Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Running out of time

The end of the month is rapidly approaching, and I really needed to get on the bike and ride.

I took the fixed gear bike and set off to ride Portland's 40 mile loop.
It was warm, but not as hot as it was yesterday.  The western US is on fire and the smoke from those fires has settled into Portland.


I looked for a partner to join me on today's ride, but received a cold shoulder.


I took another photo as I got to the Steel Bridge.


I finally decided that I had done enough goofing around and set about to pedal.  It was smokey, but a pretty decent day to ride.  Wind was light, and coming from the south.  In these parts that is a sign that there may be a change of weather coming.


.........Road Bike........Rollers.......MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ......40.................0.................0...............0.........40
Jan.........304................15................0...............31..........350
Feb..........0..................0..................0...............0..............0
March.......18.................0.................0...............0............18
April.......113................0.................0...............0...........113
May.........155................0.................0...............0...........155
June..........10.................0.................0................0.............10
July..........79..................0.................0................0.............79
Aug..........76...................0.................0................0............76
Total.......770...............15.................0...............31...........826

Monday, August 21, 2017

Ride failure

I organized a trip to John Day, Oregon for my cycling friends to observe the solar eclipse and ride bikes.  One of the attendees said she'd like to ride about 70 miles and was concerned that most of the routes out that way were well over that 70 mile distance that she was comfortable with.  I took the 174 mile Old West Scenic Bikeway and shortened it to about 110 by taking Hwy 395 down  to Mt Vernon (Race Across Oregon route), which I figured that we could ride relay style as a "ride and tie" effort giving both of us about 55 miles. I put the route on my two Garmin Edge 305 bike GPS units, and on my TomTom auto dash GPS.

We were spending 3 days there, with one day being taken up with eclipse viewing.  That left Saturday or Sunday to ride bikes.  On Saturday, the person who wanted a 70 mile ride took off early in the AM, and said she was going to head into town for breakfast. (the Senior Center was offering a $10 all you can eat breakfast). By 11 AM it was obvious that she wasn't coming back.  The rest of us went into John Day. We had lunch and wandered around taking in the market atmosphere.

On Sunday I left early to get tickets for all of us to attend the Kam Wah Chung tour. I was back at camp with 10 tickets in hand, only to find that our 70 mile rider was again gone, and this time another rider was gone with her.

Most of us rode our bikes back to town mid morning to take the tour, and we found it very interesting.

Following lunch, Julie and I drove out to some potential eclipse viewing points that I had mapped out in advance. We took some Forest Service roads into the back country and were astonished to see the number of people tucked back into the hills to secure their eclipse viewing locations.

That evening we were all invited to our hosts' home for dinner.




 I told the second "missing" rider that if I had known they were going out for an extended ride I would have joined them.  She said that she didn't know either.  She had been invited to ride to breakfast, and from there they just took off on a ride.

Oh well, I know when I'm not welcome.

Monday arrived and our hosts invited us all up to the house again for breakfast.  Following breakfast we observed the eclipse.




The biking and eclipse watching weekend turned into mostly just an eclipse watching trip for me.  If I had known that in advance I would have brought my fixed gear bike rather than drag my carbon bike into the dust, and I could more easily ride the fixed gear bike with its flat pedals with my athletic shoes.

Oh well, at least I got a few miles (though I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Julie almost doubled my bike mileage total!)

.........Road Bike........Rollers.......MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today .......7.................0.................0...............0..........7
Jan.........304................15................0...............31..........350
Feb..........0..................0..................0...............0..............0
March.......18.................0.................0...............0............18
April.......113................0.................0...............0...........113
May.........155................0.................0...............0...........155
June..........10.................0.................0................0.............10
July..........79..................0.................0................0.............79
Aug..........36...................0.................0................0............36
Total.......730...............15.................0...............31...........786

Friday, August 11, 2017

Back to my non biking ways

After 4 consecutive days of pedaling, I'm back to my bikey, but not biking ways.


On Tuesday I served as crew chief for Chris Davies as he attempted to set a UMCA age group record for Capital to Capital. (Sacramento, CA to Carson City, NV and back)

This attempt has been in the planning stages for 2 years, I was honored to be asked to help out.

Chris rode hard and successfully navigated the route that crossed the Sierra Nevada mountain range.....twice, via the 8574 ft Carson Pass.

He covered the Sacramento to Carson City leg, 147.1 miles in 10 hrs and 18 min.
He covered the Carson City to Sacramento return trip, 147.3 miles in 10 hours and 46 minutes

You can read Chris's account of his effort HERE

On Wednesday I was the UMCA Official as Paul Carpenter took on the challenge for his age group.
If you clicked on his name, you know that Paul is a decorated ultra cyclist. He showed his skills on this route. He rode quickly of course, but his real strength was his ability to keep the bike moving. Except for a 16 minute flagger enforced stop at a construction zone, and a 1 minute stop for sunscreen, he just kept moving.

He covered the 147.1 mile route with 12,725 ft elevation gain in 9 hours and 58 minutes.  He took a 10 minute break in Carson City for a finish line photo (Sacramento to Carson City leg) and a quick bite to eat, then was back on the bike pedaling for Sacramento.

Because of one way streets in both Sacramento and Carson City, the route varies a bit on each end.  The return route was 147.6 miles, and because Carson City sits at a higher elevation, the return leg had 8255 feet of climbing.

