Day1 - San Francisco to Santa Cruz - 79.4 miles

Day 1 is always a little crazy.  Mr. Poe dropped me off a little before 6am and I wandered around for a while looking for people I knew.  I ran into a slightly glazed looking Grady:

Team Wells Fargo managed to score us fabulous placement for our bikes so we were right behind the Pos Peds at the start so I was ahead of the pack almost immediately which was wonderful.  I had a great morning.  It was incredibly foggy and damp but I felt great and rode as hard as I could.  As usual, the costumes at the rest stops were in impeccable taste:

Some of the roadies:

The sun came out eventually and revealed the beautiful California coastline:

The road down the 1 to Santa Cruz sure seems to be a little bit hillier than I remember and I rode really hard and managed to make it in around 12:30 (I think).  It was very hot in camp.  Very, very hot.  Temperature hot.  I got a burrito and waited for dinner to start.  The treat of the week was my friend Larry who was working at Chiropractic and had brought his adorable dog Lulu.  I had dinner with them every night and sweet little Lulu did a lot to keep me from missing my dogs too much.  I was very happy when it was bedtime.  It had been a long day.

Bike Mileage:

Today 79.4 Week to date 168.6 Month to date 168.6 Year to date 4,009.0 To Goal 5,991.0 Over (Under) plan (292.4) YTD Mileage vs Last Year 83.8 Rolling Year 7,975.9 Since Inception 10/1/07 25,178.8

Day 0!  I rode my bike over to the cow palace Corbett to Portola to Fowler to Teresita to Foerster to Judson to Phelan to Geneva and into bike parking.  I ended up getting there way early but that was OK.  Registration is always a pain in the ass but I was done reasonably early.  This is bike parking on day 0:

Serge and Wanderson:

From registration, I headed out to lunch with Wanderson, Serge and David.  Then home for packing.  I'm not going to be blogging on Xanga while I'm on the ride but I will be posting to facebook.  Stay tuned!

Bike Mileage:

Today 6.5 Week to date 89.2 Month to date 89.2 Year to date 3,929.6 To Goal 6,070.4 Over (Under) plan (344.4) YTD Mileage vs Last Year 4.4 Rolling Year 7,896.5 Since Inception 10/1/07 25,099.4

I wasn't gonna tempt fate so I just went down Market into work and come down the same way after.  I met up with a bunch of Lifecycle people at the Lookout after work and then Mr. Poe and I had dinner with Daniel and Nathan at Sumi and it was fucking delicious.  I love that place!

Mr. Poe took the day off of work on Thursday to get some dental work done.  Let's just say he doesn't make a very a good patient.  I kind of wish we could put him in a medically induced coma until his gums are healed.  Can they do that??  He was laying, shrouded like Jesus or something. when I went home for lunch.  Ashley Jr. was perched in his lap guarding him.  From me.  Mimi just menaced me from her pillow:

New comics were in and I stopped by the comic book store on the way back to work.  Nothing too awesome to report but the new Red Robin is pretty good and I liked Invincible but it's really bloody. 

There's a new Indian Restaurant in the Castro with a very unfortunate name that sounds like the title of a crappy porn movie where nobody's packin':

It's so close to the Lifecycle I've been a little panicky on the bike because it would suck so hard if I got injured again this close to the event.  It's almost funny how jumpy I am but I'm not gonna let fear rule my life.

After work I headed off 2nd to Howard to 11th to Harrison to 19th where I saw this totally awesome mural on 19th at Mission:

This is the mural across the street from it that is almost as awesome:

I continued on 19th to Lexington which is amazingly homogenous with a ton of houses that look to me like they're from the 1870's or maybe a little earlier:

I continued on Lexington to 21st to Valencia to Tiffany to 29th to San Jose to Wilder to Diamond to Monterey into Santa Clara to Portola to Claremont to Dewey to Laguna Honda into 7th to Hugo to 3rd to Frederick to Ashbury to Piedmont to Masonic to Loma Vista to Roosevelt to 17th to Mars to Corbett and home for dinner.  Mr. Poe's mood hadn't improved by the time I got home and I ended up getting nothing done because I was dealing with his drama.  It's gonna be a busy Friday.

