Well, I have one month to get myself ready for the Vineman.  It has not been the year I had hoped for as far as my training went.  The bike shop has been busier than years past, which has kept me off the bike more than I have wanted to be.  I have also had the nagging calf injury that kept me from training at all for almost a month.  I have accepted all of this, and I am not worried about my overall time for the Vineman this year, but I would at least like to finish it again.  So, with this in mind, I hope to dedicate one good month to training.  I feel like I have a pretty solid base just from my years of training, so it is just a matter of getting myself ready for a longer race.  I started yesterday with a 64 mile bike ride over most of the cycling course.  It was my first long ride with aerobars, and I was more comfortable than I had expected to be.  I felt pretty beat up by the end of the ride, but I had put some effort into it.  My heart rate was over 170 for an hour and 20 minutes, it was in my zone for 2 hours, and it was below 130 for 6 minutes.  I don’t have an average heart rate on my cycling computer, so I don’t know what that was.  Today I plan on going out for a long run around here.  Let’s see how that goes.

I went for an awesome run yesterday in Cape Perpetua.  I ended up running for 1 hour and 50 minutes.  I felt great the entire time and did not feel the need to stop at the end, except that I had to stop sometime.  My 15 year old nephew, Ryan, even ran the last two miles with me.  It was quite a hilly run, so I don’t think my distance was too long, but time is always more important than distance.  The area there is so lush that I felt like I was running in Nerf world for the most part.  

I haven’t written in a while.  I think it was a couple of Mondays ago that I did my last bike ride.  I went out with a couple of guys from the shop.  I had a tough time of it.  I rode from Forestville to the shop, and then we went over Sonoma Mountain.  From there we went up Cavedale, which I haven’t done in years.  It was really hot outside and I had to call Claire from Cotati and beg her to come pick me up.  I was planning on doing 120 miles, but instead only did 70.  It was not one of my finer rides.  I have sold my Death Ride ticket, so I don’t have to worry about that.  I have been doing plenty of running, and feeling quite good.  I have had a couple of two hour runs recently and didn’t experience any pains.  Yesterday I ran 10 miles including some running on the beach.  I felt great the entire time and could have kept going except that I didn’t want my family to think I was neglecting them.  This run took place up in Oregon as we are up here for a couple of days visiting my parents.  It is only 42 days till the Vineman.  I don’t see myself having the time to really train especially for the riding part.  That is the tough part to running a seasonal business.  Claire likes to point out that I should be doing my triathlons during the winter when I have more time to train.  I will try to do some swimming starting next week.  Hopefully I will be able to get out on a long run tomorrow, maybe around Cape Perpetua, which is right down the road from us.

I went out yesterday morning and ran for an hour and a half.  It was a great run.  I ran down to our regional park and then ran the perimeter 7 times.  I felt really good the entire time with only a couple of pains in my calf.  I felt like I could have kept going if I had wanted to.

I got up early on Wednesday morning and ran the scenic loop before heading in to work.   I was very excited to be practically pain free the whole run.  This was the first time in a while that I felt that good running.  I am not going to get too excited until it happens again, but lately my legs have been feeling better.  I haven’t been able to ride my bike as much as I should be, and that might make things tough during the Death Ride.  Claire came out and rode her mountain bike while I did my running.  I didn’t do anything today, I just wish I could get in better cycling shape by doing all those tune-ups.

Went out yesterday morning with plans to do the Sweetwater Loop multiple times.  I rode the first loop with Eric the Fireman.  After dropping him off on Grays Ct., I went out for my second loop.  About 3 miles down River Road, I had my first flat in a very long time.  In fact, it had been such a long time that when I pulled my pump off my bike, my pump had frozen up and wouldn’t work at all.  I tried pulling the pump apart, but everything was stuck.  Anyway, I walked across the road and stuck out my thumb.  After about 5 minutes of selective hitch-hiking, I saw a pickup truck heading towards me with a tandem on its roof.  They stopped for me and gave me a ride back to my front door.  It was a couple from the city who were up staying in Guerneville at their parents rental cabin.  They were going to go out and explore Westside Road a bit.  They had very good energy and it would have been nice if we could have talked more.  I probably should have fixed my flat and headed back out, but instead I put on my running shoes and went out for an 11 mile run.  I did a new loop, which I think will become one of my favorites.  I did the usual Martinelli loop, and then combined my favorite Scenic loop.  I had some tightness in my right calf, so I didn’t run as far as I wanted, but my legs felt great otherwise.  I’m down to about 13.1 stone at this point.  I would like to get down to between 12.5 and 12.8 stone.  I also really need to do some more stretching because I am still having the calf issues that have plagued me all year.