Sunday, May 10, 2009

Name the Route

Oh look! It's another interesting route which requires an inappropriate pseudonym.

I want to call it The Fetus ...but I'm open to suggestions

This is the route Betty, Clarence, and I rode on Saturday morning...instead of running 22 miles with the San Diego Track Club, we rode 20. Our initial plan was to head to North County, but because we are either gluttons for punishment, or lazy, we rode on about the same route where the track club was running their longest run of the training season. I remember this run from last year. It was grueling. I had a fabulous talk with all my body parts here last year.

Bad thing about this ride:
  • I did feel a little guilty that I wasn't running with my running peeps when I started seeing them near Mission Bay High School.
  • More guilt when I saw Irene (she looked great).
  • Even more guilt as we went searching for Mik, Kat, BBJ, & Scotty, and then found them on the San Diego Riverbed coming out of Fiesta Island.
Good things about this ride:
  • I wasn't running (I'd run 6 miles with Betty the day before at Lake BP, and my legs were a little tired)
  • Irene's husband yelling out "heyyyyyyy heffferrrrrrrrs" as we rode past (which always makes me laugh...especially at other people's reactions).
  • It was, for the most part, a pretty flat ride.
  • It was familiar (that is, I knew where to park the car...and ever so cleverly, we parked at World Famous, our favorite restaurant in PB)
  • I have to admit I was especially glad I wasn't running on the San Diego Riverbed part...it's a really pretty beat-up path (although this is when all three of us noted that the pot-holes were not especially hoo-ha friendly either).
  • When we got done riding, I could still walk. I can't always say this after a really long run.
I worked much harder on this ride, than on previous rides, that's for sure. Garmin says that we averaged about 12mph, but that includes the times we had stopped. I think that when we ride in the city somewhere, I'm going to turn on the "autopause" feature, so I have a better idea of how fast we're going.

Yeah...I don't know if you can see it or not, but all those purple lines that hit the bottom...that's when we were stopped, without those, I think we averaged somewhere between 14 or 15 mph...but again, it's hard to tell. Also....as you can tell...pretty flat course around the bay.

And yes, locked into the clipless pedals, I fell over again!!! GAH! I've figured out that I always fall to my left because I am an absolute dork when drying to clip out with my left foot, so I typically don't...anyway, I've got to practice that.

Here's where I fell

Another look (BTW Google Earth ROCKS!)...and yes, Fiesta Island is this ugly...but it's flat, paved, and very little car-traffic, so as a bike route, it also ROCKS...

I fell because I stopped to get my camera to take some pictures. Some photo highlights from the morning include:

Clarence and me...look...Not. Hurt. At. All! (well, except for the ego).

Luckily, both Betty and Clarence were ahead of me, so neither one saw the fall...:-)

Definitely most of the morning comedy involved Clarence and me and our experiences getting in and out of toe clips (she has the old-school cage kind). As we took off from each stop light, you could hear both of us swearing and "oh shit" -ing as we took off.

Suffice it to say, I'm not convinced that clipless or clipped is easier...both seem fraught with complications. I will also add that neither Clarence or Betty fell over on their bikes.

The other entertainment came from watching Clarence switch gears. She had her MIL's bike...it is a little older (but VERY NICE, custom made) road bike, but the kind with the gear-shifts down on the shaft (yes...I had to say it).

Clarence's sweeeeeeeeet ride.

Yeah...that's the gear shift thing-y...slightly above the water bottle

Here's Clarence describing one of the gears she was in for the whole ride.

And the other gear she managed to get into without falling

Betty described what she did to shift gears on her (new) bike.

After our ride, we had a lovely breakfast at World Famous...

note the empty champagne bottle...Mimosas, of course...

Mik was also there with her family...she was a good girl and ran with the club.

Mik and family's kids...playin' on the beach...aren't they cute?

False advertising?

