Lunch Ride - Oh The Pain

Strava:  http://www.strava.com/activities/182590593

Attendees:  Vince, Mitchell, Hiroshi, Galen and me

Highlights:

• Nice to have Hiroshi and Galen back out with us on a lunch ride
• I feel fat
• Vince took off right away on California and continued breakaway leaving us at the light on University
• I am fat
• Galen accepted the challenge of trying to catch Vince and for the most part did 90% of the work doing so.  My 10 percent was where we didn't really gain on Vince but just gave Galen time to rest so he can continue reeling Vince in after.  It took just after the bridge to catch the bugger.
• Hiroshi and Mitchell suffered the fate of dropping off due to Galen's crazy power on the bike trail. 
• Worked together with Vince and Galen on the rest of the bike trail and on Laguna Canyon.
• Vince said he wouldn't attack up Pine Needles/Luminuous...but he did
• Galen passed me as well, but I tried to sneak by him with a sprint to the top...he laughed at my sneakiness and passed me after.
• Did I mention I'm a fatty?
• Vince and Galen broke away on Quail Hill after I got dropped at the top, but Mitchell (and the light before going up Shady) helped us regroup.
• Galen led up Shady, but Vince launched midway...again
• I waited a little later and tried to reel Vince in before the top just missing the pass at the crest
• Galen and Mitchell got back on after we tried to get away for a little...as expected
• Sprint to Shady bike trail was sketchy with Vince taking off early and Galen following.  I was working to catch them and pass before the bike trail but they checked up due to passing stopped vehicle.
• Mitchell led us on Bonita Canyon at first followed by the rest of us, but Galen amped it up again up the climb and I nearly pulled a Roberto Duran and was ready to exclaim "No mas!"  
• We cut the condo because Galen had to get back, and truthfully I was just done.
• There was a police car that had slowed down and appeared to be following us as we were getting on Bison, but no incidents...we were good.
• I tried to setup a sprint to the finish and drop Vince who jumped on my rear wheel, but he managed to sneak by at the end.

Moral of the story:  Mexico all-inclusive resorts are not conducive to being able to keep up on our lunch rides.  Oh...and being fat sucks.

2014 Summer TEAM Ride

Strava:  http://www.strava.com/activities/171371863

I wasn't sure how many people were going to be able to make it out for the team ride, but we ended up having better numbers than I expected.  Galen, Todd and Vin confirmed early on but we were lucky to have both Vince and Hiroshi join us last minute also.  Woo hoo.

The plan was to meet at my house and depart for the ride around 8:30 a.m.  Galen was the first to arrive despite living the furthest away, and he was followed by Todd, Vince, Vin and Hiroshi (who ran into some traffic on the way down due to an accident).  We still managed to get going before 8:45 a.m. though even after taking some pics beforehand.

Is it weird Vin is always next to me in pics?  Pic courtesy of Vince who wore white.

The weather was already pretty warm when we got going and we wondered how this was going to affect us during our ride.  Fortunately for us, there was a lot of overcast by the ocean where it kept it from being a lot cooler than what we expected.  Stopping on the way back allowed us to feel the warmth, but overall it wasn't bad at all.  The winds weren't that bad either and the headwinds were mostly on the way down. 

With Hiroshi still in recovery mode and Galen not having ridden too much lately, we definitely started out a lot more mellow than usual.  Everyone did a great job keeping the pace moderate so that we don't have anyone falling off early on.  I would do my sweeping duties to make sure no one was dropping, but after I saw how solid everyone was riding, I pushed up to help up front as much as I could.  It was a "team" ride after all.

When we got on PCH, someone pushed the pace up a little higher (I think it was Galen from the rumblings after we got to San Clemente), but everyone did great nonetheless and there wasn't really any fallout as a result.  In fact, I think that there wasn't one time on the way down that we weren't riding tightly as a team. 

