This is the sign I look for each time I ride...it's about 12 miles West of Watertown, and I know that the roads are less pot-holed, the traffic is much calmer, and my ride is enhanced with each turn of the pedal. Concord is a cycling haven for around here. The folks here even say things like "On the weekends there are more bikes than cars!" Sigh. Not quite. Canada Road/Woodside/West Alpine/Tunitas Creek---now we're talking more bikes than cars. But for around here there's just more bikes than normal so they feel that way.
I threw my camera into my jersey pocket to share my saturday cruise...unfortunately I got too into cruising and less into picture taking and so I didn't get as many shots as I'd hoped. I loved the "Faithful Unto Death" statue with a cyclist relaxing in the Fall-like sun in Concord Square (right near Liberty Monument and the Minutemen Lookout Point)
From here I headed into Carlisle where it is beautiful right now with wild flowers and ice-cream! There are these "ice-cream" signs all over Carlisle and into Chelmsford. A small size is almost the size of those Ben n Jerry's pints! My map even has little ice-cream cones designating the "creameries." Of course I don't use a map anymore. I know the way.
Then from Great Brook Farm I meander through the woods down roads like these and pass houses like these. Three stories of house. No two look the same. I think the high was 70 today and the wind was breezing from the East. I still to this day think that means it is going to be hot. But the East breeze *is* the Ocean breeze out here on the right coast.
Nothing like a super long work week (as in hours...it was still only five days) to make an already lovely and lazy Saturday spin even BETTER! Hope you had a lovely day!
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Another Wednesday in August...
...August 2006! I can't believe it. This time last year I was living it up on my honeymoon in Grand Marais. Hanging out with the Bennett's on their sailboat in Duluth! Running into Minnesota Black bears on highway 61 way up north near the boundary waters and the Canadian border---and learning how to mountain bike on Pin Cushion Mountain. What a lifetime ago that was!
Now I am living and working bicycle manufacturing in New England. And getting ready to experience the colors of fall in the Northeast. But not quite yet. It's still summer, though it sure has turned nice and less humid. We have early morning meetings every Wednesday and usually I head out on a ride afterwards...but everyone else did today and the office was too lean and so I stayed late and I am home now with the small hound, watching TV and enjoying the dusk ---which arrives much earlier than it did a couple of weeks ago. I'll get up early and ride anyway. Too tired right now.
Mike is out on a group ride, trying to get some "speed" in his legs. The race in the Berkshires was cancelled next weekend and so he's kinda bummed about that. Next on our list is the Chris Thater Memorial in Binghampton, NY... 5 hours away! Sigh. Planning for Vegas is a pain, but will hopefully be successful and get us closer to home in the not so distant future.
Mom had a little hiccup when her PICC line caused a blood clot of sorts in her wrist. Some pain medication later and she is feeling better, but the planned medical procedure got post-poned and while it was a disappointment, her spirits are good. Actually, it's her humor that's good. Her spirits need a little nudge sometimes, but not too often.
That's about it from the Northeast. I hope you are enjoying your evening!
Now I am living and working bicycle manufacturing in New England. And getting ready to experience the colors of fall in the Northeast. But not quite yet. It's still summer, though it sure has turned nice and less humid. We have early morning meetings every Wednesday and usually I head out on a ride afterwards...but everyone else did today and the office was too lean and so I stayed late and I am home now with the small hound, watching TV and enjoying the dusk ---which arrives much earlier than it did a couple of weeks ago. I'll get up early and ride anyway. Too tired right now.
Mike is out on a group ride, trying to get some "speed" in his legs. The race in the Berkshires was cancelled next weekend and so he's kinda bummed about that. Next on our list is the Chris Thater Memorial in Binghampton, NY... 5 hours away! Sigh. Planning for Vegas is a pain, but will hopefully be successful and get us closer to home in the not so distant future.
Mom had a little hiccup when her PICC line caused a blood clot of sorts in her wrist. Some pain medication later and she is feeling better, but the planned medical procedure got post-poned and while it was a disappointment, her spirits are good. Actually, it's her humor that's good. Her spirits need a little nudge sometimes, but not too often.
That's about it from the Northeast. I hope you are enjoying your evening!
