Today we decided to ride the tandem on the weekly club ride “Metcalf Mauler”.  We started in Morgan Hill and rode up the bike trail to San Jose.  Metcalf is a hill that we often time ourselves on and today we set a new record for how fast we could climb the hill on a tandem.  We took 11 seconds off our previous best time.  That might not sound like a lot but when you are pushing up against your limits, seconds mean all the difference.  The data for weight and heart rate are for Franz only.  Ann was really pushing hard, otherwise we could not have climbed so fast.  We beat lot of guys on single bikes up the hill.

This graph shows we climbed at a constant rate. Franz took his heart rate into the “red zone” very early and kept it there for the entire climb (click graph to enlarge).  Ann’s heart rate was also in her “red zone”.

We took a little easy on the backside, to the second regroup at the top of San Felipe.  From there we lead the large train of riders down, reaching speeds over 40 mph.  After we started to level out we kept the speed up so much than no one came around to take a pull.  Usually there is a sprint finish before the stop to turn on Farnsworth, but we were moving so fast no one tried to sprint around us, so we ended up wining the sprint finish, even after pulling all the way.  This curve shows our speed as we descended.

Categories: Cycling
No Comments »

This morning we got up to stormy weather. We had heard the rain all night in our Utah home and figured we would not be able to get in any running or cycling. Later in the morning the rain stopped so we decided to go out for a 6 mile run on the Provo canyon trail. It was unseasonally cold since even with jackets on we were feeling a bit cool. Up on the mountains we could see some SNOW from the storm!

Later in the afternoon the sun finally came out so Franz headed out on for a bike ride. He was fooled into riding with only short sleeved jersey and cycling shorts. But it was now 60 degrees so it seemed okay. He had intended to ride up Squaw Peak, but having done that four times in the last two days, he decided to go further and ride up the Alpine Loop. That road goes to over 8,000 feet so he figured he would be riding up by the snow we could see from the valley floor.

As he continued to climb, the temperatures kept dropping. heI finally reached the summit and noticed the temperature was now down to 49 degrees. He had tried to do a good time up the climb and had set a new record.

He still felt warm enough due to the climb but the descent down the Alpine Loop was COLD. HeI should have brought a jacket. He did make one stop to warm up a bit and take this photo with his iPhone to send to Ann. You can see a little snow in the distance on the hill top.

Being Labor Day, there was a lot more traffic than we usually find on this rode. This was especially true from Sundance down where Franz had many cars behind so he descended down quickly to not be in their way. That made me even more cold. In fact he was cold all the way back home. Quite an unusal ride for this time of the year.

Categories: Cycling, Running
No Comments »