We held a great pace all the way down and reeled in groups and individuals all the way down.  We did have some people jump on behind us here and there, but none of us minded.  I think Galen must have said hi to everyone on the way down AND back, but that's good BRCM cycling ambassadorship.

Todd and Vince were doing a lot of the work up front as expected to keep the pace up, while Galen did his thing trying to provide Hiroshi a solid draft since Hiroshi was still in recovery mode from his surgery a few weeks back.  Hiroshi did fantastic considering that he just started riding again recently, and definitely exceeded my expectations for the day.  Vin was participating in the rotation when he could, but he seemed to favor pushing up and creating a gap after sitting in the draft for a while where it appeared to be the end of Strava segments from what I could see.  Ha ha...typical. 

Although we didn't have any mechanical incidents, we did stop/slow a couple times thinking someone had a flat.  Fortunately, they were both false alarms.  There was no bonking during the ride, but we did have to regroup a couple times on the way back when gaps would form.  Everyone did the team thing and waited for others when needed, so overall you couldn't ask for better team work than what I saw yesterday. 

We had a good break at McDonald's and in the end had a ride time under 3 hours, with just 25 minutes of extra time elapsed for the break.  Todd, Vince and I were definitely trading off the pulls on the way back and helped to get us back in a great time.  I know I was just thinking about getting to the cold beers waiting for us, so I would push when I could.  I'm sure the other guys were thinking the same thing.

Chillin' with the crew

 We got back and chilled out in my garage for a little to get a little hydration, but that eventually moved to my back yard where the beer fest began.  Everyone brought different kinds of beer where we had the following samplings to choose from:

Negra Modelo
Kona Castaway IPA
Black Butte Porter
Shock Top Belgian White
Peroni
Lagunitas Fractional IPA
Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Sumpin'
Chimay Grand Reserve
Delirium Nocturnum
La Fin Du Mond
Allagash Curieux
Magic Hat Not Quite Pale Ale

Along with the above, the ladies had some margaritas with Grand Marnier and triple sec (Cadillac).  I didn't really eat enough Mexican food to buffer the alcohol intake, especially after draining my bottles for the ride, but at least I didn't fall asleep this time.  As always, it was definitely a great time hanging with the fellas both during and after the ride and in all honesty, is why I love being on this team.  As always, let me extend my apologies should I have offended anyone after the ride, but hey...at least I kept my clothes on this time. 

Great times with great peeps.  Thanks for making it out, gents!

Riding with MC McGee Equals PAIN

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/activities/170506230

Temperature:  HOT

Attendees:  Shannon, Vince and Vin

Highlights:

• When Shannon comes out for a ride, the anxiety level among the others rises significantly...self included.  It didn't help that he stated "maximize the pain" in the body of the sentence from his invite.
• Todd just missed the ride since he had to get back early...lucky him.
• Everyone wore black as Shannon asked...except me.  That's why I ride a small yellow bus to work.
• Vin took off during the beginning of the ride and immediately this guy came to mind:
• There was an early jump on the bike path from Vin and Vince, but it wasn't long before we were all together with Shannon towing the group
• I tried to help when I can, but it seemed that others were a little tentative initially
• When we got on Back Bay though, everyone was working and doing their share in the rotation.
• There was a little sprint to the end of the gate that had Shannon and Vince going for it.  I couldn't breathe.
• We all made our way onto PCH eventually and continued to keep the pace up.  We rolled up and passed one guy who I thought may join, but he didn't.
• Riding through Ocean and onto Poppy was pretty uneventful except we did have to stop before we got back on PCH due to a van blocking the road.  I paid the driver later for letting me rest.
• On PCH, Shannon lit it up pretty good and I can honestly say that being in the draft offers little reprieve when trying to keep up.
• The climb up PCH had Vince and Vin take off ahead initially, but we all ended up together after hitting some lights.  Shannon ended up taking the front and Vin did a great job staying with him while Vince and I slowed up some toward the end.  Vince was further back than me, but he caught and passed me before the light.  The things I do for the team.  ;)
• We had a good run through Pelican and down NPC and on PCH and although some gaps formed early on, everyone managed to get back together.
• As we made our way onto BB after a good run on PCH, the rotations began again.
• Shannon took a mean ass pull at one point with me behind me, and trying to pass him to take a turn is almost impossible.  
• Vince took off at one point to attempt a breakaway, but it was neutralized by Shannon who ended up taking the final pull on BB.  
• Vince took off up the hill and I just managed to latch on behind me.  We worked together on the bike trail and eventually up to California with no funny business.
• I took the lead up California expecting everyone would be behind me, but I think they probably just sat back and laughed as I struggled to keep a 17 mph avg up the damn thing.  

