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sunday’s ride.

February 5, 2012 in riding | No comments

justin came up to the city for a nice, easy stroll around paradise loop.  we left the bridge at 7am and the roads couldn’t have been any more clear.  there was no one out in their cars, running/jogging, riding their bikes.  no one anywhere.  well, besides that one token random drafter guy on the bridge who refused to pass both of us.  justin ended up telling him to just pass us but the random drafter guy responded with, “oh no, it’s okay.”  no really, guy, pass us.  he eventually did ride ahead of us in his capris, red windbreaker, and single nylon band toe straps.  neither of us understood why he was catching a free ride anyway, we were both going fairly slow.

everything else following that hilarious incident was fairly normal.  my knee was feeling superb after the restful week, and the weather was stellar.  as we came back around, bigger group rides started heading out, and there were a lot more cyclists out on the road.  enjoying the better-than-summer weather spell we’re having, I suppose.  summertime in san francisco is foggy everyday from june to august – this weather is far better.  and we’ve been really lucky with the rain holding off.

it also appears that my powertap magically started working again about 15 minutes into the ride.  but then shut off completely, again, near the end of the ride.  powertap, you’re hilarious.

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friday’s ride.

February 3, 2012 in riding | No comments

quietest friday morning in a long time.  no school buses, barely any traffic, nearly perfectly timed street lights, and few clouds made for an awesome morning ride.  there’s a bit of construction going on near the pedestrian side entrance on the golden gate bridge, which isn’t really a problem.  except for when early morning commuters cut the turn.  I was riding up the short pathway, approaching the right turn when a mountain biker came flying through the apex.  he jammed his brakes and swerved, as did I.  we stopped about an inch from each other, with him being directly in the opposite lane from where he should have been.  close call…too close for a friday morning.  but I’m extremely glad it wasn’t a deadly head-on (apply directly to the forehead!).

so with the token near-accident of the day narrowly avoided, I proceeded on with the rest of the ride, thankful for a bit of morning sunlight.  didn’t see anyone I knew this morning, but I hope everyone that had a chance to ride enjoyed the awesome winter weather.  we’ve been really fortunate this season.

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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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tuesday’s ride.

January 31, 2012 in riding | No comments

the knee pain subsided a bit overnight after a couple long stretching sessions so I opted for half paradise.  I rode down the embarcadero with a fresh new gatorskin on the front and the gp4000s on the back – both at 105psi.  I don’t expect any more sidewall blowouts, but I had my fingers crossed the entire ride.  it was significantly warmer out, to my surprise.  it seems as if we’re coming out of our cold spell, and possibly into more springtime weather.  maybe it’ll bring more rain, too…hopefully not though.

with the sun rising earlier every day, it’s becoming much easier to maneuver out into marin.  people are dimming down their high intensities and riding a bit smarter now they can see more with the natural light.  half paradise hasn’t changed at all, as you’d expect.  the knee was holding up, surprisingly.  a bit sore, but not too bad.  unfortunately, I still had to pass a school bus, which made for an awkward couple minutes.  I would ride ahead as it would slow down to pick up a bunch of kids – then the bus would pass, but stop to pick up more kids, and then eventually pull off towards the waterfront.  at least the driver was courteous, I had a couple drivers cut inches away from my elbow.  just one of those mornings, I presume.

I’m glad the knee is feeling better, and that I had no flats.  simple pleasures of riding pre-dawn.  oh, I spotted maurice (+a guy in a britesport kit) and percy while out today – hope you guys had good rides.  it feels good to be out there again.

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sunday’s ride.

January 29, 2012 in riding | 1 comment

after 9 days of not riding (and 6 days of not running), my knee managed to feel a tad better.  but only after numerous stretching sessions.  a lot of stretching, to say the least – thanks for the suggestions, justin.  so I headed out to do half paradise, or however long it took me to sense if the knee was doing better.  as I made it across the bridge, the tingly pain started creeping in – it would probably be a ride out to the edge of the bike path in sausalito, and back.  unfortunately, I didn’t make it too far.  my rear tire hissed and flatted right at the end of the bridge.  I inspected the tire and found a huge gash, probably the width of a thumbnail at least.

I swapped out the tube, and called it any early ride ender.  it wasn’t worth taking the risk heading out farther away from home without at least a spare tube, and with my knee already starting to feel wonky, I figured it’d be the smart thing to do.  quality riding over quantity of riding.  I can’t afford to lose a knee, I don’t think anyone can.

san francisco sunrises are always a treat.

and as I rode back across the bridge, I saw the cause of the flat.  a broken (clear) glass bottle was spread across the entire walkway at one point, it’s a wonder I didn’t get another flat riding back across it.  I hope no one else flatted there, it was pretty treacherous.  glass shards everywhere…

we’ll see how the knee feels tomorrow, I may opt for a shorter ride depending on how the knee feels.  I’m glad to have ridden a bit today, though.  half paradise tomorrow, with no flats, please.

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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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tuesday’s ride.

