Bike The Bay

This morning we hooked up with 2,700 other riders for the annual Bike the Bay ride benefiting the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition.

More importantly, I  rode my bike over this.

For Reals - I rode my bike over the Coronado Bay Bridge.  It looks sort of piddly in that photo, but it's 20 stories high at the peak.  It's tall enough for an aircraft carrier to pass under the bridge.  Peak - that means I needed to ride uphill and downhill (my nemesis!)  It was fine; I didn't panic.

Other than one moment where I thought I dropped my chain going into a turn, I had a very good ride. (Sorry for the folks behind me.  I know I stopped shorter than I should have.)  

That's two successful group rides in consecutive weekends. I'm ready for the bike section of the triathlon.

Midnight Madness Bike Ride

Saturday night we rode our bikes in the 37th Annual Midnight Madness Fun Bike Ride.  It's 2,000 cyclists riding a 20 mile route through San Diego. The ride goes through some of the prettiest sections of downtown - along the bay, the Embarcadero, Little Italy, Old Town, Shelter and Harbor Islands.  I run those areas often, but never at night and it was beautiful to see the city lights and the boats lit up in the harbor.

Despite the fact the we had race bibs, it's a fun ride not a race.  There's a Light Your Bike contest.  Many of the cyclists are in costumes.  My personal favorite costumes were the people who showed up as astronauts with one cyclist towing the Apollo 11.  Fantastic!

Race or not, this is exactly the type of bike event that has terrified me in the past - the bedlam of a mass start, riding on the roads. I've really been working on my bike handling and it paid off for me.  The ride was fine and so was I.  Except for one little thing. The course was flat with some gentle rolling hills. Then there was one really steep downhill toward the end of the course.  I wasn't expecting it at all.  I turned a corner and suddenly it's a drop zone. I couldn't do it.  I had to walk my bike down the hill.

Okay, here's the thing.  I'm a perfectionist, not with other people but with myself. The fact that I had to get off my bike upset me.  A lot.  I was nearly in tears because I felt such a huge sense of failure for walking down a hill for a quarter of a mile. 

Let's get some perspective.  Saturday morning I did an exercise class followed by my full triathon workout:.Swim: 500 meters,  Bike: 15 miles, Run 3.5 miles. Saturday night, I started a ride at midnight and got past some of my big fears of group rides.  That's a day anyone should be proud to complete. Tears?  Over a hill?  I've got to get over it!

Setting high goals is a good thing.  Letting my perfectionist tendencies bring me to tears at the end of a fantastic day was just stupid. 

I Can't Explain It...

Steve and we're walking along Dog Beach.  It's a little stretch where everyone lets their dogs play in the waves. Very SoCal.

And sure, that's cool but how do you explain this.

This enormous iguana was riding the waves and body surfing back to the beach.  I cannot explain it, but it was cool.

Dog or iguana - which one do you see on your local beach?

Today in Randomness

That's my photo on the cover of the book.  

A few months ago someone from the University of Nevada Press called me and asked to purchase the rights to one of my photos from Lake Tahoe.  She was searching Flickr for photos of Cave Rock and came across one of mine.  I was just tickled silly because I love to take photos, but frequently come home from vacation with less than 5 snapshots.  I always forget to take out the camera.  And if I actually take photos, then I'll forget to download them or post them.

That photo is a random bit of luck.  Steve was doing his big 100 mile bike ride around Lake Tahoe and I was doing race support.  This was at a spot on the course where I was waiting for the cyclists.  I had some time to kill and fired off a few shots.

Me, a published photographer.  I'm just tickled.

In The Long Run

With all the triathlon training, I haven't done any long runs since June. I've done the occassional 7 or 8 mile run, but nothing substancial. 

For the last week Steve's mom was staying with us.  She got to spend lots of time with me, but no time alone with her son. On Saturday, she and Steve went on a long car trip to visit family.  I decided to opt out of the trip - that way they'd get some time alone together and I'd get a Saturday to run.  Whee!

I decided to set out for a 15 miler. That was a silly sort of goal since I wasn't really prepped for that distance and it's longer than any race I'll do this year. There's no reason for me to run 15 miles; I just wanted to run.  Honestly, I think the lack of long runs has made me a little bit disagreeable.

I didn't have a route mapped; I just ran where I felt like it.  I also didn't have the right nutrition so I stopped and bought a cookie and diet coke at about mile 12.  All in all, it wasn't a great run..  I walked a fair amount in the final miles (which might have had something to do with refueling with Cokes and cookies).  But it was nice to have the time alone with my running and my thoughts.  Sometimes I just need to run until I can make sense of everything.

Bad Fashion Choices Continue to Haunt Me

Triathlon training is going well enough that I'm starting to have a lot of confidence that I'll finish the race.  This weekend I did a 25 mile bike ride followed by a four mile run.  I'm feeling really strong on the bike. Good times.

Three little mishaps to report:

• Steve loaded my bike into my SUV for me and to do that he took off my front wheel.  When I load the bike, I just jam the whole thing into the truck so I've never had to remove the wheel or put the wheel on myself.  I couldn't figure out how to get the wheel on the bike and I was standing in the parking lot getting frustrated.  A nice man came along and did that for me.  Sometimes it's nice to be a girl. 
• The other thing is that I decided to ride in my running clothes which wasn't the greatest idea I've ever had. I put my new saddle on the bike this week.  (And I did it myself!)  If you're looking for a sore butt, then you should ride 25 miles on a brand new saddle without padded shorts.  My butt-bones are not really happy with me today.  Also, I wore a running shirt instead of a bike shirt which is longer in the back.  The bike shirts cover you when you lean forward on the bike.  My running shirt left an 1 inch gap which is now incredibly, ouchily sunburned.