- asking someone what time it is (my watch doesn't do metric time)
- asking someone how much I owe them (in Euros or dollars!)
- asking someone if they'd like to eat or drink something with me (I'd better make some friends there quick!)
- asking where something is (as long as they only tell me it's here or down there, I'm cool; any other response and I'm screwed)
- telling someone I don't understand (I foresee using this a lot)
- telling someone I speak a little French (technically true) or a lot of English
- telling someone I'm going to have dinner at their house tomorrow night (again, I will need to make some friends)
Sunday, May 6, 2012
French study update
I've been doing my French study for about 3 weeks, and I'm just about ready for our trip. Well, actually, I'm ready for our trip if the only things I need to use French for are the following:
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Bike upgrade
I bought some new tires for my bike last week, and finally got them on my bike yesterday. I replaced a set of Continental Contact tires 700x37 with a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Racer 700x35 tires. These new tires have a really thick thorn resistant layer built in, so I removed the thorn-resistant tubes and went with standard tubes.
I got them mounted yesterday (after one tube got ruined after it was pinched between the tire and the wheel) and went out for a short ride last night. I was really happy with them. I checked them out on the scale and they actually shaved 1.1 lbs. off each wheel, and that lower weight, combined with less rolling resistance let me go about an extra mile per hour at least.
I am pretty happy with this upgrade. Not only is my bike faster and more fun to ride, it gives me hope that on a true lightweight bike I would really be able to go.
I got them mounted yesterday (after one tube got ruined after it was pinched between the tire and the wheel) and went out for a short ride last night. I was really happy with them. I checked them out on the scale and they actually shaved 1.1 lbs. off each wheel, and that lower weight, combined with less rolling resistance let me go about an extra mile per hour at least.
I am pretty happy with this upgrade. Not only is my bike faster and more fun to ride, it gives me hope that on a true lightweight bike I would really be able to go.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Bike MS Day 2 Report
I guess I never gave a rundown of day 2 of the Bike MS, so I suppose I'll do it now. Basically, it was a pretty low key day, just 50 miles, not super hilly, and just a good fun ride. The weather was considerably nicer the second day, although it started a bit cold and cloudy, it got much nicer as the day went on.
I think a lot of the day 1 riders chose to sit out day 2, so it was a much smaller crowd on the start line on Sunday than it was on Saturday. It was also a pretty relaxed send off, as the organizers pretty much said "Go" while a lot of riders weren't even at the start line, but I don't think anyone was too upset about it. I certainly wasn't, and took a few extra minutes getting ready before I rolled out.
The course was MUCH better marked the second day, I suppose because they weren't playing it by ear so much. The first day I spent a lot of time wondering where I was, but this was not a problem on day 2. We rode north out of Cottonwood, and did some climbing at the beginning, but then turned east and rode down into Oak Creek Canyon. After hitting the bottom of the canyon (it's pretty, but I'm not sure it's a canyon!), we did some moderate climbing for a while until we got to the turn off for the 50 milers.
I fueled up there and turned north again. It turns out this was a section of road that I'd been on the previous day, but this time in clear weather and going the other direction. We climbed for about 5 miles, then the road turned down and we flew down about another 5 miles or so. These were the longest descents of the day, and I knew that I would have to climb them later, so while I was having fun going down, I kind of worried about going back up.
After a bit of additional climbing, we hit the third rest stop and the turn around for the 50 mile route. I grabbed some food, used the Honey Bucket (as we call it in Seattle) and got back on the road. I'd met a woman earlier who was about my speed, so we rode along together for a while chatting, but after we hit the hills she left me behind as I hauled the Long Haul Trucker slowly up the inclines.
I was really pleased that I was really handling the hills well, so I guess my training must have paid off. In addition, while I was a bit sore at the beginning of the ride, I was nowhere near as bad as I was after day 1 of my last Bike MS in 2009. I guess I'm getting a bit more fit.
