My first ride for the month was alone on DST Sunday, (Daylight Savings Time). Hopefully that is the last time we jump the clocks forward an hour. We returned from a week long family gathering on the previous evening. A ten hour drive is no way to rest up for a ride. My knees don’t like being stuck in one position hour after hour. Add the time change and getting up at six to ride to the club ride meet up was not going to happen. I rode alone for three and a half hours. Mostly a zone 1and 2 ride, but I did some climbing and chasing efforts so got the HR maxed at 174bpm.
First week of riding for the month. I started off with a metric, my usual loop. Second ride was a recovery ride down to Las Plugas and back to spin my legs out a bit. I tweaked my right knee a couple weeks ago, walking of all things. It has been bothering me off and on. It only nags me when I stretch the leg out straight. No problems walking or riding. Zero pain. No swelling. One week off on vacation with no cycling and only a bit of walking. Kicking while swimming briefly didn’t bother it. But, the drive both ways was hard on both knees. Ten hours of car riding, breaks about every two hours helped only a little.
Anyway, after a recovery day ride I managed another metric, this time I rode Live Oak Canyon. Not a long ride, but mostly a climb. Slightly sharp ending to the top pitch makes it burn a little, but I was fine. Not a huge amount of power, but plenty of endurance.
I swapped the chain for a freshly waxed one, after cleaning the bike and drive train up. I do like a freshly waxed chain and clean bike.
My first full week of riding for the month, I managed to ride every day. A week where I managed to ride three metrics. My endurance is pretty good. The shoulder gets irritated, tired and sore when ride harder. I verified that again on the Saturday club ride.
My intended club ride did not go to plan, but that as they say is when the adventure begins.
The morning was cold with clouds down on the deck. A chill wind blew in my face as I made my way toward San Juan Capistrano. I saw 10°C on my head unit. I was rethinking my clothing choices. In the end that was the least of my problems. I later hit a rock and flatted both tires at once and rapidly.
The heat shrink rim strip slipped to the side exposing the spoke holes in the rim. That allowed the tube to push into the hole and since it is a sharp edge and small hole, the tube pops thanks to hitting the big pavement colored rock I missed while riding with mist on my shades. I of course didn’t discover this defect at first since I was searching with fingers for some break in the tire casing. When I pumped the spare tube to pressure, then as I began to remount the wheel, the tube blew, I knew there was a larger issue. Of course with two flats I’d just used my spares. The tube that blew was a spare latex and I didn’t have a patch kit for that with me. Doh!
Max and Dan came to me after I’d texted them I’d flatted. Dan had a spare TPU, I managed to slide the rim strip to cover the holes around the wheel then we got back on the road. We skipped the planned climbs and opted to get Dan his 30 miles in.
While relaxing and chatting about the flat with a warm donut and flat white, I decided that since I had to use my new Silca tubeless tape to replace the defective strips, I might as well go for the whole tubeless setup. It turned out the OEM stems provided with my F7 were barely 40mm. No way would they work. So, off to Rock n’ Road for a set of bright red Mac-Off 60mm stems.
I’d bought a pair of Vittoria Corsa N.EXT TLR tires in 30mm width on sale so I had all I needed with the Silca syringe injector and Silca tubeless tire sealant.
Pretty easy to accomplish and get up and working.
That all finished Sunday evening, I got stuff ready to ride Monday. On Monday I did a metric on all the different surfaces I normally ride to test the new 30mm tubeless setup. The ride is quite nice. I don’t notice the mass difference after the first few hundred meters of pedaling. The former setup was TPU tubes with the same tires in tube type and at 28mm. Pressures for the tubed setup were 77.5, 79, Front/rear. The tubeless setup is about 67/69, F/R. I am happy with it. Last week was a big week of riding for me, 548km. My power is down about a hundred watts for my six minute, over my 2025 average. Endurance is fine. I’ve been adding more climbing, but sort of pushing myself to catch back up to my distance pace goal.
A few days of riding the tubeless setup I’m happy with the ride and performance of the 30mm tires. with our big ride to San Diego on Thursday, I took Wednesday off to do maintenance and rest. I pulled the wheels off and cleaned up the chain. Fresh wax then very carefully went through adjusting the front and rear derailleurs using the Shimano app. I both measured the gaps and carefully listened with my hearing aides in while test riding. Quite a bit smoother and quieter shifting and running. I’ll get to installing the new hanger later. I didn’t want to change too much this time.
With the top tube pack I’m ready for a long day in the saddle.
The San Juan Capistrano to San Diego ride was not without a few obstacles. It was a really fun group who banded together and made the best of it to the point we all pretty much didn’t notice the problems as such, but as part of the ride. First up we wandered off from our start only a little late, about fifteen minutes. The group photo thanks to a passerby proved to be a fail. No matter, we were off. The breeze off the water proving a headwind for the first short stint out to the beach, then a varying crosswind.
