May 29, 2010
pre-race thoughts: mt. hamilton

so i'm finally starting to get excited about racing hamilton tomorrow. you'd think that a race that starts with a 30km climb would be a good one for me, but the descent is probably a little more technical than i'd like, and then the next 60km are rollers, possibly with a head wind. fortunately, the descent is only half the climb, so there's still a net altitude gain at the finish.

i am optimistic that i can get a good result. a lot of the riders that placed higher than me at berkeley hills and wente are registered, but for some (probably irrational) reason i feel like i can do better on a longer climb than them.

May 9, 2010
berkeley hills

Berkeley Hills Road Race, Elite 4 (54 mi, 20.7 mph, 4,812 ft of climbing).

forboding clouds and a light rain greeted our rollout, but it stopped by the time we made the turn onto castro ranch road. i was relieved as i'd lost one of my arm warmers doing laundry, and was a little underdressed. with the cold weather and occasional rain, and alternating climbs and descents, my legs were not feeling their best.

no notable attacks or breaks for the first two laps; i was gapped a bit on the big descent but caught back up both laps. i'd estimate about 25 made it to mama bear on the last lap, but i imagine we droppd a few the final time up.

i'd been sitting at the back the whole race, but headed to the front for that climb, then trailed off for the final descent. this was a little more tense as people were trying to get in good position for the final climb.

a whole athlete rider attacked, and as we began papa bear a group of six were chasing him. i picked up a few positions, but couldn't quite catch them, and ended up 8th, which i am more than happy with.

next up is mt hamilton classic at the end of the month, unless i get tricked into doing panoche as well.

May 8, 2010
berkeley hills RR preview

berkeley hills road race is tomorrow. took it easy on the training this week: two rides, two spin classes, so i should be fairly rested (as long as i get some sleep). decent amount of climbing and non-technical descents so i'll hopefully be able to stick around. maybe there will actually be some attacks/breaks this time? hopefully i can work with some mice and see if we can make something happen.

also it might rain?

April 26, 2010
wente RR recap

ah, wente road race!

• late start: CHECK
• short drive: CHECK
• great weather: CHECK
• decent climbing: CHECK

even with all these going for it, i wasn't really expecting anything different from every weekend in the last month, namely getting dropped on the first lap. one thing was different: i pre-rode the course last weekend, and the more technical of the descents was followed immediately by another climb, so i could probably catch back up if i fell behind on the descent.

the course is a 15-mile loop with a 300-foot climb (max grade ~12%) leading to the finish. the race starts at the bottom so we did the climb four times. after the top there is a bit more climbing before the descent, then another climb and descent then a flat section with a small hill, and you're back to the start.

not much happened the first two laps, but the third time up the hill people were starting to drop off. i kept my pace up, and moved up in the pack. at the top of the hill, there was a small group (10-15 riders) starting to pull away, and i tried to bridge up. fortunately, there's a bit more climbing after we go over the highway, and i was able to bridge up before the descent. i got gapped a bit on the descent, but caught up again on the next climb, and hung on during the final descent.

the moto said we had about a 40 second gap on the chase group, but we didn't really get an organized paceline going. that was fine by me since i was trying to recover from the bridging and get ready for the final climb. as we approached the climb, the chatting in the pack quieted down, and the pace picked up a bit. i was getting nervous wondering how it would go.

i moved up a bit going into the start of the climb, and then tried to go as hard as i could. i think i went too hard initially, and a few people went by, but in the final bit i just went as hard as i could, HR holding steady at 183, then maxing out at 185 at the end, which is equal to the highest (legit) reading i've seen.

the pack was totally splintered at this point, and we had caught other groups, so i had no idea where my place was in the field. i wasn't optimistic, but figured top-10 or -15. i was so relieved to have simply finished with the main group after these last few weeks of suffering that i had to fight back tears on the way down to the car. embarrassing but true.

much to my surprise, i ended up fifth! totally unexpected and totally awesome. five seconds faster and i could have gotten third; wish i'd known.

no racing this weekend and then berkeley hills next weekend; hoping to scout that out sunday morning.

April 26, 2010
climbing rate added

i added "climbing rate" - feet per hour - to my greasemonkey script for strava. couldn't get prefs figured out so watts per kg will have to wait for another night.

