GMR-39 Loop

Last Sunday I did the GMR-39 loop. I parked my car at the bottom of 39 and began the ride from Sierra Madre, onto GMR then E Folk and finishing on 39. This was a 34miles ride, so not very long. From the start of the ride, I already wanted to use the bathroom :( I thought I would go behind the building at the top of GMR. So I tried to not drink too much water as well I was hoping that the water can be reabsorbed. Which was rather stupid cos I became quite dehydrated. Anyway, going up GMR, I was huffing and panting since the beginning, but I was able to keep a sustained pace without feeling that my heart would burst. I stopped a couple of times to have some water - I really need to learn to ride with one hand on the bar! Before long I arrived at the top of GMR. I rested there for a bit and chatted with a cyclist who told me some crazy cycling stories and shared with me some bike maintenance tips.

I then continued on my way onto E Folk, I like this part with the descents and the gusty wind. Once I wasn't careful and nearly went into the unpaved side road - that would have been bad! I was then caught up by a cyclist who asked if we could ride together. He was training for an Ironman challenge and had already ridden 65miles. We soon came to the reservoir at the junction of E Folk and 39. It was completely dry! Might be the rumored man-induced global warming effect or perhaps they were just rebuilding it. The ride on E Folk and 39 was easy with some nice descents. In total I did about 3hours on the bike and I wasn't too tired. Ok, I was tired but not exhausted :)

I have to say that sometimes I like to ride by myself. This gives me an opportunity to focus on cycling. As well, when I ride by myself - I get to meet and chat with random cyclists. It's a lot of fun hearing about their cycling experiences and telling them about my own humble beginnings in cycling and I always learn SO much from talking to others.

Secret Garden - Sleepsong

May you sail fair to the far fields of fortune...May you find kindness in all that you meet...May there always be angels to watch over you...May you bring love and may you bring happiness, be loved in return to the end of your days... :)

Chantry Ride and Ankle Sprain

Yes! I did 29.5 minutes up Chantry today, the fastest since my horse fall. I discovered that before I was slow because I was on heavier gears and they were often too heavy that my cadence was low. Now I have my gears on easy and I can maintain a high cadence. I'm pretty happy because my time had remained stagnant at 30.5min for quite some time. At the gates of Chantry as I was starting the ascent, I was going uphill and was taking too long to clip in and no surprise I fell off my bike. I landed on my back (or on my ankle) and sprained my ankle. My back didn't hurt - I think it was protected by the bunch of accessories that I keep in my cycling jersey back pockets. I got up and began the Chantry ride with no pain anywhere. However, when I got to work, I felt something wrong with my ankle, so I tried to move it around. And after that, the pain became progressively worse :(

Being the ever health conscious person that I am, I went to the health center. The nurse said that it's a sprain. She put on ointments to relieve the pain, wrapped me in compression dressing, gave me an ice pack along with plenty of caring advice. The nurses there always take great care of me and they certainly go beyond their job in doing so - but I like to be taken care of :) It amazes me how there are people in the world who are so caring and considerate yet others who are the exact opposite.....I hope my ankle will be ok for the ride this Thursday!!

Cycling and Fitness

I didn't do much cycling last week. This was because I went to rose bowl last last Sunday but was SO tired that I only did 1 lap and left. I thought it must be you know what was coming, but I waited for 5 days and still nothing. Then I realized that I must have been tired that morning from having had a bad nights sleep. I felt so groggy and like a chocolate factory (I eat a lot of chocolates) from not exercising for 5 days. So last Saturday even though it was the first day I went to rose bowl and surprisingly I had a lot of energy and felt that I could do more. I've been reading Joe Friel's cyclist's training bible and taking training strategies from there - you should go away from a workout feeling that you could do more, putting too much stress on your body and feeling exhausted from workouts is counterproductive. This is easy to achieve! I like the adrenaline rush after the ride not the exhausted feeling.

