San Francisco Marathon-All Or Nothing

Either all or nothing. My motto for the day. Sunday I had worked out all the different angles and formulated numerous game plans on how the race should go. Started to run and I immediately threw all that away and just went for it. I pretty much knew it would end up to be a crash and burn but, you never know. Anything can happen...

I had barely any sleep in the three days leading up to the Marathon. I'm a victim of my crazy neighborhood and very loud party building along with my three dogs that were terrorized earlier in the week by a giant raccoon outside my window.

 Of course any thing that makes a move or sound is considered a raccoon now!
When I left to go run suddenly they were sleepy...

My training had been sporadic at best and pretty much nil in the last month. Of course the stupid ankle was still sore and I didn't expect it to make it through 26 miles without it talking back to me.
I got up at 3am had my yogurt, berries, banana and coffee. I love being within a short walk to the starting line. I got there expecting insane security but, really it was easy to walk right in to my wave 3 spot.
Dawn was just breaking and it was beautiful. Cerulean sky, barely any fog. Temperature was beautifully cool.

I had decided after much self debate to just go with my "Ultimate Direction AK" vest. I think it was a good choice. I like being self supported and saving time skipping the water breaks.

Start:
I decided just for the Hell of it to start with the 3:45 pace group. I figured they'd drop me after a mile. The 3rd wave was moving right along at around an 8:15 pace but, I felt good and very well knowing I'd pay for this later. The ankle was stiff but hoped it would loosen up after a bit.
By mile 4 I was running an 8:30 pace and beginning the climb to the bridge. I kept with the flow but was definitely feeling the burn.

courtesy SF Marathon

Coming off the bridge I was hitting around 8:33. With a little bump to 9 minutes going to the top of the Presidio. I just kept telling myself hang in there, this is the highest point in the race.

The unfortunate issue was that my ankle really began to get cranky and I was struggling to keep the pace. By the time I hit the park I had decelerated to a 10 minute pace. My brain started to work against me and I felt the onset of "crash and burn".
As we split off from the half marathon and headed down south through the park it got a bit lonely and people were just sailing by me and my legs were turning into lead. For the first time I had to walk and get my heart rate down a bit. My ankle was getting worse. 
I just fought my mind from going into that dark place. I knew I ran this all wrong. I was kicking myself now. Oh well. There was still a chance of a sub 4 but, I had my doubts.
Just before I headed up to Stow lake I had to stop and do a stretch. It felt so good I wanted to stay there forever.
Right then my friend "Keli Keleman" launched by and he looked great. That got me moving again and off I went.

Stow lake is my beast. Just like last year I had time to think about how awful I felt and I'm running this meandering circle around the lake. I was so grateful to start heading back towards the Haight.
At this point the 4:00 pace group came through and I hung on for dear life. I did pretty well for a mile even though my heart rate was way up in the red again.
At the top of the Haight my ankle was throbbing and I knew all my goals had disappeared down the road without me. Now it was just a struggle to get through this.
To get away from my cloud of disappointment and self loathing I tried to figure out a better avenue to get through this.
Ahh! just fucking enjoy it!
So first off I started to walk a block, run a block until I recovered a little bit. I started stopping to pat dogs along the route and said a few words to various characters along the way. At one point through the Mission I actually a stopped to help an old lady cross the street through the runners. The cops were laughing and everyone was cheering and I began to have fun.
Crossing third street I ran into my friend Daniel who had blown out his knee and was very disappointed about it. I walked awhile with him and offered whatever encouragement I could and began running again.

I would stop to take photos of the bands and actually did a mock Samba dance in front of a great Samba band. I swung my UD bottles around like big titties and everyone laughed.

When I hit AT&T park I forced my self to run it the rest of the way in and gave a couple of funny poses as I crossed the finish line.
I was never so glad to be done...

Afterwards I waited around for my friend Mary but, she had already blazed it and finished around 4:10. I finished with a miserable 4:30. Twenty minutes slower than last year.
Well I got a medal and finished the race. My ankle issues have really been disconcerting for me. I really love to run but I have to get beyond this stuff before I can improve. 
It's a few days off and on the bike for a little while. You know I think it's ludicrous for me thing I can seriously compete at my age. I need to just chill and enjoy the running and biking and stop driving myself crazy thinking I'm ever going to get a whole lot better at this point in my life.
I still have a shot for a Boston qualifying at Santa Rosa but, if it doesn't happen, it's not in the stars. I don't think I can afford to go back there anyway. I'm as poor as shit and the future doesn't look promising. I need to just live in the moment and enjoy what good things come my way.

