Riders after the storm

I rode a 400k brevet last Saturday. It was the staff ride for my 400k/600k brevet scheduled for April 28th. I had hoped to ride the 600k but as the ride date approached it was obvious that my injuries from the crash three weeks prior were not healed enough to ride a 600k.

A major late season storm blew through SoCal on Friday and dumped a lot of rain on us. Fortunately Saturday started cold and breezy but not raining. I started riding at 5:00am from Orange and headed up towards Long Beach where I ran into the first problem - the Long Beach Grand Prix. They had completely blocked access to the Los Angeles Bike path. Bastards.

I decided to get to the next control by using the San Gabriel River path so I turned around and rode back to it. The beach trail was flooded in places and extremely slippery. Riding through a large puddle I felt my back wheel slide out from under me and found myself on the concrete before I knew it. Other than being covered in cold water and mud, it didn't seem like a bad spill so after a few choice words I remounted and kept riding. However I did have the foresight to take some pain-killers because I knew the hurt was coming.

The San Gabriel bike trail added a few extra miles, but not many. On the way back I lost control of my front wheel in a flooded area in an underpass but fortunately recovered it. I was being ultra-cautious in any damp areas. With the delay trying to find a detour, the crash, and the extra miles I was 90 minutes behind my target time when I completed the first loop. Not that it really mattered.

Back at the motel I ate, changed clothes, cleaned-up a bit, took more pain-killers, and then headed out on loop 2 up to Beaumont on the Santa Ana bike trail. The Santa Ana bike trail had not flooded like the LA trails had so that part of the trip was less stressful.

Rincon Road in Norco was closed due to flooding. I rode around the gates and up to the flooded stretch. I could still see the double-yellow line through the water so I figured it wasn't that deep and rode through. It was maybe three inches deep and I made it through just fine. A little further I got to the turn from Hamner onto Detroit and verified that the sign is missing - there's no sign at Detroit. Thanks to Eric Anderson for pointing this out to me. I will update the routesheet.

The upper SART was not flooded either which was a bit of surprise as I've had issues under some of the bridges in the past. I've test ridden the stretch of the ride through Redlands, Yucaipa, and Beaumont at least twice this year but never with 130 miles in my legs (and multiple injuries). This is where the most concentrated climbing is with Overcrest registering a 10% grade on my GPS for a short distance. I really felt the climbing this time but the view from the top of Overcrest was worth it. I was certainly never at risk from overheating since the temperature never even got to 70F.

Caltrans has decided to replace a bridge on Brookside and according to the signs they don't plan on being finished until the end of May so we have to detour on Cherry Valley which adds a little climbing. More thanks to Eric for telling me about this. Cherry Valley is a bit more of a grind than Brookside but it's still very scenic and traffic was light as I climbed it. I've made this change to the routesheet too and the new one will be posted asap. The RideWithGPS route has already been updated

I had hoped to get to the top of the ride before sunset so I could descend San Timoteo before the dusk cooldown but that didn't happen. The temperature at the control was 44F so I bought a cheap rain poncho for $6.50 which I wore between my vest and my jacket. Thank goodness I did because I was flying down San Timoteo at 30+mph and the wind chill factor must have been close to freezing. I looked like a complete dork but at least I was a warm dork!

The return leg was fantastic. I flew back to Loma Linda and rode easily from Loma Linda to Corona, but I was plagued by sleepiness and spent a long time trying to deal with that, despite three Red Bulls. At the AM/PM control I drank one of their 'cappuchino' drinks - all caffeine and sugar. It went straight to my legs and brain (fortunately the caffeine went to my brain and the sugar to my legs) and I perked up and averaged 17mph for the last 20 miles to the motel. I have no idea why the coffee worked so much better than the Red Bulls. The temperature on that last stretch dropped to 39F on Green River Road.

I now have a purple bruise on my thigh that is seven inches across (my wife measured it). That's what happens when you crash and then ride another 220 miles. I don't recommend it.

See you on the 28th.

PS. This is weird. The pain-killers were 600mg Ibuprofen and I took 4 in about 4 hours. I should have taken this much over a 24 hour period. Later in the ride I started hallucinating. I could see a red halo around my aerobars. It lasted a few minutes then went away. I have no idea if that was caused by the drugs, sleepiness, or what. Very strange.

Benefits of a home gym

It has been two weeks since my accident and I finally got to ride again. The Serotta is still in the shop so I rode my Bachetta recumbent.a very flat 50 miles on the SART. The knee was very tight until the scab split and some icky stuff oozed out (TMI?). Much better after that happened. Perhaps now I've had some exercise I won't be so irritable.

