9/27/06: The Portola Loop (17.6 Miles)

I was pretty tired after riding out the coast and back over the last two days, so I just took a quick lap around the Portola Loop.

Here are my stats:

1h 4m 58s

17.55 miles

16.7 avg mph

34.0 max mph

129 avg heart rate

166 max heart rate

403 calories

9/18/06: The Portola Loop (17.5 Miles)

I’m feeling a little bit better but still definitely still under the weather. I rode the Portola Loop slowly. Overall, I felt weak, but definitely felt stronger than yesterday. I rode at an average of 15.8 mph.

9/17/06: The Portola Loop w/ Susan (17.5 Miles)

I’m still sick but I really wanted to get on the bike and Susan wanted to ride also so we took it easy around the Portola Loop. I really felt my cold/flu. I just couldn’t ever seem to get any oxygen. The Loop is 17.5 Miles from my house in Palo Alto and we did it at an average mph of 14.2.

9/3/06: Portola Loop Recovery Ride (17.6 Miles)

My legs were pooped but I really wanted to ride so I decided to slowly take a lap around the Portola Loop. I was somewhat encouraged that despite being extremely tired and taking the road very slowly, I still managed to average 15.1 mph. While that is by no means a new personal best, it really shows a lot of progress from early this summer when I could only manage 13.8 mph round the Loop on a good day.

Here are my stats:

1h 9m 57s

17.60 miles

15.1 avg mph

31.6 max mph

367 calories

119 average heart rate

151 max heart rate

9/2/06: Portola Loop w/ Susan (21.8 Miles)

After 3 consecutive days of climbing my legs were toast but my friend Susan asked me to go for a ride with her around the Portola Loop and I couldn’t resist. Susan is a strong rider but she hasn’t ridden much recently and she wanted to take it slow… which I didn’t mind one bit. We went up Alpine, right on Portola and then stayed left on Portola rather than going down Sand Hill. After passing through Woodside, we took Woodside road down to Alameda de las Pulgas and road back into Palo Alto.

Here are my stats:

1h 39m 52s

21.80 miles

13.1 avg mph

35.9 max mph

475 calories

112 avg heart rate

170 max heart rate

8/30/06: Los Trancos & Upper Alpine (28.7 Miles)

I spent the past 3 days learning some of the local steeps and I’ll post on my rides from 8/31 and 9/1 soon.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve started getting a little bit bored of the my usual routes. At the same time, I’ve also decided that I want to build my climbing strength so that I can expand do longer rides with multiple steep sections like the Coastal Loop, which climbs both Old La Honda and Tunitas Creek. After consulting my Krebs Cycle map and Lucas Pereira’s cycling grade research, I decided to try Los Trancos first.

I picked Los Trancos because it had an extremely steep section that hit 15-18% over the last quarter mile. I was a little bit nervous about riding 18% but I figured I could get up anything that was only a quarter mile.

After riding up Alpine and slowly heading out Los Trancos in anticipation of what lay ahead, I was able to get up the steep section but man was it hard! My legs and lungs were burning as I slow reached the stop sign that signals the end of the main climb but I decided to stay right keep going up Los Trancos. However, I was so tired that I actually fell over in the first hairpin turn! A combination of the oddly banked edge, steepness of the turn and my lack of concentration due to exhaustion led to me losing my balance and slowly tipping over into the road. I wasn’t hurt because I was only going about 5 mph at the time but it was definitely a frustrating fall that knocked any remaining wind out of me.

After falling I decided to head back down Los Trancos and explore Alpine Road above Portola. Upper Alpine Road is definitely more challenging and rewarding that the lower section between Junipero Serra and Portola. Its approximately 4 miles long most of which is a light to moderate climbing but it does have a couple of short steep sections that I would guess hit 10%. The ride has much less traffic than the lower section, partial shade and follows a beautiful ravine for much of the ride. Upper Alpine dead ends into a private driveway. I’ve never ridden up the private driveway, but according to Google Maps, it looks like it connects with Old Spanish Trail at the top.

After reaching the top of Alpine Road I turned back around made a left on Portola and followed the Portola Loop back home.

