My Boring Life

2009-04-30T12:27:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

I'm sorry to do this to all of you who have grown accustomed to reading my blog (the three or four of you!). I'm moving my blog to my own domain, and using a slightly more advanced blogging software.

Basically, I managed to screw up my links and can't get them back here for some reason. So I'm switching to Wordpress. It looks to be better for a customized look... And hopefully I'll figure out how to migrate all my old posts from this blog to the new one without having to do so manually (as I had to do when migrating to Blogger in the first place! That should have been my first clue!).

Anyway... Here's the link. If you want me to add a link to your blog, let me know!

http://www.deitchman.net/blog/

Image Of The Week #1

2009-04-29T00:58:00.000-07:00

Here's the image of the week. I chose it for this week because I was reminded of it while moving files off of my laptop this morning (I was running out of room on the tiny little 60GB hard drive!). This was taken on a little sidetrip while I was driving down the A84 north of Stirling (after having seen the Proclaimers play at Stirling Castle the night before) on January 1, 2008.

I saw a sign stating that the Rob Roy gravesite was only two miles off of the motorway. And having heard of Rob Roy, I had to go and check out the place. So this is the graveyard behind the kirk in Balquhidder, Scotland...

A Tiny Flickr Of Light...

2009-04-28T19:57:00.000-07:00

So, I've recently upgraded my Flickr account to pro, and will now be using that site to host my "good" images. I already had my basic portfolios up there, but I figured that it wouldn't hurt to use it to host quality photos as well.

My everyday photos will continue to be on Photobucket. So you can still find my vacation pictures and random doodles up there. I figured that if I'm actually capable of taking decent pictures, and producing a great print; I should post them in a place where it's easier to see the quality involved and spread the word...

So here are the links:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fueco/
http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g160/Fueco/

Swim Lake del Valle

2009-04-26T16:27:00.000-07:00

In terms of crazy thing to wake up early for on a Sunday morning, this has to be about one of the tamest things I've done in recent memory...

When the alarm went off a bit past 7:00, Joan and I got ready and headed off for Lake del Valle for a morning swim with some of the members of the Silicon Valley Triathlon Club. So, we found ourselves getting ready to swim a bit after 9:00.

Lake de Valle is quite a lovely little piece of water. Oddly enough, I'd never been there before for any reason. But it's most certainly a worthy place to swim, kayak/canoe, fish, hike, mountain bike, etc... The area is typical Diablo Range forest land (grassland and oak trees), and the water is beautiful. A bit covered in algae, but pretty clean.

We did a simple out and back swim along the east shore of the lake. And I certainly enjoyed every minute of it. We'll definitely be back, especially when we have more pressing training needs for open water swimming!

Here's a satellite view of the route. The start is at the boat rental/bait shop...

Confessions Of A Closet Compression Sock Wearer

2009-04-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Mike and I'm addicted to endurance sports. It's the good sort of addiction. You know, the kind that gives you: killer calves, a resting heart rate in the upper 40s, and the ability to eat whatever you want without gaining weight (at least during peak training!).

The problems begin when you hit plateaus and want to get stronger, faster, and gain better endurance. How do you increase the workload when you're already riding 250+ miles per week, swimming a few times and running once in a while? You have to find a way to recover faster! This is why compression socks have become popular in the last few years among triathletes.

Here's a useful link detailing the science:
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-compression-socks.htm

I've been a bit skeptical of the benefits of compression socks, given that I'd only seen them at races being worn by dorky looking folks. Why would you wear knee high white socks (and perhaps arm sleeves as well) in a race? I'd always just thought of them as the latest in the average triathlete's attempt to differentiate themselves from other cyclists and runners out there. Is this just the latest fad? Will it go the way of sticking gel blocks to your top tube or peeing down your leg during the bike? Will the companies that make compression socks start making them look cool? Actually, they've already started. I'm just waiting for the purple ones with green polka dots on them before I'll wear them in a race... ; )

Following the Devil Mountain Double, I realized that the compression socks might be worthwhile for there other purpose; assisting in recovery from traumatically long rides. So I did a little research on the subject:

http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=13830

As it turns out, they aren't really useful for during the actual race; but are defintely helpful after the race. So I decided to give them a try...

Unfortunately, I didn't pick up a pair until a couple of days after the DMD, so can't give a complete picture of how they have worked so far. But I will certainly try them after the Davis 24-hour Challenge next weekend to see how they work out.

I can tell you though, that my legs did feel better on Wednesday than they did on the Wednesday after the DMD last year. But whether that's the compression socks or just being better trained this year I can't really say. I'll certainly post more comments as I try them out.

Oh, and here's what I got. They were $28 at Sports Basement.

http://www.sockgeek.com/showproduct.aspx?ProductID=162&SEName=sugoi-socks-rr-knee-high-compression

Whipping The Devil Again?

2009-04-20T10:39:00.000-07:00

Of all of the double centuries that I have done, the Devil Mountain Double is by far the hardest of the lot. Riding 200 miles in a day is hard enough even before you throw in 18,600 feet of climbing; so why would you increase the suffering?

Apparently, for some people the "easier" doubles aren't hard enough. So they seek harder challenges. And then us mere mortals come along and seek to challenge ourselves with these crazy rides.

I've certainly done harder rides than the Devil Mountain Double, but it was only a year ago that the DMD was the longest ride I had ever done (soon eclipsed by the Central Coast Double, then the LA Grand Tour Triple and the HooDoo 500). And it has far more climbing percentage-wise than any of those other rides. So the suffering may be of a shorter distance, but it's far more intense!

And so it was that Joan and I found ourselves waking up well before 4:00 AM on a perfectly nice Saturday morning to make our way to San Ramon for the start of the craziest (or maybe second craziest, I'm not sure how bad Alta Alpina is!) double on the California Triple Crown schedule.

Starting out at 5:00 AM we quickly made our way to Mount Diablo and the first climb of the day. The climb re-enforced my opinion from last year that Diablo is one of the finest climbs in the Bay Area. It has great views, nice roads, and is a great place to watch a sunset! Of course, the park doesn't open normally until sunrise so you won't get to see it unless you camp there.

At the top, I paused just long enough to refill my water and grab a bite to eat (and take some for the road). From there, the descent is relatively nice until you get onto the North Gate Road heading down into Walnut Creek. From there, the road has some tight corners and rough sections but isn't all that long so it passes quickly. From Walnut Creek the route heads over to Clayton and then up Morgan Territory Road for the second climb of the day.

Morgan Territory has been resurfaced since last year so it's not so bad any more. It's still rough, but at least there aren't as many loose sections of surface. Overall a very nice climb, with a few steep pitches at the end. All this leads to a rest stop almost at the top, and then a screaming descent down into the Livermore Valley.

At the bottom, you get a surprising number of miles of flat roads before heading up Altamont Pass. Altamont is a lovely easy climb, especially when it is acting as a wind tunnel. Which it was this day! Going 20+ MPH uphill just feels good! =)

After crossing to the other side of the pass, the route turns south and over to Patterson Pass Road. This is fairly protected from the wind, and on a warm day it can be quite hot up there. This was the case, at least as I perceived it. Just like last year, I began to suffer a bit going up Patterson. And it wasn't the climbing, just the heat. But when you see the top, you know that you're in for a treat. The descent back into Livermore is another fun one.

From Livermore, the course heads south on Mines Road deep into the mountains northwest of Mount Hamilton. The first few miles are flat before crossing a bridge and arriving at a rest stop. Refueled with cookies and chips I headed off up the hill and into the hottest part of the day. Most of the climbing on Mines Road comes early, but it does go on for quite a while. Unfortunately, we didn't have the breeze this year that was there last year. So the suffering was there as well! But I did eventually make it over the top and down the short hill to Junction, where the lunch stop is, at mile 116.

At the rest stop, I ate way too much. It's always tempting on these rides to gorge yourself at the rest stops, but it's not a good idea... But the turkey sandwich tasted great, as did the chips, french fries, brownie bites, watermelon V8 Juice and Mountain Dew. Oh well, some times you have to learn things the hard way! Joan caught up with me there, so I decided to wait and ride the rest with her (she was perhaps 10 minutes behind me coming into lunch.

After she was done, we got back on our bikes and headed off to Mount Hamilton. The road goes through some wonderful rural areas around here. And over some minor hills of course! The only bad part of the road through here is all the cattlegaurds. But they're easy enough to clear if you just lift your front wheel up and semi-hop over them, keeping the weight off of your seat!

Once we got to the main climb up Mount Hamilton, the suffering began in earnest. My stomach was giving me grief for all of the food and the heat was sapping my energy big time. With that, it's not too bad that I had to stop a few times during the climb. But reaching the top was a great reward as was the cold sparking juice at the the rest stop!

From there we headed off down one of my least favorite descents in the area. Mount Hamilton Road is just too windy and dirty (rocks on a lot of the corners) to be fun. At least the final part is on good road! After the detour (uphill of course!) to the Crothers Road rest stop, we were off to the hardest climb of the day, Sierra Road!

I've had a love-hate relationship with Sierra Road since the first time I climbed it (2001?). It shuts me down some times, and I crush it other times. This time was closer to the former. I felt somewhat okay at the bottom, but started to fall apart about a mile up the hill. Then I started getting cramps in my gracilis (muscle on the inside of the thigh). Not fun! So I walked a few sections trying to stretch out the muscles. Finally I made it to the last rise before the top, and remounted my bike to ride the last little bit. Then we headed off to the "Pet The Goat" rest stop.

This was where I started having problems with my brakes. Descending Calaveras, I couldn't get my bike to stop shuttering when I would brake. After the short climb up the Calaveras Wall, I stopped to see if I could fix the brake as it was getting to a dangerous point. Fortunately, all I had to do was re-tension the cable on the back brake since the pad still had some life in it. After that, no problems though I did keep the speed in check because I was getting rather tired (go figure!).

After riding Calaveras down into Sunol we got the famous hot dog and chili treatment there. Those two foods are just about the most appealing thing towards the end of a long ride. Then we headed off down Niles Canyon Road (which really could double as a Pinball Board given the way it feels to ride it, especially after dark!).

After making the sharp right turn onto Palomares Canyon Road we found ourselves on a quiet and dark road that felt a lot harder than I remember it from last year! The hill just seemed to go on and on, even though I knew that it should feel so bad! I'd done it just a couple of weeks prior. But it still hurt, and seemed to take far too long. From the top, it's a nice descent down and into Castro Valley. This part of the ride isn't fun, so fortunately it's not all that long. Once the route leaves Crow Canyon Road for Norris Canyon Road, it goes back to its quiet feel.

Even the climb of Norris Canyon seemed a lot harder this year. But fortunately it's only 2.4 miles long and has a great descent on the other side. Then it's just a quick trip through western San Ramon and across 680 to the finish at the Marriot.

Total time was 18:22 for 206 miles with 18600 feet of climbing.

At the finish, we enjoyed our sparkling apple cider, pasta and brownies. It sure felt good to be done, even though we were bother rather thrashed. Fortunately I was able to stay alert enough to drive home that night.

The next day we of course got to sit around and enjoy doing nothing. La Bamba has rarely tasted so good! And sitting by a fountain with our feet in the water was a small taste of heaven.

Great Moments In Advertising: Part 4

2009-04-17T12:54:00.000-07:00

This one comes from the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League.

Great Moments in Advertising: Part 3

2009-04-13T00:03:00.000-07:00

I'd almost forgotten about this one, until someone mentioned Irn Bru. Irn Bru is a great, sticky-sweet orange-flavoured soft drink that is just about impossible to find outside of Scotland. My favorite part of this ad is the "meeting of the Rangers fan and the Celtic fan".

Great Moments In Advertising: Part 2

2009-04-09T14:57:00.000-07:00

Here's another great ad. A great reason not to do this while out riding your bike...

Bungy jumping off the Kawarau Bridge...

2009-03-25T10:52:00.001-07:00

Somehow, Joan talked me into to talking her into jumping off of a perfectly sound bridge attached to a bungy cord. The setting was spectacular: the Kawarau Bridge near Queenstown, New Zealand. The blue water of the Kawarau River beckoned below, and the day was bright and sunny. Not a cloud to be seen.

For some reason, people come from all over the world to jump off of this bridge. It was the original commercial bungy jumping venue (having been built specifically for that purpose).

So yeah, bungy jumping is a bit scary. It takes some serious courage (is that the right word for this? Or idiocy?) to tip forward over a 43m drop (141 feet). But the ride is rather entertaining, if not unnerving. But the few bounces you get after the initial drop are actually more fun. Probably because you now have faith that the cord might actually hold!

Anyway, here's some pics and a video for your entertainment. The image of the bridge is from Wiki Commons (I make no claim to ownership of this image!). Cheers!

Great Moments In Advertising: Part I

2009-03-24T22:18:00.000-07:00

A great ad from a Scotch Whisky producer. Maybe I just like it because it incorporates aspects of two of the coolest places I've been to... But it works.

Fun with my pictures...

2009-03-22T18:20:00.000-07:00

This is from a picture I took at the Santa Cruz Surf Kayak Festival on Friday (March 20, 2009).

The Unbearable Lightness Of Being (A Triathlete?)...

2009-03-17T12:15:00.000-07:00

As if trying to "master" one sport isn't enough, there are those among us who will willingly put their bodies through the torture of racing three different sports in one race. What posses these people? Wouldn't it be better to just master one sport?

The answer comes in the form of this statement: where else are you going to see a man run a marathon in 2:35:21 (Peter Reid of Victoria, BC) AFTER swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112? Why shouldn't people see what limits they can push themselves to?

Having now done a full Ironman triathlon, I can safely say that it is NOT the hardest thing I've ever done. But it is second! The only thing I would classify as tougher would be the HooDoo 500. But that was almost 35 hours longer! So, for one-day events, Ironman takes the prize.

And now that I have done one, my mind is already saying ,"Hey, you can do that a lot faster!" Well, that's a given since my run time was hindered by walking so much of it. Heck, one guy I was ahead of coming out of the bike beat me by almost 2.5 hours. Surely I can get down there near his time... =)

What's left to do? Train for the run better. Do more brick workouts (run immediately after long rides), swim more. The time will come down... Perhaps Ironman Canada next year? We'll see...

