Electric "Racing" Bikes!

Like most-every cyclist, I've been following this Mechanical Doping issue with interest. These things have been showing up quite a bit recently. I was thinking this might be a great business opportunity for non-race applications such as when Mr. Weekend Racer wants to go out for a ride with his wife and still get some training effect (unless you're married to Lauren Hall, in which case you would ride the electric bike). Or for the Ragbraii dude who only wants to train for 10 days and then sit on a bike and drink beer across Iowa.

Then I came across a website for the manufacturer of the Vivax - one such device. Here's their marketing video:

The thing that I find astonishing is that Vivax calls this bike a "Race Bike". I would have thought they would make some very strong disclaimer that their bike is "ONLY FOR RECREATIONAL PURPOSES" and illegal, immoral and banned for competition. Maybe by "racing" they are thinking of starting a league of overweight old guys like the one demonstrating the Vivax?

It doesn't matter what the sport - there are cheaters. In martial arts, competitive categories are defined by belt color. The darker the color, the more experience. So, for example a yellow belt has less experience than a black belt. But in martial arts, this is purely self-regulated. Back in the day some guys would remain at brown belt for years so that they could go to tournaments and slaughter other guys with less experience and collect trophy's and medals.

I've seen this a ton. I remember fighting a guy when I was a brown belt and then 10 years later having one of my students facing the same guy still a brown belt. I just suggested  "that will make beating him that much sweeter". My guy won. Then I spoke to his instructor, of course it went of deaf ears.

In martial arts, it's almost impossible to get to the elite level and also have low morals. This doesn't seem to be the case in cycling where we are finding this on a fairly routine basis at the highest levels.

The entire cycling community needs to boycott this company and ridicule anyone who buys one of these POS's.

I'm a British Sprinter and I Can Bloody Well Prove It!

I'm adopted. I've known this all my life. My adoptive parents made it a point of telling me the story of "our family", and how they were on an adoption waiting list when my father received the call that a baby boy was born at Miami Beach hospital. My mother was visiting family in Iowa and she rushed back to Florida. They took me home at the ripe old age of 4 days old.

We used to have a box of 8mm movies that they filmed of bringing me home from the hospital, my first bath, and my first birthday. When my parents were divorced when I turned 4 and my mother moved us back to Iowa to be closer to family. Every once in a while we would set up the movie projector and watch the old movies of "me".

So being adopted has never been a big deal in my mind. I've never felt different or special because of it - other than when I have to answer health history questions and don't know any family history. This has caused me to get more frequent routine testing like colonoscopies and prostate exams.

The other BIG thing about not knowing my genetic history is that none of my children know anything about their paternal history. Again, nobody seemed too bothered about it. It's just part of "The story of Us".

But lately I've been hearing about a couple of companies that do DNA testing. It's pretty simple and affordable. So I decided "why not" and laid down the $199 for a test kit from 23 & Me.

The kit arrived a week or so later. You give a saliva sample by spitting into a tube, seal it and send it back in a self-addressed box. The results come back in 6-8 weeks.

So, while I have been waiting for the results these past few weeks, the anticipation has been steadily growing. I've even watched a few YouTube videos of other people reviewing their results. Most of them have genetic history the is spread across multiple regions. 20% this, 10% that, 1.2% another thing, 0.6& something else.

I didn't really care what my race or ethnicity origins were, I was just hoping that I had a majority of one thing, so that I could say "I'm French, or English, of African, or Chinese".

Most mornings when I wake up the first thing I do, even before I get out of bed, is open my smartphone and scan through my email - which is what I did yesterday morning and noticed a note from 23 & Me with the subject line that read "Your results are ready!". So, after a quick shower, I sat down with my cup of coffee, opened my computer and prepared to, at age 56, find out who I am. Pretty crazy if you stop and think about it.

There are 67 different reports. The categories are: 1) Carrier Status 2) Ancestry 3) Wellness 4) Traits.

Of course the big one for me is Ancestry. As it turns out I am 97.7% British! When I saw that, my though process went as follows:

1. 97.7%? That's basically 100%. I'm a Brit!
2. That means my mother and father were 100% British too.
3. That probably means that I was not a random conception.
4. Maybe my parents were married?

I mentioned earlier that I didn't know anything about my birth parents but that isn't entirely true. I remember my adopted mother telling me that my birth mothers' name was Andrea Pennington.

Pennington! That's English/British! So, I went to the Internet and Googled "Pennington Origin"

The result was more than I ever wanted to know about my family.

As it turns out, the Pennington's were from England. Eventually they migrated. Some of them went to America.  Others went to...take a guess? Yep - Brittan.

So my ancestors moved from England to Brittan and I have DNA genetic proof.

In one day I went from knowing absolutely nothing about my ancestry to knowing more than probably 90% of the rest of Americans.

Might be time to trade in my German BMW for a British Aston Martin.

I mentioned earlier that I received 67 reports. Here is an example of just one. As it turns out, I'm a Sprinter. Imagine that?

Pennington Family Crest

Family Crest

I'm Not Your Father

Father Louie Sarducci

Last night while I was grilling, one of my neighbors walked by and stopped to ask what denomination pastor I am? You see, it's chilly here in San Diego and my favorite go-to jacket was a gift from my wife and I were it all the time. It is a black jacket with a silver/white cloth pull strip on the tip of the zipper. I usually wear it fully zipped, so at first glance it kind of looks like a clerical collar.

I often get double takes from people when I am wearing this jacket. People smile extra and sometimes they even defer to me when walking into a room. Then I can see them realize that it's just a regular jacket and I'm just a regular Joe.

What was extra interesting about last nights' inquiry is when he continued by saying that he assumed I was a Catholic Priest because he noticed that I was smoking a cigar and drinking a glass of red wine last Sunday afternoon.

Gluten Talk

In an attempt to humor my wife I recently had some DNA testing for gluten sensitivity. This whole gluten and lactose thing get's the eye roll from me. I think it's just the latest problem for a bunch of whiny people who don't have any real problems. My symptoms are that I feel very full and sometimes bloated after eating anything that contains wheat. Actually, I don't eat a lot of wheat. Very little bread, almost zero pasta. I do enjoy an occasional pizza. So I expected the test to come back negative.

There are three general areas of DNA in this test. According to my doctor (John Tait by the way. Super sharp doc if you're looking for a sports doc), if you are positive in one of the three areas then you probably get some discomfort from gluten. Positive in 2 of 3 and you definitely are sensitive. And finally, if your are positive in all three you are very sensitive and bordering on Celiac's disease.

Here are my results:

So, since last November I have stopped eating wheat. I know that gluten can be found in lots of other foods such as corn. In fact, anything containing a seed has some gluten. But for me, I have found that my symptoms are diminished almost completely by simply removing wheat from my diet.

I think that one big mistake that gluten sensitive people make is to go to a specialty shop and by a bunch of "gluten-free" foods that have the wheat removed and replaced with something else - usually manufactured.

The one exception that I've made is gluten free pizza crust. Believe it or not, Sauce Pizza makes a pretty good gluten free pie.

And since I now take a pass on the 1000 calorie basket of bread appetizer offered at many restaurants, I've lost a few pounds.

But mostly my quality of life has improved and that is great!

Yes, my wife is wise.

I'm thinking of buying a hat to match my jacket

(just to wear on Sundays, of course)

Time Away

Last week was supposed to be a rest week. Instead, I raced at San Dimas, if you could call it that. Actually, I stunk the place up. It's an excuse really. If I had wanted to do well there, I would have simply adjusted my training schedule. Sometimes my joy of riding gets in the way of my joy of winning. More miles don't always equal better fitness.

After seeing the results of stage 1 and finding my name in 13th place and over 2 minutes down, I decided to pack up my marbles and go home.

It seems early in the season to be hitting the reset button but I've been going hard since December and am feeling like a mental break is in order. So, I'm off the bike for a full week. Actually, just because of travel, I will be off the bike for 10 days.

So, I'm hanging out in San Diego on the boat. Even though I'm not riding, there is still plenty here to keep me busy. I was planning to take a quick trip up to Catalina Island this weekend but the weather has taken a turn for the worse. Rain and fog mainly. I'm not opposed to cruising in either, but since it was going to be a quick trip, I decided to stay closer to the bay. I reserved a mooring at La Playa and am going to spend the weekend at anchor.

Yesterday morning it was bright and sunny. I set out for a 5 mile walk. As I was walking the fog came in. You could just see it creeping over Point Loma, and within 15 minutes the fog had taken over the bay. It happens just that fast. This morning I woke up to rain. Nothing better than being on a boat in the rain.

This weekend is The Master's Golf Tournament. Actually it started today. I can watch The Master's for 4 days straight.

I live on a small man-made island (peninsula) called Shelter Island. The whole island is only 1/2 mile long and 250' wide. I keep my boat (Joyride) at The Bay Club Hotel & Marina.

Here's another picture of the Island. The first long dock coming into the yacht basin (lower left in the picture) is the US Customs station. So, every vessel that comes into the US from anywhere south has to stop here to obtain permits to enter the country.    

Directly across the street from Bay Club there is a public dock with a ramp and public benches.

Every afternoon there is a homeless guy named "Rick" who shows up on his bike to feed the birds and drink malt liquor from 32oz bottles in a plain brown bag.

Rick has been feeding these birds for so long that they are almost like pets. Notice on the pillar of the shelter, Rick has installed 1/10 perches so that the swallows have somewhere to stand while they eat the bird seed that he places there.

Rick said that one of the local restaurants on Shelter Island saves their stale bread and donates it to him to feed the pigeons.

Below are pictures of the wall of fog that descended over Point Loma Wednesday around noontime  

Within a couple of minutes you could not see the condo's in the picture below.

San Diego is home to the World's Largest sport fishing fleets. This is just one dock full. There are approximately 50-75 of these boats. Each day they are loaded with 50+ people that they take on half-day and up to week long excursions.

Stinking The Place Up

San Dimas is one of the higher level races that this little Midwestern boy has attended. In some ways I'm slightly star struck. This is mainly a pro race but they've allowed a very few amateur categories to also participate - including Masters 35, 45 & 55+. The 45 & 55+ masters are racing together, but scored separately. Usually that spells "cluster-you-know-what". You hope they separate the numbering convention so that you can tell who you are actually racing with. But it's almost impossible, especially for someone like me who is not familiar with the national-level competition.

But at this race, not only did they use a different numbering convention for each category, but the actual paper that the numbers are printed on is in contrasting colors So, the 45+ have neon orange numbers and the 55+ are bright yellow.

