March 13, 2010

Time travel

Last weekend I was in Carmel for the weekend, it is at the edge of Big Sur which boasts one of the most beautiful coastlines in all the West. I went down here with my friend David and yesterday we went to explore some of the vineyards. We got as far as the Carmel valley tasting rooms, they are all concentrated in one area so all you need to do is park your car and you can visit about 10 or 12 winery tasting rooms without getting behind the wheel again. When done tasting there are restaurants to get your strength back again. The wine in Carmel valley is simply delicious. We drank the best wines the region has to offer. There were a lot of whites, chardonnay, pinot gris, sauvignon blanc and some merlot and pinot noir.



It is wonderful to unwind, I spent the morning reading a book and in the afternoon I went for a nice hill run. It proved to be great way to spend a weekend away from the chores, away from the city lights and the pressures of work.

Since the first week of February, I have become really busy at work, this is great, but I am traveling more. I’ve been to New York recently; there I encountered a severe snowstorm. Two inches of snow can be fun when you have a sled, but those two inches that fell in New York amused me since I don’t see snow very often. I was still really glad to be back in San Francisco.



I have been feeling too much pressure about running recently and I couldn’t find enough time to do the long runs and have enough time to recover from traveling. I am often tired after a long flight and after my recent trip to New York I simply couldn’t face the idea of running 18 miles the following day. That is when I made the decision to downgrade the Oakland marathon from a full (26.2miles) to a half (13.1 miles). I would rather run a good half than get injured trying to run a distance I have not had sufficient training for. My focus now will be on training for the full marathon in July.

I am excited about running the half marathon distance, I am well trained for it and I intend to enjoy it. I learned an important lesson about scaling back when it was appropriate and not to simply do something for the sake of it.

To good health and a wonderful spring!