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Yesterday’s Bike Ride

Reid — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 20:24:12 +0000

I biked 34ish miles yesterday (forgot to unpause the GPS for a few miles) and I thought it was going to be a relaxed ride. Up and down Old La Honda, and then heading on Skyline to Kings’s Mountain road. I haven’t ridden on Skyline towards King’s Mountain Rd for a few years so I completely forgot about the additional 800 feet of climbing we’d have to do to get there. But, the downhill was completely worth it! There were probably a hundred bikers we flew by suffering up that climb. I probably wouldn’t do this ride again though; taking 84 down would be easier to avoid the additional elevation gain on Skyline.

Runkeeper stats here.

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Yesterday’s Bike Ride

Fremont to Alum Rock Park

Reid — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 03:38:53 +0000

I completed a seemingly random ride this past weekend. Eric, who was house-sitting in Fremont and I rode from the house to Alum Rock Park. The 13 mile ride took us through some nice roads that bordered the East Foothills. Riding into Alum Rock Park was also really nice and I definitely want to visit the park for some hiking in the future. The ride back, however, was significantly harder – the wind had picked up and 300 feet of climbing was steep. Nonetheless, a good workout that justified plenty of eating over the long weekend.

RunKeeper stats. I think the “climb” stat doesn’t fill in unless you have some special attachment to your phone. Something like that. Hurray for avg speed of 12.34!

**EDIT** – Mike Leotta has pointed out that the stats now show up. Guess there was a lag in them showing up on the stats page. **

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Fremont to Alum Rock Park

Bike to Work Day is Tomorrow

Reid — Thu, 12 May 2011 01:44:17 +0000

A quick plug that BTWD is tomorrow! More details here. This may be the first week ever of my working career where I biked to work throughout the whole week. BTWD is a nice incentive, but rising gas prices help make the choice more obvious. Post from: Read Reid's BlogBike to Work Day is Tomorrow

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Bike to Work Day is Tomorrow

Wine Country Century

Reid — Mon, 09 May 2011 04:40:13 +0000

Yesterday, I completed the 100K Wine Country Century up in Sonoma. This was a gorgeous ride with nearly 0 climbing. The morning had nearly 0 cars and Dry Creek Road was nice and shaded. I was happy to see this in the route, since I rode this two years ago for Fourth of July weekend. The only hill was a portion of Chalk Hill Road, but it was less than a mile in length. Arden, Justin, Tina, and I rode together and we kept an easy pace. I’m proud of them! Last year I did the Tour of Napa and didn’t see them at the end since we had already missed the food at the end and I wanted to drive myself home so I sped off myself. I was only tired after this ride – not even sore. 100K with little climbing isn’t too tough and this felt more like a leisurely ride with all of the rest stops.

Not sure what ride is next! I’m also very happy with Runkeeper as the app tracked my entire ride over the course of the day. Well done!

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Wine Country Century

To San Gregorio Beach and Back

Reid — Mon, 02 May 2011 02:56:28 +0000

Saturday was a gorgeous day in the Bay Area and I took advantage of it by riding out to San Gregorio beach. The ride took a ridiculous 6.5 hours, mainly due to a lot of waiting at the top of Old La Honda and throughout the ride. But, if others can experience such an epic ride, I guess it’s worth it. No flats or mishaps either, so everyone got home safely. Plus, the second half of 84 to get back to Skyline is so easy. So glad I came back on that instead of Tunitas Creek.

I recorded my ride on MyTracks and RunKeeper and the stats from runkeeper are SO much better it puts MyTracks to shame. The map I got back from MyTracks was also very incomplete in many sections. So, i think RunKeeper will be my choice from now on.

I promptly ruined my ride w/ Taco Bell. So worth it.

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To San Gregorio Beach and Back

Stevens Canyon Loop

Reid — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 04:49:30 +0000

I don’t know if it’s AT&T or MyTracks, but my ride this weekend didn’t really come through on MyTracks. The distance looks right though. With the exception of a few bike to work days, this is my first ride of 2011 and it felt great! Climbed Mt. Eden with no problems. I think it’s my new seat :)

Really hoping I can bike across the Golden Gate and ride the Marin Headlands this year. It’s a ride that many people do and one I’ve wanted to do for awhile. Will this be the year? Stay tuned…

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Stevens Canyon Loop

Excuse for a new tire!

Reid — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 03:22:12 +0000

A few weeks ago the company I work for gave out free bike helmets, mostly to emphasize to employees that safety is important when biking, and that riding between buildings even without a helmet isn’t a great idea. So, we all got free helmets! That Friday we gathered at Charleston Park to take a photo together. Thanks to Wysz for taking this one:

Unfortunately, sometime after the group photo and riding home like normal, I started to hear a clicking noise. I looked down and there was a nice fat tack in my front tire. I moved it a bit and started to hear air rushing out. Being the lazy person that I am, I let the tack go back in like it was before and rode slowly home. The tack itself acted as a sealant and I made it back just fine. I then removed the tack and all the air rushed out.

