Dear Diary

Dear Diary... (current entries) and past Diary entries from

11/09/00-11/31/01 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings, visit to TREK & LeMond factory, first ride up Diablo, Sonora Pass, French laundry lesson
01/01/02-07/15/02 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings, riding in the snow, Gary Klein visit, Millennium Crows, Spooky Old Tree
07/18/02-07/31/02 Incredible trip to the 2002 Tour de France
08/01/02-12/31/02 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings, 2nd 2002 trip to France, winning Lance-signed frameset, 5th-Annual TurkeyTrot ride, riding in the rain
01/01/03-03/31/03 Yet more ramblings about the regular Tues/Thur ride, Mr. J visits Washington DC
04/01/03-08/28/03 You take the guy with the gun, I'll handle the guy with the Gatorade!
09/03/03-12/31/03 My dinner with Zap, 75000 mile TREK OCLV, meeting Graham Watson
TOUR DE FRANCE 2003 TRIP, 2004
04/01/03-08/28/03 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings, Fast older guys, Sequoia Double-Metric, Grizzly Peak Century
09/03/03-12/31/03 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings
01/01/04-07/31/04 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings
07/31/04-12/31/04 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings
01/01/05-07/01/05 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings
07/01/05-12/31/05 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings plus Tour de France ride-a-long in Team Car
11/22/06-07/16/06
07/28/06-12/28/06 Endless Tues/Thur morning ride ramblings, Sonora Pass, caught in a snowstorm

The Tuesday/Thursday ride is now on YouTube! Broken up into three separate segments, about 10 minutes each. Filmed by Millo on 1/30/07
The regular cast of characters on the Tuesday/Thursday rides includes
Kevin the first regular on our ride, and the most regular regular. Has too much time to ride!
Ueyn quite a few years with the ride, an irregular regular who always rides fast
Rob relative newcomer who's rapidly improving and always looking for a way to get an advantage in a sprint
Karl (aka "Fast Karl"), super-nice-guy road racer who can really charge on the flats
Chris, one of the younger guys who thinks he can climb and sprint. He can.
(Karl now with is own page here, Karl's Korner)(but not updated in ages...)
Eric, who likes to torture me up Kings by riding just a bit ahead or behind me, waiting for me to blow up.
Pete one of our more-experienced (that means older than me) guys who shows up from time to time
Preben who proves that age has nothing to do with speed; 60+ years old and 26:14 up King's Mtn. Ouch!
Steve from the way, way, way-back days of my old club, Pedali Alpini
Todd on our staff in Redwood City, Stanford student, who's improving rapidly and is way too fast.
(Todd will shortly be updating his page, Todd's Turn)
Millo, who complains that he's old & slow but somehow always there in the sprints.
George, always out on Tuesdays, nice guy, too fast on the climbs

THE DAY MOUNT HAMILTON ALMOST BLEW AWAY (with us on it)

CURRENT ALMOST-DAILY DIARY ENTRIES BELOW-

Don't have OLN, er, I mean VS, but want to watch the Tour de France? If you have a reasonably-fast internet connection, here's how, with information found on Steephill.TV, a great cycling website-

Eurosport audio for audio in English and Unrestricted video streaming in German (the "unrestricted" part is important; there are many video streams of the TdF, but the rest won't work outside of a specific country. This one works anywhere). Just turn off the sound for the video and listen to the Eurosport audio, and you're all set!

Check out our new photo album on Picasa! Lots of high-res photos from various rides and the Tour de France.

06/29/30- OK, MAYBE I DO TAKE A LOT OF PHOTOS. Came across an odd problem with one of my cameras (Fuji F30) today. Actually, it started a few days ago. Put in a freshly-formatted card, starts taking photos just fine, but as the card fills up, the number of photos it says are left doesn't change, regardless of the resolution you're shooting. Normally, hi-res photos take up more space on the card, so it will show you have fewer left than when you're shooting lower-res. But now it was showing "x" number of shots left, regardless. But wait, there's more. When it got down to zero? Even a reformat didn't change anything. Put in an empty card, and it still said you had zero shots left. Apparently, the camera has issues when you get to picture #9999. Everything basically locks up, until you go into an obscure setup menu and choose "renew." Since it took one heck of a search to find that, it seems that not too many people take more than 10,000 photos.

I guess now I don't feel so bad that I generally get a new camera every couple of years?

06/28/07- FULL WRECKING CREW TODAY, with Todd, Chris, Karl, Kevin, Eric... seems like there might have been one more, but can't figure out who it might have been. I took it just a little bit easier up the hill this morning, since my right knee's giving me a bit of trouble off the bike, but it's just barely perceptible while riding, primarily when sitting down and applying power. Still frustrating that I was 27:02 up the hill. Where did those 3 seconds go???

06/26/07- IT FINALLY FELT GOOD TO HURT AGAIN! This morning's ride up Kings Mtn was the first time in ages that everything was working, and everything was hurting. My legs, my lungs, they were both being taxed to the max. Of course, my "max" isn't what it used to be. My times up Kings are the most-reliable point of reference for that, and today's 26:51 (my first 26-something time since... well, sometime last year) was about a minute faster than I've been doing lately. Like I said, hurting felt good. My lungs, sure, they sounded, as usual, like a steam engine. But they managed to deliver enough oxygen to keep the legs fed, and that's what counts. I was a bit worried that the past couple days of heavy allergies (warm weather and wind does that to me) would do some damage, but fortunately not the case.

Of course, while I'm feeling so good about hurting, Todd, Karl & George are just cruising along, yakking away, in a zero-effort sort of way. There was a time that bothered me. Well, strike that. It still bothers me. But I've gotten used to it, and it doesn't keep me from wanting to ride with them. Very good guys, all. Well, mostly. This morning was something of a take-no-prisoners descent on 84, and with new tires on my bike (that gave a bit of a "pushing in the corners" feeling), I dropped off the pace a bit, along with SteveL, whom we met up with at Skyline. Did they slow up and regroup at the bottom? Heck no. We didn't see them until we got back to Canada. The last thing I wanted to do was go chasing after them; I felt like I'd earned a wheel to draft. Evidently, they didn't feel similarly. That's OK though; gave me a chance to hurt some more.

06/24/07- 37:20 UP OLD LaHONDA MIGHT NOT SEEM SO FAST, but if you consider that it wasn't all that long ago it was taking Kevin an hour (and requiring several stops), he's making good progress. We didn't have a whole lot of time, as he was being dropped off at Summer Camp (Mission Springs near Felton) later in the day, so it was more-or-less an out & back to the town of LaHonda. Kevin's getting much better at managing things (both his strength and emotions) while climbing, and, to put it simply, no longer fears hills. And, of course, he still really enjoys descending, much more, in fact, than I do. And, of course, he still really gives me a scare now & then with the goofy wide lines he takes in the corners. I still ride behind him on all but the quietest descents, thinking it best to keep the cars off his tail. Unfortunately, he loses the benefit of watching the lines I take through the corners. But, as I mentioned before, maybe I've just gotten too conservative, and maybe he's much better than I at understanding what a bike can do when going downhill fast. Or maybe ignorance is bliss, and his first crash while descending will change all that.

For the next week he'll be in camp, taking the week off from cycling. It will be interesting to see if he'll say he actually missed riding when he gets back. The day after camp he'll be attending another session at the bicycle racing track, so we'll see what a week off the bike does.

06/22/07- IF HE'D REALLY BEEN A GOOD DOG, he would have gone into a corner and died during the night. But no, that's not the way it usually works, and no, that's not the way it worked this time. Only 12 years old (relatively young for a Corgi), Spencer started having problems a week or so ago. Constant fast, labored breathing, little strength to walk. Sounds like me climbing. Took him to the 'vet, did a bunch of blood tests, but nothing showed up. So today, after seeing him holed up in the kitchen, relatively unresponsive to us, and literally moving himself into corners where he would just stare at a wall... it was time to put him down.

The last dog we had to put to sleep, I stayed with at the 'vet, to the very end. I was reassured that the dog would go quietly, and feel no pain. It was one of the worst 10 minutes of my life, as the dog didn't realize she wasn't supposed to feel any pain, she didn't know that it was supposed to be peaceful. She fought it to her last dying breath. I felt, at the time, that I had to be there for her. This time I wasn't going to go through that again. But thinking about what happened before, with Scooter, I'm pretty close to being as bad off now as I was then. Dogs really should go quietly in their sleep.

Spencer's better off now. I think I'm saying that because it's really the case, and not because it makes me feel better about having to do something that I'd otherwise question. Spencer didn't look at me with sad eyes that said "Please, put me out of this pain." He didn't really look at me at all, but just stared straight ahead, panting furiously. He never whimpered either. Wish that he had, to tell you the truth. I know he was just a dog, but he trusted us implicitly for everything about his life. He trusted that we would be there to feed him, to open the door to the kids' bedrooms so he could sleep next to them, to make sure there was always water. It's not as if he could have survived in the wild, and it's not as if he ever had any reason to doubt we'd be there for him. But in the end we said our tearful goodbyes and handed him over to the 'vet, who'd been through this sort of thing so many times before that, to her (the 'vet), it must have been as routine as us making sure he had water and food. And now, for the next few minutes, I'm going to have to stay holed up in the office at the shop, because my bloodshot, tearing eyes are probably not what the rest of the store should be seeing. And I'm thinking that maybe I should have been there, at the end, after all. It couldn't have been any worse than what I'm going through now.

06/21/07- MAYBE IT MEANS THAT I'M ALIVE AND THEY'RE... not that I'd ever be accused of rationalizing something, but I'm thinking, as I'm trying desperately to keep up with Todd & Karl on the west side of Old LaHonda... and the quiet of the upper forest is rudely disturbed by my heavy breathing... and I'm noting that I can't hear Todd or Karl breathe whatsoever... I'm thinking that maybe it's a sign that I'm alive and they're... what... ghosts? There's just got to be some positive side to the steamtrain-like sound of my breathing!

Aside from that, another nice day to be out on the bike. Spotted the re-emergence of tiny little rabbits (out on west-side Old LaHonda), and, while climbing Kings earlier, scared off a large (aren't they all?) Raven that was munching on road kill of some sort. I watched as he carried it away in his talons (why don't they just call them toes?), and wondered how he'd be able to land without dropping it. Answer? He did drop it, right when he landed on the tree branch. Given that Ravens are supposed to be one of, if the not smartest of birds, seemed a bit strange that he couldn't figure out that was going to happen and go for a landing on the ground somewhere.

Oops, almost forgot the roll call. Karl, Todd, Millo & Eric. I don't think I've left anybody out, aside from the rabbits, one tiny lizard and a very large Raven.

