I am an REI virgin no more. I only heard of REI a couple of years ago but hadn't been inside one until the Stockton one opened. Emily and I went on grand opening weekend and were impressed with all of the bike and camping stuff. Although I had heard of REI I had no idea that they sold bikes and bike accessories.



Tonight, I needed to get a new pair of arm warmers. After a few years, mine dissapeared. I was so happy that they actually had a few different styles, all sizes and plenty of each in stock. After grabbing a pair and a new water bottle, the Store Manager approached me and asked if I needed help. I told him that I thought they might put one of the other bike stores in town out of business. His response was noble. "We don't want to put any bike shop out of business." He added that they just want to encourage more people to ride. Then he said something brilliant. "We want to put BestBuy out of business. Our mission is to get people outside."

Brilliant.

I am now an REI member.

If you follow me on Twitter, feel free to ignore this entry; this information is not new to you.



If you have no idea what Twitter is, please keep reading. Many friends, family and other readers to this site have asked what is all this Twitter about? Before we get started, let me just say that Twitter is not new. In fact, there were more than 14 million other people that discovered Twitter before me (courtesy of Twitterholic).

Wikipedia defines Twitter as, "... a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service (SMS), instant messaging, or a third-party application..."

In short, Twitter is like text-messages you can follow online or via text message to your cell phone. The first person I started "following" on Twitter was David from the FredCast (the internet's premiere cycling podcast). With a quick text page of 'follow FredCast to 40404 I was getting text page updates from David. Besides getting updates on my cell phone, I can also go to the internet and read his updates there http://twitter.com/fredcast.

I now find myself following a handful of my podcast friends, other cyclists, writers, technology gurus, the three leading presidential candidates, and a guy I went to high school with among others. Twitter loads especially easy on my iPhone so I check it often throughout the day.

I also track keywords in the public Twitter via text message. By sending a text message of 'track beckwith' to 40404 I get updates to my cell phone any time someone in the Twitterverse uses the word 'beckwith'. What else am I tracking?

The name of the company where I work. Because I work for a large corporation with millions of customers it is very interesting to see what the Twitterverse thinks of us. Mostly negative, some positive, but still a interesting angle on the voice of the customer.

Where I live, where I ride, where I work. I track Stockton, Lodi, Pleasanton, Livermore. I also track 580 and 205 which helps when there is a traffic issue.

Still confused? Well, don't be. The fine folks at Common Craft have done it again with a great video explanation of Twitter. Check it out here.


Also, in case you always wanted to know what a podcast was, Common Craft has a great video explanation of that, too. After you watch that, hop on over to Pizza Go Here and subscribe to our podcast.

So, now you know all about Twitter. Sign up and follow me. You'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

Today was the 12th Annual Lodi Sunrise Century. I arrived at Lodi High School around 5:30 in the morning. Registration didn't open until 6 but I was eager to make an early start given that it was already 70 degrees at 5:30. Registration opened a few minutes early and I got back to my car to unload the bike just after 6:00 AM. I chatted with the rider who parked next to me, mostly about how hot it was going to be.



I rolled out of the parking lot at 6:10 AM and a minute or so later, the guy who parked next to me, Dave, pulled up next to me. This was his first time riding the Lodi Sunrise Century but had ridden many centuries, and even some double centuries, in the past. We were matched pretty well (even though I had to work hard to stay with him) and we spent the entire ride together.



We rolled into the first rest stop in Clements at mile 20. It was already starting to get hot so we got some food, refilled our bottles and headed out.

On our way to the lunch stop, 30 miles ahead of us, was a little over 2000 feet of climbing. The wind was mild and the heat was bearable for being so early in the day. The climb over Pardee dam and around the resevoir was tough after putting in 300 miles in the last couple of weeks. Even though I faced the climbs on the Prima Vera without going into my little ring (yes, I ride a triple) my legs wouldn't let me have the same success today. I quickly found myself in my granny gear... it was after all, approaching 85 degrees!

After the first big climb there was a perfectly placed water stop. They had a few snacks there including delicious banana / peanut butter / M&M treat.



The food at the stops was excellent. Fresh fruit, granola bars, tons of sweets and nuts.

On the way back home after the lunch stop we had a little bit of a head wind but it was the heat that would become debilitating. Had it not been for Dave, who took more pulls than I did, I might not have made it to the end. The wind started to kick in, albeit not as bad as in year's past, and the temperature quickly got to the mid nineties. When the wind started to get hot it felt like we were cooking in a skillet as the heat radiated off the road. Again, the water breaks were placed in perfect spots and I filled up both my bottles at every stop.

We struggled for the last several miles but finally rolled back in to the parking lot a few minutes after 2:00 PM. After we cleaned up and the bikes were put away we made our way to the cafeteria for, hands down, the best post ride meal ever! I picked the bar-b-qued chicken over the tri-tip and was amazed to get a full quarter of a bird... yum!

What I loved about this ride? Great course, great climbing. Awesome rest stops with tons of great food and cold water. SAG all over the road. The friendliest ride volunteers I've seen in a very, very long time. Perfectly placed water breaks. Small snacks at the water breaks.

What I didn't love about this ride? To no fault of the organizers, I always dread the 9 mile straight shot on Clements road between miles 60 and 70. Every year I describe this portion of the course as riding on the "surface of the sun". This year, it was hotter than that!!!

