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, June 9, 2009

Total Slacker

Day 1

Okay, so I'm a complete and total slacker with updating this training blog. I FAIL...I've found Facebook has made this kind blog a tad redundant. After laundry, work, bills, contemplating, and decompressing, I hope that within two weeks I'll have a ride report all sketched out and all my pictures from ALC8 organized and ready for sharing. In the interim the pics below represent the most striking things I think I'll remember from participating in AIDs/Lifecycle 8. I'll elaborate more in my ride report to come....

Year-to-date miles ridden: 3,243 (as of 6/6/2009)

Day 6

Day: 1-6

and of course there was Day 5...

Monday, March 30, 2009

‘Everyone looks like they are going to die’

‘Everyone looks like they are going to die’

Those were Trevor’s words to me a little while after finishing my first Double Century, the

Solvang Spring DC. He was wondering what on earth could possess grown people to put themselves through such pain as riding 200 miles in a day. I answered him by saying ‘I think that is the point’.
For I think that neatly encapsulates the point of attempting such a ride. For me it is the challenge that as I get older and my doomsday clock keeps a ticking; I want to push my body physically and my mind mentally to the limits. Trust me, riding a double century, even one as ‘moderate’ as the Solvang Spring DC, is both just as much a mental/psychological challenge as a physical one. If not more so.

I have been thinking about this ride for more than a year and training for months. My longest training ride was a few Saturdays ago, when I rode the SF Randonneurs Point Reyes 200K route (200K+ from home, 140 miles) with around 8,000 feet of climbing. I would be completely lying if I said I thought I wasn’t afraid of attempting a double century. I was nervous as hell.

A friend Doug and I were chauffeured to Solvang by Trevor on Friday. We arrived in Solvang late afternoon. I had to ride down to the local bike shop to get a new saddle bag after finding the one I purchased in the morning not fitting on my bike. Earlier in the week I busted my previous saddle bag after taking a tumble on a dirt rut on my commute to work. After registering and going to eat we quickly tried to get some shut eye. I spent a good while looking at the ceiling trying to get my nerves under control.

The alarm goes off at 4 am. Up out of bed I jump. Into my bike shorts, checking the weather to see how many layers I needed. I decided to use arm and leg warmers, extra socks, a vest, bandana, and some warm full fingered gloves. I tucked my regular gloves, an extra tube, my phone, and some sunscreen in my jersey pockets. Checked to make sure I had placed some ibuprofen in my saddle bag for surely I was going to need it and figured since I was checking I should take some immediately as a preventative measure. Shortly after 4:30 am, Doug and I leave the Holiday Inn Express to be joined by other bicyclist coming from the same hotel and from others down the road and we all journeyed the 3 miles to Buellton CA where the ride was starting from the Marriot no earlier than 5 am. I was definitely starting to get excited. Just about as we are hitting Buellton we begin to see riders departing in the opposite direction. We got to the Marriot, had them mark our rider numbers, and off we started.

It was a cool morning, around 42 degrees, with a ton of stars shining and a beautiful crescent moon. It was awesome!!! I absolutely loved heading down CA246 towards Happy Cannon Rd as a part a long procession of bicyclists with their lights on and blinkies blinking with hardly a car to be seen. I found I had a tendency to be entranced by all the blinking lights. It was an almost primal reaction, such as ‘I must catch the blinky ahead of me’. I found myself starting the first few miles strong but than trying to calm myself ultimately convincing myself that I wasn’t racing and I should slow down because it was going to be a long day. Yet off I continued after the next blinkie.

It wasn’t long before we turned onto Foxen Canyon Road and began our first ‘climb’ of the day. What was incredibly interesting was the climbing through the thermoclines, it being much warmer at the top then in the valley below. Foxen Canyon Road is an absolutely gorgeous road, sprinkled with vineyards and cows and horses and pastures with flowers. Just as the sun was

rising, we hit this road. We passed Firestone/Curtis, Koehler, Fess Parker, and Rancho Sisquoc. I nearly tossed in the towel when I surprisingly passed Zaca Mesa winery and called it a day, but I mustered all the will power I could find and peddled on. Shortly after passing Foxen we arrived at the first checkpoint/rest stop in Sisquoc after about 40 miles. After spending a little over 10 minutes at this checkpoint I got incredibly chilled and decided I needed to get back on the road to warm up. Doug was at the checkpoint by now, but being chilled I didn’t stay to chat.