After a few more miles, we came back to the second rest stop where we'd turned north for the long route. I loaded up on Whoppers (hooray, Whoppers!), topped off my bottles and set out. Not long after this we hit the steepest climb of day 2, and while it was pretty steep it was not very long. When we crested that hill, we came out onto a long flat stretch where you could really see quite a ways. It looked a bit like this:
I think a lot of the day 1 riders chose to sit out day 2, so it was a much smaller crowd on the start line on Sunday than it was on Saturday. It was also a pretty relaxed send off, as the organizers pretty much said "Go" while a lot of riders weren't even at the start line, but I don't think anyone was too upset about it. I certainly wasn't, and took a few extra minutes getting ready before I rolled out.
The course was MUCH better marked the second day, I suppose because they weren't playing it by ear so much. The first day I spent a lot of time wondering where I was, but this was not a problem on day 2. We rode north out of Cottonwood, and did some climbing at the beginning, but then turned east and rode down into Oak Creek Canyon. After hitting the bottom of the canyon (it's pretty, but I'm not sure it's a canyon!), we did some moderate climbing for a while until we got to the turn off for the 50 milers.
I fueled up there and turned north again. It turns out this was a section of road that I'd been on the previous day, but this time in clear weather and going the other direction. We climbed for about 5 miles, then the road turned down and we flew down about another 5 miles or so. These were the longest descents of the day, and I knew that I would have to climb them later, so while I was having fun going down, I kind of worried about going back up.
After a bit of additional climbing, we hit the third rest stop and the turn around for the 50 mile route. I grabbed some food, used the Honey Bucket (as we call it in Seattle) and got back on the road. I'd met a woman earlier who was about my speed, so we rode along together for a while chatting, but after we hit the hills she left me behind as I hauled the Long Haul Trucker slowly up the inclines.
I was really pleased that I was really handling the hills well, so I guess my training must have paid off. In addition, while I was a bit sore at the beginning of the ride, I was nowhere near as bad as I was after day 1 of my last Bike MS in 2009. I guess I'm getting a bit more fit.
After a few more miles, we came back to the second rest stop where we'd turned north for the long route. I loaded up on Whoppers (hooray, Whoppers!), topped off my bottles and set out. Not long after this we hit the steepest climb of day 2, and while it was pretty steep it was not very long. When we crested that hill, we came out onto a long flat stretch where you could really see quite a ways. It looked a bit like this:
After taking this picture at Mile 34, it was back on the bike and heading toward home. After about another 3 miles I met up with some other guys going about my speed, so I grouped up with them and got in some pretty fast (for me) group miles.
At mile 42, we basically turned right into town and I thought they'd measured the course wrong because it seemed we were heading to the fairgrounds. However, we rode right past and tacked on extra 8 miles in order to hit the magical 50. By now, the layers I'd worn for the cold morning were starting to be come to heavy, so I shed some clothes. On top of that, the whole outbound part of the loop was a long false flat that just kept going and going. Every intersection, we were looking and hoping for the sign that said we were done going out and were heading back, and after a number of disappointments, we finally did make the right hand turn.
We headed back into town up and down a rollers, and eventually made our way back to the fairground and the end of the ride. It was very exciting to see the finish, and I was pretty happy to have finished for the day. I wasn't super tired, but my legs were starting to feel the effects of the last couple days, and it was starting to get way too hot for what I was wearing.
So that is it: I'd ridden 130 miles in 2 days which was not my record, but still pretty good considering. In addition, I'd survived day 1 of the 2012 Bike MS which will surely go down in history as one of the most remembered (and hated) days in Arizona cycling history.
I did learn one very important lesson at my last Bike MS: bring a towel. This is exactly what I did, and was able to use the portable showers to get myself cleaned off after the race. Then I went to the food tent, got a hamburger and a hot dog (thanks, Sam's Club!) and actually sat outside enjoying the weather and talking to some of the Discount Tire riders. Finally, I packed up and drove back to Scottsdale and the big weekend was over.
