These are my people

Here's another look at the (motley?) crew that I ride with: This is at a rest stop in the middle of a hill climbing fest, along Mt. Eden Road in the Saratoga hills. At the far right is our ride group's coach, Kevin. He's a cycling animal!

A nice little climb

After yesterday's infernal long ride (more about that soon), I needed something less punishing. A few friends and I are interesting in making an assault on Mt. Hamilton Road, which is an old country road in east San Jose climbing up to the iconic Lick Observatory.

Don't worry, I didn't ride to the Observatory! Not today, anyway. But maybe by the end of summer. Today, we just road a nice 10-mile loop that climbs part way up Mt. Hamilton Road. It's really a nice road for cycling: not too much traffic, not too steep, it just climbs for a long, long ways.

I'm having fun experimenting with different mapping methods and used Gmaps Pedometer to draw this:

Pretty Picture of a Deluge

Last Saturday, our ride was supposed to be 50+ miles from Los Altos to San Mateo with a climb up to Skyline Blvd. HOWEVER, when we got to Woodside, it started raining pretty hard. It was my first time riding in a rain storm. It's not very fun. Even though I had a waterproof jacket, your face gets constantly blasted with road spray and grime from fellow riders' tires. The worst part of all is that it's very hard to brake on a bike in the rain! I had to give my brakes the "death grip" to keep from running into fellow riders or past stop lights.

Sensibly, we turned back at Edgewood Road in Woodside. As we were riding back, we passed the TNT Run team, which was also out at Woodside. That's what caused the rain! It always rains on the run team when they go to Woodside!

I painstakingly created this pretty picture of our route. I hope you like it!

What Nick Said

I've been meaning to write up last week's ride, which went really well for me. But before getting around to it, I discovered that my coworker Nick (an Ironman) has joined the Cycle team, and wrote a beautifully illustrated description of our ride. So go check it out at his blog and see his pretty topo map of our route!

Bizarre Love Triangle

Did that title catch your attention? What Triangle am I referring to? It must involve me, my bike, and a to-be-named object/person. ;-)

Actually, that was a song played in my 6:30a Spinning class this morning: Bizarre Love Triangle, by New Order. It brought back fond memories of the 1980s, and it's a great song to spin to, also. These techno-dance songs have such a strong bass beat, even an arrhythmic white boy such as myself can find a groove.

It made me think of a new idea for exercise classes: classes finely targeted by musical genre, e.g.,

• Hair Metal Spinning
• Gothic Yoga, a la Goth Talk.

Ah, the things one thinks of while suffering in the gym!

Monte Vista Ride

Here's a map of last Saturday's 47-mile course. You can zoom out and see all the miles we covered, and look at the elevation map at bottom. The biggest hills were at the end -- Mt. Eden and Pierce Road.

Nearly Moving Pictures

I've searched far and wide for pictures to show that I'm really out there pedaling down the road to earn your support. But first, let me introduce you to my ride team. This is the crew I ride with: Coach Kevin, Dave, Darlene, Reid, and Yogesh. (I can't ID the rider at far right.) We're at a rest stop on our 35-mile ride from Foothill College in Los Altos Hills. This it our rest stop at the turnaround point on Canada Road at Highway 92. We have a great bunch of volunteers for SAG (supply and gear) who refresh us and cheer for us on our rides.

And here's a picture of me (at far right) dressed up like a biker, savoring a banana. We do more than eating, I swear! I guess we ride so fast that the only pictures available are of us at rest. :-)

Fundrai$ing Milestone Achieved

Last week was the first time I rode 50 miles in my life! That's a milestone; I'm halfway to my ultimate goal.

Coincidentally, my sponsors and I achieved a fundraising milestone, too. I've raised more than half of my $5,000 goal for the season! Thank you!!! I'm not resting on this achievment, however. I'll keep talking to people about this program and looking for support for the rest of the season. Check back any time at http://www.active.com/donate/tntsvmb/jbusco to see my current fundraising total.

To appreciate what TNT has accomplished since its founding, I include this description that I just received:

Since TNT’s inception nearly 20 years ago, 320,000 participants have raised more than $750 million to help the Society fight blood cancers. TNT is the world’s largest endurance sports training program, helping athletes of all levels to run or walk a whole or half marathon or participate in a triathlon or century (100-mile) bike ride.

--Team in Training newsletter