Quick Update

Obviously, there's always more time to blog when out of town. I've been very busy at work (hey, look, I have so much more energy now!) and have gotten caught up on sleep, unpacking, cleaning... yeah, it feels great. I'm still on a high from the super fun vacation and I think the training-camp portion of the trip worked wonders.

I raced CX Sunday and, granted, my technical skills need a lot of work, but I can tell that my strength is returning. (Sorry, I was rushing around to get to the race so I didn't have my camera.) It was so fun and I had awesome support out there, too. That made a big difference.

Now with gas prices a bit lower and I'm getting into a rhythm at work, it is going to be possible to train this winter and I can't wait to race on the road again. Dirt is getting cooler, too, but I still have this built-in mechanism to slow down on it for no good reason at all.

Tonight is the maiden voyage of my new-to-me Cyclops fluid trainer. My old one is so loud I can't make the television loud enough to hear dialogue.

End of Conference Day 2 & Day 3

I write this from sunny (but a bit chillier, Aurora, CO). The conference wrapped up yesterday, my flight landed at 11:30 last night and I just woke up (it's 9 am!) The end of Day 2 saw the election of Barack Obama to be our next president. In keeping with the style of this blog, I will not express my political feelings (as they are much too involved to put in a blog entry; a new blog might be appropriate just to capture them) about this major event. The excitement in the streets (at my hotel) was intense. I always love to see lots of happy, cheering people, but I don't love it when I feel that it could turn into a crushing crowd at any moment. My hotel (the Westin St. Francis) was the site of the No on 8 proposition party. The police had good control so the happy people stayed happy and I was able to come and go from my hotel without too much trouble.

Malcolm Gladwell was a keynote speaker and was, by far, the best speaker of the conference. He spoke on human capitalization and it appears to be the topic of his next book that's coming out in a couple of weeks. I think it's a must-read for our society. What a funny guy, but he does informed research and it gives one a lot to think about how we approach things that are so second nature to us in how we operate.

Yesterday morning I started with a beautiful road ride over the Golden Gate bridge. It had to be a quick ride due to packing and needing to be back for the first session at 9 am, but I couldn't leave town without one more adventure and some fresh air away from the too many people and confines of the conference.

Day 3 of the conference was fairly uneventful. A few speakers, a few more technical sessions and it was time to pack and get to the airport. Packing was tricky, I acquired a few things on this trip and with the bike, it was tough to make everything fit right. Worse yet, when I got to the airport, they weighed the bike and it has always passed, no matter how much I've loaded it down. Guess what? It was much too heavy so I had to unpack all of the clothes from the bag and put it in my already-full duffel bag. Somehow everything fit, but it was a very stressful situation.

Getting to the airport much too early & being unable to get on a wireless network, I had a chance to make some phone calls (I'm still far behind on them). But good chance to sit down and take a deep breath and think about coming back to real life.

San Francisco was such a treat. This was the best possible vacation, I wouldn't have changed any of it. I'm refreshed and ready to get back to life in Denver, but I also didn't get to the point of being sick of traveling. Perfect.

Conference Day 2

This morning I was determined to enjoy the morning (a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to the 8 am requirement of yesterday morning). The sun was shining, too, which has been a bit unusual (it was rainy and cloudy all day yesterday).

It was possible to get an hour run in prior to needing to meet up with my co-workers (at 9 am) and it's possible to cover quite a bit of ground in that period of time. I probably should have run west so as to see a completely new area than what I've seen thus far, but the water/bay was calling. Most of the run involved some kind of hill, straight up or down, but out by the water it was flat and I wouldn't have needed much more time to get close to the Golden Gate bridge. Alas, I did have to turn around and head back to not risk being late. But it was a marvelous way to begin the day and so far I've been much more awake today (and there's that fresh-after-a-shower-after-a-workout feeling).

The keynote speaker was a slew of Dell execs and Michael Dell. I didn't find it too riveting so stayed for part of it, then spent some time on the showroom floor talking with vendors and picking up swag.

Just a shout out to all you wonderful blog-reading people (and those of you who have called/emailed/commented). This is my substitute for writing post cards and it's great to feel the connection to everyone back home. Next session is beginning, bye for now.

