Stop Means.... yeah, that.

"You must stop at all stop signs and stop lights without exception."

Duh!

Okay I only tell you this over and over because in all of my years of training with folks for AIDS Lifecycle, I've never met anyone who got a ticket not stopping at a sign like this one and was happy about the $257 bucks (I think its more now). Or got booted off of a ride for blatant disregard of that sign and other rules-- and then had to figure out how to get themselves home from the middle of nowhere. (not to mention they had to tell their donors that they got booted off of the ride...)

It happens, trust me on that one. You all know I have lots of stories...

If you are on an ALC ride, show ALC courtesy and STOP, damnit! You'll jeopardize our ability to get permits to do large rides locally (like the Expo Ride from yesterday, or the Day on the Ride on April 26th). Our small little towns don't like it when we break the law, and that one is basic.

Besides, who wants to support a cause where all of the riders break the law? Heck, they can go donate money to Breast Cancer walkers instead because their participants are hella safer than us!

And yes, an ALC stop is foot off the pedal on the ground, period. Do you think I enjoy a stop like that? every 100 feet on Lansdale in Fairfax? Hell no, but hey at least slow down and look! Don't go breezing past the sign like it ain't there. I saw tons of that yesterday on the Expo rides... and quite a few ended up being NEAR MISSES where a car just about nailed the rider(s).

Do you think I ENJOY rescuing people at the hospital? Or trying to figure out who to call for them? Then do me a favor and at least THINK ABOUT stopping.

I don't care what all the other kids are doing. You're better than that.

As you can tell I get really annoyed at this stuff..... and I live in one of those little towns so I get to hear the other side from my neighbors.

Please keep me sane.

I love my Click Stand

I posted this back in December and thought I'd re-post it again... a few of you saw my click-stand at the expo this afternoon and asked about it. For those who didn't see it, it looks like this (this is not my bike though, its the promo photo for the Click-Stand)

Awhile back I was telling someone that I wanted to bring kick-stands back in cycling style. I soon figured out it was not a good idea with a carbon fiber bike. SO I went looking for an alternative and found this:
So I got one and I love it!! No more putting my bike down on its side in the middle of a rest stop where the bike parking is full! You can take a closer look on their website Click-stand.com Or you can ask to see mine next time you ride with me....

White's Hill vs. Quadbuster?

White's Hill has often been compared to the infamous "Quadbuster " hill on the ride. I say no way--- White's Hill is hella easier, and feels shorter too!

Oh yes, you can actually see the elevation comparison and it looks pretty close. Ben blogs about it on his catseries.com website

I'd have to say (in my humble opinion of course) once you climb Pt. Reyes/Petaluma Road toward the Cheese Factory, although I'm sure the elevation climb doesn't match--THAT's the climb that is the most like Quadbuster on Day 3. The other thing is that like Quadbuster, that climb to the Cheese Factory you can see go up and up and up. You can see all us little ants on bikes climbing, climbing, climbing...

"Le Alpe Du Fromage" is what we've named it. Cheese Factory Hill. (no not CHEESE CAKE factory... although there IS one of those not too far from the Tib Loop, y'know).

Go ride Ben's CAT 2 series ride on April 13th... and then come tell me if climbing that Alpe Du Fromage is harder than White's Hill.

Procrastination is not good...it can be painful!

In theory, someone who starts training this weekend (44 miles) could still ramp up their mileage in the next 8 weeks and get to 85 miles. Since really the average for the week is about that (one day is around 45 miles, 2 days are over 100) , getting to 85 miles would get your body knowing what long mileage days will feel like.

It would look something like this:
This weekend's Expo: 44 miles
wk2: 48 miles
wk3: 53 miles
wk4: 59 miles
wk5: 64 miles
wk6: 71 miles
wk7: 78 miles
wk8: 86 miles
wk9--tapering-- ride a very short ride, the following weekend will be ride out.

The trick is then to increase rides quickly (think end of April) and do them back to back. Maybe even take a Friday off of work and ride 3 days in a row. (shortest mileage on Friday, longest mileage on Sunday-- or even mix up Sat and Sunday).

I'm not saying that doing it this way will be easy, absolutely not at all!! But at least it gets your mileage increased gradually (about 10% each week). Starting earlier would have been the best bet, but starting any later than this week will be much much more difficult and almost impossible to do comfortably.

The time is now. Or hold off and start again next year!

The Bag for ALC

This is the bag I bought a couple of years ago to do ALC rides. It is the Rolling Adventure Duffle by L.L. Bean. It will fit my sleeping bag and pad (or twin sized air mattress), cycling clothes for 7 days, extra kick around clothes, 1 pair of shoes (clogs) for camp, my camp towel, toiletries bag and extra bike gear (tubes mostly) and other misc. things. Usually there's lots of extra room too and good thing because somehow by Day 4, I find that my gear has gotten out of control and it fills in the extra space! Beware, however, that if you are flying with it you will likely get charged for having oversized or overweight luggage. That can be as much as an extra fifty bucks if you're not careful!

