Learning to travel

Getting back to my normal training-albeit slowly for the past few weeks.  Melissa & I are on vacation this week in Monterey, California for 4 days then 4 days in Napa Valley.  Thanks to Get A Grip Cycles, I was able to pack my triathlon bike in a bike box and bring it here with me.  This meant I had to learn how to safely dismantle and pack it so I could easily put it back together.  I was a little nervous with doing this properly and getting it through the airlines with bike intact.  Kevin, the owner of Get A Grip gave me a few tips on how not to screw it up.  It might have been easier for me to rent a bike here instead but I figure this week is a good trial for me for when I go to Kona.  The bike made it safely and I was able to put it back together this morning.  Planning to try it out tomorrow morning on Big Sur if the weather holds.  Its about 50 and rainy here while Chicago is enjoying a sunny 75 degrees.

Melissa's uncle, Tim, has a home in Monterey but lives primarily in Los Gatos, about an hour north of there, where we stayed last night.  On the agenda this morning was a run in search of some incline.  Tim and his girlfriend Patti gave me some tips last night about where some good elevation could be found.  I finished the first part of the run through a couple hills and was heading to a second area with some trail running, but as a runner seeking hills, I could never pass up a stretch street with the name Overlook Road.  I deviated from my course, up around bend after bend I could hear the stream trickling down the mountain and surrounded by luscious trees that were straight out of a Berenstain Bears book.  My journey up took about 20 minutes of what I thought to be about 1.5 miles.  Once at the top, I turned around and tried the controlled descent that ticked off less than 10 minutes from my clock.  It was a beautiful run; certainly not fast but good none-the-less as I think any good run right now that my hip survives is a good run.  From mapmyrun.com, I estimated the total climb on the run was about 1200ft, about 3 times the climbing that I'll have to do in Hawaii.  Tomorrow morning I don't expect to feel the greatest but the hurt is part of the fun.