Conference Day 1

Yesterday, the DreamForce conference got started early, I had to be at breakfast at 8. Ouch. Thank goodness for the time change. What was more painful than waking up early was finding only sweet pastries and boring oatmeal at breakfast. I opted for the oatmeal and, fortunately, had flattened bananas on me (purchased from Trader Joe's a few days back, in flattened form). But that was not too satisfying.

The keynote speech was good, Salesforce.com made a couple of exciting announcements about their product and Neil Young spoke about his Lincoln that he converted to a battery/cng (compressed natural gas) car. I sat right up front (due to my company's relationship with Salesforce.com). I have lots of great pics, but don't have time to upload anything. There's been almost no time to get on the internet since I've been in the city. The hotel doesn't have free wireless (seriously?!) And the conference hall has lots of dead spots.

After that, there were technical sessions all afternoon and by 6 pm, my co-workers and I were toast. There was a Foo Fighters concert last night for all of the attendees of this conference, but I passed. I went to the venue, but left fairly quickly. It had been a long day.

Back-blogging, last day of Official Vacation

Sunday was the last day of vacation and work realities began to set in, all at once. Sunday Lana and Rachel came down from SF so we could go on a super relaxing, totally chill two-hour ride. It was sunny, finally, after on-and-off raining during the morning (which was quite disconcerting since it was high-time for some riding time). The fog was low so it was a good reason not to climb. After the ride we packed it up and squeezed three of us, our bikes and the bike bag in a small car. Don't ask how we did it, but we did and we made our way back to SF. It was time for all of us to go back to our regular lives, sort of.

I checked into the hotel to find out that they didn't have a reservation for me so they generously offered the $400/night room. Thank goodness there was a room! With all of my stuff and bike, etc, it would have been a nightmare trying to find somewhere else to stay in SF. They said they'd honor the rate of the room if I could find proof that I had made the reservation. Fortunately, I did, so I have a super nice room with a chandelier as an over-head light, king-size bed with a poofy white comforter and a non-rectangular very pretty bathroom.

Immediately after checking in, it was time to visit the welcome reception, meet the 10,000 other attendees at this conference (ha, I was not in that much of a social mood). I caught up with my Denver friends and hung out there only until I was invited to a nice dinner at the Franciscan (great seafood, all good food) hosted by a company that Donovan, one of my friends, works for.

After that, he had to have an In-And-Out burger...he started talking about In-And-Out many months ago when we all first scheduled this trip. And when I say started talking about it, he can't stop. So we ventured over to In-And-Out and I took a bite of everything (and more than a sip of the milk shake). Yeah, I ate American cow. The burger was very, very different from a McDonald's burger, it was quite tasty. I guess I see the appeal, but it's not likely to make me take a second bite (more because if I did, then I'd have to miss it sort of how I miss Dark Horse burgers).

Halloween and rain in CA?

Oh dear, I'm back at the computer so soon. Halloween was such fun! I don't think I've done anything significant (like even think about dressing up) for Halloween in a long time.

The workout at the gym was great yesterday. The steam shower had echinacea in it and that was just the best way to conclude a good workout. (The gym was in San Mateo, not too far away.) I was a bit glad that it was drizzly since it's been awhile since I lifted and I wanted to be on track starting in November. Besides, no better place to build muscle than somewhere with more oxygen than Colorado.

Lana and I then headed to SF for the Halloween party. It was next to where the steepest/curviest road is. Fabulous location. Parking was really challenging, but we figured it out.My costume, I guess it's appropriate since Wonder Woman was my childhood idol (yeah, I'm finally admitting it out loud after all these years).
One of the hostesses, this is Christmas Tree, aka Rachael, Lana's cycling friend from college (Santa Barbara).Here is Flav O Flav, aka Lana. She was very entertaining throughout the evening.Of course there were many political costumes. These two don't need explanation.And a Superman showed up.

The cute couple of the evening (all the way from Ohio), per my vote, the SNL cheerleaders. There were quite a few people from out of state. Since I haven't been to a good Halloween party in Colorado since, uh, hum, ??? freshman year in college? Maybe it's worth traveling to Halloween again in the future, but I definitely want to participate again.

