A great ride in San Fran

We left Bakers-hell behind us, started the journey back north, and spent a weekend in San Fran at my sister and BIL's. Scott had a biodiesel conference and I had a rented SUV with three bikes in the back. While SS was off being smart on Saturday I met a friend from undergrad days. Cyndi and I were in the same sorority pledge class at School of Mines. She's now living in California staying busy a smart attorney for Apple and it seems to really suit her. She's also started road biking! With a smile like this, she must be having a good time!

Cyndi has signed up for her first metric century and her 2009 goal is a full 100 mile ride. We had 38 miles of beautiful riding starting at the Golden Gate Bridge, winding around the back way to Tiburon and then back along the water to San Fran.

It was a stunning day!
She was still grinning as we made our way back into town at the end of the ride.

Thanks for the ride! I had a great time. Good luck with the metric century and let me know how your training and rides goes this year. BTW-- Vancouver in September? There's ocean kayaking a 40 minute road ride, or 15 min drive, from my condo.....

Enjoying SoCal

Loaded up and headed out of the armpit of California to mountains of fun.Scott and I signed up to do the 12 Hours of Temecula as a coed duo team. Even without a race resume Big Wheel Racing let me join their team. Thanks!

Scott, maintaining the title of best husband ever, let me race the Walt (again!) while he rode the Surly. We brought my Enduro just in case I felt the need for gears at some point. Although when a bike looks this good....and climbs so well....and there's only 2 teams in our race category....

Jeni, thank you for the BWR jersey loan! It's freshly laundered and on it's way back to CO.

Ohhhhh. Look at all the fast people.

And the fun people who are also fast. It was great to meet so many of Scott's friends and teammates. A fun and welcoming and smiling group of people.

Dave and Yumi, the t-shirts are very cool! Thanks for the hospitality and the beer and the wrenching! If we get into SSWC09 then we'll see you in Durango later this year.

All told, we each rode 6 laps, but since a few of the laps we rode together instead of as a relay, our final count was less than 12. I managed all the laps on the single speed and am more then a little surprised since that was greater than 50 miles.

We took the geo-tour route home. Scott had done some research and found a place with cool rock outcrops that was adjacent to the San Andreas fault zone. Reminscent of the Boulder Flatirons, but with less iron and therefore not the rusty color. Made me a bit melancholy for CO. We don't know where/when we're going to end up living but the front range of CO is on the (very very) short list.

In the meantime, go north young man. Further north. North of the 49th north.

How did we end up here again?

What a degree (or two or three) will get you

Good thing I have those degrees in geo engineering and geology.... the colored pencil skills can come in handy.

Looks like Scott's PhD means he's too good for colored pencils. :)

I haven't looked at the start list yet. We got them in the mail the last possible day....

I can't find the title block.....

A photo-light post. My camera batteries died and for some reason Scott's camera is kaput too.

We've settled into a lovely weekend routine since New Year's. Friday night we rode fixies to the climbing gym. Scott kind of glides up the wall all smooth and unconcerned. I look more like a fish trying to get out of a mudflat. flop flop gasp for air flop flop. On the upside, my hand remained on the belay when that catchy, pop syrupy sweet, Beyonce song was played. The one that contains the imperative to 'put your hands up!'.

Saturday was the Rio Bravo Rumble, a local off road biathlon. We talked about doing this as a team but couldn't decide who had to run the 10k and who got to ride the 16 miles on the Walt. The Walt (proper noun), is Scott's luuurveeely custom single speed with 29" wheels.

We both wanted to ride, neither really wanted to run. The only sensible solution was for both of us to do the full race. Pre-race smiles. And, check out the race gear.... It is mid January and I raced shorts and jersey. It's not going to be this warm in Vancouver until May!

I got the Walt :) I drank the kool-aid.
The 10k run hurt. It was in the foothills east of Bako and the hills aren't super long, but they can be steep. I survived the run only by walking the really steep hill and making airplane noises with my arms extended on the downhills. The bikes all lined up in the transition zone was a welcome sight. The ride was great fun and hard work. My calves started cramping and I wondered if I was going to finish the race. The first bit of hike-a-bike was excruciating pain in the calves and achilles. The rest of the ride was pretty good and the pain subsided a bit. There was some funky off camber "single track" (really a cow trail heavily pockmarked by cow prints) but in general the course was fast and fun. The Walt eats other cyclists. I swear. I think riding singlespeed made me faster then if I had raced a geared bike.

My husband is faster then me, so he had beer waiting when I finished! That and he had already cleaner up all my gear from the transition zone.

I stole this post-race picture from Scott's facebook. I really like that pint glasses were the swag for 1-3rd place. That and a nice 2.3 tire for my Enduro that should be good fun for the North Shore. Unfortunately, the pint glass wasn't presented pre-filled with beer.

My first singlespeed race. Just might try it again this weekend

Another weekend in Central California and another weekend in denial about my return to Vancouver.

Friday night we ended up at the local climbing gym/bike shop where Scott got a good deal on a few wheels and I bemoaned the lack of 5.7 and easy 5.8 routes.

Saturday required an alarm clock to wake up for a group road ride with the Kern Wheelmen. The ride was in the mountains above the Central Valley fog. It was sunny and warm and I wish that my fitness was up for more than the 45 miles we managed to roll.Home by early Saturday afternoon and good thing as Scott has a few hours of work to get the fixies ready for the next morning. See, we've talked about having a lazy weekend with a cruise to the coffee shop in the morning. This vision required the right bikes and the right hipness (ya know, so we could, like, hang with the cool fixie kids in downtown Bako). *rolls eyes*

How many cranks do you own?!??!?!!!

Sunday morning was lazy and we slowly rolled the fixies to the local bagel shop. Scott rocked the perfectly rolled pants and argyle sweater! My intrinsic geekiness dominated. Sigh. Coolness constantly evades me. (BTW, a fixed gear bike means that there is no free wheel. If the back wheel is moving then the pedals are spinning. Conversely, if you stop pedalling then then wheel stops rolling and you crash. No coasting).

The weather here is warmer and sunnier then Vancouver has been since about October. After the morning on fixies we donned jerseys and shorts/knee warmers for the afternoon Southern Sierra Fat Tire Assocation group ride in the foothills. Scott continues to let me ride his Walt Works custom 29" single speed. I LOVE this bike. LOVE. Which means for the last 3 SSFTA rides Scott has been rocking his fixed Surly rat ride. Yup, fixied gear mountain biking. My sweetest rocks. Even if he didn't let me ride the Walt, he would still rock.

The Walt and the Rat Ride

All smiles before another descent into Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

Scott playing on a great banked wall.

Groovin' on the Walt and grinning down Mr. Toad's.

THE END