Category → Cycling
2012 Ride Stats
2,494 miles ridden, 177,300 feet of vertical climb, 161,752 calories burned. I focused in on climbing this year, which is why I have 2.5 times the climbing as last year. It was a great year!
Early morning Harriman ride
I did a 5:30 – 7:30am ride in Harriman this morning. It’s nice to be able to ride 10 miles out and hit some great scenery.
Older and Faster
This from Jim Langley, who recently competed in the 55-59 age category at the US Masters National Championship:
“As I was cruising up one of the hills at a pretty good tempo, testing my legs a bit, I heard the distinctive rumble of the BMW motorcycles the race officials use to lead the packs. So, I moved right. Then I heard an even more familiar sound, the powerful, rhythmic breathing of a racer. Not wanting to get in the way I veered onto the shoulder, clicked out of my pedals and turned around.
There was the legend, Robert Paganini of the Pasadena Athletic Association, off the front of the 75-79 group and simply shredding the climb on his way to the coveted stars and stripes jersey. From his fine form and impressive pace you could have easily mistaken him for Bend’s resident superstar Chris Horner — he looked that good.”
New lighting system for the bike
In 2003, I put together a lighting system for my recumbent (described in painful detail here):
In this setup, the two lights on the bike put out about 1250 lumens, and the headlamp puts out another 200 or so lumens.
Times have changed since 2003. There are now 900 lumen LED bike lights that are pretty inexpensive:
I bought a kit for $75ish that includes a battery, charger, and headlamp adapter. I ordered two more lights for $45 each, and a Y cable. Using the batteries mentioned in the 2003 link above, I fabricated a 2-cell battery pack for the unit that goes on the helmet, while the 4-cell battery pack that came with the kit powers the two heads on my handlebars via the Y cable.
So that’s 2700 lumens. It’s a bit brighter than most cars, and cars flash their high beams as they pass. The next step is to get a bar extender:
This will get the lights farther forward, so there’s no light reflecting off my silver brake cables into my eyes.
Orange county heritage rail trail
The four of us and Bubbie rode 11 miles on the Orange county heritage trail today from Monroe to Chester and back. Here’s the map:
Mechel:
It started to rain in earnest towards the end. We were soggy, but it was fun!
My Excuse
“If you’re a cyclist, you need to have the upper body of a 12-year-old girl and the lower body of a power lifter” – Peter Park, Lance Armstrong’s conditioning coach
I’ve been spending my training hours on the first half, obviously.
Jeannie Longo – 57th at 51
This July, 51 year old Jeanne Longo won the French national cycling time trial, her 57th title. No doubt she will put her medal next the the other 8 she’s won at this event, along with her four Olympic metals, which she won over the 7 Olympic games in which she competed (1984 – 2008).
She graduated high school when Lance was entering 1st grade. Go Jeanne!
Morning with Moshe
Moshe and I went for a ride at 5:15AM Tuesday morning. Here’s the route:
Here’s the graph:
The hill in the middle is the 14% grade South Mountain. I was happy to be able to climb it without standing up!
I enjoyed riding first thing in the morning. The temperature would reach 100 or so later in the day, but at 5AM it was in the high 70s, albeit muggy.
Another personal best
17.6 MPH on the way home last night, an all-time best. My best in 2007 was 17.1 MPH. I hit 17.4 MPH a week or two ago. On the way in, I’ve been at 20+ pretty consistently, and have once tied my all-time best of 20.6 MPH.
Gate Hill Rd vs. South Mountain Rd.
Gate Hill Rd: 400 ft over 1 mile = 7.58% average grade:
South Mountain Rd: 394 ft over 0.79 miles = 9.47% average grade:
Funny, Gate Hill Rd seems harder, probably because the steepest part is at the end, while SMR’s is at the beginning.