Day 1 Sea 2 Shining Sea- San Fran - Petaluma

The past few days in San Fransisco have been really nice. The weather has been good. We've had a couple meetings and dinners to kick off the ride. We spent all day yesterday walking around the city. And last night watched the 75th Anniversiery of the Golden Gate Bridge fireworks.

But Today the real riding began. We left Fischersman's Wharf at about 8am to ride over the bridge into Sausolito and up to San Rafeal and finished in Petaluma with 53.4 miles. It was a great day on the bike. Here are a few photo.

Here in San Francisco

After a couple crazy days of non-rev travel I've make it to San Francisco. I flew from Philadelphia to Seattle on Wednesday and Seattle to Oakland on Thursday. Two of the three flights I had to sit forth and I even got bumped by an IOE out of Chicago. Go with the flow, I am off for the next 2 months and I won't see an airplane for just as long. Wow, no airplane for a whole 2 months? I've taken time off from work before but this is the first time in 14+ years with Southwest Airlines that I've been away for so long.

I got in after 11pm on Thursday night so I said a quick hi to Larry and went right to sleep. In the morning we had a nice continental breakfast at our home for the next few days Holiday Inn Fisherman's Wharf. Larry and I both have the idea that we are going to shed 10-20 pounds during our trip so we started today. No pastries for us.

At 9am we had our first meeting with the whole group; riders, interns and staff. The leader of the whole ride is Mike C. (we have something like 6 Mikes) He give a very inspiring introduction speech about what to expect from this ride. In a phrase, LIFE CHANGING. This is going to be so much more than just another bike ride. We are going to be a TEAM traveling across the country being greeted by small towns and big cities alike in the most patriotic ceremonies celebrating all five branches of service for their sacrifice and dedication.

After lunch, Larry and I finished setting up his new Co-Motion tandem and we went for a little 12 mile ride. ( be sure to follow my daily ride data at Strava.com) We rode to the Golden Gate Bridge for some photos. (EBS at the Golden Gate)

Thanks for reading, more later.

Computer stupid

I'm trying to figure out my new tablet and link it with my phone and laptop. Somehow I would like to share my music and photos between devices. At the same time I'm trying to figure out Netflix. I need to find a six year old to explain all of this to me. If anyone knows me at all, you know I'm not one to waste money or really to spend money on services like cable, internet, music or movies. I can't stand monthly fees. I guess that is why I still listen to the same music from twenty years ago.

Ride of Silence

Every year too many cyclist are killed by automobiles while doing what they love, just riding a bicycle. The Ride of Silence honors their memory. On the third Wednesday in May all over the world thousands of cyclist gather to ride in silence. Tonight 150 local riders rode with a police escort on a 6 mile course thru downtown Doylestown in complete silence. There were people out on their lawns, out walking in town and sitting outside eating dinner. They were very aware of the large group of cyclist riding by without saying a word. It was a very powerful experience to be a part of this ride. Please be careful out there.

S2SS ride schedule

To say that I'm intimated would be an understatement. It seems to start out easy enough with a gradual increase of miles but I see a 600 mile week across Kansas. Total is 3727 miles in 54 days of riding. Wow indeed.

Going to Aruba

It has been a great winter for lots of miles.  I'm getting 3-4 days of quality days in every week since before Xmas. Last week I got four out of five days in because of the wind. Now its time for a little break.

Going kite surfing in Aruba for 7days. It has been forever since I've gone a vacation without a bicycle. I've been flying kites for more than twenty years. We use to go body surfing with them long before kite surfing was even a sport. And ever since I've learned about it I've wanted to do it.

We are renting a house for the week for the sole purpose to learn to kite surf. I'm sure I'll get plenty of rest and recovery too. Just in time to get a few more days of riding in before my big ride.

Opentime and vacations

<p>It takes a bit of work from the village to get enough time off work to ride across the USA. I want to thank my friends for jumping into action to figure out my schedule. Jennifer trading me turns, Amy for trading vacations, Jill and Rebecca for being amazing with opentime. It is the small stuff that makes the big stuff seam easy. Thank you very much ladies!!

It's going to be a good year.

What a year this is going to be. All with in the last few weeks my summer plans has taking the most amazing turn for the best. The first week of May Jill and I are going to Aruba to go kiteboading, something I've always wanted to try. We will be there from the 1st-8th. This will be my first beach vacation in over ten years. I'm not one to just sit on the beach so kiteboarding is right up my alley. This trip will come at a perfect time after spending the past three months putting in some very good quality miles on the bike. I'm looking forward to the challenge of learning a new sport.

