oregon souvenir

driving driving driving

In the first 6.5 months of the year I drove 1483 miles in the car. In the last 2 weeks I drove 3334 miles. I don’t think I’ll be able to ride more than I drive again this year.

Highlights:



Big Trees in Mineral King, Ca.

An evening meditation walk in Grass Valley, Ca.

Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico, Ca.

A dip in Lake Shasta, Ca.

A perfect running path in Ashland, Or.

A bonfire on Gleneden Beach, Or.

Another great running path in Renton, Wa.

Another great running path in Missoula, Mt.

A (borrowed bike) trail ride in The Rattlesnake, Missoula, Mt.

Getting back home to Mindful Mule (and all the other bicycles)…

riding riding riding

Still trying to build up a surplus of bike miles to carry me through the next few weeks away. I have the feeling, though, that all this riding is only going to make things worse. It feels good for now, anyway. I think I’ve ridden more this week than I ever have before - at least since I’ve been keeping track of mileage over the last couple years. Whenever I’m consciously making an effort to make it to a certain weekly mileage I’m reminded that the numbers are pretty irrelevant. Much more significant in my memory of the week are the other riders (and runners) and bikes, and the heat and the raindrops and the high clouds, and the patches of sand at the side of the road, and one unusual corkscrewed Yucca flower stalk on Brown, and grease-fingers, and horse flies on Brown, and the crinkly sound that rotten asphalt makes as you ride over it, and blinding sweat in my eyes, and white buckwheat flowers slowly rusting across the foothills, and the slow power-crawl up that last stretch of climb and the transition into smooth fast downhill speed flight, and the spinning spinning spinning whir of the drivetrain…

july

It’s been cooling off nicely in the evenings the last several days so I’ve been able to get in a lot of road riding. Last night we even got some big raindrops – not nearly enough to measure, though. I like summer raindrops.

I haven’t been able to run much recently due to an electrical storm in my back/spine. Riding, though, seems to be at least neutral if not somewhat therapeutic. I’m hoping to get in two hundred miles this week because for the next few weeks I’ll be traveling north in the car with no bike. Hopefully I’ll be able to get in some running.

Hope you’re enjoying Le Tour…

leftover shoes

I have a lot of running shoes. I tend to retire them after about 400 or 500 miles of running. One pair went 600 and still felt great. A couple pairs only made it to 300. It’s hard to know when a shoe is done. You just sort of get a certain feeling - a dull feeling.

It’s amazing how good and new a pair of shoes can look after a few hundred miles. I usually keep wearing my favorites as regular around-town shoes. Recently, though, I’ve been wondering if this is not such a good idea. Running shoes are designed to be worn while running. In particular, they have a high cushioned heel to absorb the shock of repeated heel-strike impacts.

Maybe a high heel isn’t the best sole for standing and walking. Maybe it doesn’t allow for proper stretching/lengthening of hamstrings and calves. I’ll keep this in mind but I’ll probably end up continuing to wear old running shoes around just because it’s easy – because they’re all over the house.

end of June notes

half the year:

run 379
bike 1699

car 1337
alc. 260


full rain season 2007/2008:

rain 59.5cm (as forecast!)

Seasonal Rainfall Totals for South Pasadena, California
2004/2005 - 56.5” (143.51cm)
2005/2006 - 26.25” (66.68cm)
2006/2007 - 6.25” (15.8cm)
2007/2008 – 23.4” (59.5cm)