We had just a bit of excitement as we crossed back into California from Nevada.  A California Highway Patrolman pulled in behind us and let us know he wanted to pull over..  It was dark, so Paul had to stop too since mandatory direct follow is in effect during darkness.  The officer said he knew that we were there to protect our rider, but questioned if we were allowed to be in the travel lane. In most areas there is not enough shoulder are to drive out of the lane. Robert was driving and explained that our primary concern was safety, and that we always drove as far to the right as we could, and would pull off where we could to allow cars to pass. After a couple of minutes of discussion, the officer asked our intended route, and said we were free to go, while he checked with his superiors to see if what we were doing was legal.

He must have received the answer we knew he would get, because we did not see him again.

Paul rode strong and consistently.  While the ride up to Carson Pass from the east bound leg is somewhat stair stepped, this west bound leg is pretty much a constant slog.  While it was a tough climb, because he was returning in darkness, the temperatures were reasonable.  It was 73 in Carson City as we started out, and would drop to 52 by the time he reached the summit.

The stair stepped descent back to Sacramento from Carson Pass was mostly uneventful.  He pedaled through the construction sites pretty much unimpeded.  There was one that was just a bit problematic.  There was fresh tar on the road (maybe just thick oil in preparation for a new layer of asphalt?) that he shouldered his bike and walked, rather than get a layer of gunk on his tires, which of course would do nothing but pick up gravel.

Once that problem was behind us, he pedaled along at 18-20 mph all the way back into Sacramento.  After yesterday's somewhat problematic return, we picked out a slightly more circuitous route to the Capital building in hopes of avoiding some stop signs and a closed road.

He arrived at the Capital at 4:47 AM,  covering the 147.6 miles in 9 hrs 30 min elapsed.


The original plan was to have three racers, each in a different age category, attempt to set records.
Robert was our third racer, but he got a call during Paul's ride that his wife had gone into emergency surgery.  He was a trooper and stayed with us through Paul's ride.  To leave would have put an end to Paul's race because of the UMCA's staffing requirements, and we were also using Robert's van.

As soon as Paul was finished, we cleaned our supplies out of the van and Robert took a brief nap, then drove home, scuttling his record attempt, but getting back to where he belonged.

I hope you will join me in sending good thoughts to Robert's wife for a speedy recovery.

Tomorrow morning I will be near Gresham just after 5AM.  Normally I'd be riding around Mt Hood with about 25 friends, but this year a lack of bike fitness, and their need for additional support drivers, means I will be taking my freshly honed support skills around Mt Hood.  I've got signage, flashing ambers, iced water, pump, kibble, and some tools all packed up and ready to leave home at 4AM.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

4 days in a row!

Nothing like a little free time and great weather to get a guy on a bike!

It would be 100 degrees by early afternoon.


I took advantage of cooler morning temperatures to go for a little pedal around.

Sometimes I feel like a nut, sometimes I don't.


I just puttered around the neighborhood.  I seemed that my kind weren't always welcome however.


They might say that this is the Coyote Way, but they should know that this Desert Coyote rides a bike!

I finished up with a lunch stop, and was back home as the temperature reached 94.

Evening update:

As the afternoon temperature reached 104(.8!) I went back out for a few miles.  I had biked 17 earlier in the day, and despite the heat, I wasn't ready to call it quits yet!

This time I chased down Dave and his grandson again.


 The little guy was fascinated with the pedals.



They enjoyed the water feature as the temperature peaked at 105.  Two degrees short of our record, the layer of smoke that Canada sent down this way probably cost us a degree or two.  We'll get another shot at it tomorrow.

I got another 5 miles.

.........Road Bike........Rollers.......MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today .......22.................0.................0...............0..........22
Jan.........304................15................0...............31..........350
Feb..........0..................0..................0...............0..............0
March.......18.................0.................0...............0............18
April.......113................0.................0...............0...........113
May.........155................0.................0...............0...........155
June..........10.................0.................0................0.............10
July..........79..................0.................0................0.............79
Aug..........29...................0.................0................0............29
Total.......730...............15.................0...............31...........786

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

3 days in a row!

Wow, three days in a row on a bike! No worries, by the end of the week I'll be back following bike racers.

Today I went for a short ride, again centered around a lunch stop. By the time I finished that up it was time to ride along with my brother-in-law as he went for a grandson ride. It was 98 degrees at 2PM as we pedaled to the water park at Memorial Park. The grandson got to play in the water jets. I got to sit in the shade.


They did the grandfather/grandson bonding thing for about 30 minutes, then it was time to pedal back. I joked with the little guy that I wanted him to take a turn pedaling while I rode in the trailer.  He didn't feel one bit guilty about sitting on his diapered behind as Dave and I pedaled.

                          

.........Road Bike........Rollers.......MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ........7.................0.................0...............0...........7
Jan.........304................15................0...............31..........350
Feb..........0..................0..................0...............0..............0
March.......18.................0.................0...............0............18
April.......113................0.................0...............0...........113
May.........155................0.................0...............0...........155
June..........10.................0.................0................0.............10
July..........79..................0.................0................0.............79
Aug...........7...................0.................0................0.............7
Total.......708...............15.................0...............31...........764