We didn’t do it. I was waken up by the rain pounding on our roof at around 7am. That was just perfect for sleeping in. Well, 86 men and women, not wusses like us, turned out for the ride.<\/p>\n
10\/11\/2008:<\/strong> West Alpine<\/a> (results<\/a>)<\/p>\n The start of the climb is only 10 minutes away from our house on a bike, so we really did not have any excuse not to make this one. Plus, it is one of Erik’s favorite climbs. But getting up early did not happen, which chain-reactioned into a late breakfast, a rush to the registration, and a cold start. At least, those are the excuses I came up with for Erik’s stunning performance<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 It seemed that the entire pelaton passed me on the flats at the start. I was too focused on staying out of people’s way to remember the benefit of drafting. But once the hill picked up, I started passing people. I love hills!<\/p>\n I was happy to see my fellow dirt\/road diva Janet at the start. She introduced me to Amy. Krishna is the guy who won PTB’s time trial up Finch Trail in Water Dog park. This time, he showed up on his mountain bike, and he still was faster than many people. Rich from work was also on the ride.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to access a video of this ride.<\/p>\n 10\/18\/2008:<\/strong> Quimby Road<\/a> (results<\/a>)<\/p>\n I felt anxious before the ride. The elevation profile shows a 13% average grade for the second half of the ride. In comparison, Old La Honda and Sierra Road look flat.\u00c2\u00a0 I still remember tipping over in our neighborhood last year when I first started riding simply because the bike came to a halt on an uphill and I couldn’t unclip.\u00c2\u00a0 Thankfully, nobody saw me then. But it would be embarrassing if I did that in front of tens of people, or would it happen on Quimby?\u00c2\u00a0 Nervous, yet I was curious to find out.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, it was not bad at all. The second half was somewhat sustained, but I was able to spin my granny gear and that enabled me to trade positions with a few riders before the finish. I could see Erik a short distance in front of me most of the way. That was a sign that both of us were riding at our expected capacity.<\/p>\n I chatted with a guy in a MTBR jersey whose name was Mat.\u00c2\u00a0 I also chatted with Stephen a little bit.\u00c2\u00a0 As far as divas go, I met Judith, Helen, Janet Martinez (1st place woman), and Holly (3rd place woman).<\/p>\n The Brunners posted their video<\/a>. Click on the link to see how everyone suffers.<\/p>\n 10\/25\/2008:<\/strong> Bear Gulch<\/a> (results<\/a>)<\/p>\n I probably should not have done this one. For a few days prior to the ride, I was feeling very off — a dull stomach ache had been bugging me and every joint felt sore. However, I thought to myself “well, staying home ain’t gonna make it better, so I might as well get out and ride.”\u00c2\u00a0 Hmmm… staying home probably would not have made me feel better, but everything definitely went downhill after this ride. For the rest of the day, I walked around with a box of Kleenex in my hand and it was getting emptied fast. It seems certain now I have come down with a flu or a cold. Darn it!<\/p>\n After the ride, I hung out with Erik and our friend, Mike, who kindly joined our Mud ‘N Crud team along with another guy, whose name I did not get. Everyone was coughing. Mike told us that it was because we breathed harder than our lungs could handle. I guess that immediate steep hill in the 1st mile was brutal. It took an hour for the burning sensation in the throat to fade and another hour for the cough to subside.\u00c2\u00a0 Now I just wish my flu bug would go away.<\/p>\n Note to myself: I chatted with Holly (4th place woman) on the way to the ride and with Oliver (the young guy who finished one second ahead of Erik) on the way from the ride.\u00c2\u00a0 I owe Dan $10 (registration fee) .<\/p>\n Edit on 10\/26\/2008: I definitely should not have done this one. Being hit by flu is not fun especially when the weather is so nice outside. And Erik had to drive down to Pinnacles by himself today.<\/p>\n P.S. Wow, I’m amazed. After a very relaxing day on Sunday resting at home (making oatmeal pine nut cookies was pretty much all I did), when Monday came, it was almost like someone turned off the faucet.\u00c2\u00a0 My nose, for the most part, was not congested any more and I got\u00c2\u00a0 my voice back. I couldn’t even call in sick! This is the fastest recovery I’ve ever had.<\/p>\n P.P.S. Jill, a fellow diva and a physiologist, has this information to share, “Moderate to light activity can boost your immune system. Hard exercise reduces your immune system for at least 3 hours after the activity, just enough time for a bug to really take hold. <\/span>”<\/p>\n 11\/01\/2008:<\/strong> Montivena<\/a> (Canceled)<\/p>\n Rain.<\/p>\n 11\/08\/2008:<\/strong> Jamison Creek<\/a> (results<\/a>)<\/p>\n This is another new climb to me. Actually, I just realize that having lived in the Bay Area for six years,I have never been to the west side of Skyline on Hwy 9. This series provides a good opportunity for me to ride in new areas.<\/p>\n It is a smaller turnout than usual due to its distance from the central part of the Bay Area. However, the strong female riders are all here: Jenny, Janet, and Holly and they are all in the team Sisters of No Mercy.