As Macca says in his book, "embrace the suck." Lately I've been embracing the vertical, which used to be sucky but now I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it. Friday's ride looked something like this:
MapMyRide says 2000 feet of climbing in 8 miles. I was going VERRRRY SLOOOOOW, like 3 MPH. My poor friend was wanting a workout, so I told him I'd meet him at the top. Here's the view halfway up from Bolinas to Panoramic...
Today I ran a 6 mile route that included going down & up the infamous Sand Ladder to Baker Beach, which is part of the Escape from Alcatraz route. Here's the view from the top (the white speck down there is actually a naked guy sunbathing in the fog. Puzzling but ok...)
So I'm headed down the ladder, watching my feet because a friend of mine wiped out here a few days ago, and when I get to the bottom I see something out of the corner of my eye (not the sunbathing guy).
What is that... a penis??
Yes. A guy in a yellow shirt and no shorts sitting with his legs open at the bottom of the sand ladder. FACING the sand ladder, not the water. I just kept going, not giving him any satisfaction for his attempt at shock value. I walked down to the beach and turned around to take a picture of him in his "greeter" pose, but he'd turned around and was watching me. Dang.
I took a pic anyway... you can see him at the bottom of the steps. No, he's not wearing any pants. WEIRDO.
I didn't take a picture of the naked guy fog-bathing either. Another weirdo. Who knew that Baker Beach turned into a pervy nudie camp in the afternoons?? I'll have to figure out a safe time to go. Was going to go up the ladder a couple times but with weirdo sitting right there, I opted for 1x. Here's the view of the stairs from the bottom:
So here's the other weird thing: elevation mapping. This run was either 380 vertical ft (MapMyRun), 634 ft (Garmin Connect), or 1340 ft (Training Peaks.) I guess I'll pick Garmin Connect as it's in the middle, and MapMyRun is usually on the low side. But TP gets its data from my Garmin, so it's very odd.
Anyhoo. More strength work on the schedule... TRX on Thursday and some big-gear intervals on the bike on Saturday. I can feel myself improving and getting stronger... the run today felt good, and I now barely notice the inclines that used to tire me out. I'm excited about the next few months of training.
Ok, I just discovered that this part of the beach IS, in fact, a nude beach. Which I'm totally fine with... I just get a bit creeped out by flashers who get their kicks by showing their parts to complete strangers.
Posted by: jennifer | 07/05/2011 at 05:36 PM
Looks like lots of great training!!! You'll be so strong for flat Miami :)
Posted by: Molly | 07/05/2011 at 08:12 PM
Don't feel bad about the speed up BoFax. MapMyRide is usually off by a bit and that ride is easily 5k of climb. Just make sure when you are using your Garmin site that you have the "Elevation Correction" enabled.
Posted by: Brett | 07/06/2011 at 08:40 AM
No offense, but I'm glad NYC doesn't have ALL the weirdos! We need to spread them out! ;P
Posted by: Regina | 07/06/2011 at 07:48 PM
WOW...nice hill work girl!! Funny you post this too b/c we were just having a discussioon on twitter about Alcatraz and a bunch of us meeting for an "escape" weekend...the hills were a hot topic :) ughhh...I'm use to my Mississippi flats unless I go seeking torture, but this has been eye candy for a while now...
Posted by: Jenn @ junkmiles.org | 07/07/2011 at 07:11 AM