Slacker Century
Posted by Dubbayoo | Filed under Cycling
Sunday I met up with about 30 people from Bikeforums.net for our Slacker Century bike ride. It was 53 miles from Huntington Beach to Oceanside and back so 106 miles total. Here is the actual route online if you want to see it. It was supposed to be a sloooow fun ride but this is Southern California where everybody rides at least 150 miles a week.
I didn’t really hydrate properly or eat enough after the halfway point so I was really dragging toward the end. I finally got a Vitamin Water from a grocery story and wow, that stuff was like crack. I had tons of energy after that. I couldn’t keep up with the fast people but it was still a fun time…good to see the gang again and nice to ride with someone other than myself for a change. The roads n the OC (Orange County for those that don’t watch tv) are much better for cycling so I may head back there once a month for training.
My pics are posted in the gallery. You have to weed thru some earlier pics from a separate trip to Cali Science Center. I didn’t take many during the actual ride because my tongue was dragging most of the way.
Just Checkin In
Posted by Dubbayoo | Filed under Cycling, Phun
Not much to report lately. The saddle sore I got during ALC6 has finally gone away so I can ride again. Thank God! What will suck is that for the next six weeks they will be replacing the elevators in my apt building. That means lugging the bike up/down 8 flights of stairs every time I want to go for a spin. Oh well. The extra cardio will do me some good. I’ll be at the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix taking pics this weekend. I’ve got a social outing with the BF gang the week after that. The piece de resistance will be a weekend of cycling/water skiing/wake boarding/drinking on Lade Mead July 28th. I’m really looking forward to that. I’m already getting threats of video posting should I experience any spectacular flips or falls on the water. I’ll just have to make them look intentional. 
I did get another bike computer this week, a Polar CS400. It’s got heart rate monitor and altimeter, although I’m not too sure about the accuracy of altimeters that use barometric pressure. It apparently thinks there’s a 20 ft difference from my bed to the bathroom.
I got some nutritional supplements from Udo’s Choiceto help bring my cholesterol and blood pressure down. I need to order a cholesterol test kit so I can track the changes from home. Twice a day I make a shake with 12oz water, 1 cup of Quaker Oats uncooked, 2 scoops of protein, 1 tbsp Udo’s Choice Wholesome Fast Food Blend (fiber supplement), 1 tbsp flax oil and some flavoring. It’s not an ice cream smoothie by any stretch but two of those daily knocks out most of my daily nutritional requirements and it’s down in 3 minutes anyway. I’m also taking niacin, red yeast rice and a liver cleansing supplement. The protein powder has vitamins added.
Health Jihad
Posted by Dubbayoo | Filed under Cycling
Hot Damn! I lost 4 lbs during the AIDS/LifeCycle last week. I’m getting a physical soon for life insurance purposes so I’m going to spend the next month really cracking down on the diet and being more consistent with workouts. I needed some event to get me back to that point where I feel guilty for missing workouts and the ride was just what I needed to get me over the hump. I need to really watch my cholesterol, blood pressure, resting heart rate and body fat now.
I’ve already planned two more 100-mile rides this year. I’m doing a fun ride with some BF friends in mid-July. Friday I register for the Amtrak Century in Sept. It’s a 100-miler from Irvine to San Diego, lunch in Oceanside then you take the train back to Irvine. I just might exceed my annual mileage target yet. 
AIDS/LifeCycle Ride Report
Posted by Dubbayoo | Filed under Cycling
AIDS/LifeCycle Ride Report
I recently traveled to San Francisco for the AIDS/LifeCycle Ride. It was a 7-day 545 mile ride to increases awareness and knowledge about HIV/AIDS among participants, their donors and the general public. I was a bit worried about the daily distances since I had not ridden over 50 miles in a day in about 12 years.
For those that don’t want to read the whole thing let me just say that I had the time of my life. I challenged myself physically and mentally in a way that I haven’t since college. I met some great people and learned a lot. AIDS/LifeCycle is something everyone should do at least one. I will definitely be back in the future; possibly even next next year. I’m hoping to rope a friend or three into riding it with me next.
The Final Countdown
Posted by Dubbayoo | Filed under Cycling, Work
Three weeks to go to my greatest physical challenge ever. The AIDS/Lifecycle ride (not too late to donate, btw). I’m cycling 545 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles to raise money for AIDS-related charities and services. It’s gonna be difficult but lots of fun. I’m still trying to finalize my travel arrangements. I’ve already booked an Amtrak ticket up to the ride start. I have to take a bus then a train then another bus but it’s only $54 so it beats a one-way plane fare. I have to be there two days early for registration and orientation so I have a hotel arranged. I wish I could find somebody to split that part but no luck so far. I still need to call a company to get my bike shipped up to the start at the Cow Palace. I’m going to be out $300 before I even get rolling. I haven’t ridden nearly as much as I needed to but I’ll be fine as long as I pace myself and stay hydrated.
