Cycling: Lavasa and My First Century Ride

My Sporterra Sport became a month old today. So far, it has run around 650kms. Quite a few long rides in those 650kms - twice to Lavasa and back (~100kms each), then twice over the Katraj Ghat (around 50kms each), and couple times to Pirangut and Mutha ghats (around 30-50kms each). I can feel the stamina and muscle improving. I can feel my heart, lungs and legs getting in better shape and getting stronger. This was not the case when I had just got the cycle though.

Since my last Lavasa climb, I had started cycling frequently. Fresh air and lack of traffic in the morning, opens up quite a few routes around Kothrud/Chandani-chowk area for cycling. One is along the bypass through the new Katraj Tunnel, take a u-turn at Shindewadi and take old Katraj Ghat - old tunnel - Katraj bypass - Pune bypass - chandani chowk: ~50kms. This route can be done other way round as well and that involves old Katraj Ghat climb which has quite a challenging gradient. Another is to Pirangut and back: ~30kms. If you have got time or start quite early in the morning, Mutha Ghat climb is even better and is around 50km ride.

One such Mutha ghat climb, which is around 50km ride, had taken me 3hrs for to-and-from journey and had given me a confidence boost about my improving edurance. I was feeling the improvement and was getting psyched up to tackle the grand-daddy of them all - Lavasa - again.

So I woke up one fine morning, did some stretches (important!) as usual, and started for Lavasa at around 5:30am. There were 2 goals: one was to reach the top in 3hrs and second was 5hrs of total to-and-fro timing. Given the experience of first time, both the goals looked tough and I was expecting around 3:30hrs for the top and 6hrs to-and-fro.  Also, this time I had Sports-Tracker as my ride tracker, and given its excellent power management, I was sure I would be able to lock in the whole ride's data without battery issues.

The sky had just started lightening a little when I reached Pirangut descent. This is one of the best descents out there, and it's here where I have clocked my top-speed of 60.4km, which I haven't been able to manage on the descent of any other ghats despite standing up. By the time I reached the point where Mutha Ghat starts, I had taken 2 breaks - one for ATM and another for buying an extra water bottle; just in case. The ghat climb was done without any amount of exertion. In fact I reached the cusp, when I was expecting further climb. I remembered my last time when I was huffing and puffing and desperately waiting for the top. I was in much better form and shape this time round.

View from Mutha Ghat Top down the Pirangut-side Valley

While climbing up Mutha, I saw couple of bikers speeding up and down the ghat perfecting their cornering skills and enjoying the adrenaline overall. Lack of traffic early in the morning, cool air, excellent road condition and the twisty nature of the Mutha ghat makes for a rider's heaven. No wonder these adrenaline-junkies, fully dressed up in protective gear, were whizzing up and down it.

Subsequent descent and Mutha town came by quickly. "Lavasa: 18km" read a board. 10kms more and I was at the Temghar wall. Saw a lot of school-children on the way to school. Oohs and aahs and laughter and comments passing would ensue when they would catch sight of me. The cycle indeed attracts a lot of attention, especially of the younger lot. And the older teenagers out of these school-goers are not always nice. Some of those jackasses pass quite nasty comments trying to attract attention of the girls (walking behind) and win brownies by deriding the urbanites. More power to you hillbilies.

At the Temghar Wall

Reached Temghar dam in next half an hour. Took one final break at the Temghar wall which marks the start of the much awaited Lavasa climb. Sip of water, a little stroll, stretches and I started up. Last time I had climbed, I had wondered if anybody would be able to do it in a single shot, without a break from Temghar wall to the Lavasa top. So this time round, the goal was to do exactly that - go up without a single stop.

I took it easy in the start, trying to conserve energy for that horrible Lavasa-4 to Lavasa-3 stretch. Noticed the same pair of Mutha riders (all helmets look the same), labouring up and down the slopes of Lavasa now. Cornering is a bit more challenging here due to switchbacks.

