Kim & Steve: Cycling

May 12, 10:34 AM by Steve | The Road to Oildale

The interesting thing about doing all these races this year, is traveling all over California and seeing areas I never would have otherwise gone to. I mean, why would I have any reason to go to Bakersfield otherwise, and especially Oildale. I did the Elite 4 district championships in Bakersfield at 9:30 on Sunday morning, for two laps around a 31 mile loop through oil fields in the middle of the desert.

I’m still having trouble with those long hard efforts, and got popped near the top of the climb on the first lap. I was pretty much at my max HR for about 4 minutes, then gave it everything I had to stay with the pack to what I thought was the top… but it turned out to be a false flat, and when we turned a corner and it kicked up again, I was done. I caught a big SC Velo guy’s wheel that was chasing back on, and tried to follow, but I didn’t have enough gas and settled into my own rythmn to the top. I could still see the pack when I crested, but the gap only increased on the descent… I was working with one other guy (LaGrange) and we caught a few others at the bottom. We picked up more as we went along the rollers and could see a sizable group ahead for a while. We seemed to be gaining on them, which was promising, and I thought our chance of catching...

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May 6, 09:30 PM by Steve | Wheeltags

How cool is that?

May 6, 08:56 PM by Steve | Entropy

Posted in Cycling

I got a message today on bikeforums, from a user “entropysix”. This was a bit of a blast from the past, because roughly two years ago he had messaged me about riding in Santa Barbara. I went and dug up those old messages and thought I would share them with you. It was an interesting reminder of how far I’ve come in a short period of time. At the time I had ridden maybe 2000 miles on my Allez Sport, just bought my new TCR, and never really done a group ride. Note that my user name on bikeforums is “umd”.

Entropysix

I noticed that you are from santa barbara, and I am too. I’m sort of a new cyclist, started in september really, and I was wondering if you might know what good groups there are for newbies to ride with around here.

umd

As far as I know the main organized group rides in town are put on by Echelon. The saturday morning ride would probably be a good start, but I’ve never been on it so I can’t really say from experience. I’ve been meaning to try to get down there one of these saturday mornings…

If you are interested you can join me on one of my rides. What kind of distance, routes and speeds do you usually do?

Entropysix

I live over in Winchester Canyon, and I’ve ridden down as far as casitas pass by ojai.. it was around 76 miles (there and back), but I’m pretty...

May 5, 04:05 PM by Steve | Training 4/28-5/4

Posted in Cycling & Data

I’ll write a full race report for San Luis Rey later, but I felt really good this week and at the race, so I think I’m finally doing something right. This was a fairly light week, as being a human traffic cone for Nite Moves had me missing out on crit practice, friday I blew off intervals to check out Bill’s new bike, and Saturday I spent all day taking picture of gymnastics and driving to San Diego.

Heart Rate Data
Total time: 14.3 hours
Below 50%: 0:07:55
Zone 1 (50%-55%): 0:32:07
Zone 2 (56%-69%): 4:25:13
Zone 3 (70%-79%): 5:08:53
Zone 4 (80%-89%): 3:18:39
Zone 5 (90%-99%): 0:44:45
Calories burned: 14,484

Summary
Total: 266.62 miles, 14.8 hours, 16,307 feet
Racing: 45.28 miles, 2.1 hours, 3,286 feet
Average (all days): 38.09 miles, 2.1 hours, 2,330 feet
Average (work days): 43.00 miles, 2.4 hours, 2,502 feet

Rides
M: 1.5 hr morning recovery spin
Tu: 0.75 hr morning high tempo, 1 hr lunchtime hammerfest
W: 1 hr morning tempo, 1 hr lunchtime w/ 19:42 OSM, 0.5 hr spin to Nite Moves
Th: 1.3 hr morning moderate/tempo, 2 hr easy/moderate evening
F: 0.75 hr morning easy/moderate, 2 hr easy evening
Sat: nada
Sun: 2 hr road race, 0.5 hr cooldown

May 4, 10:00 PM by Kimberly | San Luis Rey Cat 4 Pictures

Posted in Cycling & Pictures

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May 1, 03:38 PM by Steve | Human Traffic Cone

Posted in Miscellanea & Cycling

Yesterday was the first day of Nite Moves, and I resumed my duties as a human traffic cone. More precisely, I led out the runners until they come back through Shoreline Park, then I stop and direct them back into the park and generally make sure people go the right way. It gets kind of hectic over there because you got runners going up and down, its very narrow, and there is a transition from the street/bike lane back to the sidewalk for returning runners. This causes the most issues, because for some reason which I have yet to figure out, the runners coming back tend to run all the way to their right, forcing the runners going out to their right, which is unfortunately in the street. I try to yell at the runners going out to keep to their left but most of them either don’t hear me, don’t understand, or don’t care, and continue running in the middle of traffic blissfully unaware.

It is unfortunate that Nite Moves falls on the same evening as crit practice, as I am going to have to chose between them each week. It seems I made the right call this week, as there was a crash that sent several riders to the ground and Frazer to the hosptal with a broken collarbone.

In other news, like an idiot I forgot to sign up for the San Luis Rey road race this Sunday, and of course it filled up. However, someone I...

