Precipitation, accumulation

It's rainy. All week has been rainy. This means snow in the mountains, but I went skiing for the first time this season last weekend. Before the snow came. My timing isn't great right now, but we got a pretty awesome show on our way up Saturday thanks to a gorgeous sky and some freaky clouds. Looks like a cuttlefish.

On top of the rain, or perhaps somehow linked to it, I'm sick. These things combine to make me the least motivated human. I can barely fathom biking to work today, but hope that I will in the end. On that note though, since my last post I've been marking miles biked per day still, including the 5-mile round trip ride to work. That, plus a couple of modest rides, brings this update total to 234 miles, which isn't too bad at all. It's nice to see that little bits each day help. In fact, this is one of my favorite concepts in life and why I think I'm so drawn to water: repetition, time, and persistence, however small the stream of action or water, will in the end make a significant difference. Maybe it will be sunny again soon and I can keep going on rides.

The good rides have been challenging. The routes around here contain significantly more hills than my Tiburon rides (other than the Mt. Tam ride), and I'm more out of shape. This creates the unique challenge of trying to not blow up so that I can ride better for the whole route. My heart rate monitor has been crucial in this, and while it's hard to not just go for it, it's nice to have some instant feedback. It lets me release my normal frustrations; I don't care if I get passed, I don't care if I'm just grinding slowly up the climb. Requires toning down the killer instinct for a minute, but the logical coach reminds me that this is the best way to get fit. Blowing up will do no good. So hopefully, if I can do enough of these rides, I can start worrying about hunting other bikers more and less about my heart rate. Lugging 220+ lbs up 5-7 miles of continuous climbing is not conducive to bike hunting. Doesn't matter though, because the views along Skyline Drive are totally epic. I once went up Skyline from 92, and once down. Either way, seeing the ocean, San Francisco, and all the way down the bay to Milpitas is something special. Check it out.

On the theme of continuous little efforts resulting in larger positive results, I fixed some small things on the M5 which felt good. I found out that the electric switches you push to raise/lower the windows and sunroof fail after a while, and working used ones are readily available on eBay. Internet magic, as I researched the problem on the internet, then used internet money from blogging to pay a man on the internet to buy car pieces for a car I found on the internet. Also fixed a dead foglight. Both endeavors required small modifications, but it was fun to know that I could do it, and I'm glad to have those little gremlins solved for now.

So, plugging along. Contrasting the small streams, I'm trying to unleash the dam on my sickness and kill it in a deluge of liquid: tea, orange juice, water, and soup. Feeling slightly better today but still off. Maybe once the rain leaves it will wash away the scratchy throat and tight lungs, leaving me as sunny as a 75 degree March afternoon in Northern California.

One more cup of coffee before the... rain

Got a ride in. It wasn't easy despite being half of what I used to crush multiple times a week. Got behind a guy early and the competitive bike hunter would not be quieted. Chased him for a while until he peeled off on a different route. Later saw that he took a shorter way while he was stopped on his cell phone. He eventually caught back up and I was too blown up to stay with him for more than a few miles. Frustrating, but motivating. Crystal Springs was gorgeous and flat, and the rolling of Canada looked worse going out than it felt on the way back.

Ended up with 32.5 miles at 16.6 mph. It's a start.

New Years, Revolutions

Never been much for resolutions, and this New Year is definitely a revolution more in the way of a new cycle beginning again as opposed to an upheaval or large change. The large changes in my life began last year, so 2012 is more of the new revolution gaining momentum. I see it as a giant concrete wheel, on top of which I have stacked a ton of shit. New car, new house, larger job on top of the considerable amount of life happening before all of those things. They sit on top of the 2012 wheel as it creaks into motion, gaining speed and momentum with each moment.

Biking has been limited to commuting, but the crucial part in this is that by moving to the Peninsula, there is no reason I should ever drive to work. It takes as long or longer, is less convenient, and I'd usually end up taking my bike and biking to the office from free parking anyways. 15 minutes and 3 miles on my single speed makes it awesome. With that, there's a slight uptick in my mileage, though I'm hoping that will start to increase faster as I get more settled and get back on the real bike. With no practices today and my morning meetings done, today might be the day to get that going. A resolution seems trite, as there is a constant battle to run against the treadmill of time and lethargy towards a little more fitness.

The car has continued to be a revolution, in ways I had planned and some I had not. Perhaps two anecdotes sum it up, or start to. First, the bad in some "growing pains," involving several trips to the mechanic. The steering became loose on the road trip home which turned out to be broken steering box mounts. An expensive but solid fix left me feeling good as I drove Mean Marcus up to Washington for the holidays, but the steering got a little wonky on the drive back down, which was both depressing in thinking about the fix not working, and disconcerting as I flew through mountain passes significantly above the speed limit. But, I made it, got the steering box tightened, and things are mostly better other than realizing that someday it will require a new steering box which, thanks to the rarity of the car, is several thousand dollars.

The flipside of this is best represented by the day I returned from our weeklong training camp in Sacramento and Lake Tahoe immediately after New Years. After a week driving a Ford F-350 SuperDuty with a 60-foot long trailer, I got home late in the evening before morning practice the next day. I hopped in the M5 just to hear it for a minute. As soon as he rumbled to life, shaking the garage and jostling awake my love for cars, I started laughing uncontrollably. This continued as I shut him off, walked up stairs, and went to bed.

I don't expect 2012 to be an easy road. In fact, I think there are some big challenges ahead, the car being one of them but certainly not the greatest. The team is strong but needs more. Camps will still be a clusterbake. And I'm sure there are plenty of things hiding out there that will knock me down a few pegs. 2012, whatever you've got, I'm ready for it.