I am thankful to still be alive, to run and ride, to have friends, dogs, a roof over my head, job and I just need to not worry about my extravagant goals that really are impractical in the long run.
Just want to give it everything I have and come out smiling. That in it's self is a tall order.

The San Francisco Marathon is such an amazing experience and it's the race I'll do every year till I die.

OY VEY! What Has Become Of Me? People Of This Running Planet...Take Me To Your "Leader Board".

My big excuse(s) this past month for not blogging on a regular basis:

1. My bedroom computer hard drive died! I have so much crap- photos, music and important documents that I didn't back up. Now I have to pay to have it all extracted to an external hard disk. BTW, my external hard disk that I was backing up to, I lost the power cord on our last move and never was able to replace it. Being so smart as I am, I removed the casing and adapters and decided to just pop it in my computer as a secondary hard drive.
NOPE!
Technology has moved along since last did this stupid human trick.
Screwed again! "Man follows hard drive off cliff"!

2. Too many damn dogs on me. I can't move lately. It's very distracting with the wife in one ear and a whole yapping kennel in the other.

3. All this running! OY VEY! Hanson Brothers Marathon training is kicking my ass but, It's what I need for sure.

4. "Work"...

One thing I do like about this Marathon training is I feel like I'm doing it right this time. It's hard but, I actually feel like I'm doing less damage. 
When I started training last year I was just running too many long runs and just breaking myself down. The key is lot's of easy low aerobic runs that build up mitochondria to assist in the burning fat & glycogen together.

"I did not know that"!

At about mile 20 when your body tells your brain
"Fuck You! I'm out of Glycogen", the body starts burning fat and protein to get you through that last 6 miles.
So it comes down to really training for that 6 long, horrible, fire and brimstone, vomiting, seizure inducing miles to the finish.

In the mean time I'm training for the up coming "Bay to Breakers 12K in May. I'm looking to knock 5 minutes off of last years time. If I could do a sub 50 minute! That would be truly amazing.

I'm meeting some amazing people/athletes these last few months. Like I've mentioned it on past blogs. This running passion is so fresh and new, I had no idea of how huge the running community really is. I've been on "planet bike" for so long I guess I never saw it coming. Although I do miss "planet Bike", I still ride, just not as much. Everyone needs to switch up sometimes. I do really miss a lot of my bike friends. I'll get back there though. Just need a little vacation on the "running planet".

This picture captures the spirit of the running planet with one of it's leaders "Scott Jurek". I love this shot...

I love Strava. I wish everyone were required to start a membership before buying a pair of running shoes or a bike. Leader board challenges are so fun! Mini races on every street, trail, hill and valley. Just perfect for a competitive junky like me.
I realize how old I really am when I see the very few old farts up in the leader boards. I have a lot of solo spots. I need some competition so I'm starting to go for the Master ranks to see what I can do.
Check this out. If you scroll down to the 55-64 leader board you can see I'm the only one who's done this at my age?


So second week into my training and I'm a little bit tired but, that's to be expected on this training method.
My favorite part of the schedule is my Sunday long runs. Run easy in the fat burning zone and just enjoy the scenery.
This was from Sunday. Baker Beach in San Francisco.
I found two older Australian tourists willing to shoot a FaceBook wall portrait for me. After getting them up to speed with the technology of my Android phone meets Instagram. A few outtakes and we finally got it!

Running trails in San Francisco just keeps getting better and better. What a joy to live here. Aside from the other crap you have to deal with day to day, like the drug addicts, trash, high rent and so on...Still glad I moved here when I did.

Just a view of some of the trails in SF
Link

Running With The Dogs

I haven't really been inspired to blog much lately. Sometimes I just get sick of myself and my thoughts and I don't feel like listening to the incessant yacking going on in my mind. I've actually been leading a very boring existence the last few weeks. Work, train, dogs, sleep and that's about it. I think I'm becoming a little anti-social. My dogs and the mutts I take care of are kind of spoiling me. No verbal sparring, no complex thought process's and less bullshit. Growl and bark...so simple.

