Category Archives: Cycling

At the northern base of the Golden Gate Bridge come the Marin Headlands.  As suggested to me a few weeks back, I took a bicycle jaunt, finally, through the freshly paved roads of the area.  In addition to the varied and rugged terrain comes this absolutely spectacular, almost aerial, view.

From atop the Marin Headlands

And so, here we have yet another option for a relatively short cycling loop close to the city, one that I obviously recommend.  You can catch your breath with the view after a challenging climb and before a rewarding descent… and before some more climbing.  Next time I’ll need to extend the loop for a more respectable total distance!

The past couple days have added a unique experience to my cycling credentials.  I just finished up a two-day gig with Team Cycad, for a client-specific event in downtown San Francisco.

Considering my current professional life of freelance media and PR-related jobs, combined with my ongoing desire to be outdoors and physically active, this was a win-win situation for the most part.  Twelve hours of pedaling certainly yielded a few advantages, not the least of which is the decent amount of cash now in my pocket.

I spent these last two days cycling, while getting paid to do so!  All in all, this is a pretty damn good deal, if I say so myself.  Granted, the particular route for this client was rather slow-paced, with a lot of typical city stop-and-go.  While some calories were no doubt burned, the loops became rather dull by the ends of the day.  Still, the overall experience was worth the time, exercise and money.

If you’re interested in such an opportunity for yourself, check out Team Cycad and ask if there’s anything going on in your city.  This happens to have been the company’s very first event in San Francisco, but I’m told there could be more before too long.  As such, cycling for pay could come again!

My cycling within the city limits of San Francisco continues to expand.  As such, I may need to amend my earlier assertion that one must go north or south of the city in order to get a decent ride in.  Mind you, one must indeed leave the city for any long distance, as San Francisco itself is of limited geographical area.  Still, I’m slowly discovering that I can both spin and challenge my legs within city limits, without having to come to a stop at every block.

Golden Gate Park often reminds me of New York’s Central Park, considering the nicely paved roads that more or less follow the perimeter.  A few laps around the length of this sizeable area will certainly help log the mileage, free of heavy traffic or constant stop signs.

Then there’s the mostly straight stretch along the bike path from the base of the Golden Gate Bridge toward Fort Mason.  Here too a cyclist can achieve some good speed and cadence.  Continuing east and south will lead into Fishermen’s Wharf and the Embarcadero, respectively.  This, however, is where the stop and go begins.  And from there, moving into the city from the shoreline, the stop and go will no doubt continue.

All things considered, a cyclist can crank out a decent and satisfying 20-mile loop around San Francisco in a short amount of time.  It’s certainly not the same as 50-60 miles up into Marin or down through Woodside, but in terms of training and overall cycling fitness, it’s better than nothing!

Yesterday morning greeted me with not just an additional hour of time, about which I had forgotten, but also a significant amount of rain.  It ended up raining for most of the day in San Francisco, creating one very wet Sunday for all.

I enjoy rain and usually welcome it, as I did yesterday.  The downside, however, was that this surprise downpour steered me away from adding to the challenging bicycle mileage I logged the day before.  Saturday morning was an absolutely beautiful time for the weekly Alto Velo Club ride.  This was my second Saturday with this group of riders, starting and ending in Los Altos.  I’ve been on the search for a local bicycle racing group to replace La Grange in Los Angeles, and so far Alto Velo is filling the void.  As the weeks progress, and as my personal level of cycling fitness hopefully returns to a higher level, I’m looking forward to getting to know this club all the more.

As wonderful as San Francisco is in so many ways, it’s not a city for any good amount of performance cycling.  Riders might meet somewhere in the city, but from there typically comes an immediate dash across the Golden Gate into Marin and beyond, where terrific routes abound.  The Peninsula is another great area for pedal power, as cyclists flock to the back roads and twisty climbs of Woodside, hitting Skyline Boulevard and often continuing on to the coast.  While many exciting cycling options weave themselves around the Bay Area, none of them appears to exist in San Francisco itself.  I’ve done a few short jaunts around the city just to spin my legs, say 12 to 15 miles, and of course this is better than nothing.  However, when it comes to longer and more serious training, it’s going to happen either to the north or to the south.

Here’s a link to a map of my 30-mile ride this past Saturday, created via the GPS application on my iPhone.  I would have gone the full distance with the group, about twice as far, had I not needed to turn back early.  I needed to get to a different kind of bike appointment, this one pertaining to my other game, as in the one with a motor.  This Saturday, weather, work and home permitting, I’m hoping to go the day’s full distance with Alto Velo.  As I realized on this last ride, out of peak cycling shape as I currently am, two wheels sans motor is still my main game!