Middle-Aged-Man

I  managed to get out of the house and go for a ride. I left the house in the afternoon in about 80 degrees. There was no wind, but it did picked up a bit and was a good breeze.

Overall, it was about 27 miles and an average speed in the 14 mph. Here is my Garmin data.

The High Desert Cyclist had their 4th Annual Antelope Valley Fall Century. There are three rides the 26 miles, the Metric Century (62 miles), and the full Century (100 miles). Last year I wanted to ride in the century, but the weather was so bad that I rode the metric. I was told only four riders completed the century.
This year I rode the century!
I left Gil’s Bike Shop at 7:07am and rode by myself. This year the riders were few, I guess from the high winds we been having. I got three miles from the first stop and the wind did pick up. I pulled into the stop (110th W and Ave G), refilled my water and eat. On the road north to Ave A, down to 100th street, and out to Rosemond Blvd. With the wind behind me for one mile, before turning left on Tehachapi Willow Springs Road. It was nice to petal up to Backus Road where the second rest stop was. I eat and refilled my water. A few other riders that I knew were there (they had passed me). Dan Dunn (did the artwork for the ride), Tim (I cannot remember his last name), and Richard White, who I remember from Central Christian Church. I arrived last and left first. Riding up Tehachapi Willow Springs Road for 8.3 miles to Cameron Road. This is where the wind was very strong and very much up hill and it got cold (4,000+ elevation).  On Cameron it was half uphill, but the back side was all downhill for 2.5 miles, riding over to the 58 Freeway, which I rode for 1.7 miles in very strong winds. Getting off at Sand Canyon and riding head on in wind on Tehachapi Road for seven miles. Arriving at Central Park for lunch. More food and sitting in the sun, I was cold, I had layers but I was still cold. Left the park, did a few miles before getting back on the Tehachapi Willow Springs road, again a lot of up hills, but the wind was behind. At this point in the ride (65 mile) I was feeling tired. I got to the top and some nice downhills, so nice in fact that I reached 50 MPH, the (fastest I have ever been on a bike), and it was a bit scary. It was mostly downhill to the rest stop at Backus, I stopped to refill my water and continue to retrace my path back. I got to the 110th Avenue and G and again refilled my water, some food and off. The ride from there to 30th Street West was the best. A very strong wind behind me, it was no effort to ride at 30 MPH, (wishing the whole ride was like this). This is where my larger GPS unit battery died. It warned me at mile 20, the batteries were dying, but died at 98 miles. The smaller GPS unit during the ride, ran out of space, prompt me to remove older laps (thinking older rides, runs, etc). Well, both units did not give me ride data. What disappointment.
I finished the ride, at this point at 3:30 pm, I think it comes in total of a 105 miles. I was the 5 rider to finish the century of a guess of 12-15 riders. This ride help me accomplish one of my goals of resolutions for 2008.

I was tired, but not wiped. I changed and put my bike away and went to the have pizza and a beer. Home to shower and small nap, (did I mention that I am almost 50, nap required).

Antelope Valley Fall Century

Bib Number for AV Century

I got out on a cold morning. I wanted to ride some 60 plus miles. The weather was cold at the start 60 degree (17 C). The wind was up about 30 miles an hour. It took me two hours to get to the top of Munz Ranch Road. Since, the wind was up, I decided to ride up in to the hills, thinking it would protect me, WRONG. It was worst. It got so cold and rainy. If it was not for my wind breaker, I would have called it off. I rode for 3:40 hours to get 44 miles (71km). My plans changed, I really wanted to ride to Three-points and back in to town, but rode back down to Highland and home. The weather killed that. If the weather is bad for the AV Fall Century, I am not so in shape to do 100 miles (which I have never done).

What was really cool was watching the Furnace Creek 508 rides going past me in the other direction. They ride 508 miles! Wow… The winner did it in about 27 hours.

To get ready for the AV Fall Century, I wanted to get out and ride some 50 plus miles. For this ride, I was jointed by Dave Schoder and a friend of his. The ride started out late 9:30 and we rode for 3.25 hours and rode 52 miles (82.80 km). We rode up Avenue G to 90th, over to Willow Springs and up to Backus road and down.

This was not an exciting ride. I got from work to home in 38 minutes for a distance of 16.57km (10.4 miles). The ride seem hard and the wind was up. I just felt tired. The overall speed average was 26.1 kph (16.21 mph).

It was cool this morning and it was dark. This is the first ride that I had to use my head lamp. Being cool and such, it was hard to get going. I did not petal that hard because my legs felt heavy. Overall, I did about 16.2 MPH average.

I got a chance to ride with Clay Patten on Sunday morning before church. He likes to do hills, and I like going down hills. He hammers the up hills, while I just prod alone. He is about 30 lbs lighter and much stronger, so it is good for me to be challenged. Overall, the ride was very good. It felt good. I was tired after and that is all good. We rode about 25m/39km in 1:38. The weather was perfect. I wish all of my rides were this comfortable.

I recently tried to change my cranks from 182mm to 172.5mm, but there appears not so easy to get. My bike is over 10 years old and the bracket is funky. What I did not think about was just changing my small front chainring. I plan to make that change. That should help me with less torque and more cadence. I noticed when I was riding behind Clay, his cadence was higher when he was on his third cog off his granny gear, while I was on my granny.

Clay Patten and I talked about riding together, and we want to do the AV Fall Century in October. Clay is a machine. He is very very fit, while I am a guy with some form of fitness that is clearly really different than Clay’s.

For the ride, I met Clay at his house and rode to Munz Ranch road, over to Lake Elizabeth road, and over Godde hill back to his house.

This was the first time I rode up Godde. Clay being the fit machine, actually push me up some of the 1.2 miles of hill. Man, I feel so not fit around him. I will confess, that I was not ready for the ride. I did not feel well, my stomach and head were not in the game. With all of the hours at work and things going on, I was emotionally tired, which relates to being physically tired. The heat (over 100 degrees) did not help, nor not eating (stomach was a mess) prior to the ride.

Overall the ride was fun, It was an average of 13.9 pace. It should have been in the 15-17 pace, but we will try again next week?

This morning ride was nice, not much to report. I still did not get up to 18MPH. Here is the motionbase results.

I had to pick up the 4-Runner from the auto repair place. It was just under 6 miles from work. I rode North and had the wind on West side. It was nice not having the head wind. The average speed was 19.7MPH. I liked it.