santa cruz mountians challenge
Saturday was the ride. Steeper than the last one, but on a way better course. Most of the roads were very low traffic with excellent views of the valley or the ocean. The folks at Santa Cruz County Cycling Club really know how to organize a ride. The rest stops were perfectly spaced, with water stops at the top of large climbs in between the rest stops. The SAG wagons were plentiful and the food was good. I really liked the salty food. At the last one they didn't have enough salt, I think because they were trying to be more "healthy". But when you are riding for 5-8 hrs, you need salt.
Mark, Naomi, Alex (naomi's brother) and I started off an hour and a half late (as usual). After about 3 miles Mark took off because he wanted to do the full century, not the metric. I'm a pretty slow climber, but Naomi and Alex rode with me for the first 40 miles anyways. Then my knee blew up. It started hurting about 5 miles away from
Jamison Grade, but I keep on until the rest stop just before Jamison. I begged some advil off the SAG wagon and rested for 30 minutes. I tried it. I made it up the first 1.4 miles, then the pain was just aweful and I had to unclip and rest on the side. SAG knew I might have troubles because of my knee and they were right there and I sagged forward to the next stop, 5 miles away. It was really frustrating to sag out not because I was exhausted but because I seemed to be injuring myself.
It wasn't until an hour after taking the advil that it seemed to really kick in. After that, I was able to ride the last 20 miles, though I did short cut some particularly sadistic short walls (whispering pines in scotts valley. There's just no reason to do that in the last 3 miles of a 65 mile ride). The decents were twisty, so my top speed was only 36mph.
I think I have a fscked cleat position. I did a short ride yesterday, and the knee still hurt like hell. I've started iceing and stuff, but I'm going to be really disapointed if this doesn't go away Real Soon Now. Esp since I need to do more running. I am thinking of a professional bike-fitting session. I really don't like trial and error if it involves my knees.
Anyways, Naomi said when my knee is better she'll drive me up to jamison so i can redo it. :)
There's always next year.
On Sunday I took Mark up to American Cyclery in SF. I was interested in the Soma Double Cross bike, which I had seen a week before. While I was there last week, they had a custom 64cm monstrosity built up on the floor. Immediately I was all "this is mark's bike!" (he's too big for almost all frames from the big guys like giant, trek/lemond/klien, etc). So I dragged him up there with the excuse that I wanted to test ride the double cross. He ended up testriding the big bike
.
So now we both have blue bikes.
I'm getting a little undecided on the double cross, they didn't have the test ride built up yet, so I will have to wait till wednesday to ride it. But then, how much can I test ride if my knee won't let me climb at all?
Mark, Naomi, Alex (naomi's brother) and I started off an hour and a half late (as usual). After about 3 miles Mark took off because he wanted to do the full century, not the metric. I'm a pretty slow climber, but Naomi and Alex rode with me for the first 40 miles anyways. Then my knee blew up. It started hurting about 5 miles away from
Jamison Grade, but I keep on until the rest stop just before Jamison. I begged some advil off the SAG wagon and rested for 30 minutes. I tried it. I made it up the first 1.4 miles, then the pain was just aweful and I had to unclip and rest on the side. SAG knew I might have troubles because of my knee and they were right there and I sagged forward to the next stop, 5 miles away. It was really frustrating to sag out not because I was exhausted but because I seemed to be injuring myself.
It wasn't until an hour after taking the advil that it seemed to really kick in. After that, I was able to ride the last 20 miles, though I did short cut some particularly sadistic short walls (whispering pines in scotts valley. There's just no reason to do that in the last 3 miles of a 65 mile ride). The decents were twisty, so my top speed was only 36mph.
I think I have a fscked cleat position. I did a short ride yesterday, and the knee still hurt like hell. I've started iceing and stuff, but I'm going to be really disapointed if this doesn't go away Real Soon Now. Esp since I need to do more running. I am thinking of a professional bike-fitting session. I really don't like trial and error if it involves my knees.
Anyways, Naomi said when my knee is better she'll drive me up to jamison so i can redo it. :)
There's always next year.
On Sunday I took Mark up to American Cyclery in SF. I was interested in the Soma Double Cross bike, which I had seen a week before. While I was there last week, they had a custom 64cm monstrosity built up on the floor. Immediately I was all "this is mark's bike!" (he's too big for almost all frames from the big guys like giant, trek/lemond/klien, etc). So I dragged him up there with the excuse that I wanted to test ride the double cross. He ended up testriding the big bike
.
So now we both have blue bikes.
I'm getting a little undecided on the double cross, they didn't have the test ride built up yet, so I will have to wait till wednesday to ride it. But then, how much can I test ride if my knee won't let me climb at all?