TandemHearts

Woooohoooo!!!!   What a day!  I woke up this morning at 2 AM and could not fall back asleep.  I finally just got up at 3:30AM.  It’s not as bad as it sounds since I went to bed at 7:30 PM.    It always takes me a while to get hungry enough to eat breakfast in the morning.  On a typical work day, we’re up at 4 AM and I eat at 6:30 AM.  Today I made myself eat at 6:00 AM, knowing that would give me two and a half hours before the race.  I ate my regular breakfast of Frosted Miniwheats, 15 blueberries and whole milk.  Yes, I do count the blueberries.  Why is this important?  It’s important because I never know if my stomach is going to be unhappy on a run.  Today there was no unhappiness!  Yippeee!!!!  I’m going to try this plan for my next race, the Salmon Duathlon.

Neat logo for the race.

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Sometimes I really think I must be crazy.  Who else, other than an insane person, would subject themselves to the tortures of a triathlon?  And keep going back for more?

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In order to improve my running I’ve decided to sign up for a local trail run, the Tarantula Run,  which will be held in late October at Los Vaqueros Reservoir.   Today was the first time I went out and ran the 10 K (6 mile)  course.  WOW!  Trail running is hard!  The hills are much steeper and longer than anything I have done on the road.  There are two significant climbs, the paved one goes to the top of the dam and I have ridden up it many times on my bike.  It  is tough on  a bike, it’s even harder to run.    My Garmin GPS says the average grade is 8%.   I’d say it’s pretty close to that and I can see me being able to run all the way up it at some point.  The second climb is steeper and unpaved.    The Garmin said that this averaged 16%.  I’m always a little leery about believing these numbers, but it was pretty darn steep since I  stopped three times to rest my hips as I walked it.  It is followed by a very steep downhill that I was too chicken to even think about running down today.     

There are also numerous little hills in there like this one.  Of course the backside of this hill looks about the same, going up.  My Garmin showed the total climbing to be a little over 1,100 feet.

It is also very dry out there and not a lot of shade.  I had also  forgotten how windy it is out at the reservoir.  That really threw me off a bit at the start as I had a headwind for the first half of the the run.    Even with a tailwind, the second half  of the run is much harder than the first.  I  had the misfortune of disturbing some hornets as I was closing one of the cattle gates.  I got stung on the top of my right ear OUCH! and on the back of my right calf.  I  still had about a mile and a half to go when that happened.  I walked slowly and rubbed my owies for about half a mile and then tried to pick up the pace for the last mile.  I was happy to get back to the truck and drink the cold ice water that Thom had waiting for me.  My overall pace wasn’t great, but it’s a start.  Training out there is definitely going to make me a better runner.

Scary hair.

Clicking on each picture will give you a larger version.

We rode the rim of Crater Lake in 2007 as part of our “Work is Overrated Tour – 2007.” Crater Lake is the most beautiful place we have ever ridden and that is saying a lot when you think about all of the places we’ve ridden.  The lake is an incredibly deep blue, fringed with evergreen trees and every  glimpse of it as you cycle by is breathtaking.  When friends suggested we do the organized century ride with them this year it wasn’t too hard to  figure out a way to fit it into our schedule.

Over the years we have met several people whom we really enjoy riding with.  Unfortunately in the past few years some of these folks have moved away from California so this ride was a great opportunity to hook up with them again.  We stayed with two other couples in a rental house that was the central gathering place for about twenty riders.  We gathered together there for good food and conversation both Friday and Saturday nights.

The ride was on Saturday and we woke up to a temperature of about 33 degrees and frost on the deck of the rental house.   We had already decided we were not doing the full century because the first twenty miles or so were an out and back flat section through a  valley.  We had planned on just riding straight up to the rim, around the rim and back down for a total of about eighty miles and over 7,000 feet of climbing.  The cold temperature was definitely a downer.  It’s August.  I don’t ride in freezing temperatures in August.  Fortunately for us, one of our friends was planning on being shuttled to the rim and they had room for us in their car.  This meant we could start our ride at 10 AM instead of 7:30 AM.  It was loads warmer at 10 AM!  Just riding the rim is about 30 miles with about 3,000 feet of climbing.  We had a great time stopping at the overlooks and looking out at the lake.

The last twenty miles of our ride were mainly downhill with a flat section at the end.  As we started down Thom asked me if I wanted to coast or hammer. I answered that I wanted to coast and he whined, “Fine,” in an Eeyore sort of way.  So I hammered.  I don’t usually pedal when I’m going downhill unless I’m racing.  Downhills are suppose to be for relaxing, not for working hard.    I also don’t really like drafting, so I took the lead for about 17 miles, most of which was downhill with an average grade of about 3%.  We averaged over 22 miles an hour;  and it was a blast!  Thom took over the lead for the last three flat miles and we averaged just under 19 miles an hour.  Yeah, fast is fun!

We’ll definitely be riding the rim again.

For our big vacation this summer we went to Maine and Vermont.  Maine was mostly about spending time with family, but we did sneak off to the Yarmouth Clam Festival to watch the bike races.

The race photos are a separate set from the rest of the vacation.

After spending time in Maine we went to Vermont to ride some Gaps.  The gaps of Vermont are mountain passes. These are usually around 2,000 feet tall, and tend to be much steeper than the roads in  California.  Weather and some knee problems kept us from doing the six that we targeted, but we did ride Middlebury, Brandon and Appalachian gaps over a couple of days.

We stayed at the Middlebury and Waitsfield Inns.  Middlebury was more of a large Inn, while Waitsfield (a B&B) was  more casual and charming.  The innkeepers at Waitsfield were extraordinarily accommodating and friendly. Both  places were pleasant to visit and we will return at some point to tackle the gaps we missed.

When we were not riding we visited Fort Ticonderoga and the Ben & Jerry’s factory.