It says in the book that it's important to keep track of your progress, so I am getting a cycling log book. I wonder what I will write in there? Perhaps heart rates, speed and miles. I think I'll need a GPS and heart rate monitor. But these things are expensive and bulky to wear. Or I could get a speedometer but I don't want to add extra weight on the bike. So for the time being, I may just record how I FEEL during and after each ride instead (since 'training shall be based solely on feel' :P)

In any case, I am more interested in becoming healthier due to cycling and being fast is a way of proving that I am getting fitter (but of course being fast alone is always nice). So I decided to get a BMI scale to keep track of my body changes. The scale records your weight, % body fat, % total body water, % muscle mass and bone mass. I have the option of selecting either female or athletic female (+10h strenuous/aerobic exercise per week). I measured everything just then, 56.1kg, 17.7% body fat, 60% TBW, 40.9% muscle mass, and 2.3kg bone mass if I select female. However if I select athletic female it becomes 12.7% body fat, 67.2% TBW, 43.2% muscle mass and 2.4kg bone mass. Not sure which body fat I should read but both measurements are below the healthy limit for women. Yet for female athletes body fat is 14-20%. So perhaps I can call myself an athlete?! Wow...

First Time Up Angeles Crest

Last Sunday I went up Red Box on Angeles Crest for my very first time. It was a 46miles ride - the longest I've done and by myself. I thought since this would be a day of firsts, I should seize the moment and use my clipless for the first time too. I put on my leg warmers to protect myself from the chilly morning, but more importantly from the many expected inevitable falls.

Going to Angeles Crest from my place requires lots of turns and with a memory such as mine I was quite proud that I remembered the route. Soon I reached the base of Angeles Crest highway. To Red Box it was going to be a 13miles climb. Thankfully, unlike Chantry this was not steep and in fact had some sections that were quite flat. During the ascent, I passed an old lady cyclist who was slow but going methodically and steadily which was very admirable (she was also the only lady cyclist I'd see the whole day).

In total, from my place to Red Box I stopped 3 times to have some energy bars and water. During the last time, I lost balance with one foot in the clips and fell - it hurt a little but my leg warmers protected me quite well. However, when I started pedaling I realized that the saddle was now off centered by about 30 degrees. I brought everything with me, spare tube, lever etc but did not bring the bike tool. So I had to borrow. Unfortunately, there were no other cyclists going up. Fortunately, I only have about 2miles left to go to Red Box where I'm sure lots of cyclists would be taking a break. Yet the 2miles seemed like eons long when I had to sit and pedal in a very awkward position.

Finally I arrived at Red Box where I fixed my saddle, refilled my water bottles and used the bathroom (or rather hole in the ground). Then I started the much anticipated descent. When I was going up, I saw that cyclists going down were pedaling to increase speed so I thought I'd give that a try. I descended on the heaviest gear and pedaled hard. Soon I passed a section which was foggy and misty - that was awesome! I felt like I was in an untouched land exploring it to my hearts content :). Before long I reached the base of the 2. I thought I did it in 15min, that's 52mph! hm probably not right. I was thinking about this and was supposed to make a left, but I saw the turn rather late and a car was behind me going slowly unsure of what I wanted to do. Of course, I could not signal cos I still cannot ride with one hand on the wheel (I most likely can, but what can I say, I'm a chicken) so I decided to double back at the next intersection. However, I cornered too tightly and didn't have time to clip out and hence, the second inevitable fall happened. After I released myself from the tangled mess I saw that my bike chain had fallen off. Oops...I had absolutely no clue how to put the chain back on. It was just way too tight. There were no other cyclists going down so I couldn't ask them for help, nor do I want to call for help unless it's absolutely necessary - it's simply silly to not know how to put on a bike chain. So I laid the bike on it's side and inspected everything, suddenly something moved which released the tension (the derailleur). Phew, I got the chain back on and tested the shifting before beginning my ride home.

I was exhausted when I got home. I showered, relaxed on my bed and unknowingly fell asleep. But I'm so happy to have done many firsts in one day, to have accomplished what I had planned to do and to have learnt by myself how to put a chain back on. :)

I really enjoy cycling, not just for the outdoor fun, the exercise, or the speed but also the culture where cyclists can naturally struck up conversations and are willing to help each other. I'm always happy and humbled when I meet people who are considerate and open even if they don't know me. I'd like to live in a place with more of such people where I'd feel that I am a part of the community. To think if more people are considerate of others, then wouldn't the world be a better place to live in!?

