#pedal dammit

[stevestonbike]

Another loop through the park.

71.25 km in 3.25 hours.

It was sunny, but still cool. I had two layers on top, one being a cycling jacket. I actually used sunscreen on my legs and face and back of neck.

It was a good loop.

I saw some people in my old LOUTS club. They were coming back from the north shore. That's where the big hills are. Its too early in the year for me to hit the mountains like that. I could, I just don't want to. A trip to that side takes over 5 hours and I need to build to that still. I will follow my not-quite-a-plan.

I am 34 km short of April last year, but far ahead of the year to date against last year and my 5 year average. One YVR loop will cover that off if I tag on a wee bit.

I have other pressures. My grandson is starting baseball. His mom sent me a video of him hitting a ball pretty far and a good base run. Those happen during my usual ride hours. I would like to see him play. I had to work on my car. It had a silly problem. These things have computers and turbos and no room to work under the hood. There was a lot of swearing.

Overall I am doing fine. Things are on track.

[stevestonbike]

Garmin Venu SQ2

I suspect this thing is being discontinued, but I got one. The Garmin site shows the newer ones as big and round and version 3. I am out of the fitbit ecosystem (Google). The old fitbit lasted 6 years, but die it did.

I like that it is relatively small and not one of those huge round beasts. Well the picture is kinda big.

The instructions for using the Venu are poor to actually bad. It has an amazing range of functions. But accessing them without a full tutorial is not simple. If you get a copy of the manual there are instructions that if you follow precisely, simply do not work. Going to the garmin support page there are waves of complaints of people with the same experience.

The trap is there is a touch screen where you can scroll down to icons for various functions, but those do not let you access the functions. There is another screen for that. If you find that path then the instructions in the manual work. The manual leaves out those steps.

I flailed about the internet until I found that DC Rainmaker guy who did a review (favorable) and explained all this crap.

This is typical of the digital toy world. Manuals should be written and edited by people who have never seen this stuff before and have been frustrated.

Now that this out of the way it is a really good watch. I like that I used it for 30 hours and the battery was still over 90%. Last night I had it do my Pulse Oxygen test while I slept. That is supposed to be a battery killer. Still 88% this morning.

It does sleep monitoring, and everything the fitbit did and more. It will duplicate all the functions of my bike computer too. I will have to think about pairing all the bike sensors and duplicating the stuff. I cannot be the only person with a Garmin Bike computer and a garmin watch. But redundancy may lead to confusion.

I got my wife an Apple Watch for Xmas. It is over double the price, and actually aside from the user interface they have similar capabilities. At least for fitness things that is true. I do not use my thing for music or entertainment.

As I get experience with using it with my workouts I will report.

[stevestonbike]

Another inside job.

I bumped the VO2max setting on my training app to make the workouts just a bit harder. It was just a bit harder.

Once again 17ish km with hard pushes. I got to 97% of max heart rate. That is pretty good for an old man. It is way over 220 minus my age.

The hardest part is actually getting going. I was sitting on the couch and thinking why bother? Then I found myself getting the bike set up and pulling on the spandex. I guess it will happen.

Once I start pedaling it is automatic. In five minutes sweat is pouring off me. My bike is between the washer and my furnace. When it fires up it is almost like a sauna. Out in the real world I like to ride in hot weather. As long as I have water I am content. I had water and just did the thing.

I hit all the early power numbers, but the last few pushes I was fading. that really is the point.

Once my time is freed up I will get outside.

Delayed gratification.

[stevestonbike]

Box Checked.

Did the mountain. 910 ish Meters elevation at the ski lodge. Start right by the water in the bay.

I always feel a bit strange when I start out for that hill. First issue is how much water to take. It is a bit over 90 minutes to get to West Vancouver. Then it is a solid 2 hours from the base of Taylor Way to the top. It was not hot out, and I figured if I could use only one bottle to the lookout on Cypress Road then one more would take me to the top.