New Zealand Top 10

2009-03-13T13:23:00.001-07:00

Of the places I went, of course! You should check these out next time you're in Kiwiland... And these aren't necessarily in order! There were tons of great places! And the best part was sharing all the places and experiences with Joan.

I'll post pics and more stories and such after I get caught up on my homework... =)

1. Milford Sound (best seen via kayak, though the cruises are nice as well since you get to see more of the fjord!)

2. Conical Hill (at the highpoint of the Routeburn Track. This has an amazing view of the Darran Mountains, the Tasman Sea and plenty more!)

3. Mount Maunganui Beach (beautiful blue water, white sand, and temps in the low 70s. What more could you ask for from a beach?)

4. Lake Taupo (swimming in the clear water (almost as clear as Lake Tahoe!) was one of the highlights of the Ironman)

5. Lake Wakatipu (sitting on the beachfront in Queenstown eating the best fish n' chips I've ever had (from Aggy's Shack) on the first day set the standard for the rest of the trip to live up to)

6. Tongariro Crossing (we didn't get the best of weather for the first part, but the scenery was spectacular up amongst the lakes and sulphur vents near the summit)

7. Joan's aunt and uncle's farm (beautiful views and a look at a real sheep/cattle ranch)

8. Polynesian Hot Springs (sure, it's a commercial hot spring, but sitting in 42C water with a view out over Lake Rotorua was sure a great way to start the last morning of our trip to New Zealand!)

9. Shotover River (the scenery passing by as we rafted down the river were amazing. The water is clean and a nice temperature as well.)

10. Viewing deck at the top of the gondola at Queenstown (amazing views, amazing sunset, and a great place to watch paragliding, parasailing, bungy jumping, luge, and just generally take it all in).

And we're off!...

2009-02-25T14:09:00.000-08:00

Off to New Zealand this afternoon for an adventure. Sure it's a very non-Hobbit like thing to do, but we aren't ordinary hobbitses...

Updates to follow when I have downtime and internet access in the Land Of Kiwis.

2009 Amgen Tour Of California (Solvang, CA)

2009-02-23T07:46:00.000-08:00

I've finally whittled down the selection of photos from 550+ down to 39. Most of the pics are from Stage 6, which was the time trial in Solvang. It was great fun to go down there and watch the racers go by one at a time for a few hours. And I am quite happy with the pictures that I did shoot.

Here are the people I've uploaded pictures of, if you should want to see any other racer's pic, let me know. I have pictures of most of them! Tom Boonen, Mark Cavendish, Steven Cozza, Tom Danielson, George Hincapie, Ben Jacques-Maynes, Floyd Landis, Gustav Larson, Francesco Mancebo, Stuart O'Grady, Frank Schleck, Yaroslav Popovych, Andy Schleck, Oscar Sevilla, Christian Vandevelde, Jens Voigt, Peter Weening, Tom Zirbel, Thor Hushovd, David Zabriskie, Lance Armstrong, and Levi Leipheimer.

http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g160/Fueco/09Tour-of-California/

If you want prints of anything, let me know (also, I have plenty of additional images of most of the riders. So if you want to see more of a particular rider, let me know!). Sample prices (approximate, depending on actual proportions of the print): 8x10 ($20), 11x14 ($35), 20x24 ($70), 24x36 ($150).

Here are a few samples...

More "ordinary" training rides...

2009-02-08T22:39:00.001-08:00

Here's the report for the first two centuries of 2009. And also likely the only ones for January and February (since I'm now supposed to taper for the Ironman in March.

For both rides, Joan and I met other friends at The Bike Outfitters (Los Altos) sometime before 8:00 AM to start the rides.

On Saturday January 31, our ride went out to Portola Valley and then up Old La Honda (ascent time for me was 23:15). From there we headed down Highway 84 to San Gregorio where we stopped to enjoy the sun out in front of the store. Then we headed south on Stage Road to Pescadero (if you haven't been through here, it's quite lovely). From there, up and over Haskins Hill and then up (west) Alpine Road to Skyline Blvd. This is a very nice climb. It seems a bit like Page Mill, but a bit easier (and shorter!). From there, down 84 to Woodside and to the end of Canada Road and back to Joan's place. A decent ride, and only one flat for me. 121 miles with probably 7500 feet of climbing (or maybe a little more).

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2531966

On Saturday February 7, same start; but since the road was still wet from the rain the previous night, we went to Canada Road first. Then we did the Polhemus Loop (bike trail from near the end of Canada to Polhemus Road to Crystal Springs Road to Skyline) to get farther north. We turned around just past what we refer to as the Manatees (a house that has sculptures of Manatees along the street) in Burlingame. From there, we headed back to Woodside, and then up Kings Mountain Road to Skyline. I felt pretty good, but didn't actually keep my time. Too bad, because it was probably close to my record time for that climb! After the climb, a quick trip down 84 back to Woodside and then back to Joan's (with a detour down to Stevens Creek Road on Foothill to make the ride just over 100 miles. 101 miles, and perhaps 4500 feet of climbing...

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2547148

Ironman Training Update

2009-01-22T16:55:00.000-08:00

Yes, an update on my "insane" training regimen...

My running has slowly gotten better. My longest run so far was 17 miles, which took longer than it should have because of some incredibly sore legs that day. I blame the fact that I chose (for some reason!) to run some hills in the middle of that one! I've been trying to run at least 2 days per week, though I admit that some weeks have been only one. But I think I will survive the run at least.

As for the swimming. Since I swam in high school and college, it's just a matter of finding my stroke again. I feel like I'm getting much better, and may actually be back up to where I was back in 2005 when my open-water swimming was at its peak. Getting back to the shape I was in during college would take some serious effort; as I was swimming at least 24,000 yards per week back then. I'm lucky these days to get in 10,000! I try to swim two or three days per week, and am up to 3600 yards per swim... Not bad pace-wise either. Hopefully I can hold it for the full 2.4 miles!

And finally the cycling. This should obviously be the easy part. 112 miles should seem like nothing after all the doubles, triples and longer rides I have done. The trick will be not pushing too hard. I have to have some energy left for that run!

Here's the latest trick in my arsenal for these triathlons. Hopefully the wetsuit will allow me to swim enough faster to negate the added time of taking it off after the swim!

2008, An Essay With Photos...

2009-01-02T14:52:00.000-08:00

Well, another year is just about over. Even as I write this post on December 5, I can tell you that this has been -by far- the best year of my life. And I hope that every year continues to be better than the last.

Certainly, there have been bumps along the way: I experienced my first layoff at the end of October. But the opportunity to teach myself new things has been taken. I now know Illustrator almost better than I know Photoshop. I need to learn all the intricate techniques in Photoshop to make up for it!

The top 5 days of the year (there were many more good days than that, but I had to narrow it down!):

#5. Finishing the LA Grand Tour Triple in the wee hours of June 29.
#4. Finishing the HooDoo 500 on the morning of September 15.
#3. Helping Joan finish the Furnace Creek 508 on October 5.
#2. April 5.
#1. March 20. The day I met the most wonderful person ever to grace God's green earth!

As for movies: 2008 was sort of a mediocre year for good movies, but there were a few gems. We also saw a few old movies at the Stanford theater, but I've narrowed this list down to only the newly released movies (because really, what modern film could compete with Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Trouble With Harry, Harvey, Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation or North By Northwest?). This is my five favorites that I saw this year...

#5. Son Of Rambow
#4. Happy Go Lucky
#3. Iron Man
#2. The Dark Knight
#1. Hors de Prix (Priceless)

Other noteworthy things that happened this year:

Gold Triple Crown (for completing 5 double centuries and volunteering at one). The doubles were: Devil Mountain, Central Coast, Davis, Eastern Sierra (my fastest double yet at 12:48), the LA Grand Tour (triple!) and Mount Tam (drove SAG for the last 50 miles of the course).

Concerts! Plenty of those! Joan and I saw The Waifs three times (twice in San Francisco and once in Santa Cruz), Amy Grant, and The Proclaimers (1.5 times this year for me as I was at there concert on New Years last year in Stirling, Scotland (only Auld Lange Syne was played after midnight)). The Proclaimers concert in May was by far the best concert I've ever attended. It didn't hurt that I managed to get 'I'm On My Way' dedicated to Joan during the set!

4th Alcatraz Swim. Not my fastest, but it's always fun to swim with jellyfish and all sorts of crazy people.

Skiing in the Canadian Rockies. Sunshine Village and Lake Louise both have better snow than anything I've skied in California; and those were 'bad' days!

First half-marathon. I didn't do this in a race, but in training. And I just squeaked it in before the end of the year. From Campbell Park nearly to Lexington Dam and back. And in under two hours. Not too bad! =)

And of course, every moment of ever day that I've spent with Joan has been priceless.

All in all, 2008 has to have been my best year yet. Sure, there have been obstacles. But life is about overcoming those. So they can't weight down the positive things that have happened in my life this past year.

Images From Castle Rock...

2008-12-15T17:51:00.000-08:00

The snow was flying at Castle Rock today, so of course I had to go and check it out. The weather was a balmy 34 degrees when I got there, and the snow was coming down lightly. My walk took me out to Castle Rock and then along the ridge down to California Ridge and Shady Rock. I enjoyed the shelter of the big cave at Shady Rock while finishing the latest Vince Flynn novel. Fortunately I didn't get too cold until I was just about finished. Sitting still in 34 degree temperatures takes a lot of effort when you're wearing shorts...

As always when the weather is a bit wet up there, I found myself drawn to the madrone trees. Something about the composition of the bark of that tree makes it a compelling photo subject. Too bad there wasn't more snow! Madrone leaves collect snow quite splendidly.

Here's the link to the pics:
http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g160/Fueco/Castle-December2008/

Coldest Ride Of The Season (so far!)...

2008-12-14T20:40:00.000-08:00

Today, Joan and I did a lovely 48 mile ride. After a lazy start to the morning, we headed out and off towards Woodside. Our plan was simple: get in what we could before the rain hit (according to the forecast, that would have been around 3:00 PM). The roads were nice and dry until we got to Portola Road, but the clouds didn't look too ominous over the ridge so we decided to go up Old La Honda.

As we climbed, I could feel the air getting colder and colder. And then the rain started coming in a little. So I was getting wet from rain and sweat. By the time we finished the hill, the temperature had to be down around 40. So of course, the descent down Highway 84 was thoroughly miserable. I was freezing, and trying to keep the speed down just to stay warmer.

By contrast, once we were back through Woodside and onto Sand Hill Road the temperature warmed up considerably and I almost felt human. But it wasn't until getting back and enjoying some hot apple cider and some ramen noodles that I felt back to normal...

Makes me wonder how I'm going to survive the temperatures in Alberta next week! =)

Ocean Swimming

2008-11-25T17:33:00.000-08:00

So I had to drop over to Santa Cruz to bring my car in for service. So naturally I had to jump in the water for bit as well! After hanging out at Coffeetopia (one of the nicer coffeeshops on that side of the hill), I headed over to Cowell's Beach. After getting the courage up, I jumped in and promptly froze. I managed perhaps 300 yards despite my head feeling like I had dunked it in a can of ice water...

Good times! The water temperature was 55.8 degrees today (the air temperature was perhaps 60). I'll have to repeat this once in a while to stay used to cold water. It's cheaper than buying a wetsuit! ;)

SJBC Winter Series Criterium #1

2008-11-04T11:09:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday, winter series took a ride on the rainy side. Fortunately, the rain wasn't actually falling during the ride. But the roads were wet, so it seemed a bit sketchy at first.

From the start, I somehow ended up in front of the pack. And nobody would pass me. By the time I slowed down enough to force them to pass, I was too tired to do much more. And then I almost got bumped going into one of the corners, and ended up off the back and spent the rest of the race trying to catch back up. The good part was that I didn't get lapped by the field (on a 1.3 mile lap (we did 15 laps)). But I did end up finishing about 2/3 of a lap behind the lead pack. It would seem that I came in 12th place, though there is a little confusion about that.

On the other hand, Joan did the smart thing and stayed in the pack from the start and was able to do the entire ride with the lead group. So she finished a little higher up in the standings than I did. 9th I think, though they haven't posted the final results yet.

Lessons learned: stay with the pack! Don't start on the front, let someone else set the pace! Don't run 6.5 miles the afternoon before a race! Good times though. And I was happy that I was able to essential time trial 20 miles in under 55 minutes...

http://www.teamsanjose.org/ws/2008/ride1101.php

SJBC Winter Series

2008-10-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

So, today was the third race in the annual winter series of races put on by the San Jose Bicycle Club. It's about time that I posted something about the races I've been doing!

October 12 was the prologue race for the series: 1.9 miles all-out with a hill at the end. Nothing makes you suffer like that! At the end, our lungs were burning, we had hacking coughs, and yet we still had the energy to do the climb up to Henry Coe State Park afterward. My time was 5:17.01, and Joan's was 5:21.42 (59th and 66th out of 103 respectively).

Prologue Results

October 19th was the firs individual time trial: 15.5 miles of solo suffering! The course was through the hills northwest of Morgan Hill. Afterward, we rode the course backwards with a slightly longer variation at the south end. My time was 46:38.18 and Joan's was 47:46.34.

Time Trial Results

Today was the hill climb for the series. The course was up Dunne Road from Anderson Lake to the Henry Coe park entrance. The climb is fairly tough, and sustained (minus a couple of short downhills). My time was 44:38, full results are up...

Henry Coe Hill Climb results

Haven't had enough?

2008-09-29T22:19:00.000-07:00

Just in case you can't get enough of my boring life; here's another blog for you to read!

http://ironman-md.blogspot.com/

All about training for an Ironman Triathlon...

Hallucinations after 40 hours of no sleep...

2008-09-27T22:49:00.000-07:00

If there is only one other thing I should mention about the HooDoo 500 is the strange things the mind can conjure up when sleep-deprivation sets in. When you are thoroughly exhausted mentally and physically; you see and imagine weird things. Here are a few examples:

1. Little bushes along the roadside looked like either people or animals.

2. Street signs looked like people standing on the side of the road. This was due to extremely dry/bloodshot eyes.

3. I swear that I saw Waldo a few times during the second night...

HooDoo you think you are?

