Aztec Century, CarboMax Back-Breaker

Today is a good day to pick up a few things and also get in a 100 miler. Prepped up the SOMA Rando bike last night. Added the HB bag and lubed the stretched out 6701 Ultegra chain. Nytro only had one Ultegra chain last week and that went on the Fuji carbon bike. I also rolled up my old back-pack and strapped it to the front of my HB bag. Off I went before 0700 to around 49 degree clear skies. A little nippy with the wind chill so I added a paper vest under my NCCC yellow/white club jersey to compliment the wool arm warmers.

Saw Chuck's wife, Gretchen, cycling on Mission Road. Her head down and all bundled up! Yelled at her, but don't think she heard me. Finally the sun came out as I got near the coast. Several commuters rolling along to what seemed a slight tailwind? Stopped at a red light near Palomar Airport Road and Micki from Revolution bike blasted by on his pseudo-loaded Fargo! I figured I would catch up to him in due order. I pulled to within ten feet on a little climb. Another red light! Of course he ran that one to! Nice example for a bike shop employee. Stopped at Swami's for a whizz and gulp of water.

Picked up Dura Ace instead of Ultegra

Racer with black jersey went by at Surfer Kook's. I pulled him good along the Cardiff Beach and finally passed him before Solana Beach. Said "Hi Tim". It was rando Tim Knowles. Rode with him for a while and we chatted about his new Fargo. I mentioned I was planning on converting my "Trail" route to Brevets and if he would be interested in riding them. "Luv to". Said he would ride them all! Sounds good to me. Still need a dirt bike to lead them along the route. LOL. Tim's daughter is a new pastry chief at a shop near the Del Mar Racetrack. He turned off there to meet up with her and try some samples, I'm sure.

A couple of well fed racers passed me on the way up to Del Mar. Paced up Torrey with a decent climb. Stopped at the top for water. Driving range looked real green with the recent rains. Looks like Tiger will be back here next year for sure now that his back is recovered and he is swinging well again. Golf needs him back for ratings & interest.

Felt good now as I cyclied past UCSD and down Gilman Drive. Rose Canyon Bike Path was all dried out now so no detour like last Saturday's ride. Forgot to check air in tires before I left this morning. Rear was a little low. Thought I might stop at MTB Warehouse on Santa Fe Street, but they weren't open yet. Did the sidewalk cut and was soon cycling down Morena Blvd. Keith mentioned they were doing construction there and BEWARE. A few cones set up in the SB lane. No problem. India Street had some more construction but no traffic jams. No tailwind help through Mission Valley. No traffic either. I soon spun my way up Montezuma Road in the 34T ring. McDonald's had 4 customers!

Ordered a HF Sundae with a side of ice water. Cost $1.69 here vs $1.16 in Bonsall. Laced the ice cream with a Tri-Berry GU Gel. Sat and listened to 2 well-spoken older guys talking about Jay Leno's car collection. Especially his 1955 Roadmaster Buick, which he sleep in during the 60's. Soon I was heading downhill and back through Mission Valley again. No strong headwind this trip! Same on WB Friar's Road. Slight construction slow-down by India Street, but I hopped onto the sidewalk and missed it all.

Took Morena Blvd again and had a slight tailwind all the way. Quite unusual around here. I was cruising at 19 mph in the big ring the whole way. After the loop-e-doop I was quickly back on Santa Fe again. Thought about stopping at Bike Warehouse to top off my tires, but kept rolling. Slight headwind now as I plodded back up the Rose Canyon Bike Path. Met a few UCSD commuters on Gilman and also when I cut off on Scholar Drive through the Campus. No action till I got to Encinitas, where I stopped for a bit at Nytro.

Talked with Joe Morgan about my second Shimano chain. Also needed 2 SRAM 10-Sp Quicklinks for the new chains.He went looking for it in the back. I filled up my bottles and went out to the bike. Later Joe said the bad news was that someone sold my 6701 Ultegra chain. The good new was that he replaced it with a Dura Ace chain! Nice and shiny with full plating on the inner and outer plates! We chatted a bit about a MTB for my dirt rides next year. No Cannondale Demos this year. Dead end. Oh, well. Added 10 psi to the the rear tire and hit the road for the next stop.

Bruce had a full bucket of CarboMax!

