Well it looks like I finally managed to secure an entry to the Lighthouse Century Ride on September 27. I've been trying for months but was finally able to buy a registration from another rider who found that he couldn't make it. I've got a few more weeks to train up for it and the 70+ I did on Saturday was a good start. Time to make a training schedule. The usual method is to increase mileage by 5-10 miles a week until you get over 90 miles two weeks before the event. The weekend before the event is a backdown week where the mileage is more like 40 top which gives your body a week to recover so that you are strong on event day.
I'll be riding with some Tahoe teammates and other TnT people which means that I'll at least have a wheel to follow for most of it.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Training Log - August 26 - 31
Monday: Scheduled rest day.
Tuesday: 20 Miles at Fiesta Island. Average Speed is 19MPH
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:
Tuesday: 20 Miles at Fiesta Island. Average Speed is 19MPH
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:
Monday, August 25, 2008
Masher
I'm a few days late in reporting this but I attended my first training session of the Winter season. You'll remember that I recently decided to do another stint to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I'm very proud to report that I've raised nearly $10,000 in the last year by exercising my little butt off doing the Dublin Adidas Marathon and more recently America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride (AMBBR) Century in June.
After AMBBR, I've tried to stay in bike shape by riding to work a few times a week along with a long mileage day on the weekend. I've been fairly successful but am glad to have a structured program to follow as I have been starting to slip. I've been trying to buy a registration to the Lighthouse Century for the last couple of months with no luck. The ride sold out within 10 hours of opening. The first day of registration was the day after my AMBBR century while I was in Tahoe with no ready access to a computer so I missed it. Anyway, I'm keeping hope alive and decided to up my mileage this weekend to make sure I'm ready if I do manage to secure an entry.
Sooo...Saturday morning started with me getting on the road by 6:30 am, where I biked to a friend's house (~6 miles) then to the TnT training session (~15 miles) at Fiesta Island. I've been training at Fiesta Island on Tuesday nights for the last couple of months so this is familiar stomping grounds. After meeting the new team and coaches we got on the road.
I hooked up with the advanced rider group and we started up around the 4 mile loop with 14 riders in the pace line! Our pace was 18MPH for a few loops. Luckily I was already pretty warm by this time so no problem. I was near the front and one of the coaches, David made some comment about having a little "anarchy" around one of the corners. Anarchy means we break out of the pace line and put the pedal to the metal. Well, it appears that not everyone got the message which resulted in the front 6 riders breaking away from the rest of the group. I was third in the line when all hell broke loose. I got into the big ring and started cranking but was boxed in pretty well by teammates Lisa and Donna. I see a gap and then hit it hard and pull away. I got going really fast and Donna hopped on my back wheel and came along for the ride in my slipstream. I didn't want to completely pull away from the group so after about 45 secs I turn off the jets and slow way down and wait for the rest of the team to catch up. Once we regroup, more laps. A few laps later, our now smaller group is instructed to do a little interval training. We hit the same "anarchy" corner and our mentor instructs us to sprint at whatever speed we can sustain for 60 seconds. Bamm, we all take off and I stand up for more starting power and with the help of a little tailwind, manage to sustain 29 MPH! I was positively flying. After 1 minute I slow it down to 12 MPH and we regroups and do a lap to recover and then back for more. This time, we are heading partially into a head wind and I am also starting to tire so I get it up to 26.4 MPH. After a minute of this, I'm panting like a phone stalker. That's when one of my teammates informs me that our mentor, whose name I don't remember, is a fitness trainer (ie sadist). We do another partial lap to recover and the sprint one last time into a full headwind. Speed drops to 23 MPH and I'm sweating pure agony. Legs are burning, chest is on fire and I'm making that weird shape with my mouth where I look like I was dropped a lot as a baby. After that we take a few more laps at cool down speed and head in. We did a total of 25 miles on the Island.
Afterwards, I spoke to one of the Assistant Coaches, David and he congratulates me for working hard and informs me that I am a "Masher", meaning that I get my speed from pure physical power. He says that when I refine my pedaling I will be even faster. I'm intrigued because after months of cycling with the Tahoe team, no one ever put it that way to me. The theory is that I should increase my pedaling cadence (RPM) and let my heart do a lot of the work, which will give my legs more a break so that they don't tire as quickly. He says, that it's a different technique that can be learned and isn't at the expense of sacrificing power, it is just a more efficient use of it. He said that I should try to maintain over 100 rpm when pedaling on the flats and 80 rpm when climbing hills. Hmmm, something definitely to look into. Overall, I'm very happy with the Fiesta session. After a season of holding back, I was finally able to pedal my little heart out.
Official training session is over and three of us, Captain Jack, Tonya and myself, who are training for upcoming Century rides decide to get a few more miles in. I'm already at 40+ miles but head northward to La Jolla. Captain Jack is the ringleader and we start up by climbing Soledad Mountain which I used to do on a weekly basis but somehow is feeling a lot more punishing. Afterwards, Jack somehow manages to take us on roads we had never been on. I'm frankly surprised at this as I thought we had scoured every last hill on La Jolla while training for the Tahoe ride. Well, let me tell you, there is a nasty little hill that no one told me about called Hidden Valley Road which is about 3 miles of constant uphill. Nothing drastically steep but it just goes on and on and on and on and ... you get the picture. I'm seriously starting falter at this point and am having trouble holding a line and keep meandering out of the bike line towards the curb. There's a usually a little rut at the point where the concrete of the curb meets the asphalt on the road and that's where I'm living. Not a good place to be as it often pitches wildly and is usually pretty uneven. We finally get to the top and I'm at 55+ miles and decide to start heading home as I'm seriously tired and I have a long ride ahead of me. Tonya and I take off and start heading back into San Diego. I eat some cashews I had stashed and drink nearly a full bottle of water and start feeling instantly better.
It's around 1 pm at this time and it is getting hot. Ride back was pretty uneventful except the I hit a pothole so hard on Friars road that my cell phone popped out and split into 4 parts. Luckily it came back together scuffed but otherwise no worse for wear. We split up at Mission Valley and then I tackle my last hill of the day, Texas street to climb out of the valley. Brutal, brutal way to end the day after 70 miles of riding. It's short, but straight up at over a 8% grade. I finally crest the hill and make it the two miles back to my apartment with my total mileage over 72 miles. I'm so tired that when I sit down to check my email I start nodding off at my PC. Take a very cold shower to cool down and try to circumvent any swelling and the proceed to nap for 3 hours.
Here's a map of the route. The gap at you see in the loop is where I forgot to turn my bike computer back on after a brief rest stop.
Tough day but I worked hard, learned a lot and had a lot of fun. I'm think I'm going to enjoy this season.
After AMBBR, I've tried to stay in bike shape by riding to work a few times a week along with a long mileage day on the weekend. I've been fairly successful but am glad to have a structured program to follow as I have been starting to slip. I've been trying to buy a registration to the Lighthouse Century for the last couple of months with no luck. The ride sold out within 10 hours of opening. The first day of registration was the day after my AMBBR century while I was in Tahoe with no ready access to a computer so I missed it. Anyway, I'm keeping hope alive and decided to up my mileage this weekend to make sure I'm ready if I do manage to secure an entry.
Sooo...Saturday morning started with me getting on the road by 6:30 am, where I biked to a friend's house (~6 miles) then to the TnT training session (~15 miles) at Fiesta Island. I've been training at Fiesta Island on Tuesday nights for the last couple of months so this is familiar stomping grounds. After meeting the new team and coaches we got on the road.
