Good Friday???

Mountain Bike Friday in Full Effect!!

Or, at least, it started off that way. The day started off with a great ride this morning. Today, was "Mountain Bike Friday",  just a little thing I came up with to stay in tune with the bike. I rode the 7.5 miles in from Santa Clara in just a shade over 31 minutes smashing my old time by 7 minutes. I had been told by a fellow cyclist that a road bike would make me faster on a mountain bike. I guess he was right! I was hardly even trying, but I found myself using higher gears that I did before, with minimal effort.

My splits via Runkeeper

 

After this ride, I was pretty stoked all day I couldn't wait to make the return trip to the station. By the end of the day though, the wind started to pick up and I knew any chance of repeating the morning's performance was out the window. I actually didn't do that bad though I went 5 miles in a little over 21 minutes.

 

 

 

 

This is where the day took a bad turn. As I'm pulling into the Tracy station, all I'm thinking about is getting in my truck and heading home to relax after a long ass week. One problem, where the FUCK is my truck??? I ride over to where it WAS parked and all I found was some of the junk that was in the door pocket. FUCK ME!! Some ASSHOLE stole my truck!! As the panic starts to set in I called Julie to come and get me. Now I've got to call the local P.D. and start a stolen vehicle report, which right away I'm thinking this going to go nowhere. Well as it turned out, the same jackass broke into 5 or 6 other cars in the lot before taking my truck a fleeing the scene. Well he didn't go far before doing something else stupid. He pulled over in some random neighborhood and got out with a suitcase he had swiped from another car, which caught the eye of someone who thought he was acting suspisious and called it in. He was later caught shoplifting at Target and then pulled over in my truck. The cops had already caught the guy before I even knew my truck was stolen. Now the fun part begins, after he was arrested for the shoplifting, the police had the truck towed not knowing it was stolen. It took almost 3 hours just get the police sgt. to sign the release form for me so I can get my truck out. We were finally able to track it down, but the place was closed for the day. Hopefully the jerk didn't fuck it up too bad. I just hope this string of bad luck has finally run its course. Grrrrr!  

 

Packing On The Miles!!

This week I decided to up the ante to ride 100+ miles. Unfortunately, I started the week off by driving to work on Monday due to work scheduling. Tuesday I got off the train in Santa Clara and logged the first 8 miles of my 100. That afternoon, I headed back to the San Jose station for another 5 miles added. When I got there, there was news of an unfortunate accident farther up the tracks. Someone had been hit by a train and subsequently killed:-( The officials said it would likely be 2-3 hours before any of the trains would be allowed to go through the scene. 2-3 Hours? I can't wait around for 2-3 hours. So I hopped on my bike and headed north. I called Julie and let her know the situation. I told her that at worst, she might have to come pick me up in Pleasanton from the BART station. I basically followed the tracks until I got to Great America station thats where my knowledge of Santa Clara streets ended. I had a vague idea of where I was going but I had to keep stopping to check my GPS to make sure I wasn't straying too far off track. (need to get a phone holder for my bike) I finally got to a point where I knew where I was and settled into my ride to the Fremont ACE station. 32 miles in a little over 2 hours. For a total of 40 miles on day one!! Go Me!!

 

The rest of the week I took it pretty easy only riding in from Santa Clara and back to San Jose. Friday morning I was late getting to the train in Tracy so I had to catch it in Livermore. So that afternoon I got off at the Pleasanton staion and rode to Vasco Rd. It was just a little 10 miler, but hey, miles are miles right? I was just 16 miles short of my 100 for the week, so this morning Julie and I went out for a "little" ride. We chose to just get on the bikes and ride from the club intead of driving somewhere, parking the truck somewhere safe, and then having to drive back. We headed south along River road and into the little town of Greyson. The ride to this point was really smooth due to the nice tailwind we had. Once we turned west and headed towards Westley, the wind was so fierce it slowed us down to a crawl. Once we finally got to Westley, we stopped at  Subway and had some lunch and took a break from the wind. After lunch we geared up and started off into the wind for home. After this mornings ride my weeks total is 112 miles!! BOOYAH!!! Not too shabby for a 5 day total!

 

 

 

 

On the road to Westley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Badger Cove Recap!!

