# Looking back at 2008



## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

How was it for you? What were the highlights?

What are your goals/plans for 2009?

fc


----------



## mohair_chair (Oct 3, 2002)

The highlight for me, believe it or not, was that first RBR ride we did from the Vet in Palo Alto. That was my longest and best ride of the year. My son was born later that month and my riding was thereafter reduced to work commuting.

Goals for 2009 are to get in some decent weekend rides and hopefully pull my son in a trailer.


----------



## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

It was a very good year! Highlights:

Watching the Tour of Californa on Sierra Road.
First ever century ride on the day of my 40th birthday.
Three other very hill century rides in 2008. The most rewarding of these was a solo, unsupported century on Highway 4 over Pacific Grade and Ebbetts Pass, and back.
Finally went below 20 minutes on OLH, and set new notable personal bests on Sierra Road and Montebello Road.
Went on a couple of spirited RBR group rides.
Built up my new road bike from frame-set and components.
4600 road miles for the year. Not too bad considering the full-time job, family and travel commitments.
Many evening walks/jogs with my 3 year old daughter as she pedalled her new bike around the block.
Re-engineered my wife's bike so that she would actually ride it.

Only significant lowlight was crashing out on Montebello Road, and ending up on a back-board and being delivered to emergency care but thankfully no harm done.

For this year:

Ride harder, faster and for longer. Train with power maybe?
Incrementally lower personal records, especially OLH.
Do the Death Ride in style in July.
Ride from Arnold to Markleeville and back, or from Arnold to South Lake Tahoe.
Ride from home to the ocean and back.
More group rides.
Do one or more low-key hill climbs.
More riding with the family.
Take the training wheels off my daughter's bike.


----------



## JoelS (Aug 25, 2008)

It was a great year! I hit a high of 205 pounds on the scale in late August and decided I should dust of my bike and start riding again, and also learn to eat better.

I'm down to 147 now.

I rode a self supported century with a friend in October.
I'm learning how to climb.
Learned how to use a HR monitor.

End result is I'm a lot stronger and more fit than I've ever been. I plan to continue this for 2009 and have a goal to ride the Davis Double in 2010. I don't think I'll be ready this year, but I am flogging myself into better shape with climbing rides right now.


----------



## wipeout (Jun 6, 2005)

francois said:


> How was it for you? What were the highlights?
> 
> What are your goals/plans for 2009?
> 
> fc


Getting smacked by a car while training for the FC 508. BAH!

Get in some doubles then see how I do at the Davis 24-hour before I decide on trying a solo 508.


----------



## twain (May 18, 2004)

*Highlights for 2008:*
- Getting a new (used) Cervelo R3. Put the fun back into cycling for me and improved my descending ability 100%
- Doing the Sierra road climb with Francis and Derek. Hardest climb ever
- RBR timed OLH climb in 3rd place and (barely) under 20 mins
- PR bike split at wildflower triathlon (1:12:59)
- Consistently swimming 1500 meters at 1:30 pace (22:30)
- Commuted to work for one month

*Goals for 2009:*
- Do Sierra road climb again and NOT GET PASSED by Francis
- Do OLH under 20 mins
- Keep weight below 160lbs
- Top 10 at Wildflower Long Course tri in May
- Top 10 at Donner Lake tri in July


----------



## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

twain said:


> *Goals for 2009:*
> - Do Sierra road climb again and NOT GET PASSED by Francis
> - Do OLH under 20 mins


I think the RBR monthly rides need a _proper_ hill climbing option for the A group. We could mix it up between a full run up King's Mountain, Old La Honda, Page Mill or the Ring Of Fire while still staying in the general Portola Valley/Woodside neighborhood. Of course, we wouldn't be able to catch up with the regular ride up Canada Road. As it is now the A group and the B group really only hook up at the start and end of the ride anyway ...


----------



## kretzel (Aug 1, 2007)

best part of '08 - diving head first into fitness industry to chase a dream

worst part of '08 - giving up my tech industry paycheck

goals in '09 - growing SVCC & BikeConcierge to the next level 
trying to ride more than 2x/week on average


----------



## eraSSerhead (Dec 30, 2004)

*Guess I can just transfer this over from mtbr*

Didn't ride all that much in 08, by choice (other interests and such).

Highs: 
exploring a lot of the trails (and fire roads) that lead off the two main loops at Sly Park as well as Cronin Ranch and Magnolia Ranch loops with Morphy (my Border Collie).

Improving a little bit at some of the technical aspects of mtbing.

Doing the In-N-Out Century (west) with the Sacramento Wheelmen. If your into the skinny tire thing at all you owe it to yourself to do this ride: http://home.surewest.net/g/century.html

Finally getting to ride with a long time friend who also rides mtb.

Lows:
Hmm, no real lows...except maybe if ya count having some the passion that normally goes into riding defused elsewhere but like I said that was a choice.

I guess not getting to do the flea this year was kind of a bummer.

2009

Before getting into the list of goals for the coming year I should offer a word of explanation (like anyone cares) because lord willing it is going to be a big contrast to 2008. My mtb was in the shop a few times towards the end of summer, once for a seat post that cracked in half (my bikes way of telling me to lose a few pounds?). Anyway, to make a long story short I found myself out riding my old Miyata road bike, and liking it (I'd been on this bike maybe a few times in the last several years). So out of nowhere I find myself really getting into the road thing again and this is stoking my passion for mtbing as well. Now I'm wanting to do all these big rides, maybe even race a little. Perhaps this could all be the onset of some kind of mid life crisis, wanting to see if I can get into the kind of form I had in my twenties (I'm not gonna worry about that too much), for now I'm just gonna enjoy the ride and hope I can find balance between the passion I have for riding and other things. Oh yeah, the list:

replace my old Miyata road bike with a Madone.

