Summer Solstice Century

Thanks to a few friends who accompanied me, I did my first imperial century yesterday - in fact the total was 103 miles (167 km). We had one of the best days you could ask for to do it - sunny, not too hot though, low winds, quiet roads. Wow! Being the longest day of the year, it seemed fitting to do my longest ride thus far in my cycling life. I was thinking that we might want to make it the first annual, however the date doesn't fall on the weekend every year. Maybe we'll all have to take a vacation day if it falls on a weekday? ;) Sometimes life seems to revolve around the bike. I don't mind though - there are worse things. So I've just been resting and recovering. Need to stretch more. The only real sore spots are the usual ones that I get once I clock more than 100 km on the bike: the shoulders and neck. I wish I had unlimited massage benefits. Mine are already run out. Sigh.

New Tunes for Now

I added most of the new CP ablum (just came out today) in a new playlist there on the right today so you can listen to it for a while. I LOVE IT!!! Hope you do too! I've seen them live a few times and they always make it worth the time and money. I love brit pop rock. We can thank my folks for bringing me up on the Beatles.

A few SF Photos

Happy to be home... thought I'd share some snaps that I liked from my trip. I also got into this Buddhabar music on the flight home - man, those new entertainment systems that they've installed on the airplanes now are so cool!!!

Golden Gate, Chinatown, and Cable Cars

Holy crow! My quads certainly made use of the strength training I did in the off-season today! More riding. This time I went downtown to the financial district, onto the Embarcadero (where all the piers begin) and took the bike lane down into the Fisherman's Wharf area, then on to Crissy Field, and up to the Golden Gate bridge, where I proceeded to ride across. It's a bit challenging, what with all of the pedestrian and inexperienced cyclist traffic, but I just reminded myself that I was on a leisurely ride and would want to stop for photo-ops anyway. No rush. That's exactly what I did. It was fun. I wasn't up for a long ride today, as I'd hoped to do. My legs maybe could have done it (not sure though, as the hills are pretty big on the other side of the bridge and I didn't have the right gears to do really hard hills), but my head wasn't in it. Nor was my saddle area. Should have brought my own saddle. Won't make that mistake again. Frankly, now that I've got a bike box, I likely won't travel without my own bike if I can help it again. One thing I learned with all of the steep hills here is that you really can't be truly confident riding someone else's bike. I made the best of it though and really did get some good exercise. Woke the body up from it's conference sleep, and I saw a lot of nice stuff that you don't see if you aren't on a bike.

After returning the bike I cabbed it back to the hotel so I could shower, change, and do some other interesting things. First thing I did was to walk down the street about 3 blocks away - Grant Street: Chinatown. It's the largest Chinatown in the world I think. I just happened upon a tea shop I'd found on-line before I left and was SO excited!!! Picked up some totally amazing stuff there. They were so helpful and professional. I got to taste some teas that I was looking at before buying them. Super fun!

On the other side of Chinatown is North Beach - little Italy. I hadn't really eaten much all day (another reason the long ride did not work out) and I seemed to have mindlessly wandered into a little place called Caffe Greco. I'm posting all of these links because these are places I would go back to and would recommend, so take note. :) I had a veggie panini and it hit the spot and didn't hurt the wallet. The guys there were really sweet. Well, as I said, everyone seems to be pretty darn sweet to me here. At any rate, I really stumbled upon a nice spot - the locals were all hangin' out here and stopping in for coffee and tiramisu.

After leaving there I decided I was close enough to walk to the crookedest street in the US (although this fact seems to be doubtful): Lombard Street. Not sure if this is correct either (and unfortunately I didn't take my garmin with me), but apparently it's a 27% grade. I climbed not only the street itself, but the almost as steep road to get to it (if it's 27%, then I'd hazard a guess that the road I had to walk 3 blocks up to get to it was between 20-25%). Once at the top I hopped on the Hyde-Powell cable car and took my first San Francisco cable car ride. I took a bunch of photos so I'll torture you with them later. That was fun. And again, all the people on the cable car were super nice and this other tourist showed me where to take a good shot of the people hanging off our car. When I got off the cable car at my stop I thanked the back end driver (there are two guys on the car - seems the one at the back is in charge of the back brakes - I asked him) and I hopped off and they all waved goodbye to me as they started to roll again.

