Alpine Dam

Finally back into the old California routine. We had good weather today so we did the first Alpine Dam ride of the year. Jun is in Hawaii, but Alan and Christine were at the bridge. Carrie joined us early on before peeling off to hook up with Jeffra to get her comfortable on her new mountain bike and the trails of China Camp. The plan is for those two gals to join me tomorrow.

I'm still fighting off a resurgent cold -- so was on a heart rate cap for double reasons all through the day....keeping below 130HR everywhere possible. Mellow group today so it wasn't too bad climbing out of Fairfax and gaining the 2000' to put us on the ridge. Light fog building along the ridge. A perfect winter mountain ride as it wasn't too cold or windy. Australia and NZ are good -- but nothing tops the loops out of San Francisco for ease of access to the best scenary.

My weight is starting to edge down now. Yesterday it was on the near side of 71 kg. That's only just over a kg from my ideal race weight of 70kg -- if I fall below that its generally unsustainable and I tend to get ill and have other setbacks.

Konrad left for Hong Kong and Australia / New Zealand -- so I've go flexibility in my schedule for the next two weeks -- which I'll need for the heavy mileage Smilie has me down for. It looks like 17+ hours this week, complete with intensity drills on most days. Just 8 weeks now until the race.