A great week

This has been a good week. Work was fine, the kitchen has noticeable progress (cabinets are in and painted), and I even managed to get out and do some workouts. All-in-all, not bad.

Part of my new found motivation involves a group at Fitness Journal. There are a few of us who regularly post items onto the discussion board and then we post comments on each other's posts. So, we now have this informal social network where we talk about workouts, weight loss, our latest event, and so on. Recently, someone in the group suggested we start a six week challenge where we set goals and then report on the progress each week. It sounded like fun so I joined in with a few simple goals. Now I have to stick to them so I can report success. I guess that's kinda the whole point.

I ran again on Tuesday since one of my goals is to run twice a week. This time I upped the distance to 3.5 miles. It was a fine run and I am still taking things nice and slow. I finished at just under a 9:00 minute pace. I am okay with that since speed is not important at this point. And the best part, I could actually walk the next day.

Wednesday I managed to get on the bike after work and I headed straight to Fountain Grove which is a section of substantial hills. I did some hill work and then decided to just cruise around town. It ended up being a sort of tour des maisons à vendre (tour of houses for sale). I can't believe how many houses are on the market in some of Santa Rosa's best neighborhoods. I also rode through downtown. I know a lot of cyclist hate riding in town, and in traffic, but I actually enjoy it. When it was all said and done, I managed to get in 20 miles.

My second run of the week was Friday. It was pretty cool, around 40 degrees, so I was running in tights. I don't know why, but I prefer to run in tights. I think it's because they hide that ridiculous tan line you get from cycling. It was a beautiful morning that announced autumn is arriving fast in the Wine Country. It was the same 3.5 mile route as Tuesday with one difference. I ran at an 8:30 pace and I felt great.

On Saturday, I put together a group ride that went down some of my favorite roads. I love these roads for many, many reasons, but mostly it's the scenery. They go over small hills and drop into gorgeous valleys full of vineyards, redwood trees, running streams, and other such idyllic features that they should be in a painting. And since it is the end of the season, we were not training. We were moving at a good pace, but not so fast we couldn't enjoy the splendor that was around us. I really need to start carrying a camera on some of these rides.

Sunday was another spectacular ride. Nice and easy with a couple of friends. Nothing to really speak about. Well that's not true since we talked the entire ride. Oh yeah, I forgot. We also did a couple of climbs. Actually, about 2000 feet worth of climbs.

So tomorrow starts another week. Hopefully, it will be just like this one.

Ciao!