New Bike!

So lady's and gent's I am officially the proud owner of a Cannondale Six Bike! Whoot whoot!

I went to the Mike's Bikes sale on Wednesday and scored myself an incredible bike for more than 50% off. It sure didn't hurt that it is a 2009 and right now it is currently more than half way through 2010!

But clearly I must have never been to a bike store that isn't a douchey NYC bike store- because this place treated me like a real person! Having all my previous bike experience be from NYC- and therefore I am now sufficiently scarred by bike store owners and fixie jerks- I was expecting not only a run around (that is pretty much expected in NYC) but also a bunch of jerks perpetually testing my "knowledge" of bikes and what is cool/ not cool in the bike world. (Clearly, as you can tell, I have some issues to work out in therapy with NYC and its biking culture...)

Luckily none of that was to be had at Mike's Bikes.

So three cheers for my new bike... as my wallet cries softly in the corner!

The specs are below if anyone is interested.

It is definitely more than just a beginner bike, but after riding it and seeing what a steal I was getting I figured that I might as well go for it. Since the 2010 Dolce Specialized were only selling for $100- %200 less.

After riding my friends Allez Specialized bike on the last ride and finishing with major upper back pain due to the handle bar being too wide for my shoulders and too far away from the saddle I decided that going with a women's bike was probably the way to go. Unless I wanted to completely replace the handle bars on a brand new bike- which just didn't seem worth it to me.

I did test drive a Dolce before buying the Cannondale, but it was a bit too upright for me- and not as aggressive as I would have liked the frame to be. I think after using guys bikes that have always been a bit to big for me I am used to a more horizontal feel. And the Ruby Specialized was just too expensive. So that I how I ended up with the Cannondale.

Also, after test driving a bike that had ultegra gears... there really was no going back-shifting was as smooth as butter!

But I don't have the bike yet- they needed to bring my size in from another store. And I am having some serious separation anxiety. You know the kind where you stare at pictures of it on the internet or when you want to brag about it to other people, but no one even understand why the hell you spent that much money on a bike no matter how you try and explain that it is carbon with amazing gears.... ::sigh:: The with drawl is hard!

But I get it on Tuesday and then Wednesday I have to do a crash course in how to use my new pedals and shoes. Hopefully that does not turn into a literal crash course on the subject...

Also one of the employees at Mike's Bike suggested that I try them out first on a grassy field so as not to hurt myself or my bike if I do happen to take a tumble. Good points all around!

http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/BikeSpecs.aspx?ItemID=17502&Type=bike

Week 1 Summary

So this is how my first week ended up being in comparison to my earlier schedule. Not too bad, but definitely not as full throttle as my original schedule mandated.

By Friday I could barely walk down the stairs properly, so I figured that if I was going to actually do a ride that Sunday I needed to rest up. Basically the run killed me and I am NOT looking forward to the next one that I am going to do (i.e. this evening). I've figured that if the running is going to make me that sore I needed to start doing it earlier in the week if I have any prayer of doing my rides on the weekends.

Also, I was able to give up coffee for the whole week! Whoot whoot! But have recently fallen off of the no-caffeine band wagon. Having coffee on Monday was like having a religious awakening... god, coffee is good! ::Sigh::

On that note I have been pretty exhausted at work since I started training. I can't tell if it is because I am working out more and not sleeping enough or if it is more because I am a bit stressed out from work and trying to maintain my social life WHILE training. Hopefully I will stop feeling so tired all the time and thus be able to kick my coffee habit again.

I have also been very very good about my resolution to drink more water, but not so good about cutting down on the red meats. However, this grocery trip I did buy some beans and lentils (which I don't really know how to cook yet...) so hopefully that will get me started down the lesser meat eating path.

So this week taught me a few things: A. Exercise is tiring, B. Coffee is a gift from the gods, C. I am a totally out of shape runner, D. BUT I am in pretty good cycling shape for someone who has never done it before and E. There was no way I was going to be perfect on my first week and actually keep to the schedule I made.

So, keeping all of that in mind I think it was a pretty successful first week!

Wildcat Canyon and the Three Bears

Today was Sunday and the first day that I was able to walk successfully down stairs without looking like I had pegs for legs. Ever since that run on Wednesday my inner and outter quads have been killing me! So much so that my work has decided to give me the nickname of peg legs, since it looked like I had peg legs for the past few days.

Luckily I woke up today in not perfect shape- but being able to walk down the stairs like a normal human being sure was a plus!

Originally Erica and I were going to do a 30ish mile ride out in Pleasanton, but it was just WAY to hot for that. So we decided to do an easy ride early in the morning. Little did I know that the ride Erica was going to make us go on was any thing but easy!

She decided that we should do Wildcat Canyon and the 3 Bears and since when it comes to biking I just do whatever Erica tells me to do... at 9:45am we started back up Spruce toward Wildcat Canyon.




As you can see it was a pretty intense ride, but I am really glad that I had not seen it on a map before I did it or else I think I would have psyched myself out of it.

This time I had invited Andrew's cousin's husband, Eric, and one of his friends, Dirk to join us. It was really fun to ride with them and they definitely pushed us (or me!) to ride a little bit harder. Unfortunately they didn't stick around for the whole day- but it was fun for the part that they did join us on!

