11/09/00-11/31/01 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings, visit to TREK & LeMond factory, first ride up Diablo, Sonora Pass, French laundry lesson
01/01/02-07/15/02 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings, riding in the snow, Gary Klein visit, Millennium Crows, Spooky Old Tree
07/18/02-07/31/02 Incredible trip to the 2002 Tour de France
08/01/02-12/31/02 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings, 2nd 2002 trip to France, winning Lance-signed frameset, 5th-Annual TurkeyTrot ride, riding in the rain
01/01/03-03/31/03 Yet more ramblings about the regular Tues/Thur ride, Mr. J visits Washington DC
04/01/03-08/28/03 You take the guy with the gun, I'll handle the guy with the Gatorade!
09/03/03-12/31/03 My dinner with Zap, 75000 mile TREK OCLV, meeting Graham Watson
                            TOUR DE FRANCE 2003 TRIP, 2004
04/01/03-08/28/03 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings, Fast older guys, Sequoia Double-Metric, Grizzly Peak Century
09/03/03-12/31/03 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings
01/01/04-07/31/04 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings
07/31/04-12/31/04 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings
01/01/05-07/01/05 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings
07/01/05-12/31/05 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings plus Tour de France ride-a-long in Team Car
11/22/06-07/16/06
07/28/06-12/28/06 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings, Sonora Pass, caught in a snowstorm
01/01/07-06/30/07 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings
07/02/07-12/31/07 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings
01/01/08-05/30/08 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings
06/01/06-12/31/08 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings
01/01/09-12/31/09 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings
THE DAY MOUNT HAMILTON ALMOST BLEW AWAY (with us on it)

TUESDAY/THURSDAY KINGS MOUNTAIN RIDE

Every Tuesday & Thursday morning, rain or shine, 7:45am at Olive Hill & Canada Road in Woodside. 26 miles, back by 9:25-9:40pm (a bit later when it rains). Hills, sprints & great roads. If you can make it up Kings in 30 minutes or less, try it!


The Tuesday/Thursday ride is now on YouTube! Broken up into three separate segments, about 10 minutes each. Filmed by Millo on 1/30/07
The regular cast of characters on the Tuesday/Thursday rides includes
Kevin the first regular on our ride, and the most regular regular. Has too much time to ride!
Karl (aka "Fast Karl"), super-nice-guy road racer who can really charge on the flats
Chris, one of the younger guys who thinks he can climb and sprint. He can.
(Karl now with is own page here, Karl's Korner)(but not updated in ages...)
Eric, who likes to torture me up Kings by riding just a bit ahead or behind me, waiting for me to blow up.
John, relative newcomer, another 50ish youngster who can climb way too fast.
Millo, who complains that he's old & slow but somehow always there in the sprints.
George, always out on Tuesdays, nice guy, too fast on the climbs

5/15/08- CUT IT JUST A BIT CLOSE THIS MORNING, as I experienced either a mental malfunction or my alarm clock failed. My wife came into the bedroom at 7:15am asking quite loudly "Why aren't you up? It's 7:15!" The alarm clock is set to go off at 7:05, and right after my wife came in it went off... but when I checked the setting, it was still set for 7:05. No power failure to explain anything, just the strange possibility that I heard it go off at 7:05 and hit the snooze button, without remembering doing so.

I still made it out to the start of the ride in time; it's amazing how much less time it takes to get ready to ride when you don't have to search for colder-weather gear. And I'd already made my Cytomax for my bottle the night before, needing only to remove it from the freezer and defrost it slgihtly under a bit of water.

Snoozing was something I did not get to do on the ride. Kevin, Karl, Todd, Eric, Billy, Syl, Chris... all far better at climbing than I am these days. My only goal was to make it up in something under 28 minutes, and I succeeded by the slimmest of margins (4 seconds).

Being Bike-To-Work day, I dutifully rode my bike rather than drive a van full of transfers (between our two stores), which was no problem heading to work, but coming back home? It was still close to 90 degrees, and with a 400ft climb to my house, not something I was really looking forward to. Fortunately my son, Kevin, happened to drop by the shop with my wife, with his bike in the car, and they were trying to talk me into hitching a ride with them back home. Can't do that on Bike-To-Work day! But what I did manage to do was convince my son to ride back up the hill with me. Not completely sure it was a good idea, as, for the first time ever, I had more than a bit of difficulty keeping up with him on the climb. Darn kid even sprinted away from me at one point! We'll see how he does this Sunday, as we head out for a longer ride to the coast.

5/13/08- SO TODAY, NICEST DAY OF THE YEAR, I'M RIDING MY RAIN BIKE. I didn't start out the day on the right foot. Just as I was getting ready to go, I noticed that my brake shoes, the ones that have lasted over two years with my carbon rims, had suddenly worn down so much that the little plastic thingee at the base of the brake pad holder, the thing that lets you know you're just about down to metal, was scraping lightly on the rim. And no carbon brake shoes were to be had at the house. Which meant going down to the garage and bringing up the rain bike, fenders and all, on a day that was as far removed from rain as could possibly be. And putting me a good 15 minutes behind schedule, such that, as I was finally getting ready to go, I get a call on my cell phone from Kevin K, wondering why I'm not at the start of the ride.

Adding insult to injury was the fact that, as I finally started riding, I couldn't get my shoes clipped into the pedals. Duh. Speedplay cleats don't play well with the SPD pedals on my rain bike! So back into the house (again) to change shoes, and finally I'm off. In order to catch up with the guys, I rode up 84 instead of Kings Mountain, and then back-tracked towards Kings, finding them almost at the top of Skyline. Climbing 84 from Woodside is one of those things you're told not to do, because of traffic concerns, but it's really not that bad, especially if you can get a bit of speed up so you're not caught in a blind corner with a car coming up behind. But heading north on Skyline from 84... that's just plain not fun.

Not sure who all was there today; I think Todd (who didn't do the full ride, heading back down 84 to an early class), Kevin, Eric, Karen (yes, a woman on the ride, one who can probably ride the best of us into the ground any time she wished), Karl, Milo...

But life isn't that bad when your rain bike is a Trek 5900. Riding it today I was thinking yeah, I can see why this was Lance's favorite bike. Nice all-around machine. Not quite as responsive as my Madone, but certainly nothing to avoid.

5/11/08- SHORT RIDE TODAY, too many things to take care of to get in anything decent, and certainly not enough time to get in a ride at all if I'd taken Kevin to the Velodrome for the twice-monthly track sessions. So instead it's just a quick run at 4pm up Old LaHonda and back down 84.  Kevin's speed is gradually coming up; 13.2mph door-to-door. But the best thing is that he's finally learning how to really suck a wheel. He finally gets it. He now understands that he can go a heck of a lot faster, and further, with less effort, if he gets behind someone strong and lets them motorpace him. That's not to say that he can slack off by sucking wheels, but rather that he can ride with much-stronger groups than before and get his basic speed up. It's good for me too, because I can get a lot better workout leading from the front, knowing that he'll be able to hang on unless I really push it. And soon, even full-throttle and I won't be able to shake him!

5/08/08- WHY SHOULD 7 SECONDS MAKE A DIFFERENCE? Or, what difference is there, really, between climbing Kings Mtn in 28-something vs 27:53? Both are pretty slow times for me, but this year I've been struggling a bit, still not getting in those solid base miles from "true" 100 mile centuries, vs the 100 kilometer versions I ride with my son. I should be riding up the hill in 26-something, or should I? Time is somewhat arbitrary, and the enjoyment of the ride really hasn't lessened any with a bit less speed on the climbs. Still, after staying in the 28-something range for so long, it did feel good getting to the top just a little bit faster.

Karl, Kevin, Billy, Syl, Eric. Syl & Eric departed after climbing Kings, while the rest of us bravely headed into the mist on Skyline, on what the weatherman promises to be one of the last almost-cold (45 degrees) days of the year. I won't miss them (the cold days of winter & spring).

5/6/08- IT FEELS SO GOOD TO FEEL SO BAD! I wasn't sure how I'd feel this morning, having missed last Thursday's ride due to illness and not being able to get in a longer (but relatively slow) ride with my son on Sunday. But it was one of those rare mornings where the first few turns of the pedal (heading immediately uphill from my house) felt good, and I made pretty good speed to the start of the ride. The Tuesday group varies a bit as we go; at the start we had Kevin, Karl, Chris, George, Jim, Todd... and also Syl, a super-strong rider we see out on the road quite often, but rarely rides with us. I think that's it... and we picked up Millo at the top of Kings. He's heading out earlier than he should; back in the day, we'd catch up to him about 2/3rds of the way up the hill. Todd, Jim & Chris headed back down 84 instead of doing the west-side Old LaHonda loop, while Syl apparently headed back down Kings.

West-side Old LaHonda's getting interesting lately. A couple weeks ago we had a group of pace deer, and today? A pace skunk! On the section where it straightens out and opens up, just before heading into the trees just west of Skyline, we saw something waddling along in front of us, something who's style of waddling made it unmistakable, even (thankfully) from a good distance, that it was a skunk. We slowed down to keep our distance, and he just kept cruising straight ahead, never looking back at us, at a pretty decent clip (for a skunk). He finally veered off the road and into a drainage pipe, without ever raising its tail.

5/04/08 Addendum- We finally got ahold of Kevin's doctor regarding his foot injury. We didn't have to take him in; the doctor was able to figure things out quite readily over the phone, based upon the location of his pain and how he injured it (playing LaCrosse). In a nutshell, he'd managed to pivot his ankle inward too far, straining, and possibly tearing slightly, his anterior talo-fibular ligament. Which means no more running, no summer LaCrosse season. But here's yet one more example of why cycling is such a wonderful thing. With modern clipless pedals, the foot is held laterally rigid, so you can't put the sort of side forces on the ankle that might keep it from healing. And Kevin's doctor just happens to be a cyclist, knows that Kevin rides, and pointed out that this should give him no grief at all while riding (but that he'd notice it hurting a bit afterward).