With only 4 weeks to go till my first Marathon of 2014, I'm beginning to get nerved up about it. Having missed a solid month of buildup training I'm having to cram in the runs and biking. The last two days were a complete washout. I took Friday off to rest and catch up on some work I had gotten behind on. Today I just didn't have any ambition to even get out of bed. Tomorrow I'm planning on kicking my ass a bit and getting in a long tempo run.
I just finished the book "Hanson's Marathon Method" and I'm becoming a little overwhelmed with different Marathon training methods. It's time to just to settle into a training program that's consistent. Right now I seem to be all over the place. I'm using a lot of my training time on the bike rather than beating up my legs with running.
I have settled on my running shoe of choice. The Brooks Pure Connect. Due to the fact I have an injury from a long time ago. I actually tore my Achilles tendon and had two operations which left a lot of scarring. I had to modify the shoes by cutting away part of the heel to accommodate the scar.
They feel great now. LIGHT! minimal and fast!

The Oakland Marathon will probably be a tough one for me and I'm not completely confident about getting a qualifying time for Boston. There's a bit of altitude to deal with. I'm hopeful and will try as hard as I can to nail my 3:55 time. My fastest Marathon time is 4:04. I should be able to do it if I'm feeling good that day and I stay injury free for the next month.

Valentines Day was the anniversary of my oldest rescue dogs adoption. Since then I've adopted two more dogs and I'm quite sure I could easily turn into one of those crazy dog hoarders like you see on the A&E Channel. I have a thing for black dogs. I love that color and black dogs carry a stigma. Crazy cultural superstitions and black dogs don't look as beautiful on the internet adoptions sites as do other color dogs. Black dogs and cats are the least adopted, and have the highest rate of euthanasia.

It's become a passion over the past few years of photographing my dogs. I think I'm getting pretty good at getting the light right.
I love my dogs and I don't know how I got through most of my life with out them. They are my true friends.

When I'm out killing myself on my bike or running a million miles. I can push through the pain just knowing when I finish I can crawl into bed with my doggies find my peace and comfort.

Biking, Running, Dogs - Time Down With Injury -thoughts-

Some of the benefits of riding my bike. I can actually carry my camera with me so I'm coming across some nice photo ops lately.

This was over the weekend and the surf was unusually high coming under the Golden Gate. A Surfers dream or, nightmare I guess.

 It's now coming up on three weeks of no running! I'm becoming obsessed with this issue, waking in the middle of the night with anxiety and losing sleep over it. Fortunately I can ride the bike with a little discomfort. It probably has been a good thing in a way because I'm spending a lot of time doing core work, reading about running science, training and letting the rest of my body (my back) heal from the beating it took all through 2012.

Realized recently I could easily become one of those crazy "A&E Channel" Dog Hoarders if it wasn't for Cathy disallowing any more mutts coming on board.
I happened to see this doggie on my bike ride Sunday and she looked so much like my Beyonce that it made me think..."I'd love two of those"!

My Beyonce

The one I wanted to steal...

I'm reading "Born To Run" for a second time. I first read it when I started running back in the beginning of 2012. Over this past year the information, stories and characters have become much more pertinent to where my head is now. I love the book and actually understand some of the controversy surrounding Christopher McDougall's portrayal of the characters, experiences and how many athletes felt unhappy with his recollections and characterizations of them.

Going back and researching some of the responses from the main players in past interviews gives it all a bit of a "Soap Opera" quality. I didn't even know who "Anne Trason" was last year. Now I realize how she probably is one of the most amazing athletes of our time. How did that one get away from me. Her accomplishments are truly astonishing.

Here is a link to a fantastic rare interview with Anne Trason by writer/runner Sara Lavender Smith.

Here is another great blog regarding the controversy with Anne "Sponsor The Fool Blog"

I've been living in the cycling world too long!

One of the other thoughts that woke me up in the middle of the night. "Barefoot Running"! There is a great argument for barefoot/minimalist running and how the shoe industry may have created more foot issues in regards to design than they ever could have imagined. It brings to mind the movie a saw many years ago "The Jerk"... Invention gone bad.

Two months into my experiment with running last year I developed serious IT Band issues. I made a trip back to Fleet Feet SF and got myself into a pair of 0 drop Brooks. The problem went away immediately.

Yesterday I started walking around in a pair of my old surf shoes and worked through the day in them. My ankle felt a lot better tonight and the pain was a lot less with the pressure on it. I think my running shoes were forcing my ankle into a pronation situation that was causing a lot of pain.

