The Oracle of Apollo Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

Forward

Adnan and company threw Forward, a monthly party at 1015 Folsom. I’ve been to two of these before. At tonight’s party, the crowd seemed a little bit sleepy.

Jay and I headed up to San Francisco and arrived around 11. When we got inside, Rebecca was pounding the speakers in the front room and it was Jenö on the main floor. Adnan soon took over in the front room and brought us a taste of some interesting minimal housy techno grooves and a track with a hilarious “like this” sample. Doc Martin took the tables in the main room and set the place on fire. Despite the sleepiness of the crowd, Doc dropped some seriously timeless classics and some minimal tech beats that inspired some of the tourist crowd to actually start dancing. Watch out, kids, you might work up a sweat.

After a set by in the front room I didn’t really feel, M3 and Galen shared the tables in the front room and played a set that demonstrated the skills of both DJs. It was a great set of tech house gems, deep funk, and gronky techno surliness. They ruled.

What a good party. Thanks, Adnan!

Picking Up Jay

This afternoon, after work, I headed over to San José International Airport to pick up my best friend, Jay. He decided a couple of months ago that it was time to visit California, check out the clubs I expound about at great length, and just kind of see if the extravagantly posh lifestyle I lead is as cool as it sounds.

After running into my old coworker in the corridor outside the Southwest Airline gates, I wondered when Jay was coming out. I saw people of every conceivable age, sex, size, shape, nationality, and appearance, but no Jay. After a bit, I decided to go down to the Southwest counter to have him paged. As I descended the stairs, there he was. Somehow, Jay had used his ninja powers to get past me.

We jumped in my car and headed on over to Menlo Park, where I live, stopping at Avanti to grab some tasty pizza slices. Later on tonight, we’re heading up to San Francisco for Jay’s first ever visit to Fog City.

Welcome to California, good sir!

Week 26

A planned short week, I will not be riding on Friday and Saturday, due to the arrival of a friend of mine. So, with four driving days to work and four singleton after work rides, I closed out June with a short week with a high average speed.

Despite the short week, I’ve still got half a year to ride. While this week marked the middle week of the year, my wheels passed through the 75% mark of my 2005 mileage goal this week. I have nothing to complain about there.

27 Jun:  34.78 mi;  1:49:23 (19.1 mph avg; 32.5 mph max)
28 Jun:  34.57 mi;  1:48:03 (19.2 mph avg; 31.5 mph max)
29 Jun:  34.89 mi;  1:49:12 (19.2 mph avg; 33.5 mph max)
30 Jun:  34.57 mi;  1:46:56 (19.4 mph avg; 33.5 mph max)
Total : 138.81 mi;  7:13:34 (19.2 mph avg; 33.5 mph max)

Month so far:  826.62 mi. 2005 so far : 3855.40 mi (77.11% of goal).
2005 goal   : 5000.00 mi.
Remaining   : 1144.60 mi (44.02 mi / wk avg)

Closing Out June

Despite frustration with continuous headwinds due to unrealistic expectations, I continued to hammer on the pedals and shoot for the sky. After missing three days in a row a couple of weeks ago, I turned it around by starting to drive to work and do all of my miles afterwards. This worked pretty well over the last couple of weeks to keep my average speeds high.

So, this month was the longest month since November—a month almost completely on the old Giant hybrid. That makes this the second-longest month ever, in terms of distance, including one week that established a new high mark, by over a dozen miles. I also passed through the 3850th mile, which means that I’ve reached 77% of my yearly goal mileage.

June: 826.62 mi in 43:53:18 (18.8 mph avg; 46.0 mph max)

Week 25

Finally. I have persevered and done it. With mounting frustration about my lack of strength against constant winds on my evening commutes, I began driving to work to break the rut, in order to ride my entire 35 mile weekday requirement after work. I could use those heavy headwinds that kept my speed low on Monday and Tuesday as a tailwind on the other weekdays. This enabled me to put some nice numbers in my log book.

On a couple of days this week, I was sleep-deprived and I didn’t really want to ride. But, since Jay is coming to visit next weekend, this was my last chance to get a complete week before the 4th of July weekend (I’m scrubbing my rides next Friday and Saturday). Fortunately, I persevered and pulled off my longest week to date.

I think I’m on the way!

