I didn’t want to overdo the Centennial Park time trials, so today I ran a fast 3 km instead. I did it in 11:49 (4:07, 4:03; 3:39). I was pretty comfortable throughout, though clearly not at my best – lacking energy and heavy in the legs. But it wasn’t a bad effort under the circumstances, given it was a warm summer’s day and I am heavier than is ideal. In fact, my current weight of just a tick under 80 kg (I’ve lost 4 kg in three weeks) is still short of the 73 kg I need to be running at my fastest. At that weight I’d be doing the 3 km in a little over 10 minutes.

I’m not sure why I’m doing speed work when I have no short and fast races coming up. I certainly don’t need it for the 32 km King Island race in a couple of weeks, and definitely not for the six day Big Red Run in June. I guess it helps to keep me interested at a mental level. Just doing long slow distance every day gets a bit monotonous.

Following on from the last post, here’s another of the giant margarita, this time with Carmel and her standard sized wine for comparison. It was a fun Saturday night in the town of Salida, Colorado.

On This Day

Feb 23, 2012

Distance today = 56.42 km; Total distance = 2493.53 km; Location = Lake Cachuma, California – 34 34.067′ N, 119 57.097′ W; Start time = 0827, Finish time = 1647

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/152046720

Another hot one today, with 28 C. I reckon it was a lot hotter running along the highway without any cover from the sun. I was suffering a little during the early afternoon, but felt a lot better by late afternoon when the temperature dropped a bit.

I normally wouldn’t have too much of an issue with these temperatures, but I haven’t experienced them for a while, even during the summer in NZ. I will get used to it over time – I’ll have to, as it will only get hotter here in the US as summer approaches.

The TV interview yesterday aired on four separate occasions on local station KSBY. It must have been seen by a lot of people, as today I experienced innumerous car horns and waves, as well as people stopping to take photos of me, and even one guy running out of a shop and yelling “Hey, are you the guy who is running around the world?”

The highlight of the day was passing through the town of Solvang (where we happen to be staying tonight). It has evolved as a sort of Little Denmark, with virtually every building, business, and other establishment exhibiting a Danish theme. There are Hans Christian Andersens, King Fredericks, mermaids, Hamlets, Carlsberg beers, Copenhagen restaurants, Danish bakeries, Danish butchers – pretty much anything you can imagine about Denmark, although I haven’t seen any Princess Mary references yet. But I’m sure there will be something about her here.

Tomorrow I have a short run into Santa Barbara, where I will celebrate my birthday.

Feb 23, 2013

Distance today = 53.88 km; Total distance = 16,955.21 km; Location = Salies de Bearn, France – 43 28.423′ N, 00 55.681′ W; Start time = 0853, Finish time = 1711

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/276631742

The day was one of blue skies in the morning, but they had turned to grey by the afternoon, and with it came some snow. It was only quite light, and without any wind, the flakes were gently fluttering to the ground as I ran.

I ran on roads today that I have some familiarity with. The second half of the day was along the D936 and others – roads that Dave and I had ridden 18 months ago, and he and I, along with Chips and Klitty, had ridden in the reverse direction in 2009. It was a touch strange now running these same roads without my mates. Then again, it was these exact roads that I had to ride, unbeknownst to me, with a 3 litre Coke and a brick in my panniers, courtesy of Klitty’s sense of humour – they weren’t my mates on that occasion.

I reached Salies de Bearn after a long day, with the snow continuing to fall softly. This is our third time here in less than four years. Carmel celebrated her birthday here in 2009, and I will tomorrow. BTW, the region is where Bearnaise sauce comes from – one of my all-time favourite condiments. The town also hosted the start of a stage of the Tour de France a couple of years ago.

So, I’m now dreaming of a white birthday, just like the ones I never knew.

PS We are having trouble with our new phones, as they do not have data facilities at the moment. This means, among other things, that the tracker does not work during the day – only after I finish and link the phone to the Wifi of the hotel. Therefore, it shows the end of day position correctly, but there are no intra-day updates. I hope we can get this fixed soon.