Must be a tailwind as I was doing a fast 20 mph fast cruz up the coast. Turned off on Poinsettia Lane and climbed inland. Stopped over at Bruce Tipton's house to pick up some CarboMax maltodextrin mix. He was outside watering the grass. Bruce had a full 5 gallon bucket of the stuff he got from Mike Tull! Can't carry that in my backpack. Decided to put it in smaller bags. Bruce was nice enough to do that and I packed 2 bags into the backpack and headed out for the 3 climbs ahead on the way to finish up. That added about 16 lbs to my back. OUCH! ( I weighed it at home) I finally figured out a way to carry it OK. Get in the drops and let the backpack rest on your back instead of the shoulders! TA-DA! Several randos use a Camelbak on the long rides. Never figured out how they can tolerate that extra weight on their back.

Not too bad as I was making good time now. At each stop light I would rest the overloaded backpack on my seat to take the weight off my shoulders. With the sea breeze, it wasn't long and I was uploading stuff in the garage. Guess I'll have to repackage all that CarboMax and put into the fridge to delay the deterioration?

Good ride today. More rain forecast later in the week on Friday, so my extra two stops took care of the chain pick-up, and also got the dated CarboMax off Bruce's hands. ( He doesn't take that stuff due to sensitive stomach) I'll put the slick Dura-Ace chain on the SOMA tomorrow and give the CarboMax a go too. Any adverse effects and the dumpster diners will be getting a Christmas bonus early!

Sunny skies
Hi: 79     Lo: 49
101 miles

-randorides

"DOUBLE B" Update...

"DOUBLE B" Butt Balm ingredients and final product!

I make up my own chamois creme (As I've posted years ago). I've tried a whole lot of the things out there and they seem to work OK. I found the cost to be prohibitive for the cyclist who rides the longer rides all the time. A good fitting seat and nice pair of shorts/chamois are the key to long life in the saddle. Adding a little creme in there adds a lot to the comfort too.

I tried different formulas over the years. but this seems to work good for me. Individual results will vary and users can add and subtract ingredients as needed:

"DOUBLE B" BUTT BALM:

3  TBL    Lantiseptic (Age old rando secret stuff)
3  TBL    Bag Balm (Cows like it, so do we!)
2  TBL    Udderly Smooth
1  TBL    Equate Thereputic Cream
1  TBL    Blue Goo (This stuff adds that extra "zing", but has been hard to find of late)
1  Tsp    Triple Antibiotic Cream
1  Tsp    1% Hydrocortisone Cream

Mix well with a knife in a large container.
Apply to sit areas on your butt and on your chamois.
Carry some along on your ride in a small plastic container.
Apply as needed on a long ride.
Also good for chapped lips, cuts and rashes!
One batch is around 5 oz.

You can get all this stuff at Wal-Mart for cheap!
They will order in the Lantiseptic for you.

A healthy butt is a happy butt,
-randorides

Coronado Express With The Boyz

Garmin Stats from today's ride

Annual Coronado Express ride today. I rode over to the Oceanside Pier. Started out foggy in San Marcos. Had my single Planet Bike headlamp and the new found Portland Design rear blinkie. Got there way too early so I stopped at DJ's Donut way south on Coast Highway and had a split top with choc frosting. Ugggh. Way to sweet for me. Rolled north and got my pre-start receipt at the Circle K at Sportfisher St. Gals there had some problem with a transient taking stuff so the O'side Police were there too. Filled my bottle with ice and headed over to the Pier. Keith Olsen joined up just before the 0730 start and we were off. Just us two Randos.

Arm warmers and woolie cap were enough as the sun was coming out and it was warming up quick. NCCC rider Phil Auchter joined up at Magee Park. Keith and Phil are both into taxes and accounting, so they had a lot to talk about on our ride to Swami's stop in Encinitas.

Bruce Tipton, Dr. Dan Marks and new rando wannabe Dave Danovsky joined up at Swami's. No hurry. We hung out a bit and soon started south. Dave commutes 3x a week from Clairmont to Carlsbad on his TREK. I met him on his commute and gave him the trusty Rando Card. This would be his longest ride ever! We went straight up through Del Mar. NCCC climber, Tony Long, joined up at the base of Torrey Pines. The group split up on the climb... some took the inside route. Regroup at the top for a handy banana refill stop. Also water in the tanks for us! Very handy for cyclists or joggers.

Ferry pulling into Coronado landing.

