dantastic voyage

Vineman 2011 - It all comes together

2011-07-31T18:36:00.000-07:00

First, a little history:

I ventured into triathlon in 2008. I had heard a few people talking about it and thought I would give it a go. My first event was Wildflower in 2008, Olympic distance (0.9mi swim, 25mi bike, 10k run). I didn't know anything about tri bikes, or really much of anything at all. I picked up an ill-fitting used wetsuit from craigslist, didn't really have a nutrition plan, did barely any swim/run training, didn't learn how to spot...pretty much just winged it. I ended up with a 3:03, which I was perfectly happy with since I didn't have any standard to compare it to.

In 2009 I stepped it up a notch and signed up for the Vineman Half (1.2mi swim, 56mi bike, 13.1mi run). Trained better, threw some clip-on bars on the road bike, even did some running! Unfortunately my motorcycle accident made me unable to run, so instead I did the Aquabike half. It went pretty well, but on to the next step!
2010 was all about cycling, as I still couldn't run. I did the Death Ride, the Gran Fondo, and the Davis Double Century. Fun times! I saw saw a few race reports from friends who had completed Ironmans of their own, Then, sort of on a whim I decided that my challenge for 2011 would be to try and do one of my own. Bring on the Vineman!

Pre-Race

The pets are curious about my race fuel.

Race day started with a wakeup at 3:30am. Jon and Jo Ann were gracious enough to let us stay at their place in Forestville, just a short few miles from the start in Guerneville. Just so happened that they were racing at Mt Diablo on the same day, so they stayed at our place. Anyway, I packed up my race bag, filled up my fuel bottle, pumped up my tires, then laid back down for another hour or so, trying to calm the nerves. Oh and used the bathroom about 5 times. Nervous stomach.

Streets are lined with cars so we snuck into a nearby parking lot.

By the time we arrived at Johnson's beach is was almost 6:00 (for a 6:30 start time), and boy were there a lot of people there. Around 1000 people, much more than they've had race before. I had to wait in line just to get into the transition area, I had to search around for quite a while for enough rack space to hang my bike, had to organize all my stuff, had to go get my body marking, had to get my suit on, all the while the announcer was repeatedly telling the first wave participants (that's me) to make their way into the water. By the time Austin and I made it into the water, it was about 6:27. Not enough time for a warm-up, but at least we didn't miss our start! There was a lot of excitement out there and a lot of people cheering us on. However, my nerves finally took a backseat as I realized that all that was left to do was race!

Swim

A smile coming out of the water? That's a first for me!

I found myself right in the middle of the pack at the beginning of the swim, as I wasn't in the water early enough to get myself out of the way of everyone else. It was mighty crowded, but I tried to ignore it all and pretend I was swimming alone. Luckily I didn't have any breathing problems or anything. I did get kicked a few times which sent me gasping for air, but nothing too bad. Overall the swim went by pretty quickly. There were a couple of very shallow sections where people really had no choice but to stand up. Felt kind of like we were cheating a bit, but whatever...better than clawing at the riverbed. Overall the swim went by a lot faster than I thought it would. Definitely faster than Wildflower felt! Still, I was surprised to get out of the water and realize that I was only at ~1:22. I know, that's still pretty slow, but my guess was 1:30 so I was off to a good start.

Bike

Helmet strapped in the wrong place and could barely clip in. What a noob.

The ride started sloppy, as a fumbled to get clipped in on that little hill going up to the road. For a split second I thought I was going to fall over...that would have been quite embarrassing. I managed to pull it together and off I went.

It took about an hour for my heart rate to drop down to where I wanted it to be. I felt like I was doing an endurance pace effort, but my HR was telling a different story. I couldn't bring myself to slow down any more, though, so I just chalked it up to adrenaline and kept going. Eventually I managed to get myself into a groove, and it was the same story as my other tris this year: almost all of the fast athletes already started the bike leg before I did, so I was left with tons of slower people to pass. I love it. On your left! Oh! And someone had chalked GO DAN! in a few place along the course, so I pretended that it was for me!

Cruisin' by. This is easy!

Mechanicals! Ack! Had no issues on the last few rides, but managed to have a bunch of issues this time. Go figure. I dropped my chain on the first little climb at the beginning of Westside Rd. Dangit, now I'm going to have greasy hands for the rest of the race! Then later, on Chalk Hill I hit a pothole and launched my gel bottle!! No!!! I need that! I stopped, turned around, rolled down the hill and picked it up. Can't afford to leave that bottle behind now...maybe if it was the second lap, but not with ~70 more miles to go. Then, dropped the chain two more times going up the hill. First time I was able to roll out of it but the second time I had to stop. For the rest of the ride I made sure to be very careful shifting into the small ring.

Still moving but ready to get off this bike!

Second time around was a bit slower. Legs still felt great, but the wind picked up around Geyserville and I was starting to feel a bit achy. I managed to keep the pace up as much as possible. Passed quite a few people struggling up Chalk Hill this time around, so I tried to give some encouraging words when I could. I finished strong, though, and much faster than I had planned, even with all of the mechanicals. 5:38, so just under 20mph. For sure my fastest 112 miles! I managed to finish almost all of my E.F.S. gel, plus 3 Clif Shots for the boost of caffeine, so around 2000 calories total and my stomach felt fine. I took water at every aid station as well, so I was well hydrated.

Run

End of Lap 1, still smiling!

Only a marathon to go! Felt OK at the beginning and was pulling off my planned 9 min pace for the first few miles. However, I think I may have been over-hydrated, because after a while I could feel the liquid sloshing around in my stomach. In fact, I could hear it. glurp glurp glurp, on every stride. It got to be a bit painful. My legs felt OK, but the stomach was really slowing me down. Oh, and the hills! I had no idea from looking at the elevation map that it would be so hilly! However, after my stomach started to hurt, I actually started to look forward to the hills as an excuse to walk and let my stomach settle.

End of Lap 2 - Delirium sets in

The rest of the race was just a matter of gritting my teeth and putting one foot in front of the other. My pace got just a tad slower every mile, but I kept going. The best and worst part was the turnaround at the finish. I was great because that's where all of the spectators were, so there was a lot of encouragement to actually run. But then you get close enough to see the finish line, only to have to turn around, knowing you have a whole loop or 2 left to run. Ouch. They give you a bracelet at the turn around so that you can keep track of your laps (as if you could forget how many times you've had to turn around), so I made a game of counting other people's bracelets as the run progressed. "Oh, this guy is flying right by me...damn he already has 2 bracelets!" "Oh, this dude isn't doing too well, oh and this is his first loop! Yikes!"

Had lots of support out there! Right out the gate I saw Dave Gindy telling me I looked strong. Then I hear Dan Taylor, who immediately tells me to "pick it up"! My wonderful gf was there at the turn taking pictures and giving me high fives, and offering me chocolate. Lily was at the mile 3 aid station to hand me coke and spray me with a hose. Carmen and her boys were there at the lonely far end of the course to say hi. Then of course I passed by Austin and Zach several times as they were running the opposite way; bother looked like they were doing better than I was! Support definitely helps. Thanks everyone!!

Started looking at the watch more as the last few miles slowly ticked away. I had a goal of 12 hours for this race, and I could see it fast approaching. At the beginning of the run I had thought it would be easy to make it, since I had given myself a good 20 min buffer on the bike, but slowly I started to realize that I might not make it. Finally with 2 laps to go I worked out the math and figured that if I kept up the pace a bit I would make it. someone passed me with less than a mile and said "we're going to be sub 12!" but I still wasn't sure. It was 6:25 as we made it back to the main road. Really had to fight the worn out legs but pushed it enough to make it just in time!!

It's OVER!!!

Totally worth it. What's next?!

Wildflower Long Course - the good and the bad

2011-05-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

Big milestone reached this week, and along with it a big reality check. Though I didn't even really come close to my optimistic time goal, I did complete goal #1 which was to finish. I also had a great weekend and learned a ton.

Day before:
Arrived at the lake nice and early on Friday around 1pm. Most of the prime camping spots were already taken - I guess some people make a whole week of this event! Luckily, Amy hooked us up with a family (Steve, Belinda, and they're daughter Madison) who had rented an RV and come early to get one of those prime spots.

Took it pretty easy on Friday. Went down and picked up my packet. Had a nice ~25 min bike ride and ~10 min run, just to warm up my legs a bit and make sure everything looked good on the bike. Hung out and relaxed at the campsite...got race numbers set up, race day bag ready, race wheels on. Steve and Belinda made an amazing dinner and invited us to join them. Thought positive thoughts and felt pretty good overall. Still had a terrible time sleeping, which seems to be the norm for me before a big event. No matter how much I try and calm myself, I can't stop my subconscious brain from worrying away.

Race morning:
Up at 5:30 to have breakfast plenty early. Oatmeal with almond butter, honey, and a banana. Coffee for the first time in a week was amazing (I had been going without for a week in the hopes that it would enhance the effect the caffeine would have on my performance). Hung out at the campsite chatting with the group for a while, never felt rushed. Still feeling confident about the day. Tires pumped, race bag checked again. Can't find my Clif shots, but I figured it wasn't a big deal, I'd find some other source of caffeine on the course. Plenty of time to get ready, use the restroom, etc., and by the time we headed down to the start there was about 30 mins till my start time.

Get there, rack my bike, start getting everything ready. Wait...something is missing. Timing chip! I frantically search my bag twice more , and have a minor panic attack when I can't find it. Consider going back up to camp to get it, but realize that I wouldn't have enough time to make it back down (by this point it's 15 mins till my start, they're just now sending off the first wave). Oh well. I try and calm myself down as I put my wetsuit on...it's not a big deal, it's not like I'm there to win anything. I made one last minute decision; I decided to wear my wetsuit booties (which I've never worn) as my feet tend to be cold and the transition area is pretty big and can be painful on the feet! I take a little bit of gatorade and water, and make my way to the ramp.

The Swim:
I arrive at the start at just the right moment. The group in front of us had just started, and my wave had just started out into the water to try and get acclimated. I jumped in and got wet. Water felt pretty nice. Then I realized that I hadn't really studied the swim course. I had to double check which way we were supposed to turn after the first buoy. And off we went!

My overall strategy had been to just go easy on the swim, and expect a slow time. I've probably mentioned before that I am shockingly under-trained for the swim. I've skipped so many swim workouts, and been pretty shameless about it. I've used just about any excuse in the book to avoid swimming - I don't want to get up that early, it's too cold out (even for an indoor pool apparently), I hate my pool, etc. I don't really have any good excuse. I just need to go swim more.

So I took it easy as planned (thinking back, I think I was going too easy). Tried to practice my spotting, which I still did poorly. I had clear lenses without a wide field of vision (goggle recommendations anyone?), and that in addition to the early morning glare made spotting very difficult. I think I did better than I've done in the past, but I definitely need more practice. Anyway, I was able to get into a good rhythm a few times, but it would get interrupted when I would spot and realize I had to adjust. Also, I don't know if it just happened on its own or caused by another swimmer, but one of my booties came halfway off, which probably contributed to some drag. And lastly, even though I had not been kicking too much at all, I ended up getting leg cramps during the second half...no idea where that came from. After that, I did almost no kicking. All in all, I had expected a slow 45 mins, but I ended with a dismal ~53 mins or so. No excuses, time to work on swimming.

The Bike
It's a little hard on the ego when you get into T1 to find that almost all of the bikes in your row are gone, but there are some advantages as well. First, there's no T1 traffic! I didn't have to push my way past anyone to get to my bike, so I got in and out pretty quick. Second (and more important), I have a lot of carrots in front of me to catch. As a result, I went a it harder than I should have for the first 10 miles or so on the bike. There are some short, steep-ish hills in the beginning before leaving the park, and most people are spinning up them, but I was attacking. It feels so good to fly by other rides at a 5+ mph difference. Right away my confidence is back up. I also made sure not to burn any matches; I backed off whenever I saw my HR getting close to my threshold.

Eventually I settled into my low tempo zone, which I think was right for this distance. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out to be the calm day that was forecast the day before. There were major head winds through the turn at mile 19, and the head/cross winds continued through most of the ride (at least until the hills started). I stayed tucked in the TT extentions for longer than I had expected to, but I did feel pretty comfortable in that position, and I continued passing riders throughout the entire ride. During Nasty Grade, I still felt good but started thinking about the run ahead and pulled it back a little bit. This is when I would have taken my first shot of caffeine, had I remembered to bring it.

Speaking of nutrition, I executed my plan well and it worked perfectly well. 800 cals of EFS gel in a water bottle, spread throughout the ride. Ended up taking an additional water bottle at a feed zone, and took about half a bottle of gatorade at another (it was a bit warmer than expected). Stomach felt great throughout (and I really love the taste of the vanilla EFS gel).

Came into T2 after a 2:57 bike. Slower than expected, but I think I can attribute that to the wind, and I will consider it a very successful ride.

The Run:
T2 was pretty quick, but run started off pretty slowly as expected. I'm feeling OK, but not great. Really wishing I had my Clif shots. Took a pee break after about a mile. Next, it was time to face my second weakness: hill running. I've done almost no hill training, so I knew this was going to be tough. I was being passed here and there, but I think I tried to get into a pace that I thought was manageable. I took it really easy on the run descents, because I wasn't sure how my knees would hold up and wanted to play it safe. Walked up the really steep sections of hill, and took very short walk breaks at the aid stations as I took mostly water.

The nutrition fell apart on the run. I started to get desperate for caffeine so I took a PowerGel at one of the aid stations...YUCK! I spat it out. After that, my stomach didn't want anything. I took some of my EFS gel, but not much. I did take plenty of water, and some gatorade as needed. I will need to practice eating more during long runs.

At mile 8 there was aid station with coke, and I was very excited. This was not an official aid station item (maybe Team in Training?). I told the hand-off person that she was my favorite person in the world right now. At that part of the race, coke is magical. I immediately felt great and picked up the pace for a bit. I kept hoping that there would be another one, but it wasn't to be.

Mile 11 is the turnaround point where you have to climb a mile-long hill than you just descended. I was pretty cranky at this point, wondering how it's possible for anyone to actually finish an Ironman. The fact that I was still passing other that were also fading still gave me hope, though. The aid station volunteers and spectators definitely helped at this point too. I shuffled up to the final peak and took it easy down Lynch hill to the finish.

I don't know what my run time was, but I'm guessing it was somewhere around 2:10...which is a little better than a 10 min pace. I think I would have fared much better without the hills. Every time the trail flattened out, I got into a really good rhythm and my pace would go up. Unfortunately those flat portions were few and far between. Gonna have to work in a few hill runs into my training!

Overall (unofficially), I finished at 6:09:56, which would have put me in I think 72 of 172 in my AG. Solid middle of the pack.

Aftermath:
Sunburned and a bit sore, and feel like I'm just barely on the edge of not getting sick. Other than that, I am feeling great! Amy is going to develop a Vineman plan of attack for me, and I am very much looking forward to getting back to work! Let's do this!

Counting down to Wildflower

2011-04-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

"What are these electrolytes? Do you even know?"
"They're...what they use to make Brawndo"
"But why do the use them to make Brawndo?"
"...Because Brawndo's got electrolytes."

Starting to get pretty excited/anxious about Wildflower, which is less than 2 days away. This is supposed to be just a milestone race for me...a training race in preparing for Vineman full in July. But I am finding myself caught up in all of the excitement of triathlon, yet again.

Non-triathletes might look at the event and wonder "What the big deal? You just go out there and swim, bike, and run!" But little to they know....

There is so much planning involved, and so much to remember to do/bring/eat! So many things to worry about! So many things to constantly keep in your mind, any one of which, if forgotten or screwed up in any way, may be your downfall!

For example, my race day nutrition plan:

Wake up 3 hours before race for a large breakfast consisting of

oatmeal
PB sandwich
banana
coffee

Sip water/sports drink periodically up to the start
Take in 800 calories on the bike, specially prepared ahead of time in a water bottle to take small amounts every 15-20 mins, plus a gel towards the end for a caffeine kick
Take 1 bottle water to start, replace at the aid stations at miles 19 and 35
Take a 400 cal gel flask for the run, plus another gel or 2 for caffeine
Take water/gatorade on the run, alternating at aid stations
Switch to Coke when I start feeling dead.

So complicated! I won't even go into the huge checklist I made this morning of things I need to remember to pack.

But the funny thing is, when you get this close and there are so many things to go over in your head, you forget to worry about whether your fitness is there or not. It's obviously too late at this point, but it's probably a good thing that I have these distractions so I'm not constantly worrying about how out of shape I am!

Now that we're on the subject....I think my fitness is OK but now where it could be. I haven't gotten the hours in that I should have, and I always end up riding more than running/swimming. The swim is definitely my limiter; I've only done a handful of swim workouts all year. I'm not planning to get a great swim time (or even a GOOD swim time)...but I should be able to finish at least. And I'm fine with that; more people to pass on the bike!

And I somehow have managed to lose about 6 Double Doubles and meet my weight goal for this point in the season. So that should help me get up Nasty Grade!

Should be an interesting weekend. Wish me luck!

Beat the Clock TT #3 (2 for me)

2011-04-17T21:48:00.000-07:00

Several things went better this time around. The last time I came out and raced this event was in February, and it was quite cold and wet. This time, dry and warm (for 7am). Much warmer than Fremont last week. I decided to warm up on the trainer instead of on the road. I was freezing during my warm-up in Fremont...which I think maybe defeats the purpose of warming up! I was also parked right next to the start line, so I was able to warm up right until my start time. This time, I rolled up ready to go!

I've done a few tweaks on my bike fit since Feb, and I think I've gotten to a point where I can output more power than before in a more aerodynamic position.I still really had to concentrate, though, to keep my effort high. My muscles were really burning, especially the rear/outer thighs/glutes.

Unfortunately, my power meter decided to stop working 1/3 of the way through my run!! Dang, that defeated half the purpose of doing this race. Had to rely on my own perception of effort.

Results were significantly better than last time. Last time I ran a 25:49, which is 23.2mph

TT start

Additionally, since I've been having such a crap time on the TT bike lately, I decided to try and find out really how much time difference the TT bike is getting me...if it's worth it to stick with it. I raced another round in the Merckx category (no aero gear, clothes, wheels, helmet). I do have an aero road frame, but that's it.

For the second round, I finished in 27:08 (22.1mph). 1:19 slower than the first run, but still faster than my time in February (on the TT bike).

Finishing strong on the road bike

That 1:19 time difference would translate to ~7:22 over a half IM distance, twice that for a full IM (duh). However, taking into account the fact that the road ride was my second effort of the day, and the fact that I would have been faster with aero wheels/helmet, the actual difference would be significantly less than that.

For now, I think the plan is going to be to ride the road bike at Wildflower. In the meantime, I will focus on becoming more flexible on the hamstrings, lower back, etc, and using the foam rollers. Any tips on favorite stretches? Stretching style?

Calaveras ITT - slow and painful

2011-04-11T13:04:00.000-07:00

Hating life on the TT bike

Just wasn't feeling it on this race.

Early 8:16am start meant very chilly morning. Warmed up for a good 20 min or so but never felt good on the bike. Got off to a decent pace and tried to hold it...HR never really got up to wear it should have been. My quads were burning but my HR barely made it up to LT.

