Alameda Runners – Get After It!

We’re a few days into National Bike Month, and there are a variety of local, regional, and national events paying homage to such a great effort.

It’s great to receive a large amount of reminders about the month, with this recent tidbit from the People for Bikes organization:

1). Go for a type of bike ride that you normally wouldn’t: If you’re a road rider, try a mountain bike ride. If you’ve never ridden your bike to work, give bike commuting a shot. If the ride to work isn’t something you can tackle this year, ride your bike to run an errand you would normally do by car, even if it’s just a trip to the coffee shop or ice cream parlor. Remember—forty percent of trips Americans take are two miles or less, an easy bicycling distance.

2). Introduce one other person to bicycling. Whether it’s your partner, a coworker, a family member, or just a friend, help someone find a bike and go for a fun ride. Bicycling is a pretty amazing thing, right? Why not encourage someone else to discover the activity that brings you so much happiness?

Participate in one or more National Bike Month events. A list of community rides can be found at the League of American Bicyclists and here are some key national events:

National Bike to School Day (May 9)
CycloFemme, the International Day of Women’s Bicycling (May 13)
National Bike to Work Week (May 14-18)
National Bike to Work Day (May 18)
National Bike Challenge (May 1-August 31)

Kudos to the People for Bikes for sharing additional information.

For those people living in the East Bay, Bike to Work Day is taking place on Thursday, May 10.

Alameda Island and Bay Farm both offer visitors a great place to ride a bike and enjoy the outdoors. The island offers flat roads in decent shape, nice weather with a refreshing bay breeze, and what should be a low speed limit (25 m.p.h.) around most of the island.

It’s a great privilege to be able to explore Alameda on two wheels, but there is an ever present danger of roadway incidents.

The paved path along the beach is designed for pedestrians, but it’s all-too-common to be buzzed by a reckless bike rider. Bikes should be on the road, especially when traveling at a high rate of speed, but speeding cars and other variables seem to push many riders onto the walking trail.

To counter these issues, the city is considering the use of dedicated bike lanes while reducing driving lanes down to one lane in each direction.
During a May 10 Alameda Public Works Department meeting, it’s possible Shoreline Drive will be under significant modification aimed at making it safer for bikers and pedestrians. In addition to bike racks installed on Shoreline and Westline, a bike lane would be added while limiting vehicle traffic to just one lane going each way.

The debate is on — offer your opinion over at the Patch. If you want to learn more about the proposal, visit the City of Alameda website and go to the bottom, where it reads: “Shoreline Drive/Westline Drive Proposed Bike Lane Project.”

The public meeting to discuss this bike lane effort will take place next Thursday, May 10 at 7:00 p.m. at Lum Elementary School (1801 Sandcreek Way / Otis Drive). If you are unable to make the meeting in-person, feel free to contact Gail Payne, Alameda Transportation Coordinator: gpayne@ci.alameda.ca.us.

In honor of Bike to Work Day next week, here is some information about BikeAlameda, an island-based bike advocacy group. Here is a tidbit they had posted in the Alameda Sun, titled “Promoting a Bicycle-Friendly City: BikeAlameda.”

BikeAlameda has been working on behalf of cyclists for more than 10 years. Through the offering of free bike-safety classes, hundreds of people are now riding safely and confidently on Alameda streets.

BikeAlameda promotes safe streets, convenient access, thriving accessible business districts, clean air, and active healthy residents.

BikeAlameda was directly involved with one of the most significant bike improvement projects in Alameda. The Fernside Bike Lane Project provides a physical barrier between vehicles and cyclists, most of whom are students from Lincoln Middle School.

All cyclists can now enjoy and benefit from a safe route between the main island, the Bay Farm Island Bike/Pedestrian Bridge, and the community of Harbor Bay.

BikeAlameda is funded entirely by memberships, donations, and grants. Please visit the website at www.bikealameda.org and learn more about our mission and activities. Your financial support through a membership or donation is essential to the continuing efforts of the organization.

