It's Been a While!!

I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since my last post. Since the Sea Otter, I haven't been doing anything really exciting. I did take the week off after the race just to get some downtime from work. I did complete my 500 miles for the month of April on Runkeeper. In that 500 miles was a 45 mile out and back trip to visit Julie at work for lunch, and one 30 mile round-trip ride into town to visit my parents.


My 5K-10K training is going into it's 6th week with another 3 to go. Next weekend is the Avenue of the Vines race, I'll be running the 5K as usual, and Julie will be running in her first half-marathon. I can't express how proud of her I am and what she can accomplish when she puts her mind to it. After this race I think we both need to take a week off from running, riding and working out and just veg out. After that we can get back to training for the next big event in June, ( The Mendocino Monster) 62 miles of mind numbing hill climbing. Luckily, we have 2 comparable hills to climb right in our own back yard. (i.e. Mt. Diablo and Del Valle)

I did, however, manage to record my first "real" KOM (king of the mountain) on Strava. I've been riding this stretch for about 2 months now, and have been very close to the record time several times. May 6th was the day all the planets came into alignment, ducks fell into a row and I got my first KOM. It's actually a pretty tricky segment in that you have to know where it starts to be able to trigger the GPS to track it. I won't lie, it took a lot of luck to do it, First of all, I had to catch the light just right. Second, I had to have a clear path with no pedestrians or cars to dodge. Next, I was fortunate enough to catch a tailwind that day. (usually face a headwind here) Finally, I had to pedal as hard as I could to the finish. I'm sure it will fall, but for now I'm "The Man" on this segment!!

 

 

 

 

Cross it off the Bucket List!!

Riding 17 Mile Drive...



Me and Jules at Spanish Beach (Pardon my Helmet Hair)

Who's that hot chick in the pink jacket?

   For some time now, I've been wanting to tour 17 Mile Dr. on a bike. We did it! We rode from the Pacific Grove gate to the Hwy 1 gate and back. We actually started off from our hotel located on Reservation Rd. in Marina, CA. All told we rode 47.7 miles and 4.5 hours out and back. I started the day with a high carb breakfast of bagels, waffles, cereal, and a cinnamon roll. Julie had a bagel and a banana I think and coffee. We were originally going to just do a late check out so I could leave the mountain bike in the room until we got back. We decided that it would be to our advantage to just break down the bike and put it inside the car along with the luggage and check out early. That way we didn't have to rush our bike ride and just enjoy it. There is just something about the vastness of the ocean that amazes me every time I see it. Listening to the waves crashing on the beach is so soothing. I can feel all of my cares and woes just melt away. On one hand, I'd love to live here and be close to the ocean all the time. On the other hand, being around it all the time might make it lose it's magic. I'll just settle for visiting from time to time. Back to the ride. After we stopped at Spanish Beach for a quick photo op, we continued on winding around the loop. We stopped in at a little deli at Pebble Beach for a light lunch. We had a couple of club sandwiches (at 10 bucks a pop! Yikes!) and coleslaw (BTW, best coleslaw I've had in a while!) Julie was at that point of "I don't care how much it costs, I'm friggin' hungry!" After our lunch, we continued on "The Drive" when it started going uphill fast! Dang it! I knew there would be some climbing involved but, Damn!! I started having flashbacks from the previous days journey up the mountains in my race. The difference being that I was on my road bike this time and a paved road. I could maintain a slower speed without falling over and overheating. I still had to rest a few times going up, but nothing like the day before. it took us a while to get over to the Hwy 1 Gate, but once there, we had to figure out how to get back to where we came in at. As I'm looking at the map, I see the way back, and Julie says "Yeah that'll get us back, but its probably all hills we'll have wind around to get there!" "Let's just go back the way we came!" I said " Let's just see where it goes. If it gets too tough then we can go back." As we started up the road I started thinking "Damn it! I hate when she's right!" Because the first thing we had to do was climb some more. As we get a little closer to the top, I see a sign that says "Crest Rd." I start to think out loud "Does that mean we finally at the top? or is it just a name?"  Low and behold it was the top of the hill, and boy did it start dropping fast!! All of that climbing finally paid off. Jules and I coasted almost all of the 4-5 miles back to the Pacific Grove gate. Julie was partially right, we did have to wind around the hills, but at least we didn't have to climb them!!! Once we got there, it was a pretty "easy" ride back to the hotel. We took the "Coastal Bike Trail" or as I like to call it the "Bike Highway" When I get out on that path I keep feeling like a car is going to pass me at any minute. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by Jessica's (oldest daughter) School and said our goodbyes before we headed home.  All in all it was good trip. we had some fun had a few laughs, saw the sights, spent quality time with one another. A great weekend indeed!!


