Sunday, July 17, 2016

Solo 400k

Yesterday I rode my Four Rivers 200k permanent twice back-to-back. The intent was to see how I did riding a flat, hot 400k because that's like the first day of the Cracker Swamp 1200k in Florida coming up in October. My target was to complete the ride in 20 hours.

I started at 5:30 am. My first problem is that there is nothing open at that time except the McDonalds drive through so I had to get my receipt by driving through and then find somewhere to park. The first half of the ride went well although it got hotter than expected when I got back to the start and it was over 90F. I ate at the Chick-fil-a - Meh.

I was drinking one bottle of Perpetuem with Endurolytes between each control. Seems it fills me up quite well. Didn't have any bonking or cramping issues.

The second 200k was very different. A strong wind set in from the north and I had a headwind for fifty of the first sixty miles of the loop. What was soul-crushing is the knowledge that the wind would die down before I could turn around and make it a tail wind. My time out to the around control at mile 58 was about five hours and I was exhausted holding even that pace.

I turned around and within an hour the wind died down from about 20mph to about 10mph. Still - at least it wasn't a headwind any more. Riding on the Rio Hondo and Los Angeles bike paths at night is a scary process. There were lots of people furtively standing by the bike path and groups of young men walking up it that looked very suspicious to me. One guy shouted angrily at me in Spanish. I have no idea what he said but just kept riding. I would not recommend doing this to anyone.

I finished the ride in 19:54. Very tired but not sore.

I wonder how long it will be before someone is killed while playing Pokemon Go? Perhaps it has already happened. I had a couple of incidents on the beach path with people running across the bike path in front of me while holding their cell phones up in front of them. It's just a matter of time.

Monday, July 11, 2016

Oceanside ride

Amber and I rode my Anaheim to Oceanside 125km permanent again on Sunday. We started at 8am to try to beat the heat but it was pretty warm as we climbed Santiago Canyon. I was treating this ride as a stress buster because work has been pretty bad lately. Just before we started I had noticed a big bald spot on my rear tire that had me worried so I had to keep my speed down on the descents. The last thing anyone needs is a blow-out at 30mph.

I was trying to remember what might have damaged my tire, then Amber reminded me that last time we did this route I did a long skid because a car showed up at intersection at an awkward moment. That was a long time ago!

Anyhow we got to Cooks Corner and had our usual food. They were even slower than usual and we had trouble holding a conversation while we waited because someone was playing the jukebox and you just can't get away from the speakers. I have a brilliant idea - why not add a "Silence" spot on the jukebox. You put your money in and you get three minutes of silence. I would slap $5 into that no problem. Just think - no royalties, no wear and tear - it's three minutes of pure profit. How come no-one has thought of this before?

The rest of the route was pretty normal - headwind to the coast then a tailwind to Oceanside. We picked up a chap who followed us because he was not familiar with the Alisal Creek bike trail. When we got to Laguna Niguel he turned back north on PCH. I hope he remembered the trail because it's a lot of fun.

Next weekend I'm going to do some training for the Crackerswamp ride. I'm going to ride my Four Rivers 200k twice starting at 4am.

I need therapy!

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Inaugural Four Rivers 200k permanent

I rode my new Four Rivers 200k permanent today. It will be the first loop of my new 200/400/600 Triple Loop brevet next year. It is a fast route that makes very heavy use of bike paths and is very flat. It's an ideal summer permanent because it never gets that far away from the coast.

Today was hot and windy and I rode it solo but I still got my best time on a 200k since two years ago. If I had made better time through the controls and had a couple of riding buddies we could easily have shaved 30 minutes off my 8:46 time.

I can see this becoming very popular.