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45 minutes on the smart trainer with Zwift. I'm not bored yet. And we're looking at real rain come Monday. We had hail Friday night and rain again last night. Hard rains and wind that was loud enough to wake me.
I've been sort of trying to maintain a steady power output, but I'm really bad at it. Too many years of riding by feel of effort or road resistance is the culprit. My goal really is to just keep my cadence up and put the time in on relatively flat stuff. There are sharp little 11% peaking climbs on the Central Park sky routes. Exploring in these virtual world is less interesting than the Kinomap exploring.
 
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Did 1:15 today on Kinomap and the smart trainer. Finished the week with a bit over 4 hours. No pain, just sore quads from that month of sitting.


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This was a fun route. A lot of it I'd done on the back of a friends motorcycle and a good bit more of it walking with my wife back in 2007.

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There was some climbing to be worked. Three or four little stingers. Not too long, but they got steep in spots.

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I don't get quite as hard of work on Kinomap as on Zwift. But, I was slower than the video speed on the steep stuff. I managed to keep my HR down in Zone 2 more.
I ended the workout sweaty, but not exhausted. There is a nice long spin at the end as well as a short warmup spin at the front end. Where Zwift routes always seem to have a bigger effort right off the start. Back when I was riding indoors during lockdown, I would do short flat spins first then do the harder effort sessions to complete. Now, that I'm able to get an hour on the trainer I'll see how I do this next week.

Our next storm has just begun to show up in the last hour, spitting rain on the windows with plenty of wind and a lot chillier temperatures.

I think this is going to work well for this recovery.

Oh, and I figured out the auto upload issue. It seems when creating the original Kinomap account I needed to do so by connecting Strava, but that was not an option back in 2020. And is not fixable now, unless I created a new account. The auto upload from Zwift is working just fine and I can manually download the files to then upload to Strava from Kinomap. So, I've got enough options to keep me interested and entertained until the weather gets nice.
 
Here at the extreme south end of Orange County on coast is fine. Blowing with rain, but no where near as much rain has LA and parts north and central.

We have a forecast through the 10th for aerial flooding which is a slow building possible flooding. We are 120' above sea level and a half mile back and a block from the nearest drainage which is of course a paved street.


In other news, I did 46 minutes on Zwift this morning. The best workout route I've ever had on any app. Nice long warmup over flat to rolling roads then bigger rollers with short little kicks just to keep me shifting and working hard. It is a 90 minute route and I stopped at the first lap because the battery was all but dead on my watch, 5% left. And the phone I was running the app with was also low on power. I'd left the phone on the charger overnight, but it was not quite sitting right so didn't actually charge, or a cat knocked it a bit. No idea.
The watch had a bunch of apps running I did not know were still running. Kinomap had been running since the day prior.

It is definitely harder work on Zwift than Kinomap thanks to others to chase and sprints and KOMs.A lot of really fast riders going by.
 
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Here it is ice and snow above 1000m, occasional freezing rain (that warms very quickly) below. Often riding through cloud base. Sometimes on top. That is glorious. Riding or doing anything outdoors we have to learn to stay warm and dry. It is not unique though, just look at all the northerners in the US and Canada on the other forum. I enjoy riding the Wilier Rave with gravel tyres on winter roads.

Road geometry with room for 40mm tyres has become a hit btw. Great on poor winter roads in horrible weather and urban roads and cycle paths in any conditions. My steel and Ti bikes are used mostly for the latter. Rave is highly recommended for everything and Colnago C68 Allroad peaks my interest.

Zwift fliers... It is interesting to see their Strava profiles.
 
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Heading into the weekend with 4 hours of trainer time built. I'm a bit tired from it. The London climbs for an hour and a half wore me out yesterday.
Today it was Innsbruck. I took the short and latest route, still had a sharp enough climb each lap. Only managed a little over an hour 3 and a third laps.

We had enough rain overnight to flood the sidewalk next to the house. I got wet feet in my flip-flops getting the bins to the curb. Swept the water off into the flowerbeds, so it could rain twice more. Little drizzle shower storm cells slowly blowing through today.
 
