Petaluma

shoot I'm up in Petaluma for a photo shoot. I wish I had brought my bike with me, as it would have been great to explore some of the country side up north. Unfortunately I didn't get in any riding and got stuck in some major traffic going back into the city. Serenity now! Tomorrow I'm hoping to destress with some major miles up into the mountains.

BMW Welt

20130830-101044.jpg Before heading out of town we got to check out the BMW museum. What an incredible space. We were also fortunate enough to get a brief tour of their internal brand center where we learned about how they teach new employees about the brand. State of the art facility.

Munich

20130830-100810.jpg We arrived in Munich safely. We spent the afternoon checking out the town. Found a really cool outdoor store called Globetrotters. It's like REI on steroids. We're here just for a couple days before we head down south to where Eurobike is.

Eurobike

I'm very excited that I'll be attending Eurobike this year. It's been ages since I've been to a bicycle trade show. The last time was Interbike, back when it was in Anahiem, CA roughly 14 years ago. Specialized has a great looking booth this year that I was able to be a part of and contribute my creative energy towards. It'll be cool to see that work in the flesh and at larger than life-size. I leave this Saturday evening for about a week. In the meantime I'm trying to log in as many miles possible in the likelihood I won't get to ride that much, even though I'm going because of bikes. How ironic, eh?

Sick Again

I came down with whatever I had pre Leadville again. No fun feeling like crap before the weekend. At least I'll be able to rest up properly. My season is almost over, and I deserve a bit of recovery after my stellar season.

Make it Two

two-buckles I've got two of these now. I brought my shiny new Leadville buckle to work for some well deserved bragging rights. It was cool to have people congratulate me, especially since I work at a bike company. It felt good. So good, in fact, I even went on the lunch ride, which turned out to be a skills/recovery ride.

Feeling Like…

I'm making my last-minute preparations before I head out to Leadville tomorrow morning. Currently I'm feeling ok, very low energy, and on the verge of catching a cold that's been circulating around the office. Come to think of it I haven't been sick in well over a year. Hopefully by the time I leave work this afternoon a wave of calm will wash over me as I don't have to worry about work. Tomorrow's going to be one crazy day of flying, driving, prepping, more driving, bike assembling, eating and hopefully a lot of sleeping before my 4am wake up call come Saturday morning. I'm not too psyched about the weather forecast. It's going to be really cold and dreary all day with a 40% chance of thunderstorms. I've got all of my wet weather riding gear all packed, and hopefully it'll stay packed come race day.

Race Prep

race-prep-tahoe I worked from home this morning. My wife and I drove up to Lake Tahoe to pick up my race packet. It was her first time up here, and we decided to stay at a hotel further south along the lake. To our dismay we realized the hotel we booked was at the state line where the beautiful tranquility of trees and nature give way to casinos and strip malls. We promptly cancelled our reservation and drove back up to the north side of the lake, booking at a much nicer, and not to mention closer, hotel.

I got the #1 plate again. They must assign everyone alphabetically, but still, it's pretty cool to hold the #1 spot. I was just in time to catch the tail end of the racer's meeting at Northstar, where afterwards I was able to say hi to Dave Weins, six-time champion of the Leadville 100. Super nice guy. I had the chance to pre-ride the Tahoe course with him last year.

Gotta get settled and into bed. It was a long and stressful day of tying up loose ends with work and driving for more than several hours. Hope all the rest I took this week counts for something.

Wall of Fog

wall-of-fog I've been loving my drives home from work lately. With the hot air converging with the much cooler air of the bay comes great walls of fog just spilling over the mountains. So beautiful. I've got some work to do on my bike in preparation for the race on Saturday.

My rear wheel has been out of true for a while, and it was about time I fixed it. I had a leaky rear tire and needed to take my wheel apart anyway. I had been using Orange Seal since Sea Otter, but think it's not as good of a sealant as Stans. It's all the same really, but I recharged my sealant with the latter. I also had to change out my well-worn brake pads. Beyond that everything is set with my race rig.

Ricochet Rest

I'm going up to Lake Sonoma on Saturday to do the second Ricochet race, put on by Bike Monkey. I'm working from home today, and plan on staying off the bike completely to give my legs a rest. Yesterday I was really feeling drained, especially with the massive headwinds on my way up to the Golden Gate Bridge. I've got the Tour on the television, and a pile of work to crank through.

Finally Home

12 hours later, two flights and a breeze through customs I'm back in San Francisco. I feel relatively good, but I'm not sure how it'll affect my race performance in the morning. We'll see. I'm also happy to have reliable internet access, as Italy had some shady connections.

Homeward Bound

Spent a good week in Italy for work. Unfortunately I didn't get to do any riding while I was here. This Sunday I'm doing the Tamarancho Dirt Classic, and I'm hoping to carry over my fitness from SoNoMas last weekend. While I've been eating very well I haven't been getting enough rest. It feels like one long day dragged out over a week's time. However, I can't complain. It's my first time in Italy, and I've enjoyed every moment of it.