Last Rides of January

Sat: Since I didn't ride at all during the week (last week) I thought that I would be ready to rip the pedal off the bike on Saturday - NOT REALLY!

Since nobody called, I set of on my long ride by myself a little earlier than usual, 8:30ish, which is actually very late by other peoples standards. The weather was not as good as the past couple of weeks as the winds were really gusting so instead of doing Tantalus then a windy Hawaii Kai loop, I decided to do a double Tantalus instead.

I started more conservatively than the week before and averaged 254 watts for the climb. Ttytt, I was not really satisfied as I thought it would be in the 260ish range considering the 5 day rest I had. The second Tantalus, I did in 4 parts on the way back down (ie. from the top, go down a bit, climb back up, repeat until the bottom) and didn't have much in the tank. My legs for the rest of the ride (and day!) were totally shot - similar to how your legs feel after the Marathon! I ended up with 3h 53min RT and 93kms and the ride must have been hard as I actually burned more energy (Kilojoules) than the Saturday before when I had more seat time and kilometers!

There are more and more people out on the road nowadays and I saw Garrett Ito, the 2 time Dick Evans Memorial Bike Race winner in Kaimuki. I was NOT going to follow him out to Hawaii Kai after my double Tantalus though. One thing I noticed about Garrett was that he was spinning well over 100rpm all the way through Kaimuki, something to think about...

Sun: Since my legs still felt pounded, I just went out for a 2 hour ride at low power and very high cadences (taking notes from Saturday). By the end of the ride, my legs felt better.

Tues: Tonight I tested my new light out and guess what...it conked out about 30 minutes into my ride! But, not to worry as I wanted to burn whatever charge the battery had so that I can safely recharge the new battery from a fully discharged state. I'll probably use the light for some interval work on Lagoon Drive tomorrow. Btw, I had a big smile on my face as the light was AWESOME while it was working, very very bright and white!

DIY Bicycle Light - Done!

Taadaaaa.....Well it ain't exactly pretty, and it ain't totally waterproof (yet) but...it works FABULOUSLY!!!

I put the finishing touches on my light today and after a short spin around the block tonight I'd have to say the verdict is in...the Naysayers must admit DEFEAT! (Ohhhh yeahhhh Gibosamamamama!!!)

The accounting:

• $70.00 NiMH Battery and Charger - BatterySpace.com
• $1.10 Bulb Socket - BatterSpace.com
• $1.20 Fuse - BatterySpace.com
• $4.60 Switch - BatterSpace.com
• $6.50 20 W MR-16 Bulb - Home Depot
• $2.00 PVC Fittings - Home Depot
• $1.00 Screws - Home Depot
• $3.60 Heat Shrink Tubing - Radio Shack
• $1.00 Surgical Tubing - Kilgos
• $91.00 TOTAL

Free stuff I had at home: solder, electrical tape, silicon sealer, battery pouch (from old Performance light).

Unbelievable...for under $100 bucks and a little time you can build a great functional light. In fact, this light is even better than most halogen lights out there since it uses a big MR-16 bulb versus the usual MR-11 which is much smaller!

For the geeks, this overvolted light should burn about this long per charge:

Amps: 20W /13.2V = 1.5 Amps
Battery Capacity: 4.5 Amp Hours
Theoretical Run Time: 4.5 /1.5 = 3 Hours
Probable Run Time: 80% x 3 Hours = 2.4 Hours

Can't wait to try it out later this week! I'll provide a follow up report then - and remember:

You can hit what you can't see...Ride Enlightened - Serikaku Lighting Company

Here for: Part 2
Here for: Part 1

DIY Bicycle Light - Part 2

LET THERE BE LIGHT!!!!

Get out your nite sunglasses cause the Serikaku Lighting Company is IN BUSINESSSSS!!!!!

After clearing up a mix up at Batterspace.com, I finally got my 13.2V NiMH battery along with some other small do-dads to complete the job. All I need to do now is the small details like wiring, soldering and mounting. I can't wait to hit the road. The beam is really white and this thing is going to be a flame thrower out on those late interval sessions on Lagoon Drive. Stay tuned as I plan to finish it up this weekend...no matter what the Naysayers say...

