I'm Le Tired.......

That is what I got from bossman as we said our good byes yesterday.  It was a good week that had us riding our bikes all over the place and finishing with a climb up Mt Diablo.  Unfortunately I am bad luck to his bike cause he breaks it every time he rides up it with me.  This time it was spokes.  The weirdest thing is we removed the one that broke and while we were standing there another let loose!  We then decided that a 50 mph descent was not in the cards with a failing wheel and the fact it was rubbing the frame so we called for a ride.  Suck.  After the work to get up there we would not get the gratification of flying down the mountain.  Next time!  So with bossman tired:

And cold

I traded him in for a new training model!  Better looking too! 

So yesterday Michelle and I rolled out of the Mill Valley Inn, through the E Wok village where we ran into a young MTB friend then up Panoramic.  That is where Michelle put the hammer down on the new Tarmac SL4:  Here she is working on the catch:

So that is Phil ahead.  A really nice guy we met yesterday that has a place in San Fran and Stinson and rides between the 2 on the weekend.  An ex Irish rugby player and a pleasure to wag the jaw with as they say! 

So after the descent into Stinson we wrapped around to Muir Woods, then up and over to Mill Valley again.  Another good day on the bike!  We then finished off the day with a feast at Bungalow 44!  All I have to say is yum! 

So today she wants to hit the Mt Tam hill climb course to see how much better she is going than last year.  After 28 hrs last week, I am not sure I am as excited about that as she is, but as Sarah says, "suck it up buttercup"! 

The "A" Day

Today was awesome! Not only did the weather warm up into the 70s again, we rode our bikes ALL day again, we stopped again for pastries, but I had that no chain type of day as well. 

So the entire day started out with a bit of excitement though!  Still not sure what exactly was going on, but every morning I walk from the house down to Fairfax for coffee.  Takes about 45 minutes round trip but it gives bossman the time to wake up some before dealing with me doing mach 2 in the morning.  Anyway, on my way back this morning the San Jose SWAT team was raiding a house not a block down the road.  I must admit I was a bit nervous to walk by armed only with 2 lattes while everyone else was packing heat and wearing a bullet proof vest!  I need to surf the news some to see if I can figure out what was happening!

The other excitement of the morning was trying to finish bossman's bike up.  Earlier in the week he broke a shift lever return spring and bought a new set while his old set was being warrantied.  I will admit that I do not have a lot of experience with Campy, but this one took us for a ride.  We could not get the shift cable to route through the lever, it is supposed to feed straight up but it hit the lever body every time we tried. After a couple hours of cussing at it in Italian and using the "Poke and Hope" method we finally got lucky!  Good thing cause with the weather I was not interested in heading back to the bike shop to waste the morning. 

So now onto the ride!  Today we did the tried and true Marshall Loop, which is the same loop that Phillips, Bossman, and I beat the hell out of each other on last year till I finally called uncle.  This year no Phillips so bossman was in for some pacing.  The conditions were perfect for that with a nice tailwind, which meant the Bovine Bakery stop would come sooner!  Yum!  Here is a shot before the 50 mph plunge into Marshall.  Was working on my Tarmac ad:

So after a refill at the bakery, chocolate croissant to be exact, we were off again! We rolled south on 1 with the tailwind still puching us along.  We hit Bo-Fax road and decided to continue into Stinson Beach so that we could come down the Sisters and into Farifax.  This means we can skip the town riding which I am not a huge fan of.  We maybe shoul dof turned cause that stretch had bossman get stung by a bee and then some DB in an AT&T service truck try running us over?  It is always the smart ones, who has the idea of trying ot hit people in their company branded vehicle.  We caught him in Stinson and decided not to ruin the ride by arguing with someone with an IQ of less than the fence post in the above photo!

We rolled up Mt Tam again at a nice tempo pace and met up at the Rock Springs parking at the top, here is a view of the city on the way up:

We then rolled down the sisters were we met up with Wile E Coyote:

By the end of the day we were both pretty tanked and just rolled into the Fairfix for our Espresso Milk Shake fix.  All in all was 5 hrs in the saddle, 75 miles, 3200KJ, and 7000ft of climbing.  Here is a shot of our route: 



Just keep spinning

So today was a bit of an off day.  Which was OK since yesterday we hit it pretty good, at least for 38 minutes of the 5 hr ride.  That is what it took to get up Tam from the bottom near Stinson Beach. Nothing too crazy but a good bout with SST(Super Shitty Training).   The rest of the day was more of an easy spin around.  Was kind of cool though cause the fog was rolling in over the hill and flooding out San Fran.  We rode in the sun almost the entire day though.  Here is what it looked like on Paradise Loop. 

Toady's weather was even better with no fog in the morning so it allowed the temps to creep up and maybe even into the 70s for the day.  Here is the same view without the fog:

So today turned into another 4 hrs on the bike at an easy pace with stops at bike shops, lunch and pastries.  Kind of hard to keep entertained on the bike for that long though when you are not suffering.  The only thing that seemed to work was laying down the best skids!  Sweet. 

I also saw my best riding partner today.  He never complains, always rides my pace, and rides the same sweet Specialized Sworks Tarmac I do!  Thanks for the ride! Yep those are bare legs in the pic!

Tempotantrum

No time for pics yesterday!  Bossman got a couple but his view did not change much for most of the day.  He was having a bit of a down day and I had a good day so I drug him the reverse way around the Marshall loop.  At least reverse of what we usually do it.  It worked out well though cause we rocketed into our usual Bovine Bakery stop in 1.5 hrs.  So fast, that I broke all rules and did not get anything at a bakery!  Shame on me!  So the entire day was done at basically a tempo with some SST up the hills.  All in all 6500 ft of climbing and 4.5 hrs on the bike.  We did finish the day right though, once with a Fairfix espresso milk shake and then a Picasso pizza, appropriately named the Specialized.  It was so good that it was definitely the Sworks version!  Also I washed it down with a Lagunitas Maximus IPA. Yum, Phillips would be proud. 

