The shop has been much busier than expected, and that means that Chaz doesn’t have as much time to exercise as he would like. I can’t complain since business is so good and I’m having such a good time at the shop. I get a big grin on my face sometimes at the shop since I am having so much fun working on bikes and talking to people about bikes, and I’m getting paid for it. Anyway, enough about that. I did get out this morning before work for a 7.5 mile run. I felt pretty good, but I could tell that I’m not getting much running in. We will be going out tomorrow morning with our son, William for a short mountain bike ride. William hasn’t been on his bike in quite a while, so we are going to make it short and sweet. Claire and I plan on doing the Chalk Hill loop on Monday. I also have my sourdough starter out on the counter getting ready for some bread making in the next couple of days.

I went out and ran a half marathon today. It felt terrible right from the start. I had to force myself to just keep going. I had measured out the distance earlier in the week on my bike. I ended up running out Martinelli and taking the bike path to the Graton water treatment plant. It took me 1 hour and 40 minutes. My knees were hurting pretty good at the end of the run. That is all I have to say about it.

I finally broke the 50 minute barrier on my loop. It happened Thursday evening after a day at the shop. I had a good 20 minute warm-up, and was psyched to break the record. My previous best was 51:10. I knew when I got to the top of Scenic Road and I was over a minute faster than my previous splits that I was on a good pace. I ended up going 48:06. I am going to try to include a picture of my loop from Google Earth. According to my path, it is a 6.5 mile loop. It is very hilly and about a third of it is on dirt. If you check out the map, you will notice that I leave the road a couple of times to run on some very old logging roads and some pretty cool single track. I feel so lucky living out here having these loops to do.

Yesterday evening I rode home from the shop on my new Somec Fixed Gear. I don’t know if I have already mentioned that I built up the old frame that I bought back in 1990. I will get a picture of it in here sometime. It is fun to ride. With a smaller front wheel, it can get a little rough on the bumpy sections of the road. I have it set up with a 39×15 gear right now which seems to work pretty well on the hilly terrain around here.

Today Claire and I are going to pick some apples and pears and made lots of sauce to freeze. I am still waiting for our figs to ripen so I can try drying some of those. There are some ripe looking figs up in the tree, but they don’t want to come off easily. I have read that the figs should be practically falling off when you go to pick them.

Went out for a run around my hilly loop. I still haven’t been able to break that magic 50 minute barrier. I went 51:10. I think now that I can make up some time at the start of the run. My loop is up Scenic, around Canyon, and then down the secret road. I then turn left on Terrace, take Terrace till the hairpin where I take the secret path. Run to the end of Summer Home Park, and then run back home. I have tried to sketch it out on Google Maps, but I can’t figure out how to get my secret trails in there.

My dad and grandparents are here for a couple of days before they head up to Oregon. We are going out for a short bike ride in a bit. Dad and I will ride the Ibis tandem and Claire will ride her Cannondale Six-13. I have made a couple of loafs of sourdough bread which are going through their first rising right now. One is a traditional recipe, the other is whole wheat with walnuts and oats. We also made about 3 gallons of apple sauce this morning from some of our apples. It turned out terrific. We will be freezing most of it. I checked the figs, and there are finally some that are blackening up. I have been doing some research on picking them, and it sounds like I need to wait until they are just about ready to fall off on their own. Here is a picture of my bread.

On Sunday, we went out for a 4 hour hike in Austin Creek State Recreational Area with our friends Greg and Sherie. It was a good, hearty hike that was made tougher by the sun and the heat. We started early, around 8, to try to beat the heat, but by the time we finished we were hiking up the side of some big hills in the direct sun. We went in to Guerneville afterwards for some great Mexican food at Taqueria La Tapatia.

Monday morning I ran 10 miles and felt terrific. I was trying to take it easy and smooth. After the run I went out and rode my newest fixed gear bike around our favorite loop.