IM AZ Race Report

First off, this is a long post.  And I tend to ramble, so prepare yourself :-)

Before getting started, I have to give a humongous shout out and thank you to my coach, wife, and best friend, who I most definitely could not have done this without:  I LOVE YOU BABE!  :-)

Let's jump straight into the action!  First up, the swim.

The gun goes off at 6:50 starting the pro wave.  After they take off, we have 10 minutes to get 2900 bodies across two small timing mats, into the water, and then a 200 meter swim up to the starting line.  A little nerve wracking, but I'm way up towards the front of the corral, jump in the water, swim up to the line and spend the next 5 minutes taking it all in.  I can't believe I'm about to actually do this!  Looking around at all the people in the water, and all the thousands of fans lining the water, looking up and seeing both bridges covered with people, is amazing.

Finally the gun goes off, and here we go!  Keep in mind, the biggest race I've done previously had a wave start with about 100 people.  Now I'm in the water with like 2900 other people.  And I've heard time and again what a swim start like this will be--but it just doesn't prepare you for the real thing.  I managed to stay pretty calm considering the first five minutes I felt like people were actively trying to drown me.  Arms hitting me in the back of the head, on my back, grabbing my butt, pulling on my legs--I think the only place I didn't get hit was in the crotch.  I'm also pretty sure I broke someone's nose with my elbow-inadvertantly-during this time. I had started very close to the front of the mob, and after a few minutes I finally found some open water and was able to relax.  I settled into my rhythm and just concentrated on my breathing.  Sighting was a piece of cake, as the swim was in Tempe Town Lake, which is basically the Rio Salado river channel.  It flows east to west, but really the current was nonexistent.  So the first half of the swim is west to east along the south bank.  So, every other breath, look to the right, there's the bank, keep going.  I chose to stay close to the bank, about 15 meters off it, because of this.  This is fine for the first 3/4 of the trip out, but after crossing under the Rural Road bridge the channel veers to the south-but the turn around buoy is in the middle of the channel.  Up to this point I've been swimming with two or three other groupophobes like myself, with the main line of swimmers about 10 meters to my left.  Now its time to join them for the turnaround.  I make it around the two end buoys without any problems, and start the trip back.  On the way back, we are basically smack in the middle of the channel-no shoreline to keep me headed in a straight line.  This is when I notice I don't really have an even swim stroke.  I continue to veer to the right--like 30 degrees to the right--like, where the hell am I going to the right.  So the return trip is me zigzagging all over the place because I just don't think I can handle getting into the group of swimmers just to my left.  I hit the last buoy and make the final turn towards T1 feeling strong.  I climb out and check my time, 1:07:48!  Hell yeah!  What a great start to my day!  I thought going under 1:10 was definitely doable, but having never done this before I just didn't know.

After a slow T1, I hop on the bike and get going.  I take it easy for the first hour, just like my coach said to :).  I get passed by TONS of people flying by, but I have faith in my game plan, so steady as she goes.  My legs feel kind of dead anyway, so I probably couldn't push it if I wanted to.  There is a little headwind on the way out but not too bad.  I hit the turnaround at about 1:03, and BOOM!  Well maybe that wind was a little bit more than I thought.  I come FLYING back into town in like :50--and that's with a potty break!

The second loop is not so nice, for several reasons.  One, the wind has picked up.  Heading back out of town I definitely feel it a little bit more.  About 2 miles from the turnaround, just as I'm starting the one small climb we have, I realize-I'm hot.  Immediately following is the realization--there's no wind, i.e., it's shifted.  Dang it!  Nothing to do but go on, so that's what I do.  I hit the turn around, hoping it's a cross wind.  No such luck.  Straight on headwind--yay.  So I get to have a headwind BOTH ways with this lap.  Awesome.  At least it's downhill so its not all bad.  I get about 3/4 of the way back into town, when suddenly I hear a motorbike pull up next to me and I here my name, "Jeremy!"  I look around and there is an official with a big red card, who proceeds to tell me I am receiving a penalty for drafting.  Drafting???  ME??  Mr. I hate drafting and everyone who does it??  Are you F'ing kidding me??  I look around bewildered at the closest bike, which is clearly over 50 feet in front of me.  Excuse me but have you seen the packs of 20-30 riders in their f*cking echelons, and you are giving ME a penalty?!?!  I just roll my eyes, shake my head, and get back to work.  I report to the penalty box about a 1/2 mile short of the end of lap two and wait my 4 mins.  So yes my 2nd lap was considerably longer than my first, partly due to the wind and partly due to this bullshit penalty. 