2008-09-17T18:12:00.000-07:00

"Dreams are more real than reality itself, they're closer to the self." -GAO XINGJIAN

But what happens when that dream becomes reality? Certainly, living the dream has to make life more real. Or at least it will make life seem more real. Why not chase your dreams and find out for sure? I'll certainly try!

Some time in the spring of 2007, I first heard of a new race coming up that summer; the HooDoo 500. For some reason, the name of the race was calling out to me. The allure of riding through the hoodoo country of southern Utah was a siren call that could not be ignored for long. Last year though, I did not think that I was ready for it. I had only done two doubles, and nothing longer. Surely a quintuple century would take a bit more training and preparation than that! So I talked myself out of trying for the inaugural iteration of the event.

Coming into 2008, I only had a few goals in cycling: to do more than 3 doubles and to go faster than my record at the Eastern Sierra. Early on, I focused more on speed; spending time on the track, and just generally trying to get faster. By the time early March came around, I was way behind on my mileage for the year. And then something miraculous happened: I met Joan, and suddenly I found the inspiration that I needed to go for some of the crazier events in ultra cycling. The Devil Mountain Double, the Central Coast Double, the Davis Double, and the Eastern Sierra Double all went well. I even beat my best time at the ESD by nearly an hour. And then Joan and I did the triple century option at the LA Grand Tour. Suddenly, I thought I might have what it would take to go for something longer. Naturally, I came back to going for the HooDoo 500. Finally, I worked up the courage and dropped my entry in the mail. No more excuses!

Coming into the race, my only goal was to finish within the time limit. To even do that would require some sort of super-human effort compared to anything else I have ever done!

Soon enough, I found myself at 5:00 PM on a Thursday loading my bike into a rental van and getting ready to head out. My dad had picked me up at work, and then we went off to pick Joan up at her place. With the van loaded to its gills, we headed out of town. Past San Luis Reservoir and through Bakersfield, we drove into the night, making it to the Motel 6 in Mojave to rest for the night. In the morning, we continued on through the desert of California, Nevada and Arizona before finally reaching Saint George early in the afternoon.

After getting ice and water, we checked into the Motel 6 and then Joan and I headed out for dinner at Benja Thai. Would you believe that there is actually a rather good Thai place in a town like Saint George? There Pad Thai wasn't great, but the Panang Curry was right up there in quality with the better places I've been to here in the Bay Area. And the atmosphere is also rather nice.

After dinner, we headed off to check-in and the pre-race meeting. And after not long, we were heading off to sleep. And for once I got a decent night's rest the night before an event! Even so, the alarm went off far too early (5:30). And then I was running through the shower, and changing for the start of the race at 7:00.

The 48 hours that followed were a bit of a blur, and there's no way that I could even hope to get everything in the proper order. So I won't really try to do that. I'll just go through some of the thoughts that flittered through my mind, and some of of the scenery that I rode through.

Once the race was on, most of the people took off. One guy even turned to me and said, "What's their hurry?" Good question! We still had 513 miles to go! I certainly wasn't about to go rushing off and run myself into the ground. I set off on my own pace, and figured that the miles would take care of themselves.

After leaving Saint George, the route goes up through Washington and down through Hurricane. From there down into Arizona, on some of the nicest roads you could hope to ride. One bit of scenery that impressed me along this section was the series of sandstone cliffs that seem to mark the Utah-Arizona border. It's almost like the cliffs are there to keep outsiders out of Utah. You can see why the area wasn't heavily settled until the Mormon's settled around the Great Salt Lake. It must have been quite imposing, even compared to the desert of northern Arizona! From Fredonia, the route turns north towards Kanab (Time Station #1, 82.2 miles- 12:26 PM (5:26 race time)). From here it's a long steady climb up into the heart of "color country". You really could not ask for a better place to be riding on a beautiful afternoon in September. The colors in the cliffs are a spectacular background for riding.

After passing through the town of Hatch, the route turns east on state route 12 through Red Canyon and Bryce Canyon (time station #2 154.2 miles, 18:43, 11:43 race time). The scenery just seemed to get better and better along the course, and Red Canyon just might be the most spectacular place I've ever ridden through. Or is that just me beginning to feel the 145 miles I had already ridden?

After a fast descent through the edge of Bryce Canyon, we headed through the towns of Tropic and Escalante. Once past Escalante, the first major climb of the race begins. And it seems to go on forever! Once my support vehicle caught back up to me (fortunately, right at sunset so I didn't have to ride illegally at night without lights!) I mounted my lights and started the drudgery of riding at night. Riding with a car immediately behind you take a bit of getting used to. But it is made easier if you know and trust completely the person doing the driving!

At night, my speed was nowhere near what it was during the day. I kept having to stop in order to refresh my motivation to continue. I had to consume mass quantities of Mountain Dew and chips just to stay awake. The caffeine helped me stay awake, but I felt a bit like a zombie while actually riding. . After what seemed like days, I finally made it to the top of the mountain, at 9600 feet. I was thoroughly exhausted by this point, and it was 4:10 AM (21:10 into the race!). I started the descent, but realized rather quickly that I needed to stop and rest for a little bit. At 4:50, I was in the front seat of the van, and asked Joan and dad to wake me up at 5:30. It only seemed like a few minutes, but it would have to be enough to keep me going for quite a few more miles! By 6:00, I was back on my bike and blasting downhill towards Torrey, where we stopped at a gas station just before sunrise.

After resting a bit there, and getting some fresh coffee from the cafe next to the gas station; I hit the road again. At this point, I began leap-frogging with another rider named Leslie. It seemed that every time I stopped for the next few hours, she would pass me. The weather that morning was quite cold, and I was facing a headwind for much of the time. Fortunately, the wind died down shortly after I passed through Loa, and the going got a little less disheartening (Time Station 4 (285.1 miles, 8:38 AM, 25:38 at the Snuggle Inn in Loa)). After leaving town, there are a series of climbs (desert rollers!) before a nice fast descent into Koosharem.

From that town, it's a gradual downhill down past Otter Creek Reservoir, and through some lovely country to the town of Panguitch (Time Station 5, 375.0, 16:18, 33:18. This is also where I learned that half of the riders had dropped out. So it was a bit encouraging to know that I at least was still going!). This section is where I had the most problems with food and water. I just could not seem to find anything appetizing. And I just sort of suffered my way through.

After Panguitch the course begins a daunting climb up to 10620 feet above Cedar Breaks. The first part of he climb was rather hot, as the wind had died down once I left town. The suffer-fest continued! Yet somehow, I managed to keep climbing. Once Joan and Dad caught up with me, they followed behind me for the rest of the daylight hours. It did help to have them back there. Just knowing that someone was with me, even if not riding along by my side, seemed to help with the mental aspect of the ride. The most amazing thing was that the altitude did not seem to affect me at all. Perhaps this was due to the gradual ascent from 2500 feet to 10000+. Whatever it was, it is good to know that my body can still climb on the bike after 400 miles in the saddle!

As the climb wore on and day turned to night, the temperature returned to really cold. It must have dropped down into the 40s and perhaps into the upper 30s, as I was beginning to get cold even while going uphill. Fortunately, Joan really knows how to encourage me; and I was able to keep going. She even started blasting my favorite band from the CD player in the van to keep me going. It sure helped to be rocking out to The Proclaimers while suffering on my bike! Eventually I reached the top and was now faced with a long descent into Cedar City. This was by far the coldest part of the ride, and I had to stop a few times to warm myself up in the warm air from the van's heater. This whole area looks like a place well worth visiting in the daytime. Even riding under a nearly full moon, I could tell that the surround scenery was amazing!

At this point I also got to ride through a controlled burn along the side of the highway. This certainly didn't help my already irritated eyes! But I made it through and down to the time station in Cedar City (TS 6, 433.9, 22:56, 39:56). From here, the route looked easy on the elevation profile at least!

After leaving Cedar City, I was fairly surprised while stopped to see Josh and his support vehicle go by. I had no idea that he was even anywhere near me on the course. I hadn't seen them since Loa! This gave me something to chase on the long mellow climb to the west. This one really did seem to go on forever. I know I stopped a few times to make sure that the climb actually had a summit! Eventually it did end, and I then started a series of fast descents over desert rollers and through Newcastle and Enterprise. The last climb of the ride came along and for once, the climbing wasn't all that bad. Knowing that it was the last major climb helped a lot, and after it was done; everything else just kind of blended together. Eventually we came to the entrance to Snow Canyon State Park, which was where my support crew had to leave me and continue into Saint George (TS 7, 503.9, 5:28, 46:28).

Despite delirium from sleep deprivation and an incredibly sore body, I managed to find my way back even though I took a couple of wrong turns along the way. I was absolutely ecstatic when I saw the sign for the Best Western Abbey Inn. It was finally over!

After I finished and got congratulated by all of the race staff that was still around, we headed back to the Motel 6 to shower and rest a bit before the post-race banquet. It was good to eat some real food and talk to some of the other racers. It sure is amazing what some people can do! The winner's time of 30:59 was nearly 16 hours faster than mine. But he still congratulated me on finishing. And for me, that was all I had hoped for! My final time was 47:41, a mere 19 minutes before the cutoff. But how many people even have the audacity to dream of riding 519 mountainous miles inside of 48 hours?

The drive home is a bit of a blur to me, as I slept for at least half of it. I'm simply amazed that Joan was able to do so much driving on so little sleep. I only hope that I can be half of the crewperson when she does the Furnace Creek 508 that she was for me! There's no way that I could have done this rather without Joan or my dad. Someday I may try the voyager division, but I am certainly not ready for that yet!

So dream a little dream. And then go for it!

More pictures!

http://www.joangrant.com/hoodoo08.html
http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g160/Fueco/HooDoo%20500-%202008/

Full race report:
http://www.planetultra.com/Hoodoo500/2008Webcast/index.htm

Course Map (zoom in and out with the bar at the upper left: it works just like Google Maps!):
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2225427

Worst idea for cyclists?

2008-09-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

This may not be the worst thing ever...

But it is illegal to wear headphones while riding.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/macworld/20080908/tc_macworld/ibikeconsolehelpscyclistsoperateipodnano_0

Absolutely... =)

2008-09-05T13:23:00.000-07:00

Where's the helmet, though?

From Alcatraz

2008-08-28T17:16:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday morning, I took part in the annual Alcatraz Challenge swim. Good times were had by all, I assume...

I only hit two jellyfish in the water, and swam reasonably well considering how infrequently I've been swimming this summer. My time was 1:00:44, which is 15 minutes off my best time for the course. But when I did that, I was swimming upwards of 12,000 yards per week compared to 2,000 to 4,000 per week these days.

My legs cramped a bit after I hit the second jellyfish, since I started to sprint to get away from it. But hey: no stings, so it's all good!

After the swim I went for a nice 44 mile ride up through Sausalito, Corte Madera and Tiburon.

In the evening, Joan and I went to The Waifs' show at The Great American Music Hall. An excellent show, and it was our third time seeing them this year (and my fifth over all). They never seem to put on a bad show, and they were certainly "on" for this one.

In honor of the Olympics...

2008-08-14T15:27:00.001-07:00

B.C., from August 14, 2008... Good stuff!

Earthquakes rattle LA...

2008-08-05T15:50:00.001-07:00

No, not the ones that shake the ground and damage buildings. The San Jose Earthquakes beat the LA Galaxy (or the Gals or the Scum or whatever you want to call them) on a beautiful day in Oakland on Sunday.

Final score was 3-2, with the winning goal coming off the foot of Ryan Cochrane in the 90th minute. Good stuff! We celebrated like we'd just one the MLS Cup!

Here's my favorite pic from the match:

And the link to the others:
http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g160/Fueco/

It doesn't seem so scary any more...

2008-07-13T21:48:00.000-07:00

Last July, when I rode The Tour Of The California Alps (aka The Death Ride), it was one of the toughest rides I had ever done. I suffered in the heat, my legs hurt on the hills, and finishing was a major accomplishment. My riding time was 10:39 (only about 1:20 shorter than my fastest double century at the time).

Fast forward a year... Since the last time I rode the Death Ride, I have completed six doubles and a triple (the latter coming only two weeks before the DR); along with logging well over 10,000 miles of riding. I can at least say that my training has been adequate for this ride. And I did sort of laugh when reading the waiver before signing it on Friday night. Yes, I am prepared; I promise!

Friday afternoon, I left work at 2:45 and was off to pick up Joan for the 4+ hour drive to get to Markleeville. Since we had to check in by 9:00 PM, we had no time to stop along the way: though the cherry stands are awfully tempting this time of year! Without much struggle, we made it to Turtle Rock Park with plenty of time to spare for check in. And after doing so, we pitched our tent and ate a dinner. It's not easy sleeping on the side of a fairly busy highway, but somehow we managed a few hours before the alarm went off at 4:30.

After hurriedly putting cycling clothes on and getting everything ready, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then got on our bikes. At 5:30 we were ready to start from the entrance to Turtle Rock Park.

The first few miles are a short descent through Markleeville and then off towards the first climb of the day. Monitor Pass seems like a nice little jaunt when you're hitting the bottom of it around 6:00 in the morning. As we climbed, the temperature gradually came up to more comfortable levels. I was feeling a little tired on the climb, but managed to make it up without too much difficulty. And then of course down for the screaming descent down the east side of the pass and down to Highway 395.

These descents in the Death Ride are some of the craziest ones I've done. It's not that they are technical; rather it's all the fast descenders who seem to think that everyone else is comfortable having people flying past them in close proximity. They just don't seem to realize that we aren't all racers!

After getting some "breakfast" (cookies and fruit) at the turnaround, back uphill for the longest climb of the day. The east side of Monitor is really just a steady ascent that goes on for something like 10 miles (though it may feel like many more if you are tired!). Highlights included: the cheering squad/water bottle fillers at the water stop (nothing gets you motivated quite like having people cheer for you), watching the streaming hordes of people descending the hill, and the photographer saying that he got Joan and me into the same shot (we'll know for sure when the pictures are posted). Before long, we were back at the top and cramming in food and water...

