06-04-2026 Run/Walk

Woke up during the night and tried to read, but I soon fell back asleep. I woke up for good around 5:00, read for a while, then got up and got ready for a run. Left the house a little after 6:00 and headed down to the park, but I changed my path in the park in an attempt to find a flatter route to run with Heather on Friday. I was successful, but this route is more winding and likely slower. I basically ran this little double loop twice before heading back home and getting to the target 5k distance before climbing back to the house. I did stretch before the run, again it seemed to help loosen up tightness in my legs.

Avg pace = 9:04/mi

Total distance = 3.13 mi

Elapsed moving time = 28:27

Avg heartrate = 115 bpm (Coospo)

Relative Effort = 5

https://www.strava.com/activities/18783844986

Got home and had some cereal and a banana for breakfast, then I made some coffee. I talked to Kathy and Heather when they came down, and Ann eventually came down as well. I went upstairs and updated my 2026 events log as well as exploring details of the planned ride up Haleakala that's coming up. Looks like I will take a similar route from Paia up to the top and back, which will add another 10 miles or so, thankfully flat, to the start of the ride from Kihei. That should still work out okay, but it is definitely going to be a challenge. The four of us left the house around 8:15 and drove down to the San Diego Zoo, arriving there right after it opened. As soon as we got in we walked over to the panda exhibit, which opened at 9:30. It was moderately interesting, we haven't seen these animals in many years. After this we walked through other parts of the zoo. The polar bear exhibit was a letdown, they weren't out in the enclosure. Other areas were okay, I was wearing a short sleeve t-shirt, and I could have used a hoodie. We ended up walking around four miles before we got back to the car. Stopped in Mira Mesa and had Chinese food at a restaurant near where Emily works. It was disappointing for me, higher prices than the food quality indicated. I was pretty tired by this point, so I had a nap after we got back home, felt much better after that. Also read in the afternoon. Worked on my cycling analysis code as well, cleaned the code up a bit and improved the display of the elevation profile so that it now shows the smoothed data. The evening was quiet. I watched a little TV and read, then went to sleep.

06/03/2026 Ride

World Bicycle Day. I woke up around 5:00, had gone to sleep early the previous night. Got ready for a ride over to John's house, where I left a little early and took an easier pace on the way. Standard route there, fairly slow and steady up that last little climb. He and Jayden were out, and Vivian came out just before we left. We headed back down the hill to Sabre Springs Pkwy, taking it over to the bike path that leads down to I-15. Then we rode up to Scripps-Poway Pkwy and went down the hill on Mercy Rd to Black Mountain Rd. Climbed from there up to the 56, John was particularly slow on this climb (he'd been doing yard work the previous days), and this was true throughout the ride. We rode to Carmel Mountain Rd and took a left there, enjoying a slight downhill over to CdS, where we turned left. We rode down to Park Village Rd, turned left there, and then headed back to Black Mountain Rd to complete a little loop. Right turn on Black Mountain Rd, taking it into Mira Mesa and up to Miramar Rd. A left turn there got us onto Pomerado Rd, and from there we took the usual way back to John's house. He was quite slow on this stretch, especially the last little climb, so I did some little loops through the neighborhood at the top of the climb while I waited for him. One minor modification to the way back, we turned on Candy Rose Way, which is more of a straight descent that I thought would be better for him. I stayed for smoothies and conversation with him and Vivian after that part of the ride. They showed me the landscaping work they are doing in their back yard., and we talked a little bit about their upcoming trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton NPs. Then I rode home, more slowly than usual, taking the usual way via Bernardo Center Dr.

Avg speed = 14.1 mph. Total mileage = 40.6 mph

Avg power = 113 W. Weighted avg power = 137 W

Total elevation gain = 2600'

Avg heartrate = 106 bpm (Coospo)

Relative Effort = 31

Training Load = 128

Intensity = 62%

https://www.strava.com/activities/18772994755

Ann and the others were gone when I got home, I had a little time to relax before shaving, showering, and getting ready for my volunteer shift at the hospital. Ate lunch there, as usual. A new med tech, Matthew, came in at 3:00. Other than that, there were the usual nurses and techs. Got busy at the end, so I left a little bit late and got back home around 5:00. Emily and Caleb came over for dinner with us, Kathy, and Heather, and it was a nice dinner and conversation outside, although it got a little chilly. The conversation moved inside, and I listened for a while until they started talking about reality TV shows, at which point I went into the kitchen, finished cleaning, and then went upstairs.

