Michael's Birthday

My "Ride Husband" (aka Tentmate) Michael turned 36 on Sunday. So Saturday he threw a party for himself. He cooked for 26 people and we ate like kings! Mike and I got his birthday cake, chocolate with chocolate mousse filling and chocolate frosting-- with his picture on it!
Debbie Does Desserts on San Anselmo Avenue can create the image of whatever photograph you give them. So I just happened to have this lovely picture of Michael in this years Red Dress and thought it would make a lovely cake topping!

Michael loved the cake so much he almost ate the whole thing himself! (well I do know he had a piece for breakfast on Sunday morning!)

Everyone at the party was someone who Michael met through AIDS Lifecycle. So it was a lot of fun because everyone there knew everyone else!

Charlie got married!

This past weekend I was in San Diego for my friends Charlie and Krisjon's wedding (that's pronounced "kris-shawn") To show you how deep AIDS Lifecycle friendships can become; I met Charlie on the Kick Off Ride for ALC 4 when he was just getting into cycling. (He can even remember the date, he's says it was October 17th!) I was a co-lead on the ride to Mill Valley and back. We trained together for most of that rainy year, while Charlie was a Resident at SF General hospital (at least I think that's where he was). Yes, Charlie is a Doctor of Pediatrics. When I found that out, of course I started calling him Doogie Howser.

Charlie & I at the artichoke stand, Day 2 ALC 5

I was an official ALC blogger on ALC 4 and if you read my blog of Day 1, you'll hear all about Charlie's little "accident" all within the first 12 miles of the 545 we had yet to do!

Anyhow, the weekend started out with a flight down to San Diego on Thursday with Mike (my husband), Michael (my "ride husband") and Donald (my twin- LOL!).

Friday was a "meet and greet" out at the beach in La Jolla with authentic, and I mean authentic- Mexican food. We had carne asada tacos with fresh made tortillas, rice and beans. It was soooo good! Kelsey and Doug showed up here as well, so add two more to our little party weekend!Michael, Donald, Kelsey & Doug

Afterward we walked around the little downtown touristy area of La Jolla. When you've traveled as much as I have, all of those places start to look the same. RETAIL AMERICA. Oh well it was fun to goof off with our friends anyhow.

After La Jolla we decided we needed to get back to town to hit a place called "Extraordinary Desserts"- OMG I was in heaven! The desserts were so beautiful we had to take pictures of them:

me and my favorite--- beignet!
(and I wonder why I gain weight...)

Charlie's wedding was the following day- Saturday- but not until 3:30pm. So he and Krisjon hosted a small hike on Saturday morning out at Torrey Pines state reserve. It was a great morning, no clouds and relatively warm considering the time of the year!
It was here that we met up with Mark O'Brien, who was Charlie's tentmate for both of the ALC's that they did. It was good to see Mark- always has a big smile- and he assured me that he was planning on riding ALC this year, at least I THINK that's what he said.... lol!

Donald, Doug & Kelsey

After Torrey Pines we got some lunch at what else, a taqueria and who else should we run into but the groom himself! It was some nice one on seven time with him just before the wedding.

What can I say? The wedding was fabulous, relatively small but fabulous. The readings were great and funny too and it was a great melding of two fabulous families.
Michael got a great photo of Krisjon and Charlie coming down the aisle as well as one of all of us in our wedding best:

After the ceremony, the entire wedding party and guests walked back the mile and a half to the hotel where the reception was being held and we partied like Rock Stars...

They clean up pretty good, don't they?

Kick Off Ride

Saturday was the official Kick Off to the new ALC7 training season. Three different rides left the Sports Basement at three different times. The largest group was the group riding to Tiburon and back, then there was a ride to Mill Valley and back and lastly a short ride around the Presidio with a bike skills clinic afterward, presented by Endurance Performance Training Centers

me being bossy...

The last two or three years we've gotten rain on this day, so I was so happy to see clear blue skies when I got to the Sports Basement. It put everyone in a good mood and its always easier to direct people when they're in a good mood! We had free food and drink, prepping everyone for their first official ride of the season:

Susan as the food pusher...

