Monday I was supposed to go riding but when I woke up that morning I knew that wasn’t gonna happen.  I was a little hung over yes, but more importantly I’d been on my feet all day at the party Sunday and they were even aching when I was lying down.  Not happy.  I cancelled the ride, but I neglected to contact the rider who was supposed to meet us mid day which was a huge omission that I’m exceedingly sorry for.  Sorry again, Doug!  I moped around the house all day and rested up.

Tuesday I got it together and I went riding with David.  We headed out to King Mountain which is the ride we were supposed to do on Monday (sorry again, Doug!).  We started off with a ride down to Crystal Springs Lake.  Beautiful:

David:

Then we rode up 92 to Skyline.  I hadn’t done that ride in a long time and it was totally worth it.  Gorgeous:

Me:

We rode over King Mountain and then made our way to Tunitas Creek.  Which is the most beautiful, most gorgeous, most romantic canyon I’ve ever seen.  It was a little tough on the bike because of the steep grade but it’s highly recommended.  Check this shit out:

David:

We headed into Half Moon Bay and had lunch at Tres Amigos.  Which is fucking amazing.  I know when you’ve been biking a lot, food may seem more delicious than it is in real life, but both David and I were blown away by how fabulous their cookin’ was.  Well done.  Then we headed up over 92 and back to Crystal Springs Canyon:

Then we made our way up the Peninsula and then down into Millbrae where we stopped at the foot of Millbrae to hang out at the pretty park that has such a great view of SFO.  First thing we saw:  a Lufthansa A380 which I’d never seen on the ground before.  Amazing:

Some more pics from the airport:

Me:

David:

Then we headed home.  I realized when I got home that I hadn’t gotten pics of Mr. Poe’s garden in quite a while so I took some:

He planted the Angel’s Trumpet just for me and look how beautiful it is.  I’m a lucky man.

I headed home and got cleaned up and ready for dinner.  It was a gorgeous day!

Sunday we hosted a party for the CAT2 series I led all season.  I got up at 4AM(!) to get started on the ice cream I was making and then managed to crank out three pans of enchiladas, two cakes, beans, rice, a New Mexican black bean salad and an egg casserole.  Here’s everything I out about an hour before the guests arrived.  The hot stuff hadn’t gone into the oven yet:

I think we had about 40 or 50 people show.  We locked the dogs up in the study and Mimi barked the entire time.  Poor baby.  Ashley got to come out but Rufus was locked up for the whole party because he jumped on the first guest that showed and I didn’t want any drama.  Wanderson came which was a special delight because he’s one of my favoritest people:

Here’s David and I’m totally not used to seeing him out of bike clothes:

Ben and Courtney dropped by after everybody had left.  That was nice because it gave us more time to talk to them.  Here they are modeling my Hello Kitty hat.  Ben’s totally throwing some twink hustler realness:

Mr. Chris showed up as well with Sofi and Tonisha.  I was surprised to see that the dogs had any energy left but there was a lot of excitement followed by a nap.  Mr. Poe cleaned until 8.  I tried to help but I was totally beat.  After everybody left we got cleaned up and went to bed.  I was completely beat.

I worked from home on Thursday and Friday.  Saturday I led a Different Spokes ride out to Pescadero.  We started out int the Castro and headed down to the coast and then came down Skyline to Crystal Springs Reservoir.  Which was foggy and cold and miserable:

David and Gordon:

We headed down to Woodside and then headed up 84 before turning towards Pescadero:

We had lunch in Pesdcadero where I had a very delicious Burrito.  Then we headed out to the 1.  I stopped for some pics of pretty Pescadero marsh:

We headed north on the 1 and stopped for some pics of the new tunnel at Devil’s Slide:

Me:

We headed back to San Francisco for dinner.  After dinner I started cooking for the CAT2 party we were having the next day.  I didn’t get very far.  I was beat.

I worked from home on Tuesday.  Wednesday I worked from home in the morning and then took the afternoon off for my CAT2 ride out to Marin Headlands and then reverse Tib Loop.  I had a couple of RSVP’s and it looked like it was gonna be a good group.  And then the rider who’d been really rude to me on March 7th showed up and was acting all bizarre and crazy.  He started by asking all of the riders if they were ‘poz’ and if they were interested in the acupuncture services at his holistic medicine company.  It was so completely inappropriate.  I can’t imagine there are any circumstances that I would be interested in any service offered by suck a fucking freakshow.  He was creepy and weird and all of the riders were really put off by him.  I had to sweep him, of course, so I made sure I was far enough behind him so that I wouldn’t have to talk to him.  Here’s hoping I won’t run into him on the ride!

