I would so LOVE to go on a ride w/ these guys!! Check out da bikes! - I love that each of them has a playlist.

(via Josh Spear who apparently gave away a free glow in the dark foldable bike to the person who sent in a link to the blingiest bike on the web. I wish I’d known about this sooner!!! nonetheless you can still see a fab collection of links to blingy bikes on his site.)

Filed under: beats, cycling | 2 Comments
Tagged: madeinqueens

Yesterday, barbobot, peliom, and I did a century ride in the eastern sierras near mono lake and saw lots of neat rocks. I wish I’d taken more pics but I spent most of my time huffing and puffing and catching up to my teammates! Here are a few though.

Filed under: cycling | 2 Comments

A couple years ago, I bought a CamelBak with a hydration bladder that started to leak within a couple months after I bought it, but was too busy at the time to return it. Last month I finally decided to contact them about it, so I fired off an email and within the next day they got back to me and told me where to send it. Within a week of sending it in, i got a brand new one in the mail which I just picked up today. That was all I had to do - no paperwork or receipt required. The hydration bladders have a lifetime warranty and according to their website, they will replace them even after extended use. I’m happy to say that they definitely delivered on that promise in a timely fashion and would highly recommend them!

Filed under: cycling | 1 Comment
Tagged: recommended

On Saturday, I did the Giro Di Peninsula which is a century ride that takes you from the race track in San Mateo to Woodside, down to the coast, back to Woodside and then over to the Los Altos hills. It was pretty and we covered some roads in Los Altos that I hadn’t been on before. I almost missed the ride because my alarm clock didn’t go off in the morning. or maybe it did and I accidentally turned it off. In any case, the ride started at 6:30 but I didn’t roll out of bed until 6:15 so I started at 7:15. Not a big deal, but it meant that I had to pick up my pace a little in order to get to the rest stops before they closed or ran out of food. It was my first long ride in 3 weeks and it felt good to be back in the saddle.

Here’s a map of the route someone created on Bikely. The person who created this map apparently finished the ride in 6 1/2 hrs. I finished in 9 hrs. Still, I’m happy with my time because it’s faster than the first century I did 3 months ago and there was much more climbing in this one (7,000 ft)! one day though, I really would like to be speedy. I don’t know if it’s possible for me to ever be speedy given that I’m a small person with short legs. maybe if i grew wings!

Filed under: bay area, cycling | 0 Comments

I can’t tell you how excited I am by this little gizmo! I was really close to buying a megaphone last week so I could build this nutty contraption and attach it to the back of my bike, but I think this iPod speaker might do the trick a lot better.

On the ride down to LA earlier this month, one of the riders (i don’t know her name and have only heard people refer to her as the-megaphone-girl) would take out a megaphone attached to her ipod at the top of every big hill and blast out the theme song from Rocky (or something in that vein) to cheer us on. It made me so happy everytime I saw her!!! Ever since then, I’ve been looking for something to put on my bike so that I can play music out loud on long rides (since it’s unsafe to use headphones or earbuds while riding).

The main drawbacks of this particular speaker though are that it’s sort of pricy ($99) and it sits in my water bottle cage (where I generally put my water bottle). Still, I think I may get it…unless one of you guys knows of a better solution!

Filed under: cycling, gadgets | 0 Comments

A BIG hug and THANK YOU for the support and encouragement! The ride raised a record-breaking $11 million for AIDS education and prevention programs and I had an awesome time. There were definitely days I thought I would keel over (mainly because I was still sick!) but thankfully made it through without any serious mishap. In the past two days, really simple things like waking up in a warm dry bed, resting my head on a pillow, taking a hot bath, using a flush toilet, and wearing clean clothes feel *500 TIMES* better than they ever have! it’s amazing. also, I now know that certain padded shorts are definitely better than others (even though they all look the same) and can *literally* save your ass.

More pics of the ride over here!

