Final Stages of my Tour of California

Stage 4: Mt. Figueroa (a.k.a. MFer)

I think the elevation chart says it all.  In case you can't read the units on that graph... the violet represents > 8 % grade.  And the elevation starts below 300 ft and ascends to a lofty 4,400 ft.  Very nice.  Pete, Jim, Heather, and I headed out together on this one... but Jim and Heather sadly turned back early.  H was still dealing with The Plague and J was "plum wore out" from his 110 mile effort the day before.  That left Pete and I to take on the cattle guards, packed dirt, endlessly twisting ascents and descents together.

The climbing starts with a vengeance (first round of violet).  I pulled the iPhone out of my back pocket and turned on the iTunes... a "Burn" playlist that is heavy on the Green Day and Nickelback.  Thanks to the awesome speakers on that little dude, Pete and I could sing along (if in fact there was breath left to do any singing with).  All the way up the mountain, we chased the music.

At times, we cursed the sun, the wind, the steepness of the grade, our quads.  But, for climbers like us, it was exhilarating to climb for that long that high... a total of 7,000 ft if you count the rollers back to Buellton.  Sheesh!

Hoor-ray!  The Top!

Parting shot: the fields of wildflowers on the descent.  Beautiful.

Stage 5: Los Olivos and back... very easy day.  Took the commuter bag and picked up some wine for The Artiste Tasting Room then swung around to the sandwich shop in Los Olivos for a curry chicken salad sandwich with craisons and apple chunks in the chicken salad.  Yum!

Stage 6:  The Century that wasn't.

It was a good idea.  Capping the week off with a 100 mile ride through wine country.  Establishing a pace we all could handle and just enjoying our last day in the sunshine.  But the weeks toll took.  First Heather and I had to overcome really bad, lingering colds that I still have a "productive" cough from.  And also, Heather, feeling better than she had all week and ignited by Pete's and my report of the epic climbing on Figueroa, took to the hills yesterday.  Meaning, her pedals had a little less power behind them.  For the record, Pete felt like a rockstar!

So, it was that at mile 40 of our out-and-back (still going out), we stood beneath a shade tree squinting at the road ahead and staring longingly at the road behind.  After some deliberation, we turned around, stopped at the only market for miles to refuel with Pepsi (for me) and Gatorade, and cycled back along the butter smooth Foxen Canyon Road.  We decided to take a "short cut" through Cat Canyon (instead of Alisos Rd. back to Los Alamos) on the way back to mix it up.  The guys had ridden it two days ago and said that it was beautiful.  They failed to mention the epic climb up to an oil processing plant on a plateau, leaving one to wonder what exactly was "beautiful" about the ride.  We renamed it Cat2 Canyon.  And we still had Drum (Dumb!) Canyon... a quad-busting climb over unevenly paved roads and a descent that would rattle the bottom bracket out of the frame.

We eventually made it back to Buellton... it was a metric century, and more!  And we felt good at the end, which is always a pleasure.  Thus ends a fun week in the sun, riding bikes.  I felt a little like a kid again (albeit one who gets to drink alcohol!).

Stage 3 of Tour de California: Happy Canyon

And the aptly named road was a perfect metaphor for the ride that Pete and I put together.  Today being a rest day (of sorts), we added in a little wine touring.  Literally.  It would have been sacrilege to not visit some of the local wineries.

We avoided the recent addition to tourist trappiness (The Black Jack winery made famous by the movie Sideways).  Instead utilizing the system of tubes that is the internets (and map my ride) to find a local ride that would take us along Happy Canyon.  I overlaid this with the google maps search of wineries in the Santa Ynez Valley... and Voila!  A perfectly (almost) flat 30-mile ride that took us by a number of wineries that we could decide to visit on site.

1st up- we rode through the town of Los Olivos... a town seemingly built entirely around wine tasting rooms and a single general store.  Because it was before 10 am and it would be more fun to visit the actual wineries... we pushed on, up Baseline Rd. to the Bridlewood Winery.  We smelt and tasted our way through five wines... renewing our palate with some baguette and goat cheese from the grocery.  Try the Pinot Noir for sure... it's the best.

Part of the tasting: keeping the glass.  A little difficult on a bike, but in our slightly "happy" state (we are heavily training, slightly dehydrated lightweights), it made perfect since to wrap the glass in a paper bag and "secure" it in water bottle cage.  But the wine glass was no match for the rough country roads and one good bump sent it flying — and shattering — on the roadside.  Lucky though, al the shattered glass stayed inside the paper bag.  So, we would not have any future unknown cyclist cursing our memory on Happy Canyon Rd.