I think that the descent of the west side of Monitor is probably the most fun one during the Death Ride. The traffic has thinned out a bit by this point, and the road is fairly well maintained and windy but not super-technical. Just a lot of fun for a few short minutes. And then we were off to climb Ebbetts Pass, probably the toughest of the day. There are sections where the grade exceeds 12%, and you're far enough into the ride that that actually hurts. It really sort of helped seeing the guy from the Rolling Bones Team hauling the trailer complete with coffin and skeleton (we were wondering how they decide who gets the honor of hauling it...).If he can do this thing, surely we can.

But again, the climbing had to stop at some point. And it finally did, though I was really beginning to feel the miles and hills. I was having trouble keeping up with Joan; and I think what kept me going was knowing that she was still up ahead of me. I've begun to realize the value of having someone else riding in the ride with me, even if we aren't right next to each other the entire time.

After a brief descent into Hermit Valley, we went back up for the 5 mile climb to the top of Ebbetts Pass. This is by far the easiest hill in the ride, but it still takes a lot out of you this far into the ride. With a bit of willpower, I was able to get back up. And then we headed off down to the lunch stop. Of course we had stop and stuff ourselves with food there! The sandwich and cookies and chips tasted great. And the helped to fuel us for the remaining pass. But first we had quite a few miles to get to the bottom. But then I noticed that I had a flat, so I had to sit and change the tube before continuing on. That's the second time this year Joan and I have come out of a lunch stop to find that one of us had a flat (Joan's came at the Central Coast Double).

Coming uphill through Markleeville, it seemed that the entire town was out there to cheer on the riders. Another boost of morale, and at a good time for it. The temperature was getting a bit warm and I was beginning to suffer a lot at this point. And it really didn't help riding right past my car. But I did... And before too long we were in Woodfords and ready for the last major climb of the day. Carson Pass is about 15 miles long, but has a significant "flat" section in the middle. The opening part, up to Hope Valley, was rather hot at the bottom. But then some clouds starting coming in and did a nice job of blocking the sun. Soon enough though, those clouds were threatening rain, and I would see the occasional lightning bolt. But that stayed off a bit to the south (for then at least!). After passing through Hope Valley and another cheering section, we came in to the rest stop. After filling bottles and eating a bit, we were off onto the relatively flat section that leads up to the final tough part of Carson Pass.

By the time I got to the last two miles of the pass, I was beginning to get my second wind (or was it my seventh?). And I managed to catch back up to Joan (she does much better than me in the hotter weather). So we made it to the top of the final pass together. And then we got to go and check in, get our five-pass pins and ice cream bars. While we were sitting there eating ice cream and other goodies, I felt a rain drop through my helmet. A few moments later Joan felt one, and then the clouds just unleashed themselves upon us all. Then the hail came... Everyone up there huddled underneath the tents to wait out the worst of it. After the hail turned back to rain, we headed out to finish the ride (wearing high tech rain jackets made from trash bags).

Carson Pass is a fun descent in good conditions, but on wet road it is rather miserable. It was certainly good that it wasn't cold. By the time we got down to Woodfords, the road was just about dry. So we did get to enjoy the last few miles to the finish. At the finish, we had some excellent barbequed chicken and other goodies. The potato salad, beans and cookies were all delicious. And of course I had to have some pudding and ice cream for desert.

Total ride time was just a bit over 10 hours, which was about 25 minutes faster than my time last year...

Here's the route:

And here's a sample picture of what it looked like up on the pass in the afternoon:

Fun with Fireworks...

2008-07-05T14:58:00.000-07:00

Independence Day was nice this year... A 63 mile ride through the Sierra foothills, and legal fireworks in Folsom.

Pictures of the week...

2008-07-03T19:06:00.000-07:00

Okay, so these are from a couple of weekends ago.

Joan and I hiked Mission Peak at sunset on a Friday evening. The colors are exaggerated by the smoke from the recent fires in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Le Tour Grand

2008-06-30T22:19:00.000-07:00

Since my boss asked me this morning why I would subject my body to the torture of riding for 22 hours straight, I will attempt an answer. Yes, this will be something short and sweet like George Mallory's response to the question about why he wanted to climb Mount Everest ("Because it's there.")...

What good is life if you can't discover what your seemingly frail body is capable of?

Well, there you have it... Now, on to the biggest ride of my life so far. The 50th LAW Grand Tour. This is the grand-daddy of the ultra cycling events at least in America. This was staged as the first double century way back in 1959. Since then, the double has sprouted a couple of evil siblings; a triple and a quadruple century.

If there wasn't a time limit, the quad might be a worth goal. But riding 400 miles in less than 24 hours is a pretty hefty accomplishment. I haven't even yet done a double at that pace!

The night before the ride, Joan and I got a pizza from a most outstanding restaurant in Canoga Park. The "Brooklyn Pie" from Red Balls Pizza is quite possibly the best pizza I have ever had. We each had a slice for dinner before attempting to go to sleep rather early. Waking up at 3:00, we quickly got ready and headed off to Malibu for the start. At 4:30, we started into the Highland Triple course. Never having done a triple, my goal was just to finish in a reasonable time.

For the first 25 miles or so, the route follows the Pacific Coast Highway in a beautiful place. The problem is that we were riding in the dark and could not see much of the scenery around us. The most common sound was the waves crashing on the shore. Coming into Oxnard, we had one of the highlights of the ride: riding between strawberry fields replete with ripe berries. I find it hard to imagine a smell better than fresh strawberries on a long ride (though riding past a hamburger stand about 200 miles later was pretty close!).

The big climb of the day came around not too much later. The climb up Portrero is quite nasty despite being less than three miles. The brunt of the climbing comes up towards the top, where the grade gets up to 25% at one spot! That can be brutal even in a car... But we managed to make it over the climb without too many problems, though my glasses did fog up enough that I had to stop at the top to clear them up.

Between that climb and the hill before Ojai, the route travels mostly through residential areas. Not bad, but it makes you appreciate how crowded southern California can be. At mile 70, we even rode past the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Riding past places like In-n-Out and Tommy's just made the hunger pangs grow in anticipation of the next rest stop...

After Santa Paula, the climb over the ridge to Ojai begins. The climbing is not that bad, but the temperature had gotten a bit on the warm side. So I suffered anyway. Coming down into the valley, we made our way into town and to the park where the lunch stop was at. Never has a simple bean and cheese burrito tasted so good. And of course everything else I ate tasted good as well. I figure that I ate somewhere around 1000 calories at that rest stop and washed it down with 150 calories worth of Dr. Pepper. Just one of the joys of ultracycling...

After leaving town, the course loops around Lake Casitas and over a couple more relatively minor climbs. This was a nice place to ride, though a bit smoggy. After the second of those climbs, the major climbs are over for the ride. Only a bunch of rolling hills remain. At Carpenteria, we turned north whilst the double riders turned south and back towards the finish. We still had an extra 97 mile out-and-back-course to ride before making that same trek back to the finish. So we turned north and through Santa Barbara and then onto Highway 101 for the stretch into Gaviota. Fortunately, the freeway has a very wide shoulder so it never felt unsafe to be there. But of course, cars whizzing past at 75 is a bit unnerving even if they are 20 or more feet away... Of course, the headwind we were facing didn't do much to encourage us.

After the turnaround, we headed back somewhat with the wind (unfortunately, the wind was dying down at the end of the day) fueled by cookies and fresh water. Then, not too far before the rest stop in Goleta, I got a flat tire on the front. So we had to stop on the side of the road to fix that. I used one of my air cartridges just so it wouldn't take too long to get moving again. I was getting to the point where stopping for longer than 10 minutes is a bad idea.

In Goleta, we refueled on cup-o-soup and fresh fruit and then started into the drudgery of riding into the darkness again (with somewhere around 80 miles still to ride...). Despite the sometimes confusing course (thanks to hard to read street signs), we made decent time back to Carpenteria. There we got more fuel and encouragement from the volunteers working the stop. And from here on to the finish, we rode with a guy named Phil who seemed to be suffering just as bad as I was.

Riding through Ventura had to be the hardest part. And it wasn't the difficulty of the riding. The route is hard to follow in places and the part along a bike path is difficult to ride fast due to the dips in the trail. But we still made it through and back to the last rest stop in Port Hueneme. There we had some delicious hot soup and plenty of other high-calorie goodies to keep us going for the last 35 miles.

From there, the route turned into a slog for me. That was probably the most tired I've been. And the fact that my legs were feeling like they might start cramping at any moment. But as long as I kept pedaling, they kept working; so who am I to complain?

All those miles from the morning along the PCH were repeated in the opposite direction. And I still couldn't see the scenery. But knowing that the finish was getting close kept me going. Well that, and the fact that I was riding with Joan.

With about 20 miles to go, we were passed by the first of the quad riders (he ended up with a time of 21:40! That's four consecutive 5:25 centuries... Crazy!). He was absolutely flying. The rolling hills kept coming, and at every one I would think that this had to be the last one. But it wasn't until I saw the do not enter sign on a side road that I knew we were almost there. And then came the entrance to Pepperdine University on the left. And there it was at last our exit from the highway. And then the very last hill; the one up into the parking lot of Malibu City Hall where the start/finish for the ride is.

After resting a bit at the finish (and having some excellent cake to help celebrate the 50th Grand Tour) we headed back to Canoga Park and the Motel 6. Once there we of course took much needed showers and settled in for two more slices of pizza each. and then off to sleep. Of course, that only lasted for 4.5 hours, and then we ate the rest of the pizza and went off on our way home.

During the ride we stopped for brunch (chili burger and milkshakes at Tommy's in Valencia) and did much snacking (chips, soda, brownie, etc...). Good stuff! Then once we got back into the Santa Clara Valley, we went over to La Bamba for a burrito and then off to the Stanford Theatre to watch Breakfast At Tiffany's. Altogether an outstanding weekend. I was incredibly sore and tired the next day; but it was worth every moment. Our total time was 22 hours give or take a minute or two. And I think the ride time was in the 19:30 range.

Here's the route map... And below that will be a map showing what 300 miles looks like on a relatively straight highway (Red Bluff to Fresno in this case)...

Davis Double (Hot hot hot!)

2008-05-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

The 2008 Davis Double turned into quite the sufferfest. High temperature along the course ranged from the low 90s to close to 110. Cobb Mountain was perhaps the most painful part. I would think that the hill would be just fine in temperatures into the 70s. But in the 90s, I was suffering big time. And the lack of a breeze was not helping!

In the morning, I felt great; breezing through the first 50 miles in about 2:40. But once the temps climbed above 90, I started falling apart. Fortunately, Joan caught up with me at the top of Cobb Mountain (mile 104), and we were able to use each other for motivation for the rest of the ride.

Highlights of the ride: riding downhill through the blast furnace, chili at the last rest stop, riding in pacelines at 25 MPH in the Central Valley, cranking slight downhills at 25-30 MPH on the aerobars, and of course the cobbler and ice cream at the finish...

All in all, a good experience; but I don't think I want to do another double in that sort of weather... Total time was 15:15 for 203 miles with 7500 feet of climbing.

Central Coast Double

2008-05-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was another beautiful ride. I could still feel the tiredness in my legs from the Devil Mountain Double two weeks prior, but the ride was thoroughly enjoyable. I rode all but the first 87 miles with Joan, so at least I had good company for most of the ride. And the climb up Nacimiento-Ferguson Road has to be one of the most beautiful climbs you could ask for. More details soon...

210 miles with 13,900 feet of climbing. And a total elapsed time of 15:55.

Whipping The Devil...

2008-04-28T20:06:00.000-07:00

For years, I've been riding my bike in the hills above the east side of San Jose; and on most of those rides, I've seen the direction markers for the DMD. And once I found out what the ride actually was; I assumed that you had to be nuts to even attempt a ride like that. But then, ultra cycling has a way of growing on you. I started off with a few double metric centuries, and then slowly worked my way up to my first double century (Eastern Sierra in 2006). After that, I figured that it would only be a matter of time before I could take on the truly crazy rides.

Last year, I wanted to give the Devil Mountain Double a go. But bike problems early in the year forced me to give up on that dream for the year. After getting my new frame in June last year and earning my triple crown jersey (three doubles in one year) in 2007, I knew that it was time to go for the DMD. I certainly couldn't blame a lack of base mileage, having ridden nearly 10,700 miles in 2007; and being well on my way to besting that this year. The trick had to be in preparing mentally and ensuring that I was properly rested before the ride.

So some time in late March, I dropped my entry form in the mailbox. And as they say, "The rest is history". On April 5 I rode the Mount Hamilton Loop, which is most of the second half of the ride. I figured that if I knew the course, I'd have an easier time once the suffering started. But there was one major difference: the high temperature that day was 57, much cooler than the forecast high of 83 for the day of the ride.

On Friday night, I came home early and got my bike and other gear ready to go for the next morning. After cleaning my bike and setting every; I settled in to watch the Sharks game on TV. After watch the boys lose in overtime (fortunate it didn't go too late...), I went off to sleep with two alarms set (3:44 and 3:45).

Once my alarm jarred me from a deep sleep, I was up and running out the door. It took me a mere 35 minutes to drive up to the San Ramon Marriot for the 5:00 AM start. I checked in about 10 minutes before the start, and was ready to roll. Or at least as ready as I was ever going to be (how can you really be prepared for a ride of this magnitude?).

After a nice cruise over a few rolling hills on Crow Canyon Road, the first climb of the day was on. I've done Mount Diablo before; and it's really not that bad of a climb. Not easy, but doable; and it's especially nice right at dawn on a warm day. And I have to tell you that watching the sunrise from the side of any mountain is something to behold. But anyway... I took it really easy up to the the top, and after reaching the summit and checking in I was off to race down the north side of the mountain and through Walnut Creek and Clayton on the way to the next big climb, Morgan Territory Road. MTR is a great ascent with lots of shade, and would be really great if the road was in better shape. Fortunately the descent was in much better shape. And yes, 'The Plunge' is a fast descent. After screaming down into the Livermore Valley the route heads for some fast flat sections east and up over Altamont Pass Road. Altamont is a fairly easy climb, and before long I was heading down the other side.

