Week 10 – Halfway Point
Wow! Where has the time gone?
I feel like I am in so much better shape than last year at this time. I am finally getting into a good running groove. My last three runs have felt really good with no stomach issues. WOOHOO!!!! The first was an after work 3.7 mile run to to the gym, followed by a trainer session. Saturday I did my first “long” run of the season – 7. 3 miles. The last mile was tough; it’s a gradual uphill for the entire mile. Considering the distance was nearly double what I had been doing, I’m pleased. Tuesday I did an early morning 4.3 mile run with a friend.
I finally got in the water this week and swam an “easy paced” 1,000 yards. My average time per hundred yards was only five seconds slower than my average pace for the race last year. I think all the land based work I am doing with Shawna is really paying off. I finished up with 1,900 yards for the session. I spent the next three or four days sneezing. But the outside pool at the gym is open now and hopefully the chlorine won’t bug me quite so much out there.
We spent Memorial Day weekend in Cambria, which is south of us and near Hearst Castle, at a Bed and Breakfast – no castle visits this time. On Sunday we rode 23 miles up the coast to Ragged Point and back. I had ridden this section before in 2007 as part of the Central Coast Double. There are lots of short rollers (I like short rollers!) and one final climb at the end up to Ragged Point. Of course in 2007, I kept going and going and going…on past Ragged Point.
I love riding along the coast; there’s so much to see, elephant seals, egrets, pretty flowers. The coastline itself is so varied, sometimes sandy beach, sometime huge rocks all lined up in a row with the waves thundering in. I hadn’t paid too much attention to all that in 2007, so this was a very pleasant ride.
The next two and a half weeks are going to be stressful. The final weeks of school are always stuffed to the gills with events and paperwork. I hate paperwork.
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