 Tête de Nate, Tête de Louis XVI (on the N91). |  Post mass café + crossword. |
 Leaving the Bourg, starting the climb. |  One of 21 hairpin turns. |
 Arrivée |  L'Alaska (thinking of the Sitka crew...) |
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Photos
I finally got my photos developed!!
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Please...
If you bike, ALWAYS wear your helmet. Mine saved my brain tonight.
I was biking across the Walnut Street bridge when a car came flying down an intersecting cross street. I saw that the driver was about to run the red light and that they didn't see me. I hit the brakes. With the rain and wet road surface, my wheels locked up and skidded on the metal bridge joint embedded in the pavement. My bike crashed on top of me and with my feet pinned by the bike, the upper part of my body accelerated towards the ground. The first part of my body to make contact was a spot just above my left temple. I sensed that my head was hit hard and prepared to black out (I have some experience getting knocked out: by a golf club--thanks Mollie!--and several baseball incidents), but quickly realized that the sensation I'd felt was not my skull hitting the pavement but the foam of my helmet compacting. I was able to get up, dust off my scrapes, and get back on the bike. I have no doubt that if I had not been wearing my helmet, I'd be in HUP (Penn Hospital) right now, or worse.
I was biking across the Walnut Street bridge when a car came flying down an intersecting cross street. I saw that the driver was about to run the red light and that they didn't see me. I hit the brakes. With the rain and wet road surface, my wheels locked up and skidded on the metal bridge joint embedded in the pavement. My bike crashed on top of me and with my feet pinned by the bike, the upper part of my body accelerated towards the ground. The first part of my body to make contact was a spot just above my left temple. I sensed that my head was hit hard and prepared to black out (I have some experience getting knocked out: by a golf club--thanks Mollie!--and several baseball incidents), but quickly realized that the sensation I'd felt was not my skull hitting the pavement but the foam of my helmet compacting. I was able to get up, dust off my scrapes, and get back on the bike. I have no doubt that if I had not been wearing my helmet, I'd be in HUP (Penn Hospital) right now, or worse.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Holy crap
Part of the reason I started running is that I had a checkup and my blood pressure was higher than normal for my age. Hypertension, along with the usual constellation of heart issues, runs in my (proud!) Polish family--e.g., my grandfather's brothers all died in their 50s, and he had a triple bypass in '86 followed by a series of stents etc. Anyways, my mom bought me a device for measuring my blood pressure at home... and all this obsessive running has brought my blood pressure down from pre-hypertension to "normal". I was also shocked to find out that my resting heart rate (at 6.30am) was 42. Usually it is in the 50s. Is 42bpm too slow?
Update: it's up at 63. I must have still been half asleep.
Update: it's up at 63. I must have still been half asleep.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Week of 18 June
5.5(girard st bridge), 3(pottruck), 0(bike), 6(pottruck), 0(rest), 10.5(falls road), 7(columbia bridge) = 32
Sunday, June 18, 2006
New blogging style
Total mileage is what I'm going to be interested in building up for a while, and it just tends to get lost in a rambly, discursive blog. I may still sometimes write longer entries, but mostly I'll be sticking to the bare essentials. Here's this week.
7.75+0+4+3+3+5.5+7.5=30.75
7.75+0+4+3+3+5.5+7.5=30.75
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Run
Wednesday: a final 4mi run in France, just up to the Domene bridge and back.
Thursday: a beautiful day in Philly; 3mi up to the art museum and back.
Thursday: a beautiful day in Philly; 3mi up to the art museum and back.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Goodbye East River Loop
Sometimes you have to say goodbye to things that you love.
Tonight was my last time running my favorite loop in Isère. 7.75mi total. The sun had already set behind the Vercors when I set out, turning the hazy clouds all pink. Totally beautiful. It is such a pretty loop, with nice soft, but not-too-soft, dirt trails and the constant sound of water rushing past. It reminds me of running alongside the Deerfield, then plunging in at Alan's rock.
Tomorrow will be a short out and back, if at all.
With two dinners to go, it is truly clean out the cupboard time. Tonight's invention: whole wheat couscous, tomato sauce, tofu, emmental.
