Larry's training log... T-N-T Death Ride

This summer I'll cycle in the California Death Ride - Tour of the California Alps. I’ll be riding in memory of my mother, Claire L’Italien (multiple myeloma) and in honor of my cousin Connie (B-cell lymphoma). It will be one day of pure pain, taking me over 5 mountain passes, 129 miles, 15,000 feet of climbing, and innumerable heartache. I'll be riding to help raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. These funds help to provide services, education, and to support important research.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Wow!!! Just Wow!!!!

Sunday April 27, 2008

What an absolutely gorgeous day and from the top of the seven evil step sisters (bitches on a bad day) I'm reminded of why I love living in the Bay area. Just check out the views!!!

Above: The reservoir at Alpine Dam.

Above and Below: The Dam.

Below: Resting atop the dam.

Below: The view from atop the seventh sister. DAMN!!! no more captions for the remainder, just look at the pictures and see why I love it out here.

Hand gliding anyone?

Where's Waldo (GG bridge)?

route and data:

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Look above at the elevation graph. That blip at ~mile 16 is Camino Alto and ~mile 53 is Sausalito. Then look at the big ass thing in the middle. That's Mount Tam and to think that I used to dread the Sausalito hill (pat, pat). Alpine dam is that little dip at ~mile 31.

Total Time (h:m:s) 6:23:55, 6:13 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s) 5:06:19, 4:58 pace
Distance (mi ) 61.57
Moving Speed (mph) 12.1 avg., 38.3 max.
Elevation Gain (ft)+5,841 /-5,821

Heart Rate Data Avg, Low, High
Heart Rate (%max) 77, 48, 100
Heart Rate (bpm) 142, 88, 185

Temperature (°F) 63.2°F avg., 71.6°F high
Wind Speed (mph) S 5.9 avg., S 11.5 max.

Week ending Saturday April 26, 2008

spin classes: 0
commute miles: 36.40

training miles: 88.34
weekly miles: 124.74

2008 year-to-date: 1,873.73 miles, 18/ spin classes, two flats, and one broken frame

ALC Day on the Ride - Saturday April 26, 2008

A little tardy posting, El Rio called on Sunday afternoon and with the sun and the salsa music and the Margaritas, well you know what took priority. ALC Day on the Ride was a hoot. Closest thing to the actual ride with the rest stops and tons of bicyclists. Rode most of the day with fellow DSSFers until Jose there in the red below turned into speedy gonzales and took off like a speeding bullet. That boy's fast, I'm a little more methodical and plodding.

Above: Michael, Chris, Jose (Joseph) , and David, before the start.

Below: Bikes and Bikes

Above: Safety Speech listen going on.

Below: Bikes and more bikes.

Above: Cameron and David at Rest Stop 1.

Below: Dave* fixing his cleats. *there are a lot of Dave's in DSSF.

Above: Cheese Factory Hill (it's bigger than it looks)

Below: Karen look this way.

Above: Looking towards Cheese Factory Hill.

Below: I've fallen and I can't get up. Massive group resting before attempting said hill. Squeeze those butt cheeks.

Above: Riders on Nicasio Valley Road.

Below: Dave and Michael at the last rest stop with only Camino Alto and Sausalito Hill left to go.

route and data:

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Total Time (h:m:s) 10:11:34, 6:55 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s) 6:20:56, 4:18 pace
Distance (mi ) 88.34
Moving Speed (mph) 13.9 avg., 40.7 max.
Elevation Gain (ft)+6,191 / -6,098*

Calories 5,230

Heart Rate Data Avg, Low, High
Heart Rate (%max) 74, 42, 102
Heart Rate (bpm) 137, 77, 188

Temperature (°F) 62.8°F avg., 75.2°F high
Wind Speed (mph) ENE 6.1 avg., ENE 24.1 max.

*That's it. The algorithms in various software to calculate Elevation gain/loss is so completely f'ed. MotionBased says 10,000+ feet, Garmin Training Center says 4,757, Ben (Cat 2 series) says something else, hell Garmin Connect shows what's above. I have absolutely no idea how many feet I'm climbing. From here on out I'm using only Garmin Connect to calculate so I can do some apples-2-apples comparisons (Granny Smiths please).

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Week ending Saturday April 19, 2008

The sailboats in Monterrey

spin classes: 1 (Thur 6:30 pm)

commute miles: 29.31
training miles: 123.53
weekly miles: 152.84

2008 year-to-date: 1,748.99 miles, 18/ spin classes, two flats, and one broken frame

weight: 172 pounds

Tierra Bella Hell...

I wimped out!!! I decided NOT to ride the ~94-mile Sea Otter road tour in Monterey today. I was plain tuckered out from the 99.64 mile Tierra Bella ride on Saturday. Little did I realize that Tierra Bella means 'Hell on Earth' :-) This ride was a lot harder than I had expected. It wasn't necessarily the eight mile climb up to Henry Coe Park. It wasn't necessarily the killer headwind that we seemed to be riding into the entire friggin' day, or that it became incredibly strong in the afternoon which made peddling into even more hellish. Rather the icing on top of the cake was the DUST the wind kicked up. I swear I sneezed for 40-miles straight, and that was on top of that 2,000 some odd feet climbing Henry Coe and the headwind. I was one tired bicyclist at the end of the day and once horizontal on the hotel bed was not moving till well past day break. Feeling a little bit wimpish right now because my legs are fine, my sinuses are fine, and I feel rested. I probably could have riden today, shhh.

