With OrganicAthlete's headquarters in Sebastopol, Our Sonoma Chapter is the heart of OrganicAthlete. We have regular events for members including potlucks, rides, run, club races, speaking engagements and more! Check out our event calendar for more information.
The OrganicAthlete crew wants to thank all our volunteers and members with a special holiday party. The staff at the OrganicAthlete Training Center will be hosting an open house with abundant vegan deliciousness. Come, hang out, and eat!
All OrganicAthlete members, volunteers, and their families are invited.
Letting the tomatoes have this one last week and 80 degree temps this last weekend was a good decision. Just enough heat to get one more good ripe crop. The purple sweet peppers are so delicious. I made a simple garden salad from the harvest, arugula, black, snow white, sungold, sweet 100's, and coyote cherry tomato and some sweet purple peppers. Of course my cat Chloe had to have the first bite. For dessert I enjoyed local persimmons from a friends tree, just right for a day off from exercise.
We need your help for OrganicAthlete's Save a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day. We need volunteers for registration, course marshals, and timing. It will only take an hour or so of your morning, starting at around 9am. If you can help, please email me or call us at 823-8802.
Justin convinced everyone at the OATC that we should do a naked pumpkin run. Andy, Jane, and Sherri joined the OATC crew of Charity, Justin, Kevin, and myself through the streets of Sebastopol. According to Justin, we ran further than most pumpkin runs, but what do you expect from a group of OrganicAthletes?
Friday afternoon I packed up the Burley and threw a leg over the saddle with a run on my mind. I'd been training for the following day's half marathon for a few weeks. As I pedaled north, thinking of the fig trees I was going to stop by, I had an idea: could I fuel this entire trip by fruit I forage along the way? I had brought some fruit with me, as I knew the fig crop was coming to an end.
Hi everyone, Brian Bauer will be leading the ride tomorrow. Meet at the West County Revolution Bike Shop at 9am. The ride will be 2-3 hours at an easy pace.
Backpacking in Point Reyes National Seashore was an amazing adventure. Randi, Andy, Justin, Charity and Jane hike into Wildcat Camp from the Bear Valley visitors center to experience camping off Drakes Bay. Activities included moonlit night walk on the beach, beach running, hike to area lakes, water falls, and ocean vista's, skinny dipping and rope swing into lake. I have the bare monkey boy (Andy) captured on photo swinging out over the lake, I will spare you with that photo, although I was tempted it's really quite good.
Zirin reminded me of important event that happened on this date 40 years ago. Fists for freedom.
Kenneth Williams called me today, and I'm thinking biceps for freedom. The dude is going to champ Natural Olympia, November 8th in San Francisco. Is anyone going to watch with me?
Saturday Oct 4, Doyle Park in Santa Rosa, was the beginning of my first ever cyclocross race. I barely knew what cyclocross was until the monday before when Justin Torrellas gave Andy Bunnell and I a one hour cross clinic on dismounts and remounts. Then wed. I did a little pre-race practice at the park, then off we go on Sat.
It was cool to see Emily Thurston ride up before the race and yell out cool jerseys!
I set a personal best today: 39:10 for 10k. I had to dig deep. As I've been reading Handbook for Humans by Jim Sloman, it occurred to me that running can be crucible for mindfulness. It is an opportunity to sit with the mind. At three miles into today's race, pain howled through my mind. I tried to sit with it, be at peace with the suffering. But judgements kept coming.
by Juliette Jowit
as seen in The Guardian,
Tuesday September 30 2008
People will have to be rationed to four modest portions of meat and one litre of milk a week if the world is to avoid run-away climate change, a major new report warns.
The report, by the Food Climate Research Network, based at the University of Surrey, also says total food consumption should be reduced, especially "low nutritional value" treats such as alcohol, sweets and chocolates.
Pollution can make you fat, study claims
Children exposed to pesticide in womb twice as likely to be overweight, refuting idea of sole personal responsibility.
As seen in The Independant
by Geoffrey Lean
Sunday, 7 September 2008
Pollution can make children fat, startling new research shows. A groundbreaking Spanish study indicates that exposure to a range of common chemicals before birth sets up a baby to grow up stout, thus helping to drive the worldwide obesity epidemic.
People should have one meat-free day a week if they want to make a personal and effective sacrifice that would help tackle climate change, the world's leading authority on global warming has told The Observer
Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which last year earned a joint share of the Nobel Peace Prize, said that people should then go on to reduce their meat consumption even further.
Bradley, Charity, Jurgen and Jane slowly chug out of Sebastopol in the Green Van (OA 2), top speed 59 mph on the largest downhill grade, the flats we cruised at a mellow 43 mph bound for Portland. Departing the OATC around 1pm on Monday, after four fig picking stops, a candlelit dinner at the Red Bluff rest area, we pull into a campground around midnight just below the Mighty Shasta herself. We prowl around with our headlamps, looking for a spot to lay our pads and bags, there was discussion of setting up a tent, we all opted to sleep under the stars... AMAZING!
It's not all work at the OATC...we are all easily entertained as Charity shaves Bradley's head, which turns into a amusing free-for-all for Andy, Justin, Karin, Jurgen and myself.
OA Sonoma County will be leading a backpack trip in Point Reyes National
Seashore. I have reserved a group backcountry site for Friday and
Saturday night, Oct 10 & 11 at Wildcat camp.
Hike: is 6.3 miles from Bear Valley Trailhead, which is just from the Bear Valley Visitors Center with ample overnight parking.