Filed under: cycling, excursions | 4 Comments

On Sunday peliom and I did the Wildflower Century in Chico! It was my first century ride and lots of fun! We almost didn’t go because it was raining Saturday night, and more rain was forecasted for the morning….but I really wanted to ride 100 miles *somewhere* so we decided to make the 3 hr drive to Chico at 3 am on Sunday morning to see if the rain would let up.

When we arrived in Chico, it was 6, but still raining, so we checked in, got some coffee, and then napped in the car for a little bit until the rain tapered off. At 8 am we headed off on our bikes! Rain showered on us periodically throughout the morning but things cleared up by mid-afternoon and it turned out to be a really *gorgeous* day. I wish I had photos to show you but I forgot my camera unfortunately :-( The route was beautiful though and it was pretty neat seeing the landscape dotted by hundreds and hundreds of brightly colored cyclists zipping along. For the last 20 miles, we drafted and switched off every 5 miles which made getting to the finish line a lot easier!

The ride was really well organized for the most part - SAG vehicles followed us along the way helping people fix flats (there were A LOT of flat tires), all the rest stops were well stocked with drinks and yummy snacks, and the route map was printed on a bandana which you could wear or easily stuff into a pocket (that’s it above). The only glitch came at the end when they ran out of food for dinner, so we had to wander around Chico for half an hour looking for a place to eat - not what you want to do after riding 100 miles! especially since almost all the restaurants in town were closed…and *especially* because riding long distances makes you *really obsessive* about two things - eating and peeing!

we finally had dinner at a chinese restaurant and then took another short nap in the car before driving back. I was seriously pooped when we got back to the city at midnight, but also super happy that we did it!

Filed under: cycling, excursions | 0 Comments

Here are pics from my ride on Sunday. I woke up a little later than usual and didn’t meet up with my lifecycle group. so I did a loop from Woodside to Pescadero and back to Woodside via Stage Road and Tunitas Creek Road on my own. 57 miles with about 4,900 feet of climbing. It’s a hard one but sooooo beautiful. And quiet. Along the 9 mile stretch of Tunitas Creek Rd. I encountered a grand total of 7 cars. It’s my very favorite ride in the bay area! And the weather was great - blue skies even along the coast. I definitely plan on doing this ride a lot this year. If anyone else wants to come, lemme know.

Also, the time has come for me to start fundraising for the AIDS ride…please help by making a donation if you can. Thank you!!

Oh and here are route directions in case you want to go.

(more…)

Filed under: bay area, cycling | 3 Comments

As noted a few weeks ago I went to an awesome seminar by Dr Clyde Wilson about nutrition for endurance athletes. Though I’m not much of an endurance athlete myself, I found this material pretty useful for day to day life. I’m typing up my three pages of notes so I can recycle the paper.

Energy Storage. We can store:

• about 2,000 Calories in our muscles. Muscles can absorb only glucose sugar. Maltodextrin is broken down to glucose in our saliva and is the only sugar form that can go directly to muscle.
• about 500 Calories in the liver. Liver breaks down larger sugars like fructose into glucose.
• about 200 Calories in our blood/circulatory system. Blood sugar is down to about 80% after waking up in the morning.

Burning Fuel

• Before training, stock muscle with Calories
• Muscle can burn up to 1,000 Cal/hour (intense running) but can only absorb 250 Cal/hour
• Proper hydration is critical for digestion and converting glucose into energy. Sugars need to be surrounded by layers of H20 molecules.
• The rate at which fuel enters the body is critical. Even eating the proper foods, if it is eaten all at one sitting in a day whatever cannot be converted to glucose immediately will go into fat storage.
• Body burns fat at 1/3 the rate for sugars: up to 4 Cal/minute from fat
• Compare with 10 Cal/minute for maltodextrin (direct to muscle) + sucrose (liver, then parallel delivery)
• Taking in Calories too fast will cause upset stomach.
• 250 Cal/hour works out to 4 Cal/minute. Consuming 40 Cal and then waiting 10 minutes is close enough.
• Every 1% of dehydration is a 5% decrease in performance.
• 50% of glycogen is gone from muscle after a workout

