I know it’s been a while since I’ve written. Imagine that – between work and training and trying to get enough sleep to not wear down my immune system and get sick, it doesn’t leave much free time! But let me at least start to try and get you caught up on the last couple of months!
1) Red Ruby!
When I last wrote I had just gotten my new bike from Specialized – a Ruby – and was getting it set up with the right gearing, fit, etc. Let me just say that after a couple months of riding it I’m super impressed with it!! Here’s why:
a) Comfort!
The Ruby does such a better job of absorbing and dissipating the road shock – it’s a real pleasure to ride!
b) Handling!
I really like how the Ruby handles, especially cornering and on descents – it’s really responsive and smooth.
c) Color!
My Ruby is red, and I must say I love it! Being a Canadian I have an affinity for red. And with Mike’s creative genius my red Ruby is now accented with white maple leafs cut from reflective vinyl! My bike needs to be reflective for RAW, so now it’s reflective and stylin’!! Plus Jason pimped out the bars with red bar tape which goes great with the red theme!
One of my first rides with the Ruby in early February
2) Randonneuring – The Wet, The Dry, and The Beautiful!
I’ve been aware of randonneuring for a few years now, but had never tried my hand at it myself. Finally after much nagging from Jason, Mike and I signed up for some brevets. They seemed like a great (and cheap!) way to get some long rides in outside of our usual routes, and with many of our cycling friends from across the state. We did our first brevet on February 12th – the Two Rock 200k hosted by the San Francisco Randonneurs (SFR). What a gorgeous day, and a beautiful ride! The ride started in San Francisco and immediately crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and headed through Sausalito and Fairfax, then up through the lush green hillsides and farm country around Nicasio and Petaluma, then out to Valley Ford before heading south along Highway 1 and Tomales Bay to Point Reyes Station, and then back to SF. Any ride that has a mandatory stop at the Bovine Bakery in Point Reyes Stations is A+ in my books! 
So our first brevet was in the books as a huge success!
After finishing the Two Rock 200k on February 12th, Golden Gate Bridge in the background
The next weekend we tried our hand at the staff ride for the SFR 300k (we were volunteering the following weekend for the actual event). It poured with rain on Friday, and we almost didn’t go, but Jason (ever the nagger that he is!!) insisted that we at least show up and start and see how it went. After all, the forecast was only for “scattered showers”, so how bad could it be??? (When weather’s concerned, I’ve learned to never ask this questions – mother nature can be cruel!!) Well we headed up to SF bright and early for the 6am start, and it was in fact dry at that point. But not too long after we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and were headed through Fairfax it started to rain pretty steadily. The rain continued to get worse, and the temperature was only in the low 40s (cold for Californians!). At the secret control near the Nicasio Reservoir I could tell that Mike was pretty miserable, but I convinced him to keep heading north as far as Petaluma where there was a Peets that we could warm up in and decide from there what we wanted to do. I wanted to get at least 100 miles of riding in, but didn’t see the sense in being thoroughly miserable for 190 miles, but didn’t want to throw in the towel just yet. The rain finally eased off as we got into Petaluma, and we spent over an hour at Peets trying to warm up and dry out. We’d each brought a change of dry clothes (but only 1 change), so we changed into our dry clothes (plus our trusty garbage bag liner), and decided to make our way back to SF rather than continuing on to Healdsburg. Not knowing what the weather was going to do, we didn’t want to get caught 100 miles from our car on a no-SAG ride and have no dry/warm clothes and it be pouring rain and near freezing temperatures. So we headed back south again. The rain had stopped, and it actually looked clear out towards the coast, so we decided to take Hicks Valley Road out to the Marshall Wall and then follow Highway 1 down to Point Reyes Station. This was a beautiful stretch of road – the rain had stopped, the hills were lush and green, and the farm animals were out and talking to us (we had a gobble or two with a few turkeys, and baaa’d at some sheep!).
Mike at the top of the Marshall Wall with Tomales Bay in the background on 2/19/11
At Marshall we stopped for hot clam chowder at the Marshall Store – boy oh boy was it good! And since it wasn’t raining we even sat outside and looked over Tomales Bay as we savored our soup!
Clam Chowder stop at the Marshall Store on 2/19/11
Mike at the Marshall Store on 2/19/11
Then in Point Reyes we decided to try taking a different route back to SF by continuing down Highway 1 through Stinson Beach and following Highway 1 back over to the Golden Gate Bridge. The rain held off until we got to Stinson Beach, and then got progressively worse as we continued south – as did the wind. The climb out of Stinson Beach we’d done in the opposite direction as part of the Mt. Tam double a few times, but had never done it in this direction, and boy oh boy did it feel tougher than I’d anticipated – there were some steep pitches, and the wind, rain, and cold weren’t helping! Likewise the climb through the headlands back towards the Golden Gate Bridge was also tougher than anticipated, and there were full on streams crossing the road in several places there was so much moisture!
Climbing up Highway 1 from Muir Beach on 2/19/11 in the rain
But we made it – albeit completely soaked and cold! The only nice thing was that because of the miserable weather conditions, we had the Golden Gate Bridge to ourselves on the return trip across – unlike on the Two Rock 200k when it was almost like kamikaze cyclocross or something trying to get across and whizzing past riders going in the other direction with barely an inch or two to spare!!
Return trip across the Golden Gate Bridge on 2/19/11
Mike on the Golden Gate Bridge on 2/19/11
We ended up with 116 miles, and more climbing than on the 200k the week prior, so despite the “failure” in terms of finishing the 300k, it was still a great training day!
Next up in terms of brevets was the Waves and Wine 400k out of San Luis Obispo put on by the PCH Randonneurs on March 12th. So stay tuned for details on that and other adventures of the past 2 months!
