Wednesday May 14, 2008

Biking to work & biking to save lives

This is a big week for bicycling and me, with Bike to Work Day coming up tomorrow (May 15) and my 65 mile ride for the American Lung Association on Saturday (May 17). I'm excited about Bike to Work Day, as I think this will be the first time I can actually ride in. It's always funny - I ride in all the time, but something like a doctors appointment will come up and I'll miss this one day. Well, I already rescheduled my dentist appointment so I can make it this year!  I expect to see the trails pretty packed, even though my route doesn't take me along any of the "power stations", because tomorrow is also a Spare The Air Day and my last day to train for the ALA ride on Saturday.

Unfortunately, my show schedule and cold I got after we opened kept me from biking for essentially all of April - so, training didn't start until April 30.  I've done this ride a few years in a row, now, so I know I can do it - I just know that my lack of training will result in being VERY tired and sore, but I will do it.  I do this ride for my mother, a lung cancer survivor and asthma sufferer and for all of the family friends and family members we have lost to lung disease. If you can support me, I'd appreciate it. If not, please do something friendly for the environment on Saturday to help support clean air - like combine any trips by car, or see if you can walk or ride a bicycle to do your errands, or just make sure your car is passing its smog requirements.  There's a lot of us in the Bay Area - small things we do can add up.

Monday March 10, 2008

Bike accident I was so sad today to read about the fatal bike accident that occurred on Steven's Creek Canyon yesterday morning. We do that ride all the time, only missing yesterday because we were skiing. I love riding that road because I find that the cyclists and motorists are generally very courteous, with the exception of occasional yahoos in sports cars.  It's a nice, quiet road with a good steady climb.  My heart goes out to the families of Matt Peterson and Kristy Gough, and I'm sending as many good thoughts as possible toward Christopher Knapp - I hope he is able to recover from his injuries. (2008-03-10 15:10:20.0) Permalink Comments [2]

Monday January 28, 2008

Northstar skiing! Finally made it skiing this weekend, up to Northstar, and it was AMAZING! Okay, my legs were not in the best shape, but on Saturday the sun was shining, the lift lines were short to non-existent, and the snow was perfect!  Nice and soft. Northstar left some of their runs partially ungroomed, which was a lot of fun - I could ski in the deep, cut up snow for awhile, and as I got tired - bail out to the nice, even groomed bits.  We decided to drive straight home on Sunday, after getting a look at the wind & snow starting to fall - which seems like a good decision, since the resorts got between 18" and 36" yesterday! It would've been fun to ski in, but not for long, and the drive home would've been a nightmare. I just hope we get more good snow like this - both for the skiing and to help stave off the drought! (2008-01-28 13:05:26.0) Permalink

Wednesday September 05, 2007

The great outdoors!

Had a fantastic trip to Yosemite this weekend - staying in Camp Curry. What a fun place! It's still very rustic, yet it's walking distance to clean bathrooms with running water, showers, buffet, pizza shop & bar.  The bartender, Ken, was very friendly as he explained that their wine list was out of date and that they no longer carried Foppiano wines, and promised to pass on my disappointment to the management.  As I'm not a huge jug wine fan, we decided to have beers on tap.  Not bad for the wilderness.

Deer were all over the campsite, cautious of the people, but not at all spooked.  We didn't see any bears, though some of the other campers' snoring could've easily been mistaken for a bear growl ;-)

Hiked up to Nevada Falls - using the John Muir trail this time. After my last experience attempting to climb up Half Dome, I'll never go up the Mist trail again! My calves are aching horribly - guess I'm still not in climbing shape!

Tuesday August 28, 2007

Lunar eclipse

This was pretty cool - I read about on the Internet yesterday, and my husband and I set the alarm for 3:30AM this morning, threw on some sweats and went outside to just look at the red moon in the sky for about 10 minutes.  The view was fantastic - I can only imagine how neat it would've been if we had a telescope or binoculars, but even with the naked eye it was an awesome sight.

Lunar eclipses aren't rare - it's just rare to get such a good and unobstructed view of a full lunar eclipse.

Unfortunately, had a hard time falling back to sleep after that (the cat expecting her breakfast didn't help), but I think it was worth being a bit tired today. 

Wednesday March 21, 2007

Calling all potential captains!

The campaign for this year's Breathe Easy ride is ramping up, and I will not be able to captain Team Salty Dawgs this year, due to the timing of my impending nuptials.  I may still do the ride for fun, but won't have the time to organize a team or do fund raising.  I haven't had much luck recruiting a captain for this two time top fund raising team - so thought I'd try to find folks via this blog.  Anyone available to do a GREAT ride on June 30, 2007, willing to find some teammates and raise some funds for lung disease?  I'll take things over again next year, but need a little help this year.