For Peak Performance

• stable blood sugar (no spikes, corresponding insulin spike will put you to sleep)
• stable fatty acid levels
• muscles fully stocked with glycogen

General diet

• We must eat protein, body can’t make it (doesn’t have to be meat though)
• Only need to eat protein 1-2x per day
• Caloric absorbtion rate: excess Calories are directed to abdominal fat (vs. subcutaneous).
• monounsaturated fats send 20% more Calories to muscle (vs saturated?)
• Fiber helps slow down digestion, this is the key to rate-limiting Caloric intake
• Spiking blood sugar -> Insulin rises to suck blood sugar out of bloodstream
• consume unsaturated fats
• consume (moderate amounts of) protein
• eat whole grain starches -> direct to muscle
• eat fruits + vegetables -> liver, then muscle
• 1/3 of Calories should come from (mostly unsaturated) fats
• dried fruit is better than nothing, but take advantage of fresh fruit whenever possible
• cook vegetables a bit to soften cellulose etc, but just a bit they should still be crunchy
• bananas are great in the AM, but get small ones or eat only half (see insulin, above)
• primary ingredient in a sports drink should be maltodextrin
• optimum is 3:2 ratio of maltodextrin to sucrose

Post Workout

• Best to take in Calories within 15 minutes after exercise
• recovery window is very important
• It takes a lot of water to digest food
• We need 1 Liter of water for 1,000 Calories
• We sweat 0.5 - 2.0 Liters / hour when training
• Need about 1/4 teaspoon salt per Liter of water
• sleep is very poor if you are dehydrated (neurons)
• Omega-3 fats, highest concentration is at synapse
• get your DRI for Omega-3 (1.5 grams/day), limiting factor for recover is the nervous system
• breakfast should have as much fiber as sugar (grams)

phew! Ideally our dietary economy and/or my cell phone would keep track of all of this stuff for me. Until then, I find Clyde’s tip sheets to be extremely helpful. Using them enables me to get relatively close to the above without thinking too much.

Link to Dr Clyde Wilson’s Blog
Link to Dr Clyde Wilson’s website (check the downloads)

Filed under: cycling, food, science | 1 Comment

This past Saturday, peliom came along on my bike ride and we did a loop in Marin from Novato to Tomales Bay. It was a great day! (though there were definitely more cars on these roads than on the Petaluma-Dillion beach route). The ride was 48 miles with about 1800 ft of climbing. This was also my last ride for the month of March which turned out to be a pretty good month. Aside from the week I spent out of town, I managed to get in the recommended 100-125 miles of riding per week. Yay! My training schedule roughly works out to this (on an ideal week)…

• Mon - 5 miles (commute)
• Tue - 6 miles (commute) + 45 min. swim (or weights if I don’t feel like getting wet)
• Wed - 25 miles (butter lap around the city)
• Thu - 6 miles (commute) + 45 min. swim (or weights)
• Fri - 5 miles (commute)
• Sat - 25-50 miles
• Sun - 50-70 miles (lifecycle training ride)

Of course I don’t always follow this to a T, but when I miss a day, I try to make up for it on another day. Mondays and Fridays are my “rest days” so sometimes I’ll drive to work on those days. Anyways, two more months til I ride down to LA. For the month of April, I’m supposed to bump up the mileage to 125-150 miles / week. I also signed up to do the Wildflower Century in 3 weeks on April 22nd. my first one ever!

Filed under: bay area, cycling | 1 Comment

or so it seems because I got 2 flats again yesterday! That’s the second time in about a month that I’ve gotten two flat tires within a couple hours of each other. Luckily my flats have happened on Sunday rides which I do with a lifecycle group (instead of when I’m out in the middle of nowhere by myself) so I’ve had support from super nice people who stopped to help (and even offered a spare tube when my tire blew out a second time to get me back on the road really quickly! thanks Sabine! thanks Tia!!) Although I always carry a spare tube and pump with me, I’ve now resolved to carry at least 2 tubes and 2 CO2 cartridges on every ride (if for no other reason than to be able to stop and help someone else if they need it!)

