Beyond Cycling....

....Karate and Crew.......

It's been a bit of a weird time....I blogged at the beginning of the gov't shutdown.  But then it continued on for 2.5 weeks!  To extend it, I took a vacation that actually started towards the end of the gov't mess, so had a string of 23 days off in a row.  Wow!  Call it "FUN-employment".  Plenty of time to ride for sure.  I took a few epic rides, including one in Marin County out to Marshall, down Hwy 1 and up Bolinas Fairfax Road (69 miles).  Then, I went down the Peninsula from San Francisco, through the new tunnel out of Pacifica, down the coast to Half Moon Bay and over to the Bay (Palo Alto to Fremont) via Tunitas Creek Rd (82 miles).  Finally, I rode up Mt. Diablo with a couple of friends (83 miles).  Those were some great rides!  But then, it was time for something different.

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.

Shelley, Mike, Jeff and Caryn in Essex on the CT River

Deep River lake on a ride with Stirling, Jeff and Shelley

Stirling and Jeff debating traffic law

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/

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!

Huge chainring on Chico bikepath