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Central Coast Double - 215 miles, 14,000'

Sunday,  05/09/10  03:53 PM

Yesterday I trekked up to Paso Robles for the Central Coast Double, a beautiful ride which goes out to the coast at Cambria, up PCH for about 40 miles (stiff headwind), climbs inland to Mission San Antonio inside the Hunter Liggett army base, and then meanders past Lake San Antonio and Lake Nacimiento before looping back via the mountains East of the 101.  At 215 miles and 14,000’ this is one of the more demanding doubles around. The ride started at 5:30 and I didn’t finish until 10:00 last night (!)  15:46 for 215 miles, it was endless.  Compounding the fun I managed to wipe out on a pothole in the dark, broke my headlight, and had to follow other riders in to the finish.  I will say the scenery on this ride was awesome, I’ve posted some pics if you’re interested: Central Coast Double And here are a few excerpts: the route: 215 miles, 14,000' of climbing that long stretch up the coast is the best, but it is *all* headwind the early morning voyage to the coast, down seldom-used lanes pacing along the beach from Cambria, how beautiful the Piedras Blancas lighthouse in San Simeon guards the past happy cyclist at Ragged Point the Big Sur coastal views are *amazing* climbing Nacimiento Road; 7 miles at 7%, yippee views back down to the sea made it worthwhile in Hunter Liggett army base, two pacelines pass each other :) Mission San Antonio, lunch! at the halfway point powering through vineyards with a tailwind great views from the ridge between Lake San Antonio and Lake Nacimiento, wow Now that it's over I can relax and enjoy it, with that pleasant sense of accomplishment that accompanies long rides.  During the day it was not so pleasant, a lot of hard work on a  l o n g  day.  Last night I celebrated with a cheeseburger, two shakes, and six tacos.

 

Happy Mother's Day

Sunday,  05/09/10  04:17 PM

Happy Mother's Day!  Yay... I was just thinking, Mother's Day is one of those holidays, for some it is joyous and amazing and wonderful, but for others, it is sad and lonely and no-so-wonderful.  If you've lost your Mom, or you don't have kids and want some, or you're alone it can be a pretty tough day.  And if that's you, I'm sorry. For me, I love Mother's Day.  The whole process of being a Mom, of having kids, of caring for them and raising them; it's amazing.  I am literally in awe.  And Mother's Day is a great chance to celebrate that! Gerry Purdy: Why HP buying Palm will succeed.  I must tell you that as I play with my iPad, I am struck by the fact that even more than on smartphone, WebOS is actually a significantly better OS than the iPhone OS.  The multitasking, the management of running apps, easy cut-and-paste, easy swapping; I think it will work.  (Especially with a slide-out physical keyboard :)  BTW this picture is from a ZDnet article written on May 26, 2009.  Let's give Jason Perlow some credit for being ahead of his time - and right! Apropos: John Patrick: iPad part 4, what you can not do.  It mostly boils down to "you can not type".  Annotating is hard also.  Important question: Did the Coyote ever catch the Roadrunner?  Answer carefully before clicking through...  The Giro is under way!  Bradley Wiggins won stage 1 - a time trial in Amsterdam (!) - and Tyler Farrar won stage 2 - leaving Cadel Evans in pretty in pink.  Vino is right there in the hunt.  Yippee.  SpaceX have posted an update as they prepare for the inaugural launch of the Falcon 9.  If it works, great, they have a contract to take over from the Space Shuttle to resupply the ISS.  If it doesn't... well, that would be bad.  Why Newsweek failed.  "Newsweek's chief competitor wasn't The Economist.  Newsweek's chief competitor was actually People Magazine.  People won."  Of course Newsweek chose their competition through the positioning of their magazine.  They could have chosen to position against The Economist.  They would have lost that, too.  So, is an MBA a plus or a minus in the startup world?  A plus, duh...  the kind of question only people who haven't lived in the real world ask...  ZooBorns of the day: a Cheetah Mom and her family.  Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

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