It was nice and sunny yet again today and there were plenty of people in the pool. It was nice not to swim alone.
200 warm-up
10 x 100 free on 2:00
5 x 100 kicking (25 slow, 25 fast, 25 slow, 25 fast)
5 x 200 pulling with paddles
200 IM with fins
100 warm-down
—–
3000 yards
When I looked up from my work, it was almost 1:00. I didn’t really feel like running. If the pool had been open, I’m sure I would have talked myself into swimming. But it wasn’t. I thought about riding my bike, but I suited up for running anyway. I tried to talk myself into just running the short 2.5 mile loop that I’ve done so many times, but I filled my water bottles and strapped them on. That usually means I’m running the 5 mile loop.
But something strange happened. As I started running there were a bunch of cars pulling in and out of the parking lot, so I stayed on the sidewalk to the right of the parking lot. Normally, I run down the left side of the parking lot when I do the 5 mile loop, so I was a little out of place. When I got to the bottom of the parking lot, I just stayed right and the next thing I knew I was headed away from my normal loop.
I figured I would do an out-and-back across the top of Del Mar Heights Road and get about 6 miles done without too much climbing. I broke down and let myself walk a lot those first few miles, and for that I required punishment. So I ran up to Rancho Santa Fe Farms Road and then cut down to the trail along the 56. I pulled my phone out to see how far I had gone when I got to Carmel Country Road. I was 90 minutes in to the run and had gone just over 8 miles. I was really close to telling Strava that my run was complete and just walking home from there, but I kept telling myself I could always trim it back to any point in the run if I decided to do that later. And so I kept going. But it was mostly just walking after that. At least I didn’t let myself just go up Carmel Mountain. I made it all the way to Carmel Creek before heading home.
https://app.strava.com/activities/45968170
I don’t think I’ve ever gone 9.5 miles in a single session before. That’s pretty cool.
Many times when I arrive at the pool, there are a few people getting out. Today was no exception. Most days, a lot of people show up around the same time I get in, or just after me. But nobody showed up today. I swam alone the entire time. It’s a little disconcerting to constantly realize you’re the only reason the lifeguard is in his chair. You’re the only one he’s watching. If you miss a turn, he’ll be there to see it. So I didn’t swim as long as I might have had there been other people around, but I still enjoyed the water and the sunshine.
200 warm-up
10 x 50 free @ 0:40 on 1:00
5 x 100 kick no fins @ 1:55 on 2:15
500 pull with paddles
100 easy
2 x 200 IM with fins
100 easy
—–
2300 yards
After about a year of researching, test-riding, researching, etc. Charmaine pulled the trigger and bought a new bike. She narrowed it down to a Trek Madone or a Specialized Ruby. She had done several test-rides with each, but never at the same time. No cycling shop (that she could find) carries both brands. So she rented the Trek for a day and took it to the Specialized shop. Finally she rode a few loops with each of her favorite bikes and realized right away there was a clear winner for her… the Specialized. After a good fitting, some adjustments to the bike, some adjustments to her shoes, etc. She was ready to ride the Kitchen Creek loop today.
Let me just say that I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. We had originally planned to meet up with Ryan and Julie at their camp site on the shore of Lake Morena and ride from there. But after we arrived in the morning, we decided to adjust the route a little to avoid riding along Buckman Springs road on the south side of I-8. It’s a 55 MPH zone with narrow lanes and no bike lane. Also there was quite a bit of traffic on it and nobody was going below 60. That’s not ideal, so we cut it from the ride.
Instead of leaving from their camp, we parked our car at the rest stop where Buckman Springs Road meets I-8 at Exit 51. From there we took Old highway 80 around to where it meets Kitchen Creek Road where we started our ascent. I didn’t give my legs a day off this week, and I could tell on that ascent. Charmaine was also discovering that the new insoles in her shoes and the new geometry of her new bike were causing her to use her muscles in a slightly different way. Bottom line: we were hurting. Ryan, on the other hand, was a climbing machine, but he was kind enough to wait for us from time to time so we could all stay together.
After about 8 miles there was a sign that said, “Pavement ends 400 feet”. Suddenly I wondered if we were even on the right road. I hadn’t paid any attention whatsoever to our planned route. I had no idea how much climbing there would be or what roads we were supposed to take, etc. Luckily, the pavement didn’t end. The two lane road ended and there was a gate. Beyond the gate was a narrow single-lane road about the width of a golf cart. It seems that it’s only used by cyclists. Suddenly the ride became awesome.
Still showing my lack of understanding for what was in store, I started snapping pictures with my phone of the road leading up to where we were. In my mind the top was just around the next corner. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The golf-cart sized road seemed to go on forever, and almost always up. Every now and then it would flatten out and even descend a few tens of feet before heading right back into another climb. The climb wasn’t steep, but it just kept going. I think we climbed about 14 miles straight before we finally hit the top. But it was awesome in the true meaning of the word. We took our time, stopping often to take more pictures, drink more water, and just rest our weary legs (in my case, at least). It was great.