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About a half hour on the trainer today. I used Kinomap in Japan. Pretty cool. Not real tough, but I managed to spend the balance of my time in zone 2, so that works.

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Another 45 minutes on Zwift this morning. Might be the last indoor ride. We'll see how the week goes. We are supposed to get 70°F by Friday. Looks to be mid to high 60's next week and dry.
I'll need two solid months of work to get myself back in the groove and begin to make up the gap on my progress. The Zwift workouts do work me harder. That dog chasing the postman thing.

The Apple Health app does an odd thing where it records the cumulative distance every five minutes, then ends up totaling it all from Strava. I have to go in and delete all the intermediate recordings to correct the total. I can't figure why anybody would want that to work like that. Makes no sense. So far I've not figured out how to fix it other than after the fact manual editing.

Not a high priority on my part.

Cleared off the workbench yesterday when I got distracted setting up the trainer and running out of time. But, I got the area cleared up a bit better. Still need to deal with a few more things down there.
 
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It is all happening here. Carnival week last week. It's a school holiday. I actually managed to get some riding in. This week I am away again for a few days and (while away) the best I'll do on the bike is a few Zwift sessions..
 
I closed both Zwift and Kinomap training. First group ride outdoors was Sunday after two days riding on my own outside.

It was really fun to ride with the group again. I'm pretty strong. The tiny bit of indoor training I did made the difference. I may have to make a real effort at it next winter when the crap weather appears. It could really be a benefit.

Anyway Sunday was the Alicia Creek Loop as they call it. Begins flat from San Juan Capistrano down the river trail to Dohenny State beach then up the short, sharp climb on Golden Lantern through the old Lantern District at PCH. Then up PCH to the Ritz-Carlton where we turn inland for some rollers over to Alsio Creek trail. We follow the creek to Margarita and head back home down that on bigger rollers with some great descents.

I managed to take it easy down the creek to DoHo, then when we hit the climb, I slowly picked up the pace toward the top. Without even trying I made my second best effort.

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We had a small group this time out. Next weekend is our "scenic" ride which is back and forth along mostly flat stuff.

I used the car and receiver rack to haul my bike and myself to the meeting point. I was not sure how I would feel riding this short distance. around 55km.

Riding to/from saves me around 20km.

The new wheels are amazing on the road. They are quick climbing and descend nicely as well. Bunny hopping speed mumps or curbs is easy and sure. I am really happy with these wheels.

Thanks to CTG for the recommendation.

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I got caught at a light and had to chase back on with the group not descending at full effort. I made it fine as I knew the group, regroups at the entrance of the Aliso Creek trail.
I still wanted to take it easy up the creek trail, but got split from the back couple of riders likely thanks to a constant slight incline. Not really a climb, just around 1% or so most of the time with a few little spikes here and there. Nothing too horrible. The front guys not hammering at whisky throttle helped me not look as slow as I was.
The little bit of Zwift riding I'd done made the difference on that part of the ride thanks to being sort of used to the effort level by feel. The memory in my legs of the trainer feels harder than the real world.

A nice benefit.

We all regrouped at El Toro and Santa Margarita parkway.

That was a good time.

Resting today with the rain outside. I'm thinking to go back to riding a loop out to the end of the creek trail near Ortega then up to the toll road bike path to Oso and back to Antonio and home. That will eventually be extended to Santa Margarita then over to Olympiad and ultimately loops of the Olympic route.

I've still got that plan in the back of my mind to complete a self supported 100 mile ride. I figure that will be a mid-week ride to avoid the weekend tourist traffic somewhere nearer mid to late June before there is a lot of heat.

That is really the plan for the rest of the year. Though once I'm able to complete the 100 ride, I figure there isn't any reason to not repeat it once a month.

And no pain in the ribs today. I could feel them overnight, but today they have relaxed and are fine as they are going to be.
 
Two 77km rides so far this week. About 3.5 hours each of today and Tuesday. Good stuff.