I hooked up with the advanced rider group and we started up around the 4 mile loop with 14 riders in the pace line! Our pace was 18MPH for a few loops. Luckily I was already pretty warm by this time so no problem. I was near the front and one of the coaches, David made some comment about having a little "anarchy" around one of the corners. Anarchy means we break out of the pace line and put the pedal to the metal. Well, it appears that not everyone got the message which resulted in the front 6 riders breaking away from the rest of the group. I was third in the line when all hell broke loose. I got into the big ring and started cranking but was boxed in pretty well by teammates Lisa and Donna. I see a gap and then hit it hard and pull away. I got going really fast and Donna hopped on my back wheel and came along for the ride in my slipstream. I didn't want to completely pull away from the group so after about 45 secs I turn off the jets and slow way down and wait for the rest of the team to catch up. Once we regroup, more laps. A few laps later, our now smaller group is instructed to do a little interval training. We hit the same "anarchy" corner and our mentor instructs us to sprint at whatever speed we can sustain for 60 seconds. Bamm, we all take off and I stand up for more starting power and with the help of a little tailwind, manage to sustain 29 MPH! I was positively flying. After 1 minute I slow it down to 12 MPH and we regroups and do a lap to recover and then back for more. This time, we are heading partially into a head wind and I am also starting to tire so I get it up to 26.4 MPH. After a minute of this, I'm panting like a phone stalker. That's when one of my teammates informs me that our mentor, whose name I don't remember, is a fitness trainer (ie sadist). We do another partial lap to recover and the sprint one last time into a full headwind. Speed drops to 23 MPH and I'm sweating pure agony. Legs are burning, chest is on fire and I'm making that weird shape with my mouth where I look like I was dropped a lot as a baby. After that we take a few more laps at cool down speed and head in. We did a total of 25 miles on the Island.
Afterwards, I spoke to one of the Assistant Coaches, David and he congratulates me for working hard and informs me that I am a "Masher", meaning that I get my speed from pure physical power. He says that when I refine my pedaling I will be even faster. I'm intrigued because after months of cycling with the Tahoe team, no one ever put it that way to me. The theory is that I should increase my pedaling cadence (RPM) and let my heart do a lot of the work, which will give my legs more a break so that they don't tire as quickly. He says, that it's a different technique that can be learned and isn't at the expense of sacrificing power, it is just a more efficient use of it. He said that I should try to maintain over 100 rpm when pedaling on the flats and 80 rpm when climbing hills. Hmmm, something definitely to look into. Overall, I'm very happy with the Fiesta session. After a season of holding back, I was finally able to pedal my little heart out.
Official training session is over and three of us, Captain Jack, Tonya and myself, who are training for upcoming Century rides decide to get a few more miles in. I'm already at 40+ miles but head northward to La Jolla. Captain Jack is the ringleader and we start up by climbing Soledad Mountain which I used to do on a weekly basis but somehow is feeling a lot more punishing. Afterwards, Jack somehow manages to take us on roads we had never been on. I'm frankly surprised at this as I thought we had scoured every last hill on La Jolla while training for the Tahoe ride. Well, let me tell you, there is a nasty little hill that no one told me about called Hidden Valley Road which is about 3 miles of constant uphill. Nothing drastically steep but it just goes on and on and on and on and ... you get the picture. I'm seriously starting falter at this point and am having trouble holding a line and keep meandering out of the bike line towards the curb. There's a usually a little rut at the point where the concrete of the curb meets the asphalt on the road and that's where I'm living. Not a good place to be as it often pitches wildly and is usually pretty uneven. We finally get to the top and I'm at 55+ miles and decide to start heading home as I'm seriously tired and I have a long ride ahead of me. Tonya and I take off and start heading back into San Diego. I eat some cashews I had stashed and drink nearly a full bottle of water and start feeling instantly better.
It's around 1 pm at this time and it is getting hot. Ride back was pretty uneventful except the I hit a pothole so hard on Friars road that my cell phone popped out and split into 4 parts. Luckily it came back together scuffed but otherwise no worse for wear. We split up at Mission Valley and then I tackle my last hill of the day, Texas street to climb out of the valley. Brutal, brutal way to end the day after 70 miles of riding. It's short, but straight up at over a 8% grade. I finally crest the hill and make it the two miles back to my apartment with my total mileage over 72 miles. I'm so tired that when I sit down to check my email I start nodding off at my PC. Take a very cold shower to cool down and try to circumvent any swelling and the proceed to nap for 3 hours.
Here's a map of the route. The gap at you see in the loop is where I forgot to turn my bike computer back on after a brief rest stop.
Tough day but I worked hard, learned a lot and had a lot of fun. I'm think I'm going to enjoy this season.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Training Log - August 18-26
Monday: Nothing.
Tuesday: Fiesta Island. Got there and realized that I had forgotten my helmet! Burned a 1/2-hour of daylight racing back home to get it. Got in 12.8 miles.
Wednesday: Track Class. Lot's of pacing and 200 meter sprint! Whew.
Thursday: Nothing
Friday: Nothing
Saturday: Tuscon Session #1 + more for a total of 72 Miles!
Sunday: Nothing. My Momma is in town!
Tuesday: Fiesta Island. Got there and realized that I had forgotten my helmet! Burned a 1/2-hour of daylight racing back home to get it. Got in 12.8 miles.
Wednesday: Track Class. Lot's of pacing and 200 meter sprint! Whew.
Thursday: Nothing
Friday: Nothing
Saturday: Tuscon Session #1 + more for a total of 72 Miles!
Sunday: Nothing. My Momma is in town!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Velodrome!
I have been reading Greg Lemond's Complete book on cycling and there was a chapter where he describes all the different ways to ride a bike. One of the pretty popular ones that I didn't know anything about was "track racing". I've been riding a lot on the open road and hadn't really considered riding at a track. A quick google search lead me to the San Diego Velodrome Association. It seems that right here a few miles from my apartment there is a big track racing scene. The Velodrome is tucked away in a remote corner of Balboa Park. The velodrome is a oval track with banked walls and measures 333.3 meters at the inner part of the track. As you move away from the inner "line" and up the track towards the outside, the diameter of the oval increases so the distance around the track increases. Anyway, the association has this phenomenal deal where for $100, you can attend a 6-week class to learn how to ride fast on the track. Each class is 2-hours long AND they provide you with a bike to ride so you get a lot of bang for your buck. so yesterday, I attended my first class.
Besides being on a bike and pedaling with human power, track riding is fundamentally different than the type of riding I have been doing in a couple of key ways:
1) Look ma, no brakes. There are no brakes on a track bicycle. You control you speed by moving up the banked wall and/or slowing your pedaling effort.
2) Track bikes are single fixed gear bikes. There is no coasting on a track bike. If the wheel turns, the pedals are turning. Gotta keep pedaling or you your momentum will throw you over the handlebars if you try to stop abruptly!
3) Track bikes, have no cables since there are no brakes and only one gear. The good bikes have aerodynamically shaped bike frame tubes.
4) The handlebars are also lower so when you ride, your body is tucked lower to have less wind resistance.
5) The bicycle bottom bracket (ie, where you pedals connect to the frame) is higher than in conventional road bikes and the pedal arms tend to be shorter. This is so you don't hit the track when you are riding along the banked wall.
6) Track riding is ALL about speed. Training is simulated races.
First class was awesome. First part was instructional about how to ride the course safely, then we went on to some practice riding the fixed gear bike and then we moved on to riding on the banked track. I'll elaborate more on the type of riding we did in a future post as I'm getting drowsy.
Besides being on a bike and pedaling with human power, track riding is fundamentally different than the type of riding I have been doing in a couple of key ways:
1) Look ma, no brakes. There are no brakes on a track bicycle. You control you speed by moving up the banked wall and/or slowing your pedaling effort.
2) Track bikes are single fixed gear bikes. There is no coasting on a track bike. If the wheel turns, the pedals are turning. Gotta keep pedaling or you your momentum will throw you over the handlebars if you try to stop abruptly!
3) Track bikes, have no cables since there are no brakes and only one gear. The good bikes have aerodynamically shaped bike frame tubes.
4) The handlebars are also lower so when you ride, your body is tucked lower to have less wind resistance.
5) The bicycle bottom bracket (ie, where you pedals connect to the frame) is higher than in conventional road bikes and the pedal arms tend to be shorter. This is so you don't hit the track when you are riding along the banked wall.
6) Track riding is ALL about speed. Training is simulated races.
First class was awesome. First part was instructional about how to ride the course safely, then we went on to some practice riding the fixed gear bike and then we moved on to riding on the banked track. I'll elaborate more on the type of riding we did in a future post as I'm getting drowsy.
Training Log - August 11-14
Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: Fiesta Island - 20 Miles in the heavy heavy wind
Wednesday: Track training at the Velodrome!
