2008, Week Thirteen Review

And I'm wondering if I should just wait until tomorrow and do the week and the month. But then it'd probably take all week to get the post done, so I'll do the weekly, then try to get the monthly done early this week.
Monday March 24: A good start to the week. Home treadmill for 1.21 miles; morning bike ride for 8.41 miles; then the full Cybex circuit at the Y on the way home from work.
Tuesday March 25: Home treadmill for 1.21 miles; morning bike ride for a paltry (for me) 6.72 miles. Don't recall now why I didn't stop by the gym on the way home.
Wednesday March 26: A bit of morning laziness today, with only 0.86 mile on the home treadmill; morning bike ride of 8.72 miles; and instead of the gym I stopped at one of the parks where I start my morning ride and did a bit of walking around the track. But I included the mileage in Thursday morning's mileage.
Thursday March 27: Including last night's park walk, the walk mileage is 1.7 miles (each walk was about half that distance); morning bike ride for 9.45 miles. I'd planned to stop at the park again, trying to get some more non-treadmill walking done before the Coaster Run on 13 April, but as the day went on I got progressively achy-er—a generalized muscular achiness—and while I thought my face felt kinda feverish, I was cold and couldn't seem to get warm. So I came home, took a couple Advil, reset the alarm for an hour later, and went to bed early.
Friday March 28: Felt better for the extra sleep, but not enough better for the morning bike ride. And since this is late-at-work night, no chance to stop at the gym, even if the generalized achiness hadn't lingered.
Saturday March 29: Feeling much, much better, but never did make time for a ride. Stopped at the LNS during my errands (started with oil change and tire rotation and concluded eventually with a Trader Joe's visit) and ended up staying about 3 hours, just socializing. Met SCSarah from the XS boards and Melissa and my friend Nancy also wandered in, as well as a stitcher I know from the old AOL boards.
Sunday March 30: Went for distance this morning on the home treadmill and did a whole 5K. Good thing this was just a training walk and not for the Shave, because this 5K was fully bearded!! 3.11 miles including warm up and cool down times, and a more or less leisurely 82 minutes. A few more errands today, including a stop at the place I'd like to call Snub-Clydes Central, but for once I was actually greeted before I was 10 feet into the store! Got my sit bones measured (and doesn't it just figure that I'm between sizes!) and left the store with yet another new saddle, this one narrower overall and with a longer nose (and comparably shorter sit part). I did eventually get over to SART for a ride and stupidly chose to ride north instead of south. Should have ridden into the wind on the outbound portion and with a tailwind home instead of the other way 'round. There's rain predicted for later this week and the wind was cold, like it was trying to move an Arctic Express in for the week, and coming straight up the riverbed with no respect at all for compass direction, so with the later than normal start for the ride, I didn't ride as far as I usually would on a Sunday. But I also discovered a couple of different SART access points with parking very close by which would not only be closer to home but would also give me more distance for my weekend rides. One is on Lincoln and is a dirt area just outside the access to the SART, right next to R J Noble's Orange quarry at the end of Glassell. The other is a little farther up the river, on Riverdale at the end of Orange-Olive Rd in Orange. Since I'd like to increase my weekend mileage without having to ride through all the loony pedestrians, weekend cycle-renters, skaters, skateboarders, surfers, and other assorted beach hanger-outers between the end of SART and the pier, these two entry points are looking pretty good. They have the added advantage of not being with walking distance of the stadium, so I wouldn't have to worry about my van being impounded because someone thought I was trying to beat out paying for parking for a ball game. A paltry-for-me 16.15 miles.
Mileage for the week: 57.54
Distance from Bag End: 1481.58 miles.
Distance from Rauros: 172.58 miles.
Distance to Isengard: 311.42 miles.

2008, Weeks Eleven and Twelve

Exhausting week! I don’t know why, but I’ve been in sleep debt all week long. Just haven’t been able to get caught up. So everything has suffered—walking, riding, using the elliptical, doing the Cybex machine circuit. Last week I walked nearly every day and averaged more than 10 miles per day on the bike, but since Sunday I’ve just been pooped. Some stressful work days haven’t helped any, either. And all of those add up to why I never managed to get last week’s recap posted.