At Lavasa Finally

By the time I got to the Lavasa-4 milestone, a bit of exhaution had set in due to continuous climb. And boy, the Lavasa-4 to Lavasa-3 stretch was just as horrible, as brutal, as pure-inferno as it was the previous time. But this time, I somehow held up. There were few more leg muscles this time round, which allowed me to partially power through some of the trecherous climbs. I persisted without a stop. And finally, there it was - the cusp! It took me 40-45mins this time to cross the 8kms of climb. The total 'to' journey - from home to lavasa - took 2:36hrs -- 24mins shorter than the goal I had set. There was a tremendous sense of achievement.

On the top, I took some breakfast, and in 15-20mins left for home. The return journey was not much eventful apart from the Mutha and Pirangut climbs, which appeared more gruelling due to some level of exhaustion. On reaching Chandani Chowk, I realised I had done around 88kms and would need 12 more kms to complete a century. Took a detour along Warje, Nal Stop route and got back home after completing 100.7kms in 6:02hrs.

Here is the full GPS track of the ride; and here is the speed elevation profile of the route -

Interesting Correlation

The elevation profile of this Lavasa ride in Sport-Tracker struck as a familiar curve. Initially I thought of it as the impulse response profile of a 2nd order control system. But that curve has an envelope which reflects over X-axis. This elevation profile is on one side of x-axis, i.e it doesn't have a negative elevation. So not applicable.

Then I thought of it to be a sinusoid damped by Gaussian function. Still the Gaussian function curve dies pretty quickly and one doesn't get enough peaks before the sinusoid damps dead.

Finally after couple hours of mathematical and graph plotting jugglery, I could place this curve as - an exponentially damped up-shifted sinusoid, riding a standard normal Gaussian distribution curve. Here is the equation that I came up with -

And here is the graphical plot of the equation -

A Graph That Correlates with the Elevation Curve of Lavasa Route

You will agree that this plot shares a good deal of correlation with the elevation profile of the Lavasa ride. Interesting, isn't it?

Cycling: Lavasa Conquered

It was just a week since I had got the cycle. I had been on some initial training rides of 10-15kms daily, but never had been on a long ride before. The cycle was new, and the overall experience of riding it so far was way better than the one I used to have in my childhood with a Hero Jet first and then a Hercules MTB, Both of them were fixies with reversing paddles. This one on the other hand was a hybrid with gear, and tilting more towards road-bike category with tall gearing, lack of suspension and roadbike style saddle. Quite light, it raced with wind downhill and was not a big deal to drive up a climb, provided you chose the right gears. I was enjoying it so far and was itching to test myself on some mountainous ground. So Lavasa, being touted as quite a tough climb in the cycling community, was always on the back of mind as a challenge to take up as soon as possible.

On Sunday, 2nd Oct, I left home for Pirangut around 9am. It was not that hot, and even after reaching Pirangut, I didnt feel tired. So went on towards Mutha ghat. The idea was to turn back when it stops being pleasant. The Mutha ghat climb was quite an arduous one. Lack of training and you start feeling exhausted quite early. Sangli is laid out on a plain with hardly any elevation change throughout. So I was a total newbie to ghat-climbing ovrall, and naturally I struggled. I took couple of breaks and reached the top with quite a bit of effort.

The descent to Mutha town felt very pleasant due to the cool breeze that accompanies speed. On reaching Mutha, a roadside board announced Lavasa was mere 18kms from there. Too close to turn around from a tempting challenge. Lavasa, I had heard, was a pretty hard climb. I had been therer on bike and in car, but had never appreciated the toughness of the climb from a physical-energy perspective. So I marched on.

After pedalling for around 10kms, I reached Temghar dam. There was quite a bit of crowd in front of the Temghar wall. All weekend public. Loud music in the cars, trendy show-offs with slicks and goggles and fake accent, and quite a bit of fresh plastic garbage around. Not to mention the 'water-sports' going on in the released water. This waterfall and getting-wet fetish people have is beyond me sometimes. One drive on a rainy Sunday in the Tamhinis and you will understand why my cynicism borders on the lines of disgust.

