Our team ran 6 miles along Los Gatos Creek Trail. It was sunny and hot for a morning time, and there was much more terrain variation (read hills and bridges). Despite all these "bonus" features, I still managed to get my best time for 6 miles. I made the whole loop in 50:02, which extrapolated to 10K would be ~ 52:10 - my best so far.
At first I thought it will be much harder to get a good time. When I run on the track, it's flat and easy. Running on the trail was a lot different - lots of small hills, that quickly add up. I skipped the water stop that was setup on mile 1.5, when going out, as it was too early for me, and coming back was too late. Thankfully I had my own water, in my new addition to the running gadgets: Amphipod fuel belt. I also took one PowerBar gel with me (double-latte flavor - yummy!), which helped a lot with having energy to run.
At the same time, Justyna was having fun on her own, in Los Altos. The cycling team that she signed up with, had a 15 mile cycle loop, with a surprise stop: "rear flat!!!". They made all the participant, pretend that they've got a puncture in rear tire, and need to change/repair the tube. For many of them it was a very first time, and judging from the stories, it was pretty funny view. But all in all, she managed to take the rear wheel off, deflate, remove the tire and tube, and then put it back together - given that she's still pretty new to cycling, I have to say - I AM IMPRESSED!!!
I guess she was impressed with her performance too (not only with the tire change, but also cycling - she managed to keep up with the fastest group for about 10 miles).
Because we started the weekend on such a great note, we felt that we need to do something on Sunday too. We decided to go to Mt Hamilton in the morning. We were doing pretty good, and after about 1 hour of pedaling up, we've arrived at the Joseph D. Grant County Park. To our surprise there were thousands of people there, as it was a 2007 Muddy Buddy race time! We took a little time off there, chatted with the participants covered toe to head in mud, and took off for a little more climbing. Justyna wanted to get at least 10 miles up - half way to Lick Observatory. We turned around at that point, hoping to beat the cars, that already started leaving the park after Muddy-Buddy.
I have to say that I'm really impressed with Justyna! She made half way to the top, and she had energy to spare! This was her second time on the Mount Hamilton Road (about 2 years ago, we went there on mountain bikes with our friends Debbie and Omar), and for me it was a third time. On April 1st I took my Kona mountain bike on a 4.5 hours of climbing up all the way to the top. This time I was riding my new Specialized Tarmac. After going half-way there, I think I could have made it in more usual 2.5-3 hours.
Riding a road bike there is soooooo much easier!
Overall I think this made for a pretty good start of a hopefully great season with Team In Training - GO TEAM!
1 comment:
I am proud of you too!
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