We rode around to the town of Santa Ynez, CA searching for the second stop on our wine tour: The Artiste Tasting Room.  If you have never been to Santa Ynez... there is one stop light (on the highway) and one four-way stop in this "horse town".  In place of a white line on the road at the stop sign, there is a concrete slab with imbedded horse shoes that spell out "whoa"!

We found the tasting room tucked away down a side street, across the street from a post office straight out of Bonanza.  The tasting room doubles as an art gallery with flair.  The flair being provided by unfinished canvases, two easels set up in a sunny window, oodles of acrylic paints, paintbrushes, smocks, palettes, and a beret for patrons to test their artistic skills.

Each unique wine has its own original art work label from a guild that the winemaker supports.  Right now they are all Impressionists (my favorite), but they are also working on a modern artist label.  Anywho, the tasting included five wines, with the last being a port.  We also got to try a signature wine from the last wine club offering... that's six tastings each, on top of the tasting from the previous winery.  Let's say we wouldn't have blown a 0.08, but we were very "happy", especially Pete, as we rode along to Mission Dr. back to Buellton, CA.

We would have made it to without incident, if Pete hadn't have had a blow out just as we were leaving Solvang.  He being a cyclist for longer than I know how to ride a bike, I figured he could handle the tube change.  As a I watched, he took the tire completely off the wheel, accidently bent the valve stem on the new tube, couldn't get it aired on the tire, realized it had a hole in it, switched to my tube, aired it up, blew it out, then realized that the tube was pushing through a slit on the sidewall.  By this time, we were both laughing hysterically... and since we were only three miles away, rode (or shimmied — Pete) our way back to the hotel.  Something tells me that the normal bicycle wine tours have support vehicles that change flats :-)

Stage 2 of Tour de California: Jalama Beach

Solvang, CA city center... wander if it's a "real" windmill?

I wanted to make today a hard day, a test day for my fitness and also a climbing day (my forte).  We picked Jalama Beach, a famous local ride.  It is an out-and-back ride with a 1000 ft. climb and descent in the middle and a beach destination.  But that barely scratches the surface of our awesome ride.

First there was the wind... a tail wind until we crested the hill and then a head wind on the approach to the beach.  Then, in a cruel twist of shifting winds, a head wind for the climb back off the beach that led my powertap cyclometer at one point to read "400 watts" and "1.5 mph" simultaneously.  But, we were given the gift of a tailwind for the final push back into town.  Sweet.

Second, there was the blue...  Blue skies, blue ocean, vivid blue on Jim's Pacific Power/Blue sky jersey that I followed the entire last 15 miles back into to town because even with the tailwind, it was a trial.

Third, riding partners... Pete did awesome.  Heather was back in sorts thanks to some extra nutrishing and 10 hours of sleep.  Jim, on an "easy" day, hung back with us and was our work horse into the wind and up hills.  He traded off giving Heather and Pete pushes up the big climb.  And, on a particularly tough patch on Highway 101, uphill, into the wind, we formed a push line... Jim with one hand on my butt pushing me with one hand on Pete's butt pushing him.  It was quite the scenario.  :-)

Jim and I nearing the beach.

Made it back in one piece.  Got a great German dinner (Bratwurst and sauerkraut).  Haven't decided what tomorrow's ride will be (it's an easy day), but I bet it will involve some wine this time, and we'll get to see the first of the California produce at the Farmer's Market!

Stage 1 of Tour de California: Winery stop

Finally got out for a ride.  Mucinex sufficiently clogged the holes in my dripping sinuses enough that I could get out on the bike.  Heather and Pete and I made it a little bit of a — ahem — recovery day, me from my day of hacking cough, them from the wicked climbe that Jim took them up on Saturday.  We decided on an out and back, that turned into an out-and-bread-and-cheese-and-back ride.  We would have gotten the wine, but $10 for a tasting (it was a big glass) would have left us a few dollars short, so we just devoured some flatbread and goat herb cheese.

Part of our course followed the time trial of the Tour de California and we got to follow in the direction the pros rode on the way back.  I can't believe those guys take some of those downhill curves in their aerobars.  Dude.

