beta

so http://www.baarbd.org is what i've been working on for the past couple of weeks.

j. and i cooked up the idea in a bar one night, and finally got it ready show people.

it's pretty weak design-wise (my fault) and we need more content, but hopefully there's enough there to start. there is definitely a niche for it.

other than that i've been trying to learn how to mountain bike; went over the handlebars 3 times on saturday, not at all on monday.

progress.

say hello...

to the newest addition to the family; approximately 23lbs of carbon, rubber, aluminum, and plastic.



i went for my first ride on it yesterday (and my first real off-road ride ever), and it went ok; i was able to keep up and i didn't crash, but wow, mountain biking is DIFFERENT!

a lot of it is obvious; the gearing is very different, handling as well, and the suspension fork takes some getting used to (but i was very happy to have it).

but climbing and descending are just... it's going to take some getting used to.

for climbing, you're trying to find a balance between getting over the bottom bracket and keeping enough weight on the rear wheel to maintain traction. on the road you just get out of the saddle and hammer.

for descending, you're trying to keep your weight WAY back, over the rear hub (or even behind it) if possible, but then having to scoot forward to keep the tail of the bike from kicking up too much when the rear wheel goes over bumps. all that while working the brakes to try to keep the rear from skidding and the front from locking up.

it's a lot of work, ocassionally pretty scary, and lots and lots of fun!

the weekend

been a while...

so, on saturday i ran a 37k trail race, which went FAR better than i expected it too, given that i don't feel like i've been training as much as i should be. i did the same race last year with my friend p. and we finished in just over 4 hours. i'd held back a bit to stay with him, but didn't really slow down all that much.

this year, same course, and i finished a few seconds over 3:24, which blew my mind, AND i got 2nd, which is my best finish ever in a run. i was (and am) shocked, and very pleased.

on sunday i went for my second ride with the bike club from my climbing gym and managed not to die. i was pretty sore, but i figured that cycling muscles are different enough from running muscles that i could pull it off.

the ride covered about 60 miles and started in woodside, then climbed up and over the mountains, dropped down to the coast, and then went back over the mountains again. it was astoundingly beautiful; redwoods, grasslands, oak savannah, redwoods again, more grasslands, and the final climb followed little stream as it made it's way down a steep redwood canyon. there were ferns, moss, flowers, rays of sunlight slanting through the trees, and little waterfalls all over the place.

it's a good thing it was so scenic, because i was DONE, nothing left in the tank. it was all i could do to make the pedals go around, and it's been a long time since the sight of a road made me as happy as the one at the top did.