Yesterday, Julie and I ran at Del Valle in the Badger Cove 5K and 10K races. My sister-in-law Maegan and her dad Charlie decided to tag along and run in the 5K with me. Cool!! We were cutting it a little close on time for Julie to make her race. You can read about her race adventure here.  We got there with just enough time for her to sign in and use the potty and get to the line. And she was off. They start the longer races first so everyone gets back to the finish around the same time. So I'm waiting around for my race to start, and the butterflies are starting to fly. I had to keep telling myself "just run your race, and your pace and you'll be ok." The gun goes off and I'm running. Maegan and Charlie were only with me for a short time. I told them I was going to slow my pace up a bit so I could run the whole way, and just go on and not let me hold them up. Well, it turned out the other way around I was running a slower pace than I usually run but, I had to get into my groove. I had to pass several people that had started walking like right after the race started. Before I knew it I was a ways ahead of them. The trail had some moderate hillclimbs which was littered with "landmines a.k.a. road apples a.k.a. cow poop" thrown in just to make it interesting!! When I got to the inclines I would kinda "throw it into low gear" and just chug along up the hill. Once at the top, I'd use the downhill to catch up. I saw a lot of people holding back going downhill, and I was like, why?? I love downhill. I can haul ass downhill. I could open up my gait a little and slow down my cadence all while gaining speed. Then back to my short, rapid strides to go uphill. I made it to the 2.5 mile mark again before I started to struggle. I think I need to start skipping the water at the aid stations, it seems to throw me of my groove when I take it. Because right after the water stations is when I start struggling. I was heading up the last hill when my legs decided to take a timeout. I can't really explain what happens, but my leg muscles hit their redline and I can't make them move even if I wanted to. They just stiffen up. I've had this happen to me while on the bike too!! Usually when I'm climbing really steep hills. After I walked the last bit up the hill, I started off again to the finish. Once I got within the last 100 yards I turned on the afterburners and sprinted to the finish. I still had a decent finishing time of  35:38 and 11th in my age group. Not too shabby for me on this trail. I was only a minute slower than my last race which was much flatter than this one. After I finished, collected my medal, and grabbed a cup of water, I waited for Maegan and Charlie to finish their race. I didn't realize I was as far ahead of them as I was. (nearly 10 minutes) after that  we waited for Julie to finish her 10K. My phone was acting up and went dead before I could get a pic of her crossing the finish line. All in all a great day. I got to get out in the fresh air and beautiful countryside and spend time in great company.

And The Hits Just Keep On Comin' !!!

Have you ever had one of those days, where you know you should have stayed in bed? That day was Friday, March 15 for me. This is the first time that I can remember having trouble adjusting to the time change. Well it caught up to me on Frday. The morning started off with me oversleeping by almost an hour and missing the morning train. I didn't want to drive in, so I decided to take a later one. That part was ok, but getting in later meant I had to stay later. So, off to work I go. I get there and I start working on this job that had to go that day. Now I know I'm far from perfect, I don't make very many bonehead mistakes, but today I pulled a doozie. Somehow I had mixed up which cam was which on this car , and I set the cam timing all wrong. I rolled it over by hand to see if everything was ok and I didn't feel any resistance, so I assumed everything was ok. When I tried to start the car when I had it back together it sounded funny and wouldnt start. I realized what I had done, I tore it back down and reset the cams and did a compression test. Unfortunately there was none in three cylinders. GREAT!!! now I have to pull the damn thing down AGAIN and repair all the valves I bent. Even better I have to do it on my time!! That was the first event that sent the day into a tailspin.

 Later, my sister had wanted me to give her a ride to my parents house after work. Normally I'm ok with it but she kinda sprung it on me at the las minute. She rides a train down to where I catch mine in San Jose, then rides the train back with me, and I drop her off. No big deal usually but, since I got to work late, I had to stay until 4 o'clock which doesn't give me a lot of time to get to the train station. So right as I was about to leave some guy comes into the shop and wants to bend my ear about some problem he has with his car. I told him I was actually heading out the door and had a train to catch. he's all like "it'll only take a second". You know that's not the way it went. He took up almost 10 minutes of my time because he refused to accept my answer to his question. I told him "look if you know the answer, why did you come to me?" At which point he left and and I was finally on my way. Now maybe I was a little rude to the guy, but I can spot a time waster when I see one. So I'm pedalling my bike as hard as I can to get there in 20 minutes. I can usually do it on my road bike, but I thought it would be fun to ride the mountain bike instead. My sister sends me a text while I'm riding about which train she should buy a ticket for. I had origianlly told her 5:30 but I was trying to make the 4:30. In her defense I didn't think I was going to make it at 4:30 so I told her 5:30. But instead of hanging around the station, she decides to go to a bar across the street. I haul ass to the station, punch my ticket, I'm ready to board the train... No train, but the people are still standing there. Where's my sister? I text her to find out where she is, just as she sends her reply, the train pulls up, the peole get on, a minute later the train is gone. I missed my FUCKING train TWICE today!!! Now I have to wait another hour to go home. "Whatever", I tell myself. So then we finally get to town, drop her off at my folks house and I'm heading home 

