Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

I forgot to add that while I working my way through Foxy's, Mrs. SockMonkey was on an adventure of her own:  on Saturday, the Mrs. rode the Valley Girls Ride in Clovis.  There were a number of routes available, and she and her Girl Friday, Tiffany, completed the 22-mile route.  TIffany attempted the 40-mile ride at the Hungry Buzzard in May, but she's still a relatively new rider, and the Mrs. wanted to help her take on an a local ride that would provide some experience.  The ride turned into a toasty and humid Central Valley autumn day.    Here's a photo of the two at the end of the ride:

Mrs. SockMonkey and her wingperson Tiffanyat the end of the Valley Girls Ride

Mrs. SockMonkey and I are signed up for the Solvang Prelude on November 5.  She's riding the 35 mile route, and I'm up for the metric.

And while we were riding on Saturday, our house experienced a gator infestation:

The cats like to chase lizards, bring them into the house, and then abandon them when they get bored with them.  So we found these two guys sunning themselves on the chair in the bedroom.

What I learned this year



Six Centuries, The Monkey, The Argyle Jersey, and
The Wine We Drink When We Meet The Goal.

I have a friend who will ask, typically after the second beer, "What did we learn today?"  With my goal of five centuries met and exceeded by one last month, it seems an appropriate time for a bit of reflection on what it was all about and what I learned from the experience of riding this year.

First, I learned that I could do it.  When I started riding two years ago, a hundred mile ride seemed far beyond my reach.  Now I know that I can ride a that distance, and the only limiting factor is the amount of climbing.  A century with 4,000’ of climbing is within my range, and I’m thinking that 5,000’ may be doable within a year.  That would bring many centuries (excepting the He-Man/Deathride types) possibilities for me.  That’s pretty cool.

Second, I figured out that eating during a ride is a big damn deal.  I knew that intellectually, but I didn't really know it until the century became the goal.  Having a sandwich (and I don't mean peanut butter and jelly) near the midpoint of a ride is a huge boost.  Add a Diet Coke to that and I'm invincible for at least a few miles.  A good lunch stop is one of the big things that separates an okay ride from a great ride on my list.  It's no coincidence that the Chico Wildflower and the SLOBC Lighthouse are at the top of my list of favorite century rides--they have outstanding lunch stops.  But even small things help a ton.  A bag of Fritos provided a major boost the Spooktacular. 

Third, I learned that the mental aspect of the ride is probably more critical than the physical aspect.  It's certainly a more fickle factor.  My sense is that, if one can ride 60-70 miles with a certain level of climbing, going 100 isn’t hugely different.  But factor in things that can really demoralize, such as wind and heat, not eating or drinking right, or a particularly tough climb, and the game changes enormously.  Knowing (or, perhaps more appropriately, believing) that completing a ride is possible makes completing it physically that much easier.  Doubt increases the challenge immeasurably.

Fourth, I learned that even though I’m a slow rider, the folks that passs me during the first 25 miles are often the same ones that are on the road with me when I finish.  I don’t mean the guys flying down the road in pacelines, or the pairs zipping down the road, or the single riders who clearly know what they’re doing and how to do it fast.  I do mean the folks who are probably recreational weekend riders like I am but who are definitely faster on level ground that I am.  My take on this is that I don’t spend a whole lot of time at the rest stops while others probably tend to socialize and take longer at the stops and take time occasionally to regroup on the side of the road, and it kinda works out evenly at the end.  So, I get passed by the same folks who are going 3-4 mph faster than I am four, five times during the ride.  And we end up at the finish pretty much at the same time.  I know I’m slow, and I know that I’m going to be one of the guys who starts when the course opens and finishes pretty close to when the course closes. I’m good with that, because I know that I’m going to finish (barring mechanical failures or injury), and I know that I’m going to enjoy the challenge that the ride presents rather than a challenge from others.  And I know that, although I'm among the slowest riders on any given course, I’m not the slowest person out there.

