The Steve "Crash" Wagner memorial Brevet

about 2 years ago , one of my friends in Pennsylvania passed away. This week, they had a memorial ride for Him. Since I could not get to Pa I decided to dedicate my double metric at the La Wheelmen's Grand Tour to him.
We started by climbing a hill. It wasn't bad but I should have gotten it into my granny - (Yes Steve, I'll pay for it later)we were on PCH for about 4 miles before we turned on to Latigo Canyon Rd. This was fun if you like going from Sea Level to about 2,000 feet in 6 miles. We then did more and more climbing , There was some descending, but not nearly enough. We finally got on to Westlake road, we lost about 1,000 feet in 4 miles This road sacred the Bejesus of my when I did Crusin the Conejo (Steve would insist that I use a Four letter word as an adjective, but it's my ride and I can curse if want to, curse if want to.. You would curse too if it happened to you!)
Where were we? Oh yes, I was really concerned about not making to the first control on time. we started see the double, triple, and Quadruple Century Riders(see, I'm not that insane!) Brent and Mike Miller said Hi. as well as one other person. It sounded like Tony Troccolli, but I was busy reading the cue sheet (did I mention a lot of folks got lost?).
I made to the control with 10 minutes to spare. as My boss would say, (woo & hoo).
I made it down the next big descent on Potrero Road, and passed CSU - Channel Islands. I stopped to a photo of a lettuce field. We then road through Camarillo and came to the second stop in Simi Valley. I stopped and talked to Frank Gutierrez and Enrique (Steve Liked to blab). I made it there with about an hour to spare. Less climbing faster = Jana!.
I did mention the "c" word? well , we started the climbing again. along the way I had to stop at a informational control. They put a sign on a post and you had to write down what it said I took a photo of the first one "Paris" but I didn't think I could get a good exposure of the second one "rando" (gee we must be on a brevet). I was cutting the time short again. I finally got on flat terrain, only to have to deal with the usual gusty headwind coming off the ocean in the afternoon. The road was named Pleasant Valley. Maybe they need to change the name unless you idea of "pleasant" is getting run off the road by giant fruit trucks. We were soon back into Oxnard. The final Control was at a civic center in Port Hueneme . I rode into the parking lot and there was no one there, and I had an hour to spare. It was right next to a park where we had a control at the January brevet so I rode there. no go, I finally rode back by the Civic center and saw folks rolling their bikes out of the door. Yeah!
Coming back, I stopped and took photos of a Cabbage field , the Phantom on display at Point Mugu NAS(The plane's a Fellow native of the Show-me state) and Mugu rock. Since I had the wind at my back, I able to make some good progress.
The last six miles on PCH have some very good size rolling hills. In January, I cramped up and had ride very conservatively> No cramps today. as a matter of fact, I managed to make it up some in middle ring (Yes , Steve I need to stop listening to Rabbit). the only problem was that the Sheriff's were towing illegal parked cars at the beach, so i had to avoid about 6 wreckers.
I saw David Nakai on the way back to City Hall in Malibu. I had talked to him at a registration. I went to get my dinner, and they were Frank and Enrique!. they had made a wrong turn and went to Ojai!
I had thou it would take make 12-13 hour to do, I wound up getting it done in about 11
Speaking of wrong turns, I decided to avid the traffic downtown and come back the 10 and 210, I avoided the traffic, but added a lot more miles as I went back trough Oxnard. Nothing ventured , nothing gained.
total Stats
Miles 126.48
time 11:15
avg speed 12.32
max speed 38.44
climbing 8,153

Up , up , and away!

So I've been planning a popularie route. A popularie is a brevet of less than 200 Kilometers. Usually they're 100Km or 62 miles. since everyone has been asking for route through the San Gabriels, I plotted on going up Lytle Creek Canyon and back down to Riverside. It came up to 62 miles. Fantastic!
I was going to ride it today but there was one catch: The temperature right now is 105 (which is good, since the prediction is for 110) and we've plenty of smog, so the weather forecaster were urging everyone to stay inside after 10.
So I decided to start out at 4:30 and turn around at 8am.
I actually got away at 4:45. Most of the route was usual morning route. I actually got the light at Summit and Cherry to trip Yea! The only was a mean dog on Lytle Creek Road before the Valero. Normally it not a problem, but he managed to jump the fence, which meant I had recreate the dog scene from "American Flyers".
I got to the Valero a little after 6. it was only 82 degree F. I continued up LytLe creek until shortly before the Ranger Station. It was too pretty not to stop.
I took the usual Picture at the Ranger Station. and then Continued on. I almost took a Picture at the Fire Station, but didn't.
The fire station is where most folks think the pavement ends, which is sad, since they miss the best part of the road. But then, it an 8% grade for 3 1/2 miles, so may be the know something I don't. Anyway decide for yourself.