5/04/08- SURVIVED LAST WEEK just barely. I actually missed Thursday morning's ride, thinking it might not be such a great idea to try and climb Kings without having eaten for the last 24 hours or so. But a bigger thing to survive has been our switch to an entirely-new point-of-sale system, which has actually been going easier than I expected. It was definitely a good thing to go live on Monday, giving us as many days with the new system as possible before Saturday.

But at this exact moment in time, I'd rather not be typing. It's 11:31am, looks really nice out there, and I was supposed to be riding out to the coast with my son, but instead we're waiting for a return call from a Doctor, hoping to get Kevin (my son) in to be seen for a sore ankle he's had for the past two weeks. An injury from a LaCrosse session that somehow didn't keep him from playing but today, it's keeping him from riding. Maybe if a typical bike ride was as down & dirty as LaCrosse, he'd be looking forward to riding with a bit of pain instead of waiting for a phone call... (which, of course, it was for me when I was his age; when I raced, if I didn't have 4 good crashes each year, it was an indication I wasn't riding aggressively enough, but I'm no so sure I want to face my wife the first time I bring Kevin back from a ride in that condition).

4/30/08- FLATTENED LIKE A RUN-OVER PANCAKE is how I felt this morning. I woke up at 5am feeling wretched, beyond wretched really. The 8:30pm lunch I had last night, consisting of a seafood salad (which I have to be a bit careful with, since certain shellfish, especially scallops, react nastily with me) and a way-too-big piece of Max's Niagra Falls chocolate cake. Normally I don't do much cake anymore, and would have spread that piece out over 3 days. But I didn't. I was starved, it was in front of me, and it disappeared. Until about 5am that is.

I don't think it was just the food that got to me. The stress of converting our older point-of-sale system into something newer & better has been immense, requiring me to figure out how to do things (database conversions) that I used to do easily some years ago but now tax my brainpower beyond the norm. Too many nights with too little sleep and visions of inventory errors dancing through my head. And inventory errors can kill a business.

But it's 1:22pm now and I'm beginning to feel alive again. Not sure what to eat, but at least I was able to stand long enough to take a shower and get dressed and start thinking about getting back into the world again. One thought did occur to me though. Had this been a ride morning, I don't think I possibly could have made it. That would have been remarkable.

4/29/08- EVERYBODY WANTS ON-BOARD THIS TRAIN or so it seemed this morning, with a group of 10. I'll try to get the names right; Millo, Kevin, other Kevin, Billy, Eric, Jim, Todd, Karl, George... that plus me makes 10. Got 'em all! Unless there was anybody hiding. Still a bit cool but not cold, with lows in the mid-40s. Beautiful variations in color and shape of the clouds along the coast. Noteworthy animal sighting was on my way to the start, as a large deer just stood in the middle of Jefferson (on the descent towards Canada), waiting for me to slow down. He didn't move until I was very close to him. I asked Karl about the deer's behavior, who said that maybe it's us that's screwed up, not the deer. After all, what's a "road" to a deer?

4/27/08- THE MOST-BEAUTIFUL DAY OF THE YEAR, AND I'M NOT RIDING. It had to happen like this. What a day, and I was spending it inside, along with Burt, Dave, Karen, Becky, Dick, Steve, Don & Charlie, who'd all given up a great day outdoors to work tirelessly putting the final touches on our conversion from our older point of sale system (which has been with us since 1994) to a new one. A day full of scanning, scanning, and more scanning of inventory, and categorizing & making new part numbers for things that didn't scan. Can you think of anything more fun to do? But they hung in there, and did a great job. Still a bunch of pieces to pick up on Monday, and still scary to think we're going to throw a switch and, as they say, "Go Live" with the new system. But thanks to the efforts people made today, I think it can be done. I know it can, because they've already done all the hard stuff. Famous last words, but I guarantee you one thing, the world could come crashing down on our computers next Sunday but I'll be on a bike anyway. At least for part of the day!

4/25/08- PERSONAL TIRADE/POLITICAL STATEMENT of the sort that intelligent business people don't make because you might alienate good customers. But I've got to. I'm tired of hearing how "ethanol" is the answer to our gas crisis. With food prices going upward fast, literally starving people who are on the borderline of getting by, there's something just plain wrong that we feel it's a higher priority to grow plants to fuel our cars rather than feed people. Forget the arguments that it's terribly inefficient to product gasoline from crops (due to the amount of energy required to produce that crop in the first place). There's a message we're sending to the world with ethanol. A message that says it's more important to us to keep using energy the way we're used to than to have reasonable supplies of food at reasonable prices.

Long before we had oil at $120/barrel, there was a concern for our frequently-wasteful habits. Producing too much garbage (often simply because packaging is out of control), using too much gas & electricity & water. Ah yes, you can tell, I grew up in the 70s. Some of us thought planetary destruction due to our errant ways was just around the corner. That wasn't true; substantial technological progress allowed us to dramatically improve crop yields, and actually put a dent in pollution. We even found ways to permanently reduce water consumption with little hardship.

But today? Today it's hard to convince somebody that it's wasteful leaving lights on when you're not in the room. Especially the younger folk just coming out of schools. What's with that? How much could we do to throttle back the price of oil and food by simply driving a bit less (maybe riding bikes a bit more?), turning lights off when we don't need them, thinking about a bit more efficient car next time, and maybe a government that sets mileage standards that don't call minivans "light trucks" and thus exempt? Sadly, no politician in his/her right mind would take up this cause, because it entails a minimal amount of sacrifice, and asking for that doesn't get people elected. We can do so much better. We have to.

4/24/08- I FIGURE WE STARTED RIDING ABOUT 6 HOURS TOO EARLY THIS MORING, as it hit 41 degrees again up on Skyline (a couple degrees colder though on Todd's computer), on a day the weather was finally taking a turn for the better (which means warmer). I certainly function a lot better when it's warmer, and not just because my lungs can take in air without sounding like a bad bagpipe. For whatever reason, my body decides it's time to put on some extra weight during the winter, and it simply doesn't want to start coming off until things warm up, regardless of the miles I put in on the bike. Strange.

Todd, Eric, Karl & Billy this morning, with me still struggling to get much under 29 minutes on the climb up Kings. That doesn't depress me as much as it might though, as I'm picking up speed a bit elsewhere. Hey, you take what you can get, and I'm thankful that this 52 year old body doesn't protest much.

Unfortunately, no ride for me this Sunday, as we'll be doing inventory before throwing the switch on our new point-of-sale computer system. This has been in the works for some time, and it will be a great relief to finally throw the switch on it. From what we can tell, it will greatly simplify the ordering processes, which should improve our ability to help customers get what they need, when they need it. Sounds good. We'll see soon enough!

4/22/08- NOPE, THE NOISE WASN'T MY KNEES, it was a failing cassette on the rear wheel. Anybody riding with me for the past month or so has noticed my bike getting louder and louder creaking from the rear, sounding almost like my bike was about to break in half. So this morning I tried one of the new Bontrager Aeolus aero carbon wheels and voila, noises gone! Guess it's time to do a bit of maintenance on my bike!

Nice clear morning, with Eric, Todd, George, Chris, Billy, Millo, Kevin, Jim(? not sure of his name) joining in the Kings Mtn carnage. I'm beginning to feel like I have some endurance, but certainly not speed up the hill. That's OK; it's endurance that gives you the idea you can actually finish this ride in one piece! Most interesting event was on the west side of Old LaHonda, where we came across three deer running up the road in front of us. For quite some distance they ran in front of us, just a curve ahead, until finally they disappeared. We actually weren't certain they'd left the road for a bit though, wondering if they might have put some distance on us and maybe we'd catch up again.

4/20/08- IN THE TOUR DE FRANCE, IT'S HORSES IN ADJACENT FIELDS THAT ARE SEEN "RACING" THE RIDERS. IN THE PRIMAVERA CENTURY, it's cows. But in the grand scheme of things, it seems appropriate.

It was a much nicer day than expected. Yes, it was still a bit on the cool side, and yes, a bit breezy too. But not nearly as cold or windy as the forecast... but that forecast did seem to scare a lot of people away! I've ridden the Primavera Century quite a few times, and this was, by far, the smallest turnout I've seen. Not helping matters is the scheduling of the nearby Tierra Bella ride the day before. And perhaps further dampening the spirit of many who might otherwise ride such events is the cost, at $45 for same-day registration. Ouch! And I'm definitely a same-day kind of guy, since I'm never certain until the last minute of whether my schedule's going to allow me to ride or not.

But I decided I couldn't miss this ride today, since we're implementing a new point-of-sale system that's eating up pretty much every waking hour lately and will definitely kill any possibility of a ride next Sunday. Plus, it was a chance to do a longer ride with my son, and it might have been last year's Primavera that was his first 100k ride.

We saw many of our customers out on the road, plus Roger and Burt from our Redwood City store. We started a bit later than most, actually not getting out on the road until 8:15 (yeah, we slept in this morning, setting the alarm for 6:45 instead of 6:15am like last year), but this was a very different Kevin from last year. After suffering through the first 10 miles or so, his motor got going and he cruised along at a pretty good clip! His average speed (riding speed, not including rest stops) was 14.2mph, significantly faster than he's done on long rides before. A lot of it came from greatly-improved skills at drafting me, which came in very handy when the headwinds got particularly nasty.

The photo at the right was taken at the last rest stop, just before the final grind up Polmares. I'd asked Kevin if he was ready to go, and he said "No Dad, I'm on break." Not in that tired, mindless sort of way that you get when you're wishing the ride was over but have one last big hill to climb that you're not looking forward to. This was more pre-meditated and well thought-out. He actually had a plan. It wasn't just about survival, the way he'd viewed many rides in the past. That was an interesting development; an indication that he's taking control of things. Or maybe I'm making way too much out of a funny off-hand remark!

4/17/08- WARMER TODAY! I don't honestly recall if I even saw a temp reading in the 40s this morning; could have been that 50 degrees was as cold as it got, 11 degrees warmer than Tuesday's ride. Noteworthy was the return of Karl, who'd been missing in action the past couple weeks after an incident with a car left him a bit banged up and bikeless. Well, not self-respecting cyclist could ever truly be bikeless, and Karl's no exception, as he showed up on his 'cross bike. A bit heavier, a bit slower, but we're describing his bike, not me.

