I felt great when I got up this morning.  But very, very hungry.  I guess I was also a little slow because it took me an hour and forty five minutes to get out of the house(?!?).  I'm beginning to suspect that I require more daily maintenance than an aircraft carrier.  I rode up Corbett to Portola to Laguna Honda to Dewey to Taraval then down to the ocean.  Very, very pretty morning.  Another one of those mornings that make you want to live at the beach.  Cool, sunny, and gorgeous:

Don't I look delighted??

I headed up Geary to the Palace of the Legion of Honor and then came out through Seacliff.  Then I went out 32nd Ave back towards Geary and came down California St.  This is the view back up 32nd Ave from California:

I took California down until it got to trafficky so I switched to Cornwall when it split off from California at 8th avenue.  Then, I took Euclid over it's huge hill down to Presidio and then Post into the Financial District.  Fun, fun, ride and I seem to be recovering from yesterday pretty well.

Sunday, April 22

I rode a hundred miles on Sunday.  It rained all day Saturday and the weather report looked pretty dicey for Sunday morning, but sixty or so people showed up for the training ride out to Petaluma.  And what a ride it was!  This day was way harder than any actual day on the lifecycle and people who did well on this day aren't going to have any problem riding down to LA.  First off, the mileage was very, very high.  Second, there were a mess of big hills:

    1)   Camino Alto out of Mill Valley
    2)   White's hill out of Fairfax
    3)   The hill between Geronimo and Nicasio valleys
    4)   Cheese Factory hill headed north
    5)   Wilson Hill headed into Petaluma
    6)   Red Hill headed out of Petaluma
    7)   Cheese Factory hill headed south
    9)   The hill between Nicasio and Geronimo valleys
    10)   White's hill out of Nicasio valley
    11)   Camino Alto out of Corte Madera
    12)   Sausalito Lateral out of Sausalito

This came to about 90 miles and 8,000 feet of climbing.  Which is a whole lot.  And way more climbing than any day on the Lifecycle.  So everybody who did this ride should be really proud of themselves.

The weather managed to hold up which pretty much suprised everybody.  Here are a few pics from the Fairfax rest stop:

And of course the always glamorous Julie Brown who joined up with our ride in Fairfax:

I spent two hours pointing at the intersection of Hicks Valley Road and Point Reyes - Petaluma Road.  It's cold up there.  I don't know what it is about that area, but it's much warmer a half a mile south at the Cheese Factory.  Here are a few pics of me hard at work:

I love my new red jacket which seems to have so many pockets that I'm still finding them.  Once I was sure that the remaining riders were all with ride leaders,  I headed up towards Wilson Hill.  Which is a challenging hill with a fabulous payoff at the top.  Look at this view!  I mean in addition to the gorgeous riders:

We made out way down a screaming descent down into Petaluma for lunch on the river.  I love Petaluma.  It's so pretty and fun to ride around in.  Here's Ben at lunch:

It was starting to look like rain so people finished their lunches pretty quickly and headed back off for Cheese Factory.  The weather miraculously cleared and we didn't get wet.  Some of the riders were pretty tired by Cheese Factory but we managed to get everybody out of there.  Here are Ben and Annette lounging by the pond:

We slowly worked our way back over the Cheese Factory hill and through Nicasio valley and then back over White's hill.  That's a tough run because it's hill hill hill and you feel like you can never get a break.  There might have been a few tears shed.  I totally cried during my first century.  I think a lot of people do.  It's the combination on physical and mental exhaustion.  Plus the drama.  We stopped in Fairfax and rested a bit.  Here's Peter and one of our recumbant riders:

Then we headed back the mostly flat route back to Camino Alto.  I snapped this pic of pretty Saint Anselm's in San Anselmo.  The sun was right behind it so I couldn't photograph it very well but it's very detailed and very beautiful:

We made it over Camino Alto without too much fuss and then over to Mike's Bikes where somebody had left their bazillion dollar Seven sitting outside unattended.  Man, if that were my bike I'd sleep with it in the bed with me.  One of our riders had blown a spoke and was waiting for a repair which took a while so we were the last riders into Sports Basement at the end.  Here are Dorothy and Kate enjoying the being off their bikes:

In all, we were on that ride for twelve hours which was an awful long time.  But I felt great all day!  All that training I've been doing during the work has been really paying off.  I rode to the training ride which was about three miles from home so returning the way I came would have left my mileage at 96, so I padded my return home a little by going through the Marina, over Fort Mason, up Columbus to Montgomery and then up Market to get my century.  Jeff had my enormous dinner waiting for me when I got home (let's hear it for Jeff!!!).  I was asleep ninety minutes later.