Speaking of challenge, the other big news of my summer came from a phone call only about a week ago. Larry Gunter, who I rode with at OTC in September, called to tell me he was given the oppuntity to ride across the country with World Team Sports for Wounded Warriors. He needed a tandem driver for the two month ride and wanted to invite me. --- HOLY CRAP!!! CAN I DO IT! DREAM OF A LIFTIME, I don't know if I can take the time away... WAIT A MINUTE, OF COURSE I CAN. YES!!! I CAN GO!! WOW!!!! --- now my mind is spinning, I have so much to get together to make this trip happen. The biggest is to rearrange my work schedules and call in some favors to get the time off.

The trip is Sea 2 Shining Sea 2012.   The final route has not been posted yet but it looks something like 4000 miles in 60 days with about 20 other cyclist. Starting in San Franciso on May 28th and ending in Virginia Beach on July 28th.

I'm going to post much more info about this trip and during this trip very soon.
Thanks for reading.

What winter?

Gotta love this weather yea! I've been super motivated to ride everyday I've been home this year. I've been getting four good days in a week. Even going out in the rain and sleet. Just pure fun. Over 540 miles in January, 300 miles in a short February and 700+ miles for March. I've never had this kind of mileage so early in the season. They have been mostly very good quality miles too. Now I just have to get in some faster miles, up the speed to race pace.

Still going strong

The riding has been good. The diet has been so so. I've been able to get out for three good days a week even with the cold rainy snowy weather. Can't beat a good 50 mile ride in the rain. And 40 miles in the snow. Just gonna make me stronger right?

I had been nursing a sore right hip for a couple weeks. Then I had a three hour massage that really did the trick.

A Good Start

As New Years Resolutions go I've been doing pretty good. I've managed to log in to my food diary I've meal since the beginning of the year. Not to say my diet has been great, but I am keeping a honest record.
If I am able to ride this much every week all year I will rack up over 6000 miles for the year. That is not including spring and fall centuries.
I'm going to yoga class every Monday and cello lessons every Tuesday.  Now all I have to do is get myself to start doing the Insanity videos on my overnights.

Happy New Year

Let the new times begin. Hoping for many changes this year. Good night.

Still riding

This time of year it's just about getting out and making the legs go around. The last few races I've felt my desire to go fast go right out the window. My race season is officially over. Now all I want to do is ride and watch the grass not grow. In the next couple of weeks I'm going to work on getting my basic all around fitness back. Try to eat right, do my insanity videos, keep on going to yoga classes and just ride for fun and conversation.

Need to stop the food sabatage

My least favorites thing to do is grocery shopping. I want to eat the right thing but I tend to walk around aimlessly until I just grab the worst things to eat. Then I eat it all in one sitting. Sad. And I consider myself an athletes.

Fighting the good fight

Well its been a long while since my last blog post. Now that I can post from my phone maybe I'll post more often. Right.
Anyway, cyclocross season is in full swing. Ed and I have raced the past three weekends. We have two more races left.  And of course I'm fighting a head cold and a few half nights of missed sleep. The good thing is I've had a pretty good week of riding this week. Now its time to try to sleep thru the night. 

Two months in review.

It has been a little over two months since my last blog post. Well that crash on May 8th produced in bit more injuries than first thought. My left wrist and hand were quite sore the next day, forcing me to miss work for a few days.
After being off the bike for a week, I tried to go for ride. No going. I could not grab the handle bars in the drops. I resorted to taping up my wrist and hand so I could race. Hated the thought of losing my fitness. I was only able to complete 3 laps at BIKEJAM. I was still happy with that. I did two races at Ride Sally Ride. Finished both with a taped wrist.
Hoping to not lose my hard earned fitness, I spent a few nights on the trainer indoors. YES, TRAINER RIDING IN JUNE!! that only lasted two weeks. I was able to race the track in both Seattle and Trexlertown. Short efforts have been ok with a taped wrist. Long rides hurt. I've been getting out on the road some. Spent a week riding hills in Utah.
After the first week I went to the doctor for an Xray. It came back negative. Two weeks later I went to see a hand surgeon. The MRI came back saying I have a broken bone in my hand. It is called ' the hook of the hamet bone'. So the best way to fix it is to remove it. There is no blood supply for it to heal on its own. Surgery is the answer.
I was going to get the surgery done last Friday but my schedule just didn't work out. Now I am going to wait til August so I can race Superweek. :) a week of racing is always more fun than surgery. Off to Milwaukee I go.