Stage 1 is a challenging 4.2 mile uphill TT. It goes up a twisty section of the San Gabriel Mountains. We were sent off in :30 second intervals; and yours truly drew the very 1st starting position. I'd rather have a couple 2-3 guys in front of me to chase, rather than be chased, but in the end it's a race against time.

Going into the weekend I was not at all sure about my fitness. I really was due for a rest this week, but tried to squeeze out extra week because I really wanted to do this race. So I rode hard last Saturday and then have been taking it pretty easy this week. It's tricky trying to stretch a fitness period, at least for me. I'm either under trained or over trained.

Stage 1 Race Report
My start time was 11:32am. I was up really early due to some jagmo's in the motel room next to me that decided to have a little pow wow at 4:30 am. I laid and listened to it for about 20 minutes until I was fully awake and then called the front desk. They never did quiet down, but stuck my ear buds in and managed to fall asleep for another hour until 7:00am. Then I hit a Starbucks for coffee, oatmeal and the morning news.

I felt good warming up. I have a pretty tried and true pre-race warmup. After putting my trainer away, I rolled up to the starting area. One of my biggest dilemma's today was what gearing to use. The climb undulates between 5-9%. I opted for a 25X11. I had a 28 in the truck but decided that if I was going slow enough to need it, that would mean I was not in the hunt anyhow. This follows my philosophy that there are only 2 places in bike racing - 1st and everything else.

As of now 1:00pm all I can say is that today, I placed in the "everything else" position. In fact, I felt great. And my power/heart rate numbers were better than I expected. But, I was passed by my :30 man and then to add insult to injury, about 500 meters from the finish, I was also passed by my 1:00 man. Looking around, I notice there are lots and lots of stars, bars, and rainbows on jersey sleeves. Compared to a real climber, I pretty much stunk up the place.  

On the bright side, tomorrow is a new sunny day - and  new adventure. I am no longer racing for the General Classification. But there are stage wins, climbers jersey, and sprinters jersey still up for grabs.

I've been racing a lot of years. I've enjoyed more than my fair share of success. I've raced with guys who get so mad at their results that they swear, throw their bikes, cuss out the officials, and make tons of excuses. For me, bike racing is still fun. I win some and I am humbled by some. In some ways, cycling is like golf. You can completely shank 4 strokes in a row, and then just a soon as you start to get discouraged, you hit the perfect shot, and suddenly the clouds disappear, and the cherubs start plucking their harps.

San Dimas Prep

The year 2000 (for those of you who weren't already a grown-up at the time), was a very interesting time to be in the technology business. Everyone was working feverishly to correct software code that was presumed to be incompatible with Y2K (Year 2000). Lots of technology guys made their millions working toward this date. Thousands of programmers sat awake at their keyboards and watched the clock strike "twelve" on 12/31/1999 with their fingers crossed.

As it turned out, for the most part, it was much-a-do-about-nothing.

Around the same time, I felt like I was out on the bleeding edge of technology. We were digitizing and processing paper documents and extracting the data to use in ways that we didn't fully understand even as we were in the middle of it. I spent much of my time hosting seminars talking about the future of technology. I also attended several seminars presented by other forward thinking technologists who were describing a world were the computer would no longer be a computing tool, but instead a connecting tool. They talked about having a hand-held device that you could use to keep your "digital" calendar on and it would update other devices such as your home computer and even your...cell phone! You have to remember, back in the day, phones looked more like bricks then phones

Oh yes, I had a brick phone.

And also several double breasted suits.

Prior to the brick phone, I had a bag phone. It was considered better than a car

phone because it could be moved from car to car.

The whole idea of being "connected" seemed like such a novelty.

Flash forward less than 2 short decades and we have not only seen these visions come to pass but have more information and computing power at our fingertips than once filled an entire library. And what's even more important is that every 10 year old knows how to access it better than we do.

I once heard Shaquil O'neal say that there is no reason to memorize anything that you can access with a swipe of your phone.

I use the internet all the time. Every time Kyria and I are in a conversation and one of us asks "how does this or that work", the first thing we do is reach for our smart phone. And the best part is that I can't remember the last time one of us searched for something and could not find out more than we ever wanted or needed to know about a subject.

This weekend I am doing the San Dimas Stage Race. It's always been on my bucket list. I was planning to arrive a day early to pre-ride the TT and road race courses. The TT is a 4 mile climb and the road race has a couple of tricky hills.

This morning at breakfast, as I was surfing the Interweb, I did a quick search on YouTube, looky what I found:

San Dimas Stage 1 - Glendora Mountain TT Course

San Dimas Stage 2 - Road Race Course

San Dimas Stage 3 - Pro Criterium

Back to my technology story: At one of the seminars I attended just before Y2K, the presenter described a future where a Coke machine that might be located at a remote gas station in the desert. It would have a thermostat connected to a pricing table. When the ambient temperature in the desert would rise, the Coke would become more desirable and therefor the price would automatically go up. So when it was 70 degrees a Coke would cost $1.00 but when it was 100 degrees that same Coke would cost $3.00.

I found this retro Coke machine on Ebay. 

The "Buy It Now" price is $8,999.

I am old enough to remember .10 Cokes

The Ball is Rolling

I've been getting tons of random "friend" requests lately from people I don't know. In fact, I think many of the requests aren't even real. According the Facebook I have 750 "friends". Some of them aren't friends or even acquaintances but just people that I know who they are. Every once in a while I notice someone is my FB friend and I can't recall how I know (or knew) them, so I remove them.