Will I ride the Bike MS again? Yes, definitely. I might do this one, or possibly do the one in Texas with people from my company who ride there. We'll see. Either way, I can say that the 2012 Arizona Bike MS was definitely a ride that I will not soon forget.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Bike MS Day 1 Report
Last weekend I rode the Bike MS Arizona. This ride started and ended in a town called Cottonwood, AZ which is located in the Verde Valley of Arizona, about 15 miles south of Sedona. The first day of the ride was supposed to be my first century, the route scheduled for 105 miles. The second day was scheduled for 49 miles.
A couple days I checked the weather for Sedona and was informed that Saturday (Day 1 of the ride) was going to be unseasonably cold. In fact, some freak storm was going to be coming through that day with morning temperatures forecast in the 30s and a 60% chance of rain. While I was disappointed that the weather wasn't going to be perfect, I was actually somewhat happy that it wasn't going to be too hot.
I stayed in Prescott which turns out to be 15 miles as the crow flies from Cottonwood, but 50 miles to drive. Therefore, to make the 7:00am start, I had to be up at about 4:45am. When I woke up, I looked out the window and saw that it was a) still pitch black, and b) snowing like crazy. I was sorely tempted to go back to bed for another hour and just plan to ride the 68 mile route instead, starting an hour late. However, I bucked myself up, got ready and headed out.
As I left Prescott, I was happy to see that as I got further from Prescott, the snow thinned out until by the time I was halfway to Cottonwood, the snow was gone. As the sun started to come out and the thermometer on my care started to inch up above the freezing mark, my morale improved. Perhaps things would warm up a bit and the ride would be cool.
I checked in at about 6:30 and learned that the long route had been shortened to 94 miles. I was slightly disappointed as this would not be a century, but on the other hand I was really worried about the massive climb that they had cut short, so I was also relieved. I got myself bundled up (long sleeve polypro undershirt, cycling jacket, Smartwool socks, Smartwool knee warmers, and running gloves over my cycling gloves) and headed to the starting line. I'd estimate there were about 300h people ready to ride, but I'm horrible at estimating this sort of thing so don't take my word for it.
They started the ride at 7:20 and off we went. I'd been training with my heart rate monitor for the past 4 months, so I planned to keep a close eye on my HR to make sure that I was not getting into the red zone. I was therefore pretty unhappy when I saw that my HR was not registering on my watch. I was even more unhappy when nothing I did could get it to start working. Oh well, I'd have to ride without it. Just one more little problem for a day filled with problems. The first 15 miles of the ride was pretty easy, and got us to the first rest stop with little drama. The sky was overcast and there was some rain, but it was not too bad, and we were hopeful that we might have a decent ride after all.
At the first stop, I refilled my bottles with Gatorade and scooted out in a hurry. One thing I tried to do was keep consuming calories constantly in a concerted effort to avoid bonking, a problem that I had in the Tour de Tucson in Novemember. In addition, I was making it a point to not dilly dally in the rest stops. Instead, I'd get in, grab a bite, refill my bottles, use the Honey Bucket, then hit the road.
At about 20 miles the road started going up, and we were approaching the beginning of the big climb. This thing made me nervous as it was about 11 miles of climbing with an average grade between 4 and 5%. At about 24 miles, we came to the second rest stop. This didn't seem to be too surprising as the last Bike MS I did had rest stops about every 10 miles. I did my rest stop routine (food, bottles, Honey Bucket) and then headed out. That's when I learned that this rest stop was the turnaround, and not a stop before the big climb. It turned out that there was snow and ice on the road not too far ahead, and the race had been shortened again. It turned out that they chopped about 14 miles off the already shortened ride because of the snow.
I bombed back down the hill, at one point hitting 38 mph. I turned north and made it to the 3rd rest stop. Things were going well with the exception of the ocassional rain and temperatures in the 30s, but overall, not too bad. After the 3rd rest stop, we made our way north and west, at one point riding on Interstate 17 for about 3 miles. There was some climbing, but nothing too difficult, and made it to the 4th rest stop. This was about 50 miles into the ride. This is where things started getting ugly.
