Cycling this week - 05-28-2012

After last weeks Heartbreak 100 ride, I decided it was time to get out of the mountains and head for the beach.  So, on Saturday, Nabeel and I rode down to Long Beach, Seal Beach, and back on the river trails.  There was a pretty stiff headwind all the way down to Long Beach, keeping our speed down.  On the way back up, we had either a tailwind or a crosswind, which allowed us to pick up the pace a little - 74.7 miles in 4:42.  Of course we had to stop at Chronic Tacos, and order some tasty fish tacos for lunch, then we headed over to Seal Beach and had afternoon coffee on Main Street before heading back home.

Somehow Nabeel got it in my head that we should ride up to Mt. Wilson on Monday, so we did.  A fitting ride for Memorial day.  The weather could not have been any better.  I can't believe I have never done this ride before.  It has to be one of the best mountain rides I have ever done.  I know I said I was done with mountains after last weekend, but I guess I just can't get it out of my system.  Anyway, It was about 19-20 miles of climbing and about 4,500 feet up from Foothill Blvd. in La Canada.  The total climbing for the day turned out to be almost 7,000, due to rollers and some up hills on the way back down, plus the 1,000 feet from my house to Foothill Blvd..  The average grade was not bad, about 5-6%.  The portion from Foothill Blvd to the top took about 2-1/2 hours at an easy pace.  Once at the top there is a great little cafe, two large observatories, a museum, and some awesome views.  The ride down is great. Overall we did 68.75 miles in 5:13.

Saturday - Here is Nabeel sitting on the same bench by the lighthouse that he sat on just 18 months ago.  That was a 78 mile ride back in October 2010, and it was the longest he had ever done.  Now he has ridden 15 centuries in 15 weeks and averages almost 200 miles per week.

Saturday - The Queen Mary

Saturday - Shoreline Village

Saturday - You can see the wind in the palm trees.

Saturday - The route info looks like a smiley face - 450 feet down, and 450 feet up in 74 miles - it doesn't get much flatter.

Monday - Here is Nabeel at the intersection of Foothill Blvd. and Angeles Crest Hwy - 19 miles up to the top.

  

Monday - A fitting sign for Memorial day

Monday - This is my riding style for going uphill.

Monday - The radio and television towers are humongous.

Monday - Here we are with the San Gabriel valley and Los Angeles in the background.

Monday - Nabeel in front of the 100 inch telescope.  There is also a 60 inch telescope a few hundred yards away from this one.

Monday - Here is Nabeel being sucked up into an alien spaceship.  They hang out up here and use the radio waves and powerful electro-magnetic frequencies to communicate with their far away galaxies.

Monday - Here is the snack bar.

Monday - Here is one of the museums, if you look closely, you can see us at he bottom of the mirror.

Monday - Just to prove I was up there.

Monday - In front of the snack bar area.

Monday - Lunch, they make some pretty good sandwiches.

Monday - Nabeel in front of the Rose Bowl on the way home.

Monday - We found a roach coach to get some refreshment from on the way home.

Cycling this week - 05-19-2012

This Saturday was the Heartbreak 100 ride.  I'm happy to report that I made through without my heart exploding, although I thought it just might do so about mile 75, just before the top of the "heartbreak" climb.  I did the ride in a 6:38 ride time, and 7:19 overall time.  Not bad for my first century of the year.  My buddy Nabeel (pictured below) has now ridden 15 centuries in 15 weeks, just amazing.  Both he and Mike (also pictured below) completed the "king of the mountains" series, which comprises the Mullholland Challenge, the Breathless agony, and this Heartbreak 100 ride.  I think they are done for awhile, at least their knees are.  Here is a link to the ride map and profile:  http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1009334  Here is a link to the finishing stats for the ride:  http://racedaytiming.com/r_results.php?event=58   All in all I think this was one of the most beautiful bike rides, almost entirely out in the country.  From pine forest to high desert and agricultural valleys and back again.  I also commuted to work two days last week for another 30 miles (big deal right?).

Here is the start/finish line - it was a timed event, we all had little RFID tag stickers on our helmets.

Here we had just started and are in good spirits.

Myself and Mike before the first rest stop.

Nabeel before the first rest stop.

Top speed for the day was 47 miles an hour, but I managed to get a picture of 31.7 while holding on with only one hand, a little faster than last time.

Here is Mike at the 2nd rest stop - about 53 miles in to it - trying to look bad-ass - like the "Fonz" in spandex.

Nabeel at the 2nd rest stop.

Nabeel between the 2nd and 3rd rest stops.  He is happy because he finally got the package open after fighting with it for 10 minutes.

Here is a look down the "Heartbreak" climb, those are other riders coming up the road - it was about 90 degrees with a headwind, and an 11.2% grade.

Somewhere out on the road about mile 80, still hanging in there.

We all made it to the end, here we are after sitting around for an hour, myself, Mike an Nabeel.

Cycling this week - 05-12-2012

There was no commuting this past week, not because of the weather, I was just lazy. I'll admit it. So, to make up for it, and to do some training for next weeks Heartbreak 100 century ride, (link to map here): http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1009334, I decided I would go up over GMR again. I rode up Azusa canyon, through Eastfork, up the backside of GMR, and down the frontside. On the way up Azusa canyon, I ran into a couple of guys. One of them needed to tighen up his cleat and didn't have the correct tool, so I helped him out. Then I rode up to the bridge with them where they turned around. They had come up the river trail from Pico Rivera. I then proceded on solo. When I got to the shack, there was no one there, just like last week.  60.8 miles in 4 hours.

The yucca stalks are now in full bloom

The grass on the side of the road has blossomed out.

I don't know what these plants are called, but they seem to grow right out of the asphalt, amazing, I need to get some of them for the house. 

 Here are the two guys I met on the way up Azusa Canyon.  Took this just on the East side of he bridge. 

 Up, Up, Up 

 The Tour of California will be passing through this intersection not once, but twice, next Saturday.  I'll have to miss it this year as I will be riding the Heartbreak 100.

  Your's truly at an empty shack.

Cycling this week - 05-06-2012

Another week of drizzly weather during the middle of the workweek, so no commuting again.  Jack was feeling neglected, so I took him out on Saturday.  Irit and I rode up to the Rose bowl and back.  We rode up there and did one loop around and then back out.  We stopped at the Gamble House for a break on the way back.  The Gamble house was built by the Greene brothers for Mr. Gamble, of "Proctor & Gamble" back in the early 1900's, and were famous for starting the "craftsman" style of architecture.  We did 19 miles.

Here is a picture of Irit in front of the Gamble house

On Sunday, I rode up to the top of Glendora Mountain Road (GMR) and back - 54 miles in 3:45.  It turned out to much warmer than I thought it would be.  On the way back I stopped by Dave's house and got an extra bottle of water to make it the last 17 miles home, as I had drained both going up the mountain.  There were a lot of sport bikes out on the road and a few bicycles as well, however, the shack was empty when I got there.

Here are a couple of bikes that blew past me at about 60 miles an hour.  The guy in front is actually waving at me.

Here is the infamous "shack" actually its just part of the county public works dept. where they store materials for repairing the road, there was no one there.

Sign at the shack.

Trusty R3 got me to the top of another mountain, and back down.

These purple flowers have just sprung out in the last two weeks or so.

I actually got up to 39 miles an hour on the way down, but I was too chicken to take my hand off the bars to take a picture, so 27.6 is all I could get a picture of.