Fisherman's Wharf

Sea Otter Recap....

Pre-race "Happy" picture.

On the Grid!! Ready to Go!!

And now, the real work begins...

Well, let's just say that I have a lot of work to do before next years race! It was a pretty abysmal finish to what I though was going to be a much better race than last time. Although I was NOT dead last, it wasn't far behind me. I finished with a time of 3:57:37. Yep you read that right, almost 4 hours to go 16 miles. But out of that 4 hours was about an hour and a half of rest stops.  My actual moving time was 2:39:49. If that would have been my race time, I'd have been ecstatic!! There were, however, 2 other guys that finished behind me at just over 4 hours each.  I didn't fail to finish, I just had my expectations a little too high. I'm still struggling with my hill climbing on the dirt. I can't seem to find a cadence and speed that gets me to the top of the hill that won't burn out my lungs and legs. I have to maintain a minimum of at least 7 mph or I fall over. But the best speed I can maintain for the distance and elevation is 5 mph. See the problem? I think where I need to start, is learning how to ride sloooooowwwww. I need to build up my core so I have the balance to stay up at lower speeds. I have plenty of gear left on the bike, just not enough leg or lungs to maintain a higher cadence. The trail itself was not overly technical, no big ass boulders to climb over, no tree roots to avoid. it did have some really tight single track sections and a couple of really scary descents, with a few jaw dropping cliff-side trails that one wrong move would definitely ruin your weekend. But the hill climbing is what took it's toll on me. Every race is a learning experience, the lesson here is climb slow to climb fast and don't underestimate the trail!! What I'm taking with me from this experience is that I didn't die, didn't get seriously injured (although I took a little spill near the end of the race.), the bike came home in one piece and I did have some fun!! I WILL be back!! Hopefully a little stronger, better trained, and hungry!!

"Charging" to the finish!!

Post-race "Happy it's over" picture.

Off To Monterrey!!!

Sea Otter Classic or Bust!

The day is finally here! In just a few short hours, Julie and I will be heading off on our latest adventure. I'm not gonna lie, the butterflies in my stomach are growing in number and size!! At this moment, Julie is out doing her long run for the week (9 miles!) You go girl!!! I'm trying to make breakfast and locate all of my gear for the weekend, wash my riding clothes, etc. I feel pretty confident that I'm going to have fun, but at the same time I'm worried that I didn't train hard enough to make it through the course. I'm just gonna have to wing it I guess. I'm starting to have flashbacks from my last race I guess. But I've had 3 months since that race to train, and this course doesn't seem as technical as the last one. I WILL finish no matter what!! Even If I have to walk it over the line!!

 

We've decided to take the road bikes too for a little ride up the coast after the race. I think I'm looking forward to that most of all, because I get to spend some quality time with Jule's and you get to see things that kinda whizz by when you're in a car. Well I guess I better finish packing and hit the road. Wish me luck!!

 

Running Raceday Recap!!

