For a while, our road trip to Oregon did not seem it would ever happen — it was postponed at least three times. Then we flip-flopped between tandem touring and mountain biking. I have always liked our road trip setup where we fit all our bikes and gear INSIDE the CR-V, but I didn’t think […]

I’ve been working very hard lately.  I normally try not to work long hours; after all, 50% of the household is already workaholic, so I need to balance it out. But last couple of days, I stayed up late and got up early. I’ve gotta say, debugging an unpredictable race condition in the program is […]

The weekend started on Friday afternoon. Made a last minute decision that I would ride over the hill to meet up with Mr. Mud so we could ride up B-OO-B (Bohlman – On Orbit – Bohlman) together. I had to carry our tent poles in a backpack hoping to get them fixed at Mel Cotton […]

Last year, when a Death Ride ticket landed in my lap 40 days before the ride, I panicked. This time, when Erik informed me, only four days prior, that he had decided to do the Death Ride, I said, “Okay, and  in that case, I will do it too.”  There was no second guessing. That […]

It was 4:30pm on Friday before the 3-day July 4th weekend.  Following phone conversation took place between Erik and me: — M: I’m getting off work around 6pm. After that, should I go to the Female Friday Fandango?  (Note: This is a monthly female MTB ride/gathering organized by Passion Trails Bike shop 5 minutes away […]

It’s a gorgeous Saturday. The morning has passed quietly while we were just relaxing around the house. Feeling the need to get out though. It’s almost 1 o’clock. What’s Erik suggesting? A ride out to Pescadero. Sounds good to me. Here we are, in Pescadero. What’s that big intersection we passed before we came into […]

Erik witnessed the cute side of Tour of California on Sierra Road. (Source: http://www.mudncrud.com/forums/index.php?topic=1310) Leading the Break Away. Reeling Her In The Chase The Real Chase

He does not know it; nonetheless, it’s true. See, last week on my solo ride, I cut the ride short after W. Alpine, OLH, Pescadero, and Stage, because I “was feeling a bit lonely and missed company.” Somebody up there must have heard me and sent me this message in the form of a forwarded […]

I signed on to Plus 3 Network more than a year ago, but last time I tried, it had issues with my GPS, so I hadn’t tried again … until today. And it worked seamlessly this time. Whoohoo. I elected Breast Cancer Foundation as the cause to support when I signed up. It’s a good […]

We went sight seeing.    The moment we woke up, we could see the blue sky through the skylight in our bedroom. It was going to be a nice day! In this bright sunshine and under the clear sky, we took in the beautiful view of the pine ridges on the Hastings Grade to Pescadero, the […]

We brought our road bikes just for this ride. We started from our rental house, which made me very happy. After pedaling for about 10 miles, we reached the bottom of the mountain. The climb was the longest – 25 miles – I had done, and for a while it did not seem that it […]

Highlights (aka bragging points): Team Mud ‘n Crud had lunch at Ed’s Mudville Grill in Clayton, our turning around point on our out and back ride. Yummy! This was my second century ride ever after Death Ride. It was my first time riding up Mt Diablo. It was also my second time riding up Mt. […]

SAG, acronym for Support and Gear in cycling. It was Derek’s idea to do this road ride. It’s goes from Pleasanton Reginal Park through Pleasanton, climbs to the top of Mt. Diablo via the South Gate, drops down through the North Gate, traverses east, climbs up Morgan Territory (9 miles of gradual climbing), drops down […]

When I cannot ride, I read about other people’s rides. I had heard of Furnace Creek 508 from our ultra distance cycling friend Mike. Following is a description of this race on their office website: Founded by John Marino in 1983 and known as “The Toughest 48 hours in Sport,” it is the world’s premier […]

I had always wanted to help out at Low Key Hillclimb Series and finally my chance arrived — on Week 3 in the 2009 series for Tunitas Creek climb. When I drove over, the sky was still a bit gray, but when the riders arrived at the Bike Hut on Tunitas where registrations took place, […]

Note: I wrote this while watching a movie, so I was mainly rambling here. I found it so hard to read that I couldn’t even go over it once to proof-read. I rode Old La Honda with other Low Key climbers. My personal best on it so far (before today) is 21:50. That was on […]

Just a short report on my participation in the 2009 Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge. There were a few reasons I signed up for the ride: Erik would be on call, so I had to “play by myself” (as in typical Ch-English), Erik had done this ride and even had a T-shirt to show for it, […]

The short here-are-the-stats version: It was 40 days ago, I found out, OMG, I Would Be Riding the Death Ride in 40 Days and I had not done a ride longer than 70! During the five weeks leading up to DR, I did four training rides (I’m a weekend worrier) all in the Bay Area […]

This beautiful bird was just sitting on a fence on Stage Road. Wish I had brought my camera, but I only had my phone. Bet you don’t see that everyday. Did the ride with Bryn, a friend at work. Later Jeanne and her brother Alan joined us from Woodside.  It was a beautiful day for […]

