"FLandis" is amazing

Bad hip or not, his ride yesterday was absolutely epic, dropping not only the peloton, but then catching the lead and dropping them. Clearly, no one from T-Mobile, CSC, etc. were going to help him at all. It was a massive solo ride over what appeared to be the toughest stage of the Tour this year.

I’ve gotta admit, I thought he was out of it. After cracking like he did on Galibier on the 19th, I saw no way he could come back and pull himself into contention. He even gained 30 seconds on Sastre on the final decent. This was a man possessed.

If he wins this thing, somebody’s going to have to help him with his PR work. He still comes across like a geek in every interview I’ve heard. Maybe he is, and perhaps having hip replacement surgery will pull him out of the public eye, but jeez does he need a PR coach.

Like many (I think), I’m rooting for him to tear the time trial apart and put the yellow on for the ride into Paris. It’s been a helluva TdF thus far, and I can’t wait to see the TT tomorrow.

Testing out my hands

Okay, so I don’t like running. I got two blocks from home and turned around. I’m confident that if I can bike 88 miles that I can run a few, but my muscles aren’t used to it and it’s a psychological barrier. That, and it ain’t much fun.

So, I turned around, ran home, and spun my mountain bike on the indoor trainer for half an hour or so (I don’t like taking the road bike down off the wall, scratching up the skewers on the trainer, and getting it all set up).

By sitting up, focusing on bending my elbows and shifting hand position, I managed to bike with minimal discomfort in my hands. Still don’t know what will happen come Sunday when I try to do 60+ miles (and with a new saddle).

I replaced the Orbea OEM saddle with a Selle Italia SLR Gel in black. After spending two hours at Cycle Sport Oakland, I ended up chosing the first saddle that the fitter had put on my bike. Huge props to Cycle Sport for spending that amount of time and allowing me to ride multiple Selle Italias, Fiziks, Specialized BGs, etc. Ian was extremely patient.

The SLR is very close in profile and shape to the OEM saddle that came on the bike, but it’s stiff. I can bend the Orbea saddle like taco. This one (carbon fiber), I can’t flex with my hands. It’s the first time I’ve felt like I’m sitting on a saddle rather than near it. It feels hard on sits bones, but it’s the only saddle that left me feeling like I was supported in the, ahem, right place.

We’ll see how this weekend goes.

Riding into the Fireball

It’s taken me until Thursday to get the strength back to put together a blog entry about my ride this past weekend. 6,200 feet of climbing over 88 miles.

Okay. Long. But, okay.

Problem is, it was 116 degrees. In California!

I’m frankly not all that experienced in exercise of this intensity and especially not in these kinds of climactic conditions. I went through plenty of liters of water and at least 1,000 calories. I still don’t think that was enough.

What was so interesting to me about this experience was that I still had plenty of muscle power left on the last climb back over into Berkeley, but the heat exhaustion was intense.

I was so focused on the heat and getting through the ride, I failed to move around on the bike and probably ended up locking out my elbows and keeping my hands in one position for too long.

As a result, I ended the ride (and have gone through the week) with Ulnar Nerve Neuropathy. Losing strength in my pinky and ring finger has been disconcerting, but apparently not uncommon.

To keep up my training and avoid exacerbating the nerve, I might have to actually run tonight. Yech.

Weekday Ride

I’ve been looking for a way to lengthen my after-work ride to get in some more miles and (perhaps more importantly) some more climbing. Yesterday I climbed Tunnel Road, road the spine of Grizzly Peak, past Claremont and on over the hill. I then U-turn and climb back over to Claremont and take the fast decent. According to the CicloMaster, it’s 18.2 miles and 2051 ft. of climbing. A nice evening workout.

Apparently, I get quite salty

Preparing for the upcoming Century on August 5th, I rode the Fruit Stand ride today (the end of these directions are totally screwed up, so ignore everything after mile marker 41.32. It claims the the turn onto Lilac Dr. is easy to miss. It’s very easy, as Lilac doesn’t intersect Castle Hill Rd. Thanks to technology, a cell phone and a remote Google mapping got be back on track when I did this ride last week.

Knowing where I was going this time around, I had a wonderful ride (despite a peak temperature of 102 degrees). As you can see, I tend to let a little salt fly.

Stats:

64.30 miles in 3:47:37, or 16.6 mph avg. (my fastest average ride to date -- of any distance)

The CalCycling site claims that it’s 4922 ft. of climbing, though the CicloMaster claims 3946 ft. I’m choosing to believe it’s barometric pressure changes between the 70 degree weather in Oakland and the 102 degree weather in San Ramon that freaks out the computer.

In any case, I’m feeling a tad more confident about the upcoming Century, despite some dehydration today. All-in-all a fantastic ride.

Signed Up for The Marin Century

I’ve signed up for the 2006 Marin Century on August 5th. With less than a month to go before my first Century, the furthest I’ve ridden (last weekend) was 70 miles with about 4.5k feet of climbing. I’m going to be working on my mileage over the coming few (very few) weeks before the ride.

My goal since getting back into cycling last August after a 20 year hiatus has been to do a Century, and this is, by all accounts, a great route.

I’ve just got to remember to put on sunscreen. With tan lines where my helmet vents are, I’m beginning to look a tad odd off the bike.

Riding for Dick

I signed up for the Ride to Defeat ALS in Napa. Late last month, my uncle, Dick Freytag, passed away from ALS. I’ve set up a page on the ALS ride site for those who would like to donate.

The ride is a metric century (~62 miles), which should prove an appropriately challenging distance for me and an opportunity to spend 4 hours on the bike thinking about family and about Dick (something I spend far too little time doing).

I don’t think I ever came to grips with Dick’s decline. ALS is such an insidious disease, and Dick always played the brave face, I wasn’t ready for the news that he had passed away.

I suppose this ride is as much in memory of Dick as it is an opportunity for me to process what’s happened.

Dick’s passing has made me start to examine my own life more carefully and to realize the treasure of family, again something I spend far too little time doing.