Zoo Zoom at Sacramento Zoo

Today was a beautiful day for a run! The sun was shining, temperature was perfect, no wind, great company too!! This time we headed out to Sacramento for the Sacramento Zoo Zoom run. The schedule for the day was a little different than usual with the 5K starting first. Usually Julie's race starts before mine so we end up finishing pretty close to the same time. But this time it was my turn to go first, which was great because Julie was able to snap a few pics as I went out and when I got back. Every race I do I seem to learn more. Todays lesson was: Know your race pace, and position yourself ahead of the group you "think" you should be in at the start. That way you don't have to weave your way around all of the really slow runners/walkers. For the first mile, I spent most of it bobbing and weaving in and out of people that couldn't get out of their own way, let alone mine. As I'm running along my music is pumping in time with my strides, and my Runkeeper chimes in at the 1 mile mark and gives me the lowdown on my run. At the 1 mile mark, I ran a 9:32 min/mile. I'm like, crap!! I need to slow down or I'm gonna burn out before the 2nd mile. I was thinking maybe my speed was up due to the Sports Beans I downed right before the race or maybe it was taking the day off before the race. Whatever it was, it was working. Because when I got to mile 2, my speed hadn't gone down that much. I had just ran another sub-10 minute mile. All of  a sudden I started thinking. I could theoretically finish this race under 30 minutes if I can maintain this pace. Unfortunately that damn 2.5 mile jinx crept in and knocked the shit out of me. At mile 2.5 my lungs felt like they were on fire and I had to really slow it down. I need to start carrying an inhaler with me on my runs to keep this from happening. At mile 2.9 they just gave out and I had to walk for second to catch my breath. Damn It!! I was within sight of the finish line and I had to walk. I couldn't make the whole run without stopping. I only walked for about 20 yards counting the other runners that were passing me. At mile 3, I sucked it up and sprinted out the last 1/8 mile, passing all but 2 of the people that passed me while I was walking. My official time was 31:42 which is to date my best time so far!! All in all it was a great day of racing.

Sprinting to the finish!! (and yes, I passed that group!!)

Onward and Upward!!

Next Sunday I will be running in my 3rd 5K race at the Sacramento Zoo Zoom. It looks to be a pretty flat course, so hopefully I can make it the whole way without stopping. What's weird is, my race, starts before Julie's. But it's cool at the same time. She might actually get some pics of me crossing the finish line (or staggering over it haha.) Last month I started Active.com's 5K-10K running workout. So far it hasn't been too bad, but I'm still pretty early into it. If nothing else, I'm hoping it'll help me with my 5K's.

 

The next couple of months are going to be pretty busy. Later this month is the Sea Otter Classic. In May I'm running the 5K in the Avenue of the Vines race in Lodi. This will be Julies first half-marathon. I'm so proud of her and what she's accomplished in just a little over a year.

 

For June, we will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary by doing a 60+ mile bike ride through the forests of Mendocino county called the Mendocino Monster. This is going to be a real test of both of our fitness levels. The ride not only consists of long miles, but has some pretty tough climbing and descents. Julie wanted to do the little 28 miler, but my thinking was "what the hell? we've got all day! what else do we have to do?" Besides it's not like it's tomorrow. We've got 2 months to train for it. It's also pretty well supported along the way. According to their website they have fully stocked rest areas about every 20 miles, which if you think about it, it'll be like riding three 20 mile rides in one day. We'll just take our time, take in the sights, and have some fun with it. See you on the road!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Countdown to Sea Otter Classic!!

Damn! this year is going by quick. It's already April!! Only 2 weeks left to train for the big race. I've been racking up the miles this week trying to get my body conditioned good enough to ride for 2 hours straight without collapsing. I'm currently at a 6 day total 136 miles for my 500 mile goal for the month. Today I decided to do some hill training, so Julie and I took on the Patterson Pass challenge. I remember making this ride when I was a lot younger, and it seemed a little tougher today than what I remember. Of course, I was 25 years younger and about 60 lbs. lighter than I am now. We both did pretty well for most of the ride up the hill. We stopped and took breaks about every mile to mile and a half. Sadly though, we had to walk the last couple hundred feet. as the climb got so steep that we I couldn't keep pedaling. But in the end we made it to the top.

A View From The Top!!

 

On the way to the Summit!!

On our way over, what we used to call as kids "The Top of the World" there was appeared to be an all women's bike race. I was so wishing that I would have gone the other way over the hill. Some of the speeds they were hitting looked incredible. But no, I had to take the hard way over going west. It all worked out though, we took a little break at the top and took some pictures drank a little water and started down the other side. Once we got into Livermore, Julie was in need of a ladies room, so we stopped into the local Subway took care of business and had some lunch. After lunch we headed into downtown Livermore. The wind was starting to pick up so we didn't do much riding around town. We turned east and headed back. We took Altamont Pass Rd. for the return trip. Man I love that ride!! I started off fast and just kept rolling. I did have to slow up a little to let Jules catch up some, but once we got to the bottom, she pulled up and I asked her "was that fun?" Her reply, "That was Freaking Awesome!!" But now came the last big challenge of the day, Midway Rd. On my last two attempts, I failed miserably to climb that friggin' hill. I just couldn't get my legs to carry me over that hill. As soon as I get within sight of the top my legs just shut down. But, NOT TODAY!! those word are what drove me to make it to the top. Go Me!!  We finally made it back to the car 36 miles and just over 3 hours later.