Anyways, this Saturday I didn’t go on a ride because I’ve been recovering from a nasty cold / flu so no pics this weekend unfortunately. I did make it out yesterday with my regular group though and we rode from San Francisco to China Camp in San Rafael and then along Lucas Valley road to Nicasio and back (about 70 miles). It was a gray drizzly day and the flat tires made it even harder. But in the end I was super happy because it was my first long ride with clipless pedals and I managed to stay upright all the way. yay!

Filed under: cycling | 2 Comments

Last Saturday, I went on a pretty bike ride starting in Petaluma along Chileno Valley Road to the coast and then back. It was a perfect day! Along the way, I saw cows, horses, an alpaca, bunnies, a turtle, goats, sheep, a snake, black birds with bright red cheeks, blue jays, carniverous looking birds with huge wing spans and some other animals I’m forgetting right now. The ride was 56 miles with about 1,800 feet of climbing, so it’s sort of long but not overly strenuous.

Here’s a map and route directions for anyone else that wants to go!

Driving Directions to Starting Point
Take the 101 North to Petaluma and exit Petaluma Boulevard South. Drive north 2 miles and make a left (west) on Western Avenue. Drive 2.2 miles and then turn left on Chileno Valley Road. Drive .8 mile to Helen Putnam Regional Park on the left. (the sign for the park is facing the opposite way so it’s easy to miss…if you go more than 1 mile after you get on Chileno Valley Road w/o seeing the park, turn around and you’ll be sure to see it. It costs $5 to park in the small lot but you can also park on the opposite side of the road for free).

Route Directions
0.0 Park at Helen Putnam Park and ride west on Chileno Valley Road.
3.0 Turn RIGHT to stay on Chileno Valley Road.
12.6 LEFT on Tomales-Petaluma Road.
13.8 RIGHT on Alexander Road.
14.8 RIGHT on Fallon-Two Rock Road.
17.2 LEFT on Petaluma-Valley Ford Road
26.0 LEFT on Valley Ford Estereo Road (in the town of Valley Ford…this small road can be easy to miss…make sure you don’t continue onto HWY 1)
31.8 RIGHT on Dillon Beach Road. Ride out and back to Dillon Beach and then turn around to return to the junction with Valley Ford Road.
34.6 RIGHT on Dillon Beach Road
37.2 RIGHT on Shoreline Highway (Hwy 1) in the town of Tomales. Make sure you get some foccaccia at the bakery!! it’s really good!
37.5 LEFT on Tomales-Petaluma Road.
42.7 RIGHT on Chileon Valle7 Road.
52.3 LEFT to stay on Chileno Valley Road.
55.5 Arrive at starting point.

Route directions are from this excellent book which I highly recommend Northern California Biking: 150 of the Best Road and Trail Rides

Filed under: bay area, cycling, excursions | 3 Comments

I went to a nutrition workshop last night expecting an extremely boring and yet slightly motivating remix of the food pyramid for athletes.

Instead I was blown away by a rapid fire how-to-fuel-your-body talk by Dr. Clyde Wilson, and left with that feeling of “living in the bay area totally rocks.”

Clyde is one of those of those OCD professors that is crazy smart, loves teaching and optimizes every minute of his life to making the world a better place while at the same time having as much fun as possible. In philosophical terms, if there is such a thing as “The California School”, Clyde is headmaster. After high school he spent 6 years in the navy as the “supervisor for reactor chemistry and radiation control” aboard USS Carl Vinson in Alameda. His Standford PhD thesis was “Biochemistry in Single Cells Using Microfluidic Systems.” He is now teaching courses on clinical and popular nutrition at Standord and UCSF, and he is Director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the Sports Medicine Institute in Palo Alto.

