When our friends suggested hiking at Butano State Park, I was surprised to hear about it - since I never heard of it before. It was only 80 minutes away from Los Gatos (so nearby).
When we arrived, we decided to follow some of the suggestions from Alltrails.com:
Start from the Park Entrance parking lot
Follow the Six Bridges trail south toward the Ano Nuevo trail
At the intersection with Ano Nuevo, follow the Ano Nuevo trail East toward the Olmo Fire Road
At Olmo Fire Road, turn right, walking a short section
At the intersection with Goat Hill Trail, follow Goat Hill Trail north until fire road
Turn right at Fire Road and then walk a short distance
At the intersection with Little Butano Creek trail, get on the Little Butano Creek trail
At the intersection with the Fire Road, walk to the park entrance
We decided to shorten the hike, as we were running out of time, and everyone was tired from the steep ascent in the Ano Nuevo trail. At Goat Hill Trail, we turned left and walked toward the fire road, taking it all the way back to the park entrance.
I also tracked my progress on Strava and had an excellent recording of my hike on Relive.
This 3.3-mile shortened hike took us 1:50 hours with an ascent of 940 ft.
After the hike, we stopped for lunch and coffee at the tiny village of Pescadero. We thought about eating pizza there, but the pizza restaurant burned down.
I saw a cool car parked next to the Downtown Local coffee shop. The "Mocha" I ordered was so-so, but the beautiful 3-wheeled vehicle with a V-twin was something to admire.
I had never seen a car like that, and it was beautiful.
As the weather was scorching, I mountain biked the Saratoga Gap and Peters Creek trail in Saratoga (starting at the Vista Point parking lot at Highway 9 and Skyline Boulevard).
I arrived just before 9:05 am and rode my 2011 Specialized S-works FSR with newly built wheels. The rear tire flat has been fixed at Silva Cycles.
The trail started with an easy climb to a single track with an excellent green tree cover. I recorded a nice high-definition GoPro 4 video on my ride here:
I also tracked my progress on Strava and had an excellent recording of my progress on Relive.
I also took some iPhone photos on the ride.
The ride took about 1 hour and 15 minutes. I really liked this trail - it's not as tiresome as Almaden Quicksilver County Park - but it is more scenic with many different sections of single track and technical descents. I hope to ride it once again.
Today, my wife and I saw Constellations at TheatreWorks of Mountain View.
I had never heard of this particular play and thought it might be a musical, but it turned out to be entirely different.
The basic idea of the plot is to imagine a universe where all possibilities are explored sequentially. In this incarnation, the two main characters, a beekeeper (Robert Gilbert) and a Cosmologist (Carie Kawa) play and endlessly replay the same conversation (and various romantic interludes) with some subtle variations.
The Mercury News review of this play is spot on about the many possibilities explored. I sometimes felt bored with the repetition, but it was an exciting concept.
It was Alex's first day at Bellarmine College Prep, and he was very excited. After two days of orientation (Friday, August 18, and Monday, August 21), his classes finally started.
As parents, we also had to attend Parent Orientation, where we learned about all the activities freshmen attend. Bellarmine had a very nice "Parent Mixer" for us to prepare us.
For his first day of school, he was required to dress formally, with a shirt and a tie.
He has a reasonably full schedule ahead of him at Bellarmine:
Symphonic Band with Frank Wyant
Exploring Computer Science and Engineering with Chris Cozort
I have been practicing forehand, backhand, and volley and have served at the Sunnyvale Tennis Center for a long time. I decided to record my technique with my trusty GoPro4 Hero Silver camera mounted on a tripod for further review.
In this short GoPro4 video, I am practicing my forehand and slice backhand.
In this short GoPro4 video, I am practicing my forehand and backhand volleys.
In this next short GoPro4 video, I am practicing my kick serve.
In this next short GoPro4 video, I am practicing my flat serve.
The service is broken into 8 phases. I have made comments for the errors I have observed in red.
Grip: Continental
Initial Stance: Platform
First Move (turn away from the target)
Ball Toss (using fingertips)
Trophy Pose
The racket should fall behind my right shoulder, but it's not doing so
Serve Stroke
During the stroke, I should approach the ball with the edge of my tennis racket - not with an open tennis racket. This is causing a "push" stroke. The racket should open at the very last moment - during pronation. I realize that I'm not constantly gripping my racket in the correct Continental (I need to check my grip more often)
Contact
I was releasing the pinkie finger on my tennis hand before contact. I need to correct this error!
Today, I was fortunate to witness a Lunar Eclipse. Although the weather started out initially cloudy, it cleared up before 10:15 am (when the total eclipse was scheduled to occur).
During the total eclipse, the sky went dark in Oregon but not completely opaque in Sunnyvale.
Today, I decided to go for an excellent mountain biking ride at Almaden Quicksilver County Park.
Unfortunately, halfway through the bike ride, I heard a loud whistle as my rear tire lost air pressure and turned flat. Since I was using tubeless tires, I expected my rear tire to self-seal automatically, but this did not happen on my ride. My WTB Werewolf rear tire went completely flat!