Then we came to the other gate. We had climbed from 3200 to 5800 feet with almost no flat spots and almost no descents during the climb. The narrow lane of Kitchen Creek Road was in pretty bad shape. It would be dangerous and probably stupid to ride this loop the other direction (descending Kitchen Creek instead of ascending it). But I wondered what the descent would be like on the Sunshine Highway. I didn’t wonder for long.
Within minutes we were down. It took 2 hours to make the ascent and only a few minutes to make our way back down to the car. The Sunshine Highway isn’t in the greatest condition, but it’s a big road and I found myself going faster than 40 MPH on several occasions. That descent was really fun.
We rode back to the rest stop along Old highway 80. I was surprised to see a checkpoint setup by Border Patrol on that road. At first I didn’t know what to make of it, but they didn’t care a bit about me (I was heading towards Mexico and not coming from Mexico). I had made the descent a little faster than everyone else (finally being bigger pays off), so I just made my way to the car and waited for everyone else to get back. That was a great ride.
https://app.strava.com/activities/45549744
After uploading my ride to Strava I noticed that my heart rate monitor crapped out on me about 40 minutes in to the ride. I’m not sure what happened, but I’m not too impressed. I’ve been having a really hard time getting my phone to see the monitor. I have to unpair and repair it via bluetooth almost each time I use it. That doesn’t seem right to me. But still, I had a really good time on the ride today.
This is the first time I’ve gone swimming three times in one week for a very very long time. And it felt great.
200 warm-up
5 x 100 free
4 x 100 kick
3 x 100 pull no paddles
200 free
100 free
2 x 200 free
2 x 200 IM with fins
100 easy
4 x 50 free building
4 x 50 kick
200 warm-down
—–
3200 yards
All morning I kept thinking up little reasons why I should take it easy today. Maybe I would only run 3 miles instead of 5. Maybe I wouldn’t run at all. My legs were still pretty sore from running and swimming earlier this week and I know we’ll be doing a big bike ride on Saturday. So maybe taking some time to recover would be just the thing. No. That’s not the way it works. I strapped on my heart rate monitor and my water bottles and headed out to run. I started off slow, still considering taking it easy. Eventually I passed the turn-off for the shorter loop and then I was committed. I knew I could improve my time going up the big hill at the end, but I had to make it there first. My legs really are pretty sore and worn out, but I managed to get through it.
It’s been a long time since I’ve jumped in and done a 3,000 yard work out. That was my goal for today and I got it.
When I arrived at the pool, I was alone. Just me and the lifeguard. But by the time I had done my first 100 yards 4 others had jumped in. Before too much longer there were 8 of us. Somehow I managed to start earlier, swim faster, and stay longer than everyone else. I think my goal had something to do with that.
100 warm-up
200 free
200 kick
200 pull no paddles
200 kick with fins no board
200 pull with paddles
100 easy
4 x 200 IM with fins
100 easy
200 free
200 pull with paddles
6 x 50 kick fast no fins
200 free
—–
3000 yards
Today was a running day. I broke down mentally and let myself walk a lot of it. I haven’t slept very well for a few nights and I think that may be starting to catch up to me. At least that’s what I tell myself to create a convenient excuse to allow myself to walk. So I need to work on my mental toughness.
I even let myself walk on the down-hill section at the very beginning. That’s not cool. I decided to punish myself a little by going up the really steep hill in the park (20% grade). Of course, I walked that too, but then I jogged the rest of the way home.
The people in charge of weather prediction continue telling me how cold and dark each new day will be. When I wake up each morning it seems like they may be right, but then the sun burns away all the fog. It turned out to be beautiful and warm today and I wanted to go swimming. So that’s what I did.
200 free warm-up
3 x 100 kicking
5 x 100 free with fins
4 x 200 IM with fins
2 x 200 pulling
4 x 50 kicking
4 x 50 dolphin kick with fins
100 free warm-down
—–
2500 yards
Charmaine signed us up to ride the Tour of Borrego this year. Although we didn’t know it at the time, we wound up riding with a man famous for his legislative successes, a man called Murphy.
Our problems started a few days before the Tour when I ate the last of our Shot Blocks and sucked down the last of our Gus on a quick ride along the 56. Both Charmaine and I had great rides, despite only having a little over an hour to ride. As we were leaving the house for that ride on Wednesday, we told ourselves that we would order a bunch through Amazon Prime when we got back, hoping that they would arrive on Friday, in plenty of time for the Tour on Saturday. We were so excited after finishing such a good ride, that we completely forgot to order anything. No problem, we though, we’ll stop by somewhere on Friday and that will be that.
Friday came and went without a trip to a bike store, no trip to REI, no trip anywhere that sells Shot Blocks or Gus. It wasn’t that big of a deal, since we would still have our drinks and the Tour is well supported with food and drink stops about every 10 miles. But I did take the opportunity to tease Charmaine about not going out of her way on Friday to get some.
That night we had Massaman Curry, which was delicious, probably a little too delicious. I quickly found myself eating more than I should, which lead to not being able to fall asleep easily, and not being able to stay asleep.
Suddenly morning came. Actually, it wasn’t morning yet, but the alarm clock woke us up. No, it didn’t. Charmaine woke up on her own before the alarm clock went off. I’m betting she wasn’t sleeping all that well either. But there we were, awake, and I said, “We don’t have to do this. It’s not too late.”
But it was too late. Google Maps said it was a 2-hour drive from home to Borrego Springs, much of it on narrow, windy, mountain roads… and this morning it was extremely foggy. We decided to get up and try to get there anyway. We threw stuff into bags and carried things down to the car and started driving. The car had been in the shop just 2 days prior, getting things done like checking the brakes, etc. But instead of being ready for this trip, the car decided today was the day to burn out a headlight. That meant an even slower, more stressful drive through the mountains. We had originally planned on taking the big car, but we didn’t have the right tools to put the rack on the back, so we were stuck in the Subaru, which only has one bike rack on top.
Knowing we were starting late and that we would be driving slower than normal through the fog with only one headlight, I decided we didn’t have enough time to stop for our usual pre-ride breakfast at McDonald’s. Instead, we drove straight there. This proved to be another in a long series of mistakes.
We made much better time than Google Maps had estimated. After we arrive. we had a few minutes to stop at the general store and pick up a few things for breakfast. It was one of the worst breakfasts we have had in years, despite the suggestion from the girl in the store that the sandwich would be “so good”.
We drove to the start, parked the car, and began the process of getting ready for the ride. It was just before 8:00 and already over 70 degrees. We didn’t have sunblock. We didn’t have ibuprofen. We didn’t have any Gus, Shot Blocks, or other energy sources. Charmaine didn’t have sunglasses. We decided we would only be riding the 40 mile loop once, instead of the 80 miles (twice around the loop) like we originally planned.
The ride itself was pretty nice. The roads were rough, but they were mostly flat, which made for a nice warm-up section. As we rode through the first 5 miles, we somehow managed to wind up at the front of all the riders. This was not a good place for me, as I had no idea what the course looked like. We dropped back a little, but were still way up front compared to most the riders.
The 40 mile loop had an out-and-back section that was 6 miles each direction and included most of the climbing for the entire loop. We headed out and climbed one of only two hills on the course. The descent on the other side was steep and fast, but my bike started feeling wrong. I pulled to the side and stopped. My rear tire was flat. It wasn’t a blow-out; it seemed like a leak that had slowly been making my ride worse. My tire had a lot of wear on the side-walls, like I had been riding flat for quite a while. Why do I always manage to get a flat at the place on the course where I’m as far from the start/finish/cars as the course goes? I thank my riding companion Murphy for that.
Charmaine changed my tire as riders streamed past, each asking if we were OK, if we needed anything, etc. Cyclists are an extremely helpful bunch. We told them all to continue on. We were fine. But we were not fine. This is when we realized that we had no way to pressurize the new tube. Sure, we had CO2 cartridges, but both of our tire inflator attachments were broken and didn’t work. Of course, we wasted 2 CO2 cartridge figuring that out. As we were contemplating what to do next, we saw some parts fall out of my bike bag. We used the parts to reconstruct most of one of the inflator attachments and managed to fill my new tube. Unfortunately, the reconstructed inflator attachment wasn’t perfect. It was stuck and wouldn’t release from my tube. I eventually managed to yank it off, but it bent the valve opening in the process, making it impossible to screw down tight… meaning I was slowly losing air again.
We decided to cut our losses and try to go directly back to the cars. My rear tire was damaged and could blow-out at any point, plus I was slowly losing air. I knew I couldn’t finish the 40 mile loop. I wasn’t even confident I would make it back to the cars if we rode their directly, but if we didn’t make it all the way, at least we would be closer and Charmaine could ride back to the car alone and come pick me up. We must have lost Murphy somewhere on the way back, because nothing else bad happened. We both made it all the way to the car, packed it up, and went home. It was only 11:00 and already over 90 degrees.
Despite everything that did and did not happen, it was still a good experience. Coming over the pass and looking out over the Salton Sea as sunrise was painting the entire sky red and orange was really amazing. The drive out and back was long, but through some really beautiful country. If we sign up again next year, we’ll be better prepared.