I stayed off the bike today and instead went walking around with my friend Nick. We started off walking through the Haight where we saw the most incredible pair of shoes in the Goodwill window. Pity the poor woman who has to try to walk in these, but she'll look fabulous:

Then we headed into Golden Gate Park and walked around there for a while. Here's Nick watching a baseball game:

And me lounging in the Shakespeare Garden:

We headed over to the Music Concourse and Nick frolicked in the fountain Dolce Vita style:

Then we headed over to the Rose Garden where we were joined by Nathan, fresh from his haircut. The Glamour!

We headed over to Clement Street and stopped by Aroma Tea Shop which has the nicest guy running it and the most expensive tea I've ever seen. Here's Nick considering his choices:

We didn't have time to stick around for a cup of the $300 a pound stuff (I kid you not) so Nick managed to score a free tea set to go with his purchases. What a guy! On the street I encountered an outraged Pomeranian who was livid at his unpettedness. I took care of that:

Then we walked into Presdio Terrace. It's a private street, but the security guard let us in. What a beautiful neighborhood! Any of the houses there would make a lovely gift for me. Especially this one:

I was also finally able to get a good picture of the Synangogue on Arguello street. It's very difficult to photograph because of all the wires on Arguello but from Presidio Terrace - Magnificent!

We swlked down Washington through Presidio Heights over to Lyon. The gardens are very beautiful there and these tulips were especially pretty:

Then we walked down to the Lyon and Broadway to the Lyon Street streps with an unbelievable view of the Marina:

And then over to Fillmore Street to meet Chris Duplantis. There were beautiful flowers on Pacific Street today:

We met up with Chris and Sofi and ate lunch at La Mediteranee. Well, they did. The menu doesn't have any options for poor vegan Joseph but I wasn't very hungry anyway. After we went to the Marc Jacobs store and got our picture taken with the big Chicken.

It had started to rain so we hitched a ride home with Chris and waited for Jeff to get home from his meeting. When he did, Nick, Jeff and I went back to the park to the De Young Museum to go see the Vivienne Westwood exhibit. Amazing. The construction and detail of her clothes has to be seen to be believed. Jeff thought she was just crazy.

Here I am lounging after we saw the show

And one of Jeff enjoying the art:

And here's an interesting piece of Maya art from their permanent collection:

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my training ride won't get cancelled tomorrow because of rain. We're supposed to get quite a bit overnight and I'm hoping it will be done by morning.

I managed to pull a muscle in my chest yesterday.  My lat or something like that.  I could hardly raise my arm this morning when I got up!  So I took some advil and got back on my bike.  It was still a little rainy so I took a nice and slow route out to ocean beach and then came back on Cabrillo.  Here I am at the beach:

It hurt so much to lift and extend my arm to take this picture!  That smile was the result of all the coaching Tyra gave the America's Next Top Model contestants on how to smile when your in a lot of pain because your shoes are two sizes too small.  Go Tyra! 

Coming in, I took this picture of St. Ignatius up at the University of San Francisco.  Evidently, God stays here when in town.  It looks a little ominous:

I continued down Golden Gate to Laguna and then came in on Post.  Union square looked wet but pretty:

It's supposed to be pretty wet this weekend.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my training ride won't be canceled on Sunday. 

Thursday, April 19

I went for home for lunch and the garden of Mr. Poe is coming into full bloom.  Here's one of the first roses.  Perfection!  Just like Mr. Poe.

I was heading back to work and I'm very careful coming down market because there's this combination of crackheads and shoppers not paying attention that tend to keep you on your toes.  At 5th and Market, some woman walks into the street without paying any attention to where she was going and what vehicles might be coming.  She was nowhere near a crosswalk.  I came to an abrupt stop and muttered "Don't look where your going.  Just walk into the street.  That's a good idea."  She heard this and turned to me and said "I have issues with you people."  Hey somebody call Don Imus I'm a "You People" now.  I wasn't sure which group I belong to she was had problems with.  I narrowed it down to the following candidates:

A) Cyclists
B) Gays
C) Blonds
D) Attractive People
E) Humans

I'm pretty sure it was choice A but you never know.  I think she was assuming that every cyclist on the road in San Francisco was implicated in the Critical Mass kerfuffle from March 30.  I have mixed feelings about Critical Mass.  On one hand, I feel like their shenanigans have absolutely resulted in safer conditions for bicyclists on the streets because they have made drivers more aware and even a little afraid of cyclists.  On the other hand I think a lot of them are crazy, especially the naked guy.  I went to critical mass once, during the Iraq invasion, and they were trying to get on the bay bridge.  As I wanted to have dinner at home and not in jail, I demurred. Here's a pic from that ride, March 28 2003, right before we hit the streets:

After work, I tried to get a long bike ride in before class.  I went Geary to Polk to Broadway to Pacific and then back down to Broadway at the Lyon Street steps.  Very very pretty in Pacific Heights.  Here's the Palace of Fine Arts peeking out from behind a mega mansion:

And a beautiful blossom from one of the gardens:

Somebody was kind enough to take my picture for me at the Lyon Street steps:

At this point it started raining.  I didn't want to to cut my ride short, so I just rode less and chose a more or less flat route.  Washington to Arguello through the park out 9th Avenue in the Sunset and then 7th Avenue into Forest Hill.  Then Dewey to Claremont into St. Francis Wood.  I love the suburban neighborhoods of San Francisco and St. Francis Wood doesn't disappoint:

My class got out early and I headed home for dinner.  Ribwich again!  Which was just fine with me.

