It Does Snow in Southern California

For those not in California, I am here to say that it does snow in California.  True, it is not as often as in Canada, or on the east coast, but it does snow.  In fact, the Grapevine, the main entrance into LA from Northern California, via I-5, was closed due to snow.

Saturday, I had the lofty goal of climbing up Mt. Wilson.  This would be a good litmus test to see how my back is doing after having back spasms.  Mt. Wilson is 5750 feet in elevation, so that would be one hell of a climb.  One thing I didn’t bring with me was gloves … this would be a little cold on my extremities, but I thought I’d risk it.  I had totally forgot about it snowing earlier in the week, and then I saw a bunch of snow  on the side of the road.

Actually, it looked more like ice.  I then got to Red Box Junction, which is where you take Mt. Wilson Road to get up to the antenna towers, and the observatory.  However, I saw this warning sign:

Hmm … chains required.  Now, they are requiring chains on CARS!!!  And I’m on a bike, 23cm road tires, without any knobbies, or any studs.  Well, maybe I’ll just ride up a little bit, just see how bad it is.  However, the road started getting a bit slushy, like a 7-11 slurpie.  Now I love slurpies, but I don’t want to be riding on it.

I didn’t fall, but it was a bit more slippery than I was comfortable with, so I turned back.  I was talking to another rider, and one of his friends rode this last week, and fell 4 times … 4 times … if once wasn’t bad even, twice, 3, 4 times?  You’d figure he would learn from this.  That’s definitely not for me.

So I didn’t go to Mt. Wilson, only to Redbox Junction … that’s still not bad.  I still got 38 miles, 5310 feet of climbing.  That’s nothing to scoff at.

http://app.strava.com/activities/41995996

Experimenting with Different POV with my Contour

I’ve had my Contour video camera for a couple years now, and was experimenting with different points of view from the camera.  Now I know most of you, who have a video camera for your cycling probably have a GoPro, and it has more flexibility, but I’m a hold out.  I went with the Contour just because I liked the shape of it, and GoPro looked like a McDonald’s Happy Meal … but I may be jumping ship in the near future.

Anyhow, the most popular mount is probably the handle bar mount.  Sometimes, this will give you a lot of noise from vibrations, and unless I drown it with background music, it can sound a little disheartening.

Now, with the helmet mount, obviously you won’t get the road vibration noise that you would get with the handle bar mount.  However, if you are climbing, and you have the helmet mount, the challenge is keeping your head steady.  As many of you know, especially while climbing, your head is hardly ever stationary, and will move up, down, left, right, constantly.

Another position I tried was at the headtube.  This was a little tricky, because it’s not completely flat, and had to make some adjustments with spacers, and change the angle of view with the camera.  That didn’t turn out too bad.  It is a view seen from behind the drops of the handlebars.  It’s actually how I film the majority of my rides.

Then, after some discussions on Google Plus, I decided to mount the camera at the crown of the fork.  This is a pretty interesting point of view.  At speed, the spokes seem like they are being warped.  But it is pretty cool.

Now I have heard GoPro mount breaking on a few occasions, and the camera taking a spectacular tumble, but so far, I haven’t had that happen with my Contour.  We’ll see what happens.

Other camera angles I have seen are with the camera facing the rear, mounted on the helmet … mounted on the seatpost, again looking to the rear.  One thing I can’t do is the chest mount, which GoPro has … there is no chest mount for the Contour.  In the meantime, I’ll keep experimenting.

Sykose Extreme Sports News

View original post 237 more words

Endurance is Back … I Hope

My back is holding up, my core is getting stronger, so with the three day weekend, this would be a great opportunity to get my endurance back, or to test it, really.

The focal point was Sunday, which was a meetup ride, which goes out to the Cliff House, in San Francisco.  So for Saturday, I figured I would do a short ride, up to Skyline, then south to Alma Bridge.  However, this was a little longer than I was originally anticipating.

There was a group ride going the same direction as me, and I thought they were going to Alma Bridge, so I followed them … uh, bad decision.  I followed them to Aldercroft Heights, which does intersect with Alba Bridge, but I later found out they weren’t going to the bridge.  D’oh … damn, I only found out after we reached the dead end.  I had to climb back out to get back to the bridge.  I guess it’ll add more climbing, so I guess this will improve the Strava stats.

By the time I got home, I was dead tired.  This didn’t bode well, with the proposed century I was going to do for Sunday.  However, it is supposed to be fairly flat, so I just kept telling myself that.

Sunday, woke up, and I wasn’t aching too much.  I was still able to do my normal crunches, so that meant I have enough to do this century.  I decided to leave a bit early, just so I can take an easy pace to the start.  However, this will only work if I follow it … well, as soon as the group started going, the pace started to go up, and the idiot in me said “game on”.

What I love about going through Canada Road on Sundays is they close the road to cyclists.    For some reason, this also amps me up to sprint through Canada Road.  We had a good brisk pace going on, so I decided to lead … I mean, come on, I have to take my share, right?  So much for taking an easy pace, right?

