Victor Solanoy

I went on one of the first major bike rides since the ankle incident. I went with my sister, who’s a cycling enthusiast. As usual, we started at Hellyer Park down past Morgan Hill’s downtown to Sunshine Bicycle on Monterey Rd. Neither of us had extra tubes, so we figured this might be a good place to stop and get some emergency supplies. Fortunately, I have a handful of CO2 canisters for my handheld pump. We shared a burrito at Chiptle’s (yum) and some chips. We both vowed not to eat such a heavy meal in the middle of a ride. A nice salad or small sandwich would probably have worked just fine.
On this ride, I learned that more PSI in the tires makes for a more efficient ride. This time I put 90psi — the tires have allow up to 120psi. My sister urged me to go to 120psi — maybe the next ride. I was able to get my average speed to about 13 MPH! That’s my fastest average yet! Yay!
The only downer was my thighs started to cramp up — need to remember to eat bananas before the ride, take some with me. I also learned that salt would help alleviate the tightening of the muscle.
As far as cardio — had no problems keeping up and wasn’t winded at any point during the ride while keeping my pace higher than usual. The other great news was I wasn’t tired after the ride — tight muscles yes (post cramps), and was fine the following day! My quick intervals in the East Foothills of San Jose seems to be working!

I got my first flat — luckily it happened just as I was leaving the house. I thought getting the tire off was going to be difficult — I didn’t take into account the narrower width of the tires themselves, making mounting the tube a little tricky. I thought I had everything in place, when I saw the that the tire wasn’t mounted properly by the valve. It took some thinking to get the pad surrounding the valve up, and over the hook/lip of the tire. I finally got it. I was afraid to inflate the tire — if I had pinched the tube, I would know quickly. Luckily, I inflated to 80 lbs, and everything was good.

It’s been a while since I’ve been on my bike — a few weeks ago I thought I sprained my ankle badly, to the point where I couldn’t sleep or walk because of the pain. I ended up being diagnosed with tendonitis with some arthritis because of over-use. Bummer. I asked about the AIDS ride, and it turns out that I’ll just need to keep it wrapped and down Motrin to keep painfree.

Well, I braved a still sore ankle and got on the bike. The first mile was tough because of the pain. As soon as I got into my groove, everything was good. While there was still some discomfort, I was able to ease into almost 10-miles (mostly because I got off to way too late of a start), good thing is that most of the ride was mostly hills.

In the end, everything was pretty smooth… glad to be on the bike again!

I went took a trip to the emergency room because the pain in my foot and ankle became unbearable. After talking to an advice nurse, I went in, got x-rays… the whole thing. Turns out that my foot and ankle were suffering from overuse. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to take part in the ride because of this. The doctor said that I would still be able to take part, but I’ll need to keep a wrap on it while not riding, and to carry Motrin at all times. For now, I need to give my foot a rest.

I’m bummed… my ankle hurts… and I can’t walk.

I’m consolidating my training activities to a single blog to make things easier for everyone. Remember, you can sponsor me by visiting http://www.aidslifecycle.org/1545

Thanks Perry for your support! I’ve known Perry since college… which is way, way longer in the past than I’d like to admit.

I was reminded by my sister that 15 year old helmets provide no protection, so I went out and purchased a new helmet. In this case, I spent more than I normally would have and got the Giro Pneumo, sporting the Performance Bike colors. I also got better eye protection than my standard, everyday glasses. The eye protection is the Cat-1 Prologue with photochromatic lenses. The eye protection came with 2 sets of lenses, the ones you see here, and a photochromatic orange set.

I’m about to use this stuff for the first time in a few minutes as I head out the door to do a quick 20 mile ride.

