In honor of Cooper

Wow, where to start? I'd been hearing about a schoolmate of Kevin and Brian, someone who is fighting cancer. He'd missed some school, but was playing T-Ball and seemed active. Then we heard about a prayer vigil - it looked like Cooper's fight had taken a definite turn for the worst. Cooper continues to fight his battle against Neuroblastoma, but frankly, the prognosis is not good. You can read more about Cooper and his family here: Cooper's website.

So, our TnT team is riding this weekend in honor of Cooper. Originally we were going to ride on Mt. Hamilton, but the route has been changed to a very scenic, but very tough, 100 mile route starting in SF, heading out to the Marin headlands, the Nicasio Wall, some other climbs and then climbing Mt. Tamalpais. We'll have another weekend with close to 10,000 feet of climbing in one day. Cooper's positive attitude is an inspiration - reading the guest book at Caring Bridge makes it clear how many lives he's touched. Our prayers and thoughts are with you, Cooper!

In the Meantime

It's been a few weeks since I last posted - so I've got updates on a couple of rides. Both were long and hard - each one was a significant step up from the rides we had been doing.

The first is a classic ride on the peninsula that our coaches call "Upenuff". Silly name, isn't it? Turns out that it is named after a street on our first climb of the day, up Old la Honda. The street is about 3/4ths of the way up, and rumor has it that Eric Heiden, the former speed skater, used to live there. What is confirmed is that Eric Heiden used to own the record for fastest climb up Old la Honda - less than 15 minutes! It took me longer - a lot longer. The first picture is our ride group at a rest stop after climbing Old la Honda.

Old la Honda climbs a ridgeline that separates Silicon Valley from the much more rural coastline. We continued west, descending and then climbing and finally getting to the coast. It was a beautiful day - ideal riding conditions. The 2nd photo is from road called Pescadero (it also leads to a town by the same name. Coincidence? I think not). This part of the ride became much more rural - after leaving the area just south of Palo Alto behind it's kind of a shock to be riding somewhere this undeveloped.

The ride culminated with one of the toughest climbs in the Bay Area - Tunitas Creek. The road is about 10 miles long, with a long hard climb taking up more than 6 miles of that. Oh, and it goes up something like 2,000 feet. The steep part is really steep, and it just seems to go on forever. An old problem cropped up on this climb - my lower back tightened up and got very painful. I'm going to have to stretch and work on my core a lot between now and the Death Ride!

Terrible Two

The Terrible Two is a double century bicycle ride in Sonoma. Yup - you read that correctly - it's a 200 mile long ride. In one day.

This is one of the hardest doubles in California, and our ride last weekend covered almost all of the climbs from the Terrible Two - in a 100 mile ride. We ended up climbing well over 10,000 feet, and the ride basically took all day - it was tough.

Take a look at the ride profile - almost all of the climbing is in the first 60 miles - we had just shy of 9,000 feet of climbing by mile 60 - an insane amount of climbing! The climb up from Ft. Ross (the last double summit on the map) was really tough - both very steep and long. My back was bothering me again, which really didn't help. We all made it, though! Here's a photo of a lot of the team at the top of the Ft. Ross climb.

We started early - really early. I've also attached a photo of one of our recumbent riders climbing the first hill as the sun rises behind him. This ride was beautiful - one of the nices rides I've been on. The thought of doing the Terrible Two started crossing my mind - then I remembered the pain of those climbs - never mind! Once my back loosened up, I felt pretty good for the last 40 miles or so and the relatively easy (we fought 20mph winds all the way back) return to our starting point. A long, hard but satisfying ride!

Finally, a group of us returned to Mt. Diablo yesterday. We decided to go up to the halfway point twice instead of doing one long climb. After the tough weekend, this seemed easy! The steep parts that bothered me in the past weren't as big a deal, and it was a nice way to spend an afternoon (good thing I have an understanding boss!).

JB

I almost forgot - the fundraising continues! If you want to make me ride more, you've got some catching up to do! My mileage is close to double the amount we've raised so far - go ahead, make me ride more! Jon's TnT fundraising website

The Last Lecture

So, you were expecting a cycling blog? I found this video after reading a review of the book "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. He seems like an amazing man - dying of panceatic cancer, with literally months to live, he gives a great, inspirational lecture about childhood dreams at Carnegie Mellon. The Last Lecture.

