Day Ninety-Five

Father's Day Ride

Went on a nice (early celebration) Father's Day ride with Ryan and his parents.  My ride needed to be 230 and we almost perfectly did that.  We were down in Santa Cruz and did the Hazel-Dell loop, a ride I have done a number of times.  It is a nice easy enjoyable loop.  The loop takes you through some orchards and then through a beautiful wooded areas.  The boys had planned a more difficult loop but changed to this easier ride because my legs were beat.  It was great, nice sunny relaxed ride.  Perfect to rejuvenate my love of cycling.

Some picture from Ryan...Rod and me.  

Day Ninety-Four

Hike

The plan in my training guide has me running today - but Ryan and I took a day trip to Yosemite and counted our hike as the run.  In the morning I was a pill.  I had slept funny on my arm so it was really stiff and sore all night not allowing me to sleep well.  I was tired with a sore arm and debated going to Yosemite at all.  But I knew that Ryan was really anxious to see how much water was at the falls since we have had such a heavy snow pack this year.  I tried to cheer up and hopped in the car.  Then I quickly fell asleep for the first few hours in the car.  This is a known compromise.  Ryan wants to wake up super early to get to a destination and he knows, for me to be in a good pleasant mood, I need to sleep the first few hours in the car.  It makes the trip better for both of us.  I just don't do well on little sleep, I turn into such a grump.

We hiked to Vernal Falls.  This is a hike we have done a few times but it has never been easier.  Of course I started off slow with legs that felt like they had nothing in them - maybe just lead - lead that was poisoning my entire body.  But my legs quickly loosed up and this hike, that in the past had been a challenge, was a walk in the park.  Super easy.  I was barely out of breath 2 or 3 times.  It was remarkable.  As I am getting nervous about this next triathlon - wondering if I have the strength to do it - it was a nice reminder that I have increased my fitness level!

We started our hike up the mist trail.  This is not my favorite trail.  I am hiking along thinking how much I dislike this trail.  It is one of the top 10 most dangerous trails in the country.  I do not so much mind the trail, I just hate that it is popular and I have to trust that the person taking the step before me is not going to lose her footing and send me off the side of the steps.  This nice girl is drilling this into my head as she continually questions her footing and takes a step or two backward towards me (towards me falling into the depths of this canyon). As my mind is running about how dangerous this climb is peppy Ryan chimes in 'this is the best waterfall walk ever!' ...well at least I feel my efforts are appreciated by him. This is an image right after we got past the mist trail.

The hike was fun, lots of water as can be seen below.  Ryan hiked off the trail to take this image.  I stayed on the trail and hoped that he would return unharmed.

We stopped at the top of Vernal Falls for lunch.  There was a fearless squirrel up there.  It came up really close to Ryan.  Don't worry we did not feed him, but were entertained by him

Then a nice hike down the horse trail.  I have hiked down the mist trail for the last time a few years ago.  Great trip, worth the drive, nice change of pace for my training!

Two nice images by Ryan of Nevada and Vernal Falls.

Day Ninety-Three

Bike

After a failed bike fit - they scheduled me an hour early and then after driving over an hour and waiting for an hour (which turned out to be a nice time visiting with Kami) I only got a few seat adjustments - I went for a ride in Pescadero.  I took Stage road to 84 to Pescadero Creek and back to the car.  I thought about turning around many times during this ride.  The beginning was a lot of climbing so the only thing that kept me from turning around was knowing that I had to do that Stage Road climb again.  I hated the entire ride.  My legs are beat making the ride less and less fun (remember it started out at a zero on a fun scale of 1-10).  I did complete the whole ride, found out the cheverons that I thought were going to kill me were only half uphill the other half downhill. 

Highlights of the ride

• I saw quail.  These little birds crack me up.  I don't know why they insist on running everywhere when they have wings.  They are not like an ostrich who cannot fly, they just choose not to fly very often.  I like that you often see them in pairs or as a family line.  I also enjoy that they start off so slow walking and then turn up the speed then slow back down then fast fast.  It is like they only have slow and turbo, no in between speeds.  They are very entertaining animals
• I saw a coyote.  Not such a fun animal a little more intimidating.  It ran across the street as I was riding.  It was beautiful, unlike most coyote I see around our house.  This one had eaten lots of rabbits and had a good strong build to it.
• Stopped in at Norm's Market and got the best artichoke bread of my life.  Still warm when I picked it up.  This bread is worth the trip to this small town!

Day Ninety-Two

I have a few things I have forgotten to talk about so here they are

1. I am dealing with Bank of America on a daily basis.  Literally on the phone from 8 to 530 (with a quick break to swim on wed and fri). This means I am allowed wine in the evening.  I need something to take the stress off and not direct it at Ryan.
2. I have the skin of a high school wrestler.  This working out is great for me but my skin is hating it.  I have a dermatologist appointment and at the age of 29 when asked why I needed the appointment I had to say 'acne'  humiliating.
3. I have had a guilty pleasure of Taylor Swift but now I hate her.  I was riding and hating every second of my ride.  As people were passing me in trucks I was wondering how much I would have to pay some stranger to give me a ride back to my car.  My seat was killing me and I wanted off the bike.  I was willing to do ANYTHING to get off the bike (don't take that  lightly I was willing to do anything).  Then Taylor Swift came on my ipod.  She is so happy energetic and sweet I wanted to rip out her vocal chords.  I had to quickly move past her songs and find something more edgy or more angry, just something that matched my mood better.  And now I hate sweet little Taylor.  I thought it was just going to be on that ride, but it has been a few days and I still hate her.  Maybe there is some relation with the acne (a high school phenomenon) and my love of Taylor (a high school phenomenon). Maybe the end of listening to her music will clear up my skin??

