A Good Weekend

In between storms on Sunday, on top of Hawk Hill.

SATURDAY
You know when I was a kid I loved the rain. If I wasn't indoors reading comic books by a window I was in it, running through puddles and sloshing through the mud. Well I've never out grown that. This past Saturdays forecast lived up to expectations, rain and more rain. Having had a pretty busy work week I decided to sleep in, I'm not a morning person anyway. Had a good breakfast and even did some work till noon but by 1PM I was out the door just as a new set of showers were coming down. Nice! Even better the shinsplints that bothered me earlier in the week were a no show. Soon as I felt them on Tuesday I took the next two days off and when I went out on Friday there was only a weak lingering sign of them. I think I did right by backing off immediately.

From my apartment, 3 blocks from Union Square, I headed straight for the bay and followed the water's edge out of the Golden Gate and left down the Pacific coast. The trails on my route were nice and wet, muddy in some places, there was also fog and wind with the rain. As expected not many people were out and it was a quiet day for the most part. When I got to Ocean Beach, a stretch of beach that extends for about 3 miles, the rain stopped but the wind was murder. Without any structures to obstruct it, the wind swept South to North right down the beach. Running against it was like running a small hill and the noise was worse; I couldn't hear my music at all. It was beautiful nonetheless. It was low tide and the stretch of sand closest to the water's edge had a film of water on top of it. People walking on this part of the beach looked like they were walking on water. The sand felt great underneath me, firm but gentle on the legs. I was having such a great time I decided to add an extra mile down the beach. Finally on the turnaround, I was able to hear my music once again and the wind which relentlessly pushed against me was now pushing me down the beach. It literally pushed me back up the hill past the Cliff House.

The final miles of the run had me feeling quite good. The rain had started to fall again. The rain for the most part were showers, just enough to get you dirty but not enough to wash it off you. The overall effect was me with very sandy and muddy legs. Very sexy. I finished feeling like I could have done even more and I managed to get 21/22 miles for the day, just a tad more than the 20 I was aiming for. My heart rate monitor did catch my lack of conditioning though. My perceived effort for the whole run was only 7.5 on a scale from 1-10 but my hrm showed that my heart was working pretty hard. Good run but more like it is needed.

SUNDAY
The storm passed through as forecasted and we were enjoying some sun before the next storm. Original plan was to join Jason and his work friends for a short bike ride and then maybe a run afterwards. At 8AM I got a call from J that he was bailing, he had been sick and he wasn't feeling any better. I wasn't feeling all that hot either. I was up till 2AM working the night before, I didn't have a good night's sleep (probably from sore legs - should have taken an ibuprofen before bed) and I had a headache. So I decided to go back to sleep, I thought that if I really needed the rest I should fall back to sleep easily which I did. By the time I woke up it was noon but feeling much more refreshed. By 1PM I was out the door again this time with my bike. This was my first real bike ride, all this time I've been spinning indoors because of the weather. It's a funny thing, the wind and rain that I love on the run I can't tolerate on the bike. First of all in the rain your brakes don't work as well, you're in the streets with cars that you don't trust even in the best of weather, fast turns are dicey, rain gets into your eyes and it's hard to keep warm.

Anyway there were tons of people out also taking advantage of the break in the bad weather. On the way out my friend Annie passed me going in the opposite direction, she probably spent the better part of the day biking in Marin. The bike ride went well, felt rusty to be sure but I managed. Decided to climb "Hawk Hill" for the view and had a great time, even got a fellow cyclist to take my picture. Rode the down the backside of the hill and stopped off at Rodeo Beach before heading home. Rodeo Beach has a special place in my heart. It's a small beach between hills north of the Golden Gate Bridge. It's clean, well taken care of and well taken advantage of. There are hikers, runners, tourists, beach goers, cyclists and surfers. Rodeo Beach is also the start/finish for the Headlands 50K, my first ultra-marathon back in 2001 and the Miwok 100K, a race I've run the last two years and plan on running for a third time this year.

All in all it was a good weekend. By 4PM Sunday as I was walking up Nob Hill to catch my bus for church, I could feel my legs all noodley underneath me:) ah yes that familiar feeling of weakness from doing great and wonderfully fun things.