My time was a dismal 26:23, which is about 30 seconds slower than I was last year....and last year I was on my road bike with TT clip ons, no aero wheels, no aero gear! I guarantee that I would have been faster if I had been riding my road bike today. And more comfortable.

I think the problem right now is that my flexibility is really poor, particularly my hamstrings and lower back. As a result, when I get down low into the aero position, my legs are fighting each other every revolution, costing me a ton of power (my power output was 25+ watts lower than last year, even though I am stronger this year).

Now I have to make a decision...my options:

Focus a lot of time on increasing flexibility, get a professional bike fit on the TT bike, and before July 30 I'll be able to hold an aero position comfortably for 112mi without significant power loss.
Ditch the TT bike and ride the road bike for triathlon. I have 3 tri events, after which I will most likely stop doing triathlon. After then, if there's a TT I can ride it on the road bike with clip ons, or ride the Eddy Merckx category (no aero gear or wheels allowed)!

2 good weekends of racing

2011-04-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

Race#1: Oakland Half Marathon

Last Sunday the 27th was originally supposed to be the Berkeley Hills TTT that I had been planning to race with Jon. Unfortunately they cancelled that race with 2 weeks to go, due to the low number of people who has signed up so far.

So instead, on a whim I signed up for the Oakland half marathon. I almost signed up for the FULL marathon, but luckily I was talked out of it. I got the idea in my head that it would be good to see how a full marathon felt, so I could get a real sense of what I was getting myself into. I changed my mind after I was reminded how long I would be out of commission after running a full marathon.

My previous long run was 11.5mi at a 8:30 (min/mile) pace, and my previous "best" long run was a 10 miler at right around 8:00 pace. So my goal for this race was to maintain my "best" pace for the full 13.1 miles. My goal time was 1:45.

I finished in 1:38:18 for a 7:31 pace! That extra boost that you get from racing - having people cheering, having carrots to chase, knowing the clock is ticking, etc. - really made a huge difference! I decided at the last second not to keep pace during the run, to just base it on how I felt. Looking back, I think that was absolutely the right decision, because I probably would have held some back if I had been using a watch to pace myself.

Race#2: 3 Bears ITT

This is a really low key time trial hosted by the Grizzly Peak Cyclists. It consists of one lap of the 3 Bears loop out in Orinda. 18.7mi with 2 tough climbs. This is a race to do to gage your training progress. Jon, Jo Ann and I came out last month, and Amy joined us for this month. Unfortunately last month I broke a chain, so I didn't get an accurate time (I estimated around 58 mins).

This month I pulled out all the stops with a new bike and racing wheels. No power meter this time. My racing strategy was to go just a little harder than I thought I could maintain for the course. On top of that, I tried to make it a point to accelerate as I approached the top of each climb, and I think that made a big difference.

We all made personal bests on the course. I did it in 54:21, which was much faster than my goal of 57 mins.

Next weekend is the Calaveras 10 mile ITT. I'm curious to see how much of an advantage I can get on the TT bike...I've been feeling lately that maybe it wasn't worth it to get a full on TT bike. I guess we will see!

Beat the Clock TT #1

2011-02-20T16:47:00.000-08:00

Game face!

First race of the year is under my belt. And it only gets faster from here.

Woke up at 5:30 to a chilly/rainy morning and headed out to Woodside to compete in this year's first Beat the Clock Time Trial. It's technically just a training race, and the money raised goes to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. It's a 10 mile out and back on Cañada Road, easy rollers.

I showed up about an hour before my start time of 7:58, enough time to walk over from th car, register up, put my number on, get the gear situated, and go for a short spin down the other side of Cañada to Woodside rd and back a couple of times. Felt pretty good, nice and relaxed.

Rolled up to the start and they only had to wait about 30 seconds before they sent me off down the road (there were a lot of no shows due to the rain). I even got someone to hold me up so I could start clipped in (that's a first for me).

Felt comfortable on the bike, which is a big relief! My last training ride was pretty painful, so I've been tweaking my position. I also picked up an Adamo Racing saddle, which I really think help relieve some, ahem, pressure.

Race went pretty OK overall. Didn't feel like I went too hard at any point. This is a training race, after all. That said, I was not terribly fast, and my power output is way down from the peak of last year. I guess that's to be expected, but it's hard to find excuses when you're seeing your power output displayed right in front of you. I also think I need to work on my concentration a bit. 10 miles is not that far, I should be able to concentrate for that long. Time to start up some steady state intervals!

One thing I was really surprised about was my heart rate during the race. Very strange. I've been complaining that so far this year, during my workouts, even during hard efforts, my heart rate has not been responding. I've been having trouble even getting close to my LTHR. My heart rate for this race was much higher, and stayed up there the entire time. Not sure what's going on. Like I said, I felt relaxed...but maybe I was just nervous deep down.

Another thing I noticed it looks like I went harder in the 2nd half (uphill), which means next time I should try going a bit harder for the first half (downhill).

The support staff at the race was really friendly, and I had a good time, despite the weather. I am looking forward to #2!

Totals:
Duration: 27:59
Distance: 10.196 mi
Ascent: 356 ft
Norm Power: 253

     Max / Avg
Power: 606 / 238 watts
Heart Rate: 189 / 184 bpm
Cadence:    144 / 98 rpm
Speed:    36 / 21.8 mph

Re-thinking weight loss, animal style!

2011-01-31T13:14:00.000-08:00

I've been "trying" to lose weight for a few months now, and getting absolutely nowhere. My weight has fluctuated up or down around 2 lbs but has been hovering right in the same neighborhood. There are several potential reasons for my apparent failure:

I haven't been working out enough and therefore haven't been burning enough calories
I'm genetically predisposed to gaining weight quickly but losing it slowly (I like this option because it takes all of the blame off of me! I can just shake my fist in the air and say "damn genes!" and be done with it.)
I don't have the discipline/will power to avoid the delicious-yet-unhealthy foods that surround me daily.

Of course, in reality it's a combination of all those things.

Or maybe - just maybe - "weight" is just too abstract a concept. It's just a number, right? What is a "pound" anyway? Weight? Mass? Force? Currency? It's all too confounding. Despite being a supposed "engineer", even I have trouble picturing a pound in my head.

Maybe that's the problem...maybe since we as humans have trouble with weight loss, because all our data and goals are based on this abstract number.

Maybe instead of using pounds as a unit of mass, we should use something a bit more....tangible. Something that we can all easily picture in our minds.

I've got it!

Here we go, an In-n-Out Double Double, animal style. It weighs 330g, which is 0.727525465 lbs.

Which means I weigh ~217 Double Doubles (DDs). And I need to lose about 8 DDs.

Well that doesn't seem so bad!

Now, if you will excuse me I have a craving for In-N-Out

2011 racing

2011-01-24T12:59:00.000-08:00

Yea, it's been a while. Gotta get back into the blogging groove.
For starters, here's my race schedule for 2011. You'll notice there's a a couple of changes from last year. First, more focus on TTs and almost no crits. I will get to that in a bit. Second, there's a big milestone on there...Vineman Full IM! I figured this would be a good a time as any to knock IM off my list of things to do, so there it is. We'll see by July 30 whether or not that was a good idea!

02/19 - TT - Beat the Clock #1 (Woodside)
03/19 - TT - Beat the Clock #2 (Woodside)
03/27 - TTT - Berkeley Team Time Trial
04/02 - Du 3/18/3 - Du Golden Bears (maybe)
04/09 - TT - Calaveras Time Trial (Fremont)
04/16 - TT - Beat the Clock #3 (Woodside)
04/17 - Tri (super sprint) - Ice Breaker (Granite Bay)
04/30 - Tri 70.3 - Wildflower long course
05/08 - RR - Berkeley Hills Road Race
05/28 - TT - Beat the Clock #4 (Woodside)
06/05 - TT - Dunlap Memorial TT (Davis) or Tri for Real Olympic
06/11 - TT - Taleo ITT (Benicia) or Mt Diablo Hill Climb (Walnut Creek)
06/18 - RR - Pescadero Road Race
06/25 - RR - Spring Hill Road Race or Giro Bello classic
07/02 - TT - Grizzly Peak Three Bears ITT
07/30 - Tri 140.6 - Vineman Full
09/10 - TT - Mt Tam Hill Climb
09/24-25 - Everest Challenge

The Grizzly Peak 3 Bears ITT is a monthly local TT every 1st Saturday that will serve mainly to test my progress and see how well I'm improving.

Also going to start doing the local Port of Oakland (POO) ride (local unsanctioned crit) that happens every Tuesday. Maybe I'll throw a real crit in there as well if I have any success in the local race.

Haven't scheduled any run races...I figured I would get all my run training on my own, hopefully do plenty of long brick workouts...but maybe at least one marathon would be good to do before attempting the big IM.

Last one on the list is the Everest Challenge, which I haven't really planned for, but would be a lot of fun to do...if I'm able to shed some weight!!!

Thoughts?

Tahoe Death Ride

2010-07-11T15:20:00.000-07:00

This was the big one. I am too tired to really post a full blog at this time...but it was great fun. Adam was a great riding companion and pushed me to the limit!

Here is a video I shot of the First descent down the back (Nevada) side of Monitor Pass. It came out pretty good, except when the sun was in the frame. Definitely the best pass of the day (though I think the fact that our legs were still fresh, and the temperatures were still cool, may have had something to do it with it).

more to come...

Auburn Century

2010-06-29T20:32:00.000-07:00

An amazing ride on an absolutely beautiful day. 111 mi, 11k ft of climbing. Definitely physically tougher than the Davis Double. the mental challenge was not as bad, as it was shorter with some amazing scenery.

Favorite feed zone item: Reese's Peanut Butter cups!! YES!!!

Oddest feed zone item: cobbler, @ the China wall rest stop.

Best section: By far, the section after the China Wall rest stop was the best. It was like 20 miles of consistent, gentle descent. The road looked flat, but we averaged 30mph for 25 minutes. It was amazing. Definitely worth the climb.

My feet were killing me toward the end of this ride...I wonder what's causing that...I didn't have any issues at Davis...maybe I pushed a little harder on this ride...or maybe I need to think about tweaking my cleat position a little bit...

Anyway, enjoy this little video I took. Go ahead, be jealous.

Mountain biking

2010-06-29T20:17:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you just gotta take some time off from training and go have some fun out on the trail!

This vid was taken on May 26, at Stevens Canyon trail in Cupertino. I was really surprised at how stable the video came out. Not bad for a handlebar cam on a mountain bike!

Be sure to watch through...my favorite part is the creek crossing!

Davis Double Century

2010-05-24T21:41:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Amy talked me into signing up for the Davis Double. She'd already done the Solvang Double, and will be well on her way to getting the coveted California Triple Crown (three doubles in one year). Davis is supposed to be a good "beginner double"...less than 8500 ft of climbing and really amazing support. I was worried, though, as the Gran Fondo was my longest ride to date (103mi), and one of only a couple full centuries I've done...this year, the longest ride I'd done was an ~80 miler out to Mt. Diablo. Not a huge base of endurance there...it was going to be a challenge, physically AND mentally!

I arrived in Davis @ around 5:15, still dark. People were having trouble finding their friends; out in the darkness you would hear someone shout "Steve!...Steve!" trying to find each other. Went in, got my number, met up with Amy and her friend Leonard. Almost forgot to put on sunblock (hard to remember when it's still dark out!)...and by 5:35 we were on the road. Riders were supposed to start between 5:15 and 5:45am, but apparently the vast majority of the group had started on the earlier end.

We managed to form a group behind a tandem couple, who pulled us almost the entire way up to the first rest stop, as the rest of us just warmed up our legs. Rest stops were very well stocked: PB&Js, tons of great fruit, triscuits, crackers, Cytomax. We took a while at the first stop, took the opportunity to the use the bathrooms.

We headed out, on our own this time, for the next stop. I made an effort to constantly keep looking at my power/HR to make sure I was keeping a sustainable pace. We maintained a 21-22 mph pace for quite some time, which would have been a bit unsettling if I couldn't confirm I was barely pushing into my L2 zone. Must have been a tailwind!

Soon after, we went through Winters and out to Lake Berryessa. By this point, I realized that the number I placed on my bike was in a very inconvenient spot on the frame, right between my legs...when we started picking up the pace, the number would flap open and rub against my legs. I tried to ignore it for a while, but that didn't last long...I reached down to reposition it, and when I looked up I realized that I had veered very close to the edge of the road - and to my right was a ditch! Looking up ahead, I saw that there were sections of the road in front of me that had eroded away. I had a decision to make; try to escape this situation and risk a fall, or ride out into the ditch and hope for the best. I opted to ride into the ditch...which was the right choice; I was able to ride it out and didn't hurt myself or the bike. Still, pretty darn embarrassing!! A small group of riders in front of me had heard it and turned around to see if I was OK!! Honestly, who falls on a century ride!?

Riding through Berryessa was kinda surreal....We rode right by the spot where my grandma used to have a trailer up there at Markley Cove, where I spent many a summer day as a kid. Cardiac grade was an easy little hill, unlike the name suggests. Then we were treated to this amazing descent.

Miles flew by quickly after that. The next thing I knew, we were already climbing up Cobb Mountain, which is the toughest climb of the course. The three of us were passing people left and right...it was a decent hill, but compared to the some of the steeper grades in the Bay Area, it was an easy task. We crested the hill @ the 102 mile mark. I downed a Diet Coke and plunked some ice cubes in my water bottles (and maybe my shorts) as I waited for the other two to catch up. I didn't wait for long though, they were right behind me and barely breaking a sweat!

We kept the rest short and kept going, knowing the the lunch stop was not too far away. We made it to lunch in Lower Lake at around 2pm, after a really fun 50mph descent.

For me, lunch consisted of a giant sandwich, some pasta salad, fruit, a couple of cookies, and another Diet Coke (caffeine!!!). I also kicked off my shoes and walked around barefoot for a while, which felt really nice!! Everyone around us still seemed to be in high spirits, happy that we were only around 80 degrees this year (as opposed to to ~110 the past couple years).

We left lunch knowing there was one more major climb in front of us: Resurrection grade. Again, not as scary as it sounded. However, this time, the sun was directly overhead and we did not have a lot of protection. My head was down, pedaling away, until I read "...and the dead shall arise!" painted on the ground below me. Woohoo! I was very excited when we rolled into the next rest stop - for two reasons. 1) they had NUTTER BUTTERS, which I love and had been hoping to see at some point, and 2) ice socks! Whoever invented the ice sock has my eternal gratitude.

That was pretty much it for the climbing...just 60 or so miles of flat to rolling terrain to go. I rode this next section solo, as I pulled away from the others during the descent, and was feeling really strong after those Nutter Butters! I picked off a lot of riders in that section...people were starting to look a bit the worse for wear. Indeed, at the next rest stop I was beginning to hear lots of groans, limping, talks of soreness...as for me, I was glad to still have youth on my side! My legs were still feeling pretty good, but my butt was not used to all this saddle time.

A few minutes later, my team arrived. 40 miles to go. Home stretch. We pulled out, and apparently about 2 dozen riders followed us. Between the three of us (Amy, Leonard and I) we were able to maintain a very fast pace (18-21mph) for the entire 20 miles or so between stops. I hadn't even realized we were pulling so many people until we made a turn approaching the next stop. At the stop, we got many thanks from people who said that we had "dragged them" the whole way. The second to last stop was the Cup Noodles stop...which I had never heard of but apparently is standard for a Double Century....definitely replenished the lost sodium!

We trudged along with 20 miles to go. We had heard about the mythical 195 mile stop, which featured grilled cheese sandwiches. Earlier, we had decided to just skip it, considering we were only 8 easy miles to the finish. But when we got there, we just couldn't resist! Grilled cheese sandwich after 195 miles is a glorious thing.

We ticked off the last few miles and arrived in Davis just as the sun went down, for a pretty good time (under 12 hrs riding time, and 15 hours total). All in all, it was gorgeous, fun, well supported, and not quite as difficult as I had expected. I actually think the coming Auburn Century may prove to be more difficult, and the Tahoe Death Ride definitely will, but I feel a little bit more confident about both of them now.

Totals:
Duration: 11:43:30
Distance: 202.584 mi
Ascent: 7722 ft
Norm Power: 171

     Max / Avg
Power: 720 / 149 watts
Heart Rate: 175 / 142 bpm
Cadence:    162 / 76 rpm
Speed:    48.5 / 17.3 mph

Calaveras ITT

2010-05-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

On Saturday morning we rolled down to Fremont, so I could have a crack at the Calaveras 10 mi ITT.

Coming off a disappointing race in Berkeley a couple of weeks ago, and a double century the week before, I wasn't really expecting to be able to compete with the other Elite 4 guys. However, since I've never competed in a time trial before, I decided to go for it. I opted for the Powertap wheelset over the Easton deep dish set, sacrificing speed for data. I figured since I'm not likely to do well, I should at least get some data that will be useful for my training.

I was really surprised at the number of Elite 4 guys who have fully decked out time trial rigs. Skinsuits, disc wheels, aero helmets, TT specific bikes....the only aero equipment I had were my cheap clip-on aero bars! I would have done better just to leave the aero bars at home and sign up for the Eddy Merckx category instead:

For the Merckx class races, NO Aero Equipment allowed, so no aero bars, use regular drop road bars ONLY, and no clip-ons, no TT helmet (or face shield), no skinsuit, you must have separate shorts and jersey, and no wheels with any "V" rim (box-type rims ONLY). Traditional frame with round tubing encouraged, but any legal frame is acceptable. Stubble, beards encouraged, along with exposed cables and toe clips, any clothing made with wool is good as well.

I think I may just do that for the Benicia ITT in July...or I may decide to invest in a TT helmet.

Totals:
Placing: 17/20
Duration: 0:25:56
Distance: 10.00 mi
Ascent: 310 ft
Norm Power: 275

     Max / Avg
Power: 623 / 270 watts
Heart Rate: 192 / 184 bpm
Cadence:    111 / 91 rpm
Speed:    33 / 23.1 mph

Baseline Power Profile

2010-05-24T21:23:00.000-07:00

Data is so useful!

So, after a couple of months of tooling around with a power meter, I have accumulated enough data to be able to see my baseline power profile:

As you can see, my 5 minute and 20 minute power are OK...at least in the Cat 4 realm. But my short duration power (5 seconds and 1 minute) are clearly non-existent. I did a specific testing workout yesterday to see how hard I could push for 20 seconds and 1 minute...and you can see the results are less than spectacular. This has been evident in my poor crit performance and inability to hold on to a sprint.

The good news is, now that I know what my limiters are, I can focus my workouts to work on these areas. Aerobic capacity workouts, here I come. Bring the pain!

Bike to Work Day 2010

2010-05-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

Good times.

(will post video later today)

Berkeley Hills Road Race

2010-05-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

This should be short...

This was my first Cat 4 race. It was also my A priority race, which means I actually tried to peak for it. Unfortunately, my fitness is just not there yet. I could keep up with everyone just fine (even led for a little bit) until the Bears came up. First lap I was able to hang on up Mama Bear (my best pace on that climb was ~10mph, this climb was ~12mph)...but I was dropped half way up Papa Bear.