From Sisquoc we traveled northeast on the eastern side of Santa Maria with only a slight climb on Bull Canyon Road. What I remember most about the roads between Sisquoc and San Luis Obispo is the strong riders I was riding with and the pace lines formed sporadically all the way to the second check point (mile 80). (Many thanks to Jerome for imparting pace line etiquette tips a few months back). The heat had been turned on by this checkpoint, in my estimation it was around 80 degrees if not above. All the extra warm layers I had on were taken off and rolled so that they went in my jersey pockets. The sunscreen I was carrying was liberally applied.

Leaving San Luis Obispo I ended up riding with Bill from Grizzly Peak Cyclists. I recognized his jersey and introduced myself. We ended up chatting a bit as we road and took turns in the lead as we headed north on Highway 1 into Morro Bay. We were traveling at a pretty good clip, overtaking riders ahead of us, but none joined. If I remember correctly we made it to the Morro Bay mandatory checkpoint by noon. In Morro Bay we had to have our numbers checked so that it was confirmed that we road the entire way. This is a pic of the rock in Morro Bay. Here we caught up with a person I think I recognized from Chris’s Old La Honda/San Gregorio training ride the week before. He was busy sending off a text notifying someone of his making the half way point. At lunch it was confirmed that he was on the training ride last week and that he was riding in ALC8 this year with Topher (someone I know from DSSF). Ryan, Bill, Blue guy (don’t know his name, he was wearing a blue jersey and shorts), and I pretty much stayed together all the way to the lunch stop where Subway sandwiches were waiting for us. I stopped to take these pics just before leaving Morro Bay.

Lunch was mile 118. The time was 1 pm. It was only while I was eating did the speed demons that were being timed catch up, blow into the rest stop, and immediately breeze back out. Keep in mind that the people wanting to be timed left at 7:30 am, nearly 2.5 hours after I did. After being absolutely shocked I was quite proud of making it all the way to lunch before they caught up with slow poke me.

I would have been in absolute heaven if the ride stopped at mile 118.5, lunch. I felt strong, not too tired, and in good spirits. After lunch the muscles started talking back, the energy dissipated, and the mental games began. I started noticing the bumps in the road a bit more. I recognized the hot springs that I stopped at with Will, Chris, and Roger, amongst others during ALC7 last year. From there it was a familiar route into and out of Pismo Beach all the way to Hwy 1 and Mesa View Drive. It was here that I started to get panicky and started asking what the hell I got myself into. The reason being was that I started to remember this stretch of road from ALC7, or more specifically the stretch of road that I was about to reach. Mesa View Drive was a slight climb maybe 200 feet if not a little bit more, which wasn’t bad. It was the stretch of Hwy 1 from the top of the climb all the way to Guadalupe. It is down right ugly in that the cross winds and head winds are absolutely profane inducing. If there was a bicyclist hell in California, this stretch of road into Rest Stop 4 in Guadalupe must be right up there contending for the top spot. So forgive me if it was during this stretch that I started cursing the gods, doubting what I was doing, etc…yet I could only peddle on. Just as I remembered the horrible cross/head winds, I also soon remembered in the middle of a curse the wonderful and beautiful TAILWINDS that would push me out of Guadalupe into Santa Maria!!!!

The tailwind was nice, but once I turned south again on Black Road the road conditions was less than ideal. I suspect that it may have been a simple fact of being tired and noticing all the bumps and potholes a lot more. However, the road (Hwy 135) into Los Alamos and the last rest stop was horrible and would be under any amount of rest. After resting for a little while, psyching myself up for the last major climb of the day up Drum Canyon Road, having a lot of M&M’s and soda at the last rest stop I texted Trevor to give him my ETA at the finish line. It was shortly after 5 pm and I gave him an ETA of between 6:15 and 6:30 pm. As bad as I thought Hwy 135 sucked, Drum Canyon’s poor road conditions would take the title of worse conditions for the day. I settled in and slowly started to climb the ~1500 feet in over 3.4 miles. I’ve definitely climbed harder hills, but not after 177 miles before. The slow and steady pace still enabled me to catch and pass other riders on the climb and it wasn’t long before I passed over the cattle grates at the top. The descent was the horrible part. The poor road conditions made a technical descent even worse. The riders I passed on the way up now passed me on the way down. I stopped to take a few pictures of the valley and some flowers. Flowers pretty, potholes ugly.

Since I found the climb not to take me as long as I feared, I decided to slow down my pace a bit because I had given an ETA and didn’t want to get there before Trevor (however if I had known he was already there…). Any how from Drum Canyon Road it was a left onto CA246 with an easterly heading into Buellton and the finish line (just after 6 pm) and a smiling Trevor and his beer which I immediately stole. After checking in, I settled in with a beer and another and let the sun and alcohols warm my bones.