Everclear - Wonderful

'...close my eyes and I count to ten...make everything be wonderful again'

Yellowstone

Over the labor day weekend I went on a 5 day camping trip in Yellowstone NP. We left Pasadena early in the morning to fly to Salt Lake City. On the way to the Long Beach airport, I unwittingly avoided a car accident. We were on the freeway when I overtook a red beetle, moments later the cars in front of me suddenly stopped. I stepped on the brakes hard (to it's limit) and narrowly missed the car in front of me. Then I heard a bump at the back. Did I just get hit?! Thankfully not, the beetle stopped in time but the car behind him did not. If I had not overtaken the beetle than I would have been rear ended - phew!

After we landed at SLC, we went to get our rental car. The compact car that we have booked wasn't available, so the sales person said that we could rent a mini van instead at the same rate. Driving a mini van?! That's high fuel consumption and bulkiness without the power, do I look that stupid?! I told him that we cannot take that one, what are the other options. Then he decided to show us the Mitsubishi Endeavor which we gladly agreed to take at $20/day. It only has 5000miles on it - practically new! In terms of handling it's quite smooth but for sure less powerful than my Saab.

The drive from SLC to Yellowstone took around 6hours and we crossed the state borders from Utah to Idaho and then to Wyoming. We camped at Grant Village Lodge campground. Each campsite was huge with it's own car park, picnic bench and fire place. They have showers there too which was an absolute necessity given that I cannot seem to go a day without showering. At an average elevation of 8000 feet, it was freezing at night and in the early mornings (below 0oC), my +20oF sleeping bag has helped me a lot.

We hiked around 8miles each day. During these hikes and car drives, we saw countless geysers of different shades of green and blue and tinges of yellow and orange. After seeing so many I got quite bored of them - ok, I wasn't super excited on seeing them in the first place. But such cannot be said about animals. We were lucky enough to see 7 different kinds of wildlife. We saw bison, elk, moose, marmot, canadian geese, a huge snake and wolves. The one that I liked the most was the bison. Bisons are so cute with their huge unblinking beady eyes. As well, the fact that they wander slowly on the road without giving a damn about traffic just make them appear so ignorant and hence more adorable (I can't exactly explain the correlation here). We saw a huge snake in the middle of a trail during a hike, I was really excited to see one - it was the largest I've seen in the wild! On the last day, while hiking in Teton NP, we saw some movement off the trail. On closer examination, it was a moose with her calf! They were very close to us at perhaps 5m away. Their huge ears were pointed in our direction and they remained alert yet motionless. My friend stepped closer to take a photo, to the point where the calf ran away. Apparently mother moose with calves are aggressive and can attack humans - oops...

West Thumb Geyser - Yellowstone

Bison wandering on the road

Moose with calf

I really wanted to see a bear. There are two species of bears in Yellowstone, Grizzly and Black bear. Completely different techniques should be employed when one encounters each species. If a Grizzly becomes 'interested' in you, you should back away slowly while speaking calmly to it, if it attacks, then you should use your bear pepper spray, if it continues to attack, then you should get down into a fetal postion and play dead. However, if you get challenged by a Black bear, you should make yourself seem bigger and shout at it. Yet it's hard to distinguish between them because unlike it's name, Black bears are not always black and in fact come in all colors. The determining factor is the presence or absence of shoulder humps (Grizzlies have them, Black bears do not). I suggested that we get bear pepper sprays since our lives may well depend on it. The plan was to carry one each in case the person carrying the spray looses their mind upon seeing a bear and runs away leaving the rest of us defenseless. So we went to the general store to hunt some down - it costs $50 each! At this price I'd rather take my chances against the bear! In any case, we didn't get to see a bear which was rather unfortunate or perhaps fortunate depending on the outcome.

A couple of mornings I got up early and drove to see the sunrise against the Yellowstone lake, the view was majestic and the colors were nothing short of amazing.

Sunrise over Yellowstone lake

Admittedly during the time there, I missed the comfort of home especially when it came to using the communal showers and the freezing nights and mornings. But I knew that all would be worth it in the end since it's the experience and the fond memories that we keep. And looking back - I was right :)