April 25, 2010
show calories in strava

i just wrote a greasemonkey script to add calories & calories/hr to ride and segment views in strava. it uses this power-to-calories formula and then adds fields to the ride view:

and for individual segments:

if you use firefox and greasemonkey you can install it here.

April 23, 2010
wente RR pregame

wente RR is tomorrow. 50 miles and 4kft of climbing, according to the test ride last weekend. should be great weather.

my only goal is to have fun.

April 3, 2010
copperopolis (again)

waking up at 4am on a saturday: this is why i started bicycle racing! today i'm racing copperopolis, "the paris-roubaix of northern california." goals for today are pretty simple: to not spend the first two laps getting droped and chasing, and secondly to finish.

training this week went well; tied and broke my PRs for the two sides of hawk hill tuesday night on the S1, and went to spin class wednesday. either skins are amazing or i didn't push myself hard enough there.

time to go eat my rice.

April 3, 2010
copperdropolis redux

didn't spend the first lap chasing, but got dropped on the downhill near the end of the first lap. i just wanted to get down it at all without pressuring myself to keep up with everyone, so i guess i'm ok with that. i could still see the pack during the 2nd lap, and then started passing people in my field on the 3rd lap. instead of trading pulls with them like a smart cyclist i pushed hard and dropped them. passed eugene and then got a flat; 12 minute change and was the 2nd last finisher in my field. about 40% of my field didn't finish; pretty harsh day.

going to try to beat the rain and ride fairfax-bolinas in the morning for the first time on the S1.

March 28, 2010
more like copperdropolis

since i didn't know the course, and probably overcompensating for last week, i was taking some of the "descents" and turns a little slower than the pack. went off the back a few times over the first lap but managed to get back on until the second lap where i fell off the back for good. lost about four minutes that lap, and then pretty much gave up and rode the last lap easy.

so, didn't do as well as i'd hoped but i think i only lost one GC place (to 16th).

looks like it's supposed to be rainy here this week so that should be fun. headlands goodbye ride tuesday morning, park ride tuesday night, going to try to make the last spin class on wednesday, copperopolis road race on saturday, and then hopefully an easier long ride on sunday.

time to sleep.

March 27, 2010
happy new year

sitting in the car getting ready to warm up for topsport stage race. this is the first stage race for chris and i, and neither of us are all that excited, really. got to the hotel late, and up early, but fortunately my race isn't for another hour and a half so i have some time to relax and warm up. that hasn't typically been the case so far this season.

my goals this time around are to push myself as hard as i can during the TT, and then stay with the pack for the circuit and road races. we'll see how it goes. planning to start going to the late wednesday night spin class starting this week, since i don't think i'm getting in enough training during the week.

chris is heading out to the TT; we'll see how it goes.

March 27, 2010
wrap up

circuit race and TT complete. circuit race was fairly easy; nobody pushed the whole time so just a few hard efforts to catch up after the turnarounds; probably too hard but it wasn't bad. a few riders went down after the first lap but otherwise it was easy and relaxing.

nearly caught my minute man but just didn't have enough in the wind to seal the deal. ~29:05 which would have won in cat 5, but at least one guy got 27:something so we'll see. time to go TT bike shopping!

met my meager goals for today, so still just trying to stay with the leaders tomorrow and we'll see how the legs feel after a few creme eggs tonight.

March 27, 2010
good night

nice big pasta dinner and should get around 8 hours of sleep tonight. no idea what the gc looks like, although i'm at least two minutes down. we'll see what happens tomorrow.

June 12, 2009
ups and downs

popovych's quote after stage 16 was great:

The last 7km they told me on the radio that Sastre was coming, really fast, chasing me. I did not want to believe it. When he finally passed me, I lost all my pedaling force. What a day! I stayed in the breakaway for 240km. It was so difficult. The tactic was good. Johan asked me to go in the breakaway and I did. And now ... we have nothing. After such a crazy day, so this is sport.

they summarize stage 16 at the start of stage 17, and you can see sastre passing popovych.

some of the nicest weather in some time in my ride up tam this morning; took the kneewarmers off in sausalito. tam was a little cloudy, but for once not foggy, which was nice both going up and down. and to top it off, not a single car on the final descent along highway 1. going to try to do fairfax-bolinas to the east peak tomorrow before the 48-hour phiktacular this weekend, but we'll see if the legs cooperate or not.