Right after the Temghar wall started the real climb. From Temghar wall, Lavasa top is around 7-8 kms. All of that is energy sapping climb, with a kilometer of pleasant descent till the Lavasa gate once you reach the top, thrown in as a reward. In the first couple of kms itself I started realising how grim the climb was getting. It was gradually getting tougher and tougher. I had to take a lots of breaks - for water, for catching my breath, for stopping my lungs from exploding any moment and for keeping my leg muscles from tearing apart. There were quite a few on-lookers - bikes, cars, buses, tempos, who were craning their necks to have a look, with a combination of who's-this and what-the-heck questions written all over their faces. Some of them smiled, some waved, some of them had a cheerful word while passing by.

It was all misery nevertheless. Especially the climb between "Lavasa-4km" and "Lavasa-3kms" milestones was absolutely brutal on me. There were switchbacks which were inclined so terribly that if one would stop pedalling, he would start rolling down immeditely. Later on I figured, this particular climb is part of a stretch that gains 372 mtrs (~1220 feet) of height in mere 4.6kms! That's a freaking 8.1% gradient, and it kills. A point came when I couldnt take the bicycle over even a single climbing switchback without panting for breathe. These switchbacks were getting severe and I had to do something about it, since turning around was not an option, and I didnt want to push the bike even a centimeter to blot the final achievement. So I altered the riding pattern a bit. Rather than taking break just at any point, I would ride till the base of next intimidating enough climbing switchback, and then take a break for sometime. Would freshen up with a sip of water and then would 'attack' the climb with all the gathered energy. It worked.

Those 8kms of climb took me an insane 1.5hrs. By the time I reached the top, I was as miserable as a wet dog. Exhausted and hungry, I took a sumptious lunch at one of the hotels near the entry gate. Idled for about an hour, sitting on a chair outside, taking in the views and the movements, and wondering how in the world was I going to make it back to home. I had come till there alright, but home was still ~50kms from there; the only saving grace being there was no other Lavasa climb on the way back. Took a look at the GPS track from My Tracks android app which showed I took ~5hours for home-to-Lavasa journey. That was a long time, and it was a long way back home now. Unfortunately, the battery had depleted and I had to switch off tracking and the phone altogether, during the return journey.

Once the lunch was settled, I got back on the bicycle and started towards home. The Lavasa descent is not *that* pleasant due to the same dangerous switch-backs where one has to slow down or skid off the edge.

The reverse Mutha climb (towards Pune) is even more arduous, than the one coming from Pirangut. But climbed it without a single stop and took rest only after reaching the cusp of the ghat. Mutha descent is pleasant on both sides, and it doesnt take much time to Pirangut after that. The Pirangut ghat, while climbing towards Pune, is mighty exhausting. But did that without a rest too and took rest at the top. Small challenges like climbing ghats without a stop or timing the climbs make things interesting and take your mind off home and hunger.

By the time I reached home, it was 6pm and I was again very hungry and exhausted. I had left Lavasa around 2:45pm and that meant I took around 3:15hrs for journey back home.

Surprisingly, there were no pains apart from the exertion pains, which are actually pleasant in a way because they indicate evolving muscles. I had a fear that the knee pain I had developed during Katraj-Sinhagad trek would show its ugly head. But thanks probably to my prudence of maintaining good cadence throughout, no injury (re)occured.

Here is the GPS track (one way till Lavasa) on Sports-Tracker. And here is the speed and elevation profile along the route -



I had used My Tracks android app for tracking, and it recorded the GPX file well. But it was a battery hog and compared to it, Sports-Tracker offered much better features and eye-candy plotting (the one you are seeing above, is from Sports-Tracker). So I uploaded the GPX file from My Tracks to Sports-Tracker. I tried some other apps as well, including Endomondo, but chose Sports-Tracker finally, despite few of its irritating niggles (like slowy slow UI). So far, it hasn't crashed on me mid-ride, touch-wood.