The group was big … about 30+, and we were all going to get onto Sawyer Camp trail.  The thought of 30+ riders on a multi-use trail, on a Sunday of a 3-day holiday weekend?  5 of us broke off early, not waiting for the re-group, just so we could break it up.  Plus, it’s not like you can go really fast through here, with all the pedestrian traffic.

The rest of the ride found me at the bottom half of the lead group, but I kept the pace sustained so I was going about 80%, so I didn’t kill myself.  By the time I completed, I was still going at a good clip.  I was still tired, but I still had some energy in reserve.

I still felt good at the end … I wasn’t so tired that I couldn’t walk.  Conclusion … my endurance is coming back.  Two days down, one more to go.  Maybe I’ll actually do a recovery tomorrow.  At least I seem to be in good shape to do Solvang at end of March.

Back into Climbing Shape

I think I’m back, or at least on the road to climbing shape again.  I guess I was trying to regain confidence that I can do those long climbs again.  Last week, I did do Page Mill, but I feared I didn’t quite have the confidence that I can repeat this, like I did on my weekends, where I did consecutive climbing rides on back to back days.

I definitely was going to do Mt. Hamilton on Sunday, so I figured on climbing Hwy 9 to Skyline would be good to do on Saturday.  Actually, my original plan was to go south on Skyline (after climbing Hwy 9), and go out to Gish, then Black, then turn back to Hwy 9 again.  The “back” route does include an extra 1000 feet of rolling hills.

I didn’t want to push it too hard, so it was a grind it out pace.  It wasn’t fast, and I was careful to ease the pace, the moment I found any slight tweak in my back.  By the time I made it up to Skyline, I just decided to just turn back.  I’d still get in just under 40 miles, so that’s a good number to start with.

Sunday, I did the meetup ride, going up Mt. Hamilton.  This is 19 miles straight up, to elevation of 4000 feet.  I was originally going to ride to the start, but when I woke up, I can tell I needed some food, as my head felt pretty light.  Look in the fridge … gah … empty.  Looks like I gotta rely on Starbucks for breakfast.  As I was preparing everything, I quickly found myself running out of time (due to forgetting to bring one thing or another).  This always seems to happen when I drive to the start of a ride.  Maybe that’s why I always prefer to ride to the start.

The meetup ride had a really good turnout.  Since this is a 19 mile climb, I had to make sure I didn’t go too hard in the first 10 miles (very easy to do).   I was content to just let a large number of people pass me by … they all seemed to be stronger and fitter than me anyways.  The key here was to make sure my back didn’t feel any extra strain.  I eventually hooked up with a group of 3 other riders, and we were doing a conversational climbing pace (yes, that is possible).  That kinda helped pace myself, and make sure I didn’t blow myself up.

At around 17 miles up, I started to feel my back flare up a little bit … but then I realized, I was only in my middle chainring … damn, I’ve got another chainring to shift into.  Ah, that felt better.  I knew when I was at the last switchback, and that’s when I started to push deep down.  The good news is my back wasn’t aching, so I just had to concentrate on pushing the pedals, and getting my heartrate up.

I made it to the top in 2:17, about 10 minutes slower than my personal best.  It actually surprised me how well I did … if it weren’t for that potty stop, mid-way on the climb, who knows how close I would have come to my personal best?

At this point, I feel more confidence in my climbing.  I think I’ve built up my core strong enough that I can go more aggressive on climbs.  Now all I have to do is bump up the mileage.  Strange how confidence can really change the way you ride.

Quest for 600 for January … Complete

January had been an up and down month for me .. literally.  To start off the year, I was just getting over a cold, so I wasn’t really 100% to start off the new year.  Then, after climbing Sierra Road, I think inhaling the cold air forced me to have a sore throat, coughs, and generally more time off the bike.  Then, I suffered some back spasms.  Damn, January was just not a good month for me.

I recovered from my back spasms after a week and a half, then I was looking at my totals for the Strava January base miles challenge, and I was 60 miles from 600 … on the 31st, the last day of the month.

Well, hell … I can probably get an early start, do the Mt. Eden loop, then head into work.  I was still feeling it a little bit in my back, so I wasn’t going all for it on the hills.  I was probably going 75%.  I did the Mt. Eden loop, got back to the office, and didn’t realize how far from the office Mt. Eden was.  I looked, and I already logged in 30 miles.  Wow!  I’m only 30 miles from my target!

The meetup biking++ group was doing an evening ride, starting in Woodside, going up Kings Mountain, and the whole loop would be ~ 17 miles.  Again, I misunderestimated distance to the start of the ride.  I was estimating if I left the office by 5, I’d be able to get to the start (at Whiskey Hill and Woodside Rd) by 6:30 … but then found out they were leaving by 6:15 … d’oh.  Oh well … I looked at my mileage, and figured just making the trek home, I’ll definitely make it to 600.

I made it home, surpassing the 600 mile mark, and yet another Strava achievement … woohoo!  But unfortunately, I caught a cold from those last miles.  Down again … hopefully for not too long.