I actually got up and made it out of the house in time to go for a long ride on Thursday morning which was fabulous although wet.  I headed up Corbett to Portola to Ulloa to Laguna Honda to Hernandez to Merced to Pacheco to Dewey to Taravel and down to the coast.  I came up the Great Highway and then took Geary to 34th and up to the Palace of the Legion of Honor.  Which was a foggy, soaking wet mess:

Me:

I got on Camino Del Mar to Lake to Arguello to Clay to Fillmore to Pacific to Powell to Jackson.  I got a few pics at Grant as I came through Chinatown:

This is the new City College building at Kearny and Jackson:

I continued on Jackson to Columbus into Montgomery to Clay to Sansome and into work.  Nice ride!

Sadly, comic books didn't come out on Wednesday this week so my trip to the comic book store was for naught. 

After work I headed off Sutter to Fillmore to Clay to Walnut to Washington to Arguello to Lake to 30th.  This the view up Lake from 30th.  Fogtastic:

I took 30th to Clement to 34th to Balboa and down to the coast.  The beach was pretty much socked in with fog:

Me:

Surferlicious:

I headed down the Great Highway to Taravel to Dewey to Hernandez to Laguna Honda to Portola to Corbett to Ord and home for dinner.  Mr. Poe had to work late so I had dinner with the dogs and watched Dr. Who while we waited for him.  I watched "Time and the Rani" which was totally awesome.

Bike Mileage:

Today 27.2 Week to date 41.2 Month to date 41.2 Year to date 3,881.6 To Goal 6,118.4 Over (Under) plan (310.2) YTD Mileage vs Last Year (43.6) Rolling Year 7,848.5 Since Inception 10/1/07 25,051.4

This morning I headed out Corbett to Clayton to Ashbury to Frederick to Masonic to Page to Laguna.  They've started an urban farming project where the freeway exit used to be on Laguna between Oak and Fell.  Eventually it will be developed but for now it's the Hayes Valley Farm.  I like:

Some of the buildings across the street from it on Laguna.  Such great detail:

They've art-ed up this lot at Laguna and Hayes.  Hayes valley keeps getting better and better:

Hayes Street:

Me:

I continued on Laguna to Eddy to Market to Sansome and into work.  It's gonna be a gorgeous day!

I was too hung over tired for too much riding on Tuesday.  I came down Market into work in the morning and then made it home for lunch in the afternoon and then went home right after work.  Mimi watched Fox News all day and was telling me all about how the Democrats rigged the Deepwater Horizon disaster.  Apparently Pelicans vote Republican in record numbers.  Good to know.

Bike Mileage:

Today 14.0 Week to date 14.0 Month to date 14.0 Year to date 3,854.4 To Goal 6,145.6 Over (Under) plan (310.0) YTD Mileage vs Last Year (70.8) Rolling Year 7,821.3 Since Inception 10/1/07 25,024.2

Monday I stayed off the bike all day.  We had a couple of people over for a Memorial Day party and it was lots of fun.  I was too busy to run around with a camera all day but Russ took this of me sitting on my balcony and looking a little liquored up:

Sunday was out last Lifecycle training ride out.  We just rode on the flats out to Guyamas.  We had a great training season this year--  probably the best ever.  I hope all of our riders have a fantastic time on the Lifecycle.

Pics from Sports Basement before we left:

I love the James!

I totally want one of the super cute Cathay Pacific jerseys.  The guy on the right works for them and got them from Hong Kong:

We had a litle spill but it's OK.  Robert was just a little scraped up:

Guyamas is not my very favorite restaurant but it's pretty much your only choice if you have a large group in Tiburon on a Sunday Morning.  Mr. Poe came out to have lunch with us and everybody was very excited about finally meeting him.  Here are some pics from the restaurant:

The riders all chipped in and got us gift certificates from Sports Basement which was totally unexpected and pretty overwhelming.  So nice of them!  I headed home with Mr. Poe and we stopped by Sports Basement to pick up a few things.  I'm bought a new jersey with my gift certificate that I plan on wearing on day 1 of the Lifecycle.  It's gonna look fabulous.  The rest of the day I spent cooking for our Memorial Day Party.  I had a lot of sweets on the menu.  I totally messed up a couple of them but, then again, Julia Child I am not.  Nathan came by for snacks before dinner.  I had a great day.

If you've been following my blog, I started tracking my mileage in the third quarter of 2007.  Today, the cumulative number hit 25,000 which I'm pretty pleased about.

 

Bike Mileage:

Today 18.8 Week to date 252.5 Month to date 1,262.8 Year to date 3,840.4 To Goal 6,159.6 Over (Under) plan (269.2) YTD Mileage vs Last Year (84.8) Rolling Year 7,807.3 Since Inception 10/1/07 25,010.2