Trying out some new tires on my bike (finally time to take off my larger "winter" tire on the rear, and my front tire was beginning to get a bit chewed up). You know how sometimes you wonder if you ride at a level where you can notice small, subtle differences? Well, changing tires seems to transcend subtle. I found myself a little bit sketchy on the descents and a bit less stable in crosswinds (an odd thing, that). Probably something I'll get used to in a few days though. But, in general, don't overlook the possibility that a new pair of tires can make quite a difference in how your bike rides. For what it's worth, I'm having a really difficult time finding a tire I like as much as the Bontrager Race X-Lite. Just wish they would fare better when it's wet; the slightest hint of moisture seems to cause them to get severely sliced & diced. Whatever it is that makes them handle so nicely, and feel so comfortable, seems at odds with durability in the wet.

06/19/07- A COUPLE OF DAYS MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE sometimes, and this was one of those times. While last Thursday I put up a rather distressing entry about the effects of stress on my riding, some of which may have been an excuse for my lack of fitness relative to this time last year, and generally getting ground up on the regular Tuesday/Thursday rides, this morning was entirely different. Maybe it was because I finally got a full 6.75 hours of sleep instead of the six and a half (and sometimes less) I'd been getting lately, or maybe I've just come to terms with all the things going on and am now actively doing something about them rather than stressing out. Whatever it was, I felt like I was having some fun climbing Kings this morning, doing intervals for the first time in a good many months, and generally feeling like I could almost hang with the big guys.

Karl, Kevin, Chris, Eric, Millo... George was the only Tuesday regular who didn't show. The main excitement was in the run down west 84 to Old LaHonda, when we had a truck pulling a horse trailer pass us close to a blind corner, with a car coming in the opposite direction to demonstrate why you don't pass in such a situation. To say that those two came close to running into each other is an understatement, while I'm watching the show, and more-casually-than-I-ought-to thinking about the physics involved in the event of their collision, in terms of where the bits & pieces might fly and if I might be in a dangerous place. No fear, just kind of a casual, detached feeling about the event which, fortunately, didn't take place.

06/17/07- OH DEAR, IT'S A DEER! For Father's Day I went riding with my son (Kevin) and showed him a few of our local "secret" roads. We started out by climbing Kings (seems like I do a lot of that), but then, instead of heading south on Skyline, we continued down the other side (Tunitas Creek) and headed back up Starr Hill. Yes, up that nasty little section that's steeper than steep, and he did just fine. But the most exciting part of the ride was the descent into Sky L'Onda, as a tiny (and I mean tiny!) little deer walked out into the road in front of Kevin. I actually had my camera out at the time, but couldn't set up very well due to my speed (I generally make it a rule not to be taking pictures above 35mph and we were doing about 37 at the time).

Tiny little deer, by the way, aren't much different from squirrels. They're quite unpredictable, and this little guy first started heading out directly into Kevin's line before suddenly turning away. Meanwhile I'm yelling at Kevin to "slow down" while at the same time trying to take pictures. Yeah, Dad's real smart... someday he's going to get a great shot of exactly what caused his own crash.

After heading down into Woodside, it was time for just a little more fun. Summit Springs Road. I've mentioned it in passing, while passing, several times before. Kevin never seemed too interested in trying it, which I figured was evidence of having a small amount of common sense. But this time was different. So we headed up as far as the turn off to Patrol Road (I think that's it), all the while explaining to Kevin how it's possible to climb impossibly-steep grades with relatively-little effort (not too quickly, of course!). Zero-effort hill climbing, I call it. And he actually seemed to grasp the concept! And once you've tricked your mind into believing that such a thing is possible, you can ride that wave of deception pretty much anywhere.

06/15/07- IT'S NOT ALL THAT BAD. Yesterday's diary entry sounds rather depressing, and that's not the way it ought to read. Stress and depression are two very different things, with stress being something that I can work through myself, something that I can see a beginning, middle and an end to. I might be rationalizing, but I don't think that's depression. If I didn't have a great staff, if I didn't have the tools I need to deal with the daily demands of being in business, if I didn't have a family that I love unconditionally (but don't sometimes show it as well as I should) and loves me unconditionally back (and doesn't always show it as well as they should), then maybe I'd be depressed!

Tomorrow's Kevin's big day at the velodrome (bicycle racing track)- the district championships! He's come a lot further than I thought possible just a few months ago and, while he's going to be pretty severely out-gunned due to his age, I think he's going to have a lot of fun and people will know that he's "real" and going to turn some heads a year or two down the road. (The way the age groups work, your "racing" age is your age on December 31st of the prior year, so if you turn 15 at the end of this-coming November, like Kevin does, you're racing against 15 & 16 year olds... yikes!).

And my daughter Becky, who you might have had help you at the shop? I'm trying to get her more into riding via social consciousness, by trying to get her to attend the annual Washington DC bicycle lobbying event. She knows her stuff; anyone who's come in for a bike knows that. She just hasn't yet realized that bikes are the answer to life, the universe, & everything. Or maybe she knows that, but is in denial. Hopefully a couple more quarters at UC Santa Cruz and she'll realize that all the cool guys ride bikes. Or maybe I just want to rationalize that, since I went to UC Santa Cruz, and rode a bike, I was a cool guy. Hmm. OK, I see the issue here. Darn.

06/14/07- STRESS. And lots of it. And today, for the first time in quite a number of years, it really affected my riding. Usually, riding is a great way for me to feel better, to relieve the stress, to realize that whatever's bothering me, riding is the cure. But not today. I started (and ended) the ride feeling not just tired, but worn out. The cause of the stress? Primarily TREKs introduction of the new '08 Madone line, which has caused us to drastically re-price our existing inventory (meaning that you can get some very good buys right now!). Lots and lots and lots of $$$ lost. It could be worse; at least I'm getting in hot new bikes that everybody's going to want. A dealer without access to the new Madone design is simply going to find their inventory less desirable to customers, with nothing to offer. So yes, it could be worse. And I'm working (very hard) on ways to move out lots of inventory that's no longer "current" but still great product. That takes time to figure out, and is the source of most of my stress. Daughter in college? 14-year-old boy that I'm working on getting into shape? Wife going through chemotherapy? Most would probably see those as more-significant sources of stress, but they're works in progress. Plans already in place and things being done to deal with them. Faith that, in every case, things are going to work out fine... it just takes a bit of time. My family is, of course, more important than the business... but it's all so closely tied together that distinctions are often blurred. So yes, once in a while, the business does get to me. There's nothing better I can think of doing than getting people on bikes for a living though.

I rode Kings a bit differently today, deciding to try and stay in the saddle (not stand up) as much as possible. And I made it as far as the half-way hairpin before having to stand in the steep middle section the preceded the wide-open area. Boy did I feel sore in different places than normal! Wherever the muscles from your leg connect up under your tail end? That was sore!

Kevin, Karl, Eric, Millo & Todd to keep me honest about things. A really good bunch of guys who either know exactly how far they can turn the screws before I come unglued, or, worse, have me thinking they do! No wild sprints today as Millo discovered cracks in his handlebar stem... er, no, I can't really use that as an excuse for Todd nailing the sprint into Sky L'Onda. I was going for it, Todd was going for it. Todd got it by quite a distance. Next time I'll try using a lower gear; I crested the small hill we sprint for at about 32mph and found myself almost pushing & shoving on the handlebars. Sounds like too high a gear at 50x12. 50x13 might be just the ticket.

06/13/07- HOW COULD I POSSIBLY BE LUSTING AFTER ANOTHER BIKE? After all, my TREK Madone 5.9SSL represents pretty much the pinnacle of bicycle technology and function. Until today. Read all about the new Madones on our website. I have the benefit of having ridden one last week in Wisconsin (at the TREK 100 benefit ride), as well as a couple months earlier during product testing & verification trials near San Diego. Truth be told, my present bike remains an incredible machine, but people are going to be drawn like moths to a light to the new machines, which have turned inside-out certain basic ideas about how a bike should interface with the headset & cranks & seat. The new bikes are going to trickle in slowly, but meantime there are some screaming deals on what's left of our '05 & '06 inventory, as well as some of the current '07s.

06/12/07- WHY BOTHER BRINGING THE CAMERA if I'm not going to be able to use it? Not many opportunities this morning as I was first being chased by Eric, then Eric passes me about halfway up Kings and I'm... well, I'm definitely not chasing him, just trying to keep him in sight! Meanwhile Karl, George, Millo & Kevin are having a good old time a couple minutes behind. Best thing about the ride was not having to wear leg warmers or tights. No, that's not true. Best thing about the ride is simply being on a bike. It takes me places, both physically and in the mind. It challenges me to keep up as long as I can, with the knowledge that I'll get a chance to recover whenever it flattens out and there's a wheel I can draft behind. And the sprints... that's probably when I feel most alive.

06/11/07- DIDN'T GET TO RIDE THIS PAST WEEKEND, and I feel... like I didn't get to ride this past weekend. Hate that feeling! But did get Kevin to the track on Sunday, for the final tune-up session prior to the state championships this-coming Saturday. Also put up a piece on the new '08 Madone bicycles that everyone's been talking about, and I was fortunate to ride a week ago in Wisconsin (at the TREK 100 benefit event).

06/08/07- THINGS ANYONE CAN RELATE TO- An insidious plot to embarrass us and make us seem clumsy and hopeless was discovered the other day when, upon taking a drink from my cup of Starbucks coffee, I dribbled some down my chin and shirt. So I'm thinking gee, what a klutz, I'll be more careful. Drink again, SAME THING HAPPENS!!! Double-klutz? Yeah, probably. Only this time I did a bit more research into the issue and I discover, to my amazement, that it isn't me! Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that I'm not a klutz. But close inspection of the lid of the coffee cup reveals a split that occurs just down from the drinking hole. A slit that allows the coffee a secondary path out of the cup, right where your chin is. Starbucks may be saving a penny or so a cap by using ultra-thin el-cheapo versions that are prone to splitting, and, in doing so, heavily damaging the American psyche!

06/07/07- KARL'S VERSION OF SLOW is just a bit different than mine, which is defined as Kevin (the guy I ride with in the mornings, not my son) on a bike day. That would be about 35 minutes up Kings, a slow-enough time that allows many more people to be able to relate to what goes on on our Tuesday/Thursday-morning rides. Karl insisted that he had to take it very easy because the Pescadero Road Race was coming up this weekend, but it appears Karl's version of very slow is my version of a fast ride when I'm feeling not-quite-right, which would be just under 30 minutes. And so it was this morning, as I'm struggling to keep ahead of Karl & Todd who were quite amiably chatting away, while trying to chase down Millo, who'd left a bit ahead of us.

Todd showing up for our rides is a good thing, as it reminds me that there's a lot more to sprinting that pure power. Todd, aka THH (The Human Hummingbird), spins his way past everyone, and just keeps going. For me, it takes a bit of time to get the power going, but once I do, I can generally run down most others. But not when Todd's around. It throws off my game in general; for the Sky L'Onda sprint, Todd took off a bit early, and I'm thinking great, he's gone. But he faded, a strange and rare thing to see, so I'm pulling up ahead, paying attention to Todd and not Millo, who's come up the other side and gets to the line first. Yeah, I felt pretty dumb.

