Saturday social butterfly ride

The Butterfly Ride: What a great ride it was this morning leaving out of Pine Valley. Checked the weather and wind on Friday and all was looking well. It was another story when we got out there to Majors Coffee Shop in Pine Valley. The wind has a howelling and gusting pretty good. We talked it over and we decided that we would ride Pine Creek first and see how it was before they decieded to do Kitchen Creek. I knew that I was on my 4th week of recovery from IMSG and I really didn't know how my legs were going to feel so I had already decided the day before to only do Pine Creek 30 Miles and 3200 ft elevation gain. Sooooo.......... the wind was REALLY, REALLY bad and the group decided to ditch the Kitchen Creek idea. We turned it into a social butterfly ride instead. Meaning we took our time and took some pictures and stopped at the desert lookout on Sunrise Hwy on Mt Laguna and really took the time to enjoy the scenery. Our ride off the summit was a white knuckle ride for sure and I needed help to unclamp my hands and peel my self off my bike. JK it was just a hang on to your bike on the decent kind of ride. Major cross winds!! I would really like to do that ride again and include Kitchen Creek as well. On a side note my legs felt great and I felt like a climbing machine but my lungs and HR were another story. The altitude got me a bit. However, overall I felt great and that's what really matters to me.

Just stuff.....

Let's see this morning I felt a little better in the leg department. I decided to take it easy yesterday and do some strength training and some much needed Yoga. Boy did that feel great!!

As usual Sydney is ready to go for her run with mom and we set out to meet Liz for our 5 am run. I'm not sure what is up with Sydney but she was really after those bunnies this morning. She almost caused a wreck when she veered in front of me. So, I'll have to work on that with her so we don't crash and burn. That would be ugly. On our run Liz shared her stories about Miles her dog and that when they would run together they had a mishap as well. Her story had some blood involved. Ouch!! I was also quizzing her on her compression socks...... since I'm in the market for some and wanted her input. She seemed to like her 2XU socks and calf sleeves and she believes they do her a lot of good on longer runs and races. Since I only want them for longer runs I'm only interested in the socks and not the calf sleeves right now. So the investigating continues.

For tonight's festivities...... Mark and I are headed to a German Bistro "FIZZ" in Escondido and then some Yoga!!

What a way to start a Holiday weekend!

A needed tune up.

So my Wednesday morning run with Sydney and Liz was well...... interesting. I guess the past 3 days of runs and bike workouts were a bit much for the legs to handle. Sydney was on the look out for bunnies and subsequently pulled me the entire way up the hill back to the house. Thanks Syd for the help I really needed it!! Gotta love dogs! It was a good thing because my legs were revolting and screaming NOOOOOOO!!!!!! Liz the ever encouraging running partner was there for mental support as usual. I love her for that!! When I got home I did some extra stretching and noticed that my left upper glute was really, really tender. All day at work I hobbled around at work and my coworkers (gotta love' em) harassed me as usual. So, later that evening I had my chiropractor (North County Family Chiropractic) give me an adjustment just before my scheduled massage. I was told that my pelvis was rotated and probably due to running a bit funny from my ankle flesh wound from IMSG. It's funny how many muscle structures are related to the glute and Piriformis. So after my adjustment, message, a great dinner with Mark and a glass of wine. This morning it felt a bit better. I'm taking the day off for the legs and working on my upper body instead today. Good thing!! I guess since I've been feeling great I kind of over did it a bit. So, another lesson learned.

Now, I'm shopping for compression socks. I have been using my SKINS recovery tights for a couple of years and absolutely LOVE them. They allow me to recover soooo much faster than an ice bath alone. I highly recommend them. So, I'm thinking maybe I should use compression socks on my long and high intensity runs as well. I have a few friends that swear by them so I guess I'll join the crowd of tri geeks. Any ideas???? May the shopping commence!!

Fiesta Island...

WOW.....what a fun time tonight! Legs have been a bit sore from the runs on Sunday and Monday so I thought that I may be in a bit of trouble and only last for like 15 min like last time 2 weeks ago post IMSG. However that was not the case. I had soooooo much fun out there. The pace was great and as usual started to ramp up 20 min in. OMG, I hung in there for 28 min!!!!!! The group rolled between 21 and 28 mph which was just perfect post IMSG recovery pace. I tried to not get too excited so I split off and just cruised the island until the peloton came back around and than jumped back on for a couple minutes until I realized that I needed to back off and relax and don't be a dummy and kill yourself just because you feel good. I'm on my last week of recovery and ramping back up next week so don't blow it stupid! Good thing I listened to myself tonight. Now it's off for a walk with Sydney and Cooper the dogs post dinner and than a run in the early hours with Sydney and Liz!