So yes I felt a little bit close to death, physically and mentally, but the fact that I made it through to ride in another one still smiling means everything in the world.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Blah, Blah, Blah

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

I'm riding!!!

Haven't been posting lately, been riding a lot!!! I'll start posting more regularly soon.

In the mean time here is the general route and some brief information about each day:

Sunday, February 8, 2009

why did the chicken cross the road...Fremont Peak

why did the chicken cross the road...

These and other chickens above made my day on Saturday. After a nice climb up Fremont Peak on the way to lunch at JJ's in San Juan Bautista these chickens were criss-crossing back and forth across the road. I was tickled as could be.

I had never ridden down in the Hollister area, where David G lives, ever before. I had decided that since he was leading a ride up Fremont Peak that I should drive the less than two hours to Hollister and make the climb. I left SF around 7 a.m and was there near 9 a.m., not too bad. As I exited Hwy 101 in Gilroy onto Hwy 25 the fog was extremely thick. I was not going to risk my life riding in that fog, but the sun was peeking though in Hollister before we departed.

Above: the fog and clouds that we climbed though to get to the peak which provide a nice view west towards Salinas

Below: the clouds shrouding Fremont Peak from JJ's in San Juan Bautista. This is where Vertigo was filmed, so Dave tells me (another film I haven't watched).

Below:...and of course a trip back at the mission

Updated (2/8/09): okay I'll eventually write a real ride report, but until Uber WW Cyclist will have to do it for me.

View Larger Map
44.25 miles

3,215 ft of climbing

and lest you think it doesn't get cold here in sunny California, it was down right frigid on the descent.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Mt. Hamilton in the Winter

Above: Sierra Mountains off in the distance as viewed from Lick Observatory (Yosemite?)

Above: View from Lick Observatory towards Santa Cruz Mountains

Below: Riders climbing

Above: Lick Observatory sitting on top of Mt. Hamilton

Below: pretty winter flowers

Above: L2R; Cameron, David G., Jerome, David E.
Below: the peanut gallery

It was a perfect day to lead a ride up Mt. Hamilton. It was also my first time. Although Mt. Hamilton is the highest peak in the Bay Area, the grades were not all that steep. By the end I was tired, a bit sore, but not cramped. Not bad for nearly 80 miles for the day. Besides it was great riding with such a nice group as well as all the others met on the way. Including the friendly cow wandering the road that said hi.

total miles for the day: 79.01

~5800 ft of climbing

approximate route

January totals: thankfully this horrible month is now over.

335.30 miles

2 spin classes

rivers of tears

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Sweet sweet dreams my gentle one…

Eight or so years ago, almost a year after Trevor, Thor, and I moved here to San Francisco I obtained an email in my in-box at the Gladstone Institute. It was a heartbreaking email, sent institute wide, from a woman that had a dear cat that she was no longer able to keep. She was asking for someone to please adopt her cat by that Friday afternoon, otherwise she was going to have to bring the cat to the San Francisco SPCA. Even though the SF SPCA has a ‘no kill’ policy it was tearing her apart to have to put it up for adoption there. I knew Trevor would kill me if I voluntarily brought a second cat home so I waited until the very end of the day on that Friday before inquiring whether she had yet found a home for her pet. She hadn’t…it was breaking my heart too; so I offered to take the cat into our home till we could find a good home for it. Trevor was not happy when I informed him that we were going to foster this cat, not one bit; he threatened to take it to the SF SPCA that very next morning himself.

That night we introduced Thor to Smokey and Smokey to Thor. I remember a lot of hissing and screaming. We placed a screen door dividing the house in two, one with Thor in it and the other for Smokey. They could easily see each other and smell one-another, and yes argue at each other all night. Trevor was even more determined to send Smokey out for adoption. When Trevor was cleaning the house the next morning, he got fed up with having to constantly move the screen in the process of going from room to room. We finally decided to let them go at it, without interference, and let the best cat win. We thought for sure our boy, Thor, would dominate; he did but it was much more than we expected. We soon discovered that after all of the madness from the night before, they ended up chasing each other; which soon turned into wrestling, and soon followed into sleeping beside each other. In this manner, Smokey had become Thor’s best buddy in less than six hours. Trevor instantly realized that Smokey was a keeper and that he had worked his way immediately into our family. He has loved all of us and we have all loved him.

