Barbells Bikes Bones and Boards

Posted on March 11, 2015 by surlygiver

The training plan calls for long rides on Saturdays, so last Saturday I figured I would take off on my bike and not worry about anything else. I didn’t bother to badger anyone into joining me, because if I’m not okay with riding by myself for hours and hours, then I have a serious problem.

But it was my birthday on Sunday (and my Dad’s), and since the gym is closed on Sunday, we were doing my birthday WOD on Saturday. I couldn’t skip that!

Amy’s Birthday WOD
21 – 15 – 9
Deadlifts
Lateral bar hop burpees

We take our deadlifts seriously at Prometheus CrossFit. The fact that this picture was taken during the Open 15.2 has nothing to do with the intent coaching gaze. Well… maybe it has a little something to do with it.

Last year Ben set the Rx weight for the deadlifts at 1.5x bodyweight. That’s a lot of weight. I showed up to the gym and figured that I would scale it down, especially considering that I was slightly hungover. Hey, it was my birthday, and we’d started celebrating early. And I put myself in the second heat cuz, again, it was my birthday and I was slightly hungover. But you know how it is when you show up at a CrossFit gym. The enthusiasm is infectious, and suddenly you start thinking that it’s your birthday WOD, you should do it Rx! Continue reading →

Competition and Blindness

Posted on March 1, 2015 by surlygiver

The CrossFit Open is here! The CrossFit Open is here!

Does Annie Thorsdottir also have to trick herself into working out most days of the week, do you think?

Does Annie Thorisdottir also have to trick herself into working out most days of the week?

Oh, who cares? I’m on a pretty strict cycling schedule, and pushing myself in the Open is just too risky. I can’t afford to be too exhausted or injured to put in the miles on my bike.

Unless…. Continue reading →

Whiskey and Hills

Posted on February 22, 2015 by surlygiver

Before we get into stuff about cycling, there is something of utmost importance that needs addressing.

The whiskey situation in my cabinet is dire.

Travesty.

No self-respecting whiskey lover can call this a whiskey collection. I’ve had many of these bottles for a very long time. Apparently I haven’t kept up with restocking. And apparently I also have some sort of obsessive compulsive disorder where I need my bottles to clear out all at the same time. That’s weird, I wouldn’t have guessed that. It took a few years for this compulsion to manifest itself, but there it is. Continue reading →

On Stolen Bikes and Poop Sandwiches

Posted on November 16, 2014 by surlygiver

Some idiot poop-sandwich-eater ran off with my bike yesterday afternoon.

I don’t think very highly of this guy.

My friends Kat and Hai-Yue and I had an incredible ride from Mountain View to San Francisco yesterday. We decided to visit the Exploratorium, even though we only had about an hour until it closed.

We locked up our bikes. I took off the easy-to-steal items, my light and bike pump, and put them in my shoulder bag along with my wallet, keys, and phone.

And when we came back an hour later my bike was gone. Continue reading →

Coastal Trip Day 7: Lompoc to Santa Barbara (but really Carpinteria)

Posted on November 14, 2014 by surlygiver

Day 7. Could it really be Day 7 already? Our last day?

The Chinese character for 7 is not as exciting as the one for 6.

I was so sad that our trip was coming to an end. Erik had predicted that by the end of the trip we would be debating continuing on to Los Angeles. I was all for it! Unfortunately, things like “work” and “money” kept us from being too impulsive. Continue reading →

Coastal Trip Day 6: Pismo Beach to Lompoc

Posted on November 6, 2014 by surlygiver

SIX!!

Everybody dance! Or at least do a jumping jack. Six is here!

I’m half Chinese. I don’t speak Chinese, I don’t read it, I don’t understand it. I know more Thai words than I do Chinese, which slightly irks certain members of my family. But thanks to playing Mahjong, I am at least familiar with the Chinese characters for numbers one through nine. And as my sister said when trying to teach the numbers to her son Logan, the Chinese character for six looks the way it sounds. You know, six!! It’s an exciting word, it deserves a little dance! Cortney and I struck the six! pose at the beginning of Day Six. Sue was less enthused. Continue reading →

Coastal Trip Day 5: San Simeon to Pismo Beach

Posted on November 2, 2014 by surlygiver

On the morning of Day 5, we woke up in San Simeon thinking about breakfast. Real, hot breakfast, with eggs and toast and hashbrowns and bacon and pancakes. However, there weren’t any great breakfast options in our immediate vicinity, so we did what we always do: we got on our bikes.

Let’s go find breakfast!

About six foggy miles later we were in the cute, sleepy town of Cambria. We wandered down Main Street until we found the local breakfast joint, where we burst in on the quiet scene with our neon windbreakers and sniffly noses to bask in the warmth of steaming mugs of coffee. Continue reading →

Coastal Trip Day 4: Big Sur to San Simeon

Posted on October 31, 2014 by surlygiver

The dreaded day. Day 4.

This was going to be our most difficult day. There isn’t a whole lot of lodging available in Big Sur, so we just had to keep going until we reached San Simeon. That’s about 65 miles. 65 miles with lots and lots of climbs.

Of course, it was also a ride along the coast of Big Sur, so the scenery should be plenty of motivation.

The coffee shop at Fernwood didn’t open until 8:00, and we didn’t bring the JetBoil, so there would be no coffee for us if we wanted to get on the road at a reasonable time. This distressed Cortney and myself, but Erik promised to bring coffee to us at the top of a hill. There was some Coke for the caffeine-desperate to chase down our light breakfast of trail mix, and then we pedaled off into the mist.

No coffee just yet this morning… but there’s Coke!

Continue reading →

Coastal Trip Day 3: Seaside to Big Sur

Posted on October 27, 2014 by surlygiver

In Seaside we got a special treat! My sister Lori had gotten us all little gifts, which she had given to Sue to deliver to Cortney and me. So we had some new things to try out: fun cycling socks and chamois cream.

Our fancy new socks!

I was very excited about the socks, a little dubious about the chamois cream. But it’s called DZ Nuts, and we had lots of fun asking each other if we’d tried any of deez nuts, so that by itself was a fantastic gift.

We took a look at the route recommended by the Adventure Cycling Association (we never got good at looking at the map very far in advance) and realized that we would have to make some modifications. Continue reading →

Coastal Trip Day 2: Santa Cruz to Seaside

Posted on October 26, 2014 by surlygiver

It’s Day 2 and we’re reunited with Sue!

Having successfully ridden our bikes to Santa Cruz on Saturday, on Sunday we were meeting up with Sue and Erik. Cortney and I staggered out of bed a little later than planned and had more trouble than you would think two well-educated adults would have in finding our inn’s breakfast room. Anyway, we settled down to the typical fare inns and motels offer, and though we thought we were quick with our coffee and hard boiled eggs, we promptly made ourselves late for our planned meet-up time with Sue and Erik.

I spent about a year living in Santa Cruz when I was getting my masters in education, so I vaguely knew how to get to Harbor Cafe. But I didn’t remember the roads well enough to recall the train tracks that go by the Boardwalk. As I tried to read the multitude of signs that wanted to tell me where bikes are and aren’t allowed, I locked my tires right into those tracks and went tumbling. Before I knew what happened, I was picking myself up off the ground and listening to a bystander’s comment, “It’s all part of the experience.” Indeed. Continue reading →

Barbells Bikes Biytes and Bones

Tag Archives: cycling