After this rest stop, we turned north and started climbing up to Sedona. The wind started picking up at this point, blowing at about 20 mph, and it started to rain steadily. It was about 15 miles to Sedona, and each mile it got colder and colder. Soon, the rain turned to sleet, then as we entered Sedona it turned to snow. It was becoming a miserable death slog, and we were about 20 miles from the finish.
The 5th rest stop was at a bike shop in Sedona, and stood out because you could actually go inside and sit down in the warmth. It was here that we ate lunch, the classic PBJ with chips and Gatorade. After eating, it was time to head back out (reluctantly), but the organizers actually stopped us from leaving because the snow was coming down so hard they must have been worried about visibility. After about 10 minutes wait, they let us leave and the death slog continued.
We headed west to West Sedona, riding mostly up hill for about 5 miles in a steady rain/snow mix. Finally, we made the turn south which meant we were finally heading back to Cottonwood. In addition, I was excited because the last 15 miles was mostly downhill. Unfortunately, this is when the wind really made things difficult. Yes, I was riding downhill, but with a 20 mph wind right in your face, there was no relaxing. In fact, on the downhill ride to Cottonwood, I found I had to pedal to keep from slowing down, even on the downhills. Not much relaxing there. In addition, the sleet picked up, and the supercooling effect of going 15 mph into a 20 mph wind made things REALLY cold.
At one point it was so bad that I pulled into convenience store and just stood in there for 15 minutes just to get out of the elements. It took a herculean effort to get back on my bike and make the push to the finish line. It was at this point that I rode right past the last rest stop without even seeing it. I finished the last 10 miles or so wondering where the last stop was!
Finally, after about 7 hours or so, I finally arrived back in Cottonwood, and thankfully had a relatively short ride to the Verde Valley Fairgrounds where the finish was located. I pulled into the park a tiny fanfare of 5 or 6 volunteers who drew the short straw and had to stand out in the cold and hand out medals to the riders as they came in. The area where the post-ride celebration would be was nearly deserted as no one, and I mean no one, wanted to stick around unless they had no other option. I went straight to my car to get the heck out of there and put the whole fiasco behind me.
I finished after about 7 hours and 20 minutes, with a significant amount of time standing around in rest stops and convenience stores. I don't know how many calories I burned because of my HRM malfunction. In addition, my iPhone went dead, so I didn't get a MapMyRide out of it. However, here is someone else's route: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/83901123.
On the whole, it was the most miserable experience I've ever had on a bike. That said, it was certainly an adventure. Would I have done it if I'd have known what it was going to be like? Probably not. On the other hand, it's unlikely that a ride will ever be any worse than that. In addition, I now know I can suffer through some pretty aweful stuff and keep on going.
A couple days I checked the weather for Sedona and was informed that Saturday (Day 1 of the ride) was going to be unseasonably cold. In fact, some freak storm was going to be coming through that day with morning temperatures forecast in the 30s and a 60% chance of rain. While I was disappointed that the weather wasn't going to be perfect, I was actually somewhat happy that it wasn't going to be too hot.
I stayed in Prescott which turns out to be 15 miles as the crow flies from Cottonwood, but 50 miles to drive. Therefore, to make the 7:00am start, I had to be up at about 4:45am. When I woke up, I looked out the window and saw that it was a) still pitch black, and b) snowing like crazy. I was sorely tempted to go back to bed for another hour and just plan to ride the 68 mile route instead, starting an hour late. However, I bucked myself up, got ready and headed out.
As I left Prescott, I was happy to see that as I got further from Prescott, the snow thinned out until by the time I was halfway to Cottonwood, the snow was gone. As the sun started to come out and the thermometer on my care started to inch up above the freezing mark, my morale improved. Perhaps things would warm up a bit and the ride would be cool.
I checked in at about 6:30 and learned that the long route had been shortened to 94 miles. I was slightly disappointed as this would not be a century, but on the other hand I was really worried about the massive climb that they had cut short, so I was also relieved. I got myself bundled up (long sleeve polypro undershirt, cycling jacket, Smartwool socks, Smartwool knee warmers, and running gloves over my cycling gloves) and headed to the starting line. I'd estimate there were about 300h people ready to ride, but I'm horrible at estimating this sort of thing so don't take my word for it.