If you'd rather watch it on YouTube, here it is:



Wow, after seeing that it really brings back into perspective why I'm involved with Team in Training. By riding my bike, I'm helping to raise funds to find a cure for blood cancers - and to help those who have leukemia, myeloma or lymphoma now to deal with all that comes with it - the fears, the pain, the treatments that must seem worse than the disease. Please continue to support me at my personal fund-raising website.

And yes, I still have been riding my bike. At least when it's not in the shop. We had a your on your own weekend - no coaching, but we were still expected to ride. My bike was in the shop, waiting for parts (strange sounds coming from the cranks), so I went on a long strenuous hike instead. The regional parks around here tend to have lots of hills, so I ended up doing close to 8 miles across some very rough terrain. Not exactly like riding a bike, but a lot of fun and a good workout. As a result, no pics to share this update - but next weekend is a classic ride on the peninsula south of San Francisco. The hills are steep and long, and I'm sure the ride will be great!

JB

More training...

A small group of us snuck out for a quick ride up Mt. Diablo on Weds. afternoon. The day started out nice, but by the time we were gathering to ride it was looking kind of overcast and getting pretty windy. K. Sue called the info line - 42 degrees and 18 mph winds at the summit!

However, we were there so we rode it. At least some of it. As you can see from the pics to the left, the weather was not so nice - although the sun did break through the clouds further west. We never did get the benefit of that!

After an hour or so of climbing (even by my standards we were taking it easy), we got to the junction (more or less the halfway mark) - and find our intrepid coaches Jacqui and Mike waiting for us. They described the conditions further up the mountain (pretty much what we were already dealing with, only more so!). We carried on - but not for too long. We did 2,400 feet of a 3,200 foot climb before deciding it was just too cold and too windy.

One cool thing - it's wildflower season on Mt. Diablo! Sadly, my photography skills weren't up to the challenge of capturing the flowers (how hard can that be, really?), so I'll have to go up again next week and see if I do better.

Last Weekend

So, last weekend (before our little jaunt up Mt. D.), we had a team ride in the Oakland Hills. After a great ride the weekend before, I was feeling pretty confident. Not so fast - I ended up struggling up every hill and generally not doing well on the ride. Why? Who knows - sometimes you just don't do well. I've included a couple of pics - feeling cold before the start, and then summitting the last hill of the day. It was a fun ride, even if I struggled.

Next Weekend

I'm a bit worried about next weekend - we're ramping up both the miles and the climbing - last year this was one of the toughest rides for me. The coaches call it "18 Hills" - most of us are convinced that there are more, many more. It incorporates several classic Bay Area rides - the 3 Bears (named after 3 hills, of course), Wildcat Canyon and Grizzly Peak, going past Tilden Park, and Redwood. Hopefully, I'll remember to pull my camera out of my pocket and grab a few pictures. The weather forecast is for rain on Friday, followed by a nice day on Saturday. However, the weather around here is notoriously fickle. We'll see!

One change I did make - no hard ride on Thursdays! I'll do an easy spin on Thursdays from now on, and save any tough rides for earlier in the week. Both times I've struggled on team rides this year, I did a tough Thursday ride.

As always, I'm continuing to raise money to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. My fund-raising website is here. This is a great cause, and directly benefits so many people who are currently struggling with cancer. Please be generous!

Sad Month

Here in the Bay Area, there are lots of cyclists.  In an area like this, tragedies will sometimes happen - and such a tragedy did hit on 3/8/2008. 

A Deputy Sheriff crossed the centerline on a popular cycling road and struck 3 cyclists, killing 2 of them.  I did not know anyone involved personally, but these kinds of tragedies really hit home.  The cyclists were on a team ride, and were very accomplished - one had just won an amateur race, while the other was considering going to the Olympic trials after a career as a professional triathlete.  My friend Pete posted the following to an internet board after attending the memorial ride: Pete's message.