06/05/07- SOME DAYS THERE'S NOTHING BETTER THAN THAT FEELING WHEN YOU GET ON THE BIKE AND SPIN THOSE CRANKS. You're instantly transformed from the drudgeries of everyday life to something magical. Today was not one of those days. Got on the bike to head out to the start of the Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride, and couldn't believe how slowly I turned the pedals. Heading up Jefferson at 10mph instead of 13 and just never being able to get the engine out of low gear. Actually, it felt more like an engine that was having trouble pushing too high a gear... that kind of lurching/near-stalling feeling. Eventually I got to the start, where Karl & Eric & Chris were ready to slice & dice me. Funny thing though; bad as I felt, a climb is a climb, and after the first part you just start making your way up on memory, and somehow get to the top a bit faster than you expect. For me, a day I'm feeling sick (which is fortunately rare) I might take 30 minutes to get to the top, and if I'm totally dead, maybe just a bit faster. Kevin, if he's totally dead, might take 35 minutes (however, one must consider that if he's "on" he'll be up there in 24!). The morning was around 27:45 or so, maybe a minute faster than expected. Milo was already at the top, having left a bit earlier.

Of course, that didn't leave anything left for Skyline! Fortunately, the coolness (46 degrees) and fog seemed to have a moderating effect, so when Karl & Chris & Eric sprinted away from me on the first & second climbs/sprints, I was still able to at least keep them in sight.

Chris turned off to head back to work (down 84 into Woodside) while the rest of us dutifully rode the west-side Old LaHonda loop, with me bringing up the rear for the first part, finally managing to get a small bit of steam going towards the end. Not the last we'd see of Chris though; as we descended into Woodside, there he was, behind the barrier on the final hairpin (near the bottom), finishing up a tube replacement. He'd blown a tire but fortunately managed to control the results without crashing. That'll teach him for not doing the entire ride with us! Not that our ride has been entirely without incident, of course, but truthfully flat tires are a very rare thing for us. And now that I've jinxed things...

But if there was a story to today's ride, it was something I'd forgotten about- that you can feel not-so-great at the start of the ride, but given a bit of time & patience, things get better. Almost every time. This was one of those times, although I recognized it more in retrospect than I did while I was riding. I began feeling pretty strong once at the top of Skyline, and when Karl took off on Manuella, I actually lifted my front wheel off the ground accelerating to catch him. And even though he had a pretty big lead going into the final sprint, instead of giving up, I was thinking great, lots of space here to get up to speed and try to catch him. Not the way you think when you're totally wasted, and a far cry from how I felt when I first got on the bike. Now, I can't wait to ride again. The world is back in order.

06/03/07- ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER CENTURY well, metric anyway. Flying back from Wisconsin last night I got home around 11:30pm, just in time to get my bike ready for the Sequoia Century this morning. The original plan was to ride it with my son, but that didn't work out as he'd come down with quite a nasty cold. Normally that would give me an excuse to ride the 100 miler, but that would have required that I get up a bit earlier and sleep has been running in very short supply the last 4 days. So instead I rode to & from the Sequoia, adding another 17 miles or so to make it 78 miles total, and about 7200 ft of climbing. Not exactly up to last-year's standards, when I rode the 100 mile version of the TREK 100 the previous day, and 112 miles on the Sequoia the next!

06/02/07- THIS DON'T LOOK LIKE KANSAS... OR DOES IT? I've always thought clouds were cool to check out; one of my great, unanswered questions (so far) is this- what causes some clouds to have sharply-defined edges, while others just kind of taper off? But the cloud I was looking at today was dark & exceptionally-nasty-looking, and heading right towards me (or maybe I was heading right towards it) about halfway through the 100k version of the TREK 100 in Wisconsin. Within about 5 minutes you couldn't even hear yourself think, the rain was coming down so hard. So hard that my group sought shelter in a building housing a flea market. But most of it was gone within maybe 10 minutes, and the rest of the ride (and indeed everything up to that point) was very nice indeed. Last year I rode the 100 mile version, and I had some intent to do so this year, but was concerned about a pretty tight time schedule for my flight out of town... and then, when I got stuck on the wrong side of a very major accident (a bunch of bicyclists that didn't make the corner on a descent and rode into a bunch of trees, requiring that the road be shut down while they brought in ambulances), which lost me about half an hour... that was the clincher.

But at the end of the ride I felt pretty lame about not having down the 100 mile, as a friend of mine, Steve Howard (who owns Livermore Cyclery across the bay), was in the front group and finished in 4 hrs 23 minutes, including rest stops. That's flying! And he finished just about the same time I did.

My guess, though, is that I had a bit more time to spend with various people along the way, including friends at Trek who I don't get to see very often.

05/31/07- WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE TO HAVE RIDDEN THIS MORNING, but instead I found myself on a plane flying to Wisconsin, where this Saturday I ride the a benefit century for the Midwest Children's Cancer fund. Well, that's not the only reason I'm out here; it's also a dog & pony show for whatever new product's coming down the line (basically what the team will be riding at the Tour de France). I'll post a ride report when/if I get one from Karl or Kevin; I'd already been told that Millo was going to miss it again today.

05/29/07- THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW. Ouch. And then some. Just 10.5 hours after finishing last-night's Felton-Redwood City speed run I'm back on the bike again, struggling to turn the pedals en route to this morning's umpteeth-zillion Tuesday-Thursday-morning ride. It didn't actually hurt, it just didn't feel particularly good. Ancient memories of the Central Coast Stage Race came back, and just how dreadful I felt for the first few miles of the second-day's stage. This was just like that.

Kevin, Karl & George this morning, with George feeling pretty darned good about having won the Mt. Hamilton Road Race on Sunday. Chris, I'm told, took 2nd in his class. That's the type of animal I'm riding with these days. Kevin, at least, was feeling somewhat mortal, having just gotten back from a multi-day ride down the coast.

05/28/07- I HAVE NEVER FELT MORE ALIVE than I did riding back from Felton on Memorial Day. We did our traditional Memorial Day gig, driving to Felton and taking the train from there to the Boardwalk (Santa Cruz), spending 5 hours at the beach and then returning to Felton. Which, because I hadn't ridden Sunday (due to Kevin's track session, mentioned below), normally would mean that I wouldn't get to ride at all over the weekend. So I come up with a plan. Instead of driving back with the family, I pack my bike in the car and ride the 45 miles back, literally racing the sun.

And race it was, because the train pulled in almost an hour late, so by the time I got on my bike it was 6:28pm. I had figured about three hours to make it over the hill (up 9 through the San Lorenzo Valley to Skyline, then north on Skyline to Sky L'Onda, down 84 into Woodside and then Redwood City (home).

I made two bottles of Cytomax, which I made a point of drinking at regular intervals, and not once did I feel like I'd hit the wall and my legs needed a rest. I could stand, I could sit, I could simply ride. The longest stretch was from Felton to Saratoga Gap (Skyline), where I arrived at 7:50pm. Most surprising was that I covered the 7+ miles from Saratoga Gap to Page Mill by 8:11pm, and the remaining 6+ miles to Sky L'Onda by 8:30. At that point I was thankful I had some decent lights, strong enough that I was able to ride at a speed such that a car pulled over for me as I sped downhill. By 9pm I was home, just 2.5 hours after I'd started.

Back in the day (way back in the day), we used to do the out-and-back Redwood City to Santa Cruz run at about 2.5 hours out, and a bit over 3 hours back. Of course, that included another 6 miles (from Santa Cruz to Felton) and legs that had already put in 50 miles getting there. Still, I was pretty happy with how things went. I just felt good. And finally got a half-way decent night's sleep for a change.

05/27/07- DON'T KNOW IF HE'S THE DUMBEST KID AT THE TRACK, OR THE SMARTEST. It was quite a day for Kevin (my 14-year-old) at the track, open for only the second weekend after having been closed for several months while the infield is being reconstructed. Only about 10 kids out there this time, probably because people got out of the habit while the track was shut down (normally, they run the program for 10-15 year old kids on the 1st & 3rd Sundays of each month).

After grouping the kids according to their speed (determined by running 500 meter time trials), Kevin found himself in a group of 5... 4 boys and one... girl. One of those 14 or 15-year-old girls that Kevin complains there aren't enough of riding bikes. They ran a 12-lap (4 kilometer) scratch race, with a sprint halfway through, and another at the end. So what does Kevin do? He rides at the front, pushing the pace, and quickly gets rid of the other 3 boys. That leaves... just the girl, sitting in Kevin's draft, enjoying the ride. From the infield, it was almost laughable. There's Kevin, pulling this other rider around the track (who happened to be a girl), with everyone, including Dad, knowing exactly how this plays out. How it should play out is for the two of them to work together, making sure the other three riders don't have a chance to catch up, and then going for it shortly before the sprint.

But how it does play out is determined by a 14-year-old boy publicly demonstrating a combination of pride, ignorance and a desire to show off in front of a girl. I yell at Kevin, even other people were yelling at Kevin to pull off the front and let her do a bit of work. Didn't matter. Kevin just stayed at the front. And then, with just three laps to go, she decides (for reasons unfathomable) to take a turn at the front. And, just as surprisingly (or maybe not by now), Kevin won't let her come around.

And, of course, it plays out as expected at the end. with just under half a lap to go, she pulls around Kevin for the win. Technically, Kevin still won the race, because the officials claim she "chopped" him in the sprint, coming down across him, but it looked pretty clean to me, and Kevin didn't think she did anything wrong. No surprise there.

05/24/07- WHERE DID THE TIME GO??? I usually don't get this far behind on the almost-daily diary; right now it looks like it's the almost-weekly version. Yikes. But I'll start with this-morning's ride and work backward from there. Millo, Karl, Kevin, Eric... I don't think I'm leaving anyone out. We worked to get Millo up the hill as expeditiously as possible, but I'm beginning to think he sand-bags on the climb a bit so he has something in reserve for other parts of the ride. You'd think he'd be dead up on Skyline, but sometimes the guy's an absolute motor. Still nice weather; great to not have to search for leg warmers or jackets as you get ready to ride. And as it gets warmer, I find myself more-tolerant of the Wild Berry Cytomax, which tastes more like an antacid medication than something you look forward to drinking. Tangy Orange and Cranberry-Grapefruit are my flavors of choice.

As we were pulling a more-moderate pace up Kings I had a bit left for the west-side of Old LaHonda... for the first couple miles. As soon as we got to the steeper part past the open section with the views of the ocean, I watched Karl & Kevin ride off into the trees and limped the remaining distance up to Skyline. It would have been fun to ride strong the whole way, but that's not in the cards quite yet. I do want to get there though!