The day began cool and almost chilly along my usual route to SJC along the water. I saw 14°C. My club summer kit was just enough. We were meeting up at 7:50 at the clock tower at the station. I left the garage at 7:15, not long after the sun had become visible over the hills east of town.
When three of us got down to the south gate at Sano it was closed with military security there. The base was closed with operations going on, so we backtrack north to Christianitos and onto the interstate shoulder south to Oceanside. After visiting the seals in the harbor there we were off to the south with one of our group taking off ahead to meet his train at Solana Beach. We had a short delay at the rest stop at Sea Cliff Park.
Then south to the Torrey Pines climb. I didn’t go crazy, focusing on trying to maintain my HR around 150 bpm. No PR there and not blown up at the top. We regrouped at the top, then headed for the sandwich shop at SD, eat, then to Santa Fe station and back to SJC for most of us.
Off the train I rode the easy ride home to complete my 100 miles for the day plus a few. Friday was a rest day thanks to that long day and a plan for Saturday and Sunday when our heat wave is supposed to have a break.
I finished the week off with a ride o the group ride on Sunday. I missed meeting Max at JD Flannel in SJC, but caught up to him on the hill out of the harbor. A good group rode the Parlor Donut loop, that is Aliso Creek up to Santa Margarita and down. Because I rode from home to SJC then to Parlor and the loop then home I managed to accumulate 117.4 km. I had left my garage before the sun was up and well before the marine layer was to burn off. It was chilly and damp so arm and leg warmers and the gilet. I’d later pull the sleeves with the gilet being the first off at the top of all the climbing.
A good week, but Strava for some reason isn’t totaling up my distances or climbing into my various groups so, no glory there.
Next week, I finish off the month strong I hope. I need to begin working a bit harder on my rides alone and build strength. I’ve got the endurance down, now I need to build that climbing back. I have been riding in a more aero position with hands on the hoods and forearms level. I’ve focused on relaxing my arms, elbows in and holding my upper body with my core. I can feel this position is becoming much easier to hold for longer and longer periods as well as feeling natural. I am very happy with my progress this week.
After a couple of days riding I decided maybe the coaching app, Join Cycling was right and I needed a rest. I had very little power on the Tuesday ride so I’ll rest for a day or maybe two.
I decided to finally address the peeling sticker on the F7.
The original stem/bar had the same problem but, I just peeled both sides off and ignored it.
I used an old furniture repair trick to fixture the sticker in place while new adhesive cured. Painters tape does the trick.
An hour of curing and all fixed.
Then on to the Frames and Gear rear derailleur hanger. The OEM Shimano, double link hanger.
And the new bling.
Easy enough to do with the Feedback sports work stand and torque wrench.
I’d also replaced my old series 7 Apple Watch that died a few weeks ago with a refurbished Ultra 2. The only issue I had was the band locking tab feature coming apart when I swapped them band ends to have the stem where I wanted it.
I had a spare set of bands, so an easy fix. I took a second rest day in a row. I think Spring is getting to me again. Sneezing, watery itchy eyes and runny nose. I forget about that side of Spring over the winter. I am sleeping slightly better. The shoulder has not healed enough to allow me to sleep on my left side still, but my rolling onto my left side in the night doesn’t immediately wake me. Progress. Two days of rest allow for laundering all my cycling kit. I need to walk up to the shoe shop in town and find some dye for the scuffs on my shoes.
Finished off the week with a group ride. We did the backbay ride with a ferry ride. Did some back to front efforts here and there. Heading down was fine, though I missed a turn so we went down to Cliff to PCH. That was fine. Big group.
The week’s total distance was low at 291 km. I felt pretty good riding Sunday. Saturday had been a real mellow no-drop B ride I was supposed to be leading. My hearing impairment is not good for group rides. I basically can’t hear when riding. I’ve still not determined if I have a problem with my knee or it is just still tweaked from a walk I did a month or so ago. The Sunday ride wa sa short ride, relatively flat and not pushing hard all the time. But, I did push myself more than usual, so a good workout for that. 31.9% in zone 1, 41.4% in zone 2, 13.2% in zone 3, 13.1% in zone 4. The tiniest of slivers of 22 seconds in zone 5.
Definitely not a major workout, but heavier than I’ve done in quite a while. I think I need to push myself during the week more. My power is still down over my 2025 average by about 25% now based on my six minute power. I figure I need to do another FTP test in early April to see where things are. I’ma couple hundred kilometers shy of a thousand miles for the month. With only two days left to March, I might just have enough in the tank to make it. We shall see. Back for the finish in a couple of days.
The last ride for the month of March, I managed another metric century. I also made some efforts. Nothing fancy, just pushing a bit here and there. Most of it didn’t really show up as effort making a result.
Totals for the month:
Distance: 1,550.6 km
Climbing: 9,857 m
Time: hours
Along The Way 