rain

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Thursday’s ride.

May 3, 2012 in riding | No comments

Of course, the one day that I see there’s a 30% chance of precipitation, I don’t pack a rain shell.  I was thinking, ah well, how bad could 30% be?  I took a look at the Doppler before heading out and figured the extra weight wasn’t worth it.  As it turns out, it was heavily misting for 2 hours straight, by which point, I was thoroughly soaked and somewhat numb.  On the plus side, there was practically no one out, and I had an opportunity to pass 2 school buses just as they were slowing down.  No flats on either tires, or any mechanicals, which are also very important on a water soaked day.  Didn’t snag any cars on any descents, either.  I did happen to have a close run in with a car that just happened to turn off onto a side street without signaling, but no harm done – braking hard is always a pain, especially for the first second, when the rims still have a bit of water on them.

I saw Travis, Connor, and Gabe (possibly?) heading out for their ride, properly dressed for the mist.  Oddly enough, as I was heading across the bridge towards San Francisco, the mist lifted, and the humid air started to dry the ground.  Silly weather.  Next time though, bringing the damn rain shell…

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Wednesday’s ride.

April 25, 2012 in riding | 1 comment

With the forecast reading 50% chance of rain, I expected at least a drizzle, but oddly enough, it was dryer than yesterday.  Maybe a tad more humid, but not one drop of water from the sky.  As a contrast to that, I must’ve eaten at least 5 gnats that filled the air along the bike path leading to Camino Alto.  On the short climb, I saw a guy at the side of the road, his bike propped up.  He was pacing back and forth, with his hand on his hip.  The corner must’ve caught him off guard, and he slid out, off into the bushes.  I called out to him, asking if he was okay (which received a mixed facial expression), and if he needed me to call anyone – he said that he already had someone coming for him.  The guy seemed frazzled, but mostly okay.  I can’t speak for his bike though.

Then I caught up to the school bus, but the kids appeared to have stepped up their game, since they were on the bus and seated in a flash.  As I rode back towards Sausalito, I saw 4 guys, one of which was definitely Travis (and then I’m assuming the other guys were Connor, Joe, and Naveen, maybe?).

Shortly thereafter, there was a construction worker blocking the pedestrian side of the bridge with a stop sign.  I guess a mini-truck was heading the opposite way, or something.  Soon, about 8 of us were on our way.  There’s been construction at various points of the Marina greens, so I’ve been fairly cautious of where the new curbs and pedestrian slants are.  Last week I smacked a 2″ curb with the front wheel, and surprisingly, it still rolls smooth/true.  Today, I was coming around one of the bends and saw this massive 4″ gap of asphalt that was about 4″ deep.  I was perpendicular to the gap, but was making a sweeping left turn over it.  My front wheel slid into the gap for a split second, and my momentum started shifting forward.  I was prepping for the inevitable endo, but somehow, the front wheel bounced out of the gap, shimmied for a second and kept going straight.  There was a commuter changing out a flat at the side of the road that yelled out: “That thing nearly split my tire!”.  That’s some dangerous stuff…there should at least be a safety cone there.  You could face plant yourself into the ground if you were running in low light.

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Tuesday’s ride.

April 24, 2012 in riding | No comments

I believe the good weather is about to leave us, briefly.  The forecast for this morning was foggy, so some mist was to be expected, but I didn’t expect it to be drizzling in Marin.  Camino Alto was a tad wet on the descent, enough to get the tires glistening, so I slowed it up a bit as not to slip out.  Luckily, this time around, the rear derailleur cable didn’t snap, though it was a bit sticky the whole way through.  Not to worry though, I’d rather have the cable sticking to the inside of the housing rather than having it sheer off in the shifter.  So from that perspective, the ride went well.

Eventually, the drizzling stopped.  I caught up to a school bus but was making decent time anyway, since the wind was minimal.  I didn’t see any cyclists I knew, though I did see Tito, the bridge patrol police officer, chilling in one of those mini car things.  Ominous clouds are lurking…I really hope it doesn’t rain, but I have a feeling that it will.

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Friday’s ride.

March 30, 2012 in riding | No comments

Quintuple.  I had to Google it to be sure, but that’s how many times I rode around Paradise loop today.  I figured I would have to make my day off from work worth it – remember a month or so back when I mentioned I was working a lot more, and on weekends?  It was comp time for those over 40 hour weeks.  So I left the house with my pockets stashed with “food” and a willingness to spend some quality time with the road bike.  30% chance of rain?  I bet it won’t.