I was up at 5AM this morning.  Mr. Poe is not crazy about that.  But for some reason it takes me 90 minutes to get ready to go in the morning and I've been unable to shorten that duration.  It's mostly because it takes me 45 minutes to get breakfast down and read my e-mails in the morning.  I was out of the house at 6:30 and I took Corbett to Portola to Laguna Honda to Dewey to Taraval down to the ocean.  The fog had rolled in a little so it was a little warmer but not as pretty as it's been at the beach.  I came up the great highway and climbed the big hill up Geary and then continued up to the Palace of the Legion of Honor:

I don't get this sculpture at all but I supposed it must be fabulous:

From there I continued down through Seacliff whose residents have a beautiful view of the Golden Gate Bridge:

and then I went through the Presidio and out through the Lombard Gate up to Union.  I took Union all the way up over Russian Hill.  Here's the view from the top:

I came in down Columbus.  And then I got a flat tire.  I was close enough to work that I just walked the bike in but I've gotta fix it because I'm going home for lunch and then I've got class again tonight.  Total Mileage: 16.5(not counting walking)

Wednesday, May 18

I went home for lunch to get a little riding in and to see little Mimi who seemed suprised to see me and irritated that I interrupted her nap. Can't a girl get some sleep?? Mr. Poe's Garden was looking especially beautiful in the noonday sun.

Pity he so rarely gets to enjoy it because he's always working Some of the calla lillies from the garden have found their way to our dining room. Very pretty:



After work I headed over to class. I was going to do that Mansell hill today if it took all night. I looked at the map and finally concluded that best way to get to the hill was to go up to McLaren park and go down the hill first. Because every other approach involved either a lot of freeway exchanges or a lot of crackheads. So I took Howard south of market and then Harrison into the Mission. This beautiful mural is on the wall of a shool at Ceasar Chavez and Harrison:



I took Alabama up over Bernal hill, which required my granny(easiest) gear and garnered stupified glares from drivers who couldn't believe you could bike up that hill. Here's the view looking south from the top:



Then I went to Holly Park and then Saint Mary's Park and then over 280 and up Cambridge into McLaren Park. That last block of Cambridge required the second use of my granny gear for the day. Steep! At the top I went down Mansell which made me nervous because although it has a marked bike lane, I don't think a lot of bikes actually use it and I was worried about cars running stop signs and into me. But I made it down to San Bruno and then turned around and came up the other side, which required my third use of my granny gear for the day. The hill going up mansell is awesome. Block long steps of steepness that level off for the cross street and then go up again. It was totally worth all the work it had taken to get there. At the top, I stopped at my favorite park and took a few pics:





And then headed out the park through the Persia exit. Here's an unusual view of downtown taken from the park:



I went down Persia which runs into Ocean and then over to city college for my class. We got out a little early and I headed home where my wonderful husband had made me ribwich and oven fries with salad for dinner. AND he went to the grocery store for me that night. How did I get so lucky? I rode 36.5 miles for the day which wasn't a lot of mileage in the big scheme of things but was a whole lot of climbing so I feel like I definitely got my training in.

I was up early to go riding (yet again!).  Today, I took Eureka into Noe Valley then Diamond up into Diamond Heights.  Then Diamond Heights Blvd to Portola and then up to the twin peaks viewing platform.  I love it up there.  Don't I look delighted?

Here's a photo looking North from the viewing platform up to the Golden Gate.  I did a lot of climbing to get up there:

On the way down, I took Clarendown over to 7th avenue and then went up Dewey to Pacheco and climbed over Forest Hill.  Here's the view looking up the stairs at Pacheco--  Forest Hill is so pretty:

Then Down 9th Avenue into the park out Arguello and over into the Presidio.  Here is the view from "Inspiration Point" looking north towards the bay of the Palace of Fine Arts and Alcatraz:

And then Angel Island:

I headed over to the Marina amd then over Fort Mason and into Fisherman's Wharf and then up Columbus to work.  Whew!  It ended up being a little over fourteen miles but there were a lot of hills involved so I'm pretty beat.

