New Office - New Routine - New Stress

Yesterday was our first day in the new office.  We moved the office from 201 Cal to 425 Cal.  Being in the commercial real estate business, you would think that I am used to office relocations.  But the fact remains that moving stinks for all parties involved.  To make matters worse, my whole morning routine has to be re-jiggered to accommodate the new digs.  While only 2 blocks apart, 201 Cal (for all its shortcomings) has a couple major advantages over 425 Cal. 

First and foremost, the old building, 201 Cal, has a parking garage in the lower level of the building.  I could ride my bike straight into the garage, jump in the freight elevator, and be in my office in seconds.  I stored my bike in my cube and the world seemed safe.  425 Cal has no parking in the building.  Furthermore, it has a beautiful new lobby and new elevator cabs.  As such, the ownership does not allow any bikes whatsoever in the building.  This causes me great pains.  Rather than storing my bike in my office within my sight, I now have to lock it up at a neighboring building's garage.  Not only can I not keep track of my bike, but there is a sign clearly stating that bikes are left at the owner's risk and the building takes no responsibility ... blah, blah, blah.  In other words, if you leave your bike here, it is probably not safe.  So I bought a chain lock and a U-Lock and am praying every day when I go to get my bike for the ride home.  It makes matters worse that my bike is the only bike worth more than $100 bikes in the rack.  the rest of the bikes are 10+ year old beaters and cruiser bikes.  My bike stands out like a sore thumb screaming, "Please take me!"

The next bummer of the new building is that 425 Cal does not have a shower where 201 Cal does.  I was never impressed with the shower at 201 Cal, but at least it was there.  The room is maybe 12 x 12 feet with just a toilet, sink and shower.  The carpet was moldy and I am certain that the janitors have never cleaned the room.  I actually did an experiment a year or so ago where I left an old Band-Aid on the soap dispenser in the shower.  Over a period of months, that Band-Aid did not move or get cleaned but a layer of dust started to cover over it.  Gnarly.  But I was able to drop my bike in the office, grab my clothes and head back down the elevator to get cleaned up.  Now, after I park my bike, I have to walk a block to the office, grab my clothes and shower gear, walk back another block to the gym (which I obviously had to pay to join), shower up and then walk back to the office again.  It is not as bad as it sounds on a nice day like today.  But I expect it to be an absolute nightmare when the winter rains come. 

Thanks for listening to my rant this morning.  It is a small price to pay for the luxury of riding my bike to work.  And not only do I get to share my fat spandex body with everyone in my office, but I now get to share with Sansome and California Streets.  In two days, I have yet to bump into anyone that I know on the streets.  But it is inevitable that it will happen soon.  That will be a treat for both of us.

First Century

I had done several organized metric centuries (62ish miles) and several weekend rides north of 60 miles.  This Sunday, however, was the first time I ever attempted a ride of 100 miles.  I rode with Team Schwab in its philanthropic effort to raise money for the American Diabetes Association in the Napa Valley Tour de Cure.  The team included two FOG Dwellers – Murray and Iron Mike.  Given my base of commute miles, my comfort riding with the FOGs and the 60+ miles that I had put in each of the  two weeks prior, felt pretty prepared and was excited for the ride.

We had a strong group of nine riders that set off for the 100 mile course.  There was this crazy goal of making the finish line by 1.30pm for team pictures (with the people that rode less than 100 miles), but no one was too concerned about making any specific time.  The general sense before departure was that everyone was out of racing shape and just looking to go along for the ride.  This was music to my ears as there had been some discussion about trying to finish south of 5 ½ hours. 

This leisurely attitude disappeared almost immediately out of the starting gate.  After a few miles of spinning through Yountville residential neighborhoods, we got into a lone on Highway 29 and just started passing people.  Before I knew it, we crossed the train tracks and were flying through St. Helena in a line well north of 20 mph.  I was safely sucking wheels as each guy did his pull on the front and maintained the peppy pace.  I hit the front at 15.1 miles (on my Garmin) and hammered for 2.7 miles.  I tried to do a full 3 miles, but I truly had nothing left after almost 9 minutes of pushing.  I actually pulled too hard and almost dropped off of the back of the line when I was finished.

The group was pretty disciplined, maintaining the line until the first climb at about 25 miles – a Camino Alto-like 400 foot hill at a reasonable pitch. The line dissipated as we all climbed at our own pace.  I am proud to say that I was not the slowest up the climbs but was usually 6^th or 7^th out of the nine guys.  At the top, we regrouped into our line for another 10 miles to the first rest stop.  I was shocked to see that we had ridden the first 36 miles in barely an hour and a half. 

