Category Archives: Uncategorized

Last Saturday, the team rode out of Half Moon Bay for a 50-mile ride. We headed south on Hwy 1 over some rolling hills and we worked on our pacelining. The last climb was something more than “rolling,” but then we turned left at Stage Road and started a nice descent into San Gregorio. We turned left at Hwy 84—a road I know very well because it’s one of my favorite motorcycle roads. Our coach’s in-laws live on this road, so we took an unofficial break and got to use a real bathroom before climbing into the redwoods.

As we approached La Honda, we took a right on Pescadero Road, another of my favorite motorcycle roads. Because I knew the road was incredibly steep, I put my head down and started hammering on the pedals. So much so, I almost missed the turn into the parking lot where our official rest stop was.

It was at this rest stop that we officially changed the name of our team from “Team Short Bus” to “Team Short Break” inspired by the fact that Kristy (our coach) wears as few layers as possible, so she’s always hustling us to get back on our bikes before she, I mean, before “we” get cold.

I personally hate breaks at the bottom or in the middle of climbs, but you take them where you can I guess. But that meant that as soon as we got back on Pescadero Road, it was low gear for what seemed like 15 minutes until the top of the hill. I felt pretty good throughout the climb, which I think is a good sign for the main event in March.

The descent into the city of Pescadero was uneventful, but at bicycle speeds, I was able to see much more than I ever saw on my motorcycle. It really is a beautiful area.

We turned right onto Stage Road by Duarte’s restaurant. I was hoping we’d stop in for some brunch, but we didn’t even slow down. We just kept going into the hilly part and started climbing again. And descending. And climbing. And descending. It was like hill repeats! (Which is probably why we don’t have any more of those.)

We stopped for our last official break at the intersection of Hwy 84 and Stage Road. There’s a little general store there, so some people used the restroom inside. Then we started the climb back to Hwy 1.

Somewhere on Hwy 1, Scott’s chain broke. Fortunately, our SAG car wasn’t far behind. The car also picked up a four-legged passenger. A dog with no collar appeared out of the bushes by the side of the road. It was pretty fat, so we knew it wasn’t a stray, but there were no houses nearby, and we couldn’t let it roam free by the side of a busy highway, so the pooch got a ride with Scott and Deepak (one of our awesome SAG crew members) back to Half Moon Bay. They’d called an animal welfare officer and by the time I was ready to leave, I saw the van roll in, so hopefully, the dog is safe with his/her family now.

Thursday at The Spokesman in Santa Cruz

I was worried about the knee pain I’d experienced a few days before, but was able to manage it by stretching at every rest stop and break. But something was definitely not right, so I went to get my bike properly fit by an expert in Santa Cruz today. Kristy knows him well and made the appointment WHILE we were on our ride! She called his shop during our second rest stop at Stage/Hwy 84.

The experience was part chiropractor, part Hollywood motion capture. First Wade (the guy’s name) had my lie on a massage table where he measured my alignment and range of motion. Then he put little white piece of tape on my joints and video taped my pedaling my bike on a stationary trainer. He adjusted my saddle height and position, then added some shims and new footbeds to my shoes. Every time he made an adjustment, I pedaled the bike while he watched. Sometimes he’d take new video and analyze that. It was cool getting such a precise fitting.

Then he worked on my upper body position. He put my bars on an adjustable stem. I was less able to help him here because he had to rely on my feedback (“How does that feel? How about now?”) but I ended up with a slightly taller, slightly longer stem. He also put fatter wedges above my brake levers so I wouldn’t have to stretch as far to get my fingers around them.

Total for the fitting was about $335, including parts. We’ll see how well it worked on Saturday’s 40-mile buddy ride!

Well, I decided to get out for a ride. Fixed the flat on my road bike and hit the trail. Two hours and 28 miles later, I feel no pain in my left knee—just the satisfaction of getting a good workout in before I indulge in tonight’s NYE festivities.

Here’s where I turned around.

Happy New Year, everyone!

After the last gym workout, I kind of took a little break. I went home to SoCal to spend a few days with my parents and only got on the bike once; this is because I hurt my knee on this ride.

