Northstar

Well, things have been going bonkers at the shop.  I think there is more work to do this week then I have ever seen on our work board.  I was telling Claire yesterday that I don't think it will be physically possible to finish all the work this week.  We have been going in early to try to catch up, but it is not working.   It is great to be this busy, and we are having one of our best months ever.  

We took some of our employees up to Northstar for a day of downhilling.  It was a whirlwind experience.  We took off Sunday evening after work, and got up to the condo at around 9:30 or so.  We had some burritos that we had got from El Favorito in Rohnert Park.  The next morning we got up, got our free bike rentals and hopped on the lift up the mountain.  Giant Bikes had taken care of all of our demos and lift tickets.  I think all of us had a great time.  

This is a picture of A1 preparing himself mentally for the coming day of downhilling.

Life rolls on and on

Well, it is Sunday morning and I am up having some coffee before work.  It has been a long week, but we are being rewarded with a trip up to Northstar tonight to do some demoing and downhilling tomorrow.  Giant has arranged for us to get free lift tickets and demo bikes for everyone in the shop to test out some of the Giant mountain bikes.  We will be leaving right after work this evening and taking the gang up there.  A1 is returning from fighting fires in Southern CA, and this will be a great chance to celebrate his return.  

The shop has been going crazy.  On Friday, it was my "day off" so I went in and put some Social D on my iPod and worked all day.  Since I was "not there", I tried my best to keep my head down in the work area.  I started the day with a list of about 25 jobs, and finished with only 3 jobs left undone.  It felt good to almost catch up.  Next week looks even busier.  We are having trouble getting bikes built to put out on the floor.  We end up just building bikes as customers come in requesting test rides.  

Claire, Jimmy Neutron, A1 and I went out for a bike ride on Thursday morning together.  We did the Roblar/Valley Ford loop.  Claire and I stopped in at Redwood Cafe for some breakfast afterwards.  Claire had the day off, so she did some shopping at Oliver's Market before heading back to Forestville.  After work, I rode home on my fixed, which was a good time.  I had quite a tailwind most of the way, so I had a hard time keeping up with the pedals.  

Yesterday morning I ran the Scenic loop and felt really good.  I tried to keep my heart rate up around 160 for the most part.  It ended up being 58 minutes which is a couple minutes faster than my usual time.  I had a couple of twinges in my calf when I really tried to stretch out my stride, so I am going to concentrate more on some stretching.

Running a new route

I had a GREAT run yesterday afternoon.  I decided to do something different, so I crossed the Hacienda Bridge and did some running over in those neighborhoods.  I then came back over and ran down through Summerhome Park and up into the hills above our house.  I hadn't been up in those hills for quite a while.  It is easy to get lost up there.  At one point I headed up a new trail I had never been on, but when I realized I had no idea where I was at, I turned around and came back.  My run ended up being about 1 hour and 20 minutes.  I felt like I could easily have kept going, but I wanted to get back for some lunch and pool time.

Life rolls on

We had a great ride last Monday.  We had our smartest employee, Jimmy Neutron out with his girlfriend, Vanessa for the Chalk Hill Loop.  I rode from home while Claire drove the Hub Bus to Healdsburg to meet me.  I went over Sweetwater Road first and then cruised in on Westside Road.  It was a terrific ride, not too hot, and almost no wind.  We stopped at the Jim Town Store for some water and chocolate pudding.  Afterwards we enjoyed some beer and pasta salad by the pool.

On Thursday I ran the Scenic Loop and felt really good.  My legs weren't tired for the first time in a long time.  I tried to push it to keep my heart rate up.  I didn't have my heart rate monitor on, so I didn't know what it was.

The shop has been very, very busy, so we have been working more than we like to.  We will get out over the next couple of days for a bike ride or two.  

Park City, Utah

Claire and I are in Park City, Utah for a couple of days checking out the 2009 Giant Bicycle lineup.  We had the chance Wednesday evening to take the Gondola up to the top of the mountain and ride a couple of their '09 full suspension mountain bikes.  I rode a Reign X, while Claire rode an Anthem X.  We did some great single track around the top before riding a long single track back down to our hotel.  Today we sat through some interesting presentations of their whole '09 lineup.  The Giant road bikes look super cool.  There are about a 120 other Giant dealers here checking things out, and it has been interesting talking shop with some of the other dealers.  

Discretion is the better part of valor

As the title might suggest, I chose to drop out of the Vineman this year.  I had a feeling that I would end up doing this, I even mentioned to Claire in the morning that I would be seeing her after the bike ride.  This is one of those times that I can feel my age.  I remember when I was 19, I went out and ran a marathon after only running 7 miles before hand, but those days are over.  This summer I hadn't done any training rides over 66 miles, and it showed.  I really hit the wall at that point.  I felt like I could have ridden through it, but I would have suffered miserably for the next 5 or 6 hours, which I did not want to do.  By dropping out, I accomplished my main goal of being able to go to the Bear Republic afterwards and have a black & blue burger and some Racer 5 IPA.  I did end up riding a 100 miles since I turned around at the Dry Creek store and rode home.  Oh yea, the swim went great.  I guess that is still something that I can fake since I had only swum twice all summer.  I am real excited about getting the aerobars off my bike and riding with Claire.  We went out yesterday and rode 43 km and even stopped by Andy's Market and picked up snacks for enjoying by the pool.  As far as hydration went during the race, I weighed myself when I woke up, and I weighed 12.86 stone, and when I got home afterwards I weighed 12.43 stone.