That was an eventful month from another perspective - one of our riders took a nasty spill on a ride with a group of teammates.  We had just climbed a challenging set of hills, and come off a very fast descent.  She had stayed back to snap a few photos, so we were waiting at the stop sign.  After cresting a few rolling hills, she took her hands off the bars and a nasty wind gust hit her.  She went down before she could do anything about it.  We all raced back to her - she wasn't moving, but was breathing.  All we could do was try and keep her warm while calling 911.  The response was really fast - we were in a remote location, and the first police car got there in under 5 minutes, with ambulance right behind. In the meantime, our teammate came around and started talking a bit.  Thank god for her helmet!  She's ok - bruised and beat up, and she has a broken thumb, but otherwise is fine.

This was on top of an earlier team ride, where our community captain took a low speed spill while navigating a section of road he'd been over probably a thousand times.  He was also scraped up pretty good, but otherwise he was fine (his bike needed some attention, though).

So hopefully we're through this rough patch, everyone will keep their hands on their handlebars and the rest of the season will be safe!

The riding in the meantime has been rewarding, but tough.  Lots of wind and some rain has created pretty challenging conditions.  We've been riding in some pretty wide open areas, too - Livermore and out at Pt. Reyes, on the ocean in Marin County.  That last ride to Pt. Reyes in particular was just much tougher than it might have been - we woke up to weather forecasts of 20mph winds with 30 mph gusts and a 70% chance of rain.  Our fearless leader, Kim-osabe, decided the weather was fine, so we all showed up in Nicasio (a one horse town in a pretty isolated part of Marin) to clearing skies but strong winds.  No rain all day long, but boy that wind off the ocean sure made for some tough riding.  Beautiful part of the country, though - and a great ride!  The picture is of a teammate and me climbing one of the many short but steep sections on the way to the lighthouse.  Note all those trees to block the wind!

For those of you who want to make me suffer by riding more miles, well, you've got some work to do!  So far you all have donated just under $1,400 - good, but not good enough.  I've already ridden over 1,000 miles this season - to keep me riding more than scheduled, you guys are just going to have to pony up!  For anyone who missed it, I've pledged to ride a mile for every $ donated through my website.  Go ahead - make me ride!

JB

Death Ride Training Season - 1st Month

OK, 1 month into the Death Ride training season, and so far it is going great!  We're doing a lot of the same rides as last year, and I'm in much better shape than I was (ok, last year's fitness level represents a pretty low base, since I was hardly on a bike for 10 years).  

Even the week 3 ride, covering some pretty good climbs on Palomares and Norris Canyon, was a great ride for me this year.  Last year, I sent out my infamous "Ouch ouch ouch" update after that ride - it was the first time I had ever climbed anything like Palomares, a 4.5 mile 1,200 foot climb that has been featured on the Tour of California several times.  The map above is the elevation profile to give everyone an idea of just how tough some of these rides are.

Speaking of the Tour of California, there was the debut of a very cool, new aerodynamic bike.  I want one! 

 Check out the Youtube video.

One cool thing - the team is larger than expected, and I've been asked to be a mentor to a few of the teammates.  I'm still fundraising, but I'll help them out with fundraising and any other issues they're having that aren't directly related to coaching.  As always, donations are for a great cause and help support my participation in the event.  My fund-raising website is here.

Want to create a little extra pain for me this season?  One of the things I'm doing is pledging to ride 1 mile for every dollar donated on my behalf.  If I do all of the team rides, that is about 2,000 miles.  That would leave me looking to ride an additional 3,000 miles if I hit my fund-raising goal of $5,000.  Go ahead - donate more!  Make me ride!

I almost forgot - we got a new dog!  We picked her up from a local shelter - a 2 year old mutt.  She's great with the kids, and loves exploring all the local regional parks (where she can be let off leash on the hiking trails).  She's deaf, which makes training interesting, but otherwise doesn't seem to bother her one bit.  Of course I have a couple of pictures.

JB

New Year, Old Goals

Well, we're several weeks into the New Year, and I'm ramping up for my big event for 2008:  once again, I'll be attempting the California Death Ride.  129 miles, 15,000 feet of climbing - a friend mentioned that he gets tired just driving that far!

