Ride Report

Yeah I have been trying to talk my wife into letting me get a tandem.
I think it would be a great way for me to spend time with our son.

They are just so darned expensive.  I want a road bike type of a tandem not a cruiser.  I'd love to go on the shorter ride and take my son with me.  I keep trying to find physical activities he can do.  I don't want him to grow up the fat kid like I did.  So far he has been resistant to all kinds of physical activities.

I keep searching ebay and craigslist for that lucky find on the tandem.

Have you checked with Crank2 in Pleasanton? They specialize in tandems and are my fav LBS, BTW. The owner may be able to help point you in the right direction, as that would be an awesome way to spend time with your son!

No, I didn't even know about that store.

There is a place up in healdsburg that rents them for tourists, and a couple people from the local bike club have them and offered to let me try one.

Thanks for the info on that store, I'll check them out.

Scott

I don't care if you don't want to hear it or if it has the opposite affect so here it is. Awesome Job!  you should be proud that you didn't throw in the towel or get picked up by the sweeper truck. Not many people even attempt the rides you do much less finish them.

Scott,

I am new to this type of exercise, but I played soccer for 17 years, and had the opportunity to play Semi-pro for a feeder team for the NY Cosmos for whom Pele played (dating myself big time :) ). So I understand exercise, and training. 

Maybe it's not more time training, but better directed training. I have read many articles to get my head around my new sports. Many of them have left me with the impression that with the fitness level you posess that although time is involved you need to be wise about your use of that time. 

Maybe it doesn't require more hours at this point for you, but as others have said above "better direction" to the work you are doing. It might be worth investing a little money at some sort of coach or trainer to get a better direction to accomplish the goals you set, and still maintain the order of importance.

I'm just thinking out loud, and certainly have a long ways to go to get back to my former athletic abilities, but I understand. I find myself wondering how to accomplish the goals I want to hit with the time I have available and my age, but like you I am determined to do it.

Jay

Try not to beat yourself up over not being an "official" finisher. You still finished, people in a graveyard would love to be in your predicament, at least that's what I tell myself when I am out riding and I pass a cemetery.

Once again, a great ride, and I hope you can find a balance. You are doing the right thing by always putting family first, and I admire you for that.

Well I didn't even sign up for the Grand Fondo because I didn't want to work that hard. So you beat me in your race, too. 

I kind of  agree with Paul (was it Paul? Don't make me go back and look!) about going into these killer events unprepared. Maybe you need to concentrate on a different kind of challenge such as getting faster in shorter events.

The other thing is, you can train for the longer events without doing a ton of long rides every weekend. Maybe it's not ideal when you haven't got the big base of someone doing long rides for years before family intervenes, but it will work well enough. What you need to do is more shorter rides at high intensity. Like two 25-35 mile tempo rides a week most week and a long ride maybe every month.

I can do a 25 mile tempo ride in 90 min. and you are a faster biker than me. So you could do one during the week and one on the weekend and get on the trainer few other times a week for an hour of HIIT and that would not be a big impact on your family. Oh and do strength training 2 days a week. If you workout 6 times a week for an average of an hour each time, that is not a lot of time and the trainer rides can be done watching tv with the family and you can do a bunch of the strength training at home too. You may even get your son into doing it.

This assumes you aren't training for tris, of course, and need to also swim and run.

I forgot to mention that I want to do a double century this upcoming season. I'm thinking of maybe the Davis Double. Want to join me?

Hell yeah, I actually wanted to do the California Triple crown this year, that's 3 doubles in a year.

However my training partner bailed on me.

The other thing I was thinking of doing was a whole brevet series
200k
300k
400k
600k

My club, Davis's club and S.F. club all run them.

I'd really like to do some combination of those or the doubles.
It would be great to have a riding partner.

Scott

We should talk when I get back from Furnace Creek 508 (I'm crewing, not riding). I will be picking the brains of the rider and his spouse who both do endurance biking the whole weekend!