Tour de Palm Springs - Results

Right after the finish of the Tour de Palm Springs

I have a new PR for an organized Century ride.  My previous best was 6:04 for the 2005 Solvang's Finest Century.  My new record, from the Tour de Palm Springs, is 5:58.

Now, the reality is, it's hard to compare the Solvang ride and the Palm Springs ride since they are completely different rides. Unlike a running race, Century rides are not typically an exact distance. In fact they can vary by as much as 10 or 20 miles and still be considered a Century.  If I recall correctly, the Solvang Century was actually a 100 mile ride, whereas the Palm Springs Century was 102 miles. 2 miles might not seem like a big difference, and it's really not, but even at a fairly quick 20 miles per hour pace, that extra 2 miles adds an additional 6 minutes.  The Palm Springs ride also seemed to have a lot more stop lights than any other Century ride I've ever finished.  At one point, around mile 65, I thought I might finish as early as 5:45 - 5:50, but I struggled a bit towards the end, and I also hit a string of lights in the last 10 miles that not only added a lot of "stopped" time, but also lowered my average speed because I had to slow down, stop, then speed back up at each light. On the other hand, the Solvang ride had more climbing, so that probably evens things out a bit.

The total time of 5:58 breaks down to roughly 20 minutes of 'stopped' time, and 5 hours and 38 minutes of riding time.  The 'stopped' time includes refilling water bottles, picking up food, a restroom stop, and traffic related stops for red lights and stop signs.

There were a total of 5 SAG (Support And Gear) stations along the course.  I rolled through the first SAG station at mile 15 without stopping - but there was so much congestion, that I still had to get off the bike and walk it through. Since I didn't actually stop, the timer on my computer kept ticking away, so the congestion here just lowered my average speed, but didn't count towards the 'stopped' time. 

The second station was at mile 27.  I stopped at the second station for less than 3 minutes just to fill up a water bottle and roll out.

The third station was at the 51 mile mark.  I finished the first half in 2hrs 50min.  The first half of the course contained most of the climbing, so it was good to be half-done in under 3hrs. SAG #3 was at the mid-point of the course and it seemed like everyone was off the bike and relaxing - sort of taking a lunch break, so it took a while to get through it.  By the time I got back on the road, I had spent almost 6 minutes at station #3.  I didn't really need that long of a break, but it was impossible to move through there any faster than I did.

SAG # 4 was at mile 71.  This one had very little congestion and was easy to get in and out of.  I'm sure I spent less than 3 minutes at this one.

The last SAG station was at mile 90.  I rolled in to station #5 after 5hrs and 12 min of total elapsed time, for a very brief stop to tighten the bolts on my water bottle cage which had somehow loosened up.  I had 48 minutes left finish the ride in under 6hrs, and 51 minutes left to finish and still PR the ride.  It actually seemed easily doable since I could average just 16mph and still make it, but because of the number of stop lights in the last part of the ride, it proved to be more challenging than I thought it would, and I barely made it under 6hrs.

Although the final results and a new PR were good, the execution of my plan was not.  I wanted to take the first third of the course pretty easy, but after analyzing the ride data after the race, I can see I actually did the opposite. The most accurate way to measure effort on a bicycle is to measure watts. That tells me how much work I was doing, regardless of weather, incline, speed, or other conditions.  Speed is not a good indicator of effort on a bike, because riding downhill or with a tailwind can increase speed by quite a bit even though it requires little to no effort.

During the first two hours of the ride, my average power was 191 watts with large sections that averaged over 200 watts.  During the next two hours, my average watts dropped to 165.  And during the final 2 hours it bumped up a little to 171 watts.  During the Ironman, I'd much rather have average watt splits that are much less varied, and I need to start out easy, and pump up the effort later IF I know I can spare the effort without hurting the run.

My power graph (smoothed for easier reading) 
from the Tour de Palm Springs

I'm fairly new to riding with Power, and this was my first Century ride with a PowerTap, so it was a good learning experience.  I'll keep working on increasing my available power during my training rides, and regulating my effort during Centuries and races leading up to IMAZ. My mission is to make sure I'm fully dialed in and have my power strategy completely figured out by November 21.

Spunky Canyon Ride

Saturday will typically be my long ride day.

Here's the Garmin Profile info for the 46 mile ride we did today.

Spunky Canyon 46 mile loop

Motivational Movie Monday

Here's a fun motivational commercial featuring one of my favorite cyclists.

Race Day Jersey

I spent a little bit of time watching cyclists go by during the 2009 Arizona Ironman race last weekend. I was trying to determine what color jersey and helmet would stand out and be easy to spot on race day.

Most people wear different combinations of black, blue, red, and white - making people wearing those colors more difficult to spot. The only color that really seemed to stand out to me, was yellow. It didn't have to be a completely yellow jersey - just some yellow stripes were usually enough to make the jersey stand out. So my new mission is to find a race-day jersey with some yellow in it. Ideally the yellow will be up in the shoulder, sleeve, and chest area where it will be most visible while riding. I also don't want to wear a jersey that advertises for a different race or a cycling team.

Here's one I found online at http://www.bicyclinghub.com/ that fits all of my criteria. It's also a racing cut jersey (tighter fit), so it might be perfect!