Oh well, Not Again !!

Well here is the story. Fort Ritchey Criterium today is Cascade, Maryland. I raced two races. First the category 3/4 35+. I got 11th place. Still can't get in the right position for the final sprint.That is not the story.

Second race was category 4. The wind was blowing. The field was nearly full and the course fast and fun. Ted and I were racing together like usual. He wanted to ride with me so we could stay out of the wind. Early in the race I was up front and I could not see Ted. So I went to the back to find Ted. He said the braking in the corners was preventing him from getting to the front. I said follow me, lets get up there now. With in a couple laps we were right where we wanted to be. Now just holding our position waiting for the laps to count down was are goal.

The wind was blowing us all all over the place. Two guys bumped shoulders on the back straight and began to crash. I was sitting a rider back and a bit to the left. The crash began to swing my way. I thought I was save when a bike shot to the left and a handlebar hooked my front wheel. I was braking at the time so I went down very softly. Just really stepped off the bike. There were 7-8 riders on the ground. One pretty hurt holding his shoulder, not good. Another kid asking if he was bleeding over and over again. He had a cut on his chin.It was kind of funny. He asked if his tooth was chipped? It was a little. He started yelling that his parents were going to kill him. It was really kind of funny. Ted was under a another riders bike not hurt at all. He had to slam on his brakes and endoed into the back of the crash.

Both of our front wheels were out of true. We went to the pit for our free lap. I had my wheels in a bag on a hill in the pit. I changed my wheel and waited for the official to tell us when to go. The group came by and we sprint to get in the group. Ted took off and got right in. I couldn't get my right cleat to clip in. I tried a few more times. I reached down and pulled a handful of dirt off the bottom of my shoe. Crap they are getting away.I pedaled some to not get dropped. I tried my cleat again, nothing. I put in a couple of hard pedal strokes so I could get closer to the group. BAM !! I'm on the the ground sliding. My foot slipped off the pedal and I crashed by myself at 25mph. It hit my head real hard too. Helmet cracked into two pieces. Sunglasses lenses came out. Shorts and jersey torn. Even my socks were torn. DAM, I CRASHED TWICE IN ONE LAP!!

Other than the loss of skin, I am fine. I'm sure tomorrow may be a different story. But I will be ready for battle again next week.

Testing testing

Crazy Group Ride

When will training rides learn not to piss off the locals? As many know, I've been riding most of my life. I love to ride fast in large groups of people. I've ridden in many group rides all over the country. Some faster then others, some larger then others and some saver then others. A couple days ago I rode in the craziest group ride ever.

Course description- 3 mile loop on mostly rural roads. Starts at Laserdome in Manheim Pa. It is an all right turn course going clockwise of course. The first right is on to Esbenshade Rd. This is a fairly busy road with a slight downhill. Right on to Rohrer Rd which is rural with a steady cross wind from from the right. Straight on to Erisman Rd at a stop sign. HA,ha! Then right on to Auction Rd.to the finish line at Red Rose Radio.

Ever since I moved to Shrewsbury, I've been looking for a good fast local training ride. I was told about this ride by a coworker who lives in Lancaster. I've been wanting to do this ride for a couple of years. On Wednesday I worked with Bob and he took me this ride was that night. Great I'll do it. I called Keith and he met us there. Bob and I arrived early enough to ride the course once. He warned me about the first corner because he said this ride is fast and they tend to roll right throw the stop sign on to Esbenshade Rd.and there is no shoulder. He even warned me about their disregard for the yellow line. Wow, little did I know.

The ride starts out fast from the beginning. Kind of double line down Esbenshade. On to Rohrer and the pace really picked up. I move up toward the front to protect myself from accelerations. Coming past the finish line the first time I get a tap on my right hip by a rider wanting to come by. At that time I was coming around two riders who were slowing down a bit. This kid who taps me comes flying up the right. I look over and say 'where are you going?', because there is no where to go. As we are entering Esbenshade, I let off the gas a bit to look left for traffic and then jam right back into line. He kid rides past me a calls me an asshole. Puzzled, I ride up to him and ask 'what the heck is his problem is'. He yells at me for opening a gap. I'm like 'dude it is a training ride, relax!'. So, now I'm thinking hmmm.. that was weird. I don't get yelled at often in rides. Oh well, just settle in and ride. We turn on to Rohrer and the whole group goes to the left side of the road. Remember this is a two lane road that is open to traffic. Holy cow this is getting crazy. What if someone wants to pass us from behind. Holy crap what if someone is coming toward us. Someone yells 'car back' and a car passes clearly pissed off. This is really crazy!

