Friday, January 8, 2010

An update


The weather has been bizarre. We've been caught in a sun-sandwich of sorts on most days. The Eastern valleys have fog and it spills over the hills, looking very pretty (see picture), but also very cold and wet. To the West, the Bay and downtown Berkeley is covered in haze or fog as well. In between it is sunny and warm.

Twice I went riding in Redwood park, starting out at the Skyline (Oakland) gate and continuing on the rim trail to the Pinehurst gate. The distance is about 4 miles. Twice, when I started out it was warm and sunny at the Skyline gate and I felt distinctly overdressed in my tights, long sleeve jersey and booties. Yet as soon as I approached Pinehurst, a thick fog covered the trail and it was cold, windy, wet, with almost no visibility. Then I felt cold, all in a space of 3.5-4 miles.

On Sunday I ran 12 miles on the Alameda creek trail. It has been a while since I ran that course and it was pretty as ever, with plenty of sun and a salty taste in the air. On Monday I rode on rollers for 1:20, going pretty hard. On Tuesday I ran on my treadmill for about an hour. I tried to run hard, but I could not keep the pace. I also had to stop to adjust the tread belt repeatedly. Then on Wednesday and Thursday I did the Redwood rides described above, with some extras. About 2 hours each.

Today, I ran for 1:06 minutes on the treadmill. I tried a 30 minute tempo run and was moderately successful. I more or less kept my pace at about 8.7 mph. What was even better was that the treadmill did not act up at all, so I could keep going.

I helped Alistair with some time-trial training on rollers and had Annelise run 2.5 miles on the treadmill. All in a day's work.

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