05/17/07- IF YOU'RE THINKING ABOUT SHOWING UP FOR OUR FRIENDLY RIDE... well, it really should be a no-brainer. Of course you're welcome to come. But would you want to? That's the question that I had to answer earlier today, when somebody at the shop was asking about our ride and thinking about showing up. 10 years ago, it wouldn't have been an issue. If you could get up the hill (Kings Mtn) in under 40 minutes, we'd wait for you, and maybe provide encouragement along the way. That was then. Now? Somewhere along the way the Tuesday/Thursday ride has become something more akin to a formal training ride, complete with sprints, timings on the climb, and an ever-increasing pace. I used to make it back home around 9:50am or so; this morning, it was 9:28.

The good news is that it's kept me in reasonable shape, and helped to keep at bay the normal stuff that's supposed to come with getting older- putting on weight, getting slower, more fatigue. I have to admit I'm better off in those areas than I expected to be. But off-setting that is the fact that it's rare that I can catch a breath on our ride. Most of the other guys, no problem. Partly because they have more opportunities to ride than I do, and partly because their lungs are better at scavenging oxygen when the temp's below 60 than mine are. And fewer opportunities to take photos when you're trying desperately to keep up with a fast crowd!

This morning's ride? It was actually me setting the schedule, as I had to be back as early as possible... so no hanging out at the top of Kings Mtn. Kevin, Karl, Millo, Eric & Chris, although Millo had left a bit early so he could do a more-leisurely pace up the hill. Still a bit on the cool side, and even slightly damp up on Skyline, with the sun & fog creating patterns in the air, as you can see in the photo. But while it was me setting the schedule, it was Kevin, Karl & Chris pushing the pace (with Eric gamely hanging on). If I was able to get in some killer Sunday rides, I could hang with them more easily. But since I've been riding with my son when the opportunity arises, I've instead gotten to experience an entirely different type of riding- casual cruising? A type of riding where you've got plenty of time for photos, and you're never out of breath for conversation. Your heart rate might average 100 (vs 140 or so for a killer ride), and the average speed around 11mph instead of 16. No sprints either.

It's actually rather nice riding like that now & then. I'd probably enjoy doing it even more, except that, with the limited time I have to ride, I'd quickly lose the strength needed for the gnarly hills I like to ride in the Sierras. That and the fact that you don't get that same feeling that you're turning back the clock with you can outsprint someone 15 years younger!

05/17/07- NO COMMENT, FOR NOW, ON THE GREG LeMOND/FLOYD LANDIS ISSUE. You can read all about it on Cyclingnews.com if you wish, but you might want to keep a barf bag handy. Great to know that the media now has something to replace Anna Nicole Smith stories with.

05/15/07- LOST MY NERVE TODAY descending 84 into Woodside. We'd had a nice ride up to that point; no Millo, but we had Kevin, Karl, Chris, Eric, George and... John? Darn, I forget his name; he showed up a few weeks ago, nice guy, but can't do the entire ride with us due to having to get to work.

Moderate pace for most going up Kings today, but killer pace for me. And yet the same speed. How does that work? A bit cooler today, lots of fog, but none of the cool sunlight-through-the-trees effects we saw last ride, although I did remember to bring the camera this time, just in case.

We're now seeing a number of other people regularly on "the hill", and you can tell something about the nature of our group by the fact that it doesn't seem to matter that many of them are women. No change in routine; everyone simply rides past in the same nonchalant manner that you pass other cars on the freeway. I have an excuse for my own lack of social skills that goes beyond the fact that I don't have social skills- my breathing is so ragged when I'm trying to keep up with everyone that I couldn't exchange much in the way of pleasantries even if I wanted to. That's one advantage when I'm riding with the "other" Kevin (my son). Big difference in my ability to converse when my heart rate is at 100 vs 164!

Also noteworthy this morning was the return of "3-dog Lady", who used to be a regular on our ride; we'd always see her just after the start of the ride. For a couple years she'd appear to scowl at us, making us feel rather unwelcome on her roads. We took it upon ourselves to change that, no matter how long it took. I believe it was about 3 year before she would return our always-cheery "Good mornings", and after awhile, you could see her smile as we came by. We'd grown concerned that she'd been missing for several months, but she was back this morning, with all 3 dogs in tow.

Regarding losing my nerve on 84, that happened just past the straight stretch with the retaining wall on the right-hand side of the road, where you have the big view of everything from Stanford up to Oakland. The length right-hand turn that follows can be taken at a fair amount of speed and, as I was out in front, feeling a bit of pressure from behind, I was pushing fairly hard. In the middle of the corner things just didn't feel quite right though, as if I was pushing a bit too hard on the front tire. I never slid, but got a bit rattled, and from then on, took it very easy the rest of the way down the hill. One of those times where you start imagining that you've got a flat tire, but you don't. If I wasn't riding with a group I would have stopped and collected my wits before continuing.

05/13/07- ONE MORE HILL CLIMBED as Kevin (the 14 year old) rode up Page Mill for the first time. He considered it a fair amount tougher than Tunitas Creek, mostly due to that middle section that goes... up! We stopped a couple times, first at the entrance to Foothill Park, and then again a couple miles up after one of the steeper sections. Climbing time from Arastradero was 1hr 36 minutes, including stops, which isn't going to set any records but heck, for me, it's kinda nice once in a while to do a ride where I'm not the one pushed to the limit! Having said that, I should point out that I go to quite a bit of trouble making sure Kevin's not in too much distress, including making sure he's getting enough to drink, stopping before he asks to stop, and not letting his heart rate get too high.

The original plan was to continue down West Alpine on the other side and then back up 84, but Mother's Day commitments conflicted with that, so we rode north on Skyline and then back down 84.

Will he be ready for the 100k Sequoia in a couple weeks? Tough to say, but I didn't want him to even try that until we saw if he could handle Page Mill first (which the 100k Sequoia heads up right near the start).

05/12/07- CAT'S HILL RECAP- Somehow I neglected to tell the story of my son's first criterium last Saturday. He's been participating in the jr track series at the Velodrome (although that's been on hold for a while due to construction) as well as a time trial on Canada Road. But this was going to be his first real live USCF bicycle race. We'd done a recon of the course the prior Sunday, and were pretty confident he'd be able to manage the nastily-steep but mercifully-short hill. Confident enough that I decided, just before the race, to set his front derailleur so it couldn't go to the smallest chainring on his triple crank, since making that shift sometimes causes the chain to derail.

His race was just 3 laps, and as we'd done 4 without incident in our recon, I wasn't worried. At least I wasn't worried until lap 2, when I watched him stall out about halfway up the hill and have to run to the top! At that moment I was thinking I must be the worst Dad in the world, having locked out his lower gears, but then, as he got close to me, I looked at his bike and saw he still had two larger rear gears to go. He'd forgotten to shift! Doh! No problem on the final lap, but he got passed by quite a few others during his run up the hill. Don't think he'll make that mistake again.

Don't think he'd ever been pushed quite so hard for 15 minutes either; at the end of the race, he was pretty wiped out. Not exactly a walk in the park, and I think he was quite impressed with how strong some of the other kids were.

05/10/07- A FEW DAYS BEHIND in getting this entry in! Thursday's ride was quite different from Tuesday. For one thing, it was back to leg warmers & base layers again, with the temp getting as low as 43. Not winter temps to be sure, but Tuesday's ride saw 62-66 degrees and the first time this year I've been able to ride in the morning without leg warmers. We were also a much smaller group... in fact, it was just Chris & Kevin, and Kevin didn't even come along for the full ride, choosing instead to head back down 84 when we got to Sky L'Onda (he was trying to save something for the Central Coast Double Century on Saturday).

What was really unfortunate was that this was one of the rare rides when I chose not to bring my camera, and the light shining through the fog & trees on Skyline was spectacular! The sort of thing that you'd see in famous photos, where the photographer figures out exactly the right time for the light to come through at exactly the right angle, and just hope to get just the right amount of fog for the right effect. It was all there!!! Dang.

05/08/07- DID YOU NOTICE HOW VIBRANT SHE LOOKED? But we'll get to that shortly. George, Eric, Karl, Chris, Kevin... and Joe! Joe who we usually see riding with Ted about the time we get going, but never heading up the hill. But today Joe was with us as well, taking the place of Millo. Joe kicks up our average age only slightly, being on the far side of 60, but he's proof that getting older doesn't mean getting slower. Actually, I used to race with Joe back in the day; we were both members of the local Pedali Alpini club. Of course, I use was a young punk junior at the time, while Joe was technically an adult. If I recall correctly, he pretended to be an adult fairly well. With some encouragement, I got Joe up the hill in 29:25 which, he said, was about three minutes faster than his best times lately.

Kevin had warned me that he was going to be dog slow, which, as usual, was an absolute lie. I'm getting used to that, but still, after all these years of riding with him, give him the benefit of the doubt. But lately it's Chris that's been riding consistently strong, too strong actually!

Noteworthy events included having to come to a screeching halt from full speed on the descent towards Sky L'Onda as a huge truck was blocking the road, and the young woman we saw who'd just arrived at the top of east-side Old LaHonda just as we had come up from the west. That's the person whom Karl remarked "Did you see how vibrant she looked?" Meaning that she radiated a healthy glow or something like that. Me, I was noticing mostly that she was riding a Trek 5000 that our shop had sold. Being married, it's probably better that that's what I notice.

05/06/09- 38 MILE WARM-UP BEFORE 22 MILES OF PAIN, ER, I MEAN, FUN! Since this was the first Sunday of the month, the original plan was to do a morning ride and then take Kevin down to the Jr track session at the Velodrom (bike racing track). But the construction at the track still isn't finished, so we had an "off" day with no special events planned. Had I known earlier, I might have signed up for the Grizzly Peak century, one of my favorites. Instead, we left pretty late on a fairly-ambitious (for Kevin) ride out to the coast, via Pescadero, and back 84.

As it was pretty darned warm, and Kevin had ridden the Cat's Hill race yesterday, it was predictable that we'd be cutting the ride a bit short and bailing at San Gregorio. And that's pretty much how far Kevin got; we called for the broom wagon from Pescadero, then headed out over Stage Road to San Gregorio, and got about 2 miles up the road before the broom wagon arrived. Up to that point it had been a pretty easy ride for me, despite the heat I wasn't used to. Average heart rate of about 100, and whatever calories I might have burned off equalized by a stop at the Pescadero Bakery.

So Kevin off in the broom wagon (driven by his sister), and I rode the rest of the way home by myself. But at a bit different pace. I tested my legs on the 6 mile run to LaHonda, found that they held up, and put down the hammer at Apple Jacks (the infamous biker bar in LaHonda). The graph below, from my Garmin 305, shows what 28 minutes of pain looks like-

I'm sure I've climbed that stretch a whole lot faster in the past, but this was my first really tough workout in quite some time. I managed to keep my heart rate well up there (peaked at 176, averaged 166 with quite a bit of time above 170). It was really nice to have legs, lungs & heart all working together at last!

