the weekend

been a while...

so, on saturday i ran a 37k trail race, which went FAR better than i expected it too, given that i don't feel like i've been training as much as i should be. i did the same race last year with my friend p. and we finished in just over 4 hours. i'd held back a bit to stay with him, but didn't really slow down all that much.

this year, same course, and i finished a few seconds over 3:24, which blew my mind, AND i got 2nd, which is my best finish ever in a run. i was (and am) shocked, and very pleased.

on sunday i went for my second ride with the bike club from my climbing gym and managed not to die. i was pretty sore, but i figured that cycling muscles are different enough from running muscles that i could pull it off.

the ride covered about 60 miles and started in woodside, then climbed up and over the mountains, dropped down to the coast, and then went back over the mountains again. it was astoundingly beautiful; redwoods, grasslands, oak savannah, redwoods again, more grasslands, and the final climb followed little stream as it made it's way down a steep redwood canyon. there were ferns, moss, flowers, rays of sunlight slanting through the trees, and little waterfalls all over the place.

it's a good thing it was so scenic, because i was DONE, nothing left in the tank. it was all i could do to make the pedals go around, and it's been a long time since the sight of a road made me as happy as the one at the top did.