I went out and rode 60 miles today.  The first 30 was on my own and I rode down and over Sweetwater.  I felt really good, and just felt a dull ache in my lower leg.  I then rode a couple of extra flat miles and then met Claire back at the house for a ride into Healdsburg via Starr Road.  It was a good ride, but quite a headwind on the way out.  We had a small pizza at Oakville Grocery in downtown Healdsburg.  At $8 it was a great deal and filled us both up.  We came back on Westside Road and didn’t get the tailwind that we deserved.  When we got back home I put on my running stuff and went out for a run.  I didn’t know what to expect, and at first I was happy to feel good with no pain.  Then I started getting little pulses of intense pain in my lower leg.  I turned around when I had counted 10 of them.  I ended up with 3 miles.  If I can fix that pain, I will be content with my current fitness.  I will be heading into the physical therapist on Wednesday.  Let’s hope that they can figure something out. I am hovering around 13.6 stones, and would be quite happy to lose that 2/3 of a stone.  Actually after the ride and run, I weighed approximately (10 + pi) stones,  which is a strange coincidence.  Anyway, here is a picture of my route from mapmyride.com, which always makes me think of that tv show called pimp my ride.  I know I should just link to it, but my web browser doesn’t want to.

I rode into work this morning, the boring way.  It was a pleasant ride and a nice temperature.  I had pretty constant pain in my calf, but nothing I couldn’t live with.  It never got any worse for the 40 km ride.  Claire and I went mountain biking Thursday evening.  Our Cannondale rep gave me a  Rize 1 to ride.  That is one of their new carbon/aluminum models.  It is all made in Bedford, PA.   I haven’t been on a mountain bike with more than one gear in years, and it has been even longer since I have ridden full suspension.  It was a blast.  You don’t have to worry about steering around all those rocks, and you can really power through the bumpy sections on the climbs.  The carbon Lefty fork on the bike didn’t take any getting used to, and tracked great.  It is stiffer than any other suspension fork I have ever ridden.  The bike goes for $5500, so I don’t think I will be getting one, but it was lots of fun.  The bike weighed less that 24 pounds.

I have an appointment tomorrow to see my doctor about the pain in my left leg.  It started hurting quite bad last week, and didn’t let up over the weekend.  I have been unable to even think about running, and haven’t had the time to ride my bike.  It looks like I got a mandatory week break from training.  It is 31 days till The World’s Toughest.  I figure that I am in good enough shape right now, but I couldn’t do it with my leg the way it is.  We will see how things go.

A1 and A2 came out today for a ride.  A1 was in the mood for hills, and really wanted to go do Sweetwater.  I am sorry to say that I let him down.  We found some hills, but didn’t make it over to Sweetwater.  Here is a map of our route.  We started with a nice spin out Martinelli Road.  We then turned right on 116 and crossed our fingers for the next 3 miles.  We didn’t have any big trucks pass us, but we were still all relieved when we finally turned on Green Valley.  My heart rate hit 191 on the Green Valley hill.  If I rode close enough to A1, my heart rate monitor showed 215, but I think it was combining our heart rates.  We then turned right and headed up Harrison Grade.  We were still all staying together, which makes those climbs more fun.  I took them across Graton Road and up Facendini to Occidental Road.  We dropped down a bit before turning right on Jonive.  I took them on a secret road off of Jonive which is not on the map.  I hadn’t been on the road for probably 10 years or so, but it still had the gravel section on it I remembered so fondly.  After a quick drop down to Freestone, we stopped at the Wild Flour Bakery and split a sticky bun between the three of us.  We then battled a little headwind and headed out to the town of Bodega.  We turned right on Joy Road right before town and climbed up and back down into Occidental.  We could have come straight home from there, but instead we headed up Graton and turned right on Acreage.  That was another road I haven’t been on in ages.  We dropped down Acreage and then got to climb back up Morelli which runs you back into Harrison Grade.  We retraced our path back home from there.  The big event of the day for me was wearing my new Sidi Ergo 2 shoes.  I don’t know if they made me any faster, but I sure looked fast.  They were quite comfy also, which is a bonus to a pair of good looking shoes.  After getting back home, we headed into Guerneville for Mexican food at La Tapatia.  A1 got to drive the hub bus there, and now he says his life is now complete.  

I got home from the shop a couple of minutes early this evening, and somehow convinced myself to go out for a run.  I was teetering back and forth, and came very, very close to not going.  I am glad I went.  I felt really good with almost no pain at all in my calves.  I ran down to Steelhead Beach regional park and did some loops in the park.  I ended up running for almost exactly an hour.  I felt like I could have kept going all night, but I wanted to get home to barbeque up some red snapper and some vegetables.  I don’t know why we haven’t been doing this all along, but I cut up mushrooms, green peppers, red peppers, and a couple of zucchinis and put them in a basket that sits right on the grill.  I didn’t add anything else, and they were great.  I had the same thing the other night and couldn’t wait to do it again.  I am undecided about whether I will ride in to work with Mathilda or not in the morning.  The idea of a leisurely cup of coffee instead is awfully tempting.

Mathilda and I commuted into work on our bike this morning.  I was tired from the run yesterday evening, but it felt great to be outside.  I feel pretty darn lucky to have the opportunity to ride to work on back county roads with my dog.  We took a slightly different route this morning over Laguna Road, which is a tough one.  Those little rises get your heart rate up when you are towing 60 pounds in a trailer behind you.  I let Mathilda take a couple of minutes to explore on the little paths off the side of the road on Willowside before heading the rest of the way in.  It took us just a bit under two hours.  We decided not to ride home and bribed my son and daughter-in-law with some pizza for a ride back to Forestville.

I had just enough energy when I got home from work this evening to do my Martinelli out and back.  I had some good, sharp pain in my left calf.  It feels like there is a tendon snapping back and forth.  I put a couple of pieces of neoprene around my calf to hold the tendon in place, and it felt better.  I was running 7:15 miles for the most part.  I really felt good except for the calf pain.  I will try to commute in to work and home with Mathilda on the bike tomorrow.  The shop is busy as all get out, so I am feeling pretty beat up by the end of the day.  I guess that could be considered cross training.  We do need to do something about the floor in the work area, it is hard standing on the concrete all day.