Sunday, August 13, 2006
NY Capital Region Road Race
(What a cool bike you have Mr. T!)
Saturday, August 12, 2006 - NY Capital Region Road Race
72 miles; 3 laps around a 23 mile circuit with a 3.5 mile rolling neutral start, and 1400' of elevation gain per lap! Nice! The 10AM start was a buzz kill since it was a 3 hour drive to the start in absolutely lovely Ravena, NY (near Albany), but given our California "Oh-dark-thirty" wake-up calls of our past, it wasn't too bad. And the prize was Upstate NY. Even nicer than New Hampshire for road riding!
After dropping Mike off at the start, I headed to feedzone to find some shade to park in (for the Scrapper), and then suited up to ride the route and get back in time to hand Mike a bottle by his second lap. The Pro 1/2 field was stacked fairly well (they had more folks than planned at registration given the perfect weather), including Healthnet's Mike Jones and Jelly Belly's, Jeremy Powers, plus a full contingent of the local powerhouse "red" team, Fiordi Fruitti.
Heaven. Upstate NY is certainly on the God's Country list. I had no idea. Smooth pavement and climbing and colors and wild-flowers with solar powered homes and log cabins, with small little communities. Wow! Nothings plowed up but there were many small little organic farms. And little to no traffic.
It took an hour before the Pro 1/2 field caught and passed me. Probably due to the incredible 15% grade twisty (actual switchback) section, (complete with writing on the road "Go Healthnet!", " Venga Venga" and "Allez"!). I rode up to cheers of the local farmers who were not expecting a small little rider to be so far "off the front!" Ha! Let them wonder! The cool thing, is right when they passed me, was the exact time that the decisive move of the race took place.
I saw Jeremy Powers, Josh (from Fiordi Fruitti) and one other guy hammer off the front and were never to be seen again by the chasing pack. Team Tactics would have played a big part if the field wanted to catch the break and the biggest team there was Fiordi Fruitti...with a guy in the break, they were off the hook. Sigh.
This is the first time I didn't get passed by all the fields before I finished the course...I rode in with the Masters and was already changed by the time the girl's Pro field came through. (I had a head start though---but usually they pass me anyway!) It was a hard race...complete with some awful crashes. There was a pretty technical section where you had high speed downhill followed by a 120 degree right hander that immediately turned toward the sky with the 15% grade section. An Anthem rider ended up doing a face slide for about 100 meters...and left in the ambulance pretty badly hurt. Sigh.
Mike did better this week---and finished with the rest of the field in the uphill finish. But Josh (Fiordi Fruitti) took the honors today with Jeremy Powers about 9 seconds behind him. Next week we're heading somewhere in the Berkshires for another sufferfest on our bikes.
Saturday, August 12, 2006 - NY Capital Region Road Race
72 miles; 3 laps around a 23 mile circuit with a 3.5 mile rolling neutral start, and 1400' of elevation gain per lap! Nice! The 10AM start was a buzz kill since it was a 3 hour drive to the start in absolutely lovely Ravena, NY (near Albany), but given our California "Oh-dark-thirty" wake-up calls of our past, it wasn't too bad. And the prize was Upstate NY. Even nicer than New Hampshire for road riding!
After dropping Mike off at the start, I headed to feedzone to find some shade to park in (for the Scrapper), and then suited up to ride the route and get back in time to hand Mike a bottle by his second lap. The Pro 1/2 field was stacked fairly well (they had more folks than planned at registration given the perfect weather), including Healthnet's Mike Jones and Jelly Belly's, Jeremy Powers, plus a full contingent of the local powerhouse "red" team, Fiordi Fruitti.
Heaven. Upstate NY is certainly on the God's Country list. I had no idea. Smooth pavement and climbing and colors and wild-flowers with solar powered homes and log cabins, with small little communities. Wow! Nothings plowed up but there were many small little organic farms. And little to no traffic.
It took an hour before the Pro 1/2 field caught and passed me. Probably due to the incredible 15% grade twisty (actual switchback) section, (complete with writing on the road "Go Healthnet!", " Venga Venga" and "Allez"!). I rode up to cheers of the local farmers who were not expecting a small little rider to be so far "off the front!" Ha! Let them wonder! The cool thing, is right when they passed me, was the exact time that the decisive move of the race took place.
