long ride in marin today

yesterday, i took my fixie out that i usually only ride to school on, but i went out around 11 after i opened all my presents and rode with a friend from my house to fort mason and we did skids and trackstands and make a slalom course you has to skid around to complete. it was fun and windy as hell down by the buildings and the train tracks. we decided to race around the piers, but the roads were so dam bad and it was too windy, so we just did trackstanding competitions. i did one a little under 30 seconds long, pretty sweet. then on friday, i rode with my mom and 2 of her friends on a long ride in marin. we went over the bridge, tourist side sucks, and went down into sausalito, on the bike trail, up highway 1, up panoramic, up pantoll, and up summit to the top. took us about 1h 30 to get to the top, then we were planning on riding bolinas-fairfax into fairfax, but the sheriff said it was closed for patchwork, so we did the 7 sisters in reverse and down bofax to highway 1. we rode highway 1 into stinson beach and then we climbed up panoramic to pantoll and then down to the bike trail, through sausalito where about 10 fire trucks and police cars were blocking the road with their lights on. i didn't see a fire, but we got past and up to the bridge, which was by god, so fucking bad on the tourist side. it sucked no matter how much i swore at the tourists who don't understand english except for "fuck". went to emporio rulli to see the pastry chef and get some pastries and hot chocolate. then i came home and started my homework, blah. finished my italian essay and started the french outline and all i have to do is finish the french essay then i'll be done with my homework. i'll be gone next week so this will be the last report until i get back from the desert with a detailed week of fun

christmas break

last friday, has one last exam, italian, and it was harder than i anticipated. on saturday, i worked and make $97 in 7h, not a bad day. the sunday team ride was cancelled because of rain, but i went out and rode in marin anyway. did the paradise loop and got rained on for 2 of the 3h. then i was locked out and had to wait for 1h before my dad came home with keys. felt like a dumbass. monday, just rode the trainer, the weather didn't look too good and i didn't want to ride in the rain again. i watched some old james bond movies that spike was showing, but other than that, not much else was on tv. on tuesday i rode up mt. tam and did a 45 minute tempo workout. my HR monitor wasn't working, it was shooting out really high numbers for 5mins and then really low numbers for 5mins. came home and watched more tv. on wednesday, i rode 2h on the trainer and i'm going to a dinner thing tonight, but other than that not much to report. have to get started on the homework i have.

exam week

last post was on saturday, rode on sunday, team ride in walnut creek, 830am, 645 wakeup, rode the old bollinger canyon tt course without doing a tt. looked like rain so we stayed close to the lot, we never went more than 30mins away in case it poured we could get back. well at the top it started raining, and we were about 45 mins away, the farthest. by the time we got back, my hands were so fucking cold i thought they would turn black and fall off or i'd get frossbite or something. came home, started studying for my monday exams, english and physics. come monday, english essay, comparative essay, a bit challenging, nothing too bad though, just had trouble finding a good thesis, but i got it after a while. had a 2.5h lunch break in between exams, went downtown to chill and take my mind of exams with some friends, and then came back and took the physics. it was very easy, only a handful of questions i wasn't too sure about, but overall it was easy. went home and took off. tuesday, french exam, 3h long, had to read a text, answer 2 easy questions, write a plan for an essay and write intro and 1st axe of the essay. in french essays or commentaires are written in 2-3 axes. thought that exam was easy, and came home, rode up mt. tam to pantoll doing an interval and suffered in the cold all the way down. at least there was no rain though, and the bike trail was no longer flooded. studied for the wednesday exams, biology/science of the earth and history/geography. usually bio/sci is really easy, but the exam was the most difficult so far. i talked to friends afterwards and they thought the same thing. had another 2.5h lunch break and went to la boulange bakery with people to chill. came back, took the h/g and thought it was really easy, even though i don't do to well in h/g because the teacher grades very weird. came home, rode and studied for math. thursday, math exam, piece of cake, our examinator was late, but it was very easy and i got home around 11 and rode and was happy it didn't rain. for tomorrow i have italian, but that won't be too hard either. i already feel like i'm on break, i love it.