Above: David and Jerome at the first rest stop still smiling, little did we know what lied ahead.

Below: Jerome at the fire pit on top of Henry Coe.

Above: Gratuitous butt.

Below: The line waiting for the porta potty. It was so cold on top of Henry Coe that the pavement was the best source of heat.

Above: David just getting to the top.

Below: David, Topher, and Jerome, comparing notes on the climb.

Above: Diane in Monterrey.

Below: More gratuitous butt (Trevor's pic from when they were waiting my return from hell).

route and data:

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Total Time (h:m:s) 9:33:05, 5:44 pace

Moving Time (h:m:s) 7:30:20, 4:31 pace

Distance (mi ) 99.70

Moving Speed (mph) 13.3 avg., 32.9 max.

Elevation Gain (ft) +6,995

Heart Rate Data Avg, Low, High

Heart Rate (%max) 77, 46, 101

Heart Rate (bpm) 142, 85, 187

Temperature (°F) 54.7°F avg., 60.8°F high

Wind Speed ( mph) SW 12.1 avg., SW 18.4 max.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

test riding the new frame

Taking a mini-break from work. I've got tons of errands to run tomorrow (dentist, passport, windshield replacement, etc...) and I needed a day to do nothing. Picked up my bike from the doctors last night, barely recognized it. Bring it in and I've got a silver F65 and when it comes out it's the black F55 frame below. The ride feels a little more stable than my silver one so I'm not sure if the frame is different or not. I'll assume it is slightly different, still aluminum with carbon forks and seat post, etc... I did swap out the rear 11-23 cassette for a 12-27. The hills also seemed a bit easier today, as they should with a 27. I'll be able to do the back to back centuries this weekend, Tierra Bella and Sea Otter.

Above: My slick new frame

Below: The fog trying hard to leave the bridge.

route and data:

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Total Time (h:m:s) 2:30:40, 6:18 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s) 2:03:36, 5:10 pace
Distance (mi ) 23.89
Moving Speed (mph) 11.6 avg., 34.9 max.
Elevation Gain (ft) +2,286/ -2,315

Temperature (°F) 62.6°F avg., 64.4°F high
Wind Speed ( mph) NE 3.5 avg., NE 3.5 max.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Week ending Saturday April 12, 2008

The apple tree is in full bloom (lilies, magnolias, and some pretty purple flowers too).

spin classes: 1 and an attempt* (Sat 9:00 am)
commute miles: 40.86

training miles: 84.30

weekly miles: 125.16

2008 year-to-date: 1,596.15 miles, 17 spin classes, two flats, and one broken frame**

weight: 172 pounds

*I definitely have my favorite spin class leaders/instructors (Amy, Mark, Christina, Carol, etc...I actually don't dislike any of them), but a suggestion to those that substitute. When a person drags their ass out of bed to be at spin class bright eyed and bushy tailed ready for a good workout, you do not show up twenty minutes late and then proceed to do some wimpy ass spinning with 15 minutes of stretching!!! That just lends itself to riders (me, and a few others) to walk out on you in frustration. Give some respect, get some respect (vent over)

**That clankity-clickity sound that I thought was a broken bottom bracket and a quick fix turned out to be a broken frame. Nice clean cut through the chainstay. I'm guessing the bike is trying to tell my to get my fat ass down a few more pounds. New frame is on its way. I was thinking of converting my compact double (50/34) crank to a triple/granny chain ring but I'm going to swap out my 11-23 cassette for an 11-28 instead (lot less money). I get to keep the big gears plus I get some easier gears for some of those hills (Thanks to Michelle for the suggestion). I'm hoping the bike is put back together by next Friday, I had signed up to ride the Tierra Bella (Gilroy) and Sea Otter (Monterey) centuries back-2-back next weekend and am still hoping to be able to ride.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

San Francisco - Point Reyes

San Francisco Day Break

So there was a charity run this morning over both sides of the Golden Gate Bride, which meant we had to be over the bridge by 7:00 am. I had to be up bright eyed and early with the approximately 30 other riders. I set the alarm for 4:30 a.m. expecting to leave the house around 5:30 a.m. and riding to the Sports Basement in the Presidio. Little did I know that Sunday April 6th was the 'old' daylight savings spring ahead time. My nice fancy alarm clock that sets it's own time - had jumped ahead on me. So I jumped out of bed, showered, brushed teeth, and got everything set to walk out the door. That was when it dawned on me to look at another clock and realize that it was just then turning 4:30 a.m. Let's just say I was not happy about being up an extra hour early. I wondered why the boys (Thor and Smokey) were not expecting to get fed like they usually do when I get up. C'est le vie.

Not all that bright eyed, a little blurred if you ask me. The group waiting for instruction (above) and being blocked by a fence from riding across the western side of the bridge (below). Turn around and go to the east.

My bottom bracket on the bike got busted today. Spent the last twenty miles home with clack, clack, clack, clack, when ever I would have to put pressure on the down strokes. It's now at the shop for repairs. Hopefully I'll have it back by the end of the week.