I love this first ride of the season because its so easy to see the anxiousness in our new riders faces. The look of "everyone here knows everyone else!", so I earlier in the week I directed our TRL's to be sure and introduce themselves to folks so that we wouldn't seem unapproachable.

newbie Mike and Bob Katz

I think most of them tried to do so, however there were over 120 people on the first ride, that I'm sure we still missed some folks. Hopefully they will still come and ride on some smaller rides as we go forward. I felt like the hostess of a party, a BIG party- and wanted to make sure everyone felt welcome and of course, safe.

I asked Ken G. to come along as the invisible SAG vehicle, letting the TRL's know he was available to them if they needed it. We did use him once, maybe twice? but otherwise had no major problems. The goal was to get everyone back by 2pm, and by golly we got everyone in by 2pm.

Jon, making sure no one misses the turn to Mill Valley!

We registered 57 participants that day!

Oh, and I had also talked my sister Cyndy into coming and volunteering for the day. She got to greet the riders as they came back from their rides, checked them in and then handed them a raffle ticket.

Cyn & Me

My biggest surprise was to see my friend Marie, with whom I'd trained to do the SF AIDS Marathon with earlier this year! I was so excited to see her and excited that she had taken the plunge (although she is still sort of trying to figure out what she needs), and was certainly going to try and train and do the ride with us. AWESOME!

me talking marie into riding....

All in all it was a pretty good start to the Training Ride Season in Northern California. Folks won some pretty incredible prizes that day too!

Chris Thomas, one of our TRL's did a short video of the day and of course it's on YouTube.

You can take a look at it HERE (man I gotta drop some pounds....)

Enjoy!

Renegade Ride: Napa Valley

Donald, EJ, Me & MB

Paul, Robb & MB- observing EJ

I spent Saturday in the Napa Valley with a bunch of Renegade ALC riders... A "Renegade Ride", is an unofficial ride with a bunch of ALC riders and friends where we don't have to stretch if we don't want to (most of us do anyway), we don't have a safety speech, and if you're late then it's up to you to ride fast and catch up!

Michael, Debra & Jerome

This time the plan was to ride up the Silverado Trail to Calistoga, take a quick break then ride down highway 29 to St. Helena with a stop at Taylor's Refresher (the original) for lunch. A total of 57 miles and mostly flat!

This is what the Napa Valley looks like in October!

I say "the plan" was.... because although it was my plan, Talia and her rear tire had a different plan for us (Talia, Donald and I). First off was a flat tire with David, who has been having his share of flat tire bad luck lately. We were on the Silverado Trail and the three of us, George David and I took care of the flat in short order.... soon we were back on the trail.

Donald helping George, pre-ride.

Not even 5 miles later, I came upon Talia and Donald discussing the prospects of changing her flat, which they had pumped up just before coming out to Napa. Ah well, we took it all apart checked the tire and voila! nothing there. So we re-pumped the tube put the tire back on and were on our way.... soon after she was flat again. This time we put a new tube in, pumped it up and got on the road, we were obviously far behind the crowd and had yet another 12 miles or so to go. We pumped the tire (after figuring out how to use Donald's CO2 dispenser which was really weird and unlike mine), got on the road and went about 2 miles when it went flat again.
AARRGH! By this time we were just trying to figure out a way to cut across and into St. Helena because we were really going to be too late to catch up with the group. After much discussion, we decided we'd put another new tube in and pump it, then cut across on one of the side roads and meet everyone at Taylors. I called Michael to let him know and he said he'd tell the others. Three changes later and Talia's tire was finally happy.

Cutting across was quick time- like 5 minutes! Which means we got to Taylors in St. Helena at 11:30am, about 45 minutes before the rest of the group. This was a blessing in disguise because by the time the rest of the group got there, the line was miles long. Me, being the hungry person that I always am, did not wait for the rest of the group to arrive but instead had an early lunch and shake while we waited for the others.

Robbi celebrated his birthday on this ride, so Milam brought birthday candles and put them on his milkshake (yes, they're that thick!)and we all sang Happy "29th" (again) Birthday to Robbi.

Robb and his Birthday milkshake

Soon we were all fueled up and on our way back down hwy 29. At Oakville Cross Road I took a left and rode that the 3 miles back to the Silverado Trail. Interestingly enough, a nice head wind picked up which made the last 10 miles back to our start rather ....um.... taxing.

