7000 feet of quad-and-booty-burning glory
August 2, 2008
On Saturday the cycling sirens sang yet again. And this time the call had a “climb epic heights” ring to it. And, since we all know how siren calls go, I had to oblige.
The ride was a from-somewhere-between-Burlingame and Woodside, up Old La Honda, through Pescadero, out to Half Moon Bay, and up and over back down to Canada road-loop. For written directions of what we did go here. And, if you’re more visually oriented, you can see a very rough gmap of it here instead. Suffice to say, the ride was truly one of great glory. Having never climbed anything like that before, I was super proud of myself. Looking back and seeing countless hills in the far distance, and then knowing that you’ve climbed them, makes for a pretty awesome moment. Plus, it’s just such a gorgeous ride. Zillions of redwood trees, isolated little towns, wildflowers, the ocean — it’s just fantastic.
Step one: find purportedly delicious coffee place (Philz - in the Mission)
Step two: buy and taste test said purported deliciousness
(note to other caffeine/coffee junkies: ’tis quite delicious. They add their sugar and homemade cream for you…and it’s heavenly. And, since it’s not like you added the sugar and cream yourself, it totally doesn’t count as bad for you!)
Step Three: Stock up on emergency fuel (this ride I went with the jelly beans… errr… I mean extreme sports beans!)
Step Four: Size up the competition. I’m obviously victorious on three counts: shoe style, sock choice, and for actually having a tan… at all
Step Five: Ride!
Step Six: Climb epic hills
Step Seven: Relish in hill-climbing glory (perhaps prematurely, but go on! relish!)
(that’s Eric — he rides for UCLA Triathlon)
Step Eight: Whenever possible, fulfill and/or rekindle childhood memories and fantasies. (I used to go to Camp Loma Mar when I was a kid. Back then, Loma Mar seemed like a million miles away, hidden away in magical redwood forests. Now, I can bike there!)
Step Nine: Climb (and descend!! oh yes descend!!) about a frak-load more
Step Ten: Find deliciousness and never ever let go of it
Step Eleven: Get slackers up
Step Twelve: Appreciate nature (and by “appreciate” I mean kiss flowers)
Step Thirteen: Bike a LOT more… over a LOT more hills. And then, enjoy the view
Step Fourteen: Take more pictures with childhood landmarks. This will help you show off to friends and relatives later on. (Every Christmas, my dad would take us to Santa’s Tree Farm in Half Moon Bay to cut down our own tree. After, we’d usually stop by the Flying Fish for lunch.)
Step Fifteen: Finish!! And, though not recommended, optionally: try and look like a badass while dripping in sweat and clothed in bright spandex.
Step Sixteen: Get together with great homies and eat lots and lots of hamachi sashimi!
San Francisco to Tiburon
July 27, 2008
Cycling is a bit like crack. Even though I rode to work three times last week (which means I bike-commuted about 135ish miles), watched lots of awesome (and less than awesome) films at the Bike Film Festival over Friday and Saturday, and even friggin joined the San Francisco Bike Coalition, by late Saturday night I had an undeniable itch. And that itch was for a ride.
I emailed all the SF2G people and asked if anyone had good directions for biking up to Tiburon and Mt. Tam. Now, I emailed these people Saturday night at 1AM. The first response? 1:45AM!! And then more followed bright and early Sunday morning. These people are AWESOME!
So this was the plan:
So with directions from a pal at work scribbled down on an envelope I was off! Now, I didn’t realize at the time that these directions were scribbled down virtually illegibly, but that’s alright! I’ve learned another lesson: ink + envelope + lots of sweat in jersey pocket thingie = words start looking a lot like other words… before they just look like inkblots.
Anyway! Here are some pictures and highlights from the day:
- First I got (almost) all my gear together
- Then off I went down busy Market, down to Embarcadero, and along to the bridge. The weather was, in my opinion, perfect for biking.
- Finally I made my way to the bridge where the wind was INSANE!
-And, since I refused to stop to take a picture of myself (because then it wouldn’t actually be a picture of me biking on the bridge), I had to take a few to make sure one would work!
-After surviving the epic wind, I made my way to the other side of the bridge. And, I’ve got to tell you, the biking is a lot more peaceful over there. First off, there are a zillion bikers out and about Sunday mornings. And, once I realized that following the other bikers resulted in a lot more not-getting-lost success than trying to figure it all out on my own, everything got better for me!
-Below you’ll see a picture of the first solid uphill section. It was gradual and gorgeous. Good times!
-Note to future bikers: If your directions tell you to turn right onto Camino they mean Camino alto!! Don’t do what I did and bike up a zillion other hills… convinced that if they meant Camino alto they would have said so!
-Eventually Savannah called so I took that as an opportunity for a chocolate chip cookie break!
