[AIDS TRAINING] the final chapter

This is it! The last training ride before ALC.

After decimating a century last weekend, we are doing a cool down ride for our final training ride. We'll be doing, my personal favorite, the paradise loop. This is your last chance to roll out with us! This ride isn't very hard, so do feel free to join, even if you are a bicycle coward.

WHAT?! : paradise loop (40ish miles?)

WHEN?! : saturday may 26th. meetup 9am rollout 9:20am.

WHERE TO MEET?! : bathrooms on the west side of the conservatory of flowers in GG park.

As always... bring your own flat fixing materials. Bring snacks. We might have a celebratory ho-down in salsalito on our way back to conclude our ALC training series.

SEE YA THERE!

Two Weeks to Go

Well hell. Has it really been three and a half MONTHS since my last, and first, Deadly Rigs post? I do declare...and I do apologize. But a lot has happened since then. We got a puppy (love you, Lemmy!), I got a new bike, we had a slew of visitors, planted a garden, excuses, excuses...

What I've lacked in words I've made up for on the road -- to Twin Peaks, the Headlands, Tiburon, you name it. On Saturday, we clocked 110 miles. Definitely a record for me, and my first century! We went from San Francisco to Marshall to Nicasio and back home. Around mile 75 I started dragging, and focusing on my body aches instead of the lovely red woods surrounding me. But after a little break, I got my head back in the game.

The ride to LA is less than two weeks away. And I have to say I'm becoming more excited and less nervous, thanks to all the training. I've received plenty of solid advice from Brian, Pat, and other folks who have either done the ALC ride before or are generally knowledgeable in the arena of physical challenges.

Some things I've learned:

1. Invest in a good bike.
Until mid-March, I was training with my city bike with an 8-speed internal hub. Then I bought a carbon fiber road bike, which has made climbing easier. And overall it's a much more comfortable ride. Hell yes, shock absorption! It also gave me reason to turn my city bike into a city cruiser. Take a look:

2. Find some electrolytes you like.
For a while I was avoiding electrolyte drinks because I didn't know of many options beyond coconut water and Gatorade. (I'm not partial to either.) But I was introduced to (sugar-free) Nuun tablets that dissolve in water. The orange flavor is acceptable to my palate. Unlike sports drinks, it isn't cloying.

3. Ask your friends for snail mail.
I gave a handful of friends envelopes addressed to me and asked them to send whatever they wanted -- a letter, a sketch, a joke, etc. On days or hills when I'm struggling, I'll pull one from the pile and open it. Poof! Instant inspiration.

4. Stop referring to the support vehicle as the "loser van."
The ALC ride is supported, and if you aren't finished with the day's route before sundown, the support vehicle scoops you up. My goal is to do the ride entirely on my own, but who knows what will happen. If the van comes for me, I'll hop in with a smile.

5. Just have fun!
A wise man once said to me, "Just have fun." That wise man was Brian Stegall, and it was about ten minutes ago. He said not to worry about anything you don't have to worry about. And really the only thing I will have to worry about each day is riding safely from one place to another, which makes it all seem like a day in the park.

Ride on!

[AIDS TRAINING] big century

Hey y'all.

This weekend we will be poppin many of your century cherries by breeching the 100 mile mark. GET READY! Pat is making up some route for this... I guess we are supposed to just follow him again.

Anyway, here are the details:

WHAT: 100 mile ride

MEET WHERE: bathroom at the conservatory of flowers in GG park

MEET WHEN: 7am... ride out at 7:20am

We will definitely be eating lunch this time. So bring some money and or lunch. also, bring snacks and a tube per usual.

see you there!

[AIDS CYCLE TRAINING] alpine deeaaaaaaaaammmnnnnn 5/12/2012

Hello.

Once again, I have been MIA for the past couple of weeks with out of towners all up in my grill piece. I have added a couple of new people to this email thread. As always, to the 8 million of you who never actually come on these rides, just let me know if you want to be removed from my list.

So here is what's up for this weekends training ride. Some things are changing from the normal routine, so make sure to read the deeeets. This week, we will be biking to alpine dam. Pat knows the route, I don't, so we have to just trust him. I know that it can be extremely hard to trust a ginger... but I think we will have to. The ride is about 75-80 miles according to pat, so you should probably expect 100+.

Anyway, here are the bullet points:

WHEN?!?!

meetup 7am - rollout 7:20am on saturday 5/12/2012 AD

WHERE TO MEET?!?!?!

by the bathrooms next to the conservatory of flowers (these are located directly on the east side of the big white building)

WHERE WE GOING?!?!

alpine dam, or whatever slaughter hole pat will dump us all in

WHAT TO BRING?!?!?!?!

bring some snacks (2 to 3 power ups aka bars or those mushrooms from mario bros.). bring AT LEAST a spare tube. We will stop for lunch somewhere as well, so bring some l00t$.

ANY QUESTIONS?!?!?!

Training decimation

Ride to Half Moon Bay
Last weekend, Brian, Jessica and I did a different ride down to Half Moon Bay to camp and then return the next day. Here is a map:
View Larger Map

This ride was shorter than our training rides (only 30 miles), but more difficult and it is the exact same route we'll take for the first leg of AIDS/LifeCycle, except we'll go twice as far. What make it difficult is riding on Highway 1 which was awesome but also very steep and lots of cars. We rode our bikes down and met a friend who drove down with our tents. The ride there was about 85 degrees and sunny, but in the morning it was cold and foggy at higher elevations. Here are some pictures from Highway 1, a descent out of the fog, and my tent:

Paradise Loop

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This ride is pretty spectacular, actually all the rides are spectacular. You basically climb a hill and feel like death for a while, then you descent through forests and winding roads. All the stuff I have always enjoyed driving fast on, Im now riding my bike fast down.

Also I got a new bike called Captain America or Old Glory.

Here's Brian and I looking hard with 8k worth of bikes in our hands.

Finally, here's the ride I did today which was 75 miles of pure fear and terror interspersed with some awesome descents.

View Larger Map

This ride took me places that I've only driven to maybe... 4 times. And then we took HWY 1 which is an insane winding, extremely hilly road back. After stintson beach, it was just straight up hairpin climbing back to sausalito. There was one awesome descent where I tailgated some cars through muir woods, but damn that climb was rough.

So that was my first 75 mile ride. It was hard.