Karl, Kevin & Todd were with us this morning, but we weren't the only ones enjoying a nice morning on Kings Mtn, as we came across two women & a guy about 2/3rds of the way up. On west-side Old LaHonda we spied another cyclist maybe half a mile ahead of us, which is unusual. Seeing people now & then on Kings is common (usually we see people coming down as we're heading up), but it's a very rare thing to see anyone else on Old LaHonda.

But the best thing lately has been that the scale is finally beginning to reverse its gradual upward trend that winter inevitably brings. It doesn't even seem directly related to riding more, because the miles/week remain fairly constant until May, when it kicks up a bit. More likely there's just something about colder weather that makes me want to eat too much, or perhaps the metabolism slows down thinking I need more insulation. Whatever the case, it's comforting to see that things are finally heading in the right direction.

4/15/08- TOO DARNED COLD! Actually, it didn't feel all that cold; if you're dressed right and riding hard, the 39 degrees up on Skyline really isn't that bad. Which is an obvious indication that cyclists are nuts. This is Northern California, after all. And mid-April. Isn't it supposed to be getting warmer?

Kevin & George started the ride with me this morning, later joined by Milo and Eric, who'd headed up the hill a few minutes earlier. They needn't have, as George & Kevin were taking it pretty easy this morning. Of course, I always assumed they were just around that last corner behind me, so I kept riding hard, while they took it easy and discussed the meaning of life or whatever it is you can do when you're not gassed and have lungs that work in the cold.

I wasn't too sure I'd gotten enough sleep last night, and did feel a bit tired upon waking up, but the interesting thing about a first-thing-in-the-morning bike ride is that it somehow recalibrates you, and the rest of the day you feel great. Had you not ridden and gotten the same amount of sleep, somehow you would have felt it the rest of the day. I don't quite understand how that works, but it's one more thing that makes me thankful that I ride.

4/14/08- SOMEBODY GETS IT. TONIGHT'S CITY COUNCIL MEETING IN REDWOOD CITY. Below is my email to someone on the City Council, after the BikePed committee presentation-

4/13/08- HAD A GREAT RIDE WITH TODD this morning. Not a whole lot of time so couldn't get into anything too ambitious, so I chose one of those "compact" rides that delivers a solid punch. Up Old LaHonda, down the west side to 84, down 84 to LaHonda, then back up West Alpine to Skyline. Beautiful, almost too-warm day (only because we're not used to warm weather yet) with lots & lots of people out riding. About 42 miles from my house & back, basically the same ride I did two weeks ago with my son. Surprisingly, riding time was only an hour shorter. Either I'm getting slower, or my son's getting faster. Most likely a combination of the two!

One annoying observation. As I was heading back over Jefferson towards home, a car pulled out in front of me from the street near the new fire station. I'm almost getting used to this... cars having a difficult time judging the speed of a cyclist... but this one was more annoying than most because she cut it a lot closer, not because she misjudged my speed, but because she wasn't paying attention. Instead, she was yakking on her cell phone. Seriously. Even after pulling onto Jefferson, she was driving an annoyingly-slow 21 miles per hour and getting pretty squirrely, as she tried to drive and talk at the same time (holding the phone up to her ear, which I could easily see in her rear-view mirror).

I've posted the photo on the right; you can barely make out the details in the rear-view mirror. I've obscured the license plate number intentionally. I'm really looking forward to the implementation of the hands-free requirement for cell phones. There's just no way that somebody can be driving safely with just one hand, while trying to keep from dropping a cell phone with the other.

4/10/08- DID YOU SEE THAT BOBCAT???!!! UH... NO... I WAS TOO BUSY TRYING TO TAKE PICTURES... and so it goes. You think it's going to be a beautiful morning, clear morning due to the breezes the day before, so you make sure to bring the camera. And you're still looking for that ultimate shot on west-side Old LaHonda, one of the most-beautiful roads in the world (which may show my ignorance of the world outside of California or France). And so, as I'm fumbling with the camera with my moderately-thick winter gloves, trying to get a good shot of the coast, Chris turns back and yells at me, "Did you see that? Did you see the Bobcat that just ran up the road ahead of us and then down the side?" Well, uh, no. I was too busy trying to find something interesting to take a picture of that I missed something really interesting that I could have take a picture of.

Time to get back to the basics and do a proper write-up of the Tuesday/Thursday ride, including the attendance sheet. Kevin (old guy Kevin) (old because he's a good 4 months or so older than I am), new-guy Kevin, fast-climber Chris, and Eric. At first it was looking like I'd only be riding up as far as the park entrance, not because I wasn't feeling well, but because my bike was making the most-horrible noises imaginable. It's been getting pretty creaky for quite some time, but time is one of those things I have so little of these days... so if the choice was to ride my bike or work on it, riding won out. It's either a failing bottom bracket bearing (quite likely, since I've got over 20k miles on an FSA Ti version that are known to fail with much less use), or a neglected cassette mechanism. Either way it was sounding like something that wasn't going to make it to the top of the hill. But it did. Noisily, but it did. I wouldn't recommend continuing to ride a bike that sounded like mine, since there's a pretty substantial risk of something failing completely, when you'd rather it didn't. Usually that means on the "wrong" side of the hill.

It was a beautiful day to be out on a bike. Quite a bit warmer than Tuesday (43 degrees for the low, instead of 39), and the group wasn't into setting any speed records today. One of those days where, at the end of the ride, you're ever-so-thankful that you didn't wimp out, cutting the ride short just so you could avoid some nasty expensive repair.

4/09/08- YES, I RODE YESTERDAY, YES, I RODE SLOWLY, AND YES, I'M WAY BEHIND at just about everything. The big news yesterday was that Trek and Greg LeMond are parting company, with lawsuits filed by each side. I could say that things could get ugly, but it looks like they already are. I've put up my take on this issue on the LeMond page of our website- http://www.chainreaction.com/lemond.htm.

4/7/08- OH MAN, DID THAT HURT! 5AM AND I'M IN PAIN! Not at all what I expected after a very nice ride yesterday up Old LaHonda, over Haskins Grade to Pescadero, Stage to Tunitas and then back up over the hill. I felt a bit tired afterward, but nothing hurt. Certainly not like the extremely-rude pain that woke me up (and kept me up) this morning. My left hip felt like someone was digging a knife into it. What's with that, I'm thinking? Was it from overdoing it on the Tunitas climb? It didn't seem like that was the case. I found a rhythm but don't know that I've ever been able to ride in a way that damaged me physically. But after a few (painful) hours I figured it out.

It was the climb up Old LaHonda, on wet pavement, where my rear wheel slipped several times as I stood on the pedals (those tar stripes are extremely slippery when wet!). In the process I managed to hyper-extend my left leg, more than once. I only felt a little bit of pain at the time, but the damage had been done. Advil helped, but not quite as much as staying on my feet at the shop. By the end of the day I could almost walk normally, and certainly wasn't wincing with each step.

4/06/08- DRIZZLE, GENERALLY ICKY, DO YOU STILL RIDE TO THE COAST? That was a good question as I headed out from home into a day that seemed to get darker as it went. By the time I got to the base of Old LaHonda, it was pretty darned wet, with the tar stripes taking their toll on me, causing my rear wheel to slip out from under me when I'd stand on the pedals (which I do often). And I'm thinking, is this really a good day to head out to the coast? Maybe cut it short and head back up west-side Alpine?

But years of riding has told me two things. First, it almost always gets better as the day progresses. Patience is nearly-always rewarded on a bike ride! And second, stick to the plan. There was a reason you decided on that ride in the first place, and if it was a good idea then, it's probably still a good idea now. And besides, once you start backing out of things, who knows where it ends?

This wasn't a group ride, just a day out on the bike. Not that it matters; inevitably I come across people to ride with along the way, and today was no exception. Most had been scared off by the threatening weather, but there were a number of groups out on the coast side, training for various events, or just out for a good time. At Pescadero I met up with three guys (whose names, as always, I forget... I even tried to outsmart myself and do a quick video with them introducing themselves, and I didn't record it right!) (but I can tell you that two of them were rheumatologists and one works for a biotech firm). Very nice guys who happened to ride at just about the right pace too! We admired the views from Stage Road, and passed a number of other cyclists on our way to the Tunitas Creek climb.

I was looking forward to climbing Tunitas at a social pace, and things did start out that way. But of course one of the three guys decides it's OK to go off the front and ride ahead of the other two, and since it was a pace that, with a bit of pain, was possible to maintain... well, of course, that's the pace I had to ride as well. Somehow my inadequate lungs, weakening legs and steepening grade (is steepening a legit word?) seemed to combine for a perfect climb. Don't ask me how that works; I can't figure it out either.

About 3/4 of the way up, we came across Jesus and Renee, training for the Louisville Ironman race this summer. It was their first time up Tunitas, and they were fortunate in that I came across them almost at the end of the steep part. Why fortunate? Because I've been known to say things like "Don't worry, there's only another 3 miles like this!" when the grade is the steepest. That's Jesus in front, with Renee just behind. Renee is way cuter than Jesus, but since Jesus is riding a Madone 5.5 he picked up in our Los Altos store, he gets star billing in the photo!

4/5/08- THE MISSING ENTRIES CONTINUE. The last few weeks haven't been easy, and the next couple probably won't be much better. Implementing a new point-of-sale system is difficult enough, but the task was made a whole lot more difficult on Thursday night when our Internet connection died in the Los Altos store. That mean staying up pretty late Thursday night, and then spending all day (and then some) in the Los Altos store on Friday, including two trips to Frys Electronics to pick up the stuff needed to rig a semi-temporary Internet service based on Verizon's cellular network. It actually seems to be working pretty well, although I have yet to figure out the workings of dynamic IP addresses and how to communicate remotely with them.

Thursday's ride was a pleasant diversion from the computer issues at the shop, with Kevin, the other Kevin, his friend Billy, and Eric showing up. No Karl, who's dealing with a bizarre bike/car incident at the Canada/Woodside Road intersection not long after finishing Tuesday's ride. I still don't quite have the details sorted out, but it appears to involve a car that knocked him off his bike and then (fortunately after he wasn't on his bike) ran over it. Which is bad enough, but then the driver decided to drive off. In a miraculous turn of events that involved one of our other regulars, Milo, driving past in his car shortly afterward, Karl was able to track down the car that hit him, and it's likely the drive will wish they hadn't taken off.