All in all, it was a great training day.  More miles than usual, but with my lack of mile this week, it was definitely warranted.  Thanks for the invite, Shannon, and thanks to all for the great workout!

BRCM Lunch - Now THAT'S What I Call A Team Ride

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/activities/167708324

Highlights:

• Although we got a late start given Todd and Vince being in a meeting, I'm glad I waited as it was definitely a lot better than riding alone.
• Vince got his new steed, a sexy black R3 with Di2 and some carbon Shimano wheels.  Can you say "uh oh?"  
• We decided to do the bike trail, Knollcrest, and Ridgeline for today's route, but pull back to about 80% to save up for the weekend.  We did exactly that.  
• It was great teamwork throughout with everyone taking turns up front, no breakaway antics, and just good solid riding/rotating.  My average heart rate was only 144 and I never even entered Z5 once.  Cool!
• We even got to talk about Vince's new bike during the ride.  I think this is what Hiroshi would refer to as a conversational pace.  
• 20.5 mph average (20.7 per my Garmin) for this route further substantiates the mellowness.
• Can every ride be like this?  HA HA.  Actually, we need the madness for the training, but these types of rides are definitely fun to do with the team.  

Thanks for coming out, Vince and Todd.  You guys rock!

BRCM Lunch - Nice to Ride with Others Again

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/activities/167316688

Attendees:  Todd, Vince, Vin and Mitchell

It's been a while since my last blog, but I thought I'd throw this one out there to show that we're still riding.  It's not because I've lost interest in the team (or the guys on the team for that matter), but sometimes life just gets in the way.  I feel bad that I haven't been able to coordinate rides and motivate others to keep riding, which is evident with David Liu having been on top of our team leaderboard in Strava miles-wise for the better part of this week (no offense, David), but some restructuring in my personal life was warranted where time was just not available for me to do so.  It's still not, but I'll do what I can.

Anyways....

It was nice to see Mitchell back on the bike again.  In the gym, he mentioned how he missed me and that he never even misses his own boss.  I'm not sure what the correlation there was, but I'm sure it was a good thing.  Needless to say, I let him know I missed him too.  Get a room, right?

Vince and Vin came out, and Todd showed up late where we all decided it was best to wait for him.  After all, he's the least to complain about sitting on his rear wheel the whole time.  5 riders all together is probably the biggest group I've ridden with in over a month.

I called out the route on an e-mail yesterday, but we threw in a horseshoe variation to the NPC double-back bay route at the corner just before taking off.  I also didn't remember how the route finished, so we determined we would go up California in the end.  I guess I can see how it's more fun for the others to have the route totally laid out for them beforehand. This led to 3 different variations of the route, but needless to say we all got a great workout nonetheless.

Todd started out ahead of everyone right away, but the rest of us managed to get up on his wheel before the stop sign at the top of Eastbluff (no thanks to the others who didn't help close the gap...ha ha).  I tried to help Todd with a pull or two, but I was feeling like a big fatty after not being able to exercise yesterday (plus the nightly beer drinking - just 1 or 2).