I got up nice and early to go riding before work. I took the familiar Corbett to Portola route but took 15th avenue up into Golden Gate Heights. Lots of climbing, jaw dropping views. This street sign reminded me of my friend Peter Fritz who is spending his retirement farming Macadamia nuts on Maui.



Farming Macadamia Nuts ?!? ... Don't believe me? Check out his blog:

Peter Fritz's Blog

I came down Funston and took a few pictures of the beautiful St. Anne's church at Funston and Judah:



The VIP entrance off to the side:



I then headed into the park where I rode around Storey Lake which was covered with ducks the last time I was here but was a little more serene today:



And over to the Prayerbook Cross which is basically hidden and almost impossible to photograph:



I stopped by the Rose Garden which is almost ready to bloom. There were a few flowers but they were kind of scraggly and I couldn't find a good one to photograph. But I'm going on Saturday and I think it will be beautiful. Then I headed down to the bike lane to Arguello and took that over to Washington which I took down through Pacific Heights. The bay looked beautiful from up on the hill:



I took Washington to Franklin and then Pacific through Chinatown into the Financial District. I met Chris Duplantis for lunch and we took Sofi for a walk around Pac Bell Park. She is so precious. I hope the puppy that we're getting after the Lifecycle turns out as sweet as Sofi. Because Sofi excels in sweetness. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.



After work I took Sutter to Steiner to Clay to Arguello. I love biking around Pacific Heights because of the combination of beautiful architecture and challenging hills. I managed to get this picture of the beautiful Synangogue at Clay and Arguello. It isn't easy to photograph and the light wasn't helping.



I then went down Arugello in the park and it out on 9th avenue which I took up onto Forest Hill. I take this route quite a bit. Forest Hill is very suburban even though it's in the middle of the city. Here's an unusual view of the big antenna that dominates the city taken from the top of Forest Hill:



And suburban splendor up on Forest Hill. Where are the desperate housewives??:



I ended up at the top of 14th ave which has a beautiful view:



Which is improved by the presence of my head:



A local hospital has this hilarious ad.



Poison, Poison, Poison, TastyFish:

I had a little time left before I was supposed to be home so went up to the Twin Peaks viewing platform which has the most spectactular view of the city:



And one with me. If you look carefully, you can see that something pretty big was burning down by Mount Olympus. I tried to find out where it was but I was running out of time and I didn't want to be late because Mr. Poe was cooking and I was still wincing from my crappy dinner last night.....



It turned out to be Rigatoni with a big salad. Fabulous! Let's hear it for my wonderful husband!

I woke up bright and early this morning to get a nice ride in before work. I took my familiar corbett to portola down to dewey to taraval and then down to the beach route. I took this picture at the top of Laguna Honda. Pretty church with a beautiful roof on the bell tower:



Another perfect morning at the beach. Don't I look delighted??



Came up Geary and then made my way over to the Cabrillo bike lane somewhere in the 30's. I'm still trying to figure out the best way into work from the ocean. Cabrillo up to Arguello is a good bet. After that, if gets a little hazy. Today, I tried Turk which isn't a good choice because it turns one way going the other way at Divisadero so I had to bike on Divisidero for a block which was no fun. I turnded on Ellis which includes this beautiful, puzzling church



I have no idea which faith this is but I like the sentiment. I ended up taking Scott to Post and coming in past Japantown and then Union square. Pretty, pretty morrning. I was kind of busy at work today, but still I managed to bike home for Lunch much to Mimi's delight. I had a pretty good sized lunch because I wanted to go riding after work. Jeff has class on Monday nights so I was in no hurry to get home. I did Marin Headlands again. I ws really feeling that ninety miles I did yesterday, but I grunted my way to the top. The descent from the very top of that hill is terrifying. Even the sign is kind of scary:



But made my way down without too muchg fuss and took some really pretty pictures. Here's Point Bonita from above:



And here's the Rodeo Lagoon and cove from a similar angle:



And now one with me in the view:



At this point, I tried something new. Instead of taking the Bunker Road Tunnel and connecting up with the bridge that way, I climbed the hill at McCullogh and connected back up with Conzelman, essentially climbing back about half way back up the hill. And it was steep and had switchbacks and totally KICKED MY ASS. But it was really pretty:



I think this will the way I do Marin Headlands in the future.... I got a parting shot of the bridge as I came down Conzelman:



I went through the Presidio and then up to the Palace of the Legion of Honor. Definitely feeling those 90 miles yesterday. Then I came down geary and went home through the park. I thought ONE more hill wouldn't kill me so I took Clayton up to 17th and came down to Ord that way. And then I had to make my own dinner. I missed Jeff being on spring break already as I coughed down peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches and badly burned hash browns. I need to learn how to cook. My good friend Nick will be staying with us for three weeks and I'm really excited about that. But he needs to shave off his horrible beard because it's sapping his cuteness.