It's been a challenging year in a number of ways.  I did complete the five centuries, plus one more for good measure.  I also rode six metrics.  I did have my first DNF at the Giro Bello, where I broke my hand and broke a leg brace.  In separate crashes on my mountain bike, I sprained my wrist and broke another leg brace.  (The mountain bike still scares me silly sometimes.)  This was also my first year in a new and strange job (I was a high school principal, and now I'm an area superintendent for a school district).  But it's been a good riding season, and I'm looking forward to the "off season" rides locally in the cold and wet weather that comes with fall and winter. 

Next year's goal will be to complete at least six centuries, and I'm thinking that at least one of those should present a significant challenge for climbing, (which means, for me, 4000'+ of climbing).  In addition, I'm going to do at least one challenging metric (Levi's King Ridge GranFondo comes to mind).  I do have the thought of ten centuries buzzing around in the back of my head, but we'll have to see what the schedule looks like and how ambitious I am when I take on the first ride of 2012, which should be the Tour de Palm Springs in February.

Allez! Allez! Allez!

The end of the century season: Foxy's Fall Century

On Saturday, October 15, I took on Foxy’s Fall Century, organized by the Davis Bike Club.  This represents my sixth century of the year, and the last century of my riding season this year. 

This is my second Foxy’s.  For some reason, this ride really gets into my head.  Last year, I was concerned about the climbing.  The event website claimed that Foxy’s was a good first century, and that it had “about 2,000 feet” of climbing.  Every other website I checked showed that it was more like 3,000 feet of climbing, which, for me, represented a lot of uphill work.  So last year I was nervous from the outset of the ride.  On the outbound leg, heading toward Fairfield, the wind was terrible and the rolling terrain had worn me down to the point that, by the time I reached the lunch stop, I was completely demoralized.  Wore out.  Hors de combat.  Donedonedone.  Ready to abandon a ride for the only time in my short riding career.  But I felt better after lunch, swore to myself that I wouldn’t wimp out, and managed to limp my way to the finish. 

Fully armed with experience from last year’s ride, this year’s Foxy started out well.  Check-in was quick, the weather was cool and calm, and I rolled out of the starting area at 7:15—just light enough to see with my sunglasses on.  The early miles went quickly, and a light, general tailwind pushed my average speed up into the 17-18 mph range—fast for me.  The first two stops came and went, and then the turnoff for the metric riders appeared and I confidently turned left and headed out on the century route.  The rolling hills that paralleled I-80 were free from wind, and the route turned north toward the lunch stop.  Because I wasn’t struggling to stay alive like I was last year, this year I was able to notice that the route along Wooden Valley Road was really pretty—lots of orchards and vineyards.  The rolling hills did start to wear me down a bit, though, and by the time I got to the lunch stop I was ready for a break. 



Bikes get tired too:  the first rest stop.



One of the things that I remembered from last year was the steep stretch right after the lunch stop.  And it was still there.  The climbing isn’t particularly long or steep, but it is just enough of each to present a challenge after tanking up on food and water.  The road is narrow, with just a sliver of a shoulder, and I made the decision to stop and rest once on the way up so I wouldn’t wobble into traffic.  I kicked myself about five minutes after restarting when I discovered I was about a hundred yards from the summit when I stopped—I could have made the climb all in one shot.

The view from the base of Cardiac Hill.

The route then wound its way through the hills leading up to the dam at Lake Berryessa.  I was really looking forward to getting a diet Coke at the store at Moskowite Corners (I think that’s what it’s called), recalling that I saw a bunch of riders taking a break there last year, but it looked like it was closed, so I pedaled on.  (I think it was actually open, but I didn't see it.)  That was a major downer, for I could have used a fizzy pick-me-up to keep myself rolling physically and mentally. 

I was kinda tired throughout the day (I didn’t get much sleep the night before the ride), and it caught up to me on the road between the Corners and Cardiac Hill, so by the time I started the hill, I had psyched myself out a bit.  The climb was shorter and less challenging than I recalled (the climb immediately after the lunch stop was harder), and, although I did have to stop once for a break, Cardiac turned into a minor denouement.

Walnut orchards and flat, smooth roads:
This is the last ten miles of Foxy's.