I'm thinking about getting a pair of the Vibram FiveFingers to start working with while my ankle heals. 

These may be my Marathon shoes, Brooks Pure Drift.




One thought here... I imagine any die hard runners out there that may happen to read my blog and their eyes just rolling reading this.

"Dude! Been there already"!
"You're a little late for the party".

That's true but, I get like that with runners who have just discovered cycling. Can't help being sarcastic with them sometimes. I think I'm alienating my Cycling friends too.

"Yep, He's gone to the darkside".
"Now we'll be running into him every day coming up the bike path the wrong way"!

In reality I think I'll always be half and half Bike/Run. I love my bike and it's a lot more forgiving on this ancient body.

I'm sitting here now madly editing photos, reading blogs for inspiration and trying hard not to give into that sad little pity party calling me on down to it's dark wild orgy of self doubt and mental ass kicking...Poor me...

I'm on the injured list with this damn sprained ankle that is getting worse. Now moving into my second week and I'm going crazy not being able to start out my well planned training strategy for 2013. I've forced myself today to do a minimum of tasks to try and rest my ankle after riding my bike, walking, working and running around with the dogs over the weekend and through the beginning of this week.

In a timely stroke of luck I happened to catch a new post from Bay Area athlete, writer Sara Lavender Smith in regards to a truly inspiring local athlete "Eldrith Gosney who is still running strong at age 71! I'm impressed with what this women has been through and the personal fortitude she digs up from within herself to keep moving forward and staying strong.
Here is the article in "The Runners Trip".

This led me to even more stories of athletes who have triumphed over adversity, muscled up and resolved to accomplish their goals no matter what. Another story  hit home in this post:
"ULTRARUNNER LISA SMITH-BATCHEN"

Thanks Sarah for these great inspiring articles and interviews!

My ankle issue seems minor in comparison!

I just need to be patient and utilize my down time intelligently so, here I sit dusting off the cobwebs in my brain with some photo editing, reading, plotting and planning. The one plus is I really hate the cold so, this is giving me an excuse for not doing anything outside.

Yesterday I painfully rode my bike up to San Bruno Mountain to watch and photograph the annual New Years day race. My friend and cyclist extraordinaire "Chris Phipps" took third. He usually wins everything pretty much. When I met up with him, his first words were,

"These kids are killing me"!

Yeah! welcome to the club! He has a great attitude and for him it's just the fun of riding competing that makes all the hard work worthwhile. By the way Chris is an astounding runner and comes from that world to begin with. He actually initialized my curiosity for running awhile back.

He's truly an inspiration and a real athlete with the right attitude.

More picts from SBM.

We were pummeled with doggy day care over the holidays. I had to break up a few small skirmishes on occasion but, all and all it went well. My "Lady Gaga" rules the roost and assisted me in keeping everyone in line...

She's really my true buddy even though she's got a lot of issues...

We have on particular dog who's a bit of a regular. She's getting on in years, losing her teeth (the ones she has left really hurt) and forgets who you are from time to time but, she's so damn cute.
She kind of looks like her owner...
NINJA or as I like to call her NIKKI MY NINJA...
I think she managed to bite everyone who came through the door during her week long stay!
Happy New Year...!

Sleeping Dogs...

So, I'm staying strong. Trying to stay inspired and hoping to heal soon. I'll just wait till there is "no pain" and then try to run. I'm a little worried. I was hoping to have a complete 16 weeks training before my next Marathon. We shall see what the future brings...

Thank you to all those who inspire me. That will be my thought through this new year. "Live the dream".

Finite Existence and Riding Ronster Style!

Today the plan was to ride with my friend Ron over to the Marin Headlands (some serious climbing) then, on to Tiburon for lunch and hoping to do this all before the rain came.

The reality of our "finite existence" seemed to be the ongoing theme repeating it's self over and over in my head today. Along with the tragedy in Newtown CT. yesterday which my mind is finding it impossible to come to terms with, It has finally come to a time where revisiting an old dark shadow from the past would be impossible to avoid.

I have not ridden the Marin Headlands since the mid 90's. I did run a Marathon there two weeks ago. "The North Face Endurance Challenge". So, when Ron mentioned this week about doing a ride there on Saturday, I decided it was time to go back there again to enjoy that scenic and challenging place.