The third loop was about the same as lap two, except I have an obvious tailwind on the way out.  It's nice because its gently sloping uphill, but I know I have to turn around and ride back into town straight into it.  I make it through this lap without too much difficulty and check my bike split--6:01:42.  Minus that four minute penalty, (and another 7 mins for bathroom breaks and stopping to adjust my rear brakes) and I'm well under six hours, which is right where I wanted to be!  I had hoped to be a little faster, but this being my first IM I just didn't really know what I could/should be capable of, ya know?

After a quick change and potty break in T2, I'm off on the run.  And despite feeling like I had dead legs throughout the bike, once I start the run my legs feel AWESOME!  I was amazed!  They didn't feel like I'd really worked them at all--I felt fresh and had a spring in my step.  I continued to put the brakes on and still ran my first mile in 8:30.  Definitely faster than my goal race pace, I just felt so darn good!  I walked through the first aid station and then set out at a much more reasonable 9:15 pace and managed to stay there.  My legs continued to feel good, and I continued with my plan of walking and refueling at each aid station, approximately every mile.   I mention this because about mile 5 is where my day started to go not so much as planned.  My legs continued to feel great; however my stomach started to have a different opinion about how the day was going.  And after having a day to reflect on it, I think my stomach issues started much earlier, on the bike.  Of course I had my nutrition planned out going into the race, and stuck with it--until the 3rd loop of the bike.  I had skipped my special needs bag during lap 2, but decided to stop on lap 3 and grab it.  I was feeling hungry on the third loop, and became absolutely terrified of bonking, hard, on the run.  So I stopped and grabbed my bag, which contained 2 Smucker's Uncrustable sandwiches and a Snicker's bar.  I then proceeded to eat ALL of this over the next hour.  Yeah, I know, WAAY too many calories for that time frame.  My stomach took it all in stride--for the most part--with just a little discomfort after the second sandwich.  So fast forward back to the run.  I continue with my nutrition plan, walking at each aid station to drink, and eating at my scheduled times.  My stomach started to become more vocal at around mile 4, but again, I was terrified of bonking, so I continued to shove the food in.  I managed to push through 'til about mile 10, but by then the damage was done.  Anything more than a fast walk sent my intestines into spasms.  I tried to induce some upchucking, but all I got was dry heaves.  I struggled to limp from one aid station to the next.  I tried switching foods for the next few miles, going away from the GU's and taking some fruit, pretzels, cookies, coke, didn't matter.  1-2 bites/sips and I'd just throw the rest of it down as another wave of spasms worked its way through me.  Finally, I decided to just worry about staying hydrated.  I stuck to the water for the next few miles, nothing else.  Then, darkness.  And with darkness at Ironman comes warm chicken broth!  I continued to stay away from anything other than water and chicken broth.  After 2 aid stations of that, I finally ran all the way from one aid station to the next without walking!  Success!  Of course by then my race was nearly over.  I managed to run the last two miles at 9:30 pace, so I ended my day on a very positive note!  I was definitely all smiles as I crossed the finish line:  12:22:01!!  :-)

Overall, I am extremely satisfied with my race.  I kicked tail on the swim. I feel I did well on the bike despite my legs not feeling 100%, for whatever reason.  And my run was definitely not what I had hoped for, but overall I feel I learned a TON from the whole experience.  I definitely felt like my fitness was there.  This gives me great confidence going into the future-I know how much training I can handle, and now have some idea of what the training will give me. I think my GI issues were completely self inflicted, and that can be fixed.

I know some people will do one Ironman and say, I've done one, never again.  I thought about this off and on during the run, but this morning, just one day after I raced, I'm already looking ahead to the next one.  Ironman Coeur D'Alene, just 31 short weeks away!

The Taper

Well friends it is that time--the much anticipated, slightly dreaded, taper time.  For those of you not well versed in triathlon, or endurance sports, a brief explanation of the taper.  The taper is a short period of time before your big race/event.  This period can be several days to two weeks, depending on how long you have been training, and the length of your race.  During this time you decrease the amount of training you have been doing, rest more, in the hope of starting your race at the absolute peak of your performance level.  Train less, rest more.  Sounds great, right?  Should be the easiest thing I've done in months.  My body should feel awesome.  At this point you become totally focused on just making it to race day healthy. 