About two years ago my youngest daughter moved out roughly at the same time as I was looking for a new gym. I was looking at $40 a month minimum for basic membership and realized I could buy a stationary recumbent for less than a one year membership. So I ordered a Schwinn 220 Recumbent Trainer  from Amazon and put it in my daughter's empty room. Then I added a small TV, a towel drawer, and a case of bottled water. Voila - home gym. I never have to wait for my favorite machine and the TV is always on the channel I want. The machines even have a little book ledge so I can watch Netflix on my Kindle Fire. Luxury.

My wife and I were so happy with the recumbent we bought a Schwinn 420 Elliptical Trainer six months later.

So when I hurt my knee two weeks ago, even though I couldn't bend it enough to use the recument trainer, I was able to use the elliptical within a few days. It was another 10 days before I could complete a pedal stroke on the recumbent. Having both machines available was a godsend. I'm sure it sped up my recovery significantly.

It has been two years since I bought the recumbent trainer and 18 months since the elliptical trainer. Total cost was about $800. Total savings so far is about $960. Both machines have paid for themselves and are still going strong. I use them about 4 hours a week and my wife and eldest daughter use them too. I can't imagine ever joining a gym again.

Ow - redux

I hate being ill or injured. I get irritable when I can't exercise. Fortunately I've managed to get enough range of motion in my knee to work out on my elliptical. I'm nowhere near being able to complete an entire pedal stroke. I'm hoping I can accelerate the healing process with very light workouts on the elliptical.

My Fleche team (a 360km group ride) is half way through their ride. I really wish I was with them. I hope they gave a good time.

Ow

Rode a fun 36 miles after work on Friday night on the top half of the SART. Then rode Back Bay loop on Saturday with my daughter but touched wheels with her after 4 miles and went down hard on the bike trail. Broke my rear derailler and ripped my campy brake hoods. I also took a considerable amount of skin off my knee (most of it actually) so the ER doctor couldn't put stitches in. In his words "I've nothing left to put stitches into".

I asked him what that whitish stuff poking out of the hole was, thinking 'bone'. He told me it's subcutaneous fat. Ew.

My only wish is that it heals enough that I can ride a 600k brevet in a month. The doctor assures me that won't be a problem. Unfortunately I don't think the doctor has any conception of what riding a 600k entails.

Thank goodness we weren't 30 miles into the ride.

Be safe.

Republican Candidates and Cycling

I've been wondering about how the election of any of the current Republican Candidates for President would affect cycling in the following four years. None of them stand out as being supporters of our sport.

Mitt Romney: His only adult exposure to cycling was while in France as a LDS missionary. Apparantly he hated it and thinks of cycling as something only poor or foreign people do who can't afford a car. He will probably do what he can to 'save' us from having to cycle at all. - Score 2 stars out of 5.

Rick Santorum: I don't think Rick cares much about anything except what other people are doing with their genitals. He may have heard that excessive cycling can cause Erectile Dysfunction which he would consider to be a form of contraception so he would probably try to make cycling illegal. He would certainly fight any attempt to force the Catholic church to allow their employees to cycle to work. Score 1 star out of 5.

Ron Paul: Ron is the only Republican candidate that regularly cycles. I hear he's quite a strong rider. However, as bike paths are created and maintained by Government (note the capital G) and Ron believes government should be as small as possible, I suspect he would happily eliminate all Parks and Recreation departments so we would be forced to ride on the roads. But as roads are created and maintained by CalTrans, WaDot, etc, we would soon not have any roads either. Perhaps if we all created and maintained our own mountain biking trails we could ride our mountain bikes on them and there would be no park rangers (Ron will fire them all) to tell us where we can and cannot ride. Score 3 stars out of 5.

Newt Gingrich: Newt only cares about getting money, power, and fame for Newt. I don't see any way he can personally get money or power out of supporting cycling, but if we name all the bike trails "The Newt Gingrich Bike Trail" he might support them. It'd be a bit confusing though. I hear there are plans to build a bike trail as part of his new moon colony. Unfortunately it'll be outside the dome. Score 2 stars out of 5.

The lukewarm winner is Ron Paul.

Sigma 1609 review

Major storm blew through this weekend. I'm glad I wasn't riding Vicky's 300k brevet up in San Luis Obispo. I hope her riders did OK. I have about a foot of snow outside my house right now so I will be using my Schwinn recumbent stationary bike today. I'm gearing up for a fleche (360km in 24 hour team ride) in two weeks. Meanwhile here's my review of my new Sigma 1609 bike computer.

I just mounted my Sigma 1609 and went for a 200k test ride. My initial impressions during the installation process and initial ride are very positive.

The Sigma is replacing an ancient Cateye Enduro that finally failed after more than 10 years and 50,000 miles of service. Two thumbs up for the Enduro, but Cateye's current Enduro doesn't seem as durable so I switched.