Courtesy Rons Photo

The Dark Past: 
Through the late 80's and into the 90's there was one particular friend of mine who I basically rode to the Moon and back with. For a period of two years we rode every bike century and a couple of double century rides together. We joined the same bike club and kept up a close friendship together with his wife and my wife riding with us a lot of the times.
He had a bit of a crazy side to him. Loved the downhill speed and was always trying to do one better on the descents.

As it goes so many times in life, friends get involved in other people and places and my life and work situation forced me to drift away from the the bike people who together with, I had spent so many years rolling through thousands of miles of beautiful Northern California.

Around July 1997 I got a call from one of the old bike group members. She was shaken to the core and was barely able to get out the news to me that my friend had died in a horrific bike crash going down the backside of the Marin Headlands descent.
This was the first time that "a friend" had un-expectantly passed away. It was a reality check, a wake up call and realization how death could be so devastating to people who are close.

Over the years I just could not bring myself to revisit the site where he lost control of his bike and met an untimely fate. It just weird-ed me out and I had to put it out of my mind for for probably too long...Until now.

As we began the climb from the Golden Gate bridge I began to feel some anxiety and queasiness... We descended down the backside and eased into that infamous turn...

As it turned out as I rode my brakes and took it all in. I felt only a sadness and actually looked at it analytically realizing how this happened and how easy it could happen to someone who took these type of extreme chances in life.
I thought how much I missed those times riding with him and experiencing the challenges together. He was with me when I won my first race, first century and first double century.
Such a tragic thing in such a beautiful spot. I forgot about how majestic and serene this amazing place can be.
Here I am now riding with another great friend (who I don't worry about as much).

The good thing is, I've moved on now. Come to terms with something that has been hidden away for too long.
Such is life. We get past these horrible moments in life and do the best we can to not let it happen again.

Everything must pass...

The Ride: Ganghem Style with Ron

I met up with Ron at Sports Basement, as always so good to see my friends. Since the weather held no promises, I think most of the sane people decide to stay home and keep dry.
Not a Hell of a lot of tourists crisscrossing the bike paths or the bridge way. It was quite cold but after the Bridge we began the ascent to the top of the Headlands and warmed up pretty quickly.
I was surprised at how much easier the climb was on my one speed. Probably from all the running and building a lot more core strength in the past few months.

Seeing the bunkers, gun turrets and feeling the echoes of the war years gone by brought back those feelings of finality and futility. What's that shit all about I think to myself. I don't get it. This human drive to annihilate one another and ourselves. I'm so lucky to not have gone through all of that like my father did...Wait a minute...I am and we are all still going through this. It never ends...

Man, I just want to get off my bike now and RUN! I love this area and all the beautiful trails.
Finally we head down towards Sausalito and out along the bike paths sloppy from the "King tides" we've experienced this week.

We make good time rounding the loop and as we come back into Tiburon Center I realize I'm getting a flat in my rear tire.
We decide to stop at our favorite halfway restaurant "Casa Manana". Great call. Delicious meal. I fix my flat and it's getting really cold and starting to rain, we head out.
At this point I'm ready to be done. I don't do rain very well. I actually promised myself I would never ride in it for the rest of my life...I lied!
We blasted through Sausalito and up the grind to the Bridge. I was passing a lot of riders so I knew I was making good time.
When I crossed the bridge I only saw one person coming towards me. Pretty amazing for a Saturday!

I met up with Ron back at Sports Basement. The last time I did this ride with Him I adopted a dog at a mobile adoption event there and this is what I went home with...

My little Layla at Sports Basement, almost exactly 2 years ago.

This time I rolled in and lo and behold...Doggies!

Unfortunately or fortunately how ever you look at it they were someone else's dogs so, not a chance for me to claim them.

Oh well, you win some you lose some.

We did close to 50 miles for the day, got completely soaked but it was well worth it and I was able to move through a painful memory and come out the other-side with a better perspective and a shot of confidence to boot!

Biting Off More Than I Can Chew...Going For A Personal Record

I think we've all been here at one time or another...

I felt like this guy all weekend and knew I had probably bitten off more than I could chew. By last Friday I was feeling a bit beat up from the previous weekends half-Marathon trail race and had done a bit of over training during the week, when I really should have been practicing some active recovery.