From there, the ride was a pretty straightforward pedal through some small rolling hills, the final rest stop, and then flat roads through some orchards.  I hadn’t noticed that the route had been shortened from 106 miles to 95, but that was perfectly fine with me when I discovered it at the final rest stop.  Last year, the final fifteen miles was extraordinarily tough, even though it was dead flat; this year, those same fifteen miles were just some uneventful pedaling.

In the end, Foxy’s was a good ride, and a fitting end to my personal challenge.  The wind wasn’t much of a factor, so my knees felt pretty good at the end.  It did get a bit hot and humid, but I’d ridden through worse this year.  The food at the rest stops was good, the lunch stop was well stocked, SAG was apparent through the ride, and the route was well-marked, challenging, low-traffic, and interesting.  I’ll be back next year.  I’ll get more sleep the night before the ride.  And I'll try not to let Foxy's get into my head again.

One of the coolest things that happened this year was that I caught up with Samantha from Samantha Cycles a couple times during the day.  We crossed paths just after the second rest stop, and had a chance to ride together for a bit before I fell off her pace, and then we talked for a bit at the final rest stop.  Samantha is a smooth and consistent rider, and it was very cool having a chance to talk to her for a bit, for following her preparation for last year's Foxy's was a very, very big help to me in getting ready for Foxy's last year. 

Another fun moment happened when a rider passed me and asked, with a big smile, if I owned a Kia.  I laughed, and said, "no," and then thanked him because I knew what he meant.  I got the idea for Sock Monkey on Wheels from last year's Kia Sorrento ad.  The thought of a sock monkey toy daydreaming about What Might Be just kills me (and so does that stupid image of the sock monkey on the jet ski).

There's just something hysterical about a guy
in a sock monkey outfit riding a jet ski.

Ride summary:

Total time:  8:30
Ride time:  7:15
Average speed: 13.2 mph
Total mileage:   96.3 miles
Climbing:  3316'

Getting ready for Foxy's....

To help keep the two-wheeled mojo rolling through the last century of the season, I rode the Kern Wheelmen's Spooktacular metric on Saturday.  Each of the rides at this event has some significant climbing, and, while the 90-mile route and the two centuries that were available were waaay beyond my capacity, the metric has some (for me) significant climbing.

6:30 am at Lake Ming

The ride started out a bit cold, with patches of fog, but it quickly warmed up and turned into a good day for a ride.  The first twenty miles or so was pretty unremarkable.  It seems as if the road from Lake Ming to Arvin is a route to the local dump, for the roadside was strewn with trash and urban effluvia.  I don't ever recall seeing so many broken plastic lawn chairs as I did on Saturday morning.  But, things cleared up after a while, and the longest climb of the day presented itself.  The climb up White Wolf grade was five miles of 5-6% grade, for a total of approximately 1500 feet of gain.  The climb is not so much hard as a long and consistent uphill.

The road from Arvin, with White Wolf grade looming in the distance.

After reaching the top of the grade and working through some rolling terrain, the route dropped into the lunch stop at Caliente.  This is a fun bit to ride, with intermittent climbing and descent.  Caliente itself is nothing to hoot about, but I'm guessing that it's a destination of sorts for train buffs, for I saw a couple guys taking photos/video of the trains that passed through the valley.

At the lunch stop at Caliente.  Sheldon Cooper would be in heaven.

The final miles of the ride followed the railroad through some fairly unremarkable rural terrain, and then returned to Lake Ming.  The Spooktacular is not a particularly noteworthy ride. I've ridden it the past few years because the climbing is challenging, but the scenery isn't particularly inspiring (although I do like the ten mile out and back to Caliente), and the rest stops aren't particularly good ("lunch" was a crunchy peanut butter and jelly sandwich). The folks manning the stops are friendly and supportive, though, which makes up for things a bit.  If the ride is the same weekend next year, I'll ride the Templeton Wine and Roses Bike Ride instead--challenging and much more scenic.