I have another category of FB friends called "unfollowed". Wonderful people that I don't necessarily want to unfriend but who are like a broken record posting the same political crap over, and over. It's interesting to me how FB brings out the best and the worst in people sometimes.

Lately I've noticed people saying some really nasty political stuff. And pointing the finger at anyone that could possibly have a differing opinion. Then the very next day say they could never support someone like The Donald because he's too harsh.

Tuesday Arizona held it's primary. Nearly 40% of the AZ democrats voted for Bernie Sanders.

As I said earlier, I have 750 Facebook friends. The majority are cyclists. I'd estimate that the vast majority of cyclists are left leaning. So that means that 300 +/- of you either voted for Bernie, or would have.

Some of us are very quiet about our politics. But it's easy to figure out just by noticing when comments move us to click the "like" button. Once in a while I'm shocked to learn how a particular person feels about a topic, but most of the time I have a good idea of a persons world view.

Below is an article that I first read a decade ago, which recently re-surfaced on FB. Personally, I think we are in the "From apathy to dependence" stage. The ball is already rolling. If The Donald is in the Whitehouse, the ball will keep rolling, maybe at a slower pace. If The Bern gets in, the ball will be pushed over the edge of the cliff. Either way I think it's what we "the people" collectively want.

In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh , had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years ...prior: "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage."

By the way, The United States of America is NOT a democracy. We're a Republic. Our founding fathers noted a BIG difference in the two forms of government. In a democracy, majority rules. In a republic, citizens have God given rights which can't be taken away.

Rights can't be taken away, but they most-definitely can be given away. Unfortunately, in the "liberty to abundance" era, we have voted for people who voted to make certain amendments to our Constitution which have very effectively done exactly that.

The Donald and The Bern are the least of our problems. If Alexander Tyler isn't smoking his socks, then we have the undeniable history of civilization to contend with.




  

Bike Paths Are a Bad Idea

I've been reading and also copied in on a lot of email banter lately about Bike Path Etiquette.

We’ve had this debate for years back in Iowa. In Arizona, we Tucsonan’s don’t quite hit the mark calling these paths “bike” paths, when in fact they are “multi-use” paths. If they were limited to bicycles, the problem would be moot. Instead there are people pushing baby carriages, walking dogs on extending leashes, inline skating, loafing along on hybrids and beach cruisers, or people just coming on and off the path. In other communities, the intended use of a multi-use path is to provide suburbia with a place to enjoy being outside without walking on the roads. I always thought that's what sidewalks were for?

If we already have roads and sidewalks, my question is why do we need to spend public funds for a third chunk of blacktop anyway?

We don't need bike or multi-use path at all. Bikes should ride on the road and pedestrians should walk on the sidewalk.

But with that said, I think if a bike is on one of these paths, especially in populated areas like the Rillito, we should not be riding at training speeds. Even if the path appears to be clear. There are so many twists, turns, narrow bridges and blind entrances that we can’t know what’s ahead. The possible exception is a very rural path such as the Santa Cruz where it's mostly cyclists and you can see for miles.

Most “racer” types that I know use the paths to get to and from a training destination.

I think spending money on paths to move cyclists off of public roadways is misuse of public funds. Remember, fellow cyclists, we are not “in” traffic, we “are” traffic. We should be lobbying to use the entire lane where there are no bike lanes and not be forced to “single up” so that motorists think they can share the lane with us – putting cyclists in danger. Instead cars should be required to pass a group of cyclists just as they would another slow moving vehicle; by changing lanes. I drive a car more miles in a year than I ride a bike. Trust me, it's not hard to pass a bicycle, or a group of bicycles.

Somehow, here in Tucson cyclists are considered guests on the road. The only place we are tolerated is either on a path or in a narrow bike lane filled with gravel, glass, thorns and other road debris.

Once in a while I see a cyclist roll through a stop sign or fail to signal. So big deal. I see that all the time with motorists. How about we stop hating on cyclists for being human? Should we strive to be better than average? Yes. But why do we expect cyclists to be any more holy than the rest of the general public? Certainly no reason to relegate us to a multi-use path forced to navigate around some spastic Labradoodle on a 25' extend-a-leash.

Instead of building bike or multi-use paths, how about if we re-appropriate the funds and just fix the uber-crappy roads and bridges here?

Sometimes some things that seem to be "bike friendly" are in not very friendly at all.

Not sure why we needed to build another cement path when there is a perfectly good right next to it?

This is one of the bridges that were built to connect the North Rillito Path with the South Rillito Path.

Uhh, question: Why do we need duplicate paths? Was one not enough? And connecting bridges?

I wonder how many roads could have been fixed with these funds?

TBC Stage 3 Race Report

The main story of the 2016 Edition of TBC Master 55+ race was the 3-man team from Cali named ThirstyBear p/b Akamai, who executed with precision on all three stages. They opened with the yellow jersey, handed it off to a teammate on Stage 2 and controlled it on Stage 3.

I can only assume that they kept it after Stage 3 because I left quickly - thoroughly frustrated.

It was one of those weekends when nothing seemed to go right. Sometimes, especially when the competition is strong, you need a little luck, or a break. And it just didn't happen.

On today's stage the Master's 55+ got tangled with the Master's 45+. It was pretty tense trying to keep track of the 600 series numbers and the 800 series numbers from the respective categories. Everyone trying to sneak away on each attack. Nobody was going to allow a breakaway today.