One by one we each made it back to the Chevron station on Trancas, which was our starting point (they have the cleanest gas station bathrooms I have ever seen!).

Not sure where the next Renegade Ride will be, but I'll be sure to post details here somewhere.

First Official Friday Ride for ALC 7

Today was the first of many Friday Training rides for ALC 7.
Donald, Kelsey, Ben, John and I met in the back lot of Mike's Bikes in Sausalito. After stretching, doing introductions (small group makes it easy!), reviewing the route and finally reading the "new and improved" safety speech, we were on our way...

Kelsey & Ben chatting it up on the bike path...

It was a nice, leisurely ride and it felt nice to be on the bike again. I had not been on the bike since our ride up Haleakala so my legs felt a leeeetle bit stiff. But it didn't take much time before I felt like I was in th groove again. Of course, being sedentary for so long meant my heart rate would jump as soon as I started the Camino Alto climb... and jump it did, to about 171 bpm! OH Boy, I got some riding to do!

The ride around Paradise Drive was beautiful, the weather relatively clear but cool. Soon enough we were winding our way down into Tiburon where we stopped at Shark's Deli for a quick snack.

Donald and Kelsey

John & I
(we both decided we like how we look in jerseys with black sides!)

After a quick snack and some gossiping, we were back on our bikes through the Tiburon bike path, up and over 101 and back to Mike's Bikes where we said our goodbyes.
But not before signing out and of course, having John take our annual "First Ride of the Season" group picture!

Come join us some Friday!

Yes, I have a new job...

Me, getting balance in my life...

I have a new job!

After six years of commuting from Marin to the South Bay, I finally decided it was time to do something closer to home. In July I gave notice to cancel my contract job with a Construction Project Management firm in the South Bay... I had been working for the same person for over 6 years, driving 72 miles each Monday, staying with my mother during the week and going home (another 72 miles) on Thursday afternoons. Except for vacation time, I've pretty much never had dinner at home during the week!

As serendipity would have it, in August I found my own replacement (thanks Gina!)and two minutes after I had sealed the deal with her via email, I got an email. It basically asked whether I'd be interested in working part time as Training Program Coordinator for AIDS LifeCycle.

(...as a footnote, I had asked almost a year prior, to please consider me should they ever create a position like that. Wanting to keep in "in house" not volunteer, they gave the responsibility to Cycle Buddy Kari- who basically didn't want to take the job on this year. Can you imagine being a Cycle Buddy full time and then having to manage a bunch of TRL's???)

So here are the details- it's part time, I work from home and I am basically responsible for program development and execution. I've created this years Re-certification training, tweaked the New TRL 2 day training and will be working on a more comprehensive training/information book for all of our Out Of State TRL's. With all this program development I don't know how much time I'll get to spend on my bike!! (ok that's a joke, really)

I will still lead Friday training rides beginning sometime in October. They will start from Mike's Bike's in Sausalito (we love them!), and starting in January we'll move our start location to the Northwest parking lot of the Golden Gate Bridge. Come on out and ride!!

Day 2: The Big Sur Ride- plus 22,000 miles and counting...

We awakened to reverie (remember we were on an Army base) at 6am, although Mike and I were already awake because 9 hours of sleep was plenty for us. We rode to breakfast after loading up our gear to the gear truck, had a nice warm breakfast of eggs, bacon, pancakes, etc. Soon we were on our way back to Carmel Valley by way of King City. Yes, King City. This is the ride where we get to go over "Quadbuster" in the opposite direction as well as cross the "skinny dipping bridge", in the opposite direction.

Roger, David & Scott pose at the top of Quadbuster (in the other direction!)

Skinny dipping bridge from afar...

Soon we were at the 2nd rest stop, where we fueled up before the major climb of the day- an 11 mile climb up to Cahoon Summit, and soon after a drop back down on Carmel Valley road into town. But first, I noticed that I was now only 3 miles from rolling over 22,000 miles on my odometer--- yet another stop and photo for celebration! (wasn't it only last December when I rolled over 19,000?)