Today is going to be fun!  We are going to roll out through the ewok village and up to 4 corners.  Then down through Muir woods, follow Hwy 1 to Stinson Beach, then Stinson Beach to the top of Tam.  Form there it will be decided on how cooked the legs are after 4 days of riding. 

On another note, changed flights today!  Michelle is going to come out and try her new bike for a few days! Yippie!

Day 2 in pic

Alien Race

Yesterday I made it into Marin and was able to get the bike put together and bossman and I made it around the dam loop.  Was a good way to to shake the legs and catch up with bossman.  I felt out of place on the road bike for a while though.  Handles so much quicker the the studded tire, bar mitted, cross bike.  Luckily I did not wrap it around a guardrail on our first 40mph descent down to Mill Valley.  Here is our route, it looks like we didn't make it home but it is cause we did the norm and stopped for an espresso milk shake at the Fairfix!

So now onto the alien race!  We rented this house in Fairfax and it came with a live in furry criter!  All is good with that, we have one ourselves.  Makes noise when it walks, noise when it moves, noise when its hungry, noise when its thirsty, blah, blah, blah.  This one is different though! We are in the middle of Cali and I cannot believe we have zero cell coverage.  I actually love that though cause it is really quiet!  For the cell coverage though I think this furry critter was put here from a lost planet and is transmitting everything back to the mother ship.  Little do they know they do not want to ever know what I am thinking!!  Look at this thing, I fear him! Those ears are antenna for sure and its head spins around to give me dirty looks! 

Either way the riding is great and I am hoping that today brings a bakery stop!! 

Puddle Jumper

So the last week has been fun.  It started out with a nice training block that almost had me requiring a walker to get on the airplane!  The one week was worth about 80 lattes, mmmmmm.  Not sure if anyone could handle me if I downed that much!  Then I boarded an airplane for Jersey to do an install at my sisters house.  I am so glad that Jasen went with me cause we worked 15 hr days and still barely finished the project up.  We got everything done, but no time for really shaking things down so lets hope we didn't miss anything.  We did board the plane looking at each other and thinking, what just happened?  We ran a little over 3000ft of wire through the wall, cut in 6 speakers zones, hung a 64" TV, programmed 6 keypads, and a URC remote all in 3 days.  Not bad.  I was so sore from climbing stairs and ladders that I really wish I had a day off upon my return, but it was right back to the bike grind on Monday. 

Besides the bike, we also lost a hot tub pump this week and converted the pool to a salt water pool.  Also what are people doing with our locker keys and towels, eating them?  I keep looking around the club to see if someone is playing a joke and they are hidden.  One time I will open a cabinet and find thousands of keys stuffed away!

On Tuesday, Scott was off and my legs were sore so we went out together to keep me honest.  It was definitely needed, cause I was ready to turn around and find the nearest couch!  The weather didn't help either, freezing rain topped with about an inch of snow.  We rode north of town and hit roads that I am still not sure were roads??  Either way we got 4 hrs of 2 wheels drifts, laughs, where the hell are we, and a nice meal at Bistro 212 once finished!  Oh yeah, and a latte. 

Then yesterday I had another long day as I started to pack for Cali and did a 5 hr ride on top of it.  Oh wait, I am gonna be riding my neglected road bike I have not touched since October, better re cable it and put some new tires on it too before boxing it up.  I finally finished up last night at a about midnight but I am set to go.  I also packed all my rain gear and it looks like it worked cause the forecast is for sun and 70 next week out there!  Might get a chance to start working on the pro lines??  That would be sweet! 

So back to the ride yesterday, it was nice here for February and I decided to continue the weekly trend and find some new roads.  It worked out pretty good with only a couple of stops to check the Garmin.  The funny thing about it is I did a 5 hr ride with only 1000ft elevation change?  That is about to change!  Mt Tam here I come!  Yesterdays route:

No rehab required

Or maybe I have not hit step one and cannot admit I have an issue.  I have heard this cycling thing explained many ways over the years; Living the dream, its my 2nd job, etc but Pete puts it best when I talk to him as he tells me I have an addiction!  Oh boy, I think he is right!!  I just keep riding and I love almost every minute of it.  This year has been much easier than in past winters though with the weather.  Seems that all my nasty grams to mother nature are paying off??  Doubt it but here is to wishful thinking! 

Even if the weather is temporary, I have definitely been taking advantage of it and have been putting some mile on the bike.  The scenery has even been changing with a nice trip to Chicago this past weekend where we hung out with Mikey and the two of us got out on a nice ride in the area.  I was actually surprised at how good the ride was.  Guess I had expectations of just riding the Lake Shore bike path so when we actually where out on some good roads I was more than happy.  We also re hydrated that night doing what we now best, drinking beer and having fun!!  Maybe too much fun! 

Then on Sunday, the Braun's hosted everyone for a group ride before the little one arrives!  We are all crossing our fingers hoping that not too many of Big D's traits get passed on!!  Just kidding:)  So ten of us cruised around the Waukesha area on Sunday for a few hours before eating all the food that Nikki, Lynn, and Laura had preparred for us!  What a great weekend!  Nest up is a trip to the east coast then followed right up with a trip to the west coast. 

For those interested in the routes:

Saturday:

Sunday: