Well I don't know about any 3 Musketeer's and Slurpee's or burpee's. But I do know that up until about 12:40 p.m. yesterday we had great weather in the So Cal region.
It made for a perfect stage of outdoor sports of any kind. Everyone appeared to be doing there thing. From kids soccer games, to kite flying, to RC cars being spun out of control. Everyone was out and enjoying it.
And I was no different. My choice of pleasure and pain Saturday was an early ride with Patrick from http://www.theroadmultisport.com/ along with the Orange Coast Velo crew. Anyone in the So Cal area should check them out for all levels of rides and race training.
Our luck with January weather has been historic. We hooked up and got road bound by 7:30, picking up other club members along the way. Within 6 miles and steadily heading south bound on PCH, I counted 26 riders in all. That is all good stuff right there.
This is not really us, but it would of looked similar. And this kicks arse !!
There really is something awesome about flying in a group at 18-20 mph warming up and chatting face to face or bar to bar, with friends. Its quite rewarding in itself.
After the clubs 1st regroup point we chose the shorter o the 2 rides that day.
Knowing I'm a week out from Surf City 1/2 Mary and my main focus right now is running. Patrick agreed and then we solidified it by both having long runs stamped in for Sunday.
Our "B" ride would be at a steady pace with some good random climbs, some longer than others, but all challenging. Read more on ride area here - http://www.theroadmultisport.com/ . Because we ride to the ride, our start distance always gets extended. Today's ride for me totalled 56.7 miles. I felt this was more than adequate with Sundays run scheduled for 10 + miles.
I loved the entire ride from start to finish. Was more prepared with liquids and fuel this time, and really enjoyed the route. We got to challenge ourselves on hills and flats for time and speed. We had a great close out ride coming in where we got some flat out wind slicing speeds going. It was awesome to get to be part of that. Ive missed that for quite some time (years) and I really enjoyed it.
Sunday was another story with the weather. WTH ? all clouds, kind of cold and looked like rain. I didn't see this coming. So the wife and I didn't jump out of bed like I had originally hoped. At this point I was just hoping she didn't look at the weather and say screw this, this is ugly and hard and I'm sitting this one out.
So I get up and start getting things going. Water bottles filled, GU's loaded, IPODS gathered etc..
A couple of notables here. My wife is a new member to this outside activity, so I try and make it as smooth as possible without doing all the prep work etc.. I still want her to live the commitment it takes and overcoming adversities.
Saturday we bought her a 20 oz. single shot fuel belt bottle set up. I reloaded 197 fresh songs into her IPOD and got her a new pink arm band for shuffle.
GOING FORWARD, This all seemed to work well. She never said shite about the weather, except a suggestion from me on which jacket she should bring.
We made our way down to our set start point, went over our distance plans and headed out.
This being my final long run before this weekends Surf City 1/2. I have never done this race or any 1/2 marathon before.
I'm pretty excited and think I am as good as I'm going to get, given the time frame that Ive had to get here.
This should be good.
Anyways I was off and out for 10-12 miles at what should be close to race pace for me. My legs where not heavy but a little shot from Saturday's ride efforts. I started at a 9:13 1st mile pace and held at for 3 miles. It was really tough for me and to make it that much harder the wind was directly in my face. So with a short upward climb and a headwind getting worse, all I could think about was how great the turn around would be with a tail wind and a short down hill.
I made the turn around and started heading back. I felt decent until about mile 7, where I started feeling a little groin pull on both left and right leg. My quads where definitely letting me know they where along for the pain too.
I just kept telling myself that this was the effects of the previous days ride, and that next weekend would be like every other weekend over the last 6 weeks. Nothing more than a long 10-12 mile run stretched out to 13.1 with more effort and fully rested.
I wondered many times while out there how my wife as doing. Was she still enjoying her new found thing ? She was definitely extending her walk miles today. How would the wind be messing with her head ?
All this while trying to sty focused on a decent pace and forget about nagging pain.
My pace did drop off to an over all average of 9:31. But even spent from the previous day and during through some pain, I managed to beat my best time by several minutes. Total run 9.97 miles in 1:38 minutes. I found my wife walking back my way about .3 miles from our start point, she had a smile on her face a she looked very satisfied.
I normally would have ran through until the last .03 miles left, but I figured what was the point. Stop and see how it all went for her, share her experience.
So that's what I did. And to my pleasant surprise she had walked 5 miles and enjoyed it. She somehow only figured out that a 5k is 3.1 miles and she believes she would like to try and run one of those pretty soon. Speaking of that thing called running. As I had hoped, she did try and run several times during this 5 mile walk. She said it sucked and wanted to get better at it .
So long of the short, the weather was not perfect sunshine. But to me would have been perfect run weather temperature, less the freakin wind.
My plans held together in sharing this with my wife.
She enjoyed it and made some new goals.
I enjoyed most of it and built a little more character. Along with proving I have more speed in me.
I have a long way to go and I have time to get there, so enjoy the ride and stay even keeled about it all.
You can't rush progress. But you know when it is upon you.
Today is a rest day. I have a couple short scheduled runs this week. No bike and I may swim a mile or so at lunch one day this week for pleasure.
Have a great day. Stay healthy.
It made for a perfect stage of outdoor sports of any kind. Everyone appeared to be doing there thing. From kids soccer games, to kite flying, to RC cars being spun out of control. Everyone was out and enjoying it.
And I was no different. My choice of pleasure and pain Saturday was an early ride with Patrick from http://www.theroadmultisport.com/ along with the Orange Coast Velo crew. Anyone in the So Cal area should check them out for all levels of rides and race training.
