The Spinnnnnnnneing Life

Well today was the second day this week for my inside home spin class.  Monday I did very well; ~ 45 min almost non-stop.  Took a little getting use to, but once I got the hang of it I did well and worked up a good sweat.  Today however, I got overheated after about 20 min and had to stop and cool down.  This zapped my energy and my performance suffered.  I had to set up a fan to keep me cool, this helped and I got my energy back.  The rest of the ride went OK, I will do better next time.

Monday 11/8: Time on spinner bike: 47 min, distance: 17 miles, calories burned: 413

Wednesday 11/10: Time on spinner bike: 51 min, distance: 18 miles, calories burned: 432

Tuesday 11/9 I signed up for the spring (2/26/11) Death Valley Century!!!

Thats all for now.



Don't forget to stop and smell the ride!!

Back in the Saddle Again!!

2010 miles to date: 4050 miles!!!!! - Goal 4,000 miles

Weekly miles: 210 and then dropped sharply to ZERO for several weeks do to a injury.

Number of century rides: 5!!! - Goal 3

Longest ride without stopping for a break: 50 miles (7/4/10) - Goal 30 miles

Body weight: 157 lbs - Goal 155 lbs

Body fat: 21.5% - Goal 20%

It's been a while since my last entry.  I injured my arm during a ride a few days after I did the Cool Breeze Century and it took a while for it to heal.   My weekly miles dropped sharply, but I managed to do  the following rides:

11/6 Solvang Prelude - 56 miles

10/23 Santa Barbara Century - 65 miles

10/9 Templeton Wine & Roses Century - 75 miles

Daylight savings time started yesterday, so I will be starting a home indoor spinning program today that I will do three times a week and ride outside as much as I can, at least twice a week during the week days and  long rides at least every other weekend.

Thats all for now.  I  will make entries at least every other day, just to practice blogging.  My ride is coming up real fast!!!!!

Don't forget to stop and smell the Ride.

Cool Breeze Century 2010

Ride: Cool Breeze Century 2010
Distance: 103 miles
 Ride time: 7:13
Avg. Speed: 14.5 mph
Calories burned: 5,789
Elevation Gain: 4,570 ft

On top of Mountain Drive

Rest stop 5 

Rest stop 5

Rest stop 5

Shoreline Drive

Training Update

Ride: Weekly Training update for week ending 8/15/10
Weekly Distance: 118 miles
Number of ride days: 5
Ride time: 9 hrs
Avg. Speed: 13.4 avg
2010 miles to date: 3,337

This was a short week as far as miles go.  My goal was 6 days and 185 miles.  I forgot that this was a non-ride weekend to take care of other stuff. I also had a couple of after work events to attend, a going away happy hour for my former boss and the company beach picnic.  I still wanted to ride at least 100 miles so I took short rides on the weekend.  Next weekend will be the Cool Breeze Century out of Venture and might be my last one for the year.  I also will be doing more hills on my training rides a couple of days a week until I switch to weight training in a few weeks.

Shadow Training

Don't forget to "Stop and Smell the Ride"

June Gloom in August

Ride: Modoc Run
Distance: 26 miles
Ride time: 1:54
Avg. Speed: 13.7 mph
Calories burned: 1,434
2010 miles to date: 3,219
Weekly miles: goal 165 actual 165, goal for next week 180 miles
Number of ride days this week: 6

Again there was a heavy marine layer and heavy mist in the air.  The mist was more like a heavy drizzle at times and I got fairly wet at one point. It was cool with no wind.  I took off at about 6:45 am and it was quiet with very little traffic or people running about.  This is my favorite  time to ride, I enjoy the quiet and the peacefulness.  I stopped on the bike path, just above Goleta beach and took a photo of the quiet and stillness.


Map and Stats of todays Ride:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/43675590

June Gloom in August

Stop and Smell the Ride!

