Letters Home from Retirement...

So much has changed since my last post it's hard to know where to start, but the big items would be me moving from Sacramento, home of the greatest bike trail EVER (American River Parkway Trail) to the retirement community of Apple Valley, Ca and taking up riding again after a shocking diagnosis of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD).

In short, my liver metabolizes fructose like some people's does alcohol, so aside from eliminating sugar and a lot of starches from my diet, I took up riding again, AND, lost 25lbs. It worked, and my liver is now looking great, not progressing to cirrhosis. With the US experiencing an obesity epidemic, this is destined to become a huge problem in the coming years. As for me, I'm not sure why I developed a problem aside from getting up to 205 lbs (too much retirement I guess).

Three years ago on Sep 13th I drove myself to the ER, as my HR meds had utterly and catastrophically stopped working. My BP was 213/111 after being held 4+ hours before any meds were forthcoming. After returning home 3 days latter I began to notice I couldn't find words in conversation, nor when writing, and realized I'd had a stroke. It took about a year to fully recover from that, so retirement has been a bit challenging medically.

On the plus side, I found a wonderful woman who is a great companion I love spending my days and nights with, and who brings meaning and joy every single day. She did worry about me being so far out on rides though, so offered to pay half the cost of a new Garmin 520+ with LiveTracker, so she knows where I am at all times. It's really a great feature, although getting everything paired, repaired, synched, and updating automatically was a very serious PITA. I almost returned the Garmin before 6-8 Garmin Connect and Android updates made all those issues magically disappear.

To resuming riding, almost exactly a year ago today, I had to learn to breath up here at 3,000ft, and do some long-overdue bike maintenance & upgrades. To that end I bought a bunch of new tires and tubes, Michelin Pro4 Endurance II or Power Competition for the most part, and a bunch of Conti Race 28 tubes. The high desert is full of nasty thorns, goat-heads and glass.

I replaced the last stock part on the bike, an old FSA crank, with an Ultegra 6700 Triple and DuraAce bottom bracket; the 3rd one now for my '06 Roubaix Elite. I like the smaller ends and fiber over-grip you use to tighten them with. No marring of the bearing end caps is possible as the fiber is softer than the aluminum ends. The only thing left stock on my Roubaix is now the frame.

I also replaced the SRAM Force Ti brakes with new Ultegra 6800. You may recall a few years ago I discovered some serious pitting on the bridge of the back brake, so this too was overdue. Nothing special about Ultegra brakes, but they match all the other Ultegra 6700 gear on the bike and they were a steal just before Christmas last year.


I also have a good riding partner, though I often ride alone so I can ride at my pace, time of day, etc. I find myself teaching him the same things my original riding partner Bruce taught me 10 yrs ago, and the many, many things riding has taught me through experience. 

There's also a bike group here, but they are a bit odd in that they don't have monthly meetings, have no political agenda to move infrastructure forward here, or sponsor events. So far I haven't ridden with them, but I may soon.

In what I thought would be a very red-necked place, and perhaps is in some ways, I have to say the motorists have been great partners in safety for the most part. There are also good places to ride and if you can pick your hours, the weather is pretty accommodating all year around. The roads can be pretty rough here, and asphalt "divots" flipped up on top of the road are common, and VERY dangerous. If you hit one you're almost certainly going down. 100 nights a year with frost plays hell with roads that leak water down through their surface.The city is aware of the problem and is working it hard, but these are roads they inherited from the country, and most of them are asphalt over desert dirt.

Afternoon winter rides in the 60s are common, and in the 70s in July & Aug at 6:00AM. The transition is a bit sketchy at times. My last(summer) ride though was 2 hrs starting at 3:00 PM. Kind of a gut check, but wanted to make sure I could ride in the mid-day heat before swearing off mornings. Check!

Aside from the new Garmin I have kept improving my lights, and use daylight flashers now all the time as I don't ride at night on purpose (always need to be prepared to continue after dark when riding in the afternoon as mechanicals and flats are always possible) and want to be as visible as possible up to the point where my lights might become annoying. The CygoLite Metro 1100 up front, and Lezyne Laser Drive in back work quite well in conjunction with a small Dice TL-50 Velcro-ed to the back of my helmet (well under 1 oz without the rubber strap mount).

The bike felt a little big to me after 2-3 years off, and I eventually realized that I've shrunk! My always long torso is now about normal, so my 54cm frame now fits me perfectly; I just needed to ditch my 120mm stem for a 100mm and move my seat back. After riding for years in the TT position I am now riding in a classic position, which has been great for both power and endurance, not relying so much on my quads and using all of my leg muscles together. 

In late July I added a Topeak ride-fuel bag on the top-tube, which enables me to use a tiny saddle bag, in conjunction to the CO2 bottle holders on my Profile Designs AquaRack. All of this because that Lezyne taillight is pretty big and with a 25oz bottle on each side, I needed the very small bag so the light could get out, and to keep the total weight on the seat-post down.

Finally, 2 weeks ago I bought an arm-band type HR monitor, as 3 chest straps failed to work. It turns out 20+ yrs in the gym leave my pecs pushing any HR strap away from my heart, BUT, the Scosche HR band is much cooler and doesn't restrict my breathing either. It even synched perfectly with my old Garmin Edge 305, AND, at the same time pushed data to my phone via BlueTooth. Mostly though, it's just so comfortable I forget it's there all the time.

I know it's been a long time, but I hope some of you will give me a shout-out and let me know what you're doing these days yourselves.