\u00c2\u00a0 When we gear up at the parking lot, Janet kindly passes on to me a tiny sister sculpture. I think there are also sculptures of Jesus in her bag.<\/p>\n The start of the Jamison Creek is fairly flat, which is a big problem for me. Sure enough, I am abandoned by the pelaton who fly by me in no time as soon as the ride starts. I try to hang on, but I cannot. I have been used to spinning at a low gear and that does not help me stay behind others’ wheels. When I shift up, immediately my legs feel the fatigue and my heart rate goes up. I don’t know how other people do it. For a while, it feels like I am the very last rider when the pelaton pull away from me and I cannot see anyone behind me. After a little over one mile, the hill starts to get steeper. That’s where I feel more at ease, spinning my granny gear as usual. The three sisters are out of sight. I figure I’ll just do my best and even if I’m the last, I will have no regret. I manage to reel a couple of riders in as the hill climb continues. Before I know it, I’m at the top, where most other riders are already stopped and socializing. I am not the last one, but due to the small turnout, I am the second to last in women’s category. Well, I think I have done my best, and I have done a climb I’d never been to before, so, this is another very good ride.<\/p>\n There is a video taken by Denny Sahovic at the finish. As Dan the organizer said, “message from Denny’s video: he who breathes hardest, goes fastest. ” To access, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 11\/15\/2008:<\/strong> Metcalf Rd<\/a> (results<\/a>)<\/p>\n Not again!!! On this Saturday evening, my nose is stuffed, I’m on to my second hankie,\u00c2\u00a0 and I sneezed a dozen times already in the past couple of hours.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s exactly what happened after Bear Gulch three weeks ago. At least last time, there were warning signs prior to the ride. This time, there was none. I was feeling perfectly fine this morning. Okay, I woke up with a slight headache, but it went away with the first cup of coffee.\u00c2\u00a0 Crap! Erik has already been sick for a few days. It’s a pretty depressing scene in the Mud household right now with two sick people. *sigh*<\/p>\n Anyway, let me rewind to this morning when\u00c2\u00a0 the sun was bright and I was feeling healthy. Even though Erik could not go with me, I still decided to go alone. It’s mainly because I fell in love with this climb when I saw this picture a few days ago:<\/p>\n It’s beautiful, but I should have realized that this was a photo looking down. When I was climbing up the road, I did not get that open panoramic view.\u00c2\u00a0 Now that I think about it, all I saw was the 2 foot square in front of my front wheel on my climb up.<\/p>\n It was another great turnout. I recognized a few regulars such as Jenny, Janet, and Holly, three of the Sisters of No Mercy. There were also some other female riders that I did not remember meeting before. There is a very brief flat section before the climb starts. By the time my right cleat found the correct side of my pedal to clip in, I was at the back of the pack again.\u00c2\u00a0 This climb is featured by one mile of steep climb followed by less than one mile of moderate gradient. But if you ask me, it felt steep all the way to almost the very end. I was able to shift out of my granny gear in maybe the last 0.2 miles only. I’m a wimp.\u00c2\u00a0What can I say? I thought I pushed myself hard, but I guess others pushed themselves harder — I think I was near the back the entire ride on this short climb.<\/p>\n My performance aside, I had an unexpected gain today — one thing that had puzzled me for quite a while was finally explained by Bill, another Sisters of No Mercy team member. It seems that even though my heart rate is no where near my max (for example, on one recent ride on OLH when I wore my HR monitor, my heart rate stayed in Zone 4 despite my best effort), I don’t seem to be able to push myself to go any faster.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s how I felt on today’s ride too. Bill explained to me that muscles are not all the same. There are fast and slow twitch muscle fibers. One person with more fast twitch muscle fibers can generate enormous amount of strength and speed over a short period of time compared to the next person. Remembering that I was always the slowest student in my PE classes throughout my school life, I found it very easy for me to accept the theory and accept the implication that I will always be a “mudworm” — never fast, but inch by inch, I will get to my destination.<\/p>\n On my way back down to my car, I did get a nice view of the valley. Oh, it was beautiful in the bright sunshine. Back at the car, I pondered what to do next. The Sisters of No Mercy along with some other riders are doing a 55 mile ride to Henry Coe. I was interested because I had never done the route before and it would be with a group of fun people. However, I was not prepared. I only had one small water bottle and no food. I also wanted to go to Erik’s 3pm appointment with his orthodontist to go over his X-rays and photo images of his crooked teeth. The temptation that I would discover more of my husband’s secrets was too much to resist. I had to give the ride a pass.