Ah... The Joys of Wine

Lisa signed us up for a very fun and informative course at UC Davis called - The Sensory Evaluation of Wine.

This was a 2 day course that gave us an in depth introduction to color, aroma and taste of wine - both white and reds. We got to test wine defects ( taste and smell) as well as practice to pick out the smells and relate what we smell to a name for it using the Aroma Wheel.

We had some very well known professors lecturing and got a chance to taste a huge number of different wines, from all over the world. We had the chance to try classic styles of wine and to catalog the traits... We also had some very nice lunches and some aperitifs and Port.

Strangely after tasting wines for 16 hours my guess is that I actually drank only maybe 3 or 4 thimbles full the whole time... a lot of taste and spit going on

Our enjoying of wine will never be the same LOL

Yes its been a while since we blogged...sorry:)

So it has been a very busy time... organizing the wedding, tastings, guest lists, venues etc etc etc.

To top it all off, my wrist - which I damaged back in September in Park City Utah... was very stubborn about healing...eventually I had to stop cycling and we decided ( very reluctantly) to cancel our trip to the Vuelta de Puerto Rico. ( very sad)

Anyways I went to the Orthopedic surgeon yesterday and reviewed the X-rays, the MRIs, was poked and prodded and asked if this or that hurt ( none of it did) and finally we went to the fluoroscope to see the bones in my wrist in real time while I made a fist - very cool!

In the end he decided that what ever little anomalies he saw in my bone positions what the same on my other wrist and since it seems to be healing (albeit very slowly) I should keep doing what I have been doing and see him in 2 months...

So the good news is NO SURGERY ( yeah!)

We did do a 20 mile ride on Sunday and the wrist felt about 95% but BOY are we out of shape... we better get training again before the rolling bike ride we will have before our reception :)

Hope everyone is well

Ron and Lisa

The Rings

Well Ron's ring has been chosen and purchased and now the rings are comfortably sitting side by side in their case waiting the special day on March 30

:)

R & L

Dillon Beach Ride with Team Donate Life

A beautiful day... 100 miles and 8000' of climbing through the coastal mountains and sonoma wine valley... what's not to like?

We stayed at the Flamingo resort - complete with neon pink 100 foot high sign... and met a bunch of the Team Donate Life Race Across America (RAAM) riders for some beautiful pain :). I was 2.5 weeks into being back on the bike after the crash and vacation - with most of my riding on the trainer in the garage so I was a bit apprehensive.

As expected my climbing pace was not up to the pace of the leaders but I felt pretty good. The colors were showing and we had cool but perfect weather for riding. The route took us from Santa Rosa over into Glen Ellen and back ( about 3500 feet of climbing and then on rolling hills to the coast and Dillon Beach / Tamales - where we were greeted with a bit of mist and lunch). At the 50 mile mark my wrist was screaming "ENOUGH" so I joined Rachel in the sag wagon and took pictures.

The big climb of the day was the ironically named Joy Road up to Occidental - A 3 stage monster with sustained climbs totaling about 4.5 miles of 14 - 18% ( I admit to being glad I was in the car following the riders!)

All in all a fantastic ride with a fantastically fit and friendly bunch... Thanks for the invite TDL!
And everyone if you need a cause to get behind consider TDL in their RAAM challenge for this year!

Keep the rubber side down!! ... really:)

Mount Diablo - climb and a half

October 31 - members of the Cycle Folsom Peloton and Performance groups tackled the ascent of Mount Diablo. Starting from Walnut Creek, we warmed up for 5 or 6 miles on the city streets and bike trails and then started up NorthGate. The weather was perfect with almost no wind and a temperatures in the 60's making the hard work of climbing 3900' in 11 or so miles much more comfortable.

After a number of weeks off the bike after the crash in Park City Utah - and the vacation in Canada I had a week or two of spin class and trainer riding in the garage under my belt - but no where near the fitness required to keep up with the rest of the group. But I kept the heart rate under my thresholds and made the top to the encouragement of the group.
The descent down Southgate was fun but a bit painful due to the strained ligaments in my left wrists - even with the brace so I took it easy.

One strange sight was tthe tarantuals on the road... really! Also we got stared down by a coyote.

We then pacelined out on Blackhawk Road for a few miles and returned to climb Southgate to the junction and then down Northgate back to the cars

We re-fueled at Chipotle afterwards with burritoes, tacos etc

All in all a great day, great ride with a great bunch of riders

Going No where - Fast

Well the weather is changing and we are seeing the first rains in Northern California. At the same time the days are getting a lot shorter and we are needing lights on the bike by about 6pm...

So that means it time to move our spinning indoors - at least on week nights etc. We have thus set up our trainers in the garage - side by side and have set up a TV, with computer, DVD player, fans and boom box in order to get our hours and training in.

We are now about 90 days from our current goal - the Vuelta Puerto Rico where we hope to be able to hand with the 18mph peloton over the 3 days, 375 miles and 12,000 ft of climbing. So we are buckling down to some dedicated training of about 150 miles per week which means about 2 hrs a day 5 days a week. Given that much of that will be on the trainer we have gotten some training videos to keep things interesting... currently we are using some Suffer Fest videos from www.thesufferfest.com and some training tours in Italy from Global Ride...

:) cheers

Fall Colors in Canada

Lisa and I just returned from a nice whirlwind tour of Ontario and Quebec, to see Ron's Family and the fall colors.

We flew into Buffalo and drove across the border and then spent a day in Niagara Falls, Ontario. While the falls were lovely as well as the park nearby - the Vegas-style glitz with the casino, wax museums etc were a little hard to stomach. We took some pictures at night and then during the day (unfortunately in the rain)

We then drove through the Niagara-On-The-Lake wine region to Missisauga and had a lovely dinner with Ron's brother Mitch and his wife Jan (thanks guys:) and then headed over to the other side of Toronto to overnight at Ron's Sister's ( thanks Paula:).

We spent the next day in Toronto catching the Terracotta Warriors at the Royal Ontario Museum and then wandering around downtown Toronto. After a nice dinner that Paula made - we drove to Peterborough and spent the next couple of days with Ron's Mom and also visited her cottage north of Peterborough.

Then we made the long drive (10 hrs) to Quebec City - we got stuck in horrible traffic in Montreal and we noted that quite possibly all of Canada's manufacturing capacity is geared to the production of traffic cones!... there were cones everywhere by the thousands!! We did catch a small orchard on Lake ontario and bought some Spartan Apples (If you've not had them - you are missing a wonderful apple:)

We grabbed some wine, cheese, sausage and crackers in Quebec City and had a nice dinner in. The following day was raining but that meant no tourists and we had the run of the very lovely old town as well as the Citadel Fort. We found a farmer's market and purchased some delicious raspberry brandy and some rasberry and maple port...yummmm

We then drove along the Gatineau hills to Ottawa - lovely colors! and spent a nice day and a half in Ottawa. We definitely did not have enough time in Ottawa with old buildings, the museums etc... but we were on a timetable and we drove back to Peterborough for the evening. The next day we headed to Toronto to Ron's sister's for Canadian Thanksgiving dinner (we brought a nice California Fetzer wine :)

We then headed back to Niagara falls for a final night and the next day we drove down the Niagara River to the Whirlpool and then explored the US side of the falls - which we liked a lot better for it park-like setting, close access to the falls and much fewer tourists.

After a nice lunch at cheescake factory, we headed to the airport for the flight home, which involved a late(midnight) arrival and a bit of a wait for the supershuttle...

All in all a great vacation

R & L