05/04/07- THE FLYING SCOTSMAN opens today at a theater near you! Well, maybe not too near, but today's the day. What's it about? Greame Obree, a guy who, in 1993, fashioned a bike for the hour record that included parts from his wife's washing machine. To say that he improvised is an understatement, as much an understatement as it is to say the odds were heavily against his success. Even the officials battled him every step of the way, insisting that his unorthodox machine wasn't legal, requiring creative modification just before the race.

I met Graeme at last year's Tour de France. My group of 5 were heading towards the finish area after the final stage when I came across a guy who, in casual conversation, was talking about the race and name-dropping in a manner that implied he was something other than the typical race fan. He then said he was Graeme Obree, which at that point I wasn't quite so sure of (perhaps because he'd had a bit too much to drink, although in retrospect, knowing that should have been something of a confirmation)... so I asked more question and, once convinced, introduced him to our group. Even they were mildly skeptical, at which point he pulls out his passport to show that he was, indeed, Graeme Obree. That's Graeme in the middle of the photo.

To find the nearest theater and showtimes, try Fandango. Lots of good reviews, including 3-stars from both the San Jose Mercury News and Ebert & Roeper.

05/03/07- "IT DOESN'T GET EASIER, YOU JUST GO FASTER." You know how you rationalize that something someone says doesn't apply to you, because you're different? Well, it's true. Greg LeMond is famous for the quote given; the context was someone asking the question if he found that bike racing got easier as he trained more.

I can vouch for the first part of the equation... the part about it not getting easier. But the second part? I'm still looking for that "go faster" bit! Actually that's not entirely true; I was there last year, and the year before, when I was able to get 25-something times up Kings. But that was then, this is now. I haven't even ridden a mile-based century yet this year; normally I would have ridden three by now. Different priorities, as I work to get my 14-year-old with the program. And it's paying off, with him riding better all the time, and beginning to look more like a cyclist and less like a video-game player. An excellent trade-off, I'm thinking. Still, it's a bit different than the norm. Typically, Dads spend their time working with their kids, but there isn't such a direct connection between Dad getting out of shape so the kid gets better. The pay-off should come in a couple years though, as he gets increasingly stronger and eventually discovers, to my combined dismay and joy, that he can ride Dad into the ground. I live for that day!

Meanwhile, a smaller group than normal on Thursday's ride... just myself, Karl & Millo at the start, picking up Kevin about halfway up Kings. A bit cooler than expected too, hitting 43 degrees up on Skyline. Hard to believe they're talking 90 for Sunday!

05/01/07- NO RIDE FOR MIKE TODAY as it was time to play the lobbyist game again, in Sacramento. Things are a bit different in Sacramento vs DC. A bit more laid-back, and a bit more likely to have questions asked of you, as if they actually care. Not that the folk in DC don't care, but in Sacramento, they'll sometimes see you as helping them to get something done.

BUT WE DID GET A RIDE REPORT FROM MILLO-Some days we get traffic, at exactly the wrong time and place - bad karma - and some days seems like we are the only ones out there - good karma. Today was a bad karma day. Gorgeous blue sky sunny day. Full crowd - Karl, Kevin, George, Chris, Eric, and your humble narrator. None of us knew/remembered that you were in Sacto achieving great things for cyclists so we milled around aimlessly for 5 minutes waiting for you, our fearless leader, before heading up the hill. Chris breaking in his new bike - speeding up hills at ridiculous speed. Even heard him say that maybe, just maybe he might challenge Todd for a sprint!

Karl and Chris off quickly, George eventually drifted off after them, I held Kevin and Eric in sight until the wide part of Kings. Karl and Chris jumped off for the first sprint. Kevin riding his TT bike and swooping past everybody to lead out the Skeggs sprint - Karl and Chris over first. Kevin down on the aerobars and pulling us along 84 and the descent to Sky Londa - going amazingly quickly thru the corners in a full aero tuck. I jumped past Kevin to lead out the Sky Londa sprint to watch Karl/Chris/George pull a 1/2/3 right in front of me, all decked out in matching AV gear. Kevin continued to pull us down 84 to the barn. Just as we were turning up West OLH we scrambled to
avoid an oncoming car.

Slogged back up to Skyline - Kevin and Eric fading, Karl/Chris/George off the front, yours truly stuck in no man's land. Large and smelly diesel dump truck headed down 84 just as we arrived; Kevin going straight to get home, the rest of us sucking in poorly combusted hydrocarbons. A pickup coming up tried to side-swipe George - per Chris a perilous near mess. Often happens when following a big vehicle as it completely blocks the oncoming cars view of the trailing cyclists. Dump truck eventually pulled over to let us all go by - big "Thank You" and off we go lead by Karl.

For the second time in two weeks the left onto Tripp was compromised by oncoming traffic - already committed to the turn before seeing the oncoming car and pretty much have to stick with it - not sure how close on your tail the next rider is and if any sudden braking of change of line is going to embed them into your rear tire so yell out "car" and go for it. Karl and I made it, Chris and George did not. Sprint to Olive Hill shut down by a car. We gotta offer some old Campy parts to the Madonna del Ghisallo to improve carma for Thursday's ride........ --M (Millo)

04/29/07- CATS HILL RECON MISSION today, but not for me. This was for Kevin (the 14-year-old) who plans to race it next Saturday. There's that one brief nasty hill, but he's got it down pretty good. Had a nice ride back home afterward, although Kevin wasn't much of a fan of Pierce or Mt Eden roads. Not that many are! Just one potential glitch in the plans, and that's the category he'll be allowed to race in. If they use the official USCF definition of "racing age" then he'd be considered 15, since it's his age as of Jan 1st 2007 that matters (his birthday is in late November). Racing with 15 year olds wouldn't be so bad, but it's a combined class going all the way up to 18, and there's a world of difference between the two.

04/28/07- AWESOME, MUST-WATCH YOU-TUBE VIDEO for anyone who wants to get a feel for what the racers go through. This is the sort of thing that, if it doesn't hit you hard, well, there's just something wrong with you. I came across it while working out my plans for July, and found the link on the always-excellent steephill.tv website. Follow this link for the video. I just don't know how to explain it... what it is about it that I can relate to so well. Why it's one of those rare things that makes me think, if I could live part of my life over again, if I could have taken racing more seriously, maybe if I'd made the trip to Belgium with some of my peers...

For the most part, I don't spend much time thinking about how things might have been. Rather, I tend to think I dodged a bullet (or two) and that things turned out a lot better than they might have. That somehow I managed to channel my compulsion about cycling and sometimes pushing myself to the limit... somehow I turned that into something more productive than being one of those guys in the peloton whose purpose you can't quite figure out, but might somehow get lucky and take 3rd place in some obscure race in a part of France or Germany nobody knows exists.

Watch the video. It's worth it just for the Johnny Cash song/narration (his rendition of Nine Inch Nail's "Hurt").

04/26/07- THE RITUAL STARTS the night before, as I try to get to bed by Midnight, typically an hour earlier than normal. Well, truth be told, I no longer have the inclination to stay up as late as I used to. But for Monday & Wednesday nights, the plan is to be in bed by Midnight, since I'm getting up at 7:05am the next morning, not my usual 8:15. Then it's out to the kitchen to make a bottle of Cytomax, then pop a couple of Advils (don't even know why I still do that, as I haven't had stiff joints for some time), then get dressed, check email, put together my ride bag (a plastic baggie with my license, a credit card, a bit of cash and my cell phone), inflate the tires and, at 7:34am, head out on the road. 29 minutes to get going. I've wondered if I can cut that down a bit and get more sleep, but I should probably put off any big surge in adrenalin until close to the base of Kings Mtn!

Between 8 minutes 15 seconds and 9 minutes 30 seconds I'm at the starting point for the ride. Some mornings you step on the pedals and the bike just goes... others, it feels like those extra 6 pounds I'm carrying have at least doubled, maybe tripled, as I struggle to see something much above 11mph heading up over Jefferson.

This morning was one of those "struggling" times. I felt OK, but only OK, as I joined up with Millo, Kevin, Chris, Karl, Eric and new-guy old-guy Joe (whom I raced with way, way, way back in the day!) at the start. George had planned to be there, but word has it that he was on the early-morning ride and broke his frame in a crash. Ouch! We rode up through the park this time, which, to me, is a whole lot tougher than the regular route... so why did I direct us that way? It's that "ugly ride" thing. If you're not feeling great, sometimes you have to force yourself to do something you don't want to, to shake yourself out of the mood. Bad-tasting medicine as it were.

Skyline was nice; a bit warmer than past weeks, and no fog or dampness. Karl and somebody else... maybe Chris?... took off up Swett Road, which, when I was in better shape, used to be an all-out sprint. Now I just watch as the stronger riders power on past, while I try to conserve enough energy to ride their coat tails into the Skeggs no-designated-finishing-line sprint.

The high point of the ride was the scariest, as Kevin & Karl tried to gap me on the descent into the final Skyline sprint. Normally we'd be hitting 37, 38mph, but today it was 42.9, and it's an interesting experience hitting botts dots in a corner at that speed. Actually, it's not much of an experience physically at all... your bike just keeps tracking where it's supposed to. But mentally, you're thinking it's just not a good idea to be riding the edge of a botts dot in a corner!

04/24/07- WATCH OUT FOR CHRIS! He's an entry-level Cat-5 racer right now, but that won't last. 2nd place in a race last weekend, and mad at me because I'd told somebody who'd come into the shop that, if I were him, I'd watch for Chris and see if there was an opportunity to go off the front with him. But as Chris tells it, the guy announced to others in the pack that someone at Chain Reaction had said Chris was the guy to watch out for, essentially making him a marked man. Well, maybe, but I'll bet that helped intimidate a bunch of them and might have actually made it easier for Chris. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

Karl, Kevin, Eric, Millo, Chris, George... pretty much a full house. Anytime it's 5 or more there's a bit of "book-keeping" involved, as you need to make sure everyone's back together at various points. "Are we all here?" is oft heard, just prior to a head count. Millo headed out a few minutes ahead, while the heavy artillery (actually, with the exception of me, it would be more accurate to say "lightweight" artillery) toyed with his efforts. We (the chase group) re-grouped at the park entrance, sort of. I didn't wait around but kept going, thinking maybe it was possible to get under 28 minutes, spurred on by knowing I had a rabbit to chase in front of me (Millo) and a bunch of mad dogs behind (Karl, Kevin, Eric, Chris & George). I caught up with Millo about halfway up the hill, and the rest of the guys passed me up just past the wide-open section. I was dying. But I did manage to do an honest 27:59.