- Finally when I was almost totally convinced I was anywhere but where I needed to be, I came upon the Tiburon sign!
- From the Tiburon sign on you get the best biking. Gradual uphills and downhills, gorgeous views, and sunny weather!
- And you stumble upon old people love! Which I am the biggest sucker for EVER!
- Now I’ll be honest, I got lost a few times. And by a few I mean many. But! It meant some great additional views!
- And some great extra faces by yours truly.
- After getting out of Tiburon it was a smooth shot home, thanks in large part to the Tiburon bike path. These Tiburites have the life, man. It’s a super gorgeous isolated area that’s ridiculously close to the happenings of the city. It can’t be beat!
Overall the ride, if completed without error, would have been about 55(ish) miles. With all my errors it ended up being more like 65. But, that means I got in 200 miles this week! So rock on to me!
And for all the pictures from today (and let’s not forget the additional commentary!) go here
A day in SF with the Fam
July 20, 2008
Dad and Melissa were up in San Francisco this weekend for a surprise birthday thing for their friends from England. And, after that was all finished, the lot of us got together.
So what’d we do?
- Savannah and I dressed up in the matching tie-dye shirts we bought yesterday on Telegraph! (I LOVE me some tie-dye)
- Listened to everyone complain about how cold it was
- We met at their hotel and then got some breakfast/brunch at Café Andrée at Hotel Rex (which is located up by Union Square). [Oh this brings up a quirky side comment! So I love pancakes. Berry. Chocolate. Berry and Chocolate - if it’s sweet and can be put in a pancake (especially whole wheat pancakes) then whip ‘em on up and hand ‘em on over! But there’s one little itsy bitsy requirement. If these pancakes are going to need maple syrup then it absolutely HAS to be real maple syrup (read: NOT that corn syrup crap). Some people say they can’t taste a 
difference… but what that really tells me is that someone took hot coals to these poor fools tongues and burnt out all the really important taste buds. I cannot stand fake maple syrup. It destroys the deliciousness that is the pancake. So of course I have to make sure they have the real stuff (or else I have to order something else). Thankfully, after I had an extended conversation with the waiter (who then spoke to the chef) (where all this was accompanied by head-shakings and laughs of disbelief from the family) we discovered that they had the real stuff. Yay!]
- Took the BART to my house (Dad and Melissa hadn’t seen it yet)
- Got off the BART
- For the FIRST TIME EVER I went the wrong way on Mission after getting off the BART (went South instead of North)
- Recovered
- Endured about three hours of being told I had to move out of the area
- Showed them yesterday’s blog post
- Endured more comments about how I live in the ghetto… and how, really, I’m moving
- Took the BART back to the Powell/Mall stop
- listened to more complaints about how cold it is
- told them they were all crazy - that this weather is perfect!
- Got some food
- After food Dad and Melissa had to go to SFO
- Said “goodbye!”
- At which point Savannah and I decided we needed to continue hanging out
- Where the first thing we needed to do was get some delicious cookies to share
- We then decided to get our eyebrows waxed at the Benefit brow bar in Macy’s
- Did that
- Looked awesome
- Shopped around some more (I want an ipod… though my last one got stolen [about two years ago] and ever since I’ve been disinclined to buy another]
- Got more chocolate
- Took a video about said chocolate
- walked around some more and got Savannah some good smelling hair goo
- parted ways on BART
So all in all a good Sunday. And now I must get to bed because I have a 5:45AM wakeup call (because I’m riding to work)
For more pictures, go here
Race Report: Sequoia Trail Run 10k (with sissy!)
July 19, 2008
Today something I never thought I’d see happen, happened (and not just happened mind you, but friggin rocked!) - Savannah and I ran a 10k trail run race together!!
The other day at work Neil told me that Beth (his hardcore triathlete girlfriend) wanted him to let me know about a trail run race I should do over the weekend. And, at first, I laughed. I haven’t been doing any serious running (actually… any running at all really) since mid-June. I’ve been biking a lot but no running. And definitely no trail running. So I certainly wasn’t inclined to somehow get my butt out to the Oakland hills to run up a hill alone. And again, let’s be clear - when I say “run up a hill” I’m really saying “slowly trudge… but with zeal!!”
but anyways…
So I wasn’t going to do it. But, it just so happened that I was messaging with Savannah at that instant so I thought I’d take a cheap way out - I told Neil I’d see if sissy wanted to do it with me. If she was in, I’d do it. If not, I’d pass.
Now I’ve asked Savannah to do a lot of races with me. And never once has she agreed. Ever. So I was guessing the probability of her agreeing was somewhere between zip zero nada and a solid 1%. But! I sent the message and what did she say? She asked for further information! And, after calling me to talk about it, she friggin agreed! Agreed that she’d run it on the condition that:
1) I’d run with her the whole way
2) I wouldn’t yell at her if she had to stop
3) I wouldn’t make her feel guilty if she stopped
These conditions seemed totally fine by me and so, I agreed. And so, we were good to go!
