Italy: Siena

Our first full day in Italy was spent in the medival town of Siena in Tuscany. Siena has a famous horse race twice a year called the Palio. We were luck enough to be there for the Summer event. It's a big deal for the Sienise and a source of great pride for the winning team. I'll defer to Wikipedia for the full explanation. It's worth a read.

Unfortunately we were not able to actually see the race since it started at 7:45 in the evening and that would have made us late for the last train back to our villa. But since the race is only 3 minutes long we didn't feel like we missed all that much. The party lasted all day and in fact had been going for a few days. The town was packed with tourist but not uncomfortably so.

This photo is of one of the jockeys. Each horse was lead into a square for everyone to admire. The handlers mostly just pushed their way into the crowd and it was up to us not to be trampled by his noble steed. Ironically I have no photos of the horses themselves!

I've got more photos of Siena here on Flickr.

Italia Trip

Linda and I returned from Italy a week ago and I still haven't gotten any photos onto the web or blogged about it. I have 400+ photos. It's a real problem deciding which ones not to post. But to start with here is a panorama I took of the Tuscan town of Montepulciano. It's composed of 5 photos. (Don't forget to click on the photo for a large version)

Montepulciano might be my favorite spot we visited. Typical of most towns in Tuscany it occupied the top of a tall hill (or small mountain depending on your view). We parked near the left side of the photo and ended up walking all the way through town to the right side. Fun little shops lined the narrow main street. Linda bought a couple purses and I found a neat leather bound sketchbook that are supposedly used as props in the Harry Potter movies. It looks very medieval and sure to contain magic!

At the end the day we stopped at a cafe to have a glass of wine. We ended up staying for dinner as well. I was so busy sketching in my new sketchbook that I forgot to look at the menu. Our very friendly waiter said that he would take care of me. I was game. What I got was a pork shank that was the best thing I eat all week. Now, I rarely meet a pig I won't eat but this pig knee was truly amazing - tender and meaty. It was the only thing I ate!

Drawing Class

Last week I joined an online drawning class with a group called Pixel Corps. It's being taught by Iain McCaig who is an incredible artist most noted for working on designs for Star Wars. The way it works is that Iain puts up a video intro on some aspect of drawing, after which we have 4 days to work on the drawing, then put them up on a website that only the class member can see. Everyone can look at and critique if they want. On Thursdays Iain picks out a few to critique to the whole group. We will go for 10 weeks.

It's a beginning drawing class so I expect the lessons to be basic. But basics are good and having a reason to make me draw is really good. It's also a chance for me to work with a tablet and the computer. I'm going to do all the drawings digitally on the computer using a Wacom and Sketchbook Pro.

So far we have done a self portrait and this week we worked on balance. The particular drawing excercise above was to balance things on top of a bucket on a stick. We also had to make a figure balanced then unbalanced. I'll post more about the class as it progresses. Hopefully we'll see an improvement.

San Francisco, CA

The week of June 10th I was in San Jose for 4 days. I had 2 days of work meetings. One afternoon we quit early so they could take us to Fisherman's Wharf. Most people stuck around there until our dinner reservations at 8pm, but I elected to rent a bike. My goal was to bike across the Golden Gate Bridge and take lots of photos. Mission accomplished! It was extremely windy and down right scary on the bridge. But it was a gorgeous evening and despite having an average bike with no clip-in shoes, I made it to the top of the bluff overlooking the bridge and downtown San Francisco. I started the ride somewhere on the shore close to my head.

Once I caught up to my colleagues at the restaurant, I found out that they all took a boat ride out to the Golden Gate around 7:30pm which was about the time this photo was taken. So more then likely they were on the boat under the bridge in the photo!

6/07 Race Report : Withrow TT

The June time trial was back in the old location that we've used in previous years - unlike last month. The concensis with members was that the roads aren't really that much worse then usual. It was a warm night with a slight SE wind. Great night. There were almost 60 people there which is a really big turnout.

The graph about is the elevation (green), speed (blue), and heart rate (red). Not surprising the speed and elevations are inverse to each other. Speed goes down while climbing hills. What is more interesting is that my heart rate peaks quickly at about 172 bpm then only varies a few beats each way despite the climbing. In the final 2 miles my HR went up to 189 because I really poured it on.

I had a really good result. I nearly beat my personal best over the last 2 years when most everyone else was slowing down. I placed 11th out of about 50 people. Pretty happy with that.

Garmin GPS

I bought a new training tool, a Garmin 305 GPS. It is able to track my pace, location, as well as heart rate and some other stuff. I have a 2 year old Timex GPS but it doesn't have nearly the features and is not all in one.

I took it to the TT last weekend but I couldn't set it up in time for the race so I decide to not let it distract me. There will be other races to use it on.

The following image is a screen capture of the computer graph downloaded from the unit. It shows where on earth I was, my speed, and in this case the altitude. Look closely at those numbers. Yup, I was going 400 mph at around 20,000 feet! On the way back from a trip to California, I turned on the unit while we were in a holding pattern for 45 minutes. I was bored. The oval in the bottom corner (yellow) is where we did 5-6 turns before heading north then south again to the MSP airport.

Race Report: State Time Trial Championship

This race took place in St Peter, MN which is about 50-60 miles south west of Minneapolis. A typical quaint Minnesota town. My neighbor Jeff and I carpooled in my Element to the race.

A time trial, or TT, is an individualized race against the clock. This was the first time that I raced in a sanctioned race. Most bikers are licensed by the Cycling Federation but they also allow other people like me to buy a one day license for the race. However we are only allowed to be in the lowest category called 'Cat 5'. Not really a problem for me - I just want to race.

This race was 40K or around 24 miles out and back on the same country road. There is really no story to tell about TTs other then trying to tempo ones effort so you are going as fast as you can but making sure you won't use up all your effort too early. It's a real mind game of enduring pain to a certain point.

The race went very well for me. I felt like I was working hard and had enough left to ride the last 4-5 miles really hard. At one point I had a guy pass me while I was doing about 26mph. He was flying. I looked him up in the results and he ended up being one of the fastest. My finishing time was just under an hour at 59:18. I was pleased. Jeff finished ahead of me at 56:10. Here are all the results.

After I finished the race I grabbed my camera and took some shoots. They are on my Flickr page. There is a great photo of a guy from work that I ride with during the noon hour. Nelson Zamora. Nice work Nelson!