I have used 4 by taking three and filling one again in Stanley park. That was a hot day. I have never started this climb and failed to summit. At this point that actually bothers me. The curse of a perfect record.

So two bottles filled with sugary Ice tea with a scoop of Creatine in each. I took my light jacket not because it was cold, but because descending that hill is fast and it can get chilly. Drag on the flapping fabric helps to save the brakes. I could do over 100 kph on my old Tarmac, but this Canyon is not right for that.

When I got to the entrance to Cypress Road, which is at about 200 m elevation, there was the first of several signs. "Road closed to Cyclists due to hazardous road conditions, gravel and construction." What the hell? OK I do not see any barriers. Keep going. I think about my "perfect" record. This is a least a legitimate reason to turn aound. Keep going.

The hill pitches up at the first hair pin. There are four. One near the start. Another at the lookout about half way. The third just before a picnic area. And the last one about 750m elevation, almost there!

I get to the lookout and just finish my first bottle. At least this is working out. I have a sports snack bar. A young rider comes up to me and asks if there is any water available. I tell him that here there is none, and I wish there was. Up the mountain you need to get some at the top. The best is at the ski lodge, snack bars and even a bar bar. See you at the top if the road is intact. He saw the signs too.

There is a steady stream of cars going up, it is just about noon.

I start out again I figure if I see the paving end I will turn around. Every so often a bike comes down the hill.

I have been up this hill many times. Is it 20 years? At least once per year. Doing the Fondo training usually twice. When I was with those clubs at least once often twice. So a couple of dozen times? I kinda remember the landmarks. Under the physical stress the brain does kinda go into idle mode. The muscles are taking all the carbohydrate fuel and don't want to share.

I get to the last hairpin turn. And there is brand new paving here. Oh nice, so smooth. This is a ski hill road and those are usually beat up and rough. Probably why they are doing the work. Well almost there, just one last pitch. Keep going. That young guy passed me a while back I and can see him about a km ahead of me.

I get under my magic power lines. The slope is much less, it feels easy, but you are still climbing. Just ahead some traffic cones. Well if there is gravel I am basically at the top. Oh nice the new paving is all the way to the lodge. The other lane is gravel, and it does not look awful. Keep going. Get to the top. Take a selfie, and finish the second bottle, get a refill.

I feel pretty good. I am tired, but my legs feel OK. Often I have horrible cramps when I stop. None this time. I think it is the Creatine. I rest a bit. I get out my jacket. Time to go down. The gravel was not too bad, but once on the sloped bit it is all paving and good. I keep the speed under 60 kph. It is a fast trip.

I have to cross the city to get back home. Often I am in what I call survival mode after such an effort. Not this time. Over the big bridge and through the park, across the city and home.

105 km in 5:42. I once did the Fondo in 5:47 and it is 16 km farther. Usually not that fast though, but faster than this ride.

Strava says I had a new personal best from the bottom at Taylor way to the start at Cypress Road works yard, and from the lookout to the top. Cool!

I slept hard.

[stevestonbike]

A couple more.

We are just one month out from the big ride. Feeling pressure.

I have done two rides out to YVR this week. Identical conditions, warm, wind strong from the North West. I was 100 seconds faster in the second one. Big Deal? No, I was just lucky with the traffic lights.

As I was waiting at the light that was holding me up a guy came past me. He was roughly my age. Grey hair, older Cervelo bike, and rather ripped legs. I wonder what I look like to other riders? He got across the intersection ahead of me, but was slower climbing the bridge to the airport. I could not pass as it is narrow and the cars there are very aggressive.

As we cleared the bridge I pushed past him and the next two lights were clear. I kept clear of him until I had to turn off on my route, about 2 km later. He went straight and then over the larger bridge into Vancouver. A young person would have smoked us both.

The wind was pretty strong, but I kept a good pace at just under 80% max heart rate. Wind like that is like a hill. It is good practice, though the damn mountain takes a solid hour for me. I really have to do that one soon.

