The Rings

Well Ron's ring has been chosen and purchased and now the rings are comfortably sitting side by side in their case waiting the special day on March 30

:)

R & L

Dillon Beach Ride with Team Donate Life

A beautiful day... 100 miles and 8000' of climbing through the coastal mountains and sonoma wine valley... what's not to like?

We stayed at the Flamingo resort - complete with neon pink 100 foot high sign... and met a bunch of the Team Donate Life Race Across America (RAAM) riders for some beautiful pain :). I was 2.5 weeks into being back on the bike after the crash and vacation - with most of my riding on the trainer in the garage so I was a bit apprehensive.

As expected my climbing pace was not up to the pace of the leaders but I felt pretty good. The colors were showing and we had cool but perfect weather for riding. The route took us from Santa Rosa over into Glen Ellen and back ( about 3500 feet of climbing and then on rolling hills to the coast and Dillon Beach / Tamales - where we were greeted with a bit of mist and lunch). At the 50 mile mark my wrist was screaming "ENOUGH" so I joined Rachel in the sag wagon and took pictures.

The big climb of the day was the ironically named Joy Road up to Occidental - A 3 stage monster with sustained climbs totaling about 4.5 miles of 14 - 18% ( I admit to being glad I was in the car following the riders!)

All in all a fantastic ride with a fantastically fit and friendly bunch... Thanks for the invite TDL!
And everyone if you need a cause to get behind consider TDL in their RAAM challenge for this year!

Keep the rubber side down!! ... really:)

Mount Diablo - climb and a half

October 31 - members of the Cycle Folsom Peloton and Performance groups tackled the ascent of Mount Diablo. Starting from Walnut Creek, we warmed up for 5 or 6 miles on the city streets and bike trails and then started up NorthGate. The weather was perfect with almost no wind and a temperatures in the 60's making the hard work of climbing 3900' in 11 or so miles much more comfortable.

After a number of weeks off the bike after the crash in Park City Utah - and the vacation in Canada I had a week or two of spin class and trainer riding in the garage under my belt - but no where near the fitness required to keep up with the rest of the group. But I kept the heart rate under my thresholds and made the top to the encouragement of the group.
The descent down Southgate was fun but a bit painful due to the strained ligaments in my left wrists - even with the brace so I took it easy.

One strange sight was tthe tarantuals on the road... really! Also we got stared down by a coyote.

We then pacelined out on Blackhawk Road for a few miles and returned to climb Southgate to the junction and then down Northgate back to the cars

We re-fueled at Chipotle afterwards with burritoes, tacos etc

All in all a great day, great ride with a great bunch of riders

Going No where - Fast

Well the weather is changing and we are seeing the first rains in Northern California. At the same time the days are getting a lot shorter and we are needing lights on the bike by about 6pm...

So that means it time to move our spinning indoors - at least on week nights etc. We have thus set up our trainers in the garage - side by side and have set up a TV, with computer, DVD player, fans and boom box in order to get our hours and training in.

We are now about 90 days from our current goal - the Vuelta Puerto Rico where we hope to be able to hand with the 18mph peloton over the 3 days, 375 miles and 12,000 ft of climbing. So we are buckling down to some dedicated training of about 150 miles per week which means about 2 hrs a day 5 days a week. Given that much of that will be on the trainer we have gotten some training videos to keep things interesting... currently we are using some Suffer Fest videos from www.thesufferfest.com and some training tours in Italy from Global Ride...

:) cheers

Fall Colors in Canada

Lisa and I just returned from a nice whirlwind tour of Ontario and Quebec, to see Ron's Family and the fall colors.

We flew into Buffalo and drove across the border and then spent a day in Niagara Falls, Ontario. While the falls were lovely as well as the park nearby - the Vegas-style glitz with the casino, wax museums etc were a little hard to stomach. We took some pictures at night and then during the day (unfortunately in the rain)

We then drove through the Niagara-On-The-Lake wine region to Missisauga and had a lovely dinner with Ron's brother Mitch and his wife Jan (thanks guys:) and then headed over to the other side of Toronto to overnight at Ron's Sister's ( thanks Paula:).

We spent the next day in Toronto catching the Terracotta Warriors at the Royal Ontario Museum and then wandering around downtown Toronto. After a nice dinner that Paula made - we drove to Peterborough and spent the next couple of days with Ron's Mom and also visited her cottage north of Peterborough.