Today I ran in the morning. Just took the dog out and got it over with early - since I had to be on the phone with B of A by 8.  In the afternoon I went for a nice walk with a friend at the beach. It was needed after the bank had me running in circles for the day.  The slow pace of the beach was great to refocus.  Then I headed out to do swimart's 630 swim in the bay.  It was 515 when I left but at 630 I had not even made it to the bridge.  Lots of traffic.  So I took off and went to aquatic park.  It was beautiful!  The change of plan worked out to my benefit.  The sun was low casting beautiful light on everything.  As I swam I look to my right and see Alcatraz or the Golden Gate. Left was the famous Ghirardelli sign - the building had amazing light on it and then behind me are these wonderful old boats.  It was a great experience.  I was freezing after and my heater was not working, but great experience!

Day Ninety-One

Bike and make up swim

I just did the trainer today.  It gives me a good hill climb workouts, it is quicker and it is just how I have come to do my Tuesday hill climb or interval workouts.  During the spin I watched Earthlings.  This is a fascinating movie about animals and how we as humans see ourselves as superior and all of the harm we cause animals.  It examines many of the ways we abuse animals -  puppy mills, factory farms, slaughterhouses, the leather and fur trades, sporting events, circuses and research labs.  If I was not on the trainer 'stuck' I do not know if I would have finished the movie as it is very violent, but it is important to see.  There were many times I had to look away, but these are events in animals lives that I have caused and continue to cause so I need to be aware of my impact.  I like animals as much as the next person, but I am in no way an animal lover.  I just want to live a peaceful life and how my life impacts animals is violent and not how I want to live.  I still have many changes that I need to make to fully be in line - beliefs and actions.

In my mind I keep relating it to the BP spill.  That it is easy for us to condemn BP, but in reality I need to look at myself and my responsibility.  I drive a lot, I use a lot of gas, and if there was not a demand we would not even be drilling in the gulf.  I create that demand.  I see my responsibility in the environmental impact of it. I don't want to see that, but I have to be honest....

Back to training

Swam at the pool on the afternoon with Rheana.  She is training for a bridge to bridge 6 mile swim  she is crazy and swam longer and faster than me. I just did my 2600 and took off.

Day Ninety

Rest

I thought I would make up my swim from Friday today.  I am still struggling from the ride yesterday.  REST REST REST

Day Eighty-Nine

Bike/Swim

Went to the pool this morning.  I was planning on meeting Rheana and swimming at the High School.  For some reason the pool was closed again. This makes no sense.  We decided to go to Treasure Island and swim for a while.  It was nice.  I used my new Barracuda HotHead Cap  I don't want to give the cap more credit that it deserves but I was not cold at all - swimming or getting out of the water.  I can't wait to try it again and see if I continue to stay warm!

After the swim I loaded up and went for a ride.  I did the Tunitas Creek to 84 Loop (Click for Map).  I started the ride with terribly tired legs from my run the day before.  Before I left the house I could barely bend down to pet the dog goodbye- so I knew this would not be my favorite ride.  With that in mind I chose a route with a difficult climb that I had never done before and chose to add an extra climb at the very beginning just to avoid crossing over highway one on a busy summer weekend. 

The ride started okay.  My legs were killing me but I was able to make it up my first climb - Lobitos Creek Cutoff.  This actually loosed up my legs and allowed me to feel much better as I started Tunitas Creek.  Ryan has made Tunitas Creek one of these legendary climbs, letting me know how difficult it is as well as reinforcing its place in the Tour of California.  The climb was difficult but I was plugging along.  I saw a marker on the ground stating '4 miles to the top!' since I do not yet have a bike computer I really appreciated this.  As I went from mile 4 to mile 3 I figured I had missed the next marker.  There was no way I could have been climbing for this long and not have gone a mile.  This happens sometimes, I will be in a race and not see a mile marker so it seems like mile 11 is very long, but soon I see the next marker - realize that I missed a marker and happily continue knowing that I just ran a mile farther than I thought.  But today on Tunitas Creek that is not the story.  As I begin to look for '2 miles to the top!' I ride past '3 miles to the top!' DISASTER.  I am so bummed because I assumed I had just missed this marker and my legs are blowing up.  I decided I should stop and eat a gu ( I am not coordinated enough to try to do this while I am riding).  As I am taking in the gu I read the label and see that it has whey protein - great! I am defeated by this ride and now I am eating animal product.  This is not going well.  Thankfully between the gu and the climb leveling off I made it to the top with much more ease than I had expected.  There was also a charity ride going on.  These always make me feel better about myself as a cyclist (not as a person because I would be riding for their cause if I was a better person with more $$) because they have participants that have not gone for a ride in months, that lube up the chain and go for a 120km ride.  What I am saying is that they are out of shape so as I blow past them on the hill I feel better about myself.  It also allows me to take it better when I get blown by 2 minutes later by some superfit cyclist.

I made it to the top - where resting were the two guys that blew past me - the tortoise is making her move!! I head down Skyline to 84.  84 should be all downhill, but at this point it seems like a huge effort.  I finally, with immense pain (especially from my new seat that will be returned asap) I make it to Stage Road, sit on the side of the road and have a bar, letting my bum have a 5 minute rest from this god forsaken seat, and then head home.  This ride was not fun.  It takes me forever to load my bike on the car and get set to go home.  I am beat!