New Argyle Kit, first ride on the 404s

Team Garmin-Chipotle presented by H30 (formerly Team Slipstream-Chipotle presented by H30) debuted their new team kits for the Tour de France today. I like them, but they just don't have the same pop and brightness and outrageousness as the first half of 2008 version. The new ones retained some of the argyle and still has the Chipotle Burrito in the back pocket.

The kit is actually my favorite cycling clothes. The shorts are awesome and comfortable and who can argue with the socks?


The bike looks pretty good with the Zipp 404 wheels on them. The Zipps are awesome. They take the bike to a new level. It felt like I could sustain a higher top speed than normal.

I was a little pissed before the ride though. I was having issues with my brakes. I had to switch out the brake pads for carbon specific ones, which wasn't bad, but ever since I had the bike built a couple of months ago the brake levers seem to be slightly off.

I'm not sure what the lever is called, but before you take your wheel off, you have to turn a black lever up which opens up the brake arms wider so the tire can fit through. When I did that for the front ones it just wasn't doing it, the cable just turned. The frustrating part is that I should know how to fix this stuff and I don't.

I had a similar situation with the rear brake. The lever worked fine it's just that I couldn't put the lever back down. If I did then both pads would be engaged on the braking surface and I wouldn't go anywhere. I just wanted to go ride, so I just went with the lever up. It wasn't unsafe since the pads were a good distance from the surface when the lever was up.

The braking was actually better than I thought. Maybe it was the Swisstop pads.

The other issue was the cassette. Ugh. It was loud. I couldn't get the chain noise down. I tried adjusting the barrel adjuster, but it seemed different on every cassette ring. I stopped by B&L on my way home in Solana Beach. The first guy had to call over the "seasoned" mechanic and about 20 minutes later my bike was shifting better than ever, but the cassette was still noisy.

He tried a Dura-Ace cassette and the noise was magically reduced to practically nothing (probably the normal amount). So, even though SRAM is compatible with Shimano, I think there are just probably slight differences. So, I think I'm going to return the SRAM Red Cassette and get a Dura-Ace or Ultegra Cassette.

BESIDES those issues, the ride was awesome.

Sad day...Molly is in doggie heaven

Molly turned 13 years old about 2 weeks ago. So in dog years she was just over 91 years old. She was a feisty one and usually bossed Bono around a little bit. She was less and less bossy over these past couple of months.

She gave us a scare over New Years and we thought she was in such bad shape that we were going to have to help her go in peace, but she rebounded. Her symptoms came back recently and she progressively got worse. She had trouble walking and squatting to pee and seemed to be very uncomfortable (once she was laying down she didn't want to get up, once she was up she didn't want to lay down).


Molly close up!


We tease Bono for being needy and selfish, but we think he is actually sad. He's usually hanging around us a little more, but ever since we came home he's been stuck on his bed.


Cezanne and I know that Molly is now up in doggie heaven.

First Race this morning

The race was fun, but not a huge success. I guess it was successful because I completed my first race and I didn't get into a crash (there were no crashes).

It was good to get out there and see what racing was like. I just kind of hung back. I wasn't struggling to hang on, but I didn't feel like I had the legs to go for it. I think I finished in the back third.

The race started at 7am, I showed up around 6:20am and by the time I got set up and registered I had about 10 minutes to ride around the course for a warm-up. First lesson is to ensure I have more time to warm-up. Second lesson is to get better in the turns. Third lesson is to train for crits if I'm going to be racing crits.

Cezanne made it out. The timing of the race was kind of perfect. She had to be at work at 8am and the race was from 7-7:30. She's a trooper to get up 45 minutes earlier than she had to on a Saturday morning.

Me at the start line. I need to get a different jersey, but I didn't want to wear a pro team kit (Slipstream or CSC) and all my other options don't fit as well as my bright yellow Specialized jersey. Most have way too much material in the waist area. I actually got a new Castelli jersey yesterday (a medium), but I have to return it. It's a great "pro" fit except it needs to be about 2 inches longer.


After it was over.

My baby! She was hanging with a girl whose husband was also racing. Cezanne felt bad because her husband fell off the back and stopped racing. Hey, I beat someone!


Now on to the good stuff. My computer said my average heart rate was 163. I honestly thought it was going to be higher than that. Every time I looked down to see it seemed like it was in the low 170s. I peaked out at 187 towards the end. I don't know what the rest of the graph to the right is.

It was a 30 minute race, I averaged 23.7 mph and we wound up riding for a little over 11 miles. There was a short 8% grade climb before the finish. You can see the elevation profile below and count the laps.

After the race Cezanne went to work and I headed home to regroup before my usual Saturday ride with the San Diego Bicycle Club at 8:30am. My legs were a little tight from the race, but the group ride was good and got me about 45 more miles in my legs today.

The goal according to my century training plan was 4 hours of riding today. Wound up being just over 3 hours with the 10 minute warm-up, 30 minute race, and 2 and a half hour group ride.

