"Cowbelling...."

Juliebrown, Marybeth McSwigan and Mark Smith at the top of White's Hill 3/30/07

If there is ever a Roadie job in AIDS Lifecycle that involves driving to the top of each hill and ringing a cowbell for all the climbing cyclists, that's what I'll sign up for. It's a ton of fun!!

A ride with Ananda

Most of you know that I work in the South Bay but live in Marin. Besides having a gnarly commute (it's not that bad, I stay with my 85 year old mother every other week), it means I get to ride in some awesome places with little or no "after work" traffic.

Yesterday, David Gaus and I rode after work with our "newbie" friend and co-rider, Ananda.
We took her from the Pruneyard in Campbell, out and over to Cupertino and around Stevens Creek Reservoir and oh yes, up Mt. Eden road- hey, you tell me you wanna practice climbing hills and I'll take you out to practice climbing some hills. We stopped at the top of Mt. Eden to take some pictures to commemorate Ananda's accomplishment.

Me and Ananda at the top of Mt. Eden road with...
David (he lives in Hollister!)

After Mt. Eden, we look her on a little climb through a McMansion neighborhood, and then up Pierce Road to the Mountain Winery entrance. Then down down down on Highway 9 thru Saratoga and back to our starting point at the Pruneyard. Afterward, we went to Togo's for dinner, YUM!!

10 miles running....20,000 miles riding!

This weekend was rather momentous. I ran 10 miles on Saturday for the first time ever! (I'm training through the AIDS Marathon folks - for the SF Marathon in July, ask me about it when you see me.)

And then, on Sunday my odometer rolled over 20,000 miles. I've ridden 20,000 miles since my first pedal stroke in February of 2003. That's 4 AIDS Lifecycle rides and many many Tib Loops!

The Solvang Century

Although I've ridden just about every organized Century and Metric Century in Northern California in the past few years (some of them twice!), the Solvang Century was one I'd never done before Saturday.

It's a beautiful route, and would've probably been pretty easy if it wasn't for the gnarly headwinds for the first 45 miles! And then, all of the significant climbing comes at about mile 80, so by then I was so beat that I couldn't truly enjoy the view at the top of the climb but that's ok- Solvang is a pretty cute town!


After the ride (which was about 7 hours of sitting on my bike seat- not counting rest stops) we were exhausted and decided we'd pig out on pizza.

We don't look too bad considering what we went through...

But I don't think I need to ride a hundred miles in one day for awhile, right Donald?

Silverado Trail, Napa Valley

One of my favorite rides is up and down the Silverado Trail. It is a 28 mile ride up to the town of Calistoga where we stop at the Palisades Deli on Lincoln for lunch. Then it's back down the Silverado trail to Napa for a total days mileage of 56 miles. There are no hills, well ok very small rollers and the day is enjoyable for everyone. Yesterday we made record time for a group of 26 people. We were all out and back (with lunch!) in 4 hours and 45 minutes. That is pretty darn good for folks who average about 14 mph.... be proud!

Here's our stretching techniques:

And this is what the Napa Valley looks like in March:

GG Bridge to Woodacre

Friday, March 2nd- Golden Gate Bridge to Woodacre

Friday rides are taking off! Every week we have different people who come out to ride, having taken the day off to ride. And each week the people count gets larger.... this week there were 18 of us riding. We have only about 12 more weeks left 'til we ride out on June 3rd.
Today was 40 miles.... each Friday we'll try to mix it up and add in more miles too. Come on out and ride with us, it's a blast!