Tonight was my last time running my favorite loop in Isère. 7.75mi total. The sun had already set behind the Vercors when I set out, turning the hazy clouds all pink. Totally beautiful. It is such a pretty loop, with nice soft, but not-too-soft, dirt trails and the constant sound of water rushing past. It reminds me of running alongside the Deerfield, then plunging in at Alan's rock.
Tomorrow will be a short out and back, if at all.
With two dinners to go, it is truly clean out the cupboard time. Tonight's invention: whole wheat couscous, tomato sauce, tofu, emmental.
Alpe d'Huez
Random observation: have been filling my head with the Shins again; they fit my current mood(s) perfectly.
Before my long report, here are some photos, a map, and a video!
I love baseball, but I will never get the chance to play on the grass at Fenway; I love hockey, but I probably won't ever skate at the Joe; I love college football, but I can't get (legally) get a pickup game with friends at the Big House (ok, ok, one can sneak into Michigan Stadium without too much trouble). Endurance sports are different. You can pay your fee and ski a loppet with Olympic champions (and a few thousand others), you can run in a marathon with the world record holders, and although you can't actually enter the TdF, on most days of the year you can get on your bike and have a go at its most famous climb. Alpe d'Huez is neither the longest climb in cycling, (13.8km), nor the tallest (~700m up to 1800m); but its 21 hairpin turns, each labeled with a sign commemorating a winner an Alpe d'Huez TdF stage, have seen some great racing and fantastic duels, including "the look" from Armstrong-Ullrich in 2001 (click on the last photo above). It did not disappoint.
I'd been wanting to climb the darn thing since I bought my bike (a sweet, sweet Libera, from ca. 1986) a few months back. Unfortunately there is only one road that goes between Grenoble and the Bourg, the N91. It is a pretty road, climbin up alongside the Romanche through the Gorges of the same name, but also quite busy. The "N" roads are definitely not as friendly for cyclists as the "D" roads I've been using. As a result, I kept delaying and delaying. Finally, last weekend, I decided to go for it. The original plan was to leave work promptly at 5pm on Friday and make it to the Bourg by dark, do the climb on Saturday morning, and ride back that day. I started out around 6pm, stopped at Carrefour to load up on fruit and a hearty breakfast for the next day, but then got very lost trying to get over the Rocade Sud near Echirolles. Then I realized I'd forgotten my lights and all my cold/rain gear. These facts made me a little worried, and started to wonder if I should turn back or check into a hotel as the sun set behind the Vercors. Disasters in adventures like this always start out so innocently, and I imagined myself stuck in the middle of nowhere, sans lumière, biking in the dark next to a busy highway. But I kept pressing on near Vizelle, when bang I heard an explosion then the sound of metal snapping. My back tire, which was very old and thin, had exploded and a spoke broke. I'm not sure if it was the rough road surface, the heat of my wheels (I was whipping along at a pretty good pace which would have heated up my tires and, well, PV=nRT). I took this as a sign that I should go home and try again the next day. I had no idea how I would get home, but when I walked to the next town, I found that there was a 20.48 train back to Grenoble. I ditched my bike near the bike shop and walked home.
The next morning I woke up early, bought two new tires, new tubes, finally found a spoke of the correct length at my third bike shop, installed it (my wheel is not quite true, but I figured it would do; I only need it for one more week), and started out again mid-afternoon. The ride to the Bourg was beautiful, but harder than I expected. From Grenoble, it is about 40 miles and 500m climbing to the base. I met an 86 year old man (the first fact he told me) at a water fountain around mile 20, and he told me it was 31 degrees (about 88F). I finally made it to the Bourg in the late afternoon, shopped for some postcards, bought an IHT, ate a nice pasta dinner, and checked into Hôtel Terminus to watch the Coupe de Monde and get a good night's sleep.
