Authors
Kim is a an accountant (soon to be CPA), and triathlete, currently training for Ironman Coeur d'Alene. Steve is a software engineer, photographer, and cyclist on the Platinum Performance Cycling Team. We live in paradise a.k.a. Santa Barbara. Read More
Categories
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Blogosphere
Marco off the Mark. A guy who likes to hang out with family and friends, pedal his bike, dig in the dirt, and live life healthily and happily.
The Young and Restless. 22 year old kid who loves to ride his bike.
Happenings in SoCal. Ass-kicker extraordinaire...
Through Z's Eyes. Bikes, rants, ideas, and more!!
Of Dogs and Bike Racing. Aka. Dr. Kim. Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UC Santa Barbara.
On The B Team. The Chicken Ranch aka B Team's site for local cycling information and trash talk.
Lint Trap. Nothing to see here, move along now.
A New Hope. Sean
Pedal More. Overweight Underpowered Nor-Cal Pack Fodder.
George's Epic Adventures. Ultra Cyclist and father who recently completed 2- Person Race Across America (RAAM) and Furnace Creek 508 Fixed Gear.
Suffer-O-Rama. Eric’s blog about cycling and bike racing
Riders Ready. Jamie Smith's blog devoted to roadies, road cycling, and his book, Roadie: The Misunderstood World of a Bike Racer. Go buy it NOW at VeloPress.com!
Think Fast. Quarq
Old Guy Racer. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll write bad cheques.
Wheels Rolling. Brandy
Sprinter della Casa. Carpe Diem Racing
Ryanf. It comes down to doing the above, or being a chump. your choice
Cat3 Phenom. "I'm kinda a big deal"
My Shaved Legs. The fine art of failure. Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies.
To Be Honest With You. Thirty something and searching for my next obsession.
The Brenda Report. The journeys and thoughts of an adventurous woman
The Tour de Chris. This blog is all about Chris. Fueled by espresso and metal.
The Incidental Cyclist. Cycling in and around Union County, NC
Everest Challenge x2. My wife and I have committed to enter the [Everest Challenge] Tandem division this year. This blog will chronicle our preperation, and ultimately our race experience.
Cycling in Seattle. The ride is the destination
As the Crank Turns. I attmept to ride bicycles...often
Cycling
Platinum. The Platinum Performance Cycling Team is a Santa Barbara based team with a diverse group of talented riders. The teams main focus is acquiring cross country results and new for 2008 is the addition of a road race team.
Echelon. Echelon Santa Barbara is a road bicycling club based in Santa Barbara, California. Echelon welcomes dedicated new riders and experienced racers, men and women, old or young, and all those who want to expand their cycling horizons. With a history our History in Santa Barbara bike racing since 1984, we are a USCF registered club.
Bikeforums Road Cycling. Road cycling internet message board. Discuss equipment, rides, races, and all cycling-related discussions.
SCNCA. Southern California Nevada Cycling Association
NCNCA. Northern California Nevada Cycling Association
BiciCORSA. An online group for cyclists of all levels--from recreational riders to weekend warriors to aspiring and professional racers.
Yehuda Moon. Yehuda Moon works at the Kickstand Cyclery, lives on his bicycle, and dreams of a day when everyone does likewise.
Everest Challenge. The hardest two-day USCF race. With the spirit of the "Death Rides" and the dramatic scenery of the Eastern Sierra, this bicycle race and ride will test your perseverance going uphill. We have three climbs each day with gains of 2,600 feet to 6,200 feet.
Local
The Restaurant Guy. John Dickson's Food News
Santa Barbara Independent. Delivers fresh news, arts, and entertainment news and information online all day, every day. The weekly newspaper is published every Thursday morning, with Santa Barbara county's largest circulation of 40,000.
Edhat. One subscriber suggested that the name came from "Every Day Happenings Around Town".
Vita Bella Photography. Local journalistic-style wedding photography
Miscellanea
Adam Szary. Freelance illustrator who is strongly interested in fantasy and comic art.
Virtual Dub. Proof that Avery had too much free time in college...
Liō. Daily comic strip created by Mark Tatulli that focuses on the adventures of a strange little boy named Liō. Most of the story is told visually, with little or no dialogue.
whilshire|one. this site covers topics including web standards-based development, web application development, Textpattern and other miscellany
Recent Comments
Mike (Everest Challenge Day 2 Pictures)
Hi, Are you set up to sell photos yet? Thanks, Mike Watson
Kim (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)
Marc, nowhere did I say that liberals are the only people that insult others. But it is true that as SB is a ‘liberal community’ …
Steve (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)
Fair enough but I’m still not sure how you found a way to be insulted in what she wrote. Also, if you will notice the …
It’s certainly very convenient to be able to take the test picemeal, and during the week, not to spoil weekend plans. I don’t think the …
Marc (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)
You could have mentioned what happened without discussing specific political parties that were slammed. Bit I apologize for my intemperate remarks – maybe I’m just …
Steve (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)
Marc, We were at a dinner theater, and the people we were with said (to each other) “Can you believe that most of these people …
Kim (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)
Marc, you miss the point. If you spout out your position on anything, you need to be prepared to accept the consequences of saying it …
Marc (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)
Kim – I sympathize with you. However, I think it’s mildly insulting to mention that people you have met insult Republicans. I would have given …
Andy Anderson (Everest Challenge Day 2 Pictures)
Hey guys! Hope all is well. Can you please hook up pictures 42, 76, 53, 91, and 99? I would like to …
CPA Roadie (Four Down ? to go...)