Sprints? The most interesting one was Skeggs, which was won first by Chris, then Karl, then me. ??? It all depends upon where you draw the line, literally. There's no clearly-defined spot for the finish on that sprint, but I think Karl got past a fading Chris at just about the right place. I was still moving up on the outside and past Karl just after that, but not soon enough. Guess we'll have to go mark some pavement!

04/23/07- REMINDED OF FRANCE TODAY when a young woman came in with a bike that needed to have the saddle lowered. She spoke English a bit awkwardly, but communicated rather well. Only she didn't see it that way; she was quite embarrassed and apologized for her "very bad English" or something like that. Someone else had been helping her, and I couldn't quite make out the accent, so before she left I asked her where she was from and what her native language was. Turns out she's visiting from Brazil, where she speaks Portuguese. I explained to her that she spoke English very nicely (far better than any attempts I'd have at speaking French!).

Funny thing how that goes. People actually learn a foreign language quite well, but are often embarrassed when they don't speak it near-perfectly. I encountered this in France fairly often; one time in particular at the Gare du Nord (one of Paris' main train stations) where I spoke a bit of very poor French to the station agent, asked if he spoke English, to which he replied "A little, but not very well." After a short conversation I told him he spoke English very well indeed, and I would be very happy if I could ever speak French as he spoke English. It never occurred to me before then that people might have a very good grasp of a language, but because they couldn't speak it as well as a native, felt badly about it. The station agent truly seemed to appreciate that I complimented him on his excellent English skills, as did the young woman at the shop today.

So next time you come across someone who's visiting the US and having a bit of diffulty with English, but cleary has made some effort to try and learn the language, try not to focus on the difficulties they're having, but rather their successes. Let them know how great it is that they've learned a different language, especially if you're like me, and have a very difficult time with anything but English.

04/22/07- DAD, THEY'RE CIRCLING. Fortunately not for us, as my son (the 14-year-old Kevin) and I were riding along Calaveras Road on the Primavera Century this morning. It was a ride that nearly wasn't, as the weather forecast had been questionable, at best. Logging onto several different sites, the most-hopeful of which had rain until 6am, then showers until 9, followed by scattered showers until 1pm. Not the best conditions for his first 100k bike ride.

Nor the best to encourage others as well, given that this very popular ride probably had only 1/4 of the normal number of riders. Too bad, as they missed out on a great event! Yes, the roads were a bit wet for the first hour, but not a single drop came from the sky, and temps ran from upper 50s to about 70. But I do confess that I almost didn't bother setting the alarm to 6:15am (a dreadful hour for a guy like me), and when I did wake up, to dark & threatening skies (but no rain), the first thing I did, before waking up Kevin, was to log on and look at the latest radar. Fortunately, that looked promising, and I also had an email from Burt, one of our guys in Redwood City (who just happened to be the person who talked Kevin into doing the ride), saying that he was getting ready to leave. And if Burt, who doesn't like to trash his bike in the rain, was going to do the ride... how could we not?

The ride wasn't without a small amount of drama, as Kevin got two flats (there were a lot of flats during that first hour) and even crashed. Even blamed me for the crash! Why? Because, on that dreadful climb up Crow's Canyon, always into a nasty headwind, he asked me how long that section was. I jokingly told him 22 miles, which broke his concentration, causing him to ride into my rear wheel and go down (with Burt then falling on top of him).

After the two flat tires and crash, one might think Kevin might have been in a foul mood (not to mention the vultures, very large turkeys and a whole lot of chickens at the final rest stop... oh wait, that's fowl), but that wasn't the case. In fact, he was telling me he had to see Bobby Julich and tell him he was right, cycling is a great way to see the world! This because he's got an autographed photo of the American racer, with a note that says "Kevin- Bike riding's a great way to see the world!"

Burt wasn't the only Chain Reaction employee (besides me) on the ride; we also had Roger, our most-senior expert mechanic, along with a number of his friends. Roger generally finds anything below 80 degrees to be cold, so it was especially surprising (and welcome) to see him make it to the ride as well. Thank goodness none of us seemed to place much faith in the weather forecast!

04/19/07- I'M NOT DEAD YET! In fact, this morning's ride was the first time I've really felt alive in quite a few months. Chris, Kevin & Millo today (no Karl or Eric), with overcast skies and a chill in the air. But no rain, no fog. When I leave from my house, I'm immediately heading up a hill, and some days, ok, most days, you're just riding up the hill, one pedal at a time, and it feels like... a hill. But today was different. From the very first step, the bike almost felt as if it had an engine and I was twisting a throttle. I found that interesting, but remember quite clearly thinking at the time, "this too shall pass."

But it didn't. I was able to ride intervals up Kings and feel like I was really moving. I attacked the first part and didn't find myself looking for a convenient place to shut down (you know, making it look like that was the plan all along). Obviously I wasn't going to shake Kevin & Chris from my tail, but at the same time, I don't think I was holding them back too much either.

Kevin was on a tight schedule so he took off (as seen in the photo) once we got to the top of Old LaHonda... it being close to 9am and having a 10:20am flight out of SFO that he was piloting. And somehow he's got to fit a shower in. Or at least, for the sake of his co-pilot, I hope so; the cockpit of an MD80 isn't terribly big. Just for fun I looked up his likely flight; appears that he left SFO 2 minutes late (10:17 instead of 10:15) but arrived 15 minutes early. Looks like he was cruising at 33,000ft at a max speed of 523knts. No wonder I can't keep up with him!

For me, it is more fun when I can ride hard and feel that burn in my legs, rather than just being tired. Maybe it took that moderately-hard ride out to the coast and back Tunitas on Sunday to get my body going again. It didn't seem like that big a deal at the time, as it wasn't an all-out effort, but it wasn't a casual cruise at a near-resting heart rate either.

OR MAYBE I'M JUST REACTING TO WHAT I FOUND ON THE KITCHEN TABLE LAST NIGHT? It looked like junk mail, and the return address had been obscured. But I opened it up and found this curious little kit with a return mailer from Kaiser. And a letter telling me that their records indicate I'm 51 and haven't been screened for colon cancer yet and could I please follow the instructions included and provide a sample (that's as detailed as I'm going to get here) so they can figure that I'm OK or schedule me for a colonoscopy. Umm... yeah, right. It was bad enough getting the stuff from the AARP, but now this indignity! However, rest assured I'm taking it seriously and will promptly provide Kaiser with what they want.

04/17/07- COLD, WET & WINDY (and spoiled). Karl, Kevin, Eric & George, the usual Tuesday-morning mix, minus Chris & Millo. George was sporting his Sea Otter race-winner's jersey for his efforts in the sport-class mountain bike race on Sunday. Rumor has it that he rode his commute bike and didn't even bother to remove the rear rack before the race. That's the way he rolls, as they say.

Eric took up the rear position on Kings after having suffered a bit on the Mulhullond Challenge (12k of climbing in 100 miles) a couple days prior, but nobody else seems to show their human side on these rides. Well, that's not quite true; when Kevin cracks, it's pretty spectacular. Me? I've learned to live with the fact that I cracked maybe 34 years ago.

The top of Kings was shrouded in fog & low clouds, although by the time we finished the west-side OLH loop the fog had been replaced by strong winds, strong enough that my, er, "sturdy" frame was getting blown around pretty nastily on the descent into Woodside.

I should remember how bad the rains were last year before feeling sorry for myself for what I'm riding in now. I know that. I know how bad the weather is elsewhere. I know I should be more appreciative for how good I've got it. But instead I'm annoyed that it's likely to be wet this Sunday, when my son's planning to do his first metric century (Primavera). I'm thinking of those nice warmer months where you don't have to wear leg warmers & base layers & long-finger gloves. I'm thinking how we only have from May-October when the weather's really nice here, which means... what exactly? It means I'm a typical, spoiled Californian, that's what. At least I can ride year-'round, it's a rare ride that you have to worry about ice, and we've got spectacular roads that, once you get into the hills, don't get all that much traffic.

04/15/07- QUICK RIDE TO THE COAST THIS MORNING, trying to get in a few quality miles while my son was out on a fishing trip in the bay (caught another leopard shark, but had a good time anyway). The idea was to get back in time to take him to the afternoon junior track session at the Velodrome, but that turned out to be cancelled again due to continuing construction. No matter, still made a productive day of things afterward, finally getting a much-needed haircut (did I really have shoulder-length hair in high school? And why?).

But the ride was the gem of the day. I skipped out on the Alto Velo "A" ride, believing it might not get me back in time, and set out on my own. Not until after watching the end of the Paris Roubaix classic road race on cycling.tv though! The plan was a quick out-and-back to the coast, via Old LaHonda and Tunitas. I wasn't looking forward to fighting the headwinds on the way out to the coast, but that turned out not to be a major issue as I hooked up with a nice group of 4 toward the top of Old LaHonda, and rode the rest of the way with them. Susan, Mitchell, Tommy and another guy whose name I don't recall (4/16- Susan just emailed to let me know his name is Joe). That's one of the great things about cycling; you can set out on your own and pretty much have whatever experience you want. If you desire peace & solitude, no problem, just put your head down, don't talk much and go (not normally my style, although I'll admit to not being terribly talkative when I'm gasping or air climbing!). But if you don't mind or would like a bit of company and enjoy the shared experiences of cycling, the opportunities are there nearly every time you ride.

Not much to draft off when behind Susan, but the guys provided much more substantial cover! I tried to do my share, but have to admit that the champ was, I think, Mitchell (or it could have been the guy whose name I forgot). Nice to have people who actually want to fight the wind on the way to the coast! Aside from the wind, very nice weather, mostly in the mid-60s.

We made the mandatory stop at San Gregorio for fuel & water (please note that while the San Gregorio General Store has a lot of character, the quality of food & pricing is much better at the Pescadero bakery), where we came across a whole lot of Ducatis & BMWs, as well as other cyclists. Then it was up Stage Road and over the hill to Tunitas Creek, where, right when we reached the Lobitos Creek cut-off... maybe 50 yards ahead is the AltoVelo A ride (as seen in the photo). Looks like I would have made it back in time either way, but the train I caught was probably a bit more social.

Saw lots of bikes that we've sold out on the road today, which is always a good thing. Nice that our bikes are finding time on the road instead of just sitting in a garage.

04/12/07- YOU MISSED A DIFFERENT RIDE BY NOT SHOWING UP TODAY as it was just Karl riding with me, everyone else having obligations or races (Sea Otter). In fact, since Karl was riding Sea Otter on Friday, the deal was this- a very easy ride up the hill, or he was going to ride the flats instead. So it was... and it was a full 35 minutes from bottom to top. We did have company for the first part, as we met up with a pair that cruise through Woodside about the same time we do each morning, and this time we managed to coax them into riding as far as the park entrance with us. And also Greg Drake, one of Webcor's strongest racers, a very pleasant guy.