I wrangled up a couple of guys and tried to get them to work together...but one of them decided to give up as we passed the registration area (we had been dropped, after all, and it was raining). So I rode with one other guy for a while (not ideal)...eventually we were caught by another group of 3. We rode as 5 for a while, until we got back to the Bears again, then 2 of them were dropped. I stuck with these 2 other guys for another lap all the way until we got to the next round of Bears. At this time, I started majorly cramping (actually, I had been fighting off cramps on and off since the end of the first lap...but now they were getting pretty bad) so I let them go. I ended up finishing by myself (again).

I definitely need to go back and focus on anaerobic/VO2max efforts, so I can hang with these guys on the climbs. But next up is the Davis Double next weekend

Totals:
Placing:
Duration: 2:44:27
Distance: 52.702 mi
Ascent: 4382 ft
Norm Power: N/A (aero wheels)

     Max / Avg
Heart Rate: 195 / 169 bpm
Cadence:    122 / 86 rpm
Speed:    43.1 / 20.9 mph

New Belgium Urban Assault Ride – Berkeley

2010-05-08T09:51:00.000-07:00

Apparently, New Belgium has been putting on this awesome ride for a few years now, but this is the first year that it’s come to Berkeley.

The rules are simple. Each two person team has seven checkpoints (5 with known addresses and 2 “mystery checkpoints”) to hit, each with an unknown challenge. First team back to the Start/finish wins! Sounds like fun, right? Well, the ride drew an interesting crowd, from racers to tandem families…

From super heroes to super women…

From food stuffs to wildlife…

Even music lovers and unicyclists!

I convinced Amy to team up with me, even though she had just completed the ridiculously difficult Wildflower Half IM the day before. I, myself, had just come off two consecutive hard rides. Still, I figured the competition wouldn’t be all that tough, the actual riding mileage is pretty short, and I know Berkeley pretty well…maybe we have a shot at doing well!

There was a quiz a couple days before the race to give a potential advantage of a couple of minutes over the rest of the group. Lots of google searches later, and we had a 90% score on the quiz (which was the highest score of any team), which put us in the first wave. Unfortunately there was a LOT of other teams that were also in that first wave. Oh well. There was also a clue the day before which was supposed to lead us in the direction of the first mystery checkpoint. I wasn’t entirely sure, but I had a good guess at where it was. Too late now! The horn blew and we were off!

I opted to take my touring bike, and swapped the pedals for platforms so I wouldn’t have to worry about running around in my roadie shoes. Amy had a different strategy, if you notice the running shoes she has stuffed inside her jersey pockets (she ended up losing one!)

The Start/Finish was at MLK Park. The first stop was only a couple of blocks away at Mike’s Bikes, where they had set up a skateboard bowling course. We got off to a slow-ish start, as just about every other time had the same idea to go over to Mike’s first! I think the people there were overwhelmed, because it took us a little while to figure out what we actually had to do. On the first try, I pushed Amy all the way down the lane! I didn’t realize that there was a line that I wasn’t supposed to cross…so we had to do it twice. Oh well.

Next, we decided to go for the first mystery spot, which I had guessed was at the Berkeley Rose Garden. If you know the area, you know that this is up a pretty steep hill! A chance to make up some time. Indeed, we passed quite a few people on the way, riding their fixies, or taking a poorly planned route up an even steeper hill. Then when we got there, we got our clue to the next mystery spot: a word scramble.

Huh?

We stood there looking at it for a minute or so…but couldn’t figure it out. So, we just said forget it, and went on to the next known checkpoint, figuring that we would figure it out along the way.

Halfway down to REI, I realized the answer: Witter Rugby Field. Damn…if we would have figured it out when we were up the hill, we could have gone straight over and saved a few minutes. Oh well.

REI had a puzzle set up, where you had to figure out how to fit all of these geometric shapes into a square. We fumbled around with it for a couple of minutes, but I think we were pretty quick to get it.

Next, we took a quick jaunt down a few block to Clif Bar HQ (I didn’t even know that was there!), where they had an awesome Big Wheel course set up in the parking lot. It’s very strange: you get used to riding 172.5mm crank arms, then you get on a Big Wheel with ~50mm crank arms…it’s a little discombobulating. And plastic wheels = super fun power slides!!

Next stop was out on the waterfront and piggyback polo; I carried Amy on my back while she whacked a ball with a polo mallet across a course and back. I think we were pretty quick on that one (and I think by this point, Amy had stopped bothering to change her shoes).

After that, we headed over to San Pablo park on the South and of Berkeley for a game called “Paperboy”. In this game, I had to ride around a marked course and huck newspapers from a messenger bag, while Amy stood about 50 feet away trying to catch 3 of them in a little box. This game was tough. I went through 3 bags full of newspapers. You were supposed to keep moving while you threw, but most people had resorted to stopping their bikes and tossing the newspapers while standing…not really the same. We definitely lost quite a few minutes here…I think 2 of the newspapers actually landed inside the box and bounced out! Oh well…eventually we got 3.

The last stop was the second mystery checkpoint at the rugby field, which is up above the stadium…more steep climbing! I goofed up and went up Durant instead of Channing, which I forgot ends in a staircase…so we had to go a couple of extra blocks.

After hitting the last checkpoint, we bombed through campus back to MLK park, where they had set up an inflatable obstacle course for the finish. We ended the race in 4th place out of 60 in the Coed division and 9th overall out of 112 teams that finished, with a time of 1:34:35. No podium!

Now...the fun didn't stop there. The after party included: lots of free beer, free swag/food/drink from REI, Keen, Clif Bar, New Belgium, and Honest T. New Belgium even busted out this keg-hauling beer bike!

This awesome lady would roll around the party, then stop and make people dance in order to receive free beer. Sounds like a deal to me! I also met a guy named Johnny, who builds and sells custom Coaster Brake Wheels...but we met in an odd way. He was sporting an interesting outfit adorned with real alligator heads attached to football pads. Anyways...we were dancing for our beer and somehow, I was bit by one of his alligators. For real. It drew blood.

Then, there was the raffle! This wasn't any ordinary raffle. You had to compete for your prizes! First up was the mini bike limbo.

They let everyone ( who wanted to) compete in this event. they would go through, and then lower the bar 2 inches each round. I made it through 2 rounds, Amy's friend Steven made it through 3. As you can see from the picture on the left...not as easy as it looks! The kid on the right ended up taking it!

There were other fun/ridiculous events as well, including a mini bike race around the fountain:

A "keg stilts" race:

Then they called my number! "We need 8 people down here with the last number 0 on their raffle ticket". So I hurried down. They told us to pair up; I quickly paired up with the Metromint racer that had won the Coed division. Then they started to explain the game, which involved plungers and PVC pipe...I'll let you figure it out from the pictures:

We were the only all male team....and yea, we won! I got a new set of Giro shades. Awesome.

So there you have it. We didn't stay till the end, because we were starving and decided to walk over to Cancun for some burritos! Overall, it was an incredibly fun day, and I will definitely do it again if they come back.

Wente Vineyards RR report - baby steps

2010-04-25T16:54:00.000-07:00

Coming off a misstep at Spring Hill, I tried to pay more attention to the time, and make sure I got there with plenty of time to warm up my legs! Unfortunately, I think I need to factor in more time for unexpected delays.

My start time is at 11:50, which is pretty late...plenty of time to get there and get set up. We had a friend that wanted to come along, wanted to have breakfast with him beforehand, and we were planning to go to Santa Cruz afterwards, so a little more of a logistical challenge than normal, but shouldn't be a problem! But then came the unexpected delays...

I was racing with the aero wheels for the first time. 10 minutes after we've left the apartment, Iris makes a comment about my new wheels and I realize I didn't bring the valve extenders and won't be able to pump up my tires! Whoops! So there is 20 minutes there. Then, our friends invites his roommates along to breakfast, which is no big deal but another small unexpected delay. The waiters were a bit slow in getting our check settled...few more minutes. Then, we get to the venue and I start getting ready. Dressed, bike out of the car, rear wheel pumped, front wheel....hmm. No, I didn't forget my front wheel. However, I had a hell of a time trying to attach the valve extender (the valve inside the rim didn't quite line up with the hole in the rim). Few more minutes. Then, for some reason it didn't want to pump (seemed like the valve wouldn't quite open up). It pumps, but slowly and requires a lot of force. Couple more minutes there. By this time, it's getting close. I need to hurry over to the registration booth before the 15 min cutoff. So I leave the rest and race over to the booth, grab my numbers, and back over to the car. I try my best to get as much air into the front tire as possible, do a quick and dirty pinning job, stuff my pockets with fuel, apply sunblock. My warm-up consists of riding from the car back to the start line just in time for our group to start. Hey, at least I made the start this time. Baby steps!

If this was some other race, I might be OK...but unfortunately, this race has a major hill climb that starts less than 3 miles into the race! I moved up to the front just before the climb, so I can go a bit slower and still hang onto the front...maybe even try and dictate the pace of the climb. A couple of jokers mistook my move for an attack and tried to organize a breakaway. I didn't think it was a good idea, because it was about to get steep for a while, but I went with it to see what would happen. A whole lot of nothing. They didn't last long before they crapped out. Now my heart rate is above threshold, my legs are still cold, and the whole pack is right behind me. Not a good combination. Needless to say, I didn't stay up front. A group of 25 or so made it over the top without me. Then, not knowing the course, I mistook the flat section, thinking there was going to be a descent coming up and I would be able to catch them. Wrong...more climbing. I lost them.

I spent the rest of the first lap in no man's land, all alone, in a headwind, trying to catch them. No luck. Actually, the breakaway from the Masters 4 group caught me just as I came through the lap line, and I spotted a handful of people from my group with them, catching a free ride (no fair!). Eventually the M4 break gets away and leaves that handful of E5 riders behind.

After the first big climb on the second lap, I pass someone from my group who looks relatively strong, so I say "let's go!" and give him a wheel. On the second climb of the lap, we find another, and we start to work as a little team of 3 for a while. The pulls were a little lopsided, but didn't really care at this point. I was pretty confident that we weren't going to be passed by anyone else in our group. And I was right! We rode together for quite a while. We rode just behind that M4 group for a long time, all the way until the second climb on the third lap. At that point, some of the M4s started pulling away. One of the other guys in my group decided to latch onto that group (again, no fair!). I put up a chase for a little bit but tired out before the top of the climb. I failed to catch the M4s that were breaking away, and I had dropped the 3rd guy in our 3-man group. Alone again. I rode by myself for the duration, mostly. I was able to catch one dude on the finishing climb, but was never able to catch the M4 group.

Lessons learned:

Show up early. Plan for the unexpected.
Know the course, and be prepared for an early break.
If a break looks weak, don't bother! Save energy!

Next up is Berkeley Hills on May 9, my first Cat 4 race. This is my A priority race. Should be interesting.

Totals:

Placing: 21st of 50
Duration: 2:27:07
Distance: 46.854 mi
Ascent: 3665 ft
Norm Power: N/A (aero wheels)

     Max / Avg
Heart Rate: 194 / 172 bpm
Cadence:    131 / 86 rpm
Speed:    41.2 / 20.8 mph

Spring Hill TT Race Report

2010-04-11T16:28:00.000-07:00

Yea, I know it was the Spring Hill Road Race, not Time Trial...except for me!

I showed up late for my start time...whoops. After yesterday's race, I was feeling a little sore today...and the weather wasn't helping at all. Weather report: heavy rain (100%) chance. I was planning to just show up today and roll up to the start line. Decided to skip the warm-up (less time riding in the rain, the better). Unfortunately, I underestimated how long it was going to take to get there.

I get there, park, throw on my cleats, put on my wheel, and roll to the start. I see a group getting ready to start, so I get my hopes up that they were delayed a few minutes. I ask the organizer if the 5a group has left already. "Yep". "How long ago?" "Ten minutes"....damn. they must have even started a couple of minutes early!

So I take off after them. Soon after, I get passed by a Masters group, who are on their 3rd lap of 4 already (what troopers)! Now that I'm starting to warm up, I start to formulate a new strategy for the day: ride my ass off, see if I can catch a few stragglers.

It was brutal. The rain did not let up for a second, and it came down hard. The wind was downright mean! I rode solo for nearly the entire race. For a few minutes I rode with someone from the masters group who had been DQ'd for a centerline violation, but wanted to finish the race. He enjoyed a free ride for a while, then I dropped him on some rollers to continue my pursuit (I had the advantage of fresh legs at this point...however, the same guy ended up catching up with me ~25 mi later and we rode together to the end). I was actually proud of myself that I was able to keep pace with the Masters group in front of me for most of the race, even though I was riding solo! I even caught them a few times, and had to slow down (not allowed to ride with another group, and they were taking up the entire lane...maybe I should have squeezed by, but I would have been embarrassed if they caught me again later).

That Cat 5b group started about a minute and a half back. The breakaway of about 5 riders from that group passed me within the first few miles...they were rolling pretty hard. I figured that would be the strategy, since our race was a scant 44 miles. However, I think I might have caught and passed them near the end of the first lap (hard to tell who you're passing when the rain is coming down so hard). I was never caught by the main 5b group, and I think I might have even caught some folks from my group (I guess we will see when the results are posted).

Anyway, to sum it up...it wasn't much of a race for me, really hard day in the saddle, but a really good workout and I think I surprised myself with my performance. I was able to maintain a >19mph average, solo, for almost 2 and a half hours in fierce winds!

Once again, welcoming my recovery week with open arms!

Totals:

Duration: 2:24:16
Distance: 46.101 mi
Norm Power: 259

     Max / Avg
Power:    812 / 233 watts
Heart Rate: 184 / 161 bpm
Cadence:    143 / 85 rpm
Speed:    41.2 / 19.2 mph

Apple Pie Criterium Race Report

2010-04-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

Apple Pie was a fun race...pretty good pavement, high speeds, nothing too technically challenging. Hung near the front for nearly the whole race, along with the Red Peloton group and a strong Z-team rider. People were riding pretty safely, and I felt like I was doing a decent job conserving energy...until everything went horribly wrong.

If you saw the last post, you will have seen that there was a crash, which came with less than 2 laps to go. It happened maybe 3 or 4 bikes ahead of me. Unfortunately, some guy dove into turn 1, wiped out and took out Adrian. I came through the turn on the outside, so as the crash propagated from the inside to the outside, I was boxed in next to the median. All of a sudden, there was a bike down in front of me, and I had nowhere to go but over it, and then into the median. I somersaulted into some brush that had to be subsequently picked out of my helmet. I got some road rash on my left side, but fared better than Adrian, who landed pretty hard on his shoulder and also pulled a hamstring.

After checking on Adrian, I got back up and went back to the starting line to try and catch the restart. They started us with 3 laps to go...which, in my opinion, is just asking for trouble. A (nearly) full field, all of whom have had a chance to catch their breath and lower their heart rate, with only 3 very short laps to go. After that first crash, I was really apprehensive. The start didn't go quite as fast as I expected, so I shot to the front and pulled for 3/4 of the first lap (can't crash if you're in the lead)! My knee was bugging me a bit though, so I wasn't gonna be able to hold it for very long. Drifted back to the middle by the last lap. Then, on the last turn, someone's tire blew....right in front of me. I braked to avoid the impending crash (2 guys went down I think), but as a result I was the last one to cross the line. Bummer.

Totals (before the crash):

Duration: 21:13
Distance: 11.783 mi
Norm Power: 254

     Max / Avg
Power:    1036 / 239 watts
Heart Rate: 190 / 182 bpm
Cadence:    122 / 97 rpm
Speed:    30.3 / 25.6 mph

Let's play a game called...find the crash

2010-04-10T14:45:00.001-07:00

Did you find it?

What goes around...

2010-04-08T12:58:00.000-07:00

Just a little rant about our stupid landlords.

So, our lease expired back in October, and we have been month-to-month since then. We received an offer a few months back, saying that if we sign a new lease, our rent will be reduced (something like 8% or so)...

We declined the offer, because we don't expect to be living there for another year (at least, not with any certainty). Then, last month they gave us another notice, saying the same thing. We ignored it.

This month we pay our normal rent that we've been paying since we moved in. Then a few days later they return our check and say that we now owe this NEW amount, which is an 11% increase over what we were paying before. That's a lot of money! But, fine, what can we do...landlords are allowed to raise the rent. They ALSO want a $50 "late" fee, because it's now the 6th of April.

Iris goes to the leasing office, check in hand for the new rate, and tells them that we're not OK with paying a late fee. They won't take the check; apparently, because it is late they have to get a cashier's check or money order. Then they still say we owe a late fee. Then they pull out a copy of the second notice they gave us last month..the one we ignored because we thought it was a duplicate of the first one. Apparently, it DID say that our rent was going to go up on Apr. 1.

Greedy bastards. I was ready to give them a check for the new rate, without argument, but they wouldn't even waive this stupid late fee (to tenants in good standing, no less).

So, I decide to do a little digging. Apparently, if the rent increase is greater than 10%, the landlord has to give a sixty day notice (30 days only if the increase is less than 10%). Also, they are required to deliver the notice personally (in our case, they just shoved it in the door).

I think I'm going to get some satisfaction when we go give them a new check (for the old rate) tomorrow.

So, suck on that, San Marcos!

The Day I Didn't Die

2010-04-05T21:39:00.000-07:00

Today is officially the 5 year anniversary of an incident that could have ended much worse.

April 5, 2005

It's early spring...I get off work, head home, and soon I'm out the door for a late afternoon ride. The early spring weather is just perfect. Only enough time for a short one...maybe an hour...90 minutes, tops. Dang, where did I put my helmet? Oh well, I won't be out for long.

Riding the first real road bike I've built up. A pretty white Fetish Cycles S.A.C. frame, with 105 components, built from the frame up. I've only been riding it for a month or two...it's a big step up from that old Trek ten speed I found in the Stebbins garage. And it actually fits me!

My routes have been getting more and more adventurous lately, as I'm feeling myself get stronger as a rider. My normal route: from home in Emeryville out to Berkeley, through campus, up Euclid, all the way to the top of Grizzly, the back the way I came. Oooo that descent is a bit chilly! Going to have to remember to pick up some arm warmers at some point.

Descending down Euclid, same as I've done so many times before. I see a guy coming down Marin in his minivan. I start to slow as I approach the stop. He starts to slow for the stop sign. I run it through in my head: I arrive at the stop sign first, the guy waves me through, with that "damn cyclists making me wait" look on his face (I hate that). So, I make a judgement call. Instead of coming to a complete stop, I roll through, thinking I am being the considerate one.

Big. Mistake. This guy doesn't even see me, and he rolls right through the stop. Not even a California stop....just completely goes through it. Maybe, since he was coming down steep-as-hell Marin, he was pretending it was like a roller coaster and had his hands up in the air.

I'd like to say my life flashed before my eyes. It didn't. I remember it really clearly though. Slamming hard on both brakes. Thinking, "well, shit". Trying to weave right as my tail end swings left. I strike his left front quarter panel and fly over his hood and across the street. Then, pavement.