Total time:  5:45
Ride time:  5:01
Average speed: 12.6 mph
Total mileage:   63.41 miles
Climbing:  3627'

Funny, this cycling stuff.  I would have thought that I would have a better ride time this year than last; I felt good and thought I was making good time and with minimal problems with a headwind.  But my time ended up being ten minutes longer than last year.  I'm riding longer than I have before, but also slower.  Go figure.

Up next:  Foxy's Fall Century.  This will be the final century of the year for me, and it will be a challenge.  Last year, I struggled badly at the Foxy's; the wind killed my knees early, and I was defeated mentally before I was fifty miles into the ride.  I'm hoping that familiarity with the route and ibuprofen should make the ride less of a challenge....

Centuries 4 & 5!

I really do need to do a better job keeping this thing up to date.


On September 10, I completed the Amtrak Century--my fourth century of the year.  This one was a challenge to register for.  The event sold out in about 20 minutes, and there was a technical error when registration first opened, so it was a bit nerve-wracking getting into the event.  But I made it, and was pretty excited about the chance to take on a point-to-point century.  The ride started in Tustin, and I headed out at 6:30, just as it got light enough to see with my sunglasses on.  I didn't really want to ride the train back (it's supposed to be a heck of a party ride), because I wasn't sure that I could complete the ride in time to catch the train back to Irvine, so Mrs. SockMonkey agreed to drop me off at the start and then pick me up at the end, in San Diego. 

It turned out to be a pretty straightforward ride.  Nothing too challenging, except a steady west-southwest wind all day long that provided a persistent and draining challenge for the knees.  I'd heard that the prevailing wind was west-northwest, and had it been so the ride would have been fast and pretty easy.  We had a storm, though, that blew in and messed up that part of the plan.  About an hour after the start of the ride, it rained and thundered for about twenty minutes, making for a pretty sloppy ride up to the first rest stop.

A little liquid sunshine at the first rest stop. 

Except for the rain, things went pretty smoothly.  The scenery was good, generally, and we got to ride through Camp Pendleton, which was interesting.  The ride doesn't have any real challenges beyond some occasional rolling hills, and the one fabled climb on the route, the Torrey Pines climb at about mile 85, was about a mile and a half of 4% grade--so it wasn't really a tough climb except for being a steady piece of work near the end of the ride.  As promised, they had popsicles at the top....

The rock-hard popsicle atop Torrey Pines

About a half mile before the end of the ride, I encountered Mrs. SockMonkey standing on a corner, cheering on the riders as they made their way to the finish.  I found out later that she'd been doing that for a couple hours while she waited for me to finish.  What a girl!

The ride was fun, but I don't know that I'd do it again, for it didn't provide any standout experiences.  I would highly recommend Amtrak as a first century:  the ride was not particularly strenuous, the route was interesting, the rest stops were good, and the event was well-organized.

We capped off the event with a great dinner that night at The Palm Restaurant in San Diego, where one of Mrs. Sock Monkey's favorite students works as a member of the waitstaff.


Total time:  About 10 hours (I forgot to write it down)
Ride time:  8:25
Average speed:  12.0 mph
Total mileage:  101.13 miles
Climbing:  3294'

__________________

Two weeks later,  I took on my fifth century of the year:  The SLOBC Lighthouse Century.  In a sense, this was a fitting ride to meet my original goal of five centuries, for the 2010 Lighthouse was my first-ever century.  That first century was a great day:  I overcame some challenging wind and heat, and knew, at mile 60, that I was absolutely, positively going to finish and become a century rider.  So, from the outset, I knew that I could complete this year's ride and meet my goal for the year.

How close I came to not finishing.

The Lighhouse is a great ride.  The course is relatively easy, very scenic, and extraordinarily well supported.  The folks at SLOBC provide some of the best rest stops I've seen, they have a great lunch stop with sandwiches and pie, and SAG cars were frequently visiible along the route.  The only ride that compares in terms of support is the Chico Wildflower--but that route is much more challenging.  I believe that the Lighthouse is the best first-time century experience possible.  But on to the details of my ride....

