Domo'd

It's been awesome to have some gorgeous days, manageable work from home, and a bike that's ready to go! It's also been windy as hell, which makes things a bit trudgy, but the sun usually makes up for it.

Put in another ride out to Tiburon, but tried a slightly shorter way that ends up cutting out some painful windy spots and only cuts about 4 miles out of the total ride. Was a bit easier to cruise without the extra wind-smacked expenditure, and I feel lucky to have that ride be some easily accessible bread and butter. Came up with some great inspirational phrases for this year, like "revel in the elation of crushing it." Right? Right...?

Then I got a bit uppity and decided that since I was back on the bike a bit, I might as well try Mt. Tam again. Headed out, it was windy but hot. As I kept going, it alternated cool and hot, each time I'd wonder if it would get uncomfortably so, but it did not. Had a nice little speed-check with a dude in some fancy clothes, passed him, he passed back, then eventually I got ahead and we crushed it for a while. Eventually, he went towards Tiburon and I went towards Tam, we exchanged some niceties. Energy expenditure here may have taken a toll later, as Mt. Tam ABSOLUTELY CRUSHED ME. Shit. I got owned. I made it to the top of east peak, which was great, but those last bits were slow and painful. My legs wanted to stop, and I had to keep asking myself "why can't you keep going?" They'd try to stop again. "Seriously, there's no good reason why you can't keep on. Why can't you keep going?" Eventually, I made it, and the descent was mostly worth it. Not quite as worth it as I'd told myself on the way up, but it was pretty good to bomb all the way down. Some nice long sweepers at 35- that's the good stuff. If only I'd been a little less tired, I might have enjoyed it more, but then I wouldn't have had it at all. That's how it goes, right?

I'll put some pictures up at a different time.

Arisen

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.

Mileage makes champions

I started writing the mileage of my rides on our Bainbridge-Ometepe Sister Island wall calendar on April 14th. 56 miles. That was a serious ride for me at that point, and one I still love; a flatter, gorgeous run along the east coast of the west bay, from the Mission in SF out to Tiburon in Marin. From April 14 to June 1, the smattering of numbers had accumulated to 969.5 miles. I nailed my rear wheel on a pothole in Sacramento while coaching at the NCAA Rowing Championships (another form of revolution I will get to eventually), so my bike was out of commission for a while at the same time as the lunatics were posting thousands of miles on my Bolder challenge. Got it back earlier this week, had a day off, and decided it was time to bike. While 70+ mile rides have become pretty standard, my biggest ever was still riding around Lake Tahoe in the summer of 2005, when we did 82 miles in a day. I've felt that I could beat that for a while, but hadn't yet embarked on a ride to do so.

I don't set an exact course to follow when I leave, but I have a general idea and know my favorite bike roads pretty well. Marin Headlands, Highway 1 out to Stinson and over Mt. Tam, or the awesome and fast ride out past Sausalito to Tiburon and sometimes along Paradise Drive up to Corte Madera. Well, on Tuesday, I decided to go big before I could go home. I packed up some leftover pizza, a good playlist, and set out to combine my two biggest rides: Mt. Tam and Paradise Drive.

It's 15 miles of mostly flat to Sausalito, which I consider my warm-up time. On the way out, I pondered how to go about this. Do the long, rolling ride to Tiburon and up Paradise Drive and THEN try to drag myself up Mt. Tam? No, that sounded terrible and I worried that I would lack the resolve to force myself up the mountain after being over 50 miles in. Up the mountain first, then.

Thus far, doing Tam, I've gone up the mountain first, then descended to Stinson Beach and ridden back along the amazing coastal Highway 1. The descent is kind of switchbacky and bumpy though, so I decided to mix it up. I rode up 1 to Stinson and began the trudge up Tam. 6'3/220 is the worst build for a biker ever not exactly the "ideal" climbing build, so climbs are slow and arduous. But I did it, stopped at the top for a water and pizza break, and then charged down the mountain at 35+ mph, using a new "look at the exit of the corner" technique to minimize braking (funnnn!). Tam spit me back out by Sausalito, I hopped back on the bike path and headed along my route to Tiburon.

For most rides I don't stop longer than to fill up my water bottle, but as evidenced by my pizza stop at the top of Tam and a relatively-leisurely lunch in Tiburon, I knew however long my ride ended up being, it would be worth it to take time and get some fuel. So, another piece of pizza, coffee, and a fruit cup got me ready to go for Paradise Drive, another great rolling coastal road, just this time looking across the Bay instead of across the Pacific. I was pretty zonked at this point and a bit of headwind didn't help, but I was able to push forward and cruise. Turned around in Corte Madera because you can either shortcut back through Mill Valley to Sausalito there, or just do Paradise Drive in the opposite direction. I prefer the latter.

Though my butt was increasingly sore and my legs were leaden, the rest felt like it was essentially downhill home, at least mentally. Cruised my Sausalito route, back over the treacherous tourist-laden Golden Gate, and along Embarcadero for the nice cool down. One of my (many) neuroses, I only check my mileage once I get home (or at my block, at least), but I had hit 94 miles. New record, and a good start into the challenge now set out by my challengees on Bolder. My butt hurt bad, my knees were pretty painful, and I had have a pink stripe of gnarly sunburn where I had accidentally pulled my bike shorts above my rather distinct tan line.

But I felt really, really good. 100 miles probably would have been cooler, but for some reason I didn't care about those 6 miles at all. I guess that's indicative of how I feel about my riding in general: it's for me, and only my personal goals matter. I am stoked to have the Bolder community giving me additional support to ride as far as I can, but I've learned that my biking is about me, biking. Riding with people other than family/closest friends makes me feel weird and competitive. By myself, I just get to be competitive with myself, which is the truest, realest competition. I know when I'm being weak. I know when I'm killing it. I know when I pushed through a tough part and came out better for it. That's why my initial goal was very simple, and unfudgeable: 150 miles a week. No time to shave off, no speed to hit. Just gotta put in the miles.

On that note, it's a sunny day, I got some work done this morning, and it's time to go for a ride.