Running In A Movie

Continuing with the holiday we ended up in Las Vegas. What happened here could  make for an interesting post, but it happened in Vegas and you know the rule. However we did venture out the Grand Canyon and since this is in another state it can be mentioned.

The Grand Canyon was definitely a highlight. We took in the Western Rim. To be cliché, words will never do it justice. There is a reason it is a Wonder of  the World. Made me wish I had the time join in on a run down below, but I'm not on that type of trip. With only having one day and the fact the temperature was sitting at 44 degrees Celcius we opted for some awesomeness. The combination of boat, canyon and helicopter delivered that and more.

Final destination was San Francisco. Turns out we didn't appreciate how good this joint is and only booked a short stint here. I was keen to hit those steep streets. On my radar were the Filbert St Steps. Touted as a street that was too steep for a paved road in one section. So on this steep section there are houses, fire hydrants and other markings as per a normal street, but no road. In its place are some long and fairly steep sets of stairs.

I left my hotel on sunrise to a pleasant, crisp, cool morning. The minimal running in the last three weeks showed up as fresh feeling legs. I chose a route over a couple of hills and then onto Filbet St. I felt good and kept the effort on the cruisy side. I approached from from the west side which meant there was a road in this part. It was steep, but my legs liked it. The way the parked cars tilted indicated this the grade was over 30%. The views at the top were in the spectacular category.

Then it was down those steps. Heading down was slower than I thought. The steps were narrower than the length of my foot leaving little margin for error. Down on the other side and I found myself at the piers. Now was I obligated to follow the coastline towards the Golden Gate Bridge.

The iconic fog was in. I could only see half the bridge and Alcatraz just looked awesome. It felt like I was running through a movie set. Eventually I decided it was time to head back.

Retracing my route I got to those steps and and was looking forward to the run up. It was steep, but definitely doable. Not quite the steepest slope I've been up, but the length added to the challenge. It felt good to reach the top and it was on the down hill I began to really appreciate the grade.

At the time that run felt quite comfortable. Looks like it was the fact I had fresh legs that really helped. Next day my legs were far from fresh and repeatedly telling me how steep the hills really were.



Finally it's the end and hours of fun flying back down home. Might start training next week.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sandy Point Half Marathon

Image
Any race that uses a picture of myself as promotion makes me think I should compete in it. Wouldn't want to disappoint the masses. Last year my race slow and cold over the same course. A time of 1:30:20, was disappointing and a kick up the backside to get to what really works in training. Since then I have put in a lot of consistent kilometres and have seen some improvement. I was definitely going to race faster this year. Based on my race results over the last few months the hope was to see if I could get down to near 1:24:xx. The weather was very different this year. Far from cold, in fact I think it was our warmest night in a few months. However, there was a Damaging Winds warning issued, with predictions of 65km/hr gales to slow things downs a bit. The winds hit, according to the weather sites: NNE averaging around 50km/hr with gusts of 76km/hr. That made for some interesting race tactics. Luckily the rain held off until after the race. For some reason I felt ready with only 1...
Read more

Fitting Together

It's interesting how easy it suddenly becomes to prioritise aspects of life. I have missed plenty of training in the last week, but for the first time in my life, it really, and I mean really doesn't matter. That's not to say I am throwing training on the back burner. Far from it. Of course I am finding it hard working out how life now all fits together, but I am thoroughly enjoying the process. Training is now just part of the puzzle. What was a very easy load a couple of weeks ago, is now just manageable. This is what I anticipated. As things settle down and I work out of few things the training load should again become much easier. At the moment it looks like I will be able to get in all the key sessions, so in reality it is going fine.
Read more

The Gorge

For work I am currently stationed away from my normal branch. This is a recent roster change that I am not too happy about due to a number of reasons that I won't go into here. The good thing is that it gives me different roads to ride on when commuting. Nothing like a bit of variety to break things up. One particular bit of terrain that I now get to cover is known as the Gorge. It is exactly as the name suggests. The road that takes you into the Gorge is simple. One side is a very wide bend, that could almost be thought of as a straight road. The other side involves a couple of reasonable bends, which wouldn't normally be an issue, but can be when hitting speeds of 60km/hr on the descent. I want to make it clear that the Gorge is far from the toughest of climbs, while quite steep on both sides it is relatively short. So what is it about the Gorge. For me it has provided a good bench mark for my cycling fitness. Back when I first started on the bike it took all my ef...
Read more