Bike Fit, Beans and Rice and AIDS

This past weekend would be anything but Weight Watchers approved. Wine on Saturday. Wine on Sunday. And dinner from Sol Food on Sunday as well.

I think I'll work backwards. Jerry and I went to the Trips for Kids fundraiser last night (Sunday). Marilyn Price, the founder and director knows how to put on a good fundraiser. She has a way of talking almost anyone out of donating, helping or at least showing up. There was great food, great wine and beer, and a host of silent and live auction items.

Jerry and I went home with a new bike pump and a bike fit from Colin Beardsley from StudioVelo in Mill Valley. I just got my bike fit from him. Four hours of meticulous tweaking, suggestions and adjustments. While Jerry is reasonably comfortable, I figure getting precise dimensions wouldn't hurt. We bid pretty much the asking price, but hey, it's for Marilyn and the kids.

The speaker at the event was Shimon Iforgethislastname, who takes incarcerated kids in Israel on mountain bike rides. His talk was endearing, inspiring and insightful.

The live auction, which included a custom made Tom Ritchey frame and a bike signed by Robin Williams was fairly successful. And considering everything is donated, my guess is the organization did quite well.

The dinner was catered by Sol Food. It is a favorite restaurant of many of my friends, but Jerry and I have never been all that enamored. Until last night. The beans and rice, after being doused with their house-made hot sauce were fantastic, and to my surprise, I loved the plantain fritter as well. We both drank too much wine and I'm a bit dehydrated today, but it was a great evening.

Earlier in the day we did our traditional ride out to Pt. Reyes. The bike had new handlebars, a new saddle and last week's new crank and shims under my right cleat. Each change made the riding experience better. While I don't think anything will help me completely get rid of right side chafing, it was markedly improved.

We again rode faster than usual out to Pt. Reyes. To our delight, when we arrived we ran into a passel of Positive Pedalers having lunch, so we joined them. Not only did we have great company, we had great leftovers. Congratulations all around on my election to their board, which was heartening. The Pos Peds have just opened their board to non-pos people, and I'm one of the first batch. I anticipate a lot of hard, but rewarding work.

On our way back we started having serious chain trouble. Definitely time for a new chain. We had to stop a couple of times to untwist it, and the ride was a bit rough, but we made it.

We stopped in Nicasio for a port-a-pot break and a little rest. On the porch sat a woman, probably in her 80s, eating a hot dog. I was wearing my Pos Ped jersey with the Nelson Mandela quote on the back. She read it and was obviously moved. Turns out she lost two sons to AIDS in the 80s. She was pro gay marriage and joined our sentiments for a cure. She lauded us for our years of riding and supporting HIV causes.

This was the second time in one day when I was reminded of how AIDS has taken too many from us. Earlier in the day I saw a posting on Facebook about Larry Wisch, who died on Saturday from AIDS. Larry was one of my best friends in Baltimore. We met playing volleyball. The night I badly sprained my ankle coming down from a spike he sat with me for hours in the Emergency Department at Union Memorial, telling me stories and making me laugh. We became great friends after that long night. We lost track of each other after one of us left town-- I can't remember which one of us left first-- and I didn't even know he was living in San Francisco. And now he's gone.

AIDS is still killing people. The treatment has come a long way but we are still too far away from a cure. I want to see that, and I want to see it soon.

So that was Sunday. We spent Sunday with another tandem couple: George and Nancy. They are taking a year off from being bike techs on AIDS Lifecycle. They are both great techs, but my guess is, Nancy will be especially missed. People who have ridden all year line up for Nancy to do bike fits on Day Zero, and then throughout the week.

