Thursday, March 27, 2008

More training...




A small group of us snuck out for a quick ride up Mt. Diablo on Weds. afternoon. The day started out nice, but by the time we were gathering to ride it was looking kind of overcast and getting pretty windy. K. Sue called the info line - 42 degrees and 18 mph winds at the summit!
However, we were there so we rode it. At least some of it. As you can see from the pics to the left, the weather was not so nice - although the sun did break through the clouds further west. We never did get the benefit of that!

After an hour or so of climbing (even by my standards we were taking it easy), we got to the junction (more or less the halfway mark) - and find our intrepid coaches Jacqui and Mike waiting for us. They described the conditions further up the mountain (pretty much what we were already dealing with, only more so!). We carried on - but not for too long. We did 2,400 feet of a 3,200 foot climb before deciding it was just too cold and too windy.

One cool thing - it's wildflower season on Mt. Diablo! Sadly, my photography skills weren't up to the challenge of capturing the flowers (how hard can that be, really?), so I'll have to go up again next week and see if I do better.

Last Weekend

So, last weekend (before our little jaunt up Mt. D.), we had a team ride in the Oakland Hills. After a great ride the weekend before, I was feeling pretty confident. Not so fast - I ended up struggling up every hill and generally not doing well on the ride. Why? Who knows - sometimes you just don't do well. I've included a couple of pics - feeling cold before the start, and then summitting the last hill of the day. It was a fun ride, even if I struggled.





























Next Weekend


I'm a bit worried about next weekend - we're ramping up both the miles and the climbing - last year this was one of the toughest rides for me. The coaches call it "18 Hills" - most of us are convinced that there are more, many more. It incorporates several classic Bay Area rides - the 3 Bears (named after 3 hills, of course), Wildcat Canyon and Grizzly Peak, going past Tilden Park, and Redwood. Hopefully, I'll remember to pull my camera out of my pocket and grab a few pictures. The weather forecast is for rain on Friday, followed by a nice day on Saturday. However, the weather around here is notoriously fickle. We'll see!

One change I did make - no hard ride on Thursdays! I'll do an easy spin on Thursdays from now on, and save any tough rides for earlier in the week. Both times I've struggled on team rides this year, I did a tough Thursday ride.

As always, I'm continuing to raise money to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. My fund-raising website is here. This is a great cause, and directly benefits so many people who are currently struggling with cancer. Please be generous!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Sad Month

































Here in the Bay Area, there are lots of cyclists.  In an area like this, tragedies will sometimes happen - and such a tragedy did hit on 3/8/2008. 

A Deputy Sheriff crossed the centerline on a popular cycling road and struck 3 cyclists, killing 2 of them.  I did not know anyone involved personally, but these kinds of tragedies really hit home.  The cyclists were on a team ride, and were very accomplished - one had just won an amateur race, while the other was considering going to the Olympic trials after a career as a professional triathlete.  My friend Pete posted the following to an internet board after attending the memorial ride: Pete's message.


That was an eventful month from another perspective - one of our riders took a nasty spill on a ride with a group of teammates.  We had just climbed a challenging set of hills, and come off a very fast descent.  She had stayed back to snap a few photos, so we were waiting at the stop sign.  After cresting a few rolling hills, she took her hands off the bars and a nasty wind gust hit her.  She went down before she could do anything about it.  We all raced back to her - she wasn't moving, but was breathing.  All we could do was try and keep her warm while calling 911.  The response was really fast - we were in a remote location, and the first police car got there in under 5 minutes, with ambulance right behind. In the meantime, our teammate came around and started talking a bit.  Thank god for her helmet!  She's ok - bruised and beat up, and she has a broken thumb, but otherwise is fine.

This was on top of an earlier team ride, where our community captain took a low speed spill while navigating a section of road he'd been over probably a thousand times.  He was also scraped up pretty good, but otherwise he was fine (his bike needed some attention, though).

So hopefully we're through this rough patch, everyone will keep their hands on their handlebars and the rest of the season will be safe!


The riding in the meantime has been rewarding, but tough.  Lots of wind and some rain has created pretty challenging conditions.  We've been riding in some pretty wide open areas, too - Livermore and out at Pt. Reyes, on the ocean in Marin County.  That last ride to Pt. Reyes in particular was just much tougher than it might have been - we woke up to weather forecasts of 20mph winds with 30 mph gusts and a 70% chance of rain.  Our fearless leader, Kim-osabe, decided the weather was fine, so we all showed up in Nicasio (a one horse town in a pretty isolated part of Marin) to clearing skies but strong winds.  No rain all day long, but boy that wind off the ocean sure made for some tough riding.  Beautiful part of the country, though - and a great ride!  The picture is of a teammate and me climbing one of the many short but steep sections on the way to the lighthouse.  Note all those trees to block the wind!

For those of you who want to make me suffer by riding more miles, well, you've got some work to do!  So far you all have donated just under $1,400 - good, but not good enough.  I've already ridden over 1,000 miles this season - to keep me riding more than scheduled, you guys are just going to have to pony up!  For anyone who missed it, I've pledged to ride a mile for every $ donated through my website.  Go ahead - make me ride!

JB