Sweet Riding in SC!

Despite heavy rain, thunder, lightning, and gloomy forecasts, the Cal Cycling team braved the bad weather and slick roads to make our way down to Santa Cruz for our mountain bike training camp this Saturday morning. In Cal Cycling style we were all about an hour later than we were supposed to be. As we pulled up and parked on Old Mission the prospects of a good day of riding were dismal, but we chamoised-up anyways. Then just as we left our cars to head over to Wilder and Campus the rain let up and things began to clear.


As a group, a very large group, probably breaking traffic laws, we headed up Bay Street to start our ride. Once we made it up to campus and over the fence, the 24 of us split into three groups to take on the elements. Tsering led an advanced "death" ride, Nitish led to intermediate ride, and Emma headed up the beginner ride. As we split up the rain subsided and the trails were sweet! The rain had made everything fast and smooth and every loved Upper Campus riding!



The sweet riding continued until around 5 when we all headed to a taqueria on Mission for burritos. Unfortunately the mexican food did not sit so well without me, but everyone else seemed to be down with the after ride food! A trip to the beach, with some crazies going all the way in, and then we were off to our campsite. Yes, campsite. Outside of Felton was the Cotillion RV Park and Campsite where we set up tents and sleeping bags for the evening. Being me, I headed to the showers and then to sleep, even giving my beer away! What can I say, I was tired! Everyone else on the other hand filled the campsite with debauchery and smores before heading to bed. There were a few Chatty Cathys who stayed up afterwards but they finally dozed off too.


As good as the riding was on Saturday, the riding Sunday was even sweeter! We headed off to Soquel Demo for a few hours of climbing and descending. When we showed up the upper parking lot was packed, as so was the road. It was good to see so many people out on their bikes enjoying the trails. The grueling fire road climb to the ridge sucked big time, but once we got to the top it was game on! We descended the first trail, which took about an hour to get everyone down and I was stoked because my technical skills seemed so much better than ever before. I was going down stuff that I never would have done before, and well. On a side note, I didn't fall all day! YES! Then we all did a ridiculous single-track mile and a half climb to descend the Braille Trail. Now this was some awesome riding! Single track that had been built up with logs and jumps, burms and sweet turns! It was so much fun and I raced down it at full speed ahead!



The hellish rolling back to cars was brutal, but Emma hung back and toughed out having to wait for my slow ass! Then it was good byes, some In n Out in San Jose and a short ride back to Berkeley. I got on my scooter and headed back into the City and home. The weekend was a real success! The mountain team is going to be really sweet this season! Fast, good handling skills, great descenders, good cross country riders, we have it all! I cannot wait for the first race this weekend in Reno. The altitude will suck, but doing it all together will keep is all going! Here's to a great season to come and another Conference Championship and all five Omnium Jerseys.

And So It Begins...

The ending of one thing always seems to lead to the beginning of another. The whole if God closes a door, somewhere he opens a window. Well, it seems as though another beginning has begun...cycling!!!! And I could not be happier. No doubt, I came home on Sunday evening a little more bruised, a little more tan, and a lot more exhausted, but I am so happy that mountain and cross seasons have finally dawned upon us.

I counted the number of weekends of cycling starting this last Sunday, and I think it is ten or eleven. It's awesome! Granted I have school and a research paper on top of that, but I couldn't be happier. Plus, on Sunday I noticed how much my technical skills have improved. I can climb tricky stuff that I couldn't last year and descend even harder stuff that even some of the seasoned riders on my team have difficulty with. It rocks! So with that note, here begineth the fall season of scrapes, bruises, exhaustion, long drives, long races, and good dirty fun!

Political Science...Uhhh!

So...I am currently sitting in my 8am poli sci discussion and really wanting to jump up and yell...WHO CARES ABOUT ANY OF THIS CRAP!!!!??? Let's just go read some Middle English, dive into Biblical commentary, see how the Church was regarded in the Middle Ages, and stop talking about this ridiculous political theory crap!! Who's with me?

You might be wondering why I brought up this little tirade. That is because I am a stupid poli sci major and cannot switch to English, otherwise I would be in Shakespeare class wondering how the professor got their PhD. Just kidding. The short of it is that I couldn't switch to English, go to Rome, and graduate on time, so I am finishing poli sci and getting my English minor. But still I am stuck talking about theory in international relations and very bored and would much rather be sleeping in my nice comfortable bed or taking Callie for a walk.

