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.

Independence is being on a bike

Had one heck of a 4th of July at my aunt & uncle's place in Manhattan Beach, CA. Uncle Pat is the most patriotic person I've ever met, so it's always special to be with them on July 4th.

After a cruise in my uncle's Vietnam Army-tribute truck, the "GroundPounder" (no joke)

my cousin, her boyfriend, and our friend set out to visit my (deep breath) cousin's-boyfriend's-sister's birthday party, so we donned our best red-white-and-blues, including recently-gifted PBR hats, and piled on low-riding cruisers and set out for the 3.5 mile (each way!) voyage.

And voyage we did, past all those streets you hear about in rap songs: Crenshaw, Hawthorn, heading to Gardena. I was told we would not be staying there until it got dark.

We made it back safe though, dodging fireworks, cars, and the darkness. It may have only been 7 miles, but it was a damn fun 7 miles, and I've been told I can count miles that aren't part of "serious" bike riding, so I'm gonna!

A bike ride!

A bike ride! I went for a real live bike ride today!

I've been on vacation in Southern California all week and there's been a lot of family time, a healthy dose of partying, but very little biking (other than one 4th of July excursion, to be discussed later). I brought my bike down in the hopes I would go for a bike ride with my 89 year-old grandfather, who picked up cycling in his late 50s and went on to be a baller age-group champion in his 60s and continued to ride 4-5 days a week until he was about 82. He's slowed down some recently, but is not unable and still rides occasionally despite having lived for 9 decades. His newly-rebuilt Litespeed with top-of-the-line Campy Record is a testament to a guy who's lived his life doing things the right way.

Alas, he's 89, and hasn't felt like biking. So I woke up before the rest of the family and hopped on the bike before 9, embarking on the same ride he used to take my brother and I on. Along the beach through Ventura, CA, onto the Ventura Bike Trail, up past Lake Casitas (site of the 1984 Olympic rowing events and eponymous setting for the classic rowing book Assault on Lake Casitas) to Ojai.

A gorgeous ride, passing several large groups of older riders, of which my grandfather used to be a more regular member. Just as I reached Ojai, my grandfather's hilarious old friend Ralph, who turned 75 today and was going for a ride with his stepson. I turned around and rode back to Ventura with them, catching up and stopping at a place along the trail that looked down the dry Ventura riverbed, up to the Casitas hill, and across to the hills.

Ended up being a 41.5 mile-ride, not a beast but not shabby, and certainly welcome after a lot of days with no miles at all.

Last night in SoCal and I hadn't been in the water yet, so I had to go for it. Jumped in and it was invigorating, followed by just plain fun. Caught a couple body surf waves as the sun sank, and headed home. After too many consecutive days with too much on my mind, this was a great Thursday.

Every day I'm strugglin

I should have started writing about my bike rides about 2 months ago, when I was actually riding. In the past 2 weeks, the only riding I've done besides hither-and-thithering was a 26-miler one Saturday morning. It was fun to be on the bike and my legs felt rested (too rested), but shit man. 150 miles/week is just not an option right now. Rowing summer camp, of which I'm the director, started up and all of a sudden I'm working 8-5 instead of super early mornings and late evenings which left me with the middle of the day to crush some mileage. I want to start commuting via bike which might help throw in some miles, but overall it just makes me sad. I had pushed my normal 2-3 week dedication to training out to over 8 weeks, but life still got in the way. All part of the revolution, I get, but I'm goddamn ready to get back on the bike. Gotta make it happen I guess.

Shit, work calls. Can't bike, can't blog.

Windigo

The past two rides, Friday and Sunday, have been dominated by the Windigo; when it's windy as hell but you still go. Friday proved to be the most misadventure-strewn ride I can remember. Departing in the crazy-ass wind, I thought I was pushing through and getting a ride in. Starting out to the ocean, I thought I'd go the bridge via the other side of the city and then go to Marin. Cruising down Sloat Boulevard, there was a bunch of unavoidable glass in the bike lane, and soon after I felt the horrible wiggly and jarring flat tire. My first flat since I've moved to San Francisco, so... 3-plus years of no flats. Pulled over on a grassy corner, went through the steps, but my vulcanizing rubber cement was mysteriously empty, perhaps it leaked. Anyways, no cement, no patch, no extra tube, one loser. iPhone to the rescue, bike shop 4 blocks away in West Portal, new tube and tire and some time with 3 old bike shop dudes.

Post-bike shop, I rode in the gnarly wind along the Great American Highway. The sand in the wind stung my arms and blurred my vision. Totally sweet.

Decided to cut my losses, went past my waterfall in GG Park and charged it home, blocked at Dolores Park by the  fallen SF firefighters procession and just gave in and sat at the park for a while. Ended with a disappointing 20 miles but could tell it wasn't my day.

Yesterday was... well, different than Friday I guess. Nothing went wrong the way they did on my way to the ocean, I just felt tired and heavy the whole time. The summer weather pattern, though favorable in its warmth and I shan't complain about that, brings some serious wind, which can sneak up and make it feel like I'm riding in Nutella. That was Sunday. Made it out to Tiburon and back for a 51 miler, but didn't feel very good about it. Kept thinking along the way: "Aren't all these miles I've been biking supposed to make this shit easier?" Guess not yet.

Well, the biking wasn't that much fun, and I guess that's reflected in how much I feel like writing about it. I guess that makes it a great time to discuss one of other namesakes for the this blog: my love of cars. In fact, my girlfriend calls cars my "one true love." Probably true. If you know me, you've probably heard me talk about cars or seen me get distracted by something obscure on the road. So, you're gonna have to deal with it on my blog too.

On our way to Sausalito on Saturday, we passed 5 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwings, one of the most revolutionary sports cars in history. I'd never even seen one in person, and all of the sudden Truck-E was rumbling next to 5 cars each worth nearly a million dollars. They came in all flavors, too...

 I didn't realize how much I would love this car in red. It's incredible.

Pictures also never showed me how frickin long this car is.

We unfortunately didn't get any of the crazy, deep burgundy example.

They were all led by the new SLS, the modern interpretation. Doesn't have nearly the gravity as the 300s, but was cool to see and looks hewn from a single block of aluminum.

Another revolution began again today, as Stanford Rowing Camps started up for another year. 36 little bundles of joy today, and the wind was still effing with my shiiihhhh. One boat of 8 small children blew away from the dock so fast and so far that it took the next 45 minutes for them to just try to row into the wind back to the dock. It actually didn't go as badly as I had anticipated, so here we go.

This is great