Intuitively that all makes sense.  In reality though, its often just the opposite.  The taper can be the WORST.  You can feel sluggish, tired, develop weird aches and pains you've never felt before...the list goes on. 

My taper should have started yesterday, two weeks prior to race day.  To start with, my taper began a few days early, as I got sick with a nasty head cold last week, and ended up totally skipping my last long ride of my plan, as well as cutting my last long run short.  Two days ago, I developed this weird pain in my left knee.  Not debilitating by any means, but just another concern rolling around in my brain.  Today during my swim, I developed a twinge in my left shoulder.  This to go along with the same twinge I developed in my right shoulder two weeks ago and is still there.  Again, not gonna keep me from racing, but another worry, am I gonna be able to race at my best? And have you ever had a muscle that twitches?  Like your eyelid will twitch or spasm intermittently for days at a time?  My left bicep started up with that mess a little under a week ago; its currently twitching as I type.  I also developed a sensitive tooth today.  Yeah, I'm that obsessive.

Having tapered before I know what to expect, but I didn't expect to feel this bad...and I still have 12 days to go!  Add to that this is my first Ironman--along with this comes all the uncertainty that goes with doing something new for the first time.  I might need to just start taking some Ativan every 6 hours prophylactically :-)  Luckily, I do have an experienced certified USAT coach living with me to help keep my crazy in check.

Overthink much??

As one of my six blog readers recently pointed out to my wife, I need to write a new post!  Sorry people, no cute pics in this post--just straight stream of consciousness at its best(worst).  So what better to write about than my current all-consuming subclinical spazout/meltdown/freakout?  I mean, seriously, my race is 34 days away people!  That means i have exactly 20 days until my training ends and the final taper begins.

  Have I put in the miles and time?  Definitely.  Do I logically feel prepared to finish my first Ironman.  Sure.  Am I totally freaked that I haven't put in the time/effort to have a good race?  You bet your a$$!  I've only been training for this for 7-8ish months now, what if I totally just fall apart?  What if I'm so tired from wigging out in the swim that I can't even finish the bike?  Will I go out too fast on the bike?  Too slow?  What if I get a flat--I've never changed a tubular before.  What if I end up walking the run?  What if I don't make the 17hr cutoff because of this?  I know I shouldn't have time goals, but of course I know what I THINK I should be able to do--so what if I don't do that, have I failed myself? 

And I'm TIRED.  Last week was my hardest week of training I've ever done, and I finished the week strong, but I felt like I walked around in a daze all day today.  I sleep well at night, and get more hours per night than I have in years, but I just feel drained.  And I have 3 more weeks of it to look forward to.  I know this has a lot to do with my freaking out--but that doesnt keep me from doing it! 

I'm sure this uncertainty will only get worse over the next 5 weeks, so be patient with me people!  OK time for bed, that 5:30am run comes way too early...

Just a small peek inside my crazy silly mind my friends, enjoy!

Harvest Moon Race Report

The morning started off with an amazing cinnamon apple streusel bagel topped with caramel apple cream cheese...yes, someone really made that, and yes, it was as delicious as it sounds.  How could I not have a good race after a breakfast like that?

O yeah, and a HUGE shout out to my sherpa, coach, photographer, all of the above and more!  I couldn't have done this without you baby!

Anyway, on to the big event!  The swim course took place in beautiful Aurora Reservoir, and the water, while not mirror-flat calm, was definitely on the calm side.   The course itself was basically an out and back, exiting the water about 50 yards to the left of where we entered.  The swim was a wave start, 4 waves at 5 min intervals, and of course I was in wave 4. 

Finally it's our turn.  The air horn sounded, and in we went!  I started at the outside edge, just wanting to get a nice relaxed rhythm going and not get caught up in the frantic thrashing that swim starts can be.  After about 90 seconds I look around and realize, I'm in the lead group.  Not only that, I'm IN FRONT.  WTH??  Luckily at about this time, the train decides I'm going too slow, and 5-6 people pass me on the left.  I jump onto the last guy's feet and stay with them for another 2-3 minutes.  I'm not struggling with the pace, but I'm definitely not comfortable, so I decide to back off and let them go.  I swim on my own for a couple of minutes, then catch another pair of feet and stay with them until the turnaround.  Luckily the water is clear, and visibility is probably 6-8 feet, so its easy to see swimmers close by.  At the turnaround I doggie paddle for a few seconds, clear the water out of my goggles, and glance at my watch.  15:20!  I get back to it; unfortunately I can't find any friendly feet to follow, so I made the return journey on my own.  As the swim exit had a huge Red Bull archway, sighting wasn't too difficult.  I climb out of the water and check my time, 30:42!  I'm nothing but smiles all the way up the beach, up the hill and into transition!  (OK so the official time says 32:06, but I don't care about the 1:22 it took me to run up the beach, up the hill and across the mat outside transition--I swam a 30:42, dammit!!)