Nancy and George are members of several wine clubs, and they took us to a Cinco de Mayo celebration, which, according to the invitation, included lunch. The invitation was wrong. There were not all that many appetizers being passed, with no main course in sight. We had each had a glass of wine and we were ready for a real lunch. So we decided to head out to Napa to look for real food. When we finally found a parking space we headed to the first spot we saw: a pizza place. I tried to keep Weight Watchers conscious with a mesclun salad with dressing on the side. The dressing was tasteless, so I opted for plain greens. Jerry had a little pizza, and I admit, I had a small piece. The pizzas were much better than the salad, but I was still keeping things fairly in check. We headed to a winery where Nancy and Georg are members, and I tasted two reds. They were good, not great, so I was not tempted to have any more or purchase any.

Since we knew we were busy Sunday night, our usual movie night, we headed out to see the Avengers Popcorn with no butter would be dinner, so ultimately, despite the wine, I kept within my Weight Watcher goals.

The movie was a lot of fun, with a few of those unmistakable Joss Whedon lines. Again, not great art, but fun.

I have not cooked in about a week and my eating habits have not been stellar. My plan today is to make a batch of pasta sauce with eggplant as a meat replacement. I cook the eggplant in the microwave until it collapses and add it to my simmering red sauce. It gives it bulk and "meatiness" and makes it pretty satisfying.

Riding, Yes. Eating, Not So Much

The last couple of weeks Jerry and I have been trying to amp up our miles. We rode "Day on the Ride" last weekend, which is an attempt to simulate what it is like to do a day on AIDS Lifecycle. Except the day is generally harder than any day on the actual ride. This year the ride took us over almost every hill in Marin and then into Sonoma. We clocked 77 miles, which is shorter than most ride days, but there is no day that has that many difficult climbs. I'm happy to say we completed it, though the usual spot where the crease in my leg meets my behind was screaming by the end of the day. I knew it had to be time to schedule a bike fit. A fitter in Mill Valley came highly recommended to me, so we made an appointment. I know there are lots of great fitters out there, including at least one friend, but Colin was close by and had rave reviews, so we took ourselves over there. He made some very important discoveries. My legs, are indeed, significantly different in length. It wasn't just my lopsided shoulders and hips; there was a great deal of leg length discrepancy. He put shims under the cleat on my right shoe and recommended we get a shorter crank on the right side. My hope was with less straining to reach, the pain and irritation on the right side would subside. No such luck. On Sunday's ride things seemed to start out well, but that nagging, gnawing began at around mile 40. I do have to say though, that my pedaling power is definitely improved with the changes made. I felt a lot stronger and Jerry and I rode our fastest average time ever. Our hill climbing clocked slightly faster, and overall, we had good to great speed. Jerry's cyclometer is out of commission, so he didn't realize it. He was pleased with the news. We'll go back to Colin later this week for a little more tweaking and maybe a new saddle. I am determined to get this issue fixed before ALC. To get more saddle time, I've started going to spin class. While it is certainly different that riding the tandem, I know it's good for my quads and cardio, so I will make it a regular part of my routine. If nothing else, I sweat a lot. I'm still doing Weight Watchers and I earned 75 activity points this week. But I didn't touch them, and their lies what I think is the problem. I frequently do not use up my daily point allowance, and I think my body thinks it is going into starvation mode, so I am not losing any weight. In fact, this week I gained a little. So, starting tonight, things are going to change. We are going to go out for pizza, and I will have wine with it. I am going to start working on using more points, and ironically, I think it will result in weight loss. Seems counter-intuitive, but my guess is my theory will prove right. I'm not going to pig out, but I am going to start eating more. And I probably will start enjoying it more. I have definitely been in an eating rut: the same green salad with three ounces of chicken; the same cottage cheese and pears. I'm going to mix it up, add a little more excitement and a little red wine. I'm also deep into planning mode for this year's Jonathan Pon Memorial Ride. While I really should be cycling the event, I will be in the kitchen with a few friends, cooking for 200 hungry cyclists. I'm excited and a little nervous by the challenge. The kitchen at Cassini Ranch, where we have dinner and breakfast is woefully inadequate so I will be doing as much prep as possible ahead of time. This is the third or fourth time I've done it and it always is wonderful, but if I didn't worry about it I wouldn't be me.