The Weekly Review (for the last two weeks):
Monday February 10: Didn’t do anything!
Tuesday February 11: Home treadmill for 1.04 miles; morning bike ride for 11.42 miles; and a full Cybex circuit at the Y on the way home from work.
Wednesday February 12: Whacked the snooze alarm a few too many times and left myself with just enough time for a walk of a puny 0.52 mile; morning bike ride for 10.91 miles; and a nicely productive time on the elliptical at the Y on the way home, for 2.63 miles.
Thursday February 13: Home treadmill for 1.27 miles; morning bike ride for 10.49; and the whole Cybex routine after work.
Friday February 14: Home treadmill for 1.30 miles, and the morning bike ride for 9.93 miles.
Saturday February 15: The 23rd annual Tour de Sewer in Bell Gardens. As I’ve posted before, I opted for the 30-mile version, which turned out to be only 28 miles. Still and all, that’s a fair piece o’ ridin’.
Sunday February 16: This was supposed to have been a rest day, but a couple of friends from NCIS fandom were out here for their studio tour and they called late Sunday morning, so the three of us spent the day doing things like visiting the UCLA bookstore (Mark Harmon is an alumnus, and Marion’s an even bigger MH fan than I am) and cruising Griffith Park while trying to find parking for the Observatory. So I’m giving myself 0.75 mile for the hiking we did on that mountain.

Monday February 17: So I tried to stretch the “day of rest” into today. No treadmill time, no bike ride, no elliptical. But I did get through most of the Cybex circuit at the Y. Lost out on a couple of the lower body machines because there was a medical emergency blocking access to those machines. And since it was getting close to closing time, I decided to save those until later.
Tuesday February 18: Finally hit the treadmill today, but only 1.04 miles, and got in a short bike ride, 6.53 miles.
Wednesday February 19: Took a vacation day to spend the day with Marion and Jo and ended up with a visit to the NCIS Production Offices at Sunset Gower in Hollywood. No morning home treadmill time, no bike ride, no Y visit. But a very late night and a long drive from Van Nuys to Anaheim. And a very good time was had by all.
Thursday February 20: Set the alarm clock for an hour later than normal and slept in after yesterday’s fun. Did take a short bike ride, only 6.53 miles.
Friday February 21: Once again set the alarm for an hour later than normal and skipped the morning walk. And a slightly longer bike ride: 8.40 miles. And once again there was a crew setting up to film something near one of the lakes at El Dorado Regional Park.
Saturday February 22: Had to work today, and ended up not even getting a morning bike ride after once again deliberately sleeping as last as possible.
Sunday February 23: Breakfast date with the BunnyRunner, and we really need to do that more often. And include Nancy from the LNS. I did start the morning with a stroll for a full hour on the home treadmill, for 2.10 miles, before heading over to the local IHOP for breakfast. Then after breakfast it was off to the Rampart St access to the Santa Ana River Trail and south to Huntington Beach on one of those days that are the reason we live here and put up with all the smog and the loonies. Rode all the way to PCH and met up with some BikeForum folks, then rode on up to the HB Pier, where I turned around and started back to SART and my parking space just south of Angel Stadium. Personal best distance of 32.55 miles. Which is also just a bit farther than a metric half century.

Mileage for the whole two weeks:
Distance from Bag End: 1424.04 miles.
Distance from Rauros: 115.04 miles.
Distance to Isengard: 368.96 miles.

Tiny Disappointment

The "30-mile" Tour de Sewer was really only 28 miles. But I had a good time, didn't stress over not being fast. There were only a couple places where I didn't downshift soon enough and ended up walking the bike a short distance (60 feet or so one time and 20 feet or so the second time). I also managed to do the whole Montebello Blvd hill climb on two wheels, though I did stop three times to get my heart rate and respirations down below cardiac-and-respiratory-arrest levels, but even then the stops weren't even a minute in duration each time. Lots of encouraging words, too, from other riders as they were passing me. I also passed a walker who was wearing a Surf City Marathon shirt, so of course I had to call out to her that I'd been there too! And then during the post-ride lunch I sat with another woman who'd been there (she wasn't wearing the shirt; it came out in conversation). The route covered a lot of territory I wouldn't ordinarily ride in (Bell Gardens is not Beverly Hills!), so there were a lot a things to see as I rode, not the least of which was the natural area near the Whittier Narrows Dam. Lots of squirrels and birds, including some buzzards, as well as the usual herons, assorted ducks, geese and other waterfowl, seagulls (the large winged rats) and pigeons (the small winged rats). The weather also held quite nicely, though I couldn't seem to find a happy medium between wearing and not-wearing the windbreaker. And silly me, I never once stopped to take a picture of Radagast the Beige-and-Black (aka Duckbike) on the trail. Maybe I thought that if I stopped I'd never start again! All in all, I had a good time and I'll likely do it again next year. ETA: It took me about 3 hours and 20 minutes to complete the course, including a potty stop around the 7-mile point and then a snack stop at Wilderness Park along the San Gabriel River Trail in the vicinity of the 20-mile point.