Riding SF, etc.

Another crazy warm, beautiful day in SF. I wore sunscreen today. :) A bit of a rush this morning: up, shower, pancake breakfast (in anticipation of my bike ride today), packed up and reorganized, hopped into a cab, moved over to my accommodations for this evening and tomorrow. Super lucky: my room was ready! Got settled, changed into my cycling gear, reorganized again. Sheesh! Met Pip, the resident greeter here at the inn. Hopped into a cab to get to the bike rental shop. Picked up my bike. On my way. One of the pedals wasn't working and I couldn't get clipped in - not to mention that I took my mtb shoes so I could get off and walk around more easily, plus for some reason I didn't want to take my good shoes just in case. Who knows why I got that idea in my head, but whatever. At any rate, I think it's been 3 years since I last used those shoes and cleat system so I was rusty at finding where the cleat is to clip in AND the pedal wasn't working. Turned around, back to the shop. New pedals. On my way again. The ride could have been better if: I didn't feel like a sack of potatoes for the first hour (due to a lack of real physical activity for the past several days), and if I'd eaten more - I forgot/didn't have time/was too rushed to eat lunch. Scarfed down a luna bar but the hills were too challenging for an empty stomach. I needed food. Got lost many, many times, but once on Chestnut Street I found an abundance of little spots to grab something and ate a pita - at nearly 3:30 PM! Found my way back to the route. Rode it for a while. Was actually on track but then decided to cut it short at that point. Over 2 hours already and wanted to get back and shower and I had a couple of things I wanted to do before stores closed, etc, etc.

Tonight I went down to a bike shop that was supposed to sell Sheila Moon wear but I found they didn't. They had a lot of cool bikes though. I chatted with the guy there and he told me a route across the bridge that he said is way nicer than what I was going to do tomorrow. So if I can manage not to get myself lost again I'll try it out.

The people here are super nice. All the cabbies chat with you. And on the road other cyclists on the OTHER side of the road yell hi at me. ??? This happened several times. And I'm not riding the Colnago (I left her at home), so it can't be that. I'm just riding the plain old Giant rental. It's actually a decent bike, but I hope I don't regret not bringing my own saddle. Wasn't the most comfortable. Anyway... back to the cabbies. So in one of the cabs today the guy pointed out these two ladies walking up the road together wearing matching outfits with big, bright pink hats. He told me: "Those are the twins. I didn't know they were still alive." So I asked him about them. He said they are famous, so I googled them when I got back tonight. Here you go: Brown Twins. I saw them! Cool eh?? Too bad I was in a cab - could've taken their photo.

The Rock

Ahhh. Finally got some down time and started to see the city. This afternoon two of my colleagues and I went to Alcatraz. That was pretty cool. Did the audio tour thing. Learned quite a bit about it. It was first built as a military fort. It was a federal penitentiary from 1934-1963. Then in 1969 several Native American tribes occupied the island. I'm not totally sure of the whole history behind that, nor how long they stayed there. At any rate, today it's designated as a National Park. We learned about the couple of different prison escape attempts. I guess there were a few that actually did escape at one time and to this day nobody knows what happened - if they drowned or really got away. I took a bunch of photos and will post some when I get home.

It's really warm here - quite above normal. When we went out to the Rock today I hadn't thought to put sunscreen on, so guess who's a bit sunburned? It's so silly - I've got a pretty decent base with the cycling over the past 2 months, and yet, a few hours without sunscreen and my fair skin turns red. Geez! I did bring the stuff, so tomorrow when I go out on the bike I will most certainly be lathering myself in it. Well, trying my best to stay on EST, so I gotta hit the hay! More touring tomorrow. Can't wait to do it on two wheels. This body doesn't like walking so much - it hurts (feet, hip, knee - ouch!).