They started the ride at 7:20 and off we went. I'd been training with my heart rate monitor for the past 4 months, so I planned to keep a close eye on my HR to make sure that I was not getting into the red zone. I was therefore pretty unhappy when I saw that my HR was not registering on my watch. I was even more unhappy when nothing I did could get it to start working. Oh well, I'd have to ride without it. Just one more little problem for a day filled with problems. The first 15 miles of the ride was pretty easy, and got us to the first rest stop with little drama. The sky was overcast and there was some rain, but it was not too bad, and we were hopeful that we might have a decent ride after all.
At the first stop, I refilled my bottles with Gatorade and scooted out in a hurry. One thing I tried to do was keep consuming calories constantly in a concerted effort to avoid bonking, a problem that I had in the Tour de Tucson in Novemember. In addition, I was making it a point to not dilly dally in the rest stops. Instead, I'd get in, grab a bite, refill my bottles, use the Honey Bucket, then hit the road.
At about 20 miles the road started going up, and we were approaching the beginning of the big climb. This thing made me nervous as it was about 11 miles of climbing with an average grade between 4 and 5%. At about 24 miles, we came to the second rest stop. This didn't seem to be too surprising as the last Bike MS I did had rest stops about every 10 miles. I did my rest stop routine (food, bottles, Honey Bucket) and then headed out. That's when I learned that this rest stop was the turnaround, and not a stop before the big climb. It turned out that there was snow and ice on the road not too far ahead, and the race had been shortened again. It turned out that they chopped about 14 miles off the already shortened ride because of the snow.
I bombed back down the hill, at one point hitting 38 mph. I turned north and made it to the 3rd rest stop. Things were going well with the exception of the ocassional rain and temperatures in the 30s, but overall, not too bad. After the 3rd rest stop, we made our way north and west, at one point riding on Interstate 17 for about 3 miles. There was some climbing, but nothing too difficult, and made it to the 4th rest stop. This was about 50 miles into the ride. This is where things started getting ugly.
After this rest stop, we turned north and started climbing up to Sedona. The wind started picking up at this point, blowing at about 20 mph, and it started to rain steadily. It was about 15 miles to Sedona, and each mile it got colder and colder. Soon, the rain turned to sleet, then as we entered Sedona it turned to snow. It was becoming a miserable death slog, and we were about 20 miles from the finish.
The 5th rest stop was at a bike shop in Sedona, and stood out because you could actually go inside and sit down in the warmth. It was here that we ate lunch, the classic PBJ with chips and Gatorade. After eating, it was time to head back out (reluctantly), but the organizers actually stopped us from leaving because the snow was coming down so hard they must have been worried about visibility. After about 10 minutes wait, they let us leave and the death slog continued.
We headed west to West Sedona, riding mostly up hill for about 5 miles in a steady rain/snow mix. Finally, we made the turn south which meant we were finally heading back to Cottonwood. In addition, I was excited because the last 15 miles was mostly downhill. Unfortunately, this is when the wind really made things difficult. Yes, I was riding downhill, but with a 20 mph wind right in your face, there was no relaxing. In fact, on the downhill ride to Cottonwood, I found I had to pedal to keep from slowing down, even on the downhills. Not much relaxing there. In addition, the sleet picked up, and the supercooling effect of going 15 mph into a 20 mph wind made things REALLY cold.
At one point it was so bad that I pulled into convenience store and just stood in there for 15 minutes just to get out of the elements. It took a herculean effort to get back on my bike and make the push to the finish line. It was at this point that I rode right past the last rest stop without even seeing it. I finished the last 10 miles or so wondering where the last stop was!
