Friday, December 13, 2013
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Beyond Cycling....
....Karate and Crew.......
Even though I'd been able to pedal my ass off while on furlough, Caryn's been on fire in the sporting world over the past few weeks too. And making me pretty proud, I might add! At the end of September, she tested for her 2nd degree black belt and passed, getting accolades from the "Master" of her form (a rank even higher than her own sensei). Here are videos I took of her board breaking and applications (choreographed fighting with two other black belts).
In mid-October, she and I took a trip to New England, seeing family and a lot of friends in CT and Boston. And she got to row in the Head of the Charles! It's touted as the largest 2-day rowing event in the world. Earlier, she had a chance to gain a seat in the Lake Merritt Rowing Club boat that would attend. But with the karate test, she wasn't all that interested. Unfortunately, someone planning to row got injured and when her coach asked if she was interested, of course she said yes! We were planning on going on the trip to support the team anyway, so why not!? Her team was to race two boats that day and she was in the 40+ women's 4-seater. And they did pretty damn good! Most of them (3/4) are novice rowers, so they were realistic about their chances. But they met their goal, which was to row faster than half the boats in her category. The got 10th place out of 24 boats. Coming in ahead of 50% of the boats allows the team to get an automatic entry for next year!! (Granted, the rowers will have to fight for seats again next year, but this is a great start!) Here is a video of the final 30 seconds or so of their 5K race.
Of course, I did get a few rides in while in CT. Traversing old roads that I rode when living there almost 30 years ago was fun. They seem so quiet, clean and safe with polite drivers (just like home in California...not!). And the weather cooperated with 60s, colorful fall trees and sunny skies everyday too. I didn't get to see all my friends - it doesn't always work out - but it was a nice trip nonetheless.
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| Shelley, Mike, Jeff and Caryn in Essex on the CT River |
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| Deep River lake on a ride with Stirling, Jeff and Shelley |
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| Stirling and Jeff debating traffic law |
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Shutdown Cycling
Well, I'm part of the 800,000 gov't employees who have been furloughed as part of the shutdown. It's been in effect for over a week now and to tell you the truth, it's been kind of a nice break. It's given me a chance to catch up on a lot of things, but also do plenty of riding. The politics behind the whole shutdown are crazy, but that's another story.
I've been kind of absent on this blog lately.....maybe too much riding?! I've been averaging close to 150+ miles per week, including a recent highlight, the Chico Gran Fondo! Fondos are basically centuries that are raced. While my friends and I hung on for about 20 miles with the big group, we ended up just enjoying our own pace for the remainder of it. Here are two links: the results and some pics.
http://underthesunevents.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/FONDO-OA.htm
http://www.chicovelo.org/main/Fondo2013/
The weather was much cooler than a normal day up there in Chico in September, having dropped down after some unseasonable rain the day before. (Great timing!!) We started at 51 degrees and peaked at only about 75 degrees. I had never ridden up there before, so it was nice to see some new roads for a change. Lots of rolling roads with plenty of climbing sandwiched in the middle of the ride. Few vehicles, but they were big when we were passed! Lots o' pick-em-up trucks, but 'most' everyone behaved themselves. Our Santa Barbara ride organizer, Janine, was the organizer for this event too and she did a great job as usual! Finally, it was fun to ride with some Santa Barbara buddies, including John, Dan, Lauren, Eddie and Wes. Maybe I'll be back next year!
I've been kind of absent on this blog lately.....maybe too much riding?! I've been averaging close to 150+ miles per week, including a recent highlight, the Chico Gran Fondo! Fondos are basically centuries that are raced. While my friends and I hung on for about 20 miles with the big group, we ended up just enjoying our own pace for the remainder of it. Here are two links: the results and some pics.
http://underthesunevents.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/FONDO-OA.htm
http://www.chicovelo.org/main/Fondo2013/
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| Climbing in the Fondo - John, me, Dan, an unknown lurker and Lauren |
The weather was much cooler than a normal day up there in Chico in September, having dropped down after some unseasonable rain the day before. (Great timing!!) We started at 51 degrees and peaked at only about 75 degrees. I had never ridden up there before, so it was nice to see some new roads for a change. Lots of rolling roads with plenty of climbing sandwiched in the middle of the ride. Few vehicles, but they were big when we were passed! Lots o' pick-em-up trucks, but 'most' everyone behaved themselves. Our Santa Barbara ride organizer, Janine, was the organizer for this event too and she did a great job as usual! Finally, it was fun to ride with some Santa Barbara buddies, including John, Dan, Lauren, Eddie and Wes. Maybe I'll be back next year!
