Tien Chiu

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Upsides and downsides

Upside: I am now within $50 of my $6000 AIDS Lifecycle fundraising goal! This is amazing to me since I picked the number more or less out of a hat at the beginning of the fundraising season and had not expected to meet it. I have now raised over $20,000 for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation over four rides. I am very, very proud.

Downside: I tried following a 40-mile flat ride on Saturday with a 75-80 mile ride on Sunday. I only got in 68 miles (ran out of time), felt unenergetic, and am pretty sore today. Between the bronchitis and the sprained ankle and the car wreck, I just wasn’t able to get the training in, and I think it’s safe to say that I won’t be able to ride every mile this year. I only hope I have the sense to stop before I hurt myself! This is profoundly disappointing as I had really wanted to ride every mile from San Francisco to Los Angeles. On the other hand, it’s not nearly as important to me as it was on my first ride – I’ve finished every mile twice already, so I have nothing to prove.

As disappointing as this is, I wouldn’t reverse the two for the world – because, in the end, this ride is not about me. It’s about raising money and AIDS awareness, and I can do that just as well on the bus as on a bike. Sure, I’d rather ride every inch. But in the end, I know which will do more good, and will make me the most proud.

$50 to go!

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Praise

Sara Lamb saw my “Liquid Fire” (gold/orange/red shawl) at CNCH and had these kind words to say about it! I’m pleased, really pleased, as Sara is a teacher I respect a lot (I always devoured her articles in Spin-Off, Weaver’s, and Handwoven) and would like to meet someday.  I’m also starting to think I might have some future in weaving, if my early work is drawing praise from people who are established in the industry.  If I can just get my beginner’s mistakes over and done with and polish up my technique, I think my design skills will be able to fly.  I owe a lot to Bonnie Inouye (who has been a godsend in helping me learn network drafting and other aspects of design) and the other teachers who post to the weaving mailing list – nobody learns in a vacuum!  I also hope to be able to take seminars and workshops someday.

I have almost gotten the warp beamed on.  Contrary to my expectation, it is not faster than beaming on tensioning by hand – in fact, I think it’s significantly slower.  However, I hope it will produce better, more even tension.

It is becoming clearer and clearer, however, that I’m not going to have time to thread, sley, weave, and sew a handwoven tutu this year – especially not with several other outfits left to sew!  So as soon as it’s beamed on, and the trapeze disassembled, I will put it aside until after the Ride.  If I finish my other outfits early I may come back to it, but I only have three weeks left, lots of feathers to put on, two outfits to finish and two or three to sew, so it seems unlikely.

With the new medication, my bronchitis has been improving rapidly, but still not good enough yet to bike to work.  Tomorrow I do hope to be able to bike in, and then Saturday I will go out for another long ride + a 3-4 hour ride on Sunday.  It won’t be enough to get me ready for the Ride but I mean to be as prepared as possible.  I have already resigned myself to possibly having to “sag” (take the bus) on some days – what else can I do, with my training this compromised? – but I’d rather avoid it if possible.

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Harassed by an SUV

Did a 75-mile ride in 5.5 hours today, nothing particularly difficult.  The only interesting thing that happened was that I got hassled by some idiots in an SUV; as they passed me, one of them rolled down the window and started shouting anti-Asian epithets.  They then got stopped by a red light, which I blew right on through.  This is NOT normal behavior for me – I am very particular about obeying the vehicle codes, because I believe it’s part of responsible cycling – but sitting at a stoplight right next to a vehicle where someone is shouting racial epithets at you didn’t strike me as a good idea.  And in fact I’m glad I didn’t, because as they came up behind me as the light turned green, someone in the vehicle threw an entire bottle’s worth of liquid at me, and laughed as they went by.

Fortunately it turned out to be only water, and I finished my ride without further incident.  Oddly, I didn’t feel particularly threatened by the whole thing – I assume it was a 13-year-old passenger trying to show off or something.  The driver made no attempt to run me off the road or anything, so I assume they were just “having fun” as they went by.  Uh, whatever.  Come back in ten years when you’re a little more mature, and I might consider getting upset over you.