I got some pics from the headlands:

Me:

Here’s the group.  The crazy freak took the pic:

Brent:

We headed down to Rodeo Beach and then stopped again.  I took some pics:

Then we headed to Tiburon for snack.  The problem rider thankfully turned around there so I had a great ride for the rest of the day.  My bike was making some strange noises so I stopped in at Mikes where one of their awesome techs did some work on my bike and fixed almost everything.   Not his fault bike adjustments can require a bit of finesse.  I headed back over the bridge and then headed over to Sports Basement in the Presidio to pick up some socks.  Then I headed home through the Marina.  This is the view looking at the Marina from Fillmore and Vallejo:

I headed home for dinner and went to bed.

Bike Mileage:

Today 56.7 Week to date 72.6 Month to date 949.2 Year to date 4,038.7 To Goal 3,961.3 Over (Under) plan 860.6 YTD Mileage vs Last Year 841.0 Rolling Year 6,313.5 Since Inception 10/1/07 37,965.6

Monday after lunch I headed down to Mikes in San Francisco to get some work done on my bike because I’ve got a service contract for my bike there.  I love the guys at Mikes in Sausalito but I don’t have the same fondness for the staff in San Francisco.  The guy made it very clear to me that he wasn’t gonna do a lot of the things that I needed while I waited because it was service contract work and there’s only so much of that they’re gonna do in a day.  Which made me wonder what good a service contract at Mikes was in the first place.  He changed my chain and sent me on my way.  Then I headed to REI where they did the rest of the work I needed.  They charged me for labor but their parts are cheaper so it’s kind of a wash.  The folks at REI have always treated me very well and this visit was no exception.  I’m gonna continue to visit the fantastic staff at Mikes in Sausalito but I’m breaking up with Mikes in San Francisco.  I’m sure they’ll get over it.  There’s lots of people in San Francisco who won’t be bothered by their performance.  I headed back to work.  I had to work late on Monday and then I headed home up Market for dinner.

Bike Mileage:

Today 15.9 Week to date 15.9 Month to date 892.5 Year to date 3,982.0 To Goal 4,018.0 Over (Under) plan 847.8 YTD Mileage vs Last Year 835.4 Rolling Year 6,359.6 Since Inception 10/1/07 37,908.9

Rufus is a odd dog who is slowly eating all the linens on our bed.  It isn’t a separation anxiety thing.  He does it when were in the bed sitting next to him.  He’ll just roll over and take a big chomp out of a blanket.  He’s ripped open the down comforter more than once and to protect it Mr. Poe has been piling on an increasing number of inexpensive fleece blankets and Rufus is slowly eating them.  Check it out:

Mr. Poe has taken to calling him ‘Rufus the Ripper’.

Folks here’s a story ’bout Rufus the Ripper
He was a salsa double dipper
He’d chew a show, ‘long with Ashley Poo, and then cough up some sole and lace for you.
Hidee-Hidee-Hidee-hi()
Hodee-hodee-hodee-ho()
Heedey-hee-dee-hee-dee hee ()
Hidee-hidee-hidee-ho()

I came into work Market to Laguna to Grove to Polk to California to Leidesdorff.  It’s gonna be a beautiful day!

Sunday was my CAT2 ride out to Marshall Wall.  The sun was just peeking up when I left home and it looked like it was gonna be a gorgeous day.  I stopped on McDowell on my way to Sports Basement for a pic of the Golden Gate Bridge:

Alcatraz from Crissy Field:

When I got to Sports Basement, the first news that I got was the rider that I had argued with last Sunday for pushing himself beyond the boundaries of good sense had crashed on the previous day and broken his collar bone.  I think we all saw that coming.  I’ve broken my collar bone and it’s a terrible injury.  It takes forever to heal and it’s so hard to get a good nights sleep because every time you move in your sleep it hurts and that wakes you up.  Which is awful.  I hope his recovery is swift and that he uses that time to reevaluate whether he needs to be doing all of this cycling when it’s clearly killing him.  Also, he’s now on the Lifecycle’s radar so maybe they’ll lean on him as well.  Get well soon. 

Here’s everybody stretching:

I got a couple of pics as I headed over the Golden Gate Bridge:

Most of the riders were still at Cheese Factory when we rolled in.  Here’s the hotness:

Then we climbed to the top of Marshall Wall.  It was a first for many of the riders and I was very proud of them:

They were proud of themselves:

We ran into the second day of Jon Pon when we got to Point Reyes Station.  It was such a treat to see Brian and Joel.  I think they’re the greatest and I wish we saw them more often but we’re all so busy and we almost never do. 

I headed into Lagunitas where I ran into Brian and Joel again and I rode with them until Fairfax and then I headed to Sausalito.  I hung out with the Jon Pon folks for quite a while.  One of the sweep vehicles said they had a couple of our riders and we thought everybody was ahead of us so Deyon and I waited to see who it was.  They were both riders who had done CAT2 rides with us before but they weren’t on our ride today but they said they were to get a ride which was pretty shady.  But they’re super nice girls so I’m giving them a pass.  I headed home for dinner and then I went to bed.  Completely beat. 

