Victor Solanoy

I figured I’d share my more or less daily ride. I fit this in at the end of the day. It’s roughly 9-miles in the Evergreen area of San Jose. Luckily, lots of hills, so I get lots of hill training regularly. The hills were tough the first time I started doing this, these days I get the burn and it goes away once I’m warmed up. As far as cardio is concerned, I think I’m doing pretty good. I’ve learned that a good pace gets me up even the longest hills. It’s a beautiful ride that takes me through my neighborhood and into the East Foothills. It’s beautiful this time of the year because the wildflowers are blooming — mostly mustard I’m guessing. Once in a while there’s a spring of gold here and there — my favorite flower, the golden poppy.

For fun, here’s the elevation I climb in the roughly 40-minute 9-mile ride.

I’m also checking out some extended rides on mapmyride.com. There are some pretty big rides that look interesting. There’s one from San Jose to Monterey that looks like fun. It’s about 75-miles using some back roads I’ve driven on.

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!