Any takers?
 

Friday January 19, 2007

Close call!

Riding our bicycles in today, we were nearly involved in what could have been a very nasty accident!  Mark & I were waiting at the red light at Middlefield and Shoreline, in the bicycle lane on eastbound Middlefield.  We were chatting away, and missed when the light turned green.  That slight, and unusual, delay saved our lives.  The car sitting next to us, a small Toyota, started driving just after the light turned green, but just before us.  Mark & I casually entered the intersection when suddenly a blue van came RUSHING southbound on Shoreline - running a very red light at about 40 mph.  Because of our minor delay at leaving the intersection when the light turned green, the small Toyota was hit by the van instead of us.  Even then, I was suddenly faced with two cars coming towards us - out of control. I screamed and totally froze - crashing metal at those speeds that close is too much for my little helmet to protect against.  We were very lucky that the little Toyota wasn't a bit further in the intersection, or the severity of the impact would've certainly sent the crashing cars just that much closer to us and I wouldn't be able to write this now.

Please, please, please drivers - don't run red lights. Is it worth nearly killing two cyclists to get to work on time?

Shaken and fortunately not stirred.
 

Tuesday May 30, 2006

ALA Breathe Easy Bike ride a success!! After 100s of training miles, the American Lung Association's Breathe Easy 65-mile bike ride was a huge success! Team Salty Dawgs raised nearly $15,000 for lung disease research & prevention! (and with a few last second donations still coming in, I think we'll make $15,000 before the week is up).  The ride was incredible - it was windy, but not too bad.  It was so beautiful! I've finally mastered the art of drafting, so with my friend Richard's help, I was able to complete the ride without destroying my body this time.  It took me 6 hours and 13 minutes this time, but the ride was actually 66-miles this year - so that's a slight time improvement over last year.

I hope to get pictures from my teammates soon & I'll let you know when they are up on bubb.org (my woefully out of date website).

We spent the weekend at the Larson Family Winery's Captain's Cabin - wow, what a treat!  The home is beautifully decorated, and no modern convenience was overlooked.  The wines, which we were able to taste across the path from the "cabin", were wonderful as well. I would have to say the Wingo White & the Pinot were my favorites. This is a family run winery, and it truly shows.  We were all treated like family while we stayed, chatting with folks in the tasting room - even singing showtunes with Bob.  The family dogs were ever present and incredibly friendly.
(2006-05-30 13:10:40.0) Permalink Comments [0]

Monday May 22, 2006

65-mile bike ride, here I come! It's just days now until the American Lung Association's 2 Rock Breathe Easy 65-mile bike ride.  I haven't been able to get in nearly as many or as long of training rides as I did last year, and fundraising has been a lot more challenging.  Take yesterday, for example, I was planning a nice 45 mile ride in Hecker Pass wine country - but it poured rain most of the day!  This isn't why I moved to California!  Well, I guess we can't always have perfect weather :-)
 
Rode my bike into work today, for probably the last time before the big event on May 27. I hope to get one more mountain bike ride in tomorrow, then I'll be resting up.  I'll have to have a word with my cat about letting me actually sleep through the night! (really, I *don't* need my armpit kneaded at 4AM!)

Wish me luck, and if you can, sponsor me!

All money raised is tax deductible & goes to fund research for lung cancer, emphysema and asthma - 3 lung diseases that very intimiately affect my family.

In addition to all this training, I managed to squeeze in an audition for Saratoga Drama Group's season auditions last night. I screwed up my song a bit, but turned it around  at the end.  When I finished singing, I was asked if I could tap dance. I replied, "No, but I can fake it - I smile so big you won't know what my feet are doing!"  Well, I got a call back to the tap dance auditions. Ummmm... now, can I learn to tap dance in just a few hours?  we'll see.... ;-)
(2006-05-22 13:42:05.0) Permalink Comments [1]

Friday May 05, 2006

Spring is finally here! The rain has finally stopped here in the SF Bay Area, and I've been able to ride my bike in on a much more regular basis.  Flowers are blooming along the bay shore trail like crazy - it's beautiful!  Shoreline park is a bird sanctuary, so it's cool to see lots of different species hanging out in the very large park.  Today, I saw some pheasants and tons of geese.  The geese today were quite puffed up and were hissing as we approached, because they have lots of baby goslings!  Last week I saw an egret that had caught a rodent, and a pair of burrow owls just hanging out.  I knew the burrow owls the moment I saw them, after years of listening to the Dead Milkmen's "Stuart".

