My Sunday Ride

Saturdays I spend my mornings watching all the cyclists ride by as I teach and encourage runners. It's a bit frustrating to see all those bikes and not be able to join in. But then Sunday comes around and all is good again.

This is one of the main roads east out of Encinitas. 6 days a week this road is jammed with cars. As you can see it's 3 lanes each way and it's generally freeway speeds as people race to get somewhere. On Sunday it's empty. Nobody is in a hurry and the air is clear.

Yesterday my ride of 2 hours took me to the top of Double Peak. It's a long climb (20 minutes or so) and it gets steeper as it goes. No really, it gets steeper as it goes. It starts out in the 5% range and finishes in the 17% range. My program for the climb was 3 minutes standing, 3 minutes sitting start to finish. I don't actually time it until I make the left turn to the park. Before that I use the stop lights as my timer. There are 6-7 stop lights on the climb. The great thing about Sunday is there is a high chance of going through clean. Yesterday I hit no red lights. Once you hit the left turn it's stoplight free. The next 9 minutes that cover about 1/3 of the distance are the real test. There is no easy way to the top it's simply how much can you grind and suffer. I had two segments standing and 1 segment sitting. That means the sitting was on the steepest section of the hill. My legs were burning.

The payoff is sometimes grand and sometimes just ok. Yesterday it was just ok looking west. That cloud bank is covering the coast. On a good day you can see out to the Channel Islands.

I generally don't spend too much time at the top. Yesterday it was about 30 seconds. Long enough to get this picture. It was nice to meet up with a couple friends at the top. We road home together then I continued on to make my 2 hours. The down was just as clear as the up. We hit no red lights from top to bottom and with no cars we got to use the entire road. It was outstanding.

Southern California Riding can be hairy with all the cars. Cars turning in front of you, car doors opening, and worst of all is folks on the cell phones drifting into the bike lane. It's nice to get out the door on a Sunday morning and ride open roads close to home. It's a treat worth the wait.

It's a good life......

Five Things to Keep Calm

My exterior is always calm. In fact a woman I work with called me quirky. I asked her why and she said " you are always calm". It's my exterior. Inside not so much. Inside my mind is always racing. Working three different "Jobs", raising a child and staying married for 22 years will do that to you. Finding calm to quiet the mind and quiet the nerves is always a challenge. This is what I've found that works:

One 

Dogs can add stress for sure but this one lowers the stress all the time. All I have to do is sit down on the floor. Her warmth and loving nature take over.

Two
Playing the Guitar - If you play an instrument you are lucky. It's magical the way music can change the mood and physically making the music happen is extra special.

Three
Singing along to music. I still love being in the car when one of those special songs comes on. Volume goes up!

Four

Stretching and mobility - If you are doing it correctly, finding the tight spots and working them out you can't do anything but concentrate on that instant. The daily 15 minutes is magical.

Five

We are lucky to live by the beach. Sitting on the cliff at sunset and allowing the warm of the Sun to warm you is good. You don't need a beach for this. Sunsets happen everywhere and just soaking in those last rays is special. The one thing we have is the motion of the ocean. Just getting out on or in the water is spectacular. You can't help but feel alive and calm. I love casually going out to the kelp beds with my fins and mask spending 30 minutes diving down to see all the fish. Everything else leaves your head 20 feet below the surface of the ocean.

It's a good life.....

2 Reminders this Week

One: You can feel the signs, you can ignore the signs and you can pay for it. For two weeks I've had good runs and crappy runs. Yesterday it got to real crappy. Then I went to the chiropractor and he said yep you are off 3 degrees. Duh! 

Two: Our son has grown more this summer than any other time in his life. Not grown in size although he is ripped right now but emotionally. He said to me "If I trained last winter like I am right now I keep thinking of how the track season would have been different" I said "you know the saying, you can lead a horse to water? I've been nudging you for years because your talent is so evident but it was up to you." "I hope it's not too late" he said Oh how I feel for the other kids. They've been racing a kid who's been at 80% for 3 years. Maybe he gets to 95% of his talent this year as long as he stays healthy. 

It's a good life.....