A good days ride

Ride: Gaviota Run
Distance: 51 miles
Ride time: 3:27
Avg. Speed: 15mph
2010 miles to date: 3,193
Weekly miles: 139 so far


I was planning on riding through the hills of Santa Barbara, but I forgot that it was Fiesta weekend and I didn't want to bother with the high traffic and crowds of people, so rode the Gaviota run instead and added the Patterson run so I could put in 50 miles.  I took off at 7 am with a heavy marine layer and heavy mist.  I wanted to leave earlier but it was still pretty dark out with the heavy marine layer.  It was quite cool, but there was no wind.  There seemed to be a lot more traffic on the road then last weekend, maybe because of Fiesta with a lot of people visiting Santa Barbara.

I road well and I road strong and I was able to pick up the pace a little without my knee hurting. The miles went by quickly with stopping once at Vista Point on the return leg for something to eat.  I had a Gel and a Larabar - a gluten free fruit and nut bar with 30 grams of carbs and 200 calories.  I'm trying to stay away from energy bars with high refined sugars and processed foods.  I plan to start making my own whole-raw-food energy bars and Gel.

As I rode, my thoughts kept going to how my job, well not my job but the environment were I work, just plan sucks.  The management keeps changing the organization structure and they just changed it again.  Now the engineering group reports to the manufacturing manager instead of the engineering manager.  There is now a split between manufacturing engineers and R&D engineers.  This was tried before in another department and it failed, mainly because they didn't let the engineers be engineers. Anyway enough about work - this is not about my job!!! that's what I kept telling myself when my mind drifted to the subject.  I instead thought about my training and how I wanted to proceed after I meet the goals I set up for the year.  I think I will start doing a 90 day strength training program like P90X after my next century ride.  I want to start it in September and finish up in December, get back into riding in December so I could be ready for the fist century of 2011 in January.  I have 9 century rides planed in 2011 before the cross country trip.

Map and Stats of today's ride.

Train Tacks at Vista Point

Guess who

Give up?

Me that's who

Don't forget to STOP AND SMELL THE RIDE!!!!

Why do I RIDE?

Behold the turtle. He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out.

James Bryant Conant


Because I get to!!

Training Goal Update

1) Ride at least 4,000 miles by end of year. 

• Miles to date: 3059

2) Be able to comfortably ride 25 to 30 miles non-stop. 

• Can comfortably ride 35 to 40 miles non-stop

3) Build weekly base mileage to 200 miles a week by end of summer. 

• Weekly mils up to ~150 - I have now transitioned to ridding 6 days a week, I plan to increase my weekly miles to 200 by the end of August.

4) Lose weight at a rate of 5 lbs a month. My goal is to get down to 155 lbs with less than 20% body fat from 190 lbs at 28% body fat.

• Current weight 160 lbs at 22.5% body fat - I seem to have plateaued with my weight loss, I need to change my approach - not sure what yet.

5) Ride at least 3 century rides by end of year. 

• Completed 4 century rides!! (in the last two months) I have 2 maybe 3 more scheduled this year.

6) Increase average cadence to 80 rpm by end of year

• Cadence still low at about 65 rpm - my knee starts to bother me above 65 - 70 rpm.  I might have to stay where I'm at - not really concern about it.

7) Increase average speed to 17 mph by end of year.

• Speed still low at about 14 mph.  I'm not too concerned with my average speed and I think 17 mph might have been a little to high of a goal but I will still work on it.

Overall I'm happy with my progress, still need to work on things, but I'm further along with my training then I was during the training I did for my 1st cross crounry bike tour in 2006.

Foggy Morning

Date: Sunday 8/1/10
Ride: Modoc Run
Distance: 26 miles
Ride time: 1:54
Avg. Speed: 13.6 mph
2010 miles to date: 3,032
Weekly miles: 147

This mornings ride was cool with a heavy marine layer with heavy mist at times.  I left at 7 am and I only saw 2 other bikers on the road, there was, however, a good number of joggers out.  I like ridding early, it's quite with little traffic on the roads and I don't mind the heavy mist.  I find the mist cool and refreshing, but I can't were eye protection with the mist, the water drops on the eye glasses make it difficult to see.  The fog and mist got heaver throughout the ride, it didn't burn off until early afternoon - Santa Barbara summer weather - June Gloom - sometime it lasts through August and makes for great ridding weather.

June Gloom in August - Near the start of my ride.

