60 miles and a vegan, whole-wheat scone

it was gorgeous out this weekend, and i like to think i took full
advantage of it.

saturday morning i went for a run with the club. we started at baker
beach and ran south along the coast, past lands end and down onto the
great highway along ocean beach. the conditions were almost perfect;
cool, with very little wind, and crystal clear. i tried to keep up
with a couple of the faster folks, and did pretty well. the course we
ran includes a flight of stairs, and i was able get ahead a little bit
on the descent. for whatever reason i seem to be pretty good at
technical downhill running. (at least compared to the other people in
the club. i suspect that it's because i do a lot more trail running
than most of the members).

on sunday i went riding with my friend s., who is all kinds of
hardcore in ways that i am not, including competing in ironman
triathlons. we've ridden together a couple of times before, and it's
great to have someone else to ride with, in addition to which she
knows a ton of different routes.

this time we started in the little marin hippy-haven of fairfax, and
headed north. the weather was gorgeous again, and the route was too;
rolling, grass-covered hills, winding roads, freezing-cold
redwood-filled canyons, and the occasional cow.

up until this ride the farthest i'd ridden was about 40 miles, and i
was looking forward to doing something longer, so we decided to do 60
miles.
the first 30 miles were great, and there were a couple of good hills
that i really enjoyed, (one of the -- few -- benefits of being scrawny
is that riding up hills is relatively easy) and i was feeling strong
enough to push it a little on the flats.

after about 30 miles i was starting to feel it a little, and when we
pulled into pt. reyes station at about 40 miles i was all to happy to
agree to s.'s suggestion that we stop at the bovine bakery for a
snack.

the bovine bakery has vegan stuff, including vegan, whole-wheat scones
studded with blueberries and strawberries. now, when i think 'scone'
the word tends to conjure up images of dry, sand-colored, triangular
monstrosities with the texture of old foam rubber.
this was nothing like that, it was round for one thing, and soft and
moist with a fantastic crunchy crust on it. add a cup of coffee to it
and i was in heaven. (the fact that i felt like i was starving to death may have had something to do with it too).

all too soon it was time to go, and we headed south along the eastern
edge of tomales bay, through rolling grasslands and the occasional
oyster-farming community. this was where s.'s power and greater
endurance really showed. she was flying; swooping through the turns
and powering up the hills, while i trudged along behind her, wishing i
had a lower gear.

by the time we got back to the car i was toast, and very grateful that
we didn't have to ride all the way back to the city. one of these days
maybe, but for now i was happy to be driving.