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Apr 28, 03:38 PM by Steve | Chuck Pontius Cat 4 Crash Pictures

Posted in Cycling & Pictures

I found some pictures of the crash. Yep, that’s me at the top of the dogpile…

photo by Gary Belman

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Apr 28, 12:40 PM by Steve | Training 4/21-4/27

Posted in Cycling & Data

I feel like Goldilocks trying out different training porridge. This week’s too much, this week’s not enough, this one’s just right. This week felt just right, and after a nice recovery day after Sea Otter, I jumped back in and hit the tuesday ride hard. I felt really good and got an email from Chester afterwards commenting that I looked strong. I wanted to try the Hope Ranch intervals ride, but apparently everyone else went somewhere else and I went and did OSM with Bill and Jamie. We started out at a fairly moderate pace and I felt comfortable (but clearly working closer to my limit than them), until Jamie rode away from us right before the switchbacks. Crit practice also went very well, and I held onto the main field for nearly half an hour, longer than I think I ever have in the past. Once off, I joined up with Dan and togher we picked up a bunch of others and formed a decent sized group. We were finally lapped with a few laps to go; I was going to get back on but right as I got on, Chester came off and as I accelerated to close the gap he shouted at me “not to mix it up” with them. I slowed down and watched Dan and one other guy jump on, somewhat disappointed that I listened to Chester instead of sticking with Dan—I wasn’t going to “mix it up” with them, I just wanted the tow and see if I could hold on.

I was still undecided about Devil’s Punchbowl late into the week, so I took Thursday easy “just in case”. Friday I had pretty much made up my mind to pass on it, so I went and did some VO2 max intervals in the evening. Since I had skipped out on Punchbowl I figured I had to get some good training in, so I did the ROCO ride instead of the Echelon ride, and went around the lake and back up the coast. I had never been up the coast with that group, but heard stories about the pace and was wondering what I was getting myself into. I was holding on just barely on some stretches of PCH and the 101, and when we hit Bates I just watched them ride away. I caught up with Ben at the top when we hit the 150 and he towed me most of the way back to the group. The pace never really “settled” like worlds does on the way back through Summerland, so when the group charged up Ortega Hill I took the opportunity and shortcut them on the bike path. I thought I would come out just ahead of right in the middle of them, but I hit full gas and manged to get out way ahead, enabling me and one other guy to easily make it past San Ysidro before the group caught up with us.

I had originally planned to do Punchbowl, and then stay in Santa Clarita for the crit on Sunday. Since we had stayed home Saturday, Kim wanted to hit up the Beachbreak Cafe for her favorite, chocolate chip pancakes. My race wasn’t until 2, so we had plenty of time for a nice leisurely ride to breakfast and came back through Hope Ranch. I did some low-gear jumps and sprints on the path on the way home, which must have looked funny to Kim. I would shoot off and spin up around 30 and then coast until she caught me and then do it all over again.

The race… went ok. I had low expectations going in—my main goal was to feel comfortable in the pack, cornering, and not feel like I was about to get snapped off the back at any moment. For the most part I would say that there was never any difficulty holding on, I was very comfortable going into the corners and I was able to maintain my speed well and not have to constantly accelerate back on. There was a crash about halfway through the race that I was caught behind (I actually ran into one of the guys on the ground going about 1mph, fell over and landed on him), but was able to use a free lap to get back in. I didn’t try to move up near the end, I was content to maintain my position and finish solidly in the pack.

Heart Rate Data
Total time: 17.4 hours
Below 50%: 0:18:15
Zone 1 (50%-55%): 1:08:09
Zone 2 (56%-69%): 6:02:12
Zone 3 (70%-79%): 4:25:00
Zone 4 (80%-89%): 4:05:01
Zone 5 (90%-99%): 1:26:55
Calories burned: 16,609

Summary
Total: 299.40 miles, 17.5 hours, 14,912 feet
Racing: 15.97 miles, 0.6 hours, 224 feet
Average (all days): 42.77 miles, 2.5 hours, 2,130 feet
Average (work days): 31.92 miles, 2.0 hours, 1,841 feet

Rides
M: 1.5 hr morning recovery spin
Tu: 1 hr morning tempo, 1 hr lunchtime hammerfest
W: 0.75 hr morning tempo, 1 hr lunchtime spin w/ 19:15 OSM, 0.75 hr crit practice
Th: 1 hr low/moderate tempo
F: 1 hr easy spin with TT course preview
Sat: 4 hr around lake Casitas, 1 hr spin to dial in race setup
Sun: 2 hr easy ride with Kim, 0.6 hr crit

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Apr 27, 10:36 PM by Kimberly | Chuck Pontius Cat 4 Pictures

Posted in Cycling & Pictures

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Apr 25, 09:44 AM by Steve | New Time Trial Course

Posted in Cycling

The “Monday Night Time Trial” course has been changed to address some concerns over safety and traffic issues. I rode the course this morning to map it out for everyone to see. You can see my recording of the new course on MotionBased, and the old course as well for reference.

Here is the updated course description from Don Flanigan:

“The course is still 10 miles. It begins at the parking lot at Stow Canyon park on Los Caneros Road. We proceed north to Cathedral Oaks and turn right heading East for 1.3 miles and do a turnaround in the left hand turn lane at Santa Margarita Road. This is the last street just before Fairview where the median strip begins. We proceed West, then up and down Glen Annie Road . The top is 5.4 miles from the start. We then continue up the Dos Pueblos hill and proceed to the turnaround at the indicator for a “stop sign ahead”. This is the turnaround which is marked with a circle. It is approximately 20 meters short of the actual stop sign. We then proceed East for approximately 1.3 miles to the finish. Make a right turn at the Dos Pueblos traffic light and finish one block further at the marked finish line. This is marked on the right and the left side of the road. This is just at the entrance to the Dos Pueblos high school parking lot. We will then join...

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