Riding down Wildcat canyon was awesome and you were able to have some amazing views. Once you got all the way down the hill and were trekking around the dams the hills (there are three of them hence the name the 3 Bears) were moderate- but with no shade. It was a full 85 degrees or higher, but with a nice wind at times and going back up Wildcat canyon was in the shade. For me, a So-Cal girl and someone who has lived in Thailand, I thought that the weather was perfect! And I got to work on my tan along the way! But Erica, and I think Eric and Dirk, might have thought it was a bit too hot to be riding.

The 18 or so miles around the dams were really beautiful and the path dumps you right out in farm and horse country. That was quite a treat to bike through those areas.

In front of some hay bales half way through the ride!

What is also great about the ride is that there a long stretches of road that open up where you can bike up and down baby hills in a higher gear- which is always just such a great feeling! After a few miles in a really low gear it is nice to once again feel the resistance of the bike and really feel like you are in control.

But of course what goes down must come back up again... meaning Wildcat canyon. After getting up Spruce with sore quads and the bike around the dams I really was scared that I wasn't going to make it back up that mountain! But Erica being the great Jitensha Sensei (bike teacher) that she is was able to instill enough confidence in me that I was indeed fit enough to make it back. Besides, we had no other way of getting home! It was a BITCH of a ride back up- I am not going to lie to you. Especially at the end of a long ride. But some how we made it back up to Inspiration Point. And Erica was right in the end- this was a perfect ride to challenge me, but at the same time a ride that I was able to do, even when I doubted myself.

Of course we needed a photo op with the beautiful rolling
Cali hills behind us!

After Inspiration Point the rest were easy mini hills that you could get through with enough momentum and then the down hill along Spruce- that was just fun! At by the end of it we reached home around 1:45ish which rounded out to about 4 hours to do the whole thing. I needed to take some stops to refuel and rest, but I am not going to begrudge myself that since it was only my second time cycling!

All in all Erica, like the story of the three bears, was able to pick just the right ride for the day. Even though at times I thought she was trying to kill me!

I Hate you Running

Did my first day of running yesterday- and I still hate you running. Oh I hate you soooo much. We only did a measly 2.7 mile run and how sore I am today!

Erica sent me this uplifting image last night.

If only my relationship with running wasn't so antagonistic ::sigh::

Here is a photo of the AMAZING view from the top of Grizzly Peak, the end destination on our first ride.

Swim swim

Monday- after the bike ride on Sunday I am now determined to get back on track with my June schedule. Went swimming today for a full 30 minutes- which was not as painful as the first Saturday I went swimming- good sign. Tomorrow I will be doing 65 minutes of cycling- 45 minutes of which are a class and 20 are going to be on my own. I think that this will be okay after all.

Grizzly Peak and forays back in to swimming

Okay, so first post since I have started training!

To start I have already NOT stayed true to my June calendar that I created- but that wasn't completely my fault. Andrew's, my boyfriend, flight from the East coast was delayed a day- causing the already very short period of time that I could see him before he goes back to Thailand for 10 weeks even shorter. Consequently as a surprise he decided to stay til Saturday! YAY! But that also means that I didn't start training until Saturday mid-day. Oh well, that's life.


So Saturday I went to a public pool near my house (the Mission Pool- see above- is quite the San Francisco type of public pool!) to do a 30 minute swim, which was difficult. This was the first lap that I had done in a pool in a year and a half. UGG! It was hard getting back into the swing of things especially with all of those people at the public pool swimming all over the place. Finding my "swimming zone" was nearly impossible.

Any ways, after that I felt pretty down and out- thinking that I was way more out of shape that I had previously thought. Luckily, I had a moderate ride coming up the next day with my Hapa training partner Erica! And she was going to show me the ropes on how to cycle.



Sunday we decided to do a moderate ride up to Grizzly Peak in Berkeley. It is a good beginner ride because while it is constantly up hill til the top the grade isn't constant and averages around 4%. What was great was that I was able to use Erica's boyfriend's bike, a MUCH nicer road bike than I have, and she taught me all about gear changing and the concepts behind it. I am very fortunately to have someone so knowledgeable willing to train with me- or else I would be floating out in cycling never-neverland not knowing what the hell to do!

The ride was also very very beautiful and at the top we were rewarded with some incredible views of the whole bay area.


Here we are enjoying finally making it to the top- Erica (who has done this ride a few times) said that we made pretty good time in getting to the top in 1 hour.

Neither of us felt very depleted after wards either, so that gives me hope that not only are we in a better place than I thought we were, but we are pretty even as far as athletic ability goes.


Here is Erica on the way up :) We are still looking feisty and this was only ten minutes from the top! It was nice to know that the ride didn't kill me and that I wasn't sore after wards.

The way down was a pretty crazy ride. I don't think that I am any where near as comfortable with speed as Erica is- but maybe that will come with time... I took it a bit slow coming down. And scarily enough was almost cremated by a car backing out of their drive way! Ekk!

But to end on a good note we did see a whole hillside populated by goats on the way down and that was a pretty cool way to end the ride!