7 July 2007

Boulder Creek, Big Basin and Skyline

Skyline and Bear Creek Rd The club ride was starting at 9 from Boulder Creek, so I got started around 8. It was cool with thick cloud cover, but the forecast for the mountains was warm and sunny, so I dressed lightly. On Hwy 9 and at Felton, I was joined by a couple of guys also doing the ride. It was a struggle to hang onto their wheels, but I made much better time than I would have by myself.

At Boulder Creek, it was warm and sunny, and there was a pretty good turnout of about 20 for the ride. We headed out on Park, then Hwy 236. After China Grade, the pace picked up, and I couldn't keep up, but we regrouped at the start of Lodge. We continued on Lodge, the middle part of which reminded me of Pipeline Rd in Henry Cowell. At one spot after the road widened and smoothed out, a truck was blocking most of the road, with a worker doing something like chainsawing tree trunks. Near the end, there was a big group of hikers. One of them had a video camera and pointed it at the cyclists as we went by. We stopped and took a break at the park headquarters. It was a bit chilly and cloudy there.

We continued up Escape, which had, a third to a half of the way in, a gate barring car traffic. There was also very little room to get around it, so, one by one, we went around it to the left. There were a bunch of steep little climbs, and, once again, I couldn't keep up with the fast guys. After the gate to Hwy 236, we regrouped. (I moved six minutes that I stopped at the regroup to China Grade in the GPS data. We didn't stop at China Grade.) On the descents after China Grade, I didn't have the confidence to take the turns quickly, and fell way back. We regrouped at the intersection with Hwy 9. On the climb up to Skyline, I again could not keep up with the fast guys, but did the climb in about 34 minutes, which was much better than the last two times, which took about 44 minutes and 39 minutes. However, on the day of my injury, I did it in 30 minutes. We regrouped at the top. I was disappointed that the hot dog stand wasn't there. I would have expected it to be there around midday on a nice Saturday.

Continuing on Skyline, I was able to keep the fast guys in sight until a bit after Black, when my cautious descending dropped me way back. We regrouped at Bear Creek. I took a picture there. After our break, two guys headed left to descend Mtn Charlie. The rest of us headed right, to descend back to Boulder Creek. There were lots of cyclists climbing Bear Creek.

At Boulder Creek, I got a coke at the gas station and took a break to drink it near the post office. Then, I headed out on Hwy 236. It was 2:43 when I started up at the bottom of Jamison Creek. The dead skunk was still on the 1.33 sign. I got to the top at 3:15, and the GPS data showed a time of 32:34. Last week, I did the climb in 33:12, so I've gotten past the point where big improvements are easy.

After turning left onto Empire Grade, I was pretty wiped out, and took it easy for the rest of the ride. At one point, I was trying to shift from big ring to the small ring and dropped the chain. I then shifted back into the big ring, then tried to shift back to the small ring, and the chain jammed somehow. I was afraid I would fall, but I got unclipped and got off the bike. It seems that a couple of links were somehow stuck to the teeth on the big ring, so when they were supposed to release from the chainring, they prevented the crank from turning. How odd. I pulled the chain off the chainring and got it on the small ring.

After passing the UCSC west entrance, somewhere near the arboretum, a bus passed close to me, its wake knocking me a foot to the right. Due to that, I hoped the three-foot law would get passed and signed.

I pretty much coasted from the UCSC west entrance back home. I was almost as tired as I was after Wednesday's ride.

4 July 2007

BikeForums 4th of July Ride

Hwy 9 and Skyline I got an early start and headed out at 6:30. It was a little chilly as I headed up Hwy 9. Since hot weather was forecast in the mountains, I dressed lightly. And, above Boulder Creek, it warmed up and even seemed slightly humid. My leg felt noticeably better than it did on my last ride just three days ago. My pedal stroke was much more even, and I could stand on the pedals while coasting much more comfortably.

I got to the top of Hwy 9 and joined the BikeForums group when they arrived. After getting acquainted and some small talk, we headed out and stopped at the fire station. I topped off my water bottle. After the break, we continued on Skyline to the top of Page Mill, where everyone else decided to cut the ride short and turn right and head down. I continued on Skyline. At one point, although there was a solid double yellow stripe down the middle of the road, an oncoming car crossed over to pass another car. Fortunately, it completed the pass pretty far ahead of me, unlike the similar situation three days ago where the oncoming passing car was side-by-side with the car it was passing as they passed by me.