On Monday, I wanted to ride from my house to the top of Anderson Lake Dam in Morgan Hill. My road bike had a flat, so I grabbed my mountain bike. I hadn’t ridden it in months and was curious to see how it would feel with my new level of fitness. It turns out I should have taken it easier, even though it felt great. The mountain bike has bigger tires, weighs more and has more rolling resistance than my road bike. So even though I thought I was feeling fine, it turned out that I was in too high a gear for most of the 40 miles. The extra effort at a lower cadence hurt my left knee. So I let it heal for a few days. It felt good yesterday, but I didn’t. I’m still battling the effects of a cold from last week. But today I feel pretty good, and the weather looks great, so I may go out on the road bike. We’ll see how my New Year’s Eve plans pan out before I make my final decision.

Side note: This morning, I received the donation that met my minimum fundraising goal (including two checks I’ve been sitting on for a while). From now on, 100% of every donation goes directly toward helping patients and funding research! Go TEAM!

So I went to the gym instead. Last week, I tried mixing in some weights and resistance training to my core and upper body. I continued that this week. Did 15 minutes on the treadmill to warm up, then 30 minutes on the endless stairs. They were harder than I remember, so the switch to biking has had some impact on those walking/climbing muscles. Then I went downstairs and did 3 sets of abductor/adductor, ab crunches, lat pulldowns and leg raises. I’m going to be sore tomorrow, but we have a light day at work… probably less than a half day… so I will have time to stretch and recover a bit. Who knows? Maybe I can take a ride if it’s not raining out.

I finally got the cold that was going around work. I started to get a sore throat on Friday afternoon and was not looking forward to riding on Saturday. But when I woke up, the sore throat was only a bit worse and I had no other symptoms. I checked various web medical sites and everyone seemed to agree that as long as the cold was not affecting my chest and I didn’t have a fever, I wouldn’t be doing any harm by exercising. So I did. 

Since yesterday was cold, but sunny, I decided to try commuting on the new bike. It was fast—I got to work in only 30 minutes—but somewhere on the way to work, I got a leak. Thank goodness it didn’t go flat. I pumped it up at the office and it held enough air to get me home safely. I’ll have to fix it tonight.

The weather forecast is calling for storms all weekend, so I’m thinking we may not ride this weekend. But I’ll still have to get up early and get to Almaden Station by 8:15am just in case we do go out. It’s supposed to be a 42-mile ride. I am not looking forward to riding 42 miles in the rain, but if Patrick says we go, I’ll go. Sunday’s hill repeats are more likely to go on because they’re shorter, more strenuous workouts, but even those could be canceled if the rain’s coming down too hard. We’ll wait and see, but it would be weird (and kinda nice) to have a weekend off to do some Christmas shopping. I haven’t even started yet!

So I decided to go to the gym on Tuesday. I hadn’t gone in weeks, so I wanted to see if it helped. The answer? Not sure. 

Had a nice IM chat with friend who already donated to my cause. He asked if I hit up the rest of our mutual friends. I told him I did and some supported me. He said I should ask again, but I said I didn’t want to be a pest. So he said, “Send me the link. I’ll be the pest.” So I did, and got another $100! IMMD!

Today’s hill climbs were a little harder than usual, since I’m still recovering from yesterday’s ride. But I’m glad I went. I’m starting to get the hang of road bikes and road riding in general. I told our head coach that although I’ve ridden for years, I never had anyone tell me the right way to do things. I’ve just read tips in magazines and worked my ass off, but the various exercises and drills are starting to pay off. I can definitely tell the difference! It’s not just about how hard I work, but how efficiently I ride.

Anyway, about the ride. Despite the weather forecast that was only half right (yes, it didn’t rain, but it never got sunny either), I decided to go out with just shorts, a long-sleeve jersey and a windbreaker. I was cold at the start, but warmed up within the first two miles.

The first climb was really hard, probably due to all the riding we did the day before. On the second climb, we were encouraged to spin our way to the top (low gear, high cadence). This was no problem for me because I do that anyway. The third climb was our standing climb. I did pretty well on this one, only sitting and spinning for a few hundred feet the whole way up. After the third climb, Patrick told us we’d be doing five, so I took the fourth climb kinda easy and even had a little conversation with Harold, one of our mentors. The fifth climb was our photo op; we ride all the way to the top and wait for the whole group for a pic. I did that one in and out of the saddle just trying to get to the top any way I could.