06/02/2026 Ride

Had set my alarm to go off at 4:45, and it woke me up. I dressed for the ride in the dark, went down and loaded up some food and water bottles (Gatorade in one), then drove down to CVR by Torrey Pines SB and parked on the street. Unloaded my bike and kitted up for the ride, then I rode up to PCH and turned left to ride down to the coast and to the base of Torrey Pines Rd. First climb was fine, I rode at moderate pace but tried to keep it smooth and consistent, knowing that there were a lot more to follow. First loop up and then back down took me about 13 minutes, from there it was a series of repeats. I stopped at the top after five climbs and ate a banana, then continued on for another five loops until stopping again and eating a granola bar. By this point I had half convinced myself to ride a total of 16 loops, depending on how I felt as I got closer to the target. I was able to ride up in third gear for the first 13 loops or so, and for the last three I switched down to second gear in the middle of the climb, where it was a little steeper. For the last climb I was in first gear for that same stretch. Legs held out, my back was a little stiff, but the descents helped me stretch a little bit. Had some issue in the latter part of the ride with numb hands, particularly my left hand, but it wasn't too much of a bother. When I got to the top on the last one, I saw that I needed a little more elevation gain to get to 7000'. So I rode down the hill and climbed into Del Mar, getting to the stoplight at Del Mar Heights Rd before taking a U-turn and riding back down to where I'd parked the car. Here are the times, power, and heartrate values for the 16 climbs, from the Strava segment results:

1. 8:59     224 W     142 W
2. 9:05     225 W     144 bpm
3. 9:06     229 W     147 bpm
4. 9:18     223 W     145 bpm
5. 9:35     212 W     141 bpm
6. 9:42     209 W     137 bpm (note how my average heartrate dropped as my times got longer and my average power decreased as well)
7. 9:23     215 W     140 bpm (after warming up, I was able to generate a little more power at the same average heartrate)
8. 9:24     213 W     138 bpm
9. 8:56     225 W     141 bpm (this is probably where a guy passed me at the bottom, and I caught up with him, then he passed me, so I put in a bigger effort and dropped him, this was my highest ratio of power to heartrate)
10. 9:32     205 W     138 bpm
11. 9:12     215 W     143 bpm
12. 9:39     205 W     141 bpm
13. 9:57     200 W     140 bpm (in my last four or so climbs I noticed that my power-to-heartrate efficiency started to drop off)
14. 10:14   193 W     139 bpm
15. 9:52     198 W     139 bpm
16. 9:46     198 W     142 bpm (nice that my last climb wasn't my slowest)

From my analysis, I was more efficient at the start as I was warming up and at my freshest (first two climbs), then I dropped into a steady state for the next two climbs, followed by a higher-efficiency period where my power:heartrate ratio was measurably lower for about six climbs. Then I dropped back to steady-state efficiency for the next five climbs, while my last climb showed another measurable drop-off in this ratio as I started to tire more. By the way, my crank and bottom bracket functioned just fine, it seemed like there was less creaking noise coming from the bottom bracket, so perhaps the lubrication had some beneficial effect.

Avg speed = 14.4 mph. Total mileage = 55.3 mph

Avg power = 152 W. Weighted avg power = 194 W

Total elevation gain = 7040' (!)

Avg heartrate = 128 bpm (Coospo)

Relative Effort = 145

Training Load = 306

Intensity = 88%

https://www.strava.com/activities/18759335261

Drove home after loading up my gear and got there a little after 10:00. Haleakala is definitely going to be a challenge for me. I had the house to myself for a bit until the others returned from a walk down to the park and back. We ended up going to lunch at a new place in RB, Bushfire Kitchen. It was okay, prices were high (of course) for what they served, food was decent but not great. Stopped at Von's after lunch and then headed home. The rest of the afternoon was quiet. I had a little nap and watched some TV, nothing useful done. Evening was also quiet, read a fair amount. I started re-reading The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner after finishing The Making of the Atomic Bomb.

06-01-2026 Basketball

Slept okay, this was intended to be an easy exercise day, given plans for the following day's ride. Had some cereal for breakfast. Around 9:00 I went to the WWC and shot baskets for about a half hour. At one point, I made six straight 3's, which is about as unusual as it gets for me and basketball. Rode home, where Ann was getting ready to drive to San Clemente and SJC with Kathy and Heather. While they were gone I watched a little TV, organized my workbench in the garage, put the aero bars back on my Fuji, and made some adjustments to the sprinklers for the upper bed in the front yard, swapping out some sprayer heads in an attempt to reduce the overall water flow and get better coverage. This line still uses a lot of water, so I limited its minutes. They got home in time for us to have dinner together, and the evening was a quiet one.