Sunday I woke up, ate my two-day old breakfast of yogurt, bananas, and croissant, and then went to the fastest mass I've ever been to outside of Ireland. It was 28 minutes, and included the priest saying "depechez-vous!" to the cantor at one point. Unbelievable. I guess he had somewhere better to be? After breakfast I went to a café and had two big coffees, had a go at Will Shortz's best, and climbed on the bike around 1. Most of the hardcore riders had gone up in the morning, while the sun was low, and were descending as I started out. Following what I read about climbing from Chris Carmichael's website, I started out deliberately slow, and got some rest in. Surprisingly, the first 1/3 went really fast. I didn't need water, my legs felt great (no knee twinge like in the Vercors, which had reappeared on Saturday, and had me worried... I think a higher seat might have helped). The grade is about 8% average which again isn't that steep, but unlike other climbs, it never flattens out. Pretty much the only relief your legs get are on the hairpin turns themselves. Still, between 16 and 15, there is a long stretch with no hairpins. You're still climbing, but it's a wee bit flatter. I'd read some about this climb, so I knew to expect it and was able to slip down a few gears and make up some time. Otherwise, I thihnk I would have been depressed. The middle section of the course is a blur. I hoped to hold back for the final third, and really for the last 3 turns, but I remember it being really hot, it being difficult to keep the bike straight (when you're going slow climbing, you can lose a lot of energy if your front tire is wobbling), and pouring some of my bottle on my face a few times. Finally, turn 7 came and I felt free to up the pace again. Then 6, a long stretch to 5, 4, 3, 2, where a photographer pops out of nowhere and snaps a bunch of photos and hands you a flyer, turn 1, then into town! Again, I knew that the TdF finish was a ways into town, but I didn't quite realize how far away it would be. Watch the video of Armstrong. The "look" to Ullrich comes at the very end of the climb and he pedals away like crazy to the finish. It still takes him a while to get there. Well, I was not pedalling anywhere close to that speed. But after the roundabout, there's a little downhill (or maybe just flat, it felt like downhill!) and I picked up speed and sprinted through to the finish.
I highly recommend a trip for anyone who likes cycling, especially if you're a TdF fan. Doing that climb is something I will never forget; watching the video now makes me want to go do it again!
Before my long report, here are some photos, a map, and a video!
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I love baseball, but I will never get the chance to play on the grass at Fenway; I love hockey, but I probably won't ever skate at the Joe; I love college football, but I can't get (legally) get a pickup game with friends at the Big House (ok, ok, one can sneak into Michigan Stadium without too much trouble). Endurance sports are different. You can pay your fee and ski a loppet with Olympic champions (and a few thousand others), you can run in a marathon with the world record holders, and although you can't actually enter the TdF, on most days of the year you can get on your bike and have a go at its most famous climb. Alpe d'Huez is neither the longest climb in cycling, (13.8km), nor the tallest (~700m up to 1800m); but its 21 hairpin turns, each labeled with a sign commemorating a winner an Alpe d'Huez TdF stage, have seen some great racing and fantastic duels, including "the look" from Armstrong-Ullrich in 2001 (click on the last photo above). It did not disappoint.
I'd been wanting to climb the darn thing since I bought my bike (a sweet, sweet Libera, from ca. 1986) a few months back. Unfortunately there is only one road that goes between Grenoble and the Bourg, the N91. It is a pretty road, climbin up alongside the Romanche through the Gorges of the same name, but also quite busy. The "N" roads are definitely not as friendly for cyclists as the "D" roads I've been using. As a result, I kept delaying and delaying. Finally, last weekend, I decided to go for it. The original plan was to leave work promptly at 5pm on Friday and make it to the Bourg by dark, do the climb on Saturday morning, and ride back that day. I started out around 6pm, stopped at Carrefour to load up on fruit and a hearty breakfast for the next day, but then got very lost trying to get over the Rocade Sud near Echirolles. Then I realized I'd forgotten my lights and all my cold/rain gear. These facts made me a little worried, and started to wonder if I should turn back or check into a hotel as the sun set behind the Vercors. Disasters in adventures like this always start out so innocently, and I imagined myself stuck in the middle of nowhere, sans lumière, biking in the dark next to a busy highway. But I kept pressing on near Vizelle, when bang I heard an explosion then the sound of metal snapping. My back tire, which was very old and thin, had exploded and a spoke broke. I'm not sure if it was the rough road surface, the heat of my wheels (I was whipping along at a pretty good pace which would have heated up my tires and, well, PV=nRT). I took this as a sign that I should go home and try again the next day. I had no idea how I would get home, but when I walked to the next town, I found that there was a 20.48 train back to Grenoble. I ditched my bike near the bike shop and walked home.