Reading Clyde’s website, which I highly recommend, is a deluge of facts and figures about why and how we should eat and how to make it simple. It is ironic that by following his obsessive regime you actually become less obsessive about reading labels, the right thing just happens automatically. And Clyde jokes that he loves pineapple juice and root beer floats, being healthy doesn’t mean not having fun.

Pinapple Juice!!!!

This guy is one of us …. so check out his

• Vision Statement
• Excellent FAQ on Sports Nutrition
• Crazy Helpful Downloads Page
• Seminar Calendar

Link to Dr Clyde Wilson’s Website

Filed under: bay area, cycling, food, medicine | 4 Comments

So, since this is my very favorite time of year to be out on my bike, your resident TikiRobot cyclist will once again resume periodic trip reports of places to take your bike. And since I’m supposed to be riding 100-125 miles / week this month for aids ride training, I will be covering lots of ground. (although i’ll be gone in texas at sxsw the following 2 weekends, so no trip reports then. not quite sure how i will make up for it yet. eek.)

Anyways, this morning was clear and beautiful so I rode up to the Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton which is just east of San Jose. At 4,209 ft, Mt. Hamilton is apparently the highest point in the Bay Area. However, lest you think I’m crazy, I did not ride from the bottom all the way to the top. (maybe one day I’ll be that crazy person, but today was not that day.) My bike ride began at Joseph D. Grant County Park which is about 11 miles from the top and even though you have to ride mostly uphill, the grade was pretty gradual (5%-7%) so it wasn’t so bad. Altogether, I climbed about 2700 feet and the views were spectacular. I was hoping to see lots of wildflowers but we’ve had so little rain this year, I didn’t see any at all. I did, however, see some melting snow and some really big telescopes.

Filed under: bay area, cycling | 2 Comments

Spotted while on my bike somewhere near Rodeo Beach today. I didn’t see any frogs though.

Filed under: bobslobster, cycling | 2 Comments

So I’m kind of bummed that I missed all the bikes that zipped through the Bay Area for the Tour of California last weekend (my mom was in town and it was Chinese New Year so there was family stuff to tend to) but I just discovered that I can follow all the other stages live from this nifty web app. I don’t actually follow cycling and have absolutely no idea what’s going on (there’s some information overload happening on this app)…but I like looking at photos of the landscape because it gets me psyched for June when I’ll hopefully make a similar (but shorter and muuuch slooooowwwer) trip down the coast. It also gets me psyched for the weekend so i can go on a bike ride!

Filed under: cartography, cycling, design | 1 Comment

Per today’s visit to Physical Therapy I am now the proud owner of a 6×36″ Foam Roller. You may recognize this object, the hated tool of the physical “therapist”, the Room 101 of stretching. A while back I used one to stretch my Iliotibial Band in the interest of less painful cycling. Stretching the IT Band kills … it’s best to do it at home because you are likely to start crying at the gym.

My physical therapist assured me that the four foam roller exercises she is prescribing for me are not painful like the IT Band stretch. She says I have really bad posture and that is leading to this painful Shoulder Impingement, possibly catalyzed by hitting the riverbed when goofing of and diving in the Kings River. I do have horrible posture, no suprise there. Putting my back and shoulders into a supposedly “normal” anatomical position requires a lot of effort and is not a fun resting state. I have a super-stiff neck and upper back too, owing to my hunchback computer lifestyle. Hopefully these exercises will help.

Just like every physical therapist and ergonomics specialist I have ever met, she expressed shock upon learning that I spend 14-16 hours a day in front of a computer.

“Wow, that’s really a lot”

I don’t get it … that level of computer time is an industry standard all across silicon valley. Why isn’t the PT industry in tune with that? I can see now why so many co-workers are triathletes. It’s not just about exercise … training at that level makes you pay attention to your body and keeps you in touch with sports medicine physicians that can be a valuable resource for this type of thing.

Then again there are the chain-smoking, hard-drinking mexican web developers that I work with. I think I’m going to just get a cortisone shot and eat some candy.

