SF2G Bayway plus Gmap for bikes

Missing out on rides all week long, I did a FFFF SF2G bayway to work on Friday. We rode a standard Bayway route and skipped the BTN. At 7:40, I joined the first two riders:  Gavin and one other. At the water stop we waited for the rest of the group. There were 27 riders! I joined the first group of 5 that left. Eventually, it shrunk down to just me and Gavin, who offered me breakfast courtesy of Google.

By the time we got there (9:40), there was not a lot of food left.  There were mostly donuts, bagels, and fruits left. I went for the bagel, toasted!, instead of the donuts.  While eating and chatting, we asked to participate in a video to promote google maps for bikes.

We rode around in a few circles, got filmed, then almost got run over by the “conference bike”.

Route on Garmin …and yes. My HR stayed in Z2/z3.

SF2G: Bridge to Leaders

Yesterday was a great day to ride to work. SF2G had four different rides via three different paths: Bayway, Skyline way, and Half Moon Bay way. I decided to go with the 6:15AM Skyline group, well aware of the pace of the xtons and Gaimans of the 6:30AM Skyline group.

Since they were leaving at 6:15, I estimated they would arrive at Millbrae around 7:30. In the morning, I was also tracking Eric via Google latitude. Around 7:10, I saw that he going up the hill on Skyline near Daly City. They were still a while off, so I took my time while monitoring their progress. At 7:25, his location suddenly jumped to South San Francisco. Um, maybe I should get going now! I climbed hillcrest at a hurried pace and intersected with Derrick and Space at the top. Did I barely catch on? I saw a group of about ten mostly familiar faces gathered at the entrance to the Sawyer Camp Trail: xton, Mike Gaiman, Jonathan, Eric, Derrick, Space, Scott, and others. Moments later, another group with Ted, Judd, Mark, and others arrived. We had a nicely sized group… the 6:15 and 6:30 groups must have combined.

Ted, and others stopped at the top of the hill for water, and a few of us headed down the trail first. I followed Jonathan with two others and we cruised to the other side of the trail. It seemed that some of the guys turned around and took the quicker, freeway option because they were already waiting at the exit of the trail for a regroup.

After another short break, we rolled out again. We went up two hills and when we came down the second decent to Canada, the speed of the lead group picked up and the lead group was off. I probably should have been clued in to the acceleration when Scott flew past me on the descent. As we started Canada, Derrick passed me and gave a valiant solo effort to bridge to the lead group. He got really close! Jonathan passed me and I grabbed his wheel. We eventually caught Derrick and we worked together to catch the lead group. By the time we got to Edgewood, Derrick had dropped a chain and the lead group was out of sight. By Woodside, we had caught two riders and Mark had caught on to us. The “leaders” were adding a full Portola Loop to their ride, but we decided to take the path of least resistance down Whisky, Sand Hill, Foothill Expressway, and El Monte. I got to work at about 9:30.

Garmin has my route.

SF2G style II, with a bit of testosterone

Yesterday, I missed the SF2G group by just a few minutes (I was there 65mins after they started), so today I got there earlier (50mins after their start). I ended up waiting about 20 minutes for them to show. I’m still getting used to the meet up time, but it seems to vary based on the day and the group. Yesterday was very foggy and today seemed worse.

San Francisco Airport

Today was fast and I was barely hanging on for some segments. I was only able to catch up thanks to stop lights. On straights, it felt like we were doing 22-23mph. I don’t think I ever saw the speedometer drop under 19mph in the pack. Xton was at the front pretty much the entire ride. This pretty much summarizes the ride:

It was fun, but I’m pretty beat. On the way to work, we saw the plane crash in EPA, which apparently took out some power. We were hoping power would be out so we wouldn’t have to go to work…

Route via Garmin

2D2W?

Yesterday I did my first SF2G ride. The ride was good, but having woken up at 6:30, I was starting to feel very sleepy by 2:00PM. I wanted to ride to work again, but I wasn’t sure if I could get up. Considering how sleepy I was by the time I got home, sleeping early, and thus waking up early would not be too much of a problem.

So I got up at 6:30 again to do the SF2G Bayway ride. I met a few more people: Eric with his power cranks; Mills? Nils?, who is from NY; Judd, who does not have rear fenders; Lebaron-like the car, who works in Redwood City and rides Cat 5 Men’s 45+, and the only other guy with downtube shifters, who was in a motorcycling accident, who works at Google, who has a pinkish saddle back and white Assos armwarmers, whose name I forgot.

We took the normal Bayway route minus going on the bridge to nowhere. I rode the rain bike, but there were only a few small showers along the way. The EPA section was new to me because I usually turn right on Willow, and left on Middlefield to go completely around EPA. It wasn’t too bad, but I’m not sure I would do that section alone. Because the pace was social, almost recovery speed, it took about 2.5 hours to get from Millbrae to Ames, including about 15 minutes of getting confused by Steven’s Creek trail (as you can see on the map). I’m two rides into making this a habit and I hope I don’t spoil my sleeping schedule this weekend so I can continue the habit next week when the weather is even better.

Map via Garmin

I’m done with winter. (or, No longer a SF2G virgin)

After seeing all sorts of Epic rides to work that people have done, I finally made a signifigant (yes, significant) effort to wakeup early and meet up with a SF2G group.  The SF2g ride was riding the Skyline Way and meeting up at 6:30 at Peets in SF. I could meet them at Skyline x Hillcrest, but I did not know how long it would take them to ride the 18 miles to get there. Erring on the early side, I arrived at 7:35. About 7 of them arrived at 8:00.

The route was very familiar to me since I ride the reverse to get home very often. Overall, the pace was mellow, but at times: blasting through Sawyer Camp trail and Canada, the pace was high. The weather started off cold, but was nice after a decent warmup. I got into work around 10:00, the same time as I usually do when I take the train, and I don’t feel tired. Now, if only I can continue sleeping early and getting up early to ride to work! People who I met today: Jennifer, Yuko, Ted, Michael, Space.

Four left when we got to Page Mill: Space, Michael, Jennifer, and me.

And here is the route Garmin’D

http://www.sf2g.com/skyline.html