The ride was amazing — ly windy!  But so green, and warm, and DRY! Gorgeous.  This is what I came for.  And despite still recovering from being sick, I felt really strong.

 Yesterday's ride:

Day one of the Solvang bike training trip...

in bed.  And this is not the end of a message from a fortune cookie.  The 14 hour workdays and the see-food-eat-food mentality that I had adopted in my build up to vacation (trying to get too much done and avoid having to go to the grocery store) finally caught up with me.

On the drive down, my head was pounding and I faded in and out of being hot, cold, lethargic, or restless.  I knew I was in for a big one... The cold.  Or as it is known in my current neck of the woods:  The Corvallis Plague.  All day Sunday, my nose ran like a faucet: out the front and down the back of my throat.  I was starting to get those really productive sounding coughs... you know which ones I'm talking about.  My legs felt like lead just getting out of the car.  And I had to stand at the top of the stairs to catch my breath (I would not stoop to taking the elevator in a three-story building).

Heather, Jim, and Pete wanted to go for an afternoon ride... and I just let them.  My place was in bed, watching March Madness, and trying heal enough to make the rest of the training week productive.  Just to show how out of it I was:  I was watching the MU-Marquette game and I fell asleep at half-time!

Well, my Tigers are in the Sweet 16 and I am felling much better today... ride details to follow.

Turning 30!

Friday the 13th... and another milestone birthday falling on a Friday (13th B-day was on Friday, too).  Even though I had lots of work to do, I was determined not to make it just any old day.  So I started off by hoping in the car and heading to my favorite trail for an hour run as the sun rose.  But before I could hop out... I got a raucous "Happy Birthday" from Amber and Eric on the phone.  We took a minute to catch up since it had been awhile since we chatted and then they were off to work in Colorado, and I was off to run in the dewey morning.  It was muddy, almost warm, and vibrant in the forest.

Back at the car, I had three voicemails, two e-cards, a text and  25 facebook messages!  Family and friends sure know how to make a girl feel loved.  I talked to my Mom, got the story of my birthday from my Dad (1st time, surprisingly), caught up with my grandma, called my sister back and tried to answer some of the FB messages (still working on this).  I drove by La Patisserie (local French bakery) and the Green-eep turned into the parking lot of its own volition.  It must have known I desired a blueberry-cream-cheese-flaky-pastry (Cha-yeah!).

Same-o-same-o at work... but I had a good hard swim at lunchtime and managed to leave on-time (gasp).  I had to pick-up the Coldstone Creamery ice cream cupcakes that my parents had reserved for me to mark the occasion (getting a "cake" is a tradition... started the first time I didn't get to see them near my birthday.... about 7 years ago).    Those things are sinful!  I took them over to Heather and Jim's for dessert.  Bill and Erika and Marshall came over to help me devour them and we all went for a walk afterward.  I was so happy.  My birthday was one of my best days in a long time!

And the best was yet to come.... I don't have time to write right now :-)  But, Heather and Erika treated me to a birthday night out in Seattle as we escaped Corvallis.  More later, and pictures.

Sunshine and day dreams come true.

The sun returned to the central valley just in time for a little cross bike action in the forest.  And to take advantage of the extra daylight and the warm sunshine...  I took a little work break in the early evening to put in some hill repeats on my favorite fire roads.  I was in a hurry to hit the trails so I drove over to Heather's house.  A fur-ball named Mo tried to hitch a ride in my clothes bag.

Sadly, Mo had to stay behind... But I took Dean over to Oak Creek Rd.  and immediately started climbing up to Dimple Hill.  The sun dappled and dazzled through the trees and the air grew slightly warmer (or maybe I grew slightly warmer) as I neared the top.  And, the beauty of the iPhone:  My "cycle-burn" playlist streaming out of the speakers at full blast made a beautiful climbing cadence. 

I posed only a moment at the top (to take a pick and not wanting to waste any light) before jamming over to the Lewisburg saddle.  I muddied myself up on the Saddle loop and as I crossed the road to head back up to Dimple, I took a leg-check.  Everything checked out, so I added one more tempo climb, this one on the single-track of Horse Trail.

About to practice my high-speed descending.

I was almost cooked at this point (good thing I had no more climbing to do).   I began the descent down to Oak Creek, a hairy, one-lane steep gravel road with blind turns and a steep drop off on one side.  I rounded a turn and a group of completely clue-less nature-haters had parked their cars (?!) in the middle of the fire road.  My adrenaline hit peak capacity as I skidded and swerved/careened around the open car doors (adding insult to injury... as if just having the car take up the whole road wasn't enough).  I was so keyed up, I added in a climb and descent down Uproute Trail to make the ride the little longer and drain some of that electric energy before working a tad more.

