17 Minutes

That's how long it takes me to roll out of my garage, drop Clarks, and get to the EQ. Dropping Clarks at 6am this time of the year is cold. Try not to hit your fingers on any branches. They might shatter.

I met up with Tony and Jon for 2 hours of dirt before work. I'm always amazed that I have access to such a good network of trails from my house. Down Clarks to the EQ, Up Clarks to Jacobs, down Ghost, and up the Jeep road and home by 8AM.

I thought I would have Clarks all to myself to rip the downhill but I saw Cory and another guy coming up. Cory had been out since 5am and had his light on. I'm glad he did or I might have run him over.

I admit, riding that early in the morning, I'm always expecting to be ripped off my bike by a mountain lion. I still haven't seen one which is weird since I typically ride early in the morning or in the evenings.

After my encounter with a mountain goat, maybe I should be grateful I haven't seen any cougars yet.

5 Mile Pass this weekend. I'm still undecided but leaning towards racing. Anyone else?

Breakfast of Champions

Nothing compliments some training miles like a 20 oz bottle of Diet Coke and some little chocolate donuts.

I really should try to eat better. I'm a loser.

Brats n Bikes

RAWROD tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the road trip, the 100+ miles of dirt and the brat showdown tonight.

Dug- please leave your ambien at home.

Like a kid in a candy store

Monday- AF/Pine Hollow
Tues- Squaw Peak
Wed- Crank/Ireland loop
Thur- Sundance/Aspen Grove

The weather has been outstanding. I haven't had a normal lunch all week. Power bars and water for me.

I should probably hang a few air fresheners around my cubical. I'm pretty ripe.

The Meeting Invite

Had a lunch meeting with one of the big cheese Directors at work. He is always busy and it's hard to get time on his calendar. I had to get creative. I sent him this:

Date: Mon 4/20
Time: 11:30
Where: Parking lot
Subject: Parking lot to AF, up to Pine Hollow and back

He accepted.

We rode up to the Pine Hollow gate to check out conditions. You can go a few hundred yards past the gate until you start to see this:



Check out the view just an hour from my cubical. I still can't get over it.

The Magic Juice

Last time I went to Disney Land, I came back with pink eye. This time, I got a sore throat/cold. That place is a giant petri dish.

But I have the cure for the cold. Behold.....the magic juice:

I'm not going to lie. It doesn't taste great but it does the trick. And it isn't half bad in Diet Coke.

Lead Generation

I've been very busy working on a new lead generation tool at work. I hope it works.

Don't be fooled by the lycra

Did some road riding while in San Diego.  The highlight was climbing Mt. Palomar (the big climb on Stage 8 of the Tour of CA). Conditions were colder than normal which meant we hit snow at the top of the climb (4,000 + vertical)

The low was almost getting into a fist fight while riding along the costal roads near Pacific Beach.  

It's possible that people in cars see guys riding bikes, wearing lycra as passive and annoying. As easy targets perhaps.  And as cyclists, it's hard to judge the size of the driver until they get out of their car.  So during the occasional encounter when the cyclist and car don't get along and words are exchanged and gestures are demonstrated, it's hard to tell what the outcome might be. 

I'm 6'1" 165 lbs and my riding partner for the day (Erol) is 6'2" 200 lbs.  (and Dug is 6'1" 130 lbs but wasn't with us on the ride I'm talking about)


(Erol, Dug, Me)

We were fortunate that our encounter was with a little man.  Maybe 5'9" a buck twenty with shoes on.

I guess the clearly painted bike lane complete with pictures of bikers every 100 yards and the "give a cyclist 3 ft law" didn't occur to him when I passed him just before the round-about on that busy costal road in San Diego. But my passing move clearly made him upset enough that he tried to run Erol (who was riding behind me) into the curb and then buzzed both of us, threw his car in park, flung his door open, stood in the middle of the road, completely blocking traffic, and started yelling at the top of his lungs, ready to fight.  

I thought this would finally be my moment to have at it. To totally unleash all the frustrations a cyclist feels against crazy drivers. I was hoping this guy would have the courage to stop yelling and actually throw a punch so we could publicly beat this guy up WHILE wearing lycra. 

But it never happened. I think he may have misjudged us and once we got face to face he realized that there was no way he could win.  

Looking back, I'm just glad he didn't have a gun. After all, we were riding in San Diego not Draper.

Thanks For Flying The Colors

Back to Normal

Oh yeah....And I almost got into a fight today during my ride. It's funny how at the stop light, people don't dare say anything but as soon as the light turns green they feel the need to stick their head out the window and THEN say something cute.

Another perk to my white gloves, it's much easier to see the finger.

Work Tools

I almost forgot to pack my laptop when I left my house this morning.

Mean

This morning, I caught a co-worker in the act of setting up his April Fools joke. This is just mean:



There are actually 4 stalls. He set up a pair of shoes and pants in all of them. I hope nobody has Mexican food for lunch.