Conference Stuff

Conferences are funny, in that there can be lots of neat things going on in the exhibit hall. I'm not a big fan of the exhibit hall, actually. In March when I was in Chicago I mostly avoided it, but sometimes I get drawn in. Last fall at the CCS congress at one booth they had hired some guys who were trying to sell a medical device that measured your arterial resistance and with that information they were estimating your "arterial age" - i.e. how stiff are your arteries, further i.e. how healthy are you? I was 26 years old. :) I'm not chronologically 26, so of course I was happy. I told the guy I'd see him next year, when I'd be 25. Ha-ha!! Today I decided, after attending a lecture given by the president of the ADA, to go to one of the many booths that were measuring HbA1c. Unless you are diabetic, or suspected to be at risk for it, this is not a routine test, so I've never had it done before. Also, I should say that at the booth they are obviously not drawing blood and doing a typical test - this was a prick of my finger and a 5 minute analysis in a machine so it won't be quite as accurate, but it's fun nonetheless. Mine was 5.0% - bang on healthy-normal (just to give you an idea - the physicians I know have a hard time getting their diabetic patients' A1c down to 7%). I love the analytical tests at these things. I'm such a Science nerd sometimes.

Anyway... I've had a chance to see a bit more of SF. The weather here so far has been fantastic, although I think we're riding on that heat wave most of the rest of the continent is enjoying (or not?). I miss my bike though. I'm looking forward to later in the week when the congress is over and I can go out on a rental. :) More later...

The City By The Bay

Good morning! I've been up for a little bit here trying to figure out what I'm going to do in the wee hours - it's only 7 AM on the west coast here. I'm in San Francisco! This is my first visit to SF. So far what I've seen is very beautiful. It's a very clean city. I saw the street cleaner going by just a few minutes ago. Most of the city buses run on electric cables and there are lots of street cars. Yes, I saw - and heard - the SF cable car from the TV commercials of our youth. In fact, my room looks out on one of the lines and when I got up this morning I opened my doors and looked out to see one going by. I'm staying at a really swank place right down on the water in a part of the city called The Embarcadero. Driving in from the airport, you can really see how the city is all hills and housing developments are all built into the hills. The buildings downtown here are very nice. I haven't seen much yet. The vast majority of my day yesterday was spent on the airplane and when I got here I was fried. I am here for a conference too, so I won't be out touring around quite yet, I have work to do. But I've taken a couple of days for myself before I leave so I can get acquainted with the place. For now I'm going to go work out at the gym, get some breakfast and head to the convention.

Slacker...

Sorry for not posting in a little while! Just a little busy. However, tune in over the weekend and into next week and I hope to have some good stuff for you on my travels.

For now I've been keepin' it in the big ring and trying to balance work with the bike.

Friends who inspire

Well, as you can see I have gotten back in the saddle. I realize that I need to take it slowly though - I'm still recovering. Guess it will take a while. Seems when you crack your helmet you've kind of hit your head pretty damn hard and well - I think I didn't really realize most of last week just how injured I was. I'm good now though. :)

The main reason for the post though, is to celebrate my friend Sandra's first marathon! It was National Capital Race weekend and I went out to cheer her on. They started this new cool thing for the first time where if the registrant gave them cell phone numbers, the system would send an automated text message to those numbers when your chip is read at certain markers: 10K, 20K, 30K, and the finish. So I received my first text at 8 AM-ish when she reached the 10K mark and it told me her start time, her time at the 10K mark, her pace, and the split. That was so totally cool. I live off the route so I got to go out twice: around the 25K mark, and then at the 40.5-41K mark. She looked great at the end and even said my name as I yelled at her. It was fun and I got some good shots of her. I'll just post one where there are many other people in it though. :) Way to go Sandra!!!! I know I could never run 1K, let alone 42! I personally think that riding 100 km is easier than running a marathon, so my hat is off to her!

Rubber Side Down

First ride in a whole week this afternoon. I'm glad I waited. I could feel all the vibrations of the road in my road rash - it hurt for a bit, then I got used to it, other than going over bumps. The bumps still hurt no matter what. I hadn't thought about the road vibration. At any rate, this afternoon was the earliest I felt ready to cover the wound up in order to ride. That 2nd skin is fantastic, btw!! It has made a world of difference to the healing - and the pain!

I had originally thought I might get out on the group ride this morning, but I also told myself and a couple of my friends that I would be taking it one day at a time. If I didn't feel up to it when I woke up I wouldn't be there. When I woke up I realized how much effort it was going to take to get ready to make it out to the remote start and I also didn't want to cover up the rash this morning so I went back to sleep (that was at 7 AM - I'm allowed!). This afternoon though, I made myself go out. I was starting to stiffen up significantly. My body isn't used to 7 days with absolutely no physical activity. When I spoke with my parents on the phone this morning even they expressed their surprise to hear that I hadn't gone out on the bike at all this week. I also taught my dad the 'rubber side down' expression when he said of my going out today: "keep your wheels on the ground". I geared up, prepped the bike, and as I was leaving I felt a little self conscious of how I was going to look to the outside world with a bandaged arm and some pretty nasty looking bruises. So I took a picture for posterity.

