And she's buyiiing a stairway...to Cala

Cala Foods
18th & Collingwood Streets
San Francisco, CA

Memorial Day Weekend

Another long, hard weekend of workouts is over.

Saturday: A 90-minute, technical ride down at Skeggs followed by a 20 minute brick. Felt sluggish during the ride and run, but my pace was faster than I expected.

Sunday: A LONG (220 minute) ride with the group at China Camp. We spent most of the time on the backside riding each major trail in both directions. It reminded all of us why we got into mountain biking in the first place -- exploring new trails, riding hand-built singletrack with no specific route in mind. Lunch was at Fish on the Sausalito waterfront. Highly recommended. Got into Gramps Mode later that evening with an Epsom Salts bath.

Monday: An 11+ mile run with Kim and Andrew at Point Reyes. After an easy run out to the ocean on the Bear Valley Trail, we took Andrew's "advice" and ran back via Coastal/Sky/Meadow Trails.* Thankfully we did not have to summit Mt. Wittenberg (1407 ft), although we came mighty close. An ice plunge followed. Grilled BBQ mussels in Olema came after that.



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* Although beautiful, lower Sky Trail is an overgrown tick paradise.

Tres Lomas

Last night I ran Tres Lomas for the first time in several months.* Usual mixture of good and bad. My body is still recovering from Temecula on Sunday. It throttled me back on the uphills -- I could not push my HR past 184 no matter how hard I tried.
My knees have been creaky as of late so I practiced good downhill running form. I had some success on gentle grades but good form on the steeper stuff still eludes me.
Total run time was 0:53:43, which is a solid but unspectacular pace. Nonetheless, it's still 8 to 14 minutes faster than last year.

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* An official Tres Lomas run starts at Sports Basement in the Presidio. Sports Basement --> Old Mason --> Halleck --> Gorgas --> Lyon --> Lombard --> Presidio --> Anza Trail (Presidio Gate --> Julius Kahn Playground --> Golf Course --> Mountain Lake --> Battery Caulfield Rd.) --> Washington --> Lincoln --> Coastal Trail --> Warming Hut --> Promenade --> Sports Basement.

I've scoured MotionBased for a run report, but nobody has posted a Tres Lomas run. Sorry, no maps for you. I'm not sure of the distance, but based on my pace I assume it's 6-ish miles.

Temecula 2006

Dag, yo. This was the hardest race I ever ran.

XTERRA West Region Championships
Temecula, CA
May 21, 2006

1.5 km swim / 19.5 mi bike / 5.5 mi run
03:39:23
(0:29:51 / 1:57:54 / 1:11:38)
OA 204/301
AG 29/48

Wild Seed Wildflower 2006

I went down to the Wildflower Triathlon this weekend. I was a last-minute substitution for my friend Ali, who had a knee injury and couldn't run.

We did the Wildflower long course, which is a half Ironman distance (1.2 mi swim, 56 mi bike, 13.1 mi run). Jill did the swim. Anne (fresh from running the Boston Marathon) did the bike. I did the run.

I had never run a half marathon before, so I was interested in seeing how well I could do.

Team Schwabee's Angels
6:39:04
AG 31/41 (Open Mixed)

My run split was 2:03:32, good enough for 646th overall (out of 1755) and 15th place in our division (out of 41).

While We're On the Subject Of Crappy Camera Phone Pics

Here's one I took a few weeks ago on a hike at McInnis Canyon near Fruita, CO.

Great Seats. Lousy Game.

Me: (showing Mark my crappy camera phone pic) Guess who that is. That's Barry Bonds.
Mark: He looks just like Oprah. What with the roids and all.