Link to AMF Should Impingement page

Filed under: cycling, gadgets, old timers | 3 Comments

In case anyone is interested in doing the AIDS ride from SF to LA this summer, there’s a kickoff gathering and info session this Sunday at Hotel Nikko from 11am-4pm. My friends kathryn and arena are going to be training ride leaders this year so it should be fun. If you sign up there, the registration fee is only $55 (instead of $75). I’m going to sign up!

Filed under: bay area, cycling, upcoming | 0 Comments

Did you know that you can order EL wire from Amazon? Well I didn’t until recently and was pleasantly surprised to find that it’s also pretty cheap! at least cheaper than I remember it being elsewhere. $17.90 will get you 20 ft in red, green, or white and that includes the battery pack. I’ve been having some dangerously close encounters with cars while riding home from the train station at night so I just ordered some for my bike.

Filed under: cycling, tronix | 0 Comments

You can’t really tell, but this guy is ony 20 inches tall..

Filed under: cycling, tronix | 2 Comments

Coming this Sat to SF, Veloswap is apparently *the* place to “see, swap, buy and sell every imaginable bike, part, and accessory.” Not that I need any more bike stuff, but I’m going to see if they’ve got a blinky glow-in-the-dark jacket that i need for wintery night-time-riding (cause there are drivers like me on the road!) and if it’s not there, then i guess i really will have to make my own.

Filed under: cycling, upcoming | 1 Comment

Today is Park(ing) Day here in SF - a day to temporarily transform a metered parking spot into a PARK.…at least until the meter runs out! Here’s an email Arena sent about it

Today I will be volunteering to help deploy the “Temporally Displaced Open Space” in the downtown area of San Francisco — part of PARK(ing) Day. Or, to put it more succinctly, I’ll be hauling dirt with my bicycle trailer.

If you get time today (Thursday), check out some of the installations all around downtown (one near Axis Cafe in front of CCA(c) and one in front of Ritual Roasters on Valencia). This is a one day art installation to visualize the potential of parking spaces as green spaces.

Consult the map:
http://communitywalk.com/map/19478

or the website:
http://rebargroup.org/projects/parkingday/index.html

and please pass those links on to anybody that you think would be interested …or make a PARK(ing) space of your own, it’s an open-source project.

Filed under: bay area, cycling, design, transportation, upcoming | 2 Comments

Starting on Friday night at Zeitgeist and running through the whole weekend, Cyclecide presents Pedal Monster! a gathering of mutant bicycle clubs descending on San Francisco for bicycle-rodeo-
pedal-powered-sideshow-circus-madness! The weekend’s events will be at the Mission Village Market at 18th and Alabama

And on Saturday, there’s the Tour De Fat at Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park. “Two parts bike rodeo and one part circus you can expect fire-jumping bike acts, cycling games, a cruiser bike parade, live music, tasty eats and great beer….all proceeds benefit two nonprofits: the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition& the Bay Area Ridge Trails Council.” I don’t know why they decided to have both events on the same weekend because I can’t decide which one to go to!

Lastly, a biking event that just passed, the butter lappers showed up en masse wednesday night for a wedding on wheels!

Filed under: cycling, tiki lifestyle, upcoming | 1 Comment

Here’s a mashup I can get behind :-) My friend Mike made these stickers and you can order a set on cafe press. Speaking of biking, we’ve got a veritable peloton going on now for the butter lap (with a team of 8 showin up last night)! If you’d like to join, we meet every Wed at 6 pm by the Ferry Bldg for a lap around the city and then finish off with beer and burgers at Zeitgeist. (and if you’re not into the biking thing, you can also just meet us for beer :-)

Filed under: cycling | 1 Comment

These bicycle LED things are awesome! Way better than Hokey Spokes. You gotta make them yourself though, this is an instructables thing.

Link to SpokePOV: LED Bike Wheel on instructables.com.

Filed under: cycling, tronix | 4 Comments