Here are my stats:

28.69 Miles*

2h 10m 28s

13.2 Average Mph*

35.o Max Mph

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*The average mph figure is a little bit low because I road several miles across Palo Alto and back at a very slow pace on legs of Jello in order to visit a friend.  I probably added 3-4 miles and knocked .3 to .4 mph from my average.

Round Up: August 8th through 24th

8/8/06: I rode 28 miles in 2 hours including Old La Honda Road in 30:10.

8/10/06: I was in Tahoe staying at Fallen Leaf Lake. I rode from Stanford Sierra Camp along Fallen Leaf Road to Tahoe Mountain rode with was a short climb of less than 1 mile to a long decent to Lake Tahoe Blvd, which also decended to its intersection with Highway 89. I made a left on 89 through Camp Richardson and then another left back on to Fallen Leaf Road. Instead of heading back into Stanford Sierra Camp, I stayed straight at the firestation and rode up Glen Alpine Road. Glen Alpine is a very steep, narrow and pot hole ridden road that does have some cars traffice. Its only about .75 miles but with the road conditions combined with the altitude make it a challenge. To give an idea of how bad the road was, I actually went slower, squeezing my brakes as hard as I could, going downhill than I did uphill. 19 Miles in 1 hour and 45 minutes.
8/11/06: I had some intention of riding around Lake Tahoe (72 Miles), however, I woke up too late and by the time I got on the road at 8:30am Highway 89 already had enough traffic that I wasn’t comfortable riding a road with little or no bike lane. From Fallen Leaf Road I made a left on Highway 89 and road up to the pass at Emerald Bay. Climbing Emerald Bay is only about a mile, but it is very steep on a very narrow road that has moderate traffic. Furthermore, as the road twists it hugs the side of the mountain on one side, with a steep drop off on the other. There’s barely enought room for cars on the road let alone a bike and being passed by cars was hairy. Add in the altitude and this was a tough climb for me. Any thoughts I had about attempting to do the entire lake were squashed as my lungs and thighs burned climbing up the pass at Emerald Bay. Reaching the top was very satisfying and the views are amazing. Afterwards, I backtracked 89 to Lake Taho Blvd, where I made a right. I made another right and climbed back up Tahoe Mountain Road, which is good climb. I don’t know how long it was but it felt like about 2 miles. The grade was steep enough to get me down into my lowest gear but not enough to really hurt me after climbing up Emerald Bay. Lastly, I made a left back on to Fallen Leaf Road back into Sierra Camp. I road 24 miles in 2 hours.8/13/06: I rode 28 miles in 2 hours including Old La Honda in 29:47.

8/14/06: I rode 41 miles to Sarratoga and back. I was very tired and my legs really burned up the short climbs on Mt. Eden (6.6% grade over .75 miles) and Pierce (7.9% grade over 0.6 miles).

8/17/06: I rode 27 miles out Alameda de las Pulgas, up Woodside, over on Portola and down Alpine.

8/18/06: I rode 28 miles in 2 hours including Old La Honda in 30:06. I was a little bit disappointed that my time up Old La Honda was slower than the 29:47 that I rode on 8/8/06.

8/20/06: I rode 17.5 miles time trialing around the Portola Loop. I set new recent personal best with an average mph of 18.2, my previous best was 17.7mph. I hit the top of Alpine road at 16.2 mph, which was significantly fast than my previous best of 15.6mph, so I knew I was on for a fast time. Admittedly, I did get lucky with all green lights down Sand Hill Road, which probably boosted my time by .1-.2 mph.

8/21/06: I road 28 miles up Edgewood back to Woodside on Canada and then over to Alpine road on Portola.

8/22/06: I road 31 miles including going up Old La Honda with my college roommate. I dont’ know what my time was up Old La Honda but I really struggled up the hill. My legs were soar and my back was absolutely killing me.