When we left La Honda at 8:20am, it was already at a very pleasant temperature. I knew then that it would be a hot day ahead of us. West bound on Hwy 84 towards the ocean, we started our ride for the day. Half way down, three riders (one man and two women) passed us […]

With one Cliff bar and two bottles of Gatorade, I dragged myself and my bike out of the house at 1:30pm (yeah, another lazy morning). 7+ hours later, I dragged myself and my bike back in the house. The sun just set. Erik had driven out to look for me. Oops. There, that’s my little […]

Quite often, I prefer riding by ourselves. It’s not that I’m anti-social. I just like the flexbility of not having to plan ahead. Plus, who would have approved of a start time as late as 10:40am? This morning, we slept in, had a relaxed breakfast, got my rear tire changed (first time in 2 years), […]

A fellow road diva, Cara, cannot make it, so she very kindly offered her spot on our mailing list. Erik and I were on our way home from our mountain biking ride at Annadel. When I read the email on my iPhone, I jokingly said to Erik, “maybe I’ll ride the Death Ride this year,” […]

BOOB — Bohlman/On Orbit/Bohlman Erik and his buddy Derek wanted to do this ride after work on Friday. I wasn’t going to miss out the fun, um, I mean, the pain. The traffic was surprisingly light when I drove down to Saratoga. I was glad that Derek showed up late because I needed the time […]

I did it last year, so I must do it this year. (Pretty logical, eh?) I expected improvement over last year just because I did train for a few weeks for this ride; however, I did not expect to beat my PR (30:44 set about two months ago) on this race. For one, the weather […]

Long Title: A ride in the beautiful wine country on a sunny winter day that covers a section of Terrible Two bicycling race on Superbowl Sunday. (Whew, that was a mouthful.) Since we were already in the wine country for our friend’s birthday, we decided to do a bike ride in the area. Erik wanted […]

Erik’s post: ==================== Mudworm and I were given an excellent tour of one of the tougher Bay Area loops today.  The ride ended up being about 40 miles and 5,550 Hundred feet of vertical according to my GPS. A local racer gave us a tour.  He seemed to have an encyclopedic knowledge of local roads.  […]

Our spin class instructor Peggy has been trying to hook her husband Jim up with us, who I think is a Cat 2 rider. She emailed us saying that Jim wanted to ride Bohlman and Black with us on Sunday afternoon. However, after we replied, we have not heard back. I just did an epic […]

Erik and his friends are on a roll. They went out to do rebolting on route Lava Falls yesterday, and the same four guys decided to go back the next day to rebolt Shake and Bake.  Poor Erik, he got up at 4:20am on both mornings. I on the other hand just decided to be […]

We went for a small ride today out of the house. I felt good on W Alpine, but I did not beat my time at Low Key. I also did not break my PR on OLH. On the other hand, Erik got a new PR on OLH: 22 min 51 sec. Good job! Mainly, I […]

Three rides down. That should have made me a regular by now. For that reason, the series deserves a separate post on its own. Also, I met people on these rides and I’d like to make a note here so it will help me remember. I will be updating this post after every week’s ride. […]

One is on Saturday; the other on Sunday. One is road riding; the other mountain biking. They deserve two separate reports, but I don’t feel like writing. Here is a quick run down. Saturday:Low Key Hill Climbs, W. Apline We barely got up early enough to make the Low Key Hill Climbs event although today’s […]

Following are a few hill climbs that I, or Erik, have personally ridden and have data for. I use a Garmin Edge 305. For distance and elevation measurement, the accuracy depends on the GPS system, the terrane (tree coverage), and the weather (cloud coverage). So, for the exact same hill climb, sometimes the data vary. […]

[Note: this TR was first posted to the forum.] I’d heard so much about Mount Hamilton, so I got really excited when Delbomber and Mud made a plan to ride it this Sunday. However, this morning when I got up at 5:30am, the excitement was replaced by anxiety. 39mph gust (at 6:18am) on Mount Hamilton? […]

[Note: This report is first posted to the forum. ] The ride is actually called The Webcor San Jose King-of-the-Mountain Ride. It starts from San Jose City Hall, but only the climb on Sierra Road is timed (using timing chips the riders wear on their left ankles). Here is the Grade & Elevation chart of […]

This TR was first posted to the forum. We didn’t think that we would make the ride — we slept in too late in the morning and we are expecting guests in the afternoon. Oh, too bad, I guess we’ll just have to relax at home then. At noon Catherine called and said that the […]

Climb at Pins on Saturday and ride Hamilton on Sunday. That’s what would have happened if it had not turned out to be another rainy weekend. Instead, Strom went to work on Saturday, and I sank into our couch whole day and worked on my website. To balance it out, I designed a full day […]

[Note: This report was first posted to the Biking Forum.] When I can’t climb vertically on the rock… It was perfect day for riding. The loop goes for about 67 miles and 8000 feet. Next time, we’ll try to start earlier and throw in Old La Honda.