After making my way over to the bottom of Patterson Pass, it was time for the actually suffering to begin. The temperature was beginning to really warm up, and there was no wind whatsoever. So the heat was starting to get to me, and I still had over 120 miles left to ride. Finally I got to the water stop near the top, and recouped a little bit of energy. And then I got to go over the steepest part of the climb! The first sighting of that part of the hill causes an "Oh my God!" type of reaction from a lot of people, and indeed it's written on the road... "Oh my *!"

But I made it over that; though I felt a little disoriented coming down the west side and back down in the outskirts of Livermore. But I made it down fine, and over to the beginning of Mines Road. I made it to the rest stop at the bottom of the hill and got some actual motivation for the rest of the ride. Seeing Joan there really did keep me going during the long hours to follow (hugs do wonders, don't they?). But I did also get some much needed real food. And that helped for the immediate need of climbing Mines Road and over to the lunch stop at Junction.

The climb on Mines Road really isn't bad, especially with a tailwind going south. At the water stop, I ran into my dad who was riding the Mount Hamilton Challenge (Mount Hamilton Loop with Calaveras to finish, and a total of 124 miles with 9000 feet of climbing) at the next water stop at mile marker 17 on Mines Road. We chatted for a few minutes. After leaving there, I cruised the last few miles into Junction and got some good food. A turkey and cheese sandwich can sure taste amazing! After refueling and resting for about 15 minutes, I was off on the road to Mount Hamilton.

Most of the road up to Hamilton is fairly mellow. There are a few climbs before you get to the meat of the climb, but none are all that bad. But once you get over that bridge and onto the real climb. I actually felt fairly good at this point, and yet I was passing a lot of people that were suffering mightily. Every few minutes, I'd see someone stopped on the side of the road, resting in the shade. People were puking, walking there bikes, and wobbling; and yet I was able to continue pedaling the whole time.

Still, it was a tremendous relief to get to the water stop about a mile from the summit. I got some orange juice and a popsicle (nice touch guys!), and refilled my bottles and was off to descend into San Jose. Now, I hate the descent off Mount Hamilton when I'm not tired: it's much worse when you have been on your bike for 11 hours! Still, I managed to maintain a decent speed. But then, coming into one corner, I hit my brakes and started to slide. Fortunately I was able to stop before I going off the road. But I took it very easy for the rest of that part of the descent. When I got to the top of the next rise in the road, I stopped to check out my tire. Sure enough; there was a huge section of tread missing, exposing the cotton casing underneath. I very gingerly continued my descent, just hoping to find a tire. Thankfully I made it into the Crothers Road rest stop without a blowout. Once I got in, I asked the guy (Tim) working the stop if he happened to have an extra tire around. He said that he did, and even changed the tire for me while I was refueling. After that (and calling my mom to tell her that the tire problem had been solved -I had called her to see if she might be able to bring a tire from home and meet me along my route) I was back on the road with a promise to bring the tire back to Tim the next day.

After finishing the descent of Hamilton, I made my way onto Piedmont and then over to Sierra Road, the final major hill of the day. Sierra Road is one of those hills that can kick your butt when you're fresh. So I was just hoping to survive the climb. I took note of the time I started up the hill, so I'd get an idea of how much 150 miles slows down my pace. And the answer was surprising. I suffered a bit, but the cooling temperatures (it was closing in on sunset by this point) helped me to ride well on this bump in the road. I made the top in 42 minutes; only 7 minutes slower than my best time on Sierra Road this year. Then I made my way over to the famous "Pet the Goat" rest stop. After petting the goat and refilling my water bottles, I was off for the fast descent down Felter Road. And then another steep climb, up Calaveras this time. From there, I made my way past Calaveras Resevoir and then down into the valley above Sunol. I turned my lights on before making that descent, so it must have been near 8:00 PM.

After pulling into the Sunol rest stop, I had a hot dog. And let me tell you that 5-star restaurants have nothing on a hot dog at mile 182 of a long and hard bike ride. I then headed off down Niles Canyon Road for the most dangerous part of the ride. Niles Canyon is bad during the day. Heavy traffic and no shoulder are not a good combination for riding. Fortunately traffic wasn't too bad while I was on the road. But in no time, I was turning onto Palomares Canyon Road for yet another climb. But PCR is very mellow compared to the earlier climbs. So it was more about enjoying climbing on a road with absolutely no traffic at night. And the descent was even more fun!

From PCR, the route heads into Castro Valley and then back over the hills on Crow Canyon Road, before meeting Norris Canyon Road. Norris an easy climb. And yet is was nice knowing that it was also the last of the climbs. After 2.4 miles and some 500 feet of climbing, there it is painted on the road "DVD 0'". No more climbing!

From the top, it is a simple quick decent into San Ramon and over to the Marriot and the finish. But there is a couple more feet of climbing! The overpass over 680 goes up at least two feet! =)

The stats for the day: 206.1 miles with 18,600 feet of climbing; and two bee stings. My total time was 17:58. This was obviously not my fastest double, but it was pretty much what I was shooting for time-wise. I would have been at least twenty minutes faster without the tire troubles...

A big thank you to the volunteers at all of the rest stops. But special mentions to: Joan (of course!) for inspiring me for the rest of the ride, Tim (for the tire, which I did replace the next day), and the lady making the sandwiches at the lunch stop.

2008 Devil Mountain Double Results

Random picture for today...

2008-04-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

Thankfully the Sharks won last night, so I didn't have to wear this shirt all day today... =)

Bring on the Stars!

The Return Of The Earthquakes

2008-04-12T20:24:00.000-07:00

I held back on my normal Saturday crazy ride in order to go up and welcome the San Jose Earthquakes back to the MLS (Major League Soccer). The old Earthquakes moved to Houston after the 2005 season and became the Dynamo. We now have the 'Quakes back, but as an expansion team. So we can't expect too much from them this season, but they are at least exceeding my own expectations. This team is fun to watch: and I will admit that chanting and singing in support of a team sure beats not having a team to support.

I left home this morning around 8:00 AM to ride to the BART station in Fremont. After an uneventul ride, I stopped at the Raley's in Fremont to pick up a sandwich and a beer to enjoy before the game. Then I was off to meet the boys and girls from The Casbah, Club Quake and the 1906 Ultras.

After 2.5 hours of standing in the sun (today was the first 80+ degree day of the year), I could tell that my feet were starting to bake. Something about wearing sandals with no socks... But the conversations were good, centering -quite naturally- around football. I even met a guy from Ireland who is a hardcore Glasgow Celtic fan (he grew up going to the games just about every week).

Once inside the stadium, we were treated to the return of the MLS trophies (from 2001 and 2003), and the match ball being delivered by a couple of skydivers. Fun stuff. The chanting was nearly nonstop for the full match. Perhaps the nicest part was chanting for Chris Rodriguez. He's a young kid who was hit by a stray bullet and paralyzed. But he got to here his name being chanted from the supporters' sections at the Coliseum. And you could tell that it really made his and his mom's day.

The game seemed almost to go by way too quick. The 'Quakes had plenty of decent scoring chances, but couldn't quite get the ball in to the net. And the Fire managed to get one in to make the score 0-1. Not too bad if you consider that the last game Chicago played, they had crushed the Revolution 4-0 (the Revs were the Eastern Conference champions last season).

After the match was over, I got on my bike and rode back home (about 33 miles). The ride was much mellower than I had anticipated despite the heat getting to me. But every time the heat started to bug me, I'd just think about what Joan must be going through up in Davis. So it can't be all that bad for me!

All in all, a pretty good day. 48 miles on my bike, one good football match and I got to meet Krazy George...

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g160/Fueco/Quakes041208/

A lovely ride...

2008-03-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

Today, I was rather aimless all morning. I did laundry, I worked on my bike (fine-tuning the positions of the seat and handlebars, fixing a flat, re-taping the bar); but I just couldn't find any motivation. Finally, around 4:00 PM I got my lazy ass out the door.

Even when I started, I had no idea where I was going. As you can see from the map, it turned into a nice ride... Wink

I was on my fixie, so no real hills. I did get up to Stevens Creek Resevoir (I had to go and pay my respects at the site where Kristy Gough and Matt Peterson were killed last Saturday).

The riding was good, and the weather was especially nice. I managed to avoid almost all of the little cells of rainfall, and fought fierce headwinds for a lot of the time. But what good is a training ride with no suffering?

The highlights were riding south on El Camino at sunset (the setting suns works wonders on the colors of thunderclouds) and stopping at Taqueria La Bamba in Mountain View. Their chile colorado burritos are especially tasty 58 miles into a ride... Grin

Yeah... Good times. 67 miles and perhaps 1000 feet of climbing.

The Year In Sports #2

2008-03-15T22:10:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so this one is a couple of weeks late...

I went to see a football match at the Oakland Coliseum (or whatever its official name is these days) on March 2. The game was between the under-23 sides from Mexico and Australia. Basically this was a tune-up for the Olympic qualifying matches coming soon. Apparently FIFA and the IOC agreed that only under-23s would be eligible for the Olympics so that fewer conflicts would come up between club matches and international matches.

The entire venue was filled with painted, costumed and generally rabid Mexico fans. i spotted 3 Australian flags and perhaps a half-dozen genuine Aussie fans. The atmosphere was absolutely electric. If only we American "soccer" fans could be so obsessed with our teams... Ah well, that's kind of a pipe dream isn't it?

Lots of fun, despite the fact that Mexico couldn't put a ball in the goal. Their goal came from an own goal from one of the Aussie defenders. And it almost stood as the game-winner. But then in the 87th minute Australia equalized. I couldn't help but celebrate just a little bit... =)

This was a great experience, and I look forward to the next match at the Coliseum. That will be the San Jose Earthquakes v. Chicago Fire on April 12.

These Hills Were Made For Climbing...

2008-03-08T21:07:00.001-08:00

I did a lovely 55 mile ride today with about 5000 feet of climbing. Absolutely beatiful day for riding! I warmed up by riding over to Saratoga, and then proceeded to suffer my way up Bohlman Road. I opted out of the side-trip of On Orbit Road (I basically wussed out... Really, who wants to add a mile of 18%+ grades to an already steep climb?). From the top, I took to dirt road over to the top of Montevina Road and took that down to Lexington Resevoir. Then after a brief rest, I ascended Black Road to Skyline. And then flew down Highway 9 back into town.

Bohlman is probably the steepest hill that I have climbed in the bay area. There are a few 20% sections going around switchbacks. Pure madness... Black Road isn't much easier, but after Bohlman it seems pretty casual.

These stats don't do either climb justice...
Black Road: 4.6 miles, 1820 feet
Bohlman Road: 4.3 miles, 2030 feet

The Year In Sports -2008 #1

2008-02-20T19:56:00.000-08:00

January 5 -Tynecastle Stadium -Edinburgh, Scotland.

Heart of Midlothian FC v. Killmarnock FC 1-1

And a pretty damned good match at that. They sure know how to support a football club over there in Scotland.

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February 12 -HP Pavilion -San Jose, CA

San Jose Sharks 3
Calgary Flames 4

The Sharks managed to blow a 3-2 lead with 30 seconds left. And then they lost in overtime. Some day, I'd like to see the Sharks actually win a game live...

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February 13 -PAL Stadium -San Jose, CA

San Jose Earthquakes 0
Houston Dynamo 1

The 'Quakes might not be any good yet, but it's damn nice to have a local club to support. This was there first exhibition game back after 2+ years of not having an MLS team.

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February 16 -Kezar Stadium -San Francisco, CA

San Jose Earthquakes 0
Houston Dynamo 0

Cold and windy conditions at the game, but the second game was much better than the first. I look forward to many more to come...

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February 17 -Palm Drive, Stanford University, CA

Prologue -Tour Of California

I love watching time trials, and this one was no exception. I was sitting in the sun on the side of Palm Drive taking pictures of pro cyclists going by at 35 MPH for a few hours. So much fun! And it was a nice 41 mile round trip ride. =)

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February 20 -Sierra Road -San Jose, CA

Stage 3 -Tour Of California

My original plan was to climb to the top of Mount Hamilton to watch the race, but the weather wasn't looking too promising, so I settled for Sierra Road. So naturally, I got on my bike and rode to the top of Sierra.

I ended up watching from a spot about 250 metres from the top of the hill. It's good to know that the pros suffer on that climb. I certainly did getting to the top! I was probably a good 6-7 minutes behind my best time. But the suffering was worth it...

And yes, I did take a vacation day from work. =)

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Hopefully, I'll keep up with this topic throughout the year. I plan to mention all of the sporting events I get to see live this year...

Who Says?

2008-02-08T08:07:00.000-08:00

Who says you can't judge a book by its cover?

The Best Things In Life Are Free: Episode 2 (Attack Of The Clones?)

2008-01-20T21:11:00.000-08:00

So, it has been just about two weeks since I stepped off that plane at San Jose International Airport after returning from Scotland. And man, has the trip helped to shape my perspective on life!

Not every experience is free. But £12 admission to tour a castle that has been around since the 12th century? No problem... It was worth ever pound and pence. Looking out over views that inspired some of the greatest writers of all time (and our own time)? Priceless. But walking the wynds and closes of Old Town Edinburgh? Pricless, and free! Seeing these made me understand how a writer could come up with what has become the best-selling children's book series of all time. You can almost see the wizards, witches and goblins running around on the street. Oh wait, those are just English tourists! =)

But one thing that I realized while visiting Scotland was that I should not overlook what is in my own backyard. We have some pretty cool things even here in the Bay Area. Don't forget that these cities were founded in the 18th century! We may not have to truly ancient things that old Europe has, but we can still enjoy what we do have.

Hiking Mission Peak is just another way to do this. And I did hike it again on Wednesday night. It was windy and cold up there, but well worth the effort. I had to crouch and lean into the wind up on the summit ridge. But the light of the waxing half-moon made a headlamp unneeded. Of course, the city lights do that too!

I also did a thoroughly enjoyable 8 mile hike up at Castle Rock on Saturday. It was absolutely beautiful! You could not ask for better weather in January (high in the mid 50s, and sunny with very light winds). And then a bit of bouldering... Good stuff.

More pics!

2008-01-03T05:51:00.000-08:00

http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g160/Fueco/Scotland/

Otherwise, all is going just fine over here in snowy Edinburgh...

Happy New Year everyone!

Live from Saint Andrews, Scotland...

2007-12-30T09:59:00.000-08:00

Such a beautiful place! Too bad I only get 9 days to explore it...