On track.

Running that is.  I hit the track this early evening during a break in the lab.  It is sooo nice to finally have a little daylight savings.  Living near the Mason-Dixon line all my life, I never really noticed what a difference it makes.  Now, the evening light stretches until nearly 7:00!  Though you wouldn't have known it today for all the cloud cover.

Back on track... my first real speed workout of the season (I have been doing distance-y speed with Meghan).  The goal was to run something resembling 5K pace for a few 800s, with very little rest in between.  And I was doing it alone (sad), which made it harder.  I was so proud of myself though for even attempting this workout.  I spent most of the day psyching myself up and then almost psyching myself out.  In the end... not so bad.  Quite good actually.  I managed a convincing 5:40 mile pace for all and even managed to pick it up a little on the last one.  I could have suffered through another at the end, but decided to end on a high note.  Often enough, I leave the track devastated.  I think I am going to reward it with a beer and a burrito during my next break in the lab (it is a long one tonight). 

I also have some props to give.  To Dave and his commitment to "killer" bread.  You might recall that I got a chance to meet Dave at the Portland Trout Triathlon (that I hope to race again summer 2009) last summer:

Anywho,  I was shopping at the Southtown Co-op (Boulder people, don't be jealous that I have a co-op and you don't... you have a Sunflower Market) last night and saw this sign on the bread rack:

"Dave's Killer Breads has temporarily discontinued the Dave's Killer Spelt Bread due to their current spelt flour not performing.  They expect another shipment of spelt flour next week.  So as soon as the new spelt four "performs" we will have their spelt bread back on the shelf."

Props, Dave...  I like commitment like that.  Hope the spelt starts performing!

Up next

Tomorrow morning, The "Slacker Triathletes" (Bill, Erika, Sandra, and Me) — essentially members of the Oregon State Triathlon Team who find it impossible to rise three days a week for a 6 am swim workout, and instead choose to torture ourselves with non-freestyle swimming at a OSU Masters class during the lunch hour instead of eating — will take on several other teams for a continuous, relay-style 30-minute to swim to see who can do the most laps.  Our strategy... repeat 25 yds. with ~one minute rest (while others are swimming).

The swim-a-thon is to raise money for a fund that supports exercise physiology research at OSU that was established by our swim coach, Bill Winkler, from savings he kept from working for OSU for over 50 years! Check out details on the race at Swim4 Health website.   If you would like to help us out by donating to the fund (you can still do so even after the event), you can send money via credit card at: Swim4Health or donate with cash or checks payable to: "OSU Foundation" with the memo "Bill and Judy Winkler Fund".

So, pre-race meal:  a little Green Curry, Full Sail Amber, and some fried ice cream at the Woodsman (a roadside-dive-turned-Thai-American restaurant where you can get anything from cheese burgers to rice noodles).

The start

This morning, I got to thinking — as I waited for the rain to abate (fat chance) before my bike commute and finally giving up on that dream ever coming to fruition and instead dodging raindrops unsuccessfully — and, I had a big "Ohh" moment.  The kind of "ohh" you experience with a vast mix of emotions that invariably ends in a "my god".  Here's what I figure:  I have not been smelling enough roses.

How do I know?  Forgive me Father, because I am about to list my sins:

1) It has been 11 days since I last blogged.

2) It has been 52 hours since my last cup of coffee.

3) It has been 53 hours since my last run.

4) I can't remember the last time I had a belly laugh.

5) I can't even recall my last piece of chocolate. 

6) And the worst sin of all, I have not written a letter to my grandma in a month.

The usual excuses come to mind.  Work.  Play.  Rain.  Time.  Mud.  Cold.  The economy.  To clean.  To dirty.  To ____.  My foot hurts.  My head hurts.  My lips hurt (don't ask).  I ran out of money.  I can't find my brown shoes.

Okay, so more than the usual come to mind.  But the truth is.  Things are starting to get good.  My research is starting to pan out.... and like with anything that is going well, you want to do more of it.  But not to worry... I'm back on track to do some bike racing this week-end (unless of course it is snowing!.. there I go again with the excuses).  And to mix-it up, I am competing in a swim-a-thon for charity (more on this later).