Cable Car 101

I live really close to the Cable Car Museum and it only took me 5 months to visit. This morning I was getting some work done and downing lattes at the Gallery Cafe. As soon as my laptop battery died the museum sang it's siren song and I strolled across the street to finally take a look.

There are 4 really, really, really, ridiculously long cables that run under the streets in SF (and travel at 9.5mph). These (above pic) are the wheels (sheaves) that power the cables. The Hyde St. cable is off to the right of the picture. Each cable gets 3 sheaves to run through. The close two turn opposite each other routing the cable in a figure 8 and the 3rd sheave is about 100 feet away (top of pic). It's a pretty cool system...the figure 8 makes the cable touch 3/4 of the sheaves surface which creates the necessary friction and the 3rd sheave is mobile because the cables stretch as much as 100 feet before throughout their lifetime.

They even have a lower level (below the street) where you can see the cables entering and exiting the museum. It was really cool to see the angles of the sheaves that allows the cables to route around underneath the city streets. I tried to take a picture here too, but it was dark and the flash glared too much against the glass.

That's my cable car lesson for you. I could get into the whole gripping of the cable, but I don't want to spoil the entire museum for you. (yeah, there's not too much to it).

Catching up...

It's been a while since I've posted, so here's a quick recap of what's up.

Active Athlete had our first company off-site meeting/retreat. We had this up near Lake Tahoe at Squaw Valley. It was amazing and very productive. It was great to meet some of my co-workers from other cities that, until now, I only had imaginary images of them...I was pretty close. The picture above is from the top of the mountain at about 8,200 ft, you can see Lake Tahoe over the first ridge - it was a full moon that night and was beautiful. Our days were jam-packed with meetings and the schedule also contained plenty of fun...from morning hikes to a pretty intense high ropes course. I really enjoyed the ropes course...there were three structures about 50 feet high and they were connected with various rope bridges. We paired up into groups of 3 (climber, belayer & back-up belayer). I don't have any pics of this yet, but I'll add them in as I receive them from co-workers (this pic was found on the web, but it is the Squaw Valley Ropes Course.) Seeing the slopes up there got me very charged up for this winter! I used to only be able to drive to Wisconsin and would hop on a plane to get to anything real...Tahoe is only about a 4 hour drive (barring no snowstorms on the way).

I was back home over Labor Day weekend. I'll be vague on this public blog, but I was home for a funeral. It's very hard to lose a loved one. Funerals bring many smiles as family really pulls together and it was amazing to see how many people were touched and loved by one person. It's strange and unfortunate that sometimes events like this are the rare occasions that families get together.

My sister is a bonified "yogi"...her move from Chicago to Seattle has treated her well. I've always been interested in yoga, but have never actually done more than attempt a yoga DVD. My other sister, my niece and I joined Gina for a Bikram Yoga class (hot yoga) while we were all in town. 90 minutes of contortionist-like moves in 104 degree heat (why 104 and not 105 beats me, but that's what they said) with high humidity. I've never sweat so much in my life. I did enjoy it though and will probably try harder to incorporate yoga into my training regimen...probably just regular yoga though (I moved out of the Midwest heat and humidity for a reason).
I've been off of the bike for quite a while now due to the company trip and the time I spent back in Chicago. I was able to get out for a great ride today with a great group of 5 buddies. I've been on Highway 1 a number of times, but not since Eric was out to visit. Highway 1 is an amazing ride. We went up to the 4-corners and then descended through Muir Woods to get to Hwy 1...from there we did some high tempo north to Stinson Beach and then doubled back to climb Panoramic (I think I saw a storm trooper in the woods) back up to Pan Toll. We ended the ride at Pancho's for some post ride burritos.

Cubs 4, Giants 2

My boss hooked me up with the company Giants tickets for the Cubs game last night! This was my first time to AT&T Park and it was an awesome time...especially since the Cubbies pulled off the win in the end.

Observation: Whenever you hear cheering from just outside of Wrigley Field you know it's for the Cubbies...at AT&T Park last night the cheering was evenly mixed.

The picture above is Bonds up at bat...unfortunately the Cubs intentionally walked him a couple times and we didn't get to witness the fury that Balco adds to a swing.

Seth's out west

My old teammate Seth Meyer flew in late Saturday night to meet up with a couple of his Northwestern buddies, Geoff and Will. We (Seth, Will, Geoff, Anthony and I) got out for a great trip around Alpine Dam with a climb up to East Peak on Sunday. It was great to get out and ride with Seth...he can climb like a mt. goat...I took a beating. If you ever played the old NES game "Ice Hockey", it was similar to pairing a team of the stocky characters (fats) against a team of the thin characters (skinny-minis).

Unfortunately, Seth, who is allergic to bee stings, fell victim to a nasty bee sting during his ride yesterday and he couldn't make it out to the Golden Gate Sprints tonight (too drowsy from the Benadryl...read about it HERE). Yes, GGP Sprints were tonight and it was fast...seemingly faster than normal.

Cupertino Bike Shop Ride and Highway 9 - Congrats in order...

Today I went down to Cupertino with my friend Anthony for the Cupertino Bike Shop Ride. It was a pretty sweet ride. The shop ride was about 15 people and hit the first 33 miles of this profile. It was a really great ride. The climbs were not extremely high, but they were all pretty steep...a bit more steep than my normal routes in Marin. I had fun in the flats though! After some espresso back at the shop, Anthony, Claudia and I got back out to do a nice slow climb up Highway 9. This was an amazing climb, the views were fantastic...on the edge of a valley and very dense forest all the way up. At the summit, we turned around and enjoyed one of the fastest descents that I've hit out here so far (very little need for breaking).

The ride was followed up with lunch at a local Greek joint, hanging out at the shop and a short nap on the shop couch. A quick stop at Jamba Juice, followed immediately with more espresso and we were on our way back to the city, with some old school Eazy E helping us along the way.

If you are ever near Cupertino, CA...I highly suggest a trip into the Cupertino Bike Shop. Vance and the rest of the crew are super-friendly and the bikes they have on the floor are amazing. Added bonus is that they carry Freddy's Choice Embrocation Oils (AKA: "BKDubb's")

Back in Chicago, James "Cipo" Holton (Team Get A Grip Cycles) has pulled back-to-back 3rd place finishes in two of the biggest local races around, Elk Grove and Downers Grove. Congrats!

Today's Ride

I got out for a great ride today:

Blue is the new green

I'm not even sure where to start...these guys in the picture are the guys I've been riding and racing with for years back in Chicago. Not everyone is represented in this team photo taken after the Winfield Twilight Criterium, but these guys and those not represented have been awesome teammates and friends...well, they'll always remain great friends.

I'm jumping ship. Racing solo is a tough task and that's pretty much what I've been up to whenever racing out here since I moved to SF. This week, I've accepted a spot on the Kovarus/Squadra Ovest Racing Team. This team reminds me much of my Chicago roots with TGAGC...serious about racing, fun guys, train together and just have a great time racing/riding.

New kit is on the way. Here's a small team photo they took a while back:


In other A.DIG news... I've been hitting it pretty hard lately...
My buddy Anthony and I have been jetting out after work for some hill training, mainly in the Headlands. I pulled off an exciting 11th place finish at the Timpani Criterium in Santa Clara (my best result out west so far). Did a bit of business travel on Monday (The OC) and then went on a nasty ride yesterday with Anthony, Phil and Vince - the wind was insanely in our face as we climbed and even the descents were scary with the crosswinds. Tonight was a short recovery ride, followed-up with a trip to Trader Joes for some fuel.