Due to exhaustion I am lacking in my usual verbosity. Therefore, mostly you get statistics, nouns, and adjectives. DST: 50.5 mi (my computer reported 55 but that is not correct, and I don’t know why — I’m thinking a detector in Palo Alto) AVS: 11.8 (…oy) MXS: ~32 (84 descent) Ride time: 4:36 Total elevation […]
“Looming”/chase instinct as a cause of fear among cyclists?
I was riding to downtown Sunnyvale today and got passed by a couple cars while sharing a lane. Absolutely nothing notable about it from a traffic standpoint, except that for several of them I was checking my rearview mirror as they came up and I found that I had an instinctive fear as they approached, […]
On any given day, where would you rather be?
The radio was on this morning in the shuttle, playing various things, including a traffic report. It was almost like it was calculated: 101-S is a complete mess in two different places, as is 237. Aren’t you glad you’ve been on the train? But of course, on any given day, you might rather be on […]
Wednesday brisk ride: Foothill commute
Back when I was planning my mileage for training, I decided that for some of the weekday rides with higher mileage, I would try doing my commute on Foothill rather than Bryant. It increases the hilliness and the mileage substantially. I went for that option this morning and was pleasantly surprised by it. After you […]
Tour de San Mateo
Much unlike the Tour de Menlo, today’s Tour de San Mateo was a ride thrown around as a concept by another member of SVBC a while back: just a small tour of the interesting bits of San Mateo. I was instantly in, since I used to live in San Mateo and am quite fond of […]
Climbing and the ethics of posting ride routes
I entered the route for Tour de Menlo 2008 into my Bikely routes, but I haven’t published it as public because I’m not sure whether that’s polite. The route creators presumably put some work into creating the route (and they did a good job), and maybe don’t want other rides to borrow it wholesale. Update: […]
Ride report: Berkeley! Grizzly Peak!
This morning I went up to Berkeley to ride with my friends/team members up there, J & C (you guys let me know if you want full names or initials on the blog). We had planned to do a 38-mile route up Grizzly Peak that I found on Bikely (Downtown Berkeley – Grizzly Peak – […]
Two things that are fantastic
I’ve had kind of a crazy week — maybe kind of a crazy month, really — and two things this week were particularly fantastic: Dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes from Ella Bella Farm These tomatoes are expensive compared to most of the heirlooms and organic tomatoes at the Menlo Park Farmer’s Market — they cost I […]
Do they even know it’s uphill?
As I have recorded here before, I am a poor climber. Even in the lowest gear of my triple-crank road bike, I find nearby hills like Edgewood and Arastradero challenging to climb, and have to use my leg strength (such as it is), rather than cadence, to ascend the hill. I have been trying not […]
Saturday ride #6: Tour de Menlo (full ride report)
I’m feeling strangely awake even though exhausted, so, a report on today’s ride: Stats: 68 mi (daily total — the ride was 66 and Menlo-Atherton HS is about 1 mi from my house). AVS: 13.1mph MXS: 34.1mph (Crystal Springs Rd, also the first time I have violated a set speed limit because one section has […]