Today it tears the three of us to pieces to report we have had to say our good-byes to the gentlest soul. It has not been an easy decision to say good bye; we’ve spent days showering him with love, crying, and coaxing him to eat to no avail. Although he was still alert and somewhat ‘active’, as late as today, it was absolutely clear that he was in pain and was not going to get better. Many years ago we had a cat we loved, Trouble, who also had internal tumors. With Trouble we discovered them way too late after he had been in immense pain, dehydrated, and had stopped eating. We swore from that day forward that we would never let a cat live in such pain ever again.

We love our Smokey. We will miss your snoring (the loudest out of the four of us so says Larry); your screaming at us to get up out of bed and feed you; your constant demand for water from the sink or tub and not from the water dish; your wrestling with and chasing after Thor; your sleeping next to and licking each other’s heads; your peering up at us from underneath the flowers in the backyard; your getting everything covered with your fur; your love of brushing; your getting high from catnip and not just eating it like your brother; your playing with string and feathers; your love of string cheese and the finest steak we could buy as well as your new found love of turkey; we will miss your absolute ownership of Clingy Chloe’s carrier when she visited; your big beautiful green eyes alerting us to your skittishness; we will dearly miss your love and our ability to show you ours in return; and lastly we will miss your purring that made everything seem right in the world!
*****

You are and always will be our gentlest of souls!!!
Sweet dreams our love…we will remember you ALWAYS!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

hurting heart...

As many know, Smokey has been ill lately. Smokey has always been a very slow and finicky eater but lately he just hasn't wanted to eat. We've tried wet food, wet food mixed with his favorite dry fish flakes, turkey, steak, tuna; you name it. His appetite is just not there. Last weekend we brought him the vets to get checked out and have some blood drawn. The blood test showed 'liver' problems and tonight we had an ultrasound done on his liver/abdomen and have gotten very bad news. He has two 'masses' on the outside of his adrenal gland and outside of his intestines. These 'masses' are almost certainly the underlying cause of the impaired liver function. He's is not very happy but he's staying overnight at the vets to get some nourishment and fluids. His dads are devastated. We so want to go get him tonight and hold him close. So tomorrow night Trevor and I will go get him from the vets, bring him home, and try to get him to eat as much as he's able; but more importantly to make him as comfortable as possible and to shower him with even more love. This may sound deterministic but we've been here before and know how this is most likely to go. Knowing the probability, we still pray like mad that the 'masses' are nothing and that treating his liver impairment with antibiotics to fight off an infection (which ever so slightly may be the underlying cause) will help him rebound.

It's funny how pets work their way deep into one's heart.

the haystack needle

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

oh happy day...

photo via theleftcoaster

Many sincere congratulations to the Obama's and to all of us...even this old skeptical heart is hopeful today. May my deep cynicisms be proven wrong. Cheers to that.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Los Gatos Hills (i.e. Redwood Gulch)

David, Stephanie, and Jerome, in Los Gatos.
Season is starting off to a real slow start. After an awesome vacation in Paris over the holidays, Trevor and I arrived back in SF for work to immediately become sick. At least we made it home before succumbing. It was a Cold/Flu thingy. For awhile there I thought it was going to be pneumonia. My chest was heavily congested feeling as if a vice was gripping and tightening. It made it very difficult to breath. This lasted a few days and then one morning I get up, get all ready to head out the door to go to work but sit down on the couch watching the weather because I had a few minutes and I never got back up. Ever have one of those moments when you just realize that things were going to get bad; well I slept for two entire days straight with a high fever to boot. Not fun.

Stephanie and Jon at the top of the hill.

I declined to train for an entire week afterwards to make sure I had recovered sufficiently. Yesterday was my first real ride of 2009. David Gaus, DSSF, was leading a ride in the South Bay so I grabbed the bike and went. David, another David, Jon, Stephanie, Jerome, and I, rode a figure 8ish loop from Sunnyvale to Los Gatos and back. Jerome and I opted to ride up Redwood Gulch while the others chose Mt. Eden. Let’s just say I’m in such bad shape and with my heart rate beating around 198bpm I decided to walk a portion up Redwood. Last fall I would have made it, but after over two months off and being sick, I was literally near death ;-) Very, very humbling, I’ll have to retry soon.

Wondering whether Jerome headed to the top, top or already descended.

View Larger Map
53.53 miles
3,280 feet of climbing
(63.05 miles total for the day)

Paris III

For those that haven't seen the pics I posted to Facebook...

Day 6 - Versailles

Day 7 - 8 - 9

Paris II

For those that haven't seen the pics I posted to Facebook...

Day 4 - Picasso

Day 5 - Louvre

Paris I

For those that haven't seen the pics I've posted to Facebook...

Day 1 - Notre Dame

Day 2 - La Tour Eiffel

Day 3 - Sacre-Coeur