Martin Luther King Day

Whoa! New's Flash in honor of MLK day Tim had the day off and coincidently so did I. In an effort to make the most of the day we gathered a group of our friends and headed out to Pine Valley for some serious climbing...I mean riding. We were joined by Julie, Matt, Pat, and Elizabeth as we headed up the infamous Kitchen Creek road. Infamous for the long climb, cattle crossing, and the place Tim and I became engaged. We were thankful to have such an awesome day weather wise, live in such an awesome place, and have such awesome friends. At the top of Kitchen Creek road Julie and Matt headed back as they had other things to accomplish that day. Tim and Pat were dazzled by the thoughts of Julian Pie and by the opportunity of exploring the new road (well new for us) out of Julian. The "new road" Engineers road did not disapoint, neither did the pie:) Engineers road is georgous with the amazing views. It is not for the weak of heart though. We covered 7000 ft of vertical in 80 miles. Tim and I decided we really like to ride with our friends. It's good company, safer, gets us out the door in the morning, and most of all I don't fuss. Poor Tim....if we were to ride alone I might be tempted to say "Umm this pace is a bit uncomfortable, can we slow down just 1/2 mile per hour." I would never ever ask a group to slow down for me.....I would rather just harden up.....and maybe jimmy Tim's brakes.



Next up is the Carlsbad 1/2 Marathon. It's Sunday. I had a dream race last year. Large in part to my friend Stacey who tied a rope to me and pulled me along until the final 5k when she sped up to her race pace. I'm not sure what will happen this year as Stacy's not running. I guess I will have to hope for the best. While the rest of the entrants are carbo loading. Tim and I are carbo un loading. Based on Tim's claim he gained 3 pounds and has a "roll" which I call skin covering his abdomen and my discovery of the following information:



There was a nice little table in Runner's World last year that illustrates how much faster you could be if you lost weight.

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-304--11903-0,00.html

So if I wanted to improve upon last years performance I would have needed to do speed work months ago. Instead I opted for easy runs and Christmas cookies. Oh yeah and I blew off a lot of runs because I was "recovering" from IMAZ....better known as hammering the Great Western Loop. Life it's about the choices we make. For the rest of the week I am inflicting a no nut policy on Tim and I. I have substituted my post work/ post work out nut eating habit ( BAD HABIT .... JENNY GIRL) with Trader Joe's organic apple slices. I feel quite guilty about this obsession because my mother taught me to be buy apples in season and cut them myself. These are $2.50 for 18 oz., pre sliced with lemon juice on them to keep them from turning brown and taste amazing. Always crispy and never mealy. Unless of course you forget about them in the fridge and they get mushy ( BAD JENNY GIRL). Anyway they are like my crack addiction and I am quite happy about it. Tim and I would skip the Ghiradelli chocolate chips too but the dark chocolate has anti -inflammatory properties. Now just how would we run worth a darn if we didn't properly take care of our inflammation? Lord knows after today's ride we need all the anti-inflammatory properties we can get.