Nothin' like a little reminder...

Yep, I'll keep wearing my helmet!

CAT1 Intro Rides... graduation day!

I decided to rest my legs today and go out and ring the cowbell (something about that sound when you're riding....) and take pictures. I got to meet lots of newbie riders and see some old friends.

Ran into Joel Sale, who rushed out the door to catch a ride-- and forgot his helmet! So here he is riding into Fairfax without a helmet when Randy G says-- what the hell? where's your helmet? and he sheepishly told us how he rushed out to try and make the ride and forgot it, and missed ride out too.

Luckily I had an extra helmet in my trunk (don't ask, it's the mother in me). Joel gladly accepted it and we all felt a little bit better about him riding up and down White's Hill....

Got to meet my comadre Pinay riders (you rock ladies!) Debra, Gloria and Geraldine. We laughed and commented about how people mix us all up because we all look the same- (da plat nose gives it away). Debra insisted that she is a slower rider, but I think she is lying. :-)

Anyhow, I took photos and they're here on the <<<<<----- on the left side. Click on the pics and it should take you to my picasa web gallery with my photos on it.

Tomorrow I ride 75 miles (yesterday I rode only 50, so it will be a mellow weekend) to Petaluma for Easter lunch!

See you all on the road...

"Man, I'm tired!"

I led a CAT 3 ride this morning, 68 miles from Sports Basement to the Nicasio Loop. Forgetting that I had ridden 50 miles on Friday, and 35 miles yesterday I anxiously hopped on my bike and rode like the wind, into the wind. My legs just about gave out on the spot. OMG I thought I was bonking!

Riding on the Sausalito Bike path, the wind was full force and my legs were soooo tired. I was planning on riding fast and steady through the loop and sweep the last part of the ride, from Fairfax back to SB. Nothin' doing. My legs were dead after the first 18 miles of the ride!

So, I hung with Annette, Sandra and John Young for awhile- becoming "mega sweep" for both rides. Eventually I had to leave them to follow up with two of my CAT 3 folks who I ended up riding with the rest of the ride. Good thing too, if I didn't have them to ride with I would have been dying of exhaustion! Both Nancy and Wly made it easy to make it through the rest of the ride, chatting, riding and just basically taking it easy.

Sometimes its nice to be the caboose.

I think I'll rest now. ugh, I'm so BEAT!

South Bay Cycle Buddy Ride

Boy those South Bay riders sure know how to party! We had 16 or so riders show up for a ride that we were not sure was going to happen, given the downpours that were happening just 2 hours before ride out! The plan was to go into Starbuck's and do a CB "meet & greet" if we got rained out, so folks came out just in case!

It never rained.

It was beautiful and the route took us through Palo Alto and Woodside with a stop for eats at Robert's Market. Afterward we rode through the Arastradero preserve and back to Los Altos for a quick spin down Foothill Blvd and back to the Starbuck's in Sunnyvale.

Awesome day, fun people!

Two days, 84 miles and another 68 tomorrow.

I think I'm gonna be tired on Monday.

GG Bridge to Nicasio and Back

Absolutely no rain on ride out, a little chilly but dry. 8 of us rode first to Fat Angel Bakery in Fairfax and then up and over White's Hill and over to Nicasio. Anuj was on his first "official" training ride for ALC so we treated him like royalty. Rancho Nicasio has a great menu, and on a quiet Friday morning they can actually get your meal made pretty quickly! Lyra had a great chicken caesar salad, Gary and Diane shared a sandwich and Anuj had the "Buckaroo" plate. We told him that was his nickname from now on- Buckaroo.

It rained a bit on the road back, but basically a passing shower. A little wet on White's Hill back into Fairfax, so I rode the shoulder the whole way. It can be done, you just have to start out slowly (like 20mph) and hold it there. No problems, it was a great 50 mile ride!

I GOT IN!

Um, yeah I think I'm happy about it!

I did this ride about 3 years ago and got up 3 passes. This year with better planning I think I can do all 5. Wish me luck!

RSVP Please!

Ok, if you were invited to a dinner party that asked you to please rsvp, wouldn't you do that? Let the host know you were coming, or at least going to make the effort to come? You wouldn't just show up unannounced because that would be bad form, right?

Well then please keep that same scenario in mind when you decide to come on a ride. Don't just show up, because if everyone just "showed up", we wouldn't be prepared for the crowd! And this has happened where we have run out of route sheets and/or run out of ride waivers for folks to sign.

Now the route sheet part, well I guess you could wing it. Except for the fact that it has the ride leaders cell phone number on it and if some (god forbid) accident happened to you or your friends you wouldn't know who to call.

The Ride Waiver, is a requirement from our Insurance Company. So if you are going to ride officially on an ALC ride- you'll need to sign the waiver. If you're not going to ride officially on the ALC ride then what the heck are you doing there? Ride on! you don't need us!

But really, we all would love it if you would please let us know even if you are just thinking of coming to ride. Otherwise it's really a pain in the ass.

And I mean that in the sweetest way possible....