Thanks to rain that began late last night, Lana and I scrapped our plans to visit wine country. She and I stayed over in SF (where the party was) and slept in. The house needed some serious cleaning first thing this morning and then she, Rachel (Christmas Tree) and I went for a run. It was raining such that we were completely soaked not long after starting, but it wasn't cold out and it was so gorgeous to see the Golden Gate bridge with clouds sitting on the tops of the pillars and be next to sand and water, amongst other really cool parts of San Fran.

The rest of the day we spent hanging out, reading, watching stupid MTV shows, eating breakfast out, it was truly relaxing and enjoyable.

Tonight, I decided to come back to where I've been staying instead of going out (how can these crazy girls want to go out again after partying last night?) Unfortunately, the roof is leaking so now I've seen a bit more rain than I care to in a single day. What's up with this rain? It actually stopped this evening, but it's begun again and the dripping has started again, too.

Happy Halloween!

Hope you all have a candy-filled, scary Halloween. It's rainy here today so I'm hitting a gym, then celebrating Halloween...tomorrow will find me in wine country *somewhere* (no, I don't know where yet). There may not be a new blog entry for a few days, but I am accessible via email (thank you iPhone). Btw, the GPS on the iPhone has been a lifesaver here.

Day 6 - Rest Day

Today was the bike's vacation. For a rest day, today didn't involve a lot of rest. I slept in a little, finished blogging from yesterday, then went to town to search for a Halloween costume and run a few errands.

There's a party store very close so that offered the obvious choices. And there was one obvious choice that will suit me fine: Wonder Woman. Typically in years past, I've enjoyed the self-made, more creative options. Nah, this year it's okay to be standard. I won't have to change my hair much, though I should work on the make-up. This costume is a little cuter/far more comfortable than the real Wonder Woman's: it has a skirt. And I'd love to use this costume as an excuse to get another pair of knee-high boots, but it comes with boot covers that are too tight the way it is (are my calves just that big? In my dreams.) So a cheap pair of dress shoes should suffice.Funky plant. A rhubarb plant on steroids? The leaves were very hard.

I headed into San Fran for some touristy activities. The first stop was the Exploratorium. I could just hear Mom and Dad tell me how disappointed they were in me for being in SF for so many days and not going. So I went to be able to tell the tale. And I'm glad I did! The Exploratorium is packed with interesting exhibits--all hands-on. Kids, of course, must love it, but big kids (like me) can almost enjoy and appreciate it more. There were very few people there today (oooh, it was raining: everyone, stay inside and dry YOU MIGHT MELT). Though it was raining, it was surprisingly warm. I only wore a sweatshirt and I found being rained on was pleasing to my senses which are so much more alive since I can pay attention to them (note: stress levels are at an all-time low).

Back to the point, the Exploratorium was well-worth the visit. Next time I go, I'll plan to spend the day. Another side note, there was a part of me that didn't want to go to this place where I expected to see hoards of kids. Typically, I try to avoid any kid-like thing not because I don't enjoy kids and not because they annoy me (they don't) but because I'm afraid that I'll start to want one of my own. I'm afraid of that thing (whatever it is) that will make my biological clock start to tick. I fully expect it to someday, but it isn't allowed to start now. I am happy to report that I made it safely through the Exploratorium, learning a lot and the only thing it left me wanting was someone to play in the magnetic sand with me and to discuss the science behind some of the more obscure exhibits. It would be a good date place. I digress.
This was a dancing chain that had quite the personality, for a chain.
Demo of how a steam engine works. And they even had an engine from a Toyota Land Cruiser! Cool stuff.
And this was just too weird. You're looking at a mirror reflecting the bottom of a clear tank of water. My hand is in the water & there's an air pocket in the palm of my hand. But see how it looks like my hand is dry & I'm holding water?

Yesterday evening I broke one of my self-imposed rules and that is to not buy a book until I'm done with my current book. In this case, I am currently reading two books and, therefore, I should not have been allowed to go in the bookstore. So I went in with the intention to only look but not touch. But then I saw a book that has had me curious, I've heard good things in the general way, but nothing about the "plot." The book is entitled "Eat, Pray, Love." I bought it out of compulsion, maybe, and since I was looking & not touching, I didn't read the cover, just picked it up to purchase it.

