2008, Week Eight Review

My, how time flies!
Monday, February 18: A morning bike ride for 6.32 miles, then an after-work stop at the Y to do the Cybex circuit.
Tuesday, February 19: The best day of the entire week. 0.83 mile on the home treadmill, morning bike ride for 5.14 miles, and then the evening stop at the Y for the elliptical for 2.43 miles.
Wednesday, February 20: Total slacker, in every respect. The morning rain kept me off the bike, but there's no excuse for blowing off everything else. Even though I forgot to put clean gym clothes in my van when I left for work.
Thursday, February 21: 7.22 miles on Radagast the Beige-and-Black. No gym time again!
Friday, February 22: More rain kept me off Radagast, but there just isn't any excuse for not stopping at the Y on the way to work. And since it's Friday, there's no stopping on the way home.
Saturday, February 23: Safety meeting at work, then traipse around the Queen Mary Dome (former home of the Spruce Goose) for several hours enjoying Star Trek: The Tour before it closes and moves away next weekend.
Sunday, February 24: I was headed for the gym when the rain stopped and the clouds broke. Still windy and cold, but I put 10.44 miles on the bike. I was going to ride from Liberty Park down the SGRT to El Dorado Regional Park, but the gate was locked, blocking the way into the Del Amo underpass, so I just cycled around Liberty Park.

I also bought a new saddle this week. Definitely a major improvement for the tail bone, but still a bit tough on the ischial tuberosities (the "sit bones"). And it's only three weeks to the Tour de Sewer!

2008, Week Seven Review

Aack!! Another crappy one!
Monday, February 11: A lazy day, "justified" with the excuse that I'd spent so much time riding over the previous two days.
Tuesday, February 12: The home treadmill for 0.72 mile; the morning bike ride for 6.63 miles; and the whole Cybex circuit at the Y after work, including adding one more machine.
Wednesday, February 13: The home treadmill for 0.91 mile; the morning bike ride for 7.19 miles; delayed at work until it was too late to stop at the Y.
Thursday, February 14: No treadmill time, but a late start at work that allowed me a 10.34 mile bike ride. Had to close the office, so again no chance to stop at the Y after work.
Friday, February 15: Let myself sleep late after the late stay at the office the night before, so just the morning bike ride for 6.68 miles. And, of course, it's Friday, so no chance at all of hitting the Y on the way home.
Saturday, February 16: Ran errands all day and never even got a bike ride!
Sunday, February 17: Had to work today, didn't get on the treadmill, and didn't go to the Y because I had to be at the office before the Y opens on Sundays. Did get a nice bike ride in, though, on the San Gabriel River Trail from Liberty Park in Cerritos down to Alamitos Bay (Long Beach) and back again, for 20.32 miles.

My bike shorts and shirt arrived on Thursday, so I wore them today on my ride. My sitbones still hurt! I need to find out if the local Trek dealer has one of those sitbone measuring devices; maybe I need a different saddle. It's the tip of the tailbone, I think. I also ordered a jacket.

Happy birthday, Melissa!!!

Registered!

Got one of my tax returns, so I've been busy this morning registering for a couple of events. I'm now officially obligated to the Tour de Sewer bike ride and the Coaster Run 5K to benefit the Speech and Language Development Center in Buena Park. Links are in the Upcoming Events section over there on the left. But a warning to those of you who want to participate in the Coaster Run: the website link takes you to last year's event, so go to Active.com and search on Coaster Run for this year's registration.

Now off to buy some biking wear. ETA: A plain blue cycling jersey and a pair of plain ol' padded shorts.

