SART 200k with friends

Several weeks ago I received an email from Julie Hua Ni, a rando from SFR, asking to ride my 200k SART permanent on Tuesday. As I still needed to ride my November 200k I decided to take the day off and ride with her (like I need an excuse to take a day off!). I posted an open invitation on the PCHRandos website and Mike Bratkowski took me up on it.

Tuesday came around with a slightly ominous weather forecast that indicated rain in the evening but hopefully we would be able to arrive at the end of the ride before the storm did. We started slightly after 8am as Mike moved his car to a spot less likely to earn him a ticket.

L-R Mike, Terry, Julie at the start

I was trying out a new navigation setup. I have been struggling to find a way to use the ridewithgps app on my smart phone in a way that protects the phone while letting me read the display. I had not been successful. Even moderately bumpy roads had the phone jolting violently and me wondering about the quality of the single bolt that stood between my $600 smartphone and a brutal death on the pavement. I've been looking at a $100 bluetooth Wahoo RFLKT that sits on the handebars and shows upcoming turns, but the reviews haven't been that great and I was still worried about readability in direct sunlight (of which we have a lot here in SoCal).

So I have some bluetooth earpieces from Best Buy that I use at work to listen to music for which I paid $40. The RideWithGPS app has voice cues (it just reads from the cue sheet at the appropriate distances). So for this ride I kept the phone in the case and put it in my Carradice bag, running the RideWithGPS app but with the screen turned off. The earpieces are supposed to have a seven hour run time but they were still going at the end of a nine hour ride. I spent 15 minutes on RideWithGPS editing the cue sheet, mainly removing unnecessary cues.

As I rode I heard vocal cues as clear as a bell and it even warned me when I deliberately went off course and directed me back on. For longer brevets power will be an issue but I can power the phone from my dynamo hub and I have an external battery that would probably work with the earpieces. As it was we rode a 9 hour 200k and both the phone and the earpieces lasted the entire trip. This setup solves all the readability, battery life, and phone safety issues I've been having. I never even have to take my eyes off the road to navigate. Of course I will still have a cuesheet for backup because the battery never dies!

The three of us rode well together and we made good time until we hit a headwind about 25 miles from the beach - much earlier than usual.

Nice day for a ride

The headwind slowed us down a little but it was for less that a couple of hours and I was looking forward to a commensurate tailwind on the way back. There's a new deli at the Newport Corner Market and it was taco Tuesday so Mike and Julie grabbed the taco deal but I fancied a steak burrito. All good.

Awww so cute and so friendly

Heading back we immediately picked up a tailwind that just got stronger as we headed through the Corona gap and was still blowing strongly when we got to the Lucky Greek in Corona for our last stop. Fries and Coke (Mike had a shake which looked delicious) - Julie snacked on grapes and nuts. I don't know how she rides so strong while eating so little.

The tailwind stayed with us for a while longer only petering out in the last ten mile stretch. It finally got dark enough for my Luxos to turn on about fifteen minutes from the end of the ride and we finished at 5:18pm for a 9:08 ride time. According to my RideWithGPS we had a 7:27 ride time for a moving average of about 17 mph and an overall average of 14 mph.

Happy at the end

Unfortunately Julie's husband was stuck in traffic somewhere on the 60 near Rosemead so we all went to a nearby Jack-in-the-Box to wait for him. Finally he got to San Bernardino around seven and we were able to deliver Julie safely to him.

... and then a miracle occurred

Amber and I rode The Crema today. We needed a short ride because Amber needed to study for some exams and there was a storm coming in. In a previous post I mentioned that I had been inspired by a video that was attached to a brevet application. For The Crema I mounted my GoPro on my light bar and set it to take one frame every five seconds.

We had normal headwinds on the way to the beach but an unusual tailwind on the way up the coast to Seal Beach. We put the favorable winds down to the approaching storm and resigned ourselves to a headwind on the return. The speed limit along the beach path is 10mph but that was hard to do with a 20mph tailwind so we "compromised" by riding at 18mph.

The wait at The Crema was thirty minutes so we rode over the the pier to watch the surfers enjoying the high surf. The food at The Crema was fabulous as usual and eventually we climbed back onto our bikes to face the headwind. And then a miracle occurred - the wind had turned at least 90 degrees and we had an even stronger tailwind on the way back south! It was literally blowing up a storm. At one point I stood on the pedals and the wind blew me along at 12mph for a while.

We turned back inland on the SART and had a strong cross wind with a slight tail component that was a little tricky to ride with but we completed the 50 mile ride with about a 2:45 ride time.