 

 

 

Normally I don't going down Grant Line road, but since I was dropping off my sister It was the fastest way home. As you head east on Grant Line the speed limit chanes about 5 times so you have to pay close attention, well today was the day I got caught not paying attention. Normally I drive like a grandpa when I'm on this road and I was slowing down when I entered the little town of  Banta but the cop must not have thought I was slowing fast enougth. He tells me he had me at 51 mph in a 35 zone. I knew Iwas only going 45 (still speeding, but not as bad). I was to tired to argue with him, and besides cops hate it when you play roadside attorney with them. Now I'm getting a ticket, JUST FUCKING GREAT!!!! Can this day get any worse???

 

 

  I finally get home, tired, beaten, and spent. My phone battery had gone dead earlier so I hooked it up to the charger and walked away. I came back to check on it and WTH!!! no charge!! DAMN IT!! and the phone is getting super hot!! I finally just took a shower and went to bed, before anything else takes a shit!! I guess I can chalk this one up as one of my all time worst days. But hopefully Saturday will be better. It has to be because I'm going to spend it with people I like doing something I like!!!

 

 

Another Weekend, Another Raceday!!

Saturday is almost here!! I'm feeling pretty nervous about this race as I've been having trouble with my running lately. My last couple of runs have been miserable failures. I can't seem to get passed the 2 mile mark without getting out of breathe and nearly collapsing. Even with all of Julie's encouragement, I can't get over this hurdle for some reason. I don't know if it's the time of day, what I've eaten, or not eaten, or not enough rest in between everything else I'm doing (i.e. biking, weight training) or something. Hopefully I can pull it together good enough to at least have a decent finish (ah hell, just finish). Wish me luck!! I'm gonna need it!!

The Call of the Road...

Or, conquering the Altamont.

Yesterday the sun was shining bright, daylight savings time had just begun, and I could hear the road beckoning me to come out and ride. I had been contemplating making the ride all day, even after logging 16 miles earlier in the day. The train arrived at the Vasco rd. station at about 5:40 p.m. and I answered the call. I quickly put on my helmet and gloves, grabbed my bike and backpack, and got off of the train. My first thought was, OMG! what have I done? The train is gone and now I'm forced to either ride (which is what I had intended to do anyway) or punk out and wait for the next train. So I got on the bike, started my Stava cycling app,(or at least I thought I did) and headed out on my journey.  I pretty much knew my way around out there, after all, I learned how to drive out there. After leaving the station I headed down to Altmont Pass rd. This was the original highway over the Altamont before I-580 was built. It's a little two lane windy road that connects Livermore to Tracy and has connections to Brentwood as well. I does have a fairly wide shoulder with enough room for cars to get by without taking you out.  The first 8 miles of the ride was a pretty long and boring climb to the summit.  Had I known my cycling app had turned itself off after 30 seconds, I would have stopped and taken some pics along the way. Once I passed the summit the ride got really interesting. I started rolling downhill gaining speed as I went up throught the gears. At one point I was keeping up with the cars on the road. Once I got towards the bottom, I turned onto Midway rd. This was a nice little departure from Altamont Pass rd and all of the cars whizzing by. This was where the one MONSTER of a hill on the whole route was, but thankfully there wasn't any traffic to speak of here. I ended up walking the bike up this beast hill for a couple of minutes to catch my breathe and take a drink. Once I got to the top, it was roller-coaster time again YEEHAW!! I rode on to Patterson Pass rd ,which is pretty flat (maybe slightly downhill), and into town to the train station. All total, it was a nice 23 mile ride which put me just 1 mile shy of 40 for the day.

New Month, New Goals, New Wheels!!!

This week in cycling....

I finally took the plunge and got a road bike. I've been resarching, pricing and comparison shopping for the last 3 months online and in the bike shops. I finally decided on a 2013 Specialized Secteur Sport. Now, Julie and I both have new road bikes. Hopefully this weekend will be nice enough togo for a nice long ride.

 

I've set a goal this month to increase my mileage from 200 miles to 400-500 miles per month. I've already been figuring out how I can squeeze the miles in by riding from the house to the station in the morning, and getting off the train 2 stops earlier should do it. Now I just have to get all the little dodads and goodies for the bike to be able to take those long rides. The first order of business is a good tire pump, extra tubes and a water bottle and cage and maybe a better light set.