website; check it out, either for the first time or as a refresher. Better yet, there's a free workshop coming up this Thursday night in San Francisco. "Nutrition for Endurance Cycling" will be presented by the same professional nutritionist who teaches training ride leaders, and you might be surprised at some of what you'll learn. You'll never look at a muffin the same way again. The workshop takes place 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday at the main office of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation on Market Street; details and RSVP are here.

ALC World HQ also wants me to remind you about the refer-a-friend promotion to get more folks signed up for ALC9. Through the end of February, it's a chance for one of you to possibly win a new Cannondale Synapse road bike. Find out more here.

What's next? Weather permitting, we have an interesting and challenging ride scheduled for next Saturday, as I try to get us back on our schedule of riding every other Saturday. It's only a little bit longer (50 miles) and has only a little more climbing (about 2,000 feet), but it's much more challenging. Why? The first half of the ride is nearly flat, and all of the climbing is packed into the second half of the ride -- including some climbs steeper than what we did today. The purpose? To help train you to pace yourself through the easy parts of the ride so that you're not all worn out when you reach the difficult parts. I've offered a version of this ride the past two years, and every time, there's at least one normally strong rider who rides all-out on the flat part but has difficulty in the hills. This year, we're tackling a hill that, as far as I know, never has been part of any ALC training ride: Westridge Drive in Portola Valley. (Experienced cyclists might be familiar with this one.) It's got a climb that's very similar to Quadbuster, so it will be good exposure for first-year riders ... and a good refresher for the rest of us. Details and RSVP are here. If we get rained out next Saturday, we'll try to ride on Saturday, Feb. 13 instead.

Thanks to everyone for staying in good spirits in today's challenging circumstances, and I look forward to riding again with you soon. Thank you for being part of AIDS/LifeCycle.

Today's ride is ON

Good morning, riders!

We will ride today. The rain has ended, although the atmosphere is still a little unstable. This means that we might encounter a stray raindrop or two today, but nothing sustained or heavy.

Roads that don't receive direct sunlight might still be damp, so please remember to use caution on wet pavement -- and control your speed when descending on wet pavement.

Also, although I checked the route again yesterday, conditions can change overnight. So, in the unlikely event that you encounter hazardous conditions while riding today, STOP, back up a bit so you can warn other riders, and alert a ride leader.

See you in Mountain View at 9:30 a.m. Please arrive on time so that we can ride out on schedule.

Watching the weather again (updated Friday night)

Don't let all this rain scare you ... really. The forecasts say that only a few hit-and-miss lingering showers will be around Saturday morning, so anything that we're likely to run into should be short-lived and light. And because this front is moving through so quickly, I'm not expecting any serious issues with flooding or mudslides.

If something changes overnight, I'll let you know here.

Check back here Saturday morning before you head to Mountain View for the latest info. In the meantime, go ahead and RSVP.

Distance Training #5: Calaveras/Sunol (3/6/2010)

Map for this ride

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Date: Saturday, March 6
Meet time: 8:00 a.m.
Ride-out time: 8:30 a.m.
Meeting place: Three blocks west of the Mountain View Caltrain and VTA station, in the overflow parking lot at the corner of Evelyn Avenue and Franklin Street. (map)
City: Mountain View
Rain policy: Heavy rain cancels
Category: 3 - moderate-fast pace (12-15 mph)
Terrain: 3 - rolling hills with some steep climbs
Miles: 70

Description:
For a ride this long, there's not a lot of climbing -- only about 2,200 feet total -- but most of that comes in just one grand, steep climb to the top of the hills east of Milpitas up Calaveras Road. The last 0.1 mile before the summit truly will test your legs, but it's also quite OK to walk it.

From our starting point in downtown Mountain View, we'll take a flat route to Milpitas through Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, and San Jose. After a rest stop, we'll tackle that forementioned hill, and then we'll be rewarded with several miles of gently rolling, low-traffic, scenic riding above the Calaveras Reservoir. We'll descend into the quaint town of Sunol for our second rest stop, and then we'll descend through Niles Canyon into Fremont and head westbound across the Dumbarton Bridge for our final return through Menlo Park and Palo Alto.

