On Bicycles, and.... what else is there?

MDR is a 4-day tour, but my last two times the adventure for me has started day 0, as I've ventured southward to stay overnight near the tour start location. Last year I shared a hotel room with Jeff. That went well, but Jeff now lives closer to the start, so he can just drive in day-of. I didn't get anyone else to share a room with, so I resigned myself to Motel 6, which is the cheapest option around here. But then I thought of AirBNB . Maybe there was something close by. Sure enough, within virtual walking distance, I found a place. So I signed up. Things weren't super-smooth, though, as Pam's (not her real name) policy was to only rent to people who had a history with AirBNB. This makes sense, because with a history you get reviews, and that serves as a filter for the undesirables. But I showed here my LinkedIn page, and she saw whom I knew. In particular, we both knew a women with whom I'd worked fairly extensively when I was at Stanford. Weird. So I se...

Time for the 20th edition of the MDR "Memorial Day Ride", 4 days from Campbell to San Jose. This year: the coastal route. I may indulge in the Wes-inspired detour up and down Nacamiento Fergusson Road on the Big Sur Day. But let's see. The key right now is getting to the start. So I packed my stuff in the Winter Allaban and will take the train to San Jose, ride from there to an AirBNB in Campbell, then from there it's 1 km to the tour start. Perfect. This will be my first AirBNB experience. It took some work to convince the host I was trustworthy. She prefers repeat-users who have a review history. But it turns out we have a common friend, so I think that helped. Coincidences.... At the ride start, I'll ditch the rear rack and panniers, transfer my stuff to the duffle bag I have in the handlebar bag, and I'll be good to go. The tour is supported, so I don't actually need to bring even the handlebar bag, but I very much look forward to having...

Cara wanted to do a bike tour, so when we were visiting Ely Rodriguez to talk about a handlebar bag, he suggested the Marin Headlands as an excellent destination. The Marin Headlands are just north of San Francisco, across the Golden Gate Bridge, but I immediately embraced the idea. It was a good chance to try out the whole bike touring process: pack stuff on bike, ride to destination, camp out, pack up and leave. The rides themselves would be short, less than 20 miles following the most direct route, but it would provide a good chance to learn what works and what doesn't. On a bike tour, the actual riding is just a part of it, maybe even a minority. This would test the rest. First, I had to reserve the campground. This turned out to be surprisingly easy. Many campgrounds in the SF Bay area need to be booked months in advance, but in March, Haypress campground in the Headlands obviously isn't one of them. I initially tried to get Hawk, which is the most remote campgrou...

I initially posted this at 1:59:26 am PDT on π day, which made me feel slightly clever, but then I felt considerably less clever when I realized I'd mistakingly concluded I had 5 weeks until the Woodside Ramble 50 km, rather than the 4 weeks I actually have. Analysis revised... With only 4 weeks to go until my 50 km race, I'm becoming more and more obsessed with it. After Lake Chabois, I took a week off from running, but helped fill the void with cycling, made even more irresistable by my new bike, the Winter Allaban. Woodside Ramble 50 km, Michigan Bluff photography But with "rest week" over, my body fatigued from the rapid ramp-up in riding volume, it was time to start running again. And that meant Caltrain to work instead of SF2G. For Caltrain, it would be folly to take the Allaban, so I've been riding my "rain bike", a 1989 Trek 1500. That bike needs a new drivetrain, the derailleur and 7-speed cassette both well past their replacement dat...