Next race is on Sunday July 27th about 20 miles north of La Jolla. Each lap/circuit of that course is 1.7 miles. Today's race had circuits of .7 miles.

More Argyle has arrived...

Just got some more argyle today to go with my shoes. Got it just in time for Slipstream to debut it's brand new "Garmin-Chipotle presented by H3O" team kit on July 3rd, 2 days before Le Tour.

Toughest and Hottest Ride of the Year...For Me

First things first. On my Saturday group ride some guy made the comment (jokingly I guess) that my shoes "clashed" with my socks. NOBODY busts on my argyle socks (or my shoes more like it)! I didn't have a good come-back and now I can't remember what I said. I think I said something lame like "yeah, they don't go with much." LAME!

But whatever, I know the shit doesn't go! They're highlighter-florescent yellow and I've got goofy socks on. It's cycling, we're all in tight as heck spandex and shave our legs, do you think I'm going to worry about clashing? That's the camera rope in the below pic, not a pearl necklace. Now a pearl necklace, that would clash!

Today was REALLY hot and humid. I know I shouldn't complain given the heat spell the Mid-Atlantic Region was experiencing, but this is coastal California. I don't know how hot it got today, but when I checked at around 3:50pm, weather.com said it was only 87 degrees F in La Jolla. It felt like 97. Just about 30 miles northeast of La Jolla in Escondido, it was HOT! The proof was in the first pic above.

Now, on to the ride. I felt good during the San Diego Bicycle Club (SDBC) portion of the ride. Had a little fun, did some bridging. My back started hurting on Wednesday morning after a run and has been a pain ever since (bending and twisted). Not sure if I aggravated my "slightly protruding L5."

It's amazing how therapeutic a 70-mile ride can be for your back. Actually, it does feel better today. After the SDBC portion of the ride I headed home and had a clif bar and filled up with fluids and headed back out.

My 100 mile training program says I should do 4 hours. Ride data below (out of my www.garminconnect.com account).


The Garmin 705 has been pretty good. It puts your ride right onto a fully functioning google maps screen. You can zoom in to different part, change the view to "satellite." Below is the complete ride, the SDBC loop which is the top portion and then after that I worked a little south climbing Soledad Mountain.

The below pic is why Cezanne LOVES the Garmin 705. You can zoom in and see EVERYTHING. After we do our paceline work we stop at a school to regroup. At the end of the parking lot (on the right of the pic) there is a porta-potty. Guess where I went? I think Cezanne would like additional features to be added though, like a warning signal that transmits home if I talk to any girls on the ride. I hear Garmin is working on that one, although it's low on their priority list. I'm totally joking about Cezanne loving the GPS and wanting that feature.

I'm a little nervous about the climb that comes at mile 70 of the 100-mile San Jose LiveStrong ride. I've heard it is 2 miles long and 15% gradient. I did my best to try to figure out the length and gradient from the route profile, but it's not very detailed. I estimated 1.5 miles and an average gradient of 11-12%.

So, I tried something today that I've never done before, climb up to the Soledad Mountain Cross using Hidden Valley/Via Capri. Ugh. I've been up Soledad Mountain Rd and up Nautilus and DOWN Via Capri, but never up.

So when I headed back out, after a hard workout of 50 miles and on the hottest day of the year, I thought it only rationale to try to climb Hidden Valley/Via Capri. I figured the tough 50 miles today might simulate the easy/moderate first 70 miles of the LiveStrong Ride.

It was rough. I was slow. I made it to the top. I wish I had a few lower gears.

I think it was just shy of 2 miles and a lot of it was between 10-15% gradient. The max gradient I saw while on the climb was 17%, not exactly fun.

You can see the ride elevation profile below. The tallest blip to the right is the climb up Hidden Valley/Via Capri. It was steep. I descended then climbed back up on Soledad Mountain Rd. The Torrey Pines hill (6 %) ends where the distance says 42.something.

Below is my victory lap on GPS around the Cross after the tough climb. It wasn't so much a victory lap as it was a "I'm glad I didn't turn-around" lap.

My first race is next Sunday. Little nervous and apprehensive on what to expect. I have a feeling I am going to hang back to feel things out and be fighting it out for spots 45-50 of 50 spots.

It is interesting training for a 100-mile training ride (July 13th), a couple of Cat 5 races (June 29, late July), and the Annapolis Triathlon (September 7th) all at the same time.

1-year Anniversary Weekend and a long ride

Cezanne and I decided to get out of La Jolla for our 1-year anniversary weekend. We love La Jolla and there is plenty to do and plenty of great places to eat, but we thought it would be a nice break to get a change of scenery.

Cezanne tried "priceline" and we got a room at the Hyatt in Newport Beach. We drove up the coast, drove and walked around Newport Beach (Balboa Island) and Laguna Beach, and ate a couple of really good meals. Laguna Beach was really nice. It reminded us of Carmel a little bit.