I walked my bike most of the way back to the parking lot, so my trail time (generally around 1 hour and 30 minutes ended up being 2 hours). After the ride, I stopped by Silva Cycles bike shop to replace my rear tire (with a new Maxx tire).
I uploaded all of the Almaden Quicksilver trail info to Wikiloc. Which is a valuable site for recording trails.
I also tracked my progress on Strava and had an excellent recording of my progress on Relive.
I expected to return to Almaden Quicksilver soon, as it's one of my favorite local trails for an excellent 90-minute workout.
To improve my flat tennis serve, I recorded it using my GoPro4 Silver during my regular serve practice routine and shared it with my coach.
The service is broken into 8 phases. I made comments on errors I have observed in red.
Grip: Continental
Initial Stance: Platform
First Move (turn away from the target)
Ball Toss (using fingertips)
Trophy Pose
Serve Stroke
During the stroke, I should approach the ball with the edge of my tennis racket - not with an open tennis racket. This is causing a "push" stroke. The racket should open at the very last moment - during pronation.
Contact
I was releasing the pinkie finger on my tennis hand before contact. Need to correct this error!
Completion
Tennis Serve Fundamentals
1.Grip
1.Use Continental Grip (2)
loosely (with just the ring and pinkie fingers to allow for a snap).
1.Stand a few inches behind
the baseline, 3 feet from the center stripe (separating ad and deuce portions
of the court)
2. The left foot is pointing at
the rightmost net post (a few inches behind the baseline) to allow for an easier
rotation
3.Right foot is behind the heel of left foot, shoulder-width apart (heel-to-toe alignment), to allow
shoulders to load up
4.Feet are shoulder-width apart (to enable easy weight
transfer from rear to front foot)
5.Hold the tennis ball with 2
fingers (thumb, middle), like an ice cream cone, to minimize ball spin
during the ball toss.
6.Lean forward until all of
the weight is on your left foot (the right foot's toe should come up slightly)
7.The racket is placed in
front of your body with the ball right at the throat of the racket
8.Turn your head and look where the ball will be when tossed (this will prevent additional head movement
during the serve). Do not move your head for the whole duration of the serve
3.First Move - Turn away from
the target
1.With the weight on the left
leg and the tossing arm and racket together, turn your shoulders
clockwise and separate the arms (as soon as the back ankle hits the ground on
the back foot).
2.The left tossing arm is
straight and releases the ball when it reaches eyeball height. You are placing
the ball on the spot where you expect it to land (if not hit). The tossing arm
should move smoothly and not too fast. Only the shoulder is used, and the arm
must not be bent. The left arm follows the ball as if the ball never left
(pretend they are magnetically attracted to each other)
3.All your weight is
transferred from the front foot to the back foot. (The heel of your left foot
should come up)
4.Your head should not turn during the ball toss
5.Your right arm moves slowly
down
4.Ball Toss
1.The left arm releases the
ball when it reaches eyeball height to place it at
12:30 (12 o'clock being your head) for a 1st or 12:00 for a 2nd
serve. Once the ball is released, the left arm continues to track the ball.
3.Keep your face pointing at
the ball (the chin should be close to the left arm), and the body should not
jerk during the toss.
4.Look at where the ball is
going to be released, then switch focus to the ball
5.Trophy Pose
1.The body should be leaning
backward (tilting) with the knees bent, the left shoulder way above the right shoulder, and the left arm pointing straight at the tossed ball.
2.The right arm moves slowly
back (straight, palm down, without any elbow bend, until it reaches
shoulder height, at which point the elbow starts to bend.
6.When hitting the ball, the
right arm pronates (rotates counter-clockwise) to hit the ball flat (while the
lungs breathe out). The thumb edge of the racket should be pointing down (for
correct pronation)
7.Contact
1.You should try to hit the
ball at its peak (this is when the ball is moving slowest) above your head (on
the inside)
2.The right arm should be
fully extended (not bent) during contact
3.After contact, the right
arm bends immediately
4.The right arm lands on the
left side of the body, and then the left arm catches the racket
5.Your head should stay still,
pointing at the ball (not where it's going)
8.Completion
1.After the serve, you should
land on your left foot a few feet inside the baseline
2.Your right arm should have your thumb down (for full pronation)
9.Refinement
1.To hit a topspin serve (2nd serve), toss the ball to
12 o'clock. Your body should finish more to the right side.
2.toss
the ball to 1 o'clock to hit a flat serve. The body should finish facing forward (the net)
3.To hit a slice serve, toss
the ball to 2 o'clock (low and to the right)
10.Pro Tips
1.Make sure your head does
not turn to look at where the ball is headed; always look at where it
will be tossed, and do not move it.
2.The secret to the serve is to imagine
it as a ball throw shifted upwards. The throwing arm and shoulder should all be in
a line.
3.The serve swinging motion
should be continuous without any stops
4.Think of a serve as a baseball
throw.
5.The wrist should be very
loose (for training, hold the racket with just three fingers)
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