Saturday, November 29, 2008

how to work off that Turkey when stuck in Napertuckey?

I'm in Naperville Ill stuck without a bike. But it's beautiful and 45 degrees, perfect weather for a fall run. I've not been running but with my schedule (and the hopefully impending rain in California) I am trying to rebuild my running base. My legs and weight are such that I need to build my running base very slowly or I will get some gnarly shin splints going, so I ducked out of the In-Law fest for a quick 3 miler today. Not bad. I'm going to try and work in some lunchtime runs at nVidia, sadly nVidia is far removed from the better trails over near AMD and my old job at Sandcraft. Anyone know good running trails near Central and San Tomas?

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Time Trial and Tire Change Prep

Leave work 30 minutes before train. Nominal time to train - 25 minutes. This is on Central Expressway which is flat, fast, not too many lights, good shoulder so you can get down on the bars and let er rip. But with an extra 5 minutes to spare - how to make for a good time trial?

Puncture! Also allows one to practice a fast tire change. Somehow I managed to make my train. I think the high intensity work of racing to Caltrain is actually pretty good stuff, but I need to do some stretching on the train or something, I am feeling pretty beat up.

I am picking up an insane amount of glass lately. I think the commuter bike needs to downgrade from the Conti 4000's to something more robust, it mostly gets used on Central Expressway and on the Google rides anyway.

Off to Chicago for the holidays, no bike so I am going to try and (gulp) run...

Monday, November 24, 2008

Nov 24 ride to work

For some reason I always end up finding time to ride once the season is kaput. This has the downside that this is when the rain starts. In tribute I am shopping for a cross bike. No need to repeat the day when I decided I was training rain or shine, rode up Page Mill in the rain then crashed and broke my hip coming down.

I managed to get in a ride this AM from SF to work, minus the PA->Mountain View section plus an extra sprint from PA back to Menlo after I missed a train in PA. Despite fighting a cold I felt ok as the pace was not too brisk, and it was good to meet a new rider (Bruce I think) who had some serious mojo and was only slowed down by a broken spoke.

And I stuck to a banana/pomegranate smoothie for fuel, better than some lard infused muffin from the train station.

Onward and upward.