Training for LeJog

I'm planning on riding LeJog again in 2022 with Peak Tours. I remember how hilly the route is, especially the first two days. For a country with a highest elevation of only 3700', it is very hilly. I decided to start focusing on hilly routes to try to get my climbing legs back. So yesterday I rode the Sam Woo ride which has more climbing than I'm used to, but not as much as LeJog. Amber came with me. The weather was perfect, overcast, about 70F, and a light 10mph breeze.

We got to Dana Point without any drama but shortly after eating lunch at the Brig I started feeling decidedly unwell. It was either the egg burrito I had for breakfast or the hot sauce I added to my hash browns at the Brig. We turned inland and my stomach got worse. The Aliso Creek bike trail is closed but you know how we cyclists are when a trail is "closed". We have to push on to see if it really is closed.

We walked and carried our bikes around construction equipment, then rode over some dried mud, then carried our bikes over 100' of boulders. 

We were seriously committed at this point. Then there were gates and fences everywhere. They were serious about cyclists not getting through. I scouted and found a section of fence I could move so I created a gap and we passed through. We were on the wrong side of the creek, but we expected we could find a way over.

As we were looking for a way back onto the route, we came across two other cyclists trying to pass through the closure in the other direction. We gave them directions and explained what they would have to deal with. They were undeterred by the idea of carrying their bikes over the boulders. They were just as stubborn as us. I must admit, if I had known how difficult it would be to get through, I would have simply taken Los Alisos Blvd. Part of the problem is we were half a mile up the trail before there were any closure signs. A sign at the start of the trail might have dissuaded us. Probably not, though.

We got to Sam Woo a bit later than planned (the trail closure probably cost us 30 minutes) and normally I love the dim sum here, but my stomach was still unhappy so I nibbled at a few pieces. Fortunately there were only 20 flat miles left. We had a headwind back to the coast, two unpleasant miles on PCH, then 13 tailwind enhanced miles to the end of the ride. Total of 87 miles with 3,000' of climbing. Average moving speed was 14.2 mph. Not bad considering I had a bad stomach and we had to deal with a major road closure.

Can I ride a double metric century on my Brompton?

Yes, yes I can. If it's flat enough and not too hot. I designed a flat route that didn't go too far inland and rode it yesterday. It turns out to be exactly 50km from the pay section of Yorba Linda park to the Jack-in-the-Box on PCH and Warner. All I had to do was go down and back twice. This route is all bike path, which is an added bonus. The down side is that 36 miles of the 124 are on the beach path, which is full of inattentive beach goers.

I took the custom made aerobar bag I bought from EOGear and attached it to the QR aerobars I have on the Brompton. This gave me enough room to carry a vest in case it got cold in the morning or evening. This turned out to be a good move as it was only in the 60s when I started and it didn't warm up until 10:30.

My target time was 10 hours - I would expect to take about 9:30 on my road bike. My target moving average was 14mph with one hour off the bike. It was calm and cool when I started and I had a 15mph average the first time I got to the Jack-in-the-Box. I got a sourdough Jack sandwich and tossed the meat because it tasted vile for some reason.

Returning to my car I still had an average of 14.2 despite having to ride the beach path at 10mph because of the oblivious beach goers. I ate half the egg burrito I had stashed there. That's 100k done.

When I set out on the second leg I realized quite a strong onshore flow had developed and I struggled to hold 14mph. This is where the Brompton is at a disadvantage to a road bike. Even with drops and aerobars it's difficult to hold an aero position for very long. Perhaps a shorter rider would be more comfortable, but I'm not.

Turning north at the beach, the headwind became even stronger and I was struggling to hold even 11mph but the good news is that the idiot pedestrians didn't slow me down at all. By the time I got to Jack-in-the-Box the second time my average was down to 13.7mph. I had the chicken teriyaki rice bowl this time and it was good, but I left the chicken. I find protein on a hard ride bothers my stomach and this was turning into a hard ride. Hopefully I would have a strong tail wind for the return trip.

Turning around I found the tailwind was awesome so I made it my target to get my average back to 14mph as quickly as possible, and then hold it there. I had spent a total of 51 minutes off the bike, so if I could do that, I would have a sub 10 hour 200k.

Because of the pedestrian traffic on the beach I was unable to move my average until I started to head inland. Then I got down onto the aerobars and held 17 for 15 miles until my average got up to 14mph again. I relaxed for the last seven miles and got back to the car with a 14mph average and a total time of 9 hours 51 minutes.

This is probably the furthest I would ride my Brompton.

On a side note, I twice rode past a guy on a Zizzo folding bike and it was creaking like crazy. I'd go nuts riding a bike that made that much noise.

Upgrading to the new Wahoo Elemnt Bolt

Old Wahoo Elemnt Bolt

I have been riding a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt for a few years now and, once I had figured out its limitations, I was pretty happy with it. I use it mainly for recording rides and navigating routes. The biggest limitation was that maps look like crap on the black and white (not even mono-chrome) display. It's good enough that I no longer use a regular bicycle computer. When Wahoo announced a new, color, model, I was interested.

New Wahoo Elemnt Bolt

The obvious difference is the color screen which makes maps pop beautifully. Its a 64 color display so you can't watch videos or anything but they gave us color without diminishing the battery life. It's not obvious from the images, but the new Bolt is slightly larger and I had to move my aerobars slightly to get it to fit between them. It also has several nice features from the more expensive Roam model such as "navigate back to route" and an automatic backlight feature. Here's a photo from the end of last night's test ride taken in complete darkness with no flash. It came on automatically about 7:30pm, around 15 minutes after sunset.

The buttons and UI are pretty much the same as the old one so I had no learning curve to speak of. Deregistering my old Bolt and registering this one were a breeze. The only real problem I had was that the maps have to be selected while you have a Wi-Fi connection so I had no maps for the ride. I fixed that within a few minutes of getting home.

Like the old Bolt, it has a highly customizable screen with lots of metrics and the ability to ANT+ to heart rate monitors, power meters, and other devices. You can exchange routes and workouts with most popular training websites such as Strava and RideWithGPS.

You will want to buy this from Wahoo, REI, or other bike stores. There are some sharks trying to sell this on Amazon and eBay at inflated prices. Do not bite.