Next up, the bike.  After a slow transition (I still suck at these, but I'm getting better!), it's time to get to work.  I had asked my coach how to tackle the course, and she said, take the first 30 minutes EASY.  Being a good little boy, I did just that.  Of course several people passed me, mainly on the uphills, standing and mashing their pedals as hard as they could, while I slowly spun my way up.  This used to freak me out, but today I just calmly watched them commit suicide, confident in my game plan.  At mile 14 the course began a long gradual descent to about mile 31,during which I had either a tail wind or tail/cross wind.  I flew through this part, turned south at 31 into a cross wind, and started the long gradual climb back up.  My legs were still feeling great at this point, and I started to catch some people.  At mile 40 we turned west--into a straight on head wind.  Constant 15-20mph with 25mph gusts.  Not crazy winds but not inconsequential either.  As I had about half of my total climbing still to do in the last 16 miles, I knew it would be tough.  But my legs felt great and I continued to plug along.  I also began picking off some of those pedal mashers from the first 30 minutes.  Talk about an energy boost!  I cruised into T2 hurting just a bit, but still smiling.  2:48!!  Just a few minutes slower than my Gulf Coast bike, but on a tougher course.

After another ssllloooww transition, it was time to get the party started.  This was the point in my previous two half-IM's where the wheels came off.  I smiled for a couple of action shots,

then got to work.  I immediately found my stride, and settled into a comfortable pace.  Mile 1, 8:11.  Too fast, too fast!  WAY faster than I meant to start out, but I didn't feel like I was working at all!  I did dial it back though and ran mile 2 in 8:38. 

After that the miles seemed to fly by, I walked at each aid station and still kept my pace in the 8:30 range.  And I passed SOO many people on the run!  You have to understand, that is something new for me.  I'm a SLLLOOWW runner.  And as I've only done mostly sprints and olympic distance races, I'm used to GETTING passed on the run.  And while my 8:30ish pace is not blistering, its great for me!  I did start to falter a tad after mile 10, and even threw in a 10:00 mile (mile 13), but still finished with a 1:55!  My previous two half IM runs--2:45 ish, and 2:15. 

The race finished with, what else, but an adult slip and slide!  Here I am getting out of the pool at the end, a little wobbly but OK.

Overall I couldn't be happier about my race!  PR by 25 minutes, and I felt GREAT all day!  HUGE confidence booster for IM Arizona.  I feel good with the swim, my bike is progressing nicely; now to focus a little bit more on the run... only 10 short weeks until the big day!

Pre Race Thoughts

Joy and I made the trip to Denver yesterday for my race tomorrow, the Harvest Moon Triathlon.  This is a half-Ironman distance race, and my last tune up before IM Arizona in 10 short weeks!  It's also only the third time I've raced this distance, and my first attempt at this distance in almost a year and a half.

The swim will be in the Aurora Reservoir, so I do expect to post a slightly better time than my last half IM, Gulf Coast.  That swim was VERY choppy, I threw up twice DURING the swim, and managed a :42ish swim.

We drove the bike course this morning, and it does have a lot of gently rolling hills, but the total elevation gain is only 1500 feet.

I say only...before we moved to New Mexico, 1500 feet of climbing would have terrified me; now, any ride from my house >2hours long has at least 1500 feet of climbing!!  Still, this is approximately 5 times the amount of climbing as Gulf Coast.  So I'm not expecting any improvement on my bike time, although I feel I'm a much stronger cyclist than I was a year ago. 

The run course is flat and again, I feel I'm a stronger runner than last year, so this is where I expect(hope) to see the most improvement.

I'm not terribly nervous about this race, which is unusual for me.  One, all the locals are freakishly fast here.  Two, after checking out the slowtwitch forum, it turns out they had no bike marshals last year, and drafting packs were noticed by several people.  Obviously I won't be drafting; so I really don't care where I finish in relation to anyone else; I'm just looking at it more as a good test to see where I am in preparation for Arizona.

OK, time to head to IKEA to pick up a piece of furniture, then SUSHI time!  :)  I'll post a race report in a couple of days, peace out!