Tour of California

What a great weekend in LA. It's been a long time since I've been up that way and spent any amount of time in LA or the SFV. Mark, Sydney (the dog) and I went up to Downtown LA on Saturday to watch the Time Trial for the Tour of California. It was such a fun experience. We toured the expo and even took a pic with Bob Roll. He was a great sport since Mark was stalking him so he could get this great picture of both of us.

We ran into many friends of ours from Sub 5 and even made some new friends from Wisconsin and Tennessee. The cycling crowd was fantastic and the energy unreal. Some of the riders at times rode so close to the crowd that you could just touch them. I've seen many bike races and I have to say

that the time trial was my favorite by far. It gives you the opportunity to see the riders one at a time and if your lucky you are able to see them multiple times in the event. Sydney seemed

to be very popular as well with the spectators. She felt like this show was all about her. It was very funny and I'll elaborate more on my Sunday summery. So, there we were watching the finish of the time trial and waiting for the top riders to zoom by and here comes George Hincapie riding his bike through the crowd and making his way to his expo tent for some PR time.

George seemed to follow us around after the event because when we were trying to grab a Starbucks at the plaza of the Staples Center he scooted around us and some worker yelled at him and told him to get off his bike......and we said to that worker... "do you know who that is that's George Hincapie". The man did not find this amusing and than he proceeded to let us know that dogs were not allowed in the outdoor plaza area. In all this commotion George got back on his bike and continued to ride through the plaza. Good for you George!!!! After all that getting out of LA and making our way to Woodland Hills was a breeze. Now on to day 2.

Sunday started with a gorgeous 6 mile run in the hills on Mulholland Drive on a dirt trail with Mark and Sydney. It's been quite a long time since I've seen so much of the SFV. Meaning that it was so clear. After a quick snack we headed to Westlake Village

to watch the final stage of the Tour. It was great we got there in just enough time to see the beginning of the race just after the neutral start. We than made our way to the expo area knowing that we had an hour before they were to return for their second lap. So as we headed towards that area we noticed that we suddenly became surrounded by Amgen people and they all had banners and flags and hats and shirts and what not. The people on the other side of the fence began cheering and clapping and the MC began to speak about the parade and at that moment it dawned on me that we (Mark, Sydney and I) had just crashed the Amgen breakaway from cancer parade. We started to laugh and Sydney started to strut. It was so funny.

So, after all the excitement of seeing Patrick Dempsey and others on the parade route we made our way finally to our destination...... the expo. From there we now have way too many reusable bags and a bunch of samples of sports beans. Mark was eating them like candy. Sydney was scouring the ground for stray popcorn and whatnot. It was great. Every hour we would go back to the race course and see them all come by and it is such an energy to see those guys. After a few more hours it was time to go and head south back to San Diego. Traffic was great (Surprise) and before we knew it we were home. What a great weekend in LA and SFV for the Tour of California. Next year I hope it makes it back to SD like the previous year. This is such a great sport and really has gained popularity as it should. VIVA TOC!!

Finally feeling normal after IMSG

It's been 2 1/2 weeks since Ironman St George and I'm feeling great. The legs are getting back to normal the mondo blister on the lateral aspect of my ankle is looking and feeling more like a minor flesh wound. That was the most painful thing I have experienced in a long time. Even though I've been riding my bike and swimming with little pain the running thing has been on the back burner and very light at times if at all. Sydney does not like it when mommy does not take her on a run. So the past 2 mornings we have been running 4-5 miles and ankle feels great and Sydney is a happy girl!! I'm soooo happy to get back to normal.

I think I must be a bit sick in the head because....... yesterday an email came out regarding Palomar challenge and I'm gonna do it ( I need to see if I can get some partners in crime for this ride) =)) and on top of that there was another email on a Tri-state Gran Fondo that starts in Mesquite NV and goes out to Veyo (Part of the IMSG course) and back to Mesquite NV. (114 miles and 7500 ft of elevation). I'm seriously thinking of doing this ride in November. I must not have gotten enough of IMSG. The best part is the Veyo pies!!!

Well, we will just have to see if I can entice some crazy friends to share in these 2 adventures.