"I think I want to ride my bike around the bay."
-- My Beautiful Wife (MBW)
That's how it began one day last fall. MBW came up with the brilliant idea of riding her recumbent bike all the way around San Francisco Bay. She figured it would take her about a week, and that she could stay with friends and family along the way. But that was before we got the Hitch Rider, which meant that I could come along (in the car) and pick bits of her route to ride with her. After months of planning and training and customizing my trike we are finally ready to go. MBW is blogging at Crazy Guy on a Bike (where she calls me MBW) and I'll be blogging here after months of neglect while hanging out on Twitter. See you on the road!
Showing posts with label trike. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trike. Show all posts
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Starting the New Year Right
"The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man."
— Iris Murdoch, The Red and the Green
When I first got the trike in August, KJ and I set a goal of riding together in Shoreline Park. We had a plan for achieving this: First I would slowly build up strength riding around the neighborhood until I could do a few miles and handle some uphills. Then we'd load KJ's recumbent on a bike rack, and I'd drive it over to the park while KJ rode my trike over. We've been working up to this since August, and I completed my first 5 mile ride a few days ago. So today was the day, and it was glorious!
The park was sunny with no wind. There were a lot of families out walking and biking, so it was a bit crowded. But people are curious about the trike and tend to make way for it. It was exhilarating to finally ride along the salt pond and look out over the water and all the wintering birds. Then we ditched the crowds and rode back behind the golf course. We only did about 2.5 miles, but we'll go back when it's less crowded and cruise around some more.
I like the twist of starting the new year by achieving a goal, rather than facing a list of new resolutions.
— Iris Murdoch, The Red and the Green
When I first got the trike in August, KJ and I set a goal of riding together in Shoreline Park. We had a plan for achieving this: First I would slowly build up strength riding around the neighborhood until I could do a few miles and handle some uphills. Then we'd load KJ's recumbent on a bike rack, and I'd drive it over to the park while KJ rode my trike over. We've been working up to this since August, and I completed my first 5 mile ride a few days ago. So today was the day, and it was glorious!
The park was sunny with no wind. There were a lot of families out walking and biking, so it was a bit crowded. But people are curious about the trike and tend to make way for it. It was exhilarating to finally ride along the salt pond and look out over the water and all the wintering birds. Then we ditched the crowds and rode back behind the golf course. We only did about 2.5 miles, but we'll go back when it's less crowded and cruise around some more.
I like the twist of starting the new year by achieving a goal, rather than facing a list of new resolutions.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Tempus fugit
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."
— Groucho Marx
It's been three weeks since my last post. Well, I started some, but never finished. After I got home from my Thanksgiving travels, I finally got a badge for the ABI office and my own login. That made it easier to go in and work, so I've been spending a lot more time there. I helped TechLeaders program manager Kim McLeod put together materials for two back-to-back workshops, and started assisting with management of the online communities in Facebook and LinkedIn.
Last Tuesday and Wednesday I participated in the second of those workshops: Senior TechLeaders: Leading Across Cultures. There was an amazing group of accomplished and experienced women in the room. ABI Research Director Caroline Simard blogged her notes on the workshop:
Then last Thursday and Friday I attended a great online forum from the eLearning Guild on Strategies and Techniques for Implementing Social, Collaborative, and 3D Learning. Inspired by Caroline I blogged my notes but have to clean them up before posting. It was a fun way to bridge my technical training background with my current explorations and ABI work with social media.
There was plenty of fun over the last 3 weeks. I was glad to get home and back on the trike, and KJ and I have been riding to the Y and around the neighborhood. Latkefest 2007 was fun as always. And one of my nieces sent a stunningly silly pair of Black Bars glasses, modeled here. These may prove useful, since Leaping Woman is still (for now, at least) an anonymous blog.
— Groucho Marx
It's been three weeks since my last post. Well, I started some, but never finished. After I got home from my Thanksgiving travels, I finally got a badge for the ABI office and my own login. That made it easier to go in and work, so I've been spending a lot more time there. I helped TechLeaders program manager Kim McLeod put together materials for two back-to-back workshops, and started assisting with management of the online communities in Facebook and LinkedIn.