Stop and Smell The Ride

Ride: Gaviota Run
Distance: 42 miles
Ride time: 2:52
Avg. Speed: 14.4 mph
2010 miles to date: 3,006
Weekly miles: 121 so far

Lately I haven't been having all that much fun in riding and I can feel my performance on the bike suffer from it.  I thought at lot about it and then it hit me, I turned something that I enjoy doing into something that I HAVE TO DO, not every ride needs to be a training ride, I ride because "I get to ride" and not because I have to.

During my last few rides I didn't take any pictures mainly because I rode the same rout many times before and also because stopping would interrupt my training.  I'm now making a point on my long rides (40 miles or longer) to get back into the habit of photographing interesting things that I see.  This will help me to "stop and smell the ride."

Today's ride was a out on back ride from my house to Gavitota, 40 miles of freeway ride on Interstate 101.  I took off at 7am with overcast sky's, cool with a light mist in the air.  As I ride out, I paid attention to what I was thinking about; work, the noise from the freeway traffic, the quite when there was no traffic, the ride next year, my knee and wondering if it will hold up, the meaning of life, and many other random thoughts.  I became interactive with my thoughts, for example, when I thought about work I purposely thought about next years ride and how great it will be or I would ask myself questions like what is the meaning of life.  I noticed when I interactive like this I got to my turn around point without looking at my bike computer counting how many more miles.  The ride was very much more enjoyable.

The halfway point is on a overpass on the freeway so I stopped to take a few photos of on coming traffic.  I also stopped at vista point on the return leg and took a few photos of an old bridge and photos the coast line. It felt a little cooler on the return leg and there was a heaver mist in the air.  My knee started to hurt, I think from the cooler air, so I slowed a bit to spin at a higher cadence in a lower gear, which seemed to help.  I practiced the safe way of ridding across exit ramps on the freeway to spend as little time as possible in the kill zone (the kill zone is the time spent crossing the exit ramp were traffic is moving 60+ mph.  In all it was a very good ride!

Photos from today's ride:

Overpass on the 101 at the turn around point.

Coast line at Vista Point on the south bound 101 on the return leg.

Old bridge at Vista Point.

Why do I RIDE?

 "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, your body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, 'Woo hoo!' What a ride!'"


Because I get to!!

Tuesday After Work Ride

Ride: Patterson Run
Distance: 13 miles
Ride time: 1 hr
Avg. Speed: 13.3
2010 miles to date: 2,885
Weekly miles: 38 miles

Just a short ride today.  I want to get up early tomorrow before work.

Moday After Work Ride

Ride: Modoc Run
Distance: 26 miles
 Ride time: 1:50
Avg. Speed: 13.2
2010 miles to date: 2,872
Weekly miles: 26

I wasn't planning on ridding today, but work has really sucked today and I had to get it out of my head.  So I road and thought about my cross country ride next year.  I have a new boss today, the third boss this year.  He is a good guy and should work out find.  It's all the the other so called "help" that we have that is making things, shall I say, very stressful.  I'm concerned that we are going to drown in all the "help".  So I ride and work and my photography when I can.

Sunday Recovery Ride

Ride: Modoc Run
Distance: 25 miles
Ride time: 1:50
Avg. Speed: 13 mph
2010 miles to date: 2846
Weekly miles: 127

A slow recovery ride from Saturday's century.  I wore knee warmer and my Knee felt a lot better.  It was sore when I started but it felt much better by the end of the ride.

Windmill Century 2010

Ride: Windmill Century - 4th century of the year!!
Distance: 102 miles
 Ride time: 7:35
Avg. Speed: 13.6
2010 Miles to date: 2821
Weekly miles: 102

The Windmill century was out of Santa Maria and started in Pioneer Park. I checked in at 6:00 am and was on the road by 6:15.  The start of the ride was cool with overcast sky and misty.  It was a lot cooler than I expected and I didn't wear any leg warmers. My knee got cold and started to hurt early on and hurt all day, sometimes it was very painful.  I had to keep my cadence down otherwise I would get a sharp pain in my knee.  There wasn't too much climbing and most of the hills were long and not very steep, 4 to 5% (some 7 to 8% short sections) except the last hill 85 miles into the ride, a few miles at 6 to 8%.  There was a 7 mile flat open section were there was a nasty head wind -it felt like 25 to 30 mph.  I had to struggle keeping 8 to 10 mph.  But on the return side of the loop it turned into a 25 to 30 mph tail wind and I was hitting 25 to 35 mph on the flats!!  It warmed up into the 80's in the afternoon and I forgot to put sun-block on my arms and I got a light sun burn.