The next morning I woke up early, bought two new tires, new tubes, finally found a spoke of the correct length at my third bike shop, installed it (my wheel is not quite true, but I figured it would do; I only need it for one more week), and started out again mid-afternoon. The ride to the Bourg was beautiful, but harder than I expected. From Grenoble, it is about 40 miles and 500m climbing to the base. I met an 86 year old man (the first fact he told me) at a water fountain around mile 20, and he told me it was 31 degrees (about 88F). I finally made it to the Bourg in the late afternoon, shopped for some postcards, bought an IHT, ate a nice pasta dinner, and checked into Hôtel Terminus to watch the Coupe de Monde and get a good night's sleep.
Sunday I woke up, ate my two-day old breakfast of yogurt, bananas, and croissant, and then went to the fastest mass I've ever been to outside of Ireland. It was 28 minutes, and included the priest saying "depechez-vous!" to the cantor at one point. Unbelievable. I guess he had somewhere better to be? After breakfast I went to a café and had two big coffees, had a go at Will Shortz's best, and climbed on the bike around 1. Most of the hardcore riders had gone up in the morning, while the sun was low, and were descending as I started out. Following what I read about climbing from Chris Carmichael's website, I started out deliberately slow, and got some rest in. Surprisingly, the first 1/3 went really fast. I didn't need water, my legs felt great (no knee twinge like in the Vercors, which had reappeared on Saturday, and had me worried... I think a higher seat might have helped). The grade is about 8% average which again isn't that steep, but unlike other climbs, it never flattens out. Pretty much the only relief your legs get are on the hairpin turns themselves. Still, between 16 and 15, there is a long stretch with no hairpins. You're still climbing, but it's a wee bit flatter. I'd read some about this climb, so I knew to expect it and was able to slip down a few gears and make up some time. Otherwise, I thihnk I would have been depressed. The middle section of the course is a blur. I hoped to hold back for the final third, and really for the last 3 turns, but I remember it being really hot, it being difficult to keep the bike straight (when you're going slow climbing, you can lose a lot of energy if your front tire is wobbling), and pouring some of my bottle on my face a few times. Finally, turn 7 came and I felt free to up the pace again. Then 6, a long stretch to 5, 4, 3, 2, where a photographer pops out of nowhere and snaps a bunch of photos and hands you a flyer, turn 1, then into town! Again, I knew that the TdF finish was a ways into town, but I didn't quite realize how far away it would be. Watch the video of Armstrong. The "look" to Ullrich comes at the very end of the climb and he pedals away like crazy to the finish. It still takes him a while to get there. Well, I was not pedalling anywhere close to that speed. But after the roundabout, there's a little downhill (or maybe just flat, it felt like downhill!) and I picked up speed and sprinted through to the finish.
I highly recommend a trip for anyone who likes cycling, especially if you're a TdF fan. Doing that climb is something I will never forget; watching the video now makes me want to go do it again!
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Alpe d'What?!
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81 minutes, 5 seconds for the actual climb. Not the fastest time (anything under an hour is considered exceppent for an amateur; Armstrong did it in 37 minutes a few years ago) but I was happy (a) to have the crappiest bike, by far, on the mountain today (b) to not stop once and (c) to pass a few other people on the way up and not get passed. Full report to come!
Friday, June 09, 2006
Foiled again!
I was about 25km outside of Grenoble tonight when my tire exploded. There is a 3cm long gash and I can see straight through to the chambre à l'air. I also broke a spoke.
I was lucky to catch the last train back to Grenoble, and then a tram to Meylan, where I stashed my vélo at Decathlon. I'll pick it up tomorrow, change tires and repair spoke, and head back towards the Bourg in the morning.
I was lucky to catch the last train back to Grenoble, and then a tram to Meylan, where I stashed my vélo at Decathlon. I'll pick it up tomorrow, change tires and repair spoke, and head back towards the Bourg in the morning.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Vercors
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I'm deferring a full write-up for another day. For now, here are some photos from last week's bike ride in the Vercors. Am still hoping for good weather and a go at Alpe d'Huez this weekend.
Yesterday, I got back to the running grind: 7.75 miles on the river. Ordering two pairs of new 2110s for summer running in Philly. I've been wearing the ones I've been running on here all the time. They never really get a chance to dry out and have gone dead very quickly (just 3 months). I'm getting all kinds of aches and pains in my calves, joints, etc. No good!