I'm on the ground, facing up. Then, the time goes by very fast. People looking over me. Ambulance. ER. Roommates showing up and grimacing when they see my face. Calling my friend at work and telling her that I won't be in the next day.

I ended up with 3 fractures in my face. I was leaking Cerebral Spinal Fluid, out of my nose (it's clear, in case you were wondering, and the sensation is somewhere between having a bloody nose and just having a runny nose). The next 10 days are spent in bed in the hospital (Alta Bates), with lots of pain meds. Not a lot else. Very thankful for the visitors, by the way.

Finally, I get to go home. For the first couple of days, I decide to stay with my dad in Vallejo so he can keep an eye on me during the day. This turns out to be a very good call. A couple days later, I realize I haven't been to the bathroom. In a long time. And I'm starting to vomit a lot. I am really not in the mood to see a hospital again any time soon, but my dad convinces me it's a good idea to go to the ER. This time we go to Kaiser in Vallejo. And I get to wait in the waiting room for a while...or, I should say the bathroom at the ER waiting room, vomiting. Finally, they see me. I think I'm there for a couple hours and the doctor sends me home. Diagnosis: kidney stones.

Really, Dr. Sherlock? Kidney stones? Whatever, fine. I come home for another day...meds I'm taking to help me "pass" my "kidney stones" aren't doing squat, so back to the ER we go (I am in a LOT of pain at this point). This time I get to see an actual competent urologist. Guess what. I don't have kidney stones. Actual diagnosis: acute renal failure.

My kidneys shut down; apparently, my kidneys were trying to do their job and flush out all the damage too my body, but it was too much for them to handle. The doc nearly put me on dialysis. Yikes. However, he decided to try something else first, and was successful, He went in and flushed all the debris and stuff out of my kidneys, and outfitted them with temporary stents. "We can make you better, faster, stronger!" they said (not really).

Another 2 weeks or so in the hospital and I was home free. Had to walk with a cane for a while, simply because my legs hadn't been used in a month. Had to go back into the hospital a couple of times. Once to remove stitches from my head. The other was to get the stents removed (not the most pleasant experience, but I got to see what my bladder looks like from the inside)...a few thousand dollars in doctors' bills later, and I am basically good as new.

Was there a lesson to be learned? Sure. Don't ride if you can't find your helmet. Don't assume someone is going to stop, just because they are approaching a stop sign. Did I actually learn the lesson? Yep. I don't ride without a helmet (unless there's no cars and no danger of crashing), and I am still pretty darn cautious around intersections if there are cars around.

Anyway, it's good to still be here, five years later! I think I should get a cake! Haha!

Climbing hills and trying to beat the rain

2010-04-04T16:11:00.000-07:00

So, originally, the plan for today was to head up to Folsom for a hilly ride with Amy. Then, maybe a week ago, we started realizing that there was going to be some wet weather this week...we kept a watchful eye on the weather each day, and each day it seemed to look worse and worse. Meanwhile, Sarah sent us this interesting annual ride in the Berkeley hills called the Nifty Ten Fifty. 10 hill climbs to equal 10k ft climbing over a course of 50 miles. Amy and I decided that if the weather held up, this would be a good option, and we could schedule the Folsom ride some other time...so, we kept our eye on the weather reports...if weather.com looked bad, we would check accuweather...if that looked bad we would check NOAA...basically trying to find the most optimistic report...but as of last night it appeared that we were in for a good storm, just a matter of when it would roll in. Best estimate was that it would come in sometime late in the morning...so sadly, we decided not to ride.

This morning I woke up and gave the weather report one more check and got a slightly better forecast...partly cloudy until 2pm! That's just about enough time to do the whole ride! So, I geared up and headed out. My plan was to ride with the "B" group, the slower group, since the blog made it seem like the "A" group would be just about impossible to keep up with.

I rode into a headwind to the start point and ended up arriving 2 minutes after the planned departure time. I show up and nobody's there....uh oh...so I hit the gas and tried to catch up going up the first climb of Moeser (13% avg, 20% max over 1 mile)...didn't catch anyone, so I figured I was on my own. I was going to have to ride the route by memory...great. I have a terrible memory! Oh well...

I skipped half of the next hill in one last attempt to maybe align myself with the group, so I took Arlington down to Kensington school, climbed up to Grizzly Peak, then winded down Spruce, past Indian Rock, then down to the bottom of Marin.

Marin is the mother of all hills. 659 ft of climbing over 0.8 mi. One block is ~30%. It's almost more of a workout for your arms than your legs, because of all of the pulling you have to do out of the saddle. It is a slow slog to the top (I averaged 4.3mph), but it makes the rest of the hills seem like a cake walk in comparison. A couple of cyclists riding up Spruce who spotted me gave me a manly "YEAH!", and two ladies who were walking down the road near the top called me an over achiever. Woo!!

This is where I kinda forgot the order of climbs from the blog (since I was late and didn't have a cue sheet). So I went and did South Park next. I did this hill the other day...it's a tough hill (1.5 mi, 9.5%avg, 14.2%max), but this time it seemed so much easier, since it was immediately following Marin. Weather's still good at this point...but I still haven't run into anyone...oh well. I descend down and through the north side of campus...

Then up Centennial. This one starts off easy, then ramps up to 15% near the Lawrence Hall of Science. Tough hill, but really pretty views. Then I rolled through back into Tilden, re-filled my bottles, and then dropped down Central Park and back up the short but steep Canon (whoops! I think this was supposed to be attached to the South Park climb...oh well)...after Canon it's back through Tilden (again). Started to feel the first couple of raindrops...uh oh. These gorgeous cherry blossoms caught my eye, and I had to stop and take a picture.

Hopping back on my bike, I spotted a small group of riders heading in the same direction as I was. I thought, "maybe this is my group!" and chased after them. I caught them on the descent down the backside of Wildcat, though they were pushing pretty fast! Then I realized, this is the "A" group, which started an hour later! Damn, I must be going really slow....ran into Henrik, who came out to my Berkeley ride the other week. Hooray, a familiar face!

I rode the next hill with the group...it was nice to be able to chat for some folks for a few minutes. El Toyonal is a long hill, but not too hard (7.5% for a mile), then it turns into Lomas Cantadas, which is a brutal 14% for another half mile...fatigue is starting to set in!! But, I was able to keep up with the good climbers, so that was a big confidence boost. By the time we got to Lomas Cantadas, it was starting to rain. Like, real rain. So, at this point I decide that I'm going to bypass the 3 southern-most climbs, so that I'm not too far away from home when it really starts coming down. When we get to the top, the leader saying that the next climb is Centennial...wait a sec, I already did Centennial. No wonder they caught me! So, at the top of the hill, we part ways and I head off to do one more climb.

I took the shortest route to the coffee shop (Claremont - such a fun descent!), then got my caffeine fix and a scone. The rain lightened up a bit so I felt good about finishing up. Claremont is the longest hill on the ride...9% avg over 2 miles. I felt pretty good after that rest stop...but about halfway up it started raining hard! My water resistant jacket eventually soaked through (didn't go with full rain gear, because I didn't want to overheat).

I bypassed the final little kicker up to Vollmer peak in order to get out of the rain quicker. After ascending up to the tippy top of Grizzly Peak, I carefully cruised down all the way back down, where I met up with Iris at The Sunny Side Cafe to have a nice brunch (even though I was still soaking wet).

Ended up with 7000 ft climbing over 48 miles...I think I could have finished the full ride under different weather circumstances. Next year!

Warnerville Road Race report

2010-03-28T17:35:00.000-07:00

Headed out to the boonies this morning for my first ever road race. Low priority race...still early in the season and right now I'm just interested in getting some good workouts in, and getting the required 10 races in before I can upgrade! There were a couple other races going on this weekend, so the turnout was kinda low.

Yesterday morning I was supposed to go up to Windsor for the team ride, but unfortunately I turned off the alarm without really waking up (Iris says that Taylor Swift was playing, which might explain it). So instead, I went out and did a ride that better suited my training plan...about 30 miles with some high intensity efforts. This morning I was feeling a bit sore, so next time I might cut it back a bit more the day before a race.

So, 8:10 start time - 1 hour for registration/warmup - 2 hour drive - 1 hour getting ready = 4am alarm. Yuck...but didn't feel TOO groggy, especially after the coffee was made. Breakfast was my special blend of steel cut oats + protein powder + flax + cranberries + almonds + walnuts. When we arrived in Oakdale, I grabbed another coffee, a piece of banana nut bread and a banana. On the road I had a flask of E.F.S., one bottle of Cytomax, one bottle of water, and a double espresso Clif Shot for a quick boost (enough caffeine???).

The start time was delayed about 45 mins, because apparently some guy out on the course was electrocuted and had to be taken to the hospital (that's all the detail I got...weird). Update: apparently one of the velo promo volunteers died in the incident...very sorry to hear about this...

The sun was out and it was quite nice out by the time we rolled up to the start line. Very little wind and looking up to be a really nice day. However, I guess the field didn't get the notice about the nice weather, because only 11 guys showed up out of the 19 or so that were registered. Hmm...not quite the mass start I had envisioned...and kinda changed the game plan a bit. Not that I had much a game plan to begin with...since this was my first road race, the plan was to sit in, scout the other riders, see who's strong...if I'm lucky hop onto a break. With this little group, not quite sure how to play it. Oh well, let's see what happens.

Tried starting to warm up a couple of times on the trainer, but each time they came out and said we were delayed a few more minutes. Oh well, just hung out a bit longer. Then I decided to put the trainer away and just go roll around for a little warm up. I rolled over to the start line to see which group was lining up, only to find that my group was up soon...so much for a proper warm up. Luckily, there was a nice 3.5 mile promenade out to the course from the start, so I was able to get a perfect warm up after all.

And away we go...and right away I think...this is kinda slow...let's pick up the pace a bit. So I pull up to a pace I would feel comfortable riding for about 50 miles. And pull....and pull....for almost 12 miles. Doesn't seem like anyone really wants to work yet. So...let's make them work! We pulled onto the mile-or-so long gravel section and I gunned it! It's a pretty flat course, so I figure if I'm gonna catch anyone by surprise (especially since I'm already up front), this is the place to do it. By the end of the gravel section, I peek back and spot a dude right on my butt, so I figure my little attempt failed. Closer look finds that it's just two of us, though soon after we get joined by two more. We keep the pace high for a few minutes, then settle into a very good paceline.

All 4 of us in the break are riding pretty strong, so I'm not having high hopes of losing them at any point...but I'm still stoked I was able to pull away from the group. We take equal pulls...more or less...for most of the next lap. I was trying to come up with some plan to get me on the podium! I noticed that on the couple of descents on the back side of the course, I was descending faster than the other guys (thank you Cervelo!)...so I thought, maybe I could use this to my advantage.

On the third lap, the Sierra Nevada/Chico Corsa guy (Jesse?) starts making a few attacks, making us chase him down a few times. Kind of annoying, because we had to work our butts off to pull him back in, then he would just sit on the back for a while and attack again! Oh well, we caught him each time. Then, on the back side with about 7-8 mi to go, I made my fatal mistake. Coming over a roller, I hit the gas, HARD. First time hitting +1000 watts over 5 seconds. Then coasted low in the drops. My plan wasn't to solo it in for a win, I'm not strong enough for that. I just wanted to string these guys out a bit, tire them out before the gravel section, which is where I was going to try and make a real move. But it was not to be. One of the guys (Brian) pulled the group back up and then blasted by me. It was just bad timing on my part. I was dropped! I tried like mad to stay in the game, but they slipped away. That's the worst!! I finished up strong through, maybe less than a minute behind them at the end, for a 4th place finish.

Not bad for a first! Next up is the Apple Pie crit, then the Spring Hill Road Race. And since there's no gravel, I can ride my aero wheels! Very excited.

Now it's time to rest!

Totals:

Duration: 2:18:08
Distance: 49.327 mi
Elevation Gain: 1547 ft

Max / Avg
Power: 1095 / 222 watts
Heart Rate: 192 / 171 bpm
Cadence: 124 / 87 rpm
Speed: 37.5 / 21.4 mph

Downtown Davis Crit - the break that never happened

2010-03-16T05:38:00.000-07:00

Sunday was the Cal Aggie Downtown Davis Crit, on a gorgeous day; sunny, temps in the upper 60s. The course was a fun one, and the most technical I've raced on so far. Narrow, with some tight turns and some unexpected potholes.

I rode 60 miles at a pretty good pace the day before, so I wasn't going into this race with any high hopes or anything.

Strategy: sit in, find a good position and stick there, try to cover any break that looks strong. Since I don't have a team and haven't really gotten to know anyone yet, I didn't want to try and make a move on my own.

My race started at 1pm; quite a difference from my Cherry Pie race, which started at like 7:30am! I actually had time to get there early, get registered, set up the trainer, take my time and get a good warm up, and work out the nerves. (thanks to Iris for the photography)

In a way, my strategy worked. Or at least, I could say I was able to execute my strategy. Since it was narrow, I made sure to start up front. I tried to keep an eye out for guys on teams who might try and coordinate a break...biggest team I saw out there was Eagle and there were only 3 of them...so I set my sights on the lone Norcal rider who looked really strong (I think he won Cherry Pie). The race started and I hopped right into position and stuck there, right around 4-5 back from the front. This put me in a good position to keep an eye on the field...so I sat and waited for someone strong to jump.....

...and it never happened! This is becoming the trend for the Cat 5 races so far. People are riding strong from the start, but nobody can really figure out how to make an effective attack.

So, I was able to stay near the front for the whole race. In the last 2 laps, the pace picked up quite a bit with people *trying* to attack, and I lost a few positions at the end. One guy was riding super aggressively and ended up wiping out right in front of me on a tight corner.

Fitness-wise, I think I should try and get in more anaerobic endurance/VO2 max workouts in the next coming weeks. I just finished the end of my first Build period...just starting my recovery week, and my legs still feel fresh...maybe I sign I haven't been pushing myself enough?

Overall, another great learning experience. Next time, I am going to be attacking, so watch out!!!

Next on the schedule is the Warnerville Road Race on March 28. Anyone else?

On riding in the dark

2010-03-04T21:41:00.001-08:00

I was going to write about how much I enjoy riding in the dark...

I had a tough day at work today, and then got stuck in this mess, which completely shut down the freeway, so I missed my spin class.

But you know what they say...When life you give you lemons, you say "F*@$ the lemons!" and bail."

So, I headed out for a 30 mi ride at 6:15 this evening. The sun was already on its last throes when I headed out the door, and I picked a little-traveled route. As I was riding, I observed some unexpected advantages:

You are isolated. You have the world to yourself for a few miles. This works wonders on a day when nobody will leave you alone at work.
Tunnel vision. When you're riding by a headlight, without cars buzzing by, you've got a nice white line acting like a target in front of you, giving you a chance to practice riding a smooth line.
You learn to rely on things other than vision. Without the ability to see in front of you, you can't be fooled by things like false flats; you have to listen to your body. Also, you might hear a rattle or a creak or something with your bike that you want to check on later (I heard my front derailleur rubbing the chain slightly in the big ring).
What little vision you have, you actually make use of. You make a conscious effort to spot each and every obstacle that may pop into your view, so that you don't run over it!

Anyways, like I said at the beginning...I was GOING to write about how much I enjoy riding in the dark. But, hammering up my last descent with about a mile to go I look down to check my pace to find that my computer fell off the bike at some point in the last few miles....so instead, I am in a bad mood....time to shop for a new computer...maybe this one?

Some good luck, some bad luck, and some sweat!

2010-02-27T12:59:00.000-08:00

Well, this morning's inaugural Team Revolution ride was rained out, so I was forced to find a replacement workout. And, since last night I dreamed about getting annihilated at the Berkeley Hills Road Race, I decided to hit the hills...hard. And, since rain was threatening, I took out my trusty (and heavy) LHT, which was still caked in mud from my last trails ride.

From 2010 photo blog

And, big surprise, I get a flat in the first 5 miles. That rear tire has been slow leaking for a couple weeks, but it finally gave out for good. These tires are past due to be replaced, but I've been trying to squeeze out a few more miles from them...just until it dries up and I can overhaul the bike. First thought was...it's going to rain riiight, NOW! But no, all I had to deal with was the mud on the tires! yuck!! Also, I'm all out of tubes for those wheels, so I'm stuck with my patch kit.

Feeling pretty lucky that I got out of there without getting wet, and at the same time having that feeling that this should be a breakthrough workout with some structure, I decided to throw my planned route out and do some hill repeats instead. But, since I was still think about that dream, I knew exactly which hills to climb.

First up was Mama Bear. 3x up the hill...first time just spinning up in a low gear, second time in a higher gear, and third time hard out of the saddle. Still feeling pretty good but definitely needed the recovery at the top and over to the next one: Papa Bear. Again, 3x up the hill...same deal, but this time I started harder than the first hill, so by the 3rd climb my lungs and legs were burning!

Original plan was to head back in from there, maybe do a couple repeats up the small, steep, tricky little hill on Castro Ranch....but I was still feeling pretty good and still hadn't been rained on. So, up Wildcat I went at a pretty good pace. That hill gets easier every time I ride it. Halfway up the hill, I spot glass JUST as I'm riding over it! I wait for that telltale hissssss....and I'm stoked when it doesn't come! Still feelin' pretty lucky, so I rocket up the rest of the hill. The second half past El Toyonal has a shallower pitch, but I was shooting up that thing almost as fast as I normally ride that bike on a flat road.

I get up to Inspiration point and take a break at the lookout area. I dismount and stand my bike in a tiny puddle, so I can lean it against the bench. Take a nice little stretch break, chat with some folks just finishing up a trail run...then I look down at the little puddle my rear wheel is sitting in, and see little bubbles coming up to the surface. CRAP! Sure enough, I found a little piece of glass that made a nice home in my tire. Second patch of the day...and it took me just long enough to let all of my body heat drift away.

If for no other reason, I flew down San Pablo Dam Rd (SPDR) pretty hard just to warm up my body again. Finally, I crossed over that tricky Castro Ranch Rd, hung a left on Pinole Valley Rd (PVR) and back home. Castro Ranch road is a tricky one. I think it's going to give me problems in the race in May. It's got one section that's twisty and deceptively steep. It's also the one that I get the least practice on, because unless I am doing the Three Bears loop, I never need to plan that into my route...unlike the Bears themselves, which is a great connection to other routes.

(Those first humps after the gradual incline are Mama Bear...and they are way bigger than that. Darn MapMyRide!)

Time to BUILD!

2010-02-22T11:29:00.000-08:00

OK, haven't blogged in a while...first one will be a cycling post.

Today marks the start of the first Build period in my training year...so let's start with a reflection. The last 8 weeks were intended to create a base of endurance, on which to build fitness. I think overall I got a decent amount of miles in...but, I didn't do such a good job of holding back on the intensity. For one, there aren't a whole lot of good, flat routes around my neighborhood...there's the one route that goes along the bay, but I ride that thing all the time when I am commuting, and it gets stale after a while. Secondly, I've been feeling really good, and always have the urge to see how quickly I can get up the hills, or what speed I can get up to on a sprint, etc...so in that respect, my discipline has been lacking. As a result, I may burn out early in the season. Time will tell.