June 11, 2009
don't look back

finally got around to finishing up stage 16 of the giro. completely heartbreaking when popovych looks back to see how far behind sastre is just as sastre is overtaking him; popovych can only shake his head... which he does again when finally reaching the finish line.

as for myself, i didn't manage to get a ride in today, but hope to do the east peak tomorrow. toshok took me out to fairfax on tuesday, and i think i'm still recovering. still no word on when i'll get my replacement bike...

a year ago today i rode all the metro lines and at at le train bleu. today i rode caltrain and ate at papalote.

June 9, 2009
for shame

while i am a little enheartened to finally see some coverage of the two american journalists imprisoned in north korea, i was a little disappointed to hear how flippantly unprofessional sec. clinton was when when referring to them:

HILLARY CLINTON, Secretary of State: We think the imprisonment, trial and sentencing of Laura and Euna should be viewed as a humanitarian matter.

it seems so out of place to use their first names in this context, considering they've been in custody in dprk for nearly three months.

May 30, 2009
a break in the clouds

today is the (observed) anniversary of my departure from boston. it seems like so long ago, yet i can remember going up and down all of those stairs so many times as if it were just last week, blah blah blah.

i would not say, a year later, that leaving either boston or novell were overall bad decisions. certainly not the worst i've made before, or since. probably writing this entry was a worse decision than either of them.

the dears show last weekend was pretty amazing. they've definitely improved as a band since their last tour in november, and managed to get through their whole set without the power going out once. i don't think they played anything from the EPs or hollywood, but they started the encore with we can have it, and, well, they could have only played that song and i would have been happy.

but now i'm sad because they're gone, and although in the next month i'm going to see HF, ARS, and wilco, i do not love those bands like i love the dears.

tomorrow i will have pancakes.

May 10, 2009
you don't say

apparently stanford did some study and found that, given an acre of switchgrass, it's 80% more efficient to use it for electricty rather than ethanol.

related: nothing like gamespot forums for dating advice.

May 7, 2009
the system works

i got another bill from the doctor while i was away: FINAL NOTICE, collection agency, blah blah. seemed weird, since i had sent in a thing months ago. maybe they could't read my handwriting? who knows.

anyway, they're just next door, so i stopped by after my commute, and paid it in person.

this morning, i start cleaning of my desk, and what do i find? a stamped, unset envelope to the doctor, with my payment information inside.

April 20, 2009
the splits are in

i ran the boston marathon today. it went pretty ok. i spilled a lot of gatorade on myself throughout the morning. here are my mile times:

1. 7:33
2. 7:10
3. 7:08
4. 7:15
5. 7:23
6. 7:23
7. 7:24
8. 7:23
9. 7:18
10. 7:26
11. 7:27
12. 7:16
13. 7:12 (Wellesley)
14. 7:22
15. 7:27
16. 7:29
17. 7:41 (Newton hills begin)
18. 7:44
19. 7:41
20. 7:49
21. 7:49 (Heartbreak Hill)
22. 7:37
23. 8:08 (Ran too fast through BC)
24. 8:06
25. 8:07
26. 8:00

total: 3:18:08.

i passed tons of people on heartbreak, and running through audubon circle was fun. looking forward to cycling season!

March 24, 2009
acceptable

was the last time i went to the track really seven weeks ago? anyway, since boston's in four weeks, i figure i should get back with the training, injuries or no injuries. i decided to slum it and go back to the "intermediate" training program, so today was only six 800s (vs. twelve).

1. 2:55
2. 2:55
3. 2:55
4. 3:01
5. 3:00
6. 3:00

if sunday's long run goes well, i'll feel pretty comfortable that i could do a 3:30, which is good enough, given the past month.

going to ride tam with toshok in two hours; wonder if any pizza places deliver this early...

March 24, 2009
burned by bernanke

he wasn't pulling punches today:

REP. DON MANZULLO: Half the people have lost half their retirement or most have lost half of their retirement, and not one of you three can give me a "yes" on that answer or "no."

BEN BERNANKE: Because it's a poorly posed question.

so stunned i can't even think of a witty post-quip.

March 16, 2009
a break in the void

i've started reading my third christopher alexander novel, a new theory of urban design, and thought this passage did a nice job of describingg why enterprise software is boring, and start ups are awesome:

...the most fundamental question of all: What is it? What is going to be there?

