Hey John, Keep posting. You're doing great! You're an inspiration to a lot of people. More people read these things than post for some reason. Earl

Keep it up, I am reading your posts! I have moved from a "C" pace on club rides to a "B+" average. 12 mph to about 21mph on the flats and 16 - 18 on the hills. 18 months out I have a full out titanium racing LeMond. Been having some knee problems so am changing the front crank to a compact (50/34) instead of the 53/42 we all love. Will force me to spin at higher rates to maintain my speed, but I am comfortable with a cadence of 90 - 100 now. My riding is all on the East Coast Virginia to Pennsylvania and all on the road. Keep me posted on your progress. Sounds like you are tracking everything right and improving all the time. Keep up the great work!!!!!

My suspicion is that no one reads this forum as it's not on the main "all forums" list. However, I'll keep posting my ride notes in the hopes that at some point there will be an active discussion. Staged as normal from Yorba Linda Regional Park, and rode toward the beach along the Santa Ana River Trail, but this time rode in the evening after work (woke up too late to ride in the morning before work). Made it to Lincoln ave, about six miles along the trail. That's just about a mile away from the Arrowhead Pond, which was my farthest ride pre-op. I have to say that the one time I made it to the Pond pre-op, I was riding a low 70's cadence and let my heartrate fall to the 130 range over most of the ride just to survive. Also remember on that ride that my mother (in her early 60's) dropped me on the return ride. I think I'm doing a lot better now, holding my cadence and building distance a bit more slowly. Riding in the evening involved planning for sunset. I started out just a touch over an hour from sunset and noted that my previous turnaround point occurred about 22 minutes into the ride. At that point, I switched my computer over to show me ride time, and saw the Lincoln Ave point right around 28 minutes. That gave me a couple minutes of recovery time before I started my return ride. I couldn't quite maintain the cadence from my previous ride, but I didn't slip much. Have to really debate whether I want to go try for the Pond on my next ride (~1.7 miles farther along the trail) or consolidate my gains by repeating this ride. Part of me wants to push. How soon can I ride from Yorba Linda to Huntinton Beach and back? The numbers: 6:31pm Exe Time: 58:16 Mean HR: 149 Max HR: 165 HR Zone: 138-151 In Zone: 27:27 Above Zone: 24:00 Below Zone: 6:49 Kcal: 814 Distance: 12.2 miles Mean Speed 12.6 mph Max Speed: 22.4 mph Mean Cad: 83 Max Cad: 98 Ride Time: 58:15 Outbound Time: 28:40 Mean HR: 146 Max HR: 156 Mean Speed: 12.7 mph Mean Cad: 84 Return Time: 29:36 Mean HR: 152 Max HR: 165 Mean Speed: 12.3 mph Mean Cad: 83

And here are the numbers: Exe Time:41:31 Mean HR:144 Max HR:161 HR Zone:138-151 In Zone:28:11 Above Zone:5:46 Below Zone: 7:34 Kcal:546 Distance: 8.7 miles Mean Speed 12.7 mph Max Speed: 22.7 mph Mean Cad: 77 Max Cad: 93 Ride Time:41:15 Outbound Time: 22:00 Mean HR:140 Max HR:154 Mean Speed: 11.7 mph Mean Cad: 77 Return Time: 19:31 Mean HR:147 Max HR:161 Mean Speed: 13.5 mph Mean Cad: 78

I have tried cliff bars (lived off of them before wls) but did not get any power from them. no fuel at all. which was a bummer. I have found that you get some zip from zipfizz but I usually can not get a whole 16 oz down before I just bleah out on them. I do better with it if I mix it on ice chips and then top off with water. I cook up a center cut pork loin, cut it into 1 oz chunks, zip lock bag it and take a couple. for some reason it gives me the power without the 'sweets' that I get from a protien shake. (that stuff has so much splenda, it would choke a horse). for the last 6 weeks, I have been walking (on vaction) about 4 - 8 miles a day, some up and some down hill. tomorrow if it cools off, I will go back out on the bike and see if I can not get a few miles in. I just got some true lemon today http://www.truelemon.com/ and this stuff rocks for thirst busting! my tummy is super duper sensitive to plain spring water, and it preferrs ice chip cold or piping hot, but I was able to pack a bottle of true lemon around and drink it.