Sunny and crisp

Yesterday was a photographer's dream. It was sunny and the Bay was so clear you felt like you could touch the city from the Oakland Hills. The kids were off from school, not sure why, but they were. Alistair and I went on a mountain bike ride in Redwood and Chabot. We rode a good 30 miles, going out Redwood east to Pinehurst and Bort. Then riding the single track on the Meadow to the Stone bridge and back. Then up on McDonald, Redwood west and on to Sibley.

We decided to go down Sibley to the other side of Old Tunnel. They recently opened the trail for bicycles and it is a nice bumpy descent. Near the bottom it was quite muddy and there were a few creek crossings filled with water. Quite fun. Then we noticed you could go up the old road into Sibley -no cars, but bikes and pedestrians are OK. Although I had never done it, it sounded better than riding Fish Ranch.

The road goes up for quite a while and then links to the trials that go to the mazes. So we added another 1.5-2.0 miles and a whole bunch of climbing that way.

Today, it was a bit warmer still so I decided to go for a long run. I ran to Montclair and then up Shepherd. I added a little extra at the end for a good 11 miles. I haven't done this run for a while and it showed. By the end of it my legs were quite tired. It is not just the distance, there is a serious amount of climbing too. And some of it is quite steep. It took me about 1.5 hrs. 

I will start working on my running more to prepare for Boston. I would love to run a 3:15 or better, but anything that qualifies me for next year is Ok with me. We'll see how it goes. I will probably go to Europe before Boston and in two weeks I am going to DC. The travel could mess up my schedule, but so could the weather for that matter. We'll see how it goes.