I gave it all to the bike this week.  This is a phrase coined by my perceptive wife Cathy, aka, Flashette, and usually used in a less than positive fashion, when she doesn’t get what she wants because I got what I wanted.  So I try to avoid this and save something for the old homestead, and I’ve been pretty good lately, but slipped up this week.

I realized this Sunday afternoon when I chose to pass out in bed rather than feed my family by doing my weekly Safeway shopping run.  I used to joke about when the checker at the market asked me for “help out to the car”, and how I would rate the difficulty of the weekend’s rides by how close I came to saying yes to that offer, but never did.  Yesterday I didn’t even make it to the market.  I blame the Death Ride. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve always been fascinated with mountain climbing documentaries, especially those focusing on Mt. Everest Expeditions. I begrudgingly have to admire those men and women who climb into the “death zone”, where oxygen is scarce, the cold can freeze off your appendages, apocalyptic storms threaten survival, and yes, where some sportsmen give it their all–but all is not enough–and on the side of the mountain they lie, freeze dried for eternity in their neon ’70s climbing garb. I admire them because they cast away their better judgment, their guaranteed safety, to put themselves in certain danger, just to stand on top of a mountain for 30 minutes, just to say they have done it. You could say it makes no sense. Read the rest of this entry »

Greetings. Thanks for mousing over here to Flashblog. I realize you must be out of the habit by now. I’ve been suffering from a bit of writer’s block in that I’ve not been able to complete any blogs. I’ve actually got several drafts sitting on the virtual back burners like cheap cuts of pot roast, eternally marinating in their own insipid juices, the slow flames breaking down the proteins and gristle until an edible product is formed, and with enough salt, can be gagged down.

So I decided, the hell with trying to be new, improved, and relevant, I’ll just go with a stream-of-consciousness type blog and let it be what it is. One idea I’ve been spritzing myself with is the Origins of Flash series.  Flashette gets credit here:  she came up to me one day and said ” Who is Flash anyway?  I’m married to you, but who the hell are you?”  A classic line if I must say so myself.

Its easy to write about, I know the subject well, and  its slightly relevant. At least the blog gets updated, so here goes! Read the rest of this entry »

Many of you know Flashette crashed last Saturday 3/1. Flashette has been studying injury/trauma resolution for 10 years and will give you the benefit of her knowledge as she heals herself and returns to ride again.  Cathy is a skilled writer and her breadth of knowledge will guarantee an informative,  fascinating read.  If you recall my story about walking on fire then you will remember how she used hypnotherapy to eliminate my pain…she’s GOOD!

You can find her blog in the Team Alameda forums:

http://teamalameda.com/forums/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=3& 

    Yesterday my ride group was taking a break at Nelly’s and I got the idea to take them on a little roundabout route through upper Piedmont on the way home. A nice, gentle side route with the aim being to show them a new area and a fun downhill to boot. Well, I got good natured flak from almost everybody on this. They were skeptical of my intentions and convinced that I was going to trick them into climbing a MoFo hill. I gave repeated assurances it wasn’t like that, and everyone eventually agreed to go, and they did  have a good time. However, I did not ask them to “trust me” on this.  Read on and I will explain. Read the rest of this entry »

Flash has a better half, her name is Cathy, and she too likes to ride her bike- locally to the beach and around Crab Cove. That’s a nice 5 mile loop, and that’s been fine for her, for, oh, the last couple of years. She’s a smell the roses and watch the ducks kind of rider, but lately she has been proud of the fact that she is getting stronger and is using higher gears when tackling our local grade we call the Grand Street Grinder. True, its not really steep, but it is mentally challenging, as it is a false flat, whereby it causes a disconnect between mind and body- looks easy, feels hard.

So, feeling emboldened by her improvement, she got the idea that maybe she could become “Mrs. Flash”- that being more of a frame of mind concept than actually trying to match my eccentric hill climbing tastes.