I will be riding with Team in Training again, and am psyched for the first team ride on Feb. 2nd.  Our team last year was phenomenal - great people, and we really ended up coming together as a true team.  Lots of support for the times when things went wrong, and always a huge amount of energy at each training ride.  Our team this year is shaping up to be just as much fun.  I've been riding as much as possible, trying to carry my base from last year into the new training season.  I remember how painful the first few months were last year - I was so out of shape, I probably should have signed up for an easier event!  However, the coaches never gave up on me, kept me going and got me into the best shape I've been in probably since high school.  I hope that if I start off with a better base, I'll be able to build on that and get faster in the hills - my big weakness.  Not a great weakness to have when you're training for a ride with 15,000 feet of climbing! 

Team in Training is a fund-raising arm of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  Please visit Jon's Fund-raising page and donate to this great cause!  

Since we haven't started training yet, here's a few pictures from last year's riding season:

El Tour de Tucson

Wow, have I ever been slacking off on keeping this blog updated!  Well - here it is - a full update on what I've been up to since the Grizzly Century.  

Last time I posted, I was worried that I was actually losing fitness.  Well, it got worse - much worse.  I started suffering from a nasty sinus infection - one that just wouldn't go away.  Needless to say, this got in the way of my training.  Then, my son's soccer coach asked for some help since he would be out of the country for a couple of weeks - that killed several team rides, and complicated riding during the week.  

As a result, I went into the Tucson ride hardly having ridden in more than a month.  Not good.

However, some great teammates and coaching helped pull me through.  Based on my early season fitness, I was riding with our fast group - yikes!  I had started the season hoping to pull off a sub-6 hour century.  With a better final month of the season, I probably could have pulled it off - during the event I was on my bike for 6 hours 15 minutes and finished in 7 hours 45 minutes.  This included a bunch of stops to work a persistent (and very painful) cramp out of one of my calves.  The cramp basically hit at about mile 25 (at which point I let the fast group pace line pedal off into the distance) and didn't really ease up until about mile 80.  As near as I can tell, the cramp was caused by a combo of dehydration and poor conditioning.  So I was actually pretty happy with these results, all things considered.  I may do this ride (nice and flat - good for really fast times) again next year to see if I can crack that 6 hour time barrier.

My teammates did even better.  2 broke 6 hours easily, and  2 others  just missed the 6 hour mark (including one rider who was new to the sport!).  This was despite the sea lion stuffed animals that someone thought would be cute on all of our helmets.

  

Everyone finished, except for one teammate who had her crank fall off just after mile 100 (Tucson is a 109 mile ride).  What a horrible feeling to put in all that work and effort, and to be that close to the finish line and have that happen!  Marci was a trooper, though, and kept smiling through it all.

As a team we raised more than $75,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  Combined with the Death Ride team, that makes almost $250,000 raised by the teams I was involved with this year, with almost $8,000 of that raised by me.  Pretty good!

Here's a link to a u-tube video of the Tucson event put together by the son of one of my teammates: Tucson Video

Since then, I've been trying to keep riding, but life keeps getting in the way.  I'm still fighting that sinus infection, and I've moved, which took a lot of time and energy.  Plus, Sheryl Garrett, founder of The Garrett Planning Network, Inc. (yes, I'm a member) and author of several books, including the just-released "Personal Finance Workbook for Dummies", was in town promoting the new book just after Thanksgiving.  We put on a comedy night/fund-raiser for The Leukemia Society, and had a great time while raising some money.

Despite everything, I have been getting some riding in, including a revisit to Morgan Territory with a large group - organized through BikeForums.net.  Lots of fun - I already knew about half the people, and met the rest for the first time during the ride.

The weather's been cold, but there's been surprisingly little rain for this time of the year (not good, actually - one more dry winter and we'll probably have another drought around here).   I can keep riding as long as I carry lights (it's not really light until almost 7 am, and is dark before 6 pm right now).  Either that or just blow off work entirely....

A special thanks to all the donors who sponsored me this year in the two Team in Training rides.  Plus a very special thanks to Valerie and Michael, and to Anne and Kris, who watched my children during many of the training rides this year.  I wouldn't have been able to do it without your help!

JB