I had been planning on doing an un-supported "Full" Marathon on Sunday for a pretty cool "Strava" Challenge. Strava (Athletic GPS training site) would kick in a donation for the Hurricane Sandy relief fund, if Strava members committed to running a full 26.2 mile Marathon within a two day window. The Marathon would have to be completed in one day. 

Saturday I got a late start for my recon ride on the one speed, or what I should really call "The Steel Canon Ball On Wheels"! I had mapped out a somewhat reasonable Marathon route on "Bikely.com" and planned to review the course for any uncertain anomalies. I probably should have ridden the road bike with gears. My legs were still a bit slodgy from the previous weeks events.

After the recon I realized that the last 3 1/2 miles would be some considerable up hill that I knew I'd have some problems with being at the end of the run. I was going to try and make this my first sub-four hour Marathon. This would only be my second Marathon, for the record...What are the chances? I'd have to go 10 minutes faster than my San Francisco Marathon time.

Saturday night we had plans to go out with friends for Pizza in the Marina. One of my friends had been trying to find a decent pair of cross training shoes for her arobics, yoga and possibly some running. She'd had a history of shin splints so, I suggested "Fleet Feet" and Pizza afterwards. The trip to Fleet Feet was great as usual and they really helped her find a great pair of Nike cross trainers.

I'm not going to give a review for the Pizza restaurant...It sucked! Which was suprising since we've been going there for a couple of years without issue but, the were having a bad night and one bad experience isn't going to make me hate the place enough for a bad review.

The pizza was underdone and took way too long. They also skipped some of the important ingredients!

We sat for too long drinking wine, on top of scoffing down the pizza with underdone dough gave me a serious case of indigestion which made getting a good nights sleep impossible.

Sunday morning came too fast and what little sleep I did get was interrupted by drunken fools partying across two buildings complete with fireworks and police sirens.

I didn't get rolling till around 9:15am, an hour late from the time I wanted to start. Right away I felt heavy, bloated, slow and achy! Not the best combination for a Marathon PR.

By the time I was 4 miles in I actually felt a bit better and started to warm up. I enjoyed the drop down through Golden Gate Park and when I hit the Great Highway my dream came true. The Highway was closed to cars for cleaning off the sand from the beach. I felt good, GU'd up belted down some water and started hitting some low 8 minute miles. About mile 17 I hit a pretty good wall just at Lake Merced.

I could not get my ass in gear around the lake. I actually stopped and walked about 100 yards and downed a couple of Sport gels and more water, then began running again. When I hit the return along the beach I started feeling pretty good for the next couple miles. I thought I might surely break the 4 hour barrier...then I hit the uphill through Golden Gate park...Goodnight ladies and gentlemen. It wasn't a brick wall. It was the "Iron Curtain"!

I started panicking and my time was tapping the nine minute mile range. I started feeling very old, dark and full of self pity.

Pretty young girls were bounding past me like antelope on Cappuccino! I imagined the guys going by with smirks and praying not to ever get as old as this old fart.

With two miles to go I was done but still felt like I could bust the 4 hour mark. I got a little hung up at the traffic light on Stanyan getting onto the panhandle. I compulsivlely kept looking at my Garmin and the digits seemed to never change. When I got to the end of the Panhandle I still had a half mile and I just couldn't get my legs to move any faster. I was kaput!

Trying to cross another intersection and running up a sidewalk distracted me from my Garmin and when I shut it off it was just a few seconds over 4 hours! I couldn't believe it. Part of me was so bummed and the other part was just relieved to be done!

I limped into a corner store, got a big Gatorade and grabbed a cab home.

I could barely make it downstairs to roll out on the Styrofoam roller and shower.

When I got up and plugged my Garmin in the event came up at 24 miles!? WTF! Thankfully since I've had this problem before I also ran my Droid Strava App which came up with the correct milage. A little over 4:00:15. It was 26.4 miles and with the traffic light stops, I feel like it was an honorary sub 4!

Either way the real win was that I made myself do it and I was satisfied with that.

Today I got up and was a bit stiff but my recovery seems to be a lot faster these days. I've learned a lot of tricks. The right food, lot's of protein, roller and all the core work I've been doing are paying off.

I took an active recovery ride today. Just a nice easy 17 miles on the bike and a little free weights. Now I feel great.

My dog's were happy to have two parents home most of the day and relaxed like champs in front of their favorite perch.

Beyonce, Gaga and Layla...Sister wives!