Eventually you do come to end of the pavement. The road actually does go to the Mt Baldy ski lifts, but I had the wrong bike to do that. And it had cooled down to 79 at 8:15 (Ok so i was so close I decided to stretch my time)
Going was fun! I was doing 30-40 mph. I was wondering what To do about the dog. I decided to go down Sierra to summit and thus avoid having to play "puppy polo". going down Baseline, I was think I could another 10 miles. Then I looked at mt computer. 96 degrees at 9am. I think I'll go home. Still beats working!
I always say that if God (or Life) gives you lemons, you should make Lemonade(maybe I should change my name to Pollyanna) . May you be able to turn your sour citrus Fruit into something neat.
FHS

Doodle for sucess

I'm still at bible software stuff. One of the things I've been doing is planning about what I want to do before I attempt it. I've been using a tool to produce Unified Modeling Language diagrams. I'm working with Class and Sequence (yes, I'm a bad girl. I skipped use cases :) ). things are actually going great, although I 'm exceeding my knowledge (like, I could use AJAX to validate that the Books/Chapter/Verse is valid), but progress is being made
But sometimes , you need to plan for the unexpected. I signed up to do the double metric at the La Wheelmen's Grand Tour and realized that It had 700 feet of climbing. I was going to do shinn road after I had talked to My mom and brother, but the temp outside was 91 degrees. and it was 11:15. so I went to Victoria Gardens instead.
So plan all you lkike, but always have plan "b: in mind.

The View from Kilometer 100

I wants really sure what ride i was going to do today. The tri club was going to do Glendora Mountain Road and Glendora Ridge Road to baldy village, but based on experience last week, I decided that would be riding solo by time I got Upland. Plus the bike is doing that next Sunday. The women were doing part of the Santa Ana River Trail , but I had done that last week,,but they were starring late, and It's supposed to be 100 degrees today. I was getting pretty burnt out doing the ride every Saturday.
So I started out at 6am and went to Duncan Canyon and and the 15 (first two pics) before heading to to the coffee shop. I was not sure which ride to to do. I eventually wound up doing the middle option which do the long ride until you get to Mills and Padua, and then go down Padua and follow the short route. it's still 30 miles, but that way you avoid going up mt Baldy road.
I got busy talking and generally having a grand old time. We got back coffee shop last, but who cares(as long as I can have a Funky Monkey)?
The only problem was that I already had 50 miles at that point, and I wanted to go check the bike parking at the Claremont station and get home by noon.
So I compromised. I started out by trying a different route out of the coffee shop to Church st . I got lost by actually found a better route> I then rode out Baseline (again) to San Antonio, before heading down to 9th and pedaling back through Downtown Upland.
I did start at the junction of the PE Trail and Arrow Rte, which so happened to be mile 62.14 and took a pic of the mountains(Hence my title)
So sometimes you do you have to look at tired things in a new prespective

What! more than one post a week?

Yes, it's true.
I've been to do this for a while now, but haven't gotten around (actaully
at 9:07 PM, I just barley got around to it).
since I seem to talk a lot about bikes and God, I decided to my Saturday post on bikes a, and Sunday on God.
If you stumbled through my past post, you may have noticed that I was think about I can use my computer skills for ministry. Well, I've begin sketching out my ideas in UML. at first, I was working on my idea of coming up with a prayer tracker> I even tried journal my prayers to get a better idea on what I wanted to do.
The I started to reread my Tom Sine. And I remembered my old mission statement. I started hearing that Still, small voice.
So I'm looking more at a community bible reading tool. Hopefully this will keep on the narrow path. And I had to laugh at providence. Since I've working on presentation/ web skills, and our computer group needed a new web host, I got an offer for free web hosting. So at ties having faith means thing will fall into place when the time is right.

The Curse of Orange County.

