The LightHouse Ride

A big attraction on Whidbey Island is Fort Casey State Park. The Admiralty Head Lighthouse is in the park and that was my destination for today's ride.

How about the weather?

I don't like to blog about the weather but I thought it should be documented that the weather has been excellent the last few weeks. Lovely days for riding. Its the weather that has allowed me to put in some many miles.  I'm a fair weather rider in my old age. Last year at this time I had only logged twenty rides and 434 miles. This year I have twenty four rides and 557 miles. Thats four more rides and 123 more miles. Hooray for clear skies and moderate temperatures.

Now that I've said all of this I hope I haven't kiboshed on our meteorological good fortune. I do remember years when April and May were warm and dry. June rolled around and it was soggy and cold. It didn't stop raining until July 5th. Let hope this will not be the case this year.

keep cycling WHIDBEY.

Last Week in Review

Last week was a good cycling week. Rang up 104 miles. The first part of the week I had a Freeland theme. With these two rides.





I like riding into Freeland. The only draw back is having to ride on the highway.
The middle of the week I was a little burnt out so just a quick ride into Langley and back.




Finished the week with a ride out on the Saratoga road and back through Bayview.



I felt good over all and the weather was great last week.

This week I want to put in another 100+ miles riding loops through Langley and Clinton.

Ride your Bike. Ride your Bike. Ride your Bike.

I spent some time off the bike this winter and in the gym. I needed some time away from the bike and wanted to build some strength. Strength is the first element in the Strength, Stamina, Speed Formula. While in the gym I worked on the legs, then the following work out I would work on the upper body and of course the abs. It all about the abs. I worked hard and it payed off I'm quite happy with the results. I'm much stronger this spring than I was last spring or the spring before that. In fact, I'd have to go bad a few years to remember a spring where I started the outdoor season so strong. The reason I was strong that year was because I spent the winter in the gym as well.  With all of this working out been done their is nothing that prepares you for hill climbing like hill climbing.  Even though I spent all that time in the gym doing rep after rep of muscle building weight pumping I was still lacking what it takes to climb hills aggressively and confidently. I ridden approximately 450 miles this spring and I'm just starting to feel comfortable on the climbs. The muscles in the legs, arms and chest aren't quite so fatigued nor am I totally out of breath at the top of the climb. The mind plays a part in this as well; after you climb several  dozen hills you convince yourself that the hills aren't scary and hard, they are alluring and challenging. I realize that if I hadn't worked out in the gym during the winter  I would have had to ride many more miles this spring before reaching the physical and mental level where hill climbs are welcomed and sought after. However, you can't replace the time on the bike with any other work out.



Eddy Merckx was asked one time by a fan "How do you getting better at cycling?" Eddy said  "Their are three ways to get better at cycling.
1. Ride your bike.
2. RIDE your bike. And
3. RIDE YOUR BIKE. "

Get out their and ride your bike on Whidbey!!!

Favorite Run Ins

There are stretches of road, I call run ins, where I enjoy riding into a town or area. They are parts of the route that I look forward to and anticipate their approach. For example riding into Langley on Bayview road and going past the sign that tells you how fast you are going.



Another run in into Langley is coming down the hill on Langley road going past the fair grounds and around the corner by WICA. Its fast, fun and it has a sign to tell you how fast you are going as well.



East Harbor road going into Freeland from Goodell road to the stop sign by the post office is another favorite run in.



Riding on Double Bluff road from Millman road to the parking lot is scenic with a beautiful view of Mt. Rainier and Puget Sound.











Form Ewing road to Maxwelton is a run in that I ride almost every time I return home from the north.



There are many more run ins that I enjoy but these are my favorite.

Good Legs. Bad Legs.