For the first part of this project, see here: DIY Part 1

This weekend's long rides

Saturday's Ride: Today I rode 103kms in 4 hrs 7min RT. I rode with my friends Darin and Mark and they probably ended up with close to the same mileage too since they started from Alewa. The weather was nice and cool considering we started at about 9:30 and were out on the road for close to 5 hours - thanks to a flat I got near Ala Moana.

On the climb up Tantalus, I found out that my eyes were bigger than my legs. For over 7 mins, I was surprised to see my power output at 270 watts and feeling pretty good - I thought! Then all of a sudden, I totally "blew" and REALLY struggled the rest of the climb at 235 watts for an average of 247 watts. I probably would have been smarter to climb at a steady 250 watts or so but...since I had "competition" on this ride, adrenalin took over and I went WAY to hard. This probably was the same with Mark since he said he was at 195bpm in the beginning of the climb!

The rest of our ride, except for the flat, was pretty good with some paceline work mixed in for fun. I felt decently strong till the end, Darin too (I think), Mark probably could have used a little salt.

Sunday's Ride: 68kms and 2hrs 45min. I just went out on a very easy spin and although my legs felt sort of ok, I just didn't have any "pop" at all and didn't feel that good mentally either. (So much for the theory of feeling better after the first hour.) But, in light of how I was feeling, there were some interesting things to be seen today.

One was the radio controlled car racing off of Lagoon Drive. If you've never seen RC racing in person, you wouldn't think so but, it is a very exciting spectator sport!

The other cool thing was the radio controlled yacht sailing in the Ala Moana Park Lagoon, which was very relaxing and made me want to just take a nap...under a tree...

For more ride pictures, click here:Latest Cycling Pics

Got the MOJO back!

FINALLY...After not being able to ride for two weeks, I really felt like riding this weekend. And ride I did!

Sat: Jan 14th
What a nice day it was! This morning I met up with my friend Mark and since I was just coming off a cold, I decided to go ez but fairly long. I let Mark pull into most of the upwind sections with me tucked in just just hovering at about 150 to 170 watts. I thought of doing my regular long ride Tantalus climb, but after an hour warmup, I knew that it would too stressful today - even if I climbed slow! So we decided to do a Hawaii Kai loop and on the way back, do a shortend Tantalus to the stop sign at a very ez pace (Mark decided to go a little harder and hit 190hr!). Well everything went as planned and I finished the ride feeling pretty good. I ended up with 95km.

Sun: Jan 15th
My legs felt really "packed" from yesterday's ride so I just went out for an easy recovery ride today. Once thing fun about these Sunday rides is that I just cruise around and do what ever I want - no pressure to be "training!"

Today, I took some pictures of this neat sculpture called Dream Leaves in front of the new Kakaako UH Medical School, saw a shot or two of the Hawaiian Open, and on the way home, ran into my friend John from team Cambio. Since we met on Ala Wai Blvd, I rode with him all the way to Kalihi.

I also finally got to try out my new Defeet Armskins that I got as a Christmas gift from my friend Darin. They look super cool (well actually...if you look at the pics, you can tell it's the "model" making the skins look super kakkoii!) and hopefully they will work in protecting my arms from sunburn. I ended up doing 2h 35min rt and 68km.

Mon: Jan 16th (Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday)
Since it was a holiday, I decided to go out for a short afternoon spin even though my legs felt even more "packed" than yesterday. I really wanted to ride, and after about 1 hour or so, my legs actually felt better than when I started - as theory says they are supposed too! One thing about today though, for some reason there was a LOT of traffic on the road! I ended up doing 2h and 51km.

So, as you can see, it was a great weekend and the real start of my 2006! Happy New Year everybody! Click on this for all this weekend's pics!

2005 - Riding Stats

Total Kms: 9,700 (6,025 Miles)
Total Hrs: 360
Total Kms in Japan: 251 (Rode with - Shizuka, Nishikawa-san, Kushima-san and wife, and Ats&Taeko and Hai-san)
Number of time up Tantalus: 37
Best Personal Race: Mokuleia TT - 28:03 @ 40.9kph @ 281w @ 19.1km
2005 State Criterium
www.sailsurf.net

That's 2005 in a nutshell! Not really that much mileage by "real racer" standards, but not that bad either...an all time high for myself. Hopefully, I can put in say about 400 hours this year...we'll see.

Good, safe and fun riding to everyone in 2006!