Thursday: Spent the evening cleaning up my new old bike.
Friday: Nothing. Went out of town to visit family and it was 110 degrees outside!
Saturday: Nothing. Went out of town to visit family and it was 110 degrees outside!
Sunday: Nothing. Went out of town to visit family and it was 110 degrees outside! Also bicycle maintenace day.
Tuesday: Fiesta Island - 20 Miles in the heavy heavy wind
Wednesday: Track training at the Velodrome!
Thursday: Spent the evening cleaning up my new old bike.
Friday: Nothing. Went out of town to visit family and it was 110 degrees outside!
Saturday: Nothing. Went out of town to visit family and it was 110 degrees outside!
Sunday: Nothing. Went out of town to visit family and it was 110 degrees outside! Also bicycle maintenace day.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Tucson Kick-Off and 52 miles
Rode 52 Miles today starting in Mission Valley and all the way out to Carmel Valley area in a big loop. See the map.
I rode with Tonya. We were supposed to have another couple of riders but they bailed on us. Ride was good, felt strong even though it was pretty muggy. On the way back, we stopped in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society offices to catch the tail end of the Tucson kick-off meeting. There were a couple dozen people there and looks to be a good group with a mix of novice and experience. Can't wait to start training.
I rode with Tonya. We were supposed to have another couple of riders but they bailed on us. Ride was good, felt strong even though it was pretty muggy. On the way back, we stopped in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society offices to catch the tail end of the Tucson kick-off meeting. There were a couple dozen people there and looks to be a good group with a mix of novice and experience. Can't wait to start training.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Gotta Ride
I've been recently agonizing over whether to do the next TnT cycle event, El Tour de Tucson Century Ride. I had been contemplating signing up for it ever since I finished the Tahoe Century on June 1st. I had mentally decided to take the Winter season off to free up some personal time and get my life back after nearly 5 months of training. I also have set a big goal to participate in the Lavaman Triathlon in April, 2009 which would be my third different training program (marathon, century, triathlon) and would complete my Triple Crown. Training for Lavaman starts in November immediately after the Tucson Century. Training for back seasons would give me essentially no down time.
The plan was to take the season off, take care of some other personal goals, start swimming and possibly running to get a head start on Lavaman training. The last couple of weeks my inner voice has started rationalizing why I should do Tuscon. Something along the lines of:
1) It's for a good cause
2) A lot of your friends are doing it.
3) Fundraising won't be that tough.
4) You are already training on Tuesday nights and doing a long mileage day on the weekend. Looks like Century training to me.
5) Tahoe was an event but Tucson is a race with different medals based on finish time. How fast can you really go .
6) No holding back in a race. You can go all out
7) You can join the High Intensity Training (HIT) subteam and get real training on how to ride fast. Plus they have a really cool looking alternate jersey.
8) You don't have to do every training ride now that your endurance base is already built. Skipping the occasional ride won't risk wrecking your season.
9) It's great exercise.
but it all really boils down to that it will be fun.
The skip a season plan makes perfect intellectual sense but fails in one important point...I gotta ride. There is no denying that I absolutely love cycling. It is totally and completely fun for me.
So today I dropped into the Leaukemia and Lymphoma Society office and signed up for Tucson. First ride is next weekend. Here we go again!
The plan was to take the season off, take care of some other personal goals, start swimming and possibly running to get a head start on Lavaman training. The last couple of weeks my inner voice has started rationalizing why I should do Tuscon. Something along the lines of:
1) It's for a good cause
2) A lot of your friends are doing it.
3) Fundraising won't be that tough.
4) You are already training on Tuesday nights and doing a long mileage day on the weekend. Looks like Century training to me.
5) Tahoe was an event but Tucson is a race with different medals based on finish time. How fast can you really go .
6) No holding back in a race. You can go all out
7) You can join the High Intensity Training (HIT) subteam and get real training on how to ride fast. Plus they have a really cool looking alternate jersey.
8) You don't have to do every training ride now that your endurance base is already built. Skipping the occasional ride won't risk wrecking your season.
9) It's great exercise.
but it all really boils down to that it will be fun.