So this morning, at the crack of dawn, I made the BART-journey to Berkeley to meet up with Savannah and drive (her apparently very trusting boyfriend’s car) down to the race.
This first video let’s you know about challenge one: Parking
Then, after we registered Savannah realized that it was pretty cold out and she’d forgotten to bring something to cover her ears (see video for explanation). So, we improvised…
After that we were in need of a bathroom run. And, like seemingly all races, there were way more many bathroom-needing people than bathrooms. So we waited in line with the rest of the running masses. I then made sure to get a picture of Savannah having her first pre-race bathroom run. Why? Because they’re pivotal to any real race experience! And while (confusingly) Savannah yelled out “Are you serious?” from behind the bathroom door when the bright flash went off, I know one day she’ll appreciate.
After that we took some more video…
And then they called us to the start area - at which point the race director gave a little speech… a little speech that I misunderstood…
So after a bathroom break and that little mix-up, the countdown, well, counted down and we were off!!
So here’s a brief rundown of our race experience:
- There were no mile markers, which I’m totally not used to at all. And, considering neither of us have any sense of distance at all, we were pretty much off on how far we’d gone the entire time. But at least we were overly (way overly) conservative!
- I warned Savannah at the very start about the most common trail running issue: because the ground is very uneven, it’s very easy to roll an ankle if you aren’t careful. You must must must lift your feet and think about planting your foot firmly. And even then, if you haven’t been doing much running, it’s pretty much inevitable that your ankles will tire and you’ll roll a bit.
- Savannah rolled her ankle.
- Savannah persevered
- I diligently took videos while we were running
- Savannah and I got super pissed because this mother was yelling at her obviously not so in shape daughter (who I’m guessing was somewhere between 12-15 years old) to go faster. The girl was whimpering and pretty much crying. Savannah agreed we could speed up to get around them when I was on the verge of telling the mom to “back the F _ _ _ off” And I’m serious about being on the verge. I was already making eye contact with the mom and clearing my throat. Either Savannah was very perceptive or we just got very lucky. (lucky because me getting arrested for making a little evil woman cry as I strangled her would have pretty much ruined the rest of our day.)
- Savannah HAMMERED the hills. Whereas most people slow down on the uphill, Savannah decided the best way to deal with them was to just “get them over with” - which means she actually increased speed (didn’t even just maintain!) on the uphill. It was most impressive!
- Savannah did NOT stop! Even with all the crazy elevation Savannah never stopped. Before today the furthest she’d run was about 3 miles!!! She really gave 100% today!! And she friggin ROCKED! Seriously! I was so impressed! So happy! Turns out she’s a great running buddy!
- Savannah made a lot of jokes about rolling her ankles right and left.
- I started to pee myself laughing at said jokes.
- Savannah and I had no conception of distance. The below video (you know, where we estimate we’ve got about 2 miles left) was taken literally about 30 seconds before we turned a corner and saw the finish line.
- At which point we took an epic finish video.
And that was the race! It was great! Savannah really seemed to enjoy herself and it was exciting to have her out there! She’s definitely a natural!
After the race we took some more pictures, picked up our tshirts, ate some snacks, and then headed back to Berkeley. On the way we paused Mr.Toad’s wild ride stopped by Safeway to get Savannah some ice and something to wrap her ankle up with (it was looking pretty swollen) before heading over to Intermezzo’s for lunch.
After lunch we stopped by Amoeba, where I bought three new CDs (one of which I’m currently listening to), before picking up Savannah’s friend, Laura, to go see Batman. And let me tell you - it was EPIC! The entire cast was amazing.
After that we got dinner at one of Savannah’s favorites, Naan and Curry. I’d never been before so I was excited. And it was delicious! Plus, free chai and seriously generous naan bread proportions. And you know how much I love love love naan bread!
So that was our full race day report! Pretty awesome!
I suspect you’ll be seeing a lot more Whitney sister race reports in the future. (but in the meantime you can see lots more pictures of us (with commentary!) here)
A little LA in SF
July 15, 2008
Serendipitously, a group of my good friends from UCLA were all up in San Francisco at the same time this past weekend. Here are pictures and a video of our little Sunday outing (mostly at a wine bar in the Ferry building).
…and you can see I’m trying something new! Not only am I writing less (admittedly as a side effect of the fact that I’m putting this up while eating my lunch), I’ve also got an embedded album de photos! We’re getting sort of fancy over here at heatherwhitney.com 
(but fear not, if you prefer, the web album [which of course is superior because of the inclusion of my witty commentary] is still right here)