Got stung by a bee yesterday, on my ear. Hurt like mad for about an hour, then the side of my face and neck swelled up a bit, but that had subsided by bed time. I could really feel my ribs today riding. Slight spasms at times, but nothing worrying. I can feel them big when I take a deep breath. I'll back the effort off another notch. I tried for zone 2 mostly today and managed 77% of the time. I can better that, but need to cut short riding the next two days. Another group ride Sunday. Flat spin ride. Should be fun. Same route we did the day I broke my ribs.

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This is a 35+ year old jersey from our old GS Cicla Vita team back in Colorado. Just barely fit. Our weather is wonderful right now. The spring break tourists have not shown up in too large of wandering hoards yet.
 
Two 77km rides so far this week. About 3.5 hours each of today and Tuesday. Good stuff.

Got stung by a bee yesterday, on my ear. Hurt like mad for about an hour, then the side of my face and neck swelled up a bit, but that had subsided by bed time. I could really feel my ribs today riding. Slight spasms at times, but nothing worrying. I can feel them big when I take a deep breath. I'll back the effort off another notch. I tried for zone 2 mostly today and managed 77% of the time. I can better that, but need to cut short riding the next two days. Another group ride Sunday. Flat spin ride. Should be fun. Same route we did the day I broke my ribs.

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This is a 35+ year old jersey from our old GS Cicla Vita team back in Colorado. Just barely fit. Our weather is wonderful right now. The spring break tourists have not shown up in too large of wandering hoards yet.
Glad to hear there is “wonderful” weather somewhere in the state.
We have a high probability of significant rain everyday in the ten day forecast.
Inland predicted snow accumulation is being measured in feet not inches.
Heck there was a water spout warning in effect for a while.
I did ride 3 of the last 4 days, but doubt I will again till mid next week at the earliest.
Almost like it’s early spring or something.
 
Yesterday began in a mist. That became drizzle. The wetness persisted on and off until I was on my way back to SJC.

I did a shorter ride expecting to get a ride in today, but that didn't happen.

Yesterday I spent 82% of my 2:40 in zone 2. Perfect.

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At this point I was about two miles from home. The drizzle let up for a few miles then came back a bit heavier. I was riding into and out of these little cells enough to keep my glasses blurry with moisture and my bike caked in grit.
I gave up on the jacket at the park because it wasn't that wet anymore. I never did dig it out again through laziness.

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Back to the beach and it was clearing skies and almost getting warm.

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It was a good ride. I was able to stay pretty for the most part, only digging deep a couple of times. I'm down 6 pounds from the end of January. That is finally the right direction.

A good bit more to go though. My ribs were a bit sore this morning, so I washed the bicycle and gave it a quick polish.

Then attacked the locking pin for the receiver rack. The OEM lock won't work with the way the Model Y is set up for towing.

I found a solution.

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The OEM lock is below the pin, the fix is the Master Lock to the left of the pin. It attaches at 90° to the shank.

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I managed three days of riding this week. About 340km.

Our trip has begun. I rode the 890AR that I spent so much time preparing to Marseille this morning with a group of other riders. An hour with customs and loading the bikes on a boat. Right now we are a couple of hours south of the city. Weather is a little wild. 30kts wind and 3-4m following seas, but I am assured that will calm down in a few hours. We should arrive in Algiers sometime around lunch tomorrow. Two days in the capital before moving on.

The plan is an easy trip taking in the sights as far as Dakar over the next few weeks, then another boat ride home.
 
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Last week was six out of seven days riding. A big week for me at 19 hours and 45 minutes. Two group rides on the weekend. I'd planned for yesterday to be a rest day. Instead plans changed and I got almost 3 hours in, mostly in zone 2. In the wind and chill. Depending on what the vaccination nets me today I'll either ride tomorrow or recover.

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Zero riding in the last week. The best I have managed in the last nine days has been hotel treadmills.

Anyway, we crossed into Morocco yesterday without difficulty. The journey continues on our club site.
 
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