Sunday Ride / Tuesday Run

Sunday, I rode 55 miles -- new PR for distance!  I started on the usual route towards Bonita, then turned off and followed Corral Canyon road UP to Eastlake.  And I do mean up -- 500 feet!  Brutal hill, but I conquered it!  First rest stop wasn't until 18 miles, so I know I'm gaining some stamina.  From there, I continued over a few more gentle hills down to Otay Lake, then across Olympic Parkway all the way out to the ocean, Harbor north to downtown (next rest stop) then up 5th through hillcrest and home.  What a great ride!

So I decided Monday should be a rest day... not Tuesday though.  I went out and ran 3.88 miles in just under 45 minutes.  A rather slow pace, but it turns out that's the key to me getting some longer distance runs in.  Uh oh... maybe that elusive 10k and half marathon aren't so elusive any more...

Because I overslept...

I missed today's training ride because I slept in til 10.  Oops.  I guess I was tired.

So I headed out at 11 and tried the commute to work.  I made it there!  And then took the long way home (over to La Jolla, down to Mission Bay, then home across Mission Valley) which added about 7 miles on the return trip for a total of 36 miles.  In 3 hours of saddle time, no less, which factoring in some gnarly hills and a ton of stoplights, I think I made pretty good time.  In spite of coining a new catch phrase at the top of a hill, when I turned left and found out there was another steep climb ahead of me.  "Oh fucknuts."  I think I'll use that more often.

And I'm glad I made an unplanned stop for a vanilla bean creme frappuccino at starbucks.  Om nom nom.

Friday's Ride of Shame

The theme of today's ride was "Making up for the 2 doughnuts, 4 cookies, and (I lost count of how many) pieces of chocolate at work today."  http://runkeeper.com/user/music2mychakras/activity/56210557

My goal was 15 miles in 1:20... I managed 15 miles in 1:22... pretty close.  I blame that last red light that went on forEVER.

I rode all the way up to Grossmont College... and as you turn towards the college on the last street, there is the most AMAZING view of the mountains behind it.  I never would have known!  On the way back down Lake Murray Blvd I was apparently going 37 MPH... wow.  That may be the fastest I've ever gone on a bicycle.

And what a glorious night of weather!  Nice and cool.  Welcome relief from this week.

Extra Credit Tuesday

I left with no exact idea of where I was going... I ended up in La Mesa across the 125 somewhere.  *shrug*  Good ride though, and some good hill practice.  Especially the last one back up to my house -- WOW.  120 feet up in 1/4 mile.  Felt like 1000!

http://runkeeper.com/user/music2mychakras/activity/55866823

Sunday Fun Ride

Having thoroughly exhausted myself yesterday, I was asleep by 10 PM.  Would have been 9 but Phillip wanted to finish watching a tv program.  When it turned out to be a two parter, I kicked him out of bed to go watch in the living room.  Ha!  Anyway, it meant I woke up at 5:30 AM today.  I opted to go back to sleep but was still out of bed by 8.

So, I went out for a bike ride because, frankly, what else is there do at that hour on a Sunday?

From home through mission valley to OB and back.  Grand total of almost exactly 2 hours saddle time for 24.63 miles -- bringing my weekend total to 59.07 miles.  Woot woot!  Off to a rocky start today, though... there's a bike path from the bottom of fairmount around the freeway entrance that is the most sorry excuse for pavement I've ever seen.  One particularly nasty bump sent my phone flying out of its holder.  Thankfully, it survived the fall, but for a few dings and scratches.  The rest of the ride was great -- apparently I was going over 30 MPH a few times on downhills. Brutal hill back out of mission valley, but I killed it.  350 feet up over 2 miles!  WOW!

I think I will take a well-earned rest day tomorrow.

Thursday's WOD, Saturday Training #4

Thursday WOD: Buster AMRAP
10 30# Thrusters, 15 burpess
Results:  3 rounds + 6 thrusters.

This morning's training ride was up and down the 101 from Solana Beach to Carlsbad.  Great ride!  Even got to watch my first ever flat tire get replaced.  Fun times.  =)  25.5 miles in about 1:50 saddle time.
http://runkeeper.com/user/music2mychakras/activity/55414899

To reward my good work, I rode up to Trek (4.5 miles away, UP the hill to La Mesa) and pimped my ride.  Another water bottle and cage, a bento box for the front of the bike, an under-seat swag bag, new gloves, and a spare tube.  Yay for sales, I kept it to $100 today.  Then 4.5 miles home, including UP the hill from mission valley.  Good stuff!

Training Ride #3

What a beautiful Sunday!  Today, I rode from home down to meet up with the training ride, thereby adding an extra ~12 miles onto the total ride for the day.  Woo hoo!  I am exhausted now... but feel totally entitled to the delicious grilled cheese and tomato soup I had at Bread and Cie before heading home.

http://runkeeper.com/user/music2mychakras/activity/54629536

Home to Hillcrest, then the official ride was Hillcrest -> Balboa Park -> Harbor Drive -> Sunset Cliffs -> OB Bike Path -> Pacific Highway -> Downtown -> Hillcrest.  And then back home.

As always, awesome group of people out training... I loved every second of it!

ALC Training Ride -- #2!

This morning's ride from Mission Bay to UCSD and back was excellent.  Unlike last week, all 24 miles were completed comfortably (yay!), and that included the ride up La Jolla Colony into UTC.  The great thing I discovered today is that a 300-350 foot elevation gain is completely doable for me at my current fitness/skill level -- which means commuting to work is more within my grasp than I had thought.  Looks like I'll be pursuing that one soon!

For route map and GPS stats:
http://runkeeper.com/user/music2mychakras/activity/53537445
Avg pace over 12 MPH, including hills -- I'm very proud of that!

Now that I'm officially signed up for ALC, view my page at  http://www.tofighthiv.org/goto/music2mychakras.