The rest stops were well stocked, the lunch was good, and the after ride BBQ was great.

3 Harbor Tour Century Ride

Ride:  Harbor Tour 2010
Distance: 100 miles
Ride time: 8:09
Avg. Speed:14.6
Miles to date: 2,719
Weekly miles: 169

It was a great ride.  Overcast and cool.  The sun was out during the climb over pass around the lake, but it was not too hot. It was cool and overcast again on the decent and the remainder of the ride.

Another rest day

Ride: No ride today - Friday 7/9
Distance:
Ride time:
Avg. Speed:
Miles to date:
Weekly miles:

My knee is still recovering.  It feels better and I think I will be able to complete the century on Saturday

Rest Day

Ride: No ride
Distance:
Ride time:
Avg. Speed:
2010 miles to date:
Weekly miles:

Today was a recovery day.  My knee was still very sore in the morning.  It felt better late in the day, but I want it fully recovered for Saturday's 100 mile ride.

Slow and Easy

Ride: Goleta Beach Run
Distance: 16 miles
Ride time: ?
Avg. Speed: ?
Miles to date: 2619
Weekly miles: 69

My knee was very sore when I got up this morning and it bothered me all day.  I decided to go for a short easy ride to keep it moving.  I might not ride tomorrow if it's still sore, I want to have it recover in time for Saturdays century ride.  The ride was uneventful, just a good tail wind going out, but a lousy head wind on the way back.  My saddle I think my be a little to low, I nee to try adjusting it up some.  I forgot to start my GPS so I don't have my average speed or ride time.

How to run down a old man

Ride: Modoc Run
Distance: 25 miles
Ride time: about 2hrs
Avg. Speed: 13.5 mph
2010 miles to date: 2,603
Weekly miles: 50 so far

My goal is to ride 200 miles this week, 100 miles during the week and 100 miles on Saturday in the Three Harbor Tour Century.  Today's ride was overcast and very cool and I should have worn my knee warmers.  My right knee started to hurt and I think it was from the cold.  I came close to running over my first old man today, but he managed to get away.  I was ride down the bike path near UCSB and I could see this man standing in my lane on the bike path,  I figured to pass him on the left but just as I started to go around him he saw me and also moved left right in front of me, I hit the breaks hard and stopped within inches of hitting him.  I don't think he saw me until I started to pass him, I must of startled him.   I almost collided with two other rides as I rode through UCSB,  ridding through the collage campus when school is in session is more dangerous than ridding on the Freeway.  

Cool Mist

Ride: Modoc Training ride
Distance: 25 miles
Ride time: 2 hrs
Avg. Speed: 13.5mph
2010 miles to date: 2,578
Weekly miles: 25

The Modoc training ride is a flat out and back ride.  From my house, down through UCSB, to Goleta Beach, onto the bike-path, to the end of the bike-path at Modoc Rd.  I took off around 7am, it was cool and overcast with the Marine layer with heavy mist at times.  I like riding in the morning with the cool mist, it's refreshing and invigorating.  The only problem is the my sunglasses get water drops on them from the mist  and I have to take them off, no eye protection. Anyway it was a good ride.

Training update

This is an update on my training progress.  My weekly training rides went down over the past couple of weeks do to having to take care of other commitments which are now completed.  I plan to increase the number of training rides to 5 per week, possibly 6.  I completed 2 century rides and I have 2 more scheduled over the next 2 weeks (7/10 and 7/17).  I also plan to blog every day starting today even If I have only random thoughts to write about.  I also will be adding more photos.  Below is my update with my 2010 training goals.


