Why I Race
Lots of triathlon blogs out there by people looking to prove to themselves that they can do something cool. Well, shit, yeah, if you devote practically your whole life to doing an Ironman (but not a lower-case-I iron-distance tri, no, it has to be the trademarked o-fish-ul one), you ought to be able to. 'Specially in the might-as-well-be-walking time of 16 hours.

Look, I know how therapeutic athletics can be. Explore the catacombs of this very blog and you'll find instances of the author drawing inspiration from some pathetic success (or even failure!). But to a tiresome degree, the tri-blogger community that has emerged is beginning to feel like a sprawling, voracious, pop-psych-spewing self-help-best-seller-hypnotized group. You see this, too, with Team in Training, and with the advocates of fat people "running" a marathon in six hours to feel good about themselves. It's depressingly common stuff.

Fine, fine, feel good about yourself. But I'm in this for the sport, and the sport is to go as fast as possible, and though I'm slow, my times matter to me, matter a lot. Just finishing is not what it's about. To me.

Saturday Brick
Up Veeder, back through Yountville, then down Solano and California to home. Thirty miles, a nice mix of climbing and flats. Then off the bike and into the Asics. I was surprised to see, after a tenth of a mile or so, that my pace was around 7 min/mile. Hmm. So, though I really didn't need to or want to and I really shouldn't have -- I'd done a hard run last Sunday, and my legs were still kinda sore -- I went hard. Did 2.5 miles at 6:30 pace.

Post work-out thought: Yeah, my legs were wonky from the bike ride when the run started ... but I was fast from the get-go. Whaddup there? A lesson, I think, in the value of a great warm-up before a running race.

Gas Prices
This has not been a place for rants, but I've had it! I can't take anymore of the bellyaching about gas prices! Today, it was the old guys at the gym, who probably drive about two and a quarter miles a day, who were griping endlessly.

I'll believe people are really bent about gas prices when they: (1) dump their gigantic SUVs (the parking lot at Niko's school is still jammed with Rovers, Yukons, Explorers and the like); (2) drive slower on the freeway (the estimate is that for every mile an hour over 55, up to 65 mph, your fuel economy dips 1 percent -- and after you pass 65, it's even worse); (3) walk, ride the bike or simply forego the trip.

Until then, I don't want to hear it.

Wouldn't You Know It
We spend three days in Portland looking for houses -- the move will come in mid-June -- and already those Seybold boys have Niko playing hockey. (That's Nic stalking the lad here.)

Early Morning Ride
Hit the road for a 20-miler at dawn. Monday afternoon Niko and I were out playing in 80 degree weather. Summer! Then yesterday a cool air mass swooped in and it felt like, well, April. This morning, clear and calm, was downright wintry.

Don't know what the temperature was, but in Napa in April it's easy to figure out if the mercury is nearing 32F: Vineyards have their frost-protection going. Such was the case today. Not everywhere; but definitely in the spots where colder air settles. Lots of wind machines were fired up. At points, you'd have thought we were on a tarmac with several prop planes preparing to take off. Other vineyards were guarding against damage to the young buds by running overhead sprinklers; the droplets of water on the vine release heat when they reach 32 degrees and begin to freeze. Then they thaw as new water arrives. The subsequent freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw process can keep the plant safe even if the ambient temperature falls to around 28 degrees.

Ninety minutes into the ride -- nearing its end -- the sun was up and strong. Damn, I thought; I wish I could ride NOW! But the workday beckoned.

Poppies Under Bridge
A year or so ago they opened a new bridge over the Napa River at the south end of town. The old Maxwell Bridge was a green, steel two-lane drawbridge that bottled up traffic. The new four-lane, divided bridge first seemed too big, out of scale. But I think it's grown on people and now seems just fine. Kind of elegant. And in the spring, there are poppies under it.

Free Day
So Niko and I arrive at school a minute or two early this morning and the place is quiet. Too quiet. There are, like, no cars parked out front (OK, maybe one) and a bunch of cars parked in the back on the playground, where cars are never parked. Quiet. No kids running around. Hmm. We go his classroom to put his lunch in the cloakroom and there we are met by Judy the teacher: "No class today -- teacher work day."

OK. What to do? Ride the bike! Run! Stumble upon a bunch of other Sunrise kids at Kennedy Park! Bike some more! Play with Rory! Have a big lunch at First Squeeze!

Good day.

Gravity at Work

This is one of my favorite trails for doing hill repeats. At the top, there's a trail that loops gently around to the bottom of the hill. A minute up hard, two minutes easy back around for more. Seven or eight of these pretty much does me in. Niko prefers going down the hill. Fast.

Training Update

A month after the marathon, I finally feel as though I've transitioned into triathlon season. Did three good swims this week, including 2,500 yards one day. Pretty big for me, especially in March. Today was my first brick – 25 miles on the bike over Mount Veeder (1,200 feet or so above the valley) and down Dry Creek, right into a 3.35-mile run that included a 400-foot climb and a mile or so of trails.

Speaking of trails, they figure to be a big part of my spring training this year. We're living less than a mile from Westwood Hills Regional Park now, a real blessing. Apparently this parcel was earmarked for development in the '70s, but the city and the developer couldn't agree on the scope of the project and the city

Westwood Hills Regional Park, Napa






ended up buying the property. I wouldn't call it pristine, but pristine is hardly possible in a city, right? But it's open space and highly variable in nature, with eucalyptus, oak and buckeye, and grassy meadows. A main fire road heads up from the parking lot on Browns Valley Road, and singletrack and deer trails crisscross what are said to be 110 acres of parkland. We didn't have a big rain year, but did get enough to green the place up nicely, which should last until May, roughly.

The previous several years, I ran almost exclusively on flat ground. That's what was out the door from 184 South Montgomery Street. Now, out the door from the new (temporary) place, it's hills, so hills it shall be a couple of times a week. These runs will build strength and depth of fitness – and they're fun! For one thing, running on the dirt, especially gnarly dirt on incline, takes me out of the head. I'm thinking about where I'm stepping, no time to contemplate how far I've gone or have to go. And it's just plain pretty out there, too.

Photo by Niko

Marin Headlands, Tennessee Valley Road, January '07