My flight in went fairly well, except for that small security issue they were having at Heathrow whilst my plane was getting ready to leave for Manchester. Apparently, an international flight came into the domestic terminal and disembarked its passengers into said terminal. This of course resulted in us departing an hour or so late. And me missing my connecting flight to Edinburgh! But it wasn't all bad. I still got to Edinburgh that night, and was still able to get my rental car. Didn't mention that to anyone, did I? I figured that I might as well try driving on the wrong side of the road for a while... So far that's going just fine. My car is a tiny little Renault (about the size of our old Daihatsu).

I spent the first night in the town of Queensferry, a bit west of the city. In the morning, I headed back through town and explored bits of Leith and around Easter Road. It was cool to see the original golf course (conveniently located next to the kirk in Leith). Watching a Hibernian match live on the tele at the local pub was pretty darn cool as well. Even though they lost... The on-tap beer here is far better than anything you can get back home! A bit of sadness though, I won't get to see the Hibees play, as the next game has been postponed. The captain of the Motherwell side collapsed and died during their game yesterday. I may still get to see a different game though. I need to check on the fixtures to find out where else to catch a match on Wednesday.

This morning (Sunday), I headed out to Saint Andrews. This has to be amongst the most beautiful places that I have ever been. Climbing to the top of Saint Gile's Tower (part of the cathedral), walking the Old and New Courses at Saint Andrews Links, checking out a 15th century castle (and an even older cathedral), and walking the ancient streets. What more can you ask? I'll have to wait to upload most of the pictures, as I just don't have time right now. But there are some good ones. The view looking back over town from the top of the tower is better than any city view I have seen in America. In fact, nothing comes close except some of the viewpoints in Bangkok and Kathmandu. Simply breathtaking!

And the temperature is a balmy 35 or so right now... =)

So now, I'm sitting in an internet cafe in town. Tomorrow, it's over to Stirling for the big Hogmanay celebration at the castle. That should be an amazing experience as well!

The following two pictures are: the 17th Hole of the Old Course at Saint Andrews Links; and at Saint Andrews Cathedral.

The Best Things In Life Are Free...

2007-12-23T20:32:00.000-08:00

Here I shall share a few random thoughts on the subject of peak-bagging and living life to its fullest. Some writer from the 19th century said to "suck the marrow out of life" (I'm pretty sure it was Thoreau). But did he ever enjoy the view looking down from the top of Mount Conness? Did he ever see the lights of the city spread out before him at night from the summit of Mission Peak? Did he ever hurl himself down the slopes of Mount Pluto on skis?

Here's what I wrote in my journal whilst sitting on top of Mount Conness (along the Sierra crest just north of Tioga Pass) in September of 2003: I am happy to be here. This mountain -any mountain- is worthy. The view is spectacular and the effort to attain it was great. Eating Triscuits and deviled ham at a summit is the key to happiness in life.

This evening, I went for a nice walk up Mission Peak (that's the one above Fremont, and just north of the peak (Mount Allison) that has all the radio antennae). The trail is a fire road, and goes up fairly steeply to the top. And the view is always worth the hour or so that the ascent takes. The best part of the hike is that the area is open until 10 PM. Of course, this means that night hiking is the thing to do. Not many other people share the motivation to enjoy the trails at night. But those who do, understand that walking above city lights is amongst the finer things in life. Throw in some chilly winter air and a bit of wind, and you have the perfect time to go for a walk.

So anyway, enough rambling... I started from the trailhead at 3:56, and got to the top in time to take a picture as the sun was setting. Beautiful stuff! I would much rather be part of the scenery being photographed than the one taking the picture. And sometimes you can do both...

CSOTW

2007-12-17T08:06:00.001-08:00

This one is sure to get you in that Christmas spirit...

Song Of The Week

2007-12-08T11:40:00.000-08:00

This one is just a different version of an old classic. The original version was Bohemian Rhapsody, which was done by the group Queen. This version is a bit different -it has no lyrics and different instrumentation.

So check this one out, it's rather nice... Hibernian Rhapsody by De Dannan. =)

Can't Resist This One...

2007-12-08T09:22:00.001-08:00

Thursday, 6 December, 2007, 08:03 - Comic Strip Of The Week

Sorry, I can't resist passing this one along to my friends... =)

Happy 3 December...

2007-12-08T09:21:00.002-08:00

Monday, 3 December, 2007, 21:51 - Random Thoughts

It might just be another day, but I thought I would ramble a little bit about a few things that caught my attention today.

1. What the heck is wrong with the Baltimore Ravens? How could they lose that game given where they had the Patriots? But hey, that's why New England is still undefeated.

2. I'm listening to what is just about the best Christmas album I have ever heard. An Irish Christmas by Moya Brennan. So good! I especially like her take on What Child Is This?.

3. I learned where the term redneck came from... Scottish Presbyterians who wore a red scarf on their neck to show their rejection of the Anglican Church. Many of those people emigrated to Ulster (in northern Ireland) and/or on to America (where many settled in the Appalachians). Go figure...

Anyway, that's about it. Only 23 days to go! =)

10,000

2007-12-08T09:21:00.001-08:00

Thursday, 29 November, 2007, 16:37 - Cycling

Yes, that's my bicycling mileage for the year as of 12:45 this afternoon (well, actually 10,003...).

My car still only has about 6500 for the year. =)

Have you ever felt this way?

2007-12-08T09:20:00.003-08:00

Thursday, 29 November, 2007, 06:54 - Comic Strip Of The Week

Why it's not a good idea to leave work early...

CSOTW and iTunes...

2007-12-08T09:20:00.001-08:00

Saturday, 24 November, 2007, 08:48 - Random Thoughts, Comic Strip Of The Week

After all these years, I've finally downloaded an album from iTunes... Can you believe it took me that long to get there? The download of choice was Life With You by The Proclaimers. I finally gave up on finding the album around here. Of course, you know that means that next I go to the record shop they will have a bunch of copies of it. =)

The album is excellent so far, though I'm only on the fourth song.

And the comic strip for this week (must be something to do with lead-based coloring in the feathers?):

Thanksgiving Day -A Time To Ride

2007-12-08T09:19:00.002-08:00

Thursday, 22 November, 2007, 19:30 - Cycling

Today's route evolved from an idea I had a while back. The original goal was to combine Highway 9 and Empire Grade Road into a nice round trip journey to Santa Cruz. And what better day to do this than Thanksgiving?

Backing up a bit... It was 37 degrees outside when I left home at 7:30 this morning. That may not seem cold to those of you who don't live in California, but this was the first time this season that the low temperature has been below 40. For the first few miles I was wearing a windbreaker and a fleece hat.

But back to the ride: I made my way across town to Saratoga, and started up Highway 9 at 8:20. The climb itself was pretty mellow. I was just taking it easy so I would have energy for the remaining climbs. For the climb, my time was 46:40 (five minutes slower than my fastest time). After stopping briefly at the top, I bombed down the west side of Highway 9 and down into Boulder Creek.

After making my way over to Jamison Creek Road (about 2.5 miles up Highway 236 from Boulder Creek), I began the toughest climb of the day. Fortunately, the road is only 3.1 miles long before reaching Empire Grade Road. This one took me 31 minutes, so you can tell that it is significantly tougher than Highway 9. In a few places, there is writing on the road. And at the beginning of the steepest part, the writing reads "The pain is about to begin". Gee thanks, guys! After reaching the top, I stopped for a few minutes to eat a 'trail mix bar', and started off on the long ride down Empire Grade into Santa Cruz.

Empire Grade is a fairly nice road (only a few spots have rough roads), and mostly downhill. The uphill sections seem rather annoying, given that I was expecting it to be all downhill. But I made it down in pretty good time, and thoroughly enjoyed the views of the ocean from the UCSC campus. Turning onto Bay Street and then Mission (Highway 1), I made my way north out of town almost to Davenport.

And this is where the bonus climb comes in. I have actually climbed Bonny Doon Road before. It is quite a nice 26 mile loop from Santa Cruz. But starting up it after 65+ miles is another story altogether. By this point, I was feeling a little tired, but I've never been one to throw in the towel on a decent challenge. =) I pulled it together, and made it up into Bonny Doon, and then onto Pine Flat and then Ice Cream Grade Roads. After crossing Empire Grade, I descended down Felton Empire Road (this section kind of feels like the speeder bike chase scene in Return Of The Jedi) and into Felton. From there, I turned onto Highway 9 and made my way up to Boulder Creek.

After Boulder Creek, the ascent of Highway 9 turns into a bit of drudgery.It ascends about 1900, but it takes 15 miles to get there... At the top, I celebrated a little and put the windbreaker back on for the descent down into Saratoga. Once I hit town, I had only 14 miles to go... And they went by with no problems. =)

Totals for the day: 119 miles and about 9000 feet of climbing.

Climbs:
Highway 9 (East) -6.5 miles, 2090 feet
Jamison Creek Road -3.1 miles, 1470 feet
Bonny Doon/Ice Cream Grade -7.4 miles, 2110 feet
Highway 9 (West) -7.4 miles, 1990 feet

Cheers! And Happy Thanksgiving...

Thank God It's A Four-Day Weekend...

2007-12-08T09:19:00.001-08:00

Wednesday, 21 November, 2007, 22:01 - Cycling, Philosophy

It's a four-day weekend, and I've just been handed enough motivation to ride 300 miles... What to do, what to do... =)

CSOTW...

2007-12-08T09:18:00.001-08:00

Thursday, 15 November, 2007, 08:08 - Comic Strip Of The Week

So, this one is specifically for Becky. =)

El Toro and Hicks Road

2007-12-08T09:17:00.002-08:00

Monday, 29 October, 2007, 22:28 - Cycling

What better way to celebrate the last Saturday of October than with good beer and tough hills?

The last time I visited the El Toro Brewing Company was during a ride in February. The weather was beautiful: you just could not ask for better weather to ride in.

This time, I waited until mile 55 to stop at the ETBC. I turned around near Highway 25 south of Gilroy. By the time I got back into Morgan Hill, I was ready for the beer and pizza... I had their BBQ (beerbeque!) chicken pizza. Amazing! And the Extra Hoppy Poppy Jasper and the IPA were both really good!

After procrastinating there for way too long, I made my way up into the hills west of town. After riding up past the reservoirs (I hadn't ridden through this area since 1996), I headed onto Almaden Road, and then up and over the south side of Hicks Road. What a tough climb! There aren't many climbs in this area that can compare with Hicks. It seemed pretty hard at least... It may have just been that I was topping out the climb at mile 80. =)

After bombing down the hill, I headed through Los Gatos and back through town. I stopped a Peets for a while to keep the caffeine intake up.

All in all, a great ride for a total of 105 miles and perhaps 4000 feet of climbing.

Movies About India...

2007-12-08T09:17:00.001-08:00

Saturday, 27 October, 2007, 08:59 - Movie Reviews

I've gone to see two different movies in the last couple of days. On Thursday, I went to see the second to last showing of Outsourced at Camera 12. And on Friday night I went to see The Darjeeling Limited at Camera 7. These are two completely opposite movies in just about every regard.

Outsourced is a tale about a guy from Seattle who has to go to India to help train his replacement. His job is to teach the people to sound America on the phone so that the customers buying kitschy americana won't suspect that the jobs have been outsourced. It's a fitting commentary on the state of business now. And of course, why it has to be the way it is. It's a touching love story, and all about Todd Anderson connecting with the people in his corner of India. Since it is no longer playing in this area, you're going to have to wait until it comes out on video...

On the other hand, we have The Darjeeling Limited. This is a completely vapid tail about three brothers who seem to think that they are on a spiritual journey. But the film jumps around a lot, and what little story there is is nearly impossible to follow. When they almost find what they are looking for, even that disappears and they are left with nothing still. If you need to see this one (perhaps you are a fan of Owen Wilson or Adrian Brody...), do yourself and wait until it comes out on DVD. Then you can have your own barf bag next you, and not feel bad screaming obscenities and the screen...

Tour Of The Forgotten Corner Of California!

2007-12-08T09:16:00.001-08:00

Sunday, 21 October, 2007, 22:29 - Cycling, Random Thoughts

Solvang Autumn Double Century

Okay, so it's not really forgotten. It's actually quite a lovely place to ride a bike. Except for the wind, a flat tire, and a yellow jacket sting I had a very lovely bike ride yesterday!

And even the wind wasn't all that bad. It's just a little obnoxious when you are trying to ride relatively fast. The flat tire was a fluke as well; just a piece of glass along Highway 1 just south of Pismo Beach. And quite frankly, I am a bit surprised that I don't get stung by more wasps, hornets and yellow jackets. It seems that they are always falling from the sky and bouncing off of me. This one just got under my jersey.

the roads were excellent for the most part. I could have done without the gravel section on See Canyon Road, but the climb was excellent so I can give the organizers a pass for this one! Santa Rosa Road also wasn't very fun; but I think that might have only been because I was riding it after dark. During the day I think the rough road would not be so bad.

After that, I was tired enough to sleep like a rock in my car in a well-lit parking lot...

For a detailed map of the route:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1405418

Scrabble play of the day...

2007-12-08T09:15:00.002-08:00

Friday, 12 October, 2007, 23:51

This one goes to Jen for opening the game with drizzle for 96 points, and then proceeding to kick my butt... The final score was 364-340.

300 Second Movie Review/Rant

2007-12-08T09:15:00.001-08:00

Wednesday, 10 October, 2007, 23:38 - Random Thoughts, Movie Reviews

Today's subject: Into The Wild.

Going into this movie, I expected to love it. Jon Krakauer has been one of my favorite authors for years, and this is his best book. So despite the film being directed by Sean Penn, I simply had to see the film. And I tried not to judge the film solely on the politics of its director.

First off, the film is, as it should be, rated R. However, much of what gives it that rating was entirely unnecessary. The gratuitous nudity and graphic sex were entirely inappropriate and took away from the message of the film.

That message? Apparently that by living alone in the wilderness, Christopher McCandless discovered that happiness can only be truly enjoyed when it is shared. Duh! I could have told him that, and saved him getting his butt kicked by a railroad security guard and dying at the age of 23...