Finally, after about 7 hours or so, I finally arrived back in Cottonwood, and thankfully had a relatively short ride to the Verde Valley Fairgrounds where the finish was located. I pulled into the park a tiny fanfare of 5 or 6 volunteers who drew the short straw and had to stand out in the cold and hand out medals to the riders as they came in. The area where the post-ride celebration would be was nearly deserted as no one, and I mean no one, wanted to stick around unless they had no other option. I went straight to my car to get the heck out of there and put the whole fiasco behind me.
I finished after about 7 hours and 20 minutes, with a significant amount of time standing around in rest stops and convenience stores. I don't know how many calories I burned because of my HRM malfunction. In addition, my iPhone went dead, so I didn't get a MapMyRide out of it. However, here is someone else's route: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/83901123.
On the whole, it was the most miserable experience I've ever had on a bike. That said, it was certainly an adventure. Would I have done it if I'd have known what it was going to be like? Probably not. On the other hand, it's unlikely that a ride will ever be any worse than that. In addition, I now know I can suffer through some pretty aweful stuff and keep on going.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Getting in the spirit!
I'm really starting to get in the TdF spirit! I really can't wait for this trip! I've never been to France, so that's going to be a new experience for me. I'm also looking forward to having a car and driving around. Who knows: we might go also have time to visit Switzerland or Spain while we're making our way down to the Pyrenees. With nothing in particular on the agenda, we have a lot of flexibility!
I picked up a book at the library last weekend called French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France
. It's about a guy who did an unsupported recreation of the TdF on about 2 weeks' notice. It's a pretty interesting story, and it made it clear that I might want to learn a bit of French before I head over to France.
Long story short, now that we have tickets, I can really start to get excited about this trip!
I picked up a book at the library last weekend called French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France
. It's about a guy who did an unsupported recreation of the TdF on about 2 weeks' notice. It's a pretty interesting story, and it made it clear that I might want to learn a bit of French before I head over to France.
Long story short, now that we have tickets, I can really start to get excited about this trip!
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Bike MS coming up soon...
The Bike MS in Sedona is fast approaching. It is coming up on April 14th and 15th. I am planning to do the longest possible route which is 105 miles the first day and 45 miles the second day. The first day will be my first century, if I can finish.
I would feel pretty confident about my being able to finish the ride except for the fact that there is a pretty ridiculous hill climb right at the beginning of the ride. While I feel that I should be able to get up this climb, my concern is that I'm going to have to use so much energy getting up the hill that I'm going to be totally burned out later in the ride.
If you have any interest in sponsoring me as I ride in the Bike MS to help fight multiple sclerosis, please visit my fundraising page here. Thank you!
I would feel pretty confident about my being able to finish the ride except for the fact that there is a pretty ridiculous hill climb right at the beginning of the ride. While I feel that I should be able to get up this climb, my concern is that I'm going to have to use so much energy getting up the hill that I'm going to be totally burned out later in the ride.
If you have any interest in sponsoring me as I ride in the Bike MS to help fight multiple sclerosis, please visit my fundraising page here. Thank you!
I better learn a bit of French!
With us going to France in 4 months, I suppose I ought to at least be able to speak and/or read a tiny bit of French. I assume (probably a bad idea) that most people speak at least some English, but for signs, menus, TV, etc. it would probably be good if I had at least a bit of knowledge of the language under my belt.
I've therefore put on hold the first two parts of the Pimsleur language course for French. Pimsleur is very good at helping you to learn how to speak a foreign language as it is all about listening to CDs and carrying on practice conversations. On the other hand, the reading portion of the course is a bit week. For that I have downloaded an app on my iPhone (MindSnacks Learn French) that is more focused on word recognition and reading than it is on speaking. Hopefully, between these two I will be able to pick up enough French that we'll be able to get around.
I've therefore put on hold the first two parts of the Pimsleur language course for French. Pimsleur is very good at helping you to learn how to speak a foreign language as it is all about listening to CDs and carrying on practice conversations. On the other hand, the reading portion of the course is a bit week. For that I have downloaded an app on my iPhone (MindSnacks Learn French) that is more focused on word recognition and reading than it is on speaking. Hopefully, between these two I will be able to pick up enough French that we'll be able to get around.
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