Halloween Happenings

Sorry to all my faithful readers for my delay in updating Bomb This Hill. Last night I was speaking with my little sister, Megan, and she criticized me for not updating the blog. So here is a shout out to Megan, my youngest sister and her suitemates at University of Tennessee-Knoxville. And one more things Megan, Bow to your Sinsai!

Now on to the pressing issues of the week, today is Halloween. Yes, I wore my festive Halloween boxer shorts that my dear mother bought for me several years ago. If you are ever so lucky to become part of the family, then you will be treated to "holiday wear" on all the major holidays, according to Old Navy, Gap and Banana Republic, kind of like what Hallmark has done to Valentine's Day.

Last night, we had a 5.6 magnitude earthquake here in the Bay Area. The shaking lasted for a good 10seconds at my house. For all of you out there who have never experienced a tremblor, its basically everything shaking and not stopping. This was by far the longest one that I had ever experienced. I was in the kitchen with my housemate Marco and we just kind of looked at each other and were a little stunned. Maybe I am naive, but it didn't really bother me. Marco asked what I would bring with me if we had to leave the house. I thought about it quickly: my bike, a jacket, and whatever food I could put in my Patagonia bag. I figure with my bike I could get around the city much quicker than walking and I would need the jacket to stay warm along with food to feed the machine. The Bay Area officials have put a lot of work into getting the word out about being prepared for 72 hours. This is where my naiveness comes into play...I don't really think about a catastrophic quake, but maybe I should. I promised my dad I would exit the house next time it happens. According to reports, this was the biggest quake since the Loma Prieta quake in 1989 which caused millions in damage and destroyed the Bay Bridge, remember the World Series of '89?

Now back to the pressing matters of training. This morning I rolled out at 6:05am and did 3 hours of zone 2-3 riding. It was insanely dark because of the fog and low clouds. I rolled out to Fairfax and back. I felt pretty good the whole ride. When I was riding through Larkspur, I started thinking that this was the first time that I had gone over Camino Alto since July 24 which is just so crazy. I know the entire route pothole by pothole but the affluent communities of Marin finally decided to do so much needed repaving of streets. So now there aren't the insane potholes near College of Marin. Now this is just stupid stuff to think about but the point is I haven't ridden in this area in 3 months! The only part I could complain about was the cramping in my trapezius area. I have long had this problem. I don't think its a bike fit issue but I could be wrong. I am going to seek out some medical attention on it because it totally sucks when your neck gets all cramped up and is painful. It takes the motivation out of extending the kms...

Well, I hope everyone has a happy and safe halloween. As always, Keep it real!

Matthew