Feb. 12, 2006: Riding With My Best Buddy

I have a lot of friends that I ride with and that's one of the things that makes cycling so enjoyable to me. But there is one person that I look forward to riding with every Sunday - that's Dale. Dale is my best buddy. One of the things that makes riding with Dale so much fun is that I know I can beat him in a sprint :-) Today's ride was not just the usual downtown for breakfast and back home - but yes we did do that. Today, Dale and I are going to ride down Foothill all the way to Sandhill and visit Poh-Poh (that's Chinese for Grandma). And, if all goes well, we are going to ride home. Dale is looking forward to this as much as I am and it is all he can talk about on Saturday night when we celebrate Chinese New Years. After we have breakfast at the Los Altos Cafe on 2nd St., we get geared up for our big adventure. Dale donned his new Discovery Channel jersey and black cycling shorts. To go with this he has a pair of blue sun glasses and some cycling gloves. I wore my matching Discovery Channel kit so that everyone would know that we are together :-) I give Dale some last minute prep.... things like:

• Foothill is a busy street - are you ready for cars to be going by? Dale says he is OK!
• I want you to always ride on my right hand side - away from traffic.
• You need to keep up with me and always ride next to me so I can protect you from traffic. (more on this one later :-)
  
• Don't be goofing around while you are riding.
• Ride at a constant tempo and adjust your gears to allow you to do this.
• You are going to have to go up some big hills for a 5 year old. Use 1st and 2nd gears and stand up on the pedals if you need to.

With that, we were ready to roll. As we took off there was a sense that it was a long way's to Grandma's house but we quickly found ourselves making the right hand turn onto Foothill with the cars whizzing by. Dale did great! Away we rolled down Foothill - pretty soon Dale finds himself going down the first hill at ~15 mph and decides this is too fast. We slow to about 10 mph and cruise along. I think he is still smarting from the 2 sets of stitches he has already had from bike accidents. As we roll along I am reminding him of the thngs we talked about before the ride and encouraging him to stay next to me. He struggled with this part - he kept claiming I was going too fast. But I know it was really him going too slow :-) As we rolled down Foothill there were lots of folks out on their bikes and all of them were waving at Dale - he was a real hit. Before you know it, we are approaching the hill before Page Mill and I'm trying to get him ready for his first big climb. By now he is comfortable shifting and plows right up the hill to the stoplight at Page Mill. We are about 1/2 way to Poh-Poh's house. Way to go buddy!!! We roll on past the dish, the Stanford Campus and the golf course. Dale is getting excited and keeps asking me how much further it is before we are there. I know he is not tired because he tells me he is really having fun. Then we make the right hand turn onto Junipera Serra and move into the left hand turn lane to go to Sandhill. Again, I warn him on hill he's going to have to climb on Sandhill but again, he blasts right up it when the light turns green. Next thing you know, we are at Grandma's house!!! Ride Stats For First 1/2 Ride:

1. 7.5 miles and 220 ft of vertical in 51 min.
2. Ave speed 8.3 mph
3. Max speed 15.7 mph
4. Ave HR 83 bpm
5. Max HR 107 bpm
6. Time in Zones
1. Below Light Intensity - 5%
2. Light Intensitey - 73%
3. Fat Burn - 22%
4. Aerobic - 0%
5. Max Aerobic - 0%
6. Anaerobic - 0%
   

Dales settles in for a Chasue Bau lunch. He gobbles it all down, tells Poh-Poh "thank you" and before you know it we are back on our bikes ready to head home. The trip to Grandma's was 7.5 miles and I told Adub that she needed to be on stand-by to pick Dale and I up if he was too hired to ride back. But not Dale, he was ready to go. We rolled out, down Sandhill, made the right onto Alpine and the left onto Foothill and hunkered in for the long ride. Dales figured out that all of those hills that we had to climb going to Grandma's house were going to be downhill on the way home :-) A couple of times we would get passed by some cyclists in the kits and if they were going slow enough, I'd tell Dale to go after them. You can't imagine the looks on their faces when they get passed on the left by a 5 year old in his "Lance Armstrong Jersey" riding a 20" Specialized HotRock". But Dale would motor by them and with me in tow :-) At one point, just after Aratradero, he started getting tired from all of the chansing I was making him do. We stopped and had a drink of water together and that make him feel better and he was ready to go. Not me - I gotta pee something fierce!!! As we rolled into Los Altos, we swung by Peets so I could do the needful and then headed over to Jamba Juice for a treat! Unfortunately, it started to cool off and both of us were cold and had our teeth chattering on the final stretch home. But we made it safe and sound - at least almost. Once Dale got on our street he started celebrating a little too soon and ended up crashing his bike on the curb. The poor little guys was crying and I felt sooooo bad after all the hard work he had done all day and how careful he was until now. But, he finally settled down, jumped back on his bike and we rode the rest of the way home (about 100 yards) safely. I'm really proud of my best buddy - he and I had a great time today and this is just first of many long bike rides we will do together. I can't wait for the next one and the one after that. I can't wait for the first time we do Old La Honda together. I can't wait for the first time he beats me up a climb. I will cherish that moment :-) Ride Stats For First 1/2 Ride:

1. 7.5 miles and 190 ft of vertical in 60 min.
2. Ave speed 8.1 mph
3. Max speed 18.5 mph
4. Ave HR 74 bpm
5. Max HR 103 bpm
6. Time in Zones
1. Below Light Intensity - 37%
2. Light Intensitey - 57%
3. Fat Burn - 6%
4. Aerobic - 0%
5. Max Aerobic - 0%
6. Anaerobic - 0%

Now, shut up and ride little guy :-)