A kid Chris's age should have been out trying to save the world. And instead he is out trying to find himself. What a waste. And what a waste of film to glorify the selfish end to an incomplete life. Chris figured out the first part of a complete life as he lies dying from eating a poisonous plant.

Step one: realize that life/happiness is only complete if shared. Step two: find someone to share your happiness with. Step three: carry on sharing that happiness with that person forever. Yeah, it's that simple...

So, much like Sean Penn's politics; this film is incomplete. It will leave you wishing for more. It lacks what makes for a great film, which is the optimism of an ending where the main character(s) can go on leading their life completely (see: Good Will Hunting, Stardust, Mallrats, Amelie and even Shrek)...

Pics from Yosemite...

2007-12-08T09:14:00.000-08:00

Monday, 8 October, 2007, 19:46 - Photography, Climbing

Some random goodness from this weekend's trip to The Valley...

Conservative vs. Liberal

2007-12-08T09:13:00.002-08:00

Tuesday, 2 October, 2007, 12:50 - Random Thoughts, Politics

The difference between a Conservative and being a Liberal is quite simple.

A Conservative believes that it is up to the individual to change the world. A Liberal believes that it is up to the government to change the world.

Yes, Bush is a Liberal. We have no Conservatives in power in this nation any more. Watch out Roman Empire, the USA is coming your way...

CSOTW

2007-12-08T09:13:00.001-08:00

Tuesday, 2 October, 2007, 11:59 - Comic Strip Of The Week

Crazy Rides, Crazy Times...

2007-12-08T09:12:00.001-08:00

Saturday, 29 September, 2007, 13:57 - Cycling

So this ride really wasn't all that crazy. I was only out on my bike for a bit over four hours; and only went 60 miles. The crazy part comes from today's ascent of Old La Honda Road.

I haven't been doing much climbing on my bike because I was having problems getting the brakes adjusted properly. Essentially, I was afraid of the descents. I have no desire to lose control coming down any sort of extended hill.

But my good friend Ryan helped me out with that problem. Thanks dude! So now I can head into the hills again, which is good because the weather has become ideal for such rides.

So despite putting in a lot of miles over the past few months, I am a bit out of shape for climbing hills. But I do have a lighter bike now, and I have lost a little bit of weight. So the climbing wasn't all that bad. When I started up the climb, I could really feel that my legs didn't like the idea. But I kept going. Coming around the third corner, I spotted another cyclist about 150 yards ahead of me, so I made it my goal just to catch him. I did that far sooner than I would have thought, passing him right at the steepest part of the hill. That's my first benchmark for the climb, and I was about 30 seconds off of my fastest pace up to that point. So I just tried to keep a steady pace. The other dude was keeping up with me, and he passed me with about a mile left in the climb. SO i just tried to keep up with him. Right at the end, where the road gets really rough, I put the hammer down (as the saying goes); and sprinted to the top. I ended up missing my best time by only six seconds, which is not bad at all..

The rest of the ride was super casual, including the descent down Highway 84. I was actually keeping up with the cars there, so no real need to go any faster... =)

CSOTW

2007-12-08T09:11:00.002-08:00

Wednesday, 26 September, 2007, 22:51 - Comic Strip Of The Week

The beginning of a Revolution...

2007-12-08T09:11:00.001-08:00

Wednesday, 26 September, 2007, 09:32 - Politics

You might say that living in an Orwellian police-state is not all that fun. Rising up against it is even worse. But I'll cheer the people of Burma on...

I really would love to travel to Burma, but I won't support an evil government...

Check out the story and the slideshows:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070926/ap_ ... p55LsE1vAI

Random Thought For Today #1

2007-12-08T09:10:00.000-08:00

Saturday, 22 September, 2007, 23:27 - Random Thought For Today

We wait for drunks to stumble by. Do they wait for reality to stumble by?

14,000

2007-12-08T09:09:00.000-08:00

Saturday, 22 September, 2007, 15:04 - Random Thoughts

It has been one year and five days since I bought my Forester. Things have done nothing but look up since then.

It took three months to get out of the crappy job (the people were cool though!) that I was commuting to Santa Cruz for. I might even be more sane now, if that's possible. =)

I've put a little over 14,000 miles on my car since I bought it, only 6,000 of which are this year. As a comparison, I have ridden my bike about 7,800 miles this year. It's so nice to have a car that I don't have to drive every day...

If you want the original story:
http://www.mikedeitchman.com/index.php? ... 917-213751

Beer Friday #17

2007-12-08T09:08:00.002-08:00

Friday, 21 September, 2007, 20:46 - Beer, Beer Friday

Since it is now officially Oktoberfest, I have to go with a traditional Oktoberfest-Märzen beer. This one comes from the town of Aying, Germany (a bit southeast of München).

Ayinger brewery is not actually one of the official breweries associated with Oktoberfest, but they certainly know their stuff. The true test was giving a glass of it to one of my co-workers who is from München. He absolutely loves the stuff. And so do I. It's a classic Märzen. And perhaps one of the best you will ever find. If you want the scoop on what makes a Märzen a Märzen and for more on Oktoberfest, check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A4rzen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest

So here's a hearty prost in celebration of everyone's favorite excuse to drink good German beer... Pick up some Ayinger Oktoberfest-Märzen at your local BevMo.

Song Lyrics For The Week

2007-12-08T09:08:00.001-08:00

Friday, 14 September, 2007, 22:49

This is one of the most amazing, deeply spiritual songs you will ever hear. The voice of Maire Brennan is also the voice of Clannad; absolutely my favorite tradition Irish band. Her sister, Enya, is much more well-known. But I find that Maire's voice much better.

She breathes life into the lyrics. And she sings to God as if she has spoken to Him face to face. Beautiful stuff, but those of you who need over-powering bass will need to look elsewhere...

Perfect Time
Believe me
I'm not afraid
Teach me
To learn your ways
Carry me
Under your wings
In your perfect time

Only you
Can dreams come true
Only you
Can make me shine
Only you
Can days be right
In your perfect time

I know You told me that I'm not alone
You know I couldn't do it on my own
See my eyes are older now
Broken dreams behind
Fill my heart with precious love
I know it's there to find

Believe me
I'm not afraid
Teach me
To learn your ways
Carry me
Under your wings
In your perfect time

Only you
Can dreams come true
Only you
Can make me shine
Only you
Can days be right
In your perfect time

precious love
You gave me
precious love
I know forgivness is the key not pride
I want to heal this pain I hide inside
Free my fears and promise me
That you won't let me go
You're the one to comforrt me
The past my God You know

Believe me
I'm not afraid
Teach me
To learn your ways
Carry me
Under your wings
In your perfect time

Only you
Can dreams come true
Only you
Can make me shine
Only you
Can days be right
In your perfect time

Word Of The Week

2007-12-08T09:07:00.000-08:00

Friday, 14 September, 2007, 22:39 - Philosophy

I'm not going to go into too much detail. I just had a realization about something while I was riding my bike at around 25 MPH down Central Expressway this afternoon. Then I ran into an old friend at REI(the same one who I ran into at the Death Ride). I heard a remarkable story about how the greeter at REI broke her foot (Mount Everest and yetis were involved!). I had my second McDonald's sandwich of the year this morning. I had better BBQ in Mountain View at lunchtime than anything I had in Texas. Random? Perhaps. But what if they aren't? And is that a hand that I feel pushing me through my life?

e·piph·a·ny
Pronunciation[i-pif-uh-nee]
–noun, plural -nies.

1. (initial capital letter) a Christian festival, observed on January 6, commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi; Twelfth-day.
2. an appearance or manifestation, esp. of a deity.
3. a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.
4. a literary work or section of a work presenting, usually symbolically, such a moment of revelation and insight.

Black And Blue

2007-12-08T09:06:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, 12 September, 2007, 21:47 - Philosophy, Random Thoughts, Random Song Lyrics

No, this is not about getting bruised up and bloodied... Sorry to disappoint you! The title is the name of one of my newest favorite songs. I just thought that I would write a review of it, and a scathing review of everything that comes out of commercial radio.

Most of the songs coming out these days (and I'm only referring to the ones that get lots of airplay) are empty shells of songs. They say things without actually saying anything. They are the equivalent of a man who goes through the motions of loving his wife even though he hates her with all of his heart. That's not to say that marriage should be like that; that's just the way most people write their songs about love.

On the other end of the spectrum is a man like my good friend Kenny Schick... If there is anyone qualified to write a love song it has to be him. He more than went through the motions. He actually traveled half-way around the world to meet the woman of his dreams. And his newest album Under tells the story in near-chronological order. The long-distance calls, the verbose emails, the trauma incurred sitting in an airplane for 18 hours with only his thoughts for company, the confusion of stepping into a vastly different culture, the joy at finding another soul in the world he relates to: it's all there.

The song Black and Blue finds Kenny just-returned from his 8 month adventure. He's longing to be with the one he loves. And his world is as topsy-turvy as it was when he left for Australia.

I think that I relate to the song because of what it reminds me of: the wondering if there actually is someone out there for me, if I have met her yet, the searching the eyes of complete strangers on the street, and perhaps just the confused state of life in general. Happiness is not something you find, it's something you live. Every day...

So check out the song. Download the MP3 or buy the album. It will be worth your while. And if you live in the San Jose area, check out his show on the 22nd at the Blue Rock Shoot in Saratoga.

http://www.basement3.com/

Random Song Lyrics For A Friday Night

2007-12-08T09:05:00.002-08:00

Saturday, 8 September, 2007, 00:30 - Random Song Lyrics

Many apologies for the random nature of this new topic. This will just be the occasional glimpse into what pops up on iTunes when I hit forward while in shuffle mode...

The first one comes from one of the greatest voices in country music (or from any music for that matter). He does sing a lot of sappy love songs, but this is certainly amongst the best of them.

I Won't Need You Anymore -Randy Travis

You're my always and forever.
You're the one that hung the moon.
After all these nights together
I still get lost in your perfume.
And if I could write a love song,
Every line would tell the truth.
It would be a warm and soft one
And my heart would say to you

When you see me walk on water,
When the sea don't reach the shore
When the fires of hell freeze over,
I won't need you anymore

Oh, the feelings lay so easy,
Lyin' here the way we are.
No one else could ever hold me
Like the heavens hold the stars.

When you see me walk on water,
When the sea don't reach the shore
When the fires of hell freeze over,

I won't need you anymore
I won't need you anymore

If Only

2007-12-08T09:05:00.001-08:00

Friday, 7 September, 2007, 13:08 - Coffee, Random Thoughts

Now, if only Starbucks could get the whole 'making their coffee taste good' thing down right...

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/i-like-coffe ... 297630.php

Honestly, is this just a side effect of the laziness of modern society?

A Day Of Living The LA Dream...

2007-12-08T09:04:00.001-08:00

Wednesday, 5 September, 2007, 20:50 - Random Thoughts

Today I was reminded why I never want to live in the Los Angeles Basin. I cannot see how people can live with that sort of air pollution on a daily basis. Just riding my bike after work this afternoon, my eyes were stinging and I could feel the shortness of breath. And the air quality was only posted as moderate! Can you magine those days when the air pollution is over 100? Today was 65...

I also fail to see why anyone would want to surround themselves with that sort of pollution while living their daily lives. Whether you get the smoke via smog or by inhaling cigarette smoke it is just as unhealthy.

Those people who choose to live in Los Angeles can keep it. I want nothing to do with the place...

The reason for all the pollution today is a fire in the hills south of Mount Hamilton. The plume of smoke was rather impressive for the last couple of days. But then a damned inversion had to come in and trap all the smoke in the valley. Come on wind, we need you!

Check out this video:

Lick Fire

Song Of The Week

2007-12-08T09:03:00.002-08:00

Monday, 3 September, 2007, 20:05 - Random Thoughts

Here's another song that has been bouncing around in my head for the last few days. It's the reference to catching a fallen star that reminded me of this one after watching Stardust on Saturday. This song was the theme song from a TV show called The Heights that was on Fox during the 1992-93 season. The show was pretty good as I recall. But the soundtrack is even better... The show was about a music group called The Heights.

How Do You Talk To An Angel?- The Heights

I hear her voice in my mind
I know her face by heart
Heaven and earth are moving in my soul
I don't know where to start
Tell me tell me the words to define
The way I feel about someone so fine

How do you talk to an angel
How do you hold her close to where you are
How do you talk to an angel
It's like trying to catch a falling star

At night I dream that she is there
And I can feel her in the air
Tell me tell me the words to define
The way I feel about someone so fine

How do you talk to an angel
How do you hold her close to where you are
How do you talk to an angel
It's like trying to catch a falling star

How do you talk to an angel
How do you hold her close to where you are
How do you talk to an angel
It's like trying to catch a falling star

How do you talk to an angel
How do you hold her close to where you are
How do you talk to an angel
It's like trying to catch a falling star

The Best Movie Of The Year

2007-12-08T09:03:00.001-08:00

Sunday, 2 September, 2007, 09:53 - Movie Reviews

If you go to the theater to be entertained (or at least sucked into another world for a couple of hours), do yourself a favor and go watch Stardust. This movies is very well-made and actually follows a coherent plot (something that the big movies have been lacking lately). The choices of actors and actresses were spot on for their roles.

Robert DeNiro shows up as a "quirky" Captain Shakespear (a lightning capturing sky pirate). Michelle Pfeiffer does a great job as the wicked witch. And Claire Danes has done a wonderful job of bringing a fallen star to life. And plenty of good acting rounds out the rest of the cast.

The basic premise seems a bit bizarre at first, but this is a fantasy movie after all! Tristan is a boy who lives in a town called Wall, in 19th century England. There is a wall next to the town that separates England from a parallel universe. No one is allowed to go there. But when Tristan sees a falling star, he sets out to get a piece of it so he "can show his love for Victoria". His adventures along the way are the things that dreams are made of. To see them so adroitly brought to the silver screen is almost enough to restore the idea that Hollywood has not completely lost its marbles...

All in all, I came out of the theater better off for having watched this film. And if there are no Oscar nods to this film; perhaps Hollywood has lost its marbles.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486655/

Beer Friday #16

2007-12-08T09:02:00.000-08:00

Saturday, 1 September, 2007, 00:28 - Beer, Random Thoughts, Beer Friday

I've been slacking off on the beer Fridays lately,and I must apologize. I haven't been trying all that many new beers lately. But here's one that can potentially bring out the beer snob in all of us.