We relaxed, we got massages, we watched the U.S. Open...it was perfect. The only thing to make it more perfect would be to involve cycling some how...

Same picture as above, except we got out of the way.


I knew I needed to get in a long ride this weekend if I was going to complete the LiveStrong Challenge 100-mile ride in July in a good state. So, I decided to ride back from Newport Beach to La Jolla. The total distance was just shy of 75 miles.

I have my Garmin 705, so I thought I would use it's navigation capability, but this wound up making me more frustrated. First, in Garmin's User Manual, it says to create a new course on www.garminconnect.com or through the Garmin Training Center (free software).

For the life of me I couldn't figure out how to do that! I emailed Garmin, but knew they wouldn't get back to me before we left for Newport Beach, so I did some more research.

I found a forum where someone suggested creating a course in bikeroutetoaster.com and then transferring it onto the Garmin. I did that and it worked!

So, I set out around 7:45am on Sunday to head back to La Jolla. Cezanne stayed back to catch a little more sleep then drive back. The GPS worked great and was beeping and displaying which way I needed to turn and the road name when I was coming up on the turn. It even estimated my time until the turn based on my speed.

Unfortunately, it didn't work perfectly. It said I was off course at one point then tried to recalculate and it froze for about 3 minutes. I thought I was going to lose all the data from the riding I had just done. I managed to somehow turn off the navigation and everything worked fine after that.

On my way down I happened to meet up with 5-6 guys riding down to Encinitas for some pizza and beers and then taking the train back. It would up perfect for me since it was my first time working through Old Highway 101 and Camp Pendleton.

They were some serious cyclists. There were 2 Cervelo SLC-SLs, an R3-SL, a few all carbon seats (no padding). They were "serious" because they had the fitness to go along with the bikes. I guess one of the guys was a former pro and the owner of Laguna Beach Cyclery, Patrick Fetzer?

He's the one sporting the dreads in the below picture.

What was funny is that a few of these guys came into the ride having done 140 miles the day before.

They helped keep the pace high. I wound up averaging 19.1mph for the first 68 miles. I wanted to ride for about 4 and a half hours, but the high pace meant that I was getting home too soon. So I climbed Torrey Pines 3 times to burn the extra time, first on the inside then twice on the outside.

Torrey Pines is not crazy steep or long, but it's a nice hill to train on, mostly 6%, a few spots of 7% for about a mile and a half. The inside is steep in the beginning, 11-12% (thank you Garmin 705), but then levels out at the top.


Stats for my ride: 80.57 miles, 4 hours 27 minutes, 4,869 calories burned, Avg Heart rate: 141 bpm, Max Heart rate: 172 bpm, 4,176 feet climbed.

Oh yeah, I got an email back from Garmin (quick turn-around) and it said they were working on those features and that I could "create" a course by selecting a course I've already done and then send it to the device.

My comments to Garmin would be (1) don't put something in the User's Manual if it's not true and (2) sending a course you've already ridden to your device isn't "creating" a course and kind of defeats the purpose because that doesn't help you when you REALLY need to know where you're going, like where you've NEVER ridden before!

Longest ride of the year for me, new bike computer

This past weekend I decided that I would ride the July 13th LiveStrong Challenge Ride in San Jose, CA. I've done a LiveStrong Ride for the past 2 years and I wasn't disappointed. They were great experiences and for a great cause, one close to my heart and my...

I've been riding more this year than most, but nothing over 50 miles and I realized I need to get some more miles in these legs. So after my normal club ride of about 48 miles I turned back around and headed out for another 24 miles.

What is cool is that I got a new cycling computer. I wound up getting the Garmin 705 with the credit I had with Trek for my frame. As you can see from the picture below, it's a little bigger than I expected, but man does it collect a lot of data! It even records how much slower you go with the computer attached because of the drag.


The GPS does it's work and when the data is uploaded it shows the route you just road. And it also does it with great detail. I can see where I took wide turns to avoid traffic and if your route includes a double-back, you can clearly see what side of the road you were on.

Cezanne actually loves the GPS. Now she says she can see EXACTLY where I was for 4 hours on a Saturday afternoon...


So, that's the actual computer below with the data from the ride. What's cool is that it puts heart rate, GPS, elevation, ascent & descent, speed, cadence, grade (when riding), distance, potentially power (with another device), all in one package.

With the profile the device keeps on record of my weight (165 lbs) and my gender (don't know if the weight of the bike they asked for is in this calculation) it calculated that I burned 4,152 calories on my Saturday ride. It's also cool to see I climbed 3,984 ft and that most of Torrey Pines hill is 6% with a couple of spots of 7%.

So, I rode for 72.13 miles and for 4 hours and 17 minutes.


There it is on the bike. It's a quick detachment off the mount and over to the computer to download. It's big and taking a little getting used to, but it's not the size of the laptop fortunately!