I just cleared 3080 km for the year. At my current rate I will do over 5000km. (99km/week average but after the fondo I always slow down)

My Hume fat scale likes to flatter me. I says my legs are 11% fat, and my torso and arms are 15% fat. Though I still have that belly. I have also gained a couple pounds. My push ups and arm curls are having an effect. My old biceps injury looks a bit less weird.

I am just under 190 lbs all in. Not bad for a old man. It took a few years to get here. I kinda wish I had a reading from years ago to see if this is progress. That doctor says I have to lose weight to drop my BMI. Really?

[stevestonbike]

Another Week.

I got two weekday rides and a decent Saturday ride. All together about 160 km. The weekend ride was 92.5 km in 4.25 hours. The weather was of course of every type but snow. Some kind of weather front was due in and it stirred things up good.

I took it easy-ish as I was going for distance. I stayed on the flats for about half the ride as downtown the sky was black, so not going that way.

Overall I felt fine. We are getting into the granfondo range of distance. My famous fitness factor is 5 and a wee bit which is right for the big ride. Rule of thumb is you can bump 20% on top of you usual distance for "an event".

The ride up Cypress is 105 km and a bit. The main thing there for me is a solid hour of climbing in one continuous shot. It is tough. I will not attempt until the rain stops, and now we have smoke from forest fires again. There is just over one month until the big ride.

[stevestonbike]

So Many things to do.

I did a relatively short ride as I had to be home by 1:00. It was not supposed to rain, but the clouds were dark. Oh and once again the wind was up. I had wanted to head off East for an hour, but I did not want to beat into the wind (25kph wind speed) for that long. So I head into the city which is sheltered with the buildings and trees.

I ended up only 76km of distance. I am far behind July '25, but my built up cushion of klicks is saving me for year to date.

I got wet around the University but once I cleared that part I dried off before I got home. It was cool, but not cold.

After the ride and a shower to clean off the road grime we had some lunch and headed over to see the grand kids.

[stevestonbike]

Weather or not.

My weekday rides are always out to the airport. It is simple and routine. Any variation is a measure of my fitness and the conditions. Yesterday was one of those. I drove home from work and it was clear, sunny, and nicely warm.

I got home, got the bike out, changed into my gear and got out the door. Looking West it was clear blue sky. Off to the South it was getting cloudy, but no problem.

As I got about a kilometer down the road the wind was gusting and I thought I felt a rain drop hit my arm. Looking to my right (south) I saw darker clouds, but I thought that wind gust must have carried the drop. The road was dry. In front (East) the weather clear as was to the North and West.

I kept on. About half of the next 8 km was Northbound so it still looked fine. Yes trouble was behind me.

As I got out the the Airport I saw a line of clouds marching up from the South. I could see rain falling out in the Straight. Oh boy I'm in for it. No fenders, no rain gear. I got out to my turn around I saw that I was going to get wet once I looked back toward my home. Oh well, what happens happens. At least it is not cold.

There is a long stretch beside the runway then a turn South. As I got past the second runway the road was wet. There was no rain falling on me, but the road was soaked. Water sprayed up from my wheels. Spray from passing cars hit me. My legs were getting dirty, but there was no rain falling on me. I was getting wet from below. I cut over to a less busy road and continued. What else could I do? At least it was warm. Being wet and warm is fine, almost pleasant aside from the road grime.

I cut across this funny little path and got within 5 km of home. Then the roads were dry. No sign of rain but for the dark clouds behind and in front. If you don't like the weather wait a bit. I started to dry off.

By the time I pulled up by my house I was dry, there had been no rain here at all. Off to the West was a faint rainbow. The sun came out behind me. Fickle weather.

So another 33 km.

I am behind last July, and I will not make it up. My task is not to make some arbitrary distance overall, but to get ready for the big ride. I need to get up that mountain.