 

 

Good Friday???

Mountain Bike Friday in Full Effect!!

Or, at least, it started off that way. The day started off with a great ride this morning. Today, was "Mountain Bike Friday",  just a little thing I came up with to stay in tune with the bike. I rode the 7.5 miles in from Santa Clara in just a shade over 31 minutes smashing my old time by 7 minutes. I had been told by a fellow cyclist that a road bike would make me faster on a mountain bike. I guess he was right! I was hardly even trying, but I found myself using higher gears that I did before, with minimal effort.

My splits via Runkeeper

 

After this ride, I was pretty stoked all day I couldn't wait to make the return trip to the station. By the end of the day though, the wind started to pick up and I knew any chance of repeating the morning's performance was out the window. I actually didn't do that bad though I went 5 miles in a little over 21 minutes.

 

 

 

 

This is where the day took a bad turn. As I'm pulling into the Tracy station, all I'm thinking about is getting in my truck and heading home to relax after a long ass week. One problem, where the FUCK is my truck??? I ride over to where it WAS parked and all I found was some of the junk that was in the door pocket. FUCK ME!! Some ASSHOLE stole my truck!! As the panic starts to set in I called Julie to come and get me. Now I've got to call the local P.D. and start a stolen vehicle report, which right away I'm thinking this going to go nowhere. Well as it turned out, the same jackass broke into 5 or 6 other cars in the lot before taking my truck a fleeing the scene. Well he didn't go far before doing something else stupid. He pulled over in some random neighborhood and got out with a suitcase he had swiped from another car, which caught the eye of someone who thought he was acting suspisious and called it in. He was later caught shoplifting at Target and then pulled over in my truck. The cops had already caught the guy before I even knew my truck was stolen. Now the fun part begins, after he was arrested for the shoplifting, the police had the truck towed not knowing it was stolen. It took almost 3 hours just get the police sgt. to sign the release form for me so I can get my truck out. We were finally able to track it down, but the place was closed for the day. Hopefully the jerk didn't fuck it up too bad. I just hope this string of bad luck has finally run its course. Grrrrr!  

 

Packing On The Miles!!

This week I decided to up the ante to ride 100+ miles. Unfortunately, I started the week off by driving to work on Monday due to work scheduling. Tuesday I got off the train in Santa Clara and logged the first 8 miles of my 100. That afternoon, I headed back to the San Jose station for another 5 miles added. When I got there, there was news of an unfortunate accident farther up the tracks. Someone had been hit by a train and subsequently killed:-( The officials said it would likely be 2-3 hours before any of the trains would be allowed to go through the scene. 2-3 Hours? I can't wait around for 2-3 hours. So I hopped on my bike and headed north. I called Julie and let her know the situation. I told her that at worst, she might have to come pick me up in Pleasanton from the BART station. I basically followed the tracks until I got to Great America station thats where my knowledge of Santa Clara streets ended. I had a vague idea of where I was going but I had to keep stopping to check my GPS to make sure I wasn't straying too far off track. (need to get a phone holder for my bike) I finally got to a point where I knew where I was and settled into my ride to the Fremont ACE station. 32 miles in a little over 2 hours. For a total of 40 miles on day one!! Go Me!!

 

The rest of the week I took it pretty easy only riding in from Santa Clara and back to San Jose. Friday morning I was late getting to the train in Tracy so I had to catch it in Livermore. So that afternoon I got off at the Pleasanton staion and rode to Vasco Rd. It was just a little 10 miler, but hey, miles are miles right? I was just 16 miles short of my 100 for the week, so this morning Julie and I went out for a "little" ride. We chose to just get on the bikes and ride from the club intead of driving somewhere, parking the truck somewhere safe, and then having to drive back. We headed south along River road and into the little town of Greyson. The ride to this point was really smooth due to the nice tailwind we had. Once we turned west and headed towards Westley, the wind was so fierce it slowed us down to a crawl. Once we finally got to Westley, we stopped at  Subway and had some lunch and took a break from the wind. After lunch we geared up and started off into the wind for home. After this mornings ride my weeks total is 112 miles!! BOOYAH!!! Not too shabby for a 5 day total!