My view for most of the ride

The second leg turned out to be the most painful of the ride.  Of the 9 guys, we were bound to have some sort of mechanical issue during the day.  One of our group flatted about mile 40.  We stopped for a pretty quick tube change and were back on the road.  But rather than use a CO2 cartridge, the guy insisted on using his hand pump to inflate his tube.  Unfortunately, about 2 miles in, he realized that he did not achieve enough pressure in his tire.  So we stopped again to CO2 up.  But this time, he over-inflated the tube and popped/exploded his tube.  So he has to pull the tire off again and re-do everything one more time.  We lost about 20 minutes in that whole exchange but were still in good spirits.  But with all the start and stop, the rest stop at 54 miles seemed kinda useless.  I was hoping for a quick stop for water but each guys seemed to have their own agenda and the rests were a bit too long for my taste.  I did my best to eat as little as possible but load up on fluids and salty calories.  I ate maybe three finger food sandwiches and a handful of trail mix all day.  But I drank 13 bottles of fluid (water, Gatorade, Cytomax, etc).

I have to say that the rest of the ride was pretty uneventful.  Scotty and Iron Mike spent more than their share of time pulling the pace line.  I did only one more turn at the front for about 2 more miles.  Daniel “The South African Kid” was also a beast at the head of the line.  I was a bit disappointed in the route that was selected.  Given the amazing beauty of the Napa Valley, they could have picked a bunch more routes than just Highway 29 and Silverado trail.  I am not complaining about the sub-3,000 feet of climbing but they could have beat us up a little bit more.  By mile 90, we turned off of Silverado Trail and headed towards 29 on some side streets.  I knew the race was almost over and, I must admit, by mile 90, I was ready to get off the bike.  The headwind (about which I was warned) was just insult to injury as we rode back towards Yountville.  I realized at mile 90 that, if we kept up a 20 mph pace, we would make it to the finish line right at 1.30pm – in time for pictures.  That kept me a little motivated to finish fast.

Scott and Iron Mike pre-race

In the end, the statistics are pretty impressive.  We did the whole ride in 6 hours 7 minutes of total time, 5 hours 14 minutes of riding time at an average pace of almost 19 miles per hour.  I actually felt strong at the finish line but, again, was ready to get off that bike.  The worst part of the day was realizing that my Garmin showed 99.2 total miles when I reset it.  If I was paying attention, I would have ridden around the parking lot and logged another mile to turn the odometer over the official 100 mile mark.  Another great ride ruined by the data (joking).  And to make matters worse, when I uploaded the data to Strava, I saw that StravaMo had done a moster 60+ mile ride that day, and I had only picked up 30-some miles on him towards our lifetime totals.  Damn, gotta get back on the bike soon. 

Valley floor and Napa Valley hills

Next century is the Marin Century on August 5^th which is more than double the elevation gain.  Talk later.  I have some hill repeats to do.

Random Musings

A few scattered thoughts that I have been harboring for the last week:

To counter balance my lazy ride on Thursday, I kicked some serious arse this morning on the climbs (at least kicked butt for my over sized arse).  New PRs both up and down Camino Alto. I worked hard for the up part. The down PR is strange because I actually got caught behind a car for the last quarter.  A PR from Golden Gate Market to South and an all-time second place on the full Sausalito to GGB climb.  I passed three guys and one girl this morning on Alexander ... and got passed by a guy.  Strange combo.

The Doyle Drive demo looked super cool this morning.  All the fallen concrete pillars looked like toppled dominos.  I guess the time critical piece was just getting them demolished.  However, it will probably take them another month to get all that concrete and rebar out of there.

This weekend is the Tour de Cure.  First 100 miles on the season - from Yountville to Guerneville and back over the Napa/Sonoma Ridge.  There are mixed reports whether we will be attempting a sub 5 1/2 hour race, or an 8 hour tour.  We shall see. 

Three flats last week ... two front (my first front flats ever) and a rear.  I still have to write about last Tuesday's ride (the first flat day).  Good story.

Monday StravaMo Tracker:  Him - 3,977 miles; Me - 3,213 miles.  I've got you in my sights, Big Boy.   Nice lunch ride to start off the week.

