"Wonder Rider"

My friend Bill Delaney is selling "Wonder Rider" and "Super Rider" t-shirts. The price will be somewhere between $20-$25 depending on how many pre-orders he gets.

IF YOU WANT ONE YOU'LL NEED TO EMAIL BILL BY MONDAY, MAY 5TH!! That's when he's placing the order.

I am partial to this one... and I'm going to encourage any of my brunette girl riders to buy one since it will look like you! (I think that this one looks like me of course! LOL!)
The Wonder Rider (above) is done in womens sizes and the Super Rider (below) is done in Mens sizes). If you'd like to order one, just send Bill an email at wpdsf@hotmail.com and let him know. He'll have them Day Zero for you to pick up!

Maybe we'll all get together on the afternoon of Day 5 and take a photo together? Sound good?

Regardless, $10 of each shirt (more if there are larger orders) will go toward his ALC fund raising!

Let's do it! Get One! This'll be fun!

Day On The Ride... SF (well, really Marin)

Saturday was our Day On The Ride, an 80 mile day complete with rest stops, moto safety, route markings and porta potties, just like on the ride!

I spent all day Friday with Kari marking the route with arrows from GG park all the way to Petaluma and back. I never realized how much time and effort that really takes even when you're in a car! I had to find the most logical place to place the arrows and either staple gun them or tape them to poles along the way. Luckily I ride the route regularly so was familiar with the "normal line of sight" that a rider might take. The arrows pointed right, left, slight right, slight left... and everything in between. I don't think we got very many riders lost-- and if they did get lost it had to have been because they were not paying attention or didn't take a route sheet!!

Saturday morning I got to GG park before the butt-crack of dawn. It was nice to be there early so that I had a prime parking spot right across the street from the start point. I got checked in, set my bike up with numbers and such, then parked it in the official bike parking. After that I just hung out waiting for folks to get there, and then for the official announcements to begin at 7am. After thank yous, a great big donation check for $100,000 from Fed Ex, and stretching done by Wonderkurt, it was my turn to review the route and recite the safety speech. After getting everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) to be completely silent and listening, which I hear was a first- I read the safety speech, included some "show me what I mean" hand signals, did my red flag warning about descending White's Hill into Fairfax -- what to do in an emergency and we were officially off!

Just like day 1 on the ride, we were let out in small groups so as not to overwhelm the streets of SF with 600+ riders. A good thing too because even with our small groups out at a time, we got backed up in different places. It was still a lot of fun, the energy and excitement really made the day worthwhile.

I had put on a pair of really nice warm cycling knickers for the morning but by the time we reached San Anselmo (our first stop was in Fairfax), I decided the day was going to be way too warm to keep them on so I did a little unofficial pit stop at home to change into shorts. I'm glad I did! Soon after I was at Rest Stop 1 in Fairfax, less than 2 miles from home...Beth, Me and Kari at RS 2 in Fairfax.

I rode most of the day with Tom Yetter, a "newbie" rider but not new to ALC. Tom has been a roadie in Bike Parking for a few years and finally decided this was the year to ride. Tommy and I rode off and on with Cami, Rowdy and Anuj throughout the day.

The route went from Fairfax to Nicasio Valley and up and out to the Cheese Factory in Petaluma for lunch. The hill on the way to the Cheese Factory which we have named "le alpe du fromage", was a long a warm climb. At the "almost top" of le alpe were my 4 friends, Tammy ("Gu Girl"), Kelly, Shayne and Bob in superhero costumes-sort of . They hung out there cheering folks on and handing out red vines and overall making people happy. It was great!

Tammy, Bob, Kelly and Shayne

We have all done previous ALC rides together (in fact Tammy was my tentmate on my first two ALC rides and we originally met on a training ride back in ALC 2) but this year they are unable to ride, but love being cheerleaders anyway!
They later drove in to the Cheese Factory and gave us rice crispy treats and strawberries too, yum!!

Soon we were off toward our next destination... Sir Francis Drake Blvd, just outside of Samuel P. Taylor park. We were bummed that we were not able to ride thru the park due to permit issues, so we rode the length of Sir Francis Drake to Lagunitas--- which is the worst paved and probably the most dangerous part of the ride. Luckily it was still early afternoon, so most traffic was traveling northbound and we were traveling southbound so it was not as bad traffic-wise as it could have been. We made it in to Lagunitas and stopped at the market, downed a coke and headed back to Fairfax to rest stop 3.

On the way over White's Hill, I noticed several vehicles pulled off to the side and people on the side of the road motioning us to slow down. There had apparently been a rider who went down, and emergency services were attending to her... I slowed waaaay down, pulled into the shoulder and proceeded down the hill at a really slow speed.