Ride a century every other week or equivalent off road.

4-5 rides a week.

Death Ride

Sly Park '100' ?

Rose to Toads (with out Toads a la Ogre, good idea man )

Races??? (what am I thinking I haven't raced in 20 years).

Edit: Ok 20 years is a bit of an exaggeration its been more like 15. Its only been a bit over a week since I posted this on mtbr and already the maybe race this season has turned into plotting out which races I wanna do. It's mainly off road so far, but it would be fun to do at least one road race...it has been 20 years since I did one of those.



May the coming season bring you everything your hoping for and hopefully some surprises as well:thumbsup: 


Got a fairly good deal on this 2008 4.5 so I'm retiring my old 1988 Miyata (that bike was very good to me). Just posting this stock photo since the only upgrade I've done so far was change the Bontrager Select stem to a Race Lite X lite whatever its called. Yeah that is a triple on it...my driveway is about 1/4 mile long and _extremely_ steep so it'll be nice not to have to walk the last half of it at the end of road rides (you know the thing about triples is you don't have to use it but its nice to know its there).


----------



## Dr_John (Oct 11, 2005)

> It was a great year! I hit a high of 205 pounds on the scale in late August and decided I should dust of my bike and start riding again, and also learn to eat better.
> 
> I'm down to 147 now.


 Dude! :thumbsup:

Maybe a look back on 2008, my second full year of cycling, will cheer me up a bit. My first full year was 2007 and it focused mostly on exercise and weight loss. I dropped 40 lbs.

*2008*
Built up my '08 Tarmac S-Works SL in Feb. I've put 7000+ miles on it so far.

Met goal of over 10,000 miles for the year.

Started working on hillclimbing. While my times aren't great, keep in mind when I started, I couldn't even make it up Page Mill without stopping.

*OLH*: Consistently sub-20 for serious efforts.

*King's Mountain*: One serious attempt, under 25 minutes.

*Page Mill Road:* Best time was just under 42 minutes, but I was doing it weekly in the 42-43 minute range. This really helped.

*Hamilton:* I've only done this once, and my time was 1:32, which I was happy with for a first attempt.

Started a weekly 100+ mile route which included Hwy 9.
*2009*
Can I do another 10,000 miles year? I'm commuting to work, 38 miles round trip, 19-20 mph average, including traffic, so I'm getting good mileage and a good work-out.

A stretch goal, but I still think I can do a sub-19 OLH (yes, I 'd consider an 18:59 a success).

Hamilton under 1:30. I'm reasonably sure I can do this.

Still haven't done Sierra or Montibello, which were on my list but got postponed when I got sick (still haven't recovered fully, but still riding ) I'll do them in 2009.


----------



## twain (May 18, 2004)

These are amazing accomplishments. To drop that much weight and to power through 10,000 miles is truly impressive. I only managed 2700 miles this year--and that was a big year.
Your climb times are outstanding; I've been riding and doing triathlons for the past 20+ years and you're pretty much beating my PRs.

Well done!


----------



## Kwantani (Sep 26, 2002)

for 2009:

Minimum goal: Ride with RBR A group, hang with the group, not getting dropped at least before the hills.

Nice to have goal: ride with the RBR A group, and not getting dropped.

Stretch goal: DROP the RBR A group!!


----------



## mellowyellowCJ7 (Sep 19, 2008)

2008: I found my bike love again!
Tore my MCL playing soccer and decided I was more bummed about missing the sea otter than not playing soccer. 
I started commuting to work (28 mile flat round trip).
Bought my first road bike since Jr. High 25+ years ago. It's a used Trek5500 in August and since then…
Lost 20 lbs.
Joined the San Jose Bike Club (http://www.teamsanjose.org/) and did my first Crit, first ITT, first road race, and my first 2 person time trial.
Oh, and lost 10 more lbs.
Thanks to Karl at SVCC for helping me learn about nutrition for riding.
2009:
Do my first Centry ride, then do a few more century rides, maybe an 8 hour XC, and a few other local XC races.
I’d like to get to Cat3 in the SJBC Winter Series and be competitive.
I’d like to drop 10 more pounds, if it makes me faster.
Do a ride from Sausalito to Santa Cruz a la Tour de CA.
Ride 6000+ miles


----------



## CrankyMonkey (Jul 8, 2007)

Highlights for 2008:

Completed almost 4000 miles
Learned how to enjoy a ride slow (thanks to my messed up knees)
Built a bike from Scratch

Goals for 2008:

Get back to the same mileage I was in August 2008
Ride without knee pain (it's getting better)
Drop weight to 200 lbs (just lost 8 pounds and on track)
Lower my blood pressure to 120/80 or better (2 years ago I was at 108/77 now I'm at 140/99)


----------



## DasMud (Jun 8, 2003)

2008: scrappy season that got interrupted by the pregnancy and birth of twins
2009: figure out how to train/race with 3 kids under 3 at home O_O


----------



## CoLiKe20 (Jan 30, 2006)

the good: 
New bike (Merlin).
Reached my mileage goal.

The bad:
Didn't finish Climb to Kaiser. 
Didn't reach my goal of beating best time up OLH and King's.



2009:
New bike for me(Seven) and first time ever owner of Campy.
New bike for wife (Tandem) - gotta think like Cooper.
Reach same mileage as last year when I wasn't married.
beat best time up OLH and King's.


----------