It is really fast and I get popped a bit. I drop off the back of the big group. I guess I will sit a lap out and try to get back in when they come back around. Little did I know, there is another group coming by. A B group. Cool! I will just ride with them. I am just looking for a good hard workout anyway. Any group will do. It is about 30 riders strong. Clearly not as strong and clearly more entry level riders. No problem, I will just pull more and work harder. Again we turn on to Rohrer and the whole group goes to the left side of the road. I stay on the right of the yellow line and power into the wind. Yes, I am working much harder but I really don't want to get killed.

As we come around for another lap we see the A group in front of us. Weird? Why are we catching the A's? Ah, must have been a crash. Figures. As it turns out, when they were going down Esbenshade about to turn on to Rohrer, of course from the left lane taken up both lanes, a pickup truck goes into the grass and passes everyone on their right. Now that is truly CRAZY!!! Guys said the guy got airborne when he went off road. They thought someone was going to get killed. Luckily no one got hit.

After the ride we were talking about the pickup truck, someone asked if they called the police to report the driver. Their response was no because they might close down this ride. Hell this ride needs to be closed down until these riders can learn to obey the laws of the road and not take such entitlement to think they own the road. Someone is going to get killed.

With all the disobedience for the general rules of the road it is no wonder the locals hate cyclist. Training rides are not races. The course is not closed. The yellow line should never be crossed, even when there is not a yellow line. Crossing the yellow line is CRAZY !!!!!!!!

Sometimes work gets in the way of life. Then again, sometimes you can work in a little life into work.

The last day of the month and the first three days of the month I have the opportunity to earn time and a half at work. It is a great thing but that usually means working over the weekend once every month. In the winter that is no big deal. But in the spring and summer I do my best not to miss riding and racing during the weekends. This spring I went on a little spending spree in celebration of getting in racing shape. I bought two pairs of race wheels to go with my new race bike. Ouch. So I really like making time and a half when I can.

This week I was scheduled to work Friday-Sunday and Monday-Wednesday. Bunny Hop Criterium was on Sunday at 3pm. I was able to arrange my trip to get back to BWI at 12:30pm. That would be pushing it but doable to get to the parking lot, drive to the race, register and get to the start line in time, I tried to get rid of the PVD turn to make it easier on myself. It would cost me a couple hours of pay but it would make my life a lot less stressful. No one wanted to work my little turn :( Then Jill offered to save the day. She worked my turn for me :). It is so nice to have friends. Thanks Jill!

I got to the race with plenty of time to watch a few races and even warm up a little. It was a very hot day so I didn't want to warm up too much in fear of over heating. I raced the category 4 race. I've raced Bunny Hop for the past 5 or so years with mixed results. It is a very easy course but it can be fast and one year I blow a tire and left half of my ass in the second corner. I felt great right from the start. Able to move up and back thru the group of a hundred riders at will. I stayed in the top twenty or so watching the breaks go and come back. With 17 laps to go the bell rang for a two place prime. I just sat back not really thinking of going for it until we rounded the last corner and I carried my speed into a half hearted jump that got me second place in the sprint. Nice an easy $10.00 gift certificate for a burrito. I drifted back into the pack now waiting for the final sprint. I thought I was going to be in a good spot for the finish but the guy leading me thru the final corner slowed down just enough to to keep me from really getting on top of my gear. I finished 10th.

Happy with my result and still feeling good, I decided to race the category 35+ race too. I had to register and change numbers fast. I have not raced a 35+ race in a couple years because I've had too much trouble hanging on to their speed. Not a problem now. :) I only planned on hanging in just to get some more fast miles. I found myself moving through the group with ease. It was faster for sure. As the laps ticked away I realized I was going to finish this race. And I could even try sprinting with this guys. I rolled up to Mike and asked if he would lead me out. With two laps to go the pace of course really picked up. I felt a little twinge in my right calf. Coming into the last corner before the final lap my calf cramped hard, locking up my leg. Race over. Rats. I almost made it. The heat got to me. The miles got to me. The speed got to me. All in all I am very happy with both of my races.

Now that is the best way to spend the hours between VGA trips.