Going Green with .... a bicycle(!)

my Schwinn Sporterra Sport - as on DayOne: 25Sep2011

Finally my search for a bicycle ended on last Sunday, on a high note. I bought a Schwinn Sporterra Sport 2011. The bike comes with 24-speed gearing, quick release on both the wheels, a lever for quick saddle height adjustment, and good components overall. The bike is very light-weight, runs mighty smooth and is a pleasure to ride. I rode it for around 12km, all the way from Shivram Sales to Kothrud, and deliberately chose non-traffic route with some serious ups and downs. It was 12pm in the afternoon that I started back to home and it was hot like anything. Still, I wasnt exhausted when I got back home. In fact, and I dont mean to drum it up, but I was still feeling quite fresh after the ride. That was a bit surprising since I was riding a bicycle almost after 6-7years.

Along the way that I had chosen, there were few testing inclines. But the gearing turned out to be very helpful while negotiating those inclines. My first time riding a geared bicycle, and I can already see why people actually love cycling.

It was not all rosy though. The front derailleur was out of adjustment it seemed since it kept faltering while shifting between 1st and 2nd chainrings. Next morning, I could fix it after a few turns of barrel-adjuster along with couple of high-low settings on the dérailleur.

Apart from that, two of my body parts were quite uncomfortable with this change in vehicle. First were my wrists and lower palms. And second - were my bums. After couple of rides, the soreness in palm and wrist started to recede. The bums on the other hand, were so sore that even sitting on a highly cushioned chair felt like sitting on a pair of spears. The saddle, like any other performance bicycle saddle, is a hard one and makes for uncomfortable riding. The pain has receded after a couple of rides, but it's still quite uncomfortable. So it looks like, as people recommend, a lycra bib or at least a short with chamois reinforcement is a must for riding such cycles.


Gearing: Gear Inches and Shifting

Gearing Chart

The cycle has 24-speed gearing (8 cogs in the rear and 3 chainrings in the front) with Shimano Alivio as the important rear-derailleur. Before I decided upon buying Sporterra Sport, I went through the drive-train setup of various cycles, including road-bikes. I felt that the sporterra sport's teeth configuration of 48/38/28 on the chainrings and 11-30 on the rear cogs made perfect sense for a beginner like me. I didnt count individual teeth on each of the rear cogs, but assumed a standard configuration as - 11-13-15-17-20-23-26-30. And then with Sheldon Brown's gear calulator, got an idea of what the gear inches will be for each of the gear and how they will change from gear to gear. Here is the chart that I got there, and I have highlighted what gears I will be using while shifting up and down.

As can be seen, even though the cycle is 24-speed, one can hardly use more than 10-12 gears out of those 24. Using the non-highlighted gears can quickly wear out the chain/chainrings/cassette.


Experience with Dealers

There are quite a few cycle dealers in Pune. Some are old timers, selling cycles for ages. Some are new comers, trying to tap into the booming market of enthusiasts with deep pockets (thanks in part to the IT industry). I initially went to the Track-n-Trail dealer - Surendar Cycles on Karve Road. In my couple of visits there one thing I strongly realized that this guy is all about sales and marketing talk. He tried to upsell, he tried to patronize me, he tried to be smart, he bragged, he berated other dealers, and even tried the classic FUD when I mentioned I might consider other dealers if I don't get a fair deal there. This blog is not a place to go in details about bits and pieces of the conversation, but suffice to say that - by the time I left his shop, I was disgusted with him, had not even an iota of trust in that guy, and had decided I wouldn't buy from him, come what may.

I went to Shivram Sales, on Satara Road, one of the dealers he had berated and had tried FUD on. Within half an hour I was out with a brand new Schwinn Sporterra Sport 2011 model, at a much lower price-point, with complementary basic accessories like stand, bottle-cage, lock and a bell; and as per regular practice - 2-free-maintainances and 1-year guarantee on the frame, handle and fork. All of which, this Surendar Cycle owner had written-off as "absolutely-not-possible" in a kind of virtual chest-thumping.

Moral of the story, stay away from such upsellers, and crooks while buying a bicycle in Pune. Look for a better deal with other dealers. These cycles are from international brands, and are not supposed to fail on you. Besides, these other dealers also offer the same maintainance and gurantee that these branded stores will offer. So dont fall for the FUD that these crooks are intent on spreading.