4/1/08- FUNNY THAT SOMEONE 42 YEARS OLD WOULD WRECK THE AGE CURVE on our ride, but the recent addition of Jim now gives us two youngsters (the other being Chris, who's in his early-30s). The rest of us? I won't name names, but we've got Karl & Eric in their later-40s, and Kevin, George, Milo & I closely-bracketed beween 52 & 54.

It's still a bit cold for my lungs to work very well; generally, around 55 degrees & up and I'm ok. Seems like Eric's in the same boat, although you can't hear him from a quarter mile away like you can me. Guess his lungs suffer in silence. We're all remembering that warm spell of just a couple weeks ago!

Noteworthy on this-morning's ride was Milo getting a flat up on Skyline, and that between all of us, nobody had a full-sized pump, just the small & cool-looking but not-so-functional "lipstick" variety. But as much as people rarely throttle back to keep company with those suffering badly on a climb, solidarity is shown with those who get a flat. Maybe it's that rare opportunity to stop and catch your breath without any sort of alpha dog thing coming up.

Speaking of Alpha Dogs, towards the end of the ride, as we retraced the lower part of Kings Mtn. Road, Karl took off, as he often does, hoping to get a big enough gap that he could hold everyone off and basically take the final sprint at the end without actually sprinting. So George looks around and asks if anyone's going to chase him (after he's gotten one heck of a gap on us), and for some reason I'm thinking sure, I can go out there and run myself into the ground, but somebody had better get on my wheel for the ride, which I tell George to do.  But after taking off in pursuit of Karl, I look back and nobody's on my wheel! It's not as if I caught people off-guard, since I told George I was going to go, and to get on my wheel. Sigh.

3/30/08- GETTING TO BE A SUNDAY RITUAL LATELY, doing a quick run up Old LaHonda, down the other side to LaHonda and then back up West Alpine. Today was a bit different, riding with my son Kevin again for the first time in a few weeks. The basic specs? About 42 miles & 4700ft of climbing. Most noteworthy was that it got danged cold once we got back up onto Skyline. I'd brought just one extra pair of winter gloves & a jacket, which, as a dad would do, I gave to my son to wear (when it got to 43 degrees and very windy).  No speed records today, as this was his get-back-to-the-bike ride after a week with a nasty bug and another week prior to that spend in Mexico on a church trip. We'll see how he does at the track (Velodrome) next Sunday.

3/27/08- WHY NO UPDATES? Ask SBCGlobal.com! I've been having some trouble at home with our DSL line, lately getting much worse, and finally decided it was time to do something about it. So I call and ask what options there might be, and it turns out they've made some upgrades which place a high-speed more-reliable fiber optic line close to home. Great! So I sign up, only to find that there could be as much as 10 days between when then end the old service and start up the new. Yikes!

Meantime we did get in good rides on Tuesday & Thursday, which I hope to tell you about shortly.  --Mike--

3/23/2008- 72 DEGREES, LOW HUMIDITY AND GREAT ROADS. IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS. This is why you live in the Bay Area, and this is why you ride a bike.

Easter Sunday afternoon, out for a quick spin before an early dinner. You've got less than 3 hours, so you've got to go for quality over quantity. With more time, you'd do the Old LaHonda /Pescadero /Tunitas loop, but with just 3 hours, you go for Old LaHonda /LaHonda /West Alpine. Total mileage just over 40, with about 4700ft of climbing.

It was on the west side of Old LaHonda that I found someone else admiring the beauty of the day. A young woman stopped by the side of the road, looking out towards the ocean. It's a spot I've shown photos of on this website many times before, usually taken behind the guys I ride with on Tuesday or Thursday mornings.
 

03/20/2008- GIVE ME A WHEEL, ANY WHEEL... but not Karl's! Well, after a week off the bike, due to flying back to Wisconsin for the memorial services for Trek's co-founder Dick Burke, I couldn't afford to be choosy. And so it was that, after struggling up Kings Mtn with Kevin, Karl, Eric, the other Kevin and Billy, I found myself with Karl, off the front of the group a bit, hanging on to his wheel for dear life. Because, no matter how hard it is to hang onto a wheel, it's a whole lot harder doing it on your own.

Oh sure, we complained a little bit about the cold (got down to 41 degrees), but after my escape from the Midwest, it felt just fine. And even though I was maxed out most of the ride, it still felt great.

But I am beginning to think about checking out the workout rooms of the hotels I stay in when I'm on the road. That's a sign of real desperation, since I really don't have any desire to work out in a weight room, or run a treadmill, or really do just about any exercise that isn't on a bike. I don't even like bikes on trainers! But if I do much traveling in the future, I have to do something. The guys I ride with are rarely in a mood to cut me any slack!

03/17&18/2008- SO WHAT DID YOU DO ON YOUR BIRTHDAY? For mine, my brother & I flew to Wisconsin for a memorial service. Given that I don't really "do" birthdays, it was no big deal to me, although I did choose the occasion to have my "annual" beer (although it had actually been two years since my last "drink"). They get a big kick out of this in Wisconsin, since beer drinking is a daily, not annual event back there.

There are worse ways to spend a birthday than spending time with people you haven't seen in a number of years. Decent people that you somehow got too busy to keep track of over the years. And at Trek there are a lot of decent people.

But one thing I couldn't quite understand. The bed in the hotel room (Hyatt Regency in Milwaukee). Comfortable enough, yes, but what the heck are all those pillows for? Four standard style, two that look like they belong on the back of a chair, and that weird round one.

Four our return to the airport, I figured we ought to find some way to use public transportation rather than a cab. I had my laptop with me (don't I always?) and looked up the options... not many! If it worked with your schedule you could take Amtrak from downtown to close to the airport, where a shuttle would take you the rest of the way. But that would have meant getting there too late or too early (the trains rain about every three hours). There was, however, a local bus that you could take. We asked the doorman at the hotel where to catch it, and his exact words, with an inflection I could never hope to duplicate, was "You want to take the bus to the airport???"

The bus did go through some of the more-interesting neighborhoods that might not be found on a typical list of places for tourists to see, but it only took maybe 10 minutes longer than a cab, and cost $4 for the two of us, a bit less than the $29 cab fare. And, of course, there's something to be said for taking public transit rather than a private cab.

03/16/2008- NO RIDE TODAY, AND I'M SURE IT WAS A SPECTACULARLY-BEAUTIFUL DAY... it certainly looked that way as my brother & I flew out of San Francisco on our way to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to attend services for Dick Burke, co-founder of Trek Bicycles, who died last week. On the positive side, the three flight segments went without a hitch, and two of the three were downright enjoyable. None of that "I'd rather be on a bit than cramped up in this seat on a plane" sort of thing. The attitude of the Flight Attendants can make all the difference, and we had a great one on the San Francisco-Denver segment.

HEARD IN THE SECURITY LINE- While waiting in the security line at San Francisco, this is something I couldn't help but overhear. And this is verbatim. "No mom, I'm not taking you to the hospital, just because your pacemaker stopped working!" Honest, that's an exact quote. Ouch! So next time your mom or dad thinks you take them for granted, you can let them know that things could be worse.

03/13/2008- THAT RAIN THIS MORNING? YOU CAN THANK MY WIFE FOR IT. That's right, it's her fault. I told her this would happen when, on Monday, she tells me it's time to move my rain bike from the house down into the garage. And so, this morning, I wake up and it's wet outside. Not really rain, just a heavy drizzle. Enough to scare off everybody but Karl, who managed to throttle down enough that he didn't just ride off into the distance. Of course, the last 20 minutes of the ride saw beautiful sunshine, but not before having to ride 20+ miles in the muck. Given a choice between riding in the rain and then having a nice rest of the day or vice versa, I'm probably willing to go for the riding in the rain. An odd choice? Maybe. But consider the effect that rain has on our business! Tough to sell many Madone road bikes when it's too wet to test ride.

03/11/2008- IF ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY, then I'm not in much danger of being corrupted. It's going to take a while to get back a full head of steam while climbing, and it's possible I might never get back to where I was just a year or two ago. That doesn't mean I can't have fun grinding myself into the ground though! And so that's what I do, each Tuesday & Thursday morning. If the other guys are taking it easy, then we all finish at the top of Kings on the same day. Today, George & Eric were taking it easy. No Kevin (he's off at flying school), no Karl (he missed a very nice morning) and no Milo (I think he sent an email saying he'd be somewhere else this week, but not sure). Chris ran a bit late and so caught up with us out on the west side of Old LaHonda. Beautiful morning, with a fog layer towards the coast at maybe 500ft, so the tops of the hills just barely poked through.

On the way down 84 into Woodside we saw something new- a cyclist being motorpaced behind a small motorcycle up the climb. It looked like "Fast" Freddie Rodriguez, of Rock & Republic fame.

03/10/2008- HOW TO RESPOND TO CYCLING TRAGEDY IN CUPERTINO YESTERDAY? I would much rather write about my ride out to the coast, how beautiful the weather was, the other cyclists out there enjoying the day, the many customers of ours I saw along the way. That's what I would like to write about. And that would be a positive message for the bicycle business. But instead I'm faced with events that I first heard about immediately before I left for my ride; the radio had a news report at 11am that one cyclist had been killed, two seriously injured on Stevens Canyon Road, not far from our Los Altos store. And this morning, a customer sent me this email-

Mike, I'm deeply saddened in hearing about the two cyclists killed in Cupertino yesterday.  What a tragedy.  Also came upon a very bad accident on Hwy 35 just north of the Hwy 84 intersection at about 4:00pm.  It looked to me like a lady, attempting to make a left turn, hit two Webcor riders as they were riding into Sky Londa.  Do you have any news on their condition?  One guy looked fairly familiar.