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| Huge chainring on Chico bikepath |
Friday, August 16, 2013
Ride "Heatmaps"
Check these out....someone has created a program that compiles all of your rides (and runs or both) from your Strava account and posts them all on maps with color codes. Red means more times on particular roads; blue not so many times. Here is the link to my activities up until today (August 16, 2013) since I got the Garmin. Most are in California, but check out the Pyrenees and the big hike on Saba too. It's all there!
http://x.raceshape.com/heatmap/view.html?id=42baae32abfae98bff247b250c81e1a4c3669f96
http://x.raceshape.com/heatmap/view.html?id=42baae32abfae98bff247b250c81e1a4c3669f96
Monday, July 29, 2013
Hills. Bitchin' hills. But what a view from the top!
Life is sometimes about scaling hills, right? Some are easier than others. And some seem insurmountable. Unless you take it in stages. With rests along the way. My life is pretty good for the most part. Sometimes things don't go my way. But let's save that for another time. For now, let's try and keep this is about cycling, right?
I've been wanting to do this climb called Sierra Rd. for sometime now. For the past couple of weeks, I did a few extra climbs with Sierra in mind. Tough climbs like South Park, Elverton, Woodmont and others in the Berkeley area that usually get passed by. But when I got down to Sierra this past Saturday with my buddy Jules, those others just weren't a match for it! What a bitch!! 3.5 miles at an average of about 10%. Sometimes less angle, but often steeper. And after about 66 miles and in the low 90s, it was .....Ugh! I'll admit to no one (except this blog and Jules knows) that I stopped 4 times for rests in those short 3.5 miles! What a wimp. But I did it. And it does have quite the payoff with beautiful views towards Mt. Hamilton. Sometimes persistence pays off! Don't give up.
Here are a few pics from the day.
Life is sometimes about scaling hills, right? Some are easier than others. And some seem insurmountable. Unless you take it in stages. With rests along the way. My life is pretty good for the most part. Sometimes things don't go my way. But let's save that for another time. For now, let's try and keep this is about cycling, right?
I've been wanting to do this climb called Sierra Rd. for sometime now. For the past couple of weeks, I did a few extra climbs with Sierra in mind. Tough climbs like South Park, Elverton, Woodmont and others in the Berkeley area that usually get passed by. But when I got down to Sierra this past Saturday with my buddy Jules, those others just weren't a match for it! What a bitch!! 3.5 miles at an average of about 10%. Sometimes less angle, but often steeper. And after about 66 miles and in the low 90s, it was .....Ugh! I'll admit to no one (except this blog and Jules knows) that I stopped 4 times for rests in those short 3.5 miles! What a wimp. But I did it. And it does have quite the payoff with beautiful views towards Mt. Hamilton. Sometimes persistence pays off! Don't give up.
Here are a few pics from the day.
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| Sierra, looking west from the top |
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| Mike - sweaty, tired, but happy to be at the top of Sierra |
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| Ditto |
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| Mike and Jules |
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| The end of Sierra and the beginning of Felter (just over the top) |
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| The view east of Mt. Hamilton from the top of Felter |
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| Felter Rd. looking west as it turns into the top of Sierra |
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Update......
It's been busy lately, but maybe time to mention some of the fun rides I've taken lately. The ride to Santa Barbara, hilly ones in Sonoma and Canyon, very hot days, etc.
More to come.
More to come.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Why?
April 15, 2013
I did the Boston Marathon in 2001. It hurt (!), but was quite the accomplishment that I will never forget it. I lived on Newbury Street at the corner of Dartmouth back in the 70's during my sophomore year at Northeastern. This is directly behind the marathon finish line. It is a beautiful neighborhood that was far too nice for my patrician budget and tastes in those days. At the time, I couldn't really afford it nor appreciate it. I didn't know how lucky I was to live there.
Today was the double explosion at the Boston Marathon finish line. So far, a few people have died and over 100 were injured, some very seriously. Whoever set the bombs off was disgusting and cowardly. It made no logical sense. It had no purpose. It is a sad time and my heart goes out to the victims and all of my Boston friends, relatives and its residents who were violated by this act. Here is a picture of the BAA logo from my jacket from that run 12 years ago. I'll be proudly wearing it tomorrow and in the future.
I did the Boston Marathon in 2001. It hurt (!), but was quite the accomplishment that I will never forget it. I lived on Newbury Street at the corner of Dartmouth back in the 70's during my sophomore year at Northeastern. This is directly behind the marathon finish line. It is a beautiful neighborhood that was far too nice for my patrician budget and tastes in those days. At the time, I couldn't really afford it nor appreciate it. I didn't know how lucky I was to live there.
