Tiburon and Pumpkin Muffins

It was a beautiful day, perfect for riding, so Jerry and I loaded up the tandem and headed for the Golden Gate Bridge parking lot to join up with an ALC training ride. We waited but realized we weren't seeing any bicycles come through the lot. Seemed that the west side of the bridge was closed so we weren't going to see any of the ALC riders. We headed down the Sausalito hill and stopped at Mike's Bikes, hoping to run into one of the training ride leaders. We weren't sure what direction they were doing the loop, so we thought we'd wait to find out.

Turns out they weren't actually doing the whole loop and took a route we normally don't take. So the ride was a good bit shorter than we thought it was going to be. Glad we parked at the bridge instead of Mike's. The Sausalito hill was going to be our only real climb of the day.

The ride was very pleasant, though short, and we joined up with riders at Shark's Deli in Tiburon. The odd thing was, we did not know any of the riders. One of the ride leaders was supposed to be our friend Angelo, but he had to back out last minute. It was kind of strange not knowing one single person in the group, but it also means there are new riders and that's a good sign.

I brought some pumpkin cupcakes I had baked for the annual cul de sac Halloween dinner and wait for the kids to come and trick or treat. They were cute, but I think my toffee bars have gone over better in the past. Live and learn. I had bought Halloween cupcake liners and wanted to use them, and thought pumpkin cup cakes would be just the thing.

I actually like them a lot. They are really pumpkin bread I made into cupcakes. Once, quite by accident I left out the eggs when I was making them so they were vegan (the recipe uses oil) and they were quite good. I haven't repeated the no egg method; I'm too afraid it was a fluke. But the pumpkin cupcake/bread is full of walnuts and to me, very satisfying.

After the stop at Shark's we headed onto the loop but took the Trestle Glen shortcut. The entire ride was only about 30 miles, but a pleasant 30 miles. We averaged close to 14 miles per hour, but I think that's due to not many hills.

In some ways, I feel as if our training is going backwards. We seem to be doing shorter, rather than longer, rides. But in reality that's our choice and we can do longer rides if so inspired.

The World AIDS Day 29-mile ride is coming up at the end of the month, and while that's a short ride, it's an important one. I'm working with the Positive Pedalers to see if we can get some media attention for it. And I'll continue to work with them because 2010 is their 15th anniversary. A big deal and I hope I can tell their story to as many people as possible.