Introductions - Just like to ride (Silicon Valley)

Hi all,

I am returning to my peculiar brand of cycling after a roughly 10-year hiatus. A friend recently "gifted" a Trek XO1 to me, which is very handy for this area with the stout mix of terrain. I mostly stick to roads/lanes and paved paths, but some of them disintegrate into gravel or fire roads or worse, so it works well for me even though I don't actually ride cyclocross (races).

My main reason for cycling is to try to return to some level of fitness. I am fairly young and have a family history of High Blood Pressure and Friends, and want to try to stave off that ugliness as long as possible. I had recently gotten fat and out of shape -- paying so much attention to raising my 2 toddlers that I forgot to pay attention to myself!

So my deal is, I just like to ride. I'm not really into the club scene, or racing, posing, or stuff like that. I pretty much just go out and do what I want. I challenge myself pretty hard (IMHO, anyway) and I am already seeing health benefits after just a few months of cycling. Just broke 1000 miles since early July (probably small potatoes around here I guess, but it's good for me considering that the previous 4-month period saw *zero* miles). I try to get in at least 60 miles/week but usually I'm around 90-100. Average ride is about 18 miles over (mildly) varied terrain.

That's about all, I guess.

Hey, good for you. I returned to cycling this year after a 5 year layoff. Since July I've dropped 17 pounds just by riding and eating only the occasional donut :) .

I used to live in Sunnyvale and you've got the best place to ride year round.

Cheers.

Cyclocross is a nice choice. You can combine pavement and dirt/gravel for some excellent riding. Have you ridden up Montebello Rd.? You can either continue on the unpaved section past the gate and over to Page Mill or head over to the Stevens Canyon Trail and back to the top of Stevens Canyon Rd. There's also the section of Alpine Rd. past Joaquin that turns to dirt and also hooks up to Page Mill Rd. I'm sure there are some other good pavement/dirt combinations in the area that you can get to without having to hop in your car.

Haven't made it to Montebello yet; I am in SJ so I stick to Los Gatos Creek trail mostly, and sometimes up and down Foothill for easy stuff. The LG trail it is a good workout to go end to end (Meridian Ave. to the top of the reservoir -- ugh! that final hill!). I still feel like I need to keep to the small stuff before digging into the wide variety of more challenging terrain -- my lungs and legs are not quite "there" yet.

Thanks for the tips, I'll check them out.

awesome man. I started back into cycling back in january for similar health reasons...either way great to hear of another `valley rider :)

Yeah, it's good to be out and about! I'll keep an eye out for you, catatonic. I am on a blue Trek. Where do you usually ride?

usually i commute on first street, and I'm most frequnetly found in the SJSU area, however I do go about anywhere in the area if I have good reason to :)