Rounding the final corner both groups were all together. If you're familiar with the course, the final straightaway is a 1250 meter undulating climb to the line. In the past I have attacked right at the corner and up the hill to solo for the win. But not today. I sprinted out of the corner and got a small gap, but was swarmed with 500 meters to go. I stayed in the top 5 but when I stood up to sprint again, I was toasted and just sat up and faded to the rear.

A humbling weekend for sure. I reviewed my power file and it verified what I felt - it was a hard assed race. In fact, it was pretty much full gas the entire day.

I have some work to do between now and San Dimas in 2 weeks.

Almost Chicked

I've always said that if I ever get beat by a girl, that would be my signal to find a new sport - jokingly of course. But yesterday at the TBC Time trial it almost happened when Anna Sanders from Visit Dallas Pro Cycling clocked an 8:32.

Time trialing used to be my specialty. I've always been big and powerful. But over the years I've lost my mojo for solitary suffering. I can dig much deeper when I'm competing directly with a human instead of the clock. It also has a lot to do with the way that I train now. In the old days I was pretty strict about doing regular intervals. I used to do 3X20's every week - usually on the trainer. I remember sitting on the couch in my chamois psyching myself into climbing on the bike because I knew it was going to hurt so bad. But that is exactly what it takes to be a good time trialist. That, and spending time on your TT bike. My Trek Speed Concept has been hanging on the wall since 2015 TBC.

But with all that said, I felt really great yesterday. Extraordinary actually. I was kind of shocked when my time was 8:30. That's :30 slower than my best at TBC. Here are the numbers

My official time was 8:30. So I was within :02 of being chicked. Looks like I'll have to re-think my position because I'm not ready to dust off my golf clubs just yet.

And speaking of :02. That's exactly how far back I found myself on the GC after Stage 1. I was sitting in 2nd with a good plan for the Road Race.

TBC Stage 2
Max Thompson from Thirsty Bear San Anselmo, CA was wearing the yellow jersey and he had 2 additional teammates in the field to ride tempo. And they executed very well, with one of them on the front keeping the tempo high at all times.

On lap 1 a Tucson Master's guy went up the road and they let him dangle. I bridged up and we started rotating but were caught within a few miles. That's when things went south.

Riding at tempo just before the turn into the start/finish line I flatted. The wheel truck assisted with a quick wheel change but I was way back and the peloton was drilling it up the long hill.

The driver of the wheel truck did a world class job of motor pacing me back to the group but I was gassed by the time I got back on. Luckily I had a few miles to recover before the finish.

Master's racing is predictably unpredictable. Often times the field is full of guys who really don't understand tactics, as illustrated by what happened next.

On lap 2, two guys, including one from the yellow jersey's team rolled off the front just ahead of the long (8 mile) decent. I went to the front and started to chase along with Andy Hosterman from Landis. And then, instead of rotating, several other guys started to attack and then sit up. Of course this resulted in the group never getting organized, leaving the two escapees to put time on us.

I will never know if I/we could have caught them (or bridged across) because the next thing I know, my rear tire goes flat AGAIN! And my day was done.

At the time of this blog post, I am exchanging email with the Chief Referee to see if I can start tomorrow.

This was one of four target races this year. The first was Valley of the Sun. I was registered and got sick 2 days before the start. Now this. I'm 0 for 2.

This turning into an interesting year. I either win, DNS or DNF. Nothing in between.

Next up San Dimas Stage Race in Cali-Forn-Ia. Another target race. We shall see.

All Jacked Up for TBC

This weekend is the Tucson Bicycle Classic Stage Race. It's 3 races - Friday 5K TT, Saturday Road Race and Sunday Circuit Race. I've ridden it as a master and as a Cat 1.

In 2014 I didn't race it at all. I was registered, but the week preceding the race I became very sick. In fact I was passing blood in my urine and stools. Which is bad since those two systems aren't really connected or related.

Although I felt just fine, Friday morning before the TT I decided to visit the Emergency Clinic on Sunrise. Following a brief examination the ER doc left the room and returned shortly saying that he called ahead and had made an appointment at the local hospital and I was directed to go immediately there for more tests.

After a more thorough examination an appointment was made with a local gastroenterologist - Dr. Hudson.

It was recommended that I should refrain from any strenuous activity until the problem could be diagnosed and treated. I called my GST teammates with the news and received lots of supportive texts and emails hoping for a positive outcome.

Being a bachelor at the time, and also a very healthy eater, part of my daily routine was to make an afternoon trip to Whole Foods to select my dinner for the evening. I like the deli counter where they make some really great side dishes. One of my favorites is a recipe they call Nola Beets (beets, green pepper, feta cheese, organic spinach, tobacco sauce, apple cider vinegar, and extra virgin olive oil). In fact I liked it so much that I bought it every day for about 3 weeks, coincidently around the same time that I was stricken with this mystery disease of my urinary and digestive tracts.

When I met with the gastro doc I came prepared with a detailed description of my symptoms along with half a dozen camera phone pictures of my commode, graphically documenting the situation.

Dr. Hudson sat quietly as I explained my symptoms in detail just nodding his head. Finally he responded that the samples collected at the emergency room showed no blood. I almost spit snot out of my nose as I immediately pulled up the bloody evidence on my smartphone.

Dr. Hudson patiently looked on as I thumbed through the graphic proof.

Finally he asked " Lou, tell me, do you eat a lot of beets?"

Mystery solved.