 

 

 

 

On the road to Westley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Badger Cove Recap!!

Yesterday, Julie and I ran at Del Valle in the Badger Cove 5K and 10K races. My sister-in-law Maegan and her dad Charlie decided to tag along and run in the 5K with me. Cool!! We were cutting it a little close on time for Julie to make her race. You can read about her race adventure here.  We got there with just enough time for her to sign in and use the potty and get to the line. And she was off. They start the longer races first so everyone gets back to the finish around the same time. So I'm waiting around for my race to start, and the butterflies are starting to fly. I had to keep telling myself "just run your race, and your pace and you'll be ok." The gun goes off and I'm running. Maegan and Charlie were only with me for a short time. I told them I was going to slow my pace up a bit so I could run the whole way, and just go on and not let me hold them up. Well, it turned out the other way around I was running a slower pace than I usually run but, I had to get into my groove. I had to pass several people that had started walking like right after the race started. Before I knew it I was a ways ahead of them. The trail had some moderate hillclimbs which was littered with "landmines a.k.a. road apples a.k.a. cow poop" thrown in just to make it interesting!! When I got to the inclines I would kinda "throw it into low gear" and just chug along up the hill. Once at the top, I'd use the downhill to catch up. I saw a lot of people holding back going downhill, and I was like, why?? I love downhill. I can haul ass downhill. I could open up my gait a little and slow down my cadence all while gaining speed. Then back to my short, rapid strides to go uphill. I made it to the 2.5 mile mark again before I started to struggle. I think I need to start skipping the water at the aid stations, it seems to throw me of my groove when I take it. Because right after the water stations is when I start struggling. I was heading up the last hill when my legs decided to take a timeout. I can't really explain what happens, but my leg muscles hit their redline and I can't make them move even if I wanted to. They just stiffen up. I've had this happen to me while on the bike too!! Usually when I'm climbing really steep hills. After I walked the last bit up the hill, I started off again to the finish. Once I got within the last 100 yards I turned on the afterburners and sprinted to the finish. I still had a decent finishing time of  35:38 and 11th in my age group. Not too shabby for me on this trail. I was only a minute slower than my last race which was much flatter than this one. After I finished, collected my medal, and grabbed a cup of water, I waited for Maegan and Charlie to finish their race. I didn't realize I was as far ahead of them as I was. (nearly 10 minutes) after that  we waited for Julie to finish her 10K. My phone was acting up and went dead before I could get a pic of her crossing the finish line. All in all a great day. I got to get out in the fresh air and beautiful countryside and spend time in great company.

And The Hits Just Keep On Comin' !!!

Have you ever had one of those days, where you know you should have stayed in bed? That day was Friday, March 15 for me. This is the first time that I can remember having trouble adjusting to the time change. Well it caught up to me on Frday. The morning started off with me oversleeping by almost an hour and missing the morning train. I didn't want to drive in, so I decided to take a later one. That part was ok, but getting in later meant I had to stay later. So, off to work I go. I get there and I start working on this job that had to go that day. Now I know I'm far from perfect, I don't make very many bonehead mistakes, but today I pulled a doozie. Somehow I had mixed up which cam was which on this car , and I set the cam timing all wrong. I rolled it over by hand to see if everything was ok and I didn't feel any resistance, so I assumed everything was ok. When I tried to start the car when I had it back together it sounded funny and wouldnt start. I realized what I had done, I tore it back down and reset the cams and did a compression test. Unfortunately there was none in three cylinders. GREAT!!! now I have to pull the damn thing down AGAIN and repair all the valves I bent. Even better I have to do it on my time!! That was the first event that sent the day into a tailspin.

