Week 1 (again): Preseason starts

(Monday, 27 August)
Travelling; Copenhagen -> London -> LA. Good thing Caltech has trained me to be so good at sleep deprivation.

Overall impressions of the trip:
- the US looks even more backwards from a Danish perspective than it does from a liberal-American perspective.
- Danish people have the life. Medical coverage, free schooling (with stipend) for everyone, ample and useful public transportation, safe roads and bike lanes for cyclists, free day care, politicians that use their brains, a million types of pastries, good coffee, bacon everywhere, and tons of different types of butter.
- Travelling with a bike is a pain for a few hours, but gives you a sense of freedom to explore, and the comfort of home at the same time.
- Being female helps you get help from cute young men when you don't speak the language (getting bike boxes, for instance, or going to the grocery store)
- having kids is a ridiculous amount of work and saps your life energy
- the life of a professor is pretty motherfucking good.
- I like computer graphics (?!)

(Tuesday, 28 August)
Hanging with Matt, feeling totally out of shape hills-wise. Managed to survive though. The Canyon Park trail was totally awesome, like Brown mountain but not as bad because it levels out occasionally, and the trail quality is better. I think this will make an awesome training run. It was cool to get to pin down Matt all to myself for a little while, too. Feeling tired. Jetlag?

(Wednesday, 29 August)
Preseason begins. I hate the first day, it's soooo awkward. Physicals, blah. The only good thing that happened was the doctor made me feel better by looking at my BP and saying that I was so fit, I must be a runner, and then he took my pulse and threatened to take me to the emergency room because I might be dead. (I guess it was low).

Ran Huntington via Monterey with the gang. We got Masha, Natalya, Becca, Gina, Perrin, Stephanie, Sam, Justine, Heather, Parry, and me. We'll also be getting Sarah and hopefully Rene. HELLS YEAH! A bit of jockeying/feather ruffling/pecking order pecking, but I tried to keep folks together and things under control. Feeling good. Strides per Herr Doktor Markimarkkonnen (no shoes).

(Thursday, 30 August)
AM: lower arroyo, ran with Susan and Stephanie which was awesome, did a little extra to the casting pond. The group looks really good! Andres said to start ankle exercises and that I should have started strengthening earlier, even though it hurt, because now there's hella scar tissue. Goddamn it. I thought I was being good by not doing anything that hurt too much. Also he said the residual swelling is okay. The loss of range of motion is due to scarring. Hopefully we can start to get some of it back. Otherwise left IT band kinda bugging me, I think it might be sore from racing Matt on the exercise bikes yesterday. That was pretty silly.

PM: chillin after picking up shoes, felt pretty bad at first but it got better. Barefoot feeling good these days. Gotta keep working on the calves.

(Friday, 31 August)
AM: Cannon hills. Felt pretty good today, went out the first one a little hard and gutsy and tried to hold that intensity without flaming. Worked out okay. Susan is a badass, it's so good to run with folks again. I couldn't believe how much faster my times were than the last time I did this workout 2 years ago. My fastest one back then was 3.44. (Today's times: 3.23, 3.22, 3.23, 3.23, 3.18). I'm beginning to notice endurance for the first time.

PM: Drove up to Chilao to chillax with the team. Campsite awesome, location awesome, air awesome, altitude not so high as to make you breathless. Ran 3 miles or so up this "trail" that turned out to be a wash!

(Saturday, 1 September)
AM: Silver Moccasin trail out about 40 and back 30 (pretty steep, some places were hiking). Went back out for another 25 minutes on my own. Not as hot as in Pasadena, thank goodness. Legs feeling good, I could sense the altitude a little bit, but not too bad. Also went on a death hike to find a "swimming hole" which ended up with me up to my neck in a stagnant pond like 20m from the cars. Yeeah.

PM: led the gang on a death march down the other side of SM, but it was a little too steep for my taste. They're pretty good sports, at least to my face. I wonder what they say about me behind my back.

(Sunday, 2 September)
Off, drove back from camping. Tired. Basically laid on the floor with no pants all day. Got some sweet noodles. It was like 105 or something insane.

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total miles: 45 (not bad with 2 days off)