Long day (plus mountain pass info)

After last weekend's century completion (only my second one so far after deciding in Feb '07 to complete one) I thought I'd head out again for the weekend and attempt a good long ride to the coast and back via San Gregorio and Tunitas Creek. Well the ride was going quite well, but as I got closer to finishing Tunitas, I realized that certain body parts (specifically one) were really hurting badly. Let's just say I could sit down any longer and still had a long way to go to get home :|.




The original plan was to turn around and go back up King's Mountain Road, but I wasn't able to sit to ride home and so knew going back up King's, wasn't going to happen ;). I took what I thought was the shortest route home heading back for Foothill Expressway and did the best I could not to sit (tough to do all things considered). Total mileage for the day was only 75, but still came out to about 5170'. Actual ride time was slow as always compared the vast majority of serious riders, but not bad for me. After 6 hours and 17 minutes (not counting about 25 minutes worth of "breaks") I was finally walking back into my place in Sunnyvale. It's funny, the more I do these rides, the better I feel, and yet I still find myself asking [myself] during each long climb "wtf was I thinking?" I'm sure when on the DR in July I'll be saying that during the ascent of the backside of Monitor pass (just as I was doing on last years ;)).

Speaking of Monitor pass, I had been wondering when the various passes in the mountains would be opening or if they had been opened already. Found the following details that show when various passes were closed in the past and when they were opened. As you will see Monitor pass was opened on 4/9/2008. Sweet! Maybe I will go up there next month as originally planned and if I'm lucky, maybe Ebbetts will also be opened as I much more enjoyed that pass ;). And of course, there's always Sonora pass (yet to be opened) when I'm at Pinecrest Lake this coming August for the yearly camping trip.

Sierra Nevada pass closures

Tierra Bella 2008

Been somewhat busy and haven't been posting in a while (obviously). Several rides since the last posting including a ride to the coast that included a late night return home. I got a late start when I decided to head for Page Mill and head for Tunitas Creek via Pescadero and thus didn't get home till about 8:50 PM. The return ride consisted of a ton of bugs smacking me in the face and seriously limited visibility, but I made it. Total mileage was 87 for the day with better than 6k feet I think (I forget, will have to check it out later).

This past weekend on Saturday the 19th was the Tierra Bella. I had been waiting for my opportunity to attempt the century again after last year's monsoon ride. Though the route was changed somewhat with no ride up Metcalf, the change was to go up to Henry Coe (quite climb in itself). Started out around 7:10 AM and rode to the first rest stop with my friend Scott and his dad who were doing the 60 K (our routes were the same for the first 16 miles or so). The pace was a bit slow to the first stop ;), but that was perfectly ok as it was fun to get out and ride with them both once again. They had introduced me to this tour back in 2002.

It was pretty damned cold till I finally hit Thomas Grade (the first step in heading for the top of Henry Coe) and so I was actually quite welcoming the climb for a chance to warm up. Seemed like forever when climbing up that hill, but finally made it along with dozens of other cyclists. As the wind picked up while at the top, it was clear how cold it would be on the way down and what was in store for me eventually when riding back to the start.

The last climb of the day was up to Gilroy Hot Springs, which I remember as being quite short...I must have a short memory because it was anything but short (course I was a bit sore by this point too). The wind was to my back while heading there so not too bad. After finishing the loop and heading north on Franklin in Gilroy, the wind showed just what it could do. I was barely managing 6 MPH. Turning west I could maintain 14 MPH, but the wind was constantly knocking me off balance.

What was really fun, was shortly after crossing highway 101, I reached Santa Teresa once again. As I turned south, with the wind to my back, I started FLYING! Generally speaking I'm pretty slow compared to most riders, but on the flats I can hold my own. I was averaging 28 MPH (without any real effort) and for about a min was holding 30 MPH with just about average power output. It felt great to suddenly get the boost of speed after barely moving not long before that.

As I arrived back at the college, I felt really good to have finally completed another century! Considering I tried 4 centuries last year (not including the Death Ride) and was rained on for 3 of them (one being the Tahoe Sierra with the hail and snow combined with near freezing temps over most of my ride too) I was thrilled to finally get the chance to see if I could repeat my 2nd century. Best of all they still had pie and ice cream at the end ;).

CSS formatter

OK so it's not exactly cycling or hiking, but I'm also a software engineer so I do spend a fair amount of time "tinkering" with new stuff to learn how the hell it all works. Anyway, I was trying to figure out how something on a website was working, but as usual the source (in this case CSS) was quite obfuscated to the point that it was just one big bunched up block!

I had looked in the past, buy couldn't find any resources that I liked, but did a quick search and came across this optimizer/organizer. Quite useful I must say.

Yes it's Friday night and I'm screwing around with this stuff ;). I'm researching for a personal project and had nothing better to do tonight (though I am watching the A's at the moment).