 Later, my sister had wanted me to give her a ride to my parents house after work. Normally I'm ok with it but she kinda sprung it on me at the las minute. She rides a train down to where I catch mine in San Jose, then rides the train back with me, and I drop her off. No big deal usually but, since I got to work late, I had to stay until 4 o'clock which doesn't give me a lot of time to get to the train station. So right as I was about to leave some guy comes into the shop and wants to bend my ear about some problem he has with his car. I told him I was actually heading out the door and had a train to catch. he's all like "it'll only take a second". You know that's not the way it went. He took up almost 10 minutes of my time because he refused to accept my answer to his question. I told him "look if you know the answer, why did you come to me?" At which point he left and and I was finally on my way. Now maybe I was a little rude to the guy, but I can spot a time waster when I see one. So I'm pedalling my bike as hard as I can to get there in 20 minutes. I can usually do it on my road bike, but I thought it would be fun to ride the mountain bike instead. My sister sends me a text while I'm riding about which train she should buy a ticket for. I had origianlly told her 5:30 but I was trying to make the 4:30. In her defense I didn't think I was going to make it at 4:30 so I told her 5:30. But instead of hanging around the station, she decides to go to a bar across the street. I haul ass to the station, punch my ticket, I'm ready to board the train... No train, but the people are still standing there. Where's my sister? I text her to find out where she is, just as she sends her reply, the train pulls up, the peole get on, a minute later the train is gone. I missed my FUCKING train TWICE today!!! Now I have to wait another hour to go home. "Whatever", I tell myself. So then we finally get to town, drop her off at my folks house and I'm heading home 

 

 

 

Normally I don't going down Grant Line road, but since I was dropping off my sister It was the fastest way home. As you head east on Grant Line the speed limit chanes about 5 times so you have to pay close attention, well today was the day I got caught not paying attention. Normally I drive like a grandpa when I'm on this road and I was slowing down when I entered the little town of  Banta but the cop must not have thought I was slowing fast enougth. He tells me he had me at 51 mph in a 35 zone. I knew Iwas only going 45 (still speeding, but not as bad). I was to tired to argue with him, and besides cops hate it when you play roadside attorney with them. Now I'm getting a ticket, JUST FUCKING GREAT!!!! Can this day get any worse???

 

 

  I finally get home, tired, beaten, and spent. My phone battery had gone dead earlier so I hooked it up to the charger and walked away. I came back to check on it and WTH!!! no charge!! DAMN IT!! and the phone is getting super hot!! I finally just took a shower and went to bed, before anything else takes a shit!! I guess I can chalk this one up as one of my all time worst days. But hopefully Saturday will be better. It has to be because I'm going to spend it with people I like doing something I like!!!

 

 

Another Weekend, Another Raceday!!

Saturday is almost here!! I'm feeling pretty nervous about this race as I've been having trouble with my running lately. My last couple of runs have been miserable failures. I can't seem to get passed the 2 mile mark without getting out of breathe and nearly collapsing. Even with all of Julie's encouragement, I can't get over this hurdle for some reason. I don't know if it's the time of day, what I've eaten, or not eaten, or not enough rest in between everything else I'm doing (i.e. biking, weight training) or something. Hopefully I can pull it together good enough to at least have a decent finish (ah hell, just finish). Wish me luck!! I'm gonna need it!!

The Call of the Road...

Or, conquering the Altamont.

Yesterday the sun was shining bright, daylight savings time had just begun, and I could hear the road beckoning me to come out and ride. I had been contemplating making the ride all day, even after logging 16 miles earlier in the day. The train arrived at the Vasco rd. station at about 5:40 p.m. and I answered the call. I quickly put on my helmet and gloves, grabbed my bike and backpack, and got off of the train. My first thought was, OMG! what have I done? The train is gone and now I'm forced to either ride (which is what I had intended to do anyway) or punk out and wait for the next train. So I got on the bike, started my Stava cycling app,(or at least I thought I did) and headed out on my journey.  I pretty much knew my way around out there, after all, I learned how to drive out there. After leaving the station I headed down to Altmont Pass rd. This was the original highway over the Altamont before I-580 was built. It's a little two lane windy road that connects Livermore to Tracy and has connections to Brentwood as well. I does have a fairly wide shoulder with enough room for cars to get by without taking you out.  The first 8 miles of the ride was a pretty long and boring climb to the summit.  Had I known my cycling app had turned itself off after 30 seconds, I would have stopped and taken some pics along the way. Once I passed the summit the ride got really interesting. I started rolling downhill gaining speed as I went up throught the gears. At one point I was keeping up with the cars on the road. Once I got towards the bottom, I turned onto Midway rd. This was a nice little departure from Altamont Pass rd and all of the cars whizzing by. This was where the one MONSTER of a hill on the whole route was, but thankfully there wasn't any traffic to speak of here. I ended up walking the bike up this beast hill for a couple of minutes to catch my breathe and take a drink. Once I got to the top, it was roller-coaster time again YEEHAW!! I rode on to Patterson Pass rd ,which is pretty flat (maybe slightly downhill), and into town to the train station. All total, it was a nice 23 mile ride which put me just 1 mile shy of 40 for the day.