________________________
Some addendums
  1. Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's everywhere...and like Al says, furbabies count too (JoLynn, RBR, and Penny, that's for you too...you all are among the best Mom's to your babies!) I'm incredibly blessed that mine's still hangin' in there!
  2. Answers to some iPhone diet questions. 1,000 calories a day is the baseline for losing two pounds a week (admitedly, too much weight to lose too quickly, but I put it there so that if I go over, I'm hopefully still under what I should be intaking). If I burn 600 calories biking or running, I add them in. That's why super-long runs are sooooo sweet, a 2 hour run burns something like 1200 calories...Sweeeeeeet. It also explains why I gained weight training for the marathon. I KNOW I ate waaaaaaaay more than I should have.
  3. Have a great week everyone!

21 comments:

  1. We all have our beauty, don't we? You have that great big ocean and I have my hills. Your ocean view place looks very nice.

    Happy Mother's Day to you. ;)

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  2. I so want to come down one sunday and run or bike!!!

    I hope you had an amazing Mother's Day! It sure looked like you enjoyed the Mimosa's!! YUMMY!!!

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  3. Are you taking after G with all these endnotes or whatever the effe they are?!?! ;)

    Great work on the bike! Yes, it is nice to be able to walk when your done. Always a treat. Hope you are 'liking' it more. It's so great without such a beating, I think. No need to feel guilty.

    Now, we gotta get you swimming! mmmmmwwwaaaahahahaha.

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  4. I love the fact that you DO have your priorities in check....to take a fall just to get a blog photo!
    Love it!

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  5. Great bike ride! And I love the detailed map and Google Earth pic to help us picture the EXACT location of your fall.

    Hope you had a great Mother's Day!

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  6. LMAO at the last picture, too funny. Happy belated mother's day and thank you so much for your kind words on my post.

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  7. Sounds like a great ride on a great day! Hope you had a nice Mother's Day!

    Playing poker in casinos - the problem these days is a lot of people there don't know what they are doing. It gets really frustrating when your hand is good but not great, but the yahoo on the other side keeps on betting with their J-5 suited and gets their flush on the river. Grr...

    Also - don't worry - I'm not feeling guilty for running slow these days. Thanks for visiting as often as you do!

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  8. I think the map bears a resemblance to ELVIS, if you look from left to right. Thank you very much.

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  9. I agree... that looks like a fetus run to me!

    Love the pictures! It's especially nice to see exactly where you fell. Every time I drive or run past there, I will think, "That's where Alice fell."

    Keep it up and I may have the opportunity to think that a lot! ha ha

    It looks like you ladies had a great time! Good job!!!

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  10. LOL at the last picture!

    It looks and sounds like a great day.

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  11. Wow. BBJ is right. It does look like Elvis. The "Elvis" route is easier to say than The "Fetus" route or what I came up with @ breakfast- "Inverted Boy Part" Route. ;)

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  12. Falling is just part of the initiation process into cycling! LOL!

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  13. So if I've got this right, you fell in Elvis' ear? ew.

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  14. The fetus? It looks like a penis to me. You know those diagrams they have in gyno's offices where they cut the body in half. Like thisSo the pole part on the left is the penis and the tunnel on the inside is the rectum. I'm sick. LOL

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  15. No, she fell in Elvis' mutton-chop sideburns. Viva Las Vegas...Viva...Viva

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  16. SHUT UP, Teh Marcy! I was TOTALLY gonna say it looked like a one-balled d*ck in the middle, but you stole my thunder!1!

    No wonder you're Teh Marcy and I'm not!

    And I looked at the chart Teh M. linked to and may I just say: Rectum? Looks like it killed 'im!

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  17. With the exception of one time EVERY fall I have taken on the bike has been from a dead stop and clipped-in pedal related. You look FAB after and that is all that really matters.

    FYI: potholes are PATENTLY not hoo hah friendly. My most creative swearing arises from the slamming of my hoo hah on the bike seat after hitting a pot hole.

    So when are you signing up for that tri? Just askin'... ;o)

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  18. Good or bad, I usually stand up and let my knees take the potholes and bumps, not my lady parts.

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  19. The Island of Dr. AKA Alice?

    Or, the Insertion? ewww.

    Stick with the Fetus.

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  20. You got some fun photos! Bike riding seems like fun. But I wouldn't like the falling over part. I've never been to World Famous, I need to go! You have so much fun exercising with your friends.

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  21. I love your photos! As for the route name, I'm thinking "the gas can". But just for those moments when it might be embarrassing to refer to your running route as "the fetus". :-)

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