04/10/07 HOW DID THEY CATCH BACK UP TO ME? Nice morning, with the temp only getting as low as 46 degrees, but staying above 50 for the most part. Kevin & George & Eric at the start, with Karl & Millo having left a couple minutes earlier. Rather odd that Karl headed up early, but he'd said ahead of time he was looking forward to a pretty easy ride today. For the most part, I should trust Karl. If he says something, he's typically neither bluffing nor sand-bagging.

I set off in chase of Karl & Millo, and had them within sight about halfway up the climb. Eventually I caught up and slowly passed them, getting maybe a one-corner lead until they started to catch up again. Geez, I'm thinking, I must really be dying on the last part of the hill! But somehow I manage to finish Kings just behind them, a good 28 minutes after I started. Did I really ride a 25-something last year?

04/08/07- IF MY "NICE" BIKE LOOKS LIKE THIS, WHAT DOES MY RAIN BIKE LOOK LIKE??? One can only wonder. Truth be told, my rain bike actually looked better, since heavy rain tends to clean things up a bit. But my Madone SSL? Yikes. It's almost comical how bad the drivetrain had gotten. The amazing thing is that it just kept on going. The secret is RockNRoll Gold lube. You just keep dumping it on, wiping off the old crude, or I mean, crud. Pretty bad when you can't even see the pins on the chain anymore though! If you want to see it in detail, along with a few more equally-gross photos, they're up on our Picasa site.

Even though Saturday was pretty busy at the shop, and I really wanted go get home quickly, I did finally spend about an hour of quality time with my "nice" bike and clean things up a bit. New chain (the old one had gone too long; anything over 2k miles for someone who rides in a hilly area is very questionable), remove & clean rear cogs, and cleaned chainrings in-place. Also removed & cleaned jockey wheels, which looked not much different than what you see in the photo. About to take it out for a ride in a few minutes; I'll let you know how it goes. Hopefully replaced the chain before the wear was bad enough to cause drivetrain skipping with the new one! Hate it when that happens.

04/05/07- KEVIN'S RIDE REPORT FOR THURSDAY'S RIDE is scintillating, concise, and guaranteed not to bore. "We rode. Kevin won. Karl lost." Polar opposites, Kevin & I. I'll take one tiny aspect, maybe 15 seconds, out of one of our rides and turn it into a 3-paragraph epic event. Kevin sums up a 2-hour ride in 6 words!

04/04/07- I WON'T BE RIDING THURSDAY MORNING because I'll be on a plane coming back from San Diego, where, of course, I was riding a bike. I tried to do a google maps things to show where, but it won't zoom in close enough. Basically rode in an area around "Valley Center" west of Vista, which is west of Carlsbad, which is north of San Diego. Quite a bit hillier than I'd expected, and got fairly well thrashed! With no computer or GPS on the bike I was riding, I can't even tell you how far or how much climbing. And if I can't define it, how do I know I even rode? Guess that's what my tired legs are for. Definitely looking forward to coming back and riding with my home boys.

04/03/07- IT'S FOR THE BIRDS we ride. It's pretty amazing to watch them up there, the different birds, the large ones that soar high above, seeming to float without any effort whatsoever. And then there are the smaller guys, closer to the ground, who seem to have to actually work to get somewhere. At home, you don't see the birds so much as hear them, typically in the morning as you're trying to get those last few minutes of sleep and they're making a racket outside. But it's different out on the west side of Old LaHonda.

This morning it was George, Kevin, Karl, Eric, Millo... and, of course, the birds. It's beginning to get warmer, although George still saw 39.7 degrees on his computer in Woodside. Maybe next week we'll be above 45 for the low. Maybe. But for now, it's not raining, so I shouldn't be complaining!

04/01/07- KEVIN'S READY FOR... not quite sure what, but he's getting there, whatever it is. Today was his first round-trip to the coast, heading through Woodside over Old LaHonda, down to San Gregorio and up Tunitas Creek. Most would think Tunitas Creek would be the toughest part, but the run out to the coast, complete with headwind, probably took the honors.

This was his first time up Old LaHonda without stopping, giving him his best time yet at 39:47. Towards the top we came across Jun (shown in the photo, giving Kevin a thumbs-up at the top), a friendly guy I'd ridden with before, who helped encourage Kevin on the final sections. If anything, Kevin was stronger as he climbed this time out.

If you haven't ridden out to the coast, it's not nearly as far as most think. From Olive Hill & Canada Road (about a mile north of Woodside Road/84), it's only 40 miles, not the 50+ people seem to believe. It might feel a lot longer, mostly due to the lengthy run from LaHonda to San Gregorio, followed by the longer-that-it-should-be climb up Stage Road to Highway 1.

Obviously, there's no point to Kevin riding the 35-mile 100%-flat option of the Delta Century! 100km might be a bit much in the way of saddle time though.

03/30/07- GREAT STORY ON PEZ CYCLING about the wind-tunnel testing done for Ivan Basso, and his thoughts on his new bikes vs old. Definitely worth the read.

03/29/07- TODD CAN BE BEAT! The fine print? Just not by me! Fairly large group on the ride this morning, with Kevin, Karl, George, Millo, Eric, Todd... I think that's everyone. While the really cold weather (for California) is behind us, it still got down to 41 degrees this morning. Several of the guys are racing this weekend so they rode a moderate pace up the hill, while I did my best to try and stay just ahead of them. With Todd around, taking a sprint was out of the question; I let him casually roll on ahead on the long optional sprint past Swett Road, and then gave an effort at Skeggs, but it wasn't even close. Sky L'Onda, though, that was interesting. I went fairly early, trying to catch him off-guard, and succeeded. There's absolutely no way you can beat him if you wait for him to go, but if you go first instead, it can at least be interesting. Still, he got me just at the line.

Very pretty morning, warming up to 60 or so by the end of the ride. No fog on the coast, no dampness in the air or on the ground, so the descents were fun & fast.

Sunday might be interesting. My son's junior track program has been cancelled due to construction at the Velodrome, but the reaction when I told him wasn't what I expected. He's thinking it will be a good day for his first ride to the coast & back. Maybe. Don't know if he's quite ready for a run up Tunitas Creek though! Technically, it's not worse than West Alpine (which he did a couple weeks ago), but that middle 3 miles of Tunitas is pretty darned brutal. It would actually be easier to do an out-and-back to San Gregorio, but that's actually a longer ride than coming back via Tunitas. Read all about it in a few days.

03/27/07- WHAT'S MORE MEMORABLE? THE SNOW GENTLY FALLING ON SKYLINE THIS MORNING, OR MILLO TELLING ME TO SIT UP HIGHER SO HE CAN DRAFT BETTER? Probably Millo, but we'll get to that later. Much nicer morning than the weatherfolk said it would be, with no rain, relatively-dry roads (dry enough for the Madone SSL instead of the rain bike), and, while it felt fairly cool, it wasn't deathly cold. Not at first anyway. About 46 as I left the house, quickly joined by Todd on the way to the start. People give me a bad time for riding hard & fast straight from my front door to the start, but just to prove things relative, I was having a tough time holding Todd's wheel, and he wasn't even breathing hard. And that part of Canada where I'm pushing 26mph? Todd was doing 29-30. And making it look easy.

Todd, Kevin, George, Eric (did I mention that Eric's getting much faster lately?) & Millo on the hill. I tried to keep up with the faster guys, but it was no use... and they weren't even going all that fast. With Todd around, it was out of the question that I'd be in contention for any of the sprints, but that didn't stop me from trying, with both Todd & I discovering a distinct lack of traction on the run up to Skeggs. A bit unsettling, but not no disturbing as to disrupt Todd's near-perfect record.

Very nice shadows & clouds this morning, but not much chance for photos when wearing a windbreaker (can't get to my jersey pockets to pull the camera out!). And, at 37 degrees up on top, it was definitely windbreaker weather. The good news is that this is probably the last reasonably-cold ride of the year; from here-on, we should see things gradually warming up. The bad news is that I won't have my winter-lungs (relatively non-functional) as an excuse anymore.

The return on Canada was into a pretty stiff headwind, with Todd & I riding side-by-side (don't worry, still on or to the right of the line), blocking the wind for those behind. That's when Millo asked if I could sit up a bit more. Right. It was actually easier riding up over Jefferson than into that wind!

03/25/07- SPEED RUN TO SKYLINE? Not quite, but given that Kevin (my son, not the old geezer Kevin that I ride with on Tuesday & Thursday mornings) had wrenched his back (not riding) the day before, and didn't think he could ride a bike, he did just fine. Up Old LaHonda (just under 44 minutes, with one rest stop) and south on Skyline to someone's 50th birthday party. Not a really long ride, as he only rode one way and got a ride back with Mom & Sis, but some quality miles and a chance to talk with him about the stuff Fathers & Sons are supposed to talk about... that being which high school the various girls he knows at his middle school will be going to next year. It's interesting riding up hills while keeping the heart rate under 100. It seems like I'm discovering some new form of riding. Maybe there's something to it. Or maybe not. My legs want to push hard against pedals, my arms want to pull against the handlebars, my eyes want to search out the next opportunity to sprint. I want to feel my legs fill with lactic acid, and my lungs laboring for air, if only because it feels so good afterward. That feeling you get when your body tells you it was built to move, not rest. I live for that feeling.

The return home was a race against darkness, although I severely mid-judged the amount of daylight remaining and could have stayed at the party much longer. It took about 40 minutes to cover the 15 miles home, much of it downhill, and even on the downhill parts, usually at a higher pulse rate than what I had climbed with. I remain a slave to my heart monitor, a slave to my scale, and, unfortunately, a slave to eating more than I should. Two against one... heart monitor & scale vs food... you'd think the food would lose! I really need one hard, long ride. An Alto Velo A ride, or maybe a century. But right now, Kevin (my 14 year old) needs me more. If things work out right, he should be giving me a really tough time on a bike in two years. And from then on, it should be all downhill. For me, anyway. He's been giving me a bad time lately, half-joking that I'm expecting him to live out my dreams. What I really want to see is him setting a target, a goal, and reaching it. He's got a good chance at that with cycling, and that might actually be holding him back a bit. When things are hopeless, there's not much pressure. But he knows this is something he can do. When things are hopeless, you don't worry about the pressure to succeed. Dang, if I'm not careful, I'm going to sound like a little league dad!

03/22/07- AS BOB ROLL WOULD SAY, I DIED LIKE A DOG! This morning we had Eric, George, Karl, Kevin & Millo. Eric went charging up the hill, I went charging after Eric, passed him, then died like a dog a bit further up. A whole lot of drama for a ride that just-barely qualified as 28-something. Meanwhile, the guys behind were having a jolly good time, not just in cruise-mode but slow-motion cruise-mode at that, showing up a good 4 minutes later. Why didn't I ride with them? Probably because both Eric & I assumed they were just toying with us, and would go flying past at any moment. I remember thinking, at the half-way hairpin, where you can look back and see other cyclists about 45 seconds behind... where are those guys?