This ride features a mix of quiet rural roads and busy urban streets, a little bit of everything the Bay Area has to offer and a good sample of the many types of riding you can encounter in just one day during the event in June.

A SAG vehicle will be on this ride to provide minor service if needed.

Leaders: Chris Thomas, Bob Katz, Ally Kemmer, Randy Files, Michael Casas, Ken Plough, Kevin Hunter

RSVPs are requested but not required.

Distance Training #4: Crystal Springs (2/20/2010)

Map for this ride

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Date: Saturday, February 20
Meet time: 9:00 a.m.
Ride-out time: 9:30 a.m.
Meeting place: Three blocks west of the Mountain View Caltrain and VTA station, in the overflow parking lot at the corner of Evelyn Avenue and Franklin Street. (map)
City: Mountain View
Rain policy: Heavy rain cancels
Category: 3 - moderate-fast pace (12-15 mph)
Terrain: 3 - rolling hills with some steep climbs
Miles: 50/60

Description:
This time, we head up the Peninsula to the Crystal Springs Reservoir, although we're adding a couple of extra hills along the way. We start by heading up to Foothill College and through the Arastradero Nature Preserve into Portola Valley and Woodside. After that, it's the long but very popular cycling route up Cañada Road to Highway 92, followed by a little bit on lower Skyline Drive to the base of the Sawyer Camp Trail.

We'll head into San Mateo for our second rest stop, and then climb -- and descend -- the Polhemus/Ralston hill. (Check your brakes before the ride!) We'll return via Alameda de las Pulgas all the way down the Peninsula to Menlo Park and then follow Foothill Expressway into Los Altos Hills. 50-mile riders return to Mountain View from here; 60-mile riders continue into Cupertino before heading back on a gentle descent through Sunnyvale.

Total climbing for this ride is about 3,000 feet.

Sorry, but due to the earlier starting time, the Cat-3 Distance Training rides are no longer Caltrain-friendly for the rest of this season.

Leaders: Chris Thomas, Bob Katz, Kathy Sherman, Dennis Soong, Paul Vargas, Ally Kemmer, Randy Files, David Gaus, Michael Casas

RSVPs are requested but not required.

Ride report: Cat-3 Distance Training #2 (1/23/2010)

Go, riders!

I didn't think today's ride was going to happen. When I woke up at 5 a.m., the rain was unexpectedly coming down outside after a dry day had been predicted. But the radar looked mildly encouraging, so I decided to keep an open mind. Then about an hour later, I watched a strong storm cell move through Saratoga and Los Gatos -- right where we'd be doing our most technical climbing and descending of the day, and where my scouting expedition on Friday revealed flooded roads, mudslides, and lots of debris. I knew at that point that our planned route would not be safe today.

So I went with Plan B, a comparable ride along the Peninsula. I quickly mapped out a route and made a bunch of route sheets (more about that later), and I let everyone know that all systems were go. Then, right after people started arriving in downtown Mountain View, the skies opened up again and sent everyone scurrying for cover. But again, the radar again looked encouraging, so we waited ... and at right about 9:30, the rain ended and we started to see the first hints of blue sky.

And for the 22 of us who persevered, we were rewarded with a surprisingly good day of riding. Sure, the roads were a bit wet at first, and some of us went through a few light sprinkles along Foothill Expressway (that seems to be happening a lot this season), but the sun later came out, the roads mostly dried out, and we did our full 45 miles in excellent time. Special super thanks go to Al for his outstanding SAG service today!

If you haven't already cleaned your bicycle, do so now. (Remember, no high-pressure car washes.) And be sure to relubricate your chain! I took a towel to wipe the lube off my chain tonight, and there was none at all to be had.

Thanks to everyone for riding safely today. I saw no egregious rule violation, and everyone took extra caution when needed due to the wet pavement and the various puddles and obstructions we encountered. Be particularly careful when descending on wet pavement; feather your brakes, let up briefly from time to time, and remember that there's no prize for getting to the bottom of the hill first ... only for getting there in one piece.