No hurry and not the usual "race pace" to catch the 1000 ferry this time. Now they have the optional ferry running from the Convention Centre every hour-on-the-half hour. We arrived at 0930, bought our tickets and sat around watching people walk by. Tony and Dave were both Navy guys, so they chatted about divorce & stuff!  Soon we loaded up and got comfy for the trip across the bay. After a relaxing trip, we hit the bathrooms on Coronado and Bruce found a local place to fill our bottles with ice.

Had a 19 mph pace-line rolling along on the Bikeway. Saw rando Greg Sherman who was riding northward. ( He emailed he was waiting for us at the National City Control and didn't know we were riding the route in reverse around the Bay). Nice quick pace around the salt flats as we regrouped at the Frontage Road. Slight headwind as we plodded around to Harbor Drive. Dan and Bruce split off and headed north on Harbor Drive. The rest of us went straight over to the JIB/Circle K Control on Roosevelt Street.

Dave, Dan, Keith, Bruce, Tony & Kelly on ferry

We hung out for about 20 minutes and had something to eat. I brought along my tuna sandwich and added a dessert of one ice cream sandwich. Bottles filled, we took the back way around Harbor Drive through Barrio Logan. New guy Dave was fired up and leading out into the headwind. Good with us as we followed along behind. Not much traffic through downtown San Diego. After a few stoplights, Dave was still pulling us along good. Past Old Town, Tony took over and upped the pace a bit. Dave soon dropped off the back as his lack of long ride experience and headwind pulling had it's effect. We regrouped on Mission Bay Drive before Dave made his turn for home. He had a good ride today and fit in well with the group.

Now down to Keith, Tony and me, the group stopped at Mission Bay for a whiz-bang. We managed the Rose Creek Bike Trail OK and caught a long light at the Mission Bay Dr. crossing. Tony amped it up on Rose Canyon, where there was still standing water from the recent rains to ride around. We took Scholar Dr. and skirted the SDSU Campus. Tony thought he might stop by Performance Bike in Sorrento Valley to check out the Bib & Shorts deals. We bid farewell to him in Carmel Valley, where he cut across the parking lot. Good ride for him. (His longest ride this year!)

Tony noticed a few cleavage shots today!

Keith and I had a nice pace up the climb through Del Mar and the coast. Encinitas was prepping for a Holiday Parade at 4:00 PM. We did stop at Nytro for a water refill and rode the parade route ahead of Santa Claus. Saw Lisa Nicholson and Elaine Perry riding south at LaCosta Blvd. Keith said they were doing their Sunset Beach 200. We soon picked up a big-fast looking rider on a white bike. He was a little nervous about us tagging along and kept picking up the pace. He didn't like stop signs much either. He finally relented to our pressure and we chatted to Carlsbad, where he turned around. He is a lawyer from Irvine and rides with the police up there. Keith & I rode made a straight dash for the final Circle K control for our finish receipt just after 4:30.

Good ride today with Keith. He is losing weight and riding better. I ended up taking the Sprinter Train back to San Marcos. Not a bad ride today. Got in some speed work and out-of-the-saddle climbing. Felt good the whole day with no tendon soreness.

Partly cloudy
Hi: 87   Lo: 59 (Garmin)
102 miles (official)

-randorides

Post Rain with OFR

Rain ready SOMA. Rides good on the wet stuff with G'skins 28's.

Did a short ride yesterday (Wednesday) on the Madison SS. Had to run a few errands in the rain or not. Wet and rainy all day in San Marcos. Over 1" of rain coming down nice and easy. Used the normal shoe bags, leg-warmers over and tried the Craft rain jacket (found climbing Palomar Mtn. last spring). Covered MTB helmet with the usual neato shower cap. Tail on jacket covered most, but not all of butt and got gritty wet down there. Took a full hour to clean up the bike and re-lube the chain after that messy ride.
-----
Put the fenders on the SOMA and am ready for a earlier start this morning (Thursday). Thought I would hook in a rando ride with the OFR gruppo. Good rain coming down in San Marcos through the early 5-6 AM range. I opted to wear just the shoe covers and the PI blue rain jacket today. Temps are in the mid 60's already.