I saw Jeremy Powers, Josh (from Fiordi Fruitti) and one other guy hammer off the front and were never to be seen again by the chasing pack. Team Tactics would have played a big part if the field wanted to catch the break and the biggest team there was Fiordi Fruitti...with a guy in the break, they were off the hook. Sigh.
This is the first time I didn't get passed by all the fields before I finished the course...I rode in with the Masters and was already changed by the time the girl's Pro field came through. (I had a head start though---but usually they pass me anyway!) It was a hard race...complete with some awful crashes. There was a pretty technical section where you had high speed downhill followed by a 120 degree right hander that immediately turned toward the sky with the 15% grade section. An Anthem rider ended up doing a face slide for about 100 meters...and left in the ambulance pretty badly hurt. Sigh.
Mike did better this week---and finished with the rest of the field in the uphill finish. But Josh (Fiordi Fruitti) took the honors today with Jeremy Powers about 9 seconds behind him. Next week we're heading somewhere in the Berkshires for another sufferfest on our bikes.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Morning commute...
...actually, my official morning commute is a tad over a mile, I usually add a 30+ miles just to make it interesting... Nice! Mike and I have been getting into a morning groove though, in preparation for the sunrise/sunset of living this far North and East, and waking up early and riding before work. I only know about these things (sunrise/sunset) , because Mike reports the statistics on a weekly basis. "Hey, did you see that the sun will be setting at 7:20pm by the end of this month? Soon it's going to set at 4:15pm"
"Really...4:15PM? (maybe it was even 4:10PM, I don't remember) How soon?", I asked. "Oh, December". I suppose December is soon, given how the time has been flying away. But December isn't August, and we still have Fall to enjoy. Plus, I have been inundated with planning for Las Vegas in September. Whew! Interbike already. Now for years, either in retail or as a Queen comsumer in the bicycle industry, Interbike was just this fun little show where you got to check out all the latest and greatest whizz-bang inventions for Interbike.
This year? I am now working for a vendor that will be showing all the cool new products and so Interbike equals WORK! Lots of it! I feel like I get to "The Factory" , and then it's time to leave. sigh...
But the "getting to work" part of my day is still the best time of my day. From the days of commuting by bicycle from SF to Mountain View (@SGI) and then to Palo Alto (@ Palo Alto Bicycles), that rolling along with a breeze in my pony-tail and the sun in my eyes is the thing that gets me up in the morning. Well, that, and my dog licking my nose. Sydney is still the best alarm clock ever, though she doesn't get up until the sun comes up and right now, I get up before the sun.
And you're probably wondering about that "race report". Bow, New Hampshire (and just about every place we've seen in New Hampshire) is absolutely lovely. Sometimes I wish Seven was in New Hampshire as the riding is so much more to my liking (lots of rolling terrain...nothing is flat). Anyway, the gist is that Mike took 4 weeks off the bike, and another 4 weeks getting back into the groove, after his bout with whatever he had...and it was the first time ever that I can remember when he just didn't have it on race day. It didn't help that this race course was similar to Pescadero...for the first race after two months off. Also have Kevin Bouchard-Hall and a bunch of other guys who've been racing all season and are in form keeping the pace high.
But far be it for me to make excuses for my beloved. He doesn't need me to anyway. He's my star, and we are rolling along with the season's. Mom is rolling with her chemo seasons and I think after today, they are giving her a break. She's glowing from within and without and I love how many people called when I took a break from the keyboard.
Nothing about the weather today---I'm giving it (the weather)a break. I miss you all more than you could possibly miss me! Gotta go to sleep so I can ride tomorrow. (Good Morning Dave Prion --- thanks for the motivational calls---and Colin and Heather...Gosh I wish we could make it to your wedding! I hope you guys are as happy as we are!)
"Really...4:15PM? (maybe it was even 4:10PM, I don't remember) How soon?", I asked. "Oh, December". I suppose December is soon, given how the time has been flying away. But December isn't August, and we still have Fall to enjoy. Plus, I have been inundated with planning for Las Vegas in September. Whew! Interbike already. Now for years, either in retail or as a Queen comsumer in the bicycle industry, Interbike was just this fun little show where you got to check out all the latest and greatest whizz-bang inventions for Interbike.