got bored and though i'd post a pic from nationals in LA in august

break time

classes have been easy all week due to exams approaching. i've studied for all of my exams by just reading over everything we've learned so far, but today, i did the majority of my physics/chemistry studying. i will also do some english tonight, but you can't study much for that bad boy, it's just an essay. same goes for french and italian. on friday, i went to go sort corks like plastic and real corks to get community service and most of all-free food. i ate my regular lunch in the classes following, but it was a bit hard in french, but much easier in english where we watched a movie and the lights were off, i just went to the back and ate. got 1h for my time, they say you need 50h by the end of sophomore year, and i have about 40, so i'm in good shape, and most people don't even do any hours, but i guess it looks good on college applications. it was nice to sleep in today until 9am, what a treat. then i helped my mom carry christmas packages to the post office and picked up a tree that we carried home. i went on a ride, i was planning to ride the paradise loop, but the high tide because of the full moon flooded the bike trail by mikes bike and the freeway, by the overpass and christmas tree lot, so highway 1 was out of the question, and a little further on, i had to ride through a puddle about 6 inches deep and 50 feet long, because there was no other way around it. i kept going, and some guy told me i had to turn around, i only realized what he said after he passed me, so i just waved at him when i passed him. but by the soccer fields, it was flooded again for good, with no way of getting around it. i just said fuck it and turned around and went through all that fun stuff again. it was a bit scary seeing the same thing could happen if some of the icebergs melt around greenland and around the world, because it could have exactly the same effect, but the water level would ride a lot more. since the ride was a bit short, i rode into the hills that sausalito's rich people live on. some really nice houses and steepass hills, about 30 percent is what it looked like, i didn't try going up that one. i went back to bridgeway and rode home over the bridge, not much wind today, but enough that my little frame was tossed around a bit going over and back, especially around the towers. on my way back, i added a little time by heading into the presidio and climbing some hills, but once i felt a drop, i looked up and the clouds were dark and i was like oh shit and rode home as fast as i could because it started to rain heavily. i hadn't noticed the change in cloud color, it was clear and sunny when i left. got home wet, ate some stuff and took a nap. not sure if i'll be riding with the team tomorrow as i have a late night gig tonight with the band and tomorrow's forecast calls for rain for most of the day.

studying

easy day at school, play reciting thing went well, so did the vocab test today in english, easy words so that was good. classes are getting easier before exams, no homework, and we just study in class, nothing else. i've been studying a lot at home too, about 1h per night per subject that i have an exam in. 7 exams, 5 days. 4 new weeks of my training plan are up, looking good, getting stronger, getting a tt bike soon also, a cervelo to match my road bike, but i'll be riding that a lot once i get it.

bad teachers

let's see, my english teacher thinks it's funny to give us a shakespeare part to memorize and a vocab quiz the week before exams, when everyone's supposed to be studying, and when most people are. i'm trying to ride my bike, study for exams, and now i gotta do this crap!? annoying as hell, well the good part is today i got out of gym class, the most pointless class ever 1h early, that was a nice treat. i'll be riding in the dark the rest of the week and studying my ass off. hopefully getting a tt bike soon, i need a disc too. reese's whipps taste like crap, my bass is broken for the moment, and my band is playing saturday so i kinda need it fixed by then, could just play the guitar but it just doesn't have that same sound

To The Trees!!!

thursday and friday went to school, had band practice on friday for the 2 gigs we had saturday night, we sounded smooth, it was good, rode home in the dark, golden gate park is scary as hell at night with no lights on the street, presidio is better because there's no drug dealer who's gonna jump out in front of you and steal your bike. saturday, woke up at 7 and went to work at 9. worked till 4, made $80, not a bad day, but less than usual, then rode home, went off to the gym for 1h, then went to the 1st gig, where we only played 3 songs, but it was a jam with a bunch of different acts, it was cool, but my paul mccartney bass wasn't working...at either of the gigs, oh shit, had to use other people's, and hopefully will get it fixed for this saturday's gig. 2nd gig went well also, not that big of an audience, but we did well and sold 2 cds, ooooooo. went to bed at 10, woke up at 630 and drove out to walnut creek for the team ride. got there at 830, rode at 9, did the trees loop, my personal favorite, 45 miles, and it's basically downhill the whole ride. sounds impossible, but it feels like it, spent a lot of time on the front today to keep my HR up. it was hella cold at the start and pretty much the same at the finish. drivers suck during this time of the year. came home, hit the books, 2h of homework, and tomorrow i start studying for my exams,boooooooo

not much homework tonight-opportunity to update ze blogo

last post october 13, wow, basically 2 months ago. well we had october break, went to inverness, up north, rode a lot, beautiful up there, weather was so-so, but very fun trip overall. went back to school, went trick or treating sort of with some friends and then ate a bunch of candy and felt sick, but i'm young, i can take it. november, parents anniversary, and my birthday month, was off for parent-teacher conferences and also for thanksgiving. fun times, lots of desserts, ice cream, cake, pie, cookies, it was good. then a bunch of birthday cards, money, checks, thank you cards, blah, little pastries and more cake. yum. start of december, a week and a half until exams start and then i'm off for christmas vacation, basically 7 days left and then exam week which is like a vacation week anyway minus the exams, because no showing up for regular class is nice, going to westfield during lunch breaks, might go see role models maybe in between one of my exams if i have enough time, maybe not the best thing though before an exam. what else, band is going well,new drummer, playing 2 shows on saturday, and 1 next saturday. selling cd's, getting ready for a bike trip with the team, looking forward to that and riding a lot over the vacation, we have yet to buy a tree, but we'll get one soon. the rest of my week looks really easy thank god, and the parents are currently trying to get bike grease off the new carpet, i didn't do it, but i don't know how it got there. mystery. have 7 exams this year: physics/chemistry, french, english, italian, biology, math, and history/geography.