Fairfax to Half Moon Bay

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Totally random thoughts on a really long ride:
- I'm a horrible route planner (see above).
- Early morning riding is awesome because you get to see lots of hungover people doing the walk of shame, especially when riding through the city streets.
- Getting lost is sometimes fun, but often leads to lots of extra climbing. Especially riding in Pacifica.
- Rte. 1 S out of SFO has some spectacular scenery, but you won't notice it if on a bike because you'll be too busy riding on the white line, simultaneously trying to not get hit by tourists in RV's, and avoiding riding into the culvert.
- Compact cranks are lifesavers for slow cyclists like myself.
- Motorcycles seem to hate cyclists even more than motorists, despite our many similarities.
- Sticking to a nutrition and hydration plan over a 9 hour ride is difficult, but I think I have things worked out for IM, and it involves force drinking a lot more.
- Never underestimate a tourists lack of driving ability.
- I would've posted some pix but between the fog and the smoke from local fires they would all look something like this:

Smog? Am I in LA still?

No help from mother nature this week as it seems that nearly all of Northern California is on fire. According to NPR there are hundreds of fires spread across Napa and Sonoma Valleys due to lightning storms this weekend. As you can see by this cool NASA satellite photo there are also two huge fires in the Sierras. Luckly prevailing winds go west-to-east, but its still pretty smelly and "cloudy" out.


This made getting a long run in a bit precarious. I put it off until this evening, and even relocated down near the coast where the winds are usually pretty high. NPR told me not to spend much time outside today, but an Iron-athlete has to get his long run in right? Luckily throughout my 2:15 run I didn't experience any difficulty breathing, or bronchial things. We'll see if how I fare tomorrow morning...

Firsts

Last week was my first Master's swim in about 3 years. Master's is a bunch of adults that do a coached workout in the pool. Up to now I've felt too slow to join, but at the mileage's an IM-trainee needs to swim it's awfully boring alone, so last week I joined the Tam Masters team. It was a bit disappointing in that they just followed a workout on a whiteboard, rather than having a coach dictate the workout. I'm thinking of trying a couple other groups in the coming weeks.

Another first: riding in 100+ degree heat. I headed down to LA-LA land this past weekend to get in some "time in the saddle" with Dan, and Ryan. Unfortunately it ended up being the hottest weekend ever. 95+ at the coast, where we rode up the Pacific Coast Highway, and easily much hotter than that when we turned up into Latigo Canyon to do a 10 mile climb. It's fair to say that I was well-done after that climb, and suffered pretty bad the remainder of the ride. Luckily I drafted off of them the remainder of the ride, and still got in 95 miles. Shout out to those guys for putting up with my slow butt.

Sunday was my first ocean swim in some time. Feeling pretty tired from the day before there was alot of floating, but we got about 45 minutes of swimming in. I also realize I need to work on my sighting, since I struggled trying to swim in a straight line. Regardless it was good weekend, and great hanging out with the SoCal homeboys.

26 days to Ironman...woo!

Recovery Week

After 3 weeks of building up volume it was time to cut back on the training a bit...as most endurance athletes can attest, this is one of the hardest things to do, especially with the thought of IM a mere 6 weeks away. However, a well rested body will be needed for some pretty hard workouts in the coming weeks, and if there's one thing I'm good at, it's sitting on the couch.

The week passed without much to note, but I did break out the mountain bike for the first time since December, for two reasons. One was the aforementioned recovery week. The second was that my knee was bugging me on my ride last week, so I thought I would switch it up this week, and try not to overstress the problem. I headed down the road from my new apt. to Tamarancho Boy Scout Camp, and rolled through their 12 miles of sweet singletrack. The last time I rode here I was a week and half out of a chemo treatment, so it felt good to feel good. I also completed the loop a good hour faster than I did last time. A nice confidence boost. Afterwards I tacked on a hour transition run, and besides a little heat, it felt awesome.

Another note, I visited a local Doc here to follow-up on my shortness of breath issues I had with at Wildflower Half. She felt that it was likely a bit of exercised induced asthma, possibly made worse by some allergens in the air. She actually called Cali the allergy capitol of the world. She recommended some breathing exercises, and prescribed a inhaler for anytime it might come back. That puppy is going squarely in the special needs bag for IM!

Mt. Diablo

For the past couple of years, while I've been riding the proverbial pine in the triathlon world, Mt. Diablo has sat quietly across the eastern horizon of the Bay Area. If you've been to the Bay maybe you've seen it's 3847' summit sitting off in the distance over the East Bay. Everytime I look at it I can hear it beckoning to go climb. Well this weekend I finally felt like my training has come along enough to try and summit it.

With 3 years of pent up animosity, my buddy Adam and I left Berkeley around 9am. We wound our way to the base, polishing off 30+ miles in about 2 hours. Then the fun began. 3239' in 11 miles. I felt pretty great most of the climb, but the last 3 miles hurt a little. My knee started to bother me a bit, and I still haven't invested in a compact crank, so the 38 tooth small chainring began to take its toll. The last .25 mi boasted a 13% grade, and I felt like I was going backwards, but I put my head down, kept pedaling, and the summit soon arrived, offering some great views:





After a break for snacks we began a 25 minute blazing descent! It was awesome. We cruised back through Walnut Creek where Adam jumped on BART to finish his ride. I kept riding, and instead of cruising over the Berkeley hills, took a wider, longer, and flater way home through Richmond. The sun going down over the Pacific was a nice end to a long day. The Bay bike trail lead me back home, for a total of 92 miles in all.