In today's development, this question is asked, and answered, almost exclusively in economic terms. ...

Of course the products which are built, in answer to this question, and after the necessary consumer surveys, are machinelike, abstract, lifeless. They are uninteresting, not vivid. They are incapable of exciting us, or moving us, because they are not human in their quality.

i would love to hear his thoughts on house flipping.

February 20, 2009
impressed, exhausted

i just went and looked at the terrain view of google maps for the chagrin valley; the hills i used to climb in cleveland during high school. i'd say those hills were... 250' to 300' vertically at most.

today's route had two real hills; the first, which took about 22 minutes, was the toughest hill i'd ever done. that record didn't last long, as the second (which the ToC rode on monday), around 1750' itself, took about 43 minutes. i am not embarassed to say that i was not feeling great at the top.

according to my technologies, the total route was about 38.5 miles, with almost 4400' feet of total climbing. these numbers should probably be taken with a few grains of salt, but they certainly dwarf the difficulty of any ride i've done before. i suppose that means i'm a stronger rider than i've ever been, which is a little surprising considering how little i've ridden in the last... ten years.

this morning i was pretty set against getting a new bike, but man, i probably should.

another night of sleeping well awaits!

February 19, 2009
proof

apparently b. had never really believed that i played the drums until she saw me play rock band. in that spirit, here is some unforgeable proof that i used to be ok on a bike (check 32nd place). that page doesn't mention it, but it was a 28 mile ride, which comes out to averaging a little better than 24 mph. not bad for probably my first race in over 3 years!

if you scroll alllllllll the way to the bottom, you can see that, at 17, i was in the 21 and below age group. that seems pretty crazy but there you have it. anyway, in that race they'd send each age group off in its own group, and miraculously i managed to avoid getting dropped (until the last 200m or so). so it's not like i was near the front of this huge race, i was in the back of a small group.

in... 1993? i won my age group (14 and under, likely) in the twin sizzler. that was pretty awesome, too, but sadly it was before the internets reached the ohio farmcountry.

in totally unrelated news, i am probably going to have to move soon, since i bought some art and don't have enough wall space for it. i am especially excited about having art that is worth more than its frame (which i may have mentioned before).

i really need to go to bed.

February 16, 2009
that was dumb

apparently it wasn't enough for me to run for three hours in the rain yesterday. inspired by catching the tail end of stage 2 on the web this afternoon, i decided it would be a good idea to go for a ride on my day off from running. toshok was in, but unfortunately the sunshine wasn't.

it was only sixteen miles, but it was cold, windy, and rainy, especially on the bridge (where it may actually have been hail). fortunately google maps doesn't show how slow we rode.

i think i will try to figure out how to get to san bruno mountain; it's bigger than hawk hill, doesn't involve a terrifying bridge, and is still only 10 miles away.

looking forward to repeat miles at the track tomorrow, and then lunch. my first meeting isn't until 4!

February 13, 2009
i less than three cities

in anticipation of j h crawford's new book, i've finally gotten around to reading some christopher alexander. i haven't quite figured out how to apply it to sim city yet, but i will give him the benefit of the doubt and continue reading, even if it does sound like a bunch of hippie hogwash.

anyway, i have been wondering what jane jacobs thinks of this guy, and i came across this article on her works. in goes on in much more detail than i have the attention span to write, but skimming it might hopefully convince you to read her economics books, not just death and life.

the one thing that confuses me is that the timeless way refers to itself as the first in the series, yet a pattern language was published two years earlier? whatever.

February 10, 2009
counter-retort?

there seems to be a growing fued between the daily show with jon stewart's jon stewart and the news hour with jim lehrer's paul solman:

JON STEWART, host, "The Daily Show": It seems to me like the economy's so bad that this guy had to move back in with his grandmother. "Paul Solman, are you putting the zeroes on the coffee table again?" "No, Grandma!" "Use a coaster!" "I'll use a coaster! I'm explaining a national calamity!" "Bring me some juice, dear."

PAUL SOLMAN: Prune juice, presumably, Grandma's drink of choice, though she's been dead some 46 years now.

the rest of the report is slightly less awesome.

February 10, 2009
springtime in the city

spring totally started while i was in portland. the trees are blooming, and i saw a bee in buena vista park with the robins and hummingbirds.