Road Rash

I've been having a rough week trying to recover from Friday. I haven't done anything physical all week. The main reason though is this road rash on my arm. It's so weird - concussion, whiplash, large bumps & bruises on my legs (can't see them all in the photo) - they don't seem to be getting me down. I've pretty much gotten over that. But I have this patch of road rash (and frankly I'm lucky it's the only patch I have), which could have actually been worse had I not been wearing arm warmers that day, and it is just so painful that I cannot describe it to you. So today I stayed home from work (yes, it's so painful that I don't want to do anything - particularly put clothing on top of it and it's been cold here this week, so sleeves are a must) and I got to looking up how to treat road rash on-line. Man, Google is just the best for everything, isn't it?!! :)

I am surprised at what I learned, considering this is not my first case of road rash. Seems, though, that last year's rash was either minor, or in spots that were more tolerable pain-wise, and the spots were smaller. So, this is what I learned... The road rash I have on my arm is fairly significant in size, and is a 2nd degree rash (1st being the mildest, 3rd being emergency room material).

Old school way of treating RR is to let it dry out, scab over, potentially crack and hurt a lot, and scar. After putting polysporin on it for a few days over the weekend, primarily because it took the pain away, it wasn't closing up/healing over, so Tuesday I decided to clean it and let it dry out. The past two days I've been in excruciating pain. Every movement hurts. And the dried out, painful spot felt like it was cracking every time I moved my arm. That's what got me to researching this. So I refreshed my memory on something: your skin is filled with nerve fibres (duh! why do you think you can feel so much on it??), and road rash is so painful because now those nerve endings are exposed.

New age treatment for RR is to keep it moist (so what I'd been doing on the weekend wasn't such a bad idea after all). Apparently by keeping it moist and covered the skin grows back (I know - ugh!) without scabbing and it hurts far, far less. Apparently there is less chance of infection this way too - who'd-a-thunk-it? So, I went to the drug store this afternoon and bought this stuff called 'second skin'. There are all kinds of brands, but I think we're a bit limited to what we get here in Canada. So I phoned around before I headed out and found my local, neighbourhood (i.e. independent) pharmacy around the corner had it. Came home, cleaned up the wound again, more polysporin, second skin, and some gauze holding it all together. I'll let you know how it goes. It's supposed to take around 7 days before your skin starts growing back. I'm hoping I've already jump-started that in the past few days, but if the pain just goes away I'll be happy.

And finally: treating the mind. I started to realize today that I need to accept this for what it is. I've been going around trying to pretend that I'm all ok and not in pain but that's not helping anything. I'm not going to (or at least I'll try not to) complain about it, but today I started reminding myself that I do have to accept it, stop resisting it - it is what it is. It's not going to change just because I've decided to ignore it. Not today anyway. And then: this too shall pass. I'll be good as new in no time. Today though: self care. I think I'm doing a good job. I'll be in the big ring again soon enough. :)

Always wear your helmet!

So far my weekend has not turned out as planned. I am, however, rolling with it. Not much else to do. I've been relaxing a lot - living up to the new nickname. ;) And learned from my massage therapist how to make homemade ice packs because I needed a few of them... I've been icing myself for almost 2 days straight now. Various sore spots. Namely: the outside of my left knee where the handlebars hit me; the inside of my right calf where the crossbar hit me; my neck from the whiplash; and my left hip.

So, what happened? Well, a double set of train tracks swallowed me up and spat me back out on my ride on Friday. :( Not exactly what we had in mind when we decided to do an 'epic' ride that day. So we only managed 107 km instead of the 130-ish we had planned. Oh well. Like Andrew said, "McGregor Lake isn't going anywhere." We'll just have to make plans to do it again. Except next time I have a feeling I'm going to be dismounting and walking across those tracks because I'm spooked by them now. I was too sore to ride today, so I really hope to do a medium-length ride with the group tomorrow. Fingers crossed that my aching body feels up to it.