So as you sit and work diligently why don't you think about the paradigms of liberalism, constructivism and realism! Enjoy, your brain might hurt as much as mine does!

Sorry, I am a bad Blogger!

So it has been pretty much forever and a day since I wrote a blog. I cannot try and claim I have been so busy I couldn't get to it, I wasn't in a far away land without a computer, I wasn't taken hostage and held for ransom in order no to blog. The long and short of it, pretty much I have been negligent. So for that I am sorry! If only I'd been captured...

School has now begin once again! Yippee! Right now I am in poli sci 3 as this professor goes on and on about nonsense about research, but hoping to get into this class because I need it to graduate. Don't you just hate that! I know I do! She told me today, at the end of class, that I will find out next week if I am in the class. Everyone think happy thoughts for me please! Thanks!

I promise I will be more diligent about blogging!

Some of my fello CalCycling buddies are putting together a mountain bike race up near Humbolt. So check out the website!

http://www.reggaeriding.blogspot.com/

Commuting

So in the past few weeks I have taken up to commuting to work in the morning and home in the afternoon. Back and forth to Chinatown. Well, to say the least, it has been interesting. Mostly this is because of the interesting people that I always encounter on my way. People on fixies, single speeds, brand new Colnagos, vintage bikes, the works. But most of all it is how unhappy they are on their way to work. No one says "hi" or "good morning" or anything. Even when I say hello to other fellow commuters, they look at me like I am crazy! It's kind of weird, especially when the rest of the bicycle community is so friendly!! But nonetheless, commuting has been interesting.

A normal morning happens like this: I head out of the house with my Cal Cycling Timbuk2 bag over my shoulder and my helmet and gloves on. I make my way down the driveway, out to Monterey, and the breezy ride down to San Jose. Then down Valencia, which is always interesting, considering the double-parked cars in the suicide lane, the people wandering around looking for their first Steel Reserve, and the endless construction always going on. After a right and a left, a little jaunt down Folsom and then Dave drops off to go into work. That leaves me to join the ridiculous amount of commuters, and a five lane change to make a left on 3rd. This is where the bike lane ends, and nearly getting hit by a bus, right-hand turner, or a car who hates bikes beating them to the light. This continues until North Beach where I turn off of Kearny and go up to work. Then all my kids hoot and holler because they love that I ride a bike!

But of the all the ways to get back, I have definitely decided that the part of my commute named so aptly "The Wiggle" is my favorite. It is this certain part of my ride that "wiggles" through a part of the City that normally is up one way and down the other. Instead this ingenious little path, "wiggles" around all of that and instead just is a nice comfortable ride, almost completely flat, takes me from Market St. to the Panhandle with little effort. It is pretty great! All that is left after that is the climb back up to the house.

So to say the least, commuting in this City is nothing but bunch of laughs, dodging a lot of cars and making sure no one tries to run you over because you can dive through traffic and they can't.

Living in the Living Room

So this week I have been living in the living room, in other words on the couch like a true college student. Why do you ask have I left the comforts of the downstairs apartment? Well, the neighbors daughter is getting married tomorrow and her soon-to-be in-laws (that's a lot of hyphens) are staying downstairs. But this is not my point, not that there needs to be one. My point is more closely related to the little thing we all call the remote control.

You grow up, if like me in a large family, clammering for the remote at every possible turn, wrestling down siblings, tackling, biting, pleading, bartering, for that precious little bit of control over the afternoon's television choices. But as you graduate from the school of kick your brothers' and sisters' asses for tv control, you grow older, wiser and more civilized about such things, but more importantly, you get your own tv. Gone are the days of yesteryore when life was at the hands of that dreaded sibling, only to be later relinquished by a parent, or higher being such as homework or food. You are finally able to choose between over 500 channels of absolute crap or spend hours surfing through On Demand, only to second guess yourself when you finally chose a movie. But nonetheless, it is all yours.

So now that I am upstairs for the week I am stuck with Dave's choice of television...in other words: sailing, which is nice, but not for hours, StrongMan competitions, kung fu, bizarre films and weird off the wall choices. Alas I return to the days of being at the whims of others. Yes, there are little bits of tears forming at the edges of my eyes. I must go before I begin to truly relapse. Good bye! And I hope you have your own remote control story, and it is better than mine. Tear. Tear.

Blogging is so much fun!