I've won individual stages at TBC but my best finish in the General Classification was in 2013 when I finished 2nd. A fresh new 45 year old upstart master named Gord Frazer won. If you read the results it looked close, but it really wasn't. Going into the last lap of the circuit race, I was in the virtual lead. Gord, me and another guy were in a break, far ahead of the peloton. Heading up the feed zone hill, Gord waited for me to take a long pull, then looked at us both, shifted a couple of gears, stood up and rode away, winning the stage and evaporating the few seconds of virtual lead that I had. It was an honor to race with a guy who's career I have followed for many years. 

For the 2016 Edition of TBC I am registered in the 55+ category. There are around 30 guys pre-registered. It doesn't matter what race you're doing at TBC, there will be excellent competition.

This year again, I'm all jacked up on Nola Beets and expecting a better outcome!

A blistering 12.9 mph average day

It seems like I ride the same group rides and routes whenever I'm in California. For race simulation I like the Swami's Ride in Encinitas or the UC Cyclery Ride in La Jolla - both on Saturdays. La Jolla is closer, and I can ride to the ride (instead of driving to the ride) and, in some ways I like it for training better than Swami's. During the week, when I ride alone, I tend to ride the same 2 or 3 routes.

There are dozens of group rides in SoCal ever day and so this past Sunday I decided to pick one and join in.

Almost next door to where I live is a very cool development called Liberty Station. It's actually a Naval Training Center that was built in the 1920's. Then later fell into decay before it was recently renovated and repurposed into a great area that has residential townhouses, retail, restaurants, shopping and even a megachurch called Rock Church.

One of the shops in Liberty Station is a bike shop called Moment Bikes. It's a high end shop that caters to racers and triathletes. When I stopped in there on Saturday all of the staff seemed a little on the "stuffy" side. 99% of the shops that I go to across the country are all super friendly. I mean, your working at a bike shop, what's not to be happy about? But that was just my 1st impression, and 1st impressions can be wrong. Plus, everyone seems to be friendlier once we have an opportunity to ride together.

Anyhow, I visited Moments website and learned that a group ride leaves every Sunday's at 8:00am with a changing route each week. This weeks' route is called the 7-11 Ride because it passes a bunch of 7-11 stores along the route. It goes east, inland through areas called Mission Gorge and El Capitan Reservoir - 65 miles round trip.

I showed up a few minutes early with a Grande Starbucks in hand. There were a handful of young guys all sitting around the patio furniture - all with their noses stuck to their smart phones - nobody chatting - nobody saying hello - same vibe as the day before in the store.

Digression time
[Last week, Kyria and I were having dinner at a Mexican restaurant. There were a pack of 8-10 teenage girls sitting at a table by us. We noted that not one word was spoken for several minutes. Every girl had their head down with the glow of the smart phone screen lighting their faces. We have an entire generation who no-longer understand how to communicate. How will they survive? Who will save them? These are the people who will be voting for Bernie - no doubt.]

A few more people rolled up, a couple of them wearing tennis shoes and t-shirts. This is when I started to plan my exit strategy. After a couple of instructions, we were off. There were 2 ride leaders; Both wearing Moment Kits. One guy was leading the short route, the other leading the long route.

Most of these ride start out 2-abreast. Whenever I attend a new ride I make it a point to strike up a conversation with the person next to me. It seemed like we rode about 90 minutes getting out of town. This gave me lots of time to chat with several people. This ride had become a social/recovery ride, which was perfectly fine with me. I had a great Saturday ride and a wide-open schedule this week to prepare for Tucson Bicycle Classic Stage Race next weekend.

Once we entered the Mission Gorge area the road opened up and the terrain became more challenging. Most of these group rides are "no-drop" which usually means that if the group splits, we re-group regularly. But today, it was survival of the fittest. I didn't see any t-shirts or tennis shoes after the first 30 minutes, and by the time we did stop, there were 3 of us who waited for 10 minutes for the balance of the group. This turned out to be where the short ride turned around and the long ride continued to El Capitan.

There were 5-6 of us who did the long route and we continued riding 2-abreast most of the way. I had a chance to chat with each guy for quite a while. Our ride leader was JT - the owner of Moment Bikes. JT turned out to be a super nice guy. Really passionate about the sport and his shop. He's a former engineer and used to fabricate carbon tubing. His big push is bike fits and service. I wanted to find a good way to offer my suggestion that his staff could be more engaging but it never came up.

Austin was a young guy who is also an engineer and was in San Diego doing a project for the Navy. Once he found out that I was a retired business guy he was full of questions about business and finance. It won't be long until Austin has his own firm and will be employing several Americans. Austin was NOT one of the guys with his face pasted to his smart phone before the ride.

Anyhow, heading into El Capitan Reservoir we had a chance to hit the jets up a 2-mile long climb to past the damn. We stopped for picture, a nature break and to fill water bottles before heading back to civilization.
.
I made 5 new friends today - JT, August, Austin Jose' and another guy from Canada (name escapes me). Sometimes that is more important then recording a KOM on Strava.

After high-5's at the shop, I arrived back at the boat with just under 90 miles and over 6 hours of saddle time. Not the most challenging day on the bike, but a really fun one, and one that I would recommend. At the end of the day, 90 miles is still 90 miles.

My Garmin route to El Capitan and back.

El Capitan Reservoir

A very different picture from the ocean

These two little dudes show up like clockwork every

afternoon around 5:00pm begging for Cornflakes.