I know we take risks every time we go out but accidents like these make it seem not worth it.  Would appreciate your thoughts as to how we can ride safer and increase awareness for those motorists which share the roads we ride on.  --Howard

He asks reasonable questions. I'm still trying to find out info on the Skyline incident, but fortunately it doesn't appear nearly as tragic as the one in which, it's now confirmed, two cyclists died, plus one seriously injured, after being run into head-on by a deputy sheriff who may have fallen asleep at the wheel. Below is my reply to our customer. It's not eloquent, it deals with things in a very direct manner as far as its effect on the bicycle business, which may seem rather callous to some. But for now, this is what you get-

3/8/2008- GOOD TO BE BACK! That was one long haul getting back home; finally got in the front door around 2:45am. The weather in DC was beginning to get a bit sketchy, but not bad enough to cancel flights... providing those flights weren't coming in from Ohio or Florida, which were getting hammered. We tried to get an earlier flight back, but none were available. So, we left DC on a flight at 9:20pm or so (it was supposed to leave at 8:27) and managed to make up enough time en-route to easily make the connection in Las Vegas to our SF flight.

3/4/2008- NO RIDE FOR ME TODAY, AS I'M OFF TO DC for the annual Washington DC Bicycle Summit, where about 500 bicycle advocates, shop owners & industry representatives meet with every single legislator on The Hill on Thursday. It's quite the big deal, and we actually get a fair amount accomplished. It's one of those forward-thinking kind of things, where we're trying to make sure that roads and communities aren't unintentionally (?) designed in a manner hostile to cyclists. And, of course, we preach the bicycle as the answer to everything from high energy costs to childhood obesity.

What many cyclists may not realize is the tremendous role local advocates play. At city council meetings, planning commissions, you name it, there are often unpaid volunteers doing their part to make sure that the needs of cyclists are accounted for. Locally, the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition is an exceptional example of such folk, many of whom will be traveling to DC with me. And all of whom put me to shame when it comes down to understanding the legislation and politics involved.

But trust me, between 9:10am PST and 7:29pm EST, I'll be wishing I had been on a good long bike ride, rather than being trapped in a metal tube, breathing stale air, hurtling through the air at 500 miles per hour.

3/2/2008- JUST ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL DAY TO BE ON A BIKE, and, finally, an opportunity to ride with my son again. Not any sort of epic killer ride though; not even enough time for the Pescadero loop (which means we missed out on the bakery!). But we did get in a ride up Old LaHonda which, even with his sore legs from LaCross, he managed his own personal best of under 34 minutes. Considering it wasn't that long ago his times were 40 minutes+, he's going in the right direction! What's not quite so right is his every weekday 5:30-7:30pm LaCross practice sessions, which kill off any chance of riding during the week. Worse, he's even beginning to think that running isn't the most-evil thing in the world.

Because time was tight we did a straight run out to San Gregorio, where he grabbed a sandwich while I grabbed a ginger snap cookie, and then up Tunitas Creek. I'm still not sure what's worse, Tunitas Creek or that stretch of Stage Road from San Gregorio to Highway One. I vote for Stage Road, simply because it shouldn't seem as bad as it feels. On Tunitas, the mid-section is just plain steep, period. Never mind that, as you slog your way up, you're thinking that the Pros might be flying up at 15-18mph.

2/28/2008- IT FEELS GREAT TO HURT THIS BAD! This morning I had that feeling I'm finally turning the corner and have a chance of getting into decent riding shape. It was dreadful climbing up Kings; the first half I probably went a bit too hard, and the second half was ugly. Karl, Kevin & Eric were there as witnesses, and, curiously, Kevin was breathing almost as audibly as I was up Kings, so much so that Karl wasn't sure who was behind him! But by the time I got to Skyline is was that "good" sort of wiped-out feeling, and on west-side Old LaHonda I began to feel like there was hope. Not hope that I could keep up with Karl & Kevin, but hope that riding beyond my abilities could become fun again, like it used to, and not just a grind that made you wish for a slower pace. Yes, I still need a bunch of miles... a lot of miles... but with the rain gone, and a bit warmer weather, things just feel right. Too bad I don't get to ride at all next week, when I'm in Washington DC for the annual bicycle lobbying event.

2/26/2008- FINALLY, A BEAUTIFUL DAY! After the past week or so of rides that would start out dry and then turn ugly halfway through, this morning reminded me of why we live in California. Bright sunshine, strong shadows, friendly company (let's see if I can get all the names- George, Kevin, Kevin, Karl, Eric, Billy, Syl) & great roads. It would be wonderful if I was in great shape, but since that's not yet the case, at least everything else is in place. The roads were mostly dry, and there was that heavenly-look up on Skyline where the sun was filtering through the fog & the trees. And the best thing about the ride today was that I felt so much better at the end than I did at the beginning. That's so much better than feeling the other way around!

2/24/2008- IT WOULD HAVE BEEN EASY NOT TO RIDE TODAY, and I almost didn't. The rain was coming down in sheets and the wind was howling in the morning, which somehow seemed enticing. Obviously a personality defect of some sort. Fortunately, it was easy to rationalize that, at that exact point in time, I was better off in church than on a bike ride. Afterward, things settled down a bit, but there was this dreadful temptation to watch the final stage of the Tour of California on TV. But after being down & out from some sort of cold bug for more than a week, I knew I had to ride. My miles were down, my spirits were down, but my bike was waiting for me. I could lie and say it felt great to get out there, but truthfully, I felt slow & fat. But by the time I got to an absolutely-empty Canada Road (about 3:15pm) I knew I was doing the right thing. I saw a total of just 6 others out on the road, despite no rain and light winds. I'd like to say climbing Old LaHonda felt great, but that would be a lie. I could never quite find a rhythm, and eventually decided to force myself to stay in the saddle and try to build up some muscles that haven't been getting much of a workout lately.

But once I got to Skyline everything changed. I started to feel better, quite a bit better, and instead of heading straight back to Sky Londa and down 84, I headed over the west side of Old LaHonda and then back up the other side of 84. And that felt really, really good. Probably helped by what must have been a strong tail wind. By the time I got home, it seemed like I was a different person than I was at the start of the day. Riding my bike does that for me.

2/21/2008- THE WEATHER FOOLED ONLY ME THIS MORNING! As in, nobody else showed up. I'd already been warned that just about all the regulars were going to be doing a ride down to San Luis Obispo this morning, ahead of the Tour of California. From what I can see of the race, they may not have had a very pleasant ride. For me, it was just like Tuesday. Pretty dry until I got up to Skyline, and then the weather moved in. Seems to be a nasty habit lately. As if I need to head out about 45 minutes earlier, although I'm sure, if I did that, I'd just end up moving the weather front in ahead of time as well. Amazing how it's all about me. How I control the weather!

2/20/2008- WATCHED THE TOUR OF CALIFORNIA ON MT HAMILTON, but didn't bring my bike this time. My daughter (Becky, who works in our Redwood City store) wanted to see the race. We headed up Quimby to catch the descent on Mt. Hamilton (I figured why not do something different; I'm always watching the climb, why not see what a descent is like?). She'd (wisely) brought her bike while I just brought my feet, and found a place about a mile or so up from Grant Ranch. We figured it must be a really good place when the lead course Marshall pulled up and told us that we were in a very dangerous place. Well yeah; that's why we chose that curve! The field did manage to get through without incident though, and Becky had a great time watching them fly by. After the main field went through she headed back down on her bike, but shortly after she started out I'm seeing the big field just up the hill, racing towards her... she was now solidly in-between the two groups. Fortunately she figured out that it would be a good idea to pull off before becoming engulfed by the pack, but not before being cheered on by many in the crowd. She feel like she had a pretty good day.

2/19/2008- THE WEATHER FOOLED US ALL THIS MORNING. I was looking forward to my first post-cold-bug ride and happy to see that the skies, while a bit gray, weren't appearing to be in any danger of opening up any time soon. Karl, Kevin, George, Eric & Todd at the start, although Milo had gone up ahead a few minutes earlier. We were delayed a bit as George tended to a loose cleat, which apparently gave enough time for Milo to get so far ahead that we never saw him. Maybe he got home before it got cold & wet... we certainly didn't. A few drops here & there while climbing Kings, but by the time we got to the top, it was quite wet, and quite cold. And none of us had our rain bikes or severe-weather gear. So, we did something we normally just wouldn't do. We skipped the west-side Old LaHonda loop and headed straight back down 84. Normally we would have been disgusted with ourselves, but today, we just wanted to get down off the hill. Hopefully we'll get our acts together on Thursday.

2/17/2008- TOUR OF CALIFORNIA COMES TO PALO ALTO! No big ride for me today, just an easy cruise to Palo Alto with my son to watch some of the biggest names in cycling contest a whopping 2.1-mile event. This sort of thing favors the sprinters, since you're talking about a relatively-short burst of extreme energy. And that's what we saw today, as the winning times were under 4 minutes, meaning speeds of greater than 30 miles per hour!

We spend most of the day towards the "top" of the course, on the "circle" just before the finish line. Great place to watch the race from, and not nearly as crowded as one might have thought. I'm sure there will be bogus crowd estimates of several million, though! But I didn't get to stay for the top guys, since I got a call from someone I know saying there was an opportunity to ride in the team car behind Levi, and that's not the sort of thing you decline. On the other hand, I've been in a team car at the Tour de France before, so I let my son have the honors, and he definitely enjoyed it. You can see his view in the photo on the left. I think he was more thrilled that Eki was driving the car than anything else!

2/16/2008- MASSIVE PRO BIKE RACER SIGHTINGS ALL OVER! Burt, from our Redwood City store, emailed that he saw just about every team out on the road this morning. And my son Kevin called to say that the entire Astana team was going down Old LaHonda as he was climbing up it a bit later in the day. Tomorrow's opening Prologue event in Palo Alto should be quite a party!

Meantime, I'm finally getting over that nasty cold bug. It didn't keep me from riding, but somehow I'm kinda relieved I'm not doing any hard rides for at least a couple of days. At 140 miles for the week it wasn't as if I was out killing myself, but I wasn't taking it easy either. But how could I resist Friday morning's ride with the Slipstream team?

2/15/2008- THE CALL COMES IN TO ME- CAN I RIDE WITH THE TEAM? How can I not??? No, not Astana, but our Pearl Izumi rep says that I can go on a light training ride with the up-and-coming Slipstream Pro team, which is in the area for the Tour of California. The connection is that Pearl Izumi is a team sponsor, and we're a large Pearl Izumi dealer. So a bit before 9am this morning I'm at the Sheraton Hotel in Palo Alto (where it seems all the teams are staying) and head out on an easy 42-mile ride with such legendary cyclists as David Millar, Jonathon Vaughters, David Zabriskie, Danny Pate, Christian VandeVelde and friends.