My fattiness was also seen climbing up NPC, where I ended up not being able to hang on after we passed the 73.  Todd had been leading the whole way at a good pace, but when Vince finally decided to take the front, my stomach chub was too heavy for me to stay on.  Fortunately, I had my wingman, Mitchell, with me since Vin dropped.  He helped after we got to the top and we worked together on San Joaquin and the horseshoe.  We did see Vince ahead of us on San Joaquin having skipped the horseshoe, but we thought he was alone and that Todd had turned.  Mitchell wanted to follow him, but I said we're doing the horseshoe because I'm a stickler for following the designated route.  I always think someone's going to give me crap in the locker room for doing a route other than what we discussed.  It's the self-imposed burden I carry....

When we came out of the horseshoe and didn't see either Vince or Todd, we pretty much expected it would be a tough chase unless we totally get lucky with the lights and they didn't.  Well, I think the opposite occurred as we hit long light after long light.  We did roll up to Vin at McArthur (I think) since he skipped the horseshoe to catch up.

The 3 of us worked together hoping to catch a glimpse of Vince and Todd, but when we hit the light at Jamboree and didn't see them, we figured we were on our own.  Both Mitchell and Vin were taking good pulls (surprise surprise...haha) with no antics.  Vin even led us up Jamboree after going through Back Bay on the first pass.

The 3 of us were stopped at the light on Ford/Eastbluff heading toward the 2nd BB pass.  Once the light turned green, two guys buzzed us on bikes having had momentum on their descent and making the green light perfectly.  Of course, I entered chase mode immediately after they did only to realize it was Vince and Todd!   They had extended their route by going by the trailer park bike trail. They definitely didn't slow down to wait for us, so we had to book just to get back up to them.  We were all together at the stop light on San Joaquin given the red light though.

From here, we all worked together as we made our 2nd pass through Back Bay with everyone carrying their fair of the load up front.  Vince and I had gotten a little ahead at the top of Back Bay as we made our way to University.  We exchanged pulls after Vince gave me the arm wave to pass as he was rubbing down a cramp he was starting to get.  When he relieved me as we got passed the bridge, you can see the other guys looming behind us.  The next thing you know, Vin had passed and was going for it (or seemed like it) as we made our way toward California.  I took the opportunity to get on his rear wheel and have him lead us close enough for a pass just before.  It's how we do....  Nice pull.  :)

When we started heading up California, Vin started off a little aggressive again, so the rest of us latched on.  I took the next pull, and Todd the one after that.  I saw Vin looking like he was getting ready to go, but he never went.  I went to pass as we neared the top, and Todd and I just started pedaling our asses off side-by-side as we made our way to the stop light.  Intense!

Thanks for the workout today, gents!  I hope we can start getting others to join us more.  While I can't say I'll blog every ride, I'll do so on occasion when I can.  

SCNCA State iTT Championship - The Report

Strava:  http://www.strava.com/activities/145065407

About Palmdale: if you ever decide to stay up here for any reason, definitely stay on the WEST side of the 14.  I stayed on the EAST side and never felt confident that my car would still be outside my hotel room in the morning.  I didn't even want to leave my bike in my room as there were guys walking around like they were just scoping the place out.  There was even two guys who parked just outside my room and sat in the car and looked at me as I unloaded.  Thankfully, I'm from the hood too, so maybe they recognized one of their own.  HA HA.

About the course: I drove up on Friday and had every plan to just go straight to my hotel and settle in.  However, I opted to have lunch with the wife first, and she had asked whether I was going to check out the course beforehand.  What a novel idea?  It never even dawned on me to do so, but I think doing so would definitely ease some of my anxiety of racing on an course I'm not familiar with.  It took a whingle to get there as it was an extra 25 minutes away from my hotel, but I'm glad I got to see it.  There were some guys there riding the course likely preparing for the race.  I never stopped since it also looked like a place where they filmed Boyz-in-the-Hood.  I drove around the whole thing to check out the road conditions, width, and the varying (albeit slight) elevation change.  The first 6 miles had an average grade of 1%, which made me wonder how the hell people were doing 36 mph averages on it last year.  However, given how hard the wind was blowing in the afternoon, I don't think one even had to pedal to get up to that speed.  The right turn to 240th street led you to a slight downhill, which I figured would provide some reprieve from the slight climb before it.  It didn't take that long to get down it...in a car.  Then there was the right turn to Palmdale where the road was actually finally smooth where the roads before definitely seemedb like they could use some repaving here and there.  It wasn't smooth the whole time as it got rough again after a little pitch up, but it was nowhere near as bad as the last part of the Stagecoach.  On the last road, it was similar to the first two but seemed pretty flat throughout.  For the race, the course would not be closed to cars but it would controlled at the intersections and there was very little traffic in the morning other than support cars driving around.

