2012 SMR 27

No one at the Gate.  Plan for today was a PB on the Washout split, so I started easy, also thinking JB might catch me.

Passed'em-Passed'me ratio:  4 to 3.

Wildlife Encounter:  turkeys near the loading dock - see video:

Washout split went OK but I didn't have as much energy as I hoped for.

At the Junction you always see the people who passed you on the way up, and then you see the people you passed coming in too... everybody's always friendly though.  JB came in a few minutes later.

On up Summit Road and an Alameda Whipsnake crosses my path - 21 years of riding The Mountain and that's the first one I've ever seen.  Booger was fast too.  See video:

The Alameda Whipsnake (Masticophis lateralis), aka Striped Racer, is a colubrid snake of the California coast and foothills. It is 90–120 cm long, slender, with two yellowish stripes along its back, set against a dark brown or black back. It is fast-moving, diurnal, and an active forager. It is nonvenomous, but likely to strike if captured.

Conservation status
Apparently Secure (NatureServe)

Not My Photo

Wildlife Encounter:  Alameda Whipsnake. 

At Juniper, there were signs for a Catholic Mass and nature hike going on and the parking lot was full.  I heard a bunch of liturgical mumblings coming from somewhere in the camping area.

Nice ride today, nice weather.

Something happened at the bottom though.  You know those Botts Dots right at the exit?  Well I usually slow way down, approach from the left and try to cut between the dots at an angle to the right; and today just as I was doing that, two guys in racing kit yelled at me - they were going to pass me (on my right) at the bottle neck there by the kiosk.  

So I did change my line but for a good reason at a spot that's posted 5 MPH and I think those two guys were wrong.  They are obviously good riders but that was just dumb.  What say you blog readers?

2012 WNR 13

Not too hot, a little windy.  My plan was to go for a PB on Split 2 - made it, but I never recovered and overall time was pitiable.

First guy passed me after about 3 minutes.





Another guy passed me on the Bump.

Then a guy pulling a jeep passed me, also on The Bump... I got WAY out of his way.

Then this guy unclips right in front of me like he was getting ready to crash... maybe he just had a cramp.

Passed this guy REAL wide.  In this section you can't hear anyone behind you for the wind noise so I just tried to not spook him when I came around.

2012 SMR 26

Today was the C4 Mount Diablo Time Trial.  P-1-2 was the first wave and the first guy was scheduled to start at 8am, so I started at 7:30 hoping to beat him.  Success!

I was tempted to ride up the starting ramp, but the official was lying down on the platform to block me.

Wildlife Encounter:  A lizard playing chicken with me - darted across the road below the Bump

There were a lot of centerline cops set up for the race - cones around several bends, etc.  I think the road was closed to traffic but they let bike riders up even if they weren't part of the race.  One of the judges was cheering me on... right.

My initial plan was to go up but at the Junction I decided to do a Bump de Bump.

Here I am showing some South Gate dudes a clean pair of heels.  Also, watch for doodoo head in Subaru wagon.

http://contour.com/stories/south-gate-dudes

2012 WNR 12

Rode solo.  Got passed by a bunch of people.  Did a couple of one-mile intervals.

This is cool - if you go to the Contour website you can watch the video with a little map that shows where the video is and how fast it's moving... but you know where this is anyway.

2012 SMR 25

Positively chilly this morning.  JB showed up with his Goretex jacket.  We figured it was about 50°F colder than Wednesday night, and that must be a record delta-T for consecutive rides.

Wildlife Encounter:  turkeys below the Gate... lots of really young ones.

Not a lot of riders today; probably lots of regulars at the Death Ride.

After Junction I continued up to Juniper solo - nice photos below.

Next week is the Diablo Hill Climb Time Trial... not sure what I'll be doing for that, but it won't involve taking out a racing license.

2012 WNR11

Heat advisory - and they mean it.

JB and I took it pretty slow.

My heart rate was near 90% of max most of the time, even though I was controlling my breathing pretty well - I guess hot blood needs to get pumped faster.

Passed 'em - Passed me ratio -  4:1  

... but the ones I passed were all stopped on the side of the road.

Check out the helmet cam shadow!

How else can you get cool shots like this?

Wildlife Encounter:  two bunnies and a coyote at the Junction.  Bunnies escaped when the coyote shied away from all the humans there.  I thought... what an interesting survival mechanism; when something wants to eat you, run TOWARD the humans.

Had the helmet cam set for one photo every three seconds - here's a sequence:

Also does video... this is a great toy... watch for product review soon.

This isn't really interesting, just me playing with the settings and different camera angles until I figure it all out.  Helmet Cam facing backwards.

2012 SMR 24

Woke up late, with a headache.  Not a good sign.

Dog got a short walk... she's not happy either... I hate that big-sad-eyes look of disappointment.

Found the rock on the post... JB left without me... probably a good idea since I wouldn't have been good conversation.

Wildlife Encounter:  Turkeys in the shade near Arroyo Ranch... gotta zoom in to see 'em.

Wildlife Encounter:  More turkeys, drinking water from the spill way.

Wildlife Encounter:  Jack rabbit up hill from The Dips.

Wildlife Encounter:  A deer ran across the road below The Bump, about 10 meters in front of me, but hid in the grass before I could take his photo.