They were an easy-going friendly group, out for a leisurely ride whose importance was measured in saddle time, not miles or toughness. You can view the ride here. Basically three hours in the saddle, so when we got back and a couple of the guys discovered that our riding time was only 2:45, they had to head back out for another 15 minutes. Otherwise, things just wouldn't be right!

Towards the end we mobbed a Peet's in Los Altos. I wonder what teams did in the days before coffee shops? Well, I was part of those days, and for the most part, we hit up bakeries and ice-cream places.

So what did I learn about the Slipstream guys? For one, David Zabriskie really is as strange as his website makes it seem. Some might consider him a total head-case, but there's more to it than that, and a good share of it has got to be an act. A lot of fun to be around, for sure. Danny Pate's just a generally nice guy. And David Millar? He almost seems to be in a different league than the rest, sort of a token euro-Pro. The funny thing at the end of the ride was seeing him complain that his new eyewear sponsor, Giro, made eyewear that wouldn't fit nicely into his Giro helmet, the way Oakleys did. It really is all about the glasses!

2/14/2008- THE CALL WASN'T MADE, BECAUSE I COULDN'T MAKE IT. But this call would have been different from the one a couple days earlier, when I'd warned Kevin that I might start out the ride a bit early, and let the guys catch up. This call would have been to tell Kevin that I might not be there at all, because whatever cold had hit me, had pretty much done me in. No voice, period, which was why I couldn't leave a message. Seriously. My voice was GONE. But it was, of course, a call that shouldn't have been made in the first place. The very thing that might keep me from riding (which is something that simply doesn't happen; I ride no matter what, sick or not, terrible cold rain or a beautiful day, you simple ride because... because that's what you do. Or me, anyway) also kept me from not riding.

Thankfully, I woke up feeling a whole lot better in the morning, and, while not terribly fast (again), felt well enough to ride up the hills with the guys. The guys being Eric, Chris, Kevin, Karl & Todd. Were they kind to me? Maybe Eric, who was also suffering from a cold, and the others weren't outwardly nasty, but it's not like any of them said hey, you're not feeling well, grab onto my seatpost and I'll pull you up the hill!

It was both windier and colder than I anticipated, getting down to 39 up on Skyline. The wind was the bigger issue, since branches were blowing down from the trees, making us thankful that our helmets might protect us from airborne dangers. Not our usual concern!

2/12/2008- THE PHONE CALL IS MADE AT 9:30PM LAST NIGHT. Left a message for Kevin (the most-regular regular on the Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride) warning him that I might leave a bit early up the hill, so I don't keep everyone waiting. A cold that I'd gotten over a week and a half ago... well, it came back last Sunday evening, and only now is it finally going away. But this morning... the first few pedal strokes up the hill (en route to the start of the ride) confirmed my expectations. Yuck. I was even thinking that I'd be cutting the ride short, maybe looping back at the park entrance on Kings. But that would be giving in, and you just don't do that when you're on a bike! Or at least I don't. I'm stupid that way. So I claw my way up Kings, eventually catching up to Millo (who usually leaves a bit early), and then we both ride together to the top, always thinking that the other guys are just around that last corner, about to overtake us. But we got to the top and waited... and there was nobody there! So we rode on Skyline to Sky Londa, figuring they'd catch us up on top, but still no sign.

We could have waited at Sky Londa, but why? It was a beautiful morning, and I finally felt like I had some legs. I was feeling stronger and stronger as we rode; in fact, it didn't feel at all like the same body I'd woken up to (the body that spoke "Advil" so forcefully to me within moments of waking up). We kept riding, at a moderate pace, thinking for sure they'd catch us on west-side Old LaHonda, and, after stopping at one of the scenic spots where you can see the road down below, they did. Darn, we shouldn't have stopped!

I can't think of too many things I can do where I might feel so bad at the start, and so good as I get going. Riding my bike just seems to be good for my mind & body. I just can't imagine a world in which I couldn't ride. Heck, I can't imagine living somewhere with winters so nasty I'd be off the bike for more than a couple weeks!

2/10/2008- HOW MANY CYCLISTS DOES IT TAKE TO FIX A FLAT? Apparently 4 guys... or just one woman. Pictures don't lie!

The original plan this morning was to head up Old LaHonda, down to LaHonda and back up to Skyline via West Alpine. I didn't have much time, since the jr track program's started up again at the Velodrome (bike racing track) in San Jose, so I needed to get my son down there. But in a world where everything revolves around the other Kevin (the Kevin I ride with on Tuesday & Thursday morning's)... who seems connected to everyone at some universal level, but not with six degrees of separation, but maybe just three... in that world, it would only be natural that I'd come across him climbing Old LaHonda at precisely the same time I was, along with 4 or 5 other guys whom I know but forget their names (other than "Long Bob").

So my plans were altered. I was taking the fast train to the coast, and then I'd head directly back via Tunitas Creek, while they looped up towards Half Moon Bay (via Lobitos Creek) before connecting with Tunitas. It was at San Gregorio that "Long Bob" discovered he had a flat, and you can see the results in the left side of the photo... 4 guys trying to fix it. With little success. That's when Kim stepped in (she's in the middle of the picture on the right), one of 3 women doing their own ride out on the coast. She had a "real" pump (not one of those little mini things us guys think look so cool, never mind that they take a couple days to inflate a tire), and she knew how to use it.

2/07/2008- I'D ALMOST FORGOTTEN HOW GOOD IT COULD FEEL, RUNNING YOURSELF INTO THE GROUND. I'd been off the bike for a week, so I really wasn't looking forward to getting trashed & thrashed by the guys this morning. But how could you not enjoy being out on an incredibly-clear day like this, with rain seeming like an almost-distant memory instead of the daily annoyance it had been for two weeks straight?

It didn't feel like I was going to be able to climb Kings very fast, and I didn't. But at least my heart rate ticked up the way it was supposed to, instead of never kicking into high gear like last week, when I had the nasty cold. And even though the climb up Kings was pretty slow, the rest of the ride was at a pretty good clip, with Kevin, Karl, Todd & Chris keeping things lively. In fact, after leaving the guys and heading for home, I totally cramped up my left calf during my little private sprint at the top of Jefferson. One of those things where it felt so good to hurt so bad! I just rode right through the pain, knowing that it might not be the smartest thing to do, but somehow, at the time, it seemed like what I had to do. Is there anything better than riding a bike???

2/06/2008- THE FALL OF SAIGON... IS THIS WHAT IT WAS LIKE? When I made yesterday's entry, at about 2:30pm, the weather really didn't seem that bad. And when I checked United's website, they still weren't showing the tell-tale "weather advisory" notice where they allow you to make changes to your itinerary if you're flying into or out of the affected are. So I head back from Waterloo, WI (the meetings where held at Trek's headquarters) to the hotel in Madison, about 35 miles away. Riding on the bus we're noticing it's getting a bit gloomier outside, a light amount of snow falling, but still, it really didn't look that bad.

And then I get to the hotel room, hook up the laptop to check things again, and there she is. Anyone flying into or out of Wisconsin, Illinois, and several other states may make certain changes to their travel arrangements with the usual $100 fee waived. So I'm looking at the various options, write them down, pack up my bags quickly and head down to the lobby, asking how soon they'll have a shuttle leaving for the airport. I don't have a flight yet, but figure I can always go back to the hotel if I have to, and on the shuttle ride, call up United reservations and quickly line up a possible flight out of town.

By the time I get to the airport, things have gone from questionable to really awfully terribly bad. Several flights into & out of Madison have been cancelled (and that's several out of a total of maybe 10-12 that typically show up on their screens... not a real big airport!). My hopes of flying out via Chicago are gone, as O'Hare had ground to a complete stop; no planes on the way to or from. That meant virtually no planes at Madison, and you can't fly without one. With Chicago out of action, choice #2 becomes Denver, but one Denver plane never showed (???) and the second one was running late. Very late. But at least I did have a confirmed seat on that late plane, unlike a large number of others who were on standby (thanks to my lowly 2P/Premier "status" on United, I can sometimes get out of a jam that I'd otherwise be stuck in). Eventually the Denver plane lands, refuels, de-ices a couple times, and finally takes off, at about the last-possible instance it might be possible to catch the connection flight to San Francisco.

The Denver/SFO flight was potentially the flight from Hell, as it was jam-packed and I was sitting in the cheap seats (my "status" couldn't save me from that, since the plane was filled with refugees who had much-higher status than I), but for the coincidence that the woman sitting next to me is married to a local triathlete and friend of "Pilot" Kevin (old-guy Kevin who I ride with on Tuesday & Thursday mornings). We had quite a number of mutual acquaintances. Small world! And we both got out of the Midwest just in time; had I stayed another day, it would have ended up being two, as only the latest flights got out of Madison & Chicago tonight.

2/05/2008- WHERE WAS I TODAY? Back in school! In Wisconsin, of all places, at TREK University, where I've been learning all manner of ways to make the world a bit better place for our customers. What's not to like about that? I mean, besides missing a few rides, braving the frozen tundra, wondering if my flight will be cancelled tomorrow, that sort of thing? Hopefully I'll be landing tomorrow night at 10:41pm, then heading home, sleeping, and get blasted on Thursday-morning's ride. Maybe the guys will go easy on me. But I doubt it.

1/31/2008- SOMETIMES, THE GUYS DON'T LIE. But usually they do. People show up at the start of the ride, and make excuses ahead of time for why they're going to suck that day. And they never do. It's just a game, to lower expectations, and make it seem like, wow, if that's how he rides when he's feeling bad, I'm glad he's not having a good day! But today, it was me lowering those expectations, and I wasn't lying. I said I was going to suck, and suck I most assuredly did! The slight cold I'd been fighting off wasn't enough to make me feel miserable, but was just enough to keep me from getting much sleep. And, much as my lungs don't work that well in the cold, they work even less well when you're congested with a cold. And, not to be gross, but there's that thing going on where "nose venting" is no longer optional, but something you don't have much choice in. So are you getting the idea that I wasn't faking it yet?