If you're a regular reader, you know that every time I got to Orange County on my bike, some thing bad happens.
Well I did the Santa Ana River Trail with some friends today. I started just by realizing I had left at my Camelbak in the fridge when I went past the Juvenile Prison(If you aren't familiar with this part of Socal, Chino has State Prisons for Adult Men, Adult Women, and Juvenile Males. I have idea where California keeps its "bad Girls".
It was a little too late to turn around, so I kept on going till I get to the green River exit of the 91. The e-mails had the start at 7 or 7:30 I got there at 7 and sure enough, the ride start was 7:30. It turned out for the best since,since another rider had gotten his chain twisted up and I help him get it untangled.
It start as usual for me, since I got dropped by the time we got onto the trail. I was debating catching back on, but I decided that since I was doing about 18-19, to kick back and enjoy myself. Besides , this trail can get Dangerous with the mix of "Racers", walker, and Beach cruisers.
Before I knew I was at Katella avenue. I stopped to chew on some Luna Moons, and took a pic of the Big "A" at angels Stadium.
I kept on riding through/under the "Orange Crush" interchange(intersection of the 5, 57 ,a nd 22 freeway). This place does have some significance, as two years ago, I broke my arm there.
I ran into the Gang right before Pacific Coast Highway. So I wasn't doing as bad As I thought. I stopped to take another break. Tony Trocolli, had circled to ask me if the should wait. I told him that I expected the same thing to happen. he told me where they were planning to have lunch, and we went our separate ways.
The trip was pretty uneventful. I took some pics of the gold course that's in the middle of River bottom and the site of my accident. I also stopped and took some pics of the Honda Center.
I was going to take some more at the very end of the trail. It was always interesting as you have a Golf Course and the Santa Ana River on one side(Nice peaceful scenery) and on the other side is the 91 freeway ( the trail is pretty much on the Shoulder of the Freeway). But when stopped, my sunglasses feel off and broke. Not fun, especially if you wear Bifocals> I made up the hill to the 91 interchange and back to shopping center. I so concerned about the glasses, that I forgot that my hands were still filthy form the chain (Sinta reminded me). I washed my hands, had a good Barbecue sandwich at Backwoods and some good conversation. Tony is also a triathlon coach, so I may be able to get a pair of Rudy Project sunglasses to replace the broken pair.
So, despite the curse striking again, I enjoyed the day. sometimes you just have to learn to relax and enjoy life

Maybe I should stop doing brevets with Bruce...

After all the rain we has here on Friday, I wasn't quite sure if should doing the brevet that's based on one of my permanent routes yesterday.
I started out thinking I would just do "the Grind", the club's normal Saturday ride (called because it starts at It's A Grind Coffee Shop). But then that still , small voice told me to bring along that second jug of Hammer Gel.
Things didn't start out well, as the first thing I saw was the snow on Ontario Peak.
I got to the coffee shop ,and relaxed. I started talking with Mike Berry, our RBA, and Bruce, how had another accident
So Instead of heading out Baseline Road, I went down Eitwanda Ave, The Riders were Bruce, a couple from Pomona, and a Gentleman from San Diego.
The sky started to clear as we headed into Fontana. The Gentleman(sorry, didn't get his name) had a problem with his saddle in the bumpy section near the 10 freeway. I really didn't think he need any help so I pedaled on(he passed me in Riverside. Bruce was already out on in from as usual.
SO I was a bit surprised when Bruce passed me at UCR! He couldn't get His co2 cartridge to and had wait for a slower ride to help him out.
And Mr. San Diego? we ran into him at Canyon Crest. We had a seat bag that attached the attached the eyelets on Seat Stays, and on of these had come loose and wrapped around his cassette. I thought maybe he was going to have to wait for the bike shop in shopping center to open to crack his cassette, but we got it untangled.
The couple from Pomona passed on the climb up Sycamore Canyon, and I got to see a C-17 taking off from March AFB. I helped th couple out with the light to get on Alessandro Blvd. I left at the first control, an AM/PM. I thought that they would catch me pretty quick, but I made to the end of Alessandro, down Gilman Springs, past the Scientology compound(see pic from afar),and onto the road to the Soboba Indian Reservation before the caught me.
I was feeling pretty good when turn of the reservation road to go into Hemet. When I made the turn, I felt my bike start handle strangely(almost went down). I recognized that I had a flat. I fixed it once, or so I thought. Them I noticed that the bead had not seated correctly. so Bent down to fix it, and you guessed it, PLOW! So I dug out my second tube , and got it down correctly. The original had a slow enough leak that left me with no spare tubes 60 miles from home. I went to 7-eleven and had lunch.
I could remember that there was a bike shop in Hemet, but didn't know where it was. I saw a Gentleman riding a Raleigh along the side walk, so I doubled back and asked him. It was across the street.
I went down Warren, and past the Sod Farms on Romona expressway.
One of the big ride in Randonnuering is Called Paris-Brest-Paris, so I had take picture of a "City of Perris" sign. the pic didn;t come too good, but there was a Cargo plane landing at March AFB over my head.
I was going to stop and Ralphs to use the bath rooms, but decided I could make it to the Circle K in Corona. I stopped to take a Pic of a Jacandra tree in blossom along Victoria street.
when I pulled into Circle K., there was two Police cars in the parking lot. My first thought was that they had been robbed, and I would have to find some place to get a receipt. It turns out the officers were discussing another call. The clerk noticed that she had seen a lot cyclist and gave me a receipt without asking.Unfortunately, the bath room was out of order, so I went to a Vons across the freeway.
The rest of the ride was uneventful. Unlike last month, I didn't have to deal with 25mph headwinds going up Hamner and Milliken. and there were cyclist waiting at the coffee shop! Bruce had gone home, but the other three were still there. I sat down and talked with them before heading for home.
So, sometimes You have stop worrying and listen for that still,small voice, I was think about this at church,as the Gospel lesson was Matthew 6:24-26("Aren't you worth more than Birds? ..."