I hate it when that happens. No matter how much I warn people about it- starting out slowly descending on any hill you are not familiar with--- the odds of 1 or 2 people out of 600 not heeding the warning is inevitable. I think there was also either a pothole or some sort of debris that was in the road that added to the danger of that descent. In reading other riders blogs in the last couple days, everyone was now aware of why we are so strict in our safety rules and how different it is riding with more than a few people on the road.

We rolled in to Fairfax, rest stop 3 and our final official stop before heading back to GG park. I made a quick pit stop at the porta potties, said a few hellos and got back on the bike and rode out with Talia, Anuj & Tommy. Somehow I dropped Talia on the bike path, then lost Anuj before the bridge. Tommy and I made our way across the bridge and then thru the Presidio and back to GG Bridge where we stuffed ourselves on pasta and salad...mmmm good!

Not sure if you all knew that was my sister Cindy attending to the cookies... the official cookie lady of the day. She came out to volunteer for DOTR too.

All in all a pretty good day, long-- but a good taste of what the week in June will be like!

April 23rd is my parents wedding anniversary

my folks in 1983.

I recently had my mother write down how she met my father... its a cute story, here's an excerpt from a very long description, from the memory of an 87 year old gal...

From 1946 to 1955 I was teaching 5th grade Home Economics in Quezon City, Philippines. Every Valentine’s day our school would have a Valentine’s Party. My friend Feliza, who was also a teacher with me asked me to come over to her apartment in Manila on the Saturday morning of the party. When I arrived, she introduced me to her husband’s first cousin, Louis (who, by the way was still in his pajamas!).

We had a short conversation about why he was in Manila and what brought him there. He was going to school in Manila, studying Business Administration. After a short while, Feliza decided that she did not want to attend the party that afternoon because she was not feeling well. So because I did not want to attend the party alone, I went back to the dormitory in Quezon City and instead went to the movies with my friends.

That Monday, Feliza came to school and during our recess she handed me a sandwich for our coffee break. She told me it came from her “cousin” Louis. It was a peanut butter & jelly sandwich! Every day that week she brought me a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, telling me that it was from Louis. After a few weeks, Feliza asked me if it was alright for Louis to come and see me at the dormitory, which I told her was okay.

About two weeks later, on a Sunday he showed up in a white, well pressed outfit. I invited him to sit down but before he sat, he took another chair and offered me a seat before he would sit down. What a gentleman!! He continued to come visit me at the dormitory every Sunday for the next few weeks and we had many conversations. He told me about his purpose of coming back to the Philippines from the U.S. to go to school under his G.I. bill He also talked about his family who came from Vigan, Ilocos Sur, that he had lost both of his parents already and had only 2 sisters left living in Vigan.

That March he came to visit one Sunday and he said to me, “ I know you are also an orphan now, as I am. How about you and me facing the world together?” With this, I questioned his “status”. I asked him right out if maybe he had another family in the States. He said to me, “ your brother works in Immigration, why don’t you have him check me out?”

So I did.

I called my brother, Manong Quiling and told him that this 45 year old guy was asking to marry me and he wanted an answer quickly or he would be leaving to go back to the States. I asked Manong Quiling to check out his immigration file and let me know if he was “ok”. The next day my brother called up and told me, “ yah Ne’- he is here to go to school on the G. I. Bill. He is okay, he is not married to anyone else!” So the following Sunday when Louis came to visit, I told him all right, I would marry. I told him my brother had checked him out and he was “okay”.

We had further discussion that day about where we would live, how many kids he wanted and “sleeping arrangements” And we agreed on everything. So we went to our parish priest to find out if we could get married at another parish, since we would be getting married in Malati Catholic Church, which was not our own parish. The priest told us it would be fine. We were married in the Malati Catholic Church on April 23, 1950. The only family members in attendance were my 2 brothers, Hector and Achilles and their wives. Everyone else lived too far away to attend. This was all of 2 months after I met Louis!

My parents would have been married 58 years today. My father passed away on February 14th, 1989: 39 years to the date that he met my mother. Happy Anniversary!

Miles...

Wednesday, April 9th : 30
Thursday, April 10th: 40
Friday, April 11th: 32
Saturday, April 12th: 45
Sunday, April 13th: 78!

No wonder I'm so tired. Not to mention that the hayfever has kicked in fulltime so I look rather--- puffy.

24,000 miles and counting...

I still have the same cycle computer that I started with over 5 years ago. I have never cleared the odometer reading.

Today I rode from the Sports Basement to meet friends at Mike's Bikes. While I was on the bridge, I rolled over 24,000 miles!


It was about 7:15 am, and no one was on the bridge...


