25 Miles, The Blue Angels, and Graphic Design

This is going to be a media heavy post, enjoy! Today I went for a little ride around SF. First I went to school because i needed to print out some files for class tomorrow. These are them:

With these rolled up and put in my back jersey pocket, i set off in search of the Golden Gate Bridge. I knew which direction to go, north, so i did, eventually found the path to Crissy Field, and made my way up and over the bridge. As seen in the video. As I'm going across, the Blue Angels just happened to be flying over head, doing a training run. Good timing.

Over all i did the ride in 2:00'28" for a distance of 25.13 miles, at a pace of 4'47" per mile. The best part? Not once did i drop all the way into my granny gear. when it got tough i got out of the saddle, and pushed up the hills. I did drop into my compact gear on one hill leading up to the Legion of Honor, but i stayed well away from the top gear on the rear. I pushed my legs, and it felt great! At the end i did a quick 3 loops of the block to get to 25 miles and brought my gearing almost all the way down to give it a little boost of work at the end.

Here's the route, can we say i killed this ride? Because when i look

at it, it's totally a hand holding a revolver:

Tomorrow is trail running, and the last day to donate! i only need a little over $200, you could help push me over the edge! Thank you to those who have gotten me this far, i could be here without you! Here's some more pictures for you to enjoy!

SF Brick

Great ~23 mile ride today in 1'30" to the Panhandle, through Golden Gate Park, along the beach, two loops around Lake Merced, then up Vicente, never dropping in to my granny gear.  I remember my first ride up Vicente, granted, i hadn't been warmed up, but it was tough, and today when it was at mile 20, it was a piece of cake, just kept the legs moving.

Then i got off the bike and ran.  Down hill to the beach, then uphill back home.  Downhill = Fun, uphill = work.  I did a little under 4 miles in 38 minutes, which walking, and stopping for stoplights, which made my time 10'04" per mile.  Not where i wanted it, but it was a tough brick.  I need to get a few more distance running trainings in this week and next.  Then a good taper before the race.

30 Miles! Then a (failed) fundraiser.

I did my first 30 miler Saturday.  Felt great, except for when my left hip flexor decided to send shooting pain up and down my left side at about mile 25.  Ugh.  I pushed through though and finished in under 2 hours.  That felt great.  I feel myself getting stronger, and it doesn't hurt to see that i'm using lower gears than when i started 2 and a half months ago.

It was a beautiful ride through Marin County, around a reservoir, and through beautiful trees.  It's a popular ride, there were well over 100 riders.  There were gentle rollers and not to much wind, it's tough to slice through the gusts, but it just makes the training better!

I hosted a fundraiser that night from 7 to 11 at a bar downtown.  I advertised drink specials, flip cup, and a silent auction, but only 7 people showed up.  1 was a professor and his girlfriend, 2 teammates (thanks Erin and Mike!) and 3 buddies outside of TNT.  I made a little over $100, a far cry from the $500 i was hoping for.  I learned for next time: have it earlier in the season, be more creative, and don't have it after a long day on a bike!

With that being said, I'm only a couple hundred dollars away from my goal!  ONLY 4 DAYS LEFT!  Please help out by donating what you can, RIGHT NOW!  Don't wait! April 15th is the deadline!  Thank you from the bottom of my heart, all of those who have and WILL donate!

GO TEAM!

Gotta Love AP

My first Perimeter!  For those who don't know, AP looks like this from above:

You start at the beach at the bottom, and you can either do laps along the beach, (3 laps = 1 Mile) or you can do the perimeter, which is just what it sounds like and 1 lap = .9 miles.

So as a newbie to the perimeter swim i was told by my teammates i had to swim out into the bay through the opening at the top and get a view of the golden gate bridge from the fish persepctive.  The bridge is a few miles away, but it's still a view that is pretty special.

I don't know how long it took because i forgot to hit my watch, and we stopped a bunch of times to chat along the way, but it was much better than doing the laps.  You feel like you're getting somewhere, which is nice!

My First Brick.

It's called a brick because you're legs feel like bricks.  And they do.  It's not a lie.  It's biking, then running. I did it on my own this weekend in Napa, while i was there for Easter Weekend.  I asked the wonderful lady at the front desk of the motel what is a good ride with hills that i could take that would be 30 mile, (30 miles was my original plan).  She said to go to Pope Valley and back.  Sounded good.  Little did i know that meant going OVER A MOUNTAIN.  So, i took that route, and went to the top of the mountain, which is just a mere 1,444' of climb! With a max 8% grade, it's pretty much a constant climb until i turned around at the top. It took me 1:18'36" but that was because it was all downhill on the way back! Plus, it was only 16 miles, which is OK with me.

Then i got my running shoes on and went for a 4 mile run. My goal here was to stay under 10' miles.  Which i successfully did.  My pace was 9'42" which isn't that amazing, but i had very little nutrition and hydration, both on the bike and the run.  I'm happy with both times while running on fumes.

BIKE!


RUN!

AP Swim

Met some teammates at Aquatic Park (AP) to do a little cold water SF Bay swimming.  Did a mile in 42'  There was a pretty strong current for it being a protected area, so i definitely Zig Zag'd which is something i have to work on so i don't swim further then i have to!

I'm holding a fundraiser this weekend to hopefully meet my goal of $3,000.  I've been almost halfway there for a month and i only have a week left.  HELP!  Please keep me out of the poorhouse (i have to pay what i don't fundraise) and donate what you can, as soon as you can!  THANK YOU!!!

Go Team!

Hill Repeats AGAIN

Nothing like a good hill repeat in the Presidio.  Thursday the April 1st was a coached bike bill repeat workout.  We went out for an hour, i did 7 repeats.  Then i raced a teammate on a flat straightaway.  I won, sorry Claire!