The climb up to Cahoon Summit starts out long and slow, and you don't really feel like you're climbing except for the fact that you can't figure out why you can't pick up speed. Plus to add insult, there was a bit of a headwind now so not only was it boring and long, but also windy.

As you can imagine, this was not my favorite it part of the ride, so I'm gonna gloss over it--- I rode it, made it very slowly to the top, had Yoichi massage my neck and shoulders (because I had a raging headache, but my friends wouldn't let me sag downhill!) and headed back to our starting point in Carmel Valley. Afterwards we ate yummy burritos and headed home.

An awesome ride with awesome riding friends: Marybeth, Beth, Nicole, Mike, Yoichi, Kimball, Chris Z, Chris D., Roger, Scott, Jeff, David, Charlie, Michael, and before and after ride-- Bill!
I think I'll do it again next year--- but come better trained.

Hey MB, let's go climb Diablo....

The Big Sur Ride- Day 1

Last weekend a group of us traveled down the coast to ride in the Big Sur Ride, a gorgeous and difficult 2 day ride. We started out around 7:15 am or so, about 15 of us, out from Carmel Valley and on toward Hwy. 1. Once on 1, we headed south for most of the day. The first rest stop was at Rocky Point Restaurant, a popular site that sits right on the cliffs above the Pacific. It was an absolutely clear morning. It was nice that they had drop bags so we could take off our arm warmers, leg warmers and jackets, toss them in a bag and they would take them to our camp that night.


The ride is pretty spectacular, day one is mostly rolling hills (ok looong rolling hills) with some awesome downhills in places as well. We had a lot of views like this one for most of the ride day:
I hadn't ridden a long ride since the trek up Haleakala, so I knew I had to take it easy for the first 50 miles otherwise I would be totally burnt by the time I hit Nacimiento Road at about mile 70... So we took our time and took lotsa pictures along the way:

There was no lack of food on this ride, although they did run out of sandwiches at the 2nd rest stop. That was partly our fault because we were late, due to the fact that we stopped at the Big Sur Bakery on the way to rest stop 2.

Marybeth was determined to get up Nacimiento Road this year (last year she was halfway up and they made her sag to the top). All that training on Mt. Diablo paid off, she easily made it up to the top. She did have a mishap on the way down though, hitting a pothole and crashing. Luckily she was descending slowly, since one of the ride vehicles had just passed her. Such a bummer, she was ok although a bit bruised and sore the next day, and she did get a bit of a scrape on her arm. (see the pink bandage on her left arm in the above picture)

Nacimiento Road is a loooong 7 mile climb, and not only is it rather steep in places, it also comes at about mile 70 of the 90 mile day. The only thing I had going for me was that I had climbed Haleakala 2 weeks ago, and I had also done this climb two times before. Mentally I knew what to expect. That was the only thing that got me thru.... well ok, that and Michael would stop and wait for me from time to time on the way up.
I finally made it up the 7 miles in a little more than 2 hours (yes it was that steep).... Mike, Charlie, Chris and Kimball were there at the top waiting for us. It's nice to get to the top and have someone there cheering for you. The downhill is long and curvy, eventually getting you to the gate at Fort Hunter Liggett, where we had dinner and camped for the night. We actually got to bed at 8:30pm and slept til 5:30am!!! heck that's more sleep than I get at home....

The ride up Haleakala

Mike sent this ride report out to friends, so I figured instead of writing my own here, I'd just let you read his:

Well, yesterday was the day to take the plunge so to speak, or perhaps the opposite, to climb Haleakala on road bikes. It was our one ambitious goal for this otherwise placid vacation on Maui. I should have sensed what kind of day it would be when Julie and I left the condo, forgetting our bars, our pre-ride hydration water, sandwiches, etc...two vacationers in vacation mode, having done nothing for a week, attempting the assault of a 10,023 foot peak!

