I'd like to start off by saying that I have fallen in love with Sonoma County. Every time I go outside I'm amazed by the beauty of the landscape. The sunset last night was stellar!

Where to begin...

Last week was a blast. Pineapple madness ensued and I think all of us here at the OATC had a bloody tongue at one point from under ripe pineapple consumption. Saturday morning was a weekly group ride. I had no idea what I was in for as we were about to embark onto Willow Creek rd. It was a long and fast decent into Mote Rio, then we rode out towards Willow Creek rd. That is when Andy told me that most of it is unpaved fire road. Cool. The beginning of the road was paved but rough, and slowly deteriorated into a full on mountain bike trail. It wasn't technical, but it had been raining and the trail was quite loose. The road was a winding climb of steep switchbacks. Despite the skinny racing slicks and shifting problems(couldn't even get into my 25t arrg) I was having so much fun that I decided to hammer a little and try to make it hurt for Bradley and Andy who were also keeping a good strong pace up the climb. Unfortunately(for me) they didn't tell me about the "Twin Sisters" and when it going got really steep I simply couldn't get enough traction and put out enough power to climb it. Andy(on a triple ring) and Bradley(on a compact) swiftly rode on as I dismounted my bike and began to run up the hill. My desperate attempt to keep up failed and I grumbled to myself about shitty road bikes on shitty mountain bike trails. I was able to remount and made it to the top without any further complications. This would have been so much fun on a cx bike. We descended into Occidental and waited for Brian Bauer, Chris Lods, and Brian's son. Incredibly, Brian's son did the ride with a cast on his wrist. Way to go!

Sunday morning was the Santa Rosa Run to End Hunger 5k/10k. With only a few weeks of mild run training in me I ended up placing 5th over all and surprisingly winning my category. As I'm sure you all have seen, Justin came 1st overall and Bradley in 2nd. I tried to keep pace behind Bradley but couldn't keep him in my sights for longer than the first half a mile. I did cramp up for about a mile, and it slowed my pace significantly. Despite not putting out my best performance I'm still very happy to have represented Organic Athlete out at the race. Chris was there dancing around in the banana suit handing out Save a Turkey Trot fliers with Charity. It was great to have them there, and really made me feel like part of a team. I won a wicked orange running singlet and shorts, nice to train in, but you won't catch me racing in anything other than my OA Go Vegan! singlet(and shorts on of course).

It's not all play here at the OATC. This past week has been quite busy with work and planning for the upcoming Save a Turkey Trot 5k on Thanksgiving day. It's exciting to see over 50 entrants so far, and we are expecting many more in the final days and day of the event.

Wednesday morning was the weekly Coleman Valley Road tempo climbing training with Bradley. We would climb 3 times, just like last week. On the first attempt I knew my legs were thrashed and that it would be a painful day on the bike. I hadn't had a full recovery day in over a week, and had been running every day since the race. Bradley never got too far away from me, but I was suffering dearly. Most of the ride home was quite tough but we did some hard pulls along Graton Road and my legs started feeling good again. We made it home without bonking this time thanks to some dates that Bradley had brought along. Another solid training session done...next week is Coleman x4.

Justin and I went for a ride into Santa Rosa on Thursday to hand out some posters for the race. The temperature was a balmy 86F (30Celcius for the rest of the planet). Today was an astounding 94F in downtown Sebastopol(34C!!!). Not too hot for me, but as hot as I've ever been in November. My cyclist tan lines are starting to come back again! This morning was a beautiful and sunny low-key ride with Bradley and Charity. We rode through the hills into Occidental and back.

Tomorrow Charity, Justin and I are going to San Francisco to attend the Green Festival. I'm excited to spend some time in San Fran, and check out a big green expo. I'm hoping that we'll be able to schmooze with some potential sponsors. Justin Torellas will be racing under the lights in the Bay Area Superprestige cyclocross race on Saturday night. We may or may not stay on Sunday, but it should be an exciting weekend regardless.

Again, I've been forgetting to bring my camera around. I usually enjoy the moment more when I'm not occupied with taking photographs anyway. There should be some good photos up next week, as I'll be taking shots at the Green Festival and of Justin's cross race.

It's time for an evening training run. I should take a rest but I'm having too much fun.

Peace out

Kev