About the weather:  As I mentioned above, the winds were definitely howling on Friday and I could just see setting some mean KOMs with that wind behind you.  I actually died down some the next morning, but it would be best described as going from a category 4 tornado to a category 3...i.e. it was still a tornado.  It definitely had me wondering how the race was going to be on the course and how to ride through it, but I didn't actually get to see what it would be like until I actually raced it.  I warmed up on my trainer, so I really wasn't sure what to expect except I knew I definitely wasn't looking forward to heading into it. As it turned out, you did have a tail wind on the first stretch, a head wind on 240th, more head wind on Palm, and it behind you once again on 180th and on Avenue O.

About me:  I parked on 180th as most had and warmed up on my trainer as most everyone else seemed to also.  I saw Kim Nida there, possibly Tracy, Rose and Peter before the race but other than that, I just did my own thing.  My own thing included chugging down a bunch of coconut water and some water with electrolytes just before the race.  I tried to put away my trainer and get to the porta potties for a last minute piss given all the fluids I drank in the morning given I had planned on not taking any fluids with me.  However, by the time I got to the porta potties, the line was too long and my time to line up was coming up too fast.  I decided I'd just without taking one and make the best of it.
 
About the race:  I changed my plan this race (last minute) and decided I'd focus more on my power (3s average and overall average) and actually opted not to look at speed at all.  I had speed on my display, but on the very bottom just under distance.  I don't really know if this worked well for me as I ended up feeling like I was always behind the eight ball the whole race, but that's what I get for making changes on the day of the race.  When I finally got going, I was monitoring my power and couldn't figure out why I just couldn't hit the numbers I was hoping for.  I had a decent warm-up being on the trainer for about 20 or so minutes and actually sweating, but I never did push very hard and if anything, probably pushed too little to really get a lot of blood flowing through my legs.  Thus, monitoring my power was definitely making me feel like I just wasn't ever working hard enough.  While my numbers were low, I still did 28+ mph avg on the first stretch.  It wasn't enough though as the guy who started after me was already passed me probably 3/4 of theo way of the stretch.  Sigh.  When I came up on the first right turn, it felt like running into a wall.  You can see it was downhill, but the winds were pushing so hard that I really had a hard time getting through that section at a reasonable speed.  When I got on Palm, I still didn't feel that connection with my bike but pushed through anyway hoping to just get the damn race over with.  After getting passed again, I got a little bit more motivated and finally found my rhythm half way through Palmdale Ave.  I tried to keep the guy who passed me not too far away and succeeded in doing so.  I did end up passing a couple guys in the process as well.  When we hit 180th, I finally felt the wind let up and thought to myself, now it's on.  I tried to chase the guy down and was even pedaling at the top gear throughout, but still I wasn't closing like I'd hoped.  I passed a couple other guys but I don't know if there were in my category or not.  When I rounded the final turn and headed for the finish another 6 miles away, I was really pushing hard and almost held the top gear throughout the entire distance.  I started to run out of steam at the end having pushed so hard, but I managed to average 29.4 on the last stretch.  I was definitely done after that and did not even know how I'd make it back 6 miles where my car is...and against the wind to boot!

