Wine Country Ride and a walk through Point Reyes National Seashore

Yesterday, Claire and I went out on our Burley tandem and did one of our favorite loops through the vineyards.  We love to do this ride at least a couple of times a year.  It really reminds me of how lucky we are to live in this beautiful region that people travel from all over to see.  We stopped at the Jimtown store and had a cappuccino and chocolate pudding.  The vineyards were all changing color and losing their leaves.

Today we went out to Point Reyes National Seashore and did a 13 mile loop out Bear Valley Trail.  We had a picnic lunch out at Arch Rock over looking the very, very calm ocean.  We drove the MG out and really enjoyed the beautiful day.  It got a little cold on the way home.

Oh, yea, and on Wednesday, we went down to the Lagunitas Brewery and did some tasting and took a short tour.  Their tap room was shut down for the day, so we were treated to an extra long tasting.  Chaz has a hard time saying no to free beer.

It sure is great being on vacation.

Sweetwater (beat by a minute)

Well, I went out this afternoon and raced my April self again.  Last week I got beat by 6 or 7 minutes, but this time I only got beat by 1 minute.  In fact, at the corner of Sweetwater and Westside road, I was 20 seconds ahead, but I hit a big headwind on the way home, and I'm out of shape.  I didn't have my heartrate monitor, which was probably a good thing on the climb since I was gasping for air.  Here is a link to my loop.

Dream Ride

Claire and I are really enjoying our time off.  It is great to stay around Sonoma County and be able to enjoy things like a tourist.  Yesterday we drove out to Bolinas with Eric the Fireman to do the Dream Ride.  It has been a while since Claire and I have done the ride, and Eric the Fireman had never done it.  It was supposed to be windy, but that didn't affect us much except for a great tailwind heading down Hwy. 1 at the start.  We parked on the side of Olema-Bolinas Road, which is nicely shaded so Mathilda could hang out in the bus and wait for us.  This is a terrific 30 mile ride.  You get a bit of everything with the ocean, Muir Woods, and then Ridgecrest over Mount Tam.  We were lucky enough to do the ride on a weekday, but we have done the ride on a weekend before and leaving early helps out.  You can add mileage by parking in Pt. Reyes, or Olema.

After the ride we came home and made pizza.

Not a lot to report

Well, I haven't got out for as many rides as I would have liked to lately, but hopefully next week that will change.  Claire is arranging the week off for us as I speak.  Let's see, Claire and I rode the Ibis tandem over Old Caz on Tuesday.  We took 9 minutes off of our last time.  The conditions were much nicer since we have had the rain.  We were still able to ride across Austin Creek, but this time Claire's feet got wet.  We started and ended in Duncans Mills.  Here is a link to the ride.  I accidentally reset my Garmin a couple of miles into the ride, so it shows up shorter than the 22 miles.  Here is a picture of the top of Old Cazadero Road.

We also went out last Friday and did a relaxed ride through Annadel.  It was a beautiful evening, and we both just needed to get out and unwind after the day at the shop.  We are heading back up to Annadel in a couple of minutes, and I am feeling the need to push myself a bit tonight.  We will see how things go.

A couple of rides and some bread

We went out on Friday and rode in Annadel before having pizza at Mary's across the street. I planned on taking it easy, but got a little caught up in things on the climb up Marsh. At one point I looked down and my heart rate was 199, I had to remind myself to relax. It was a perfect evening, and we saw plenty of other people up there.

On Sunday I went out and did the Sweetwater loop. I set up my Garmin up to race myself from a previous loop in April. I got my butt kicked. I did lose some time on the downhills since it was wet this time, but I lost more time on the uphills. It was fun though.

On Tuesday, during all of the rain, I made bread. Three of the loaves are garlic/parmesan/rosemary, four of the loaves are garlic/pepper jack, and three more are half whole wheat. All are sourdough, of course.

A short run

Well, we are back in the swing of things at the shop after our time in Death Valley. We have been trying to catch up on our sleep after staying awake for about 35 hours in the car following our riders. I did get out on a short run Tuesday evening after work. We are going to try to get out of the shop early today to go mountain biking, but sometimes things get a little too busy for us to do that.

Here is a picture of a propeller from one of those windmills.

Back from Furnace Creek

Last weekend, Claire and I drove down with 4 of our friends who were doing the Furnace Creek 508 bicycle race. They were in the two tandem relay division. If you have some time, check out the website, and check out the video. This is a race that I have completed once in 1994, and have crewed for various riders 4 times. Claire has crewed 5 times since she crewed for me in 94. The race rules say that each rider must have a crew that drives behind him or her during the night and provides all of the food and water and support that the rider hopefully needs. This race starts in Valencia and ends in 29 Palms. It goes through Death Valley at about the half way point. Anyway, if you check out the website you can get more info on that if you want. Suffice to say that this race is always very difficult and has a high drop out rate.

This year many people felt that we had the worst conditions in the history of the race. The heat wasn't bad, but the head winds from the 210 mile mark on were horrific. There were many stories of riders getting blown off the road going through Death Valley. Claire and I witnessed our own riders hanging on for dear life as the winds pushed them across the road and to the very edge of the pavement. We witnessed this for an 8 hour stretch through Death Valley. This was a stretch the they should have been riding at almost 20 mph, but instead were riding at 6 to 8 mph.

Well, we are very happy to report that our riders finished the event, and were the only participants to break a record. This record was broken by 5 minutes. It was incredible to have been a part of that. I wish I could say more, but I don't think that time or space would allow me to really convey what this event was like.