As far as racing goes...I've done 4 races so far. I did 3 of 5 of the Early Bird Crit series in Fremont, which included racing clinics. I have definitely been learning a lot about racing tactics (err..crit racing tactics, at least), and I feel like I made a great deal of progress in just those first 3 races. A few things I learned:

The back of the peloton is not where you want to be, especially at these lower levels, and especially when wind is in play. Any little speed adjustments that happen up from get magnified in the back, and you end up spending the whole race chasing gaps. I struggled quite a bit during those first couple rides, trying to hang on the back. The last ride, though, I did better at asserting my position, and it was so much easier!
Know the course. Knowing how long each leg is, which direction the wind is blowing, how tight you can take a turn, etc. can be a huge advantage.
Know your opponents. I slowly learned to keep an eye on who was racing smart, vs who was just trying to bust their ass.

The last Early Bird race they actually placed people. I went out with an early breakaway, but the other two guys pooped out with a lap to go and were pulled back in quickly. The race ended with a field sprint and I ended somewhere in the middle of the pack. Then, the Cherry Pie crit in Napa was next, with a brutal hill/180 degree turn at the start/finish. It was a tough race, and again I hung in there at the middle of the pack. I don't think I've got the same amount of power like some of these guys out there, but that's OK...low priority races! My expectations at this point in the year are low, and my spirits are high!

The groups rides up in Sonoma County have been so much fun!! Weekend before last, we did a recon ride of the Grasshopper route, which included Marshall Wall, Tomales, and Chileno Valley. There was a lot of attacking and chasing going on...I guess people (including myself) had some pent up energy that just needed to be released! I tend to attack on rollers - when I notice someone recovering just a little too long on the back side of a roller, I just have to let them have it!

This last weekend was our monthly "Soup Spoons & Carbon Forks" ride, which included a few good length climbs. The best part, though, had to be the sprint to the city limit sign at the end. I didn't know it was coming, but I think I was the only one. I'm sitting near the front with 5 Colavita racers and a couple other FJ guys (John C, Tim E, and maybe Beecher?). The pace slowly starts picking up and getting tighter, and the Colavita guys slowly slip through the pack into the front. Tim says to me, "You got any more in ya?" and I say "Sure do!". Time says, "OK, I'll see if I can get you out front" meaning he is going to be my lead-out guy. I play along, though it's tough when you are uncertain where you're going! I decided to stay on Tim's ass until he makes some kind of move, and then I would swing out in front. Unfortunately, Time overestimated the distance to the city limit sign, so we were caught by surprise when Adrian made a move and pulled it off. Bravo! No matter, though. I was glad I got to catch a glimpse of some real (not Cat5) racing action. If you saw me right after, you would have seen a fatty, stupid grin on my face. The ride ended with some great food and conversation at Santa Rosa's awesome Bistro 29.

Anyway, on with the Build phase! Now is when I should start ramping up the intensity. Doing tempo rides, lactate threshold builders, VO2 max workouts, etc. I'm looking forward to it! Time to start pushing my limits. If all goes well, by the time the next recovery week rolls around, I will be welcoming it with open arms!!

2010 goals

2009-12-15T18:22:00.000-08:00

In an attempt to set up a structured training plan for next year, I should start with laying out my goals, along with a plan for how to accomplish these goals. Most, if not all, of you will find this mind numbing, but I always welcome input:

152 lbs, 7% body fat.

This is pretty ambitious; the lowest I've been is 154, and that was right after my 15 day bike tour. To do this will require me to limit my calories on non-training days.
Will need to work harder to consciously choose fresh fruits and veggies over starchy goodness and sweets, particularly late in the day.

Move from Cat 5 to Cat 4 by the end of January

Fremont Early Bird criterium series, every Sunday in Jan, will do it.
This will be a test of will power and bravery: I have to get my ass out of my warm bed early on Sundays to go out in the cold, and ride races with beginning crit racers who are likely to crash.

Top 10 in the cat 4 Berkeley Hills Road Race, May 9

This is my turf, so this makes a great first A race to focus on. I will have plenty of time to develop a plan to attack the course (I already know it really well), and get some good practice in.
This is a ride with a ton of hills, which I feel will also give me an advantage, since most of my training rides are hilly anyways.
Being a long race (52 hilly miles), I will need to practice ride nutrition and riding at the correct pace for the ride length.

Finish all five passes in my first Tahoe Death Ride

I think if I do well on the Berkeley race, I will be in good position to finish this bad boy. I just have to remember to not try and keep up with Jon and Jo Ann on the ascents and I should be fine!

workout log - week 2

2009-01-18T15:38:00.000-08:00

Just finished up the second week of my training season. I must say, although I am kinda freaking out a little bit about it being this warm in January, and I'm pretty bummed cuz all of the snow is melting, it is absolutely PERFECT riding weather! I just got finished with this 50 mile beauty:

richmond to the hills 3

This was my first time on a long ride with my bike set up in the tri position (seat in the forward position with aero bars). Two obvious conclusions:

Cruising speed is significantly higher! Riding >22mph in the flats was a breeze! I can feel how fast the air is flowing past me, but it's just not holding me back!
Long rides are a lot tougher on the neck/back/shoulders. In that position, you are resting a lot of weight on your upper body, and you are more crouched, so it's not quite as comfy on the neck especially.

So far, I haven't QUITE been keeping up with the training plan, but I am getting closer. Started taking spin classes at the Berkeley Y, and swimming there as well. It's tough to fit it in with my commute though. Going to the Y means getting off at the Berkeley station on my way home, riding up to the gym, and either finishing a workout in less than an hour in order to make it back for the next train, OR doing an extra super long workout and catching the late train home. I think what's going to happen is a combination of the two. Take the late train two days a week, do a short workout two days a week, and one day off. Doable!

I've been keeping track of my calories, too, and I've been doing pretty good for the most part (other than the Korean BBQ last night). Calorie intake has been pretty consistent at about 2700. I've dropped 3 or 4 pounds since New Years, and down to 15% body fat (behind my target so far).

Time to rest!

New Years Resolutions - time to get specific!

2009-01-13T13:57:00.000-08:00

Body

Complete Vineman 70.3 (July 19) in under 5:30, or Top 50 in my age group (about the same time according to last years race results). Pretty ambitious. Wish me luck.
Get down to 150 lbs. I started New Years at 165 lbs. Lowest I've been was last yr at the end of my bike tour (154 lbs.). I think I can do lower. Specifically, I'm aiming for a pound every two weeks, and hopefully levelling off around 150.
Get down to 10% body fat. Started New Year at 17%. Long ways to go! This one might be pretty tough for me to accomplish. Will involve changing my eating habits.
Complete a Double Century. Havent yet decided when. Training for Vineman is going to take priority until July. If I feel good enough, I might try and knock this one out in May or June. Otherwise I will wait until later in the year.
I've pretty much cut all fast food except for In N Out, but even that I want to try to reduce as much as possible. Only after a long workout! Same goes for sweets (ahem...brownies!)

Mind

Make something cool out of carbon fiber (thinking about DIY aero bars...looking for ideas! maybe something simple like an iPod case).
Weld something!! What? Who knows! Maybe a bike frame? Something!
Work on the electronics skills - make something with the Arduino! (still trying to figure out a project....ideas? think lights, sensors, motors, music, actuators...)
Motorcycle project! I've got an old Honda CB750 sitting in Vallejo. First idea was to convert it to electric...now that we're living in Richmond, though, I may reconsider since they tend to have a pretty limited range. Maybe just fix it up?
Pass the PE exam in October (time to become a true professional!)

Soul

Travel somewhere I've never been (ideally tropical!).
Spend more time with friends and fam.
Keep a tidier apartment!

Hello New Year!

2009-01-09T07:51:00.000-08:00

Hi there, it's been a while.

Brief life update:

I did end up going back to my old company. I'm now a Manufacturing Engineer II working on a project to move our main product line to Costa Rica. The project is scheduled to go through September of this year, and should involve a couple of trips to Costa Rica. In the meantime, I am trying to transfer over to a better position in the Process Development department, and I'm told they want me for the job. Fingers crossed.
I no longer own a car. I was in an accident a couple of months ago, on my birthday no less, and decided to sell the car rather than pay the 5000 it was going to cost to get it fixed. I now commute daily via Amtrak and bicycle. It was a hassle at first, but I am getting used to it. In fact, I am blogging via the train on my way to work right now.
My resolutions are mostly fitness related this year. I've decided to up the ante a bit and signed up for the Vineman 70.3, which is a half-ironman. So far I've got Stanton and my coworker Chris on board to do the race as well. I want to approach my fitness this year from an engineering standpoint, so I have started a training plan/journal with specific goals in mind. I will record as much data as possible from my workouts as well as my nutrition. Additionally, I am trying to do an assessment every morning of my weight, body fat %, resting HR, sleep quantity/quality, fatigue, soreness, and stress. Ideally this will serve a double purpose. It will be a motivation tool, as I will be forced to log each time I cave and eat at in n out or skip a workout. It will also be a way for me to track my progress in fitness, and see what works/doesn't work for me. I'm pretty excited about it.

OK, gonna cut it short because my stop is coming up! Will try to blog more though :P

christmas lights + slow shutter speed + 7yr old = fun!

2008-11-27T20:10:00.000-08:00

Wait, I thought CHENEY (not McCain) was the penguin!

2008-10-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

Oh man, the similarities are kinda creepy in a way...

Change I Can Believe In

2008-10-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

I finally took my can of change down to the grocery store to change it out with CoinStar.

I was very surprised to find there was $120 in there! Wow!

I turned it into an Amazon gift card, so that CoinStar wouldn't take their 9%!!

But now I don't know what to buy! Books? Maybe I should just save it until holiday season.

either way. Lesson learned. Don't underestimate your change!

Review - Google Chrome (Beta)

2008-10-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

I've been using Google Chrome for the last few weeks, since they announced their Beta launch.

For the most part, it's not bad. But I have definitely noticed a few issues here and there that i thought I would point out.

Pros:

Very clean look.
Lots more screen space for page viewing
No "File, Edit, etc" control bar on top, which is a nice change of pace for PC users.
The search bar in the top is very powerful. It searches through your bookmarks and history pages, as well as performing a google search to try and predict what you are looking for. Very handy, especially in the case where you have a million unorganized favorites and you want to find one.
You can easily create desktop shortcuts for your favorites, or any site you wish. I haven't used this feature, but I can see how it might be handy for someone who loves to have everything on their Desktop.

Cons:

While it has been stable for the most part, there are still a few bugs to work out. Ironically, the most bugs I have noticed with this browser have been with Google services, such as Google maps, calendar, iGoogle, etc. You would think that they would have those issues under control!
I originally thoght that Chrome would be less resource intensive than Firefox. I was very surprised when I checked my processes one day and saw how much Chrome was hogging my resources. Each open tab in Chrome opens another instance of the program, and for some reason, there were more instances of Chrome showing than there were tabs open. I did a comparison with Firefoz by opening the same 5 websites in both program and comparing the memory allocated to each program. I had 5 pages open, and my task manager showed 7 instances open for chrome. The memory comparison is 256M for chrome, compared to 200M for Firefox.:

So far, you can import favorites from another browser, but you can't export them! This is a big bummer for me...I imported my favorites from Firefox, organized them, and have been adding to them regularly. Now, I want to switch back to Firefox, but I have all of these new favorites that I can't transfer over! Boo!!!!

Anyways, in summary, Chrome is very aesthetically pleasing and has some neat features, and I am sure it will continue to improve, but as far as the Beta goes, Firefox is still much better in my book!

Ridiculous Negative Campaigning

2008-10-06T19:07:00.000-07:00

No surprise, the election has turned severely away from the issues and towards negative campaigning.

Trying to link Obama to terrorism? C'mon! Your own husband wanted Alaska to secede from the US!

Yes on Prop 8 scare ad that says that unless Prop 8 passes, they are going to be teaching gay marriage in schools!!! Since when do they teach straight marriage in schools?

Ridiculous. And what's more ridiculous is that this kind of campaigning works.

Vote on the issues, people!!!!

trip cost calculations

2008-10-04T20:42:00.001-07:00

Trying to decide whether I want to take the job at Boston Scientific.

The biggest issue for me would be the commute, so I figured I would map it out and see if it looks feasible or not.

Driving:

View Larger Map

52.7 mi – about 57 mins (up to 1 hour 30 mins in traffic)
MPG ~ 30 (car) / 52 (motorcycle)
Cost (assume $4/gallon) ~ $7.03 (car) / $4.05 (motorcycle)

Public Transportation

View Larger Map

Fremont BART - 1hr 01min, $4.55
VTA 180 Express - 27min, $3.50
Total - 1hr 35min (not including time outside of transit stations), $8.05

So, looks like public transit would take a bit longer, even with traffic, and would cost a bit more. On the other hand, I could get work done while traveling, or sleep!

Which would you do?

VP debate

2008-10-03T00:30:00.000-07:00

Nucular count: 11

Maverick count: 4

Ugh, that fake smile and politeness in her debate...makes me think of a certain someone...

Am I the only one that saw some similarity here?

Job Hunt Update 2

2008-10-02T10:34:00.001-07:00

Things are starting to pick up.

I had a phone interview yesterday with Thoratec in Pleasanton. Thoratec is another medical device company that makes Ventricular Assist Devices (VAD), which are basically heart pumps. They are launching a new product line and have tons of room for process improvement. The phone interview went OK...I think they liked me but I'm not sure if I have the kind of experience they are looking for. They are trying to find an engineer for the line who will lead the transfer to manufacturing. Pro: it would be very technically challenging and I would get to learn a ton. Con: it may be over my head, and may be more of a leadership role than I want right now.
I have an interview set up with Veriflo on Monday. Veriflo is a manufacturer of precision valves and regulators, and they are also looking for a manufacturing engineer. Pro: would give me a chance to try and get some experience outside the medical device company, plus it is very close, which would make the commute a lot easier. Con: might have to spend a lot of time in a tight clean room, valves and regulators don't sound quite as exciting.
My old company wants to hire me back for a one year defined term position. They are moving their main production line to Costa Rica, so they need to set up the product line there, qualify all of the equipment, run experiments, write up documentation, etc. I'm going in this afternoon so they can pitch it to me. Pro: I would get to take a couple of trips to Costa Rica, they really want me and are willing to be flexible with my schedule (i.e. working from home some days, coming in off-hours sometime); I am already familiar with working with these people and with the company systems; the one year term might be ideal, because that's when Iris would be done with school and we might be thinking about relocating. Con: long commute for most days when I do have to go into the office; not as exciting on the technical side of things.

Decisions, decisions....

old folks

2008-10-01T22:39:00.000-07:00

I officially joined the Berkeley Kiwanis club on Tuesday. Hoping to bring some youth and vitality into the group. I kid you not, the speaker for the meeting was a representative for an east bay senior care service who talked about fall prevention.

Last night, I went to visit my grandma, who turned 92 yesterday! She is the sweetest old lady. Unfortunately, she doesn't get around a lot. My dad got her some slippers, but they didn't fit her because her feet get really swollen from sitting all day! We tell her to keep her feet up, but she always forgets. Shopping for a birthday present for a 92 year old is hard work. They have everything they need, and tons of little collectible things that they don't really want. Lately I've just been bringing pictures; imagining myself in her position, I'd prefer to see pictures of my love ones over candy, flowers, nick nacks, etc...

Smoker

2008-09-24T15:37:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to finishing Phuoc's late birthday present.

I made him a Terra Cotta smoker (a la Good Eats - video)!

And you can make one too! I finally submitted an instructable.

....I went with a Pirate theme

Flutters

2008-09-22T09:49:00.000-07:00

I have a problem with interviews. It may sound weird for most of you, who know me in a different context, but I've always had a pretty big fear of that type of thing - speaking in front of a big group of people, or even just speaking to strangers in general.

Every interview, every presentation I've had to give, has given me some kind of anxiety. It's strange. It manifests itself physically - I have some trouble breathing, my heartrate goes sky high, my mouth feels really dry. I blank out on things I should know.

So, as a result, I shy away from getting into these situations. I've noticed that I really prefer not to talk to strangers over the phone. Actually, the reason I'm writing this is because I have a couple of voicemails from recruiters who want me to call them back to speak about jobs, and I'm freaking out about it. My hands are literally shaking right now.

I'm not sure what causes it. People have told me I just need practice, and I wanted to believe it, but I'm not sure...I've been on many interviews and given many presentations, and I don't really feel any more comfortable than I used to. Is it hereditary? My dad's developed a pretty intense social anxiety in the last few years, and now he rarely leaves the house.

I don't know...I tink it just stems from my underlying fear of failure in general. I'm afraid of getting into these types of situations, because I am at my most vulnerable when I'm making a first impression.

It's too bad that so much rides on the interviewing process. It turns it into a self-fulfilling prophecy. I know that my first impression with my interviewers is of tantamount importance, and it makes me freak out, which makes me a terrible interviewee.

Anyone out there have the same issues? Have any tricks that you use? Meditation? Speaking in front of a mirror? Whatcha got?

Sugar....Aw Honey Honey!

2008-09-21T15:01:00.001-07:00

I asked Jared what Ava, his daughter, wanted for her 2nd birthday.

"Sugar", he replies. Apparently, Ava has a talent for climbing up and getting into the sugar supply of the house. They've found her a couple of times with her arm shoulder deep into a box of sugar.

Well, we didn't want to disappoint...

Of course, instead of sugar, it's filled with actual goodies (Iris went a little crazy at Baby Gap). And so Ava can enjoy her present as well, we tossed in some candy.

Job Hunt update

2008-09-12T13:45:00.000-07:00

The stress is off a little bit, since we have an apartment nailed down and I don't have to worry about an income verification, but the job hunt is definitely still on. Sadly, I haven't even had any interviews yet!

My old job wanted to hire me back, but I decided against it when we decided to stay in the Richmond area. I am just not willing to do that commute.
I've applied to a few engineering positions, both in R&D and Manufacturing, for companies outside the medical device industry...including design positions at several solar companies...no luck yet :(
I've got a bunch of medical device recruiters calling me about quality engineering positions....so far, I've been ignoring them. I really hope it doesn't come down to that...
I have applied to a couple of bike shops as mechanic/sales: Sports Basement in the Presidio and Paradigm Cycles in San Anselmo. Fingers crossed.
As far as bike companies, Specialized is the only one around, and it's in Morgan Hill...so far!!

This is definitely not a fun process. It involves reading through countless ads for positions outside of my qualifications. It sucks, because in order to escape getting stuck in the world of Quality Engineering, I have to start back at the beginning. But, even new grads have an advantage on me, because their education is still fresh in their minds, whereas I would have to go back and re-learn a bunch of stuff.

Anyone have connections?

Spendaholics

2008-09-10T11:15:00.000-07:00

The New York Times came up with this really neat interactive visual that compares what countries spend per capita, separated into different categories of goods.

And, big surprise, Americans spend more than everyone else. In every category! Tsk Tsk. I actually am impressed by Japan, which shows they spend substantially more on recreation than on anything else. Cheers, Japan!