This year? I am now working for a vendor that will be showing all the cool new products and so Interbike equals WORK! Lots of it! I feel like I get to "The Factory" , and then it's time to leave. sigh...
But the "getting to work" part of my day is still the best time of my day. From the days of commuting by bicycle from SF to Mountain View (@SGI) and then to Palo Alto (@ Palo Alto Bicycles), that rolling along with a breeze in my pony-tail and the sun in my eyes is the thing that gets me up in the morning. Well, that, and my dog licking my nose. Sydney is still the best alarm clock ever, though she doesn't get up until the sun comes up and right now, I get up before the sun.
And you're probably wondering about that "race report". Bow, New Hampshire (and just about every place we've seen in New Hampshire) is absolutely lovely. Sometimes I wish Seven was in New Hampshire as the riding is so much more to my liking (lots of rolling terrain...nothing is flat). Anyway, the gist is that Mike took 4 weeks off the bike, and another 4 weeks getting back into the groove, after his bout with whatever he had...and it was the first time ever that I can remember when he just didn't have it on race day. It didn't help that this race course was similar to Pescadero...for the first race after two months off. Also have Kevin Bouchard-Hall and a bunch of other guys who've been racing all season and are in form keeping the pace high.
But far be it for me to make excuses for my beloved. He doesn't need me to anyway. He's my star, and we are rolling along with the season's. Mom is rolling with her chemo seasons and I think after today, they are giving her a break. She's glowing from within and without and I love how many people called when I took a break from the keyboard.
Nothing about the weather today---I'm giving it (the weather)a break. I miss you all more than you could possibly miss me! Gotta go to sleep so I can ride tomorrow. (Good Morning Dave Prion --- thanks for the motivational calls---and Colin and Heather...Gosh I wish we could make it to your wedding! I hope you guys are as happy as we are!)
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Finally a nice weather day!
She's back! (-: The last couple of weeks have been quite the whirlwind! Right before I left for LA, we had a torrential rain storm (with high humidity.) Mike and I failed to close the windows to the room where our "internet box" resides and when we came home, amongst other furniture and "next to the windows" things, our "little box to the WWW" was soaked and out of commission. I didn't have time to deal with it until I returned from LA and so have been off-line so to speak from you all.
Did you miss me? Ha! I may not love southern California, but I have to admit it felt good to be on the Left Coast. even during the heat-wave there, it was nice. After leaving the high-humidity of the North East, I didn't even think it was all that bad in LA. I zipped up my sweatshirt when I arrived at LAX even. So there you go.
I came home to record heat and humid weather here. It's like being in a constant sauna. My co-worker says she likes it humid because it is so good for her skin. Ugh! That said, I don't mind riding my bike in the heat. Just everything else is hard. We only have air-conditioning in our bedroom and so typing on the computer and watching TV and anything else is horrible.
The good news, is we are racing tomorrow. After a long hiatus, mostly due to Mike being sick, we are headed to Bow, New Hampshire tomorrow to mix it up in a road race--woo hoo. Today I did my little 50 mile loop through Carlisle and Concord, Bedford and Lexington. The humidity was finally down and simple things like breathing were easy.
Just wanted to say Hi! Happy Saturday!
Did you miss me? Ha! I may not love southern California, but I have to admit it felt good to be on the Left Coast. even during the heat-wave there, it was nice. After leaving the high-humidity of the North East, I didn't even think it was all that bad in LA. I zipped up my sweatshirt when I arrived at LAX even. So there you go.
I came home to record heat and humid weather here. It's like being in a constant sauna. My co-worker says she likes it humid because it is so good for her skin. Ugh! That said, I don't mind riding my bike in the heat. Just everything else is hard. We only have air-conditioning in our bedroom and so typing on the computer and watching TV and anything else is horrible.
The good news, is we are racing tomorrow. After a long hiatus, mostly due to Mike being sick, we are headed to Bow, New Hampshire tomorrow to mix it up in a road race--woo hoo. Today I did my little 50 mile loop through Carlisle and Concord, Bedford and Lexington. The humidity was finally down and simple things like breathing were easy.
Just wanted to say Hi! Happy Saturday!
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