Yokohl Ranch / Exeter TT - worst. TT. ever.

There's your intrepid narrator, his chosen torture device, and a fellow
crazy person (Joel Robertson) antsy to get this time trial action started.

I haven't done a time trial in...forever. OK, I did the Treasure Island
Triathlon once by myself, and once as part of a relay where I just did
the bike leg. But since then I've been riding a lot more, and I've set
my bike up with a radically different position. So it doesn't count.
That makes it somewhere around 1995 when I last did a time trial. No
kidding.

And boy did it show. All I can say is that I'm pretty good for 1 minute,
I'm really good for 4 minutes, but over 60 minutes? I suck. I mean, it
was pretty sad. But the scenery was good, and what the hell. I went out
and did it.

I wouldn't even care except I miss doing stage races, and if you want to
be good at stage races you need to take your existing skills at
criteriums and road races (which I have) and also do time trials. So
here I am with the dork-pod helmet, giving it what I've got.

Hopefully by the time I get to Madera, that's a lot more than I had today.

Video of a POO

Not quite what you're thinking, but I'm sure that got your intention.

Jimbei had a camera that shot video on his handlebars at the last Port Of Oakland ride

So you can see what I do on Tuesday nights.

I'm the guy with a bag on a rack in the video, if you see that. (Hey! I'm a bike commuter, I'm basically just on my way home from work, give me a break.) I'm reasonably certain that I give a hang-loose sign to the camera at one point ;-)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me9ule8RTMM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHxu-ZI_Mx8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zYpikbcm9U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQzSsIejci0


I've got a helmet-cam myself but haven't messed with it in a while.

Do folks like these videos? Is there any interest in race videos? I could give it a shot myself if so

Happy Pi day

Recovery day art shot / Awareness test

Recovery days are always nice. Why? Well, normally I'm cruising along
pretty quickly, and not paying attention (too much) to the beauty around
me. It's kind of a blur.

But recovery days are different. I'm going slow enough on recovery days
that my mind wanders and my eyes wander to all the things on my normal
routes that I would miss otherwise.

Like this statue in a park in Piedmont on my way home. Oakland parks
usually don't have public art in them, but I live right next to Piedmont
so I go through it. I've passed by this park a hundred times but never
paid attention to the statue. So there you go, your art moment.

Elsewhere on the ride, a walker strolled by and when the person passed
some litter on the side of the road, get this, they bent down, picked it
up, carried it to a waste basket and threw it away. Holy cow! I thanked
the person (I always say thanks when I see someone do this) and they
smiled. So there's thing #73 that I'll say thanks for - some random
gratitude for ya. I see this about once a week believe it or not, and do
whatever I can to encourage it (including trying to pick up one piece of
trash per ride - try it, I dare you)

In other news, Morgan Fletcher sent this in - I thought it was apropos
given all the transportation conflict in the area recently:

http://www.dothetest.co.uk/

-Mike

Pain on tap for Saturday

Here's the elevation profile of the time-trial course I'm racing on
Saturday. I'm doing it as a tune-up for Madera since it's been so long
since I've done a race against the clock, and the only way I know of to
really prepare is a full-dress rehearsal.

Here's a time trial pop-quiz though:

Q: Which part of this course will not hurt?

a) The false flat uphill part
b) The hills in the middle
c) The hill after the false flat downhill
d) The flat finishing segment
e) None of the above

E.

No, I don't know why I do it either. Hopefully Exeter's pretty at least?

Transportation conflict

Every day, on my ride through the Golden Gate Panhandle on the wonderful
bike path, I come to the intersection of Fell and Masonic. This is
pretty much a disaster of an intersection and has so many accidents at
it that someone painted this on the path before you get to the intersection

Fair warning indeed.

I don't know about you guys, but between the tragedy on Stevens Creek
Reservoir, the serious wreck of another crew on Skyline on the Peninsula
that day, Sean with a hit-and-run, me getting nailed by a semi and
countless others...I'm just sick of cars and car drivers.