But as I rode, the heavy drizzle came, and I was soon rethinking my loops.  Descending in the wet is more nerve-racking than anything, but I’m happy to report that there were no close calls on any of the 5 descents.  Though my feet did get quite soaked the first and second time around.  That is, until the weather warmed up, which dried my feet after a couple hours.  Maybe bringing a rain shell might’ve come in handy, but it was way too late for that.  Luckily, the weather became less misty – the lack of drizzle gave way to a bit of wind, which was almost worse than the drizzle.  Tough call: wet with a hair of wind, or dry with lots of wind?  I still don’t know.

It might’ve been the final loop around, but I forget…anyway, I heard my front tire hiss around and around.  A flat tire to really make the day stick.  Luckily, it was a small puncture, which I remedied with a new tube, stashing the old one (just in case).  I couldn’t quite get the psi high enough, and rode the rest of the final 30 miles with it probably hovering in the 60 range.  I’m mostly glad that it was fixable on the fly, and that it didn’t gash the tire.

I’m going to eat some food, and then wash the bike.  It looks like it rolled into a sand pit, geez.

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Wednesday’s ride.

March 28, 2012 in riding | No comments

Well, I didn’t expect to head out this morning because it was raining like crazy last night as I was trying to leave work.  I ended up staying a bit longer to wait out the bad weather, which turned out to be the better thing to do since the worst of the rain was passing as I was walking back.  I planned on riding on the trainer today, but took a quick look at the radar to see very few rain clouds over Marin.  Figured I could ride it out, slowly.

Usually, spotty weather keeps people at home or in their cars in the morning.  Today was no exception, there was absolutely no one commuting on their bikes, and very few runners.  I had the wet roads all to myself.  Luckily, there wasn’t too much rain to worry about, mostly just water-logged asphalt to be weary of.  The bike looks like it rode through a forest, and all my cycling clothes are swamp-like.  Oh Wednesdays…

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Wednesday’s ride.

March 14, 2012 in riding | 1 comment

We’ve had an interesting couple of days, here in the bay area.  With winter almost over, we’re finally getting a bit of rain.  Not to say that’s a bad thing, but it makes riding a straight up pain.  With this past weekend’s hour jump forward, the sun doesn’t rise until 7:30am – I’d rather not chance it while it’s raining and pitch black out.  But past this week of rain, it seems as if the weather is going to be more clear.  And the sun will start to rise earlier in the day, which will be ideal.  I’m also trying to sell the PowerTap rear wheel to fund a new headlight.  And that Joule 2.0 head unit.

Anyway, knowing the rain would be coming, I figured I could just stay inside and watch some shows to keep my mind preoccupied.  Off to work, now.  It’s sure to be more interesting than sitting on a road bike attached to a trainer.

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Sunday’s ride.

March 11, 2012 in riding | No comments

As predicted, when my alarm went off at 6:20am, it was pitch black outside.  Welcome to later mornings.  I reset the alarm for 7:20am, and slept in for another hour, hoping the sun would be out by time I was ready to ride.  40% chance of precipitation wasn’t too bad, and the radar was reading clear skies up and down the coast.  I was tempted to pack the rain shell in my back pocket, but figured I wouldn’t need it, even if it did start raining a tad.  My pace was going to be chill, anyway.

So with a new cassette, and a new set of hand laced wheels, I rolled towards the Embarcadero.  Dustin had worked on the bike for a while yesterday and couldn’t quite get the front derailleur to shift properly.  It could be the internal cam inside the shifter.  Or something completely different, but it would only shift into the big ring with a really stiff swing of the lever.  Almost to the point of needing 2 hands to do it.  And for about 20 minutes, I couldn’t even shift it up there.  But as I made it down into Sausalito, it seemed to have loosened up a bit, because it was shifting more easily (but still not as smooth as a stock throw).  The cassette offered an awesome range of gears, and having that 28t on the back really helped keep the ride at an easy pace.  Even up gradients.  It took about a minute to get used to round chainrings again, the sensation was somewhat similar to the first time out on the Osymetric rings.  My legs were used to the oblong power band, but now that the Osymetric rings were off, the band was linear, all the way around.  I felt more efficient with the round chainrings though, the ride was stellar.  It did start drizzling a bit on the way back, but I was mostly glad that it wasn’t a downpour.

I’m somewhat bummed about the front shifting, but hopefully it’ll all be sorted out Tuesday, when Dustin has more time to see what’s up with the shifter.  The new wheels are a tad lighter than the PowerTap wheelset, which is nice.  Now I need to take a picture of that SL+ rear wheel so that I can sell it…

Oh, and I did see Ken, from PedalRevolution, heading out for his ride as I was coming back into the city.  And Joe, Naveen, Gabe, and Jason as I was coming around Tiburon.  Hope you guys had a good ride.