The next time you ride along one of Alameda’s great tree lined streets in a marked bike lane or lock your bike to one of real bike racks along Park Street, in Alameda South Shore Center, or at the Alameda Theater, think about BikeAlameda and its efforts in promoting a bicycle friendly city.

If nothing else, appreciate the work that BikeAlameda and the East Bay Bicycle Coalition have done to make the streets of Alameda and the East Bay safer to ride on.

For those of you looking forward to Bike to Work Day, here is a map of some festivities you can look forward to on the island:

Click for a better look.

Spring time is here … wipe the dust off those bike frames!

As part of preparation for Bike to Work Day, Alameda Bicycle mechanic George, will be at Alameda South Shore Center on Saturday, starting at 12:00 p.m. He’ll be conducting free safety checks on all bikes brought by, and it’s a great community service.  (Per the AB Facebook account.)

Come by between 12:00-2:00 p.m. to have your bikes briefly looked at.

If you will be participating on May 10, here is an interactive glance of all the East Bay energizer stations.

Today’s release of the East Bay Express has a focus on Bike to Work month, with specific interest directed towards Bike to Work Day on May 10.  If you’re in the Bay Area, I highly recommend picking up a copy of the newspaper.

There were two different stories that especially piqued my interest, and I wanted to share them with you.

Even experienced bike riders can sometimes find it difficult to pick out the right bike for them. Imagine the adventure for this East Bay Express writer, as she looked to pick up a great city cruiser.  Your local bike shop should have some information about picking the right bike for yourself.  The Alameda Bicycle shop located on Park Street has some information posted online.

As my Twitter friend Nate points out, there are even more cafes and local businesses supporting bike commuters. Read about progress for bike friendliness, plus a few bike parking safety rules listed in the story. For additional knowledge about safe bike parking, read the brief EBBC guide, and the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) also published a short tutorial.

Bike community clearly isn’t going to be for everyone. It takes dedication and a passion for your bike, and is something that should be slowly eased into. Read up as much as you can, while asking friends on Twitter or Facebook, and get out there while giving it a shot.

The west side of the Golden Gate Bridge (GGB) has been closed for the last 5 months. It is finally scheduled to reopen on 5/18/12. The work is scheduled to end a week or two before the 75th anniversary of the the bridge.

The West side of the GGB is open, for bicycles only, on weekends. It can be scary riding on the west side of the bridge because so many people fly across the span. It is worse when all of the cyclists are on the east side. When I jog across the bridge on the east side the tourist were always difficult to navigate through. The cyclist are terrifying. They don’t care how fast they are going when they buzz by you, inches away. I hope that I am not like that when I ride across the bridge.

I have been avoiding the bridge for a couple of months now. Let the tourists have their fun. I can wait for the west side to open.

Here is the news release from the GGB recreational department.

GGB West Sidewalk Reopens May 18, 2012

First and foremost, your patience and cooperation during the recent construction work is much appreciated, and the end results will be enjoyed by all of us. The end is in sight as the west sidewalk will reopen on May 18!

Here is the status of the GGB sidewalks for the period from May 1 through May 17:

WEST SIDEWALK STATUS

Remains closed for construction through Thursday, May 17
Reopens Friday, May 18 and will remain open for the foreseeable future

EAST SIDEWALK STATUS

Open now for both pedestrians and cyclists
The 400-foot section of fixed scaffolding at mid-span is targeted to be removed by Wednesday, May 9, pending weather conditions, prior to Bike to Work Day on May 10
East sidewalk will serve as the access for May 10, Bike to Work Day with an Energizer Station at the Vista Point entrance to the east sidewalk

Purchasing nutritional products can be an expensive proposition, even while looking to buy generic supplements bought in bulk.

If you’re looking for an interesting online resource, I strongly urge you to visit MuscleHQ.com Muscle HQ is a daily deal site focused on offering one supplement product per day for a low price.

When something is posted on MuscleHQ that you like, you should place an order as soon as possible. It’s not uncommon to find that deals sell out before the 24-hour time frame is completed.

New deals are posted each night at 8:00 p.m. PST, and are available for 24 hours.