We arrived at the bike shop (http://www.gocyclingmaui.com/) in Haiku, on the Eastern slopes of the base of Haleakala, at about 400 ft above sea level, were outfitted with some great Litespeed bikes (I want one now) with our own pedals, and were ready to get on our way. Tim, our guide and host, (supported by a sag wagon that would leapfrog us for water stops) would ride with us up to the park entrance at 6,700 ft, but could not enter the national park, because the shop did not have a permit to operate within the park. At one trip per week with only a few riders willing to make the ascent, I gather it just did not make economic sense for them to get one. About 45 seconds into the ride, we started to climb-nothing like a good warmup! Off we went, through the small towns into the "highlands" (between 1,000 and 4,000 feet). Unlike most mountain ascents, there are very few places to rest or coast on Haleakala. I counted three downhill sections from the bike shop to 6,000 feet that were each about 15 seconds long.

The rest of the ride was a steady climb uphill, at albeit gradual grades between 5% and 8%. I have to say that the roads inside the park were some of the best that I have ever had the pleasure of riding. Good wide shoulders, smooth pavement, and plenty of signs warning motorists about bicycles (though I think the intention is to warn about downhill cyclists, of which there are many).

Anyway, back to my hyperbole: To our delight, the air temperature started to cool, from 86 at the shop to the high 70's as we climbed through the highlands. At 4,500 feet we entered some mist, that gradually turned to a drizzle the further we climbed. At 6,000 feet, our sag wagon provided us with leg warmers, arm warmers, a vest and a jacket (until this point, Julie and I were wearing only shorts and regular jerseys). At the time we thought, well, ok, It's drizzling now, but not cold enough to warrant wearing any of this stuff. If we need them on the descent, we will carry them. We rode on. We left the Shop at about 8:45 am. By the time we arrived at the park entrance at 6,700 feet, it was just before 1:00 pm. We were on schedule, with our legs feeling pretty good.

Tim left us at the park entrance, in a light drizzle, which almost immediately turned to a monsoon-a heavy tropical rain. Not a warm tropical rain though. No, at 7,000 feet, it was as cold as any bay area winter rainstorm. We trudged forward to the first park visitors center, completely soaked, wearing again, only our jerseys and shorts. Determined to carry on, We stayed indoors at the visitors center for a half hour to thaw out and regroup, spending 10 minutes of that time under the hand dryers in the restrooms trying to warm our cores and dry off (somewhat) before layering on the additional clothing. Donned with armwarmers, leg warmers, a light vest and a light jacket (none of which, perhaps obviously, was rainproof) we left the vistors center at 7,000 feet and climbed to 7,500 feet.

The rain did not let up, and if anything only persisted at getting heavier. Soaked to the bone again (read: next time carry some goretex!), we made the decision to turn around, thinking both of hypothermia (yes, by this time the temperature was in the high 50's, we were soaked, and still had 7,000 feet to descend with nary a pedal stroke!) and time, as it was by this time, heading towards 2:30 and we had 2,500 feet to go to the summit. The descent was a little harrowing, as we had to clench our brakes as hard as we could just to slow down. Needless to say, brakes don't work well when your tires (front wheel and back) are spitting a rooster tail out about 6' and water is sheathing across the road. My front tire was wobbling both from the heavy application of the brakes, and from my shivering arms. I had a steady drip of water coming off the front of my helmet, splashing into my eyes to aid my vision, which was nice. It was the kind of soaking that, when you flexed your foot, water would squish out of the tops of your shoes; when you sat down on the seat after lifting off for a moment, you could feel the squish of water releasing from your butt pad.

It rained solidly back down to about 3,500 feet. When we got back to the bike shop, by this time somewhat warmed by gradually warming rains, the now sunny weather, and 86 degree temperatures, we looked a little out of place with our bundles of clothes on. We rung out our clothes, laughed and told stories of our adventure, and were soon on our way. Tim confirmed that this was the wettest he had ever been on a bike ride since living in Maui (remember, he rode up with us, and had to descend through most of the rains as well).

To top it all off, before arriving in Maui, Julie had bought tickets to a benefit for the Lahaina community center: an outdoor evening event of approximately 500 people, a live band, open bar, and samplings from the best chefs/restaurants of Maui. Not thinking this through completely, we scheduled the climb to Haleakala on the same day. Hmm let's think about this: sit on the beach, read, snorkel for a week and then attempt to climb 10,00 feet and attend a benefit on the same day. How typical, or perhaps endemic of the us.

Needless to say, we ate and danced-yes danced, until we had nothing left. Just another day on Maui. All things considered, our legs feel pretty good today.