Light drizzle when I left home on the normal northern loop. Drizzle let up the more I rode westward. Saw blue skies entering Oceanside. Just made it to Magee Park in Carlsbad by 0830. No riders there. Took time to take off my jacket and shower caps. Stored them on the front of the HB bag. No one riding on the coast today. Nice tailwind pushing me in the low 20's mph down the coast. Arrived at Swami's at 0910, normal time. Dr. Dan and Lisa were the only riders there. Blue skies were peeking through now. Dan called Bruce and he said he would be down at 1030!. Couldn't wait that long. Chatted with Dan about Ben Hassell accident earlier in the week. Ben crossed the angled RR tracks and went down. Broke his femur. His wife sent out a nice update on Ben's surgery and rehab in the next few weeks. I'm personally familiar with the femur/hip breakage and the rehab required! Takes a while to heal that up and it's real painful. He'll be back soon!

Some goodies in "Carry Bag": Only 1 #6701 Ultegra chain

Rode around a while to get in some miles and looped around for a stop at Nytro. Measured out my chain and confirmed by thoughts: DONE! Got a price-match deal on 2 Ultegra 6701 chains! Only one in stock. I'll get the other later. Joe also did a trick thing to check by cassette and chain-ring for wear. Fortunately, they both are OK. The chain is not. I get new chains on the Fuji and SOMA 2x per year. Usually around the New Year and mid-summer. They should last longer than 6 months! (Guess they last a year if you don't cycle much!) Also picked up some goodies and asked about the Garmin VIRB Camera. There are some deals on those in the $98-$130 range. Nytro only had the more expensive one called the "Elite" model. Out of my price range, even on SALE!. Filled my bottles and took off the arm warmers. Put all my stuff in another new freebie "utility bag" with drawstrings. Handy.

Warming up some now as I rode with a older guy riding a Bike Friday. Said he was from Minnesota. We talked about his Adventure Cycling Map he had attached to his front HB bag. Said he did lots of those rides.. Northern Tier, Route 66, Pacific Coast Route, etc. He is staying at a Motel 6 in Oceanside and was out for some ride mileage before heading north to Moro Bay tomorrow! Name was Dave. Same age as me! Said most of his trans-con riding buddies are dead.

Left Dave and finished up the route over to San Marcos. Skies cleared up nicely after noontime as the roads dried out. Good day on the road today. No real rain to speak of (not like yesterday) on the early part.

All system GO for the Coronado Express ride on Saturday. Not much interest for this one with all the holiday stuff going on in San Diego.

Overcast with clearing later
Hi: 73     Lo: 62
69 miles



- randorides

Benny Goes Down On RR Crossing!

Ben preps up at Magee Park for the OFR ride to Dana Point

Our NCCC buddy. OFR'er and ex-Jacumba rider Ben Hassell went down while crossing some RR tracks over the weekend. Seems he broke his femur. His wife, Mary Gene, reports he is recovering from surgery and is up in the 9th floor of the old Palomar Hospital in Escondido for rehab. He'll be there 2 weeks and then off to home for recovery.
The OFR Thursday ride gruppo will be having a "Rock Benny" ride on the 18th. We'll do a normal North County ride somewhere and end up meeting up with Ben. There should be a good turn-out for this one.

Ben has been riding a long time in SoCal and will be back on the bike in a few months if he stays away from the Cinnamon Rolls!

-randorides

Climb-O-Rama

Road trash: Cell from Rice Canyon, Blinkie from Coast Hwy.

BIG rain a'coming on Tuesday(forecasted). I felt good on the Friday and Saturday rides, so now to top off the 4 day event with climbing. Hwy. 395, Circle R, Lilac Road, Cooser Canyon, Rice Canyon, Rancho California, Sandia Creek, DeLuz Road, Olive Hill, Sleeping Indian followed up with the Loma Santa Fe, Del Dios, Harmony Grove, San Elijo and anything else that is uphill!. Figured I might as well get hammered good & hurt all over.

Fired up the non-lite SOMA and filled up 2 bottles with some stuff. Ran out of INFINIT-Endurance.. the one that tastes a little salty and has some protein-lite in it. Also added a toasted whole wheat with tuna, cheese in addition to the regular stuff I normally take along plus 2 bananas. No burger stops for me. Left San Marcos and headed northward.

By the time I reached Rainbow, my quads were already tired. I added a Linden cellphone to my road trash daily collection. I wasn't climbing that fast anyway, so I slowed it down a bit and refreshed things. Big North wind blowing into Rainbow from Temecula. SLO-GO. Pushed me back to Fallbrook later. The stop in Bonsall was a sundae calcium blast covered with GU gel. Tailwind push to the coast. Picked up some older racer guy from Fallbrook. He knew the SOB and Pete's group. I guess his new TREK carbon didn't like red lights since he ran every one he could find. NICE! I caught up to him again by volleyball beach. Did a quick take and stopped. Reversed and picked up a new Portland Design Works blinkie by the bridge bump! Things were looking up now. Blinkie has an unusual strobe pulse and the original clone batteries inside.