Bike Mileage:

Today 105.0 Week to date 311.1 Month to date 876.6 Year to date 3,966.1 To Goal 4,033.9 Over (Under) plan 853.8 YTD Mileage vs Last Year 922.3 Rolling Year 6,418.8 Since Inception 10/1/07 37,893.0

Saturday was my Differerent Spokes ride out to Tomales.  I hadn’t been there in a year and we had a great ride.  I thought it was gonna just be David and I, but we saw Michael at Peet’s and we asked him if he wanted to go and he did.  I hadn’t ridden with him a lot before and we had a lot of fun.  He’s hilarious and I hope he shows up for our rides again!  We ran into the tail end of the Jonathon Pon ride pretty early in the day.  Here’s Andrew waitin’ on a tire:

Then we headed into Point Reyes Station and started making our way north.  Bolinas Bay was gorgeous:

Michael and David:

We made our way to Tomales for lunch and ran into Julie’s Tomales ride there.  They were doing the same route as us except from Mike’s Bikes and in reverse.  It was nice to see them.  Here are Julie and David:

Michael:

George:

Then we headed off for pretty Chileno Valley.  We missed the turn because it isn’t labeled but Michael remembered it so we backtracked a little and headed up a lovely valley:

Michael:

Me:

Then we climbed up Wilson Hill in the reverse direction which is much, much harder.  This is the view from the top:

Then we went to Cheese Factory which looked cool and inviting;

We headed back to Fairfax and then we headed home.  I was super tired when I got home and had dinner and went to bed as soon as I could.  Long ass day.

Bike Mileage:

Today 119.1 Week to date 206.1 Month to date 771.6 Year to date 3,861.1 To Goal 4,138.9 Over (Under) plan 770.7 YTD Mileage vs Last Year 892.4 Rolling Year 6,313.8 Since Inception 10/1/07 37,788.0

Thursday I worked from home.  Which wasn’t good because I only wanted to take a day off the bike this week and I ended up taking three.  Bad Joseph!

Friday I came into work down Market.  I hate doing that, but I kind or spaced out and missed my turn and was already at Gough before I realized I’d gone too far.  It was a crazy bike/pedestrian/cab/bus mess.  Yuck.  I headed home for lunch and then went for a nice ride after work I headed off 2nd to Townsend to Kansas to 17th to Potrero and stopped at 20th for pics of this recent mural.  It isn’t of the greatest quality, but it’s pretty and I like the design:

I continued on Potrero and stopped mouth agape at the sight of the new building going up.  I knew they were doing construction but I had no idea that it was gonna be something this big.  It’s enormous!

I continued on Potrero to 22nd to Bryant to Precita to Mission to Bosworth.  I was looking for a way down to Alemeny off of Bosworth that didn’t involve Lyell.  There isn’t one Culvier turns into Milton and goes right back to Bosworth up a big hill.  Yuck.  So I took Lyell to Alemeny to Sagamore to Brotherhood and stopped for some pics of the Benny Bufano sculpture that used to be at the international terminal at the airport.  I’m quite fond of his work.  You can read more about him here.  Spoiler alert–  he was a nut! 

I took Brotherhood to Lake Merced and took a bunch of pics.  I don’t remember the last time I took pics at Lake Merced!  It was a beautiful day and I wasn’t disappointed:

I continued on Lake Merced to John Muir to Skyline to the Great Highway.  I stopped for some pics of the ocean:

Me:

I continued on to Sloat and stopped for some pics.

It’s been a rough winter and this platform is gonna collapse.

The Great Highway was closed from Sloat to Lincoln.  The road pretty much sucked but it was nice to be able to ride on it with no cars:

I headed home and had dinner.  Mr. Poe was at the movies so I was on my own til he came home and then we went to bed.  I was beat. 

Bike Mileage:

Today 31.1 Week to date 87.0 Month to date 652.5 Year to date 3,742.0 To Goal 4,258.0 Over (Under) plan 673.5 YTD Mileage vs Last Year 773.3 Rolling Year 6,219.2 Since Inception 10/1/07 37,668.9

I worked from home on Monday and Tuesday and stayed off the bike.  Wednesday was my CAT2 training ride and I had two riders show up.  We headed up to Marin Headlands first.  Here are John and Kevin at the top:

Then we headed to Tiburon and then around Paradise Loop.  Then we headed around Paradise loop and then made our way back to San Francisco.  I stopped right before the climb out of Sausalito and got a pic of the crazy thick fog that was rolling in:

I made my way up to the bridge which was incredibly foggy–  perhaps the foggiest I’d ever seen.  I took this from the south tower looking north:

I headed home for dinner.  I got cleaned up after dinner and then we went to bed.  Fun day!

Bike Mileage:

Today 55.9 Week to date 55.9 Month to date 621.4 Year to date 3,710.9 To Goal 4,289.1 Over (Under) plan 686.2 YTD Mileage vs Last Year 792.6 Rolling Year 6,259.8 Since Inception 10/1/07 37,637.8