(Not that I’m condoning that behavior or anything, you understand – but getting rattled by every idiot kid is just not good for your Zen.  I’ve been riding in that area for six or seven years now without incident, so I’m inclined to treat it as an isolated incident.  That’s different from Third Street in SF, where I got hassled two out of four rides, both times with people actually flinging physical objects at me.  That is NOT a good area.)

Once I got home, I discovered that my (fairly new) cycling shorts had a rip in one of the seams.  Unfortunately I’ve been riding in them just long enough that I imagine the shop won’t take them back – in any event, they’re out of the sale-priced shorts so I will have to bite the bullet and buy a new $120 pair of cycling shorts to replace them.  I’m pretty annoyed by this – I may complain to Shebeest.  They normally produce excellent quality cycling shorts, so I’m surprised that these failed so soon.

All in all, a frustrating sort of day, but at least I managed a 75 mile ride despite the bronchitis.  Curiously, I had no trouble whatsoever with coughing while I was actually riding – it only seems to be a problem when I’m stopped.  I’m seeing a doctor about it on Monday.

Tonight I am going to try to get that warp wound on, so I can dismantle the trapeze.  It’s taking up a lot of space that I’d like to be able to use again.  B. and I are also going to watch “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”, in honor of Priuscilla.

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36 miles + trapeze

Had a long, slow, deliciously lazy morning, in which I think I got about 11 hours of sleep (catching up on lost time during the week – being short on sleep makes me stress).  Got up, did a 3-hour, 36-mile ride, came home & ate dinner, then cut and drilled all the parts for a trapeze.  Tomorrow night I’ll set it up, after I get back from my bike fitter (getting my commuter shoes fitted and getting measured for cycling orthopedics).

I’ve also unchained the painted warp and separated it into its component bouts, which are now nicely wrapped on kitesticks, ready to be raddled and beamed on once I get the trapeze going.

Having some saddle issues, so I think I will move tomorrow’s 1.5 hour ride to Tuesday.

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biked 65 miles; making a trapeze

Biked 65 miles in 5.25 hours today – rode from Menlo Park to Los Gatos and back, mostly flat but with some moderately steep hills near the Los Gatos side.  Threw in the Portola Loop at the end to add some time (the trip to Los Gatos was only 4.25 hours long, much to my dismay).  It was a definite stretch – I was feeling pretty tired near the end, but my legs and my butt held out, and I’m not feeling any tenderness in either knee or medial quad muscle, so I’m fairly well satisfied.  Assuming things go well tomorrow and in the next week, I think I will essay Day on the Ride next weekend, at 82 miles.  I wouldn’t do it except that the route will have excellent support, so if I need to sag or sweep I can do it.

I think I’m going to do Day on the Ride (which, by the way, is a one-day simulation of the actual Ride put on by AIDS Lifecycle, including pit stops with costumed roadies, sweep vehicles, etc.) in my blue-and-orange tutu from AIDS Lifecycle 5.  (It is, after all, a simulation of the Ride, so I must wear a tutu, dahhhling.)  While I don’t have a blue and orange outfit for this year’s ride, I think it’s fun to “fly” the ALC colors (blue and orange), and it seems appropriate for an ALC-themed day.

In other news, I have read through the instructions for how to make a trapeze and have decided it’s absurdly simple.  Tomorrow, after my 3.25 hour ride (I added 15 minutes to make up for the 15 minutes today’s ride came up short by), I’m going to cut the lumber for one.  I’m also going to start work on preparing the warps for beaming.

I’ve decided that it’s pointless to stress out about how much work needs to be done between now and the Ride.  Either it will get done, or it won’t.  Stressing is only helpful insofar as it prods me to get things done, and since I am already running at more or less full tilt, worrying about it isn’t going to do anything except stress me out further, decreasing productivity and increasing the probability that not everything will get done).  Hence it’s counterproductive.

So I’ve decided to quit eyeing the clock.  If I get really desperate near May I can always take an extra day or two off to work on things, but in the interim I’m going to return to having fun.  It’s much more, well, fun that way.

Tonight I’m going to rewrite that requirements document for work, leaving me free to play all day tomorrow!