Today was the double explosion at the Boston Marathon finish line. So far, a few people have died and over 100 were injured, some very seriously. Whoever set the bombs off was disgusting and cowardly. It made no logical sense. It had no purpose. It is a sad time and my heart goes out to the victims and all of my Boston friends, relatives and its residents who were violated by this act. Here is a picture of the BAA logo from my jacket from that run 12 years ago. I'll be proudly wearing it tomorrow and in the future.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Hills.....and more.
The East Bay (Berkeley, Oakland) has great cycling right from the front door. There are many quiet backroads with some challenging climbing and great views of San Francisco Bay west and Mt. Diablo to the east. The hills are ever present and great for keeping you in shape. But if you want more challenge, it certainly is there!
Many of us cyclists pass by certain climbs everyday that are just a bit too steep for fun. But there is an organized ride that batches them all up in one day and makes a go of it....it is called the "Nifty Ten Fifty". Which means about 10,000 feet of climbing in a little over 50 miles. Ouch! And I was foolish enough to attempt it this year (April 7, 2013).
It was too steep for the gears on my road bike (50-34 in the front and 11-25 in the back), so I rode by son's mt. bike, which had a triple and lots of gears to help climb those beasts! I didn't see anyone else on a mt. bike. I was the only crazy one. Or maybe not.....at least I had the gears! I did the whole thing without any walking, but was slow enough to be the "Lanterne Rouge" up one of the climbs! (That's the French term for the last person in the peloton.....the caboose with the red lantern.) Oh well, I finished! And that's amazing for one more reason....the brakes on the mt. bike started to fail towards the end of the ride. The descents in some cases were sometimes greater than 20%, so I'd say that was just too much for the disks. By the end of the day, they were failing and my wrists were killing me from too much brake handle "squeezing". In a way, that was more scary than climbing these damn hills.
Here are some attachments with more info...my Strava stats, a story from the organizer (thanks!) and a pic at the top of the very last hill with a "forced" smile. Check that one off the bucket list!
Here are the stats for the ride:
The Results and Stories:
http://www.niftytenfifty.com/
Many of us cyclists pass by certain climbs everyday that are just a bit too steep for fun. But there is an organized ride that batches them all up in one day and makes a go of it....it is called the "Nifty Ten Fifty". Which means about 10,000 feet of climbing in a little over 50 miles. Ouch! And I was foolish enough to attempt it this year (April 7, 2013).
It was too steep for the gears on my road bike (50-34 in the front and 11-25 in the back), so I rode by son's mt. bike, which had a triple and lots of gears to help climb those beasts! I didn't see anyone else on a mt. bike. I was the only crazy one. Or maybe not.....at least I had the gears! I did the whole thing without any walking, but was slow enough to be the "Lanterne Rouge" up one of the climbs! (That's the French term for the last person in the peloton.....the caboose with the red lantern.) Oh well, I finished! And that's amazing for one more reason....the brakes on the mt. bike started to fail towards the end of the ride. The descents in some cases were sometimes greater than 20%, so I'd say that was just too much for the disks. By the end of the day, they were failing and my wrists were killing me from too much brake handle "squeezing". In a way, that was more scary than climbing these damn hills.
Here are some attachments with more info...my Strava stats, a story from the organizer (thanks!) and a pic at the top of the very last hill with a "forced" smile. Check that one off the bucket list!
Here are the stats for the ride:
The Results and Stories:
http://www.niftytenfifty.com/
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| Mike at the top of Vollmer Peak, the last climb of the 2013 Nifty 10-50 ride |
Monday, February 18, 2013
Bike Rides (Activity Widget!)
For lack of anything very exciting happening, I just found out I can post links to my rides that are posted on Strava. So, here goes....don't be too bored!
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Happy New Year!
It's that time of the year again.....to go through all of my pictures and print a book. Or maybe two!
Why not share those digital pics, right? Well, I finally did it and they actually let you embed the code for the book now! Graduation, black belt, France, Saba, Cal Poly, and MUCH more that kept us busy! And that was only 2012. I also caught up by making a book using my 2011 pictures. You may have seem some of these pics already in different forms, but enjoy them again (or for the first time!).
Here it is.....2012 at the Gill household. And scroll down for 2011!
Why not share those digital pics, right? Well, I finally did it and they actually let you embed the code for the book now! Graduation, black belt, France, Saba, Cal Poly, and MUCH more that kept us busy! And that was only 2012. I also caught up by making a book using my 2011 pictures. You may have seem some of these pics already in different forms, but enjoy them again (or for the first time!).
Here it is.....2012 at the Gill household. And scroll down for 2011!
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