ROME

 To start off, we had an AMAZING two weeks in Italy!  Rather than bombard you with one horrendously long blog, I've decided to break it down into segments based on each place we visited.  Without further ado, I give you our first stop-Rome.

After approximately 17hrs of flight time, we landed in Rome at 0930 Monday morning.  As both of us slept a combined 30 minutes on the overnight flight, we were enthusiastic but a little exhausted.  Coming off the plane we were greeted with our first experience with Italian society-waiting in lines.  We had to wait in a line, to wait in a line, to go through customs.  That's not a typo.  Think of it as a 'pre-line' line.  Little did we know that there was much more of this to come.  We eventually collected our bags, got some euros from the ATM, headed to the train, and made our way to central Rome. 

Our hotel, Hotel Turner,

was just one subway stop and a 10 minute jaunt away from the main hub.  We checked in--to the smallest hotel room I've ever seen.  Now I know hotel rooms are smaller in Europe, but this was TINY.  with our two twin beds pushed together, there was about 18 inches on either side to walk in, and about 3 feet between the end of the bed and the far wall--where a useless mirror/vanity sat.  There was no A/C coming out of the vent, but I didn't care--it was NAP time.  3 hours later, we were finally able to tackle Rome.

We made our way to the first of many, many sites on our wishlist--The Coliseum.  Now, here's where the waiting in line thing pops up again.  Basically at every site there is the big long line, to wait in a line, to buy a ticket.  This pre-line line, we came to find out, could easily be a couple of hours long, depending on which site you were visiting.  However, most of the big sites would let you call ahead, and for the price of the ticket plus a couple of extra Euros, let you make a reservation for a specific time.  Or you could get a type of Combo-pass that lets you in to multiple sites.  Kinda like the Disney fast-pass line.  I had read about the Roma Pass, the combo pass used in Rome(obviously, duh), so we set out in search of one.  The first FOUR sites we stopped at, were sold out.  I'm sorry, how do you SELL out of something at 3 in the afternoon? 

So, at our fifth stop, we finally procured the Roma Pass.  This was at Palatine Hill, in close proximity to the Coliseum, but not exactly right next door.  The coliseum would have to wait.  We spent the next several hours here and next door at the Forum, basically mainstreet Rome in the old days. 

This wrapped up our first day(half-day) in Rome, we trudged back to our room, turned on the A/C(opened the window), and fell into an exhausted slumber. 


Day 2
Day 2 started off--at 1030(yes I slept 13 hours, I don't think I've EVER slept that long, even post call)-- with a jog around and through the Borghese Gardens--Rome's Central Park, except MUCH smaller. Next stop, Vatican City.  On our way we grabbed a quick panini to go from a pissy Italian, then spent the rest of the day wandering through the Vatican museum, the Sistine chapel, and St Peter's Basilica.

Day 3
Our last full day in Rome, and we still had a lot of ground to cover(yes I'm very task-oriented; I get it, I know-deal with it :))  After another jog around through the Gardens, we headed back to the Coliseum.  This time, with Roma Pass in hand, we bypassed all the unlucky souls without tickets, made our way directly to the entry gate, and jumped right on in.  I've had people who have been to the Coliseum tell me, that its just not that impressive in real life.  And I'd have to say to those people, are you freaking KIDDING me?  This engineering MARVEL was built 2000 years ago, holds 50,000 people, said people can ALL enter/leave within a matter of minutes, subflooring with 80 lifts/elevators for gladiators/animals/whatever you can think of to appear just about anywhere on the arena floor, the arena could be flooded for naval battles--and did I mention it was built 2000 years ago and holds 50,000 people??  But I digress.

After the Coliseum the rest of the day was spent wandering around the area visiting multiple other sites and museums, but none nearly as interesting or breathtaking.  Overall Rome was a fascinating place to visit and I LOVED it there, but it was time to get moving.  Next stop, Pompeii, Sorrento, and the Amalfi Coast.  The journey to get there did not go smoothly, and this will be the subject of the next blog.  Until then, PEACE!