MTB: trail is on Stewart trail ONLY from the Five Brooks trailhead (which I believe has overnight parking as well) 6.7
strenuous miles. Checkout website for map details.
Short hike from camp to the beach. The camps have toilets and drinking
Bradley, Brett, Andy and myself mark part of the Tour d'Organics course. It was a long day on and off the bike, thanks Bradley for pulling the trailer.
Tour D' Organics Sebastopol was amazing! After all the long hard hours of preparing for the ride and getting through registration, I was fortunate enough to get in the 35 mile ride with Sara. We found Brett and her mom Betsy helping at the Golden Nectar rest stop. Listen to what they had to say.
Our Sonoma County chapter organized the 4th annual Tour d'Organics in Sebastopol this past weekend. Over 1000 cyclist participated. I'll get a more in depth report later, but for now suffice it say that it was awesome.
The Tour d'Organics preparations are well underway. Today we made the dried fruit mix (all 125lbs of it!).
I'm astounded at the amount of donations we've received this year. We have other 30 donors of food and product for the event. It's a lot to manage, but the show of support is wonderful.
We're looking forward to having everyone out this weekend.
The entire OATC staff went on a ride today. Brett, Justin, Charity, and I went on Charity's weekly "low key" ride. She decided that Covey Road meant low key to us.
The Saturday ride was good this weekend. The crew: Andy, Brett, Chris L, Chris P, myself, and the newbie Michael. The mission: cheer on our peeps in the Vineman triathlon, OA member Matt Ruscigno and his friend Brian.
Last time I saw Brian and Matt was at the World's Toughest Half Triathlon in Auburn, CA. They had done the Davis Double Century the day before. Whatever Matt and Brian do together ends epic.
We're going to tri it! Join OrganicAthlete members in training for the San Francisco Triathlon on Treasure Island. There is the option to train for an Olympic distance (1.5k swim - 40k bike - 10k run) or Sprint distance (.5k swim - 20k bike - 5k run). This will be the first triathlon experience for some of us. So newbies and experts alike are welcome to join us in training for this event.
Join OrganicAthlete in running 13.1 miles through beautiful Sonoma County. Whether it's your first half marathon or you are a distance running veteran, you'll have a great time running this race with OrganicAthlete.
OrganicAthlete will help you prepare to run with a group training plan and regular group runs. Contact sonoma@organicathlete.org for more information about joining our Healdsburg Half Marathon team.
Justin and I skipped the Tuesday Night Criterium to race at the Empire Runner's Summer Track series instead. This was my first track and field event ever. In hopes of doing well at a few duathlons later this year, I'm trying to step up my running game.
OrganicAthlete invites you to experience the possibility of health without suffering, of life with compassion, of performance without compromise, of sports with purpose. OrganicAthlete is forming training groups these upcoming events this Fall in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Join fellow OrganicAthlete members in this triathlon on Treasure Island. Let's get out there en masse! These are distances that anyone can complete. Be a part of the OrganicAthlete team. Contact bradley@organicathlete.org for more information about joining the our San Francisco Triathlon team.
Join OrganicAthlete in running 13.1 miles through beautiful Sonoma County. Whether it's your first half marathon or you are a distance running veteran, you'll have a great time running this race with OrganicAthlete.
OrganicAthlete will help you prepare to run with a group training plan and regular group runs. Contact sonoma@organicathlete.org for more information about joining our Healdsburg Half Marathon team.
OA Sonoma County will be leading a backpack trip in Point Reyes National
Seashore. I will be reserving a group backcountry site for Friday and
Saturday night, Oct 10 & 11. I will try and get Wildcat Camp group site.
Hike is 6.3 miles from Bear Valley Trailhead. MTB trail is on Stewart trail
ONLY from the Five Brooks trailhead, 6.7 strenuous miles. Short hike from
camp to the beach. The camps have toilets and drinking water, but a filter
or water purifiers may be needed if water is not potable, signs will be
posted at faucets. I have a filter!
OrganicAthlete takes to the trails. Justin, Andy, Bradley, Jane, Brett and Chris visit property of new member Peter and his wife Jane. Our adventure started with a ride from Sebastopol cruising over some nice rollers and small grades, which bring my pace to a crawl. I watch as the group pulls from me and the gap widens as they disappear around the curve.
July 4, 2008 Charity Kirk and Jane Kurtz conquer the Graton Grade. We are free from the step off and will never have to dismount the GG again. Whoo Hooo! Look out Harrison Grade your next. Go Team!
Our Team Utah Neurosciences Research, after several challenges and missed turns, finished RAAM in fifth place in 6 days 21 hours. We successfully passed over ten teams including 4 in our division to move from 9th place to 5th, averaging over 18 mph (excluding the 15 hour layover in Taos, on-bike speed was close to 20 mph). Much of the time was made up in head winds and the West Virginia mountains.
The first thousand miles had a wide range of temperatures with a significant amount of climbing. This is me climbing in the AZ mountains where the temperatures ranged from the 40's up to the 90's. This day (day 2) was a tough day as we got lost once losing a couple positions from a close 3rd to 5th place, then getting impacted with heat. At this point the race was still fairly close.
Brian's email updates have stopped, so I'm only getting info from the RAAM website. Apparently, Brian's teammate, Christian Clerc, had a horrible crash on Friday, June 13th. Christian seems to be OK now, but the team was held up for several hours, going from 3rd place to 8th. The team got back on the road on Saturday, and from the best I can tell, they've been jamming ever since. They're currently in 6th place. Their average speeds have been quite high, and I think they can pull off a 5th place finish. But more importantly, they will have completed the Race Across America!
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