señor taco’s travels

Today, Friday, I have the day off of work. It’s nothing grand, they’re just moving a lot people around at work and I’m one of them. In order to get it all done by Monday we have the day off today. As a result my morning ride started a little later today. Yay for sleeping in.

I did the normal morning ride in full today. From Rockridge up Tunnel, to Grizzly @ Skyline, along Skyline, down to Joaquin Miller Road and then turning around and going back the same route. On Wednesday I did almost the same ride, but it was very foggy, cold, wet, and windy, so I didn’t go down to JM and thus was two miles shorter in distance.

Wednesday Stats:

Friday Stats:

Tomorrow is the Day on the Ride. I’ll be on the 80 mile route and it’ll be nice to have rest stops and a lunch stop with staffing again. That’s something you just don’t get when riding on your own.

I’m feeling great and I’m really looking forward to the Ride itself. Chris is out of town right now but he gets back on Saturday evening. I’m so going to call him on Sunday and get his butt back out on the road.

Today I got up and met Sal, Tia, Heidi, and Bill at the Orinda BART station. I had only gotten about four hours of sleep because my allergies are going nuts right now and causing a lot of drainage. That moves into my lungs and kept me up all night coughing.

I felt okay when we started, but the lack of sleep quickly caught up with me and I could really feel it on the hill climbs. Overall it was a good ride. You can see the route over at bikely.com. If you click on ‘Show > Elevation Profile’ you’ll see it was 3700′ of climbing. That normally wouldn’t have been so bad, but as I said, I just started to get really tired.

While the bikely.com route says 42.5 miles I actually rode more to get to the Rockridge BART station, but there’s not a way I’m aware of on bikely to show a broken path like that. On to the stats:

If you haven’t already please consider donating to my ALC ride.

I got up this morning with the best of intentions of riding at least 20 miles before it was supposed to start raining. There it was, the alarm, buzzing at 05.17 hours. I got up and started in on my routine to get ready to be out the door by 06.00. Sadly, about two minutes into my routine I started coughing. My allergies have been acting up the last few days and it’s causing nasal congestion which is becoming chest congestion while I sleep (yeah, yummy, I know).

I ended up coughing for about 20 minutes. Mostly it was productive, but at the end I was worn out. I just fell back into bed for another hour and a half. Hopefully I can ride tomorrow if it’s not too wet. It’s also supposed to be raining on Saturday and Sunday, which means I might have a wet ride on my hands one of those days. I guess that’s the way it goes.

Through a stroke of luck I had Friday off from work. I took advantage of it to do an AIDS/LifeCycle training ride. I really need to get on the bike more. Between moving, work, and weather I don’t feel like I’ve been riding enough. I’m now starting up on the morning rides again and I think I’ll be fine. The ride yesterday was about 60 miles and I feel great, there was no part that was too hard and I didn’t get worn out.

Some stats:

If you haven’t already please consider donating to my ALC ride.

This last Saturday Chris and I went and rode in the ALC Cat 1 ride from Orinda. He as a rider and me as a ride leader. There was a good turnout of about 30 people. Chris was kind enough to put together a map and elevation profile. Yup, it’s 4200 feet of climbing.

The ride was good, tiring, and needed. I know I felt great after it was over. I kind of wish Chris didn’t have to stay with me (we drove over together). As a ride leader I ended up hanging out at one of the stops a bit longer than I would have liked as a rider and I could tell it wasn’t ideal for Chris. I did get to concentrate on my pedal stroke and as a result my Achillies tendons didn’t get sore at all, I think I’ve fixed whatever it was I was doing wrong a couple of months ago when I strained them to the point that for a week walking had a pain to it.

At the end of the ride a wheel was found in the parking lot. I took it home and thankfully got it back to the owner on Sunday. I’m looking forward to more rides, especially durning the week in the mornings. Sadly tomorrow is supposed to be rainy. Wednesday it is then!

Chris and I went out for a ride this morning leaving the Rockridge BART at about 06.30. It was dark (thanks Daylight Saving Time) and a bit cooler than I had expected. There was some cloud cover and I knew we’d be riding up into it as we made our way up Tunnel Road.

Once we got towards the top we were chatting about how where we were was one of the worst parts of the ride up, especially if you’re trying to get up there as fast as you can because the road gets a little steeper and they’ve cut down all the trees on the right side. Wouldn’t you know it, we came around a corner and got treated to a spectacular view. There was the crescent moon hanging in the sky and fog as far as you could see, but we were near the top of the clouds so some trees further on were sticking up over the top of the cloud. The sun was just starting to rise and the sky lighten so the trees were in silhouette.

We rode on along Skyline to just past the Chabot Space & Science Center and then back. Once again I didn’t have a battery for my cyclometer so I don’t have any stats, but I’d guess it was about 22 miles or so.

It feels good to ride in the morning again, I’ve been missing it.

Today Chris and I decided we needed to get back on our bikes, what with the ALC coming up and all.  We did a simple ride up Tunnel Road and on Skyline, but not as far as we originally thought because I was sucking a bit.  I hadn’t ridden in two weeks and definately felt it.

As we were coming back along Skyline we ended up downhilling towards the Redwood Gate a little too fast for comfort.  We came around a corner and I was breaking.  There just happened to be a fresh asphalt patch on the road.  When I got to it my back tire slid out.  Amazingly I didn’t go down, I turned my wheel and my forward motion righted me.  At that point though my back tire felt funny so I yelled forward to Chris I was going to stop at the parking lot ahead.  As I rolled to a stop there was a loud pop from behind me, my tube exploding.

It turns out that when my back tire slid out the force of being that sideways caused the tire to come off of the wheel on one side.  The tube was exposed or pinched there and caused it to pop.  Luckily I was at 2 MPH rather than 20 MPH.  This also gave me a chance to try out my newly purchased Topeak Road Morph Pump.  I can’t recommend the pump enough.  It’s like a mini-floor pump and has a pressure gage and everything.  After a quick tube change it was smooth sailing back home.

I think it was about 20 miles or so.  Chris said we hit 41.2 MPH max.  I’d put some stats, but my cycleometer has a dead battery.

Now I need to spend this week getting back used to riding in the mornings.  As Chris and Thomas have said and I thought, it’s time to stop hitting snooze.

Chris and I went out for a quick ride up Old Tunnel this morning. It was cold, but not too cold. Neither of us had done that ride in over a month, but we both made it to Grizzly @ Skyline just fine. My back had been hurting since Sunday (it prevented me from riding) and I felt just fine this morning. It was clear but as we rode up but then the clouds and fog rolled in, making for an interesting downhill.

I’ve got to keep doing that once a week at least when it’s not raining. The dark isn’t my favorite, but it’s doable.

This morning there was a Cycle Buddy Ride for the AIDS/LifeCycle. My first plan, and a good one on a normal day, was to ride from my place in Emeryville over the hill to the Orinda BART to be there at the appointed ride time. When I stepped outside to go and ride early enough it was around 30°F. I quickly went back inside and slept for another hour and then ended up riding to the Rockridge BART and taking that over.

The ride itself was good, if a bit cold. I got to meet more cycle buddies and I had a good time riding with new people. There was ice on the side of the road at several points which was a little odd. I rode a decent pace the entire time. The only issue I had was a the end my left Achilles tendon was sore. Something is out of whack on my bike and I don’t yet know what. I’ll dig deeper into that this week.

Well, I just did a 50+ mile ride and I feel great. I rode pretty fast for the last part of it and I’m really happy with my performance. This was an organized ALC training ride, but I wasn’t an official ride leader. This was also my last ride of the year and I can’t wait to get back out in 2007 and rock on the pedals some more.