With the dry weather I was also finally able to get out on my mountain bike this week.  WOW!  Mountain biking is much harder than road biking.  I went down to Los Gatos with a few other mountain bikers & road up St Joeseph's hill.  It was so hard, with my heart rate constantly spiking into the high 180s, but I did it!  Now I can't wait to get out on my mountain bike again - soon!

At this point, though, I just want to make sure I am in shape to do the American Lung Association's ride at the end of this month. I know I *can* do it, but I want to do it without hurting myself again!

Monday May 30, 2005

Bike for Breath a huge success!

Wow!  It's done!  We started out bright and early leaving the hotel parking lot at 7:15 AM to register and pick up our jersey's and t-shirts.  After a quick rendevous at the car, we were off by 7:40 AM to start our 65-mile ride!  Here's me and Danek Duvall getting started.

It was a cool and incredibly windy day.  I didn't see the sunlight until well after noon.  This was the longest bike ride I've ever been on, and I'm quite happy with myself that I was able to finish in 6 hours and 8 minutes (including rest stops).  It was an amazing ride in a beautiful part of California.  My team, Team Salty Dawgs, were the number one fundraisers.  I should've gotten a picture of us with the trophy, but after the ride I was a bit tired and just thinking about eating lunch. 

Happily, I wasn't too sore or too tired, until I got out of the car after the long drive home.  Then I discovered I had tendinitis in my knee *ouch*.  But after only hobbling around for a couple of days, I'm already feeling much better.  I'd like to get back in the saddle again, but will be passing on road bikes for awhile and get back to my mountain biking. :-)

More pictures can be found on my website.

Monday May 23, 2005

Training continues!!! I did 45 miles on Saturday and another 13 on Sunday.  Not as much riding as I was hoping to get in this weekend, but it was hot and I got hungry :-)    I'm going to have to do some serious climbing on Saturday as well as just sitting in the saddle a long time.  I figure that the 65-mile bike ride will take me about 5.5 hours, perhaps more, depending on how hot it is.  I will finish the ride - it means a lot to my mother, and a lot to me.  The Bike4Breath group has been very supportive, too.  It should be a ton of fun - the Salty Dawgs ride on Saturday! Argh, matey! 

watch this space for ride photos...
(2005-05-23 18:01:26.0) Permalink Comments [0]

Monday May 16, 2005

Sun's employees are amazingly generous! I am currently raising funds for the Bike4Breath's 2 Rock Ride (I'm doing 65-miles!) and I am just amazed at how incredibly generous Sun employees are.  Even in these tight times, not one person I've asked for a donation has said no.  And I've just been flabbergasted at just how giving each person is. Wow!!

I did two training rides this weekend.  First was just starting from home, going to the Alpine Inn, down to Sun Menlo Park, and home again - *whew*.  Yesterday, I went to Hecker Pass in Gilroy, started out at Fortino Winery, then road all around through that beautiful area, winding through Morgan Hill and getting back to Fortino just in time to pick up a couple of bottles of their wonderful Zinfandel. 

I did just about 60 miles this weekend.  I have to somehow work this up to 65-miles in one ride in the next two weeks. Yikes!
(2005-05-16 13:18:56.0) Permalink Comments [0]

Tuesday April 26, 2005

First game of the season - a win! So, I'm too busy this summer to actually commit to any softball team as a full time player, but I am a sub on two teams.  Last night was my first time playing with the Menlo Park 'Freaks', and besides being very cold outside, it was an excellent game.  My fielding didn't totally suck, and I actually got a hit *and* got on base *and* progressed a runner (instead of one of us getting out).  Pretty amazing.  All the same, I need to get to a batting cage if I'm going to play anymore!  My hitting was ... well... subpar.  Fortunately, this was a really cool team to play with and everyone was very supportive.  That's critical for me, because I'm not a serious player (obviously) so I'm only playing to have fun, and fun it definitely was.  We won, 18-10. Yippee!

Other than softball, I've been riding my bike a lot.  Just rode it 5 days in a row, at least 20 miles on each day.  I need to get close to 60 before the big Bike 4 Breath ride at the end of May.
(2005-04-26 16:14:20.0) Permalink Comments [0]

Tuesday February 08, 2005

Trail Etiquette

So, I was riding on St. Joeseph's hill this weekend, and as I was about to overtake a couple of walkers, I called out the standard "On your left!"  Well, the walkers didn't move and continued to take up the majority of the trail.  I was afraid I'd clip one of them as I passed, so I called out again and slowed down.  Yet, as I got closer, neither of the walkers had moved, so this time I yelled out "On your left!"  One of the walkers turned to me and shouted, "We heard you the first time!"

Hmmpf.  In case it's not obvious, faster users of a trail  not only announce their presence as a courtesy, but also for everybody's safety.

Still, had a great ride.  It was much more difficult than it should've been, which means I need to get out more.