About the results:  Having moved up to Cat 4, my expectations were definitely not as high as had I raced 5 as originally planned.  I catted up though after seeing only 4 other people signed up for CAT 5 (there were 20 all together in Cat 4) where it just didn't seem worth racing if only against that little.  One guy didn't even show up, so actually there were only 3 in the end.  For Cat 4, I just missed the 10th spot by ~1 second.  Of course, I wish I could have hit the turns harder but I never really felt comfortable since they weren't too wide, there could be cars, and it didn't seem clean enough where I didn't want to wash the front.  I don't know if it would have mattered or not, but whatever.  In the end, my time was 53:35 with an average speed of 25.8 mph.  This is a far cry from what they did on the course last year, but the conditions were definitely more challenging as others were off their time previously by at least a couple minutes.

About next time:  We'll see if this is a race I'd do again.  I may just to see if I can top my time from this year, but a 23 mile TT is definitely not the same av ~10 mile TT.  I'll have to see what the conditions will be like next year, but I'm definitely not looking forward to 9 miles of serious headwind again anytime soon.  Ridiculous.  

GP Crit Series 2 Race 2 - Live and Learn

Strava:  http://www.strava.com/activities/144497016

Arriving at the crit, it looked like the conditions were pretty ideal with cool temps based on some cloud cover and what appeared to be a little wind only.  It was actually even a little nippy when changing to get ready where I couldn't wait to get on the bike to warm up.  The first lap was definitely cool, but what was surprising was how windy it was on the back side of the track.  We were expecting more headwind on the bottom of the track, but that actually ended up not being the case. While it's been worse, it definitely was not  "ideal."

Now Shannon and I had discussed some strategies before today's race, but we had discussed some last minute changes based on what we thought was going to be a rather small group.  When we were called to line up to race, however, it was a lot bigger than we thought and with even some new faces here and there.  There were some of the usual riders there too and seemingly with more team mates with them, so Shannon and I ended up having to figure things out as we went.  Then again, isn't that always the case.

Due to the size of the group, it didn't seem like anyone would try any breakaways, but on the 2nd lap, last year's point leader up until the last race broke away and ended up being joined by another younger rider.  No one seemed to do much, so I decided to sneak up and then break off to join them.  We had a pretty sizable gap where we kept away for a good lap and a half or so.  However, no one wanted to join and eventually the peleton opted to chase us down as a whole instead.

There were a couple other attempts for breakaways, but none that really stuck.  It seems like the races have been more about no one wanting to really work to weed out the slower guys from the faster ones.  It's going to be an interesting series if this way of racing continues given that it becomes a big sprint session at the end where almost anything goes.

Shannon and I had gotten together on the last lap as we had hoped and we were definitely going to give the final sprint a go.  At first I thought I was going to lead him out, but when I called out to him on the opposite side of the peleton, he crossed over and got in front of me where I figured I'd go ahead and give the sprint a shot from his slipstream.  We definitely made progress before the 2nd to the last turn as we made our way closer to the front.  This was even after some people were rolling out just in front of us where it took some negotiating just to be able to keep momentum.

When we got on the stretch before the final turn, Shannon was definitely moving and I was just hoping we could keep his momentum through the turn to contest the sprint to the finish.  We didn't get close enough to the front, however, to be able to take control of the corner where this guy (I won't mention team names or describe him since others read this) cut the corner from the outside (something he seemed to be doing the whole race) and ended up pinching us out of the turn.  The whole race was like this as I had to cut through the weeds in one corner a couple times.  Anyhow, once we had to check up for that turn, we lost a lot of momentum and was no longer able to contend for the final sprint.  I tried to whip around Shannon just after coming out of the turn but those who had an outside line had better luck and ended up finishing ahead of us.

Of course neither of us were happy with the results, but that's only because we're competitive.  There's always the possibility that we could have tried something else, but that would be more of a case of woulda, shoulda, coulda.  I know I wish I did some things differently toward the finish of the race, but that's like crying over spilled milk, right?  In the end, at least we  managed to apply one of our planned strategies (which hardly ever happens), but it just didn't work out to our advantage this evening.  Oh well, live and learn.  We'll be back....  Great racing with you nonetheless, Shannon!