I can only throw 4-5 handfuls to them before the

seagulls show up and turn the place into a shit show.

The Other Coronado

Yesterday I took a day cruise to Los Coronado Islands, Mexico. Today I rode my bike to Coronado. See Illustration.

T "A" pin shows Los Coronado Islands in Mexico south of Tijuana. Whereas Coronado is the peninsula that separates the San Diego Bay from the Ocean. It is a very exclusive area that has been a popular vacation destination for decades

For my last easy day before I get back into hard training on Saturday, I opted to do a loop through the city and then follow the Bay around the south rim and into Coronado. You basically ride down to the Tijuana border and then cut back up into Coronado.

On the San Diego side you ride along a huge Navy base before entering a bike path that totally flat and straight with little to nothing to look at, but all of the NW trade winds coming off the ocean in your face. It was hard to keep it down.

Once I reached Coronado I decided to take my time and snap a few pictures. As I pulled off to the side of the downtown main street, amidst the sounds of traffic and pedestrians chatting I hear someone say my name. I turned around and the was David Knittle - a friend from Tucson who is in San Diego this week with his wife vacationing. We chatted briefly and I learned that he also brought his bike along. So hopefully he will join me for the Saturday UC Cyclery ride. Maybe a bay cruise later in the day. Talk about random!

I hopped on the ferry and took it across the bay and finished off with a through Fisherman's Wharf before returning to Bay Club.

Standing on the Coronado side look back at the Coronado Bridge and San Diego

When these condo's were built back in the 70's there was a big brew haha
about them obstructing the view of the ocean.

Hotel Del Coronado. Kyria and I have eaten here several times.

I've been told that The Del was the first climate controlled hotel in the US.

Or maybe it's the oldest standing wooden hotel? I never was one for details. 

The main entrance to The Del. It's still a grand old hotel!

The Del has a main hotel but it also has these cool cottages along the ocean.

This is a view from one of the cottages toward the south. 

Los Coronado Islands are 18 miles out. 

The ferry that brought us across

It's a $5.00 ferry ride from Coronado across the bay.

There were several other cyclists using the ferry.

Other than the stingray with the ape hanger handlebars,

I notice that all of the others were Treks.

I thought this was Specialized territory?

When I returned to the boat, the sailing club across the yacht basin

was taking advantage of the windy afternoon to teach kids how to sail

Coronado Islands, Mexico

Not to be confused with "Coronado" which is on the outer peninsula of the San Diego Harbor, The Coronado Islands are 4 small islands located 18 miles south of San Diego in Mexico.

Ever since we started thinking about keeping our boat in Sand Diego, one of our bucket list destinations has been Mexico. Later this summer we have a trip to Ensenada planned. So this shorter, day trip to Coronado serves and a shakedown expedition.

Getting the proper permits and paperwork turned out to be quite a hassle. In fact, we were scammed into paying $600 for permits to someone who we thought was legit only to find our he was not. We ended up soliciting the services of the same documentation company that did the doc for the boat.

It's amazing how many documents you need to travel to Mexico by boat.

1. Ten year permit
2. Certificate of Insurance x2 (for the yacht and the dinghy).
3. Certificate of Title x2 (for the yacht and the dinghy).
4. Passports for everyone on the boat.
5. Drivers license or picture ID for everyone on the boat.
6. 2 crisp $100 bills just in case.

Around San Diego there are 2 camps of thought - 1) The first camp loves sailing to MX and says that there is absolutely no reason to worry. And anyone who does worry is a pussy. 2) The second camp says that most of the Mexican Coast Guard is comprised of 16 years olds with machine guns who love to screw with gringos. I tend to believe camp #1. As long as you have the proper paperwork and aren't trying to buy drugs or hookers, you're probably safer in Mexico then walking down 22nd street in Tucson on a Saturday night.

I pulled out of the slip around 9:30am and set a heading for Coronado Islands. It's exactly 18 miles south of the bay. On most clear days you can see the islands from The Bay. Today was a very calm day but it was hazy, so I couldn't see the islands until about 5 miles out.

Cruising out of the bay I was joined by a whale watching excursion boat. For a moment I had a fleeting thought to abandon my trip and follow them to the "secret" whale watching spot. But opted to continue on as planned. And I am happy I did because as I got closer to Coronado, I saw several pods of whales and dolpins. In fact, as I rounded South Coronado I spotted a very large gray whale gliding along the surface and ran parallel to him for what seemed like 10 minutes. As he lifted his dorsal fins and head out of the water I wondered if there were more in the area? He spouted mist out of his blow hole then finally his large tail fin came out of the water and he was gone.

I also saw several pods of dolphin. For some reason they like the wake of the boat. You can see them racing toward me and then jumping across the wake.

I tried to catch some of these sightings on video, but each time I reached for my phone I missed the action. I have about 10 videos of empty water with me ranting on the audio. Eventually I decided to go for the binoculars instead of the camera and just enjoy the experience for myself.

As I was returning to San Diego Bay I noticed a large Navy Warship doing maneuvers, along with 2 Navy helicopters that seemed to be doing surveillance, flying in formation around the mouth of the bay.

I noticed 2 orange tug boats and I as got closer I saw that they had hold of a submarine and were spinning her around and pointing her back out toward open ocean. There were also 4-5 Navy machine gun boats forming a circle around the sub. I invented several conspiracy theories in my head as I was watching the happenings. At the end of the day, there are probably lots of things going on in this bay, right under our noses that we know nothing about.