Let's see, who was there. Kevin, Karl, Chris (who arrived late but didn't have much difficulty sneaking up behind me on Kings), Eric, Milo (who rarely rides on Thursdays anymore) and Todd. A bit warmer than Tuesday, at 41 degrees most of the ride, but hardly tropical. Hmm... tropical. Maybe I should be heading to Maui to ride Haleakala again? But no... Sunday morning I'm flying to Wisconsin. Don't think that's going to be an opportunity to enjoy t-shirt weather! So whatever happened to this global warming thing anyway?

1/29/2008- "YOU'RE NOT GOING TO RIDE, ARE YOU? You're losing your voice from a cold and there's frost on the car across the street." OK, so? I'm 52 years old, so whatever brand of common-sense my wife is selling, I decided not to buy a very long time ago. In 25+ years of riding up Kings Mtn on Tuesday & Thursday mornings, I've probably missed 2 or 3 days due to being ill, and I assume on those days I must have had more than a foot inside death's door. And this morning was nothing like that, just a cold.

As usual, the Tuesday group is the larger one, with Kevin, Karl, Chris, George, Todd, Eric & Milo. Did I leave anybody out? We haven't seen the other Kevin or Billy for a couple weeks now. Could they be the sensible type that would rather ride a bit later in the day when it's warmer? It wasn't all that cold this morning though, despite the frost. The coldest I saw on Skyline was 36 degrees, and that's easily done with decent cold-weather gear (booties, windfront tights, long-sleeve baselayer underneath a long-sleeve jersey, light windbreaker and warm gloves). The trick to keeping warm is to either ride no further than you can go at a pretty high effort, or carry enough stuff to keep you warm no-matter-what. So far, the high-effort has done the trick on our 2-hour ride.

I can't report on what went on at the front today, because that's not where I was. Not that that's not where I wanted to be, but I was fortunate to get up Kings in just under 30 minutes, and the rest of the ride I was pretty much sucking whatever wheel happened to be in front of me. I did have a bit of fun chasing Kevin down west-side 84 though, telling him he needed to ride faster and hauling my "virtual whip" out of my back pocket to lash him now & then.

1/27/2008- WHEN IT RAINS... IT RAINS! Actually, I could have gotten out earlier in the day, when there were occasional showers but overall fairly dry. However, Kevin, my son, had gone out on a mountain bike ride with some of his friends from school (something he thought he needed permission to do since he assumed he'd be riding with me, when the reality is that I'm thrilled that he's able to find kids his own age that ride!), and I was waiting for him to get back before I left. He was heading literally into the clouds, as they were going to ride at Russian Ridge (near Skyline & Page Mill) and the weather looked absolutely awful up there. Fortunately, the teacher who had organized the ride was sensible and the drove to Skeggs/El Corte Madera, where conditions, at the time, were much better.

But me? By 2pm the skies were getting pretty dark, and when I finally got out on my bike, fully-rigged for rain, the winds were kicking up and the sky was falling down. Nothing epic, but there was always that potential as I made my way up Kings Mtn. Surprisingly, I saw a couple cyclists heading down the hill, and one other guy up on Skyline with me, and by that time, it was definitely nasty. No snow, but cold, windy & wet. But that's actually what I'd been hoping for; if you're going to get all the gear on and carry even more in a rack on the back of your bike, you're going to be a bit disappointed if you don't need any of it!

The climb up Kings was rather slow & painful, making me wonder just how badly out-of-shape I've become this winter. It was also a bit of a concern because under a full head of steam you can generally stay warm, but when you run out of gas, that's when the elements start to get to you. Fortunately I began to feel better once up on Skyline! And, as is often the case on such blustery days, you get this feeling it's just you vs the weather as is seems even the cars have, for the most part, fled for cover.

Meantime, the scale tells the tale, as the colder weather seems to encourage me to eat too much of the wrong things. I've got some serious make-up riding to do once the nicer weather returns, and have to consider salads for lunch as an absolute requirement. Rabbit food, I call it. Best bet for lowest calories & fat is the Karl's Jr Mandarin Chicken, with Togo's Asian Chicken Salad an acceptable alternative. But a large anything sandwich, especially tuna, well that's just deadly. Hate that.
 

1/24/2008- BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!  Am I the only person getting tired of the wet weather? Is anybody else out there bored with drab, gray skies, no contrast, maybe a light rain or drizzle but rarely anything really nasty... but more than enough to make most think that it's not a good day to ride?

Well, there are some of us who ride at particular times, no matter what. Our Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride up Kings Mtn is an opportunity for such silly people, people who are goofy enough to look forward to those epic days when the winds howling and the rain coming down in sheets, or perhaps those even-rarer days when the temperatures are in the 20s. Or maybe even snow! We were hoping to see a fair amount of it last Tuesday (1/24) but saw only the slightest amounts at the edge of the road. Certainly not an epic ride.

But today was different. It started out like any other recent drab, gray morning; a light drizzle, maybe a little bit colder, nothing too special. Todd (left in the photo) showed up on his new Madone, while Kevin rode his Trek 5900. As did I, although my 5900 was outfitted with a seatpost rack & bag stuffed with all sorts of extra clothing, just-in-case. About 3/4 of the way up Kings it started getting a bit cooler, and shortly thereafter the light rain seemed to be falling in slow motion. Could it be? Maybe, just on the verge of being snow. By the top of Kings it had become quite undeniably snow, swirling around, not seeming to settle on the ground because it couldn't quite figure out which way was up and which was down. We gamely head south on Skyline, hoping to see more of it, thinking we'd find it on the ground, somehow not quite thinking we'd actually be in it. But in it we were, enough so that, at one point, visibility was quite limited. By the time we got to the Skegg's Point parking lot, we were pretty much in the middle of a cloud that was dumping quite a bit of fluffy white stuff all around, which seemed quite cool at the time! Cool being the operative word, as the temperature dropped to 33 degrees and we discovered that the moisture & cold in the air had this way of going right our gloves, leading to a very cold and wet ride back down the hill.

But how often can a Bay Area cyclist claim to have ridden in the snow? And who would believe it without seeing the pictures? --Mike--

1/22/2008- WHERE WAS THE SNOW? I have to admit to being pretty strongly disappointed on our ride this morning. I'd prepared for a reasonably-epic outing, after hearing on the news last night about how much snow had fallen on Skyline, and pictured myself slogging through the slush, not turning back as I should because... well, because I'm stupid that way! But no, that's not how it turned out. When I got to the start a couple minutes late, Kevin and George were there waiting for me and, as I told them I was running late and we needed to get going, they asked if perhaps we should wait to see if anyone else shows up. And I'm thinking, right, it's lightly raining, the skies are dark, the weather report says we should be building arcs instead of riding bikes, and they think someone else might show up?

They made fun of my ready-for-anything rig, my trusty 5900 with fenders and a seatpost-mounted rear rack that carries a rack-top bag filled with extra waterproof gear, just-in-case. That's OK, I'm used to being made fun of. Usually it's just my oversized seatbag with the shark teeth. As we climbed Kings, I kept looking around, hoping to see some snow, which we've seen around 3/4 of the way up the hill in years past. But nothing. Towards the top part of the climb there were areas where they'd sanded the road due to ice, and it did feel a bit slushy in parts, but nothing very challenging. As we headed south on Skyline we saw a couple cars pass in the other direction with snow on their roofs, but it wasn't until Swett Road that we finally saw just a little bit of snow on the ground. And that was it. Just a little bit of snow on the ground, even at the Skeggs Point parking lot, where George managed to find enough to make a quick snowball to nail Kevin with.

The run down 84 to west-side Old LaHonda was pleasant enough, and there was even a bit of blue sky peeking through here and there as we climbed back up to Skyline. The one thing that continues to surprise me is that the roads can be completely soaked and yet we're still descending through corners at 30+ mph, on skinny little tires, without incident. People assume that bikes & rain don't mix, but if you're silly enough, you can do quite well out there in the muck.

1/20/2008- NFL PLAYOFF GAMES ARE THE GREATEST! Because, if you're a bicyclist, you've pretty much got the roads to yourself, and that's how it was today as I rode with my son out to the coast (Old LaHonda/San Gregorio) and back (Tunitas Creek). Mildly-threatening skies made the roads wet here & there, but nothing nasty... but apparently the threat of nasty was enough to keep other cyclists off the roads. Too bad for them!

It still surprises me what a short ride it is out to the coast & back. From Olive Hill & Canada Road, it's only a 40 mile round trip, but it's generally 40 quality miles! Old LaHonda's always pleasant, but the run from LaHonda out to San Gregorio was, as usual, into a headwind. Kevin complained, but why? He was sitting on my wheel the whole time, doing a lot less work!

1/17/2008- SURVIVOR? OUTMANNED, OUTGUNNED, OUTCLASSED! That's how I felt this morning, a near total reversal of my ride just two days ago, when I felt great. We had Eric, Karl, Kevin, Chris, Milo (a rarity on Thursdays, since he usually has to take care of his kids) and new-guy David, who rode with the Safeway team before it disbanded. It was a bit colder than Tuesday, with a recorded low of 34 (which might have been a couple degrees high, since my computer averages out temps), and that might have had something to do with my lack of oomph on the hill. Or it might be a sign that I don't use EPO or other illegal (for racing) "recovery" drugs, but then what am I saying about my friends who can ride hard day after day after day? It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that they ride more than I do!

It's not so bad, really, watching the group ride away from you. You time them to the next corner and see how far behind you are, and then do it a bit further ahead and somehow feel good about the fact that you've lost only an additional 8 seconds. Kind of like saying that it's a victory that the national debt is growing at a slower rate than before. I did manage to contest a couple of sprints on Skyline, but if I could trade sprinting for climbing better, I'd go for climbing!

We did have another casualty on the ride, this time Kevin (old-timer Kevin, not my son Kevin or new-guy Kevin) touched Karl's rear wheel and went down, fairly hard, on Skyline. Fortunately it was at a fairly moderate speed, and he didn't land too hard on his finally-heeling ankle. He did crack his helmet though, and for a brief period wondered if he'd broken his hip, but we assured him that if he was able to stand and not scream in horrible pain, his hip was probably fine.