I will grant that cars are convenient and to a not-insignificant degree
represent "freedom" to a lot of people. But did it ever occur to you why
it is convenient? By which I mean, the tremendous auto-based
infrastructure of roads, gas and service stations, traffic devices, laws
and law enforcement, financial instruments (loans and insurance) and on
and on. All those things make it convenient now, but that's a lot of
infrastructure.

And for what? Have you ever considered how noisy, dirty, dangerous, and
open-space consuming all these cars and the associated infrastructure
is? Imagine for a moment what city life would be like without honking
horns and flatulent Harley's in the middle of the night. What it would
be like to look towards the Bay and not see 20 roads and 2 freeways. Or
what it would be like to ride a bicycle legally without getting
seriously injured.

Might be nice...might be so nice it would make the investment in an
alternative infrastructure for transportation worth it.

Doesn't hurt to dream.

Lakeport is beautiful

I think Lakeport, and Clear Lake in general get a bad rap.

I'm up here this weekend hanging out with my father-in-law, and I went
for an early ride this morning around the lake.

Check out the sunrise over Mt.Konocti, and the vineyards sloping down
towards the lake. Gorgeous!

64 miles around the lake, and I'd say about 50 of them are postcard
pretty. That's a tough ratio to beat - think about your favorite rides,
and there's always something not to like, and it's usually half the
ride. So I do really love coming up here and pedaling around here.

If you ever have an itch to check Clear Lake out, there's lots of houses
you can rent all over, though we've become partial to the Mallard House
hotel in Lakeport since it's got wi-fi and little kitchenettes for a
reasonable rate. The Konocti Challenge is a yearly century (or metric
century if you want a shorter route) and ends with some of the best BBQ
brisket I've ever had. Teresa did it last year and I can definitely
recommend it.

-Mike

Turkeys on the road

So here's a pic from the back part of the Three Bears loop.

It must be spring because there's some big Toms strutting around.

I thought this was particularly fitting though, and not because I'm
curious why the turkey is crossing the road (he's trying to get away
from me while I chase him with a camera). I'm curious what would happen
if a poor driver were to be flying along the road, round the bend, and
have too much speed to stop in time?

Bam, turkey everywhere. Just like the ex-deer I saw on Mountain road
this morning actually, or the flat squirrel on Moraga. Or the bird...you
get the idea. And that's just from a ride this morning.

What's the point? This morning it wasn't just critters getting nailed
out there.

Sean Smith, a guy I rode with so much this winter my wife started
calling him "the other woman" was broadsided by a truck on his way to
work. They guy drove off - a hit and run, one of the scummiest things a
driver can do. Sean lost a chunk of tooth. He has road rash on his face
along with stitches in his forehead. I'm certain he's banged up all
over. His bike is destroyed. The CAT scan indicated his head's alright

but he's got to wait for an MRI on his right knee which got mangled up.

All because people are in such a hurry, and don't pay attention while
they're driving these multi-ton blocks of metal around.

Cars kill things, people. Keep that in mind when you're driving. It
doesn't matter if you're late or in a hurry or just like going fast.
Roads go everywhere which means they intersect with any creature just
trying to live a life. Slow down. Make some room.

I'm not sure if there's even a lesson to take from this besides all the
usual advice to be careful, etc. The only thing I can think of that
could possible be positive is if each person that reads this mentions
that a friend of theirs (or a friend of a friend) was in a terrible hit
and run accident and could have been killed while laying in the street.
All the guy had to do was stop, protect him from more injury and call
for help, but he lacked the common decency to do that.

It's not just cycling either, a woman in Montclair was killed by a car
while she was at her mailbox getting her mail. The guy left the scene.

Maybe a little peer pressure in the world against hit and runs would
help things. Couldn't hurt to go on the record with your friends and try.

And of course, keep it safe out there.

-Mike