I went to the foot care lecture at REI on Saturday morning.  As you know, 11:00 A.M. on Saturday is a bad time for runners and a lousy time for cyclists.  Us runners are usually doing our post-run socializing until about 11:00 and the cyclists are right in the middle of their Saturday workouts.

The people training for a triathlon don’t even have a chance at making it.  I was there because an injury had me resting for the weekend.  Parking is also tough at the Berkeley REI.  There is plenty of meter parking around the store for $1.50 per hour.  The streets look a little rough but I have never had any problems with parking in that area.  Take standard precautions, I don’t leave stuff in my car.

Enough with the logistics,  I appreciate REI for putting on events like this.  John Vonhof knows his stuff and he has a good website .  John is not a podiatrist; he is a foot care specialist with a goal of keeping us moving on healthy feet.  When things go wrong, he helps us perform first aid and teach prevention techniques to keep us moving.  That being said, the lecture started with a talk about the benefits of shoe inserts.

He held up Superfeet in one hand and Sof Sole inserts in the other hand.  I am a firm believer in high quality inserts, and I think they help me keep my running mileage up.  I used to get all types of injuries before I started wearing inserts.  John pointed out the different types of inserts, shoes and feet.  We should try different things until we get things sorted out.

After insoles he moved on to talking about socks and blister prevention.  I found it interesting that he passed around some Injinji toe socks.  I used to get a lot of blisters on the hilly trail half marathons until I started wearing the Injinji socks.

He spoke about different types of socks and ways to prevent blisters.  One of the hikers mentioned using duct tape to help keep you going after a blister and for blister prevention in general.  John broke out some kinesiology tape and gave us some pointers on how to use tape to patch up our wounds and prevent injuries.  After primary prevention, he went on to discuss first aid for various injuries and types of prevention.  Visit his site for prevention tips.  It has a lot of good information for foot care.

I love to see companies like REI doing all of this community stuff.  These lectures are really informative and helpful.  REI is not a store where I buy running, biking or swimming stuff but they are a great store for warm stuff and stuff you want to try.  They have a good selection of electronics and are one of the few stores that let you return your electronics goods.  Sometimes, you can spend $500 for something and just hate it when you try it out.  Give their classes a try.  The free class was good.  I am thinking about taking the bike repair class for $150.  It seems like all of the pay classes are $20 less for REI members.  I wonder if the REI memberships cost $20?

Mike’s Note:  The street parking isn’t too bad in the immediate vicinity around REI, but don’t stray too far down San Pablo… parking in one of the residential neighborhoods can also be ideal.  Also, feel free to take a look at the REI membership perks, which should be great depending on your likelihood of shopping there.

I am still out with a knee injury.  To help fill up my Saturday morning, I am going to attend the Foot clinic at the REI store in Berkeley at 11:00am on Saturday morning.  This is a bad time for most cyclists and people on the bigger training days but it may work for the rest of us.  There are still 31 seats available and the clinic is free.  The Berkeley REI parking lot fills up fast but there is plenty of street parking on Saturday mornings.  I will be sporting my SFtri T-shirt.  If you see me there, come say hi.

Berkeley REI — Foot Care for Any Sport: Fit, Blisters & More
Date: 4/14/2012
Event Location: Berkeley REI
Event Fee: Free
Time: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (PDT)
Presenter: John Vonhof
Group Size: 50

Description: John Vonhof is an expert on foot care. An ultrarunner, hiker, and backpacker for more than 25 years, he has pushed his feet to the extreme. As a paramedic and orthopedic technician, he has treated athletes at top adventure and endurance races around the world. In today’s interactive class at REI Berkeley’s Footwear Festival, John will share his secrets for healthy feet, featured in his book, “Fixing Your Feet: Prevention and Treatment for Athletes”, now in its 5th edition. Come learn about fit, insoles, socks, toenail care, calluses, hot spots, preventing and fixing blisters, properly taping your feet as a prevention/treatment measure, and more. If you register for this free class at www.rei.com/berkeley, we will hold a seat for you until the scheduled start time. Seating may be available at the door, even if registration is closed.