NES Coffee Table - part 2 (cutting out the buttons)

2008-09-09T21:10:00.001-07:00

Now, I've got the skeleton of the controller, time to give it some muscle!

I picked up a couple of nice hard wood pieces from the IKEA "as-is" section, where broken furniture goes for a second chance. They were originally part of a shelving unit. Same place I got the desk top! That place is a treasure trove of maker supplies.

First step was to flip the table over and trace the buttons onto the wood.

Then, I measured a gap between the buttons and the holes. I made the gap a little larger for the D-pad, since that one isn't going to be moving straight down like the other ones.

Finally, I got to cutting! For this job, I used a jig saw, which gave me a heck of a lot smoother of a cut than the Dremel I used for the holes.

Next time, we'll be attaching the buttons to the board. Stay tuned.

Does this make you feel secure?

2008-09-06T22:19:00.000-07:00

Spotted this guy patrolling at Bay Street...

Not quite as intimidating a figure as the Dark Knight; quite the contrary. But there is something to be said about seeing a goofy figure like this patrolling. In a way, it does make me feel safe. Safe, as in...there must not be any shady stuff going on, otherwise they would have some better security than SEGWAYs!!!

Move it!

2008-09-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

So, you might have read that we're going to be moving again. End of the month. After looking around for a while we settled on a nice one bedroom in Richmond.

And look! I made a little SketchUp version of what our place might look like.

We put in a holding deposit and hopefully they will give us the place, even though I'm not working yet. Supposedly, they should take into account Iris' student loans as income as well. We're crossing our fingers.

Moving party on the weekend of the 27th! If you're not involved in a wedding that weekend, come help us move and we'll feed you!!!

Job hunt update

2008-08-27T13:06:00.000-07:00

I've been scouring the "tubes" for jobs lately, mostly on CL. Previously, Iris and I thought that we might have a while before we had to leave this house in Richmond...unfortunately, we just found out that it's not the case. We got a foreclosure notice on the door the other day, so we need to be moved out by October 15.

This poses quite a conundrum, because in order to move into an apartment, you need to have a verifiable source of income, which neither of us do at the moment. So, as a consequence, I really need to speed up the job hunt. Bummer.

Job hunts are a long process...the looking, the resume writing/tailoring, the cover letters, the waiting, the interviewing, the additional waiting...it's going to be really hard to get through all of that in a month and a half...

So I think I may be back to my first option, which was to go back to BoSci...I just talked to one of the manufacturing engineers and apparently they are looking and would hire me on the spot. It's actually not so bad there, and being a ME would be a big step up from being a QE in my opinion...

...the only thing I really need to talk myself into is the damn commute!!! ugggghhh. anyone have a bigger commute than this?

View Larger Map

I guess if I did end up taking a job there, we could talk about moving in that direction...maybe San Leandro?

Pacific Coast Trail - Seattle to San Francisco!

2008-08-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

Update: I just finished posting my journal from the trip, including pictures and route maps!

I recently went on my first bicycle tour, taking the Pacific Coast Trail from Seattle to San Francisco. Originally, I was going to do the complete pacific coast route, from Vancouver to the Mexico border, by myself! However, I found a couple of people who were also interested, which was awesome! We decided to shorten the trip to Seattle to San Francisco, because of a) time restraints (we only had a couple of weeks), and b) money restraints (it's a lot cheaper to fly only once, especially with a bike).

It was definitely one of my biggest adventures to date, and I can't wait to get the chance to do another one! I've got a journal full of thoughts about the trip that I just finished posting. Hopefully, reading it will inspire someone to try bicycle touring as well. If it does, let me know! I am dying to find some friends that are interested!

Click here, or click the "pacific coast tour" label on the right to check them out. Some good pictures in there too! Grazie!

Kauai 2.0

2008-08-23T22:50:00.000-07:00

Iris and I went to Kauai this week, and had an amazing time. This is my second time in Kauai...I took my mom last year. If you have never been...simply put, you are missing out. At least if you are an outdoor type, or just enjoy nature. Kauai (the Garden Island) is green, lush, and beautiful.

We stayed in Kapa'a, which is midpoint betwwen the northern and southern sides of the island. So, geographically, its the most efficient spot to stay.

Day 1: We drove up to the Hanalei area on the northern end of the island for some really great snorkeling. So much better than Hanauma Bay in Oahu, and much fewer people! We checked out a couple spots that were recommended to us by a local at the breakfast place we went to. The rest of the day was spent relaxing on the beach.

Day 2: We went kayaking up the Wailua river, which included a hike to a waterfall and a rope swing. That evening we saw a Lu'au. It was kinda cheesy; the host was more of a lounge singer, and there was a fashion show! Nonetheless, we had a very nice, relaxing time and some good food!

Day 3: Snorkeling, round 2! I have felt like I was cursed to never see a sea turtle. Three previous trips to Hawaii, which included snorkeling and no turtles! Costa Rica trip which included a specific trip to see the Leatherback turtles laying eggs...but the turtles didn't come out that night. But finally, the slump is over! We headed back out to Tunnels beach, since we had the most action there on Day 1. This time, we headed out much farther from the beach and found a second reef section far away from other snorkelers. Jackpot! We saw 3 turtles total (Iris saw 4). Wish we had an underwater camera. They are so graceful just swimming by, seeing you but not paying you too much attention. The second one we saw was gigantic! It was sitting on the coral, and he was kinda camoflauged, so we didn't see him at first. He was about 15-20 feet down, and I dived down to look at a different fish that caught my eye, then this big turtle head turns to look at me! It scared me at first...that thing was at least 4-5 feet long. Not sure if it was a green turtle, because it looked different than the others we saw. Surreal for sure.

After snorkeling, we drove all the way to the other end of the highway. We stopped in Poipu for a nice meal, and then drove up the Waimea Canyon, which is like, a prettier version of the Grand Canyon. We stayed out there just long enough to catch a nice sunset before heading back.

Day 4: Last day in Hawaii. We head into Kapa'a for some breakfast. We were supposed to do some basketweaving with the guy we had talked to on Day 1, but he wasn't around. We did a bit of shopping, drove out to catch a view of Opaeka'a falls, and then relaxed at the hotel pool/beach for the rest of the day. We had a very nice dinner at the Hukilau Lanai, relaxed in a hammock for a bit, and then headed out to the airport.

Here's my short list of pics. If you're curious, they are HDR pics (except for the fire one, that was just a delayed shutter). I think they turned out pretty good.

Directing Debut

2008-08-11T21:12:00.001-07:00

So, last October, Rachelle had a brilliant idea for a gift for Chris' 30th birthday (in July...yea, that far in advance). The idea was to film scenes from a bunch of Chris' favorite films, with us as the stars! It took a lot of planning and scheming in order to keep it a secret, but we were able to pull it off. As I had the video editing software, and lots of time on my hands, I got to be the director! Some scenes had to be cut, since it was difficult getting the whole gang together to film at the same time, but after hours and hours of filming, we got a good....13 minutes of usable film...oh, and about 14 minutes of bloopers.

And as the icing on the cake, we were able to show the film in a real theater, care of Char and Alicia's apartment complex. We went all out with signs, red carpet, crowd control, and even paparazzi!

More paparazzi photos, a la Airecel.

If you get a chance, take a look and let me know what you think. The individual clips (minus the bloopers), are up on my youtube channel, and the entire project (again minus the bloopers) is up on my facebook.

This one got the most "acclaim" from the viewers at our screening. It's also my favorite...we had a lot of fun with this one.

Mad props to Rae and the rest of the cast for making it happen! It was a lot of fun!

Honey, what's the number of the local plumber?

2008-08-03T12:20:00.000-07:00

Scenario #1:
Man starts his plumbing profession, which gets off to a slow start. Man realizes he needs a new marketing strategy. Deciding to incorporate a sense of humor, he registers a hilarious and easy to remember phone number for his business. Voila! Business booms!

Scenario #2:
Man is torn about what career field he wants to go into. He loves working with his hands, but he is not quite sure how to put his skills to good use. Being a superstitious man, he decides to leave it to the stars. He puts his phone number, 425-2727, into a phone spelling site...miraculously, his next career choice is right there, staring him back in the face.

Of course, the first is much more likely, but I like the second scenario better.

Lumberjack for a Day

2008-07-31T16:44:00.000-07:00

Our old house in Vallejo has been poorly maintained by my dad. So much so that one of the trees in the backyard has grown sideways toward the house, and is now damaging the roof.

My brother and I decided we were up for the challenge. Our first task was to figure out how to work the chainsaw!

Don't chop down any trees while people are jogging nearby. Check!

After a few hours of crawling around on the roof, pruning, chopping, lopping, and sawing, we were able to remove the beast from the roof. It was tricky...we had to figure out how to cut the branches down in such a way that they wouldn't fall down and do some more damage to the house. Most of the time my brother worked the chainsaw while I braced and tossed the falling branches clear of the house. Fun times. Fun, dangerous times.

The aftermath:

So now the fun part is over, and all that's left is a big mess to clean up.

This is how much of a bike nerd I am

2008-07-30T22:14:00.000-07:00

Yea, so I kind of impulsively decided to get a tattoo yesterday. What do you think?

Blast from the Past - Building the Transbay Tube

2008-07-28T22:03:00.000-07:00

Check out this video I spotted about building the Transbay BART tube in 1967. My grandfather worked on this! He was a superintendent for Bechtel.

It's kinda surreal to watch this video...I grew up with BART, and it's difficult to imagine how it was without it!

I Love Clever Product Names

2008-07-28T21:20:00.000-07:00

I saw this today at Target. One glance and you know exactly what the product is and what it is designed to do.

That's right, fellas. It's the Mangroomer back shaver! Definitely a good solution for those lonely bachelors with unwanted back hair. However, I hope you lonely bachelors don't plan on making any progress with that cute girl at the Target check stand.

Oh, in case you were interested, they also sell a "private body shaver"...how discreet!

Mini-home

2008-07-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

Iris and I went down to check out this little one bedroom cottage today in Richmond, and we fell in love with it! It's small, but its really pretty, is pretty much brand new (built in 06), is cleverly designed, had garden and yard space, and is only 1250/mo! It's only a little over 700 square feet, but we are optimistic and think that it will be enough space for us. We're gonna put in an application and hopefully they like us!

Let me know what you think of the location. It's pretty secluded...but a little bit of a drive from the freeway and stuff (including public transportation). I guess that's a trade-off for a quiet place.

View Larger Map

Kite Invasion

2008-07-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

I've driven by the Berkeley Kite Festival for several years, never realizing what weekend it fell on (they need some better advertising). This year, we made it a point to look up the date, so we could check it out.

I am very glad that I'm an area resident and know how to avoid the traffic...we took some nifty shortcuts, parked around Aquatic Park, and walked over the nifty pedestrian bridge.

The Kite Festival itself was a nice local treat. The first thing we noticed was a "Team Kite Ballet" going on. It was like the synchronized swimming of kite flying. These guys were pretty amazing. Looks like it would take a ton of practice!

Then, of course, there were the giant kites. My favorite was pretty much a giant, spinning, multicolored wind sock. Very cool. I also enjoyed the kitty chasing the bird. Check them out!

As we were leaving, we noticed this big, beautiful Japanese kite (bamboo and paper!) that was flying back and forth wildly. then, this Japanese guy yells over to us to be careful, because the kite could fall suddenly. Apparently they were bringing in the kite for a landing, and the landing could be dangerous...

...they weren't kidding! It took a whole team to take this thing down. They made it swing back and forth while they slowly lowered it down, then they pounced on the tail when it tough ground and caught the kite. I suppose they were trying to avoid a crash landing, since their paper/bamboo kite is much more fragile than the nylon ones. Either way, props to their team! Who knew kite flying required so much athleticism!

Garlic WHAT?

2008-07-27T19:22:00.000-07:00

So, after being thwarted year after year, I finally made it out to the Gilroy Garlic Festival this weekend! Although it was hot (Phil's dash thermometer read 102), it was a lot of fun. There were cooking demos, arts and crafts. the kind of free tastings that must have been invented on a dare (I tried garlic ice cream and a pickled clove of garlic), and of course....good friends and good FOOD!

from the freeway to your driveway

2008-07-21T19:56:00.000-07:00

I loved this office/apartment building I came across yesterday in Berkeley. Clearly many elements are made from recycled materials, including:

a gate from old Volvo wagon hatchbacks
awnings from car windshields
garden lights from headlights
outer surfaces and fences from road signs

Climbing Mt. Diablo

2008-07-21T16:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I went for a nice, long bike ride...I finally rode Mt. Diablo! I know, it's not the biggest cycling feat, but not bad!

berkeley to mt. diablo

It was a great ride. We started in Berkeley and rode up over the hills down into Moraga. Going up and over the hills in the morning passed us through the super thick fog. Temperature and visibility went way down, and wetness went way up!

It took us about 3 hours to get out to the base of the mountain, and it took me another 1:20 to get to the top. Not great, as it's only 11 miles...but it's a big hill!

I had a great ride. Waited about an hour for my ride buddies to get to the top. I had planned to ride back up and over the Berkeley hills to get home, but I was pooped! I took the Walnut Creek BART home instead.

NES coffee table - part 1

2008-07-19T17:14:00.000-07:00

You thought I was joking, did you? Nope, this thing is actually going to happen. It's not that original: G4 made one, as well as this guy. However, it will still be fun at parties! Details so far:

Step 1: Get wood!
I picked up a desktop (not a computer, a desk top!) from the "As-Is" section from IKEA for $10! I trimmed it to 53.125" x 29.5" to match the dimensions of Iris' current coffee table. We decided to use this table both because the scale almost matches the controller, and it has a glass top. So, the plan is to have the NES controller under the glass, with the option of removing the NES controller altogether. As for the buttons, I picked up some wood scraps from the trash bin at the construction site near Iris' house.

Step 2: Mock-up!
Using the amazing and free Google Sketchup program, and a photo of a NES controller, I mocked up what the table would look like, and pulled up all of the important dimensions. Basically, to do this, I imported the photo of the controller into Sketchup, scaled it properly to match the dimensions of the table, and then modeled directly on top.

Then, I transferred the dimensions onto the wood in pencil.

Step 2: Carve out the holes for the buttons

I chose to go with a Dremel tool for carving out the holes, since that's what I have. I picked up a router bit and cutting guide and went to work.

I haven't done a whole lot of work with the Dremel, and I learned a few things on the way:

Be patient. The dremel is harder to control when you are trying to move quickly. I made a few mistakes this way, especially when trying to do curves.
Get the rough shape first, then go back and work on the detail. When I first startedm I just tried to follow the lines I made, but then I would make a mistake, and to fix it I would have to make the shape bigger. As I progressed, I started to cut the shape out smaller than the drawn shape, and then go back and slowly cut away material until the shape is the right size.
Circles are hard! They ended up being a little bigger than I expected, because I couldn't get the shape right the first time. It was drawn correctly, but the Dremel did not want to go where I wanted it to go. I had to go back and re-draw the circles and slowly fix the details with the Dremel. I wish I had a curcle cutter or attachment, or even better, a large hole saw attachment for my drill.

More to follow!

Career decisions: part 1

2008-07-19T11:07:00.000-07:00

Although...I don't know if you can call this part 1, since I've already started my way down one career path and then halted...

So - if you have been out of the loop - until recently, I had been working for three years for Boston Scientific, in both Manufacturing Engineering and Quality Engineering positions. After two years of being stuck in Quality, I decided that I needed to get out. I had tried unsuccessfully to transfer over to R&D (something would always come up that would either require me to stay in Quality for the good of the company, or the company would have some trouble and there would be a hiring freeze). I had a lot of issues with my job, most importantly the fact that I never felt challenged mentally.

So, in January of this year - wow, it's been 6 months! - I left the company to take a break for a while. I took a lot of crap from my coworkers, who thought it was a stupid decision to leave a good, well-paying job when I didn't even have another job lined up. Luckily for me, these arguments didn't really affect my decision making at all...I have been having the time of my life!

I have been using money saved up for the last 3 years to do fun things like:

train and complete a triathlon
go on my first (and best) trip to Europe!
bicycle down the coast

...not to mention spending a lot of quality time with friends and family!

And that brings us to a couple of weeks ago. Until then, I hadn't really been thinking about my next career choice, since I always something coming up to look forward to. Now, with no more major events planned and my bank account running a little on the low side, I am forced to start thinking about working again. Finding a new job might not be the easiest thing to do right now, with the job market where it is right now, but in a couple more months I won't really have a choice.

So here is the dilemma. What do I do with myself! There are several possible avenues:

Go back to work with Boston Scientific. This would probably be the easiest option, since my boss told me that I would be welcome back at any time. Also, as another plus, the R&D department contacted me when I announced I was leaving and told me that they would love for me to come work for them. This would probably also be the highest paying option. However, I wasn't too happy working there (at least in Quality)...and I am not willing to go back to commuting to San Jose!
Look in the same industry (Medical Devices), but closer to home. There are quite a few medical device companies in the Bay Area, and I have a couple of head hunter contacts that are always eager to help...although, I would more likely only find positions in Quality.
Start fresh in a new industry. Solar, in particular, has caught my eye. I know there are many solar companies in the area, and it is a growing industry even with the slowing economy. I just have to get my foot in the door somehow. Also, I think I really need to brush up on some design skills, like CAD for example. I feel like although I have a Mechanical Engineering degree, I am even worse off than new grads in a new industry because I have been out of school for 4 years!
Ditch engineering altogether and just go do something that I like. I know I'm going to get a lot of mumbles about this, but I've actually given some serious thought to just going to work in a bike shop. I know the pay would be crap, but I would be working with bikes (which i love), and there may be some real growth opportunity...for example, I can learn frame building along the way, and then eventually open my own shop! Cycling is definitely growing right now, with gas prices the way they are...so I should easily be able to find a job somewhere. Also, I'm passionate about cycling and I am a bit of an environmentalist, so i will get a lot of satisfaction about helping people get out of their cars and onto a bike!

What do you guys think? Anything I missed? Is there one that looks better than the others? As always, I am open to suggestion!

Summertime in the LBC

2008-07-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

I am trying to convince Audiology to cover that song...because, honestly, do you know anyone that doesn't love that song? Didn't think so.

The other day, Airecel and I went over to visit my brother and the fam at their place in Vallejo. He wanted to show off his new BBQ that we got him for his bday, and we made some great pollo asado burritos. AND, as it was a hot day outside, we had to bust out the slip n' slide.

aren't they cute?

Pacific Coast Tour - Final Thoughts

2008-07-04T17:12:00.000-07:00

OK, now that the trip is over, I thought I'd talk about things that worked for us, and things that didn't...just in case any of you out there are interested in going on a tour and want to know what is in store.

First up, packing list. Here's my recollection of everything that I brought along on the trip:

Bike

Surly Long Haul Trucker (heavy, no nonsense touring machine)
Blackburn racks. Lowrider rack in the front (harder to find, but worth it for the lower center of gravity)
Brooks saddle (just about the most comfortable saddle you can find).
Components: 105 STI shifters, XTR drivetrain, Avid Shorty canti brakes.
36 spoke touring wheels (Mavic rims, Deore hubs, Continental Top Touring Tires)
6ft cable lock (only used a few times...most of the time you can just keep your bike in sight and not worry too much about it...even if you are in a resaurant)
2 Heavy duty bungees and one cargo mesh bungee (from my motorcycle). Probably would been okay with just the two bungees, but it was nice to have the extra security of the mesh.
helmet. duh.