Because I put today's route together at the last minute, we conquered a hill that was a bit tougher than originally planned. Edgewood Road is a good example of several minor climbs that we'll have on the event in June -- rolling sections with shorter steep parts. Someone asked me how Edgewood compares to Quadbuster. Here's an elevation chart that shows both of them on top of each other, both starting from the same base elevation. (In each case, I'm counting only the actual main climb, not the preliminary rollers.)



So, the good news is that Quadbuster really isn't all that more difficult than what you climbed today. The less-good news, however, is that the small extra steepness really makes a difference ... and that Quadbuster comes near the beginning of your third consecutive day of riding, after you've already gone about 200 miles. Because many riders train toward a goal of two consecutive long days without doing a third before June, that third day of the ride often catches many riders unaware with its difficulty. If your life allows you to do so and you're worried about your ability to ride Every Friendly Inch, scheduling three long consecutive days in April or early May could help you enjoy the ride more in June.

If you paid close attention to your route sheet today, you no doubt found a mistake on it. (A mistake? From Chris!? Say it isn't so.) Well, yes, I made a mistake this morning when I hastily assembled our substitute route. Ride leaders, listen up, because I did one of the things that I tell you to watch out for during ride leader training.

You might have noticed that our leg on Cañada Road was listed about 2.8 miles longer than it really was. Well, what happened was that when I created the route in Bikely, the program added one of those extra loop-de-loops because it didn't like the points I had used to make the turn from Edgewood to Cañada. Instead, it automatically routed the wrong way up Cañada and made a U-turn at the next intersection, 1.4 miles up the road. I failed to catch the extra distance, and the result was a flawed route sheet. My apologies!

Because I know some of you like to keep the route sheets and even use them for solo rides, I've corrected the route sheet and posted the fixed version online here.

What's next? We have an extra ride coming up! Because we didn't get to do our scheduled ride to Los Gatos today, I've rescheduled that ride for next Saturday, Jan. 30, same time, same place. If you can make it, a fun day should be had by all ... if the weather improves. (Right now, it's looking a bit iffy.) If you're interested in this ride, please RSVP again here, regardless of whether you attended today's ride. This helps me know how much stuff to bring. Ride leaders: If I didn't talk with you after the ride today and you'd like to be a TRL on this ride, just drop me a note, and I'll add you to the list.

After that, our next progressively longer ride will be Saturday, Feb. 6. It's only a little bit longer (50 miles) and has only a little more climbing (about 2,000 feet), but it's much more challenging. Why? The first half of the ride is nearly flat, and all of the climbing is packed into the second half of the ride -- including some climbs steeper than what we did today on Edgewood. The purpose? To help train you to pace yourself through the easy parts of the ride so that you're not all worn out when you reach the difficult parts. I've offered a version of this ride the past two years, and every time, there's at least one normally strong rider who rides all-out on the flat part but has difficulty in the hills. This year, we're tackling a hill that, as far as I know, never has been part of any ALC training ride: Westridge Drive in Portola Valley. (Experienced cyclists might be familiar with this one.) It's got a climb that's very similar to Quadbuster, so it will be good exposure for first-year riders ... and a good refresher for the rest of us. Details and RSVP are here.

Don't forget tomorrow's official ALC9 Northern California kickoff party at Mezzanine in San Francisco. The fun starts at 1 p.m., and it looks like it's going to be quite different from kickoff parties of years past. Meet other cyclists, learn about other training rides, find out more about how the San Francisco AIDS Foundation uses the money we raise for them ... and maybe win some fabulous prizes. Details are here.

Thank you for riding today, and thank you for being part of AIDS/LifeCycle.

Today's ride is ON-modified

Good morning, riders!

We will ride today, but we will not ride our original route. Heavy rain is currently falling over Saratoga and Los Gatos, and this creates an unsafe potential for dangerous conditions (mudslides and debris) on the hilly rural roads we would be riding in the area.

I am currently creating a route of about the same distance and same climbing, and we will be heading generally north instead of south. I will bring route sheets for everyone.

Also, I will try to run our originally scheduled ride next Saturday, Jan. 30.