Good luck on the tests results Kim! Sleeping during business law class? lol. The tax section is easier with practical experience, but tough unless …
Nov 26, 07:28 PM by Steve | Try Cross
Posted in Cycling & Gear
It’s 19lbs dripping wet. I finally got it built, just in time to ride in the rain for a SST workout today. I was amazed that I was getting similar speeds for a given power despite a) the tires, b) the extra weight, and c) the wet conditions. The bike felt very nice but I’ve never ridden a bike with such different geometry before and the stability was really strange. It resited turning into corners; I had to really fight it at times.
I’ll see how my collarbone is doing at a checkup on Monday, and if its looking good I may try a cross race this season after all.
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Nov 19, 05:16 PM by Steve | Power Testing Continued
Posted in Cycling & Data
Like I said, I am really bad at taking tests. Apparently today I was too eager to take my test, and went all out on OSM instead of cruising up and saving the full gas effort for tomorrow.
And it’s all Bill’s fault
Seriously… I was aiming for 18 minutes, trying to keep a steady effort around 250 watts, but he started pulling ahead, and not one to be smart and back off from a little friendly competition, I was doing 300-400 watts to keep up. When we hit the flatish part about 2/3 mile in, I kept the power up and pulled away and figured at that point I may as well just go for it. I wanted to back off a few times but also didn’t want to have to do it again tomorrow, so I kept pushing and finished in 16:59.
It was a near maximal effort ay an average HR of 179 bpm, and an average power of 283 watts (287 NP). Plugging the numbers from today and yesterday into the Monod workbook I got from Tom, it spit out 273 watts for my 60m “projection” and 268 for my CP. Given proper motivation (i.e. a wheel to chase) I probably could have pulled a few more watts out, but I think I’m done with the testing for now. I’m going to leave my FTP in WKO+ where I had it at 270 and test again in a few weeks. That’s about 4.2...
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Nov 18, 01:25 PM by Steve | 5 Minute Power Testing
Posted in Cycling & Data
I’ve been using the power meter for a few months now and figured it was time to do a proper test to determine my FTP and get a better idea of some of my shorter durations. So I spent a few days recovering, got my TSB (training stress balance) and set out to do a 5m test today on OSM, followed by a longer test Wednesday or Thursday, and derive the FTP using the Monod Critical Power Model.
I never was very good at taking tests… I went out and hit the little rise just out of my neighborhood for a warmup on my way to OSM for the test, where the first mile takes me just under 5 minutes all out. I figured I would ride the mile first at a moderate pace to warmup, recover for 5 minutes and then hit it again at full effort. I went out way too hard and backed off to a more sustainable pace. Somewhere along the way I decided to just go for it, but completely misjudged how long I had been going and gave everything for a minute, thinking… I don’t know, that somehow I could hold it for longer the rest of the way to finish the mile. I was wrong and basically exploded after 9/10 mile.
I sitll came away with my best 5m of 322W (5.1 W/kg) and 1m of 473W (7.5W/kg) efforts by a significant margin. I know I...
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Oct 30, 09:31 AM by Steve | Kill A Watt
Posted in Cycling & Data | Comments [4]
It’s been a goal of mine for a while, since I got a power meter, to register “4 digits” on the stupid thing. Of course the first thing I did when I got it was go out and do a sprint and didn’t even break 800. A few more tries and I think I got in the high 800s. I was given some hope when I realized mine was reading low, but even after I got a new one I was still never able to break the low 900s.
I’ve suspected it’s more of a neuromuscular/technique issue rather than strength because I feel really uncoordinated, like I’m flopping all around and wasting a lot of energy, and I think I’m holding back a bit because I feel like I’m going to throw myself off the bike. The broken collarbone doesn’t help matters, although at this point I don’t realy feel it anymore.
So yesterday I coincidentally ran into John on the bike path going the other way, so I turned around and caught up with him. After a while of half-wheeling and seeing how hard we could push our wheelsucker before he blew up, we had both gone a little harder and further than either of us had intended. We ended up at the beach on Cabrillo and feeling warmed up and with the whole road open in front of us I decided do do a little sprint. I gave him about 2 seconds warning...
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Oct 14, 12:26 PM by Steve | Monday Night Time Trial Pictures
Posted in Cycling & Pictures
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Oct 13, 04:39 PM by Steve | Echelon North County Ride Day 2 Pictures
Posted in Cycling & Pictures | Comments [1]
Photos by Bill Lupo
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Oct 13, 04:28 PM by Steve | Echelon North County Ride Day 1 Pictures
Posted in Cycling & Pictures
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Sep 28, 08:38 AM by Steve | Clavicle Update
Posted in Cycling & Accidents | Comments [11]
The clavicle (collar bone) is definitely broken. Doc said it is overlapped 4cm, and I need to have surgery to “fix” it. In other news, she looked at my ribs on the xray and said they appear fine.
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Sep 27, 05:20 PM by Steve | My name is Steve
Posted in Cycling & Accidents | Comments [4]
My name is Steve, and I have a problem…
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Sep 23, 08:42 PM by Kimberly | Everest Challenge Day 2 Pictures
Posted in Cycling & Pictures | Comments [8]
Descending Waucoba Canyon
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