Then we made the long drive (10 hrs) to Quebec City - we got stuck in horrible traffic in Montreal and we noted that quite possibly all of Canada's manufacturing capacity is geared to the production of traffic cones!... there were cones everywhere by the thousands!! We did catch a small orchard on Lake ontario and bought some Spartan Apples (If you've not had them - you are missing a wonderful apple:)

We grabbed some wine, cheese, sausage and crackers in Quebec City and had a nice dinner in. The following day was raining but that meant no tourists and we had the run of the very lovely old town as well as the Citadel Fort. We found a farmer's market and purchased some delicious raspberry brandy and some rasberry and maple port...yummmm

We then drove along the Gatineau hills to Ottawa - lovely colors! and spent a nice day and a half in Ottawa. We definitely did not have enough time in Ottawa with old buildings, the museums etc... but we were on a timetable and we drove back to Peterborough for the evening. The next day we headed to Toronto to Ron's sister's for Canadian Thanksgiving dinner (we brought a nice California Fetzer wine :)

We then headed back to Niagara falls for a final night and the next day we drove down the Niagara River to the Whirlpool and then explored the US side of the falls - which we liked a lot better for it park-like setting, close access to the falls and much fewer tourists.

After a nice lunch at cheescake factory, we headed to the airport for the flight home, which involved a late(midnight) arrival and a bit of a wait for the supershuttle...

All in all a great vacation

R & L

Oh! Canada

So Last years traveling adventure was Vienna to Prague... this year its back to Ron's roots with a 10 day trip to Canada.

We start in niagara falls, then up through Toronto to see Ron's Brother and Sister and families. after a short stay its on to Peterborough Ontario and hopefully a day at the cottage out side of Buckhorn.

From there we drive for a few days in Old Quebec City and return to Peterborough via Montreal, Kingston and Ottawa.

We will celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with Ron's Sister and family in Toronto before returning for a last night in Niagara Falls.

All of the recent hurricanes ( one of them named Lisa as it turns out :) and tropical depressions are giving lots of rain to the east coast so we may be in for a soggy holiday. We will also have top se how we can maintain our bike training in gyms and with maybe the odd rental of a bike here and there.

Hope Fall is lovely where you are

Ron and Lisa

Recap of Park City UT Training Camp

Lisa and I went up to Park City UT for an awesome training camp with 20-30 folks associated with Team Donate Life. The camp was supported by Max Testa, Mike Brown and who have some great pro riding credentials.

The camp started with Lactate Threshold testing on Thursday Oct 15. Lisa did a new test as a follow up to her test at Athleticamps in late May. The encouraging results were that Lisa's power had increased by about 20% from 2.8 W/kg to 3.5W/Kg(!) normalized to sea level.. This is impressive and explains why I am always watching her disappear up the hills.

The Fall colors were happening and the roads and hills around Park City were gorgeous which made for some stellar riding and climbing. We had some easier days and then some hard climbs with grades up to 16% ( all at 6500+ feet elevation) Also on tap was a 12 mi time trial and sprint races.

The whole camp is geared toward goal setting and intelligent training based on your current fitness, LT zones and goals and in this some wonderful one on one with Max Testa and Mike Brown was indispensable. We returned on Sunday after a great long weekend. For Many is was also an opportunity to hear more about Race Across America and start training for a place on a RAAM team next summer

Unfortunately for me on day 2 while descending on some wonderful new pavement I discovered that the pavers had raised the road surface 4" but failed to raise the manhole covers with the pavement... I went down hard and fast ( about 35mph) which resulted in a trip to emergency, lots of road rash and a large investment in bandages and antibiotic ointment etc at the local Rite Aid. The bike did OK but needed new DuraAce shifters, New carbon bars, bartape and wheels re-trued.

All is pretty well mended and repaired and I managed to get some nice photos from the Sag vehicles on the remaining days and still participate in the lectures and other activities.

Thanks to Jared Ellison and every one that made this a great Camp!

Best regards

Ron and Lisa

A Couple of New Rides

Now that we are comfortably in our new place in Roseville - we need to discover some new bike routes that are convenient to the new area. With this in mind, we set off on two separate new rides...

Loop Around Sac International Airport...
This route takes us on mostly lightly traveled roads including the E. Levee Road, Garden highway, PowerLine Rd and parts of Elkhorn near the Airport. Baseline Rd is busier but has a decent shoulder for most of the ride.

The ride took us out in to the levee and wetland areas as well as into the rice fields ( who knew Sacramento- with no rain for months and months could grow so much rice!) The area is a great place to watch Great blue Herons, White Herons and egrets as well as Jack rabbits etc etc.

Unfortunately one section of the Garden Highway is horrible for bikes so we will have to adjust the route to not go north of Elverta Rd...now we know what it is like to ride the cobbles in France!

Then we tried a route that takes us from Roseville into Rocklin on Park Drive. the route serves up some nice 1+ mile long climb ( up to 10%) in the counterclockwise direction, and a very steep climb ( less than a mile) with gradients up to 16% int he clockwise direction... see the route profile attached. good preparation for the Vuelta in January in Puerto Rico

Hope you are out riding as well enjoying the cooler weather

Ron and Lisa