When I got the GoPro home I looked at the timelapse video and didn't like it so I chose some key frames and annotated them. Then I created a slide show and added some Vivaldi. Take a look at https://youtu.be/dz7N_XqlffE

Lots of snow outside right now and thunder and lightning. So cool!

Good weekend and a cool video

I got a request to validate a new permanent in San Diego and it came with a link to a video. Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPb1eegegkE&feature=youtu.be. Who wouldn't want to do this ride after seeing the video? I want to make one for my rides too. It looks like a lot of work.

I rode my Lucky Greek 100k Friday after work. I was cruising along at 22mph thinking I was getting really strong. Then I noticed the trees were being blow inside out by the tailwind. This is gonna hurt on the way back, I thought. I was right. Even on the aerobars I was was struggling to hold 12mph on the flat. I burned through the large fries and coke that I ate at the turnaround and finished the ride hungry and thirsty but with a decent total time of 4:21. I tried one of those cheddar, onion burgers on a buttery bun at Jack-in-the-Box. It was pretty good.

On Sunday I rode my Seal Beach to Duarte 125k permanent with Amber. This is actually the first time we have ridden it as a permanent. I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would - it was kind of boring. I got a flat right at the start (first one in about a year). The tip of a thorn had worked its way through the tire and caused a tiny puncture. I put a new tube in and flatted again after about 20 miles. This time the new tube had failed at the base of the stem.

One of the problems with getting very few flats is that my spare tubes tend to hang around for a long time and they have a limited shelf life. The other problem is I tend to buy my tubes during those half-price Tuesday deals and I swear the bike shop is just trying to get ride of old tubes.

We still rode too fast to get pizza in Duarte so Amber and I ate too much 7-11 cuisine and Amber had really bad stomach problems on the way back. We had to deal with a couple of assholes flying down the Los Angeles River Trail on midget motorbikes at 30mph. I gave one the finger, he gave me a finger back - it's important to communicate!

Ate at the Schooner or Later restaurant at the end of the ride. The food is better than the name.

YES!

Finally it was cool enough on Friday evening to comfortably ride my Lucky Greek 100k permanent populaire after work so that's exactly what I did. It was a warmish 80F when I started at 5:15pm but I knew it would cool down quickly after the sun set because the sky was clear. The wind was very mild for this ride - maybe 5-10 mph instead of the usual 15-20 mph. I got down on the aerobars and held a comfortable 18 mph to the end of the upper SART and still had a 17 mph average by the time I got to the Lucky Greek. One order of fries and a raspberry coke later and I was ready to turn around.

The wind was still mild on the way back so I missed my usual tailwind but still had a 16 mph average when I got back to the upper SART and finished with a 16.5 mph average. Total elapsed time for the ride was 4:07 - not my fastest but not too shabby. It was a wonderful ride.

Today I hiked five miles with Sherry and explored some new trails. One of the trails had fire hydrants along it which was a bit puzzling.

Fire hydrant in the middle of nowhere

Tried the cheese burger with blue cheese at Blondies - not too bad.

Mount Baldy

No riding this weekend. I hiked Mount Baldy for the first time. Not like those pussies that rode the ski lift up and then sauntered up the last couple of miles saying "Look at me, I'm hiking". No - Amber and I hiked up Ski Hut trail and then hiked down Devil's Backbone like it's supposed to be done. Anyway $12 for the ski lift is way too expensive.

We started with a four mile, 4000' climb. Probably the hardest four miles of hiking I've ever done. Not only is it very steep, but it's extremely technical most of the way. Some of this hike would qualify as a class one mountain climb. It was cool and we were in fog most of the way but it was pretty awesome. We had some light rain at the start but fortunately it didn't develop into anything. At the ski hut I took my first selfie and we ate some rice bars I had made the previous evening. That's my daughter ninja'ing my selfie.

Mile 2.5 The Hutts at the Ski Hut

From there it's a very strenuous two more miles to the summit where it was cool, foggy, and very windy. There are narrow trails shooting off in all directions so we got lost a couple of time and scrambled over rocks and scree until we found the main trail again. One great thing about a summit climb is that you just have to keep climbing and you're bound to get there eventually! We sheltered in the ring of rocks and ate more rice bars and a PBJ. There's a couple of chipmunks up there that I don't know what they eat. I hear they can live for six months on one dead hiker. I threw one a morsel of PBJ but it didn't seem to realize it was food. Maybe it still had some dead hiker stashed away somewhere.