Stopped by Nytro for a bottle refill and a sit down banana. Joe wasn't there today. Music boys were there at Swami's:Tunes for cash! Getting into the holiday spirit? Legs were back on the climb to Rancho Santa Fe town. Del Dios I felt better now. Lot's of out-of-saddle work today. Right knee got a dose of White Flower. Ankles OK. Paced up the rest of the climbs and stopped at the Twin Oaks 7-Eleven. Same guy works there as at the Mulberry store. Guess the family has both franchises?

Not a bad day on the bike. Started OK... tapered off sore in the middle and felt better after 80 miles and some more climbing. A little cool in the AM. Added a paper vest at the start for the Champagne downhill. Knees are a little sore. Too big a gear?

High overcast most of the day
Hi: 74     Lo: 49
103 miles

-randorides

Bike Path Run-Around, NCCC, SOB's & Rancho Racers

Bike Path Run-Around with NCCC, SOB & Rancho Racers. Whew, I'm cooked!

Ahhh. I see NCCC riders are doing a take-off of a rando route. I figured I would give back-to-back ride days a go. I could put it in cruise and save it up!

Aired up the worn G'skin Hardshell on the Fuji stealth bike and added the front bag for my stuff. Arm warmers is all I needed for the ride in. Thought I could get in some early riding and then swing by the NCCC regular riders for a bit.

After riding around and returning home, I finally got over to Restaurant Row at 0820. Chatted with rando Robert and Tony Long and the other riders. This Greg guy from Fallbrook was measuring chains for stretch. Said mine was long done and would be skipping on the big climbs today. Ya, right.. guess I'll have to cancel the ride and go get a Shimano 6701 chain right away!

Fast pace around soon we were doing some steeper climbs up 11th street in Escondido. Tony and Robert were blasting by me easily. Could be a real long day for me. I did the cut around after Lake Hodges and hooked up with this big guy with aero bars. He was crankin on the flats & downhills. I was right there. We dropped everybody except 3 riders who were long gone. I said "adios" at the San Dieguito Road turn.

Rolled into the SR-56 Bike Path stop at Circle K. HUH? NCCC long riders were there! Said hello, filled my bottles and got out of there. I stopped for free bananas at the Del Sur/Bike Path table. One NCCC racer guy went by. I chased him down and cruised with him. Soon the others were hammering by. I picked up with them to the coast. They stopped for a walk-up regroup at the dirt ramp to El Camino Real. Time for a rolling break for me.

SOB riders from Fallbrook.

Felt good on the Del Mar climb on 101. Ramped it up some and joined a group of 6 riders wearing SOB jerseys. "Seniors On Bikes" These older guys were from Fallbrook and you know what that means. They were hauling the mail. I notice one rider's seat bag was open and told him. Oh, OH! Keys were missing? He and his buddy stopped and checked. I sprinted ahead to the other 4 riders. They didn't ride in a neat group, but were scattered along the road. I chatted a bit with all of them. Said they were going to Fallbrook. Guess I'll draft along. We were cruising the SLR at 23mph with a slight tailwind. At College Ave, these guys turned off to the parking lot. HUH? Either they were taking a break or getting their cars? I rode solo to Bonsall.

Arrived at McDonalds and several Ranchos riders were there. I took a break with my usual. Soon more Ranchos came in. I knew they were going back to Via Rancho Pkwy in So. Escondido the same way I was. These guys would blow me away. I got out of there quick awaiting them storming up from the rear soon.

Ranchos Team is fast!

Two Ranchos  caught me before Lawrence Welk. I recognized Lee Swartz from years past in the NCCC group. She was riding with her husband. We chatted and talked old time on the climb up to Deer Springs and on to Centre Center. I said "thanks for the pull" and turned off at Nutmeg and back to San Marcos. Day done.

Another good day on the bike. Felt only OK with the fast regular NCCC riders early. Warmed up good the NCCC racers on the bike path. SOB's were hitting it good and I was pulling by then. Nice ride with the Ranchos to finish out the ride. Wearing my old nice yellow/red NCCC club jersey from 10 years ago.

Mostly sunny all day
Hi: 88     Lo: 56
88 miles

-randorides