Turns out the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, has become my travel companion. Only she is in Italy and taking the reader with her through her life's woe's as well as on this 4-month trip to Rome. But I can relate to her in many ways and I'm finding that it's helping me vacation effectively--since it makes me slow down and find a place to hang out where I can relax and read. And do nothing else. Funny, though, all of the fun books I've read in the past couple of years have all been armchair travel books to Italy. At least she'll also visit India and Bali, so my world "travels" can start to include more countries than just Italy.Lucky find: an organic restaurant, this was the most wonderful beet, goat cheese, walnut & fennel salad. Just what I was craving. Hopefully this is where I can eat next week during the conference. (It's a bus ride, though.)

And here's the steepest/twisty-iest street (Lombard & Hyde).

After all of this touristy stuff, it was time to hunt down a bathroom, which was eventually found in Macy's. I would have gotten home an hour earlier if I could have been patient.

Yesterday - Part 2

I fell fast asleep last night when working on part 2. The day was the equivalent to two.

After the massage, I caught the train, transferred to Bart and ended up in SF. There wasn't anything on my agenda for yesterday aside from getting comfortable with the trains so the evening definitely didn't disappoint.
On the walk there, the sun was setting and the fog was lazily perched atop many of the buildings. A long walk from the Montgomery station took me uphill to Coit Tower (Telegraph hill).


From the base of Coit Tower (which just had its 75th anniversary), the view was breathtaking. And one of my passions is cities at night. Without fail, I get weak in the knees when I've gotten to experience cities (namely NY, Seattle and Denver) at night...I'm adding San Francisco to the list. It was tugging on my heart strings last night.

Looking waaay up at the tower.

From the top of the tower looking out at the city. What a view! This was reminiscent of being at the top of the Washington Memorial late at night years ago. That was the best way to see Washington DC and there was no one around. Same deal last night.
Stair scene from "Vertigo?"


I was trying to be tactful in capturing the scene from dinner without making it obvious I was taking pictures. The iPhone is sly. I stopped at this restaurant because of their very large sign that advertised gnocchi. I had been dreaming of a gnocchi meal for a couple of bike rides, it was time to have some. But the gnocchi on the menu came with sausage and in a cream sauce. So I very nicely asked for mushrooms, no sausage and tomato-based sauce. Viola! A few moments later the most melt-in-your-mouth gnocchi was served up. It was the perfect consistency and was obviously made fresh on premises. I understand this place is close to where my conference will be next week...but I'm not sure if I should go back. Along with the check came the waiter's phone number. Also from the table where I was sitting was a view of the church where Joe DiMaggio and Dorothy Arnold were married. His funeral was also held here. It's called the Italian church of the west...I hope to be able to make it to mass here this weekend.

Training Camp Day 5 - Part 1

The theme of today's ride was intensity: leg-burning time-trialesque efforts uphill. This was the first group ride since I've been here. The group is led by a former coach of one of my friends out here and they do a crazy climbing ride on Wednesdays (but I didn't know anyone on the ride). The fog was thick this morning and with a very early start to the ride, it made it tricky to figure out how to dress.

After having issues meeting up with the group since I didn't know where to park and the light that I got stuck at (for 10 minutes) made me miss the start, it was possible to drive ahead and then ride fast to meet up with them (~6 others) at the bottom of the Old La Honda climb. It's a 5k, 1200 ft climb. Little did I know that it was the appetizer. A very fast and fun descent followed the climb and then came the searing West Alpine, 5 mile climb that was quite steep and seemed to be never-ending. Afterwards was a steep, twisty (read: slower) descent and the ride was over. 3700 feet of climbing, 2 1/2 hours.

I returned to home base to take a shower and read prior to getting an hour massage. I was so tired, even though I was sitting straight up and reading interesting material, I fell into a deep sleep for a few minutes. The massage was another chance to rest (though it was intense enough, per my instructions to the massage therapist, so a nap wasn't going to happen).