Mile 4.5 Snacking at the Summit

After twenty minutes or so we headed down on the Devil's Backbone which loops around back to the start in 7.5 miles. As steep descents kill my calves I thought this would be less painful and perhaps a little safer. Descending the technical ascents we had just mastered seemed a bit iffy to me. It turned out the first mile of the Devil's Backbone descent was pretty technical too. The trail is named after a narrow ridge with a steep drop off on either side, but it turned out not to be too bad. You would have to be very careless to get into trouble there - or taking a selfie.

We quickly returned into the clouds and we saw a deer ahead so I took a couple of photographs.

Deer in the Fog

 After the first mile the trail became a fire road and the going got very easy. We were still fairly cold so when we got to the ski lodge at the top of the ski lift we decided to treat ourselves to some hot chocolate. It was really good.
 

Really good hot chocolate

From the ski lodge it is a very easy three miles back to the start of the ride on a wide, smooth fire road. Our total elapsed time was 6:30 with about 5:30 of moving time over a total of 11.8 miles and 4600' of climbing. I would definitely do that hike again - in about a year. On the way down Amber started talking about doing San Gorgonio. Heaven help me!

Anaheim - Oceanside 125k permanent

Yeah it was raining - so what? A little rain never hurt anyone. Amber and I rode my Anaheim - Oceanside permanent on Sunday. The climb up Santiago Canyon was quite nice with 60F weather and light to moderate rain. The descent was a little scary and Amber's disk brakes finally proved their worth. There were still a lot of cyclists but nary a biker to be seen. We got to Cook's Corner and it was so deserted we thought they were closed. The usual stalls outside were not to be seen which was a shame because both Amber and I wanted to buy new cycling glasses.

Where did all those big, tough bikers go? 

We ate our usual - Amber had the French Toast and I had a breakfast burrito. The burrito was a little bland so I put on some tabasco sauce. I normally avoid Mexican food and salsa while riding but for some reason I thought tabasco would be a good idea. I would pay later for that mistake.

We left Cook's Corner around 11am and enjoyed the long descent down to the coast under dry skies but on wet roads. It is a wonderful route and made even better by the lack of other trail users. We got to Kaylani coffee house in San Clemente thinking perhaps the worst of the weather was behind us. We actually had shadows as we rode up to the door. We drank our usual caramel and sea salt iced coffee and headed down the coast when it started raining again. When we got to Camp Pendleton the tabasco made it's presence forcefully known. Thank goodness they have portable toilets near the entrance. Ew.

It rained on and off all the way to the Oceanside so we stopped at Angelo's as long as we could. Cheese omelette, hash browns, and toast - what a great way to finish up a ride. Finally we rode the last mile to the Amtrak station. Fortunately the train wasn't too crowded so we got a seat this time; seats that were a lot damper when we got off the train than when we got on!

BrevetManager.com

For the past few months I've been working on a new website for RBAs and brevet organizers to help run their events more smoothly. I have found there is a huge amount of repetitive and error-prone paperwork to create rider lists, track payments and waivers, generate brevet cards, and submit results.

I find myself endlessly cutting and pasting rider contact and emergency info, creating spreadsheets, and hard generating brevet cards. My new website is designed to streamline all of that.

The website is

www.brevetmanager.com

the guest user email is guest@guest.com and the guest password is "guestuser". Feel free to take a look.

The website is not ready yet - it doesn't handle permanents properly and there is a problem with the help system in Netscape Navigator, but it's been well tested in IE11, Edge, and Chrome. It also appears to work in Safari.

The website is helpful at all stages of the brevet process.

1. Once you have added a route with its controls you can easily create an event for the route.
2. The website supports brevets, populaires, and permanents but not fleches, arrows, or darts.
3. Control open/close times are automatically calculated for the route and each event.
4. Adding riders is a matter of entering their RUSA number. The name and city is pulled from the RUSA database. If you have previously added contact and emergency numbers for them  in brevetmanager that information is automatically completed for you. Couldn't be easier.
5. You can easily print brevet cards for your riders using Adobe Reader two at a time. You can also print blank cards for day-of-the-event registrations.
6. You can email all registered riders with last minute instructions or route changes.
7. You can print a rider list which is useful at the start of the ride to track payments, waivers, etc and is useful during a ride in case you need to contact a rider or their emergency contact.
8. For the end of the ride there is a special page designed for mobile devices that calculates and saves finish times and ride times at the click of a button. No more "The ride started at 5:30 and it's now 3:17 the next morning - that's how long?"
   Each event has a URL you can paste into your website to link to the event results.
9. You can mass submit the ride results to RUSA. Yay!
10. Each region has a URL you can paste into your website to link to the region's results for a year.
11. Anything else you can think of that I can do.

Capturing the results of an event on a mobile device