Larry's training log... T-N-T Death Ride

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Saturday, December 6, 2008

5001...5002...5003

2008 year-to-date (as of December 6, 2008):

5,084.44 miles,

45 spin classes,

9 flat tires (tubes),

3 tires replaced,

replaced 2 wheels,

one broken frame, and one stolen bike.

Home-2-Work via Alice's Restaurant

I had a couple of hours of work to do this afternoon so I rode in but took the hard way. Climbed Highway 92 to Skyline and followed Skyline to Highway 84. At the junction of the two sits Alice's Restaurant. Alice's and the store across the street are a gathering place of sorts for motorcyclists and bicyclists (leather and lycra)...

Above: Crystal Springs Reservoir from the Sawyer Camp Trail. If you haven't bicycled or jogged or walked Sawyer Camp trail get off your duff and do it. It is beautiful.

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58.27 miles; 4,278 feet of climbing

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Pre&Post Turkey Burn

With Thanksgiving and all the eating that entails I decided to ride the day before and the day after. On Wednesday I woke to cloudy sky's and wet roads but the weather report said showers only. I climbed aboard my bike and headed out to Ocean Beach to Skyline to Sawyer Camp Trail to Canada Rd. Once I hit Canada those showers arrived and they arrived as RAIN. I was drenched by the time I cycled the last 10 miles into work.

On Friday I was up and on my way to San Rafael mid-morning to meet up with other DSSF'ers for a ride through Lucas Valley, Alp de Fromage, and Marshall's Wall. It would be my first time through Lucas Valley and up Marshall's Wall so I was looking forward to the ride. Lucas Valley, on the back side towards Nicasio, is unbelievably gorgeous as you descend into the tall Redwoods. Absolutely stunning. Marshall's Wall was meh. Jerome was right that it's a nice climb but short. With Jerome, Topher, Doug, Stephanie, David, and Nancy, riding we kept a real moving pace going.

Above: Alp de Fromage (Cheese Factory Hill)

Below: Nancy at the Cheese Factory

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61.68 miles; 3336 ft of climbing (not all that much)

Below: Looking towards Marshall from atop Marshall's Wall

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44.25 miles; 2,229 feet of climbing

Monday, November 17, 2008

Morgan Territory and Palomares

Above: F Market Street car early in the morning before I hit BART to Concord

Below: Stephanie, Don, Tim, Ken (on bike), and Will, before we head out

Great day for riding and an absolutely beautiful ride through the East Bay. Morgan Territory is a lightly travelled road that skirts Mt. Diablo, stunning. One day soon I will tackle Mt. Diablo, I hear it calling my name ;-).

total miles for the day: 66.72 miles (182 more miles to go till I reach 5,000)

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Saturday, November 15, 2008

Join the Impact - San Francisco

The pic above is one of my favorites of the day.

Those that have known me for some time now that I've done my share of marches, protests, and just plain civil disobedience. So when it came time to march on SF City Hall* in the Join the Impact protests against California's ban on same sex marriages, I wasn't very excited in the least. I've learned that protest marches have there time and place and that very few are very successful (yeah I'm jaded). However, Trevor has recently become 'politically' active on this issue and after 17 years living with and being married twice to the guy this just isn't something Trevor does. So I dragged my ass out of bed this morning to join the march for him. It was a gorgeous day to be out and about speechifying, chanting, and marching. With a lot of hard work we will eventually get this abomination repealed. Really now, how in the hell can Trevor and my boring life really be all that much of a menace to society? It must be that we are happy.

*marching on SF city hall seems a little bit like preaching to the choir, does it not?

and for our Morman brethern...

Friday, November 14, 2008

Back-2-Back…

This past weekend (November 8 and 9) was the first weekend where I’ve ridden ‘moderate’ miles on consecutive days in quite some time. On Saturday I had a few hours of work to do so I rode from SF to Palo Alto and Caltrain-ed it back home.

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While the pitter patter of the rain on Saturday evening was nice and relaxing, the sun was shinning brightly as I woke early to get ready to ‘lead’ a DSSF ride up Mt. Tam. I met Doug at Peet’s Coffee on Market St. in the Castro shortly after 8:45 am and rode out very quickly. I do not wait around for others to show up at the 9:00 am ride-out time that I published if they don’t RSVP. It was rather a good thing we left a tad early because I had a flat tire just as I was riding the short climb into the Presidio on Arguello. We stopped and quickly changed the tubes finding glass embedded in the tire. Once the glass was removed I used a CO2 cartridge to inflate. Not being satisfied with the tire pressure we rode downhill to the SportsBasement to use their pump to inflate it adequately. From there Doug and I climbed to the Golden Gate Bridge to meet Will.

The forest just before descending to Alpine Dam.

We took off from the south side GG bridge and crossed for the nice descent into Sausalito and onto the Marin Bike Path which we quickly fell off staying on route 1 into Mill Valley. The left in Mill Valley continuing on Shoreline marked the beginning of the first major climb of the day, nearly 3 miles to the Panoramic Hwy. After turning onto the Panoramic Hwy there are a few rollers as you approach the turnoff for Muir Woods. At the turnoff we continued straight for the 2nd climb up to the Pan Toll rest area. After a regroup and some water we headed up the steepest part of the climb, Pan Toll, to the intersection with Ridgecrest. I hadn’t planned on taking the right to climb all the way to the ranger station on Mt. Tam but Will and Doug were wanting to so I gladly went along. The view towards the city is gorgeous.

Above: The view from near the top of Mt. Tam looking back towards SF. The picture below is looking in the same direction except a little lower as we were climbing Pan Toll.

The next series of rollers were the ‘seven sisters’ to the Bolinas-Fairfax road and a very technical downhill to Alpine Dam. The rain the previous evening had made sure to leave plenty of debris to watch out for. Sunday happened to be the last day the road would be open to through traffic because the road is now closed for a few months to repair some landslides. The thing about getting to Alpine Dam is that it is located in a valley and once down at the dam there is nowhere to go but up to climb back out. We climbed towards Fairfax and I encountered two turkeys along the side of the road. The decent into Fairfax isn’t all that technical but after nearly 4500 feet of climbing that day and riding the day before I started to cramp. I have never cramped on a decent before. Usually if I cramp it is on the climb, but the coolness of the day and the previous climbing was getting to me. We stopped at Coffee Roasters for some food that I badly needed. After some nourishment, we slowly rid back to SF where we all departed tired after a good ride. I was sleeping by 8 pm.