The ride home was something else. With dry roads and a real need to keep warm, I rode as hard as I could. I also hit the turns pretty fast. It was fun!

Next Saturday, we ride 42 miles. It’ll officially be the farthest I’ve ever ridden. I’m looking forward to it!

Today we did our longest ride yet. I’m pretty sure each ride is going to be “our longest ride yet,” but whatever. Before the ride, we got some news about the program. I’m in third place for fundraising! Thanks to all who supported me. Hallelujah, as I type this, another donation has come in!!! I kid you not! It’s from my friend Mark Duncan. Thanks, Mark!

We also had a little “nutrition clinic,” where our coach Patrick basically told us what we need to get through this ride. Basically, besides a lot of water, we’re going to need about 400-600 calories per hour plus a bunch of salt.

Then we hit the road. We met in Los Gatos and I thought we’d head toward Kennedy Road, but we went north toward Cupertino instead. I was fine with the pace: 15-20 MPH on flat ground. There were some small, rolling hills on the first and last part of the ride, which were no big deal. When we got to Cupertino, we turned left and we found ourselves on the same road we do hill repeats. My coach Kristy noticed I was in the wrong gear on the downhill/uphill transition, so we had a little break to talk about gear selection on hills. From my mountain bike background, I’m used to sitting and spinning my way up hills, but on a road bike, I’m supposed to push a taller gear and get out of the saddle on climbs. Oh well, something else to work on as the rides progress.

We regrouped at the staging area parking lot and the SAG (support and gear) team had a nice spread waiting for us: fruits, trail mix, water and PB&J sandwiches! I had eaten a pretty decent breakfast before the ride, but decided to eat a little while we were there. No sense in letting it go to waste, plus, I’m going to have to get used to eating while riding and in the middle of rides.

When we got to the top of Mt. Eden Road, we regrouped again. I tried to do the top half standing and made it most of the way before I had to sit and spin. A nice standing burst at the top made me look good to Kristy and Mark, who beat me to the top.

After a breather, we kept going, which meant descending the back side of Mt. Eden Rd. Mark warned me that there was a shorter, steeper hill after we bottomed out, so I kept my speed in check and also maintained a comfortable cadence when I needed to pedal. The second hill had some really steep sections. I had to get out of the saddle in my lowest gear and was kind of out of sync. Should I try a higher gear to counter the added power of standing or just give my spinning muscles a rest and pick up where I left off when my standing muscles wore out? I wish I could remember what I did, but I eventually got to the top without stopping. The top was actually the Mountain Winery, which hosts a lot of top musical and comedy acts every summer. Kristy said, “it sounds much better to say ‘meet you at the winery’ than ‘meet you at the top.'” You don’t get to say things like that when you mountain bike!

The descent from the winery was short and fast. That put us on Hwy 9, which I know very well from motorcycling. We turned left on Hwy 9 and headed back toward Saratoga. I hit my fastest speed on this stretch: 39 MPH!

After passing through downtown Saratoga, we turned left and retraced our path for a few miles. Then we hit some roads where we could work a little more on pacelining. Around this time, Michelle needed to slow the pace. She said after the ride that she couldn’t maintain our 20-MPH pace through some of the gentle uphill grades. Kristy hung back with her and Scott, Mark and I kept going. We missed a turn as we got back to Los Gatos, which added a little extra mileage and a short climb. But all went well. When we rolled in, the fast group was kicking it in the parking lot. A little while later, Nicole G arrived in Rachel’s car. She “SAGged out” due to a broken spoke. Rachel brought some snacks from the rest stop, so I had a slice of orange to start the refueling process. But I was beat, so I packed up and headed out. As I was leaving, the next group rolled in. Michelle said she will probably switch to that group for future rides due to her not being quite in the shape she’d like to be. She’s done this nine times before, so I figure she knows what’s best for her.

So, that ride went as well as could be expected. I felt pretty good at the end, like I could’ve kept going, but as soon as I got home, fatigue set in and I feel really tired now. Some coffee helped, but I think I’ll sleep well tonight. We’ll see if I feel up to doing hill repeats tomorrow. I probably will, but you never know.