Roadkill Report:  Some kind of lizard... kind of dried up or I would've gotten a close-up.

Lots of non-regulars on The Mountain today... probably TdF related.  Lots of people parked for rest stops at every wide spot in the road.

Diablo Hill Climb TT is in two weeks - I'll probably do another photo log... watch for it!

2012 SMR 23

Well while half the country is baking in heat, and significant portions of it are actually on fire... it was nice and cool this morning on The Mountain.

Came upon neighbor Morgan on the way out.  She had been training for the Death Ride but crashed about a month ago and is just back to riding so she won't be ready.

No colleagues today, I put the rock on the post and started up for an easy one.

Hardly anyone else on NGR - maybe still watching the Prologue... I DVR'ed it.

Passed 'em - Passed me ratio:  1:1.

2012 WNR 10

Beautiful evening.  Got a late start; rode solo.

Rummaging around my desk at work, I found a strawberry-banana GU with a "Best By" date of February 2009.  Tasted fine and it wasn't puffed up with bacterial byproduct gases or anything... so I didn't worry.

After like 9 years, I finally figured out how to use the Average and Max speed functions on my Flight Deck, and the Virtual Cadence thing too; it's like a subroutine of functions within the main routine of functions and not always accessible.  I'd always been able to do it with the manual open at my desk, but I'd always forget once I got back on the bike.  Anyway, it's kind of interesting to watch the AVS drop as I climb and getting familiar with what AVS corresponds to what ETs.  As one of my blog readers tells me... I should probably get with the 21st century and buy an iPhone with GPS or a Garmin computer or something so I can log my suffer scores on Strava for the whole world to see.

Roadkill Report:  Squirrel - not QUITE photo worthy, but let's just say... he went quickly.

OK, WTF is up with those blue doodads in all my photos?  They're not always in the same part of the screen, so I don't think it's a lens problem or a sensor problem... is it just condensation?  There was plenty of humidity in my jersey pocket tonight, that's for sure.

Passed-em: Passed-me ratio:  6 to ZERO.  One guy was chasing me from the Gate, but I had an insurmountable gap by Upper Washout.

No surprise that I faded a bit on the last mile, but I also got a real bad stomach ache - couldn't even take a deep breath - all I could think about was that expired GU I ate on the way over... no way it was bad, but what else could it be?  I passed a guy in a John Muir Medical Center jersey - that added to the drama a bit.

Then I passed one more guy near the Ranger House.  I was really hurting by then but I kept pushing, in a hurry to get it over with.  Later at the Junction, I talked to him and told him about my stomach ache and he pulled out a little medicine bottle and some dose cups and said... "I've got something for you if you want it."  I declined without having any idea what it was, then he explained... "It's single malt scotch".  First time I've ever seen that.  He took a swig and I almost asked him for a wee dram to take home for later.  

More blue aberrations.

LIVESTRONG Davis Volunteer

Diablo Daughter and I staffed PowerStop #2 at a fire station next to an airport somewhere west of town.

It's an important event for the health club team but I wasn't confident I could collect the rather hefty minimum sponsorship amount, so I figured it was a good time to do some payback.  Club coaches gave me some promotional car magnets and a banner to display.

The team had 45 riders and collected over $30k in donations so they did a great job.  The whole event was also very successful - over $900 thousand - almost a million dollars for cancer research from one charty bike ride... and they do dozens of these kind of events all over the world.

The on-line sponsorship pages had personal stories of people who were riding and how cancer had affected their lives... some incredibly touching stories.

So we got to the PowerStop at 7:15 and helped set up the tables, bike racks, food trays, etc.  There were four people making PBJ sandwiches non-stop for hours.

The rest stop was mile 10 for the 20-mile ride, and mile 24 for the 65 and 100 mile options.  The first rider rolled in to great fanfare at about 8:15.  Then gradually larger groups, then huge packs of riders. 

The volunteer organizer had plenty of help at the food tables so he asked us to help direct traffic at the entrance to the parking lot - people would ride in and stop, blocking the way for others to get in so we had to cheerfully tell them to get out of the way. 

After a while, I noticed the volunteer bike mechanic was overwhelmed, so I helped him change some flat tires and lube squeaky drivetrain parts.  He told me he didn't get any recompense for all the tubes and stuff that he gave away, but he frequently got thank you cards with checks in the mail afterwards.  One time he had a pizza delivered to his shop with a note of gratitude.  One rider told me he fixed his own flat tire on the road, but wanted me to check that he'd replaced the wheel properly - well he got it in straight and got the brakes reconnected just fine, but I think he had help from King Kong to get his skewer so tight.

By 9:30 the place was completely packed and by 10:00 it was almost empty.  The last rider in had her own CHP escort vehicle!  Then we packed everything up and by 10:30 it was all over.

We went to the finish line and watched the riders come in.  Cancer survivors got a yellow rose when they finished.  There was a big announcer stand and finish line structure to make people feel special.  Very well run event, maybe I'll risk it next year.

2012 SMR 22

Started about a half hour later than usual since it was just me.  Pretty cool temps this morning.

 Followed these two guys out to the Mountain - they weren't going as fast as I wanted to, but I wasn't gonna pass a guy with a Triple Crown Gold jersey.

Staked out a place for a Diablo Spy Cam

Hey, it's Triple Crown Gold guy!