Century

This morning I headed out for what I expected to be a 60-70 mile-ride and ended up a full 103 miles with over 9,000 feet of climbing...amazingly I made it. The weather changed from about 50 to 70 to 50 to 70, foggy, sunny, foggy, sunny over and over and over. Zip up the vest, loose the vest/arm warmers/wool gloves, put back on the vest/arm warmers/wool gloves - repeat many times. The ride truly was "Epic" (hate to say that) and it was tough.

The northern-most point, Tomales Bay, is shark infested, an oyster haven and the San Andreas fault separates Point Reyes Peninsula from Marin County...Point Reyes moves 3-4 centimeters to the north every year because of this.

The ride back south along the coast was amazing...words can't describe it, you'll have to ride it!

5 Miles to UP

I love where I live. Quick and somewhat painful ride after work:

The fog was lingering at about 750 feet tonight, which made everything that much cooler.

I enjoy riding up Powell Street after a good ride - I always wonder what the tourists on the cable cars think as I pass them on a 25% grade...sometimes I smile for the cameras. (It's not that I'm fast uphill, cable cars climb slow)

Homeward Bound

I'm going to be back in Chicago next weekend to attend a few work meetings on Friday, race the Winfield Twilight on Saturday, swing by my cousin's BBQ and then race the ABR National Champs Crit on Sunday.

I'm uber-excited and can't wait to see my family, friends and get a chance to race with my team...time to put my flat-land cassette back on!

Note to my team - please don't lap me.

Product Review - Garmin Edge 205 & MotionBased.com

I don't do many product reviews, but this one needs to be written and I recommend it to all.

I got my hands on a Garmin Edge GPS System. I was excited about this mainly because of the climbing out here in the bay area. I'm not used to going up and down to the extent I do now and wanted to be able to actually see what I was doing. That was the original reason for this product.

I still really dig that I can see the profile from my ride and overlay things like Speed and Grade %'s, but it goes on from there.

Here's a very cool feature, but first an intro to MotionBased.com:
Motion Based is a social site where users can upload their ride data privately or publicly. You can search by city, ride name , username, etc... I've been out here for about a month and a half now and am starting to venture out on some larger climbs, but not having a team to ride with leads me out riding solo and finding my way.

Here's the cool feature. This morning I searched "Alpine Dam" and found a bunch of results. I picked one that started nearby and uploaded it to my Garmin unit. Once I started riding I was able to see how far I was from the starting point and as soon as I got there the Garmin beeped and showed "On Course". At that point I was able to switch it to the map mode and follow the route. It even showed where this guy would be in comparison to me on the course (happy to see he only got me on one descent when I was stuck behind a very timid driver).

Garmin and Motion Based should sponsor some local teams across the country. Give the teams one or two units to share and they can then post race and ride data to their team sites. Here's a map/elevation chart from my race in Los Gatos.

And here's Alpine Dam:

Big hill in my way

So I moved out my full home theater system from Chicago...tv, dvd, dvr, xbox (thanks Chad), surround sound...the whole "sha-bang". I didn't want to dish it off and also didn't want to toss it in storage, so it's in my bedroom (living room already has a TV and whatnot.) Therefore, my bedroom is like a glorified college guys room except I have all new furniture and I'm missing the black light and beer/girl posters...I even have bikes stacked next to my bed...In college, I called that area my "garage".

But I digress...

We do not have cable here in the apartment and don't plan on it. I've been taking advantage of the free, advertiser supported, LOST and 24 episodes for my TV entertainment. NBC is behind the times and I still need to download The Office from iTunes and pay $1.99 per episode (get with the times NBC...ad supported content is pretty hot right now).

I want to watch these on the big screen with the full surround sound, rather than the 14" laptop with headphones, so I went to BestBuy.com and ordered a nice HD antenna...it sucked. I traded it in for a new antenna...better. I think I found the problem: I live on the Northeast side of Nob Hill. The ABC and FOX signals have to travel thru Nob Hill (the actual hill) and/or over Nob Hill to get to me.

It's been driving me nuts.

Weekend plans:
Saturday - Ride in the AM and then help a friend bike shop in the PM
Sunday - Might be a bandit runner in the Bay to Breakers or just get out and see the craziness. 70,000 "runners"...a bit over 7 miles...costumes or birthday suits and lots of beer.



Some "Obscure Traditions" according to the Bay to Breakers Wiki:

* Before the start of the race, the assembled runners participate in an unofficial "tortilla toss," in which thousands of tortillas are thrown like frisbees through the dense crowd.
* The "spawning salmon run," a San Francisco Cacophony Society tradition, pits a team dressed as salmon running counter the rest of the race. Starting at the top of Hayes Hill the salmon struggle upstream towards the starting line through the crush of runners.

Giro d'Italia

5/12 - 6/3



More Daily Peloton

Kaiser Jan

This has been around for a while and it's hilarious and needs to be resurfaced. Big props to the creator!

Training Tip: Read every page and then remember it as you ride...it will make you 2-3 mph faster. You will likely end up in your red zone without meaning to.

www.myspace.com/kaiserjan

Here are a couple short quotes:

"The Jan is being a simple man. The Jan takes in schnitzel and beer, and outputs death and pain. It is being that simple."

"People of France, gather your children. Run to the hills. For the Jan is coming. And death rides with him."

"The T-Mobile plan was actually being for Jan to compete in both events yesterday, and for the Team Time Trial the entire T-Mobile team would simply crawl onto the Jan's back, and then hold onto each other like some giant pink sphere of pain, and the Jan would just carry them the whole way. We even thought of maybe just driving the T-Mobile team bus onto my back and the Jan could just carry that, but when we tried it, little Matty Kessler started crying and said he was being scared and then he wouldn't get in the bus, and I'm like, Bro! Get in the fucking bus! I am, like, already having the bus on my back! You better get freaking in there, crap face! But he wouldn't."

Get a Grip Racing Blog

My team has begun posting on the team blog - race recaps and whatever else comes up (training, product reviews, world domination, etc...)

Check it out here: www.getagripracing.blogspot.com