\u00c2\u00a0 But I was not ready to drive back either. After all, I drove 50 miles to do this 2-mile climb. I had to do something. Equipped with a printout of Gary Griffin’s route recommendation and no map, I did not seem to have a choice. However, that meant I needed to climb back up Metcalf again. Oh well, no choice means no choice. Up I went. This time, I set the split on my stopwatch at the intersection of Metcalf and Malech Road and again at the finish line.\u00c2\u00a0 I had 16 minutes and 15.08 seconds on my watch for the climb. It’ll be interesting to compare it with the time Low Key had for me on my first time climbing up Metcalf only an hour earlier. (Edit: As the results show, my first time up Metcalf was 15’32”.) Here is Gary’s route suggestion: “If you want to extend your ride, you can go down the back side of Metcalf, turn left on San Felipe, left on Farnsworth, left on Silver Creek, and left on Hellyer. Hellyer turns into Basking Ridge Rd. which ends at a park service gate. Go around the gate and continue a quarter mile to Metaclf Rd. The loop is 17 miles with 2000 ft of climbing, 1000 of which you completed in the race.<\/span>”<\/p>\n I did manage to get lost (turning off San Felipe too soon on Silver Creek Rd, which was the wrong Silver Creek) and ended up in an upscale neighborhood. I was hoping that some rich old couple would find me and adopt me, but it didn’t happen when I rode from one gate to another before retracing my route back to San Felipe.\u00c2\u00a0 I could almost hear Gary yell into my ear, “I told you to turn left on Farnsworth!”<\/p>\n Ah-chew! Ug. I think it was the AC in the orthodontist’s office that took me down. I hope with EmergenC drinks and a good night of sleep, tomorrow I’ll wake up as good as new. Ah-chew!<\/p>\n Here are some photos from the ride:<\/p>\n 11\/22\/2008:<\/strong> Lomas Cantadas<\/a> (skipped)<\/p>\n I’ll have to skip this one because I’ll be in China for my father’s birthday this weekend.<\/p>\n 11\/27\/2008:<\/strong> Mt Hamilton<\/a> (Results<\/a>)<\/p>\n Neither of us wanted to get out of bed in the morning.\u00c2\u00a0 It was warm under the blanket and it’s the first day of our Thanksgiving long weekend.\u00c2\u00a0 But our friend Mike said he and Joan might be there, so it would be bad form if we flaked. Finally, I exclaimed, “we might as well go and get this over with!” At that prompt, we jumped out of the bed. Once out, it was not too bad.<\/p>\n Actually I’d been looking forward to his ride for a while. For one, I’d never been on this side of the observatory; and it would be a long ride (18+ miles of climbing), which I liked.\u00c2\u00a0 It rained the day before, but in the morning, the live condition report from the observatory looked promising.<\/p>\n On our way to the start, I felt drowsy, still a bit jet lagged after I returned from China less that two days ago. So, we stopped to get coffee. I brought my stainless steel mug with me. Big mistake. The coffee stayed too hot to drink all the way to the start.\u00c2\u00a0 With the long wait in the registration line, our warmup time gradually slipped away. But one nice thing is Mike and Joan showed up.\u00c2\u00a0 This is our first time meeting Joan, but I had seen her website on her great finish at Furnace Creek 508<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Mike joined our Mud ‘n Crud team again and signed up for the ride.\u00c2\u00a0 Up we went.<\/p>\n It was a big group at the bottom, but it thinned out fast. For a long time, I could only see one or two riders in front of me and none behind me. I guessed most had gone ahead. I felt good on the ride, keeping my heart rate low as usual. Along the way, I made sure to turn my head to check out the view. At the bottom, we were under the clouds; gradually, we were in the clouds; and near the top we were in the sun. I was able to see the beautiful hill side and the valley below most of the way up, which made the ride even more worthwhile.<\/p>\n At the top, the sun went in and out of the clouds. It was very calm; however the temperature was still a little low. We got a bit chilled standing around and chatting with Mike and Joan. With the exertion behind him, Erik hacked away violently, which did not seem going to ever stop. We couldn’t talk over his deafening coughs, so we watched him hack bending over the handle bar. Mike went from pleading “please live” sympathetically to asking “will you live?” while staring at Erik’s Specialized bike. He has been battling a stubborn cold for almost two weeks. Poor guy.<\/p>\n I went through different climates descending the 18+ miles I just climbed going from bone chill at the top to comfortably warm near the bottom. The smooth surface and the friendly curves in the road at the lower half made descending surprisingly fun. Back at the car, both Erik and I agreed that we were happy that we got out of the bed this morning.<\/p>\n Following are photos taken by Josh Hadley on Mt Hamilton. I'm putting the thumbnail images here. For full sizes, click on any image to access the album.<\/p>\n (photo courtesy of Christine Holmes)<\/p>\n
<\/a> (photos courtesy of Adam Tow)<\/p>\n
<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0
\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>
<\/a> (Erik, Mei, and Mike. Photos courtesy of Eric Willis)<\/p>\n
(Photo by J. Handley)<\/p>\n
(photo by Garrett Lau)<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/mw2.google.com\/mw-panoramio\/photos\/medium\/5779736.jpg\")
<\/a> (Click on the pic to access the source)<\/p>\n (Photo by Stephen Fong)<\/p>\n
(Photo by Gary)<\/p>\n