I need a vacation to recover from my vacation

The rest of our trip to Cali was awesome :-)  We stayed waaay too busy the next few days to try and write it down; we'd crash in the hotel room each night, just to wake up early the next morning and head out again.  As we had entered SoCal and  the traffic really picked up, we strapped the bikes to our car and spent the next few days sight-seeing.
The next stop on our tour brought us to Venice Beach, where we attempted to spend the afternoon enjoying the sun, sand, and water.  This is hard to do when it's partially cloudy, windy, and 65ish.  We did get a little riding in, as they have an outstanding bike path in the area.  However, it was a much more leisurely ride :-)

What trip to Cali wouldn't be complete without getting to experience LA rush hour traffic?  Leaving Venice Beach (north side of LA) at 4pm for our destination Dana Point (1 hour south of LA) was not my greatest idea.  Distance traveled: 60 miles.  Time elapsed: just under 3 hours.  Pure awesomeness, am I right?  After checking in we frantically changed clothes and just managed to get a 4 mile run along the coast in before sunset. 

Next up, our last full day in Cali-a trip to Catalina Island!  We boarded our ferry for the 22 mile, one hour ride over and promptly fell back asleep.  Upon arrival, we were greeted with this beautiful little view:

After grabbing a quick lunch, it was time to head off on our next adventure-a hike in the wilderness :-)  As we wore casual clothes for the ferry ride over, we needed to get our hiking clothes out of our backpacks to change.  But I somehow managed to unpack Joy's hiking clothes on the car ride over...  So guess who scored a brand new Patagonia shirt and pair of shorts, courtesy of yours truly?  :-)  Crisis averted, clothes changed, and after grabbing a hiking map, we took off.  Along the way, Joy managed to miss stepping on a 5 foot long rattlesnake by 6 inches.  Of course, I didn't tell her it was a rattler until we got back to town, but as she heard the rattle distinctly while running away, she said she knew all along.  At the top of the climb, about 1500ft above sea level, we were treated to some pretty spectacular views:

 If you look closely, you can see us running along the trail on the ridge-line:

We finished the day with some outstanding ice cream and a walk along the coast, where we saw this guy having a great time all by his lonesome

If only I could move through the water so effortlessly :-)

The next morning we said goodbye to Cali and made the 13ish hour drive back to the Gord, crawled into our own bed and slept for 12 straight blissful hours :-) cleaned the house, checked on the garden, played with the cats, crashed for a few hours, and drove to the airport to pick up our guest for the next several days, CHARLIE!!  We had an AWESOME time, but I'll let my wife take that story. 

Until next time!

California Tour: Day 2 and 3

What can I say, we've been so busy doing stuff the last two days we haven't had a chance to stop and write about it!

The second day of our tour was spent in the beautiful town of Monterey.  I really fell in love with this place, and I think Joy would have too, except the temperatures stayed just a little too much on the cold side.  I'm pretty sure the high got up to about 65, but when the clouds roll in and it became overcast, it felt downright chilly!  Anyway, we started off with an early lunch at a hole in the wall sandwich shop, with some delicious chicken salad sandwiches.  Then down to Fisherman's Wharf, where the day's bike ride began.

 Here's our route for today:  a great bike path along the coast and the 17 Mile Drive. 

Sites seen along the way include, a group of sea lions;

Pebble Beach, if you're into that kinda thing;

and miles and miles of beautiful shore line!

There were also lots of multi-million dollar homes perched on the edge of cliffs, with spectacular views--but they're all gonna slide off into the ocean eventually, right?  No sense wasting good film on them.

We finished off the ride and headed back to town for dinner-Sushi, of course!-and a tour of historic Cannery Row.

This ride was a very relaxing 30 mile trip, with just over 1400 feet of climbing. 

Our third day of the trip we took a break from the bikes, as the PCH got VERY narrow with no shoulder and bad roads--there were several sections washed away earlier this year by rock slides still under repair.  We managed to hit no less than 4 state parks today, all with some hiking/trail running.  We started off the day in Point Lobos State Park, and I think we could have spent the entire day there!  The trails and views were absolutely amazing!

We found this secluded little beach where another group of sea lions were molting--this guy looked so comfy!

Next up, Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.  A couple of miles of hiking through the redwoods-

-and on to State Park #3-Pfeiffer Burns State Park

A short hike to the waterfall viewing area, and then back to the car.  A few more miles of driving along the side of the mountains, several hundred feet above sea level, (where no good road should ever find itself, according to Joy)

and we round a corner to see a beautiful waterfall off to the left.  Here's how the next 1.7 seconds play out:  'Should we stop?' 'Yes!'- mirrors checked, brakes slammed, car swerved across traffic into the gravel lot safely.

Another short hike yields another spectacular view:

And despite what the following video shows, I swear that once upon a time I was somewhat graceful :-)

And of course, the day wouldn't have been complete without learning something new.  Like, say, for instance, that zebras are indigenous to Central Califonia??

Until next time kiddies!