Overall, my toughest ride this year. In fact, probably one of three or four toughest rides I've ever done. Ideally, I would love to be able to start at 5:00 AM. I am still very surprised that this ride doesn't have a bigger turn out. The volunteers, at every stop, were so kind and generous. You can tell that this group really enjoys putting on this ride.

Stats
103.17 miles
6:54:31 on bike
3240 feet of climbing
14.9 miles per hour

So far this month, I've already done 406 miles, more than any month since July 2004, and it's only the 17th. I ended today with 9,629 total miles, only 371 to hit my next goal. I put up a few pictures, check them out here.

Thanks for the ride, Dave!

May is bike month.

This week is bike-to-work week.

Thursday is bike-to-work day.

I'll admit here, I don't fully understand the month/week/day stuff so I rode to work on Wednesday. I just know I like the excuse to ride to work one day a year. Since a ride from Stockton to Pleasanton is about 65 miles on a bike, I will likely continue to only do this once a year.

I left the house this morning at 5:15, a little later than I was planning to. It was already pretty warm with the temperature near 60 degrees when I checked at 4:45 AM. It was warm enough that I didn't even bring arm warmers so I was happy! Having done this ride before, I had mentally prepared for a windy day. I would, after all, being riding through Tracy and Livermore. Once I turned west on Mathews road I was pleasantly surprised that there was very little wind. Last year's ride-to-work day greeted me with the worst wind I had ever faced. Not this year. I would get through the back roads of Tracy and Old Altamont road with hardly any wind. My luck came to an end when I flatted near mile 48. No complaints from me; I hadn't had a flat in about 700 miles! I made it to the office about 9:50 AM and after a quick shower was actually working.

The hardest part of riding to work is actually the work day and the ride home. Riding 130 miles is tough, only tougher with a 6-7 hour work day in between. I ate all day long, literally. I went from meeting to meeting with food and water to make sure I wouldn't bonk in the evening.

I walked out of my office about 4:15 and hit the road about 4:30. I had a pretty ugly head wind all the way to Greenville and a little bit up Old Altamont road. Riding through Tracy was strangely calm with no wind to speak of. With 30 miles to go I picked up the mental energy to make it home.



As I approached French Camp I took off my sun glasses because it was getting too dark to see. I forgot to bring a headlight and didn't bring clear lenses. I caught a few bugs in my eyes which was not as concerning as riding through some of the very dark neighborhoods in South Stockton. Next year... bring clear glasses and headlight.

After a quick stop to say hello to Fred & Flower who were in their front yard talking to the Schwann's guy I made it home at 9:30. Hey Fred, why was the Schwann's guy there so late?

Today's ride was awesome, perfect weather and I had great legs.

Stats
129.01 miles
8:03:50 on bike
15.998 miles per hour

The secret? Tell everyone you know, including the local TV station, you're going to ride in to work and home again. That way, when you feel like chickening out, you realize you can't. How would you break it to that TV station?

The crew at News 10 Good Morning mentioned me this morning after I sent in an e-mail about bike-to-work day.

Today, Mike and I rode the 100 mile Delta Century, put on by the Stockton Bike Club. The Delta Century was the first century I ever rode but it hasn't rated as one of my favorites. That's not due to any fault of the wonderful organizers and volunteers; it's just a bit too windy, and today was no exception.

Mike and I headed out from Jessie's Grove at 6:30 this morning. It was cold but Mike forgot his arm-warmers... so we both went without. After I was done patting myself on the back for being such a noble friend, Mike uttered, "I wouldn't have worn mine". Cold as it was at the start, we knew it wouldn't be cold for long. As soon as we took our first turn headed west we were met with... surprise... wait for it... a... headwind!



This year's ride took a different route than it did the last time I rode it. The first rest stop was at mile 26, in Courtland, which was perfect place for it. The ride took us along many of the windy delta roads. The second rest stop felt pretty quick at mile 38, at the Old Sugar Mill in Clarksburg. After that stop we quickly got going again and caught up to a group of other riders that were riding pretty fast. We jumped on their line, along with a few other riders and pushed hard for about 15 minutes at 20-22 (in a cross wind) until Mike and I got dropped like a bad habit; it was fun while it lasted.



We looped back to toward Courtland for the lunch break at mile 63. Yes, that's the same Courtland that hosted the first rest stop way back at mile 26. We actually rode the same stretch or River Road and Washington Ave three times.

After a ferry ride across Steamboat Slough and and more and more headwind, we finally got back to Walnut Grove for the final rest stop at mile 78. Almost all of the last 20 miles was with a tail wind so we got back to Jessie's Grove pretty strong.

This was Mike's first 100 mile century and rode great given the wind.

Overall, it was a good ride. Although, at the start of the day, I preferred the Mondavi start location of years past, Jessie's Grove proved better at for the end of the ride. The volunteers and organizers were great and very friendly. The food at the rest stops was very good, certainly better than the food at the Primavera. The added touch of the pillows and blankets on the grass at the final rest stop was a very nice touch (I believe those were from a generous local guy and not part of the club). The post ride meal, catered from DaVinci's, was awesome. With tons of shade and a DJ playing music and asking trivia.

Four counties... San Joaquin, Sacramento, Yolo and Solano.

100 miles today... and 9,345 total miles for those counting.

Check out the pics here.