Another year of brevets start for me. About 30% chance of rain which is the threshold I had set earlier in the week, any more chance of rain and I'll be rolling back over in bed to sleep. After getting ready and eating an unusual (for me) breakfast that consisted of a bagel and a few spoons of uncooked oat meal with orange juice, I left home with plenty of time yet I managed to arrive at the bridge just in time to barely chat with friends. Greg B., John P., Brian K., Brian C., and I were at the front of the 83 riders crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. The pace was brisk but doable for me. We got to Camino Alto hill along with a few other riders and they proceeded to climb ahead, I took my time and was feeling a little fatigued already. Something is going on with me, probably need to eat more veggies as people tell me but you know what I say about that, veggies are for bunnies. I need to be more bunny like...

A hard year 2011 has been for me, but I have always wanted to participate in a DART event. A few years back I suggested that our club, the San Francisco Randonneurs (SFR) should expand our ride offerings to do new events that had yet not being offered. Randonneuring is a great sport, but riding the same events over and over, year after year can get boring after a while. When talk of doing a DART mixed terrain route started in the sfrandon mail list I was interested in joining the team. Heath A. became team captain and with the help of Nick L, Brian K, and others he mapped an ambitious route. After the route was set we settled on the final roster of team members, Heath A, Nick L, Brian K, Sean C and I (I was the last to join).

We started at 6:00 am at the Strauss statue at the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge and headed south on city streets crossing San Francisco and hugging the coast as much as possible until we got to Pacifica where we went inland on what used to be Hwy 1 decades ago. This section now call Planet of the Apes (PoA) is a narrow, ~6 feet, path of broken pavement and dirt that climbs steadily for a few miles and then descends onto the current Hwy 1 right before Montara, the whole PoA is beautiful and highly recommended. We continued on Hwy 1 South to our first control at the Safeway in Half Moon Bay...

Yes Monica next year I won't run a marathon every month and will make sure I will not start a brevet if I am not rested and in shape for the challenge. It was not fair to John. Weird enough I am not that tired today (Monday), I was able to get some work done till the lack of sleep on the weekend caught up with me.

Hey John! Oh good to know you're fine. So you came just a few minutes after me. Yep, I went straight to the Strauss Statue so we missed each other when you rode straight home. At the bridge I saw Ian K-B and his dad and we chatted for a while. He sounded very exited about the 600k next week.

Thanks for picking me up Monica, I was not looking forward to riding home from the bridge. I am glad all this is over, don't want to even think about another 600k! no senor, I am done with this crap!

Thanks for coming to meet us and the pizza and junk food Greg. That Pizza was good ah? Yep I have not seen John since we splitted up somewhere in San Geronimo Valley. He wanted to take the scenic way starting at the Nicasio intersection I was too tired for the longer but prettier route. I thought I would be seeing him in San Anselmo ...

I've been riding tired most of the brevets this year. I am sure its the extra exercise, running a marathon per month, I've added to the mix. The week before the Fleche we went on a short but somewhat hillier mixed terrain ride with fellow SF Randonneurs, Adrian B, John P, Robbins P. (on my fleche team) Greg B. Nick L. and Nathan. After the ride I felt a little tired even though I did not push it during the hills.

Took it easy all week and ate more carbohydrates which seem to have been lacking from my diet recently. Mid week Robbins sent a message to the team letting us know he would not be able to make the ride, Achilles tendon issues, argh... hope he feels better soon. A couple of days later seeing the weather forecast had 20-30% chance of rain on Saturday-Sunday I sent an email to my team asking if they were going to ride with fenders. Rob H and Bill M both say yes, Bruce B said he would not. I went with my - if < 30% chance rain no need for fenders - informal rule and went to bed at 10:45. By 1am I was still thinking if I should be installing them darned fenders on the bike...

A busy month this one is. This past weekend I did the SFR 400k workers ride and had a hard time because my body has been feeling drained of mojo, but after what felt like a very short week it was Saturday again and it was my best chance to squeeze in a ~26 mile run this month. In the evening I would be fulfilling my volunteer duties during the four hour (10:00pm to 2:30am) first shift of the final control of the SFR 400k. I better get my things ready and leave.

Very conservatively I ran to the Lombard@Lyon Presidio gate and then continued to do a small 5 or so miles on the trails before heading to the Golden Gate Bridge. This loop added more climbing than what I wanted but it was a nice break from running on the streets. I went up Arguello and then followed Washington to a place where there are stairs that connect to the Sand Ladder that descend onto Baker Beach. From the beach I came back on a connector to Lincoln and then continued to the bridge on other trails, very nice route that I usually do starting from Crissy Field. In my head I had added 2 miles to the route, so I would not need to run to the beach and back from the Tennessee Valley stables...

Running a marathon each month is not that hard; what is hard, at least for me, is to work it into my schedule that also allows me to ride a full brevet series of only worker's rides offered to volunteers. The 26 miles of a marathon have increased my threshold for pain, or so it seems to me. However, with brevets going on at the same time my recovery time between workouts has been reduced to a point where I have no margin for error. I learned the hard way how important being rested is before embarking on what for me is a fun SFR 400k route.

So, in March I ran a marathon on the 20th and then the next weekend I did an easy paved loop in the Marin Headlands and the next day rode to Point Reyes Station with Greg at what was supposed to be an "easy pace with few stops". Well the easy pace was not so much and by the time I came home I was more exhausted than I have been in a while. All week I tried to relax and keep the physical activity to a minimum, but Tuesday and Wednesday I could not sleep at all and I knew I was in trouble as my body was not happy with the lack of proper rest to recharge my batteries.

Friday night I went to bed at 11pm and then woke up a couple of times to pack stuff I had forgotten. Another bad night of sleep, I was a wounded randonneur.

We started at 6am at the Golden Gate Bridge as usual, but this year the route had to be modified to accommodate for a bridge sidewalk closure that would happen on the day the regular event is run. As per RUSA rules...

On my quest to do one self-organized marathon per month finding the time to fit it into my schedule has proven to be as hard as running the 26.2 miles. I had set aside Sunday March 20th to do it but when the weather forecast changed from Saturday will rain but Sunday would be *really * awful, I decided to change gears (and sport) and do a ride on Saturday and no activity on Sunday. So Saturday morning came and Greg, Robbins and I embarked on a wet loop from the Golden Gate Bridge to Tiburon and back, nothing special but just a showery ride with friends, after all Sunday was going to be horrible. What-do-you-know Sunday came and after an early morning shower the whole day was great, sunny, not much wind and temperatures in the 50's. It was too late for me, I had already made plans, no running for me on this day.

Next decision was how to fit a Marathon and a decent bike ride in the next week. I'll be doing the San Francisco randonnurs 400k brevet workers ride in two weeks so I need to put some good miles on my legs, hopefully on the weekend before, that leaves no weekend day open for a marathon. I think it would be too much to do both a 26 mile run and a ~90 mile ride on consecutive days. I needed to run during the week. We were having contractors working on our kitchen one day so I decided that was...