Strawberry Fields Triathlon: The Bike

This triathlon was my first real race on the new Felt B2 Pro bike. A combination of the training I've been doing to prepare for the double century, a super flat course, and the new bike allowed me to get an Olympic bike PR of 1:03:29. That's over 18 minutes faster than my previous Olympic bike PR!

It's the bike portion of this race that actually gave me the overall PR. EVERY other section of the race was slower for me, including the two transitions - but that 18 minute PR on the bike allowed me to get an overall PR for the race.

Oh, and I almost forgot. I launched my first bottle during this race. It was within just a couple miles of exiting the transition area. I had my Profile Aero drink bottle on the front, and one extra bottle of water on the back. I hit a dip in the road, and heard a 'clunk" behind me. I looked back and saw my full water bottle sitting in the gutter. I'm not sure if I had the bottle seated all the way down in the cage or what, but obviously this is something I'll have to test out over the next year as I prepare for IMAZ.

10 things I learned during my first Double Century

10. The LA Wheelmen's Grand Tour is a great event with very good support and awesome rest stops.

9. The lowland double century is the perfect first timers double

8. Hill training is a great way to prepare your legs for a double century

7. Hill training is not sufficient for training your butt to be in a saddle for over 11 hrs

6. "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette is NOT a good song to have stuck in your head for a double century

5. Ojai looks like a nice little town. I had never been there before, but now I want to take a walk around there some weekend

4. Riding along the ocean from Carpenteria to Malibu is really a treat

3. I can eat a bagel with peanut butter, a large glass of milk, 3 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a ham & cheese sandwich, a bean & cheese burrito, a bag of potato chips, 3 power gels, a bar, 2 chocolate chip cookies, 2000 calories worth of carbo pro, 3 12oz sodas, a bowl of chili with cheese, pasta salad, a cup o noodles soup, and lots of gatorade -- and still lose three (3) pounds by the end of the day

2. After 165 miles of bicycle riding, a warm "cup o noodles" soup tastes like food prepared by the goddess Hestia

1. Text messages and Facebook comments delivered to my phone are a GREAT motivator during a long day of exercise. Thanks everyone for your words of encouragement.

San Diego Century - Dos Picos 103

The San Diego "Dos Picos" 103 mile bike ride was last weekend. I went with my brother-in-law and two of his co-workers to ride in this event. One guy did the metric century, the other two guys were first time century riders.

We got started a little later than I would have liked, but by 7:30am we were on our way. We stayed together for the first 10 miles or so, and then the group splintered a bit and we rode separately until we got to the first rest-stop. The rest of the day we followed a very similar pattern. We would gather at the rest-stop, ride together for a short while, then break up until the next rest stop.

My average speed was a little faster than my speed during the Conejo ride the previous week. That might be partly due to the longer rest breaks I took while waiting to regroup. It was a good challenging ride and well supported. I'd definitely do it again.

Here's my gps log from the event

Cruising the Conejo

2009 is my Bike focus year, hopefully leading up to a 200 mile bike ride this Summer.

Last Saturday was the 25th annual Crusin' the Conejo Century ride. The Century ride was labeled as a 103 mile ride with 6,000 feet of climbing. According to my gps log, it was 100.8 miles with about 5400ft of climbing.

Either way, it was a challenging ride, and I felt really strong at the end. I started the ride just after 7am and finished in a little over 7hrs (including a few short rest-stop breaks).

The ride was really well done and well supported. Most rest stops were manned by Boy Scout troops who helped pour water, hold bikes, and prep food. I'll definitely consider doing it again next year because it's local, cheap, and well done.

I love doing organized rides, but it's always a bit of a bummer to have to stop at lights and stop signs. I guess I'm spoiled by Triathlon and Marathon running where the streets are closed down and traffic is controlled for the athletes. Then again, the Conejo Century was only $40, so it's hard to complain about traffic lights. I'm sure it would be 10x more expensive if they had to shut streets down.

Next Saturday is the San Diego Century

Double Century

I haven't posted anything new in months, but I have been training.  I've got a couple century rides I'm thinking about riding in May (Cruising the Conejo and the San Diego Century), and then maybe a double century (200 miles) towards the end of June.  2009 is my cycling focus year, so most of my events will be cycling events. 

I was doing my long training rides on Saturday, but I just found out this week that all of my son's T-Ball games are going to be on Saturday morning, so I'm going to have to figure out a way to get long rides in on some other day.  If the June double doesn't work out, then I'll try to find a good long ride in the Fall.

I have signed up for the Strawberry Fields Olympic Triathlon in July, but that will probably be my only tri this year.

The new bike!

Wow, it's been almost two months without a post. I guess that's because I haven't done much that's worthy of writing about. But this week I got a new bike and just HAD to post a picture of it.

2008 Felt B2 Pro

Mine has Zipp 404s instead of the 606s, and I had them put black tape on the bars instead of the white tape. When I get a chance, I'll take a picture of mine, but for now - the Felt marketing pic will have to do.

I drove all the way down to San Diego to get it because they had a great closeout sale on all of their remaining 2008 bikes. I rode several including a Scott, Kuota, and a Cervelo. The Felt was definitely the best fit and a great deal so I got it. I can't wait to take it out for a long ride this weekend!

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