New Month, New Goals, New Wheels!!!

This week in cycling....

I finally took the plunge and got a road bike. I've been resarching, pricing and comparison shopping for the last 3 months online and in the bike shops. I finally decided on a 2013 Specialized Secteur Sport. Now, Julie and I both have new road bikes. Hopefully this weekend will be nice enough togo for a nice long ride.

 

I've set a goal this month to increase my mileage from 200 miles to 400-500 miles per month. I've already been figuring out how I can squeeze the miles in by riding from the house to the station in the morning, and getting off the train 2 stops earlier should do it. Now I just have to get all the little dodads and goodies for the bike to be able to take those long rides. The first order of business is a good tire pump, extra tubes and a water bottle and cage and maybe a better light set.

 

 

He Shoots!!! He Scores!!! GOOOAAAALLLL!!!!

 I can't believe it's been 12 days since my last post. In that time I've had one of the most incredible accomplishments.  I finally reached my goal weight of 235 lbs. Can I get a collective WOOHOO? Now its time to hit the gym and put back some of the muscle I lost on my journey to good health.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My First 5K!!!

...or Scott 2, Fatboy 0

Today I ran the Bay Breeze 5K race at Quarry Lakes in Fremont. This was my first running race ever!! I now know the feeling Julie gets after a race, and it feels great!!! I was a little nervous standing on the grid right before the race. My legs get a little twitchy and restless from the adrenaline surge I get while anticipating the race ahead. Wheather it's on a bike, on my feet, or in my racecar that little nervous twitch before a race is always there. My race started 20 minutes after Julie started her 10K race. I gotta say, I'm so proud of her. She sets a goal and sees it through. She was thinking that we might finish the race pretty close to the same time since she started earlier, so I kept looking for her coming up behind me. I had to force myself to keep running just in case she did catch up to me, so she wouldn't give me crap for walking!!! (HaHa) The first 2.5 miles went without a hitch, in fact I ran the the whole way until that point. The last 3/4 mile was rough, I had to walk a little bit to catch my breath. I used Julie's 10 step and continue running method. It worked good until I got to the last quarter mile, which was a pretty good little uphill climb to the finish. I ended up walking a pretty good chunk of the way up that last hill. When I came around the last corner to the finish, I sucked it up, pinned the throttle, and sprinted to the finish, passing about seven or eight people coming to the stripe.

First 5K

Up until today the longest duration I had run was 20 minutes. I had a goal of finishing the race under 40 minutes. My official time was 34.42 with a 10.47 min/mi average. In that 34 minutes I think I only walked for about 3 or 4 minutes. I just kept telling myself, " Keep running!! don't let Julie catch you walking!!" I came in 235th out of 537 runners in the overall results. 12th in my age bracket out of 52.

 

 

Race Results 2/16/2013

I'm pretty stoked about my performance today, and I can't wait for the next race. Julie says that there is another race in March at Del Valle Resivior that we might look into.

 

After the Race!!!

 

 

 

 

Countdown To Raceday Part 2

7 Days to go!!!

 

Next Saturday I'll be running (instead of riding) in my first 5K race. On one hand I'm excited about the race in general. On the other, I'm nervous about being able to complete the run without collapsing. This mornings run was the most brutal so far. I know I say that after every run, but this time the first run cycle was ramped up quite a bit. Most of the intervals only increase by one or two minutes. Todays jumped up from 10 minutes to 15 minutes for the first run. I'm glad Julie was able to go with me. She always knows how to keep me motivated. About 2 minutes from the end of the first cycle, my heart and lungs were sreaming with pain, but she was able to give me the encouragement I needed to finish the run. Looking back at the choices I've made in my life, taking up smoking was definately the DUMBEST move I've ever made. I've been smoke free for a whole month now. I'm not gonna lie, it's been harder than losing the weight, but it's definately been worth it. Unfortunately, the damage has been done and I'm going to have to pay for it for a long time. Hopefully I'll be able to get enough of my lung function back for my upcoming bike race in Monterrey. Live and learn I guess.