Quantcast

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Halloween 4

Halloween 4

Don't ask because I don't know...

Update: I rocked this look on my ride into work...funny thing is, no one even did a double take at the crazy looking dude commuting on a bike.

Halloween 3

Halloween 3

Goatee

Halloween 2

Chinstrap goatee

Keys

BKW started it. Gate, front door, 2 bike lock keys and a small key fob (gift from my sister's wedding in 94...my initials engraved on a small metal fob). Minimal responsibility, I guess.

Quake

I didn't feel this: http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.html

Luckily no injuries reported: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/07/MN7FOGO71.DTL&tsp=1

This is the 2nd one of size since I moved out in April and it's also the 2nd one that I did not feel. The first happened at about 4:30am after a long night at my favorite local wine bar (Amelie).

This time I was at a local cafe doing some work, listening to some music and I missed it...my table was a bit wobbly to begin with and the music had my leg bouncing. The guy and girl on my left felt it, but me and the guy to my right did not. None of us were sure that it was a quake, till one of my roommates texted me to see if I "felt the quake."

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Halloween

Tomorrow I shave. Will I go with a pencil stash, handlebar, goat, chin strap or neck beard?

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Hair Gone Wild

Testing out mobile Blogger. Pic 's from late last night.


Thursday, October 25, 2007

"The 'rents" and Night Riding

So I haven't posted in a while, so I will start by saying sorry to my millions of loyal readers. :-)

My parents flew in town last Thursday and then on Sunday they rented a car and are driving up the coast to visit my sister and brother-in-law up in Seattle. They've had an amazing drive so far...I can't wait to see their pictures. We had a blast while they were here...ate lots of great food, enjoyed the weather and did a lot of walking. It was great having them around for the weekend.

I've been getting in some great evening/night riding lately after work. The weather in SF has been amazing lately. It's pretty wild for me to do these late rides because it wasn't really possible back in Chicago (at least in a safe way). Chicago late night rides were in a way limited to the Lake Front Path, but it was never safe to do a late road ride due to some wild traffic and rough roads. Night riding her in the Bay Area is top-notch. We've just been heading up to Corta Madera and back. Most of this ride is either on smooth roads with bike lanes or the path up in Sausalito. They way back home is the best part of the ride. We've seen many deer, coyote and skunks on a regular basis (almost hit the skunk, which would have really, ummm..."stunk"). My buddy Anthony's been blogging some videos and pictures, but they are a bit dark and don't really give justice to the amazing views of the Golden Gate Bridge or the City views at all. View some of them here and here. You'll also get a good view of the very fun light I picked up at Interbike this year...it mounts on my tube's valve stem - Perfect item for a twilight crit!!!

My team, Active Athlete/Squadra Ovest, is deep in 2008 planning and I'm getting very excited about the direction we are heading. We've recruited some great talent across all categories and have some very sweet sponsorships lining up for bikes, wheels, nutrition, etc... It's going to be a killer year.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Eric was in town...

Eric came in town for a weekend of riding, so instead of doing the "fall" thing (easy spin, conversational pace) we went hard and had a great time climbing some of Marin County's best.

Saturday we went up Marion to the 4 Corners, down through Muir Woods, up Highway 1 to the ever-fun Bo-Fax climb, across the 7 sisters and then back home and then off to Oktoberfest in Ft. Mason for some "recovery."


On Sunday we rolled up Marion again, but this time headed straight up to East Peak, descended down Panoramic (Eric avoided the guardrail this time), south on Highway 1 (amazing stretch of road) and then up through Muir Woods, then back home.


Eric flew back to Chicago yesterday afternoon. Last night, I headed out to find a coffee shop to get some work done. I was feeling lazy and didn't want to walk up and over Nob Hill (after a quick stop at home) to my usual coffee shop, so I went downhill in search of another cafe (mistake)...after almost a 4.5 mile walk (UP and down some big city hills) I ended up at the usual cafe! I guess the walk was good for me because my legs were trashed from the riding and today they feel great...I think I walked them into a recovered state. It was also a beautiful fall night here in SF, so the walk was nice.


Had I gone straight to the final destination from home, my walk would have been basically from near point #1 to the end of that line.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Monday Spin

I got out for a nice easy spin on Monday. The weather was so nice it turned into one of those rides where you decide to just keep on going.

