Archive for May, 2008

Ride home from work today. Louise also rode home, and I caught up with her going up old Santa Cruz highway. Louise crashed going down our super steep hill to the house; she had 125′s on her Coker and wasn’t using the brake. She has a bit of road rash on her arm and a bad scrape on her side, but she’s been healing fine. It was probably my fault; I was encouraging her to ride the hill, when she normally walks down it. I felt really bad, needless to say, but I took good care of her! So, I zoomed home after she crashed to get the car and pick her up. I lost track of the details of times/hours and reset my speedo a few days later.

Ride: Ride from home to work (Los Gatos to Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA). The path: Corbin’s house to work.

Time: 5:15 – ?

Riding Time: 1:45 or 1:50 — I lost track

Distance: 20 ish miles

I rode to work today. Crashed down Mt Charlie going about 17 mph. Ran it out while skidding on my feet. Lost the battery for my tail light.

Ride: Ride from home to work (Los Gatos to Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA). The path: Corbin’s house to work.

Time: 6:30 to 8:00

Riding Time: 1:28’17 (cycle computer), 1:30 minutes by my watch. I hit most lights green.

Distance: 20.76 miles

Average Speed: 14.1 mph

Max Speed: 24.2 mph

ODO: 754.1 miles

Notes: 150mm crank holes. Geared nimbus 36 with KH hub.

Jason and I did a little climbing last weekend. We drove up to Yosemite on Friday night, camped outside the park at Hard n Flat road, and then drove in early saturday morning to secure a spot at Camp 4. We then climbed some 5.7 / 5.8 starting with After Seven (next to Nutcracker).

After seven:

Corbin halfway up:

The last pitch I led, and I haven’t led in a while. It scared me a bit to do the 5.8 moves, but I made it through. Here I am at the crux:

And a view of the roof after I made it past

We then went to El Cap

And free climbed a little 5.7

Jason, you are off belay, so I can take a picture

Then, we drank some beer, and slept. The next morning I did a 20 mile unicycle ride throughout the valley to do some training. Jason followed some dirt bags to Camp Four wall and scoped some good routes. I led this 5.8 bunch of flakes, and again wasn’t doing so hot on the top:

Jason did the top 5.8 crack, as I wasn’t feeling solid on it. We then topped the side crack:

Jason led the next “dirty pitch” (totally not the right way to go…which should have been an offwidth chimney that I wasn’t about to do). At the top, we decided to rap down instead of doing the solid 5.8 crack as seen in the middle of this photo:

It was a great weekend of climbing and a little uni training for RTL. (ride the lobster).

Louise holding our super cute kitty, Piper:

And a zoomed in shot with a new lens:

I was lucky enough to not only attend this years Maker Faire, but I also got to participate as a volunteer! I was a model in the Fashion Show put on by the Swap-O-Rama. Our friend Ashley is a marvel at all things fabric. She constructed some amazing articles of clothing for us to wear.

Here’s the set of pictures:

Maker Faire 2008

And a preview:

I rode to work again today. It was pretty easy going to work, but rather grueling coming home. I was pretty darn tired by the time I finally made it to my doorstep. My legs felt worn, and I was starving. Luckily, Louise is the best girlfriend ever, and said “Hey, I’m going to make us dinner. Give me 15 minutes!”. She was working in the garden and initially wanted me to work with her this evening. Riding made that not possible, but I didn’t want to let her down, so I stayed up last night and built a new planter box. I had to pull out the flood lights to dig in the dark, but I got it done!

Ride: Ride from home to work (Los Gatos to Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA). The path: Corbin’s house to work.

Time: 6:34 to 8:06

Riding Time: 1:30’5 (cycle computer), 1:32 minutes by my watch. I hit two lights that may have added about 2 minutes of stopping time.

Distance: 20.88 miles

Average Speed: 13.7 mph

Max Speed: 24.3 mph

ODO: 666.4 miles

Notes: 150mm crank holes. Geared nimbus 36 with KH hub. The first 2.2 steep miles up from my house to the top of Summit Rd takes 20 minutes. Downhill is fast and fun. One dismount up the steep part of my hill (about 1 mile out), and one hop off at a stop light instead of hopping for a minute.

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Ride: Ride from work to home.

Time: 5:20′ish – 7:25′ish (didn’t note the exact times)

Riding Time: 2:00’40 (cycle computer)

Distance: 20.83 miles

Average Speed: 10.3 mph

Max Speed: 23.1 mph

ODO: 687.3 miles

Notes: Totally grueling going up the hill. I need to get stronger. I ate one bar while going up the hill, and frozen yogurt at work before I left. I rode with a biker on the flat parts from Cupertino to Saratoga (Highway 9 turn off). I’m pretty sure he was going slower just to ride with me. We chatted a bit about unicycling. Best comment “I’d hate to see your grocery bill!” At least he realized that fixed gear unicycling takes a lot of energy.