One week to go; First dusting of snow
One week left until the marathon. I went for my last "long" run yesterday with my friend Risa, and went for my last cross-training session today - some mountain biking on a cold, overcast morning. In hindsight, the mountain biking might have been a questionable decision. There was a pretty good risk of something happening, and probably shouldn't have risked it. Oh well. So this time next week, one way or another the marathon will be done. Four months of training, hundreds of kilometers on the shoes and it all comes down to one day. Hopefully it goes well. So far the weather forecast looks very promising. Hopefully it holds up.
Speaking of weather, as I was out for my ride this morning I noticed that we received our first dumping of snow on the local mountains! Not the immediate mountains (Cypress, Grouse or Seymour), but the next range over. I think they are a bit further north, and a bit higher, so it makes sense that they receive the first dusting. It's one of the things that I'm really looking forward to, once the marathon training is over. Hopefully I'll be able to get out skiing before Christmas. I haven't skied in two years due to the various injuries, so I'm itching to get out. That and getting back to playing volleyball.
Sacramento Again; A Visit from Shawn
For the record, Sacramento just isn't very exciting. Not to mention that when I go there, it's 40 minutes outside of Sacramento (Folsom). So I was back to Folsom again last week to meet with our business partner, Amdocs. An almost full week of requirements writing and review. Lot's of fun. The only good part was that I flew in early Sunday morning, and used the day Sunday to drive up to Lake Tahoe for the day.
It's about 1 1/2 - 2 hours from Folsom to South Lake Tahoe, and it's a spectacular drive. It's a narrow, winding two lane highway that snakes its way up the mountains to the shores of the lake. It very much reminds me of the drive to Whistler, before all the highway widening. The views on the way up were amazing, and I stopped a number of times to enjoy the views. Once up to the lake, I did the drive around the lake. Again, absolutely breath taking. They make a claim of "the most scenic drive in America", and you'd have a hard time arguing the point. OK, maybe 17 Mile Drive in Monterrey gives it a run for it's money, but man was it nice. I made a few stop here and there, but the few hours of daylight I had left we're enough. it would be great to be able to do some hiking and camping up that way some time. The skiing looks like it would be OK - it's not Whistler, but what is really?
The road to Tahoe is like the road to Whistler used to be - scary in places!
The scenery around Lake Tahoe is amazing.
A couple of week prior my brother Shawn came out for a visit over the weekend. It was a nice surprise, and we had a great visit. On the Saturday we headed over to the Sunshine Coast to check it out. I hadn't been over that way in a while, and Shawn had never been.
To liven things up, we took my poor little truck off-road, and did some back country driving. It was a lot of fun! Probably pushed my little SUV a little harder than we should have, but it seems to have survived unscathed. The drive was awesome - would have been better it the weather had cooperated. Still, it was a lot of fun.
After discovering that we were on a loop that didn't really go anywhere, we headed back to the main highway. We drove up to Egmont, and over to the Skookumchuck Rapids. We went for a short hike, and watch the kayakers playing in the heavy white water. The tide change seemed to be happening, as the currents seemed to be increasing constantly as we watched. The guys in the boats sure didn't seem to mind!
Kayakers fight the white water in the Narrows.
Looks like fun!
The Training Continues...
So, the training for New York is going pretty well. I'm up to running 5 days a week right now, plus a day of cross training. Yesterday, I ran 23.5 km, and felt really good. Last week gave me some concern - 18 km, and it was a tough go. This week, the distance was longer, but I felt better at the end. Maybe there's something to this whole training concept...
For those that haven't visited recently, I've updated a lot of the content below.
Sacramento
August 30, 2006
Another quick trip to Sacramento to visit with Amdocs. I did well to keep with my running program while on the road. As easy as it may seem with running (all you need is shoes!), it's hard to keep motivated through the airports, hotels and what not. I found this really nice regional park to run in - Negro Bar. There are 30+ miles of paved trails, a small lake and some very nice scenery. So I managed to get out for my run. Had to do it first thing in the morning, as the days were getting up over 100 degrees. Way too warm for me to run in.