Week 27 7/12 - 7/18

Work commute - 42.41 miles

Healdsburg Harvest Century - 60 miles

102.41 miles - 14th goal met

This week's big ride was the Healdsburg Harvest Century, a fun little ride sponsored by the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce. The first year I did this ride was 4 (?) years ago, the last year the Sierra Century was held in Amador County, the year they had a rider fatality. I had come upon the dead rider soon after his accident, too soon, it was really kind of traumatizing, I was new to riding, didn't know if the down rider was one of my friends (thank god it was not), and I decided when I got home I need a fun, fluffy ride. Barry Marcus decided to come ride with me that year, I had a great time. He "took it easy" and stayed with me the whole way, it was a perfect remedy to the mess of the previous Sierra Century.

This year there was no tragedy prefacing the Harvest Century, just anticipation to a fun and pretty ride. We wind our way through wine country, thru the back roads. I left Sacramento at 5 am, the temps were already hovering around 75 degrees, the day in the valley was going to be a scorcher. But once I dropped into Vallejo and took off over Hwy 37, a marine layer had dropped the temps by at least 25 degrees. Healdsburg was cool, a wind breaker felt good, no wind, perfect riding conditions.

I hit the road around 8 am, feeling pretty good, well rested, really looking forward to the day. Everything is going as well as it can, until I hit a slight down hill and tried to shift back to my big ring and dropped my chain. Stop, put it back on, continue on, hit another hill, need to shift down to the small ring, drop my chain again. Again, I put it back on, finish the hill, do the downhill on my small ring, hit the flats, shift to my big ring, and.drop.my.chain...again. Stopped, put it on, again, and decided this time I am leaving it. Out of a 60 mile ride, I rode about 50 miles on my big ring. For you hard core riders that can climb this would be no big deal, for me, my quads were talking to me by the time I returned to my car! A good thing really, it has been a while since I have really felt a ride afterwards, good wake up to the fact that I need to push harder.

Still, the bike goes in the shop this week, I am definitely getting a new chain, and I think I am going to treat myself to new shifters and a derailleur. Need to be set up for Shasta, there is absolutely no way in hell I am doing those climbs on my big ring!

All in all, a beautiful day, a beautiful ride. The dinner provided by the Chamber is excellent, a fresh veggie pizza, black bean/corn salad, bow-tie pasta salad, a red potato/green bean dish that was awesome, fruit, and a cornucopia of other side dishes.

The only blight on the day was the drive home, Hwy 101 is a mess at the best of times, if there is a fender bender? Took me an hour to cover 8 miles...

Week 26 7/5 - 7/11

No goal this week, in fact no riding unless I ride in to work tomorrow (Saturday). Yes, I am working on Saturday, trying to get my staff ahead of the workload curve. I am taking a week off starting 7/15, I need to know they won't be buried while I am gone. Didn't sleep well all week so I didn't push through the fatigue and make myself ride anyway. I am such a slug, that is a picture of me above, being a slug. I thought I was going to get a good nights sleep on Thursday, fell pretty hard and fast, but sometime in the middle of the night Joey went ape-shit crazy and scared the bejesus out me. She was barking so hard it reverberated off the walls. I woke up from a dead sleep, straight up in bed, heart pounding, certain there had to be some one in the house, there was no other reason she would be going this crazy, she has never acted like this before, just nuts. I sat there for a moment, finally figured out no one was in the house, something outside is setting her off. Got up, turned all the outside lights, could see nothing, and Joey by now has calmed down a bit. Whatever ugga-bugga (probably a raccoon) was out there had moved on. And I am now wide awake and exhausted. Whoo-hoo. So I pick up the Straub book I am re-visiting (I love Peter Straub) and spend the next couple of hours waiting to sleep again.

So here I am on Friday night, waiting for the bar-b-que to be ready for dinner - corn on the cob, baby potatoes, turkey burger - a pretty nice pinot in the glass, hoping I can sleep tonight. If Joey goes off again I may just jump out of my skin!

Hope next week is more productive.

Week 25 6/28/2010 - 7/4/2010

“Liberty is the right to choose. Freedom is the result of the right choice.” - Unknown

6/30 work commute - 34.12

7/2 work commute - 34.12

7/4 4th of July Scavenger Hunt - 7.53

Beale's Point - 25.20

100.97 miles - goal #13

Goal was met this week, but the eaaasssyy way. Couple of rides into work, Scott's awesome 4th of July Scavenger Hunt and a run up to Beale's Pt.

I rode into work on both Wed and Fri this week, nice easy cruise in and back. I especially like the ride in the morning this time of year, the wildlife out and about is amazing. Deer browsing along the side of the trail, baby turklets and their moms scurrying about, jackrabbits, squirrels, water birds, they are all going about their business.

The cruise up to Beale's Pt this afternoon was good too. Once I got pass the water access points where all the rafters were congregating the trail was deserted, I pretty much had it to my self. Even the zoo that is Beale's Pt was not too hard to navigate. Baby Quail have to be the cutest baby bird around. Tiny little fluffs of feathers scurrying around after mom and dad on the side of the trail, so sweet...you could just eat them up! Haha.

Have you ever noticed that the only people willing to get naked in public are those you really don't want to see naked anywhere, in public or in private?

The hi-lite of the week's riding had to be Scott's 4th of July Scavenger Hunt this morning. Every year on or near the 4th he organizes a fun ride for us, and it is always a blast. We have clues to find, have to take pictures of them and get back within a certain amount of time, all has to be done while moving around on our bikes. Absolutely awesome fun. I was paired up with Barry and Debbah, which is a good thing, they are very clever and make up for my slack of imagination. We found a good number of clues, but yet once again my team arrived back late, by 1 minute. We were penalized points, Scoot is a hard task master. As good as our takes were, Jean, Di and Kristen were the winners by several photos, a well deserved victory for them.

Once every one returned, we started the potluck, which was very heavy on the sweets and light on the savory, but delicious all the way around. I probably should have done a little more than 25 miles this afternoon, I certainly had enough sugar high to burn.

After the potluck, we enjoyed the slide show Scott put together of everyone's pics, some very imaginative imaging of clues. I know some smart people, how the heck did that happen?