There are a couple other things that quite a few people have recommended. They are:

Going to a carbon fibre fork – I learned just the other day that this may not be as easy because of the type of front brake I have. I’d have to buy a new brake in order to do this. Next best thing recommended by tons of people is…
Replacing the handlebar with a carbon fibre handlebar. Luckily, this isn’t too expensive, and the guys at Performance in Campbell said they’d install it for cheap. Since I’m using a flatbar roadbike, I’d like to switch out with a carbon fibre flatbar. The carbon fibre flatbar feels like I’m picking up an empty paper towel roll. Crazy!
Replace the seatpost with carbon fibre — everyone’s told me that this really lightens the bike. I know in doing comparisons, the stock tubes are definitely far heavier than the carbon fibre. Like the flatbar, it too is crazy light.
Need to find the right saddle. I’m not sure how to determine which is the best for me at this point other than to sit on it and ride.
I’m going to have to do this slowly… this sport is really expensive.

This is all in preparation for the 2008 AIDS/Lifecycle ride, a 545 mile journey between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Help me raise $2500 by making a tax deductable donation. Help find a cure for AIDS. http://www.aidslifecycle.org/1545

Thank you Collette from Canada for making a donation! Collette is this cool girl from Regina, Canada I met at Usability Week in San Francisco. She likes to ride too, so when the opportunity arises, be sure to support her too!

To further my commitment to my objectives of competing the 545 mile ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, I picked up a bike for training and riding.

I don’t have a whole lot of money to dedicate to this, but I also didn’t want to get something that I would end up regretting. I was choosing between the Fuji Absolute 3.0 and the Schwinn SuperSport, both flat bar road bikes. I had seen the Fuji Absolute 3.0 on sale a few days ago and thought that it might be the bike based on some of the tech specs and the reviews, unfortunately, they had only one in the wrong size.

When I got some help, the bike shop guy pointed out that there was another alternative — the GT Legato 4.0. It’s another flat bar road bike that appeared to be lighter than the Fuji (roughly 24 lbs from what I gathered on the web). I still wanted to try the Schwinn. These were the only two bikes in the price range I could barely afford.

I got fitted for both bikes, they took my driver’s license and my debit card, signed my life away and did a quick test ride on both. The first out was the GT Legato — wow was this bike nice. Nice solid ride without being jarring. The gearing ration was such that I could get this bike up to speed and maintain my speed with little effort on level ground. Since it’s gearing is more road bike than mountain bike, I’m a bit worried about hills. Since I live in east hills of San Jose, I’ll find out what I’m in store for once I get it on the road. Unlike my mountain bike, this bike doesn’t have a climbing gear. Good thing I’m starting the training regiment… only long sucky hills will suck, just suck less when I’m in better shape. I’m not too keen on the thumb/index finger shifting… it could just be that I’m not used to them. I’ve been using the twist shift on my mountain bike for quite some time. Anyway, to the bike. The bike’s seating position was perfect — there was nothing unnatural about my position and could feel that the energy I put into the bike translated into movement… instantly. The Legato felt great!

I returned to the shop and tried the Schwinn. It wasn’t terrible, but it didn’t feel solid. I could feel some of the road reverberate though the frame of the bike, and the stock handlebars were a bit too narrow for my taste. The effort I put into the bike didn’t seem to translate into immediate movement either. I had to put a little bit more effort into the bike to get it up to speed, and worse yet, I had to put more effort into maintaining my speed. They did check tire pressure before taking it out, I don’t think it had anything to do with the tires. Something about it didn’t feel as satisfying or fulfilling. It just wasn’t for me.

In the end, I walked out of the store with the GT Legato 4.0… I might have a chance to ride a little bit on Friday, but more Sunday than anything else… This was one of those cases where I had a budget, walked into the store and walked out under budget (including tax). Yay!

Next I have to formulate a plan for fundraising. The ALC rider pages won’t be up until late Friday… more info to come.

My wife is still unsure about whether or not she will be participating. She’s worried about riding 545 miles — so am I, but I figure that tons of people have done it… so why can’t I.

Also, my sister is riding the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Start to Finish Tour in October in Southern California. It’s kind of neat the both me and my sister are doing something in common. Although we’re really close, we really haven’t had much in common — she’s really out going and I’m a geek…