Cycling Outdoors – July 2024

June was a stinker as far as riding. July will be building back. My first week I managed 7’38”. I’m sticking to two weeks of my short route out to the park at Ortega and back. About two hours of fairly flat riding. The only climb is back up the hill from North Beach. I don’t expect to be doing big miles or long hours in the saddle this month. I do plan on increasing my route come Saturday the 13th. I figure to add back the new neighborhood loop out east along Cow Camp. Maybe even the long hill and loop back around. Third week should see me heading up the trail along the toll road and loop back down Antonio, or back along the toll road depending on feel. By the end of the month I should be looping to Rancho Santa Margarita.

It certainly gets boring riding the same route over and over. Trying to keep myself in zone 2 to work this excess weight off. But, I figure that is my penance for having so long off the bike. The reward will be steady progress back to fitness with longer rides. The goal is to be back to 100km days in late August. With the ultimate goal of a century before the end of the year.

Week two starts off with a blah. My legs feel like lead for the first ride of the week, maybe due to a slight headwind on my out leg. Which turned around on me before the halfway point so I could enjoy the struggle for the entire ride.

For the second week in July I only managed about five and a half hours riding. Motorcycle maintenance got in the way. First helping a friend for a day, then two days of my own. Success with both tasks let us breathe a big sigh of relief. We had been baffled a bit. I had read a short little post somewhere that related a professor telling his class the steps in approaching a problem. The first step was to relax and remember all problems are solvable. The poster, went on to recall how this approach worked with life outside the classroom as well. It has become our first step in old motorcycle repair and maintenance as well. I suspect the same can be said for bicycles as well as the rest of life problems.

I finished up the third week of July with a nice increase in time and distance. Not quite double the previous week. The Garmin Vector 2 power meter pedals will not connect to the updater. I’m going to try new batteries, but I really don’t like those CR2032 batteries. The latest update to the software for the Wahoo Bolt lost the calibration to the pedals. I’m hoping a software update to the pedals will fix this. Otherwise they have become less than useful.

This has been a big week, 416km. Did a 100km ride on Friday then short spin on Saturday and Group ride Sunday. I’m beginning to feel closer to normal. Rode in the worst heat I’ve experienced on the bicycle in a while 39°C, (102°F). Back home from that day it was 25°C.

I’ve sold my motorcycle to make room for a new bicycle. The buyer won’t take delivery until August. I’ve already found the replacement bicycle. The price is going to pinch a bit. But, I figure a bicycle is a better idea than another motorcycle. I ride a bicycle almost every day, or at least want to. I rarely ride my motorcycle. I had no travel planned this year that happened. And the fuel in the bike went bad causing a long period of cleaning up and fixing to get things going well again. And of course there is a huge volume motorcycle stuff occupies here in this small house.

Anyway, meet the next bicycle:

It’s close enough to the Dogma color I like and not nearly as pricy as a full Dogma F. I’ll get back to the shop for a test ride and fit to see what is what then make the final decision. A big trigger to pull. More to come on this in August.

The group ride was hard and fun.

Good times. I’ll rest the first of August, but the second will be a gran fondo with a group, but with a train on the way back and maybe even a ferry.

Totals for the month:

Distance: 1,114km

Climbing: 5,900m

Time: 48hours