2010 miles to date: 2,553 miles - Goal 4,000 miles
Weekly miles: 182 miles (week ending 6/27/10) - Goal 200 miles a week
Number of century rides: 2 - Goal 3
Longest ride without stopping for a break: 50 miles (7/4/10) - Goal 30 miles
Body weight: 160 lbs - Goal 155 lbs
Body fat: 22.5% - Goal 20%

22010 miles to date: 2,116

Weekly miles: 166

2010 Longest ride to date: 100 miles!!! fist full century for 2010

Number of weekly rides: 4

June 1st rode 25 miles with an average speed of 14.3 mph.  Weather was sunny and warm and there was a strong headwind on the return trip.

June 2nd rode 16 miles with an average speed of 14 mph. Weather was partly cloudy and cool with a strong cross wind and head wind. 

June 3rd  rode 25 miles with an average speed of 14.3 mph.

Saturday June 5th rode my first full century (Ojai Century) with an average speed of 14.2 mph, ride time 7.06 hrs, average cadence of 71 rpm and with an elevation gain of 5,072 ft.  I road strong throughout the whole ride and did my best time over the passes of the lake and the climb on the backside of Ortega Hill.  Weather was cool in the morning but got warm fast, it was 59 degrees at the start and 100 at the end.  I felt good at the end and could have done another 25 miles.  

Sunday May 30h rode 25 miles as a recovery ride.    

Wild Flower Century 4/24/10

A few pics of the Wild Flower Century 2010.

At the start of the Ride.

Early Morning Climb.

Rest Stop #4

Afternoon Climb

Weekly training update

2010 miles to date: 1,950
Weekly miles: 150
2010 Longest ride to date: 75 miles
Number of weekly rides: 4


May 25th rode 25 miles with an average speed of 13.8 mph.  Weather was sunny and warm and there was a strong headwind on the return trip.

May 27th rode 25 miles with an average speed of 13.4 mph. Weather was partly cloudy and cool with a strong cross wind and head wind.  I'm working on increasing my week day rides to 25 to 30 miles with about 2 hrs of ride time.

Saturday May 29th rode 75 miles with an average speed of 14 mph, ride time 51/2 hrs.  Stopped twice once for a small break and the 2nd to fix a flat.  I had a sidewall blow out and had to boot it with the all mighty dollar, I'm glad the dollar still has it's uses. Weather was cool in the morning but got warm fast, it was 59 degrees at the start and 88 at the end.  I felt good at the end and could have done another 25 miles.  The rout I took was fairly flat as I wanted to increase the distance of the ride.

Sunday May 30h rode 25 miles as a recovery ride.  Had another flat, rear wheel,  need to change the tire there are a number of deep cuts in it and a hole in the side wall.    

Training Goals for 2010

I started training in January of 2010 with the following goals in mind:

For 2010 my goal is ride to as much as possible concentrating on time in the saddle and not too much on speed.  I haven't done any serious ridding in 3 years when I use to ride about 200 miles a week on average.  

1) Ride at least 4,000 miles by end of year. 

2) Be able to comfortably ride 25 to 30 miles non-stop. 

3) Build weekly base mileage to 200 miles a week by end of summer. 

4) Lose weight at a rate of 5 lbs a month. My goal is to get down to 155 lbs with less than 20% body fat from 190 lbs at 28% body fat.

5) Ride at least 3 century rides by end of year. 

6) Increase average cadence to 80 rpm by end of year

7) Increase average speed to 17 mph by end of year.

Miles to date: 1,800

Average weekly miles: 125

Body weight: 165 lbs at 22.8 % body fat.

My longest ride this year so far is 72 miles with 4800 feet of elevation gain. 

Average cadence is about 68 rpm.

Average speed is about 14 mph.

Welcome to my Training Blog

Hi and welcome to my training blog for my upcoming 2011 cross country bike tour adventure.  In June of 2011 I plan to ride the America North with America By Bike.  I will ride over 3,600 miles in 50 days from Astoria, Or. to Portsmouth, NH.  

The main reason for this training blog is to get use to blogging.  I plan to take my computer on tour and blog about my adventures.  I'm not one for writing or blogging, but I thought I would give it a shot and to give myself plenty of time to get use to it as well as learning how to add photos and video.