2008, Week Ten Review

A pretty good week, although I spent less time at the gym than I would have preferred. And I feel pretty comfortable about the prospect of doing 30 miles on the bike next Saturday on the Tour de Sewer.
Monday, March 3: Home treadmill for 0.94 mile; then the morning bike ride for 8.35 miles, and a stop at the Y on the way home for the full Cybex circuit with increased sets and/or weights.
Tuesday, March 4: Home treadmill for 0.95 mile, and nothing else! I put off the bike ride so that I could check on my new (to me, anyway) laptop, which turned out not to be ready, and then crisis control kept me at work until too late to stop.
Wednesday, March 5: Home treadmill for 1.0 mile, morning bike ride for 10.5 miles, and another stop at the Y for the tougher Cybex circuit.
Thursday, March 6: Home treadmill for 1.2 miles, morning bike ride for 10.1 miles, and then staying late at work because the night guy called in sick.
Friday, March 7: Home treadmill for 1.1 miles, morning bike ride for 11.29 miles, and because it's my late night at work, no stop at the Y on the way home.
Saturday, March 8: Decided to skip the home treadmill because I was going for a long bike ride, which was on the Santa Ana River Trail (SART) and lasted for 23.6 miles.
Sunday, March 9: Blew off the treadmill again—and the gym!—for another SART ride, to the beach this time where I wasted a good hour BSing with some other bikeforum.net riders. If it hadn't been for the wind—the Santa Anas, which take their name from the fact that they come in off the desert through El Cañon del Rio de Santa Ana, were blowing pretty hard, which made the ride toward the beach pretty easy for nearly the entire length (Santa Ana winds tailwind became onshore headwind about Mile 5 [Mile 1 is Pacific Coast Hwy]), but made it pretty grueling on the ride back to where I park near Angel Stadium. 28.07 miles.

All in all, this week definitely has me on track to increase my mileages on everything except the elliptical.

Total Miles for the Week: 97.10
Miles from Bag End: 1287.11
Miles from Rauros: 21.89

2008, Week Nine Review, February Recap

All in all, a far better showing this last week than in too long a time!
Monday, February 25: Home treadmill for 0.70 mile, morning bike ride for 7.61 miles, and the full Cybex circuit at the Y.
Tuesday, February 26: Home treadmill for 0.82 mile, morning bike ride for 9.25 miles, and the elliptical at the Y for 3.02 miles.
Wednesday, February 27: Home treadmill for 1.06 miles, morning bike ride for 11.23 miles, and the full Cybex circuit at the Y.
Thursday, February 28: Home treadmill for 0.90 mile, morning bike ride for 8.35 miles, and the elliptical at the Y for 3.21 miles.
Friday, February 29: Took the day off from the treadmill, but the morning bike ride was 8.12 miles. No Y because Fridays are always late nights at work.
Saturday, March 1: My first attempt to join a BikeForums.net group ride that failed in that I didn't get started early enough to meet the group at the At Rivers End Cafe in Seal Beach, but I did see them as I was heading south toward the cafe and they were on their return journey (some to the Rose Bowl, others to Encanto Park). But though I failed to meet the group, I did put 20.42 more miles on the bike.
Sunday, March 2: Lazy day today, since it was All-Day Open Stitch Class at the LNS, and I didn't plan on doing much. But since I arrived early, I pulled the bike out of the van and put in a couple more miles before class. I'll have to get that mileage later, since I didn't record it in my ride log and can't remember the exact distance right now. 2.52 miles.

Total mileage for the week: 75.20 (plus today's bike mileage). 77.72
Distance from Bag End: 1187.19 (plus, of course, today's bike mileage). 1189.71
Distance remaining to Rauros: 141.93 (less today's bike mileage). 139.41

February recap:
Walk: 11.92 miles
Elliptical: 11.64 miles
Bike: 186.17 (total miles on stationary bikes: 0)
Total: 209.73

March Goals: Increase all three distances. At least twice weekly on the Cybex circuit. Increase sets on Cybex circuit.

Events this month: The Tour de Sewer on the Ides of March. 30-mile bike ride.

After the bike ride on Saturday I took the bike over to Jax in Long Beach (the nearest cycle shop to where I was) and had another adjustment made to my saddle position, but of course the ride this morning wasn't enough to give the new setting a good test. Tomorrow's pre-work ride should give a fair test.

I've also joined the Shave Your 5K Challenge, so I'll be working to increase my walking speed before the Coaster Run next month.