05-31-2026 Run/Swim

Slept pretty well, even with the coffee, I think because I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before. I woke up around 5:30, read for a while, then got ready for a run. Went down by the park and did my usual 5k route, walking the rest of the way up the hill to get back home. I stretched before the run and kept my pace steady but not too fast.

Avg pace = 8:19/mi

Total distance = 3.18 mi

Elapsed moving time = 26:29

Avg heartrate = 123 bpm

Relative Effort = 6

https://www.strava.com/activities/18729956772

Got home, did a little work on the computer, then I got ready for a swim at the WWC. It was really busy at the opening, but the pool wasn't too busy to begin with. It got more crowded soon after I started, but I had my preferred lane. I swam the first 1000 yds, took a little pause, then swam another 200, another break, followed by a 300 to get to a total of 1500, with the following split times: 9:23, 9:39, 9:25. I didn't select the right workout type on my watch, so this one wasn't recorded, other than on video.

Avg pace = 1:54/100 yds (Video, not counting pause)

Total distance = 1500 yds

Elapsed moving time = 28:27 (Video)

https://www.strava.com/activities/18732040784

Had some cereal when I got home, then I chilled for a while. Ann, Kathy, and Heather drove down to Coronado, walked around in the afternoon and watched a concert with a Fleetwood Mac cover band at Spreckels Park before heading home in the evening. I stayed home and decided to try and remove my crankset to lubricate the bearings. This turned out to be an adventure. First I removed the Dub cap on the drive side crank using the tool I had bought when I got the cap in the first place (it didn't come with the bike). Then I loosened the 2 mm Allen bolt on the pre-tension wheel on the non-drive side. Next I used an 8 mm Allen wrench to loosen the bolt holding the crank on. Lots of videos said this bolt could be very difficult to loosen, but I didn't have any problems. When I removed it, I couldn't get the crank off. I went back to look at other videos, looked up the serial number for my bike to get the exact model of the crank, still no luck. I went into the garage and out a number of times, resolved to take it into Poway Bikes and have them show me how to remove it. At this point I found another video that mentioned extracting the crank, and I thought about the olden days, when you needed a crank extractor tool to do this job. This other video mentioned the need to have the Dub cap on while loosening the bolt, since this cap then effectively serves as the crank extractor. So I put the crank back on, tightened the bolt somewhat, then put the cap back on. Then, when I loosened the 8 mm bolt again the crank came off. Success! I had figured it out myself, with lots of help from videos. Got the crank off, then a couple of taps with a rubber mallet loosened the other side and allowed me to remove it too. As far as I can tell, I found that the bearings are sealed and can't be opened up. So I applied grease to the areas where the bearings were rotating, in the hope that some of this grease might make it into the bearings. Then I reinstalled the non-drive side arm (it took a couple of times before I could get it to seat), and reattached the spider assembly on the drive side, using a torque wrench to tighten it to specifications. I put the Dub cap back on and manually tightened the pre-tension wheel finger-tight, then backed off a tiny big before tightening the little locking bolt with the 2 mm Allen wrench. Had taken the pedals and chain off for easier access, so I reinstalled them as well, lubricating the pedals before putting them back on. Everything seems to be put back together, may need a shake-out ride to verify proper operation. The rest of the day and evening were fairly quiet, I had leftovers for dinner, nothing major to note (<>).