And now, to give you a reason for the title of the post... my poor helmet went to helmet heaven on Friday. Just to show you the importance of always wearing one!!! You never know what might happen, so don't let vanity sway you (and you know who you are). Besides, today helmets are totally hot! Believe me, when those of us who ride a lot see those of you who don't wear helmets out there we cringe, we talk about it when we pass you, and we judge you. And on this count I will not apologize for judging someone about something. So what I'm saying is: you look stupid not wearing one.

-The Queen of Relax, aka Big Ring Bex ;)

Victoria

... Day that is. Yes, this coming Monday - a national holiday that celebrates the birthday of the cool chick who named our capital city and I guess, from what I skim-read on that link, is supposed to help us celebrate the birthdays all of our past and current monarchy.

At any rate, what it means for us here is an extra day off. And while we're at it, maybe some of us might decide to an extra-extra day off and make it a 4-day weekend! Ah, yes. My vacation patterns of last summer begin again. Woo-hoo! Have some super sweet riding plans... The bike is calling me. Gotta run.

Hope you are enjoying the JM songs I've added there to the playlist. I seem to be obsessed with him lately. It's all jag's fault! ;)

More of the Gats

Yesterday I did hill intervals in the Gats for the first time ever. Typically I go up to the gats and just do the loop. Plain and simple. Counter-clockwise loop. In fact, the counter-clockwise is the 'easiest' in some respects: you don't climb Black's hill (which I do believe is the longest/steepest) - you get to descend it; and apparently there may in fact be less climbs - I guess you get to do a few extra sweet descents (my favourite!), rather than climb them all. You see, the gats loop is a steady uphill climb, but it rolls. So it's up and down, up and down, at the same time, it's steadily up and up and up.

What I did this weekend was to go to this one climb that we call Fortune - because it's on Fortune Lake Pkwy and it's the main climb on that road. It's approximately 2.5 km according to rough estimates with my Garmin. And most of it is around 6-7% grade, although there is one point where you get a bit of a break before it tips up for some more climbing (only 3% grade according to my data read here from the ride). Right near the top of the climb it tips up slightly for a few seconds at 9 and 10% - which can be killer when you are wanting it to end. Since climbing real hills is still hard for me (one reason to train on them), my goal was just to climb it as many times as I could. I did it 4 times. I could have done five, but when I got to the top on the fourth climb I had a choice: descend and climb one last time before packing it in, or continue on climbing a few more hills beyond the top of Fortune to the Champlain Lookout - the top of the loop. This is kind of the reward for all the hard work because it looks out over the whole of the valley and it's so beautiful. The park was really busy that day with motorcyclists and road cyclists like myself (and cars too) and I just knew they'd all gone up there and enjoyed the view. So my decision was to head up to the lookout because I knew I'd be done and wouldn't have the energy to get up there if I did one more interval. My tired legs got me up there and I stopped for a couple of minutes to take it in. Then I headed back feeling pretty good about the ride as a whole.

Today I wanted to do an easy ride and the original plan was to head out for the group ride this morning and get in 100K. However I got some good advice yesterday about not setting my alarm this morning because I was so bagged yesterday I cannot describe it. In the end I did not wake up in time to eat and get ready for the morning group ride, but I wasn't overly heartbroken about it. Would have been nice to do it, but hey - it's still May, I'll have plenty of 100K group rides to do this summer. The new bike is about ready to get it's first tune-up. Things are getting looser and making little noises here and there. I figured I'd ride up to the shop and then go wherever I felt like from there. Only problem is: the shop is near the Gats and I have to go through part of them to get to it. Hmm. OK. I figured I could do a few climbs to get there. No worries. I climbed up the small hill to the main entrance into the park and my legs were complaining. I stood there for a minute or two and thought about the hills I'd have to climb to get to the shop. Mmmm. I don't think so. Decided to forego the shop visit today and see them another time. Besides, some of the noises went away when I lubed my chain this morning. So I went on a little adventure ride to places I've never been before over there on the other side of the river. Got a little lost. Had to carry my bike into the brush around some flooded areas near the river. But all in all, a decent outing and kept it easy today.

Next week/weekend I hope to accomplish a couple of my cycling season goals. Will keep you posted.