Last Tuesday and Wednesday I participated in the second of those workshops: Senior TechLeaders: Leading Across Cultures. There was an amazing group of accomplished and experienced women in the room. ABI Research Director Caroline Simard blogged her notes on the workshop:
- Senior TechLeaders: Leading Across Cultures
- Senior TechLeaders Day 2: Dr. Francine Berman
- Senior TechLeaders: Remaining Technical while Becoming an Executive
- Industry-University collaborations
Then last Thursday and Friday I attended a great online forum from the eLearning Guild on Strategies and Techniques for Implementing Social, Collaborative, and 3D Learning. Inspired by Caroline I blogged my notes but have to clean them up before posting. It was a fun way to bridge my technical training background with my current explorations and ABI work with social media.
There was plenty of fun over the last 3 weeks. I was glad to get home and back on the trike, and KJ and I have been riding to the Y and around the neighborhood. Latkefest 2007 was fun as always. And one of my nieces sent a stunningly silly pair of Black Bars glasses, modeled here. These may prove useful, since Leaping Woman is still (for now, at least) an anonymous blog.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Big Day on the Trike
"Nothing compares with the simple pleasure of a bike ride."
— John F. Kennedy
It was a beautiful sunny day and I spent the first half of it online. After lunch, KJ and I got out our wheels and pedaled over to the Y. Round-trip we did four miles — which made this my longest trike ride yet (albeit with quite a break in the middle). Also it was the most traffic I'd been out in. But the drivers behaved and I didn't stress. We must have been quite a sight on our two recumbents, bike and trike. I was smiling the whole way.
At my last job, I used the company's on-site gym primarily for Pilates classes, which were offered only intermittently. Outside of class, I found it hard to tear myself away from my desk to workout. So one of my goals in quitting that job was to establish new habits around exercise before I start the next one.
So, not only did we ride over to the Y, but we went in and added me to KJ's membership. And whether we ride or drive over, the option of going together is likely to get both of us there more often.
— John F. Kennedy
It was a beautiful sunny day and I spent the first half of it online. After lunch, KJ and I got out our wheels and pedaled over to the Y. Round-trip we did four miles — which made this my longest trike ride yet (albeit with quite a break in the middle). Also it was the most traffic I'd been out in. But the drivers behaved and I didn't stress. We must have been quite a sight on our two recumbents, bike and trike. I was smiling the whole way.
At my last job, I used the company's on-site gym primarily for Pilates classes, which were offered only intermittently. Outside of class, I found it hard to tear myself away from my desk to workout. So one of my goals in quitting that job was to establish new habits around exercise before I start the next one.
So, not only did we ride over to the Y, but we went in and added me to KJ's membership. And whether we ride or drive over, the option of going together is likely to get both of us there more often.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Freedom to Learn and Play
One of the great benefits of quitting my job has been time to play with more flavors of Web 2.0 technology. In addition to creating this blog I've been reading the fantastic blogs of women I met at She's Geeky, and playing with Flickr, SlideShare, Second Life, etc. In my last job I'd been working a lot with the Confluence wiki, and towards the end had linked up with 150+ connections in LinkedIn, but hadn't had a chance to play with much else.
One of the other pleasures of not having a 9-5 job is riding my Sun EZ3 USX recumbent trike around the neighborhood in the middle of a week day when there aren't a lot of cars on the road. I hadn't been on a bike for years (long story) and although I can't ride far or long yet, it's lots of fun tootling around. The EZ3 USX is almost a comfy chair with wheels. Note the under-seat steering.
Of course all this leisure is about to change as I start my service year with the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI). Today I attended my first program team meeting, and got a sense of what I'll be working on, at least initially. More on that later, however. Right now my sweetie is home and it's time for dinner.
One of the other pleasures of not having a 9-5 job is riding my Sun EZ3 USX recumbent trike around the neighborhood in the middle of a week day when there aren't a lot of cars on the road. I hadn't been on a bike for years (long story) and although I can't ride far or long yet, it's lots of fun tootling around. The EZ3 USX is almost a comfy chair with wheels. Note the under-seat steering.
Of course all this leisure is about to change as I start my service year with the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI). Today I attended my first program team meeting, and got a sense of what I'll be working on, at least initially. More on that later, however. Right now my sweetie is home and it's time for dinner.
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