trip to cambria

We went up to Cambria & Paso Robles over the weekend with friends Ryan & Nate. The central coast area has lots of great wineries, specializing in zinfandels, of which we liberally sampled. Hearst Castle is just up the road, and there was an organized bike ride which I joined on Saturday; 50 miles up and down highway 1. The weather was perfect for riding, but 100+ degrees in Paso Robles when we were at the wineries.

We stayed right on the coastal Moonstone drive in Cambria. The views from the hotel were great as were those from the beach boardwalk. The sunsets were amazing, all us tourists would be outside to check out the colors in the sky, typically with a glass of the local wine in hand. As you can see below I have mastered the self timer feature on our camera to get a nice shot of Sarah and I with the sunset in the background.


Nate had a new camera and was trying to get some real nice shots of the sunsets, venturing down on the rocks for the best view. They had to do battle with the other photographers on the rocks to get the best shots. It looked like the tide was coming in, we stayed on the boardwalk.


I put a few more photos of our trip on Flickr.

a workout toy & weekly ride around Griffith Park

I got a new toy recently, REI was having one of their annual sales and i got a Garmin Forerunner 305. This is a GPS enabled workout computer, used for runners and cyclists. It tracks your route, speed, gps coordinates, heart rate and all sorts of other stuff. Its got all kinds of features and toys. The part i find most interesting i the mapping feature, so you can see where you have been.

Basically since we have lived in LA, I have gone on a weekly ride around Griffith Park with the 'East Side Posse". These are riders loosely affiliated with with the AIDS LifeCycle ride and use this as a weekly training ride for the annual 7 day, 545 mile ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. I come along for entertainment, one day I will do the big ride, for now I donate to a few of them, it's a great cause, contribute to someone, it will make you feel good. They start the ride on June 1st.

This new workout thing tracks all sorts of stuff, and when you are done you sync with the computer & you can upload & share your rides. Here is the route I take from home through the park, 23 miles round trip with 1800 feet elevation gain.

View Larger Map

Some stats about the trip. The overall time is a little distorted, we stop to make sure we don't lose anyone, and i ride over to meet up with everyone,and we drink coffee afterward... its a social ride, not a race.

Total Time (h:m:s)	3:01:24	8:11 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s)	1:37:29	4:23 pace
Distance (mi )	22.16
Moving Speed (mph)	13.6 avg.	39.4 max.
Elevation Gain (ft)	+1,932 / -1,897
Avg. Heart Rate	143 bpm	Zone 3.8
Temperature (°F)	57.2°F avg.	57.2°F high

road bikin'

After having an old road bike in a non-working state for months, I finally bit the bullet and got a new (to me) road bike. The old Cannondale had done me well for a long time, but pretty much everything was starting to wear out, and the minor eccentricities of it had started to grate on me.

You can spend as much as you feel like it on a bike these days, and being of a frugal mindset, i wanted a good deal. I monitored craigslist and ebay... and eventually got this Scattante (performance bike's in house brand) with nice 10 speed ultegra components and everything. All I had to to was battle rush hour LA traffic to get there.

So that's the new ride. I will probably take it out for a good distance jaunt this weekend.