(I had originally titled the post "The Gats" and then thought that I remembered calling one of last summer's posts that. I looked back and sure enough I did, so had to change it. Haha!)

Violet Hill

Happy Friday! I just got back from a great ride! :) It was a gorgeous afternoon and I kicked off for a nice spin on my bike. Also pre-ordered the new Coldplay album. Couldn't resist. I've always been a sucker for them. I've seen them in concert twice. First time I actually got to be in general admission and they limited the number of people on the floor so it wasn't crowded at all and I could make my way right up to the front. Second time, on the floor, but in chairs. Good seats though. I don't spend much money (or time) on concerts these days. Seems cycling eats up most of my budget. I do, however, seem to find the 10 bucks every time I want an album on iTunes. I know what my bro-in-law means when he says he doesn't like how it just charges it to your credit card. You seem to lose track of how much money you are spending on music. Yep. However, the new Coldplay I figured is worth it.

So, if you've been reading long enough you may have noticed that you've been listening to the new song that they released as a free download last week. Yeah, I downloaded it. Pretty good eh?

Anyway - hope to get some good km's in this weekend. Will check in l8r...

Numbskull

It's a combination of multi-tasking gone wrong, and brain not working... I addressed my mother's day card to none other than my mother, but at my address. Huh????? Yes, it arrived in my mailbox today. OMG. Good thing it's raining tonight - time for some rest.
numbskull, def: n. A stupid person; a nitwit.

Après work activities

Guess what I smelled (and saw - but smelled first) on my ride tonight? Lilacs. They are just starting to bloom out on Ridge Rd. Check the old post for the ref...

Ahhh.
Cycling.
'nuff said.

Oh, and thanks to Diane, the cycling machine, who got me out in the wind tonight.

Truly Resting

Yesterday I was called "the queen of relax". That made me laugh out loud. That's certainly a good thing to be. I don't think you could have said that a decade ago when I thrived on a constant buzz of energy. In the past few years I've definitely been learning the art of zen.

As I'd mentioned before I decided to take today off work, and I seem to have managed to pretty much take the day off of everything. I've barely done anything today. Even the ride I wanted to do ended up falling to the wayside. Ah well. I think I will be far better off for it in the end. I needed a break.

So have a nice weekend everyone... Hope you find time to do nothing, sit in silence, reflect, take a nap, eat some chocolate, listen to some music, and just be.
-The Queen of Relax

The Joys of the Suit

Humph... no luck meeting the 500 km mark by April 30th - unless I leave the house right now to ride 40 km in the dark at something like 3 degrees. No thanks. Schedule and weather did not permit me to reach that target. Ah well. I'll find time tomorrow. I'm not sure what the weatherman is up to, but again, the weather is changing on a daily basis for the weekend. Humph again. I've decided to take Friday off and if it rains it'll be good anyway since my place is a total sty and it's bad enough that it's getting on my nerves - that means it's embarrassingly bad. I have spring-cleaning-type chores to get done.

I got home from work tonight earlier than expected and now I'm blogging because I still need some time to unwind. So, funny story for you...

Tonight one of my co-workers and I were sharing embarrassing suit-ripping stories. You see, in our job we are obliged to wear nice suits, and yet at the same time we often have to do physical labour, like lifting big boxes and what-not. My embarrassing suit-ripping story occurred a couple of years ago in the winter when I was carrying a very heavy box into an office and my arms were finally feeling like they would give out and I could not put that box down fast enough. Of course, arms full, I had no third hand available to pull up the fronts of my pant legs before crouching down to free myself of said cargo... R-I-I-I-I-I-I-P! Oh no! I ripped the seat of my pants open. Luckily, it being winter and all, I had a long wool coat on and nobody was the wiser. Even more fortunate, I was still in town and could go home to change. And just to make me feel extra stupid, the tailor laughed at me days later when I took my pants in to be mended. Yes, cycling and adding a few pounds to the skinny body of my youth has actually endowed me with a butt (something I didn't have before), but it's not that big! Proper and expensive suit pants require pulling up in the front of the leg before bending down. Unfortunately that's not possible when your arms are full. I also have several nice suit jackets in which the inner lining is ripped from reaching into my trunk for things. Oh the trials and tribulations. ;)