Monday, July 19, 2010

Memorial ride for Glenn Corlew


I lost my father, Glenn Corlew, on Saturday morning. I needed to get tired and turn off my head, and at the same time, remember him. I decided to ride up Mt. Diablo as a memorial. Several of my supportive bikeforums.net friends joined me and my sweet wife for a wonderful ride. Thanks to you all.

Photo by Irene Hightower. I hope she doesn't mind.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

The joy of hill repeats


When Dan (LanceOldStrong on Bikeforums.net) said we'd put a stone on the bumper every time we got to the top of the hill again, I thought he was being funny. But after three I had no idea how many we'd done and was glad for the pebbles.

As part of our assault on the California Triple Crown 1000-miles-worth-of-doubles jersey, we plan to attempt the Knoxville Double. We've got three doubles under our belts, but this one has a lot more climbing. To train we've decided to commit one night a week to pain, with no fun.

Our first effort was hill repeats up Avila Road in Bay Point, a dead end road that runs next to Highway 4 over the Willow Pass. Each .7 mile trip up averages just over 9 percent. We did eight. I tried to keep my heart rate above 90% max on each. During one silly "I'm in the tour" moment I was reading 99.

It sure wasn't fun, but I'm hoping it helps make my next double century a success. Because two weeks after Knoxville is the Bass Lake Powerhouse Double...

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Mt. Hamilton

mirror on Hamilton
LanceOldStrong of Bikeforums.net and I had never ridden up the famed Mt. Hamilton. It's a classic SF Bay Area ride, so we figured we'd better get it done this summer. It was a stellar day, so sunscreen was in order. More is better, too much is just right.

The ride up is about 20 miles, with a couple of short downhill sections in the middle. The whole thing makes for just a bit over 5000 feet of climbing. Since the road was built to haul up huge parts for the Lick Observatory it never gets steeper than about a six percent grade. That makes for a very nice ride indeed. The observatory is old school UC Berkeley architecture. It makes you feel smarter just from walking through it. It's really a beautiful place.
The ride back down is a blast. It isn't as steep or as technical as Diablo, so you can feel almost like you're skiing it without thinking that you might miss a corner any second. The pavement was a delight, especially near the bottom, where it's baby-butt smooth. All in a all it's a very rewarding 40 mile round trip.

We're thinking about doing a future ride as a 100+ mile loop from Livermore, and up the back side. It's supposed to be a bit harder, and it's over 100 miles.

We were wearing our new Northern California gear. Our fans seem to love it.

Sunday, July 04, 2010

New Northern California BikeForums kit


The kits I designed for the gang at the (take a breath) "BikeForums.net Northern California sub forum" finally arrived. With a lot of help from Tricia and daughter Erin I mailed out a bus load of USPS flat rate envelopes filled with jerseys, vests shorts and bibs. I ordered myself a jersey, summer jersey, long sleeve fleece jacket/jersey, bibs and knickers and was releaved when they came that I do indeed actually like the design.

Tricia got shorts and a jersey. I made photos of her after 25 fast miles in 90 degree heat and she's still talking to me.
Champion Systems did the work on the jerseys, and did a nice job. I particularly like their summer jersey, which has mesh bits that keep you cool, but doesn't look like mesh.

The kit is getting a pretty good review in the forums, and I didn't mail anyone the wrong size, so life is good.