The skip a season plan makes perfect intellectual sense but fails in one important point...I gotta ride. There is no denying that I absolutely love cycling. It is totally and completely fun for me.
So today I dropped into the Leaukemia and Lymphoma Society office and signed up for Tucson. First ride is next weekend. Here we go again!
Training Log August 4-10
Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: 20 miles at Fiesta Island. Average speed 18.2 MPH, top speed 29.8 MPH.
Wednesday: Bike to work day.
Thursday: Nothing
Friday: Nothing. Worked late.
Saturday: 52 Miles
Sunday: Nothing
Tuesday: 20 miles at Fiesta Island. Average speed 18.2 MPH, top speed 29.8 MPH.
Wednesday: Bike to work day.
Thursday: Nothing
Friday: Nothing. Worked late.
Saturday: 52 Miles
Sunday: Nothing
Monday, August 4, 2008
Vintage Road Bikes
I've been getting really interested in vintage road bikes lately from the late 70's and early 80's and have tossed around the idea of actually finding a high quality Italian road bike to restore or buying one if I can find a good deal. It is a completely illogical thing to do as my current bike would likely blow any of those bikes away but I think I would greatly enjoy owning one to cruise around in like those car buffs do on Sunday afternoon.
A buddy of mine at work just bought a late 70's Ciocc and I am now extremely jealous. The weekend in San Francisco just added about 4 cords of wood to the fire. It seemed everywhere I looked there was some sweet looking Italian road bike chained to a parking meter. I saw a couple of really neat bikes including a Bennotto a Colnago and a Cinelli. Each of these bikes had really high end components and were very well maintained. The workmanship of the frames and the overall quality of construction was very impressive and they were being used for commuting! The closer I looked around it seemed that there were also a lot of vintage steel bikes that have been converted to fixed gear bikes. In addition to being converted, most of these bikes were painted a flat neutral color like brown or tan or a light green. It is some weird sort of style thing I suppose. The paint jobs on some of the 25 year old bikes were probably pretty bad. There's apparently a whole other cycling subculture in San Francisco that I didn't know existed.
I'm now having fantasies of finding a $20 steal at the La Jolla thrift store or at some imaginary estate sale.
A buddy of mine at work just bought a late 70's Ciocc and I am now extremely jealous. The weekend in San Francisco just added about 4 cords of wood to the fire. It seemed everywhere I looked there was some sweet looking Italian road bike chained to a parking meter. I saw a couple of really neat bikes including a Bennotto a Colnago and a Cinelli. Each of these bikes had really high end components and were very well maintained. The workmanship of the frames and the overall quality of construction was very impressive and they were being used for commuting! The closer I looked around it seemed that there were also a lot of vintage steel bikes that have been converted to fixed gear bikes. In addition to being converted, most of these bikes were painted a flat neutral color like brown or tan or a light green. It is some weird sort of style thing I suppose. The paint jobs on some of the 25 year old bikes were probably pretty bad. There's apparently a whole other cycling subculture in San Francisco that I didn't know existed.
I'm now having fantasies of finding a $20 steal at the La Jolla thrift store or at some imaginary estate sale.
