Thanksgiving week

Today marks the end of the Thanksgiving week vacation. The kids were off from school all week and Barbara took three days off. The weather was gorgeous except for Friday, when it rained and was overcast pretty much the whole day.

I got a lot of riding in this week, despite being quite busy at work. On Tuesday I rode 23 miles with Alistair. On Wednesday we rode the South Loop of the Grizzly century, or 42 miles into Castro Valley. On Thanksgiving day, we rode with the California Pedaler group in Danville, a very fast 2:30 ride along the flats. The distance, including riding to and from the event was 56 miles.

Friday I decided to stay indoors and ride an easy 1:10 minutes on rollers. I burned 800 calories total. The first hour I averaged 180W and burned almost 700 calories.

Yesterday I rode the "fruitstand" ride in a near-continuous headwind. It was very gusty and at times extremely hard, even though it was sunny and the temperature was very nice. At one point between San Ramon and Danville, I was trapped in a whirlwind of yellow leaves that created a surreal scene. There was debris everywhere and I had to ride on the road most of the way. Then on Grizzly, very near to Marlborough I almost got blown off my bike. Overall 58 miles and very hard. I was thrashed.

Today I built my 7th bike (an Orbea Diva for my friend Barbara) and I ran a 10K in the hills. It was quite warm today and I was able to run just wearing a one-piece trisuit.