It was a nice feeling... even if I was all alone to celebrate. I have ridden over 24,000 miles since February 2003... 2 bikes, one bike computer. I still can't believe the battery hasn't died yet!

Burnout...and rest!

Yep, even I get burnout.

I feel it coming on about this time each year. So what do I do? I take a break!

Last Saturdays ride had me exhausted. That exhaustion led to a state of disillusionment.

"How will I be ready for the ride if I can't ride 2 days in a row?" (uh hello? I rode Friday and Sat)... "I shouldn't BE this tired, I am so out of shape!" (duh... you rode 72 miles in a headwind).."

All that negative speak runs through your head when you are overtrained. It's normal. If you have been riding every weekend since January or February- take a break! I did! Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I did no exercise. I did go to see my Chiropractor Dr. Rizzo for an adjustment and A.R.T. (Active Release Technique) so that helped me feel better. But other than that I took it easy for 3 days!

Then today, I rode 30 miles alone from my house to Tiburon and back, and it was much more enjoyable and I felt rested and strong... and I HATE to ride alone!

Sometimes you have to take a break and rest your muscles completely so that all those muscle fibers you tear up each weekend have time to repair, resulting in bigger, stronger muscles that can then take you where you wanna go--- even faster than before!

My twocents worth...

I Was a Rider/Blogger on ALC 4

Three years ago I got to be a "blogger" on AIDS Lifecycle 4. I wrote about my experience at the end of each days ride.

If you want to know what goes on day to day... you can re-live ALC 4 HERE with me...

Woodside and Back...

I rode this really hard ride on Saturday. It was with the Pos Peds and it went from Sports Basement to Woodside and back, a total of 73 or so miles. It was windy the whole way. I rode with David Uzzell and Dylan Ban- David I had ridden with before on ALC 3 and Dylan I just met on this ride!

The route basically goes down Skyline Blvd from SF to Canada Road, then lunch at Roberts Market and back.

On the way back David and I had a little accident. He ran into me when I stopped before the Hwy 1 interchange from Skyline. I felt it safer to stop and cross over all together rather than try to merge across with folks speeding at freeway speed. He didn't know I slowed down and ran into me, knocking me over on my bike and then flying over me and his bike going down hard.

Luckily we were both ok, although full of adrenaline I'm sure, and we hopped back on our bikes and continued... can't imagine what that looked like to Dylan who watched the whole thing.

I scraped my index finger and bled all over my shifter-- gross. And then Monday I had this beeeyootiful bruise on my right leg, where my top tube must have jammed into my thigh:

Another wound to add to my multiple scars over the past 5 years!

Anyhow, we continued into SF and hit the Upper Great Highway where the wind was sooo gusty that the sand would blow into our faces! Talk about microdermabrasion. We quickly found another way to get to GG park and through it, back down Arguello and into the Sports Basement in the Presidio.

A crazy day of riding, but hey at least it was with friends!

How this all started....

People always ask me how why I started doing AIDS/LifeCycle... every year I do a post about how it came to be, and this year is no different.

You can all blame Glenn Hammerson, Rider #1308.

Sometime in April of 2002, I met Glenn at a dinner party thrown by Mike's good friend Hans. We got to talking and Glenn told me about the AIDS Ride he was doing in June. It was a week long bike ride from SF to L.A, he told me. I thought-- hey! what a great idea! (ok I was not very sane at the time and had probably had one too many glasses of wine). I figured that April was probably too late to start training--- funny not everyone thinks that way-- but decided to consider it for the following year.

I don't know how or why I thought of it again that December, but I decided right before Christmas 2002 that I was going to do it! I told Mike that I wanted to buy a bike and do AIDS/Lifecycle the next year. Wise guy that he was, he said, " why don't you wait until after the New Year and see if you still want to do it. If you do, we'll go buy you a bike."

On January 2nd, I said, "Ok can we go buy a bike now?". And that was that.

I bought my first bike at Mike's Bikes in San Rafael. (I also bought my second bike at Mike's Bikes in Sausalito.) I remember looking at that skinny seat and thinking my ass was not gonna be very happy by the time I got to L.A., so I walked over to the other seats, pointed at the wide, cushy one and said to D.J., my salesguy, " hey why can't I put this seat on for the ride?", his reply; " ...because I won't sell it to you for this ride." He was a smart guy, and the beginning of my great relationship with Mike's Bikes.

So there you have it. I rode in ALC 2 as my first ride, got hooked on cycling and have logged close to 24,000 miles in the last 5 years or so.

I ride because I enjoy blaming Glenn for it! (and oh by the way girls, Glenn is one of the only straight, single men I know who do the ride every year....)

ooh he's gonna kill me for this post! :-0

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!