I forgot to mention, quite a while back I had to cancel my 24 hour fitness membership. Due to making shit money these days (yes I've hit the age ceiling and nobody wants me anymore). I happened to be cleaning out some of the catacombs below the buildings I manage and came across a full set of weights complete with leg lift, barbell bench and stretch cables!... Dog provides! This has really been the cornerstone in my training. The injuries are less and my speed, endurance and well being have improved immensely.

Finally on my ride today I stopped at the GG Bridge and it was just one of those days when the Sun, time of day, Bridge were in perfect picture taking convergence!

So lucky I moved here...

Graffiti Art by Satellite-An Epic Adventure

After a week to remember:
Allergy cold
Felony assault on me and the dogs (more later)
Giant slip off the wagon
World series!
Foot issues, slowing my run training
Incapacitating shots in the arms at the Doctors

Something I'll never forget: I got an invite to ride with "Chris Phipps" a popular Bay Area Cyclist/Runner and Strava wizard on Saturday to replicate his great work of art displayed below...


This was composed by GPS tracking loaded up to Strava website (A social and athletic training web tool).
We would basically start our GPS units and follow a template overlay on a standard map. Seems simple but, is actually quite difficult and painstaking, not to mention the amount of riding, synchronizing gps and finding way's to control point connections with out having to ride our bikes through, buildings, shopping malls etc. We did do a considerable amount of carrying our bikes over lawns, dirt trails and through wooded areas!

I ran two separate GPS units. One to record overall time and miles and one to create the finished design. This map below is the other GPS recording overall mileage and elevation profiles.
I struggled with the idea of getting up to ride so early in the morning after being sick all week. Once I got up and got moving and I was very glad I had forced myself to do this.
When I arrived at the designated meeting area on the west side of Kezar Stadium, I assumed they'd be a hundred cyclist's there to do the ride. I was the  only one there and soon Chris arrived and one other person Katie Evans, a triathlete who's done along with many triathlons, the Hawaiian Iron man! I knew this would probably be a somewhat fast ride.

Chris gave the scope of what we were going to attempt to do for the day. I knew it would be a good 6 hours and about 60 miles with lots of climbing. 

The first third of the ride was not all that bad. Creating the "S" took us north into Pacific Heights, Outer Sunset and through the Golden Gate Park. As we got into the bottom of the "S" and Lower section of the "F" it became quite arduous! The climbing was more difficult and with some bike over trails portage.

Katie in front of me hiking it through the trails and woods

One problem was I didn't bring enough energy food and water and Chris is not one to slow down for anything. Once you get on the train with him you have to hang on for dear life! By noontime I was getting pretty bonked and begged to just stop for some gatorade, chips and a couple of Cliff bars. That did help some but, I may have waited too long and I had trouble getting my energy level back up.
Even though at times it was difficult I don't regret taking on this epic adventure and would do it again anytime.

Me, Katie and Chris along the Outer Sunset

Katie is a brute! She just hammered it all the way.

By the time we reached the Twin Peaks area I was really toast. We then had to go back all the way to the Ingleside area, over to the Outer Mission, up and over Noe Valley and back up through the Upper Market and Haight.
Finally we head out to the Inner Sunset and back along Lincoln, Golden Gate Park and the finish!

I was so glad to be done and when I got home Cathy had a big spaghetti dinner waiting and soon I was down for nap with the doggies.
When I got up I turned on the TV and hunkered down for the 2nd game of the World Series and a few too many beers...
Let's just say today nothing really got done...
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 BTW- On Monday of last week around noontime I was attacked with my dogs out in the street by some crazy tweaked up asshole. There was no reason for it and he basically rushed us and kicked my little dog Layla as hard as he could. She went in to screaming spasms and was oozing out body fluid from every orifice! I defended us by kicking at the lunatic, seeing how I couldn't use my hands because  of the other dogs and trying to keep hold of them. It was traumatic and she was rushed to Pets Unlimited, treated medicated and put on a 24 hour watch. For two days she was out of it but, finally came back and is now doing very well yet still traumatized and afraid to go out. I just don't get it. It kind of sent me into a drinking session, cause I just couldn't get that image of her suffering and the attack out of my head. Another day wasted and I'm not feeling anymore safe in this shitty neighborhood I'm living in.

Layla recovering and being checked over by her sister Gaga

Layla Pets Unlimited

My poor little puppy...so innocent and undeserved of being attacked...