I was originally planning on riding with fenders, but they wouldn't fit in the bike box so I left that at home. I didn't miss them too much, but if there had been more rain I probably would have!

Bags

Ortlieb Backroller Classics in the rear. Very durable and waterproof. Some people complain that these older ones only had one pocket, but I think that it's more of a packing issue. On the tour I learned how to pack efficiently, so if I needed anything I could go straight to it.
Axiom Monsoon bags in the front. I used rear bags in the front in order to have some more volume. Before the trip, I thought that front bags looked to tiny to be useful. If I had to do it over, I think I would go with the smaller front bags. I didn't really need the extra room. Plus, the straps would drag on the ground sometimes, and other straps would clang against the spokes if I didn't get creative with trying to keep them out of the way.
Generic small seat bag. I don't know if this one was really necessary, because it was kind of annoying to get into the bag, because the rest of my gear blocked it. I'll probably leave this one at home next time.
Bento box on the top tube. Very handy for carrying snacks or multi-tools.

Tools

Allen key multi-tool (2 through 6mm)
Leatherman multi-tool
8mm allen key (cranks, pedals)
Adjustable wrench
Lube, grease
2 spare tubes
patch kit
spoke wrench
chain tool
Crank Brothers Power Pump
Crank Brothers Speed Lever (best tire levers you can buy!)

- Not really too much to say about tools. If I were to do it over again, I would still probably bring all of the same tools. You really never know what is going to go wrong on your trip, and it's always good to be prepared. For example, I almost left the 8mm allen at home because its a bit heavy, but I ended up needing to tighten my crank, so I'm glad I brought it along. I went with an adjustable wrench to take the place of several different sizes of wrenches...I think it was a good idea, although I didn't end up using it. The Leatherman was handy for the pliers, knife, and can opener, but it's pretty heavy. The tubes are definitely a good idea (I had two flats on the tour)...although I would make sure that they are the correc tube before bringing them, and not just trust what's on the box! Also, make sure your patch kit contains everything :P

Camp gear

Tent (I brought a Tarptent - crazy light and roomy, highly recommended)
Sleeping bag in a compression sack
Sleeping pad (I brought a Thermarest self-inflating mat, which worked nicely. Noa had an egg-crate style mat instead, which I hear is a bit lighter)
Head lamp (definitely came in handy a few times, espeically on days when we were setting up camp when it was dark or dusk)
Light My Fire Meal kit (plate, bowl, cup, strainer, spork, knife...I love this kit!)
Jetboil personal cooking system. Boils water like a charm and works generally fantastic with a pan as well.
Aeropress coffee press. Bought in Seattle because I figured coffee would be a good idea on this trip, and I had heard good things about this press. Probably the best decision I could have made. Lightweight, simple, quick, and makes a fantastic cup of coffee. Two thumbs up.

Bath

Dr. Bronner's pure castile soap (this stuff is fantastic! I used it for body, hair, clothes, and dishes...it worked like a charm!)
Deoderant
Travel size toothpaste/toothbrush
Razor
MSR Ultralight Packtowel (I went with the large size, which I thought was plenty, but some might prefer the XL size)
Trowel and TP (just in case....we never had to use it, though)

Again, we were lucky enough to run across decent bathroom facilities in most places. I never felt like I needed anything more than I brought. I stuffed all of the toiletries into a small stuffsack so I could keep it all together inside my panniers. Oh, and I just washed my clothes during my showers.

Clothes

4 cycling jerseys
3 pairs of cycling shorts
1 pair of running pants
1 pair of normal pants
2 tshirts
1 cold weather Under Armor long sleeve
1 fleece
1 wind/light rain jacket
1 cycling hat
1 beanie
3 pairs cycling socks
1 pair wool socks
1 pair cycling shoes
1 pair trail sandals
2 pairs of cycling gloves
sunglasses

I brought way too many clothes. Part of it was because we spent 3 days in Seattle and I didn't want to wander around in just cycling clothes. If I were to do it over again, I would have brought: jerseys, 2 shorts, 2 pair socks, 2 pair gloves, long pants, fleece, rain jacket (waterproof maybe instead of light rain), beanie, sandals, and wool socks for camping. 2 sets of cycling clothes is definitely a good idea, because you can wash them at night and dry them on the bike during the day while you wear the other set. A third set is nice to have, but not really necessary, and clothes take up a lot of space. One thing I should have brough it a set of clear lenses for those cloudier days.

Misc.

Small first aid kit (came in handy, as we each had a few cuts along the way)
2 solar garden lights that I got from Home Depot and gutted. They worked pretty good as camp lights, and also doubles as a handy AA battery charger if you've got other gadgets to charge.
Adventure Cycling route maps and the Bicycling the Pacific Coast book. the maps were handy to have on the go, but the book was much more informative.
A novel, for some light reading in the evening...
Moleskine, for journal writing...made this blog possible.
Multi-vitamins. Took one every morning and didn't get sick...
Tylenol...just in case. didn't end up using.
SPF 50. You are in the sun for like 10 hours a day.
Bug spray. Probably not completely necessary but came in handy a couple times.
Chapstick. I really should have used it more often because my lips got too much sun. Get one with SPF.
cell phone. left it off except when i wanted to check messages or make a call.
wristwatch...not really necessary unless you always want to know what time it is.
Water purifier...realized early on that we would never be too far from potable water, so I went this home.
Thermos/lunch box...I thought this would be more useful on the trip than it ended up being, plus it was heavy! Sent this home too.

Food

Peanut butter. We were perpetually stocked with peanut butter and bread. Good calorie dense food with lotsa good protein.
Oatmeal. This was our breakfast just about every morning. Super cheap and good for ya.
Trail mix. Straight or in bar form, this is another go-to snack to keep up moving.
Peanut butter M&Ms. We all love them, so this was our go-to treat
Quesadillas. This was probably our favorite dinner meal. Any combination of tortillas, pepperjack, spinach, and tuna was a good thing.
Pasta. Super easy to make with the Jet Boil. This is what we usually had if we were too tired to do any more extravagant cooking.
Milkshakes!!!! We couldn't make them ourselves, obviously, but they were a welcome treat when we could find a place that made them.
Pancake breakfasts. We were lucky enough to pass through a town that was having one. We did see lots of upcoming ones advertised though. I guess they are way more popular in smaller towns, because it seemed like they were everywhere. Sundays are you best bet. Look for signs!

Hmm....I guess those may be all of my words of advice to the curious traveler. Oh, and...enjoy the view and keep those legs movin!

Pacific Coast Tour - Day 15

2008-07-03T23:39:00.000-07:00

14 days pushing hard has paid off, and we can see the finish line!

This morning, we woke up to...wet tents? It didn't rain the night before, but if you know anything about Bodega Bay, you know that it gets ridiculously foggy. So much so that the trees above us absorbed a ton of water throughout the night and dumped it on us. It might as well have been raining!

We go into the town of Bodega Bay for our last breakfast. We expected to get some fast food as suggested in the book, but it was slim pickins.

The morning got warm quick, and the ride was really pleasant (if a bit hilly). Riding through Tomales Bay, a cyclist on a $3000+ road bike passed me and I decided to try and keep up. I was actually able to keep pace for maybe 9 miles, until a hill right before Point Reyes Station. That's definitely something I couldn't have done at the start of the trip.

We stopped at another awesome bakery in Point Reyes, had a big meal, and got back to riding home! Pretty long day of riding, but the fact that we were so close made it quite a bit easier. Soon we entered Samuel P. Taylor State Park and switched over to Sir Francis Drake Blvd. There is a very nice trail off the main road that takes you through the park...we were very tempted to slow down the pace to enjoy the view around us.

One more big hill, and we descended into Fairfax! Finally, we're in the bay area. First big city we've seen since leaving Seattle. We got off the main road and took some side streets through the town. We stopped at Fairfax Scoop for some amazing ice cream. While waiting in line we talked to someone about our trip and got yet another look of disbelief. This look doesn't surprise us at all anymore.

With ice cream in our bellies, we moved onward through San Anselmo, Ross, Kent, Larkspur, Corte Madera, Mill Valley.

Since it's July 3, everyone was heading away from the city for the 4th of July weekend. So, there was a huge traffic jam going in the opposite direction as us. considering the location, most of them are driving luxury cars, so it's hard to feel sorry for them. Still, I catch quite a few people looking over at us with envy. Suckers! get a bike!

Marin, Sausalito...fog!!!! As we approach the bridge, the fog thickens up so much, you can cut it with a knife. We start getting a bit damp, but keep moving forward.

Finally, after 15 days of riding, we get that perfect view of the Golden Gate that signifies the end of our journey.

...or not. We couldn't see the bridge at all!! And riding across is was no fun either. It was so foggy and wet, we might as well have been caught in a rainstorm. And if you've ever ridden across the bridge, you know that the wind likes to toss you around like a ragdoll. No fun. But we survived.

Just a little jaunt farther and we reached our destination. Luckily, Mel and Noa's friend, Laura, volunteered to give us a ride over the bridge, so we wouldn't have to deal with the rush hour traffic on BART. So, Sports Basement marks the end of our journey.

I thought this picture would be a lot easier than it ended up being. That bike must weight 100lbs.

...as you can see by the grimmace on Mel's face, that sucker is heavy!

The gang.

This was definitely an experience to remember, and I can't wait to go on another tour!

Bodega Dunes to San Francisco, CA

Pacific Coast Tour - Day 14

2008-07-02T23:21:00.000-07:00

We know we are getting close, and it's giving us a little something extra to keep us going. Well, me anyways!

Today we rode along the coast again, finally passing through towns I recognize: Point Arena, Gualala, Stewarts Point. Some beautiful rolling hills, moving in and out of the fog. Rolling hills have definitely been my favorite on this tour; I feel like I have a good feel for when I can sprint up and over a roller, or when I should take it easy.

We found this awesome little bakery in Point Arena and just couldn't resist gorging ourselves on treats.

Then in Stewarts Point we took our last beach break. Noa and I found this crazy makeshift shelter that someone obviously put a lot of work into:

and I couldn't resist the urge to do some stone stacking...

After lunch in Gualala and passing through Fort Ross, the hill got a little tougher and we started to tire out. The temperature also dropped drastically; we could climb out of the fog into the sun, then unwillingly descend right back into the chilly fog.

I thought this sign was funny, as it was practically on a cliff next to the ocean.

We stopped for dinner at an Indian restaurant at the russian river crossing, and we were so excited that they were still open! We ate a lot - so much that we were actually full (a first for this trip).

We rode the last 8 miles to Bodega Dunes in the dark - a little scary, but the cold air motivated us to get there in a hurry. Almost home!

Manchester Bay to Bodega Dunes, CA

Pacific Coast Tour - Day 13

2008-07-01T22:50:00.000-07:00

Well, we expected today to be the toughest. Boy, were we wrong! We finally hopped over to HWY 1 in the morning and get off that boring and busy 101. Right away, we start climbing a very nice, twisty, low-traffic road. The climb was thick with trees and very pleasant, and the descent was the best of the whole trip: quick and curvy - very exciting! One of the first descents that I actually had to brake!

We passed a newly contained wildfire in Rockport that was still smoldering. We've been hearing the rumors about the insane number of wildfires currently burning in California, but this is all we've really seen of them.

Kind of an odd experience today. The last couple of days riding up through the mountains have been pretty hot...but that great descent from the top of the hill out toward the ocean must have included a temperature drop of 25 degrees. Went from hot to cold in minutes!

We felt so good about the overestimated morning hills that we rolled through 2 full days of cycling as laid out in the Bicycling the Pacific Coast book and end the day in Manchester Beach. To reward ourselves, we decided to splurge ($9 a piece) to stay at the private KOA campground. This place spoiled us! It had a fully equipped outdoor kitchen, and a hot tub! We eached finished off an entire box of Mac n Cheese and tuna, and a fellow camper that we chatted with gave us a bottle of wine! Woohoo!

Standish-Hickey to Manchester Bay, CA

Pacific Coast Tour - Day 12

2008-06-30T22:29:00.000-07:00

And I woke up hungry!

Today gets my vote for the toughest day on the tour, even though it may also have been the shortest (~50mi) We were climbing pretty much all day, mostly on busy 101, in the heat, with a tiny shoulder and not much scenery to distract us. We stopped early in the day for a quick snack, then had a big lunch in Garberville, and finally stopped at Confusion Hill, another one of those tourist traps where gravity is supposed to be all messed up. I'm not sure if I buy into that whole thing, but I did feel like my internal sense of balance was a little screwy around that area: I felt as though I should be descending even though I was climbing, and vice-versa.

We're starting to feel like we are in the home stretch! We've slowly been depleting our food supply in preparation for the hills to come, so we've been eating out more.

Tonight, we found ourselves in Leggett at Standish-Hickey State Park, near the top of the hills!!!

Burlington to Standish-Hickey, CA

Pacific Coast Tour - Day 11

2008-06-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

Today, we pushed 95 miles!

And this is what I ate:

1 banana nut muffin
1 banana
3 pancakes
2 eggs
1 sausage patty
1 cup orange juice
1 cup coffee
2 cups hot chocolate
1 foot long sub (chicken breast)
1 bag potato chips
1 diet coke w/refill
1 oatmeal raisin cookie
1 peanut butter sandwich
2 handfuls trail mix
2 handfuls peanut butter M&Ms
1 cheese quesadilla w/spinach
1 "quesadilla" w/leftover spinach (no cheese left)
1 small dinner roll

And I probably burned it all off riding. Tough morning with thick fog and a cold breeze. Much nice later in the day when we turned off onto the Avenue of the Giants and finally got a break from riding on 101.

The Avenue of the Giants is beautiful!

This road definitely re-energized us, so hopefully we'll be ready to start climbing major hills tomorrow. We made a campfire tonight for the first time and it felt great. I hope we get to sleep in tomorrow!

Humboldt Lagoon to Burlington State Park, CA

Pacific Coast Tour - Day 10

2008-06-28T21:08:00.000-07:00

This is my current high tech setup up front. STI shifters, aero bars, cable lock, map, Gorillapod, wristwatch, and clover for good luck.

I insisted we take a short day today to give us a chance to recover a bit before the big climbs ahead. The morning starts with chilly weather climbing in the Northern California fog, through the beautiful Redwoods. However, I'm learning that no matter how cold it is outside, if you're climbing, your body temperature is going to rise! It's happened several times now that I've had to stop to remove my fleece or windbreaker, when just a few minutes before I was freezing my butt off!

Another thing I've learned is that when you see one of these signs, you know you're about to have some fun! (also a good idea to put your jacket back on, as those quick descents can be chilly)

After the first big hill, Noa and I regrouped with Melanie at the Trees of Mystery in Klamath. Pretty interesting trees, including this felled tree that had new trees growing out of it!

We were very amused by the 60's educational film voice they used for their audio lectures. There were also some neat chainsaw sculptures of Paul Bunyan's tall tales. We also finally got the chance to go on a really nice hike. And of course, there was this guy out front, who amused us for a while as we sipped our hot chocolate.

After lunch, we headed over the second big hill of the day, and ended up doing only about 50 miles total. It did feel a bit longer though, due to all the climbing. We tried to camp at a campsite called Dry Lagoon, but the pathway down to the campsite was treacherous and all the good sites were full. Melanie twisted her ankle when her bike dropped. Instead, we caved and rode down the road to camp at the nearest RV park (which we later agree was definitely the right idea).

Crescent City to Humboldt Lagoon, CA

Pacific Coast Tour - Day 9

2008-06-27T00:58:00.000-07:00

We got an early start this morning...well, 8:30 is the earliest start we've had so far. We were surprised to find that it was sunny and hot this morning! Strong contrast to the cooler, cloudier days past, and it is very welcome! The views of the ocean are beautiful and there are some amazing rock formations off the coast.

As expected on a highway tour through small towns, we saw quite a few of these tourist traps like this one here.

This little note was waiting for us at the top of a pretty sizable hill.

Originally, we were planning to do a short day today and stop at Harris Beach, but since it's so nice out we decided to push for the border!

We've been pretty ambitious with our riding distances, and at the end of the today, we are exhausted. Melanie decided she needed to sleep in a bed tonight, so we split ways at the border and she headed for Crescent City to find a hotel. Noa and I stayed at some county park...not bad, but it was our first night with no hot showers :( We were definitely spoiled in Oregon.

Humbug Mountain, OR, to Crescent City, CA

Pacific Coast Tour - Day 8

2008-06-26T00:04:00.000-07:00

Another early, chilly morning as we attempt to go for another long one. At least the sun was out! I decided to skip my coffee this morning because there isn't much left. Bad idea.

Around mile 16, we had to walk across a bridge into North Bend. At the beginning of the bridge we saw three guys running across the bridge coming towards us, stopping traffic. They were carrying a torch, so we assumed they were China Olympics protesters. We saw them talking with the police, and then later saw them in the backseat of the police car.

And we thought we were the only Bay Area!

We had planned to stop in North Bend to grab a bite, but we couldn't find a good spot to stop. Instead, we continued on for another few miles. This is when I realized how important my morning coffee is. I ran out of steam quickly. I felt sluggish and grumpy, and just plain sick of riding. Finally, we made it to a Dairy Queen and had a full, big meal. I would say the caffeine definitely helped. I felt so energized after that meal.

Seven Devils road was next: a very hilly, very scenic mountain ridge route with some tough little hills and fast descents! Reminded me a lot of riding Grizzly Peak/Skyline area in Berkeley (with much less development). Ocean on one side, mountain ranges on the other side, rolling hills and short, steep hills. So much fun! I have been trying not to use my granny gear (small chainring), just to see how far I can go without it...today I almost broke down and used it. But not quite.

I attempted to take a video of the descent at the end...unfortunately the Gorillapod wasn't really designed for that kind of action and bounced around quite a bit. Enjoy :P

After Seven Devils, we took a short break at a park near the beach, then we FLY the rest of the way to Humbug Mountain state Park.

The tailwinds were strong, and it was amazing how we were able to maintain such high speeds for so long. We rode almost 90 miles today, and we could have gone farther. We made it in by 7pm and we still feel great. We treated ourselves to Indian food for dinner (boil-in-bag). Mm mm good!

Umpqua Lighthouse to Humbug Mountain, OR

Pacific Coast Tour - Day 7

2008-06-25T19:32:00.000-07:00

We made an early start from Beverly Beach this morning in an attempt at a long day, in order to try and shave off a day or two from our scheduled finish date. the mornings have been pretty chilly, so I started with my windbreaker. However, right out of the campground and we were climbing again! Five minutes later and I've already ditched my jacket. The hill turned out to be shorter than we expected, which thrilled us greatly, and soon we were back to rolling hills and tailwinds.