05/30/2026 Ride

This was an annoying, and short, night. We got home from the theatre after 11:00, and I didn't take too long to get to sleep, even though I dozed a little bit during the show. About 1:30 I woke to the sounds of the smoke detectors beeping. As usual, I couldn't easily localize which ones were beeping, so I ended up having to disconnect both wired smoke detectors and put them in the garage to get them to stop annoying me. Took a while to get back to sleep after these antics. My alarm woke me at 5:15, and I had time to get ready for a bike ride, meeting James and Rob T along the way. Left the house before 6:00 and rode through the neighborhood to RB Rd, then took CdS to San Dieguito Rd, which took me less than thirty minutes. There I waited a couple of minutes for James, who was early to this meet-up spot as well. We rode down the hill to wait for Rob at the corner of El Apajo. He was a little late to this spot but eventually showed up. Then the three of us rode loosely together over to Rancho Diegueno Rd, turning left here an riding up this short, steep climb. James was riding his Tomassini, which isn't geared for this type of gradient, but he made it up okay. Over to Ranch Santa Fe Farms Rd, turning right and taking it to CVR, where Rob and I waited for James to catch up. Then it was over to the 56 bike path. Rob missed the turn to get to the bike path, and I had to ride back to the branch-off and call him to get him back on track. James got way out ahead of us, so the two of us rode down the path to ECR, where James was waiting. We rode together over to CVR and took it to PCH, heading north and avoiding the TP climb that had been discussed. Down the coast for a while, initially having to chase James down, then Rob and I kicked in the jets and got ahead of him. We gathered back before La Costa Ave, turning right here. Across the flats back to ECR, where we split from Rob and turned right. The two of us rode to the outlet mall nearby and found a café to stop for coffee. Service took forever, not sure why, but we had a good conversation, and it was pleasant. We continued on ECR to Olivenhain Rd, turning left and riding up to RSF Rd, where we turned right. I had dialed my pace back to more closely match James, and we rode basically together onto El Camino del Norte. I got ahead of him on this gradual climb, even though I was taking it easy. Right turn onto Via de Fortuna, following it to El Montevideo, where we turned left and rode over to Paseo Delicias. Right turn here, down towards RSF village and a left turn on VdlV. Then it was back to El Apajo and up Three Witches to the CdS intersection. James turned right her to head home, and I turned left. Back the new normal way via W Bernardo Dr from here. Legs felt just fine at the end, I had an easier time of it on this ride than a normal Saturday workout.

Avg speed = 15.4 mph. Total mileage = 53.8 mi

Avg power = 122 W. Weighted avg power = 154 W

Total elevation gain = 2980'

Avg heartrate = 116 bpm (Coospo)

Relative Effort = 63

Training Load = 199

Intensity = 70%

https://www.strava.com/activities/18719109845

Got home earlier than usual, had time to shower and relax a little bit before driving down to the airport with Ann to pick up Kathy and Heather. We didn't have to wait too long in the cell phone parking lot before they were walking to the arrivals area. Drive home was uneventful, we had some lunch when we got back, talked a lot throughout the afternoon and evening. I chatted with Heather about her job and the impact of AI tools on her coding responsibilities. I watched a little TV after they went upstairs, then I went to bed as well.

05-29-2026 Swim

Slept okay, woke up around 5:00 and lay in bed, read for a while as well. I got up and did a little more updating of my riding blog entries with my own cycling analysis data. Then I got ready for a swim and headed over to the WWC to meet Avi. We did some intervals and chatted in between sets, was pleasant as usual.

Warmup 250

    4:35

6 100s at 2:00 intervals

    1:39

    1:41

    1:41

    1:43

    1:44

    1:41

5 50s at 1:00 intervals

    0:46

    0:47

    0:48

    0:47

    0:43

Cool-down 250 (with pull buoy)

    4:42

Avg pace = 1:43/100 yds (Video, not counting pause)

Total distance = 1350 yds

Elapsed moving time = 23:17 (Video)

Avg heartrate = 169 bpm (nope)

Relative Effort = 101 (again, nope)

SWOLF = 41 (included rest period when I forgot to pause the workout)

Avg stroke rate = 19 bpm

Avg pull distance = 2.53 yds

https://www.strava.com/activities/18703787411

Got home, avoided riding while it was sprinkling, and had some cereal for breakfast. Later in the morning and early afternoon I went out and investigated the sprinkler line for the upper beds in the front and back yards. Didn't find any obvious leaks, but this line uses a lot of water. I increased the flow to the peach tree and decreased the sprinkler time overall. Also chopped a couple of low shoots off the tree in the front yard, which were blocking the sprinkler flow. I replaced one of the sprinkler nozzles with a lower-flow version, not sure if it made a huge difference. Cleared out the areas around the sprinkler heads in the back yard and pulled out some of the overgrowth, including cutting down the pepper tree shoots. Working in that back upper bed is definitely no fun. Caleb came over a little after 3:30, and we drove down to Emily's office to pick her up from work. Had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant off Mira Mesa Blvd, food was decent, then we ate ice cream at a shop next door. Drove downtown to the Civic Theatre, no traffic to speak of, and parked in the lot right by the theatre, Google Maps directions to the entrance to the parking lot weren't great, but we eventually found it. We saw The Sound of Music on stage. It was cute but dated, lots of familiar songs. I was tired, so I dozed at times through some of the dialogue. Before the show we were standing in the lobby talking about funny family songs, and a lady from one of the bars joined in our conversation, it was kinda strange but okay. Emily kept coming back to the meme of the night: Mervyn's, The Musical. That was probably the best part of the evening for me. Drove home and got back a little after 11:00 after dropping Emily and Caleb off at the parking lot by her office.