8/23/06: I road 7.5 miles in the Marin Headlands with my college roommate. We were planning on doing a longer ride but his girlfriend called and asked him to make some dinner in Fresno. What ever happened to “Rides before Brides?” Anyway, the short ride that we did was amazing. We started at the parking lot on the south bound side of 101 at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge on Conzelman Road. The ride starts out with a 1.75 mile climb up Conzelman Road. The first half mile is the steepest and then if flattens out a bit. Conzelman is beautiful looking out over the Pacific Ocean and Golden Gate Bridge. It also winds past WWII bunkers that are kind of interesting. At some point, I’d like to go back and explore them a bit more. After reaching the top of Conzelman you get a very very steep down hill that definitely requires braking from the drops. A right at the T-Junction, which I think is Field Road, takes you through a misty valley. Make a slight right, basically staying straight, on to Bunker Road. Bunker Road comes to a one way tunnel where you wait your turn to cross under highway 101. The tunnel rarely drys out completely from the rain and mist, so it is very slippery and caution is required. After exiting the tunnel make a right on Sausalito Lateral Road, which crosses back underneath 101 again where it becomes Conzelman and takes you back to the parking lot.

8/24/06: I rode 34 miles out to Highway 92 and back around the Loop.

A Note About My mph on the Portola Loop

One point of clarification about my average mph on the Portola Loop is that I take my final time on Sand Hill Road near the Stanford Shopping Center because I like to cruise home across Stanford’s campus or through downtown Palo Alto as a cool down.  This typically drops my final average mph by 0.2 – 0.4 mph.  So if anyone were to take the time calculate my average mph from my final time and distance it should be a little bit lower than what I am reporting.

8/8/06: The Portola Loop (17.7 mph)

Today I rode the Portola Loop and set a new recent personal best with and average speed of 17.7 mph. I’m really happy with this time because its a huge 0.5 mph jump up from my previous best of 17.2. Also, yesterday my legs felt so weak going up Alpine road and then having climbed up Old La Honda, that I figured today would be a slow lap. Considering the circumstances, I would have been pleased with anything over 16 mph.

One thing that may have helped was eating right yesterday. I had a bowl of Cheerios, a banana, two apricot cliff bars, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a large plate of fettuccine with semi-homemade bolognese sauce. I essentially packed in tons of carbs to restore my muscle glycogen levels with out adding much fat or sugar.

Eating right surely helped but my muscles did feel tired today. Despite feeling tired, I did feel strong, which is the exact opposite of yesterday when my legs felt rested but weak. I worked very hard up Alpine and I knew I was on for a good time when I hit the intersection of Portola with an average speed of 15.5 mph, which was 0.6 mph than my previous best at that point. I pushed hard the rest of the way although I did notice that I wasn’t quite as fast in the descents as normal. I climbed the back of Sand Hill between 11.5 and 13.5 mph. However, there was a lot of traffic crossing 280 and I was forced to come to a complete stop before crossing the freeway, which killed a lot of momentum at 30+ mph. I also got stopped at the light next to SLAC but fortunately I caught a green light at Alameda de las Pulgas.

Here are my ride stats:

17.43 miles

17.7 average mph

36.6 max mph

59:47 ride time

145 average heart rate

170 max heart rate

447 calories burned

8/3/06 The Portola Loop (17.2 mph)

I rode the Portola Loop today. I’m just getting back into shape and this was the 8th consecutive day that I’ve done something physically active. Furthermore, yesterday I rode 37 miles including a climb up Edgewood, which is pretty steep for me right now, so my legs were feeling tired. Nonetheless, I set a recent personal best at 17.2 average mph today, but I felt that I could have ridden faster with a day off. I really pooped out climbing up the backside of Sand Hill. I stood up on the pedals and was riding at about 10-11mph which is a little slow for me. My average mph dropped on the climb from 16.6 to 16.1, which is quite a lot. Also, I got caught really badly by a red light on Sand Hill Road. I was going 32+mph at the time and had to slam on my breaks so hard that I almost went over the handle bars, which meant that I both lost a ton of momentum and was stuck in my heaviest gear when the light changed back to green. I think with a little more rest and a little more luck I could have pushed my average mph up a bit.

Here are my stats:

• 17.59 miles
• 17.2 average mph
• 42.0 max mph
• 146 average heart rate
• 1h 3min ride time