From Biking Photos

Since I had ridden a few thousand miles in my tires and the front was started to develop some holes in it anyway, I jumped for some Continental Gatorskin tires Wilmot recommended to me. The tire feels a lot stronger and sturdier than my original set so my front wheel will be happy for awhile. I still have the original tire on the rear wheel so hopefully it won’t get jealous.

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Excuse for a new tire!

Tour of Napa

Reid — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 05:08:44 +0000

Last weekend I was up in Napa for the 34th Annual Tour of Napa. I signed up for the 65 mile ride after David organized a group, then Arden signed up. Then Nelson and Justin. Besides waking up at 5am and being under oppressive heat during most of the ride, it was quite enjoyable! Biking around wineries and minimal climbing is my kind of ride, although I’m not sure my co-riders would agree with the latter assessment of the ride.

I recorded the first half of the ride on MyTracks:

View First Half Of Tour Of Napa in a larger map

Unfortunately the track stopped recording at the second rest stop. Maybe because I was waiting there for 45 minutes for everyone else? At least I got to rest up a whole bunch.

For the most part, the ride was fairly flat, with some climbing up Ink Grade road and then lots of fun flying down the other side of the hill. The end of the ride was pretty tiring with a lot of wind, so I did roll in to the end around 4:30 when we had originally left at 8:30AM. Had some BBQ chicken and then drove back. Correction: Nelson drove back because I was tired. Thanks, Nelson!

Would I do the ride again? Probably not, to be honest. It was really far away and there are plenty of decent rides and climbs nearby. Plus, no free shirt for participating. COME ON

If anything, since Wilmot’s gone I have a few more friends who like biking! Gotta drag these guys up OLH:

From Biking Photos

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Tour of Napa

Elena Road

Reid — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 07:18:52 +0000

Went on another bike ride this past weekend. From Wilmot’s house, Lucy, Wilmot, and I rode over to Nelson’s place, where we met up with Henry, Arden, Justin, and Nelson to ride out to Foothill Expressway. We then took El Monte to Elena Road and back to Homestead Road. We crossed the bridge over highway 280 back to Pumpkin. At that point me, Lucy, and Wilmot road home on Prospect road. It wasn’t a very fast ride at all and pretty easy for 30ish miles.

View Elena Road Loop in a larger map

I took my camera along again. As soon as Justin clipped in, he fell:

From Biking Photos

Nelson got a flat =(. But he learned how to fix one!

From Biking Photos

Going across the bridge:

From Biking Photos

Style points for Nelson:

From Biking Photos

And caught on YouTube:

Won’t be able to go riding again until the Tour of Napa! Can’t wait!

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Elena Road

San Gregorio Loop

Reid — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 04:31:27 +0000

Went for a long bike ride this past Saturday. From 280/84 in Woodside over Old La Honda, down to San Gregorio Beach, and back up Tunitas Creek and down Kings Mountain. It was around 41 miles, which is a distance with which I have no problem. But, we climbed 4700 meet, comprised of two climbs: Old La Honda and Tunitas Creek. A few miles in is when we encountered OLH, so I had enough stamina and strength to get up.

From San Gregorio Loop

I’m not a very fast climber and since I was familiar with the route and knew we had a long ride ahead, I didn’t push myself to get up. When we met up with Skyline, we descended the other side of OLH towards San Gregorio Road, which was nice and flat and FAST! It was really foggy on the other side of the mountain so I ended up having to go down without my sunglasses since they were fogging up.

From San Gregorio Loop

David’s not so awesome water bottle (looks cool but splashes on bumpy descents):

From San Gregorio Loop

Hehe:

From San Gregorio Loop

We took the road to the beach, took a bathroom break, and took Highway 1 to Tunitas Creek Road. At Highway 1 and Tunitas Creek, the Portrero Nuevo Farm has a great little Bike Hut, which has water, bike tools, and snacks to take (based on the honor system).

From San Gregorio Loop

Tunitas is a nice and shaded climb, but the steep beginning was something I wasn’t prepared for and didn’t have much legs left to make it up. I went very very slowly and was the last up by about 10 minutes. I’m just really bad at climbing. The last mile I rode with a woman who worked at Lockheed Martin and kept my mind off of all the climbing while we chatted. I met up with the rest of the guys I was with and took Kings Mountain down to Woodside and back to the parking lot where we started. I think I ate around 7 Gu-Energy gels but was still hungry at the end. The great part of the ride was that there were nearly 0 cars throughout the ride, particularly during all of the climbs and descents. It’s always depressing for me to see a car speed by while I’m struggling up a mountain.

Picture of everyone going faster than me:

From San Gregorio Loop

I took along MyTracks on my Android phone to record the ride, so it’s embedded in all its glory below. One thing I discovered was that Google Maps will only render a set number of points. Since MyTracks pieces together various markers to make a track, if I had embedded my original map, I would have shown only 3/4 of this ride, which wouldn’t make for a very good map. Thanks to the Google Maps Help Center, I discovered this thread, where one of the Top Contributors notes that if you click the “View in Google Earth” button, you can get a map that will show all points. Hallelujah!

View Larger Map

Not sure when I’ll do another ocean loop anytime soon, but it was really fun! Signed up for the Tour of Napa ride after some peer pressure in late August so I’m looking forward to that!

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San Gregorio Loop