I had a great ride with Marty yesterday. I'd asked him if we could start late and do a chill ride, because I was feeling weak, and because the day was shaping up to be a scorcher.
Scorcher 6. This time it's different.
He said, "sure." So we met up at 10, cruised over to Cal Berkeley to watch the last of the tree sitters' shifts up in the last occupied tree, which was one of several that were finally being bulldozed right then and there, with the police out in force, after months and months of anti-tree-killing tree-sitting demonstrations (I can't believe I didn't bring my camera). And then we made a few false starts up into the hills (we were halfway up when we were turned around by the gatekeepers of some lab, where they were probably doing top-secret brain experiments on newly-flatlander-former-treesitters) and then tooled around a pretty seminary up in Tilden that Marty showed me, and then did the 3 Bears (hot!!!) and El Toyonal-Lomas Cantadas [El Toyonal, from Camino Pablo to Lomas Cantadas, 192 meters climbing in 2.3km distance. Lomas Cantadas from El Toyonal to Grizzly Peak, 152 meters climbing in 1.2km distance (total 344 meters climbing in 4.5 km). Steepest section, 15% consistent grade for about 1km], for a total of 50 miles. I've only done the El Toyonal route 3 times, each time on a different bike. First, as a brand newbie on Wendy's old steel too-big Marinoni in March or early April 2007 (Marty's a twisted, twisted man), then on my first bike a couple months later, and then on my new crash replacement bike over a year after that. My new bike seems to have liked it the least. My front wheel kept jumping off the road on the steepest portions, I'm sure because of the upright positioning (though I'd thought it was lower than my first bike). Got my already redlining heartrate going faster, just contemplating a wheelie up a steep hill, while clipped in.
And chill? Hm. Everything's relative. But truth be told, neither of us would have done it alone, and it was great to get a nice hard workout, we agreed. Plus, I'd gotten to sleep in a bit!
So during the ride, Marty reminded me of the time we'd first met. We'd all gone out for pizza at Lanesplitters after Mark's spin class. This was before I'd started cycling; Marty said I was super quiet in those days, kept to myself with my baseball cap covering 3/4 of my face at spin class, and he couldn't decide if that meant I was shy or stupid, and then he ultimately decided that it didn't really matter because I was pretty.
Does this guy know how to compliment a gal, or what?! And what depth of character! Joking aside, it did kinda scare me that shyness could be mistaken for stupidity, though I know outgoing people make a better first impression. Wait...we did agree it was shyness...?
Marty strongly recommended Tropic Thunder; he'd just seen it the night before. Scott was kind enough to indulge me. And now I must recommend it to you. Absolute, pure brilliance.
And now, an official 2008 Team Oakland photo, taken this morning, courtesy of Lauren's camera (I'd only managed to capture the gals with the green machine; it was early.):
No comments:
Post a Comment