February 9, 2009
how i spend my evenings

i have been sitting here listening to cocaine skin on repeat for hours while my dirty dishes remain unloved in their sink.

i don't have any meetings tomorrow so i'll do them after i get back from the post office.

kevin says they aren't going to play cause or break anymore. i have heard this all before, but if it's actually true this time, it's probably ok if they start playing stuff like c.s. and keep playing fuzz (insider-speak for late night bedroom rock + shampoo suicide).

the sentinel had a sorta-dry non-spicy mac + cheese today, but both the smoked trout salad and molasses cookie that came with it were super awesome. i hope they don't have the bockwurst sandwich again tomorrow, because i have a prior lunch engagement to attend.

what else what else what else what else.

February 6, 2009
what i have done with my life

after some discussion tonight, i am reasonably sure i have seen the following bands the following number of times:

• page and plant: three.
• stars: three.
• bloc party: three.
• radiohead: eight.
• broken social scene: eight.
• the jimmy swift band: twenty-six.

i am scheduled to see jsb three more times next month alone.

February 3, 2009
what it's like

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA AND MONTEREY BAY AREA. .DAY ONE...TUESDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHT UNDER SUNNY SKIES TEMPERATURES WILL WARM INTO THE UPPER 60S TO UPPER 70S.

today we released the source to the project i've been working on, at vmware, which was started by alex. it still does little, and is probably not for everyone; step one for testing it out is to deploy an AD server, and it just gets more expensive from there.

but i do love our logo so very, very much:

well done, robert!

no meetings today, and i'm taking the rest of the week off to see broken social scene in portland and seattle, but then it's probably back to those ten hour days...

February 3, 2009
need oxygen

still completely amazed at what i can do at the track. today's workout was 4x1 mile:

1. 5:47 (new PR)
2. 5:53
3. 5:58
4. 5:56

i love that you don't need to spend hundreds of dollars to run. i love that two-thousand dollar bikes are beautiful.

i guess i should go to work.

February 2, 2009
moral-market economics

the news hour on friday was great; they had shields and brooks come on after each segment, which wasn't something i'd see them do before. one thing that caught my ear was this bit by david brooks:

First of all, you need social pressure. Capitalism is a great system, but you can't have amoral capitalism. Capitalist institutions have to be surrounded by social understandings, by a set of norms that we all adhere to or that are enforced by shame.

it is almost as if he had just reread jane jacobs' systems of survival. i've really been meaning to go back and read everything but her first book, as many of them deal with exactly the economic situation the world has found itself in lately. sadly, only two of her books are out on kindle.

February 2, 2009
there is probably an angela's ashes joke to be made in here somewhere

i'd like to introduce you to my friends:

February 1, 2009

i was lame today and really didn't feel like running the last little (hilly) loop of my route today, so i think i only did about 19 miles (instead of 20). this last hill, at mile 17 or 18 or so, is meant to be a simulation of heartbreak, although i think it's much, much tougher:

i don't think i've taken any days off except the first two days after the marathon, but i have tomorrow off; it is going to be weird just going to work right after waking up. but tuesday it's back to the track for mile repeats, so i will enjoy the rest while i can get it.

i am looking forward to being disappointed by tomorrow's lack of productivity.

January 30, 2009
the greatest compliment

i just got paid

as i was parking in front of the office for my 8am meeting this morning, some sort of delivery man walked past me and asked, "is the economy hurting you guys?"

i sorta mumbled some sort of response, about no, not really, we are doing ok, at least i am, but i was wondering, "how does he know i work for VMware?" there are a lot of companies in our building.

"oh!" i said. "i'm not a bike messenger!" what a great start to the day.

i got tired of not having all my music at the office so i got an iPod classic today. i think it's my 7th? how time flies.

i saw the album leaf here on wednesday night; i hadn't listened to them much since i first got the albums whenever ago but a month or so ago i put them on while doing dishes and it was perfect for that moment. i have been listening to them a lot since the show. the opening act covered everything in its right place.

i am going to sleep so much tonight.

January 29, 2009
fifty/fifty

this morning, i realized that this week, according to plan, i will run about fifty miles and spend about fifty hours at the office. i will not be getting required fifty hours of sleep. if only there was an all-star team for this sort of thing.