I did not install the cadence feature. I've been riding long enough to know when my cadence is in the zone or not. The mount can be rotated so you can install this on the bar or the stem. Wires are plenty long enough (I have a 62 cm frame and had about 6" of wire to spare). The sensor mount uses an o-ring which means it works even on the most aero forks. It took me about 15 minutes to install the computer, some of which was spent removing the old one.

The 1609 has a very large readout (great for those 50+ year old eyes on bumpy roads). The main display is always speed and the second display is one of a a long list. You change the second display with the top right and bottom right buttons that scroll through the list. One of the the secondary options is temperature which, while not incredibly important, is one of the few things missing from my Garmin Edge 705 so the two complement each other to some extent.

Resetting the 1609 involves holding the top left button for a few seconds. Moving into and out of Set mode requires you to hold the bottom left button for a few seconds. I like that the display indicates that you are about to reset or set data while you are holding down the buttons. This helps prevent accidentally resetting during a long ride.

I dislike bike computers that try to do everything with one or two buttons. It's too difficult to remember the magic sequence of button presses required to, say, recalibrate the elevation. The 1609 uses the four buttons very consistently so I don't have to carry the instruction manual with me if I want to correct the wheel size or something.

Talking about the wheel size I notice that even though I chose the wheel size for 700x23 the speed is reading 1.8% too high. Fortunately that's an easy fix.

You can carry over total mileage from a prior computer if you want to. Nice touch.

The backlight is also well designed. It toggles by pressing two buttons together. When it's turned on it lights up the screen whenever a key is pressed. However I could see not realizing it was on during the day and losing battery life as a result. I don't think there's any indication on the readout to let you know it's on. An ambient light sensor would be a great feature for controlling whether key presses activate the backlight or not -- hint, hint.

Cold weather cycling

Rode a 200k permanent yesterday ending up with 127 miles. My new Sigma 1609 cyclecomputer worked out really well. I like the temperature feature and the big readout. It was cold when I started - about 50F.

While 50F isn't very cold it got me thinking about the times I've cycled in snow and freezing rain. Cold weather isn't a problem if you know how to deal with it. The best way to deal with it is to know ahead of time what the predicted highs and lows are along your route. Arm warmers and leg warmers are your first defence as the weather cools - they are light and don't take up much room. As the temps drop closer to 50F you will need to add a wind shell which is also very light and rolls up into your jersey pocket when you need it. I have Pearl Izumi arm and leg warmers and a Pace wind shell (15 years old - best value ever).

When the temperature continues to drop you might need to add a vest which layers well with the shell. As your fingers get cold you can add long fingered gloves but I prefer to use silk ski undergloves. Mine came from Campmor and are so thin they fit under my cycling gloves. You also need to consider replacing the wind shell with a heavier jacket like the Performance Century II jacket. You'll notice I'm staying away from the high-end jackets - I find they tend to be too warm and I sweat too much with them.

At some point I will replace the undergloves with lightly insulated full-fingered gloves and replace my cycling socks with neoprene socks. Mine are 1.5mm thick but if you have room in your shoes you can go up to 2mm. Many people have booties that go over their shoes to protect their toes.

Below 35F I'll also add a neck/head warmer from Buff which is very flexible and about the correct weight for exercising. I also own cycling tights and long sleeve jerseys which I can add at a pinch but they are bulky and I only use them if I know it will need them for the entire ride. At this point I might take my Carradice bag so I have somewhere to stow all this gear if it's too much.

I also bought a Capilene base layer for Iditasport many years ago and I still use it sometimes (but it has to be really cold). I remember putting it on near the top of Mt Baldy while it was snowing during a 200k brevet and I was able to bomb back down to the valley. There were other riders who had to keep their speed way down because they were freezing.

You generate a lot of heat when you ride (remember you burn through 4000 calories every 100 miles). There is a tendency to overdress. If you're comfortable standing around before the ride, you will overheat during the ride.

All the above advice assumes you knew the ride would be cold. I've done a couple of rides where the rain/cold caught me by surprise. You don't have to risk hypothermia.

The first trick is to find a big garbage bag. Ideally you'll find a grocery or hardware store. I've seen a rider take the bag out of a public trash can, empty it into a second trash can, and use the bag. That was disgusting. Tear holes for your head and arms and put it on. It works best if it is between two layers. It will warm you up almost as soon as you start riding.

The second trick is for your hands. Go to a gas station and beg or buy two diesel gloves. They give them to you if you buy diesel fuel. They're just very cheap, generic food handling gloves. Put them on under your cycling gloves and they will quickly warm your hands up when you start riding. If you can find them at the store you bought the garbage bag at, even better.

Both these solutions will end up with you cycling in your personal puddle of sweat but they're cheap and they work. I'd like to thank the Davis Bike club for both these ideas which have saved my bacon more than once.