The day started a bit cool, and I debated whether or not to wear a long-sleeved shirt under my jersey.  I eventually chose not to, and it was the right choice:  the weather was cool and it was overcast all day, but it never turned cold, although it was pretty foggy/misty and sloppy for the first four hours.  The mist was a problem in two ways:  First, it kept my glasses wet and foggy for most of the morning, and, second, it caused all kinds of junk to float up in the road and turned the morning into a real flattirefest.   I do not recall ever seeing so many riders with flat tires during the first twenty-five miles of a century.  I counted myself lucky, until I caught a staple in my rear tire right before the second rest stop.  A staple.  As in a staple from an office stapler.  Who the hell drops a staple on Highway 1?  I bet there wasn't more than one staple on the road between Malibu and San Francisco.  But I found it.  After changing the tube and making doubly sure that there weren't any more sharp things poking through the tire, I headed into the rest stop for some water and a bite, and to borrow a floor pump from one of the SAG guys.  It turned out that it was a jacked-up pump, and in using it to inflate my tire all the way to 100 pounds, it damaged the valve on the tube and I had to replace the tube again.  Damn.  I had two tubes in my seatbag, and now they were both gone and I still had some 60 miles to ride.  Luckily, I bumped into a rider who helped out with SAG on my club's ride (The Hungry Buzzard Century), and was able to bum a spare tube.  Emboldened by my new reserve, I headed back out onto the route.

I had hoped to reduce my ride time this year, and things looked auspicious.  I had a tailwind while heading north (an oddity, with the prevailing wind generally south in the region), and was cooking along comfortably through the turnaround at the Piedras Blancas lighthouse.  The wind was a bit tough heading south, but not nearly as bad as the headwind while riding north last year, so I figured I had a shot at a good total ride time, even with the two flats I had to repair.  While at the turnaround, Mrs. SockMonkey, who, once again agreed to be my PSU (personal SAG unit), texted me and asked me if I needed some additional tubes.  I said yes, and suggested that she stop by Art's Cyclery in San Luis Obispo, which was near our hotel.  (A plug for Art's, which is a great bike shop that was very good and helpful to the Mrs.  Highly recommended if you're in the area.)  She got the tubes and handed them off to me at the lunch stop at mile 62.  Refueled and restocked with spares, I anticipated a speedy trip to the end.

The lighthouse at Piedras Blancas.  While it may not be the best or most inspiring photo, it does capture effectively the gray tone of the weather.

Then the hand of fate delivered a deft slap:  at mile 93, I had a blowout.  The rear tire was irreparable, and I was done.  Completely frakked.  My guess is that the sidewall was damaged when the flat occurred, and it took fifty or so miles to cause it to fail.  So, adios to 5 centuries completed.  4.93 centuries does not round up to 5 in cycling math.

A bit hard to see, but that's a 2-inch tear in the sidewall of that $60 Armadillo Elite.  A photo of a heartbreak, if ever there was one.

Again, Mrs. SockMonkey to the rescue.  I called her and told her to pick me up, and she volunteered to get me a replacement tire.  A bit over an hour later, I had a new tire on the rear of my bike,  and I hustled into the finish--an hour and five minutes after the course closed, but a finish nonetheless.  I would have bet a beer that I was the last one on the course, but at least seven other riders finished after I did.  It was kind of cool to hear a group of three girls let loose a huge cheer as they reached their car, located in the middle of a near-empty parking lot.  Courage and persistence warrant reward, even if only by one's closest friends.

A very dirty sock monkey at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo.  Barriers overcome, ride completed.

So what I expected to be a relatively easy ride to meet my goal turned into a SAG challenge that I would not have met without the Mrs., who wanted me to finish every bit as much as I did.  Thanks, Mel.  It wouldn't have happened without your help.

Mrs. Sock Monkey:  Lifesaver.

The numbers:

Total time:  11:09 (including three flat tires and waiting for a replacement tire)
Ride time:  7:20
Average speed:  13.7 mph
Total mileage:  100.78 miles
Climbing:  2949'

Coming up:  

• The Kern Wheelmen's Spooktacular (I'm riding the metric)
• Foxy's Fall Century (planning on the full century)
• Solvang Prelude (planning on the metric)