January 17, 2012 in riding | No comments

as you can probably tell, I forgot to stop along the way to take a picture of how frigid it was today.  we’ve been having a bit of a cold spell here in san francisco, and temperatures have dropped significantly compared to last week.  at night, at least.  today’s ride had an average temperature of 38*F – at some points it was 32*, at which point I thought my face and fingertips were going to freeze.  luckily, both are fully intact.  I’m extremely glad to have brought out the thermal gore-tex shoe covers today, or else I think my feet would’ve also froze in the wind chill.  all the bridge pathways on the sausalito bike path were completely frosted over.  there weren’t too many people out, which was not really a surprise considering there were frost warnings all over marin.

I was glad to make it back to the city, for sure.  the weather was a tad warmer, and I was able to feel my hands again.  unfortunately, after I got home, I punched myself in the crotch trying to roll my bibs up to get to my leg warmers.  not quite the sensation I expected…not on a tuesday morning.

hope everyone stays warm and dry.  from the looks of it, there’s rain clouds heading our way in a couple days.  I forsee a bit of time on the trainer…

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early bird criterium #2.

January 15, 2012 in riding | 2 comments

another frigid morning in the east bay.  temperatures hovering just above freezing, it was definitely a bit cooler this week verses last.  there weren’t as many cars out in the parking lot, either.  I was expecting a smaller field – maybe everyone would be a bit less twitchy than last week, but it was doubtful.  I registered, pinned my number, and started getting warm.  within a couple minutes I was burning up (visually).  I could see the steam evaporating off my back as I spun on the trainer, it was hilarious.  I’ve seen it happen to other people when they’re really getting into their warmup, and it looks like something that’d be in a magazine ad for a cycleops fluid trainer or something.

our race started at 8:30 – at the line I saw jonathan tran (third pillar racing), the first time I had seen him since last year’s crash at central coast circuit.  we talked it up a bit before the race started.  I didn’t know anyone else in the field this week, our group was slightly smaller than last weeks.  possibly 30 riders deep.  we had 2-3 mentors rotating through the group to keep stragglers in check.  all I wanted to do today was to be more comfortable in the pack, so I was hanging out in the middle and back most of the race.  a couple laps in, I made my way to the front to see how my legs were doing in comparison to last week.  the running soreness seemed to be gone, but my top end was still a bit weak (as it always is…).  I slowed and shifted back into the back end of the pack.

there were a couple riders shifting all over the place.  one of them was in a plain blue jersey, and the other was in a red/white kit with some sort of wording that started with an “M and M”.  the latter was riding near the back and moving like crazy.  through one of the turns, a cyclist next to him swerved away from the apex, unclipped, and jabbed his brakes.  that was the closest call of the day.  no one went down, but I think everyone that witnessed it was a bit sketched out.  luckily, there were no crashes and no injuries.  I opted out of the sprint finish and settled in near the tail end of the group.

as I wound down, reed came over and we started catching up.  his first race of the season is going to be pine flats, he was out at the early bird crit for his step-daughter.  he’s shifting his racing more towards endurance races – centuries, double centuries, and the races that make people’s fitness cry.  then of course, jeremiah (wob) rolled up.  he was going to be doing the clinic as well as the cat5 race with anton.  good seeing you guys out!  jonathan’s early season game face:

stoked to see this guy back on a bike, and racing.  he busted up a bunch of bones in last season’s crash, anyone who remembers the incident knows how serious it was.  I’m happy to report than he’s doing really well, and riding strong.  good stuff, jonathan.

no early bird criterium for me next week, though.  my weekend cinema 4d class is all day saturday and sunday, which means no racing for me.  but after next weekend, it’s on again!

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saturday’s ride.

January 14, 2012 in riding | No comments

back on the bike after what felt like a long, slow week.  the first full week since our winter holiday break.  luckily, I didn’t have to fight the new year’s resolution crowd in the morning through the marina, everyone was asleep as I rode up to the bridge.  though the weather was a bit brisk, I was nice and toasty in my thicker base layer.  thank goodness for those.  with the road cycling season winding up again, there are significantly more group rides heading out.  a majority of riders still have their wits about them, but there are the select few that still feel like they’ve ‘got it’ when it comes to things like going no-hands in a group, looking across a particular scenic area (not paying attention to where their bike is headed), diddling with their computer, or just looking down at their feet while riding.  30 guys were riding in a group 2 abreast, riding opposite of me on the sausalito bike path.  the backhand signal from the front rider told everyone that there was someone coming, tuck in.  the first half of the group saw the message, they were fine.  the second half was still riding 3 abreast, taking up the whole path.  and as I came through, a cyclist was right in front of me (coming at me), with no where to go.  yet there was no one next to him…so he veered his shimano sti shifters wildly to the right to avoid me.  let’s just say the look on his face was hilarious.  mine was a bit more displeased.

the rest of the ride was smooth.  that is, until I came back towards the city.  people riding 2 abreast on the golden gate bridge, who refused ride close together, or even go single file with oncoming riders.  it was really strange.  the marina was packed with runners spread across the whole pathway, it was crazy.  I didn’t witness any post-collisions though, not like 2 weeks ago.  I think I’m going to head to the shop in a little while to pick up my gatorskins and maybe place that order for my wheelset.  or the caad5 part list?  I haven’t quite decided yet.

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