Saturday two friends from my local riding group and I carpooled up to Sunnyvale. Our parent club, Almaden Cycle Touring Club, had a bird-watching ride that looped from Sunnyvale over to the shoreline trail along San Francisco Bay, then past a special street in Mountain View next to the Google campus where egrets and herons … Continue reading Bird-Watching Adventure →

Today I did a dry run of my route to Vasona Lake that I'll take to go kayaking. I confirmed it is just under three hours round trip, so I can only do this on days when I can devote about five hours to allow time on the water. The good news is it is … Continue reading Out and back to Vasona Lake →

Yesterday's group ride was a brisk flat one, on the rural roads southeast of Morgan Hill, then working our way north to the Coyote Creek trail for an out-and-back. We then had lunch on the patio at Coyote Creek golf course's restaurant. It was a pleasant outing although the humidity was a little high for … Continue reading Group Ride on Coyote Creek →

This is the title of an inspiring book by Laura Clark. Laura, a single mom in her late 30s (at the beginning of the book), living in the Colorado Springs area, started by hiking or climbing all 58 of Colorado's "Fourteeners" (peaks with an elevation over 14,000 feet). She did all of these solo. I … Continue reading Wild Wanderer →

There is a large fog bank that hangs off the coast of California that meteorologists call the marine layer. Often in the summer, the pattern is for hot air to rise in inland valleys. Cooler air from offshore rushes in to replace it, and often brings some fog with it. This cool onshore breeze is … Continue reading Our Natural Air Conditioning Has Kicked In →

The high for yesterday was 87 F, a lot better than the 103 last week. We went out into the hills southwest of town, to the end of Redwood Retreat Road and back. It was still in the low 80s by the time we finished with a pleasant breeze, so it was actually cool enough … Continue reading A Little Cooler For this Week’s Group Ride →

I did a four-hour combination bike and hike today. I rode down Santa Teresa Boulevard to Bernal road, then climbed Bernal road to the top. I then entered Santa Teresa Park and hiked up the Coyote peak trail to the top. On the way up at a couple of steep sections, I got to try … Continue reading Bike and Hike To Coyote Peak →

https://www.clearinghouseforsport.gov.au/kb/reds I've discussed the concept of overtraining and "how much exercise is too much?" previously. Another harmful phenomenon among exercisers is undereating, now called "relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S)", which I discussed here. It used to be called the female athlete triad, because it appeared to be more common in female athletes, but is … Continue reading Connection Between Overtraining Symptom and Undereating →

I try to work out hard twice a week for the upper and lower body. A do hard lower one day, hard upper another day, and on Thursdays, I do both. That was yesterday's workout. It was supposed to get hot again so I got the workout in early. After a warmup, first I did … Continue reading Hard Day For Upper and Lower Body →

I just read Alistair Wilson's autobiographical account of his life as a paddler. He has done sea kayaking, competitive flat water kayaking, and some exciting expeditions, including running the Colorado River and its rapids through the Grand Canyon in an open two-person canoe. http://www.amazon.com/books He was also the founder of Lendal paddles, which he ran … Continue reading An Inspiring Paddling Book →