Big surprise, I haven't kept on my blog in a while. Called it.
For good reason though. This summer has been the busiest of my life, and prioritization has become paramount. Running summer rowing camps got serious, but we made it through 5 weeks of day camps and 2 weeks of overnights. No one died. Guess that's the first cycle of a new revolution; hopefully year 2 of camp director will be easier.
Got a couple rides in recently, and although I hear Bolder is looking to new directions, I'm going to keep up my challenge and keep trying to log my bike rides.
Put in a couple of miles to and from Giants games, but put in 2 real rides too. One marked the welcome, albeit short, return of Donny Simkin, Spiritquester. After a challenging summer guiding river rafting trips in Oregon, he was back for a few days before embarking on a 10-day hiking spirit quest with none other than the Big Soft, Silas Newby Stafford. D and I rode around a nice foothill loop and had a great little brother-chat session. Only 24 miles, but it was nice for us to both take it easy and catch up on what has been an eventful summer for both of us. It's sad to see the cycle of his coaching at Stanford come to a close after such a brief stint as it was a great to be together for a year, but it's for the best.
Today, I rode out to Tiburon for the first time in a while. I'd been especially motivated to do this loop as I spent most of last weekend in Tiburon for my high school bud Matt's wedding. Definitely funny to poke around the small town that is usually just a turn-around destination for me. But, with the bike bag restocked and rickety headset serviced, it was time to get a ride in. Sun in the city was nice, but ominous clouds engulfing the Golden Gate made me question how long I'd be warm and comfy. Thankfully, it was actually a nice temperature on the bridge despite the mist, and the Tiburon peninsula was gorgeous. Took it easy in the afternoon headwinds, but felt great to just grind for a while. Kept thinking how it's fun to just be an engine, and nothing else.
Had some good thoughts about the impending crew year starting, which is intimidating but great. I'm excited to see the team and get back to some real coaching to offset the administrative work. Trying to think about how to best communicate the fire and drive this years' small group is going to have to approach each day with if they want to contend. I guess that's pretty cliche, but it's true.
Until then, I'm going to keep squeezing summer for all the juice it's got.
