Amgen Tour of California.

The Amgen Tour of California is underway this week.

Now that I own a bike computer that calculates accurate speed and distance for my own rides, I can see the capacity of these riders is beyond belief. Ascending at 28 mph! I've managed to hit that speed while descending large hills with a tailwind. Super human!

Unleashing (or maybe leashing?) the inner Dalmation.

I biked about 85 miles this weekend! And while I am feeling a little weary today, my inner experience of qi is that it is full and freely flowing.

Something that I have realized about myself through training for the AIDS LifeCycle ride in June, is that physically, I am rather like a dalmation. Typing "dalmation exercise" into google yielded this page which yielded information such as:

• If you are unable to exercise your dog, then you will have to find someone who would love to, daily. Walking alone may not be enough exercise for your Dalmatian - - they need to run.
• Given the right diet and the right amount of exercise, Dalmatians can live to 13 to 15 years. Without this, their life expectancy is in the range of 7 years (according to the Dalmation Research Foundation).
  

It may sound strange in this context to say I can relate, but I feel that if I've learned anything about my body to this point, it's that I've been under-exercised for years. And coming from someone who doesn't own a car, and rides a bicycle as my main form of transportation, I have to say I'm a bit surprised. I'm guessing different breeds of dogs demonstrate different exercise needs, as do different humans, but apparently I'm geared towards the high end of the spectrum. As opposed to wearing out, I'm breaking in.

This comes as good news to someone who, as recently as a month ago, was laying awake with anxiety about how I was ever going to generate the motivation to train to the point that I'd be ready to ride 545 miles in 7 days, come June 1st.

As I was saying in my last post...

"... tomorrow's bicycling journey from San Francisco to Petaluma to spend the night at the farmhouse of one of my oldest bestest friends."

Here she is!



(on the right: Sadie. To the left: her sister Mish mish.)

Oh yeah . . . I was pretty happy to see their Momma, too.

And now presenting, the ride show slide show. Including: the debut photos of the Surly Long Haul Trucker in action:



For the 'detail oriented', I have prepared a list of everything I carried on my overnight journey.

A thought I had while riding, "I wish I could take people with me to see how beautiful this is." The best I can do with the available technology is to share these two videos taken with my camera mounted on my handlebars.

First video: Riding across the Golden Gate Bridge.



Second video: Riding along Nicasio Valley Road, right after turning North off of Sir Frances Drake Blvd outside of Fairfax.

Off to sleep before a big ride...

... if that's even possible.

I've just finished packing and preparing for tomorrow's bicycling journey from San Francisco to Petaluma to spend the night at the farmhouse of one of my oldest bestest friends. And I'm pretty excited. So should sleep come soon, I'll be grateful to bank the hours of rest that I'm most certainly going to extract tomorrow. The total distance of my ride, as calculated on googlemaps, should be around 60 miles! This will the be longest recorded single day of riding in my life.

Against published advice, I'm raising my current maximum from 40 miles to 60 miles, a 50 percent increase. The reason I'm making such a bold leap, is that the previous miles were logged on the back-breaking, calf-crunching machine known as my Marin Novato which I ride daily around the city.

The Marin Novato:

Tomorrow's ride will be undertaken on my plushy new steel steed, the Surly Long Haul Trucker! I consider the distances to be comparable, when considering "body miles" versus "road miles." Wish me luck!

**update 2/11/08: The actual recorded mileage, per my bicycle computer, was 50 miles. As I had mentally prepared for another 10, it felt like I arrived "early" and had a lot of energy to spare! Is that why some people set their clocks fast on purpose?**


(More Surly Long Haul Trucker Pictures forthcoming... I'm bringing my camera on tomorrow's ride.)

Thank you Superbowl Sunday - what a day to ride!

Superbowl XLII was only the 2nd football game I watched this season. I would usually rather spend my Sunday afternoons being outdoors, and my Monday night's resting. But, the cultural lure of watching the Superbowl was greater than my usual momentum away from watching football. I enjoyed watching the game with my Dad who was visiting. And I feel a responsibility to say that I found the commercials repulsive.

My summary of the dominant advertising angle: single out any thread of the cultured, refined, educated, intellectual, or non-traditional masculine, and beat it with your fist. Nay, attack it with violent force, and don't stop until it's reduced to a smoldering pile, or a bloody wreck.

Whether it was watching someone threatening to run over Richard Simmons with a car, smashing Justin Timberlake's genitals on a parking meter, or sending a giant mouse borg through the drywall to pummel an effeminate guy eating doritos, I saw it as various flavors of the same poison.

And while all that was running through my head, my body was enjoying a feast of barbequed delicacies, in recovery mode after riding 30 miles along roads normally choked with traffic. It felt like early morning on Christmas or New Years day. An atypical calm falling over the chaos of the cities. Where was everyone? Oh yeah, gathering to watch sports and commercials.

One particularly memorable stretch of the ride was the 4 miles of Cañada Rd that were shared with a couple of riders from the area who caught up to me to chat. We rode three aside, only passed by 2 cars over the entire time we rode together. While we rode south, the road was gently hilly, overlooking a gorgeous reservoir to the West with mountains in the background. Waves of clouds passing overhead, blue sky peeking through, made the whole scene dream like. I found silent pleasure in watching the guy on the titanium Independent Fabrications bicycle huff and puff to keep up with me on my proud steel frame. As my friend and cycling mentor Sean said in response to me telling him about that, "There you go, even $8000 doesn't matter if you don't put the time in."

Whether watching the "state of the union" through advertisement, or experiencing a state of bicycling bliss, life is a mixed bag. And on this past Sunday, I blame it all on the Superbowl. Giving thanks!