I think it was George who took off on the long sometimes-first-sprint on Skyline (the one I haven't been able to deal with for maybe 5 months or so), with Karl & I in the middle. I ended up leading out the sprint for Skegg's (not my preference), allowing Karl to come around, which he thankfully did early enough that I could get back onto his wheel and force myself past. Which was not the place to be, as a BIG truck came up behind our group, putting us in single-file mode for the long flattish stretch up on top. Which meant I was stuck at the front the whole time, dying yet again. I watched as the speed on the computer looked semi-respectable for the briefest amount of time, and then started sadly drifting down. I was so thankful for the beginning of the descent, although my legs were so shot I just let Kevin go off the front a bit too much, and couldn't make up the distance at the final Skyline sprint.

I haven't felt so sore/tired/whatever in quite some time. My best guess is that I'm in similar shape to maybe two years ago, which is quite a drop from last year. Not too much change of that changing much either, since the goal this year is to focus on my 14 year old son's riding, and it's going to be quite some time before he's capable of an Alto Velo A ride. But hey, at least I didn't look like Millo after the non-sprint on Albion! As you can see in the photo, Kevin's actually showing some concern. Not that Kevin's a dispassionate guy, but he's not known to go easy on any of us if he's feeling good.

03/20/07- CHASING AFTER IMAGINARY RIDERS WHO WEREN'T IMAGINARY? Time to get out the rain bike again this morning, as I woke to darkening skies and a bit of a drizzle. That adds a bit of time to my morning routine, getting me out to the starting point for our Tuesday/Thursday ride almost exactly one minute late. Just one minute. But Millo had already telegraphed (ok, emailed) his intentions to start up about 5 minutes ahead of "us", and Karl, arriving exactly on time, and seeing nobody, thought he must have actually been late and headed quickly up the hill, chasing after Millo. And me? I thought I saw someone at the starting point from maybe half a mile off, but nobody there when I arrived. I waited a couple minutes, still nobody, then headed on up the hill, thinking maybe I'd find Millo at the top. Yes, this group is punctual if nothing else!

By the time I got to the top it was really wet, and shortly the rain was coming down pretty hard. I was prepared for "showers" as per the weather report, but this was borderline ugly. At Sky L'Onda I even stopped to wring the water out of my gloves, and then rode the final loop (west-side Old LaHonda) in reverse, thinking I'd come across whoever was out there riding. That didn't happen, because Karl & Millo had decided to cut it a bit short and head directly down 84, eliminating west-side Old LaHonda entirely.

Overall it was actually fun, chasing phantoms and dealing with weather that made me feel a lot better about bringing out the rain bike instead of my Madone!

03/18/07- EASY 40 MILE "SPIN" WITH MY SON down to our Los Altos store & back. He wasn't really looking forward to it; he figured he'd earned a day off from having done the time trial the prior morning, with extra credit for crashing. And he didn't seem terribly convinced of my logic that riding the day after a crash was going to help him feel better either. But, I had a trump card. You see, a bit earlier in the day, I had to take my shaggy-haired son out for a haircut. And on the way there, he asked if he could have a Mohawk. A Mohawk? My first reaction was, you've got to be kidding. But then I'm thinkin', y'know, he's 14, there's plenty of time before his Jr. High graduation, and he might as well learn one of life's more-important lessons- be careful what you ask for, 'cuz you just might get it.

No way was he thinking I'd let him have a Mohawk, which made up my mind. I'd let him. Not sure if either one of us was prepared for seeing bald skull where hair used to be, or the amusing sight of a face that's tan, or at least shows that it's seen some sun, adjacent to bright-white skin that used to be hidden by hair. But overall it's pretty cool.

03/17/07- MADE IT HOME... JUST BARELY! After having my flight home cancelled (while on the runway) Friday evening, got a $140 midnight cab ride from BWI (Baltimore airport) to the IAD (airport closer to DC) area where I checked into a hotel and flew from there to SEA the next day. Missed my son's time trial on Canada Road. Almost missed more than that; my IAD-SEA flight had a missing pilot. Finally showed up and we were underway 90 minutes late. Too bad I had an 89 minute connection time at SEA! I've been through this before... as you taxi towards your gate, you can see your next plane getting ready to leave (easy to know because you get the gate info on your phone as you land). But a strange thing happened.

As we neared the gate, they made an announcement on the PA asking for me (even pronounced my name correctly... that's a first!), saying that they were holding my plane for me if I could get off the plane fast and run for the gate. They asked the passengers to make way for me, but that wasn't an issue since I was in row 6 (which is actually row 3 in the A319). I got off the plane and there were several gate agents literally waving me through, and the gate agent at my waiting plane ready for me, shutting the door immediately behind.

This is the first time anything like that's ever happened to me before. Maybe it's not that unusual, maybe it was just a result of the irregular ops going on and somebody looked at my severely-hacked itin and felt sorry for me. Don't know, but I sure was happy to get home. Would have been nice to get home Friday (as planned), since the extra day caused me to miss my son's first non-track bike race, the time trial on Canada Road. He did fine, although he managed to crash about a mile from the finish. Crash, in a time trial? Yeah, he was having a bit of trouble shifting, and looked down to see what was going on, when he drifted off the road. Pretty good road rash, but all in one piece, so he says the only thing on his mind was to get on the bike quick because he had some time to make up. There's hope for this kid!

03/16/07- "BUT CAN'T YOU JUST STOP THE TRAIN SO I CAN GET OFF???" More stress & drama, fortunately for others today, than need be. The Northeast is pretty much shut down due to a massive snowstorm (I'm sure JetBlue is making the headlines again), so my should-have-been painless train trip from Washington DC to the Baltimore airport was a closer call than I would have liked. I arrived a couple hours earlier at Union Station than I'd planned to, because I wasn't sure how things might be in Baltimore (due to the weather). What I hadn't considered is that, with no way to fly anywhere north from DC, everyone who had plane reservations was trying to take the train instead. No more than 15 minutes after I purchased my ticket, they announced that all northbound trains were sold out (although they were still selling some tickets to Baltimore Penn Station, from which you could take another train back to the airport, adding quite a bit of time but still doable if you weren't cutting it close).

So I'm on the train leaving DC, the sold-out train with many empty seats (?), and all of a sudden this girl near me cries out to the conductor, "You need to stop the train, I need to get off!" This after we'd already left the station, most definitely a no-can-do situation, but this seemed completely lost to this 16 or 17-ish girl. "You don't understand. I was confused, and need to get off here. My parents are waiting for me, and I'm already an hour late!" Also please note she was the only teenager west of the Mississippi without her own cell phone. As a bunch of us offered to let her use our cell phones, a nice woman who just looked the type to have a kid or two of her own, maybe just a bit older, came to her rescue. Or at least tried. This poor girl just didn't seem capable of the normal bumps & bruises of everyday life, and the communications between parent & child (on the phone) only confirmed this. The woman who had leant the phone took over and spoke to her parent, letting them know of the conductor's plan to drop her off at the first stop and give her a pass for the next train in that direction. The conductor, by the way, knew nothing about dealing with a frantic kid; indeed, he seemed to know nothing about dealing with anything even slightly out of the ordinary. Eventually he became a bit less abrupt, and at the stop, handed her over to someone at the station to make sure she would get onto the right train.

IRREGULAR OPS, they call this. A day when the airports are thoroughly messed up by weather, and the planes aren't where they're supposed to be. Did what I could to help a couple trying to get back to Germany (unfortunately, on Continental, which I'm not much help with since I don't know the location of their hubs and the alternate routings that might be available), and a young kid stranded by SouthWest (needed to get to Manchester, but that's a non-starter, as it's solidly in today's no-fly zone).

But my flights (Baltimore/Denver/San Francisco) are still running on-schedule, and as long as this steady cold rain doesn't turn into the steady cold snow just to our north, I should be fine.

ASIDE FROM THAT, A WONDERFUL FINISH to the DC Bike Summit. Normally, the Friday-morning session (the tail-end of the conference) is a non-starter; just a couple more seminars, typically the most-boring, and you're anything but energetic at that point. But this morning was totally different! It was a wrap-up & discussion session dealing with what we might do to bring the advocates & business ends of the cycling community together for the most-effective message possible. I feel quite badly now that I'd recommended to dealers that they might skip Friday entirely and head back early if that was a possibility. And a very good dealer friend of mine too my advice. Darn!

03/15/07- TODD'S REPORT ON THURSDAY'S RIDE- Another great day to be on a bike. It started out a little chilly(42°F) at the when Karl, George Kevin, Eric and I rolled from Olive Hill, but by the time we reached the park entrance it was time to remove armwarmers and vests as it was already up to 52°. As we climbed the hill, the mercury continued to climb with us reaching a high of 58° on our climb to Skyline. There were no surprises in sprints along Skyline today as it seems no one has devised a strategy to prevent me from taking the sprints. Once again we were greeted by great views on West OLH courtesy of a warm sunny day. Today, unlike Tuesday there wasn't a layer of fog sitting at the coast, only blue ocean and blue sky as far as the eye could see. So the question nowis: If we were to take our time and enjoy the view rather than rushing by to get position for the sprint at the top of the hill, could we actually observe the curvature of the earth? Todd=

03/14/07- SOMEONE'S FOLLOWING ME AROUND. As you can see, Floyd make an appearance here in DC, and was quite the hit, the only speaker to receive a standing ovation at the keynote lunch. Actually, the Mayor of Louisville (apparently pronounced "loo-ville" by those in the know) gave an enthusiastic example of what a town can do for cycling in a relatively short period of time. Right now I'm in a seminar learning about the problems of getting good data on cycling (how many people ride, how many miles, reliable accident statistics and more). It's supposedly 2:41pm here, but feels more like... actually, I don't know anymore. Lost one hour due to Daylight Saving Time and then 3 more hours heading back east. But it's been worth it, if for nothing more than the info on Safe Routes to Schools funding. There's work to be done in Redwood City! Unfortunately, the Redwood City bicycle/pedestrian group meets Thursdays at 7pm, so it's been difficult for me to get to them. May have to change that.

03/14/07- LIVE FROM THE DC BIKE SUMMIT- but just barely alive, as the combined 3 hour time change from heading east, plus the hour last Sunday (Daylight Saving Time) conspire against me. But it's a worthwhile endeavor, as there's a feeling that we've got something of a perfect storm here in Washington DC as gas prices are on the rise again, global warming is gaining traction as something serious, and traffic congestion is getting so bad in the west that people are willing to consider bicycling as a means of reducing gridlock. Building more roads seems to be a dead end; the example of Phoenix has been brought up, where roadways per capita have increased 150% in recent history, yet congestion/gridlock has become dramatical