In the past, I often wondered why there was such a variance in the quality of beers produced by the same brewery. As it turns out, it was probably just the caps on the bottles! Apparently, screw caps let air into the bottle. So beer that has been sitting around for a while won't be all that fresh tasting. Thanks to the folks at Sierra Nevada for noticing this, and correcting the problem...

How this affects all of us: we can now go back to enjoying beers from the Sierra Nevada Brewery without worrying about getting a stale bottle (though I haven't yet seen the bigger bottles with pop tops.

So my choice for this week is Sierra Nevada's Anniversary Ale. This year marks 27 years of good beer coming out of Chico, CA. And this IPA is a worthy way to celebrate. And don't forget that it's a pop top. Twisting them off is rather painful according to my friend Jeff. He's a long time drinker of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and actually sent an email complaining about how hard their bottles had become to open...

Picture Of The Day #3

2007-12-08T09:01:00.000-08:00

Saturday, 1 September, 2007, 00:20 - Photography, Picture Of The Day

Yeah, I know that it is a bit lame to start a topic called Picture of The Day and only post pictures sporadically... Get over it! Ha!

Anyway, I was transferring the image files from my old computer into my new one, and came across some old good ones that I had forgotten. So I will keep trying to add some to my Photobucket site, and posting some of them here...

This one was apparently taken on October 30, 2004; which would mean that it was taken with my old Sony Cybershot (4.1 mp) camera. That camera was destroyed when I got hit by that car while riding my bike to work in March of 2005... At least I wasn't!

Another useless trivia post...

2007-12-08T09:00:00.002-08:00

Sunday, 26 August, 2007, 22:42 - Cycling

Just for fun, here's a map of California counties that I have ridden my bike in... The darker blue denotes counties in which I have ridden to the highest paved road.

Song Lyrics

2007-12-08T09:00:00.001-08:00

Wednesday, 22 August, 2007, 21:55 - Random Thoughts

Every once in a while there is a song that moves you every time you hear it. In this case, I'm not even sure why. Perhaps I've purposely forgotten who this song is supposed to remind me of. The song came out around the same time I started high school, which is always a very impressionable time in a person's life. I can remember listening to the radio (either Hot 97.7 or X100) during Drafting class. Mr. Geraci would only let us listen to pop music on Fridays. The rest of the time we listened to his music (generally classical). For some weird reason, this song always connected with me. Even though it took me quite a while to figure out who sang it, and to finally track down a copy of the album; I always loved the song.

Even now, nearly 18 years later I can still listen to the song feel that same connection. Perhaps it's just a reminder of how sad life is when you are only clinging to a hope of something that will never be. Hell, perhaps back then it was a subconscious warning about things to come.

The song debuted on the Billboard chard on July 8, 1989; and reached number 1 on August 12. After 3 weeks it was dislodged by Paul Abdul's Cold Hearted. Which reminds me of what I did that summer... That was my first trip out of the country, helping to build a house for a poor family down in San Felipe, Baja California Norte with the youth group from my grandpa's church.

Anyway, Right Here Waiting by Richard Marx has been one of my favorite songs (for a long time it WAS my favorite) for all these years. And surely it will be amongst my favorites through the rest of my life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_Here_Waiting

Oceans apart day after day
And I slowly go insane
I hear your voice on the line
But it doesn't stop the pain

If I see you next to never
How can we say forever

Wherever you go
Whatever you do
I will be right here waiting for you
Whatever it takes
Or how my heart breaks
I will be right here waiting for you

I took for granted, all the times
That I thought would last somehow
I hear the laughter, I taste the tears
But I can't get near you now

Oh, can't you see it baby
You've got me goin' crazy

Wherever you go
Whatever you do
I will be right here waiting for you
Whatever it takes
Or how my heart breaks
I will be right here waiting for you

I wonder how we can survive
This romance
But in the end if I'm with you
I'll take the chance

Oh, can't you see it baby
You've got me goin' crazy

Wherever you go
Whatever you do
I will be right here waiting for you
Whatever it takes
Or how my heart breaks
I will be right here waiting for you

Mount Tam Double

2007-12-08T08:59:00.002-08:00

Sunday, 19 August, 2007, 12:31 - Cycling

This is old news (from August 4).

Good times at my most recent double century. This one is a true suffer fest if there is such a thing. I spent 16.5 hours on my bike, doing what has to be my toughest ride ever. There were many moments where I did not think I could finish, but I did finish. And my life is better for having completed this challenge! Mechanical problems and lack of sleep were the primary reasons I was so slow. But the course itself is rather tough. It reminded me a lot of the Death Ride (except that the weather was much cooler for this one) in that it had a lot of climbing (as much climbing as the DR, mostly in the the first 150 miles).

The highlight had to be descending Lucas Valley Road, which felt a lot like that scene in Return Of The Jedi where they are on the speeder bikes in the forests of Endor (this is the same area where those scenes were filmed).

So 201 miles with about 15000 feet of climbing...

Picture Of The Day #2

2007-12-08T08:59:00.001-08:00

Sunday, 19 August, 2007, 10:52 - Photography, Random Thoughts, Travel, Picture Of The Day

Yesterday I transfered a bunch of pictures from my laptop to my desktop computer, so I've been going through them... I will try to upload a picture or two just about every day; just to keep my Photoshop skills fresh. =)

This is from a trip to Usall Beach with some of my co-workers on Memorial Day Weekend of 2006. I went out there with Steve, Melissa, Fred, Doug and Patrice. A worthy trip... Usall is also a very cool place, though it was kind of hard to get to in my old Geo Metro. On this trip was when I hit a deer on Highway 20 east of Fort Bragg. Since that was my motivation for getting a new car, I guess I should be thankful.

Picture Of The Day

2007-12-08T08:58:00.001-08:00

Saturday, 18 August, 2007, 22:50 - Cycling, Photography, Picture Of The Day

Yeah, like this is going to happen every day...

This is from the prologue of the Tour Of California. I believe that it is Pavel Padrnos, but feel free to correct me.

25 Years Ago Today

2007-12-08T08:24:00.001-08:00

Friday, 17 August, 2007, 09:35 - Music

25 years ago today (August 17, 1982), the first CD was released. That was ABBA's Visitors. With only a few hiccups, they've gotten better since then (I mean really; who needs rap, hip hop, reggae and techno?)...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Visitors

What I'm Listening To... #1

2007-12-08T08:23:00.001-08:00

Wednesday, 15 August, 2007, 23:58 - Music

Yeah, so another pointless topic to take up space here. This is from one of my favorite bands. Not only can they sing, but they are all really cool people. I had the opportunity to meet them years ago, not long after their success with the song Flood. They seemed not to have let their fame get into their heads...

Good Monster is the latest offering from Jars Of Clay, and it stands amongst their best albums. I'd rank them like this: 1- If I Left The Zoo, 2- Jars Of Clay, 3- Good Monsters, 4- Much Afraid. But all of the others are very good as well...

Which Horseman is This?

2007-12-08T08:22:00.001-08:00

Wednesday, 15 August, 2007, 21:45 - Philosophy

Why not just say God doesn't exist in order to appease the Atheists and Democrats?

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/staticarti ... 57178.html

Good Music

2007-12-08T08:21:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, 14 August, 2007, 10:21 - Music

Check out this video of my friend Kenny doing his song Black and Blue. This is what music should be, not that vapid s@*t they play on the radio...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRYqCw2u3lU

Fixed Ride

2007-12-08T08:20:00.000-08:00

Saturday, 11 August, 2007, 21:50 - Cycling, Photography

Well, I was going to post a great story about my first road fixed gear ride ever, but my computer decided to make it vanish into the nether regions of the universe...

So instead, you just get a link to some pictures from the Hellyer Park Velodrome...
http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g160/ ... Velodrome/

Look Before You Bite

2007-12-08T08:19:00.002-08:00

Saturday, 11 August, 2007, 17:34 - Random Thoughts

So some moron has sued McDonald's because he failed to notice that there was cheese in his Quarter Pounder before eating it. Most people with allergies are a little more cautious about what they are eating. Perhaps this guy just needs to get a clue...

http://www.dailymail.com/story/News/200 ... 0-million/

Reasons we like coffee...

2007-12-08T08:19:00.001-08:00

Thursday, 9 August, 2007, 08:26 - Coffee

An interesting interview with the owner of my favorite coffee shop...

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articl ... leID=33570

The Definition Of Irony

2007-12-08T08:18:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, 7 August, 2007, 09:40 - Politics

"We live in a world where what used to be called propaganda now has a major role to play in shaping public opinion." -Al Gore

Yeah, no kidding chump...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070807/ap_ ... U5PzkE1vAI

The Socialist Love-Fest Continues...

2007-12-08T08:17:00.002-08:00

Thursday, 2 August, 2007, 09:52 - Philosophy, Random Thoughts, Politics

Is this really going to be good for Sean Penn's credibility? Or for Chavez's for that matter? The proof of right and wrong comes in the character of those who are on the right side...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070802/ap_ ... uQUZYE1vAI

Beer Friday #15

2007-12-08T08:17:00.001-08:00

Friday, 20 July, 2007, 06:55 - Beer, Beer Friday

This week's selection comes from the brewery that brought the legendary Moose Drool Brown Ale; Big Sky Brewing Company of Missoula, Montana. So I know that this brewery is perfectly capable of producing a worthy beer.

Why then did they unleash their Summer Honey Seasonal Ale on the world? This stuff is almost the blandest tasting beer I have ever tried. Perhaps they should have called this one Moose Drool. It tastes about like what you'd expect moose drool to taste like if seasoned with honey and some light spices.

So stick to their brown ale and the Powderhound Winter Ale; those are both worthy beers.

Death Ride!

2007-12-08T08:16:00.000-08:00

Sunday, 15 July, 2007, 07:19 - Cycling, Legends

Ever since the first time I heard of the Death Ride, I have thought that it would be a worthy accomplishment to finish the five passes. And I have to say that it did not disappoint me.

I'll go back to Friday morning to begin the story. I had ordered a new wheelset for my bike on Saturday, and the FedEx tracking system was saying that the package was on the truck ready for delivery at 6:50AM. So I figured that I would wait for that to show up. No sense riding on a heavier wheel if I can avoid it!

After waiting for hours, the delivery guy showed up around 1:30 or so; and I hurriedly put the tires and tubes on. Then the back wheel would not fit in the dropouts. After filing the paint off the inside of the dropouts, I was good to go. Now I had about six hours to get up to Markleeville for the check in.

Mental note: don't take Highway 4 to get to Markleeville! The road is way to slow... Highway 89 is a much better route to get there! Avoid Highway 4 except for the part between Highways 5 and 99... Okay, back to the show.

After far too much time in my car, I got the Turtle Rock Park at around 8:15PM, and checked in. After buying the souvenir pint glass, I went off to sleep.

At 5:00AM, I woke up and got into my cycling clothes and headed over to the official start. My starting cue was given by the radio that one of the volunteers had set up. Phil Collins' 'In The Air Tonight' was playing, so I waited until that classic drum solo started and took off.

The rest of the day seems almost like a blur now. So I will present it that way.

Hand shaking cold for the first few miles, and then getting warmed up with the climb up the west side of Monitor Pass. Passing people, and getting passed by some damned good riders. So many nice bikes on the road as well. I think the coolest one was the old-school lugged steel Colnago that one dude was riding. A very enjoyable climb! After breezing down the descent over to Highway 395, it was time to turn around and head back up the east side of Monitor. This side is nowhere near as steep as the west side, but it was in full sunlight, so it seemed a bit harder. But still the miles keep pouring on, and in no time I am back up on the top of the pass, and ready to get on to the rest of the climbs. The west descent was a lot of fun, and was over way too soon. Then I headed south onto Highway 4, and back up towards Ebbetts Pass.

The road to Ebbetts is quite narrow, so it was a very good thing that it was closed to auto traffic (Monitor was as well). But the climbing is very steady; even steep in places. I think that the east side of Ebbetts is tougher than the other passes. But hey, that's just an opinion! Everyone else seems to think that west Monitor is toughest... When I got up to the top I enjoyed some fine food at the rest stop; and then headed down into Hermit Valley. By now the temperature was getting hot, so I knew I would be in for some real suffering on the rest of the ride. The only disconcerting moment of the ride came about half way down the west side of Ebbetts when I came to a place where a rider had crashed. I had to pass left of the ambulance that was stopped in the road, and saw that the rider was being loaded in. The bad part was riding across blood spilled on the road. It didn't look too bad, but I hope that he was okay.

Once I got down into Hermit Valley, I had to turn around and go back up for 5 miles to get back to Ebbetts Pass. I had to stop once or twice to cool myself off in the shade, but I did eventually make the summit. And then I was able to enjoy the fast descent down to the lunch stop. After a great lunch of a turkey sandwich and various chip, cookies and fruit; I headed back north for the final climb of the day. By the time I got down into Woodfords, the temperature had to be up in the low 90s so the suffering for the first bit of climbing was immense. For a while, I was stopping every mile or so in the shade, and even dunked my head in the river at one point (man, that felt good!).

After getting up into the upper parts of Hope Valley, the temperature cooled down to a reasonable amount of hot, and I was able to make better progress. But still, the last few miles seemed interminable, and when Finally got to the 1/2 mile to go mark, I got my second (or 12th?) wind and was able to sprint for the summit. At the rest stop at the top, I laid down for about ten minutes in the shade and had some ice water and a fudgesicle (man that was good!). And I got my five summits pin, which was even better! Now I just had to make it back to the start!

The descent from Carson Pass is actually (I think) the best one of the ride. There are lots of longer straightaways and it is a constant descent. I was able to hit 51 MPH near the bottom of it without pushing at all. After getting back into Woodfords, there were only a series of rolling hills before my destination. When I topped the last rise, I shifted up and sprinted all out for the finish line.

This ride is supposed to be 129 miles, though I only recorded 123 on my odometer. And the total climbing is listed as 15,000+. Not bad for a day's work! My riding time was 10:35 (which is very slow if you consider that I have done 200 miles in 12:09).