Mission Accomplished - 2012 Personal Record

I'm not much one for New Years Resolutions, but this morning I set a goal before my ride to work.  You see, folks, I am freaking tired.  After 70 miles on Sunday, two commutes to work on Monday and Tuesday, and a round trip yesterday, my legs just ain't worth a damn.  But knowing that today is my last ride of the week (I have to drive to work tomorrow, the horror), I had to get this fat butt ton the bike.  So I committed to myself and set a goal.  For this morning's ride, I would try to commute at the absolute slowest pace of the year.  I know this is a lofty endeavor.  But I felt that I was up to the task.

The ride started out well with my normal spin through Shady Lane.  By the bump at the Left Bank in Downtown Larkspur, I knew my legs just weren't there.  At the base of Camino Alto, I geared down and started whistling a tune.  This would surely keep me from pushing too hard.  According to Strava, my time up Camino Alto was 7 minutes and 53 seconds.  This is quite impressive compared to my record of 5 minutes 50 seconds (I had to work like a mad man to get sub 6 minutes).  I think I over-extended myself a bit on the Mill Valley Bike Trail as I hit 20 miles per hour more than a few times. But I made up for my exertion with a segment from Golden Gate Market in Sausalito to the Bridge of 8 minutes and 34 seconds.  Compare this to my record of 6 minutes 12 seconds which I set only two days ago.

Ominous clouds over Alcatraz and the Bay

My pace this morning rewarded me with a fine gift.  Upon hitting Fort Mason, it started to rain.  As I reached the top of the pitch looking over the piers, I got this --

If I would have been one minute later or earlier, I would have completely missed the rainbow.  The show lasted for all of thirty seconds.  But I happened to hit the top at the perfect moment.

Feeling at peace with my rainbow connection (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSFLZ-MzIhM) I was able to complete the commute in perfect crawling cadence.  The final stats are impressive.  Total commute time, 1 hour 36 minutes and 43 seconds of moving time.  Compare this to my previous record/low of 1:35.46 and an average through 69 commutes year to date of 1:23.11.  In short (or maybe long), I  achieved my goal and feel better for it.  I am ready to get this day going.  Happy riding.

Primavera Century

Today was my first organized ride of the year - at least the first one that I paid for.  The Primavera Century (we opted for the 100k route) is a ride through the East Bay Hills starting in Union City (of all places) through Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park basically to Dublin and then back.  We skipped the full 100 mile route with a climb up the Altamont pass - maybe next year.

The ride started at James Logan High School and headed south east to Fremont.  I was a bit concerned as the ride started as we were riding with cars on three lane streets.  For all I knew, we were in Bakersfield, with wide roads, retail centers and 55 MPH speed limits for the cars.  Then, to my pleasure, after a few miles, we made a turn through a residential neighborhood, and another turn towards the green hills.  Much better.  The rest of the ride was car-less and gorgeous.  We had two 1,000 foot climbs at >15% grades which made for tough riding for the Fat Guy.  If I have any complaint about the ride, it would be that the
service was a bit too good.  Every rest stop was chock full with sweet treats (oreos, banana bread, PB&J, bananas, etc) and lots of fluids (water and 3 flavors of electrolyte drinks).  They rest stops were so comfy that they encourages longer breaks.  And three rest stops on a 65 mile ride was actually one too many.  We could have saved 20-30 minutes by cutting the stops to only two.  All in all, however, it was very well done by the Fremont Freewheelers Bicycle Club.  I highly recommend the ride.  Next year, I am thinking the full 100 miles.

Angry cow.  This guy mooed at every bike that rode past.  I heard him from 100 yards away.

The pace of our ride was a bit of a struggle for me.  In our group of six, we had two guys that were much better climbers than me.  And we also had a group of three that were not as strong as the others.  I got caught somewhere in between.  My nature is to hit the flats as hard as I can to make up time for my crappy climbing.  But as I picked up the pace in the flats, our group would separate and, being a team player, I would slow to let the rest of the group rejoin.  But, of course, as soon as we got back together, a rolling hill would appear and the two stronger guys would then get ahead of me.  This only angered me and made me ride even harder to keep up.  So finally I opted to stay back with the group on the flats and hit the hills as hard as I could (not strong enough to keep up with the skinny guys).  Then, to spice things up a bit, after I reached the top of each climb, I would double back to the last person in our group and re-do the climb at the slower pace.  This strategy worked for me as I got a few hundred extra feet of climbing in and got to stay with the group all the same.  Mission accomplished.

Green hills and a big reservoir.  Really pretty.