This is whale watching season. Several of these boats filled with anxious whale watchers come and go every day

Coronado Islands consist of 4 small islands.

On the largest Island there is a cover called "Smuggler's Cove", where a couple of shacks are located. There were 6-7 guys outside working on the grounds when I passed by close to shore. They all took a pause and waives "hello".

If you look closely on my chart plotter (left screen) you will see a black dot. That is Joyride outside of Smuggler's Cove. I made a salad for lunch from the leftover barbeque chicken from the night before.

Two orange tug boats turning an old submarine. I think it is a pre-nuclear sub. Probably diesel. No idea what's going on here.

US Navy Warship on patrol. Tijuana, MX in the background.

Everybody Loves Kellog's

When I bought my boat my broker told me that a good pair of binoculars was imperative for navigation, but also for observing landmarks and wildlife such as whales, dolphins, birds, etc.

So I got a really good pair and like to watch birds as I'm out cruising the coast.  There are over 480 bird species in San Diego County. More than any other County in the United States. This weekend The San Diego Audubon Society is hosting their annual Bird Festival. Attendees come from all around the world.

It rained on and off most of the day yesterday. I ran some errands and cooked a pork roast and baked potato aboard the boat last night. These two stopped by to say hello and were begging for cornflakes.

This little dude as been stopping by all week around 6:00pm. I feed him Kellog's Cornflakes. Each day he comes a little closer to taking the flake right out of my hand. Last night he brought a friend.

There was a seagull sitting on a dock post who jumped into the water and started bullying the other two and calling out to his friends. Within about 30 seconds 100 seagulls descended onto the water and the docks. Seagulls are loud and dirty birds.

Osprey also live in the area. They are often called "fish hawk" or "fish eagle". Their wingspan can reach 75". There were a pair of them living at the top of the mast of the sailboat next to me. The people who owned the sailboat lived in Maui and only visited The Bay for a couple of weeks a year. They recently sold it and now I have a new neighbor. Osprey are cool to look at but they make crappy neighbors. And by crappy, I mean their bird crap is as big as their wingspan. I haven't met my new neighbor yet. I think she's kind of a recluse.

After the rainy day yesterday, today is picture perfect. I'm headed out for a long ride up the Pacific Coast Highway to Oceanside and back. It feels like a lot more than 2 days since I've been on my bike.    

Nappy Time

I drove over to San Diego from Phoenix on Sunday to spend a week on the boat. It's a rest week for me. I still do an old school program whereby, I build for 3 weeks and then take one week where I ride half as many hours with half of the regular intensity. I try to replace the hours not training with hours sleeping. That's easy to do here. In fact, the sun goes down early this time of year - like 5:30 early, so it's hard to stay up past 8-8:30. I can easily get 10 hours a night plus an afternoon nap.

Napping is something that I read about a few years ago and the natural human growth hormone produced during a short 1-hour afternoon siesta. People who don't nap find the entire idea to be a bit on the lazy side. Everyone loves to talk about how many miles they ride every week and year, but nobody talks about resting. I know guys who haven't taken a day off the bike in years - literally years.

I take one full day off the bike every week. On that day I try stay off my feet and when I do walk, if there are stairs I try to take the elevator. I know a lot of people who use their rest day to cross-train. It's a big mistake.

Of course I realize this is a luxury that most people raising families and earning a living just don't have. Rest is an important to consider when you start saying to yourself "I train just like Johnny Pro, so why can't I hang with him"? I think the biggest reason is that Johnny Pro is resting much better.

Ask anyone succeeding at a high level and you will find a singular focus. Effective people are really good at defining their values and setting goals, and then doing only the things that support these goals. Not just doing a bunch of busy, noisy stuff; but instead just doing a few important things really well. If you're a competitive cyclist, rest is a really important thing.

Back when I was in my 20's I used to lift weights. Lee Haney was Mr. Olympia at that time. I read an article by Lee where he talked about rest as being the most important component to growing muscle. He said, "your muscles don't grow when you're lifting, they grow when you're resting. If you're not resting you can't get strong". 

Here is an except from an article talking about GH and morning vs. afternoon naps:

Growth hormone levels during morning and afternoon naps.

In order to determine whether sleep onset per se might precipitate the sleep growth hormone (GH) response, sleep EEG-EOG and plasma GH characteristics were studied in 15 healthy young males (AM) sleeping from 8 AM to 10 AM, when REM sleep is known to predominate, and in 14 subjects (PM) sleeping from 4 PM to 6 PM, when slow-wave sleep (SWS) predominates. PM subjects obtained significantly more SWS and less REM sleep than AM subjects. There was wide individual variability in the level and timing of the GH rise during the naps, but GH release was significantly greater during PM naps than during AM naps for the groups as a whole. The difference between conditions reflected primarily the fact that more subjects exhibited frank GH peaks during PM naps than during AM naps. These results indicate that the occurrence of the sleep GH response is not dependent upon sleep onset, and confirm previous reports of an association between the sleep GH response and SWS.

These boys have been getting some good Nappy Time

I know this is random, but Kyria and I have been talking about buying a house in San Diego vs. living on the boat. Housing here is crazy expensive. We could buy this little gem below for the low, low price of $500k. I think the price includes the wrought iron patio furniture. Plus, I think it has a view, of a house that has a view of another house that is close to the ocean.