Lifecycle mall, by the way, also offers similar high prices, but they seem to have some ethics. They at least dont brag and berate other dealers, or brand of cycles that they dont keep. I had enquired about Fomas Roadking Deluxe and was told that they dont keep Fomas, but pleasantly enough, upon probing about the bicycle, I was told that apart from the weight issue, roadking deluxe is not a bad cycle for that price. The Surendar Cycle guy, upon enquiry, had told me snobbishly "we dont sell junk". I should have crossed him off my list at that point itself.


Way Ahead

I had thought about quite a few intersting plans around cycling, before taking the plunge and buying this Sporterra Sport. God-willing, if my left knee (which I had hurt during the Katraj-Sihagad trek last year) holds up, I will hopefully be able to realise those plans. Let's see how it all goes. Exciting times ahead. 

Ter’RAFA’ic ….!!!!

Hard to digest this, very heart-breaking, in fact very very heart breaking; but you have to give it to the grit, fitness and most importantly, the finesse of this Spaniard. What a match!

I couldn't watch the 2008 French Open final, but I watched the 2008 Wimbledon final with my eyes wide open, and jaw hanging; wondering how the Mr Perfectionist could let this kid go past him. I didn't believe in Nadal being a better player than Federer. After all Federer was grace personified. He didn't have a powerful serve, but still he could produce aces time and again. He didn't have a very powerful fore-hand or a back-hand. But his back-hand passes, fore-hands flirted with the lines. They were so precise. It was not the power, but the finesse and precision that he had in his game, that always awed me. That's why even when Nadal was powering his game ahead with those booming forehands and power-packed shots, I never thought of him being in the same league as that of Federer.

In the 2008 Wimbledon final, though Nadal did play well, it was Federer's tally of unforced errors, and that very low percentage of those all important first-serve-ins helped Nadal's cause in a great way. If you cannot get your first serve in, then automatically you are stripped off of your ability to produce those aces and lose out on the ability to put your opponent on the backfoot, as the second serves are always the plan-b kind of safer serves, i.e. slower serves. Incidently, you end up dropping way too many of your serves. Secondly, when you keep committing those unforced errors, it's a free lunch for the opponent. You end up losing those crucial points which should essentially have been yours. And this was what was turning out to be the bane of Federer in that epic 2008 Wimbledon final. It was Federer sans his ruthlessness and precision in that match.

After that Wimbledon final, I kept thinking of Nadal's game as display of raw power and fitness rather than finesse. Not any more, after today's 2009 Australian Open final. What we saw today, was an exhibition of pure grit and awesome tennis from a 22 year old. He came into an Australian open final for the first time, and with a brutal 5+ hours of tennis played just a day ago. Federer with all his experience, with his form, and with a rest for two days, obviously came in as favourite. But even after these all odds, the way this golden-retriever tormented Federer with his ability of fetching even dead sure winners out of nowhere, and then producing an impeccable pass right under the nose of Federer at the net, was simply astounding to say the least. The whole time I was wishing and hoping and praying for Federer to win, but those extra-ordinary rallies and Nadal's unbelievable winners which would eventually end those rallies, just shocked and awed me to the hilt. They carried a hallmark of champion with a never-say-die attitude. It was not mere power, it was finesse and elegance written all over his shots. The very qualities that took Roger Federer where he stands today, or rather where he used to stand few months back.

This doesn't mean that Federer didn't play well. In fact, there were flashes of the old Federer with the supreme confidence and finesse and elegance during the start of the third set. He looked to be in control of the game, in control of the court during that time. But then again probably Nadal got into his head somehow, and those unforced errors started creeping in again. Getting into the head of a perfectionist champion, with a super impressive record of 13 Grand Slam championships, and then outperforming him in his own game, is something only a champion can do, I am convinced.

I guess, for this reason, this 2009 Australian Open final truly marks the end of an era of one champion, while one other intimidatingly fit, young champion gets ready to shake the scene, and shock-n-awe everybody.

Best wishes to Rafa from a heart-broken Federer fanboy.