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wednesday’s ride.

February 1, 2012 in riding | No comments

I forgot to stop to take a photo of the less than ideal weather.  yesterday’s warm morning had me expecting more of the same today, but when I stepped outside, the ground was draped in water and a fine drizzle was in the air.  I went back into the house to grab my rain shell, and to ditch my gloves.  there’s nothing worse than the feeling of wet paper towels on your hands when you’re trying to ride.  the wet toes, feet, and ankles were inevitable.  time to settle in to a cautious morning ride.

one of the plus sides to riding in the wet is the empty roads.  less runners, a lot less cyclists, and surprisingly, less traffic early on.  as I rode up to the bridge, there were two mission cycling guys waiting at the fork.  not the best morning to be sitting out, waiting for other people to show up for a ride, that’s for sure.  the knee was feeling significantly better, and as I kept riding, the soreness was still there, but definitely not as bad as last week, or even a couple days ago.  thank you, bike gods (and the magical powers that fall into the category of copious amounts of stretching).

I saw vidal riding out in marin as well, which was awesome – initially I passed him, and as I did, he called out to me.  he pulled up beside me and I finally realized it was him.  power intervals, out to the top of camino alto and back.  hope you had a safe ride!

on my way back, I had the best 29er random drafter guy.  one of the best to date.  I passed him on the bridge coming back into the city, and from there to to the edge of the marina, he was stuck on my rear wheel.  rear rain fender and all.

oh, wednesdays…

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thursday’s run.

January 19, 2012 in running | No comments

I’ll preface this by saying a couple things: first off, running after a downpour has it’s benefits.  there isn’t anyone walking around, and sidewalks are empty for the most part.  the bad part is traction.  you’d be surprised how many various metal manhole covers there are on the sidewalk, as well as varying types of asphalt which make for some of the most challenging surfaces to run on.  after a while, it got really old.  I was tired of dodging them, and having to constantly worry about the flatness of my next step.  an aggressive angle would surely make you go faster, but probably end up causing some slipping on the forward stride.  it wasn’t fun anymore.

the other thing was that my garmin had a bit of trouble locating satellites to begin gps tracking.  it would get extremely close to the edge of the progress bar then drop off.  then close again, and drop off.  I decided to just start running, hoping it’d track eventually.  I jogged for about 5 minutes before resetting the timer, thinking it’d help – unfortunately, it didn’t.  then as I made my way up pacific, it magically found the satellites, and began tracking.  at the end of my short run…pretty bummed about that.  and as I soon found out, the calorie counter works in conjunction with distance traveled as well as heart rate.  so if it’s not gps tracking (or there’s not a foot pod synced), you can’t track calories.

I guess tomorrow I’ll have to be more patient with the satellites…lame.

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thursday’s ride.

January 19, 2012 in riding | No comments

I finally stopped being lazy to wake up bright and early for a ride in marin.  I’m assuming everyone had seen the forecast for the next couple days, because it was dead quiet out all over the city, and even into sausalito.  apparently there was a 90% chance of precipitation today, but only after about 10am, which would give me plenty of time to get the ride done before the impending drizzle.  we’ve had it pretty good this winter.  though the air is frigid at night, there wasn’t been any rain at all…for months.  great for cycling and running, but horrible for the ski resorts up in lake tahoe.  and even as I look outside, it’s foggy, but not raining (yet).  tomorrow is 80% and saturday is 60%, so we’ll see.

there was a bit of a mist coming from the coast as I crossed the bridge.  I thought about cutting the ride short, possibly barber shop loop, if it started to rain.  after all, I didn’t pack a rain shell because the doppler was reading crystal clear all the way up the coastline.  luckily, the rain held off, and I had the roads all to myself.  no school buses today, either.  I may have beaten the kids today, but I’m sure they’ll be out in full force tomorrow.  or maybe I’m wrong, and they jumped onto all 3 buses without me even seeing a trace of them.  if only this could happen every pre-dawn morning.  and the temperature wasn’t too bad today, which was nice.  a comfortable 46*F throughout the whole ride was a relief from the extremely cold weather 2 days back.  thanks, humidity!

this week feels like it’s been going on for a long time, but I’m glad to have gotten a run in yesterday with the working forerunner.  one more toy to fiddle with.  oh, and my parts are on order at the shop, with the rear hub shipping from britain.  I’ll let you all imagine what it is.

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