At Sky Londa, I turned left and headed down Hwy 84. The final few miles had the usual headwind, which was damp and chilly, and there were patches of fog around the hills near the coast. I stopped at San Gregorio and got a soda at the store and ate a snack. It was warm and sunny in front of the store, but, just a short ways over on Hwy 84, there was the chilly wind from the coast. It was a little before noon when I continued on 84 to Hwy 1, where I turned left.

When I got to the tracks at Davenport, I slowed down, and safely crossed square on.

I started feeling weak and hungry less than a mile from Santa Cruz, and had to slow down. The final climb up Western was a struggle.

1 July 2007

First substantial ride since my injury

South end of Skyline I got a late start, but still decided to go on a ride that wasn't a short ride like I had been doing. It was another warm, sunny day. Another great day to be outdoors. I wanted to see how long it would take to climb Hwy 9. Prior to my injury, it was taking around 2 hours from home, and about 65 minutes from Boulder Creek. This time, it took about 2 and half hours, and about 85 minutes from Boulder Creek. I think where I've lost the most are on the not-so-steep climbs.

Here are the situations that I've found I've been doing the worst:

• Starting from a stop: a minor effect on my times
• Climbing while seated: this is where I lose the most time
• Unweighting the saddle on rough roads: this causes me to take descents much more cautiously
• Unclipping my right foot: I used to put my right foot down at stops. Now I have to use my left foot, but adjusting to that wasn't difficult. However, I did unclip my right foot four times in the course of this ride, and it was painful each time, as my leg still didn't have the strength to twist my foot out of the pedal.

Note that I wasn't having much difficultly climbing while standing.

The upper part of Hwy 9 was accompanied by the sound of an almost constant barrage of distant gunshots, presumably from the Los Altos Rod and Gun Club. After getting to the top of Hwy 9, I unclipped my right foot for the first time, and stopped for a break, getting a coke at the hot dog stand. There were the usual crowds of motorcyclists, a few road cyclists, and a couple of mountain bikers. After finishing my coke, I continued south on Skyline.

At one point on the two-lane road, an oncoming white car moved into my lane to pass another car. I slowed to a crawl. The motorist ignored me and continued making the pass. The two cars were side by side as the passed me. I yelled "Don't do that" as they passed. The motorist probably didn't hear me. What a jerk.

The sound of gunfire reappeared and got louder as I passed the gun club entrance, then eventually faded in the distance.

Between Black and Bear Creek, there were a handful of cyclists headed the other way. I stopped at the end of Skyline, unclipping my right foot for the second time as a group of motorcyclists stopped briefly at the Bear Creek and Skyline intersection before heading north on Skyline. I took a picture and then continued down Bear Creek Road back to Boulder Creek.

At Boulder Creek, I stopped at the gas station, unclipping my right foot for the third time, and got a coke. After finishing the coke, I headed out on Hwy 236. It was 4:05 when I got to the bottom of Jamison Creek. There was still a skunk on the 1.33 sign. I gave it a wide berth, but still got a brief whiff. It was 4:38 when I got to the top, with the downloaded GPS track showing a time of 33:12. Last week, it took 38:15 with about 35 less miles on my legs, so that's a pretty good improvement. The time was not too far off of my pre-injury times on this climb, although still over 6 minutes slower than my best time, so I've been doing pretty well climbing while standing.

Finally, I took Empire Grade back home. There were many rough and bumpy descents, and, for the first time, I found my saddle uncomfortable. The final descent, beginning at the sign warning of 8-14% grades, was smooth, though. And, typically, there was a car a little ways behind me as I started that descent, and I left it behind on the twists of the descent. It caught up and passed me on the little climb after the bridge. By the west UCSC entrance, the road widened, and the trees thinned out, giving a view of the bay to the right. Soon, I was home and unclipped my right foot for the fourth time.

Today, I also found the SRAM rear shifter a bit annoying. About half of the time when I wanted to downshift, I'd press the lever until I was in the gear I wanted, then it would upshift when I released the lever. I think I tried holding the lever for a while, then releasing it quickly, and I don't think that helped. I think pulling the lever towards the bar while pressing it to the left might have helped, but it was hard to tell.

I also remembered that if the shift wasn't clean, I'd sometimes, without thinking, push the lever in a little to nudge the chain over a bit, and it would upshift, which was not what I wanted. The nudging of the shifters worked pretty well with Shimano shifters for cleaning up shifts. Today, though, the shifting was always pretty clean, having just been adjusted by the shop, so that didn't happen.