I tried a different approach to packing my solar camp lights. The ziplock idea just wasn't workin too great. Instead, I put the light covers back on and wrapped busted tubes around them, then I secured them with the bungee mesh and the strap from the reflector. Stays in place much better!

We stopped early at one of the roadside espresso shops for some coffee and a muffin. While we ate, we walked around this big chainsaw art gallery. We also watched one of the guys who was working on a piece.

We stopped to eat at Cape Perpetua at a nice viewpoint. We're getting a bit sick of peanut butter sandwiches...we've had them just about everyday so far! We stopped again a few miles later to check out an interesting grove of Cobra Lilies, carnivorous plants that grow only in Southern Oregon and Northern California. I don't know why, but I expected it to be more exciting...plants snapping insects out of the air and such. Alas, not the case. Still interesting, but the violent spectacle I was hoping for.

We got to Florence, OR, and decided that we do feel well enough to push farther today. We stopped for a real meal...and we were lucky enough to stop at a diner that serves breakfast all day! I've been dying for eggs, or anything to give us a break from our daily oatmeal. Best veggie omelet ever!

After our meal, we pounded out another 25 miles to put us at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park.

I need to keep a better eye out for wildlife! Mel says she has spotted porpoises, hawks, and even whales. Another biker that we talked to even said he spotted a cougar! No fair! I want to see something exotic too!!!!

Beverly Beach to Umpqua Lighthouse, OR

Pacific Coast Tour - Day 6

2008-06-24T18:27:00.000-07:00

Brr!!! Cold morning! I jogged around the campsite a bit to warm up before I was brave enough to take off my fleece.

The ride started with a big climb which warmed us up nicely. Halfway up the hill and I was already out of my windbreaker. Pretty decent size hill, which made for a nice, quick descent! That's another reason why hills are preferable to headwinds...for ever climb, there is a descent!

After the hill we rode through Sandlake, OR, which lives up to its name! It was an odd sight...we weren't close to the ocean and yet, beach sand!

We stopped for a quick bite in Cape Kiwanda (peanut butter sandwiches has so far been our go-to snack food) and took a break near the beach.

We got a bit of a tailwind today! The miles just seemed to melt away. Our second hill of the day was longer, but less steep, and the descent was incredible and fast. I don't have a computer on my bike, but I would guess that I might have broken the posted highway speed limit (45mph). And the sun was out for most of the day. We stopped in Lincoln city so Melanie can look for another library. Noa and I walked into Safeway to get groceries, but I was so hungry at that point I decided to just splurge there for lunch (pannini, chips, juice, cookies). It must have been 2000 calories on its own!

The rest of the day's ride was awesome as we held onto that tailwind. I started pushing hard on the big ring for long stretches at a time, and then stop at viewpoints to take pictures and let the others catch up.

Nice views, eh? We got to camp before 7pm, our earliest yet! Beverly Beach State Park. I'd have to say this was the best day so far, and I feel totally recovered after those long days we had.

Cape Lookout to Beverly Beach, OR

Pacific Coast Tour - Day 5

2008-06-23T17:21:00.000-07:00

I feel noticeably stronger this morning than I did when we started the tour. I noticed right away that I'm pushing a bigger gear in the flat areas. The first 20 miles of today's right went by like a flash, and we found ourselves in Tillamook, Oregon! Yes, the Tillamook that you likely get your cheese from. We stopped at the Tillamook cheese factory for a self guided tour of the cheese-making process (always interesting for an engineer), and for some fantastic ice cream (I went for french silk, as recommended by a local).

We stopped at the library in Tillamook so Mel could handle some business (I think Tillamook is the biggest city we've passed through since we left Seattle). Then, we took the longer, scenic route. The Three Capes Scenic Route, to be exact. It was gorgeous, but riding out toward the ocean meant we got slammed by headwinds once again! Luckily, we had enough time to make it to the first cape on the route, Cape Meares.

We looked down into the ocean and spotted maybe hundreds of thousands of seabirds sitting in the water (fishing for dinner?)...it was definitely a sight to see. Melanie spotted a couple of whales! We also saw this giant, mutated Sitka Spruce with six trunks branching off of the main trunk.

Some nice rolling hills guided us into our campsite at Cape Lookout.

We are very much liking the State Park system in Oregon. They are cheap for hiker/bikers, the camping areas are beautiful and well maintained, and there have always been (mostly) hot showers! Nothing like a nice hot shower at the end of the day in the saddle.

I've also decided that I hate headwinds! Giv e me monster hills any day over a headwind. Plus, with all the surface area from our gear, it's that much worse. I think Noa has it the easiest in the wind because she is riding with a trailer instead of panniers.

The ocean put us to sleep tonight. You don't hear individual waves breaking because they are so frequent, so instead you hear a gentle hiss that lulls you to sleep.

Nehalem Bay to Cape Lookout

Pacific Coast Tour - Day 4

2008-06-22T21:46:00.000-07:00

We decided to give ourselves a bit of a break today and cut our ~75 mile pace down to 45 for the day...to celebrate the fact that we made it to Oregon so quickly, to let our bodies recover, and to keep our sanity! In the morning, we explored Fort Stevens, which meant our first time seeing a beach on the trip!

We found the remains of the Peter Iredale, a ship bound for Portland in 1906 that wrecked here during a squall. Pretty trippy.

After the leisurely morning break, we get on the road. After a few miles, I have the first flat of the trip. I ran over a huge nail.

It was a disaster! First, my spare tube was no good, because for some reason it's a schrader tube (even though I know I bought a presta). Then, my other spare tube was the same (I bought them together)! My backup was my patch kit. I've had marginal success patching tubes in the past, so I was starting to get a bit nervous at this point. I don't even get a chance to try, because somehow the vulcanizing compound in the kit is all dried up, so there is no way to stick the patch onto the tube. By this point, the others were way ahead of me, and I was about 10 miles from the nearest town. I jury rig a patch out of electrical tape...it worked for about 3 or 4 minutes at a time between pumps...definitely not ideal. After a while, it stopped working altogether and I was forced to walk. You'd think that walking along the highway with a bicycle would get you some sympathy, but it was a while before someone picked me up. Luckily, someone did finally pick me up and drive me into Seaside. We found a bike shop and got all fixed up, and the folks at the shop were eager to give us some good lunch recommendations. More fries and shakes! The menu didn't have milkshakes, so we told that waitress that we had heard that there were milkshakes. Apparently, they did have a milkshake machine, but it's ancient so she was a bit reluctant to make them for us (don't worry, we tipped well).

After lunch we tackled a few hills, and then we got to have a little beach time at canon beach. Yay beach time!!

The Oregon coast is gorgeous!!! We got some great views and some great descents this afternoon. I am loving Oregon.

We also got to go through the first of two tunnels in Oregon. Not as scary as the book made it seem. It's even got a button that you press that lights up a sign so drivers know that there is a cyclist in the tunnel.

We ended the day in Nehalem Bay State Park. As we were setting up camp, a deer wandered right into our campsite to feed! I couldn't believe how fearless she was!

Nehalem Bay gave us a perfect sunset to end our evening.

Fort Stevens to Nehalem Bay

Pacific Coast Tour - Day 3

2008-06-21T19:52:00.000-07:00

We got out to an earlier start today. Breaking down camp is becoming more of a science for us. We were all feeling a bit sore after 2 long days in the saddle, but we still decided to push ourselves again today in order to make it to Oregon. It wasn't a particularly difficult day - pretty flat with some rolling hills (my favorite).

Passing through South Bend in the morning.

We took a nice detour/shortcut along a stretch of the Lewis and Clark Trail. At the end of this trail, we hit a strong headwind as we head west toward the bridge to Astoria. Which may explain the name choice for....

Dismal Nitch! As you can see, HeadWind made his first appearance!

The bridge itself was a bit scary. It's a highway with no shoulder, has a lot of traffic, and a heavy crosswind. But we made it!

Once we got into Astoria, we popped into a coffee shop and asked where we could find a good meal. They pointed us over to this place called "The Wet Dog", where we had some great burgers, fries, and...finally...milkshakes! They did not disappoint.

We took advantage of being in a real town, and loaded up on groceries at Safeway. Next, we rolled a few more miles into Fort Stevens, OR. Heading over another bridge, we started to get rained on for the first time. Then, it started pouring! I quickly realized that my jacket was not waterproof like I had previously thought. We hunkered down and kept pedaling, and managed to make it all the way to Fort Stevens. The rain let up a bit...long enough for us to set up camp under some trees. And I thought all the rain would hit us in Washington!

Raymond, WA to Fort Stevens, OR

Pacific Coast Tour - Day 2

2008-06-20T22:05:00.000-07:00

We took a while to get started this morning. We were surprised yet again, as the sun was up to greet us in the morning. We made some really great coffee, and Melanie got creative with her oatmeal (those would be peanut butter m&ms):

We attempted to "fix" Mel's bike, because I thought that the front racks were on backwards. After 10 minutes of disassembly and reassembly, we realize that I was wrong and they were on right the first time.

Our first break of the day was in Aberdeen. Noa and I started to worry because Melanie had wandered off to find a bathroom and was gone for 45 minutes...turns out she spotted a Walmart and decided she needed to pick up some Claritin.

After Aberdeen, we headed southwest to Westport. Heading into town, a kid challenged me to a bike race (and won...but my excuse was that I'd already ridden 40+ miles). Here we caught our first glimpse of the ocean! Unfortunately, by the time we got there, the weather had gotten gloomy and the view was quite anti-climactic. On the plus side, we stumbled upon a Pirate Festival going on, complete with cannon-equipped pirate ship!

After Wesport, we rode a long 30 miles straight to our campgrounds in Raymond, WA. We passed by a good number of iron sculptures, which I guess is what Raymond is known for.

We decided that 30 miles with no breaks is probably not the best idea. We were physically and mentally exhausted! From this point on, we will try and take breaks at ~25 miles at a time, in order to refuel, stretch, and relax a little bit!

Elma, WA to Raymond, WA

Pacific Coast Tour - Day 1

2008-06-19T22:37:00.000-07:00

Riding officially begins! This morning, we stocked up on groceries: fruit and banana bread for today, as well as PB, bread, honey, tortillas, cheese, tuna, oatmeal, nuts, and of course...peanut butter M&Ms! Then we headed back to the hotel, finished packing up, and had an interesting time getting our bikes down to the first floor fully loaded. Luckily, the elevator was just big enough.

Here's my bike at the hotel lobby, fully loaded for the first time:

We left the hotel for our ferry to Bremerton, and on the way, we lost Noa! We'd barely been riding for a couple of minutes and already one of us went missing! I think it was my fault; I am pretty comfortable riding in traffic, so I think I took off from the hotel a little too quickly and they had trouble keeping up. After riding around in circles for a few minutes, we decided to just head down to the ferry station and hope she shows up. She did, and we just barely avoid missing our ferry!

We got turned around a bit in Bremerton trying to find our bearings, but soon we were on our way. The first few miles were very trafficky, but after 4 or 5 miles, we were off the freeway and out into nature! We end up riding ~70 miles - not bad for the first day! We stopped 3 times along the way to eat, stretch, and rest for a bit. We hit a lot of hills today, and since we are riding west, we also hit some tough headwinds. In fact, this first day could easily have been the toughest and most beautiful ride I've had. I would say that riding 70 miles fully loaded is more difficult than riding a century without the extra weight.

I tried my first iteration of my solar light charger idea: I took apart a couple of solar garden lights like these, kept the solar panel, charging circuit and LED, and used them for camping lights. They also worked to charge my rechargeable AA batteries. This was my first attempt to attach them to my gear in order to collect some sunshine. I cut holes into a big ziplock bag, put in the lights, and tucked the bag under the bungee cords. It worked OK...but eventually, the bag wore out.

After leaving Seattle, we passed through only a couple of small towns today. After passing through Shelton, the ride was much easier as the afternoon wind died down. We camped for the night at an RV Park in Elma. We were dead tired! We cooked up some cheese/tuna quesadillas, which were amazing! We were very grateful for the hot showers and very excited about going to bed!

Today's route:

Bremerton, WA to Elma, WA

Pacific Coast Tour - Day 0

2008-06-18T21:24:00.000-07:00

This morning, we decided we wanted to find the best coffee place in Seattle. After asking around, we settled on Seattle Coffee Works, and we were not disappointed. I had an 111 Pike espresso shot, and it was fantastic. So good, that I decided to grab a 12oz bag for the trip. To go along with it, we found a kitchen supply store in the area and I picked up an Aero Press, which I've been meaning to pick up anyway. The Aero Press is like...a french press designed by an engineer. It makes a really good cup of coffee in 30 seconds. to go along with the coffee, we went to the Daily Dozen, a donut stand that came highly recommended - it also did not disappoint!

After breakfast, we showed Noa around Pike's (since it was about the only place we were familiar with), and we found a cute mascot for our trip. His name is Winston, and he has two personalities: Tail-Win (on good days) and Head-Win (on bad days).

Meet Tail-Win

After Pike's, we met up with Melanie's friend Kat, who we coincidentally bumped into last night. We trekked on down to the Space Needle, and ended up visiting the Experience Music Project and Sci-Fi Museum. EMP had some very interesting stuff, including a "cyclone" of 600 guitars, some automated, some famous guitars and rooms where you can do a quick and dirty lesson in a certain instrument. The Sci-Fi museum was also pretty interesting; lots of old sci-fi movie costumes and props and such, definitely sparked my interest in reading some sci-fi classics.

We rushed back downtown to get a chance to see the very first screening of "Milk", an upcoming film about the story of Harvey Milk, the "Mayor of Castro St". Simply excellent movie. It will definitely be an Oscar contender.

The rest of the evening was spent getting ready to head out in the morning. I managed to get my first injury of the trip (before we even started riding)! I cut my finger, pretty deep, when I was adjusting my brakes. Not sure how it happened....I didn't even realize until I saw the blood on the spokes...clumsy me.

Final thoughts about Seattle:

Downtown reminds me a lot of the Financial District/Union Square in San Francisco. Lots of high end shopping, and everything closes early!
Pike's has the best seafood and produce around.
In general, people were very friendly, from the hotel clerk to the bike shop guy to the girl at the coffee shop to the produce vendors. People are all very happy to help you find your way, or give suggestions.
Seattle definitely seems like a place I could see myself living in one day. Very green, big city but not too crowded, nice people, very diverse, bike friendly. Where do I sign up?

Pacific Coast Tour - Day -1

2008-06-17T18:22:00.000-07:00

Today started with some delicious steamed chicken buns at this little chinese stand at Pike's, and coffee at the Original Starbucks. Melanie and I both decide that we want to get our haircut before the long ride, so we go hunting for a barbershop. We actually found abarbershop inside the Pike's public market. The barber was a very interesting guy. we talked about all of the international visitors he has had that have come and asked for temporary work...as a result, he has a place to stay wherever he travels. He said that he was planning a Europe trip int he fall and all of his lodging was taken care of. One interesting thing: after he was done with my hair, instead of a blow dryer, he used a vacuum to clean my head! I asked him about it, and he said that he does it because a lot of his customers work in the market, so its a hygiene thing.

We stopped over at Elliot Bay Bicycles to get a replacement screw for Melanie's cleat. Our first bicycle shop experience went very well - Bob was extraordinarily nice. We mentioned our upcoming journey, and he pulls out this huge map book and starts rattling on about shortcuts and nice routes to take along the way.

Since Seattle is a big bike town, and I'd never been here before, we decided to explore the city on our bikes. We went online and found a gorgeous ride from downtown to Lake Washington, and a loop around the Arboretum. Simply beautiful ride. Once inside the Arboretum area, away from the cars, it gets incredibly quiet and serene. Very good warm-up for the big ride. Somehow, the route also found every steep hill in Seattle (I thought this town would be relatively flat)!

Washington Park Arboretum (recon)

On the way back, we stopped over at Glasshouse Studio at Pioneer Square, and watched the guys blowing glass. Afterwards, we rewarded ourselves with a Halibut sandwich at Market Grill.

After the ride, we were walking around in search of food and we ran into Melanie's friends from youth orchestra. What a coincidence! They were on their way to see Avenue Q while it was in town (which we were also thinking about seeing). Her friend suggested meeting up with us the next day. They also recommended a fantastic Italian restaurant called Machiavelli that they had recently been to. The food was excellent (and keep in mind, I just got back from Italy)!

Noa's flight got switched around, and she came in early, so after dinner Melanie and I headed back over to the hotel to meet her. One more day to play before heading out!

Pacific Coast Tour: Day -2

2008-06-16T11:54:00.000-07:00

The first big question facing us was: how were we going to get our bikes and all of our gear to Seattle? There were several packing options that we tossed around. The other two, Melanie and Noa, shipped their bags via Amtrak. Both had very good experiences shipping with them. Both bikes arrived unharmed, and the fee wasn't too much (about $50). Melanie actually got lucky - when she dropped her bike off, Amtrak thought she was checking it as luggage, so they only charged her $5 for it!

As for me, I decided to pack up my bike and pay the $50 charge to check it in on my flight. I flew Virgin America, which is still in their infant stage, so they haven't started hiking up fees for everything yet. I picked up a used bike box for free from Missing Link, and packed my bike along with two empty panniers, my tent, and sleeping pad. I had to remove the front rack and both fenders (the fenders I decided to leave at home, since they were going to be too much of a hassle to try and fit in the box along with everything else). The camping gear and anything else not allowed onto a plane were packed into another pannier, which I checked. That left one more pannier, filled to the brim with clothes and a sleeping bag, to carry on. No problems checking in or anything, although carrying around an awkwardly shaped, 50+ lbs box around the terminal wasn't easy.

Arriving at the Sea-Tac baggage claim, I find that the pannier I had checked in had been jostled open on the flight. I probably should have been more careful when shutting it. I don't notice anything missing, so no problems. I pick up my bike and start the long process of unpacking and reassembling, in the baggage claim area (I get a lot of funny looks from passers-by). It takes about two hours to assemble and adjust the bike, and redistribute all of the gear into the 4 panniers. This is the first time I have a bike fully loaded with gear, so it's a little difficult to handle, even walking it around the airport!

I walk outside to see Seattle the first time and was greeted by...80 degrees and sunshine??? Wait a second...I thought Seattle was supposed to be gloomy and rainy! Oh well, I was not about to complain! It is 14 miles from the airport to downtown seattle, so I ride a leisurely pace and enjoy the sunshine. Right away I notice that drivers are more aware of bicyclists than in the bay area, and I'm surprised at how many people are giving me the right of way!

We stayed at The Moore Hotel: very reasonably priced, centrally located, and the staff was very friendly and knowledgeable. Pike's Place public market was only a couple blocks away, so Melanie (who took a cab to the hotel and had been waiting for me)and I headed over for some delicious chowder at Pike's Place Chowder. I wandered around Pike's for a while while Melanie headed down to Amtrak to pick up her bike. She ended up having trouble with the reassembly, so she walked it back to the hotel and I gave her a hand.

After that was done, we walked around for a bit looking for a place to eat, but everything is closed! Downtown Seattle is comparable to the Financial District of SF; everything closes at 5 when people get off work. We talked to the hotel clerk, who sent us walking down to Capitol Hill, where we found some good food and nightlife.