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%