Heard a professional cyclist say in an interview, "Your legs can start off good then finish good. Your legs could start good and finish bad or they start off bad and finish good. Some days they start off bad and finish bad." Today's ride was one where my legs started off bad. I was considering not riding today. I felt sluggish, tired and undernourished. I encouraged myself to ride by telling myself the rains where coming and today may be the last chance to ride outdoors for awhile. So reluctantly I climbed on to the bike. I had no legs. They felt weak and limp. I pushed on and I am happy I did. As I reach Langley they started to fell better as if something came alive in them. The better my legs felt the better the rest of me felt. The rest of the ride was fantastic. My legs finished today's ride good.


 

Tour of Hansville

Yesterday I did a ride on the Kitsap Peninsula.



 
This was a very fun ride. Long hill climbs and long descents. Beautiful scenery. Went out to the Point-No Point light house, aka "the blinking light". From were lived in Freeland we could walk down to the end of the street and have a look at the Point-No Point light house. My daughter nicknamed it "the Blinking Light".  It was nice on a warm summers evenings to feel the cool breeze coming off the sound and watch the light blink at us. I hadn't been to Point-No Point light house in over 30 years. My buddy Robert and I would ride out to Point-No Point from Bremerton. This was back when all we had to do was ride our bikes all day.

Here is Whidbey from Point-No Point. 

100 mile week!

This week, 4/30/18-5/6/18, is my first 100 mile week of 2018. 109.7 miles to be exact, according to Strava. I did two rides this week end. The first on Friday afternoon. This ride is the first 30+ mile ride.



The second was today.



This week, with the new Campagnolo components, was very satisfying. The next goal I'm looking forward to is a 10,000ft climbing week.

Giro d’Italia

The Giro d’Italia begins in Jerusalem on Friday May 4th. I'm looking forward to the first grand tour of the season. Here's BobKe's Preview



Chris Froome will be riding in this year's Giro. I'm happy to see him participate in the race; however, his mess should have been clean up along time ago. I don't want to go into all of that at this time.

I received an email from The Inner Ring blog with instructions of how to subscribe to the Giro's calendar.

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/e5ahe3c40vouk0egjtqg8pbdac%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

iCal?
An iCal is a calendar file that you can store on your phone or electronic diary like Outlook. There are several ways to get this on to your computer or phone.

• If you use MacOS copy the URL… and open the Calendar app. Then got to File > New Calendar Subscription…) and paste in the link and you’re done
• iPhone/iPad users should hold down a finger here , wait for the pop up message and select “Copy”. Then on your device go to Settings > Accounts and Passwords > Add account > Other > Add Subscribed Calendar and paste in the URL
• If you use Microsoft Outlook, copy the URL and then go to Tools > Account Settings > Internet Calendars and paste the URL to subscribe. In each case when the calendar is updated with a date change or an event is cancelled your software will upload the new data
• Google users can click on the Google Agenda logo on the bottom right corner of the calendar below
• Alerts are turned off in the calendar settings by default but to be safe think about turning off the alarm in your calendar settings to avoid any nocturnal notifications
• Stages are listed as “all day events” so they don’t clutter up your actual diary but in case you need to know so you can keep slots clear during May then each stage finish is forecast to finish at 5.15pm CET

I also have a link to The Geeky Cyclist bog with some facts about the Giro.

Last be not least today's ride.

Scott Speedster drive train swop out.

I spent last week end swopping out my groupo. I pulled my old Shimano drive train from my bike for a new Campagnolo Potenza 11 speed drive train.

The swop out process went well. The Campy group went together easily and the adjustments and indexing of the gears went smoothly. I made two mistakes however, I cut the chain too short and put the brake/shifters on the bars too high. The first mistake cost a little money and the second cost some time. Both have been corrected. I went for the first ride with the new drain train yesterday.


This groupo works so well. It shifts precisely and smoothly. It is quiet and good looking. I could go on and on but I'll spare you. I've always loved Campagnolo components and have wanted to put Campy components on this bike for a long time. Now they are on my bike and I'm so excited.
I went for another ride today with these bad ass components.