Our luck with January weather has been historic. We hooked up and got road bound by 7:30, picking up other club members along the way. Within 6 miles and steadily heading south bound on PCH, I counted 26 riders in all. That is all good stuff right there.
There really is something awesome about flying in a group at 18-20 mph warming up and chatting face to face or bar to bar, with friends. Its quite rewarding in itself.
After the clubs 1st regroup point we chose the shorter o the 2 rides that day.
Knowing I'm a week out from Surf City 1/2 Mary and my main focus right now is running. Patrick agreed and then we solidified it by both having long runs stamped in for Sunday.
Our "B" ride would be at a steady pace with some good random climbs, some longer than others, but all challenging. Read more on ride area here - http://www.theroadmultisport.com/ . Because we ride to the ride, our start distance always gets extended. Today's ride for me totalled 56.7 miles. I felt this was more than adequate with Sundays run scheduled for 10 + miles.
I loved the entire ride from start to finish. Was more prepared with liquids and fuel this time, and really enjoyed the route. We got to challenge ourselves on hills and flats for time and speed. We had a great close out ride coming in where we got some flat out wind slicing speeds going. It was awesome to get to be part of that. Ive missed that for quite some time (years) and I really enjoyed it.
Sunday was another story with the weather. WTH ? all clouds, kind of cold and looked like rain. I didn't see this coming. So the wife and I didn't jump out of bed like I had originally hoped. At this point I was just hoping she didn't look at the weather and say screw this, this is ugly and hard and I'm sitting this one out.
So I get up and start getting things going. Water bottles filled, GU's loaded, IPODS gathered etc..
A couple of notables here. My wife is a new member to this outside activity, so I try and make it as smooth as possible without doing all the prep work etc.. I still want her to live the commitment it takes and overcoming adversities.
Saturday we bought her a 20 oz. single shot fuel belt bottle set up. I reloaded 197 fresh songs into her IPOD and got her a new pink arm band for shuffle.
GOING FORWARD, This all seemed to work well. She never said shite about the weather, except a suggestion from me on which jacket she should bring.
We made our way down to our set start point, went over our distance plans and headed out.
This being my final long run before this weekends Surf City 1/2. I have never done this race or any 1/2 marathon before.
I'm pretty excited and think I am as good as I'm going to get, given the time frame that Ive had to get here.
This should be good.
I made the turn around and started heading back. I felt decent until about mile 7, where I started feeling a little groin pull on both left and right leg. My quads where definitely letting me know they where along for the pain too.
I just kept telling myself that this was the effects of the previous days ride, and that next weekend would be like every other weekend over the last 6 weeks. Nothing more than a long 10-12 mile run stretched out to 13.1 with more effort and fully rested.
I wondered many times while out there how my wife as doing. Was she still enjoying her new found thing ? She was definitely extending her walk miles today. How would the wind be messing with her head ?
All this while trying to sty focused on a decent pace and forget about nagging pain.
My pace did drop off to an over all average of 9:31. But even spent from the previous day and during through some pain, I managed to beat my best time by several minutes. Total run 9.97 miles in 1:38 minutes. I found my wife walking back my way about .3 miles from our start point, she had a smile on her face a she looked very satisfied.
I normally would have ran through until the last .03 miles left, but I figured what was the point. Stop and see how it all went for her, share her experience.
So that's what I did. And to my pleasant surprise she had walked 5 miles and enjoyed it. She somehow only figured out that a 5k is 3.1 miles and she believes she would like to try and run one of those pretty soon. Speaking of that thing called running. As I had hoped, she did try and run several times during this 5 mile walk. She said it sucked and wanted to get better at it .
So long of the short, the weather was not perfect sunshine. But to me would have been perfect run weather temperature, less the freakin wind.
My plans held together in sharing this with my wife.
She enjoyed it and made some new goals.
I enjoyed most of it and built a little more character. Along with proving I have more speed in me.
I have a long way to go and I have time to get there, so enjoy the ride and stay even keeled about it all.
You can't rush progress. But you know when it is upon you.
Today is a rest day. I have a couple short scheduled runs this week. No bike and I may swim a mile or so at lunch one day this week for pleasure.
Have a great day. Stay healthy.
You missed mentioning your pull on PCH. That, my friend, was legendary.
ReplyDeleteThe ride sounds great, and if you're doing training runs at that pace you'll most likely be faster at the actual half marathon due to the crowds and excitement. Good luck. I'm excited for you...and that's awesome that your wife is getting so motivated! Smart of you to do the legwork for now so it makes it that much easier for her to get out there.
ReplyDeleteAaah, the legendary pull of 2011. I remember it like it was Saturday.
ReplyDeleteWow thats great that your wife is seeing the light! I'm so happy for her! I think you've been one heck of an inspiration for her, I'm glad you finished along side her - you got class! Beautiful!
ReplyDeletenow back to my original thought at the start of your blog.... I keep forgetting why I hate you but then I see your photo's and weather and then it dawns on me why I hate you so much :) OK, maybe hate is a strong word so maybe INSANELY jealous may be more appropriate. That is some darn nice weather and scenery you got there! I'm glad you get out and appreciate what you have!!
In the meantime - I hates you! :) lol j/k
Yay for a great ride & with mr snipers himself. Awesome. ;)
ReplyDelete"You can't rush progress. But you know when it is upon you".Never a truer word spoken. So glad your wife is enjoying herself and good on you for pushing through that pain.
ReplyDeleteGood luck at Surf City!
ReplyDelete