2008, Week Six Review

Not a great week, but not as bad as it might have been.
Monday, February 4: A bit sluggish today, recovering from the soggy 5K, so only some Cybex machines on the way home from work.
Tuesday, February 5: A bit less sluggish today, but still not terribly active. A full round of all the Cybex machines on the way home from work.
Wednesday, February 6: Finally starting to move around some! Home treadmill for a pretty paltry 0.6 mile; a morning bike ride for 3.3 miles, and the elliptical at the Y for 2.98 miles.
Thursday, February 7: a bit longer jaunt on the home treadmill for 0.83 mile, then a bike ride for 7.02, and a full set of Cybex machines on the way home.
Friday, February 8: I fully intended to go for some bike rides over the weekend, so I made this a rest day.
Saturday, February 9: Drove up to Yorba Regional Park, hopped on the SART (Santa Ana River Trail), and rode all the way down to Chapman Av in Orange, for 22.03 miles. That pushed me to just over 1,000 miles from Bag End. I updated my shields over at the Eowyn Challenge site.
Sunday, February 10: Yesterday on the way back to YRP from the Chapman Av turnaround point, I stopped at a rest area on the SART that's alongside the Ponda (the Honda-sponsored facility that used to be known as the Arrowhead Pond, home of the Anaheim Ducks hockey team), I met a poster (and his cycling wife) from BikeForums.net, who told me about a couple of other entry points to the SART with good parking, so today I parked over by the local fire-training facility (south of Anaheim Stadium, just off of Orangewood) and rode all the way down to Pacific Coast Hwy in Huntington Beach. That ride was 25.59 miles. My girlybits are okay, but my sitbones, which still haven't recovered from yesterday's ride, hurt like hell!! If next weekend is as gorgeous as this weekend was, I'm going to wear my bike shorts! May wear 'em anyway, and wear my track pants over 'em.

Total mileage for the week: 62.35
Total distance from Bag End: 1,026.88 Still drifting down the Anduin River on the way to Rauros.

2008, Week Five Review

Finally!
Monday, January 28: Treadmill at home, 0.93 mile; elliptical at the Y, 1.47 miles; plus some Cybex machines.
Tuesday, January 29: morning bike ride, 5.49 miles; treadmill at the Y, 2.96 miles.
Wednesday, January 30: morning bike ride, 6.22 miles; treadmill at the Y, 2.65 miles.
Thursday, January 31: morning bike ride, 6.23 miles; elliptical at the Y, 2.73 miles.
Friday, February 1: day of rest.
Saturday, February 2: afternoon bike ride at the beach, 2.89 miles.
Sunday, February 3: My first-ever 5K, plus a hike from the shuttle stop to the starting line and a hike from the finish line to the shuttle stop, 4.3 miles.

Total mileage for the week: 37.87.
Current mileage from Bag End: 971.41

I can't thank Melissa enough for her support before, during, and after the 5K! Particularly in the midst of her grief. And all the rest who've offered congratulations and kind words!!

2205/2265

Which means, of course, I wasn’t quite dead last! We started the race cold and wet and finished it colder and wetter. But we finished the first annual Surf City Marathon/Half-Marathon/5K. I came in 1357 of 1398 women in the 5K, 2205 out of 2265 overall in the 5K, and 66th in Females 55-59 (don’t know how many there were in that age group). Not such a bad showing for a waddling first-timer. 1:02:40, which is faster than I felt I was going.

All things considered, the first half wasn’t so bad—northbound on PCH from Main St (very near the former location of the renowned Golden Bear) to just past Golden West—with the rain and wind coming in toward the left butt cheek. Of course, when we made the turn to head back past the oilfields into town, we were bucking a headwind with the salty rain pouring into our right eyes. Melissa’s iPod tracking chip thingy decided it didn’t like the cold and wet, so we don’t know how far we walked from the shuttle stop to the staging area and then from the finish line (south of the pier) back to the shuttle stop. Somewhere between half and three-quarters of a mile for the shuttle-stop-to-staging-area jaunt, then around half a mile from the finish line to the shuttle stop.

I’m exhausted, my legs and feet hurt, my body didn’t like the hotel bed. But I had a blast!! Our stitching friend Nancy is planning to join us at the event at Knott’s. And all healing thoughts directed to Terri so she can continue training!!

Too bad the Y closes so early on Sundays. I wouldn’t have minded spending a little time parboiling myself in the jacuzzi. And maybe tomorrow I'll have the energy to post the weekly report.