20 Jun:  34.89 mi;  1:51:18 (18.8 mph avg; 26.0 mph max)
21 Jun:  34.71 mi;  1:52:36 (18.5 mph avg; 27.0 mph max)
22 Jun:  34.76 mi;  1:48:01 (19.3 mph avg; 34.5 mph max)
23 Jun:  34.72 mi;  1:48:31 (19.2 mph avg; 34.0 mph max)
24 Jun:  34.67 mi;  1:50:18 (18.9 mph avg; 34.0 mph max)
25 Jun:  57.89 mi;  3:08:01 (18.5 mph avg; 45.0 mph max)
Total : 231.64 mi; 12:18:45 (18.8 mph avg; 45.0 mph max)

Month so far:  687.81 mi. 2005 so far : 3716.59 mi (74.33% of goal).
2005 goal   : 5000.00 mi.
Remaining   : 1283.41 mi (47.53 mi / wk avg)

58 Mile Saturday

Today’s mileage goal was 57.52 miles, which would bring me to complete the 14th week of the training schedule I’m using for the first time. I had planned to leave my house at 1 this afternoon. I actually clicked into my pedals around 4:30. Four hours until sunset with three hours of riding to look forward to. Way to get out the door, Apollo.

My route covered roads I ride all the time. I headed through Palo Alto, along Bayshore past the Google campus, down Shoreline, through Sunnyvale to Wolfe Road, along Stevens Creek in Cupertino to Foothill Expressway. I hammered up the hill along Alpine to Woodside via Portola Valley, then up La Cañada to Edgewood and back down Alameda de las Pulgas to close the circle. I had a nice tailwind heading southeast toward Mountain View, Sunnyvale, and Cupertino, but when I turned west and continued northwest, the winds picked up and blew me all over the road.

Still, using the middle ring more today and spinning the cadence higher allowed me to maintain a decent enough pace, although a bit slower than I was hoping for. A nice 26 mph stomp down Atherton Avenue after a beautiful 45 mph descent down Edgewood recovered some of my statistics. It was a good ride.

Today:   57.89 mi;   3:08:01 (18.5 mph avg; 45.0 mph max) June :  687.81 mi;  36:39:44 (18.8 mph avg; 46.0 mph max)
2005 : 3716.59 mi; 199:15:42 (18.7 mph avg; 46.0 mph max)
Goal : 5000.00 mi (1283.41 mi to go : 74.33% complete)

Thirteen

June 24, 2005. 18:24 PDT.
Sunnyvale Saratoga @ Fremont
Sunnyvale, California
This marker: 13000 miles

 

So Long, Knowspam

I just set up my new account on Spam Arrest. Good senders, bad senders, good domains, bad domains, and mailing lists were easy to set up. Since I signed up for KnowSpam on July 10, 2004, it has blocked 41,752 messages for me. That’s about 120 messages a day. Thanks, KnowSpam!

Week 24

Damn, I’m a weak bastard. A little rain couched me on Thursday, like half a man waiting to get permission from the stinking Weather Channel to grow a spine. Friday, I felt like my week was already basically blown and didn’t feel like getting on my bike. On Saturday, I went to a party in San José.

One thing I’ve noticed recently is that it’s becoming increasingly more difficult for me to beat my morning commute’s average speed on the way home. Of course, the headwinds have not subsided and I doubt they ever will. I believe that the winds will blow from the other direction about the day after I decide I’m tired of this whole bicycling thing and take up Kite Aerial Photography instead. But, I’m not gonna do that, so I better get stronger against the daily headwinds.

This week is 126 miles short of my goal. The goal, 34.51 mile weekdays with a 57.52 mile Saturday, was not that aggressive. It’s a pansy week for this time of year and the fact that I keep coming up short and bitching about the wind means that I’m still basically a wimp. Need to figure the stomp out again.

06 Jun:  34.65 mi;  1:50:32 (18.8 mph avg; 26.5 mph max)
07 Jun:  34.62 mi;  1:50:03 (18.9 mph avg; 26.5 mph max)
08 Jun:  34.62 mi;  1:49:39 (18.9 mph avg; 30.0 mph max)
Total : 103.89 mi;  5:30:14 (18.9 mph avg; 30.0 mph max)

Month so far:  456.17 mi. 2005 so far : 3484.95 mi (69.70% of goal).
2005 goal   : 5000.00 mi.
Remaining   : 1515.05 mi (54.11 mi / wk avg)

Off-Bike Saturday

This morning, I spent a few minutes at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Redwood City, about five miles from my house, in order to get a sticker for my car. Yesterday, after five attempts early in the morning, I got my car smogged, after getting my oil changed for the first time in a year on Thursday (but, it was just short of 3000 miles).

I had promised Amanda I’d go to her graduation party, so after a bit of laziness in the afternoon, I decided to forgo my 58 mile bicycle ride and get showered and ready to hang out with some friends. Besides, after the unexpected rain storm on Thursday and the late day on Friday (followed by a severe case of unmotivation) meant that this week’s bicycle mileage would be 126 miles short. Ah, well.

The party was fun. Amanda and a whole bunch of her friends were there, some of whom I’ve met, some of whom I consider friends of mine, and some of whom were total strangers. After a while of hanging out, attempting to barbecue vegetables, and watching people drink a lot, I decided to call it a night about nine and head home.

Thanks for the invite, Amanda. It was a cool party. Congratulations on that master’s degree!