2022 Diablo Day 09 - Saturday

Before the ride today, I did a little derailleur tweaking because I've thrown the chain off my crank 4 out of the last 5 rides. Also checked the chain stretch, and I'm at that point where I could justify replacing it but it'll last another couple months anyway. Well success, didn't throw the chain, but I need to do more maintenance pretty soon.

There were 3 or 4 E-bikes today that looked like Nazi motorcycles - big tank kind of things with huge wheels. The kind of bike that a real rider would never consider. There may be an E-bike in my future someday, but it'll be the kind of E-bike that old guys that have been riding forever but don't quite have it anymore get... not one that old guys who never rode in the first place get. Anyway, welcome to Diablo, old guys on Nazi E-bikes.

Back at the bottom, I saw a bunch of motorcycles parked in front of the LDS church and thought they may be staging for a big ride, then I realized it was a funeral. Then I saw these other guys wearing some kind of skirts over their pants and I wondered if that was some cultural thing I haven't seen before, because I like learning about cultural stuff like that.

Update:  Some internet friends have explained to me that these guys are probably Tongans, and that lots of Tongans (20-50%) are Mormons.  Do I have any Tongan blog readers? Introduce yourself in the comments.

2022 Diablo Day 08 - Wednesday

 Forgot the Diablo Bike Cam today... so you get a couple of archival photos.

Just me and JB, I pushed hard a couple times and it felt good, but I didn't last very long... short intervals of standing in medium-size gears, followed by long recovery phases of panting and twiddling in embarrassingly low gears.

Nice weather though - didn't even need arm warmers. 

JB said he emailed Ed Litton about maybe fixing and repainting his old Teesdale... apparently Ed and Tom were old friends so JB thought Ed might be interested... no response... not sure why JB is interested in the restoration after 20 years of storing the broken frame in his garage.

Hey - the portapotties at Junction are gone and the regular restrooms are open!

OK, here's the blast from the past photos because I forgot my bike cam today:

2010 - the year I broke my crank - probably time for new one again by now.

2011 - hospitalized with a staph infection... it was only one night.

2012 - Diablo Brother comes for a visit and a ride.

2013 - JB still has this same jacket, tights, and helmet (they were old even then). 

2014 - the year from hell. Broken pelvis in March, broken ribs in October, had my commute bike stolen in May and had to euthanize my dog in December... got VIP tickets to the AMGEN Diablo stage for my birthday though!

2015 - nothing memorable that I can remember - I think this photo was courtesy of Punkin Jay.

2016 - I won a company prize for this photo - they wanted people to send pictures of themselves being active. I forgot what the prize was, but I remember winning!

2017 - Boy I don't miss being this heavy.

2018 - the year I went all-in on sew-ups.

2019 - Shift to part time work affords more time for riding Diablo. Turned 60 years old and had my best fitness in years. I was even knocking at the Sub-40 Junction door.

2020 - Pandemic riding and social distancing became the norm. I grew the mustache thinking it was something silly to do for a couple weeks until this whole COVID thing blew over. I had the seizure with broken vertebrae in May... pretty scary but recovery wasn't too bad. 

2021 - I had returned to fitness after my seizure last year, then I broke my kneecap in January and all of that good conditioning leaked out. It was about 6 months before I could do Junction. One effective, but not recommended, way of forgetting your broken back is to break your knee.

2022 - I will never get that 2019 fitness back again, but I've got regular riding buddies who keep me challenged and in check.

2022 Diablo Day 07

Just me today. Got a late start because, why not?  Not too cold, but there were gusty winds around some of the switchbacks that were almost scary. 

On the knee front, it seems like the smartest plan is to push hard on Junction rides and not worry about not going any higher. That also gives me an EXCUSE to push hard on Junction rides. The knee hurts the first few times I test it out, but then it gets better, although still unstable. I'm no where near doing a sprint. 

 

2022 Diablo Day 06

GREAT weather today, good riding. My knee feels better so how come I'm not faster?

Diablo Shoutout to Doyle.

At Junction the Ranger told Charlie that if he was going down SGR to watch out for reported speed cars coming up. We waited to see if there would be a big shoot-out or something but the speedsters stopped at a pullout and took selfies.

I threw my chain into the crankarm on the way down - another reminder that I'm overdue for maintenance.  Yeah yeah, one of these days.

2022 Diablo Day 05

60 is the new 40. That's what I wrote on my Strava activity.  I was sure people would understand that doing Junction in 60 minutes now, is as hard as it used to be when I could do 40 minutes. It's also an acknowledgement that those days are probably gone... but it wasn't that long ago that I was putting in some pretty nice times so maybe I'll be doing some respectable rides when the knee heels some more and the fitness comes back and the stars align and they legalize EPO.

Well at least I was faster than JB today.

At Junction there was a lady with a pretty cool Specialized E-Bike.  It looked a lot like a conventional road bike; not enough to fool anyone, but enough that it looked like it would handle like a real bike. She said she wouldn't be able to do Diablo without the help so "brava" to her.

2022 Diablo Day 04

Warmer than I thought it was going to be - I stopped at The Washout to take off my jacket.

Charlie opened up a can-o-whoopass from the gun, and after 10 minutes I was 20 minutes behind.

Met a guy at Junction who said the first time he rode Diablo was 1963!

Charlie told us about another cycling status score you could keep track of, called:  The Eddington Number  I looked it up, it didn't grab me.

Looks like they're starting to build a new house just before The Gate.

Knee felt OK, the endurance was asleep.

My shadow took off his jacket too.