San Francisco 1/2-Marathon
I had been pretty wishy washy about doing this event as I haven't been doing any real walking in the last 6-months as I had been concentrating so much on cycling. I have also had this foot problem that just hasn't completely gone away. I waited until the last possible day to make the decision and just decided to go for it. Christine and I actually did different 1/2-marathons with her doing the first 1/2 of the course and me doing the second half. My race started in Golden Gate park and I got rolling. The course was pretty rolly but generally not too bad. The weather was perfect being a bit cool and slightly overcast. There were lot's of other walkers and the people doing the full marathon also were on the same course so I always had lots of company. The first 3-miles weren't too bad with me trying to recapture my walk form and doing 14 minute/miles. Around Mile 6 I knew there was trouble in paradise. I wasn't physically tired but my body was starting to hurt pretty badly. My walk form was horrible as I haven't been training and consequently, I was getting a lot of hip pain. My feet were also starting to swell up dramatically and my right ankle was throbbing. Mile 9, I'm in full on pain. My pace has slowed down a LOT. My average speed when I was doing a lot of walking was anywhere from 13-15 mins/mile and I was now doing 16+ minutes/miles. Creeping doubt started to enter my brain about whether I was actually going to be able to complete this event. Well I'm nothing if not stubborn and just kept trodding along. The last 4 miles crept by at a snail's pace as I watch my average pace slow very noticeably. When I was walking a lot I could usually finish up a 1/2-marathon in right around 3 hours. I was beginning to doubt as whether I was going to be able to finish within the course time limit of 3-1/2 hours. I do some quick math and realize that I need to step it up. I start jogging on the downhills which gains me some time but makes the foot pain worse. Also, when I start walking again, I would have trouble finding the rhythm. The last two miles were extremely painful and I was wincing at every step. I was obviously struggling, with my average pace slipping to 18 minute/miles. Some of the people on the side of the road yelled out encouraging words which help quite a bit. I finally crossed the finish line with just a few minutes to spare. Christine was waiting for me as her 1/2 course had finished 2 hours earlier. I was hurting pretty bad and was actually having trouble talking. I immediately gobbled down some post race food and started stretching. I have enough experience to know that my pain would be a lot worse if I didn't stretch right away. I limp back to the hotel which is thankfully only a three blocks from the finish line, kick off the shoes and fall into bed. Brutal. We had to check out soon afterwards but I was in no shape to walk around too much so we spent the afternoon along the waterfront laying in the sun napping and reading. Really nice.
I used to almost scoff a the 1/2 -marathon distance when I was doing a lot of walking while training for my full marathon. No longer. I definitely learned a valuable lesson, no more 1/2-marathons without training.
I used to almost scoff a the 1/2 -marathon distance when I was doing a lot of walking while training for my full marathon. No longer. I definitely learned a valuable lesson, no more 1/2-marathons without training.
San Francisco
Christine and spent a very enjoyable weekend in San Francisco. A few of the highlights
Friday: Dinner at Piazza Pelligrini in North Beach. This is the Italian neighborhood and we were treated to one of the best dinner I've ever eaten. I had the Osso Buco d'Agnello which was amazing. There is a fabulous restaurant every 10 feet in San Francisco so we just started walking around until something caught our eye. We stumbled on to this place at just the right time and were able to score a sidewalk table with a view of Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral. I'm no expert on Italian cuisine but it appeared to be very authentic. The wait staff were all obviously from Italy and the service was good. I highly recommend this place if you are in the area.
Saturday: Spent some time in Berkeley with a few friends and just generally showing Christine around my old stomping grounds.
Sunday: San Francisco 1/2-Marathon.
Friday: Dinner at Piazza Pelligrini in North Beach. This is the Italian neighborhood and we were treated to one of the best dinner I've ever eaten. I had the Osso Buco d'Agnello which was amazing. There is a fabulous restaurant every 10 feet in San Francisco so we just started walking around until something caught our eye. We stumbled on to this place at just the right time and were able to score a sidewalk table with a view of Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral. I'm no expert on Italian cuisine but it appeared to be very authentic. The wait staff were all obviously from Italy and the service was good. I highly recommend this place if you are in the area.
Saturday: Spent some time in Berkeley with a few friends and just generally showing Christine around my old stomping grounds.
Sunday: San Francisco 1/2-Marathon.
Training Log July 29-August
Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: Lunchtime Ride and Fiesta Island ~ 25 miles
Wednesday: Nothing
Thursday: Ride bike to work day plus 5 miles at lunch. ~25 total miles
Friday: Travel Day, about 2-miles of walking around San Francisco
Saturday: Lot's of walking in and around Berkeley. 'bout 5 miles
Sunday: San Francisco 1/2-Marathon
Tuesday: Lunchtime Ride and Fiesta Island ~ 25 miles
Wednesday: Nothing
Thursday: Ride bike to work day plus 5 miles at lunch. ~25 total miles
Friday: Travel Day, about 2-miles of walking around San Francisco
Saturday: Lot's of walking in and around Berkeley. 'bout 5 miles
Sunday: San Francisco 1/2-Marathon
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