1/15/2008- WHAT A DAY! WHAT A RIDE! It didn't look like it was going to be that way when I woke up though; pretty dark outside, due to a very thick fog that turned everything gray. I made sure my son had his flashing tail light for his trip to school, but unfortunately couldn't find one for my own bike (I've got one semi-permanently mounted to my rain bike, but it's not as easy to set one up for my 5.9 SSL). Turned out not to be a problem though, as within just a few pedal strokes up the hill from my house, I was out of the fog and into glorious sunshine. And I do mean glorious. It was as if a fog had been lifted from my brain. Life was good. My legs felt great. And I was really looking forward, not dreading, the guys who show up on Tuesdays (the "fast" group).

Big group today, so I'll probably miss someone. Billy, Kevin (new-guy Kevin), Old-guy Kevin, Karl, Chris (who ran late and chased after us up Kings), Milo (who started earlier and met us at the top of Kings), Eric, George... maybe that's everyone. I hung in there with the fast guys (who weren't going full throttle) up to the now-common regroup at the park entrance, and, after letting my heart rate get a bit too rested, found myself unable to handle the fast-guy pace the rest of the way. No matter, it still felt really good to be pushing down on the pedals and feeling results, rather than that mushy feeling you get when you're not feeling strong. And yes, it was fairly cool this morning, with 39 degrees showing up quite often, but it felt... nice. It's just hard to describe how nice. Maybe it was the sun reflecting off the fog down below? I just know that it seemed like I had reserves of strength that were coming from some external source. Was I working hard? Yes. But I was enjoying it. It was a great day to be out on a bike.

1/13/2008- DAD, MY HEART RATE IS AT 205!!! And it was said in that super-annoyed, yelling-at-Dad-who-doesn't-know-anything fashion, like "what do you expect me to do???" The scene was the Early Bird Criterium in Fremont, a series of training races that include excellent mentoring sessions and seemed like just the thing for Kevin (my son) to be doing. Only problem is that he'd been off his bike for several weeks, and when riding with me, I'm constantly monitoring his heart rate to make sure I don't let him burn out too early in a ride. Plus, I can work at making him more efficient, noting what he needs to do to keep the heartrate down (same speed at lower heartrate means you're doing less work... always better than same speed at higher heartrate!).

It was a combined junior & Cat-5 senior pack, so you had quite a variance in capabilities. Kevin hung in for 1.5 laps with the group before getting spit off the back, and it was about half a lap on his own when he was yelling to me about his heart rate. I guess I should have prepared him better for that, as he thought it was something unusual and a bad thing. Well, it was bad in terms of indicating a lack of control and being relaxed, but also expected in a race environment. Eventually he settled down and actually rode about 1/2 of the race in the main field, although two laps down total. He was pretty burned out & disillusioned immediately after the race, and, while the original plan had been that we'd be riding both to & from the race, we called in Sag Support at the west end of the Dumbarton Bridge.

Thankfully we had Burt from the shop joining us, which probably tempered Kevin's outward attitude a bit (otherwise it might have been one of those "Dad, this is stupid, why should I race?" sort of events). I'm trying to convince Burt that he ought to get out there and try the races, but I'm not so sure the 4 serious crashes we came across really did much to convince him it's a fun thing to do!

Thankfully, Kevin avoided all the crashes, and within a couple hours, was feeling much better about having raced. That's the thing about kids. They crash & burn (not literally in this case!) really bad, while adults tend to take things more in stride. But kids also recover MUCH faster, so later in the day they're back to their usual self, while us older folk tend to feel the sore muscles for days and just want to go sit on the couch.

1/10/2008- JUST THE RAIN, KEVIN, & ME this morning. Not even a hard rain, just a light rain. More than a drizzle, less than anything substantial. Enough to make a mess of things, not enough to wash the oil completely off the roads or keep your bike from looking like... well, looking like you wish it didn't!

It's not that unusual for just Kevin to show up with me when it's raining out. I could suggest he's stupid like that, but what does that say about me? Nothing that most don't already know. We ride because... well, just because. It's what we do. It's what we enjoy, even when it's wet out. Some of it's that challenge thing, which also showed up in a more-obvious fashion this morning. Because I showed up a bit late (I never quite have the timing down when I've got to get myself and the bike equipped for a ride in the rain, mostly because I'm always in denial that it's going to rain the night before), we rode a bit slow, so that, by the time we got to Sky Londa, we were running about 12 minutes late. I had to meet someone at 10:30 so I suggested to Kevin that maybe we should skip the west-side Old LaHonda loop and just head straight down, which he said would be fine with him, because he had to meet with someone too... and then he said something else, I don't quite remember what, but it came across as a mild challenge. Something that said to me I'd be wimping out if we didn't do the entire ride. That was that, period.

And if we had passed on riding west-side Old LaHonda, I would have missed the opportunity to run into a small herd (flock? group? family? It was 4 of them) of deer standing in the middle of the road. Normally I would have spotted them as soon as I came around the corner, but it was so nice & quiet out that I was paying more attention than usual to looking over the edge of the road, down into the ravine, looking for something I might not have seen before. You'd never look at the road for something new, would you? So why were the deer standing in the road instead of the ravine, where they belong???

In the end, I'm very glad we did the full ride, instead of wimping out. Otherwise I would have missed the deer, and besides that, I started to feel pretty good in the latter part of the ride. The first half was pretty ugly; slow, no rhythm, just the process of getting there. But west-side Old LaHonda felt great. My body began to respond to my brain's commands, and the combination of light rain, a bit of fog, and the coastal hills gave a surrealistic feeling to things. Quite beautiful, really. Just another reason why we ride. No matter what.

1/8/2008- IT'S LIKE YOU'RE CHEATING when you get to ride just ahead of the rain. Somehow, when it rains just after your ride, and through a good part of the day, you get more "credit" for having ridden that day. The scales do balance out though, since you don't get enough credit when it's really dumping during your ride but the sun comes out shortly afterward.

Today it was Milo, Kevin (old guy regular Kevin), Karl, George and Chris. Todd's still nursing a wrist injury from his crash last Thursday, and the rest of the guys probably thought it was going to rain. It was an easy-going pace today since Milo is riding through the end of his bronchitis, which suited me just fine. Still enough effort that the low temp of 39 didn't seem all that cold though. I'm sure Thursday will make up for any guilt I might feel from taking it easy today!

1/6/2008- WHERE DID EVERYBODY GO? It wasn't that bad out there, or that threatening. At 1:30pm I left for a quick ride up Old LaHonda then north on Skyline all the way to 92, down to Canada and back. 33 miles, about 3400ft of climbing. And saw, what, maybe 10 cyclists, total? 14 if you include the 4 I saw stopped at Roberts Market in Woodside. The roads never completely dried, but I didn't get a drop of rain the whole time I was out there, and no winds either. Temps weren't exactly warm, but at 42 up on Skyline, hardly freezing either.

And it wasn't just bicyclists that were lacking. At Sky Londa, not one single motorcycle in either parking lot. I don't recall ever seeing that in the daytime. Alice's Restaurant without motorcycles. Or bicycles for that matter! Maybe everybody came through earlier? It was worth taking a picture (seen on the left).

It really doesn't take much to be comfortable on a day like this. Long-figer winter gloves, wool socks, booties, windfront tights (the "windfront" part helps a lot if you hit some rain), long-sleeve base layer and a normal jersey. I brought along a rainproof jacket just in case, and did put it on during the descent to 92, but didn't really need it.

This was also my first time out with the Hero "Helmet" camera (www.goprocamera.com). It's going to take some getting used to, and the helmet-mounting option isn't really the right thing for most of our customers, who will prefer to mount the camera on their handlebar. Unfortunately, there's no way to do that using the attachments that come with the "Helmet" version (without resorting to heavy-duty improvisation, as I did); the best version for bikes is the less-expensive "Wrist" style, which can be directly attached to your handlebar. Even that's not quite perfect, but shortly they're coming out with a bike-specific clamp that looks like it will be worth the $20 extra charge.

1/3/2008- THRILLS, SPILLS, BUT NO CHILLS this morning as a pretty large group showed up thinking there might be a narrow opportunity to get in a ride before the big storm hit. I'm not even going to pretend I can remember everyone who showed up, but for a start, we had Chris, Eric, Todd, Karl, Kevin, the other Kevin and a new guy, Brad, a recent convert to California who used to work for Cannondale back east. We held to a reasonably-civil pace heading up Kings, after which Brad had to head back down, presumably to get to work in time. We had a pretty good roll on Skyline, where, for the first time, I actually felt like I had a bit of power heading up the first climb to Skegg's.

The skies looked constantly threatening, but aside from a fair amount of wind (primarily on the final descent into Woodside) it was actually pretty nice out there. Temps were in the mid-to-upper 40s, and the roads, despite the horrific weather reports, remained dry. Not, however, clear from debris, which Todd discovered the hard way coming into Woodside, taking a very hard spill. We didn't even notice he wasn't there for a minute or two, at which time I had this funny feeling that all was not well so I called him on my cell phone (which, by the way, isn't easy to do with winter gloves on!). My feeling was right; Todd had gone down pretty hard and had to call a rescue wagon (his Mom) to come out and pick up the pieces. Last I heard he figured he wasn't in too bad shape, but might need to have his wrist checked out. His bike fared worse, possibly much worse.

1/1/2008- DON'T MISS THIS PARTY NEXT YEAR; EVERYONE'S INVITED!
For the umpteenth-time a number of cyclists... this time a very large number of cyclists, started the New Year out right with a ride up Mt Hamilton, that 4200ft behemoth towering over San Jose. Maybe 150 of us descended (?) upon the mountain, greatly outnumbering the cars on the road. Fantastic weather and smiling happy people all around. Put this one on your calendar for January 1st, 2009. And then, no matter how the rest of the year goes, you know you accomplished at least one great thing to remember it by!
See the photos on our Picasa website

Prior entries 07/02/07-12/31/07 including 2007 Tour de France trip
(Tour de France entries 7/15/06-7/25/06)
(prior entries from 01/01/07-06/30/07)