There’s a ton of sh*t I have to pack and I still need to buy a sleeping bag since we sleep two to a tent each night. Next week I’m switching cell phones because we have another with extra batteries. I won’t have access to electricity on the route and I’m sure work will have at least one disaster they can’t handle themselves. I’m still up in the air about whether I want to get a Garmin Edge 305. It’s a bike computer that tracks mileage, speed, hear rate, calories burned and has a GPS built in. The problem is it only holds a charge for 12 hours so I’ll need some sort of battery operated charger to go with it.
It’s been a rough couple of weeks at work getting things done before I take off. I’m hoping they won’t have to call me for anything but not counting on it. I have to finish up some disaster recovery documents at work in case anything goes wrong with the website or email. I’ve also got to finish upgrading all the clients to Windows XP since the next version of our CRM software requires that.
On a positive note my sweetheart Belle is now officially an award-winning journalist. She brought home some several pieces of hardware from the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists awards banquet. I am very proud of her.
Take Me Out To The Ballgame
Posted by Dubbayoo | Filed under Phun, Sports
Saturday I had the chance to see my first minor league baseball game. It was the Lake Elsinore Storm versus the Stockton Ports. They’re A league teams. My roommate’s niece’s boyfriend plays Shortstop for Stockton, which is one of the Oakland A’s farm teams so I was looking forward to seeing him play. That didn’t quite pan out but it was still a fun time.
It took almost two hours to make the drive out to Lake Elsinore but I pretty much slept the entire way. We grabbed a quick bite at Subway then hit the stadium, Pete Lehr Field. It was a pretty cozy stadium, seated about 8,000 or so with an absolute monster wall in right field. It was like Fenway park, the right field fence was 3X as high as in field. You really felt close to the action. We had good seats behind the visitors dugout and you had to pay attention to make sure you didn’t get clocked by a foul ball. I did pretty much land on roomie’s niece while jumping for a t-shirt which I didn’t even come close to actually catching.
Justin didn’t play even though he’s normally a starter. I guess he missed a gym session earlier so the coach took him out of the lineup to teach him a lesson. He does need to gain some weight if he’s gonna make the majors anyway. Stockton ended up getting crushed 11-3 or something. They had two homers but that was pretty much all the offensive production. Baseball can be a very slow moving game and by the 5th inning I was really wishing I was drunk or at least buzzing pretty good.
I would really like to see a AAA game somewhere. I wonder what the crowds are like there. I need to figure out where the nearest team is.
I’m a cowboy….on a steel horse I ride
Posted by Dubbayoo | Filed under Cycling, General
okay, it’s really carbon fiber but you get the picture. Here she is. This is the new bike I will be riding on the AIDS/Lifecycle event coming up in June. A lot of the parts are carbon fiber so its much more comfortable than the steel and aluminum bikes I’ve ridden prior. It weighs 15.6 lbs even though I didn’t really build it to be light. I could easily knock another pound off but I’d rather have the extra durability at my size.
Choosing the correct size was difficult as always because I don’t have normal dimensions. For my height I have short legs and a long’ish torso. Because of that I went up a size to get an extra centimeter of top tube length, which is why I don’t seem to have much seatpost showing. If I could have gotten a custom frame I’d have spec’ed a 51cm seat tube and a 54.5cm top tube. I have a custom-made steel alloy frame in my closet but I retired that. Carbon fiber is too expensive to get customized. As it stands this frame has a 53cm seat tube and a 53.5 top tube. That means the reach from the saddle to the handlebars is less so I had to get a longer stem to compensate. Yes, 1 cm is definitely noticeable when you’re on a bike 2-4 hours a day.
100 of my closest friends and I negotiated a group buy rate of $500 for the frame. It is normally produced and sold under various brands. The previous revision of this frame marketed as the Litespeed Pavia sold for $1,200 so we got a great deal. I cherry picked all the parts and looked for deals wherever I could. The final cost was around $2,700 and thats with getting the frame well below retail cost. If I had walked into a shop and said “build me this bike” it would have run near $4,000.
I got in a few rides this weekend and it feels really good. The comfort of well-made carbon fiber will really be advantage when I’m on the bike for 4-5 hours a day. Aluminum tends to be very stiff and transfer all the rode vibration right up your arms and ass. You feel like you’ve been on a jackhammer after a while.
So, here it is. I’ll put more in the gallery later in the week. I’m pretty tired right now.