We had bunny-hopped with a group of six women several times throughout the course.  These ladies were all decked out in their full kits and fancy bikes.  They got off about 3-5 minutes before we did from the last rest stop and, seeing them in the distance, I vowed to pass them one last time.  I hit it pretty hard by myself to catch their group about a mile before the last big climb (about 3 miles and 1,000 feet).  As I passed the group, the leader said in her Australian accent, "Why don't you ride with us?  No need to be in such a hurry."  I chatted her up for a few minutes, as I began to push the pace.  Soon thereafter, we had created a gap with the rest of her group and she decided to let me go it alone.  Fast forward about ten minutes as I was huffing up the climb, I heard her coming, the Australian, with one of her crew in tow.  I did my best to keep them behind me, but I couldn't keep it up.  Good for them.  I yelled in between panting, "That's not fair.  You lulled my in with your siren song, slowing me down in the  flats, only to pass me when it counts.  Well played."   

Impossible to see in this shot, but on the electrical tower on the right there is a Bald Eagle's nest.  We stopped at a telescope that was set up for a viewing.  I didn't actually know that we had Bald Eagles in the Bay Area.  But there he/she was.  A huge bird, white head, with an even huger nest.  Really cool.

My favorite picture of the ride.  I knew we were entering Alameda County when I saw this. 
Hoodrats and Hillbillys.  Sweet.

What a difference a week makes

You may recall my commute last Friday where I got slaughtered by rain after texting Johnny - see 4/13 blog post for more details).   For comparison's sake, and not truly intentionally, I took a picture this morning of about the same spot at just about the same time.

4/13/12 - Does this Bridge make my nose look big?

There are a few better shots, most notably without my ugly mug in the previous post.  Summer is here in the Bay Area.  And with the heat comes the fog.

4/20/12 - Fog rolling in.  70+ degees at 7.30am.  It's gonna be a hot one today.

Of course, I have my first metric century of the season this Sunday (if you don't count last weekend's 60 miles).  We are riding and East Bay course which will probably be in the low 90s before we finish the day.  Thank god for that second water bottle and the rest stops - or as my wife would call them - mid-ride Wine and Cheese Parties.

FOG Dweller's and my Marshall Maiden Voyage

This morning's FOG Dwellers ride marked my maiden voyage to Marshall and up the famed 'Mashall Wall'.  I have to be honest with you, I was a bit freaked out about this alleged massive climb that led through Marshall to Highway 1 (PCH for you SoCal folks).  This climb was, of course, at mile 35 of a 60 mile ride.  And this was my first ride more than fifty miles this year.  Add to that the fact that the FOGuys are all stronger riders than I am.  Basically, it was going to be a big day.  To prepare myself, I bought two packages of Clif Shots, borrowed a second water bottle and made oatmeal the night before to eat before I got on the bike.

The regular crew was assembled - Scott, Iron Mike, Jeff and myself.  But just as we were leaving Java Hut, at 6.30am, an unfamiliar face pulled up.  A FOG regular named Peter rode up on his nondescript white bike. As Jeff was wearing a full red white and blue Italian kit (see below), this Peter character did not stand out in his fluorescent green full Taleo kit.  After our first few climbs, however, Mr. Peter set himself apart a-plenty.  It seems that he rides/rode for a few pro/semi-pro teams and the man can climb.  He was kind enough, however, to topple each climb and then ride back down to pace me to the top.  Good fun.  http://taleoracing.com/teamtaleobios/peter-cook

Below is a video that Scott took at the top of the Wall.  Thankfully, it was not as crazy as I had made it out to be.  Note the lack of sun and rolling fog throughout the scene.  We really didn't see any sun until we got through Samuel P Taylor, probably 50 miles into the ride.  It was certainly work, and I was certainly last to the top, but I made it and it was worth the panting.

Besides the Strava data, the highlights of the ride were many.  We ran into a group (gaggle/flock/herd) of about 25 turkeys grazing in the middle of the road.  Thankfully for the turkeys, there are way more bikes than cars on these West Marin roads.  Unfortunately for me, the crew was way ahead of me on the hill where the turkeys stood.  So by the time I made it to the spot, the turkeys had all dispersed.  Second was the pace line for the ten miles from the bottom of the Marshall hill into Pt. Reyes.  Really fast rolling hills and I was so busy sucking rear wheel drafts that I didn't get to lead at all.

This was my view the majority of the day.  Beginning of the Marshall Wall.