The day after Christmas I was planning a late morning solo ride, and as I was about to prepare for my usual randomneur type adventure, Cathy asked to ride with me over to Oakland to “check out the route” there and back, and then I could take off on my usual ride in the hills. I thought this was an interesting idea, and it occurred to me that upgrading her from her usual mountain bike to a road bike might help, so I quickly tweaked my Miyata road bike by installing platform toe clip pedals, a shorter high rise stem, and a lowering of the saddle. Unfortunately, the gears are kind of high, higher than a compact setup, but oh well, not enough time to change that. My rough idea was that I would take her over and around Lk. Merritt, and she could find her way back as she did once before. We layered up and set off. Read the rest of this entry »

On a recent ride I had the rather breakthrough thought that what I was doing was beyond just riding my bike, beyond fitness training, beyond route exploration. The crystalline-like thought that I had was that I was performing in an improvisational art piece- one that comprises a man, a machine, some bright clothing and protective gear, and take that and roll it through traffic and other people’s neighborhoods and see what happens. Whether I am appreciated or even noticed by an audience is secondary- the piece is performed for the sake of performance itself. Sometimes there is an audience, and they will wave, honk their horns, or shout Allez!, but that is rare, and not to be expected. Read the rest of this entry »

It was a fine Indian summer day, I unexpectedly had the day off, and I had already done a morning’s worth of chores. Time for a ride, but this time I chose my silver Rockhopper; time to hit the trail and taste some dirt.

I haven’t ridden the trails in about, oh, two years, but I took the ATB to the TA party and really enjoyed riding it the half mile to and from. Also, Mike Romo had just dived into the dirt in a big way and splurged on a Ferrari red Giant hardtail, and if he’s doing, it then I must be missing something, I thought.

So I was driving up Fruitvale Ave, just past 580,  with my bike on top the car when a voice in my head said ” um, how are you going to ride your bike without a front wheel?” DOH! I’m an IDIOT! I had left the wheel lying in the front yard of my house, so I doubled back, fully expecting the wheel to be gone, but when I got home, there it was, propped up and leaning against the rose bush, where some walker by had placed it. That’s why I love this town.

I made it to Skyline Gate and put my bike together and rode southeast on Westridge trail, at least I assume its called that on that side of the valley. This part is a gas, easy rolling uphills, and some nice long downhills before a really technical downhill to Canyon Meadows, which is that park off the right of Redwood Rd just west of Pinehurst. Now, I’ve ridden this before and I know what to expect when you are in the meadows: nothing but suffering uphill to get out of the valley, either direction, but west is worst so I chose that way, considering myself in fine road climbing condition, and maybe , just maybe, I could make it up cleanly. Read the rest of this entry »

I suppose a good story should start at the proper place, and the proper place for a good story is always at the beginning, a thing in space and time which is not always easily placed, so I will arbitrarily mark an X on the mental landscape and proceed with an outward bound spiral of a story which will hopefully knit itself together like your Grandma’s new sweater.

Somewhere along the timeline of self progress I developed a taste for little known, little ridden, arduously steep side streets in our East Bay hills. Perhaps it was a backlash to riding the “same old” routes as one veteran rider, the one known as El Doble put it, or maybe it was in response to a need to find ever more challenging, more technical climbs. These routes offer all new scenery through unknown neighborhoods and are like little gems, hidden away, in plain sight. Most riders avoid these routes precisely because they are unknowns, and if the rider is not in good shape for this discipline, they can exact exquisite tortures upon the mind and body. Read the rest of this entry »

You discerning film buffs may recognize that headline as the title of the Twin Peaks film created by David Lynch after the demise of his television series of the same name. A dark and disturbing film which only made sense if you carefully followed the two seasons of TV plotline. This blog is not about that film. Its just such a cool title.

Back in the late 80’s, my spouse Cathy, was studying courses in hypnotherapy. I was skeptical of the whole hypnosis deal and challenged her to make it work on me. My dental hygiene was less than it could be due to my aversion to flossing, so I told her that if she could get me to floss my teeth regularly, then I would be a believer. I quickly became a believer, and have never looked back, and that was one of the smartest things I ever did. Read the rest of this entry »