Here's a shot I snagged with my cell phone:

Monday, October 8, 2007

Weekend Recap

Had a great ride on Saturday with the team. We had about 15 and rolled up to Nicasio, then around the reservoir and back on Sir Frances Drake. The weather was great and the pace was perfect...talking pace, with a few moments of high-intensity thrown in for fun.

Basically got home, showered and then headed up to our rooftop with some friends to watch the end of the air show and hang out in the sun. Here are some pictures of the Blue Angels:

Formation over the Bay Bridge

Solo flyer over the bay with St. Peter & Paul in the foreground

All in formation (looks like one long jet)

In formation over Coit Tower

Hanging a hard left in formation

Over the neighboring Russian Hill


My friends, Anthony and Vince, had a cyclocross race on Sunday down in Brisbane. Phil and I headed down to watch and to work the feed zone for them. We took the train down and then rode to the race, which was a short ride from the train station. Anthony and Vindog both had great races. Anthony found his way to the 2nd step on the podium and the Vin took 11th (thanks to some stellar feed zone work, of course). We just missed the train on the way back and ended up just riding home about 10-15 miles.....in flip flops.



We had the day off for Columbus Day, so I actually got to sleep in for once! It was much needed after last night's party. I messed around the apartment, shined up the bike and then headed out for a nice easy solo spin. The weather was amazing, so that spin ended up much longer than I anticipated and it was a blast. I'm very excited for fall riding...nice, easy and enjoyable riding.

Complete bummer...Andy Jaques-Maynes re-broke his collar bone just about an hour after winning the Elite Men's Race. (He's recently returned from about 5 months of recovery)
http://calgiantcycling.blogspot.com/2007/10/ajm-placed-on-injured-reserve.html
http://www.getwellandy.blogspot.com/

Monday, October 1, 2007

Big news + 4 Nights in Las Vegas

First the big news... Active Athlete Media is now the proud title sponsor of my cycling team, Squadra Ovest! Now known as Active Athlete/Squadra Ovest.This is huge. It's not my affiliation with the team that makes this so exciting for me (though it is definitely part of the excitement), but it's Active Athlete's desire to support a local cycling team that really gets me. My boss approached me a while back, telling me to find a strong team and we'd talk about sponsorship because he values and understands the power of the active lifestyle and community. This really shows that we practice what we preach.

So, that was finalized last Wednesday. It's Monday night now and I'm beat. Per one of my previous posts, I had the opportunity to attend Interbike in Las Vegas this year. I flew down Wednesday night, checked into my hotel and then caught a cab to the Cyclocross Race to meet up with my teammate, Dan, and some of his friends from his days working in the bike industry. We watched a super fast cross race and then hopped back to the Mirage for the Sinclair Party at Jet. Unfortunately, I did not make the dress code (flip flops) because my luggage didn't make it to Vegas until the next SFO - LAS flight later that night. So we just skipped out on the party and had a few beers at a lounge in the casino.

I hit the expo very hard on both Thursday and Friday. I managed to meet many great people in the industry, but still did not quite have enough time to meet everyone I wanted to. The show was huge and some of the key marketing people I wanted to speak with were packed solid with meetings on both days.

Thursday night was the World Criterium Championship race in the Mandalay Bay parking lot. There was a women's race at 7pm, industry race at 8pm and then the pro race at 9pm. The industry was packed with some big names...one of which was Mario Cipollini. Because I never went to any races before his retirement, I thought I would never see him race. He sat right up front in the top 10 the entire race and an unfortunate crash in the final lap ended his race early...he stayed up, but was forced to a stop. It was a shame because I think everyone was excited to see the sprint finish with him in such great position.

Here are some pics from Interbike: (I was a bit starstruck...)


Me and Super Mario


Greg LeMond


Magnus Backstedt


Alberto Contador


Ernesto Colnago


Rock Racing's Bling


Staging the Pro race...in true Vegas form


Teamwork to pull back a threatening breakaway


Tom Boonen's Green SL2


Sub 8lb Bike


I didn't get photos of it, but Tony Cruz and Karl Menzies were playing bartender on Thursday afternoon at the Cytosport booth...they were mixing up some strong Vodka & Cytomax drinks! They were having a great time there.

After Interbike ended on Friday afternoon, I met up with a bunch of friends from home that were in Vegas for the weekend, one of which moved to Vegas about a year ago. It was great to see these guys and we partied like rockstars all weekend long, but that's all you get...