Same week different results

I knew it was going to be really, hot so I started out at 6am.
Id did my usual week day ride up to the Pacific Electric Trail, I noticed that there was sign up, so I took a picture(what a difference and hour makes(I usually go by the sign before the sun is up).
The trail was quiet. I took victore to east (saw Jenn Dorgan going down Etiwanda) and stopped at the new park off banyan to take a photo of the contrails. then went up duncan canyon road. I thought I could make it to Sierra Ave, but only made to the Lytle Creek road turn off. I was an tandem, but wasn't close enough to identify the riders. i saw sliver helmets, so I thought it was Fred and Sylvia(it was actually Tom and Sue, and they saw me, but though I was someone else, too). I started to head back to the coffee shop. I rode with Karen Miranda back to It's A Grind. I poked fun at her husband , Hank, for driving.
I was debating which version of the ride to do. I usually alternate, depending on how I want to talk to. But I took a neat photo of the Angeles National forest sign when we had the May Gray, and I wanted to show what it looked like under "normal" conditions.
Well, my friend(will John McCain sue me for libel?), I picked the wrong day!
In addition to the temps, there's nice wildfire going on Mt Blady("Big Horn Fire")so Ihad to put with asj , in addtion to the heat. I had to take a couple of breaks(I can usually do that section of Baldy road in one sitting). I took some photos of the firefighting equipemnt, and of the sign.
Since no one as was the regroup(except for the highway patrol officer telling they couldn't go to Baldy Village). I wen back 19th Street and Victoria Park Lane. I had a Funky Monkey iced coffee(Yes, I need to find decaf beverages), and joined in the bull session.
You may have noticed that I had two bags on my bike. That beacauseI want to pick my new paier of glasses form my Boss' wife shop in Victoria Gardens, and I need to get some stuff from REI.
while I was at REI, I too a drink from the water fountain. I almost filled my Camelbak and I probably should have(forgot to listen to that Still,small voice), since I ran out of water at Rochester and 6th. I remebered that there is a Mobil at the 10 Freeway and Haven ave. I got some water and a Gatorade.
While I filling my Camelbak, I was thinking what to do with the bottles. I try and reclycle ALL my bottles, but I didn't know how to get them home. Espically henious, since I wound being my church's recycling guru! Talk about being present with a sin!
As if on cue, a man appeared and start rummaging through the trash for bottles. Ha cated surprized when I chased my to give him my Gatorade bottles. I was alos think about how, at REI, I alomst bought some more Accelrade. I had switched to the from Perpetuem since it tended to turn rancid in high temps, and everything said on long ride, you should have protien. Well, guess what, Accelrade has the same problem. So maybe not being able to tote that accelrade back of part of the plan after all.
I mad it bakc, and took a glance the temp reading on my bike. Only 109 (yes I know, they're wildy inaccurate, my home one has 106.7, and the offical weather at the airport is "only 100").
So God does look for us when bit off more than we can chew...

Gentle breezes, my foot!

I decide today I would do my brevet of the month.
It started out fine.
I went down Etiwanda, and across mission. I stopped to take some pics of the Mission Inn. I then had the experience of getting halfway across some railroad tracks when the gates went down . Hence the The train pic.
Did the climb up to Alessandro blvd with no problem. The only issue was a construction project On Alessandro from the 215 to Mission Grove I zoomed down to Victoria and took a couple of pics of the street and a citrus grove .
I then Tired a new route to avoid a bottleneck and the 91 and McKinley. Which worked out great!
The problem start when I turned on Hamner to go North to Rancho. The weather forecast was gentle breezes. What we had was a full fledged Santa Ana! 20 mph sustained winds! To top it it off, Hamner/ Millken is actually a false flat - you gain about 600 feet in 15 miles. Instead of my usual 14 on that stretch, i was down around 8-10.
By The time I got to Rancho, I was pretty pooped! I decided to see if went west (which the route did), I would have better luck. But I thought about the fact the route climaxes(quite literally!) with climb up Lytle Creek Road - prime Santa Ana territory.
so I packed it in. I'm really glad I did, even if it means giving up on some things/
PS. Dale Wright went to meet the Lord on Monday. He was declared brain dead